Public Relations 2013 Abstracts
Open Competition
Examining Signs of Recovery: How Senior Crisis Communicators Define Organizational Crisis Recovery • Lucinda Austin, Elon University; Brooke Fisher Liu; Yan Jin • Through 20 in-depth interviews with senior crisis communicators, this study explores how crisis recovery is defined and what role organizational communication, organizational characteristics, and publics play. Findings reveal recovery is measured operationally and short-term. Effective communication principles include proactively addressing failures, being transparent/honest while mostly positive, focusing on future directions, and rebuilding/repairing symbolic damage. Organizational best practices include tested values and crisis leadership. Lastly, publics can facilitate healing, highlight victims’ voices, and provide recovery evidence.
Crisis Communication and Organizational-Centered Situational Considerations for Management • Elizabeth Avery, University of Tennessee; Melissa Graham, University of Tennessee • Survey data collected from local government officials (n=307) from municipalities across the United States identify how unique situational factors, particularly challenges and opportunities within organizations and their operating environments, affect crisis management. This study is a first step in establishing crisis models for various crisis types sensitive to unique organizationally-centered crisis management challenges. Results indicate that partnerships with outside agencies were extremely important in successfully managing a crisis. Implications and importance of findings are discussed.
The Role of Relationships in Public Broadcasting Fundraising • Joshua Bentley, University of Oklahoma; Namkee Park • This study tested the link between how audience members’ perceive their relationship with public broadcasting stations and their intention to donate to public broadcasting. A survey of 348 audience members was conducted. Structural equation modeling revealed a positive relationship between organization-public relationships (OPR; Hon & Grunig, 1999; Ledingham, 2006) and donation intention. The model also showed that parasocial interaction (Horton & Wohl, 1956; Rubin, 2009) directly affected OPR and indirectly affected donation intentions.
When and how do publics engage with nonprofit organizations through social media? A content analysis of organizational message strategies and public engagement with organizational Facebook pages • Moonhee Cho, University of South Florida; Tiffany Schweickart, University of South Florida; Abigail Haase, University of South Florida • The purpose of the study is 1) to investigate message strategies of nonprofits’ Facebook postings and 2) to examine the levels of public engagement based upon the message strategies. The study found that nonprofit organizations use Facebook to disseminate information rather than employ two-way interactions with their publics. The study also found that publics demonstrate high levels of engagement with organizational messages based on two-way symmetry, compared to public information or two-way asymmetrical messages.
Support for a Social Capital Theory of PR via Putnam’s Civic Engagement and PR Roles • Melissa Dodd, University of Central Florida; John Brummette, Radford University; Vincent Hazleton, Radford University • A social capital approach to public relations suggests public relations professionals serve as brokers of social resources on behalf of organizations. Putnam’s conceptualization suggests that civic engagement behaviors serve as surrogate measures of social capital. Results support a social capital approach such that data indicated public relations professionals are more likely to participate in civic engagement behaviors than the general U.S. population. Further, differences were found for manager/technician roles for subcategories of civic engagement behaviors.
Taking on the Bear: Public Relations Leaders Discuss Russian Challenges • Elina Erzikova, Central Michigan University • This study focuses on challenges that hamper the development of public relations in Russia, and possible approaches to mitigate the problems. Through a series of in-depth interviews, 13 leading public relations practitioners indicated that misinterpretation of the public relations function by a variety of publics and a low level of professionalism among practitioners are the most pressing issues the industry faces today. Societal factors such a public distrust in the government and a newly emerged culture of glamour intensify the problems. Participants viewed education in a broad sense (e.g., improving university public relations curricula and enlightening masses and the elites about normative public relations) as an opportunity to resist encroachment into public relations from top management, increase social legitimacy of the occupation and help various organizations meet challenges of globalization.
Replication in Public Relations Research: A 20-Year Review • Osenkor Gogo, University of Georgia; Zifei Chen, University of Georgia; Bryan Reber, University of Georgia • This study investigates replication trends in public relations research over the span of 20 years (1993 – 2012). Through content analysis, 2,038 research articles from three leading public relations and communication journals were examined: Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, and Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. With 14 replications found, our results indicate that replication studies were seldom published in the public relations literature over the examined timeframe. A majority of replications found were extensions, most replications supported the original findings, and research related to the practice of public relations was the most commonly found. Also, interest in replicating public relations research extended beyond the field. The implications of our findings, including possible explanations for the state of replication in public relations research, as well as potential solutions, are discussed.
