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Public Relations Review Assignment

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Public Relations Review Assignment

   Added on 2021-07-05

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PublicRelationsReview41(2015)142–152ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirectPublicRelationsReviewLookingfordigitalinpublicrelationsDejanVerˇciˇca,,AnaTkalacVerˇciˇcb,KrishnamurthySrirameshcaUniversityofLjubljana,SloveniabUniversityofZagreb,CroatiacPurdueUniversity,USAarticleinfoArticlehistory:Received24November2014Accepted8December2014Keywords:PublicrelationsDigitalcommunicationMobilemediaSocialmediaMillennialsSystematicabstractThepurposeofthisstudywastoreviewthegrowthofthebodyofknowledgeonthenexusbetweenpublicrelationsandICTs,anddigital,socialandmobile(DSM)media.Wealsosoughttoassesswhetherthesenew”mediahadinducedthebodyofknowledgetoredefinethetermpublicandwhetherthesemediahadinducedustothinkdifferentlywithregardtotherulesofengagementwiththesepublics.Ourreviewofover35yearsofarticlesinthePublicRelationsReviewthatdiscussedICTsandDSMmediarevealedalop-sidedgrowthofthefield.Butthefocushasalmostexclusivelybeenonusingthesemediaastools”forpurposesofmediarelationswithnegligentstudyofDSMmediastakeholdersandpublics.IssuesoftheDigitalDivideandPrivacyareabsent,whileamalgamationofpublicrelations,advertisingandjournalisminDSMmediaisoverlooked.©2014ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.1.IntroductionPublicrelations,asanappliedmanagementandcommunicationdiscipline,findsitselfgreatlyaffectedbyinformationandcommunicationtechnologies(ICT),especiallyinthepastdecade.Dealingwithdigital/social/mobilemediaisamongthetopthreeconcernsinpractice(Zerfass,Tench,Verˇciˇc,Verhoeven,&Moreno,2014)andpositionsinjobsrelatedtothesemediawillbeamongthedriversofnewemploymentinpublicrelationsintheUSatleastuntil2022(BureauofLaborStatistics,2014).Thesenewrealitiesarealsoreflectedinthegrowingattentionfrompublicrelationsscholarstothemesandproblemsofdigital,mobile,socialcommunicationandmedia.Thesetechnologiesareevolvingsofastthatresearchaboutthemisalwaysplayingcatch-up.Butweneedtostopandthinkaboutthesetoolsanddeviceappropriatestrategiesforharnessingthemforrelationshipmanagementbyorganizations.Attheoutset,itisfarfromclearwhatthisdomainisallabout.Areviewofscholarshipaboutthelinkbetweendigitalmediaandpublicrelationsgivesusvariousnomenclaturesfortherelationship:digitalpublicrelations(Yaxley,2012),interactiveonlinecommunication(Kelleher,2009),worldwideweb(Kent&Taylor,1998;Taylor,Kent,&White,2001),theInternetasamedium(Morris&Ogan,1996),from2000smobileasthe7thofthemassmedia(afterprintfrom1500s,recordingsfrom1900s,cinemafrom1910s,radiofrom1920s,TVfrom1950s,theInternetfrom1990s;Ahonen,2008),socialmedia(Freberg,2013),socialandemergingmedia(Wright&DrifkaHinson,2013),socialmediaaspublicrelationstactics(Taylor&Kent,2010),websitepublicrelations(Sommerfeldt,Kent,&Taylor,2012),onlinepublicrelations(Hallahan,2013),andonlinement(Heinderyckx,2014).Wecontendthatnoneofthesetermscoverstherelationshipadequately,whichpromptedustoconductareviewofstudiesthathaveaddressedtherelationshipbetweenpublicrelationsanddigital,social,mobile(DSM)media.Correspondingauthorat:UniversityofLjubljana,FacultyofSocialSciences,Kardeljevapl.5,1000Ljubljana,Slovenia.Tel.:+38641688146.E-mailaddress:dejan.vercic@fdv.uni-lj.si(D.Verˇciˇc).http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2014.12.0020363-8111/©2014ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.
