US government efforts to repair its image after the 2008 financial crisis

Globalization has intensified the interaction and interdependency among countries. The need to maintain good reputation and establish good relationships should dominate public diplomacy efforts (Hiebert, 2005). Using the US financial crisis 2008 as a case study, this study examines how the world's only superpower repaired its image when it was accused of triggering the financial meltdown that impacted the world economy. Few studies have examined repair strategies by nations. The need to undertake more empirical research to understand how the image-rebuilding rhetoric can aid diplomatic efforts remains relevant today.     

Social media dialogues in a crisis: A mixed-methods approach to identifying publics on social media

Despite the promise of social media to engender dialogue, the common approach to studying social media may prioritize monologue, whereby research considers the strategies organizations use in targeting publics, particularly in a crisis. This study uses a mixed-method approach to analyze dialogue in a crisis—semantic network analysis and content analysis. Specifically, this study examines the emotional expression and crisis coping behaviors on social media during two separate terror attacks: the Paris terror attacks in 2015 and the Barcelona terror attacks in 2017. Results demonstrate how publics may be identified and understood through semantic network analysis and content analysis. This study also shows the connection between emotions and coping, expanding the crisis communication literature in public relations, and suggests the need to consider agenda-setting and resilience in crisis communication research. Finally, we discuss this study’s implications for assuming a dialogic orientation in public relations.     

Strategic public diplomacy and local press: how a high-profile “head-of-state” visit was covered in America’s heartland

Drawing upon the lines of research on public diplomacy and media communication, this study aims to use Chinese President Jiang Zemin’s state visit to the US in 1997 as a case in point to examine the news values and judgment of the US local press in covering a major public diplomacy event and to discuss the effectiveness of the use of head-of-state visits as instruments of public diplomacy. The study focuses on two aspects of media image: visibility and valence. Its main findings indicate that, despite the PR efforts, the image of China, as reflected in the local press coverage, was not improved. This study highlights the critical role of the local press in managing the perception and reputation of a country in the eyes of a foreign public, and argues that the local aspect is not only significant in studying public diplomacy and the US media, but also relevant to US public diplomacy strategies and tactics overseas.     

An Empirical Analysis of Image Restoration: Texaco's Racism Crisis

As in any social science, theory in public relations is advanced by making and testing predictions from that theory. This article reports the results of a study designed to test some claims advanced by image restoration theory, a theory that is being used and cited frequently in crisis management research. The experimental study subjects conclusions from a case study to empirical analysis. More precisely, claims about the effectiveness of various image restoration strategies used in Texaco's efforts to combat a racism incident are tested. The results suggest that many conclusions drawn from image restoration case studies should be taken only as tentative. The results recommend a more rigorous application of image restoration theory to unpack its utility for crisis management and public relations.     

Strategic framing in the BP crisis: A semantic network analysis of associative frames

This paper contributes to the analysis of the interplay of public relations and news in crisis situations, and the conceptualization of strategic framing by introducing the idea of associative frames and the method of semantic network analysis to the PR research field. By building on a more advanced understanding of communication as process of social meaning construction that is embedded in networks of differential relations between different actors, it contributes to extend the perspective of first- and second-order agenda building towards a kind of “third order” or “network agenda building”. Via an automated content analysis of more than 3700 articles we examine agenda- and frame-differences between public relations, UK and US news in the BP crisis. The study documents that BP successfully applied a decoupling strategy: It dissociated itself from being responsible for the cause and at the same time presented itself as solvent of the crisis. It shows that in crises, associative frames in PR resonate partly to associative frames in news. Especially the US news followed BP and did not succeed in presenting political actors as solution providers.     

Social media crisis communication: Enhancing a discourse of renewal through dialogic content

This qualitative study investigates through a case study how dialogic content, which is shared on social media, facilitates stakeholder support and builds relationships to advance a discourse of renewal. Prior research on crisis communication in social media thoroughly investigated crisis response theories relating to reputation management and image restoration. To date, however, a paucity of research has considered how content could facilitate stakeholder support and relationships in crisis communication.The findings show that when an organization commits to transparent, interactive dialogue during a social media crisis on a social media platform, stakeholders are pulled to authentic content because they are interested and actively seeking for relevant information. Dialogic content may also boost stakeholder support and encourage relationship building to help move the organization forward after the crisis with dialogic communication. The insights gained from this study create value for wider audiences in terms of how dialogic content can be used for social media crisis communication, to move beyond reputation and image repair to become meaningful to stakeholders.     

Public diplomacy networks: China’s public diplomacy communication practices in twitter during Two Sessions

This study illustrates the Two Sessions and proposes the concept of public diplomacy network to investigate the effect of China’s public diplomacy communication on Twitter. Twitter data comprising 14,874 tweets and 7773 users was collected during March 5 to March 20 in 2018, the combination of social network analysis and content analysis were employed from a holistic, relational and networked approach. The results present public diplomacy networks’ structural characteristics, key participants’ networking patterns, communication strategies, issue participation, and homophily effect that participants who take the same attitude towards China (negative & neutral or positive) are clustered in each group. In conclusion, although China’s state-owed media takes the lead in public diplomacy communication, foreign practitioners dominate the NGOs, researchers, correspondents, and generally take negative attitude towards China. China’s media outlets underperform in allying closely, and China is entrenched in traditional one-way monologue. The theoretical, methodological and practical implications are addressed.     