Comparing the Two Sides of Perception of Crisis Management Strategies: Applying the Co-orientation Model to Crisis Management-Related Beliefs of Public Relations Agencies and Clients • Jin Hong Ha; Jun Heo, University of Southern Mississippi • This exploratory study found that public relations agencies and clients are in agreement on the perceptions of all crisis management strategies (understanding, manual, prevention, responding, communicating, and rebuilding). Second, agency practitioners are more likely to perceive agreement on two crisis management strategies (manual and responding) than do clients. Third, agency practitioners’ perceptions are inaccurate on 5 of the 6 factors (understanding, manual, prevention, responding, and rebuilding); clients are accurate on all factors.
Ideographs and the Strategic Communicator: The Case of U.S. Air Force Leadership Training Material • Phillip Hutchison, University of Kentucky • This case study employs rhetorical theory to highlight some of the easily overlooked ways in which organizational politics complicate the relationship between Public Relations and Strategic Communication. The study focuses on how ambiguous, value-laden language usage in organizational training programs can shape strategic meaning in ways that are not consciously intended and occasionally are dysfunctional. The author explains how such problems easily can spill over into Public Relations products and undermine internal and external communication.
Strategic Social Media Management and Public Relations Leadership: Insights from Industry Leaders • Yi Luo, Montclair State University; Hua Jiang, S. I. Newhouse of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Owen Kulemeka • Public relations leadership is an emerging field in the phase of defining its distinctive dimensions and analyzing the role it plays in organizations’ overall strategic planning and decision making. Based on 43 in-depth interviews with public relations leaders working in diverse for-profit companies and nonprofits, this study explored how the use of social media by those leaders helped them demonstrate expert power, gain decision-making power, and establish leadership among peer leaders/managers within the same organizations.
Conflict? What Work-Life Conflict? A National Study of Future Public Relations Practitioners • Hua Jiang, S. I. Newhouse of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University • Using a national random sample of PRSSA members (N = 464), this study explored public relations students’ perceptions of work-life conflict and tested a structural model with expected family-supportive organizational work environment and anticipated supervisory support as predictors, expected work-life conflict as a mediating variable, and projected salary as an outcome. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis, one-way ANOVAs, and descriptive analysis were conducted. Theoretical and practical implications of the study were discussed.
An assessment of progress in research on international public relations: from 2000 to 2011 • Eyun-Jung Ki, University of Alabama; Lan Ye, SUNY College at Cortland • This study investigates the trends, patterns and rigors of research studies on international public relations by conducting a content analysis of peer reviewed journals between 2000 and 2011. A total of 144 articles examined and information for each article was recorded, including journal name, publication year, country examined, authorship, theoretical application, method approach, and future research direction. While the number of articles addressing the topic has steadily increased, the field is still under-researched.
Decomposing Impression from Attitude in Relationship Management • Eyun-Jung Ki, University of Alabama; Elmie Nekmat • This study sets forth to expand relationship management research by testing the linkages among relationship quality perception, perceived organization impression, attitude, and behavioral intention across customers of five major banks. Perceived relational quality, individual attitude, and organizational impression significantly affected supportive behaviors. This study also found that perceived relational quality and organizational impression are also important predictors of attitude.
How Spokesperson Rank and Selected Media Channels Impact Perceptions in Crisis Communication • Jieun Lee, KPR & Associates, Inc.; Sora Kim, University of Florida; Emma Wertz, Kennesaw State University • This study examined the impact of spokesperson’s rank and selected media channels in crisis communication by employing different ranks (i.e., CEO and communication director spokespersons) and media channels (blogs, websites, and newspapers). Findings indicated that CEO spokespersons were more effective in terms of lowering publics’ crisis responsibility attributions than communication director spokespersons and that blogs were more effective in lowering crisis responsibility attributions than websites and newspapers.
