Public Relations 1998 Abstracts
Public Relations Division
Research
Public Relations and Consumer Decisions: Effectively Managing the Relationships that Impact Consumer Behavior • Steven D. Bruning and John A. Ledingham, Capital University • Within the business environment, public relations traditionally has been conceptualized as focused on enhancing the organization’s image and helping the public the see the organization as a “good corporate citizen.” This investigation sought to examine the impact that consumer perceptions of the organization-public relationship, consumer attitudes about price, and consumer attitudes about a particular product feature have on consumer behavior the findings indicate that the relationship that exists between the consumer and the organization differentiates those who are loyal to the organization from those who are not.
Women in the Public Relations Trade Press: A Content Analysis of Tide and Public Relations Journal (1940s through 1960s) • Patricia A. Curtin, North Carolina and Karen S. Miller, Georgia • A quantitative and qualitative content analysis of all editorial content by or about women in Tide and Public Relations Journal from the 1940s through the 1960s reveals women in a variety of roles: public relations professionals, working women, target audiences, and cheesecake. Coverage between the two magazines was markedly different, with Tide presenting a more varied depiction of women’s lives and work. Trends over time include the increasing marginalization of women within the field.
Bridging Connections: Refining Measurements of the Involvement Construct • Dixie Shipp Evatt, Texas-Austin • This paper offers theoretical refinement of Grunig’s situational theory of publics by explicating and testing the involvement construct. Zaichkowsky’s Personal Involvement Inventory (PII) is shown to be a reliable measure of the construct when applied to public policy issues and problems. Data reduction through a factor analysis shows that the involvement construct may have four distinct elements. In addition, level of involvement seeking behavior.
Public Relations’ Potential Contribution to Effective Healthcare Management • Chandra Grosse Gordon, Davis Partners, Lafayette, LA, and Kathleen S. Kelly, Southwestern Louisiana • A national survey of 191 heads of public relations departments in hospitals measured the department’s expertise or knowledge to practice excellent public relations, as defined by recent research. Utilizing two scales original to the study, correlations showed strong and significant relationships between organizational effectiveness and departments with high potential to practice the two-way symmetrical model, enact the manager role, and participate in strategic planning. Findings can be used by hospitals to help resolve the current healthcare crisis.
No Virginia, It’s Not True What They Say About Publicity’s ‘Implied Third-Party Endorsement’ Effect • Kirk Hallahan, Colorado State • This review essay examines “implied third-party endorsement” as an explanation of publicity effectiveness. In lieu of a the traditional view that publicity’s superiority can be attributed to conscious decisions by media workers to devote coverage to a particular topic, the author argues that publicity’s superiority can be explained, at best, as an inferred endorsement. The author argues that effects commonly attributed to third-party endorsements actually stem from biased audience processing that favors news and disfavors advertising.
Learning to Swim Skillfully in Uncharted Waters: Doris E. Fleischman • Susan Henry, California State-Northridge • Between 1913 and 1922, public relations began to be established as a profession and the life of one of its previously unacknowledged pioneers, Doris E. Fleischman, changed in remarkable ways. This paper charts Fleischman’s early career as a newspaper reporter and then as the first employee hired by Edward L. Bernays. It describes some of their early campaigns and the growing collaboration between them until 1922, when she became an equal partner in the firm of Edward L. Bernays, Counsel on Public Relations.
Fess Up or Stonewall? An Experimental Test of Prior Reputation and Response Style in the Face of Negative News Coverage • Lisa Lyon and Glen T. Cameron, Georgia • A fully counterbalanced, within-subjects experiment addressed fundamental questions about the value of corporate reputation. The 2 (good vs. bad reputation) x 2 (apologetic vs. defensive) design also compared apologetic and defensive responses to negative news about a company. Reputation profoundly affected memory attitude and behavioral intentions, bearing our platitudes about bottom-line importance of reputation management. Conversely, response style was nor particularly robust as a factor affecting cognitive, affective and behavioral measures. Interaction effects of the two factors ran counter to common wisdom abjuring the stonewall response.
Reaching Publics on the Web During the 1996 Presidential Campaign • Carol Anne McKeown and Kenneth D. Plowman, San Jose State • This case study explored how the 1996 Democrat and Republican parties’ presidential candidates used the World Wide Web to communicate to voters during the general election. The study found that the campaigns were able to present more in-depth issue information through this new communication medium than traditional medial channels. Results also indicated that the campaigns did not use this new technology to increase interaction between voters and candidates.
