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.     

Social media, societal culture and Israeli public relations practice

The aim of this study is to explore Israel's societal culture as an environment with which public relations practice has to align. It asks whether Israeli public relations practitioners use social media elements, how do they perceive these elements and what do they think about their future? A web-based survey revealed that Israeli practitioners generally are willing to use and gain experience with social media elements although this usage is still in its initial stage.     

Socially distributing public relations: Twitter,Haiti, and interactivity in social media

Social media and communication technology have shifted the power of communication from public relations practitioners to social media users who may not have a recognized role or defined interest in an organization. What results is a social model of public relations in which traditional public relations responsibilities are distributed to social media users, and which depends on interactivity, legitimacy, and a user's social stake. This study explores social public relations through a qualitative analysis of user involvement on Twitter regarding relief efforts to support Haiti following the 7.0 earthquake that hit Port-Au-Prince in January, 2010. This analysis of Twitter posts also expands understanding of interactivity online and demonstrates social media user fulfillment of public relations objectives.     

Exploratory Study of Public Relations Roles in Zimbabwe

This exploratory study examined the practice of public relations in Zimbabwe by surveying and understanding public relations roles typically practiced by Zimbabwean PR practitioners. Through the lens of systems theory, the research investigated whether the practiced public relations roles allow organizations to perform all three boundary spanning functions such as output, throughput, and input. The results confirmed prior theoretically and empirically derived typology of roles (technician, manager, strategist) from the African continent. However, the observed structures of public relations roles deviate from previous findings, indicating that Zimbabwean PR practitioners' professional roles may differ from those in neighboring countries.     

Organizational contingencies,organizational blogs and public relations practitioner stance toward publics

Public relations practitioners in this study who perceived social media (e.g., blogs) to be a normal part of their organization's day-to-day communication were less likely to choose an accommodating stance toward a key public than practitioners in “low-tech” conditions. Forty-three practitioners with a mean of 14.5 years professional experience participated in a 2 × 2 (contingencies for dialogue × technological orientation of organization) experiment. The data reveal a disconnect between the potential relational benefits of social media and the stance public relations practitioners in this study chose when social media were introduced as a regular part of their working environment.     

Practitioner Roles,Public Relations Education,and Professional Socialization: An Exploratory Study

This study builds on the body of literature about public relations practitioner roles by examining the relationship of workplace socialization and formal public relations education to idealized practitioner roles. Data come from an exploratory survey of public relations students and practitioners. As in several previous studies, two main practitioner roles were identified, corresponding to the communication manager and communication technician roles. Formal public relations education was associated with the manager role type, but professional socialization in the workplace was not.     

Professional competition and cooperation in the digital age: A pilot study of New Zealand practitioners

From early on, competition between professions has been identified as a major factor in the process of developing public relations as a profession. This paper updates consideration of the influence of inter-profession disputes by examining the interplay between public relations and advertising in the digital age. It attempts to assess how new technologies, especially social media, affect the relationships between them, with particular reference to two aspects: whether social media increases, or decreases, professional cooperation (or competition); and who takes charge in the new communication environment. In researching these issues, which form an important part of the professionalization process of public relations, the paper examined documents and online publications, and undertook interviews and a survey of public relations practitioners in New Zealand. The findings suggest that the responding public relations practitioners were not able to take advantage of the social technology in order to leverage their professional status and improve their position within the organization. In addition, it seems that while advertising and public relations are still looking for ways to benefit from social media, both are still in a process of adaptation.     

A survey of social media use, motivation and leadership among public relations practitioners

This study investigates the relationship between motivation, leadership and social media use among a sample of public relations practitioners who recently had begun using Twitter to follow Universal Accreditation Board (UAB)-affiliated organizations. A majority of the survey respondents were classified as “everyday users.” A series of Twitter leadership indicators correlated positively with internal motivation and correlated negatively with amotivation. Several word-of-mouth variables also were investigated with regard to motivation.     

An examination of the role of online social media in journalists’ source mix

Using telephone surveys of business/financial journalists in the United States (n = 200), this research investigates the agenda-building role of social media content in journalists’ work. Understanding that more non-public relations content from user-generated and social network sites, like YouTube and Twitter, are fast becoming resources for journalists to get story ideas, break scandals, and find sources, we began this scholarly work to determine the frequency of such uses of social media. Overall, findings indicate very little use of social media by these business journalists. Results and implications for public relations practitioners are discussed in detail.     

Power to the people—health PR people that is!

Inspired by the seminal typology of power first suggested by French and Raven, this study identified five types of power (Expert, Information Reward, Information Coercive, Advertising Coercive, and Influence Powers) that health public relations practitioners believed they have in media relations. This study also examined the effect of four variables, such as personal closeness with reporters, openness towards the media, perceived media job performance, and perceived expertise in the health field, on these five types of perceived power. The results suggested that public relations practitioners who highly evaluate themselves as an expert in health and as a competent media communicator, and who are personally close with reporters have greater Expert Power in media relations. Also, when practitioners are personally close to reporters, they are more likely to use Information Reward Power.     

Cognitive communication competence within public relations practitioners: Examining gender differences between technicians and managers

This study examines gender differences within public relations practitioners. Of specific interest was the role that cognitive communication competence played within public relations managers and public relations technicians. Public relations practitioners completed a questionnaire that included the Duran and Spitzberg's [Duran, R. L., & Spitzberg, B. H. (1995). Toward the development and validation of a measure of cognitive communication competence. Communication Quarterly, 43(3), 259–275] Cognitive Communication Competence Scale. Participants self-identified whether they were a technician or a manager. Results showed that male public relations managers had significantly higher cognitive communication competence than male public relations technicians. However, the hypothesis that female public relations managers would have higher cognitive communication competence than female public relations technicians was not supported. Also, this study found no significant gender differences with levels of cognitive communication competence. However, female technicians have significantly higher cognitive communication competence than male technicians.     