How employees identify with their organizations in Korea: Effects of internal communication, organizational social capital, and employee-organization relationships • Daewook Kim, Texas Tech University; Soo-Yeon Kim, Sogang University • This study explores how employees identify with their organizations in the Korean context by examining the effects of internal communication, organizational social capital, and quality of employee-organization relationships. The results of this study showed that two-way and symmetrical internal communication were not significantly associated with organizational social capital and employee-organization identification. However, symmetrical internal communication and organizational social capital were positively associated with employee-organization relationships. Thus, employee-organization relationships mediated the relationships among symmetrical internal communication, organizational social capital, and employee-organization identification. The findings of this study suggest that symmetrical internal communication and organizational social capital play a critical role in building and maintaining healthy employee-organization relationships, and emphasize the role of managing employee-organization relationships in enhancing employee-organization identification in the Korean context.
Strategic Choice of CSR Initiatives: Impact of Reputation and CSR Fit on Stakeholder • Yeonsoo Kim, Weber State University • In order to provide insight on under which conditions CSR practices generate mutually beneficial outcomes for businesses and stakeholders, this study examined how corporate reputation interacts with CSR fit and influences attribution tendency, formation of attitudes and intent among stakeholders. The findings confirmed that corporate reputation is a top-level factor for organizations to achieve a sustained competitive advantage. For reputable companies, respondents perceived the motives more positively, showed better attitudes, and reported favorable supportive intent and purchase intent across different CSR fit situations. This study found that the effects of fit considerably differ by corporate reputation. Reputable companies’ high-fit programs lower stakeholders’ skeptical attribution toward the CSR. Attitudes toward the company were not influenced by different CSR fits. When bad reputation companies used high-fitting initiatives, respondents tended to show the weakest supportive intentions, meaning possible backlash effects. Reputable companies’ high-fitting programs engendered the most favorable purchase intentions. Such high-fitting programs produced backlash effects for companies with a poor reputation and with the weakest purchase intentions. A significant role of stakeholder skepticism on attitudes and behavioral intentions was found.
Compassion International & Pinterest: A Case Study • Carolyn Kim, Biola University; John Keeler, Regent University • This study examines Compassion International’s Pinterest account as a vanguard example of how organizations can utilize Pinterest to engage Brand Communities and as a result, steward relationships with existing and potential donors.
Public Fear Contagion: Testing Lay and Educated Publics’ Information Behaviors and Problem Chain Recognition Effect • Arunima Krishna; Jeong-Nam Kim, Purdue University • This study investigates publics’ communicative behaviors about emerging food technologies using the situational theory of problem solving, tests the Problem Chain Recognition Effect from a salient food risk to new food technologies, and show similarities/differences between expert/educated and lay publics’ behaviors and cognitions about food risks. The results help understand communication behaviors of publics regarding new food technologies, and delineate similarities/differences in predicted behaviors of expert/educated and lay publics. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Socially Mediated Democracy? Investigating Twitter as a digital pubic relations campaign tool • Heather LaMarre, University of Minnesota; Yoshi Suzuki • This study examines the effectiveness of Twitter as a public relations communications tool for congressional campaigns. As a means of examining Twitter’s effectiveness in mobilizing voters, congressional candidate and political party Twitter use for all 435 U.S. House of Representatives races (N = 1284) are compared with 2010 election outcomes. Results indicate that Twitter use is an effective means of developing relationships with publics and mobilizing voters in support of political candidates. Among the campaigns that used Twitter to develop effective relationships with their publics, increased levels of Twitter use significantly predicted increased odds of winning.
How public relations practitioners initiate relationships with journalists • Sun Young Lee, Texas Tech University • This study examines the media relations’ strategies of public relations practitioners: how PR practitioners initiate relationships with journalists, particularly surrounding the practice of “pitching,” and the sources from which they learned their strategies. We used a thematic analysis of 167 in-depth interviews students did with experienced PR practitioners. This study offers rich findings on the media relations strategies of practitioners and the sources thereof, topics overlooked in previous research, theory, and practice.
The Buffering Effect of Industry-Wide Crisis History During Crisis • Seul Lee, University of Florida; Sora Kim, University of Florida • Through an experiment, this study suggests that an industry-wide crisis history can mitigate negative damages created by crises, while an organization-specific crisis history intensifies the negative damages. This indicates the type of crisis history is an important factor to be considered when diagnosing proper crisis response strategies during crisis. In addition, this study identifies a stronger negative impact of an organization-specific crisis history among highly issue-involved publics than less involved ones.
