Reaching Publics on the Web During the 1996 Presidential Campaign

This case study explored how the 1996 Democratic 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 media channels. Results also indicated that the campaigns did not use this new technology to increase interaction between voters and candidates.     

Practitioners’ web use and perceptions of their own roles and power: a qualitative study

Four focus group discussions with 35 practitioners were guided by theory about roles from public relations literature and power from strategic management literature to explore how World Wide Web use is related to practitioners’ perceptions of their own status and decision-making power. The web has become essential to public relations. Practitioners use the web extensively for research and evaluation, two-way communication, productivity and efficiency, issues management, and other applications. All four types of practitioners’ power, according to Finkelstein’s [Acad. Manage. J. 35 (3) (1992) 505–538] taxonomy—structural, expert, prestige and ownership—were enhanced by web use. Because, the web is such a great equalizer, web use may contribute to the blurring of practitioners’ roles.     

Building dialogic relationships through the world wide web

This article provides a theory-based, strategic framework to facilitate relationship building with publics through the World Wide Web. Although many essays on the Web have appeared in professional and technical periodicals, most treatments of the Web have lacked theoretical frameworks. Strategic communication on the World Wide Web can benefit from a consideration of dialogic communication.This article offers dialogic communication as a theoretical framework to guide relationship building between organizations and publics. Five strategies are provided for communication professionals use to create dialogic relationships with Internet publics.     

Web power: a survey of practitioners’ World Wide Web use and their perceptions of its effects on their decision-making power

A national e-mail survey investigated how 432 public relations practitioners perceive their World Wide Web use impacts their decision-making power in their organizations. Practitioners’ web use appears to be positively related to three of Finkelstein's [Finkelstein, S. (1992). Power in top management teams: Dimensions, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 35(3), 505–538] conceptualizations of power derived from “upper echelons” theory from the strategic management literature—structural, expert and prestige power. “Super users” who use the web more frequently for productivity and efficiency, for research and evaluation, and for issues communication are most likely to perceive the web empowered them to be promoted (structural power). Practitioners who use the web more frequently for productivity and efficiency as well as for issues communication are more likely to perceive the web empowers them as experts in their organizations (expert power) and enhances how others see them (prestige power). Practitioner-owners perceive that greater web use leads to greater expert power than did non-owners.     

Campaigning in the fourth age of political communication. A multi-method study on the use of Facebook by German and Austrian parties in the 2013 national election campaigns

Starting from the contribution to the discussion on a fourth age of political communication, here we argue that, as a consequence of how the Web 2.0 has changed political campaigns, the theoretical time-bound three-phase models of political campaigning must be reconsidered. We propose four ideal campaign types based on their ideal-typical target audience: partisan-, mass-, target group- and individual-centered campaigns. In reality, each campaign combines elements of all types. To examine this mixture empirically, we apply a most similar systems design and investigate five German and six Austrian parties’ use of Facebook in the 2013 national election campaigns. On the basis of face-to-face interviews with the campaign managers and a quantitative content analysis of the respective parties’ Facebook pages, we analyze how parties used Facebook as a campaigning tool to inform, interact with, and mobilize voters, as well as which target audiences they addressed. We find that, although the campaign managers declare Facebook their most important Web 2.0 campaigning tool, the German and Austrian parties did not make use of Facebook’s interactive and mobilizing potential, rather relying on mass-centered information, possibly due to the framework conditions in both countries. Based on our findings, we conclude that the role of context for election campaigning should be discussed more carefully.     

Using the Web to Teach Power Analysis

Abstract

Traditionally community organizers have used newspaper accounts of community or legislative coalition building and government records on campaign donations and business start-ups to examine the inter-relationships among interest groups, corporations, and political decision-makers. However, the prevalence of much of this data on the Internet makes some of these traditional methods obsolete. In this paper, the author describes how much of this research can be conducted on the World Wide Web.     

Transnational issue networks in real and virtual space: the case of women,peace and security

To what extent do online issue networks serve as a proxy for their real‐space counterparts in structure and substance? This question is significant because a number of scholars have begun to study transnational advocacy networks through their representations online. We explored whether this assumption is valid by comparing the network composition and agenda composition of the advocacy network around ‘women, peace and security’, as operationalized through a web‐based survey of actual activists, and the network's online representations of itself, as measured through advocacy websites. Two specific concerns drove the study. First, how closely does the structure of issue networks, as represented on the World Wide Web, correspond with actual advocates' understanding of the players within a specific issue domain? Second, to what extent does the online issue agenda correlate with the most prominent issues described by real‐space advocates within a transnational network? Our findings yielded a high correlation between the online issue agenda and activists’ interpretations of the agenda. However, we found that while hyperlink analysis is an effective tool for identifying the ‘hubs’ or ‘gatekeepers’ within a specific issue network, the nature of the World Wide Web makes it is a blunt tool with which to capture the broader network. This suggests that while the web poses important opportunities as a data source, scholars of transnational networks must pay closer attention to the methodological assumptions implicit in their reliance on this and other new media.     

POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS AND THE KNOWLEDGE-GAP HYPOTHESIS

The knowledge-gap hypothesis suggests that a sudden infusionof information into a social setting serves to increase, ratherthan decrease, the gap in knowledge between high- and low-statusvoters. Political campaigns represent an especially appropriatesetting to test this hypothesis, because of (1) the increasedinformation that generally characterizes campaigns and (2) theimportant political consequences to lower status voters if thehypothesis is correct. A two-wave panel survey during the 1978New Hampshire gubernatorial campaign finds that on one issuethe knowledge gap increased during the campaign, while on another,perhaps less complex issue, the gap remained constant. Thesedifferences are hypothesized to be a function of different diffusioncurves of the high- and low-status voters, with implicationsfor the varying lengths of time states allow for campaigns betweenthe primary and general elections.     

WEB PAGES, AUTHORS AND AUDIENCES: The meaning of a mouse click

One popular framework for analysing web pages has been to think of them as identity performances on the part of the author. This framework opens up possibilities for analysis of the ways in which identity performances are composed. The personal web pages to which this perspective is most immediately applicable, are, however, now only a small proportion of the overall amount of information available on the World Wide Web. It would be possible, by extension, to analyse institutional web pages as performances of the institutional identity. It is the contention of this paper that to do so is to miss out on some important aspects of web page design: namely that the production of a web page involves understandings not only of the audience for the page but also of the capacities of the technology. In addition, web page production has to become a socially meaningful act for the individual web page developer and the institution concerned. It is, therefore, argued that the analysis of web pages can usefully learn from media studies and the sociology of technology in this respect. An interview-based study of the developers of web pages for the service departments of a UK university is described. The ideas of audience which the authors use are far from homogeneous: they include an institutional offline audience for the page, a pre-existing imagined audience, developers themselves as audience, and the technology of the browser as a stand-in audience. The audience and the capacities of the technology are developed in context through the practices of designers.     

BOOK AND CD REVIEWS

SUMMARY

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study of one hundred sixty-six domestic violence organizations that use the World Wide Web. Domestic violence agencies primarily used the Web to promote agency visibility and provide community education, and to a lesser extent for advocacy, direct services, and securing resources. Agency satisfaction with their Website is generally high, although more than one-third of agencies reported problems. Related issues discussed include Web-based sources of client victimization, agency legal liability, agency vulnerability to online disruption, the need to create access for low-income clients, and evaluation of Web services.     

Trends in the Research and Practice of Health Communication Campaigns

A compelling communication tool that can potentially impact health‐related outcomes and indicators across numerous health problems among a diversity of audiences is the health communication campaign. The purpose of the current article is to discuss trends in the research and practice of health communication campaigns. First, we discuss the issue of campaign effects and discuss a framework that encompasses key principles of effective campaigns. Next, we discuss four trends in health communication campaigns: (a) the increased application of marketing principles in campaigns; (b) the greater use of rigorous outcome evaluation designs in campaign research; (c) the increased use of cost effectiveness analysis in campaigns; and (d) the increased use of new media technologies in campaigns. Finally, we conclude the article with thoughts about the future of health communication campaign research and practice in relation to these trends.     

The Case for the Case Study in the Twenty-First Century: A Rupture in the Order of Discourse

This commentary discusses the consequences the shift from a paper-based world to a screen-centric world has for writers, teachers, and therapists. Whereas the case study was once composed for and stored on paper and its circulation thus restricted, now digital composing transforms the potential for the case study to circulate widely and freely via the World Wide Web. Moving the case study from paper to screen is not a question of reformatting; rather, it requires becoming literate in a new medium, one that offers the potential for ongoing collaborative revision and the development of participatory forms of knowledge production.     

The Downside of Cyberspace

This article explores the actual and potential misuses of the World Wide Web in regard to access to “paper mills” and other information sources that make plagiarism relatively easy. The authors describe their experience accessing such paper mill products and present results of a quasi-experiment in which participants graded three papers: one an actual student submission and two purchased off the Internet. Findings suggest reason for concern about student misuse of the World Wide Web. The authors argue that different strategies for the design of class assignments must be considered by all educational programs to diminish enhanced opportunities for “cybercheating.”     

The World Wide Web as a public relations medium: the use of research, planning, and evaluation in web site development

The World Wide Web is viewed as a desirable 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 trial and error based on subjective knowledge and intuition, with little or no formal research and evaluation.Interviews with persons responsible for making Web site decisions for organizations revealed that competition and the desire to establish an Internet presence were the driving forces in deciding to develop a Web site. Very little research about present effectiveness is done, but there is a strong belief that Web site communication will be increasingly important in the future.Candace White is assistant professor of public relations in the School of Journalism at The University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Niranjan Raman works for The Burke Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio.     

