2009 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

2009
PROCEEDINGS
SAN DIEGO,
CALIFORNIA
NOVEMBER 7, 2009
EDITED BY:
TINA MCCORKINDALE,
APPALACHIAN STATE
UNIVERSITY
mccorkindaletm@appstate.edu
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Research Papers ___________________________________________________ 4
“PR is Glamorous and Ethical.” US Public Relations Students’ Perceptions of Professional
Leadership and Leaders
Elina Erzikova, Central Michigan University, & Bruce Berger, University of Alabama__________ 5
Engaging in Two-Way Communication to Manage Community Opposition to Extractive
Projects: The Peruvian Case
Maria Chiappe, University of Houston ______________________________________________ 22
The Value of Public Relations in Investor Relations: Individual Investors’ Preferred
Information Types, Qualities, and Sources
* PRSA Top Faculty Paper Award
Timothy Penning, Grand Valley State University _______________________________________ 37
Leadership Emphasis in Public Relations Degree Courses/Programs in the United Kingdom vs.
United States
Patrick K. O’Rourke & William J. Gonzenbach, University of Alabama ___________________ 53
An Empirical Test of the Technology Image Expectancy Gap
Dean Kazoleas & Jeffrey Brody, California State University, Fullerton _____________________ 68
Corporate Web Pages as a Key Communication Channel for Financial Publics
Eyun-Jung Ki & Jee Young Chung, University of Alabama ______________________________ 84
Framing Diversity: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Public Realtions Industry Publications
Lucinda L. Austin, University of Maryland, College Park ________________________________ 85
Impression Management and the Relational Approach: The Concept of Self-Presentation and
the Military Public Affairs Practitioner
* Betsy Plank Graduate Research Competition Student Award Winner
Tamara D. Lawrence & Michael Kafka, San Diego State University ______________________ 101
Filmmakers as Social Advocates—A New Challenge for Issues Management: Claims-Making
and Framing in Four Social Issue Documentaries
Mechelle Martz & Kirk Hallahan, Colorado State University ____________________________ 119
Exploring the Influence of Personal Values and Perceived Work Climate on Decision Making
in Ethical Dilemmas
Riyani Indriyati, University of Houston _____________________________________________ 142
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Pedagogical Posters _____________________________________________ 156
Maven Formula: A New Teaching And Coaching Tool For PR Professors
Robert J. Petrausch, Iona College _________________________________________________ 157
Toward a Virtual Public Relations World: An Introduction to PR Practice
Peter M. Smudde, Illinois State University __________________________________________ 160
Defining Public Relations: Constructing Definitions Through a Social Construction Lens
Barbara DeSanto, Maryville University of Saint Louis _________________________________ 168
Public Relations Entrepreneurship Course
Betsy A. Hays, California State University, Fresno _____________________________________ 172
Tribulations and Triumphs of Teaching Real-World, Client-Based PR: An Assessment of the
Campaigns Course Pedagogy
Carolyn White Bartoo, University of Delaware, & Jonathan R. Slater, SUNY Plattsburgh, ___ 176
Using a Quasi-Experiment to Evaluate a PR Campaigns Class’s Efforts to Promote Energy
Conservation in Eight Residence Halls
Lynne M. Sallot, University of Georgia ______________________________________________ 178
Service Learning as a Structured Pedagogical Strategy in Teaching the PR Practicum Class
Ahlam Muhtaseb, California State University, San Bernardino ___________________________ 179
Just Neighbors: How Seniors in a PR Portfolio Class Helped the Immigration Issue
Gemma Puglisi, American University _______________________________________________ 183
Teaching PR Leadership: Tracking Student Leadership Potential Through Outcomes Cluster
Analysis
Bonita Dostal Neff, Alex Moulchin, & Kathryn Sershon, Valparaiso University ____________ 186
Integrating Research and Public Relations Writing Using an Agency Model
Anthony Fulginiti, Rowan University _______________________________________________ 190
The Public Relations Portfolio: A New Spin for Job Search and Job Preservation
Denise M. Casey, Angela Aguilar, Stephanie Miranda, & Jamie Zehner, The University of San
Diego ________________________________________________________________________ 195
Learning to Work Together; Integrating Public Relations and Journalism Class Assignments
Bey-Ling Sha & Amy Schmitz Weiss, San Diego State University ________________________ 198
Event Planning: A Transformative Learning Experience Linking Theory to Practice
Ann D. Jabro, Robert Morris University _____________________________________________ 199
The Resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine and its Implications for Public Relations Education
and Practice
Joseph Basso & Suzanne Sparks Fitzgerald, Rowan University __________________________ 204
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RESEARCH
PAPERS
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“PR is Glamorous and Ethical.” US Public Relations Students’ Perceptions of
Professional Leadership and Leaders
Elina Erzikova, Ph.D.
Central Michigan University
Bruce Berger, Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA
University of Alabama
erzik001@bama.ua.edu
Public relations practitioners’ status, i.e., the “ethical conscience of the
organization” (Bowen, 2007; Pratt, 1991), means that their concerns go beyond worries
about financial success of their organizations. Public relations professionals bear
responsibility and moral obligations not only to shareholders but to the larger society,
which includes shareholders, consumers, employees, and local communities. Such duties
are essentially leadership responsibilities. In this regard, Grunig (1992) defined
leadership is one of the characteristics that builds excellent organizations. By creating a
vision, excellent leaders can then empower followers to take part in implementing that
vision (Grunig, 1992).
A shared vision represents perspectives of not only the leader but also followers,
and thus meets their needs and expectations (Mendonca & Kanungo, 2007). The absence
of a shared vision, along with other factors, might result in an organization’s failure—
ethical and financial. The recent corporate scandals (e.g., Enron Corporation, Health
South, Credit Suisse First Boston, Tyco Corporation, and WorldCom Inc) indicated that
ethical misconducts can be entirely linked to the unethical behavior of those who lead
organizations (Mendonca & Kanungo, 2007). In this regard, getting PR experts at board
level or enlisting them in strategic planning (Thomas, 2002) is an essential task of public
relations as a profession that strives for the legitimacy and credibility, which are central
issues of leadership (Berger & Reber, 2006).
Social responsibility is a sign of ethical leadership. Leadership as a concept is
difficult to define. To date, more than 850 definitions of leadership exist (Bennis &
Nanus, 2005). Northhouse (2007) noted that there are as many definitions of leadership
as there are authors who have tried to conceptualize it. For the purpose of the present
study, the researchers modified Northouse’s (2007) interpretation of leadership and
defined public relations leadership as a “process whereby a public relations professional
influences a group of individuals to achieve an organizational goal which is understood
and accepted by group members.” Accordingly, those involved in leadership are leaders,
whereas people toward whom leadership is directed are followers. The central question of
this relationship is how leaders exercise their influence over subordinates, and thus, a
discussion of ethics is unavoidable.
The purpose of the present study is to examine PR students’ interpretations of
such notions as leader and leadership in the context of the public relations profession. As
future professionals, the participants are expected to demonstrate leaders’ skills,
character, and values at the workplace. Leadership is a clearly complex concept and
process, and understanding begins with a deep comprehension of:
--The context of leadership (commitment, complexity, and credibility, as defined by
Bennis and Nanus, 2005);
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--Leader’s values (order, liberty, equality, justice, and pursuit of happiness, as spelled out
by Burns, 2003);
--Major leadership traits (intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity, and
sociability, as outlined by Northouse, 2007);
--Skills (technical, or knowledge about methods and processes; interpersonal, or
knowledge about human behavior, and conceptual, or analytical ability and logical
thinking, as summarized by Yukl, 1989);
--Moral leadership, or leaders’ ethical conduct and their capacity to inspire the same
behavior in followers (Rhode, 2006).
The present study is framed by the belief that “the future and credibility of public
relations are tied to its leadership” (The Plank Center for Public Relations Leadership,
n.d.). The Center, based in an educational institution, is committed to nurturing effective
public relations and developing outstanding leaders. This fact underlines the need for
integrating a leadership process (Neff, 2002) into the PR curriculum, which ideally will
result in narrowing the gap between what PR graduates can do and what practitioners and
educators would like them to be able to do. In this light, the present study might serve as
an indirect assessment of educators’ efforts to link leadership and efficiency in PR in
university courses.
Literature Review
Conceptions of leadership have been classified in numerous schemes, which
might be grouped into three broad sets: authoritative or transactional; pluralistic; and
charismatic or transformational (Aldoory & Toth, 2004; McWhinney, 1997). The last one
was conceptualized as almost synonymous with the notion of the “ethical leadership”
(Ciulla, 2003).
In the end of the 20 th century, the new paradigm of transformational-transactional
leadership (Burns, 1978) proposed that the most effective form of leadership appeals to
the higher and more comprehensive values held by followers, and, by gratifying lower
needs, the leader stimulates higher motivations that elevate people’s conscience:
“Essentially the leader’s task is consciousness-raising” (p. 43). According to Ciulla
(2002), the theory of transformational leadership offered an answer to the question:
“What is it that makes people want to follow leaders of their own free will?” (p. 339),
whereas previous academic inquiry was concerned with traits and characteristics that
made the leader effective.
As a normative theory, the transformational paradigm stipulates rather ideal
relationships between leaders and their followers, seeing the leader as a person with value
levels higher than those who follow him or her. This is why Burns’s theory is associated
with “ethical leadership” (Ciulla, 2003). A century ago, scholars were mostly concerned
with what made the leader successful, whereas today, an increasing attention has been
paid to ethics—an aspect that may conflict the effectiveness of leader’s endeavor (Ciulla,
2002). An empirical question is whether in reality, leaders prioritize ethical beliefs over
effectiveness.
The ethics of leadership was defined as “the obligations of leaders to promote
justice, fairness, trust, and the conditions necessary for people to live well in communities
that flourish” (Knapp, 2007, p. xii). Barendsen and Gardner (2007) argued that
throughout history, good leadership has not been easy or unproblematic. However,
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leadership becomes an especially challenging endeavor in the period of rampant
proliferation of technologies and globalization.
Mendonca and Kanungo (2007) identified such ethical dimensions of leadership
as the leader’s motives, influence strategies, and character. While recognizing that
leadership behavior is caused by needs such as power, achievement, and affiliation, the
authors nevertheless argued that these needs should be viewed as the “operative (italic in
original) needs,” whereas leader’s effectiveness is better explained by “underlying (italic
in original) altruistic motive” (p. 48). Thus, it is essential for the leader to be a moral
altruist.
The altruistic value and orientation of the leader is reflected in transformational
leadership, which implies the leader’s efforts to change followers’ attitudes and values
while the organization is on its way toward goal achievement. Another type of influence
process is transactional, in which the leader ensures that followers are committed to
prescribed behavior through rewards and sanctions. The transformational influence
process is currently thought to be more effective than transactional, and “ethical
leadership is essentially transformational in nature” (Mendonca & Kanungo, 2007, p. 74).
Finally, altruistic motive and transformational influence strategy (and other leader’s acts
as well) are outgrowths of the leader’s character or moral behavior.
Lowe, Kroeck, and Sivasubramanian (1996) performed a meta-analysis of the
transformational leadership literature and found that this style was associated with work
unit effectiveness. They argued that organizations in the past focused on the development
of leaders at the upper level, whereas new organizational paradigms, emphasizing a more
active involvement in decision-making process, imply the development of leaders across
organizational levels. This implies that interviewing practices would involve not only the
assessment of technical skills of prospective lower level leaders but also the evaluation of
their interpersonal abilities.
Although hundreds of studies on leadership have appeared in the social science
literature (Pavitt, Whitchurch, McClurg & Peterson, 1995), there has been little research
on leadership within the public relations field (Aldoory & Toth, 2004).
According to James Grunig (2002), leaders of excellent organizations are
committed to networking and “management-by-walking-around” rather than an
authoritarian system: “Excellent leaders give power but minimize ‘power of politics” (p.
233). Further, they foster a climate for promoting so-called the mixed-motive model,
which is a combination of asymmetrical and symmetrical public relations, the most
effective model in communication management (Grunig, 1992).
The two-way symmetrical model was found to be most suited for achieving a
shared organizational agenda (Farmer, Slater, & Wright, 1998). Those participants, who
believed that they were well-informed about the leader’s vision, were more likely to
support that vision. The implication for public relations is that PR practitioners should
help the “the leader craft messages about the institutional vision” (p. 232). This practice
assumes that PR professionals as counselors to top management have their seats at the
management table.
Berger and Reber (2006) found a correlation between strong professional
leadership and influence in the PR profession. Participants of their study said that
charismatic and nationally recognized leaders would strengthen the profession’s image.
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Grunig (1993) in her investigation of symbolic leadership and organizational
image stated that when relationships between symbolic leaders and employees are
symmetrical rather then asymmetrical communication, a credibility gap is narrowed.
Reflecting the concern about the growing number of women in public relations,
Aldoory (1998) conducted interviews with 10 female PR professionals to examine the
language and communication style of female leadership. The finding was consistent with
Dozier’s (1995) two-way model, which states that effective PR managers incorporate
both symmetrical and asymmetrical communication to achieve a win-win situation.
In a subsequent study (Aldoory & Toth, 2004), the researchers focused on the
gendered nature of perceptions of leadership styles in PR. They did not find a strong
difference between male and female respondents regarding their preference of leadership
style. Both men and women perceived transformational leadership style as the most
appropriate for public relations.
Thomas (2002) stated that recognizing leadership, strategy, and communication
are integrated is the first step toward organizational success. Ashley and Patel (2003)
found that a leader, who was an effective communicator, attracted a high degree of
support of people. Agreeing with the statement, “Leaders, who do not communicate well,
are not really leading at all” (Clutterbuck & Hirst, 2002, p. 353), one should admit that
every leader is to some extent a communication manager. If this true, is there a difference
between leadership in “general” and PR leadership?
O’Neil (2003) argued that PR managers’ effectiveness is based on their ability to
deal with multiple relationships, with both internal and external publics. This aspect
defines PR practitioners’ role as boundary spanners (Leichty & Springston, 1996; Grunig
and Grunig, 1991). There are two functions of boundary spanning in PR: Informational
(gathering and processing information) and representational (representing the
organization to multiple publics). In Springston and Leichty’s (1996) words, PR
practitioners “represent the management philosophy to external publics and interpret the
concerns of external publics to the organization’s management team” (p. 697).
Besides building relationships with their immediate subordinates, PR leaders must
collaborate effectively with various departments within the organization—this function
was termed as horizontal cross-functional coordination (Cornellisen & Thorpe, 2001).
Moreover, they have to establish themselves as influential figures in the “inner circle”
(the dominant coalition), which includes managers with power to set organizational goals
and mission and make strategic choices (O’Neil, 2003). Her study showed that enactment
of PR practitioners’ managerial role was linked to a greater amount of organizational
influence.
Allert (1999) suggested that while the internal auditor is the eyes and ears of an
organization’s finances, the public relations manager is the eyes and ears of an
organization’s values and relationships. Thayer (1986) suggested that PR practitioners
were best suited to the role of professionals who would facilitate a national dialogue
about what kind of leaders America wanted and needed. Moreover, PR leaders were
capable to “lead the nations’ decision-makers—in business and industry and labor and
government and education, in social affairs and the arts and in science and technology—
to make those decisions that will further our best and most human interest” (p. 12).
To summarize, public relations leadership as a process of influence is a
multidimensional phenomenon that includes efforts to inspire subordinates and provide
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ethical guidance to CEOs, to collaborate with departments that are “equal” to a PR unit
within the organization, and to communicate issues important to various external groups
and publics. These interrelated dimensions are based on the ability to communicate
successfully. Nelson (1990) noted that unlike governments, business organizations have
severe limitations in trying to exercise coercive power, and this is why communication as
the language of leadership (Allert & Chatterijee, 1997) is an important attribute of
organizational effectiveness.
Based on the above discussion, this study attempts to answer the following
research questions:
RQ1: What are the perceptions of American public relations students regarding whether
there are differences between leadership in PR and other professions?
RQ2: What does the phrase, “leadership in public relations,” mean for public relations
students?
In the 20 th century, leadership studies were conducted by social scientists whose
philosophy was positivism, or value-neutrality (Sloan, 1980; Rosen, 1980). This is one
explanation for why twentieth-century scholars were more interested in examining
leaders’ personality traits than their values (Ciulla, 2002).
Rokeach (1975) defined a value as an “enduring belief that a specific mode of
conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or
converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence” (p. 5). He argued that values, like
beliefs, have a behavioral component along with cognitive and affective. It means that a
value as an intervening variable leads to action after it is activated. Considering the
complex nature of public relations and multiple responsibilities of practitioners, a
situation of competing values is easily predictable. The question is whether a PR
practitioner would be loyal to the organization or the client, i.e., would a practitioner
remain faithful to his or her own moral values, or make a decision in the behalf of the
public?
Rokeach (1973) divided values into two categories: instrumental (idealized modes
of behavior) and terminal (idealized end-states of existence). Examples of the former are
“helpful, honest, imaginative,” whereas the latter would include “freedom, happiness, and
inner harmony” (p. 28). Further, the author proposed two kinds of instrumental values:
moral values and competence values. The author suggested that an “ought” character is
linked closer to instrumental values than to terminal ones, and within instrumental values,
“oughtness” is more closely related to moral values than to competence values. Rokeach
said, “The more widely shared a value, the greater the societal demands placed upon us
and therefore the greater the ‘oughtness’ we experience” (p. 9). In this regard, ethics and
responsibility as the foundation of PR practice should be considered a great societal
demand.
Although it should not be expected that values predict behavior perfectly,
Rokeach argued that socioeconomic, political, and religious values seem to predict
behavior the best. A number of studies conducted or analyzed by Rokeach suggested that
social background and personality draw people with certain values into a particular
profession, whereas socialization within the profession was not found as a determinant of
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professional values. In this regard, the exploration of PR students’ values as future
practitioners might be considered as no less important than the examination of PR
professionals’ values.
Northouse (2007) argued that although everyone has ethical responsibilities,
leaders have a special—greater—responsibility: Values promoted by them have an
impact on organizational values. Kruckeberg (1998) said that public relations as a
professional area is ideological, “with its own set of professional values and beliefs as
well as its own theories of society and humankind” (p. 244). According to Abbott (1988),
professions grow, split, join, adapt, and die. He argued that for students of the
professions, focusing on forms of professional life—association, licensure, and ethics
code—missed the contents of professional activity—“who was doing what to whom and
how” (p. 1) as well as “a fundamental fact of professional life—interprofessional
competition” (p. 2).
In this light, it is important to understand the professions as an interdependent and
competitive system. As an example, Abbott mentioned journalists’ efforts to formalize
the professional structure in the 1920s in the U.S. under the pressure of competition with
publicity agents. Abbott suggested that “mobility between journalism and public relations
is quite common” (p. 225). Thus, competition between the two occupations over
“jurisdiction,” or control over areas of work might be taken as the key to their
development. However, journalism is not the only profession with which public relations
competes. The circle of challengers is not limited to “outsiders” (e.g., journalism). As the
literature suggest (Berger & Reber, 2006), company “insiders” such as marketing, law, or
human resources departments also encroach into public relations, meaning that other
professionals are assigned to perform the public relations manager role (Lee, Jares, &
Heath, 1999).
A profession as a social institution is responsible for promoting and sustaining
certain values, and a professional ethics governs in a field (Wueste, 1994): “Because they
profess, professionals ask that they be trusted” (p. 7). Acknowledging the importance of
values in PR practitioners’ professional practice, the final research question is proposed:
RQ3: What are students’ perceptions of the three most important values for PR leaders?
Method
Participants. The purpose of this study is to investigate student interpretations of such
notions as leaders and leadership in public relations. The sample included 196 American
public relations majors (67 males and 129 females). The students were recruited from an
introductory PR course and two upper-level PR courses at a large southeastern university
with more than 500 PR majors.
Participant ages ranged from 18 to 29, with a mean of 20 years old (SD=1.74).
The majority of American participants (108/196) were 19 and 20 years old. The sample
consisted of 20 freshmen, 65 sophomores, 63 juniors, and 48 seniors.
Students completed the survey outside of class time and received modest credit
for their participation. According to statistical data, about 73% of all PR students in this
university were females in 2007. This number also is consistent with the overall figure of
females (70%) in the public relations field in the United States (Aldoory & Toth, 2002).
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This particular university does not have a free-standing course either in PR ethics
or PR leadership, but ethical and leadership components are incorporated throughout the
curriculum.
Questionnaire. Three open-ended questions were designed to examine the participants’
perceptions of ethical issues and leadership in public relations practice. These questions
were drawn from previous studies on ethics and leadership in public relations (Berger &
Reber, 2006; Aldoory & Toth, 2004; O’Neil, 2003; Allert, 1999; Thayer, 1986):
1. How is leadership in PR different from leadership in other professions?
2. What does “leadership in public relations” mean to you?
3. What are the three most important values for PR leaders?
In this study, ethics for the public relations profession was operationalized as “a
set of a priori (italic in original) principles, beliefs and values that should be followed by
all who engage in public relations practice” (Commission on Public Relations Education,
2006, p. 21).
The researchers read student answers several times to identify emerging themes
and develop a coding list (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). These qualitative data were then
coded by one of the researchers and a graduate student independently. Before performing
coding, the student received an hour of training which aimed to provide her with
definitions of the main concepts used in the study: ethics, responsibility, value, public
relations, leadership, two-way communication, and boundary spanning. To establish
intercoder reliability, coders discussed items on which they disagreed, and another
researcher served as the third party to resolve disagreement.
Results
The main pattern, drawn from obtained data, addressed the issue of ethics and
related concepts (e.g., responsibility and honesty) in public relations leadership. While
answering the first question, “How is leadership in PR different from leadership in other
professions?,” 33% of respondents mentioned ethics. While defining what “leadership in
public relations” means to them (question # 2), 54% of participants brought up ethics
issues as the topic associated with PR leadership. The final question, “What are the three
most important values for PR leaders?,” revealed that 80% of respondents equated PR
leader’s values with ethics.
As one can see, the frequencies of mentioning ethics increased from the first to
the third question’s answers. The difference among the percentages seems to be an
intriguing finding of the study. Before attempting to speculate about this result, the
researchers take a closer look at students’ responses to each question.
First question: How is leadership in PR different from leadership in other professions?
The first research question focused on perceptions of PR students regarding
whether there are differences between leadership in PR and leadership in other
professions. Of the 196 students surveyed, 35 participants (17.86%) argued that there
were few, if any differences. This view is represented in the following respondent’s
comment:
Leadership in any profession is very important and I don’t believe it differs in PR
companies. Just like other businesses, PR people must be careful with decisions
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they make. Decisions affect everyone involved and people in the company, so
they must be thought of in depth. I believe this goes for all business professionals.
Of the 196 students surveyed, 161 respondents (82.14%; 106 females and 56
males) said that public relations leadership is different from leadership in other
professions. Their responses were reflected in two primary categories. Fifty three answers
(32.92%), aligned in the first category, emphasized the ethical foundation of PR
leadership by mentioning such notions as honesty, morality, and responsibility. An
example of the answer for this category is:
Leadership in PR deals with so many duties, the media, your staff, executives, and
the public, to name a few. Other professions may deal with many of the same
audiences, but do not face harsh criticism in the public eye. Publics expect PR
people to be very ethical in their practice, because they are delivering to so many
audiences.
Answers in the second category did not mention ethical dimensions of PR
practice. Instead, they focused on such aspects of public relations practice as the
promptness of the decision-making process, team work, meeting client’s needs, risktaking
behavior, and creativity. The following answer is an example of this category:
Many PR decisions are made quickly and the problems have a huge number of
solutions. There is rarely one best way and not enough time to find all the
possibilities. Therefore it is extremely important to be quick and decisive. The PR
leadership is not afforded the same luxury as most other leadership.
These data were analyzed using cross-tabulations to inspect levels of statistical
significance through application of the Pearson Chi-Square test. The significance level
established for the test was .05. The test did not show a significant difference between the
females and males (χ2 =3.26, df=1). Thirty eight percent of women and 24 percent of men
mentioned ethics in their reports.
As it was said earlier, 33% of participants brought up ethics in their discussions of
how leadership in PR is different from leadership in other professions. It is the smallest
percentage of responses that focused on ethics issues, compared to results obtained for
the second (54%) and third (80%) questions. While attempting to understand this result, it
might be worthwhile to appeal to Abbott’s (1988) concept of professional competition,
which is a real force of occupational development. Presumably, after choosing public
relations as their major, participants perceived themselves as part of the profession.
Therefore, when asked, “How is leadership in PR different from leadership in other
professions?,” students perceived the need to present their future profession in the best
light and became to some degree defensive. Moreover, such an argument as “Leadership
in PR is a job that keeps leadership in other professions with a clean state” may suggest
that they felt somewhat superior toward other occupations.
Although there was a belief that PR leadership was a kind of a “moral compass”
for other leaderships, to “win” a virtual competition with other professions, most
participants brought up arguments that did not have a direct association with ethics. It is
important to emphasize that an ethical practice might not have a dramatic nature as an
unethical one, which draws significant attention from media, stakeholders, and publics. In
other words, ethical practices are not necessarily eye-catching, compared to amoral
conduct.
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This is presumably why participants came up with arguments that had spectacular
and aggressive—“must win”—power. For example, one respondent wrote, “In PR you
have to take a stand and sometimes do things you normally wouldn’t do. You have to
take risk.” A few respondents depicted PR leaders as key organizational players: “The
entire world is watching you, since you deal directly with the public. You also represent
the personality of an entire organization.” Another student stated, “Leadership in PR is
different because you can be put in any situation, any crowd, and any debate.”
The image of a PR leader as a high-status and high-skilled professional was
supported in other reports that stated that compared to other leaderships, PR leadership is
“a bigger challenge” and it requires “quicker problem-solving;” it involves “more risks
and reliabilities” as well as “harder decisions” and “sacrifice.” Finally, leadership in PR,
according to respondents, required more skills, especially of persuasion skills, than
needed in other leaderships: “In PR leadership, it involves having excellent
communication skills, being an effective writer and using crisis management techniques.”
In general, it appeared that participants perceived the first question as rather a
provocative one, and they framed their responses in a defensive manner by arguing that
public relations leadership is different from other leadership because public relations is
superior to other occupations.
Second question: What does “leadership in public relations” mean to you?
The second research question was concerned with students’ interpretations of the
notion of “leadership in public relations.” Of the 196 students surveyed, 192 provided a
valid report. An answer was coded as “Ethical leadership” if a respondent linked PR
leadership with an ethical conduct. For example, the following answer was coded as
“Ethical leadership:”
Leadership in PR is being able to make strong ethical decisions in your work even
if you know it hurts the bottom-line. Being able to guide those working with you
and under you to have the same principles that you set, and letting them know it
can be done the right way with the same success.
Answers were coded as “Other dimensions” if respondents mentioned other than
ethics dimensions of PR leadership. The following answer is an example of this category:
“Leadership in PR means being able to make quick decisions to benefit your company.
Thinking and reacting to problems is a key role.”
Overall, 103 out of 192 respondents (53.65%) perceived PR leadership through
the ethics prism, emphasizing strong morals, integrity, trustworthiness, accountability,
and fairness in PR leaders’ relationships with employees, clients, and publics.
These data were analyzed using cross-tabulations to inspect levels of statistical
significance through application of the Pearson Chi-Square test. The significance level
established for the test was .05. The test did not show a significant difference between the
males and females (χ2 =0.01, df=1). Approximately the same percent of female students
(54) and male students (53) mentioned ethics while speculating about the nature of PR
leadership.
The second question, concerning students’ interpretations of the notion of public
relations leadership, might be considered a question “from within the profession.” Put
another way, students were asked to deliberate about their future profession without
pressure of a perceived virtual competition with other occupations. This is presumably
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why the theme of morality in PR leadership emerged more prominently in answers to the
second question (54% of responses), compared to the first one (33%). They indicated that
PR leadership is “Having responsibility to make the best decisions for the betterment of
everyone, and stick to a moral code.”
Although the general perception of the profession, emerged from student
responses, was favorable, concern about unethical practices was nevertheless evident in
student answers. As one participant said, “Because a lot of malpractice is done in PR, I
feel that PR leaders must be willing to offer ethical choices to companies.” Another
participant wrote,
I disagreed with the majority of the wrongful practices because I know I could not
live with myself if I knew the choice I made would threaten the lives of innocent
children, the common belief/standard held for my company. It all goes back to
morals, and I think our society is forgetting the basic truths: this country was
founded on truth, honesty, justice. If people in PR and in the workforce in general
would remember that integrity and honesty are true qualities of a successful
person, I think the world (business world, political world, etc.) would be a much
better place!
Concerning ethical violations in PR practice, students emphasized the necessity to
stand up for own moral beliefs: “Never compromise learned behavior, moral or values for
another propagated ways.” Also, their answers suggested that future practitioners might
confront unethical superiors’ decisions: “Leadership in PR means doing what you feel
needs to be done, and not necessarily what your boss thinks.”
Overall, responses for the second question revealed that participants were aware
of the complexity of PR practice in part of an ethical conduct, but they believed that
personal morals are able to sustain ethics in the profession.
Third question: What are the three most important values for PR leaders?
The third research question focused on students’ perceptions of the three most
important values for PR leaders. One hundred and ninety one participants (97.45%) gave
usable answers. They were coded by using the same categories as were employed in
questions # 2 and # 3. Particularly, if a respondent mentioned concepts associated with an
ethical behavior of a PR leader, the answer was coded as “Ethics values.” An example is:
Truth is important, because without it people would start to discredit PR leaders.
That would lead to a decrease of jobs in the industry. Respect gives PR leaders
dignity. This allows others to look at PR leaders with respect too. Finally
consideration for all sides is important. PR leaders should learn how to look at all
sides of an issue to get an accurate picture.
Answers that did not mention ethics categories were coded as “Other values.” The
following answer exemplifies the second category: “Reputation, money, hard work.”
These data were analyzed using cross-tabulations to inspect levels of statistical
significance through application of the Pearson Chi-Square test (alpha = .05). The test did
not indicate a significant difference between women and men (χ2 =1.94, df=1). Eighty
three percent of female students mentioned ethics and related concepts (e.g., honesty,
morals, and responsibility) as most important values for a PR leader, compared to 75
percent of male participants who brought up the same dimensions in their reports.
14

