Revisiting the relationship between public relations and marketing: Encroachment and social media

Although public relations and marketing trade presses regularly discuss the conflict between the functions (e.g., Ecker, 2013; Havartin, 2013), academic researchers focused on the issue primarily in the 1980s and 1990s. The drop in public relations and marketing encroachment research does not parallel a drop in encroachment in practice, especially in light of today’s social media environment. In fact, historic tension between public relations and marketing intensified with the incorporation of social media into communication efforts. This paper updates the study of encroachment by reviewing the historical views of the topic, proposes ways that social media use has intensified issues related to role encroachment between public relations and marketing professionals, and outlines questions to guide future study of these topics.     

Congenial public, contrary press, and biased estimates of the climate of opinion

This field experiment focused on perceived public opinion about the use of primates in laboratory research. We used this contentious issue to examine the simultaneous effects of three hypothetical ideas-the hostile media perception, the persuasive press inference, and the projection bias-on partisan perceptions of public opinion. Our data supported the projection hypothesis but also confirmed that partisans on each side of the issue judged news articles to be biased in a disagreeable direction relative to judgments of those on the other side. The perception of relatively disagreeable media bias, in turn, influenced perceptions of public opinion. Results supported the hypothesis that people make inferences about the climate of opinion based on their reading of the news, especially the perceived slant of that news.     

Carnivalesque activism as a public relations genre: A case study of the New Zealand group Mothers Against Genetic Engineering

This paper argues that carnivalesque protest comprises a particular genre of activist public relations which articulates conflict with, and resistance to, dominant discourses on controversial issues. A case study of the New Zealand group Mothers Against Genetic Engineering illustrates how the carnivalesque, by promoting community relationships and influencing public opinion through values of affect, can open up new spaces for public dialogue about social issues. It is argued that carnivalesque protest challenges the notion that collaboration should be a core professional value of public relations practice.     

Exploring online opinion leadership in the network paradigm: An analysis of influential users on Twitter shaping conversations around anthem protests by prominent athletes

The current study seeks to extend the network paradigm in public relations research by exploring the role of online opinion leaders in Twitter conversations around anthem protests by prominent athletes. The aim of the study is twofold: (1) identify opinion leaders involved in Twitter conversations related to anthem protests by Colin Kaepernick and Megan Rapinoe, and (2) further understand how and why social media users participate in conversations online about controversial subjects. The study combines social network analysis with in-depth interviews to adopt a more holistic framework for studying online opinion leadership in the context of public relations research. Ultimately, results from this study extend the network paradigm in public relations by examining the role of individual users in the construction of the discursive landscape around issue networks. Additionally, findings suggest that online opinion leaders should be differentiated from social media influencers in public relations scholarship as they reflect the movement away from Homo Economicus toward Homo Dialogicus (Kent & Taylor, 2016) and their capacity to facilitate the formation of publics and counterpublics around particular issues.     

Banning Abortion:

This paper contrasts bimodal and unimodal issues, and identifies abortion as a bimodal issue. While unimodal issues exhibit continuous issue positions, a range of policy options, greater possibility of consensus, and often include financial proposals, bimodal issues are charcterized by dichotomous and mutually exclusive policy options, conflict, use of emotion-laden symbols, and often include civil liberties and soical issues. This paper examined two Senate votes on abortion in 1982 and 1983-the Helms proposal to restrict abortion and the Hatch human life amendment. Social variables were more important than political variables in explaining voting outcomes. When the impacts of constituency and Senators' characteristics were compared, those of constituencies were found to have greater impact. For abortion votes, social and constituency variables outweigh political and Senators' characteristics since public opinion is very intense and the issue is of high salience to constituents.     

Friend or foe: the media’s power to inform and shape societal attitudes towards people with acquired brain injury

Media representations play an integral role in modern society, informing the public about a range of issues affecting their communities. Using qualitative content analysis, this article reports on the study of a sample of Australian media coverage, spanning 30 years, covering issues associated with acquired brain injury (ABI) and related cognitive disabilities. The analysis explores how the media both portray and actively shape public perceptions about people living with ABI, the lived experience of the condition, and its broader social implications. The authors identify a range of themes arising in the sample that communicate specific ideas about ABI, disability, and deviance. Importantly, they identify how these themes are able to either construct or reinforce dominant understandings of disability and deviance through both their content and structure.     

Media and agenda setting: effects on the public, interest group leaders, policy makers, and policy

Using an experimental design built around a single media event, the authors explored the impact of the media upon the general public, policy makers, interest group leaders, and public policy. The results suggested that the media influenced views about issue importance among the general public and government policy makers. The study suggests, however, that it was not this change in public opinion which led to subsequent policy changes. Instead, policy change resulted from collaboration between journalists and government staff members.     

Agenda building effects by 2008 presidential candidates on global media coverage and public opinion

Grounded in first and second level agenda building and agenda setting, the relationships among public relations, global media, and public opinion were explored in the context of the 2008 United States presidential election. Two candidates’ speeches, press releases, and foreign media coverage were analyzed and compared with global public opinion. The results showed that object salience (issue and candidate) relationships were found between public relations messages and global media coverage while affective attribute (tone) salience relationships were partially found among public relations messages, global media, and public opinion.     