An Ethnographic Examination of Public Sector Influences on the U.S. Coast Guard Social Media Program • Abbey Levenshus, University of Tennessee, Knoxville • An ethnographic case study of the U.S. Coast Guard social media program using interview, document, and participant observation data adds depth to the limited government public relations research and government social media management. USCG communicators reported influences categorized within five contexts: organization (USCG), military (DOD), parent agency (DHS), federal government, and the U.S. public sector. The study offers a behind-the-scenes view of public sector attributes and their influences on a government social media program.
Tweet or “Re-Tweet”? An Experiment of Message Type and Interactivity on Twitter • Zongchao Li, School of Communication, University of Miami; Cong Li, School of Communication, University of Miami • More corporations are recognizing the importance of social media for public relations. However, what communication strategy they should implement on social media remains somewhat unclear in the literature. This study examined the effects of message type and interactivity on a corporate Twitter account. Two types of messages, communal-relationship oriented tweets focusing on consumer relations, and exchange-relationship oriented tweets focusing on sales and product promotion, were tested with either a high or low level of interactivity in a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment (N = 84). Results indicate that communal messages generated more favorable relationship outcomes such as trust and control mutuality than exchange messages. It was also found that message interactivity positively influenced attitude toward the company, perceived company credibility, and commitment. Implications from both theoretical and practical standpoints are discussed.
Effects of transnational crises on corporate and country reputation and strategic responses • Hyun-Ji Lim, Jacksonville University • Through the employment of a 2x2x3 factorial experiment, this study attempts to examine how three factors – level of country reputation, salience of country of origin, types of image restoration strategy – can affect host customers’ attitudes and behavioral intentions. Findings of this study provide empirical evidence as to whether adopting an image repair strategy helps a country to recover its reputation during a crisis, and an opportunity to gain a better understanding of managing country reputation.
Public Engagement with Companies on Social Network Sites: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of China and the United States • Linjuan Rita Men, Southern Methodist University; Wanhsiu Sunny Tsai, University of Miami • This study evaluates how culture influences publics’ engagement activities on the corporate pages of social networking sites (SNSs). It further evaluates the underlying motivations and engagement mechanisms in two culturally distinct countries, China and the United States. Specifically, social media dependency, parasocial interaction, and community identification are examined as the key antecedents of public-organization engagement on SNSs. The results reveal both cultural differences and similarities between Chinese and American publics’ engagement with corporate SNS pages.
Developing and Validating Publics’ Information Transmitting Model as an Outcome of Relationship Management in Bitt Moon; Yunna Rhee • The purpose of this study was to develop a multi-dimensional model of publics’ information transmitting. Relevant literature in public relations, public communication, marketing communication, and interpersonal communication were reviewed. This paper then composed a six dimensional public’s information transmitting behavior (ITB) model according to the three criteria—activeness, valence, and expressivity. Six dimensions were as follows: ‘Praise-Leading’, ‘Praise-Following’, ‘Scolding-Leading’, ‘Scolding-Following’, ‘Avoiding’, and ‘No-commenting’ The result supported that the 18-item ITB model of six dimensions was significantly reliable and valid as we expected. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings were discussed.
Shifting, broadening, and diversifying: How gay pride organizations are shaping a uniquely 21st century mission • Dean Mundy, Appalachian State University • This study explores how gay pride organizations in ten major U.S. cities execute events that host collectively four million attendees annually. Gay pride’s mission has shifted in the last four-plus decades. Today’s pride organizations require yearlong strategic program planning and outreach. Moreover, they must establish relationships with—and facilitate an intricate community dialog among—a variety of new, diverse stakeholders. The findings reinforce how relationship management and stakeholder theory can inform best public relations practice.
The Misunderstood Nineteenth Century American Press Agent • Karen Russell, University of Georgia; Cayce Myers, University of Georgia • Analysis of press coverage of nineteenth century American press agents indicates that, although press agents worked in a variety of sectors, their primary motivation was profit, their main strategy was media relations, and their tactics often relied on hype or outright lying. A number of early practitioners of press agentry outside the entertainment sector are identified for further study to understand the relationship between press agentry and early corporate publicity.