Overall, 153 out of 191 participants (80.10%) came up with values associated with moral
conduct.
Respondents (n=196) were asked to identify the three most important values for
PR leaders; therefore, the expected number of reported values should have been 588.
Participants named 552 legible items that aligned with categories developed by Rokeach
(1973). Three of the categories were terminal: Wisdom, A comfortable life, Social
recognition, with 1, 2, and 13 responses respectively. Other categories were instrumental:
Ambitious, Broadminded, Capable, Courageous, Helpful, Honest, Imaginative,
Independent, Intellectual, Logical, Loving, Obedient, Polite, Responsible, and Selfcontrolled
(Table 1).
Table 1
Most Important Instrumental Values for Public Relations Leader Identified by
Participants
________________________________________________________________________
Values Number of % Rank
responses (n=552)
________________________________________________________________________
1. Honest 218 39.49 1
2. Capable 77 13.95 2
3. Helpful 61 11.05 3
4. Ambitious 42 7.61 4
5. Imaginative 37 6.70 5
6. Obedient 18 3.26 6-7
7. Responsible 18 3.26 6-7
8. Self-controlled 16 2.90 8
9. Intellectual 14 2.53 9
10. Other (Broadminded, Loving,
Courageous, Independent,
Logical, and Polite) 35 6.34
Total 552
___________________________________________________________________
In a qualitative study that asks to provide written answers to questions on a
particular topic, it is important to treat participants’ reports not as a collection of answers
but rather as a coherent report, even if the report consists of three parts. Such an approach
allows researchers to see, along with other opportunities, whether a consequent answer
validates a prior one.
In this regard, an important finding of this study is that the theme of ethical PR
leadership that emerged in answers to the first two questions was supported in answers to
the third question. Participants came up with 552 values that are the most important for
PR leaders, and 218 (39.49%) of them fitted the category Honest. Sixty eight respondents
indicated honesty as one the most important values for PR leaders, whereas 29 people
named integrity. Twenty six participants believed that leaders should value ethics and 18
students thought that leaders should regard trustworthiness. Respondents also mentioned
conscience, fairness, respect, transparency, and truth as the most important values for PR
15

leaders. In this light, it might be suggested that PR students viewed professional
leadership as transforming one (Burns, 2003), which is a process of appealing to moral
values of followers. Obviously, such a process is more effective when the leader exhibits
the ethical standards which he or she promotes (Carlson & Perrewe, 1995).
Eighty percent of respondents mentioned various ethical dimensions while
reporting their opinions about most important values for PR leaders. It is the biggest
number of answers linked to ethical categories. It is not clear whether respondents’ focus
on instrumental values (e.g., responsibility and honesty) rather than on terminal values
(e.g., money) indicated respondents’ intentions to give social desirable answers
(Rokeach, 1973). It might be suggested that students had immersed themselves in the
topic of public relations and leadership while answering the first two questions, and the
third question, asking them to indicate the most important values, reinforced their
thoughts about the profession and ethics.
Besides that, the words, value and leader, could be key words that evoked ethics
associations consistent with professional ethics. It might be assumed that positive
connotations of “value” and “leader” elevated respondents’ interpretations of PR leaders’
values to the level of rhetoric: “Integrity (standing up for what you know is right),
honesty (even if it means admitting that you screwed up), fairness (treating others with
decency and respect).” Put another way, student attribution of high values to PR leaders
was based on ideal beliefs rather than on reality: Groups like Corporate Watch and Center
for Public Integrity (Bowen, 2007) would argue that there is a substantial gap between
the student picture of a PR leader and real PR practices.
However, as Levin cited in Pratt (1991) stated, only good examples are able to
induce moral behavior, and this is why participants’ ideal beliefs might indicate that the
students had such examples. Future investigation in needed to examine the sources that
influenced student perceptions of the image of a public relations leader, especially in the
light of the statement that leaders play a key role in establishing the ethical climate in
organizations (Carlson & Perrewe, 1995).
Summarizing the results of the three questions, it should be underlined that 26
respondents (13.27%) were consistent in their perceptions of the tie between public
relations leadership and ethics by addressing moral issues in answers to all three
questions. The following is an example of a report with an ethics leitmotiv:
1. Leadership in PR requires much more creativity and “guts.” We have to solve
very complicated problems while still maintaining our ethics and sets of values.
Since this can interfere with bother leaders’ opinions, we sometimes have to stand
up to people above us-who have power over us.
2. Being someone who others look up to for decision-making. One who leads people
in an ethical direction when hard situations arise. Leadership in PR is a very big
responsibility that I don’t’ think many people are capable of fulfilling
successfully.
3. Ethics, independence, self-respect.
The fact that the participants of this study were public relations students, who
have not had the professional experience, it is reasonable to expect that their perceptions
16

of professional leadership and leaders had come mainly from lectures and textbooks, and
thus, reflected normative theories about public relations practice.
Discussion
Overall, this study showed public relations students, regardless of gender, linked
professional leadership with ethics and morality. Although there were a few respondents
who perceived public relations practice as primarily promotional or manipulative
activities (“Keep on your toes at all times, they have to be a master of spin”), the vast
majority of participants regarded the profession as an ethical endeavor. As one student
said about PR leadership, “Ethical issues are more prevalent than in other occupations.”
Public relations majors like other students who study at universities might be
considered “individuals in between.” They are not the general public anymore, and they
are not professionals yet (Hanson, 2002). This position needs to be taken into account
while analyzing results of the present study. Although Hanson suggested that students
still might think like the general audience in spite of university’s effort to acculturate
them, the results of this study suggested that the majority of respondents had acquired the
professional language and, at least theoretically, understanding of PR roles in society. As
an example, a few respondents mentioned “two-way communication is a key for the
success of a PR professional in a leadership role” and, while emphasizing a boundary
spanning role of PR professionals, students said that PR leaders “have to set a good
example to internal & external audiences.”
It should be underlined that despite their young age and lack of professional
experience, the respondents demonstrated an understanding of the link between the PR
profession and social responsibility: “Leadership in PR basically requires that one do
what they feel the majority of society will agree with.” Another noted, “I believe PR
leadership is to communicate awareness of problems in society and create an open forum
to improve society.”
Importantly, while acknowledging the fact of multiple and often conflicting
responsibilities of PR professionals—before the company, the client, and society as a
whole (Pratt & McLaughlin, 1989)—the majority of respondents nevertheless prioritized
ethical conduct regardless of the situation: “Leadership in PR means someone with a
good head on the shoulders who will do what’s best for the company while keeping
ethics in mind.” Another participant wrote, “PR leadership means securing the reputation
of others while staying ethical and reliable.” Northouse’s (2007) proposed that in
decision-making situations leaders face, ethics is involved in implicit or explicit ways,
and leaders’ choices are determined by their ethics. Echoing Northhouse, one respondent
commented, “Leadership in PR involves many ethical decisions. You want to keep the
public aware of the company and its members while being honest with yourself and
always representing personal and company morals.”
Bowen’s (2003) study of PR undergraduates of two American universities showed
that students might have negative perceptions of the profession even if they chose public
relations as a major. Although it could have been expected in the present study that
students’ self-reports might have reflected low-level expectations the general public has
about public relations (Baker & Martinson, 2002), the findings suggested that it was not
the case. Both quantitative and textual analyses indicated that students were confident
17

that public relations was an exceptional—more ethical and socially oriented than other
occupations—profession.
The sense of pride about the profession is one of the components of
professionalism, along with a practitioner’s willingness to promote the image of the
profession and pursue qualities and ideals within the profession (VanZandt, 1990). The
students’ pride about public relations was noticeable in many reports. As an example, a
participant, explaining what “leadership in PR” means to her, wrote: “To me it means
being successful and hard-working, caring and self-motivated person. It means being
good as your job” (italic is added).
In general, participants’ reports appeared to be in accordance with Bowen’s
(2007) statement, “In the public relations discipline, ethics includes values such as
honesty, openness, loyalty, fair-mindedness, respect, integrity, and forthright
communication” (p. 3). The fact that students indicated only three categories of terminal
values (Wisdom, A comfortable life, and Social recognition) as important values for PR
leaders might be explained by the fact that the number of instrumental values a person
possess is several times more than the number of terminal values (Rokeach, 1973).
However, as the author noted, “One mode of behavior may be instrumental to the
attainment of several terminal values; several modes may be instrumental to the
attainment of one terminal value” (p. 12). Overall, participants perceived PR leaders as
noble individuals who are ethical, responsible, motivated, caring, empathetic, respected,
and charismatic.
Conclusion
The findings of this study contribute to an understanding of the image of the
public relations profession and leadership held by public relations majors. Student
respondents appear to perceive public relations as an occupation that is somewhat
superior to other professions. Although their views were skewed toward the “glamorous”
(Bowen, 2003) aspect of PR practitioners’ careers, an important finding is that students
regard public relations as an inherently ethical and society-oriented practice. In addition,
their interpretations of the professional leadership suggest that participants thought about
leaders as transformational leaders, who motivate and inspire “by providing meaning and
challenge to their followers’ work” (Bass, 1998, p. 5).
The intertwining of the two kinds of perceptions—public relations is more
prestigious and more ethical than other professions—might indicate that these students
possess an idealized understanding of the profession. This finding contradicts previous
research: Bowen (2003) found that new or potential PR majors had negative perceptions
of the field. Besides the fact that Bowen’s (2003) and present studies were concerned
with different research questions, another explanation for the discrepancy between the
two findings is that 57 percent of participants of the present study were juniors and
seniors, who had had a few specialized courses in public relations before they
participated in the survey.
If this explanation is correct, it might be suggested that public relations education
can have an impact on students with respect to overcoming their negative perceptions of
the profession. However, the participants of the study were not surveyed in their first year
at the university, and the authors are careful about drawing any conclusions about the
effectiveness of public relations education.
18