Dealing With The Feminization of the Field: Attitudes and Aptitudes of College Women in Public Relations • Michael A. Mitrook, Central Florida; Kimberly V. Wilkes and Glen Cameron, Georgia • A survey of nearly 700 students in introductory public relations classes found that stereotypes of public relations could be one reason women are drawn to public relations and men are not drawn to public relations. Men in the sample saw less opportunity for management and rated the field as both feminine and masculine. Women in the sample saw public relations a job valuable to society.
The World Wide Web as a Public Relations Medium: The Use of Research, Planning, and Evaluation by Web Site Decision-Makers • Candace White and Niranjan Raman, Tennessee • The World Wide Web is viewed as a new medium for public relations by many organizations. Given the evolving nature of the Web and the mixed findings about commercial successes of Web sites, little is known about the managerial aspects of Web site research, planning, and evaluation. This study found that in many cases, Web site planning is done by trail and error based on subjective knowledge and intuition, with little to no formal research and evaluation.
Public Relations Strategies and Organization-Public Relationships: A Path Analysis • Yi-Hui Huang, National Chen-chih University • The purpose of this study was to explore two focal concepts and especially their casual relationships: public relations strategies and organization-public relationships. I chose Taipei as the locale for the study and delimited my research scope to examining executive-legislative relations. A self-administered questionnaire sent to legislators and their assistants in Taiwan was the primary method of data collection. This study contributes to the development of public relations theory in the following ways: 1) introducing a new measure of public relations effects, 2) providing a reconceptualization of models of public relations.
Integrating Intercultural Communication and International Public Relations: An “In-Awareness” Model • R.S. Zaharna, American • This paper addresses what Hugh Culbertson (1996) called the “hot topic” • international public relations. The literature review examines parallel trends within international public relations and intercultural communication. Examples from a Fulbright project are presented, each highlighting a cultural aspect. The examples provide a cultural base for constructing a theoretical model by synthesizing research from intercultural communication and international public relations. The model asks three key questions: What is feasible? What is involved? What is effective?
Teaching
Teaching Public Relations Campaigns: The Current State of the Art • Vincent L. Benigni and Glen T. Cameron, Georgia • A national survey of campaigns professors was conducted to provide public relations faculty with helpful pedagogical information about the public relations campaigns course and to provide the current Commission on Public Relations Education with an empirical basis for setting curricular guidelines. Results indicated that while the great majority of campaigns classes incorporate research elements, many are not grounded in theory, a crucial criterion for “excellent” public relations. Responses also indicated a glaring absence of “real-world” strategies and tactics in the course and inconsistencies regarding the agency-style setup.
High Tech vs. High Concepts: A Survey of Technology Integration in U.S. Public Relations Curricula • Patricia A. Curtin, Elizabeth M. Witherspoon and Dulcie M. Straughan, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • A perennial issue in the journalism and mass communication professions is whether students are acquiring the skills they need to enter and thrive in an ever-changing work environment. This paper reports the results of an electronic mail survey of public relations educators about how they integrate new technology use and instruction into their curricula. The second phase of the study will survey public relations practitioners about technology skills they require of entry-level employees.
Advising the Bateman Case Study Competition: A Help or Hindrance to the Academic Career • Emma Louise Daugherty, California State University-Long Beach • Many faculty in public relations advise students in competitions that provide hands-on experience. The benefits of student participation are well documented, but rewards systems evaluate faculty on teaching, research, and service. Most universities place the greatest importance on research and then teaching. This study examines whether advising student competitions, particularly the Bateman Case Study Competition, helps or hinders an academic career. Fifty-five advisors of the 1997 Bateman Case Study Competition responded to a survey that measured the importance of their advising in decisions on tenure, promotion, and merit bonuses.
Enlightened Self Interest • An Ethical Baseline for Teaching Corporate Public Relations • Patricia T. Whalen, Michigan State • Despite the current unpopularity of “enlightened self interest” as an ethical baseline for teaching public relations, this paper suggests that it may be a practical way to bridge the discrepancy between the personal ethics approach to corporate decision-making favored by public relations educators and the fiduciary responsibility approach favored by corporate executives. The paper explores a number of studies that indicate that such a discrepancy does, indeed, exist and suggests that as long as it does, it will keep public relations practitioners from playing a significant role in corporate decision-making.
Student Papers
Public Relations or Private Controls? The Growth of “Private” Public Relations • Bruce K. Berger, Kentucky • This exploratory research examines the changing nature of public relations sites. It is theorized that new technologies allow corporations to bypass media screens and increase control over message and message environment at emergent sites. A typology of public relations sites is created as a basis for examining control and public/private aspects. Two hypotheses are then tested through a telephone survey of senior public relations executives at 35 of the Fortune 500 companies and through an analysis of actual expenditures in sites during the 1990s.