Beyond the C-Suite: Public Relations’ Scope, Power & Influence at the Senior Executive Level • Marlene Neill, Ph.D., Baylor University • Traditionally public relations scholars have focused on gaining access to the C-suite, but this study demonstrates that there are actually multiple executive-level committees that need their counsel. The findings are based on in-depth interviews with 30 executives representing multiple departments in four U.S. companies, who discussed their involvement or exclusion in eight strategic issues. The factors that impacted public relations’ power and influence included the type of industry, preferences of the CEO, and organizational culture.
Attribution of Government Responsibility for Flu Pandemics: The Role of TV Health News Sources, Self-Efficacy Messages, and Crisis Severity • Sun-A Park, Robert Morris University; Hyunmin Lee, Saint Louis University; Maria Len-Rios, University of Missouri • This experimental study (N=146) investigated how sources in television news (government official vs. doctor), perceptions of crisis severity (high vs. low), and perceptions of self-efficacy messages (presence vs. absence) in TV news stories about the H1N1 flu affected the public’s perception of the government responsibility for the public health crisis and their personal control for preventing contraction of the H1N1 flu. Results revealed significant three-way interactions on perceptions of government crisis responsibility and personal control.
The Under-Representation of Hispanics in the Public Relations Profession: Perspectives of Hispanic Practitioners • David Radanovich, Quinnipiac University • This study explored the under-representation of Hispanics in the public relations profession by conducting in-depth interviews with Hispanic practitioners. The study found that public relations was not the Latinos’ initial career choice, identified three barriers to Hispanics entering the profession, and elicited three practical suggestions to attract more Hispanics to the public relations field. The study also revealed opportunities for future scholarly research to address the under-representation of Hispanics in the public relations profession.
Framing the Massachusetts Cape Wind Debate Among Active E Online Publics • Ben Benson; Bryan Reber, University of Georgia • Activist groups have lobbied for and against the Cape Wind Energy Project since 2001. This is a content analysis of activist groups’ master frames and online comments on Cape Wind news articles retrieved from The Boston Globe website. The most salient advocacy master frames concerned environmental and political benefits. The most salient opposition master frames regarded economic risks. Advocacy comments were recommended more often than opposition comments. Opposition comments containing aesthetic risks were most recommended.
Dialogic communication on Web 2.0: An analysis of organizations using social media to build relationships • Amy Reitz, University of Northern Colorado • In order to determine how social media cultivate relationships with organizational publics, a pilot study was conducted to test how well Kent and Taylor’s (1998) dialogic principles of relationship building work when applied to social media. The findings indicate that the dialogic principles seem to be an appropriate method to use when determining the dialogic principles present in organization social media, albeit with some modifications. Several recommendations are provided to reflect specific social media features.
Smart Friendly Liars: Public Perception of Public Relations Practitioners Over Time • Coy Callison, Texas Tech University; Patrick Merle, Florida State University; Trent Seltzer • Two national surveys of the general public in 2003 (n = 486) and 2012 (n = 372) asked participants to list words describing public relations practitioners. Analyses reveal that the overwhelming majority of the words are positive and that the most commonly used terms outline practitioner intellectual, ethical, and personality traits. While the majority of the personality and intellectual traits are positive, the ethical terms used to describe practitioners are predominately negative.
Identifying Network “Communities” of Theory: The Structure of Public Relations Paradigms • Erich Sommerfeldt, University of Maryland; Michael Paquette, University of Maryland; Melissa Janoske, University of Maryland, College Park; Liang Ma, University of Maryland, College Park • The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how network “communities” of theory can be used to identify distinct research paradigms within public relations literature. Through an analysis of 10 years of articles published in the Journal of Public Relations Research and Public Relations Review (N = 674) the study aimed to identify the theoretical structure of public relations scholarship through network analyses of the connections among theories used by public relations scholars. Results of network analyses suggest that Relationship Management is currently the most influential of the theories identified, in that it holds two general clusters or paradigms of public relations research together. Situational Crisis Communication Theory was identified as the most important theory in a dense group of highly interrelated theories used in crisis research. The paper offers implications on the lack of multiple explanations used in public relations research and the future of theory building in the discipline.