More research in the university setting is needed, especially in the light of
Rokeach’s (1973) finding that determinants of professional values are social background
and personality that draw people with certain values into a certain profession, and not
socialization in the workplace. By knowing students’ beliefs, one might possibly
speculate about the future of public relations. The profession needs to gain public trust
and compete with other occupations in order not to become dependent on or subordinate
to other professions, or even to disappear (Abbott, 1988).
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21

Engaging in two-way Communication to Manage Community Opposition to
Extractive Projects: The Peruvian Case
Maria Chiappe
University of Houston
mchiappe@att.net
Introduction
Conducting public relations programs in the natural extractive industries such as
the mining, gas and oil industries means facing a multitude of challenges that require
creative solutions. These solutions represent significant challenges to PR professionals,
who commonly strive to find the right balance between the interests of organizations and
those of their strategic publics.
Some of the challenges that communication practitioners face in the natural
extractive industries frequently have to deal with is community and local opposition to
the exploration and extraction of natural resources.
As stated by Balch (2006), anti-mining groups are constantly pointing their
fingers to natural-resources extractive companies. According to this author, the roots of
this problem lie on the perceived exclusion of communities from the decision-making
process, which commonly involves only companies and the national government.
The extraction and supply of minerals has played a crucial role in the Peruvian
economy and society for the last 500 years. Today, most of the world’s largest mining
companies have operations in Peru and currently, the Peruvian society sees the mining
business as one of the potential revenue streams that could help the country alleviate
poverty because it drives economic growth.
Historically, mining activities have contributed to half of Peru's export earnings.
Today, the country is the world's top producer of silver, the second producer in copper
and zinc and ranks fifth in gold. However, in the last few years, the extractive industries
sector has become an arena of intense social conflict in which different voices express
their concerns. Local communities are demanding a more equitable distribution of the
revenues resulting from these industries. At the same time, communities and groups
directly affected by extractive projects such as gas, oil and mining have become more
aware of the negative social and environmental impacts the industries may produce.
Protests from local communities, farmers organizations, indigenous groups and national
and international NGOs have become very violent at times resulting in loss on lives and
disruption of projects. A brief look at how some media outlets report on this issue would
help to better understand the intensity of this problem.
On May 15, 2009 an international media reported that fifty thousand people, most
of them from native Amazonas communities went to the streets of Iquitos to protest
against the privatization of Amazon lands in benefit of multinational petrol and agro-fuel
interests. “The natives feel their very survival is at stake and many are ready to die in the
attempt to retain control of their natural resources”. Similar news came from San
Lorenzo on May 17, 2009, “for the past 43 days, thousands of indigenous people have
been blockading roads and river traffic throughout the Amazon in peaceful protests,
demanding the repeal of a series of new laws imposed by the Garcia Administration
under the pretext of implementing the Free Trade agreements (FTA) with the United
States”.
22

Community opposition to extractive projects is not unique to Peru as other
developing countries face the same problems. Indeed, extractive industry projects are
particularly vulnerable to community opposition and tend to ignite social conflict
resulting in detrimental effects to corporate stakeholders. Common examples of the
conflictual relations that exist between community and mining and energy companies are
community blockade, lawsuits, adversarial negotiations, public protests and nongovernmental
campaigns (Whiteman, Gail, Mamen & Katy, 2002).
Despite their frequency and severity, this form of conflict remains unstudied by
business management (Whiteman et. al. 2002) as well as communication scholars. And,
to date we have little formal understanding of the roots of such conflict from a
communication perspective. Trade organizations from the mining industry have called for
companies to focus on communication strategies to achieve sustainable outcomes in the
mining and energy industries, as well as to apply dialogue, public participation,
participatory and two-way communication practices.
As conceived today, public relations can greatly contribute to the solution to this
type of conflicts. J. E Grunig (1992) developed a new approach to public relations based
on relationship building and conflict management. This author marked a shift away from
the manipulation of public opinion and focused communication effort toward reaching
mutual understanding with opposition and activism. J. E. Grunig (1992) underscored the
importance of “building relationships with publics that constraint or enhance the ability
of the organization to meet its mission” (p.20).
Through this symmetrical approach, public relations executives serve as a
bridging, rather than a buffering function. A public relations program is designed to build
relationships with stakeholders, rather than a set of messaging activities designed to
buffer the organization from these stakeholders (Institute for Public Relations [IPR],
2006).
This study has two main purposes. The first one is to explore the practice of
public relations in the extractive industries in Peru and the second one is to explore to
what extend Peruvian public relations practitioners engage in two-way symmetrical to
solve conflicts deriving from local opposition to extractive activities.
This study serves as a starting point for furthering public relations research within
the mining, gas and energy sectors in other economic and political contexts. Although
these sectors are highly important, especially for emerging and development countries (in
terms of economic growth), little research has been conducted in order to understand how
public relations is practiced within these sectors. Therefore, this study contributes not
only to understanding Peruvian public relations practice, but also helps to understand
how this practice is conducted within the energy, gas and mining sectors in the context of
a multicultural country such as Peru.
Literature Review
Multinational Companies
J. E. Grunig et al (1995) defined multinational organizations (MNC) as those that “do
business in more than one country or have publics in more than one country” (p. 165).
Indeed, international companies have operated for a long time in many countries, and their
operations have often been controversial.
23

Environmentalists and critics have considered MNCs’ in developing countries “as
socially and environmentally destructive forces of economic exploitation” (Global
Environmental Management Initiative, 2005). The essence of these critics’ claim was that
MNCs extract the raw materials of developing nations, pay substandard wages to overseas
workers, operate without regard to local communities, and then transfer what critics regard as
illegitimately gained profits to MNCs’ home countries. However, a study released by the
Global Environmental Management Initiative (2005) reported exactly the opposite
assessment, claiming that “leading MNCs consistently are positive forces for both economic
development and environmental health and safety quality in the developing countries in
which they operate” (p. 3).
Gladwin and Walter (1983) also explored the nature of this controversy. These
authors suggested that multinational corporations more often engaged in conflicts with their
key publics, especially when intercultural adaptation is needed. In the same way, Hunter and
Basal (2007) noted that multinationals face more institutional pressures from local
stakeholders such as governments, customers and others from the same industry, especially
when presenting information concerning environmental issues.
According to the Watson Wyatt Worldwide Communication study (2005/2006),
most multinational companies that compete in the global marketplace admit that they are
not doing an effective job of communicating globally. “Only three out of ten global
corporations have designated communication resources in other countries, and even
fewer (18%) have assured having a formal, documented global communication strategy”
(Watson Wyatt Worldwide Communication ROI Study 2005/2006).
As described by Yates and Breech (2006), “What many enterprises are learning is
that the traditional approach to global communication --translating messages into several
languages and shipping them to local managers for dissemination-- simply doesn’t work”
(p. 27). This approach often results in messages that are misunderstood,
miscommunicated and sometimes not communicated; moreover, this approach does not
recognize the link between culture and communication, which has been previously
proposed by several scholars (Hall & Hall, 1990; Sriramesh & White, 1992).
Holtzhausen, Petersen and Tindall (2003) also recognized the value of bringing a global
perspective to global corporate communication practice. These authors posited that
multinational companies need to “think and act both locally and globally” (p. 306).
Given this context, the aim of international public relations “is to help multinational
companies blend their own culturally specific public relations objectives and strategies
with those of their host countries” (Holtzhausen et al., 2003, p. 203).
Four Models of Public Relations
Based on the historical development of public relations, J. E. Grunig and Hunt
(1984) developed four models of public relations which explain public relations practices
today. The models are produced from the combinations of two dichotomous dimensions:
direction (one-way vs. two-way) and balance of intended effect (asymmetrical vs.
symmetrical) (J. E. Grunig & L. A. Grunig, 1989). The four models include press agentry
and publicity (one-way asymmetrical), public information (one-way asymmetrical), twoway
asymmetrical, and two-way symmetrical.
The publicity model uses persuasion and manipulation to influence audience to
behave as the organization desires. The public information model has the purpose of
24

dissemination of information. This model characterizes public relations that perform a
"journalist-in-residence" role to provide generally information about the organization (J.
E. Grunig & Hunt, 1984). But practitioners of this model do not volunteer negative
information to the public.
The two-way asymmetrical model has one important characteristic, practitioners
use research as a tool to persuade the public. But this model is rather manipulative in that
"public relations programs use research (methods of scientific persuasion) to identify the
messages most likely to produce the support of publics without having to change the
behavior of the organization" (J. E. Grunig & L. A. Grunig, 1989, p. 31).
The two-way symmetrical model aims at achieving mutual understanding. The
intended direction of communication is balanced both ways. In this model, public
relations practitioners conduct research for the mutual benefit of organizations and the
public (J. E. Grunig & L. A. Grunig, 1989).For J. E. Grunig and his colleagues (e.g.
Dozier, L. A. Grunig, & J. E. Grunig, 1995), external communication programs and
internal systems based on symmetrical presuppositions characterize excellent public
relations. J. E. Grunig (2006) also touted the two-way symmetrical model as the most
ethical because it was more capable of reducing conflict and of considering the
consequences of the organization’s behavior on its publics.
Two-way symmetrical communication, as conceptualized by J. E. Grunig, forms
the basis of excellent public relations practice. From this perspective, symmetrical
communication is characterized by a willingness of an organization to listen and respond
to the concerns and interests of its key stakeholders: “Excellent organizations ‘stay close’
to their customers, employees, and other strategic constituencies” (J. E. Grunig, 1992, p.
16). They carefully listen to their stakeholders before deciding objectives to pursue by
developing two-way and symmetrical relationships in order to incorporate in those
objectives stakeholder expectations that are not explicitly in contrast with the
organization’s general aims. In fact, Grunig’s concept of symmetry emphasizes listening
and thinking from others perspectives. It takes into consideration strategic publics’
cultural styles that reflect distinctive historical sensibilities, as well as manners of
perception and expression (Brown, 2006).
L. A. Grunig (1992) studied the communication styles used by organizations with
activist groups and noted that when these companies were using asymmetric models of
communication, or approaches based on eliciting compliance with the organization's own
beliefs, rather than symmetric models, or approaches based on mutual adaptation and
bargaining, organizations were unsuccessful in resolving conflicts with their activist
publics. Also, Grunig et al. (1995) concluded that public relations departments contribute
most to organizational effectiveness when they practice two-way symmetrical
communication (Grunig, 1992).
Brief Overview of Peruvian’s Background
With a population of approximately 29.9 millions, Peru is divided into three
distinct geographical zones: the Coast (Costa), the Highlands (Sierra) and the Rainforest
(Selva). Peru won independence from Spain in 1821 but it was not until 1867 that its
actual constitution was adopted. Despite that Peru has been ruled by dictatorial regimes in
the past, the current political situation in the country is relatively stable. Today, Peru is a
representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions.
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Peru’s president-elect, Alan Garcia Perez, was popularly elected for a five-year
term on June 2006 by 52.5% of the voters in his runoff with left-leaning, Ollanta Umala.
Peru’s economic growth has been considerable over the last year, with a constant upward
trend; the country has reached a level of 8% in 2007 (National Institute of Statistics and
Informatics [INEI], 2008).
In fact, multinational oil, gas and mining companies operating in Peru have
received great opposition from several sides. The number of voices in Peru calling for an
end to the extraction activity is great. The extractive industry is under much more
scrutiny than are companies in other industries (Argentina Indy Media, 2005).
In essence, the extraction of natural resources has become a source of great
controversy in Peru. The mining sector, including, local and multinational companies, as
well as trade organizations such as the Peruvian Mining, Petroleum and Energy Society,
view the extraction activity as an opportunity for economic growth to local communities.
According to this view, the mining activity provides a better future for peasants and their
families, a better education, more jobs, and a better future.
In the other hand, other groups such as, the Catholic Church, peasants’
communities, NGO’s and others organizations from the civil society are opposed to
mining activities (Ramos & Requera, 2006). In fact, local communities act as activist
groups, becoming particularly troublesome to such organizations, since these
communities often appeal to the media, their leaders, government, and other stakeholders
to attempt to compel the organizations to change when the responses from the
organizations do not satisfy them (De Echave, 2005).
At present, civil society, the industry and government have come together in a
national dialogue on mining and sustainable development and the ministry of the
presidency has established an office of analysis and prevention of conflicts. Furthermore,
the government has recently created the ministry of environment to oversee the
application of environment standards to the mining industry. Thus, mining as well as gas
companies have embraced higher international standards for environmental good practice
and corporate social responsibility and have begun to make efforts to incorporate them
into their regular operations and community relations. However, many of these efforts
have yet to show positive signs on the ground, and the intensity of popular dissatisfaction
and the general distrust of industry and governmental leaders often outstrips the pace of
these responses no matter how well intended and positive they may be.
Other studies of corporations and activist group disputes have found similar
difficulties in resolving conflicts. To many scholars and practitioners, this impasse
represents a central problem in public relations (Murphy & Dee, 1992). However,
conflicts and differences are resolved most efficiently when the participants develop
compatible ground rules, and two-way symmetrical communication can provide this
basis.
The public relations domain is still in formative stage in Peru and there is no
academic research on the field. When the key words “estudios en relaciones publicas en
Peru” [public relations studies in Peru] or “investigacion en comunicaciones”
[communication studies in Peru] are used to search the “Fuente Academica” or
“Economia y Negocios” databases, there are no matches. These two databases are the
most important Spanish language ones in Peru. “Fuente Academica” provides full text for
260 scholarly Spanish language journals. Economia y Negocios is produced in Peru by
26

ESAN (Escuela de Administración de Negocios para Graduados), the oldest graduate
school of business in the Spanish-speaking world, and covers more than 60,000
bibliographic records dating to the early 1980s including over 200 periodicals published
in Latin America and Spain.
Research Questions
Based on the literature review discussed earlier, two research questions are
proposed in this study.
RQ1. How do public relations practitioners from multinational mining, gas and
energy companies describe the public relations practice in Peru?
RQ2: To what extend public relations practitioners from multinational mining,
gas and energy companies engage in two-way symmetrical communications when
dealing with local opposition to projects in Peru?
Method
Rationale for Research Method
Qualitative interviewing was used for this study. As stated by Potter (1996), the
qualitative approach provides an enormously useful variety of means for “examining how
humans make sense out of their world" (p. 12). This study was exploratory in nature and
attempted to understand people’s own frames of reference in their natural settings.
Sampling
For the interviews, the participants were identified based on the combination of
two sampling strategies: snowball and convenience. Snowball sampling yields
participants through referrals that are made among people who know of others who
possess some characteristics that are of research interest (Biernacki & Waldorf, 1981). In
convenience sampling, however, participants are selected non-randomly on the basis of
availability. A sample of ten subjects was used for the interviews. The participants
included both women and men currently employed by mining, gas and energy companies.
All of the participants hold a managerial position in their organizations (President, Vice
president, Chief, Manager or Director) at the time of the interviews and have been
working for the organization for at least one year
Table 1. Background of Interviewees.
Job Title Sector Gender
Manager Corporate Affairs Mining Male
Vice President of Corporate Affairs Mining Male
Chief,Communication Mining Female
Chief, Image and Communication Energy Female
Public Relations Energy Female
Chief, Public Affairs Energy Male
Chief, Communication Gas Female
Chief, Communication Mining Male
Head, Corporate Affairs Mining Male
Government and Corporate Affairs Gas Male
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The participants of the survey were identified using the following steps. At the
organizational level, participants for the survey were selected from the roster of
companies listed in the Peruvian National Mining, Petroleum and Energy Society website
member directory. This roster identifies companies from the energy, gas and mining
sector that are either domestic or foreign. The directory is posted on the organization’s
web site and is open to the public. A total of 99 companies comprise the member’s
directory. Out of the 99 companies, 40 of these companies are multinationals.
Introductory e-mails were sent to head of communications of these companies. Six of the
40 companies directed the request to three public relations agencies, which were in
charge of overseeing their public relations and communication activities. Therefore, for
the purpose of this study, a total of 34 multinational companies and six public relations
agencies were contacted.
Data Collection
Mutual acquaintances were used to identify the ten subjects for the qualitative
interviews. After getting their e-mails, introductory e-mails were sent explaining the
purpose of the research and inviting them to participate in an in-depth interview which
was arranged at their convenience, via phone. Because the interviews were conducted
over the phone, the consent form was read to them before the interview.
Interview Protocol
The interview protocol explored various aspects. The first set of questions
explored demographic aspects such as gender, age, working experience, education and
managerial responsibilities. The second set of questions aimed at exploring what public
relations mean to them including definition, mission and purpose of PR. The third set of
questions aimed at exploring weather practitioners were employing any of Grunig’s
public relations models. It also explored on any additional model relevant to their local
practice. The fourth set of questions explored the type of activities practitioners perform
in their day to day practice. And finally, the last set of questions aimed at exploring the
tools and mechanisms practitioners more likely employed when dealing with opposition
to extractive activities. . The protocol was translated into Spanish and then translated
back into English for an accuracy check. A pretest was carried out among a small sample
of the target audience in order to assess comprehension of the questions.
Data Analysis
A qualitative method was used to answer both research questions. Interviews
were tape recorded and transcribed in Spanish. The summary of findings and quotes were
translated into English. Excel spreadsheets were used as response matrices to better
identify patterns of consensus. The research focused on identifying main items of
consensus. Direct Quotes were inserted within the text to support the summary of
findings.
Results
RQ1. How do public relations practitioners from multinational mining, gas and
energy companies describe the public relations practice in Peru?
28