Building a religious brand: Exploring the foundations of the Church of Scientology through public relations

ABSTRACT

Although L. Ron Hubbard is known for founding the Church of Scientology, he is not generally considered a public relations practitioner. However, his efforts to practice the discipline to advance Scientology are documented in Church publications. Unlike examinations of older religions, which require reinterpretations of activities through a public relations lens, existing Church documents allow for an evaluation of the role public relations played in building a religious movement. This article explores how Hubbard used public relations to establish Scientology, finding he embraced practices such as celebrity endorsement and image management but eschewed common media relations and crisis communication practices.     

The influences of relationship quality with external partners and required levels of approval of messaging on crisis preparedness

As funding for public health promotion is increasingly limited in the U.S., public relations research informing management of crises that threaten public health is especially critical. Crisis planning models such as Reynolds and Seeger’s (2005, 2014) crisis and emergency risk communication model offer comprehensive directives for crisis managers and present opportunities to extend the utility of best practice recommendations. A survey of public information officers (PIOs) (n=208) at local public health departments across the U.S. examines the quality of their relationships with partners in public health crisis management, including first responders, media, law enforcement, and hospitals, and reveals that relationships with key publics in crisis management are lacking. Further, PIOs at state governed health departments may face critical delays in releasing crisis messages, as their messages are required to clear more levels of approval than locally (city/county) governed departments. Implications and future research for these key variables extending public relations crisis communication research with a focus on inter-organizational relationships are discussed.     

Turkey’s Twitter public diplomacy: Towards a “new” cult of personality

This study examined how Turkey uses social media as a tool for public diplomacy and how the state’s soft-power efforts have recently changed on the global stage. The researchers constructed a dataset of 2769 Twitter posts by the Turkish government’s most influential public diplomacy accounts. The analyses revealed that the focus of Turkey’s Twitter public diplomacy has become concentrated on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and is thematically focused on the political values embodied by the Turkish president. The findings suggest that public diplomacy remains to be the diplomacy of the government, not of the public, and social media is used as just another tool for propaganda, not as a means of engagement with foreign publics. Further, the findings indicate the emergence of a “new” cult of personality in public diplomacy and point out the instrumental role of social media in changing the dynamics of leader-follower relationship. The study contributes to public relations theory and practice by advancing the burgeoning public diplomacy scholarship at the intersection of social media and relational approaches.     

The new PR of states: How nation branding practices affect the security function of public diplomacy

This paper investigates how the role of public relations practice in public diplomacy is undergoing a transformation as a consequence of the influence from nation branding. A case study of the Danish government's response to the so-called Cartoon Crisis illustrates how the threat from international terrorism to national security initially served as a catalyst for new public diplomacy initiatives. But as the initiatives were implemented within a framework of nation branding the focus on risk reduction became subjected to a marketing logic and a new focus on economic objectives took over. The paper points to a possible future status of public diplomacy under the influence of nation branding: Public diplomacy may maintain a function pertinent to national security but as this function is incapable of managing real risks it will only serve as auto-communication that legitimizes security policy towards a domestic audience. In the public diplomacy efforts towards transnational publics the link to national security will completely disappear whereby the public relations of states is transformed to the marketing of states.     

Another dimension to explicating relationships: measuring inter-organizational linkages

This paper introduces network analysis as a way to theorize about another dimension of relationships: inter-organizational relationships. Through a case study of inter-organizational relationships in the civil society movement in Croatia, this paper outlines the various ways public relations serves a relationship building function. Through the use of network analysis, we propose a model of how organizations should work together to successfully achieve their common goal to build and maintain civil society. The model proposes a public relations approach to understanding inter-organizational relationships in civil society.     

Corporate diplomacy and political CSR: Similarities,differences and theoretical implications

The purpose of this study is to systematically review the body of knowledge on corporate diplomacy (CD) and political corporate social responsibility (PCSR) in journals from the fields of public relations, public diplomacy, general management and business ethics. By applying an interdisciplinary approach our study aims to (1) examine what definitions of CD and PCSR exist, (2) explore what theories have been applied to CD and PCSR and, (3) find differences and commonalities between the underlying concepts of CD and PCSR. Building on the results of our review, we redefine each construct and develop a theoretical framework of CD, which integrates PCSR, international public relations and public diplomacy. Our results serve as a foundation for an operationalization of the constructs in order to conduct empirical analyses and contribute to current research on the political role of multinational corporations.     

