Paradox in Public Relations: Why Managing Relating Makes More Sense Than Managing Relationships

This article applies research on paradox, semantics, and theories of groups and logical types to public relations, particularly the concept of relationship management. Paradoxes create tension and are often produced by semantic disturbances resulting from errors in logical typing. Communication is inherently paradoxical. The article contends that progress in public relations practice and scholarship has been inhibited by a failure to recognize or reconcile paradoxes associated with popular concepts, such as relationship management, mutually beneficial relationships, and symmetrical communication. Such concepts breach levels of communication to create logical fallacies and place practitioners into a double bind of promising more than they can deliver without resorting to coercion and manipulation. The article introduces Group Theory and the Theory of Logical Types, and suggests that public relations reframe relationship management with relating management, a practices more consistent with Kant's humanity imperative.     

A Social Networks Approach to Public Relations on Twitter: Social Mediators and Mediated Public Relations

This study proposes theoretical and practical frameworks to systematically examine mediated public relations in social media spaces. We applied a social network conceptual framework to identify and characterize social mediators that connect the US State Department with its international public. The results showed that social mediators vary in terms of their formality and interdependence. Formal social mediators were primarily US government agencies while informal social mediators were nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals. Notably, relationships with populations in the Middle East and North Africa were mediated primarily by informal actors, and formal mediators played a key role in connecting the public with everywhere else in the world. Government-related formal mediators and informal social mediators showed similar levels of bilateral relationships. In contrast, news media, the most traditional public relations mediators, were rarely found as social mediators and demonstrated the most unilateral relationships.     

Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Posttraumatic Stress: A Community Structure Approach

This study utilized the community structure approach to analyze newspaper coverage of posttraumatic stress (PTS) in veterans in 26 U.S. cities. The study examined whether media placed responsibility for PTS treatment on government or society through a review of 353 articles from March 20, 2003, to March 20, 2013. Researchers coded articles for “prominence” and “direction” to produce a “Media Vector” for each paper, ranging from 0.8403 to ?0.3592. Results showed that 25 of 26 Media Vectors (96%) supported government responsibility. Pearson correlations yielded nine significant findings. Results disconfirmed buffer hypotheses linking privilege with support for government responsibility (privilege defined by percentage of college educated, percentage of family income $100,000 or more, and percentage of professional/technical occupational status; r = ?.486, ?.524, ?.553, respectively, significant at the .006 level). Stakeholder hypotheses were also disconfirmed; greater percentages of age 65 and older correlated with more emphasis on government responsibility (r = .340, p = .048), whereas greater percentages of age 25 to 44 correlated with less emphasis (r = ?.342, p = .047). The only confirmed hypothesis linked percentage of age 45 to 64 with less emphasis on government responsibility (r = ?.559, p = .002). A regional finding was noteworthy: Media in the Midwest supported government responsibility more than other regions. Regression analysis revealed three variables influencing coverage most significantly: Family Income $100K+ (26% of variance), Percentage of Hispanic (8%), and Professional/Technical Occupational status (5%). It must be noted that nearly all newspapers yielded positive Media Vectors. This indicates that coverage in major cities generally favors government responsibility for veterans' PTS treatment, and Pearson correlation results may represent differences in the degree of support and demographic characteristics influencing this support.     

Perspektivwechsel und introvisionsorientierte Fallanalysen als gesundheitsf?rderliches Element der Lehrerbildung

The discussion of educational professionalization actually focuses on concepts of health promotion instead of disease prevention (e.g., Dauber und D?ring-Seipel, Salutogenese in Lehrberuf und Schule (SALUS), 2008). This paper follows the direction in presenting a method of promoting salutogenesis development (Antonovsky, Salutogenese. Zur Entmystifizierung der Gesundheit, 1997) by case reflections. These case reflections consist of a change of perspectives and of an approach of mental selfregulation called Introvision.     

Complexity: Some Remarks about a Classical Aesthetic Concept

The connection between autonomous art and complexity has been extensively and deeply studied in literary theories in the 20th century. The rise of aesthetic autonomy implies the complexity of literary work as the concept of a sealed container arises from the relationship between the parts that make it up. In this model, the interpretation subject works to directly face literary texts. Instead of pursuing the author’s intention, it aims to reproduce the richness and subtlety of the aesthetic state, and consider the richness and subtlety revealed in the maximum amount of text details in literary works, even if procedurally deviating from the way of mainstream understanding. There is increasing skepticism about the consequences of the autonomous aesthetics, which has been coerced by the development of contemporary capitalism, and it is necessary to develop new forms of aesthetics to reflect the changing social situation.     

Racial/Ethnic Patterns of Kindergarten School Enrollment in the United States

Enrollment into unequal schools at the start of formal education is an important mechanism for the reproduction of racial/ethnic educational inequalities. We examine whether there are racial/ethnic differences in school enrollment options at kindergarten, the start of schooling. We use nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Birth Cohort (ECLS‐B) to model whether parents seek information about their child's school before enrolling, whether parents move to a location so that a child can attend a certain school, or whether parents enroll their child in a school other than the assigned public school. Results indicate that enrollment patterns differ greatly across race/ethnicity. Whereas Black families are the most likely to seek information on a school's performance, White families are the most likely to use the elite option of choosing their residential location to access a particular school. These differences persist when controlling for socioeconomic status and sociogeographic location. Kindergarten enrollment patterns preserve the advantages of White families, perpetuating racial/ethnic disparities through multiple institutions and contributing to intergenerational processes of social stratification. Research should continue to examine specific educational consequences of housing inequities and residential segregation.