It is important to note that none of the participants knew or had heard about
Grunig’s four public relations models before. However, two of the respondents identified
the communication practice in Peru as based on the “development communication” or
“communication for social change” model which aimed at empowering the community
while promoting its sustainable development. The remaining participants (8) do not
mention the name of a particular model, instead they describe their day to day operations.
According to the participants who identified their practice as based on the
“development communication model”, they describe this model as deeply embedded on
what is known in today’s Peruvian environment as corporate social responsibility (CSR)
practice. To this point, it is important to emphasize that a consensus was identified among
the participants in all sectors on the assumption that projects implemented from a social
responsibility perspective yield better benefits to all stakeholders in the long term. Words
and terms such as sustainable development, social license to operate, corporate social
responsibility and corporate responsibility commonly appeared in the discourse of all
participants.
All participants agreed that communities, as well as local authorities play a key
role in making the company’s operation possible. According to the majority of
participants, communities in Peru have the power to halt projects and to deny the
company’s license to operate. In that sense, the majority of participants posited that
communication efforts were focused on adding value to the company by contributing to
CSR goals and activities.
Four participants stated that it was essential to actively engage the community as
early as possible in the extractive operation in order to gain trust, consent and credibility.
Also, six participants from the mining industry agreed that in order to actively engage
local communities it was necessary to have a creative approach and to address issues that
were priority for the community, even when these issues were not related to the
company’s activities and core business.
Six participants expressed that they coordinate, along with the assistance of local
NGOs and other partners, community-based training workshops aimed at enhancing local
capacity and self sustainability of the communities, especially on health, education,
productive development and institutional strengthening projects. Two participants stated
that the main challenge was to avoid the establishment of a “paternalistic” relation
between the company and local stakeholders, which usually occurred when the
government does not properly comply with its social function. According to these
participants, the paternalistic relation comes into the spot when communities and local
partners viewed the company as an “endless” provider of goods and resources, conferring
to the company’s responsibilities that should be done by the government. According to
these participants, such a view leads to detrimental results for all stakeholders; basically
because extractive operations were non- renewable and companies were not staying in the
community forever. Instead of adopting a paternalistic view, according to these two
participants, companies needed to turn their efforts to building and strengthening a
relationship in which community members actively participate in the development of
their own communities.
Some of the community-based training programs that practitioners mentioned
they have organized during the past year include: workshops with mothers to enhance the
consumption of Peruvian high protein native foods, such as Quinua and Kiwicha,
29

programs for small children to improve early stimulation, training programs with
teenagers to introduce them to new farming techniques such as organic potato and sweet
potatoes, training programs with young adults on livestock farms that improved guinea
pig husbandry (guinea pigs constitutes a traditional food in Peruvian highlands), training
programs with local artisans to help them learn new weaving skills and sell their products
nationally and abroad, and training programs with mid-age women to teach them how to
cook by using low consumption of firewood.
Six participants agreed that companies needed to assure that the benefits that
resulted from extractive activities will result in the sustainable development of the host
community. Five participants stated that corporate socially responsibility, as well as
environment responsibility has become fashionable terms in Peru. In addition, four
participants expressed that the increased interest that companies showed in adopting
socially responsible practices in Peru was because of the pressure that some international
institutions such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC) or the World Bank exert
to companies. According to these participants, social responsibility practices were a
determining factor in evaluating loans for mining, gas and industrial projects.
Six participants expressed that they relied on radio to disseminate information in
order to raise awareness on issues of concern of the community, as well as to promote
participation on community-based workshops and other engagement activities. It is
important to note that one of the participant stated that the radio places the company in
closer proximity to the community because it was the only means that broadcast in the
community’s native language (Quechua). One of the participants stated that the company
has launched a radio program in which the organization disseminates information on
company’s activities as well as other issues of concern, such as water management and
nutrition. Another participant stated that the company has launched a radio program that
offers tips on how to promote small businesses and artisan’s knowledge on business
topics. Other ways that practitioners used to reach out to communities were by utilizing
word of mouth, such as disseminating information at local civil community associations
such as “comedores populares” (“public living rooms”), which represent open eatingplaces
funded by the government to assist community in their food needs. Also,
practitioners stated that they used word of mouth at community market fairs which
represent an open place where community members gathered with member of other
communities to exchange, trade and sell their products and goods. These community
market fairs are held on the weekends.
It is important to note that participants expressed that several external factors have
shaped the way they practice public relations in Peru, including political, social and
economical factors such as, poverty, social violence, terrorism, implementation of open
market initiatives, arrival of multinational companies in the early 90’s, activism
expressed by international and domestics organizations, corruption, media activism,
disparity between urban and rural culture among others.
One of the interviewees clearly illustrated this point by expressing that “Peru has
learned lessons from previous faults” and that today, in order to achieve sustainable and
long terms goals for the company, it was essential to reach understanding and a
consensus with key publics, especially local stakeholders (community and local
authorities).
30

RQ2: To what extend public relations practitioners from multinational mining, gas
and energy companies engage in two-way symmetrical communications when dealing
with local opposition to projects in Peru?
Interviews showed that participants of multinational mining companies engage in
two-way communication though the “mesas de dialogo concertación” or “dialogue
tables”, which represent a corporate-community negotiation process. Mesa is the Spanish
word for “table” and it represent an assembly for addressing issues of common concern
and collaborating on solutions.
The “mesas” are specially used to address and resolve conflicts between the
company and the surrounding communities and usually have the representation of all
stakeholders, including local stakeholders, government and international and national
NGO’s as well as civil society and companies’ representatives.
In general, the majority of participants stated that they frequently coordinate and
participate in “dialogue tables” especially when the company and the community were
having issues of concern or when tensions were on the rise. Six participants (all from the
mining sector) highlighted that they often coordinate and participate in dialogue
meetings, considering this type of practice as an effective means to achieve good
relationships and as a participatory forum for discussing issues affecting the community
and the project. According to these participants, this strategy was effective in reaching
agreements. Moreover, participants all agreed to consider this practice as an effective
conflict mediation mechanism and an effective way to collect issues that are raised in the
broad meetings of the assembly. Participant A reported the benefits of the dialogue
meetings stating: “The Mesa provides a spot for consultation and dialogue with local
stakeholders enabling the company to track opinions, concerns and thinking’s of all the
parties involved.” Another participant from the mining sector noted:
“The company is committed to participating in dialogue meetings. Also, we are
committed to fulfilling our social responsibilities and to solve the demands of our
host community, which commonly revolved around issues such as details of
community funds spending, sustainable development, community health and
environmental concerns”.
In addition, one participant from the mining sector remarked that the establishment of the
first “mesa” took place in 2001 and was set to solve a dispute between a communities in a
mine located in northern Peru. Participants from the mining sector stated that still there
were some companies that embraced very low standards of performance and that didn’t
show any interest in engaging the community in the decision making process.
Participants agreed that “bad practices” carried out especially by medium sized and junior
mining companies were harming the reputation of the entire industry.
It is important to note that two of the participants from the mining industry
considered that promoting dialogue was a very difficult challenge in Peru because of the
barriers they face in understanding the culture of the community. According to these
participants, one of the main problems they face was that local stakeholders were
generally distrustful of the organization’s true intentions. These stakeholders had the idea
that the company will not resolve main issues from the community and will not maintain
commitments to its promises and agreements.
In the same way, the majority of participants agreed to consider that Peru has a
long history of social conflict and violence, especially concentrated in rural areas and that
31

activism and opposition was very high especially in the energy, gas and mining sector.
Also, the majority of participants agreed that Peru has made significant progress in
promoting dialogue and early consultation among stakeholders. According to
participants, Peruvian government has taken concrete steps to address some of the issues
of concern for stakeholders, such as creating a framework for engaging in dialogue with
affected communities.
Discussion and Conclusion
Summary of Major Findings
Use of an additional public relations model. Interviews revealed that Peruvian
practitioners use an additional model of public relations, which is based on the
“communication for social change” model aimed at educating local communities on
issues regarding nutrition, health, education and safety. The purpose of this model is also
to promote socially based initiatives such as building schools, roads and bridges. This
model was closely linked by participants with the concept of “social responsibility.” This
model relies on two main points. The first one is that it uses face to face and interpersonal
interaction through participation in educational workshops, trainings and gatherings. The
second one is that it relies heavily on the use of traditional media (radio) rather than other
mass mediated methods, such as writing press and TV.
Engagement in two-ways communications to solve conflicts. This study shows that
practitioners from the energy and mining sectors in Peru are using strategies of the twoway
models to solve conflicts and controversies with stakeholders, such as coordinating
and participating in “mesas de dialogo” or “dialogue tables”, which represents a
corporate-community negotiation forums. These “dialogue tables” are specially used to
address and resolve conflicts between the company and the surrounding communities.
Implications for Public Relations Theory
Use of two-way communication model to solve conflicts and controversies., This
finding supports J. E. Grunig’s (1992) assumption that the two-way symmetrical
communication model is especially helpful when dealing with activist groups. The twoway
symmetrical model provides mutual understanding and offers solutions directed
specifically to activists’ concerns. Peruvian practitioners are using the two-way
communication model as a strategy to deal with and reach mutual understanding with
activist and opposition groups, which in turn, are very active and include a wide array of
stakeholders ( communities, regional and local authorities, international and local NGO’s
, religious groups and organizations from the civil society). The “dialogue tables”
represent a great demonstration on how Peruvian practitioners are using some of the
strategies and tactics of the two-way model in order to reach agreements with local
stakeholders on issues of concern for both parties. The dialogue tables provide an open
spot for collaboration and cooperation offering networking opportunities for interested
parties to build shared interest and to generate debate and dialogue. This study provides
helpful input on new ways to use two-way communication when dealing with opposition
and conflicts and shed lights on the usage of a new public relations tool, dialogue tables.
Public relations model based on ¨the communication for social change model.
This finding supports Molleda (2001) assumption that in Latin America, the public
relations practice has a strong social orientation and that practitioners act as agents of
32

social change. This study also shows that this model relies on the use of face to face and
participatory techniques to engage stakeholders, such as organizing workshops, training
programs, community events, meeting and gatherings. This finding supports Freire’s
(1970) assumption that in contexts where extreme social and economical disparities
occur, adult education is achieved through collaborative occurrence. And finally, this
study shows that Peruvian practitioners from multinational energy, gas and mining
sectors are relying more on the use of radio to disseminate information to local
stakeholders, rather than on the use of other mass mediated methods, such as writing
press and TV. This finding supports Sriramesh and Vercic (2003) assumption that in
developing countries and traditional cultures, practitioners may have to adapt in using
traditional and indigenous media (i.e. radio) for effective communication with publics. As
stated by these authors, “in developing countries, media my reach only a small,
homogenous group because of illiteracy and poverty” (p. 341). The levels of illiteracy
and poverty are still high among Peruvian communities and infrastructure does not allow
having access to modern media technologies, including TV. The radio in Peru is the only
medium that broadcasts in indigenous languages (Quechua or Aymara).
It is important to note that one main component that differentiates this model
(communication for social change) from Grunig’s two-way symmetrical communication
model is that the two-way symmetrical communication models promotes collaboration
and dialogue around issues of concern for both parties, the organization and its publics. In
the Peruvian model, the workshops and community gathering revolved around issues of
concern only to the host community at the local and regional level.
This study contributes to extend the body of knowledge around the
communication for social change approach by adding the Peruvian perspective to
Molleda’s assumption. This study provides valuable input on how public relations
practitioners use and develop their own models of practice based on local trends. This
study also provides understanding on how practitioners adapt their practice when
reaching out to rural communities where there is a strong limitation of media resources.
Mass mediated techniques become secondary, while the focus is placed on interaction
and face to face.
A brief explanation on the communication for social change model is provided in
order to illustrate this model. The communication for social change model aims at
empowering vulnerable and needy groups to make them agents of social change. This
model is based on Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1970) thinking. Participation,
dialogue and an active vision of human beings as the interpreters of their environments
are of the utmost importance for communication for social change. Dialogue and local
participation are connected in order to achieve development. If development is to benefit
those whom it intends to benefit, i.e., local, poor, often rural, disadvantaged peoples, then
these people need to be able to participate meaningfully in the development process.
According to this approach, dialogue is a community act rather than an individualistic
manifestation. Dialogue is not possible to achieve at the individual level because
vulnerable groups have not exercised their right to participate in the decision making and
transformation process.
33

Practical Implications
Use of “communications for development” model of public relations. Practically
speaking, public relations practitioners are able to better understand how public relations
are practiced in the sector of mining, gas and energy in Peru. In addition, this study
shows public relations practitioners’ new ways of engaging in the dialogue process. The
Peruvian “dialogue tables” are a good expression on how public relations practitioners
could engage in a two-way communication interaction.
In addition, PR practitioners should consider new and creative ways when
reaching out to less powerful, diverse and minority groups. Communication for social
change could provide this new approach. Paulo Freire’s (1970) notion of dialogue as a
“community act” rather than an individualistic act should be taken into account when
reaching out to indigenous and traditional communities and cultures that underline
collective values. In the same way, the use of participatory techniques to make them
understand complex issues, such as engaging communities on events, workshops and
trainings, might be valuable means that public relations practitioners can employ to reach
out to their publics, from different cultures.
Limitations
The main limitation of this study is that its scope is too focused on the energy,
mining and gas sectors, which in turn, happens to be a relatively small piece of the jigsaw
that represents the public relations arena in Peru. Additionally, this study only provides
qualitative data.
Directions for Future Research
Future studies should be conducted in order to explore if the mining and gas
sector in other countries practice public relations as the way Peruvians do. Other mining
contexts, such as Australia and Africa could show interesting results. It would be
important to compare results between the extractive industry and non-extractive industry
in order to explore patterns of public relations practice.
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36

The Value of Public Relations in Investor Relations:
Individual Investors’ Preferred Information Types, Qualities, and Sources
* PRSA Top Faculty Paper Award
Timothy Penning, Ph.D., APR
Grand Valley State University
penningt@gvsu.edu
Abstract
A survey targeting individual investors addressed the types, qualities and sources
of information this specific public seeks and values. Results identify some potential
specific conditions associated with investors seeking sources of information that would
be considered public relations content, validating public relations and investor relations
communication as having value to a specific set of individual investors. Additionally,
seeking corporate (i.e. public relations/investor relations) sources appears to be associated
with specific types of information needs. This study provides guidance to public relations
practitioners and scholars alike to understand which specific types of investing
information in which specific channels communicate most effectively with investors. It
also provides some suggested evidence that public relations communications content has
as much or more value than information from the news media or other sources in an
investor relations context.
Introduction
Communication with stockholders, known as investor relations, has been
increasing in popularity as a specialty area in the public relations profession. Historically,
investor relations was the domain of accounting and finance professionals. But currently,
the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) has 4,400 members in 33 chapters in the
United States—46 percent of them have a background in communications/public
relations, while 49 percent have a background in finance/accounting (N.I.R.I., 2008).
This blending of public relations and finance professionals in the work of investor
relations has had several consequences. One is that public relations professionals have
had to work to gain recognition in the investor relations arena. CEOs mostly do not
perceive investor relations to be a public relations function, and when they do, they see it
as more of a technical activity than a managerial function (Petersen & Martin, 1996).
Secondly, and perhaps because of this perception, investor relations has received
scant attention in the scholarly literature. Laskin (2007) found that investor relations as a
concept has been mostly overlooked by communication journals. Studies of investor
relations that can be found are mostly focused on financial and accounting concepts.
The primary publics in investor relations are analysts, business journalists who
cover investing, and the investors (Chatlos, 1974). With the growing popularity of mutual
funds, institutional investors—those who purchase stocks and other investments on
behalf of a fund or brokerage house—have received much of the attention in investor
relations. However, individual investors, also called retail investors, remain an important
consideration in investor relations (Marcus, 2005), although they also have received little
focus in the research to date. The American Association of Individual Investors (AAII)
has 150,000 members (A.A.I.I., 2008), and there are likely many more in existence who
have simply not affiliated formally with this organization.
37

The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of how individual investors
use and value information from public relations professionals (i.e. directly from a
company) vs. the news media and other sources. A study of investor relations with a
focus on communication variables and individual investors as the population of interest
would add considerably to the research on the subject. In particular, a study of the
importance of a particular public’s (investors) preference for public relations information
compared to media and word-of-mouth sources will add an empirical understanding of
the role of public relations content in aiding informed decision making in an investing
context. It will also lend support to the increasingly important role of investor
relations/public relations for publicly traded companies.
Investor Behavior
General characteristics of individual investors, particularly currently, are hard to
obtain. As might be expected, whites and individuals with higher income are more likely
to participate in company pension plans than other race/ethnic groups or persons of lower
income (Brown, 2007). But this demographic information does not address stock
purchases directly. However, one recent study of South African investors determined four
changes in the general characteristics of investors over the past two decades: they are
more concentrated in the middle age group; they hold fewer total securities in their
portfolios; they tend to invest for the long term; and they use indexes to compare the
performance of specific investments (Brijlal, 2007). While there may be differences
between a South African and a U.S. context, the study is a clue into the characteristics of
current individual investors.
One study used an investor relations context to test the situational theory of
publics—that active publics are more likely to actively process and remember
information than are passive publics (Cameron, 1992). An experiment with stimulus
materials relating to investing did confirm this notion, indicating that investors, who are
by nature more active with regard to investment information, were more engaged with
investment-related material. However, the subjects were undergraduate students, not
actual investors.
One study of actual investors found that individual investors tend to behave
according to a rational choice model, in spite of the fact that economists have assumed
individuals to be more susceptible to psychological biases than institutional investors
(Kaniel et al., 2008). Specifically, individuals tended to buy stocks following periods of
price decline and sell following price increases, showing a calculated response to
information in order to maximize return. The authors of this study surmise that individual
investors, unlike institutions, are able to more quickly exploit private information about
specific stocks. But they note it is unclear how individuals obtain such information.
Another study showed similar patterns of buying and selling in response to price
fluctuations, but shows that trading—in this case in index futures markets—can be
sentiment driven (Kurov, 2008). The studies leave open the question of what types of
information individual investors seek and use when making stock investments.
Individual investors in America as a group tend to prefer to educate themselves
when making investments using a variety of information available to them (Mezick,
2001). A more recent study confirmed this by showing that fewer than half (47.3%) of
respondents in a national household survey used the services of financial professionals
38

(Hung et al., 2008). However, this general household study did not focus on individual
investors, and it considered a wide array of financial services and did not isolate
investing.
A study in Germany found that investors process information differently
according to whether financial products were framed in an aggregated or segregated
manner (Steul, 2006). In other words, a mutual fund of many stocks evaluated by
multiple experts would be an aggregated frame, whereas the stock of a single company
would be a segregated frame. Prospect theory was tested and found that participants
preferred aggregated framing because it lessened perceptions of risk. But, the study found
that framing effects were more likely when investors made decisions intuitively rather
than analytically.
Naturally, the effect of risk on individual behavior is particularly important in an
investment context. Aversion to loss or risk has been found to be the most important
influence on investor behavior across the 20-year period of 1986-2006 (DALBAR, 2007).
Older investors, contrary to common assumptions, are actually better able to handle risk
in old age (Zweig, 2007). This may be explained by the fact that older investors are more
experienced at assessing risk or the fact that people are living longer in retirement and
need to accept risk to extend returns.
Information Content and Quality
Volatility in the market and corporate misdeeds in the late 1990s and early 2000s
has created a new environment for investor relations. Thus, today’s investor relations
communication is driven by the needs and desires of investors, not merely what the
company decides to say. One fundamental quality of investor relations information, then,
is that investors perceive it as relevant to their needs (Marcus, 2005). Marcus asserts that
the various types of relevant information for investors all relate to three categories:
financial indicators, management information, and future plans (p. 16). Other studies
reveal that company reputation and position in the industry are considered important for
individual investor decision making as well (Scott & Smith, 1992).
A survey of investors in 1973 confirmed that the quality of management, future
economic outlook of the company, and economic outlook of the company’s industry are
of “great importance” to investors, while other factors such as sales growth, corporate
reputation, and potential risk are of moderate importance (Baker & Haslem, 1973). More
contemporary studies point out that a modern form of reputation, corporate social
responsibility (CSR), is increasingly a consideration of individual investors (Hockerts &
Moir, 2004). That assertion comes from a survey of investor relations professionals,
however, not investors themselves.
Again, past deceptive and even illegal actions by corporate CEOs have
encouraged today’s investors to seek information about the character of a company’s
management. In a legal sense, even personal facts about a company’s executives may be
considered “material” for investors (Heminway, 2007). But even decades ago, an
investor’s willingness to buy stock in a company was influenced by information that led
to their trust in management (Roalman, 1974).
In addition to the specific contents of information individual investors seek, the
nature or quality of that information is also important. Mezick (2001) found that the
characteristics of information most valued by individual investors are accuracy,
39

eliability, and currency. Objective, timely, useful, and accessible information have also
been found to be key qualities of information investors seek (Scott & Smith, 1992).
Information Sources
The information used by investors has changed over the years. In a 1973 survey
more than 60 percent of investors surveyed indicated that stockbrokers or advisory
services were most important sources of investing information (Baker & Haslem, 1973).
In the same survey, newspapers and magazines, as well as friends or relatives, were also
mentioned, but rarely. Annual reports and company management were lumped in an
“other” category and ranked most important less than 5 percent of the time. The Investor
Relations Handbook published in the same era notes that few stockholders attended
annual meetings and that the annual report served merely as an assurance and not a
primary information source (Lewis, 1974; Muncaster, 1974).
Today, the array of information available to and sought by investors has
blossomed, and much of it comes from the directly from companies in the form of public
relations information. Information sources available to investors include: webcasts of
conference calls and annual meetings, web sites with special investor relations sections,
direct response to inquiries from individual investors, corporate profiles and other
supporting publications, annual reports, news releases and other information sent via
email that individual investors can subscribe to, news and features in the business and
financial media, and corporate advertising (Marcus, 2005).
The annual report is one of the primary tools of investor relations, but individual
investors’ perceptions of this tactic have been mixed. While investors indicated they
thought annual reports to be correct and complete, they also perceived them to have too
much promotional bias to be taken as objective information, and often found them hard to
understand (Scott & Smith, 1992). A more recent study found that investors consider
annual reports to be credible, but they are not sought out as quickly as other sources of
information, such as financial media or analyst reports or company Web sites, even
though Web sites are seen as less credible ("Annuals remain top info source: Investors
rate annual over financial media or analyst reports", 2000). This seeming disparity might
be explained by the fact that investors have also reported that convenience is the primary
reason they seek investing information online (Mezick, 2001).
The internet has made information for individual investors more accessible and
often free (Carlson, 2000). However, investment related information on corporate web
sites has been found to be outdated and therefore less useful to investors in many cases
(Ettredge & Gerdes, 2005). Perhaps because of this, there are many third-party web sites
about investing available to investors ("Special feature: Financial web sites--financial
web sites that can make ir life easier", 2000). The public’s general use of media—for
investing and other purposes—places company web sites low on the list. In one recent
survey, they were reported to be used a quarter of the time or less across age groups,
slightly higher than business news web sites but lower than cable television or local
newspapers (Media myths and realities: A public of one, 2008).
One study found a high correlation between investor relations professionals’ value
of retail investors and the amount of effort they spend trying to earn publicity in the mass
media (Laskin, 2006). However, the actual value of business media information for
making investment decisions has been questioned (Schuster, 2006).
40

