Determinants of public attitude towards a social enterprise crisis in the digital era: Lessons learnt from THINX

This study examines how the perceived locus of crisis cause, controllability, and adherence to social mission are associated with public attitude in the context of a social enterprise crisis and evaluates the differences between these variables under episodic and thematic frames of online articles. Using the crisis case of THINX in 2017 as a case study, a quantitative content analysis was performed on a sample of 503 comments under online articles. Hierarchical regression revealed that the locus of crisis cause and adherence to social mission were associated with public attitude, whereas controllability was not associated with public attitude when adherence to social mission was accounted for. Significant differences were found in the locus of crisis cause, controllability, adherence to social mission, and public attitude between episodic and thematic frames. This study provided a basis for the theoretical development of crisis communication in a social enterprise and the corresponding role for public relations.     

Framing the Women’s March on Washington: Media coverage and organizational messaging alignment

Half a million citizens participated in the Women’s March on Washington the day after President Trump’s inauguration, starting a political movement. The march communicated key messages to the public directly and via the media. This study explores how media coverage framed those key messages through content analysis. Media frames mentioned all key messages, emphasizing solidarity and activation at the grassroots, and in a way that both supported and challenged organizational messages. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Inside the blogosphere: A taxonomy and framing analysis of abortion weblogs

This study analyses weblog abortion-related content sampled via a search and snowball method. When weblogs located inside of established media Web sites and other weblogs are compared, they are equivalent in the use of advocacy versus objectivist frames. Media weblog posts contain a political frame more frequently than non-media weblog posts do. In terms of diversity of frame, media weblogs employ more frames in their stories. Various explanations for these findings are offered in the context of current abortion-related content patterns.     

Framing the Sino–US–Thai relations in the post-global economic crisis

Based on the frame analysis, this study conducted a content analysis of Thailand's two English-language newspapers, Bangkok Post and the Nation, to examine the relationships among the world's two largest economies, the United States of America and the People's Republic of China, and the emerging economy of Thailand in the wake of the subprime housing loan crisis. The study has established five generic news frames: economic consequence, human interest, morality, conflict and cooperation. It was found that such cultural values as individualism – collectivism, materialism – spiritualism and conflict – harmony have influenced the frame-building process. As a consequence of the subprime crisis, the US was portrayed as the old power waning in hegemony while China an emerging power with a fast growing economy. The Thai press played up a sound Sino–US relationship based on cooperation rather than conflict which would shape the 21st century. Thailand, where the Asian financial crisis broke out in 1997, offered morality or ethics as a remedy frame for the global economic crisis.     

Intercandidate agenda-setting in presidential elections: Issue and attribute agendas in the 2004 campaign

This study examined the role of political public relations in the process of intercandidate agenda-setting. Specifically, a content analysis of news releases, political speeches, and issue platform statements was conducted to assess the salience of issues and attributes in the 2004 presidential election from the Bush, Kerry, and Nader campaigns. While modest evidence for intercandidate agenda-setting associations regarding issue salience was obtained, more robust support was detected for attribute salience relationships. In light of these findings, the theoretical and practical implications for political public relations are discussed.     

The Mediated Amplification of a Crisis: Communicating the A/H1N1 Pandemic in Press Releases and Press Coverage in Europe

In the aftermath of the A/H1N1 pandemic, health authorities were criticized for failures in crisis communication efforts, and the media were accused of amplifying the pandemic. Considering these criticisms, A/H1N1 provides a suitable case for examining risk amplification processes that may occur in the transfer of information from press releases to print news media during a health crisis. We integrated the social amplification of risk framework with theories of news decisions (news values, framing) in an attempt to contribute to existing research both theoretically and empirically. We conducted a quantitative content analysis of press releases disseminated by health and governmental authorities, as well as the quality and tabloid press in 10 European countries between March 2009 and March 2011. Altogether 243 press releases, 1,243 quality press articles, and 834 tabloid press articles were coded. Consistent with research on news values and framing the results suggest that quality and tabloid papers alike amplified A/H1N1 risks by emphasizing conflict and damage, presenting information in a more dramatized way, and using risk‐amplifying frames to a greater extent and risk‐attenuating frames to a lesser extent than press releases. To some extent, the quality and tabloid press differed in how risk information was presented. While tabloid press articles seemed to follow the leading quality press with regards to content and framing of health crisis coverage, they exhibited a stronger emphasis on drama and emotion in the way they presented information.     

Strategic Framing of Adat in Land-Acquisition Politics in East Sumba

This article is about the strategic use of adat arguments in the politics of large-scale land acquisition. While customary (adat) communities are commonly depicted as small local minorities living in the forests and being guardians of the environment, in many situations such communities occupy a majority position within the district. Majority adat communities are internally differentiated into categories of actors with varying and conflicting interests. This article focuses on Sumba in eastern Indonesia, where state and adat powers are not opposed but historically aligned. We analyse how five common ways of framing adat in Sumba are currently being deployed in land-acquisition politics, in situations supporting plantation land acquisition or protesting against farmers’ land dispossession. We draw attention to what we call ‘strategic adat framing’ as a political activity. The article calls for analysing the historical and social context of local deployments of adat for understanding the impact of current government pro-adat policies.     

Replication: Framing effects in intertemporal choice with children

This paper investigates the effects of framing in intertemporal choice by elementary school children. Sutter, Yilmaz, and Oberauer (2015) recently demonstrated that intertemporal choice in children is malleable with respect to simple defaults. Using a similar approach, we replicated their study. We also found that children are more willing to select the immediate option in (standard) control frames than in alternative ones that appear to promote delay of gratification. This finding is consistent with previous experiments on children as well as adults and may have implications for cultivating the ability to delay gratification in individuals.     

Fostering Risk Taking in Research and Development: The Importance of a Project's Terminal Value

Large firms face a conflict in managing a portfolio of high-risk projects. When an ongoing project is thought to have a low likelihood of success, project team members take risks to improve its chances of success. However, upper-level managers who allocate resources tend to withhold resources from a project with a low likelihood of success in favor of others in the portfolio that look more promising. Because this paucity of resources influences project team members to avoid risk, the total effect of success likelihood on risk taking is conflicted. The influence on risk taking of a project's terminal value—defined as the value that remains in the firm in the event of project failure—is unequivocally positive, because both senior management resource allocation and project team risk-taking propensity are encouraged by terminal value. Thus, firms can override the ambivalent effect of likelihood of success on project decision making by focusing attention on a project's terminal value.     

Framing diversity: A qualitative content analysis of public relations industry publications

This qualitative content analysis used framing theory to examine how gender and diversity have been framed over the past decade in modern public relations industry publications. Findings revealed that diversity is most often set aside in its own issue or column and not integrated throughout the whole of the publications. Most articles about diverse populations mentioned primarily Hispanic or Latino populations and Blacks or African Americans. Diversity is framed as different, a journey or process, a language problem, a responsibility, inclusion, transforming workplace culture, enhancing the profession, resource intensive, power driven, needing to be justified, and impacting the bottom line. Disparities in public relations still exist among gender, racial, and ethnic groups with less power and must be addressed more fully in public relations professional publications.