Tracking Influence Through the Social Web: A Network Analysis of Information Flow in Interest-Based Publics • Kathleen Stansberry, University of Akron • This study examines information flow in online, interest-based networks to determine if existing models of information dissemination are adequate. This study finds that a small number of primary influencers from within online communities are central to information collection, collation, and distribution. This finding is inconsistent with one-step, two-step, and multi-step flow models. To more accurately depict online information flow in interest-based networks, I propose a radial model of information flow.
Bridging the journalist-public relations practitioner gap: Toward an “expectations management” theory of media relations • Dustin Supa, Boston University; Lynn Zoch, Radford University • This study addresses one of the challenges facing the study of public relations, the lack of field-specific theory, by introducing the constructs for a new theory of media relations, the expecations management theory (EMT). Based on empirical data, the theory is both descriptive and normative, and defines the nature of the media relations transaction as being one of product, process, role and relationship.
An exploratory study of the effect of Twitter on the public relations – journalist relationship • Drew Wilson; Dustin Supa, Boston University • Media relations is one of the most common functions of the modern public relations. This study examines the impact of emerging media technologies on that function, and seeks to understand how public relations practitioners and journalists are using Twitter in both their personal work and in the relationship with the other profession.
BP’s Reputation Repair Strategies during the Gulf Oil Spill • Lindsay Jordan, Profiles Inc.; Kristen Swain, University of Mississippi • On April 20, 2010, British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, creating the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Analysis of 1,161 BP tweets during the crisis response reflected unexpected reputation repair strategies and responsibility attribution. Situational Crisis Communication Theory suggests that after an accident, PR messages typically reflect low responsibility attribution. Although the official investigation initially did not suggest a preventable crisis, 90% of BP’s tweets reflected high responsibility.
Who’s Coming to the Party? Exploring the Political Organization-Public Relationship in Terms of Relationship, Personality, Loyalty, and Outcomes Among First-Time Voters • Kaye Sweetser, University of Georgia • Building on political organization-public relationship research, this survey (N = 610) of first-time voters investigates the role of relationship as an independent variable. Relationship contributes to predicting strength of political party affiliation, alongside personality. Weak relationships appear to be a significant indicator among those who are no longer loyal to their party and cross party lines. Future research should track the path of relationship from these first-time voters to more experienced voters and longer-standing constituents.
The overarching effects of ethical reputation regardless of CSR cause fit and information source • Weiting Tao, University of Florida; Mary Ann Ferguson • Our experiment examines how corporate prior ethical reputation, CSR cause fit, and information source interact with each other; and how this interaction influences consumers’ evaluations of the company. Meanwhile, our study tests the mediating effect of inferred CSR motives on consumer responses to CSR initiatives. Results show that corporate prior ethical reputation affects consumers’ company evaluations regardless of CSR cause fit and information source, and that this effect is partially mediated by inferred CSR motives.
Stewardship and Involvement: Comparing the Impact on Nonprofit Organizations’ Relationships with Donors and Volunteers • Richard D. Waters, University of San Francisco; Denise Sevick Bortree, Penn State University • Given their focus on program and service delivery, nonprofit organizations often face scarce resources to carry out their administrative functions, such as donor relations and volunteer management. Through intercept surveys of adults (n = 362), this study examines how donor and volunteer relationships evolve differently in the nonprofit sector. Findings indicate that stewardship can boost relationship outcomes for donors and volunteers, but its impact on involvement differs for the two groups.
How Do Different Image Restoration Strategies Influence Organization-Public Relationships in a Crisis? • Richard VanDeHey, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point; Chang Wan Woo, James Madison University • This research paper illustrates how certain combinations of image restoration strategies encourage a more positive response from publics than others. Rebuild strategies such as mortification, corrective action, compensation, and bolstering were thought to elicit a better reaction from publics than diminishing strategies such as denial, blame shifting, minimization and defeasibility. An experimental study was conducted with 148 college undergraduates. The subjects read one of three fictional news articles (no response, diminishing strategy, and rebuild strategy) about a product recall for an energy drink that was causing illness and answered questions measuring six OPR outcomes suggested by Hon and Grunig (1999): a) trust, b) control mutuality, c) commitment, d) satisfaction, e) communal relationships, and f) exchange relationships. The participants expressed better perceptions about their potential relationship with the company when the company responded with a rebuild strategy. Limitations include lack of generalizability and imbalanced sample sizes of the three groups.