Word of mouth information from family members, friends, and co-workers also
seems to be a source of information sought and used by individual investors. Some of this
word of mouth could be attributed to peer influence (Ivkovic & Weisbrenner, 2007) or
familiarity with a local company (Ivkovic & Weisbrenner, 2005), however, a rational
inclination to exploit local information in making investment decisions has also been
shown to be the case (Ivkovic & Weisbrenner, 2005). In a 2008 national survey of adult
Americans’ media use, advice from family and friends influenced the purchase of a stock
among 13 percent of respondents, and advice from a co-worker was influential among 5
percent. That compares with 6 percent and 7 percent for local newspapers and blogs,
respectively (Media myths and realities: A public of one, 2008).
Today’s individual investor has a range of sources from which to choose for
information. They also have a variety of needs with regard to the content and qualities of
that information. What is of interest is how these variables relate to one another.
Research questions
The topic of this study is individual investors’ preferred information sources. The
focus of the study will be on the individual investor who purchases his/her own stocks
directly in companies (as opposed to collectively in mutual funds, bonds and other
instruments.) An individual investor is distinct from an “institutional investor” who
invests on behalf of others collectively, such as a bank, corporate pension fund, mutual
fund company, etc. A focus on individual investors is important because for them the
investing decisions are more personally salient and because the information they consider
is focused on specific companies as opposed to aggregated information about mutual
funds.
In addition to the demographics and investing behaviors (trade frequency, risk
tolerance) of individual investors, several variables derived from the literature shaped the
research questions and hypotheses for this study. They include the various types,
qualities, and sources of information sought by individual investors when they are
making investing decisions.
There are several questions unanswered in the current literature on investor
relations related to these variables. The first have to do with whether or not individual
investors prefer investing information content, quality and sources in a statistically
different way based on various demographic characteristics:
RQ 1: Do preferences for content, qualities, and sources of investing information
vary by demographic characteristics of investors—age, gender, race, income?
RQ 2: Do preferences for content, qualities, and sources of investing information
vary by investor behavior, including the frequency with which investors trade
stock—buy and hold, quarterly balance, day-trader—and degree of risk
tolerance?
Another set of questions for this study is related to the relationship of the
independent variables—investing information content and qualities—with the dependent
variables—the sources of investing information.
41

RQ 3: To what extent are the types investing information sought associated with
the sources of information individual investors prefer?
RQ 4: To what extent are the qualities of investing information sought associated
with the sources of information individual investors prefer?
From these research questions and the literature, three hypotheses have been
derived for subsequent testing.
H1: The more that individual investors seek details about a company’s products
and management, the more likely they will consider information from a company
to be useful (as opposed to news media and individual sources).
H2: The more that individual investors seek investing information that has a
comprehensive quality, the more often they will consider information from
corporate information sources to be useful.
It is generally expected that the third-party objectivity of the news media would
make them a more preferred source than corporate public relations materials. However, it
is plausible that the angle of a news media story may be narrowly focused on one type of
information and that corporate communications provides more sought-after detail and
other types of information. This is likely especially true for investors, for whom a focus
on one particular type of content, e.g. financial performance, does not satisfy their
interest in other types of information, such as corporate reputation and details about
products and management mentioned above. Previous research has shown that investors
prefer to educate themselves using a variety of information (Mezick, 2001), which
specifically suggests H1. Furthermore, recent research has shown that individual
investors behave rationally and seek to exploit private information when buying stock
(Kaniel et al., 2008). Gaining a unique insight to exploit would necessarily require
information more comprehensive than what is commonly available in mainstream and
business news media, and this information is best available from an individual company,
which suggests H2. Neither Mezick nor Kaniel et. al. explored where investors got their
information, which is the contribution of this study.
H3: The more often individual investors seek investing information with the
qualities of being objective, credible, timely, easy to access, and brief/relevant,
the more often they will consider information from a media information source to
be useful.
One form of variance among individual investors is their investing strategy or the
degree of effort they put into the task. In other words, some investors are more actively
engaged in seeking information, studying opportunities, and making stock purchases than
others. Cameron (1992) tested the situational theory of publics—which segments active
and passive publics—in an investor relations context and found that “investors”
(undergraduates were subjects) who were more active and involved subjects processed
information more actively. While Cameron was interested in recall and recognition
42

effects, the study does suggest that investors could be passive and active in their handling
of investing information. Active investors would reasonably seek corporate-specific
information, but those who are more passive and seek ease of access to relevant and
credible stock information would understandably prefer the convenience and brevity of
news media sources. Similarly, Steul (1996) found that investors acting more intuitively
than analytically preferred information in an aggregated frame, which would be supplied
by news media sources covering multiple companies and their stocks. In contrast,
investors would have to be more analytical to do the extra work to seek information
directly from corporations.
Method
To address the research questions and hypotheses, a Web-based survey of
American individual stock investors was conducted using surveymonkey.com.
Sampling
It is estimated that there are 35 million individual investors in the United States
who purchase stocks outside employer-sponsored retirement plans ("Household
ownership of equities: 2005", 2005). There is no comprehensive sampling frame of
American individual investors accessible to the public for such a study. That is why
several of the studies mentioned in the literature review employed alternative sampling
methods. Mezick (2001) distributed a survey at an Investors’ Fair and had 96 usable
responses from 337 surveys distributed (29%). The survey reported by Hung (2008) used
the American Life Panel of households, which was not necessarily representative of
investors.
This study employed a sampling method using the cooperation of the American
Association of Individual Investors (AAII), which has 150,000 members, in order to
specifically target the population of interest. AAII sent an email invitation to take the
survey to every nth member on their list, yielding a sample of 8,000 names to receive an
email invitation to take the online survey. AAII only allowed one email appeal with no
follow-ups for a complete protocol. The initial email was sent in early February, 2009
and responses were collected for two weeks, until two days passed with no more
responses. It is important to note that market conditions at the time were volatile—the
Dow Jones Industrial Average was at a long-term low and had just started rebounding.
This may have made the survey more salient to investors who were solicited. On the
other hand, the dynamic market may also have made some more reticent. The response
rate was 5% (416 respondents), which means inferences cannot be made from the results.
However, the total number of responses, 416, was considerably more than in previous
studies such as the 2001 survey by Mezick with 96. Also, given the lack of previous
research focused on a sample of individual investors in particular, with questions focused
on their information preferences, the results of this study are useful for preliminary
considerations and suggesting future research.
Because the results of this study are suggestive, evaluation of the data focuses on
consideration of multiple regression equations that account for 10% or more of variance
in each research question and hypothesis. Even though this study has a non-probability
sample, values of 10 percent or more are indicative of reason for further study,
43

particularly because previous studies have not explored individual investors’ information
preferences.
Data were checked for assumptions of regression. With the exception of age and
the control variable hours/week spent seeking investing information, there were no
outliers more than three standard deviations beyond the mean for any variable. In these
cases the outliers were few—only two outliers for age and 10 for hours/week investing.
After changing those outliers to values within three standard deviations of the mean and
re-running regressions where age was a variable of interest, there was no improvement in
R 2 . Normality was checked by viewing the skewness and kurtosis statistics for each
variable to assess whether any values were extreme, meaning greater than +3 or -3. All
variables were satisfactory for skewness. Kurtosis was high for the type of information
variable “past performance” (3.195) and the quality of information variable “credible”
(3.644). Checking the means for these variables shows that a large majority of
respondents sought investing information with these characteristics “always.” Linearity
and homoscedasticity were checked by examining bivariate scatterplots. While the
assumption of homoscedasticity was satisfied, not all relationships between independent
and dependent variables were linear. In the case of race and gender this can be explained
by the fact that the sample is over 90% male and white. Household income was also not
linear with several dependent variables. Thus, analysis involving demographic variables
is weakened. Finally, data were checked for multicolinearity by checking tolerance
statistics. All variables had tolerance above .9, with the exception of age, which was .5.
Thus, analysis of regressions involving age as a variable may be weakened.
Analysis
All research questions and hypothesis were tested using multiple regressions to
control of other variables. Control variables for all regressions were amount invested,
years investing, hours per week seeking investing information, investing purpose (current
income or retirement), employment (full-time, part-time, retired), and self-reported
degree of knowledge about investing.
For demographic variables, age was an open response question, while gender,
race, and income were categorical response questions, with 9 income categories.
Investing information variables were operationalized using Likert-type scales asking the
estimated percentage of time investors seek certain types, qualities and sources of
information when they make investment decisions. Types of information variables were:
past performance, projected performance, stock price compared to benchmark, social
responsibility, products, and management. Qualities of information variables were:
comprehensive, objective, credible, timely, easy to access, and brief. Sources of
information variables were: annual report, conference call, annual meeting, news release,
advertising, analyst report, investing Web site, news media, and other investors. The
responses were: 0% of the time (never), 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% (always). Response
options for this study have been tested in cognitive interviews and respondents found a
percentage scale with given choices to be easiest to consider for response, as opposed to
filling in a percentage on a blank. Also, asking respondents about past behavior is more
predictive than asking what they will do in the future (Foddy, 1993). As for measuring
the perceived usefulness of a source, the Likert-type 5-response scale with 1 = “strongly
44

disagree” and 5 = “strongly agree was used and the variables were company, news
media, investment expert, and other investors.
Results
Descriptive Statistics
Respondents represent a variety of ages and income levels. In other demographic
categories the sample is less diverse. Respondents were 93.3% male and 93.5%
Caucasian. As for investor characteristics and behaviors, there is considerable dispersion
in terms of experience and engagement with investing. Respondents were mostly (60.2%)
“buy and hold” investors with a majority tolerant of moderate risk (64.4%) versus 26.9%
who are willing to take risks to maximize return and 8.7% who try to minimize risk.
Household income ranged evenly across 12 categories, with 20% of the sample reporting
incomes less than $100,000. Years of investing experience ranged from 1-50, with 30%
ranking their own investing expertise and knowledge as “average,” 57% “above
average”. All of this indicates the sample is highly engaged and thoughtful about
investing and therefore the survey questions should have been salient for them,
encouraging them to be thoughtful when answering. Table 1 summarizes descriptive
statistics for the variables of interest.
>>Insert Table 1 here

and investor behaviors explain very little of the variance in investor preferences for
investing information types, qualities, and sources. Thus no meaningful conclusions can
be made to answer RQ1 or RQ 2.
RQ 3 addressed the association between the seven investing information content
types with the nine sources of investing information. Regressions to address this question
were all significant, and seven of the nine regressions had R 2 values were larger than .1
(see Table 2). The types of content investors seek account for 22% of the variance in
seeking information from an annual report (F(13, 279) = 6.035, p < .01); 17% of the
variance in seeking information from the news media (F(13, 279) = 4.428, p < .01); 15%
of the variance in seeking information from an analyst report (F(13, 279) = 3.871, p <
.01); and 14% of the variance in seeking information from a conference call (F(13, 279)
= 3.552, p < .01) and a news release (F(13, 279) = 3.612, p < .01). Significant regression
equations were also found when associating types of content with an annual meeting
(F(13, 278) = 3.126, p < .01), R 2 = .128, and with corporate advertising (F(13, 277) =
2.975, p < .01), R 2 = .123.
Examination of part correlations provides some interesting answers to this
research question. Seeking information about a company’s management is the largest
portion (6.8%) of the 21.9% variance explaining when investors will seek information
from annual reports; 4.3% of the 14.2% variance explaining when investors seek
information from conference calls, and 6% of the 12.8% variance explaining their
seeking information from annual meetings. Investors seeking information about a
company’s products is more associated with their seeking information from news releases
(2% of 14.4% variance explained) and the news media (1.8% of the 17.1% variance
explained). However, projected performance is the variable explaining the largest part
(2.8%) of the total variance explaining when investors seek out the news media as a
source of investing information. Projected performance also appears to be the largest
predictor (6.7% of the 15.3% variance explained) of investors seeking analyst reports.
Seeking information regarding a company’s social responsibility accounts for most of the
variance (2.9% of the 12.3%) explaining considering information from advertising.
Investors’ concern with a company’s projected performance is more associated with their
seeking information from analysts (6.7% of the 15.3% variance explained in the
equation).
>>Insert Table 2 here

comprehensive information consult multiple sources, but the association with annual
reports and news releases is the strongest.
The first hypothesis (H1) suggested that the more often investors sought
information about a company’s products and management, the more often they would
consider information from the company to be useful. Results show that 14% of the
variance in finding company information useful can be explained by the type of
information sought (F(13,279) = 3.655, p < .01), R 2 = .146. The part correlations give
partial support to the hypothesis. Seeking management information provides the largest
relative contribution (4.5%) to the variance in finding company information useful.
However the part correlation for products is extremely low, explaining none of the
variance. Data related to all three hypotheses is summarized in Table 3.
>>Insert Table 3 here .05), R 2 = .069, meaning H2 is not supported.
H3 suggested that the more investors seek the other qualities of information—
objective, credible, timely, easy to access, and brief/relevant—the more they would seek
information from the news media. This hypothesis is also not supported. While the
regression is significant (F(12,282) = 2.664, p < .01) and the R 2 indicates 10% of the
variance in finding news media a useful source of investing information can be explained
by information qualities sought, the comprehensive quality has the highest part
correlation (.019). Once again, this likely merely means that seeking comprehensive
information is a predictor of investors seeking multiple sources of information and not
any one particular source.
Discussion
The results of this study, while suggestive and not inferential, provide useful input
for public relations and investor relations practitioners, as well as for public relations
scholars. The study confirms earlier research showing that investors use a variety of
available information to make investment decisions (Mezick, 2001), but suggests that this
is specifically the case when investors value information with a comprehensive quality.
This study also contributes to a clarification of earlier research indicating that
stockbrokers and analysts are the most important source of information (Baker &
Haslem, 1973) and that annual reports are less important to investors (Lewis, 1974; Scott
& Smith, 1992) by indicating possible associations between these sources of information
and specific types of information.
Most importantly, this study identifies some potential specific conditions
associated with investors seeking sources of information that would be considered public
relations content. Seeking comprehensive information is more strongly associated with
the PR tools of annual reports and news releases than other sources of information. This
validates public relations and investor relations communication as having value to a
specific set of individual investors.
47

Additionally, seeking corporate (i.e. public relations/investor relations) sources
appears to be associated with specific types of information needs. Investor interest in
information about management is associated with considering annual reports, conference
calls, and annual meetings; investors’ concern with social responsibility is associated
with considering advertising; interest in product information is associated with news
releases as well as the news media, which makes sense given that product news releases
are a source of information for the news media as well. Whereas earlier research
indicated that investors find annual reports correct and complete but also too promotional
(Scott & Smith, 1992), this study implies that the specific value of annual reports to
investors is the information about management and past performance. Meanwhile,
whereas studies in the 1970s indicated that analysts are the most important source of
investing information, this study indicates the use of analysts is most specifically
associated with investor interest in information about projected performance.
In summary, this study helps public relations practitioners and scholars alike to
understand which specific types of investing information in which specific channels
communicate most effectively with investors. It also provides some suggested evidence
that public relations communications content has as much or more value than information
from the news media or other sources in an investor relations context.
The study was limited by a small response rate, which biases data. Permission
was only given for a protocol including one appeal to respondents for this study. R 2
values were not high, likely because the scales were limited to only five intervals. Low
values may also indicate that there are other variables not accounted for in this study.
Future research efforts could seek to replicate this study with a longer, persistent
protocol in order to yield a higher response rate and larger sample. Scales could be
adjusted to create more variance in responses. Also, control variables could be tested as
variables of interest, and new variables could be considered to determine other factors
affecting the types, qualities and sources of investing information they seek.
References
A.A.I.I. (2008). American association of individual investors. Retrieved April 4, 2008,
from www.aaii.org
Annuals remain top info source: Investors rate annual over financial media or analyst
reports. (2000, April 3). Investor Relations Business, 1.
Baker, K. H., & Haslem, J. A. (1973). Information needs of individual investors. Journal
of Accountancy, 64-69.
Brijlal, P. (2007). Key changes in profile and characteristics of individual investors on the
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50

Appendix
Table 1
Descriptive Statistics
Variable N M sd
Demographics
Age 360 64.33 11.01
Income 1 335 6.76 2.248
Trade Frequency 2 377 1.56 .759
Risk Tolerance 3 379 1.82 .569
Information Types 4
Past performance 408 4.53 .878
Projected performance 409 4.30 .958
Position in industry 408 4.00 1.031
Stock price vs. benchmark 389 3.35 1.281
Social responsibility 401 2.11 1.155
Products/services 408 4.24 .973
Management 403 3.67 1.182
Information Qualities 4
Comprehensive 387 3.88 1.039
Objective 388 4.43 .802
Credible 389 4.59 .711
Timely 383 4.45 .760
Easy to Access 387 4.23 .906
Brief 383 3.95 1.033
Information Sources 4
Annual report 386 2.92 1.346
Conference call 383 1.67 .998
Annual meeting 382 1.55 .858
News releases 384 3.31 1.124
Advertising 379 1.69 .821
Analyst report 384 3.60 1.138
Investing Web site 381 3.87 1.117
News media 382 3.54 1.063
Other investors 378 2.05 1.067
Useful Source 5
Company 385 3.51 .866
Investment expert 385 3.86 .806
News media 386 3.24 .891
Other investors 383 2.97 1.001
Notes:
1
9 categories of $15K from 1=“less than $20K” to 9=“more than $125K”
2
Coded 1= buy/hold; 2=quarterly/annual rebalance; 3=weekly or daily
3
Coded 1= high, 2 = moderate, 3 = low
4 Coded 1 = 0% (Never), 2 = 25%, 3= 50%, 4= 75%, 5 = 100% (Always)
5
Coded 5- point scale with 1 = “strongly disagree” and 5 = “strongly agree
51