Cultural Consequences on Excellence in Public Diplomacy

The purpose of this study is to advance the contextual study of public diplomacy—the inquiry into the influences of a government's contextual variables on its practice and management of public diplomacy. To meet this aim, this study investigated the empirical associations between Hofstede's cultural dimensions and Excellence in public diplomacy, a conception of excellence in public diplomacy developed from the Excellence study, based on survey data from 52 embassies in Washington, DC. The findings suggest that the uncertainty avoidance dimension has substantial and significant empirical associations with Excellence in public diplomacy. Additionally, not only low uncertainty avoidance cultures but also individualist and low power distance cultures are more conducive to the Excellence than are their counterparts. Nonetheless, the findings have an implication that, in terms of associational magnitude, the overall contextual effects of societal culture on the Excellence may not be strong.     

Toward Public Relations Theory-Based Study of Public Diplomacy: Testing the Applicability of the Excellence Study

This study tested the applicability of the Excellence Study (L. A. Grunig, J. E. Grunig, & Dozier, 2002) to developing the study of public diplomacy to respond to Signitzer and Coombs's (1992) call for empirical research to "delineate and test" (p. 145) transferable public relations theories and to rigorously examine conceptual convergence between both spheres. This study delineated underdeveloped conceptions of public diplomacy practices and excellence in public diplomacy as a gap preventing theory building for both practices and excellence. It proposed the conceptual frameworks for public relations behavior and excellence in public relations in the Excellence Study to be applicable to developing the underdeveloped conceptions. In testing the applicability, this study examined the fits of 2 measurement models of public relations behavior and excellence in public relations developed from the conceptual frameworks of the Excellence Study. It tested the models with survey data on public diplomacy practices and management collected from 113 embassies in Washington, D.C. The findings showed that the conceptual and measurement frameworks of the Excellence Study are applicable: The 2 measurement models fit the public diplomacy data.     

Public-private partnerships: How institutional linkages help to build organizational legitimacy in an international environment

Gaining legitimacy in their host country environment is a key priority for multinational corporations’ public relations efforts since it secures their local social license to operate. By applying neo-institutional public relations to corporate diplomacy, this paper argued that institutional linkages between corporations and local government could enhance the building of legitimacy. The study sought to determine whether institutional relations affect the perception of organizational legitimacy, focusing on the United Arab Emirates. In non-democratic countries, public relations tends to be perceived as less sophisticated, and legitimacy becomes even more critical for foreign corporations. Therefore, a one-factorial (corporate diplomacy with/ without governmental involvement) between-subjects experimental design study surveying a representative sample of residents in the United Arab Emirates (N = 199) was conducted. The results imply that corporate diplomacy with governmental linkages leads to a higher perception of moral, pragmatic, and regulative organizational legitimacy, partially mediated by media credibility, governmental legitimacy, and issue legitimacy.     

Crisis communication in higher education: The use of “negotiation” as a strategy to manage crisis

This case study examined the crisis response strategies of Louisiana State University after its women's head basketball coach resigned amid charges of inappropriate conduct with former basketball players. This case study draws on relationship management and negotiation as the theoretical lens to examine the efforts of the University in managing relationships and restoring its image. Data for this study was collected through opened-ended questionnaires from students, faculty, and staff at the University. The findings from this study indicate that the good reputation of the University was responsible for the positive evaluation of the crisis management. In addition, results from this study suggest that “negotiation” can play an important role in managing a crisis when the conflicting parties are not willing to participate in a dialogue.     

Public diplomacy meets social media: A study of the U.S. Embassy's blogs and micro-blogs

With the evolution of communication technologies, traditional public diplomacy is transforming. This study examines the practice of the U.S. Embassy's public diplomatic communication via social media, namely Chinese mainstream blogging and micro-blogging, sites using Tencent for a case study. This study analyzes the embassy's blog and micro-blog entries and an interview with the embassy's public diplomacy officer. Based on the content analysis and interview, this study discerns the key features of the U.S. Embassy's public diplomatic communication using social media and further suggests that the common values and interests related to the global public as well as experience-sharing and relationship-building might become the focus of new public diplomacy research.     

Apps4Africa: A new State Department public diplomacy initiative

In 2010 the U.S. State Department funded an “Apps4Africa” contest to encourage development of socially conscious mobile applications for Africa. The initiative marked a significant departure from traditional public diplomacy efforts to expand diplomatic outreach beyond traditional government-to-government relationships. This case study analyses Apps4Africa to reveal its appropriateness as a model for future efforts and concludes Apps4Africa succeeded primarily because it responded to the changing dynamics of the 21st Century.     

The death of bin Laden: How Russian and U.S. media frame counterterrorism

This study explored how Russian and U.S. newspapers covered the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011 through the lens of framing theory. Results reflect significant disparity in how media in different countries covered the same event, suggesting that terrorism events were framed as national concerns rather than global issues, thus potentially limiting governments and the media from building a shared understanding with international audiences. The findings also indicate that more robust media relations efforts are needed to counter simplistic media counterterrorism frames. Finally, the study identified new frames for counterterrorism including secrecy and humanizing terrorists. These new frames suggest the need to expand the framing literature to provide a better understanding of how the media cover counterterrorism, which may impact the U.S. government's public diplomacy and counterterrorism efforts.