“Don’t Mess with Ukrainian Farmers”: An examination of Ukraine and Kyiv’s official Twitter accounts as crisis communication,public diplomacy,and nation building during Russian invasion

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 resulted in an armed conflict that led to the death of thousands of soldiers and innocent civilians. While the countries waged war on the ground in places like Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Mariupol, another battle took shape in the Twittersphere. Ukraine and Kyiv’s official Twitter accounts leveraged their online platforms to win the war of public opinion by broadcasting the atrocities of war in real time, engaging with other countries as a form of digital public diplomacy, and rallying internal publics through nation building message strategies. The current study explores the use of government social media accounts during a unique period of armed conflict to identify various messaging strategies utilized to (1) communicate during a crisis event, (2) project itself favorably among an international audience, and (3) build a sense of national identity and unity among its citizenry. Results from this study suggest that public relations scholars should consider further analyzing the ways in which social media, nation building, and public diplomacy intersect during crisis events. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Social media and political discussion: when online presence silences offline conversation

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the relationship between the use of social media, attitudinal strength, perceived opinion agreement with social ties, and willingness to discuss a political issue in different online and offline contexts. Unlike the anonymous environment of some Internet forums, social media are closely tied to the relationships and activities of everyday life. Social media increasingly make ties from offline contexts persistent online, and, because of the ambient nature of these technologies, awareness of the opinions, interests, and activities of social ties has become pervasive. As such, the use of social media is likely to affect everyday conversation about political issues in on- and offline contexts, including the home, workplace, social gatherings with friends, community meetings, and on social network sites (SNSs). Based on a national probability survey, we find that the use of SNSs (i.e., Facebook and Twitter) has a direct, negative relationship to deliberation in many offline settings. Some uses of these platforms are associated with having a lower, perceived opinion agreement with social ties. As part of a spiral of silence, this further reduces the willingness of social media users to join political conversations in some offline settings. Only those with the strongest attitudes on an issue are immune.     

Risk perception of food safety issue on social media

This study aims to investigate individuals’ risk perceptions of food safety by extending the heuristic and systematic information processing model (HSM) to the social media context. Specifically, we examine the predictors of risk perceptions of food safety, including social media attention, social media credibility, as well as systematic and heuristic processing. A convenient sample of 640 adults was collected in China. Structural equation modeling was used to test the effects of social media attention and social media credibility on public risk perceptions of food safety, with information processing as mediating factors. The findings indicated that social media attention and social media credibility motivate systematic processing, which in turn promote risk perception of food safety. However, the mediating effect of heuristic processing was not found. Implications for theory and practice were discussed.     

Media populism in post-handover Hong Kong: an investigation of media framing of public finance

Given that the political institution of Hong Kong is not fully democratic and is incompetent in channeling public opinion to the executive branch, the Hong Kong media perform the “surrogate democracy function,” wherein they act as the representative of the Hong Kong people in monitoring the government. This simultaneously provides a breeding ground for media populism. Focusing on newspaper editorials and reports on issues of public finance in Hong Kong, this paper analyzes the rhetoric of media populism, which has become part of the journalism culture of the city since the transfer of sovereignty. The paper reveals that media populism is formed by the construction of a populist diagnostic frame, which implies antagonism between the rich government and the deprived people. The populist diagnostic frame is exercised by (1) lexical creations that imply the government–people relation in public finance, (2) omitting inter-class redistribution by in-grouping both the middle class and the lower class as “the people,” and (3) validating the people’s will by interpreting poll results.     

Issue management and the Australian gun debate

On April 29, 1996, Martin Bryant shot and killed 35 people and injured 13 others with an automatic rifle at Port Arthur in Tasmania. While there was immediate national disgust to this crime and tragedy, media attention quickly move to focus on the issues of gun control and political conflict. As these three issues remained interrelated and as images and messages were manufactured and maneuvered into the media to suit both private and public agendas, the Australia gun debate became a masterful exercise in issue management.This study examines the rise and fall of media coverage of the issues for May, 1996, to demonstrate the salience of the issues on the public agenda. At the same time, the study seeks to reveal something of the issue management process that occurred and the hidden agendas that motivated the political and media activity. The study serves to demonstrate the role of the media in the creation of issue salience and the importance of the issue management function to both business and politics.     

Anticipatory socialization in the use of social media in public relations: A content analysis of PRSA's Public Relations Tactics

This article examines one issue in how public relations students are socialized in their understanding of the value and power of social media in the practice of public relations. The public relations academic research about social media is explored, as well as the professional claims about the value of social media as a public relations tactic. The researchers conducted a content analysis of 1 year of Public Relations Tactics issues. The data are viewed through the theoretical frame of the socialization literature ( Jablin, 1987). The results suggest that claims of social media power far outweigh evidence of social media effectiveness as a communication tool. A disconnect exists between what authors of Public Relations Tactics pieces view as the potential for social media and the research findings about the effectiveness of social media. The final section of the article discusses the implications for public relations educators, professional associations, and practitioners as they consider social media tactics in public relations strategy.     