Table 2
Summary of Regression Analysis for Predicting Preferred Content Sources
Based on Preferred Content Types
(R-square values higher than .1 and highest part correlations in bold)
Part Correlations
DV Equation R 2 A B C D E F G
Annual F(13, 279) = 6.035, p < .01 .219 .016 .013 .012 .000 .000 .001 .068
report
Conference F(13, 279) = 3.552, p < .01 .142 .001 .000 .001 .002 .004 .001 .043
call
Annual F(13, 278) = 3.126, p < .01 .128 .000 .000 .002 .004 .021 .003 .060
meeting
News F(13, 279) = 3.612, p < .01 .144 .001 .004 .000 .000 .005 .020 .008
release
Advertising F(13, 277) = 2.975, p < .01 .123 .001 .001 .001 .000 .029 .001 .005
Analyst F(13, 279) = 3.871, p < .01 .153 .001 .067 .000 .006 .000 .000 .000
report
Investing F(13, 279) = 2.360, p < .01 .099 .003 .007 .000 .003 .002 .006 .009
Web site
Media F(13, 279) = 4.428, p < .01 .171 .005 .028 .004 .000 .003 .018 .000
Individual F(13, 278) = 2.184, p = .01 .093 .006 .025 .000 .002 .008 .009 .002
investor
A = past performance; B = projected performance; C = industry position; D = benchmark; E = social
responsibility; F = products; G = management
Table 3
Summary of Regression Analysis for Predicting Usefulness of Company or Media Source
Based on Preferred Content Types and Qualities
(R-square values higher than .1 and highest part correlations in bold)
Part Correlations
DV Equation R 2 A B C D E F G
Company F(13, 279) = 3.655, p < .01 .146 .017 .017 .006 .001 .003 .000 .045
a b c d e f
Company F(12, 280) = 1.724, p > .05 .069 .015 .005 .003 .003 .000 .005
Media F(12, 282) = 2.664, p < .01 .102 .019 .001 .005 .000 .001 .000
A = past performance; B = projected performance; C = industry position; D = benchmark; E = social
responsibility; F = products; G = management
a =comprehensive; b = objective; c = credible; d = timely; e = easy access; f = brief
52

Leadership Emphasis in Public Relations Degree Courses/Programs in the United
Kingdom vs. United States
Patrick K. O’Rourke and William J. Gonzenbach, Ph.D.
University of Alabama
pkorourke@ua.edu
gonzenbach@apr.ua.edu
Abstract
Study explores leadership emphasis in public relations pedagogy degree-granting
programs in the UK and USA utilizing grounded theory analysis interviewing academics
on leadership emphasis in public relations pedagogy. Interviews represent fourteen
different institutions, or 60.87%, of CIPR-certified public relations degree-granting
programs in the UK, and eighteen institutions in certified programs in the USA. Study
explores understanding, values, attitudes, opinions, importance, curriculum
developments, dimensions of excellence, and current pedagogical approaches to
leadership in public relations pedagogy.
Introduction
Over the last 30 years, one prominent theory still serves as a foundation for the
study and practice of public relations. The work of Grunig (1992) has come to be
commonly known as the excellence theory, or the excellence study. It has expanded to
encompass numerous iterations, and has embraced praise, and endured criticism, in its
process of attempting to inform the practice, and illuminate the study, of public relations.
Although it could be said that the excellence theory has withstood the test of time
and provides a strong foundation for the practice of public relations, it seems to lack a
tool that could not just transform the theory, but transmute the practice of public
relations. Proper integration and practice of leadership at the senior management level in
public relations could provide this transformational power. Grunig (1992) addressed
leadership in The Excellence Study as number five of twelve excellence attributes,
“Leadership that transforms rather than transacts with a vision and direction” (Lee, Jares,
& Heath, 1999, p. 250), thus the study certainly advocates for, and places emphasis on,
the practice of transformational leadership in public relations.
This study sets out to provide an understanding of the extent to which leadership
is being taught as an integral part of public relations curriculum, and the degree of focus,
emphasis, and importance that is placed upon leadership training in public relations
degree granting courses and programs in the UK and USA. Although little was found in
the way of specific research on leadership in public relations, as evidenced in an earlier
study by O’Rourke (2007), “numerous studies led to the discovery of several key themes”
(pp. 28-29). These emergent themes form the basis for supporting advocacy for more
focus on leadership in the education of future public relations professionals, and advocate
for the incorporation of more training in leadership skills to prepare undergraduate and
graduate degree-seeking students in being equipped to practice these skills in businesses,
organizations, and institutions throughout the UK and USA.
53

Literature Review
“The study on excellence in public relations management surely ranks as the most
comprehensive compilation of benchmark information that the public relations industry
has ever enjoyed” (Wakefield, 2006, p. 545). The benchmark data provide support for
the excellence theory and helps in understanding the broad umbrella that has unfolded in
illuminating the management of the public relations function within all types of
organizations that practice public relations.
Leadership in public relations
Much of the foundational literature can be traced to The Excellence Study,
wherein Grunig (1992) defined twelve “excellent” attributes that are typically exhibited
by organizations that are practicing “excellence” in public relations. These attributes
have formed the basis for much of the research that followed. This study focuses on
attribute number five on Grunig’s (1992) list, “Leadership that transforms rather than
transacts with a vision and direction” (Lee et al., 1999, p. 250) and how leadership is
incorporated into the educational curriculum, thus providing the foundational knowledge
for application of leadership skills in practice.
Previous studies: public relations practitioners – managers/technicians
Upon systematic review of public relations focused articles including some
element of leadership, it appears that top managers in the public relations role are
predominantly acting as manager/technicians, in performing their role as director of the
public relations technical operational unit. Until such time as these
managers/practitioners begin practicing leadership within their management function,
they, and the public relations role, seem destined to be relegated to a technician function,
or subordinate department, of the organization.
Grunig (2006) contended that “It is possible to manage processes but not
outcomes. The best we can do is influence outcomes by managing processes” (p. 167).
By maintaining a focus on process and not on outcome, the technicians, and the manager
of a technician-oriented public relations department, remain mired in the daily work of
their department. In the verbal phrase made famous by Gerber (1997), in many instances,
it appears as though public relations technicians and managers are just “Doing it, doing it,
doing it.” Kent & Taylor (2007), in their work indicating “definitionally, the technical
term ‘excellence’ (as per the excellence scholarship) has characterized public relations as
a management function, rather than being about ‘negotiating relationships,’ etc.” (p. 13).
What is needed in order to overcome this relegation of their role to a predominantly
management/technical function?
Leadership theories, like theories of public relations, are often broadly-applied.
Often leadership is confused with management, while these are two quite different
concepts and practices.
A manager is appointed by the organization and is given formal authority to direct
the activity of others in fulfilling organizational goals. A leader is a person who
influences others because they willingly do what he, or she, requests. A leader
can be appointed formally by an organization, or may emerge informally as ‘the
people’s choice.’ (Armandi, Oppedisano, & Sherman, 2003, p. 1076)
54

These distinctions between managers and leaders are further defined by Smith (2003)
“The difference between leadership and management is that managers deal in efficiency
and leaders in effectiveness, or, managers are satisfied when things go smoothly, and
leaders are dissatisfied when things do not change for the better” (p. 50). Smith (2003)
further elucidates these differences describing that “leaders focus on doing the right
things, thinking-through and determination of the specifications themselves; knowing
where to make the specifications tight and where to make them loose; being hungry to
change for the better, seeking substantive, quantum-leap improvement” (p. 51). The
distinctions in management work versus the work of a leader become more important.
Thus, in striving for excellence in public relations practice, is more focus needed on
making changes for the better?
Northhouse (2004) goes on to indicate, “The overriding function of management
is to provide order and consistency to organizations, whereas the primary function of
leadership is to produce change and movement” (p. 8). Management is about seeking
order and stability; whereas leadership is about seeking adaptive and constructive change
(Northouse, 2004). When senior management public relations practitioners can embrace
adaptive and constructive change, it will transform public relations from the important
technical functions it performs, and ingratiate itself into the realm of co-leadership with
an esteemed seat at the table of power within the organization in which it operates.
Leadership in public relations
Vasquez & Taylor (2000), in their advocacy of public relations practitioners being
included in the dominant coalition, indicate that such practitioners will have a more direct
effect on “(a) the assumptions of public relations; (b) the identification of key
constituencies of the organization; and (c) the type of communication and models of
public relations practiced by the organization” (p. 435). This process is further enhanced
by the key public relations manager becoming a respected leader within the dominant
power structure of the organization, and being included in the strategic management
decisions that are typically made at the executive management level. As Gower (2006)
indicated, “the public relations practitioner must be part of, or have access to, the
organization’s dominant coalition, or decision-making body” (p. 178). Thus, this study is
a search to discover how prepared public relations students are to assume the leadership
roles that are required in order to serve in these capacities in practice.
A problem appears in that “even senior managers appear to spend relatively little
time on planning and abstract formulation and are subject to constant interruption, flit
from topic to topic and respond to initiatives from others far more than they initiate
themselves” (Moss & Green, 2001, p. 125). Does this detract from the more important
strategic work in their areas of responsibility? “There is a need for someone reporting
directly to the CEO who has the responsibility for monitoring the reputation of the
business. This person must warrant equal status to the Marketing Director, and not be
subsumed into marketing” (Murray & White, 2005, p. 352). This statement points to the
trend of having public relations management report to the marketing department, and the
fact that this reporting relationship may not be the best holistic solution for an
organization. Murray & White (2005) further elucidate this in indicating, “good public
relations should be a coaching and advisory service to top management, but in this much
depends on the caliber of practitioners and their strengths, in combination with the people
55

in leadership” (pp. 352-353). Would learning good leadership skills help in this
transition to enable future degreed public relations professionals to be included as such
trusted advisors?
According to Reber and Berger (2006), “Membership in the dominant coalition is
not a right, but an invitation that is earned every day” (p. 235). They go on to indicate
that influence involves helping shape organizational decisions and actions, utilizing the
art of persuasion, and necessitates that the practitioner have the attention of senior
management (Reber & Berger, 2006). Would utilizing and practicing leadership
strategies, techniques, and practices serve to expedite this quest for the acquisition of
influence?
Another recurrent theme has emerged relative to leadership in public relations.
This theme is particularly well defined by McLaughlin (2002) wherein it is indicated,
“Practitioners need to see their future as being part of the leadership team within
organizations, and therefore need to move beyond technical competencies and focus on
developing leadership skills” (p. 113). This theme reiterates the need for leadership
beyond the technical excellence of public relations work. As evidenced by this, and other
articles (mentioned above), the focus appears to point to the need for managers to
embrace the principles and practice of leadership.
“Being an effective leader consists of answers such as being inspirational,
motivational, and a thought leader, whereas being proactive refers to working hard, being
opportunistic, and taking initiative” (Berger, Reber, & Heyman, 2007, p. 59). Berger,
Reber & Heyman (2007), also indicated, “Successful leaders shape organizational culture
by articulating visions, implanting values, defining mission statements, and inspiring and
empowering others” (p. 55). So the question becomes, how prepared are public relations
students to assume these leadership roles?
Leadership in organizations and businesses
The definition of leadership is aided by Harris and Nelson (2008), who begin their
discussion of leadership by looking at seven leadership concepts –“vision, willing
followers, influence, emotional intelligence, information seeking, situational adaptability,
and communication” (pp. 340-341). While there are literally hundreds of definitions of
leadership, they can generally be classified into three broad categories: those which
describe leadership as residing in the individual-a trait, personality characteristic, or
behavioral skill; those which focus on the relationship between leaders and followers; and
those that emphasize the situation in which leaders and followers find themselves
(Hillman & Smith, 1981). This last category, often referred to as situational leadership, is
brought into better focus with Harris and Nelson’s (2008) description: “The activity
called leadership is defined by what an individual does in context of the situation. A war
hero may fail miserably in running a local bakery” (p. 342). Thus, situational leadership
can be important when looking at how leadership is communicated and conveyed within
a public relations organizational context.
Transformational leadership was one of the most popular leadership theories
being promoted in the early 1990s, and is likely what Grunig (1992) was referencing
when developing and expressing The Excellence Theory of public relations.
Transformational leadership includes the following: idealized influence or
charisma (“uses symbols and images to get his/her ideas across”), inspirational
56

leadership (“provides a vision of what lies ahead”), intellectual stimulation
(“provides reasons to change my way of thinking about problems”), and
individualized consideration (“spends time coaching me”). (Avolio, Howell, &
Sosik, 1999, p. 221)
Transformational leadership is also better understood knowing that “transformational
leaders motivate followers to achieve high levels of performance by transforming
followers’ attitudes, beliefs, and values, as opposed to simply gaining confidence” (Bass,
as cited in Rafferty & Griffin, 2006, p. 38). The proper employment and practice of
transformational leadership can in and of itself lead to excellence in practice.
This literature review highlights the importance that other researchers place on
leadership in public relations practice, and elucidates some of the key leadership styles
utilized in organizations. It also supports the value of leadership and its application to
public relations practice. The key questions become how do public relations degreegranting
institutions teach leadership, and how are leadership skills and values
transmuted into future public relations and organizational leadership in practice?; What is
the current baseline focus and emphasis on leadership training in public relations
educational programs?; and how can this research data support advocacy for greater focus
on leadership as an integral part of the pedagogy of public relations education?
Research Questions
Four basic categories of research questions were addressed in an attempt to
measure the degree of focus on leadership in the pedagogy of public relations degree
courses/programs in the United Kingdom and United States, and looking at leadership in
public relations and how it is viewed by faculty members, lecturers, and researchers in
both countries; discovering leadership utilization in current curriculum, and pedagogical
approaches to teaching leadership in public relations; and looking at dimensions of
excellence in leadership in public relations.
(RQ1) How much value is placed upon leadership training in current public
relations pedagogy?
(RQ2a.) What are the attitudes and opinions of faculty in regards to leadership
training in public relations degree-granting institutions? (RQ2b.) What is their
understanding of leadership and its level of importance in the public relations
curriculum?
(RQ3a.) What are the current leadership training curriculum developments in
public relations degree-granting programs?; and, (RQ3b.) What are the current
pedagogical approaches to leadership values and skills in public relations degree-granting
institutions?
(RQ4) What are current dimensions of excellence in leadership in public
relations? This question encompasses such questions as how leadership is best defined,
and what are some of the core values and skills necessary to help define excellence in
leadership?
Methods
At the onset of this study in late March 2008, the United Kingdom had twentythree
different educational institutions (including one in the Republic of Ireland) with
public relations degree-granting courses approved by the Chartered Institute of Public
57

Relations (CIPR) (CIPR, 2008). Researchers attempted to do in-person, videotaped,
qualitative interviews encompassing the entire population of institutions from late Jun
through early August 2008 by contacting individuals via e-mail and telephone at all
twenty-three institutions to arrange in-person interviews. This study includes interviews
with twenty individuals representing fourteen different institutions, or 60.87% of the
entire institutional population of CIPR-approved public relations degree-granting
programs, in the UK.
As of August 2008, there were one-hundred and twelve educational institutions
with journalism and mass communications departments/colleges certified by the
Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC)
(ACEJMC, 2008), and nineteen public relations degree-granting programs certified by
the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) (Public Relations Society of America,
2008). Researchers completed twenty-one in-person (plus one via telephone) for a total
of twenty-two, videotaped, qualitative US interviews, (including interviews with fourteen
public relations faculty/lecturer/researcher participants, representing eleven ACEJMC
institutions, and with another eight faculty/lecturer/researcher participants, representing
seven PRSA-certified institutions. Geographically, these institutions were located
throughout the Eastern, Southern and Midwestern USA, with the highest concentration
being from the Midwest.
Participants from both ACEJMC and PRSA populations were solicited via
telephone and e-mail, with the vast majority of the ACEJMC participants being public
relations division members, from various regions throughout the USA, who were
attending the AEJMC annual convention in Chicago in August 2008, and with the PRSA
participants being from institutions in four Midwestern states, who participated in oncampus
interviews in September 2008.
The individual qualitative participant interviews ranged in length from
approximately forty-five minutes to over two hours, with the mean average interview
length of approximately one hour, eight minutes. The main criteria for inclusion in the
study was that each participant must be actively employed (or emeritus) in teaching
public relations within one, or more, of the CIPR, ACEJMC, and/or PRSA-approved
institutions.
Qualitative interviews were chosen to provide in-depth responses and explore in
more detail the opinions, attitudes, thoughts and particulars of public relations leadership
as expressed by academics regarding how leadership is taught, and how leadership skills
are obtained via public relations degree courses/programs in the UK.
Grounded theory analysis was chosen to provide a method and strategy for the
expeditious and flexible focusing of the qualitative data collection and analysis, and as
indicated by Charmaz (2006), “Grounded theorists evaluate the fit between their initial
research interests and their emerging data … [and] do not force preconceived ideas and
theories directly upon…[the] data. Rather …[they] follow leads that … [they] define in
the data or design another way of collecting data to pursue our initial interests” (p. 17).
The resultant data was analyzed and is presented having looked at individual interviews
to discover emergent themes. These themes are reported and supported via quotations
from various research participants. Coded initials identify the quotations, in order to
protect the identity of individual participants.
58

Although the researchers are US-based, it is important to note that the findings in
the UK-portion of the report reflect common usage of the following words in British
“King’s English,” versus American English, in word use and meanings. Such usage as:
tick versus check; module versus class, course, or seminar; and course versus program, as
in your degree-granting course versus degree-granting program in public relations, are
reflected in their Kings’ English versus American English versions, respectively.
During the qualitative interview process, a structured protocol was utilized to help
provide some standardization in the responses and to facilitate the grounded theory
analysis. This protocol included questions grouped into categories to better facilitate
answers to the larger research questions. Additional data was collected, though not
particularly germane to this study, to maximize data collection expense, and hopefully to
utilize as a baseline for future studies.
The first ten questions pertained to details regarding the public relations degree
course/program in each respondent’s institution. The second twelve questions pertained
to the respondent’s demographic information. The next seven questions pertained to
ascertaining the respondent’s degree of importance placed upon leadership training in
public relations. The next six questions attempted to measure what leadership in public
relations looks like, in the respondent’s opinion. The next seven questions pertained to
respondent’s awareness of curriculum developments in, and pedagogical approaches to,
leadership values and skills. The last seven questions attempted to get a broader
understanding of respondent’s understanding and knowledge of leadership in various
public relations-related contexts.
Results
RQ1: – The first research question asked, what is the level of focus/importance
that is currently placed on the inclusion of leadership training in public relations
pedagogy? This question can best be answered looking at the level of importance
academics feel is placed upon including leadership training in their public relations
modules and courses, and in the various ways in which leadership training is translated
via the public relations pedagogy.
A majority of the participants felt that it was very important to include
components of leadership training in the pedagogy of public relations. “We don’t cover
it in much depth, but feel that it is very important” (J.J.), “leadership is more relevant at
the post-graduate level” (M.D.), and “it is absolutely crucial that leadership components
be included in the PR curriculum” (O.S.) create a recurring theme throughout discussions
with UK academics. Some responses from US academics included: “When you broaden
the definition of leadership, we put a very high premium on it” (S.D.); “Training people
not just to be entry-level technicians, but training them to think as if they are in charge is
extremely important” (W.B.); and “It’s very important!” (H.R.).
Prevalent among the vast majority of the interviewees, was that leadership is not
explicitly taught in the public relations modules, but that it was implicit to many of the
modules and programs. Several individuals mirrored the response of L.D. in indicating
that “leadership is more implicit versus explicit,” Y.P. “We don’t explicitly do it (teach
leadership),” and “It is not something explicitly talked about, but it seems to be implicit
in the program (L.D.). “Leadership is imbedded within the curriculum” (E.P.), further
sums up this significant finding. Across the Atlantic, the situation is much the same with
59