Social License to Operate in Crowdfunding Campaigns

Organizations and individuals need to engage their communities to gain the social license to operate (SLO). In crowdfunding, SLO is reflected in funding by the members of communities of interest around crowdfunding campaigns. Thus campaign creators’ success relies on obtaining SLO from their communities. This article examines how crowdfunding campaign creators engage their communities to gain and maintain SLO to secure funding for their campaigns. Content analysis of 68 successful and unsuccessful Kickstarter campaigns shows how successful campaign creators build their communities by the use of weak ties and have abundant relational and episodic engagement with their communities to obtain SLO. The results also show how successful campaign creators practice dialogic engagement to maintain their SLO over time. This study expands public relations to crowdfunding by framing crowdfunding as a community engagement practice and operationalizing SLO as tangible funding.     

Quality of web-based information on cannabis addiction

This study evaluated the quality of Web-based information on cannabis use and addiction and investigated particular content quality indicators. Three keywords ("cannabis addiction," "cannabis dependence," and "cannabis abuse") were entered into two popular World Wide Web search engines. Websites were assessed with a standardized proforma designed to rate sites on the basis of accountability, presentation, interactivity, readability, and content quality. "Health on the Net" (HON) quality label, and DISCERN scale scores were used to verify their efficiency as quality indicators. Of the 94 Websites identified, 57 were included. Most were commercial sites. Based on outcome measures, the overall quality of the sites turned out to be poor. A global score (the sum of accountability, interactivity, content quality and esthetic criteria) appeared as a good content quality indicator. While cannabis education Websites for patients are widespread, their global quality is poor. There is a need for better evidence-based information about cannabis use and addiction on the Web.     

Fulfilling the dialogic promise: A ten-year reflective survey on dialogic Internet principles

A decade ago, using the dialogic theory of public relations as the theoretical framework, Kent and Taylor [Kent, M. L., & Taylor, M. (1998). Building a dialogic relationship through the World Wide Web. Public Relations Review, 24, 321–340; Kent, M. L., & Taylor, M. (2002). Toward a dialogic theory of public relations. Public Relations Review, 28, 21–37] provided a strategic framework to facilitate relationships with publics though the World Wide Web. Based on a review of research exploring Web-based public relations practices drawing on Kent and Taylor's theoretical framework, this essay offers a ten-year reflective survey on past, current, and future directions of Kent and Taylor's Internet principles, as they relate to the dialogic theory of public relations.     

Use of Technology in Delivering Career Services Worldwide

The authors review the trends in the use of computers in the delivery and support of career guidance and counseling identified at the symposium International Perspectives on Career Development. The papers presented emphasized that 20th‐century computer‐based systems continue to be used, mainly delivered via the World Wide Web. These systems are enhanced through audio, video, graphics, strategies to provide needs assessment, and support by cybercounselors or expert system design. The papers also revealed a new trend: the use of elegant Web sites to store and search immense libraries of resources needed by professionals and clients and to facilitate communication and collaboration among professionals in cyberspace. Concerns, issues, and resources related to many areas, including the readiness of clients to use computer‐based systems, were also raised; existing sources of guidelines are noted.     

Inverting the boomerang: examining the legitimacy of North–South–North campaigns in transnational advocacy

The boomerang model is typically used to describe campaigns in which international NGOs respond to requests from local activists, often from marginalized populations, for assistance in addressing local needs. Such campaigns are perceived to represent local interests and have some accountability to local actors. However, while the local–international–local pattern is often accurate, it does not capture the full spectrum of campaign development. This article theorizes an international–local–international or ‘inverse’ boomerang, in which international NGOs facing an international policy blockage initiate a transnational campaign, recruiting local activists to assist in the international advocacy effort. The article demonstrates the theory's plausibility using several cases of Northern‐initiated advocacy. It then examines the implications of the model for campaign legitimacy. It finds that inverse boomerang campaigns benefit from the same presumptions of legitimacy as traditional boomerang campaigns, but that representivity and accountability are substantially weaker, potentially disempowering the campaigns' claimed stakeholders.     

Wired science: use of World Wide Web and e-mail in science public relations

To gain visibility and public support, scientists must gain the attention of the mass media. Science public relations practitioners, who represent well-known research universities, private research organizations, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, non-profit health associations, and public relations firms, help scientists accomplish that goal. The World Wide Web and e-mail have become an integral part of science public relations, according to a 2000 survey. Practitioners find that e-mail is essential in media relations. They believe the Web and e-mail together make it easier to obtain media coverage. Most (86%) practitioners in this highly specialized field believe the Web has improved their public relations work.