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D.Verˇciˇcetal./PublicRelationsReview41(2015)142–152143Publicrelationshasbeeninterestedintheusesof,andconsequencesfrom,ICTsforalongtimewithscholarsstudyingthephenomenonanditstransformationsastheseevolved.In1994,inthefirstofwhatbecametheannualinternationalpublicrelationsresearchsymposiumpopularlynamedBledComJohnV.PavlikpresentedapaperonNewmediatechnologiesandpublicrelations:Consideringtheconsequencesoftheinformationhighway.Twoyearslater,in1996,thethirdBledComaddressedthetheme:Takingpublicrelationsintheelectronicage.Tenyearsago,BledComagainaddressedthismediumwiththetheme:Newconceptsandtechnologiesforpublicrelations,publicaffairsandcorporatecommunication.TherelevanceofthismediumpromptedBledComtoaddressitagainin2014withthetheme:DigitalPublicRelations:NewRules,NewPublics.TheopportunitiesICTsofferpublicrelationswasbestpresentedin1999asthe95ThesesofTheCluetrainManifesto(Levine,Locke,Searls,&Weinberger,2000),atextpublishedasawebsite(www.cluetrain.com)startingwiththethesis:Marketsareconversations.”Otherthesesdirectlyrelevanttopublicrelationsare:6:“TheInternetisenablingconversationsamonghumanbeingsthatweresimplynotpossibleintheeraofmassmedia.”7:Hyperlinkssubverthierarchy.”12:Therearenosecrets.Thenetworkedmarketknowsmorethancompaniesdoabouttheirownproducts.Andwhetherthenewsisgoodorbad,theytelleveryone.”19:Companiescannowcommunicatewiththeirmarketsdirectly.Iftheyblowit,itcouldbetheirlastchance.”26:PublicRelationsdoesnotrelatetothepublic.Companiesaredeeplyafraidoftheirmarkets.”Topublicrelationsscholars,TheCluetrainManifestoreadslikeamanifestoforthetwo-waysymmetricalmodelofpublicrelationsfirstproposedbyGrunigandHunt(1984).Itpromisesthetransformationofoursocietyintoanon-hierarchicalandtransparentdiscursivecommunity.ItsthesesresonatewithmelioristtendenciesoftheExcellencetheoryofpublicrelations(Grunig&Grunig,2008),thecultivationofrelationshipstheory(Hung,2007;Ledingham&Bruning,2000)andco-orientation(Verˇciˇc,2008).ItisthereforeexpectedthattheInternetandallothertechnologiesitenabledwouldhaveaprofoundeffectonthedevelopmentofpublicrelationsresearchandtheory.ThereforeweareinterestedinseeinghowtheimpactoftheICTrevolutionwasperceivedbypublicrelationsscholars.Wedecidedtoconductasystematicreviewofarticlesonthissubjectpublishedintheoldestpeer-reviewedjournalinourfieldPublicRelationsReviewtoaddressthefollowingresearchquestions:RQ1.Whatproblemsarepublicrelationsresearchersstudyinginthenexusbetweenpublicrelationsanddigital,social,mobilemedia?RQ2.Istheterminologyusedinanalyzedstudiesconsistentandclear?Whichtermsareusedmostoften?RQ3.Whoaretheprimeusersofthesetechnologies?Corporations,governments,agencies,NGOs?RQ4.WhataretheprimetechnologiesstudiedamongtheInternet,socialmedia,andmobile?RQ5.Whoisontheothersideoftheseattempts?Thatis,whichstakeholdersandpublicsaretheobjectsofthiscommu-nication?RQ6.Howmuchresearchisthereinpublics,new”andold”inthiscontext?RQ7.Isthealmostsingularfocusondigitalmedia,whichareafterallinstrumentsoftheelite,healthytothefieldofpublicrelations?Issuchafocusaffectinghowwecommunicatewithpublicswhodonothaveaccesstothedigitalmediawhoconstitutethemajorityoftheworldpopulation?RQ8.Arewepayingenoughattentiontotheblurringofboundariesbetweenpublicrelationsanddigitaljournalism,advertising,andmarketing?RQ9.Whataresomeoftheissuesthatdigitalmediaspawnforpublicrelationsandhowhaveweaddressedthose(e.g.Freedomofinformationandprivacyissues)?2.MethodologyThereisagrowingnumberofstudiesexploringtheapplicationofnewcommunicationtechnologiesinpublicrelationsbutthereisnoguidingtheory,framework,orevenunifiedterminology.Sincesystematicreviewshaveapotentialtodelineateanareaforboththepracticeandacademicresearch(Briner&Denyer,2012)ourmethodofreviewingallarticlesintheoldestjournalseemedappropriate.Asystematicreviewaddressesaspecificquestion(orasetofquestions),appliesclearandreplicablemethodsandthroughthisaccomplishesanexhaustiveliteraturereviewaswellasacriticalassessmentofspecificstudies.Byapproachingabodyofliteraturethiswayitispossibletodrawconclusionsonwhatisknownandwhatisnotknownonaparticulartopic.Systematicmeans...reviewersfollowanappropriate(butnotstandardizedorrigid)designandthattheycommunicatewhattheyhavedone.”(Briner&Denyer,2012,pp329).AccordingtoVictor(2008)therearethreealternativeapproachestosystematicreviews.Theonechosenforourparticularpurpose,theintegrativeapproach,isaimedatbuildingtheorybasedonthereview.Theintegrativereviewanalysesemerging