the general consensus being that there are not separate classes, per se, but that elements
of leadership come through management courses at the upper undergraduate and graduate
level. “Not separate but taught via the PR Management course” (H.R.); and “we bring in
key PR folks for fireside chats, and these leaders reinforce what we have said as
instructors” (N.B.). Thus, leadership in public relations, at least on the surface, is rare to
find by that name, and one must dig deeper to discover how leadership is taught in public
relations pedagogy. In the words of W.T., “The word leadership isn’t specifically used in
looking at leadership in PR.”
A significant majority felt that it was in doing group work, and team work, that
leadership most often emerged. Highlighted by comments such as: “It is important that
students have training in leadership via teamwork, and knowing how to relate to a team
leader” (H.C.); “group work, and doing a 360 degree appraisal process, is vital” (L.Q.);
“we expect people to be able to motivate and drive teams, and motivate the CEO” (Y.P.);
“The students get many elements of leadership via group work” (W.B.), thus, teamwork
is one of the predominant ways in which leadership flows throughout public relations
pedagogy in both the USA and UK. Teamwork opportunities in group work, team
campaign developments, and student-run agencies all provide opportunities for students
to experience, practice, and hone their leadership skills.
Public relations leadership frequently surfaces in advanced-level modules dealing
with strategic management. “Strategic Communications Management has closely allied
skills of leadership” (M.D.); “they (students) further develop leadership at Masters level
in strategic programs” (J.J.); and “PR is part of a long-term management discipline that is
done strategically” (E.H.), are ways in which leadership is taught in these upper-level
modules focusing on strategic management and typically during the third or fourth year
of an undergraduate program. It is in these modules where leadership is most likely to be
discovered, and/or taught explicitly: “strategic PR has some emphasis on leadership”
(W.J.), and “leadership is referred to on the academic level in management modules”
(G.J.).
There are several universities in the UK that acknowledge that their purpose is
really to train students for their first job in public relations. In these institutions, when
discussing leadership in public relations pedagogy, it was common to hear comments like
“at XXX, we are really training for entry-level jobs” (L.Q.), and “(regarding leadership)
very little emphasis is placed on it at XXX, we are more entry level” (Y.P.). Some
elements of leadership did flow through these courses, but it appeared to be less prevalent
than those institutions that did not particularly highlight this as their primary educational
role in teaching public relations and corporate communications. The US academics were
less forthright in admitting that they are just training for the entry level; most seemed to
indicate that they really are teaching elements of leadership at the upper levels of their
programs, at minimum in a senior capstone course: “We do a capstone course, and run a
student agency as part of this capstone” (S.O.)
RQ2: – The second research question asked: a.) What are the attitudes and
opinions of faculty, lecturers, and researchers in regards to leadership training in public
relations degree-granting institutions? And, b.) What is their understanding of leadership,
and its level of importance, in the public relations curriculum?
The exploration of these questions included asking the participants who they
viewed as exemplars of leadership in public relations, either from academia, or from
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practice. This particular question resulted in the mention of a good number of individuals
seen as leaders in public relations. Common names appeared on this list in both
academic and practice categories. These individuals included historical and living
legends of public relations practice in the UK & US, local area leaders in both UK & US
near to where academics were teaching, as well as many top academics that were
repeatedly mentioned from both sides of the Atlantic. The public relations academics
mentioned included a handful of recurring names that appear to be leading academic
research and teaching in the UK & USA, and leading PR legends in both the USA & UK,
several of which are included as research participants in this study.
More germane to this study is why these individuals were viewed as leaders. This
led to the question of what criteria the participants utilized in identifying these exemplars
of leadership in public relations. Responses ran the gambit from relatively short, but
clear, responses such as “Success in leadership…they have established and led successful
companies” (L.Q.); “Effective communicator at all levels, good with activists and
consumers” (S.C.); and “They understand what it means for an organization to continue
to earn its franchise to operate in society” (H.R.), to “output, someone actually producing
original work that moves the body of knowledge along…someone who sticks their neck
out, stands out and is willing to be counted” (O.S.); “vision and ability to see direction
and motivate and lead their people in the right direction. Leaders are people who inspire
and provide direction and motivate, and when necessary, control. They inspire others to
follow them. They rule by examples” (M.D.); and “In PR you need to have people
willing to take a stand on unpopular viewpoints even to your internal leader/CEO” (S.D.).
Charisma was often mentioned by the participants, not particularly as the primary
trait seen in leadership, but more as a part of a list of other characteristics. “Experience,
knowledge, individual charisma” (G.J.), and “Most (leaders) had a vision, view of where
the industry was going, personal charm/charisma, reasonable, fair ethical people, who set
out to create theory, make change, create organizations, create conferences, deliver
results, and take people with them” (W.T.). It was interesting that the US participants did
not talk about leadership in the sense of trait characteristics as prevalently as did
academics in the UK.
All of these traits are eclipsed by the most recurrent and common theme to public
relations leadership: being a good communicator. “Ability to communicate” (Y.P.);
“Good communicator, good listener” (W.J.); “effective communicator at all levels”
(S.C.); and “communicate well the benefits and possibilities” (J.J.), all serve to highlight
the foundation that being a good communicator is vital to being a good leader. There was
also emphasis on overall competence and trustworthiness of the PR leader. “#1 is that
they are competent, trustworthy…most of the world’s problems are caused by sincere
fools” (S.D.)
There appears to be a dearth of case studies specific to public relations that depict
good examples of leadership. “Not many case studies written on how to develop good
leadership (in PR)” (M.D.), and “no good case studies come to mind” (W.J.), are just a
couple of examples that highlight the lack of good case study resources specific to public
relations and corporate communications leadership. Many participants simply said “No, I
can’t think of any.” Several did mention, however, the excellent case study resources
available via both the Institute of Public Relations Association (IPRA), and the CIPR.
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The Tylenol, Johnson and Johnson, case study was frequently cited as a classic
case, that would implicitly infer good leadership in management in a crises situation.
Other lesser known case studies were mentioned as possible candidates containing
elements of leadership, including “Dibden Bay Residents Association” (L.D.); “British
Midland Airways crash over the M1 Motorway” (M.D.); “The 5 th guy campaign from the
Florida Department of Health” (S.D.); “21 days at Edison” (H.R.); and “some examples
of case histories in a book titled From John Paul to St. Jack, by Francis McCarty” (G.J.).
From the majority of interviews though, it appears that there is considerable opportunity
for additional case study development in this area of scholarship.
An even more poignant finding was in the area of textbooks, articles, and other
resources, specifically containing some element of leadership. While just two pages in
Tench and Yeoman’s (2006) textbook titled Exploring Public Relations and dealing with
“leadership and strategic change” (pp. 345-346) were frequently mentioned, the vast
majority of participants were hard-pressed to think of any other public relations texts
specific to leadership, and this finding was the same on both sides of the Atlantic.
Frequently mentioned were comments such as “No, not aware of any textbooks, or
section” (W.T.), “No, not aware of any” (J.J.), “None come to mind” (H.C.), “Not within
the literature of PR” (E.P.), “In the Compendium of Public Relations there are no sections
or chapters on leadership in public relations, the word leadership only appears on four
pages, per the index” (S.D.), and “there really are not that many PR texts around that
cover strategic leadership in PR” (W.S.). This may further signify opportunities for
scholarship development in this area, and its importance is highlighted by “a PR
leadership book could be very helpful in lifting the level of reputation of PR leadership”
(O.S.).
The majority of those that are explicitly teaching elements of leadership in public
relations within their modules and course programs are thus borrowing heavily from the
business literature of leadership: “We look at communication models, but encourage
people to look outside of the public relations field for leadership materials” (L.Q.) .
There was some recurring mention of some of the work by Jacquie L’Etang at Sterling
University, but one participant indicated that you would not find explicit mention of
leadership (per se) “you can’t expect to see leadership there…more in a business model”
(Y.P.). In the US, “Some of the work of Reber and Berger” (H.R.) was mentioned as
being good for elements of leadership in public relations.
Participants were asked to describe the characteristics of an ideal leader in public
relations. This resulted in numerous characteristics being listed, but the most prevalent
were: (a) communications ability, (b) ethical behavior, (c) competence and
understanding, both within and beyond their area of expertise.
Communications ability included “understands communication process; empathy
with and understanding of the people” (M.D.), “communication ability and ability to
motivate and inspire trust” (J.J.), “PR is a philosophy, an ideal about communication”
(O.S.), “can present clear messages to a diverse public” (H.C.), “ability to engage with
others” (W.T.), “a leader needs to be good with people” (S.C.), all of which deal with
expertise in communication. While these traits were often woven in with other leadership
traits and abilities, this indicates that first, and foremost, a leader needs to practice
excellence in communication skills, particularly in relating to others on an interpersonal
level.
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Ethical behavior goes hand-in-hand with good leadership is aptly depicted by
“Role models will always act ethically and be successful” (L.Q.), and leaders “need to be
honest, open, and trustworthy” (W.S.). But there does appear to be a thread of concern
regarding this ability to maintain good ethics: “It is very hard to be ethical these
days…decision making gets more and more complex” (O.S.) and “Don’t try to be
manipulative” (O.S.). Thus, good leaders can be synonymous with good ethics, but it
may require a constant evaluation of the right course to take the higher moral ground.
Skill and ability in the technical work, good grounding in the basics, and
knowledge and experience in utilizing good management practices, are all part of an
important foundation of being a good leader in public relations. “Management
competence and excellence and the ability to manage people” (M.D.), “being a good
practitioner, and having achieved knowledge of the specific craft of public relations”
(E.P.), “technical skills important” (W.T.), all point to this necessity to have a good
grounding in the basics of both technical skills and management techniques. But this
skill and competence needs to go beyond just the practice of public relations to being
someone who “has a wide range of experience beyond a particular specialty” (G.J.),
having the “ability to have an overview which is well-balanced” (W.T.), and “being
someone who is well read, not just in their area (of expertise) but in the wider world”
(H.C.).
(RQ3) (a.) What are the current leadership training curriculum developments in
public relations degree-granting programs?; and, (b.) What are the current pedagogical
approaches to leadership values and skills in public relations degree-granting institutions?
To answer these questions is was necessary to first assess if leadership values and
skills can be taught. The responses to this question can be categorized into three areas:
Yes, but; No; and Yes, maybe. Some strong support in the “yes, but” category is
evidenced by “Yes, can be taught, but combination of things learned inside and outside of
the program” (W.J.), “elements of leadership can be taught…learning to listen to the
voices of others, absorb and diffuse” (W.T.), “Yes, but need to be taught in a cultural
context” (O.S.), and “Yes, but there are some people who are fundamentally better at it
than others” (S.D.), all serve as qualifying “Yes” answers.
A smaller minority of participants did not believe that leadership skills could be
taught. The “No” category included responses such as “No, you are either that character,
or not” (H.C.), “I don’t think leadership skills can be taught” (G.J.), and “Leadership
skills like communication skills…don’t believe you can turn someone into a leader, if not
there to start with, can’t help a great deal” (Y.P.). This contrasts somewhat with the next
category called “Yes, maybe.”
The “Yes, maybe’s” can be characterized by comments that indicated that
leadership could be taught, but that contained some qualifiers including “Some people it
comes easier to” (J.J.), “You can train them in communication leadership, but much of it
does come from within” (L.D.), “You can learn them and hone them and develop them,
but you need to actually experience them in practice” (H.R.), “Yes, sure they can be
taught…universities may not be the best place to teach them, though” (E.P.), and
“Difficult to say!” Given this range of responses, the prevalence is that leadership skills
and values can be taught, but there may be many other factors that will come into play as
to how effectively these skills and values can be learned.
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How do students learn leadership? Teamwork, teamwork, and more teamwork,
appears to be the number one way in which most educators feel that leadership flows
through the public relations pedagogy. Several examples include “within team settings
some leaders emerge” (W.S.), “group work and examining the dynamics of group
processes…leaders emerge” (Y.P.), “It is much more about team, and less about running
something” (G.J.), “each individual student reflects upon his or her experience in team
and linked to theory” (S.C.), and “it seems like group work is the main thing that comes
through, sometimes leaders come though” (L.D.). In the US, PRSSA was repeatedly
mentioned as an excellent way in which leadership was “learned” by participants.
“PRSSA students who step forward are recognized as leaders” (H.R.). Thus, teamwork
appears again as the predominant way that leadership is experienced in public relations
degree courses.
It is also important to mention that many see leadership being experienced by
introducing guest lecturers into the modules. This is aptly portrayed by “(students) see
leadership via role models, more from flesh and blood leaders that come to guest lecture.
The person who is in front of you, that is the person you want to listen to…learning PR
requires more than one voice!” (G.J.), “In classes many guest lecturers come in…also via
the student chapter (PRSSA) and this gives students opportunities to experience
leadership (S.D.), and “The people who come to speak really help to show leadership in
practice” (W.S.). Other programs emphasize the mentoring aspect that can occur wherein
students agree to help mentor less experienced students, and those from other countries,
“can use the international dimension to mentor international students, can develop their
own leadership…will help them to take responsibility and mentor someone else” (S.C.),
and “they do a course rep leadership and mentorship of other students” (J.J.). These
experiences thus appear to provide leadership opportunities for these mentors.
(RQ4) What are current dimensions of excellence in leadership in public
relations? This question encompasses such questions as how leadership is best defined,
and what are some of the core values and skills necessary to help define excellence in
leadership?
Leadership is defined in numerous ways by the participants in this study. It was
the authors’ intention to not attempt to operationally define leadership in public relations
in advance of the study, but rather to allow the definition to unfold, amongst the
participants. What follows are just a few of the more succinct definitions: “Ethical
behavior, successful communication, successful teamwork” (M.D.), “Having the vision,
drive, determination, and ability to get support” (J.J.), “Effective design, communication,
and management of creative and strategic ideas” (H.C.), “Reputation management, being
proactive in reputation management” (W.J.), “Multi-cultural, global, network well, not
just talking but taking action, working with the unknown, being creative, spontaneous”
(N.B.), and “The ability to make one’s voce heard and attended to. It is worthwhile
paying attention to this person” (G.J.). Many of the responses to this definition are either
encompassed in these phrases, or expand upon these with more specific leadership traits
and adjectives.
Core traits and skills for excellence in leadership include: “Listening is a very
important factor…you must know the objectives of the people who work for you. You
must understand what people’s objectives are” (M.D.), and “Integrity and clarity of
purpose…understanding what the organization and individual is trying to do” (Y.P.).
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These traits also encompass ethics. As indicated earlier in these findings, ethics run
throughout the definitions and show that they are key to excellence in public relations.
Discussion and Summary
Looking forward, one participant summed up well what some of the greatest
opportunities are in teaching public relations: “It is the explosion and moving target of
the new technologies. Understanding social media, PDA’s, mobile media, how to stay on
top of narrow-casting and manage it, and how do you deal with the glut of information
oversupply?” (S.D.).
Taking an active advocacy approach supporting continued emphasis on leadership
training in public relations at both the upper level undergraduate and graduate levels,
seems vitally important in helping to advance the status of public relations and its
practitioners both within and outside of the organizations where practitioners work. This
advocacy needs to start with students and their public relations training. The findings
from this study serve to provide more empirical support for this advocacy. Raising the
awareness of the importance of leadership training in public relations, and thus hopefully
enabling more focus to be placed on leadership training in public relations pedagogical
programs, will indirectly enhance the utilization of leadership and excellence in
leadership practice in public relations.
Assuming one can agree that leadership principles and practices are an important
element that should be better integrated into public relations practice, the logical place to
start would be to integrate leadership training into the education of public relations
students, particularly at the upper-level undergraduate and graduate levels. Such training
needs to encompass active learning of leadership skills, employing case learning, and
leader mentorship development to be effective in addition to traditional “book-learning.”
With existing public relations professionals, “leadership development requires a syllabus,
composed around the current and future strategic challenges of the organization” (Smith,
2003, p. 51).
The qualitative interviews have identified opinions and point to some trends as
regards inclusion of leadership training in public relations. These in-depth qualitative
interviews also provide testimonial exemplars, which are of a personal nature, involving
first-hand information from participants involved in teaching and research in public
relations degree programs, and thus include those personally affected by the inclusion, or
the lack thereof, of leadership training in these programs (Perry & Gonzenbach., 2000).
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67

An Empirical Test of the Technology Image Expectancy Gap
Dean Kazoleas, Ph.D., APR, and Jeffrey Brody
California State University, Fullerton
dkazoleas@fullerton.edu
Abstract
This paper forwards an empirical test of the Kazoleas & Teigen’s Technology-Image
Expectancy Gap (TIEG) theory (2006). This new public relations theory identifies a
process by the advertising and marketing of technology, and attempts by organizations to
build their technological abilities into their image enhancement strategies combine to
create unrealistic expectations about the safety, performance, or quality of
products/services. These unrealistic stakeholder expectations often lead to stakeholder
dissatisfaction, anger, and crises. Using an experimental post-test only control group
design, which featured a healthcare technology-based ad, this investigation tested the
predictions made by the this theory regarding both product/industry specific effects, in
this case-physicians and health care-as well as more higher order generalized
expectations regarding the quality, safety, and reliability of products and services.
Consistent with the predictions made by the theory, participants exposed to the
experimental stimulus reported higher expectations regarding the ability of health care
providers to detect, diagnose, and treat diseases: higher expectations regarding the safety
of pharmaceutical drugs; higher expectations for food safety, and higher expectations of
the U.S. Government’s ability to detect and to protect against a terrorist attack. A series
of independent sample T-tests indicated that these results were statistically significant
and were not due to chance. The results of the investigation were consistent with the
predictions made by the TIEG Theory and provide support for both the lower order
specific and higher level generalized predictions made by the model. Last, a series of
non-linear regression analyses tested the TIEG theory’s predicted quadratic (inverted U)
relationship between media use and expectations, as well as the viewing of “CSI” like
entertainment content and expectations. While general television viewing did not predict
increased expectations, “CSI” viewing was related to higher expectations for drug safety
and food safety. These results have significant implications for the public relations,
advertising, and marketing practices of today’s organizations.
Introduction
This paper forwards an empirical test of the Technology-Image Expectancy Gap
(TIEG), a new public relations theory developed by D. Kazoleas & L. Teigen that was
first published in Botan & Hazelton’s ‘Public Relations Theory II ‘(2006). This theory
identifies a process by which advances in technology, the advertising and marketing of
technology, and attempts by organizations to build their technological abilities into their
image enhancement strategies combine to create unrealistic expectations. Moreover
these factors combine to create unrealistic expectations of an organization’s ability to
deliver high quality and reliable products and services. The TIEG predicts that these
expectations are created at multiple levels. First expectations are predicted to occur at a
lower order or product/issue specific level. Second, the theory also predicts higher order
or “halo” like expectations that extend to the expected performance of products, goods,
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services and abilities of other organizations that may not be related to the product, brand,
or organizations depicted in specific ads or messages. Building upon expectancy theories,
cultivation theories, and impression management models, this theory forwards a set of
predictions that suggest that today's technology rich media environment, coupled with the
use of technology to build organizational image creates a ‘technology image expectancy
gap’, which leads to crisis resulting in customer/stakeholder dissatisfaction, financial
failure, questions about competency and/or loss of reputation.
In sum, the Technology-Image Expectancy Gap predicts that unrealistic
expectations are created when consumers see ads featuring medical scanners that let
doctors see highly detailed images of the human body or for example, ads that depict the
hundreds of computer sensors or radar systems in cars to prevent accidents The
unrealistic expectations are not limited to expectations about the true ability of computers
and technological products, but also about the abilities, safety, and reliability of other
products, such as the abilities of health care providers and pharmaceutical companies, the
abilities of the government, and the abilities of organizations to communicate and
respond to their stakeholders. Simply stated, stakeholders begin to believe that given our
technological abilities doctors can’t make mistakes, that food and products will be 100%
safe, and that governments and law enforcement agencies can track all persons inside and
outside our borders, and prevent sophisticated acts of terror or violence.
Review of Literature
Kazoleas and Teigen (2006) provided support for their theory by documenting the
impact of technology-focused unrealistic expectations on crises that stemmed from
September 11 th , NASA’s loss of the space shuttle Columbia, as well as medical and
pharmaceutical crises. This paper advances the theory by presenting the results of a
quantitative experimental test of the main components of this model, which has
significant implications for the public relations, advertising, and marketing practices of
organizations in today’s technology rich media environment. TIEG is an applied
grounded theory that describes a combination of phenomena and has its epistemological
foundations in several established literatures including cultivation theory, consumer
behavior based expectancy theories, and impression management theories. A brief
description of each theory and its linkage to TIEG follows below.
The Cultivation of Unrealistic Expectations
The Technology Expectancy Image Gap is in part rooted in Cultivation Theory
(Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., and N. Signorelli (1986); Gerbner, G., Gross, L..,
Morgan, M., and Signorelli, N. (1994)). Cultivation theory suggests that heavy users of
media such as the news or entertainment content may hold unrealistic perceptions of the
world around them (e.g unrealistic perceptions regarding the prevalence of violence in
society), in part because those attitudes and beliefs have been shaped by the use of that
entertainment content. Additionally, other research also suggests that the media play a
large role in the construction of social reality (Searle, 1995), and may have effects on
both lower order and higher order beliefs (Elliot, W.R., Kelly, J.D., and Byrd, J.T., 1992).
Furthermore, this theory set also argues that the media often presents unrealistic
presentations across genres (and may even be spreading across news), so that
consumption across genre and media type offers reinforcement for a false view of the
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world. Moreover, the extent to which some parts of the view depicted by the media are
reflected in actual society and in the viewer’s realm of direct experience, the perceptions
will "resonate" and may become very convincing. Nabi & Sullivan (2001), for example,
present findings that suggested that heavy television viewing led to increased and
unrealistic perceptions of the prevalence of crime in society, but also to behavioral
intentions, and actual protective behavior. These findings demonstrate the strength of the
unrealistic beliefs that can be cultivated from heavy media exposure. Finally, it should be
noted that while the cultivation model predicts that these effects are more likely to occur
among heavy users of mass media, TIEG predicts a curvilinear relationship with heavy
users of media being less impacted. While space limitations do not allow for an in-depth
discussion of these issues in this manuscript, TIEG suggests that moderate users of media
may demonstrate higher levels of expectation, than both low and heavy users of the
media.
The ‘CSI Effect’
The TIEG predicts that the media portrayals of technology often exaggerate the
technological abilities, and downplay technological limitations. This in turn creates
unrealistic expectations regarding technologies and the industries that use them. A
recent example is known as the ‘CSI Effect’. This phenomena is claimed to be impacting
court cases nationwide (Willing 2004). Prosecutors have struggled to meet unrealistic
jury expectations about the ability of police and district attorneys to provide concrete
scientific evidence (e.g. DNA) that ties individuals to crimes and/or proves guilt (Willing
2004). Prosecutors claim that unrealistic expectations of juries have been cultivated by a
number of television shows such as ‘CSI or Crime Scene Investigation’ that
unrealistically portrays the ability of investigators to collect scientific evidence that links
individuals to crimes.
This phenomena has recently been studied by a number of investigators (Cole &
Dioso-Villa (2007); Shelton Young, & Barak (2007); Schwietzer & Saks, 2007), some of
whom have questioned the existence of the ‘CSI Effect’, attributing the effects to broader
technology-based expectations created by media and the availability of technology.
Shelton, Young, and Barak (2007), for example, examine the ‘CSI Effect’ from a juror’s
perspective, and conclude that there does not appear to be sufficient evidence that
watching a single television program or series increases the expectation and impact of
scientific evidence in court cases. However, they conclude that these expectations have
increased and are likely due to the broader technological expectations created by
coverage of technology in the media and in entertainment. To that extent, whether the
increased expectations of scientific evidence by jurors is due to a single show (in this
case CSI) is irrelevant. Rather, what is relevant is that today’s prosecuting attorneys face
jury pools that have higher and perhaps unrealistic expectations for scientific evidence.
Moreover, Shelton, Young, and Barak’s findings are consistent with the effects predicted
by the Technology-Image Expectancy Gap (TIEG).
Cultivation theory has focused on news and entertainment-based content.
However, the main predicted effects of the TIEG are derived from exposure to
advertisements and marketing materials. The key distinction between these types of
media-based content is that while news content is driven by real events and occurrences,
and entertainment content seeks to create escape, laughter, or suspense, advertising-based
70

