Company spokesperson vs. customer testimonial: Investigating quoted spokesperson credibility and impact in business-to-business communication

Through the framework of source credibility, this study examines the impact of quoting a company executive versus a customer testimonial in a business communication context. A 2 (spokesperson) × 7 (media channel) full factorial experiment (N = 514) showed partial support for enhanced perceived credibility of information conveyed by a customer testimonial compared to a company spokesperson in independent and controlled media channels online. When evaluated through a measure of media credibility, a customer spokesperson rates higher than a company spokesperson. In addition, a product is viewed more positively by an audience receiving information quoting a customer spokesperson rather than a company spokesperson. An audience with low business expertise considers both types of spokespersons as more trustworthy than a high-expertise audience; however, a customer is considered more trustworthy than a company spokesperson. The study provides public relations professionals with insight in determining the use of spokespersons when communicating to businesspeople.     

Understanding how health journalists judge public relations sources: A rules theory approach

The research presented here offers public relations practitioners and scholars insight about how health journalists (N = 598) view practitioners and evaluate the appropriateness of public relations materials by public relations source (e.g., nonprofit, government). Also assessed are differences in journalist perceptions according to medium (e.g., newspapers, magazines) and market (e.g., national, metropolitan). Rules theory guides the analysis, allowing practitioners to discern journalists’ general and specific rules for accepting publicity materials. Findings show that health journalists are least accepting of material from businesses and federal government agencies. Newspaper and freelance health journalists are more reluctant to use public relations materials than are other journalists.     

Four publics of anti-bioterrorism information campaigns: A test of the situational theory

Applying the situational theory, this study examines the extent to which citizens recognize bioterrorism as a social issue, their level of involvement with it, and how their perceptions of it affect communication and protective behaviors. A national sample survey (N = 363) showed that problem recognition was positively related to information seeking and processing while constraints recognition was negatively related to information seeking and processing. Involvement was positively related to information seeking. Respondents were segmented into four public types based on media consumption habits, source trust evaluations and intentions to perform recommended behaviors.     

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.     

Public relations in Ghana: Work-related cultural values and public relations models

This study explores cultural influences on public relations practices in Ghana. This survey research brief reports data collected from Ghanaian public relations practitioners (n = 64) and describes work-related cultural values as well as the practices of public relations models in Ghana. The result reveals that Ghanaian public professionals tend to utilize international public relations and two-way communication models. The study extends knowledge of international public relations in African cultures.     

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.     

Adoption of social media for public relations by nonprofit organizations

This survey of nonprofit public relations practitioners (N = 409) applied the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Findings indicate that women consider social media to be beneficial, whereas men exhibit more confidence in actively utilizing social media. Organizations with specified public relations departments were more likely to adopt social media. Positive correlations between UTAUT factors and credibility indicated a greater likelihood to adopt social media.     

Public relations master's education deliverables: How practitioners and educators view strategic practice curriculum

A national sample of practitioners (PRSA members) and academics provided their perceptions of what graduate students of public relations should study (N = 463). Despite expectations of difference between practitioners and educators, they agreed that a master's program graduate should have knowledge of business and understand how globalization shapes public relations. Still, a master's of public relations program graduate should also write well, speak well, and have had some “capstone” experience.     

The portrayal of public relations in the era of Ivy Lee through the lens of the New York Times

Public relations has and, it appears, always has had an image problem. From public relations’ protohistory, through the rise of the publicist and press agent, the history of the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners remained rocky. Using the New York Times as a lens, this study seeks to examine, through a qualitative framing analysis (N = 106), how public relations was perceived and discussed by one of its most important audiences, the journalist, during the early years of the twentieth century. The study found that while the tasks and media used in the practice of public relations as framed by the Times may be accurate, the cultural context of the early 20th century called the very “doing” of public relations into question.     

Assessment of motion media on believability and credibility: An exploratory study

The radical shift by news audiences away from newspaper to motion media (video stories on TV, web, cell phones, handhelds) prompted the assessment of media modality (text, text + picture, video) and source (public relations, news, user-generated content [UGC]) effects on credibility and more importantly perceived veridicality, a perception of an object as being accurate and believable regardless of the source, as well as impact of messages. The findings revealed that motion media modality significantly enhances believability judgments and perceived veridicality, which is independent of source cue, in which news source garnered no greater credibility than PR or UGC source.     

Crisis communications preparedness among U.S. organizations: Activities and assessments by public relations practitioners

A survey of U.S. public relations practitioners (n = 126) found that three-quarters of their employer organizations had a written crisis communications plan and that organizations, as a whole, were reasonably prepared to engage in crisis communications. Preparedness was measured based on the presence of a crisis plan as well as indices related to tactics, training, the maintenance of contact lists, and media monitoring. Preparedness was found to be positively correlated to organization size, the level of autonomy, and delegation of authority within the organization, and the process orientation of the organization, but not organization type nor involvement in international versus domestic-only operations. Practitioners from organizations with plans had lower assessments of their relationships with publics, but greater confidence in their ability to respond.     

University teachers’ perceptions and evaluations of ethics instruction in the public relations curriculum

This study examined the present state of teaching ethics in university public relations departments in the U.S. and abroad. The results of this online survey indicated that PR teachers (N = 249) perceived ethics instruction in PR education to be essential, and they believed in a close tie between general morality and professional ethics. However, the results also showed that the higher the participants’ academic rank, the less favorable attitude they held toward the value of ethics education to students.     