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144D.Verˇciˇcetal./PublicRelationsReview41(2015)142–1520510152025301996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013Social media and digital communonCrisis communonGraph1.Numberofpapersmentionedthroughtime.areasortopicsthatareinneedofaconceptualizationorsynthesisofpublishedstudies.Thistypeofreviewcanbeusedforstimulatingfurtherresearch(Torraco,2005),themainaimofthispaper.Becausetheresearchquestionswewishedtoaddresswererelativelydiverse,wedecidedtousealessprescribedpro-cedurethatreliesonresearcher’sexpertiseandjudgment(assuggestedbyVictor,2008).Thismeantconductingareviewofhowdigitalcommunicationtechnologieshaveinfluencedpublicrelations.Inconductingthisreviewweslightlymodi-fiedtheclassicfive-stepapproachwhichincludes(1)keywordandtermidentification;(2)studyidentification;(3)qualityassessment;(4)dataextraction,and(5)datasynthesis(Walker,2010).Thefirststepintheprocesswastoidentifythekeytermsinordertodefinethebodyofarticlesforanalysis.Oneofthemainproblemsintheareaofusingdigitaltechnologiesinpublicrelationsisarelativelyconfusedterminologysothissteppresentedachallenge.Sinceourunitofanalysiswasonlyonejournal,wedecidedtogothroughallpublishedarticlesinthatjournal.Asapre-testweanalyzedthe50mostrecentarticles(publishedin2012,2013,and2014)basedonthetitleandshortabstractthathintedanytypeofdigitaluseinpublicrelations.Aftercompilingthearticlesweextractedallthetermsthatweretobeusedinfurtheranalysis(digitalmedia,digitalnatives,e-service,Facebook,Internet,mobilepublicrelations,mobilewebsites,newmedia,online,onlinenewsrooms,podcasts,smartphones,socialmedia,blogs,micro-blogs,socialnetworkingsites,tweet,Twitter,viral,Web2.0,websites).Afterdefiningthekeyterms,thesecondstepwastoidentifythestudiesthatwouldbeanalyzed.Byusingthepreviouslyidentifiedkeytermsweendedupwiththesamplesizeof155articles.Eventhoughthethirdstepinasystematicreviewcallsforaqualityassessmentofpublishedarticles,ourdecisiontoanalyzeonlyonejournalallowedustoincludeallpublishedstudies.Inthefourthstep,dataextraction,weusedapro-formadata-extractionfromWalker(2010)whichincludedthenameoftheauthor(s),title,yearpublished,abstract,geographicarea,methodsused,majortopicofstudy,thesourceanalyzedinthepaper,themediaanalyzedinthepaper,thereceivers(publics)analyzedinthepaper,andadditionalcomments.Finally,ourresearchquestionsguidedthedatasynthesisandanalysisthatispresentedfurther.3.ResultsInterestingly,thefirstarticlementioningthetermwebsiteinthecontextofpublicrelationswaspublishedinPublicRelationsReviewin1975.Individualmentionsofnewdigitalrealitiescontinued,butabreakthroughhappenedin1996withtwelvepublications.Asonewouldexpect,thenumberofpublicationshassteadilyrisensincethen.Butwiththewholepracticeofpublicrelationssteadilygrowingforthepast20yearsandsincethenumberofpublishedarticlespervolumeisincreasingthroughyears,wedecidedtocontroltheriseofpublicationsdealingwithDSMpublicrelationswiththosedealingwithasimilarlyappealingdomainsuchascrisispublicrelations.AsshowninGraph1,thequantityofarticlesdealingwithDSMpublicrelationsissteadilygrowingsince1996,butnotnecessarilymorethanpublicationsinotherareasattractiveforresearch,likecrisispublicrelations.Thisisacounterintuitivefindingasonewouldexpectpublicrelationsresearcherstofocusonthedomainthatisgaininginimportanceinpracticeandthatmaybethelargestprovidersofnewjobsinthesector.Itshowsinertiaofacademiaingeneral,andofpublicrelationsinparticular.3.1.RQ1(problemsstudied)andRQ2(terminology)Areviewoftermsusedinthe155publishedarticlesshowsthat63differenttermswereusedinthecontextofDSMmedia,withthetopfivebyfrequencyofusebeingsocialmedia,Twitter,websites,theInternetandwebsitesthatappearednearlytwothirds(95)ofalltitles.Whatissurprisinginthislististhenearabsenceofmobilewithonlythreetitles(mobilepublicrelations,mobilewebsitesandsmartphones)(Table1).