The Impact of Expressing Sympathy through Twitter in Crisis Management: An Experimental Study • Jie Xu, Villanova University; Yiye Wu • This study uses 2 (medium: twitter vs. news release) × 2 (emotional support: yes vs. no) factorial experiment to extrapolate the effects of social media and emotional support on consumers’ crisis appraisal. Two hundred and forty-five twitter users recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk system participate in this study. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVA) with univariate follow-up tests, using medium and emotional support as fixed factors and product involvement as a control variable are conducted. The result demonstrates significant interaction between emotional support and media channel; emotional support messages delivered through Twitter lowers the perceived crisis responsibility and retain positive organizational reputation, compared to such messages conveyed on news releases. Using twitter significantly lessens people’s sadness and anger. Respondents reading twitter pages attribute less crisis responsibility to the company, and withhold higher perceptions on organizational reputation and purchase intention. Moreover, expressing sympathy and emotional support significantly alleviates people’s sadness and anger, respondents reading messages with emotional support report lower scores on crisis responsibility. Implications, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.
Student
A Preliminary Study on the Impact of Social Identity on Crisis Attribution • Jonathan Borden, University of Florida • This study seeks to address the current gap in international crisis communications literature by introducing principles of Social Identity Theory into the existing body of crisis communications theory. Hypotheses were tested via an experimental examination of attribution, feelings of empathy, and organization evaluation in several treatment conditions. Analysis revealed that organizational nationality can offer some level of reputational protection whereas crisis location cannot.
Crisis communication and the NBA lockout: Exploring reactions to response strategies in sports crisis • Melanie Formentin • A pre-test, post-test experiment used the 2011 National Basketball Association (NBA) lockout as an example for exploring Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). Participants (n = 339) evaluated NBA reputation before seeing SCCT strategies embedded in experimental material. Results suggest contexts involving active stakeholders may call for more nuanced approaches to crisis communication. Only “active stakeholder” participants were impacted by SCCT strategies and had more established opinions and knowledge of the league and its crisis history.
“Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse”: CDC’s Use of Social Media and Humor in a Risk Campaign • Julia Daisy Fraustino, University of Maryland; Liang Ma, University of Maryland, College Park • This is a case study of CDC’s “zombie apocalypse” all-disaster preparedness campaign. A 2 (information form: social vs. traditional media) x 2 (message strategy: humorous vs. non-humorous) between-subjects factorial experiment, an interview with a CDC campaign manager, and campaign document analysis uncover benefits and pitfalls of social media and humorous messaging in a risk campaign. Findings show social media can quickly, widely spread disaster information; however, humor may diminish publics’ intentions to take recommended actions.
Social Media’s Effect on Local Government Melissa Graham, University of Tennessee • Using data collected from interviews with public information officers (PIOs) in local governments, this study explores the perceptions of social media as a communication tool. It specifically addresses how social media are used as a public relations function to promote democratic, participatory and transparency models in government. Four primary themes emerged from the data analysis: dialogue promotion, engagement, unconstrained, and barriers.
What Makes You Take an Action in a Crisis? : Exploring Cognitive Processing of Crisis Management • Kyung Jung Han, University of Missouri • This study aims to help practitioners and scholars systematically understand publics in a crisis situation. Based on protection motivation, public segmentation, and crisis management theories, this study conducted a 2 (controllability: high versus low) x 2 (severity: high versus low) experiment. The results show 1) an influence of severity to conative coping behaviors; 2) an interaction effect between severity and controllability; and 3) a relationship between involvement and conative behaviors.
Alerting a Campus Community: Emergency Notification Systems From A Public’s Perspective • Stephanie Madden, University of Maryland • This study evaluated a campus emergency notification system from a public’s perspective to understand how alerts are utilized and perceived. Four focus groups were conducted with students at a large, mid-Atlantic university, and one interview was conducted a public safety official. Findings revealed that alerts served as an information source to students and instigated a social response among them. Implications include a better understanding of how to improve alert messaging strategies.
Defining Early Public Relations: An Examination of the term “Public Relations” in the Popular Press 1774-1899 • Cayce Myers, University of Georgia • This paper examines the use of the term “public relations” in the popular press from 1774-1900. Oftentimes public relations history places the beginnings of PR in the late nineteenth century with a genesis in entertainment and later business. This examination of the use of the term public relations shows that public relations in the eighteenth and nineteenth century was related to politics, specifically international affairs, domestic relations, and political popularity.