The new water cooler: Implications for practitioners concerning the NLRB's stance on social media and workers’ rights

This study examines the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) recent decision in Hispanics United (2012), which prohibits employers from firing employees for social media posts that contain work-related grievances. Given that social media has become a large part of corporate image on the Internet, this recent ruling has direct impact on corporate image, social media communication, and public relations. Implications for public relations practitioners and human resource management are discussed and standards for evaluating social media posts in light of this recent decision are provided.     

Social media advocacy and gun violence: Applying the engagement model to nonprofit organizations’ communication efforts

Applying the model of engagement, this study tests the effectiveness of social media advocacy strategies, framing, and mobilizing information related to nonprofit organizations’ communication about the issue of gun violence. An online experiment revealed successful social media advocacy strategies within the engagement model. Two key components of social media advocacy were identified: (1) public relations practitioners’ roles in shaping messages and mobilizing publics; (2) the important role of marginalized groups and individuals in issue amplification.     

Credibility of PR practitioners: The impact of professional journalism background on trustworthiness,expertness, and homophily evaluations

This study demonstrates that a professional journalism background contributes to the credibility evaluations of public relations practitioners in regards to expertness and the capability to meet journalistic values and expectations. However, having a professional journalism background does not necessarily render public relations practitioners any more trustworthy than not having such credentials.     

The civility of social capital: Public relations in the public sphere,civil society,and democracy

Scholars have analyzed public relations’ role in democracy via proxy concepts like the public sphere and civil society. However, some have critiqued the public sphere on grounds of equal access and portrayed civil society as a guise for first-world imperialism. These critiques have implications for the role of public relations in the public sphere and civil society. This article suggests the normative role of public relations in democracy is best perceived as creating the social capital that facilitates access to spheres of public discussion and in maintaining relationships among those organizations that check state power. To that end, the paper argues that social capital does much to advance public relations theory and prescribe the role of public relations in democracy. Several implications for public relations from a social capital perspective are offered, including the creation of generalized societal trust, the building of cross-cutting or “weak” ties, the engagement of media on behalf of subaltern counterpublics, and the (re)creation of community or a fully functioning society.     

Public relations and customer service: Employer perspectives of social media proficiency

Social media has enhanced integration between marketing and public relations. As such, public relations professionals have had to adapt and grow their knowledge and skillsets to stay relevant and current throughout the evolution of the digital landscape (Gesualdi, 2019). One of the growing areas of focus for public relations professionals has been customer service skills online. This specialization, often referred to as social care or social customer service, has been promoted and discussed heavily in industry circles and publications, but not in academic research. This study focuses on the survey results from 396 employers exploring the social media skills they most prefer university graduates to possess when entering the workforce. The results indicate that public relations and customer service are the social media skills most sought after by employers of university graduates ahead of proficiency in areas such as social media content production, strategy development and analytics. The potential implications of these findings to the public relations profession are examined and future research is also discussed.     

Social media adoption among Turkish public relations professionals: A survey of practitioners

Social media is emerging as an important public relations tool and empowers two way symmetrical communications with publics and stakeholders. PR professionals are confronted with the swift rise of social media that forces practitioners to pay due and timely attention. They are not only excited about utilizing these tools together with conventional media, but are also excited about speaking directly to their publics and stakeholders without the involvement of any intermediaries. Through the perspective of UTAUT model, this paper examines the social media adoption of PR professionals in Turkey and how they employ social media tools both internally and externally. We employed a web-based questionnaire to 126 PR professionals who are members of the Turkish Public Relations Association. Findings reveal that Turkish PR professionals highly appreciate the importance of social media in recent PR practice. However, not all social media tools are equally adopted; e-mail is the most, and virtual world applications are the least adopted social media. It is also found that in the future, social networks are expected to be the most important social media, while corporate web sites get the second and mobile phone (PDA) applications get the third rank.     

The status of the school public relations practitioner: A statewide exploration

A study was conducted which focuses on public relations practitioners in school districts in South Carolina. The study utilized survey research to investigate several questions relating to public relations role enactment, hierarchical level of the public relations function, salary, job satisfaction and encroachment into public relations. The research found that school public relations practitioners fulfill both the manager and technician roles equally, although it is responsibilities relating to the management function that provide the most satisfaction. Women tend to be less active in the manager role. The public relations function reports directly to the school superintendent. There is a relationship between sex and salary in school district public relations and, with women, experience is negatively correlated with salary. Finally, there is a high level of encroachment by educators into the public relations function in school districts.     

Do public relations practitioners perceptually share ingroup affiliation with journalists?

Upwards of 200 studies over the past hundred years have reported on the relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists. However, no experiment has compared the group members’ perceptions when seeing their roles in action. Inspired by frameworks of social identity theory, intergroup deception, and the black sheep effect, we test how public relations practitioners and journalists respond to a crisis communication media interview. In our experiment, a company spokesperson either answers questions or engages in stereotypical “spin,” which journalists historically consider one of the most offensive public relations strategies. Results indicate that public relations practitioners align with journalists in their perceptions of a spokesperson’s trustworthiness and the organization’s trustworthiness across treatment conditions. Practitioners also manifest the black sheep effect, disliking their group representative engaging in deception. Furthermore, we explore whether the effects on perceptions of trustworthiness are moderated by psychological identification with their respective industry. Discussion concerns the theoretical and practical ramifications of the groups sharing ingroup affiliation, contrary to prevailing notions of acrimony.     

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.