Vision and state health department public relations practitioners: Prepared to lead?

Visions are important to organizational effectiveness. Although providing vision has been identified as one of the behaviors that best captures organization-wide public relations leadership, little public relations research has focused on vision. Similarly, state health departments have drawn little interest among public relations scholars even though states are a central part of the nation's public health system. This study addressed the perceptions of the top public relations professionals at state health departments concerning vision and their involvement in the visioning process. The practitioners were nearly unanimous in their belief that organizational visions are important. However, results indicate that some top public relations practitioners at state health departments are not prepared to make optimal contributions to the visioning process. In order to take full advantage of opportunities to serve as organization-wide leaders, public relations practitioners should seek out information about visioning in order help chart their organization's future and enhance their careers.     

Evaluation of international and non-governmental organizations’ communication activities: A 15 year systematic review

The purpose of this paper is to understand how intergovernmental organizations and international non-governmental organizations have evaluated their communication activities and adhered to principles of evaluation methodology from 1995–2010 based on a systematic review of available evaluation reports (N = 46) and guidelines (N = 9). Most evaluations were compliant with principle 1 (defining communication objectives), principle 2 (combining evaluation methods), principle 4 (focusing on outcomes) and principle 5 (evaluating for continued improvement). Compliance was least with principle 3 (using a rigorous design) and principle 6 (linking to organizational goals). Evaluation was found not to be integrated, adopted widely or rigorously in these organizations.     

Identifying the best practices of media catching: A national survey of media relations practitioners

Web-based services, like Help-A-Reporter-Out (HARO), that allow journalists to send content requests to a multitude of public relations agents are becoming more popular among media relations practitioners. The purpose of this study is to examine how practitioners are using HARO and to measure success rates of media placements against the proposed best practices of “media catching”. An online survey (n = 110) was conducted of members of Public Relations Society of America who identified themselves as working in media relations. Analysis revealed five best practices that had a positive significant correlation to journalist response rates and placement success rates. The results also indicated what media outlets practitioners preferred to reply to using the HARO service. As more practitioners are integrating media catching services in their daily routine, it is important to ensure they are employing best practices in order to develop and maintain positive working relationships with journalists.     

Value of engagement: Factors influencing how students perceive their community contribution to public relations internships

The purpose of this 3-year study is to assess how using what students (n = 203) learn in the classroom during internships influences their attitudes toward certain civic engagement issues. Results demonstrate that having more opportunities to use what they learn while on the job significantly predicts who the students believe benefit most (themselves, supervisor, the organization, the community, target public/s), how valued they believe their contributions are to their employers as well as to them personally, and career choices. Recommendations for public relations educators are suggested.     

Communicating during crisis: Use of blogs as a relationship management tool

Using a post-test only experimental design with control group, this study investigated the impact of blogs on relationship management during a crisis. Participants (N = 109) were exposed to a personal blog (n = 45), organizational blog (n = 46), or control (n = 18). Results indicate blogs impact the perception of the level of crisis an organization experiences. Additionally, relationships created through blogs impact the perception of crisis. Use and credibility were also investigated.     

“Comments are disabled for this video”: A technological affordances approach to understanding source credibility assessment of CSR information on YouTube

Scarce research has focused on the technological aspects of social media in CSR communication. Many public relations practitioners are reluctant to interact online although social media platforms such as YouTube provide two-way communication interface. Using the MAIN model, this study explored how bandwagon cues (more likes/dislikes) and interaction cues (enable/disable commenting) influence the perceived source credibility assessment (trustworthiness, goodwill, and competence) of CSR information on YouTube. Through a 2 × 2 factorial experiment (N = 204), no interaction effects were found in general; but a main effect of the enabling comment interface existed toward the perceived trustworthiness of the company regardless of likes/dislikes received on the CSR video, which further leads to individual’s attitudes toward the company’s CSR efforts. The finding paves a way for an explanation of the effectiveness of enabling the commenting function of using YouTube to enhance CSR communication.     

Tweeting democracy? Examining Twitter as an online public relations strategy for congressional campaigns’

Considering the integral relationship between public relations and democracy (Martinelli, 2011) coupled with the growing use of social media for democratic aims (Smith, 2011) the current study examines the effectiveness of Twitter as a public relations communications tool for congressional campaigns. Specifically, as a means of testing Twitter's effectiveness in informing and engaging 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 candidates’ Twitter use significantly increased their odds of winning, controlling for incumbency and Party ID. Additionally, significant differences between incumbents’ and challengers’ Twitter use during the election cycle emerged, which has important implications for public relations practices aimed at achieving democratic outcomes.     

A latent class analysis of resilient development among early adolescents living in public housing

The aim of this study was to identify types of early adolescents living in public housing neighborhoods based on patterns of resilient development. Informed by ecological-transactional theory, we evaluated a broad range of individual, relational, and contextual influences on resilient development among an ethnically diverse sample of 315 early adolescents (M_age = 12; 51% female) living in public housing neighborhoods. Results of a latent class analysis of 11 indicators and 2 outcome variables suggest three empirically derived classes representing overall patterns of favorable and unfavorable behavior. Daily hassles, low neighborhood cohesion, and a relaxed attitude towards substance use corresponded with a higher probability of substance use and delinquency. Significant differences in favorable behavior patterns reflecting resilient development between classes were found in attitudes towards substance use, academic efficacy, and school commitment. Results suggest important implications for preventive interventions for early adolescents living in public housing neighborhoods that are discussed.