The Effects of Media Effects on the Corporate Image of Media Companies • Brett Sherrick, Pennsylvania State University • Prior research in the third-person effects domain has shown that people who believe in harmful media effects are more willing to engage in defiance strategies, such as censorship. Analysis of survey data show that a belief in harmful media effects is also connected to negative evaluations of the media companies potentially responsible for those effects. This research suggests that public relations practitioners for media companies should have become involved in the debate over media effects.
The Billion-Dollar Question: Examining the Extent of Fundraising Encroachment on Public Relations in Higher Education • Christopher Wilson, University of Florida; Sarabdeep Kochhar • U.S. colleges and universities raise billions of dollars a year through sophisticated fundraising efforts. This emphasis on fundraising can lead to encroachment on public relations. To understand the extent of fundraising encroachment in this important nonprofit sector, content analysis was used to examine the structural relationship of public relations and fundraising. The analysis found that 19% of colleges and universities on the 2012 Philanthropy 400 list had structural fundraising encroachment regardless of governance or mission.
Teaching
A Complexity Approach to Teaching Crisis Management: Crisis Event Simulation in the Public Relations Classroom • Julia Daisy Fraustino, University of Maryland; Stephanie Madden, University of Maryland; Brooke Fisher Liu • This research presents an exploratory pilot study that takes a complexity theory approach to teaching crisis management/communication through an in-class computerized crisis simulation. Qualitative methods of direct observation of a two-session classroom simulation, and textual analyses of simulation response output as well as student-written reflections provide insights into the suitability of simulation as a public relations crisis teaching tool while also examining complexity theory in practice.
The Infographics Assignment: A Qualitative Study of Students’ and Professionals’ Perspectives • Tiffany Gallicano; Gee Ekachai; Karen Freberg, University of Louisville • In the evolving digital landscape, educators can consider adopting emerging tactics to prepare students for the workplace. One of these tactics, the infographic, incorporates storytelling characteristics by presenting synthesized knowledge and data in a visual way (Fernando, 2012). Through five focus groups with 37 students at three universities and interviews with 10 public relations professionals from various workplace settings, we explore strategies for teaching the infographics assignment and identify potential learning outcomes of the assignment.
Public Relations Students’ Ethics: An Examination of Attitude and Intended Behaviors • Lori McKinnon, Oklahoma State University; Jami Fullerton • A major challenge facing modern public relations practitioners is the knowledge and ability to engage in ethical reasoning. Public relations practitioners are at a critical juncture as they balance client advocacy with the public’s right to know, profit motive with personal values, and corporate responsibility with societal good. Thus, it is important for both practitioners and future practitioners to have a strong moral foundation. This study examines public relations students’ understanding of ethics and their attitudes and intended behaviors toward ethical dilemmas. The authors conclude that moral responsibility and the importance of ethical reasoning are vital for public relations students. These students, who will be tomorrow’s practitioners, have the potential to shape the field and improve its image. With a strong moral compass, students will be equipped to apply values and codes to the analysis of ethical dilemmas in public relations practice.
Online undergraduate public relations courses: Effects of interaction and presence on satisfaction and success • Jensen Moore, Louisiana State University • This study examined student success, failure, withdrawal and satisfaction in online public relations courses based on student/instructor interaction, student-to-student involvement, and instructor presence. Student passing rates, D/F rates, withdrawal rates, and evaluations of instruction were compiled from 51 online public relations courses run over the course of two years. The results from the study suggest that student involvement and self-discipline are the strongest predictors of success and satisfaction with online courses.
Does A Professor’s Gender and Professional Background Influence Students’ Perceptions? • Richard D. Waters, University of San Francisco; Natalie Tindall • This study examines how students’ evaluate educators by gauging their perceptions of the instructors’ professional competency, warmth, course difficulty, and industry connectivity. Using a 2×2 experimental design, students (n = 303) reviewed a syllabus for the introductory public relations course to test whether an instructor’s gender or professional background (academic—industry) influenced students’ perceptions. Findings suggest that students evaluate professors on professional criteria and their ability to connect classroom experiences to actual practice.
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