Social movements and public relations in the early twentieth century: How one group used public relations to curtail venereal disease rates

ABSTRACT

A case study of the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA) campaign to craft a national vision for social health showed that the group used public relations-like strategies to, as one of their officials said, “crystallize public opinion” years before Edward Bernays wrote a book of the same title. Although these efforts might not have been labeled public relations at the time, this study introduces some precedents of contemporary public relations. In this study, social activism offered a more robust approach to addressing an issue than using media relations alone could do. ASHA members used communication strategies such as segmenting audiences, utilizing events to reach appropriate audiences, using visual media, and creating house organs to arouse public sentiment, influence attitudes, and promote desired behavior.

This case study expands public relations history theory by examining why ASHA members practiced public relations as they did. In this case, ASHA used persuasive communication to pierce the veil of silence around venereal disease to craft a national vision for social hygiene and legitimize the group as the major voice on this topic. Lessons from this case can illustrate how public relations can be conducted more effectively, especially in relation to social movements.     

Fostering social capital in an international multi-stakeholder issue network

Scholars have theorized that public relations contributes to societies and communities by bringing attention to pressing public issues and fostering social capital in civil society networks. However, the extant research has studied civil society networks of NGOs, donors, and the media in transitional countries. This study extends the public relations model of civil society in two ways. First, it broadens the scope to an international context. Second, it draws from the multi-stakeholder issue network perspective to conceptualize a civil society network as a space where stakeholders of an issue mix their interests as they collectively address a pressing public issue. The literature on international and multi-stakeholder networks suggest that the international scope and the mixing of interests across sectors may restrict the production of social capital. The results from the social network analysis suggests that the mixing of interests across sectoral and geopolitical boundaries did not restrict the production of social capital. Rather, the patterns of the relationships among those on the core and those on the periphery of the network restricted the production of social capital. Such finding demonstrates how public relations’ functions like relationship building can have profound influences on social capital and civil society networks. The implications for public relations theorizing and research are discussed.     

Seeking sincerity,finding forgiveness: YouTube apologies as image repair

Social media have become important communication tools for organizations and public figures, particularly in times of crisis. Public figures are frequently advised to use social media platforms to apologize to publics, and their apologies are often posted by news outlets or individual social media users. However, evidence suggests social media may function on an interpersonal level, yet traditional image repair strategies are based on a mass media model. Using image repair strategies based in theoretical frameworks from mass mediated and interpersonal communication, this research examined the verbal behaviors and emotions displayed by public figures apologizing on YouTube and the relationships these had to audience perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness as expressed via YouTube comments. Two studies analyzed 335 segments of video from 32 public apologies on YouTube spanning from 2009 to 2014, and 1971 posted responses. The interpersonal strategies and expression of emotions were largely unrelated to the perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness; and the image repair strategies were limited in their relatedness. However, the content of the comments, a majority of which focused on the reputation of the public figure, was associated with perceptions of sincerity. Reducing offensiveness was associated with perceptions of insincerity, as was the combination of reducing offensiveness, denial and evasion. Negative comments regarding the offender’s reputation were also associated with perceptions of insincerity. Audiences were non-forgiving if the apology was perceived as insincere, but forgiving if they perceived the apology as sincere. Implications of these results in relation to the practice and scholarship of public relations are discussed.     

新媒体视角下廊坊市社会舆情教育与管理研究

新媒体对社会舆情具有双重影响：一方面,公众可以借此学习各种知识,关注社会发展,推动社会进步;另一方面,新媒体使日常舆论引导难度逐渐增大,政府公信力受到影响,网络信息安全面临挑战。面对此种情况,针对新媒体认识不足等突出问题,廊坊市应采取有效措施,优化社会舆论环境,建立新媒体舆情监测预警系统,科学调解控制社会舆情,拓宽公众表达渠道,促进社会政治经济健康发展。     

Revisiting gendered assumptions of practitioner power: An exploratory study examining the role of social media expertise

The purpose of this exploratory study was to expand upon previous literatures in public relations power, and fill the need for more scholarship regarding practitioners’ perceptions of social media work, power, and gender. Findings from a survey of PRSA members showed that there is a gendered difference in power perception between males and females regardless of their PR roles or level of experience, but social media expertise was perceived equally between both genders. We argue that while social media expertise may serve to reduce a gendered power divide in public relations, continued critical exploration of social media and gender inequality is necessary.     

Food for Thought: Analyzing Public Opinion on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

ABSTRACT

This project explores public opinion on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in news and social media outlets, and tracks elected representatives’ voting records on issues relating to SNAP and food insecurity. We used machine learning, sentiment analysis, and text mining to analyze national and state level coverage of SNAP in order to gauge perceptions of the program over time across these outlets. Results indicate that the majority of news coverage has negative sentiment, more partisan news outlets have more extreme sentiment, and that clustering of negative reporting on SNAP occurs in the Midwest. Our final results and tools will be displayed in an online application that the ACFB Advocacy team can use to inform their communication to relevant stakeholders.