Crises on the Cyberspace: Applying Agenda Setting Theory to On-line Crisis Management • Tzong-Horng Dzwo (Dustin), Florida • With rapid advancement of new communication technologies, people currently can freely and actively express their own opinions in the new media. As a result, public relations professionals encounter a harder challenge when a crisis hits their organizations. This paper proposes a crisis communication model by integrating Sturges’ (1994) public opinion model of crisis management with the agenda-setting theoretical framework. Hopefully this model will provide greater insights into how to effectively manage public opinion and control the crisis to the advantage of the corporations.
Searching for Excellence in Public Relations: An Analysis of the Public Relations Efforts of Five Forestry Companies in the U.S. • Kimberly Gill, Florida • This preliminary study was designed to gauge the use of public relations and to provide a baseline evaluation of the public relations programs of five forestry companies according to J. Grunig’s 17 factors of excellent public relations (1992). Companies were chosen because of their prominence in the industry and availability of information. Data was collected from the web sites of each company, employee interviews and various public relations materials produced by each company.
Organizations and Public Relations: Institutional Isomorphism • Hyun Seung Jin, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Research on the effects of environmental forces in determining organizational structure and practice has supplied public relations researchers with framework. However, previous studies have not shown a strong relationship between types of organizations and public relation practices. Thus, this study asks “why are organizations not practicing public relations very differently?” Using the literature of institutionalization of organizational practices, the study develops a theoretical explanation and alternative hypotheses.
Exploring an IMC Evaluation Model: The Integration of Public Relations and Advertising Effects • Yungwook Kim, Florida • This paper is trying to establish the relationships among variables in corporate communications, especially between public relations and advertising, and to establish an evaluation model for integrating the effects of communication activities in the context of integrated marketing communication (IMC). This paper deals with the categorization of IMC evaluation by integrating public relations and advertising and advertising evaluation. And the weakness and need of IMC evaluation are delineated. For testing, a new approach for integrating effects of communication activities is introduced and the IMC evaluation model is specified.
Conflict Resolution: The Relationship Between Air Force Public Affairs and Legal Functions • James William Law, Florida • This research examines the relationship between Air Force public affairs and legal functions to find out what conflict exists, how often it occurs, how it is resolved, what the results are for the Air Force as a whole, and what can be done to improve the relationship. The study is based on conflict resolution theory and examines the relationship in terms of win-win, win-lose and lose-lose scenarios.
Paychex Public Relations: Does it Contradict the Excellence Study? • Andrea C. Martino, Monroe Community College • According to the International Association of Business Communicators Excellence Study, centralizing the public relations function and having the department represented by the top communicator in the dominant coalition contribute to an organization’s excellence. But neither qualification is true in the case of Paychex, Inc., a multi-million-payroll processing company in Rochester, N.Y. Can such an organization be considered excellent by IABC standards? And if so, can it continue?
Public Relations and the Web: Measuring the Effect of Interactivity, Information, and Access to Information in Web Sites • Michelle O’Malley and Tracy Irani, Florida • This study’s purpose is to develop research which examines targeted publics’ attitudes and behaviors with respect to interactivity, information, and access to information in Web sites. Using TORA, this study examined whether perceived interactivity, information, access to information or any combination thereof, would be the best predictor of intention. Results showed that a combination of information and interactivity would be the best predictor of intending to revisit a Web site.
Hospital Public Relations and Its Relationship to Crisis Management • Melissa Ratherdale, Florida • This study qualitatively explores hospital public relations practitioners to implement effective crisis management. In-depth interviews with hospital public relations practitioners revealed that the current organizational climate does not allow for effective crisis management. The climate does allow for practitioners to educate their CEOs about strategic public relations. By doing this, practitioners potentially can move themselves into the necessary roles to effectively manage crises.
Intercultural Public Relations: Exploring Cultural Identity as a Means of Segmenting Publics • Bey-Ling Sha, Maryland • Framed by literature on public relations management, societal culture, and cultural identity, this study found that differences in identification with a cultural group predicts differences in the variables of the situational theory of publics. Non-Caucasian survey respondents were significantly more likely to recognize, feel involved with, process information about, and seek information about racioethnic problems. Canonical correlation showed a “minority public” arising around racioethnic and gender issues and a “youth public” arising around alcohol abuse and academic dishonesty.
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