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D.Verˇciˇcetal./PublicRelationsReview41(2015)142–152145Table1Termsmentionedinarticletitles.Socialmedia30Twitter15Websites15Internet13Websites13Worldwideweb9Blogs8Facebook7Online7Digitalage3Newmedia3Blogposts2Blogger2Blogging2Cyberspace2Digitalnatives2E-mail2Onlinemediarelations2Onlinepublicrelations2Socialnetworksites2Tweet2Web2Web2.02Webpages2Weblogs2Blogengagement,Blogpower,Blogosphere,Cellphones,Cyber-PR,Digitalmedia,Digitalpublicrelations,E-releases,E-service,Following,Informationage,Liking,Micro-blogs,Mobilepublicrelations,Mobilewebsites,Nanoblogging,Newcommunicationtechnologies,Newtechnologies,Onlinenewsforum,Onlinenewsrooms,Onlinesocialmedia,Onlinestrategiccommunication,Onlinewireservices,Podcasts,Smartphones,Socialmedianewsrooms,Socialmediaplatforms,Socialmediarelease,Socialmediawebsites,Socialnetworking,Technology,Videonewsreleases,Viral,Virtualpublicrelations,Webanalytics,Webpower,Webpresence,Webuse,Web-basedcorporatepressrooms,YoutubeOnlyonceeachAsevidentinthetable,DSMispredominantlyaboutmediaandmediarelationsand,again,theacademiclociofresearchersdetermineswhatitistheyareinterestedinandhowitisstudied.Withmostpublicrelationsprogramslocatedindepartmentsofcommunicationandjournalism,itisnosurprisethatstudyofthisnewdomainisdonethoughthelensesoftraditional(massmedia)communicationandjournalismdisciplines.Weselectedtheseventermsmostfrequentlyusedinthetitlesandrunasearch.Herewereportresultsforthefivemostfrequentlyusedthroughtime.InGraph2weseeacontinuingpopularityofwebsiteanalysissince1996,whilesince2009socialmediatakeovertheprimacy.Withsocialmediatakingprimacyonewouldexpectthatsocialnatureofcommunicationprocesseswillgaininimpor-tance.Wereviewthatbelow.3.2.Theprimeusersofthesetechnologies(RQ3),theprimetechnologies(RQ4),stakeholdersandpublics(RQ5)Weanalyzedthe155articlessearchingfortypesoforganizationsinvolvedinpublicrelationsactivitiesbysector.Thatis,howandinwhichDSMpublicrelationstheywereinvolvedinandwhotheirstakeholdersand/orpublicswere.AsTable2shows,theorganizationsmostinvolvedinthesemediaarebusinesses,followedbygovernment,politicalpartiesandcan-didates,andfinallycivilsocietyorganizations(activists,NGOs).Weidentifiedafourthtypeoforganizationuniversities,whichcanbelongtoanyofthethreegroups.Thisisaresultofapopularityofcontentanalysisofdifferentmediaincom-municationstudies(wherehammersproducenails)andwhenthispaperispublishedasanarticlewillfallinthesamecategory.Lookingforsources(RQ3)revealedthatbusinessesareonthetopspot,followedbycivilsocietyorganizationsandgovernments.Weisolatedpublicrelationspractitionersasaseparategroupbecause12articlesdiscussedthem.Whatisinterestingisthatfor40articleswewereunabletoidentifywhoare,orcouldbe,thesourcesofcommunicationastheywerenotidentifiedbytheauthors.Thisnumberisthesameasthenumberofthelargestidentifiedgroupbusiness.Thereasonforthismissinginformationisinthetypesofstudiesinquestion:manyarticlesreportedaboutcontentanalyseswithoutanyreferencetointerlocutors(alsoseeRQ5below)whoremainabsentforthestudy.Inresponsetoaquestiononthefrequencyofmediaused(RQ4),webpagesandwebsitesingeneralareonthetop,followedbysocialmedia(ingeneral)andTweeter.Itseemsthatmediaareselectedonthebasisofavailability.ThemostinterestingareanswerstotheRQ5:Whoisontheotherside,whoarethestakeholdersandpublicsforDSMmedia?Theanalysisweconductedpointstothegeneralpublic(i.e.undefinedusers’)asthemostcommongroupwithjournalistsinsecondplace.OnecouldsaythatallnegativestereotypesonpublicrelationsarematerializedinpublicationsonDSMpublicrelationsunderinvestigation.Basedonthisanalysis,thepublicrelationsresearchersasrepresentedinthe
Public Relations Review Assignment_4

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