Public relations and artificial intelligence: It’s not (just) about robots

Organizations of all kinds, as well as their in-house or agency public relations teams, increasingly co-opt Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance their capabilities. This paper examines a relatively new topic that has received little scholarly attention: the growing relationship between AI and public relations. It outlines several key roles that AI may play in future, based on trends in other industries, and considers the implications for public relations practitioners, their clients and employers. It therefore launches a dialogue about the diversity and extent of AI’s uses in public relations practice. The paper argues that, to date, commentators have placed too much emphasis on AI’s potential for task automation; AI’s broader technological, economic and societal implications for public relations warrant greater critical attention. This does not imply that practitioners need become expert technologists; rather, they should develop a sufficient understanding of AI’s present and potential uses to be able to offer informed counsel.     

Assimilation effects on poverty among immigrants in Norway

This paper discusses the question of whether or not the high incidence of poverty among immigrants in Norway persists even after immigrants have been in the country for a long period, i.e. after they have had the opportunity to integrate and adapt their skills to the expectations in their new home. While similar to traditional studies of wage assimilation, a study of assimilation in relation to poverty propensity nevertheless measures something different than labor market assimilation, and this represents the main innovation of this study. Analysis of assimilation with respect to poverty focuses on welfare for the lower end of the income distribution and for all individuals, regardless of their relationship with the labor market. It can therefore be seen to better reflect the degree to which immigrants as a whole are able to achieve at least the minimum necessary to participate in the life of their new home and avoid difficulties later on.

Urban versus Rural: Fertility Decline in the Cities and Rural Districts of Prussia, 1875 to 1910

Marital fertility in 54 Prussian cities and 407 Prussian Kreise (administrative areas) is analyzed using unusually rich and detailed socioeconomic and demographic data from eight quinquennial census between 1875 and 1910. Pooled cross-section time series methods are used to examine influences on marital fertility level and on marital fertility decline, focusing particularly on fertility differences according to level of urbanization. Increases in female labour force participation rate and income, the growth of financial services and communications, improvement in education, and reduction in infant mortality account for most of the marital fertility decline in 19th century Prussia. In 1875, rural and urban fertility were similar but by 1910, urban fertility was far lower than rural in part because the values of some of these variables changed more rapidly in the cities, and in part because some of these variables had stronger effects in urban settings.     

Rural small firms’ use of the internet: From global to local

Reporting on a study of internet portals in rural Scotland, the paper examines the discrepancy between the much theorised use of the internet to afford external market reach to small rural firms, and the consistent and prevailing evidence that the rural economy is sustained by locally-oriented trade. The study combines data from portal operators and rural firms that use portals and finds from both that greater importance is placed on maintaining local interest to facilitate local trade than fostering external market orientation. However, both suppliers and users of portals identify that local orientation of the portal also increases the effectiveness of externally-oriented marketing. Thus, rather than a focus on attracting external markets, a balance of local and external orientation is best placed to foster value-adding business activity. From a theoretical perspective the importance of the local when applied to rural small firms’ internet use is largely neglected, but its importance, as observed in the current study, suggests a rationale for developing theory that better explains the role of the internet for rural firms.     

Structural and Behavioural Changes in the Short TermPreventive Check in the Northwest Balkans in the 18th and19th Centuries

Fertility responded negatively to grain insufficiency(proxied by grain price increases), and mortality respondedpositively in Croatia-Slavonia-Srem in the 18thand 19th centuries, as in most of Europe. Shiftsin the intensity and timing of these responsesoccurred over time as social and economic structureschanged. Shifts in the elasticity of fertility withrespect to grain supply inversely mimic and lagchanges in the elasticity of mortality. Both appear tobe induced by increasing land shortage, the collapseof feudalism, and differences in the patterns ofadjustment to post-feudal conditions among former civiland military serfs. Generally, responses are strongerfor civil and former civil serfs, who may have been inless favourable economic circumstances than themilitary. Fertility responses in the year of a priceshock come to dominate those in the year following,suggesting a shift from contraception to abortion aseconomic and social conditions apparently worsened andstrategies of control intensified. Analysis of monthlyresponses supports the conjecture based on the annualresponses. The shift to the preventive check and strength of thepreventive check in the same year as the price shockis unusual in Europe and beyond. Analysis is based on25 parishes and employs lagged annual and monthly timeseries analysis with corrections for autocorrelation,in combination with ethnographic and historical data.     

Annual Variations in Deaths by Age,Deaths by Cause,Prices, and Weather in London 1670 to 1830

The impact of annual variations in prices, temperature, and rainfall on annual fluctuations in age-specific and disease-specific mortality is examined for London from 1670 to 1830. The analysis reveals that deaths in London in the middle and older age groups tended to increase when grain prices were high. Increases in deaths among the elderly are associated with unusually cold winters and unusually warm summers. High grain prices tend to increase the incidence of epidemic diseases, while endemic diseases appear to increase with colder winters and warmer summers. The role of migration is discussed in the light of the results and the implications for long-term mortality decline are considered.     

Between Control and Support. The Protection of Unaccompanied Minor Asylum Seekers at Risk: The Dutch Case

Drawing on research by the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice (Kromhout et al., 2010), this article describes how the Dutch government tried to protect Unaccompanied Minor Asylum Seekers (UMAs) who were (at risk of becoming) victims of human trafficking by implementing “Protected Reception”. It was concluded that the three objectives of this pilot programme were met to some extent: the influx of risk groups and the number of disappearances decreased, yet there was no (immediate) increase in return migration to the country of origin, after leaving Protected Reception. An important question that was raised was how far a state can go in protecting these vulnerable young people, by (partially) limiting their freedom of movement. It was concluded that placement and stay in Protected Reception had to be qualified as a deprivation of liberty for which Dutch legislation did not offer any ground.     

Climate change after denial: Global reach,global responsibilities,and public relations

Taking climate change as the 21st century's major global threat, this paper considers three significant public relations challenges arising from it. The first is how the field can engage with the social equity and ecological dimensions in ways that might enhance rather than diminish the profession's public reputation. The second is how the discipline adapts to deal with the radical perceptual shifts accompanying the meteorological transformations and possible geopolitical fallout, and the third is the issue of trust – interlinked with emotions, economics, ecology, and neuroscience – as the strategy of eco-catastrophe denial becomes less and less tenable. The paper also considers possible responses to these challenges.