content is designed to create specific images of companies and their products or services.
The organizations themselves have the ability design and select the type of information
and appeals that are placed in the ad, and they are not bound by the need to include
specific event-related content (as in news stories), nor are they forced to elicit certain
emotions or reactions as are the producers of entertainment content (e.g. sitcoms). In
short, advertising content is carefully constructed to create a desired image for an
organization and its products or services, and it’s the organization that often chooses to
incorporate aspects of their technological ability into the advertisement. TIEG also states
that the decision to often feature the technology in unrealistic settings or to exaggerate its
abilities cultivate unrealistic expectations that can lead to crises.
Expectancy Theory
The foundations of the technology image gap are grounded in expectancy theory,
which suggests that individuals' perceptions of events, persons, or messages are not static
in nature, but to some extent are based on the actual discrepancy between expectations
and observed performance. The notion that attitudes toward products, people, and
organizations are based on the discrepancy between their actual performance and our
expectations is not new. For example, consumer behavior models (E.g. Wilke 1990)
often posit that satisfaction with a product or service is a function of the discrepancy
between the expectations of the consumer and the actual performance of the product. In
this consumer relations-based model, satisfaction with people, products, or the
organization occurs only when the consumers’ expectations regarding performance are
met or exceeded. There has been a great deal of research on the predictors of consumer
satisfaction, and a body of literature that both tests and supports the disconfirmation of
expectations model (For examples see: Oliver, 1980; Oliver, 1993; Oliver,1994; Oliver
and Bearden, 1983; Oliver and DeSarbo,1984; Wirtz and Matilla, 2001). Wirtz and
Matilla (2001) have extended the research through path modeling, which examined the
roles of need/desire congruence and expectations on satisfaction. These models clearly
indicate that high levels of performance do not always equal success or satisfaction. If the
expectations are very high, success or satisfaction can almost be impossible to obtain.
While causal-oriented research such as the studies performed by Spreng,
MacKenzie, & Olshavsky (1996) and Wirtz and Matilla (2001) suggest that the
disconfirmation of expectations are not the sole predictor of satisfaction, they nonetheless
find statistically significant and substantial effects for the violation of expectations on
satisfaction. Moreover, their results imply that the violation of expectations for involved
consumers are a larger predictor of satisfaction, and that need/desire congruence, or the
extent to which needs are unmet will increase dissatisfaction. The findings for
need/desire congruence are important because they indicate that merely limiting
expectations (e.g. expecting poor performance) will not increase satisfaction if needs
and/or desires are not met. Finally, the implications of the results reported by Spreng et.
Al, (1996) and Wirtz and Matilla (2001), also indicate that need/desire congruence (e.g.
the extent to which needs or desires are met) are also statistically significant predictors of
satisfaction, which means that as more products and services are delivered via
technologically mediated mechanisms such as the Internet, the probability of expectations
being violated due to poor technological management and/or unrealistic expectations will
increase as well.
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Expectancy Confirmation/Disconfirmation Theory and Technology
The Technology Image Expectancy Gap is not alone in examining the impact of
expectations regarding technology on satisfaction. Another variation of expectancy
theory has been used to examine consumers/users expectations regarding technology and
their satisfaction with technologically based products, services or systems (IS) as well as
their use of such technology. Researchers in these areas are using Expectancy
Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) to examine how prior expectations impact such factors as
satisfaction and continued use of the web and internet technology, e-commerce sites, and
information systems (IS). For example, Bhattacherjee (2001), Bhattacherjee and
Prekumar (2004), and Bhattacherjee (2002) examine expectations and internet use as
well as trust in on-line firms. While others have examined satisfaction with internet
service providers (Erevelles, Srinivasan, & Rangel, 2003), Web customer satisfaction and
use, (McKinney, Yoon, & Zahedi, 2002a) and satisfaction with IS systems (McKinney,
Yoon, & Zahedi, 2002b). At issue for many of these investigations is not necessarily the
role of expectations, but rather the role of the confirmation or disconfirmation of
expectations in predicting satisfaction and further purchase or use of technology based
products or services. While this set of literature uses expectancy theory to examine
satisfaction with technologically based products and systems it does not make predictions
regarding higher order or “halo” like generalized expectations that transcend the
technologically based products or systems that they study.
In contrast, TIEG does make product/issue specific predictions in relation to
advertisements that feature technology; it also predicts higher order or generalized
expectations that relate to products, services and organizations that are not closely related
to the products or services predicted in specific advertisements. Moreover, this theory
also predicts that media discussions of technological advancements, and the marketing of
and ‘hyping’ of technology, coupled with organizations use of their technological
achievements and/or abilities to enhance their image or market their products helps to
create unrealistic expectations. Expectations, for example, that products will be 100%
reliable, that companies will respond immediately to electronic inquires, or that a
government is able to track every foreigner that enters a country. Finally, as more
organizations use technology such as the Internet, computer imaging, or Global
Positioning System (GPS) based satellite technologies to deliver services and value, the
greater the degree to which violations of expectations may occur as expectations
regarding rapid response, product quality, reliability, or safety are unmet. Driving these
expectations is a desire to compete in a fast paced technological environment and a fear
of being seen as “low-tech” in a “high-tech” world.
Impression Management Theory
As technology develops no organization wants to be left behind and seen as ‘low
tech’ in a ‘tech savvy’ world. To meet these expectations and perform in a technology
saturated environment with competing agendas, companies are forced to market their
technological abilities to establish brand placement and brand differentiation. Given this
drive for a positive technological image, impression management theories explain how
and why organizations incorporate aspects of technology into their image and product
marketing efforts.
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According to Leary and Kowalski (1990), impression management ‘refers to the
process by which individuals attempt to control the impressions others form of them’
(p.36) and involves two distinctly different processes. The first process they call
impression motivation, and the second, impression construction. Impression motivation is
associated with ‘the desire to create particular impressions in other’s minds’ (p. 35),
while impression construction deals with ‘how people may alter their behaviors to affect
other’s impressions of them’ (p. 35). Both impression motivation and construction are
affected by different factors including desired goals, goal relevance of impression image,
target values, and desired identity or image.
In general, impression management is a way to manipulate or manage information
available to others in order to control perceptions. Kacmar, Delery, and Ferris (1992) note
that manipulation can take various general forms such as embellishing or withholding
information available to others during an interaction, or more explicit forms, such as selfpromotion
(e.g. describing positive attributes of an organization, in this case a high level
of technological ability). Thus, impression management theory suggests that the use of
communication campaigns to bolster the image of products and services by featuring
technology can be an effective way to build and manage the impression and image of an
organization. However, unrealistic or non-contextual depictions of the incorporation and
or ability of that technology can and do generate unrealistic expectations that have led to
crises.
Hypotheses
This investigation was designed to test both the lower order or product/industry
specific predictions made by TIEG, and the higher order/broader ‘halo’-like expectations
that can be generated about other sets of products and services. The following set of
hypotheses was used to construct an experimental research design that would empirically
test the theory and its propositions.
Hypothesis 1: Participants exposed to the experimental condition will report
higher expectations regarding doctors and healthcare than subjects in control
conditions.
This hypothesis tests the predictions regarding product/service specific
expectations created by technology driven advertisements. TIEG predicts that
participants exposed to the experimental stimulus will have higher expectations that
physicians and healthcare providers can detect, diagnose, and cure illness and disease.
Overall, the theory predicts that the expectancy effects will occur in relationship to the
specific company, product, or service that is mentioned in the advertisement or the
message, as well as to other related or non-related organizations, products or services. In
sum, the theory predicts generalized expectations that are based on perceptions of the
ability of technology to solve problems, protect individuals, and to yield high quality
goods and services. Given the predictions of more generalized expectancy effects, the
following hypotheses are forwarded to test that component of the TIEG model:
Hypothesis 2: Participants exposed to the experimental condition will report
higher expectations regarding the safety of pharmaceutical drugs than those in
73

control conditions.
Hypothesis 3: Participants exposed to the experimental stimulus will report
higher expectations regarding the safety of food and food products than those in
control conditions.
Hypothesis 4: Participants exposed to the experimental stimulus will report
higher expectations regarding the safety and reliability of automobiles than those
in control conditions.
Hypothesis 5: Participants exposed to the experimental stimulus will report
higher expectations regarding the U.S. government’s ability to stop terrorist
attacks than those in control conditions.
TIEG’s propositions regarding the impact of advertisements that incorporate
technology predict that subjects exposed to the experimental conditions will report higher
expectations from drug companies, food manufacturers, car companies and the United
States government than those exposed to the control advertisement. In sum, these
predictions test the higher order “halo”-like expectations and generalizations that should
result from ads that feature technology or technological ability.
Method
Design
This experiment utilized a between subjects post-test only control group
experimental design which featured an irrelevant message control. Participants were
randomly assigned to conditions.
Participants
The participants in this investigation were 209 undergraduate students enrolled in
communications courses at a large Western university. Students were given extra credit
in their course work in exchange for their participation.
Stimulus Materials
Participants were exposed to one of two video advertisements. The experimental
condition used an advertisement for a regional medical center that promoted a new GE
medical scanner (sixteen slice PET). Participants in control conditions were exposed to a
Nike ad featuring cyclist Lance Armstrong.
Measures
A number of dependent measures were utilized in this investigation that assessed
participant expectations. These included expectations regarding doctors and healthcare;
the safety of pharmaceutical drugs; the safety of food products; the reliability and safety
of automobiles; and the ability of the government to prevent terrorist attacks. (See Table
1.0 for a listing of specific items). In order to provide a rigorous test of the theory, the
items assessing expectations were constructed to be more polarized in nature, thus
representing very high levels of expected quality, safety and response (e.g. ‘Doctors
74

should be able to accurately diagnose all forms of disease’ or ‘Pharmaceutical/Drug
companies should be able to produce drugs that are 100% safe for all patients’). These
expectations were assessed using a standard series of 5 point Likert-type scales. Daily
and weekly television usage was also assessed, as well as how often participants watched
television programs such as ‘CSI’ or ‘NCIS’. Demographic information such as age,
gender, and year in school was also collected.
Procedure
Participants were greeted and told that this was an investigation examining their
attitudes on a variety of topics. Subjects were also informed that their participation was
completely voluntary and that their responses to the survey would be anonymous. After
viewing the appropriate stimulus, subjects were asked to complete the post-test measure.
After completing the post-test measure they were thanked, asked to not discuss the video
topics or the survey for a period of three days, and then were allowed to leave.
Results
A series of preliminary statistical analyses were used to examine the distribution
of ratings for all dependent variables. The distribution of ratings for the dependent
variables were fairly normal, with some level of skew toward higher ratings. Both the
control and experimental groups reported moderately high expectations from healthcare
providers, drug companies, car companies, food manufacturers and the government.
Descriptive statistics for all individual and aggregate scale items can be found in Table
1.0.
Specifically, the healthcare factor was comprised of 4 items with a minimum
rating of 8, a maximum rating of 20, a Mean of 14.71, and a Standard Deviation of 3.05.
A reliability analysis using Cronbach’s alpha for this scale yielded an alpha of .83.
The factor assessing the safety of pharmaceutical drugs was comprised of 3 items
with a minimum rating of 4, a maximum rating of 15, a Mean of 11.68, and a Standard
Deviation of 2.42. A reliability analysis using Cronbach’s alpha for this scale yielded an
alpha of .75.
The automobile factor was comprised of 4 items with a minimum rating of 8, a
maximum rating of 20, a Mean of 16.23, and a Standard Deviation of 2.89. A reliability
analysis using Cronbach’s alpha for this scale yielded an alpha of .78.
The food safety factor was comprised of 3 items with a minimum rating of 6, a
maximum rating of 15, a Mean of 13.36, and a Standard Deviation of 2.00. A reliability
analysis using Cronbach’s alpha for this scale yielded an alpha of .85.
The factor assessing the government’s ability to stop terrorism was comprised of
5 items with a minimum rating of 5, a maximum rating of 25, a Mean of 18.04, and a
Standard Deviation of 4.01. A reliability analysis using Cronbach’s alpha for this scale
yielded an alpha of .87.
Participants were also asked to report the number of hours of television that they
watched on a daily and weekly basis as well as the level to which they watch shows such
as ‘CSI’ or ‘NCIS’. Participants reported a Mean level of daily television viewing of 2.52
hours per day, with a Standard Deviation of 2.24. They also reported a Mean of 13.21
hours of weekly viewing, with a Standard Deviation of 11.54 hours per week. Of the 207
participants that provided a response, 36.7% (76 individuals) indicated they watched
75

shows like ‘CSI’ or ‘NCIS’, while 63% indicated that they did not. Participants also
reported watching an average (Mean) 3.03 number of episodes on a weekly basis with a
Standard Deviation of 4.39 shows per week.
Finally, demographic information was also collected from participants. 63% of
the sample was comprised of Females, while 37% were Male. 94% were
communications majors, with 4% reporting business as a major, and 2% reporting
‘other’. Freshman comprised 1% of the sample, 12.7% were Sophomores, 69.3% were
Juniors and 17.1% were Seniors. In terms of age, 64% of participants were between the
ages of 18-22, 25% were 23-27 years of age, 4.5% were 27-31 years of age and 4.5%
were over 31 years of age.
Tests of Hypotheses
This investigation forwarded a number of unique hypotheses which together
examined both the lower order (product/issue specific) effects predicted by the theory and
the higher order or “halo” like effects predicted by the theory (non-product/issue
specific). The results of a series of to test these and other predictions are presented below.
Product/Issue Specific Effects
Hypothesis 1 predicted that participants exposed to the experimental condition would
report higher expectations regarding doctors and healthcare than subjects in the control
conditions. Again, the stimulus message was constructed to promote the technologically
based medical services of a community hospital. An examination of the means found
that the data were consistent with this hypothesis with the experimental group reporting
greater expectations (M= 15.36) than the control group (M= 14.04). An independent
groups one-tailed T-test was used to test the statistical significance of these results. The
results of the analysis indicated that these findings were statistically significant at the
p

esults. The results of the analysis indicated that these findings were statistically
significant at the p

A series of preliminary scattergram analyses were conducted to examine bivariate
relationships and identify any possible non-linear trends that may underlie the data.
These analyses reflected the limited variation in participant ratings and no clear linear or
non-linear patterns. Second, a series of non-linear regressions testing for the predicted
quadratic effects was conducted on both weekly television viewing and the number of
episodes of “CSI” like content that were viewed in the average week.
The non-linear regression curve fitting analyses were constructed to test for the
predicted inverted “U” or quadratic effect. No quadratic effect was found for the amount
of television viewed per week on expectations of healthcare providers (F (df=2) < 1,
p>.05), the safety of drugs (F (df=2) < 1, p>.05), the safety of food (F (df=2)=2.05,
p>.05), the safety and reliability of automobiles (F (df=2)=1.33, p>.05), or the
expectation of the government to detect and prevent terrorist attacks (F (df=2)=1.73,
p>.05). In sum the results of the analyses examining television viewing patterns were not
consistent with the predictions made regarding general media use and technology
expectations.
A second series of analysis analyzed the impact of viewing shows such as “CSI”
on expectations. Again, the non-linear regression curve fitting analyses were constructed
to test for the predicted inverted “U” or quadratic effect. No quadratic effect was found
for the amount of “CSI” like episoders viewed per week on expectations of healthcare
providers (F (df=2) < 1, p>.05), the safety and reliability of automobiles (F (df=2)=2.86,
p=.065), or the expectation of the government to detect and prevent terrorist attacks (F
(df=2) .05). However, significant quadratic effects were found for the viewing of
“CSI” episodes and expectations regarding the safety of drugs (F (df=2) 5.63, p=.006),
the safety of food (F (df=2)=3.48, p=.04). In sum the results of the analyses examining
“CSI” viewing patterns were mixed with the predictions made regarding general media
use and technology expectations.
Discussion
The purpose of this investigation was to provide an empirical test of the
Technology-Image Expectancy Gap, which made predictions regarding the cultivation of
expectations of advertisements that incorporate elements of technology. The theory made
both ‘localized’ product/issue specific predictions and generalized or higher order (Halo)
predictions regarding the impact of the phenomena in that Kazoleas and Teigen (2006)
specify that effects can occur for those organizations, products, and services mentioned or
featured in the ads, but also for those that may be related or completely unrelated. The
results of the current investigation are consistent with the predictions made by the theory
and provide support for the theory at both the product/ issue specific level and the higher
order (Halo) or generalized order level.
Specifically, across dependent variables subjects exposed to the advertisement
featuring new medical scanner technology had higher expectations of not only the
services of doctors and the healthcare industry, but also for the safety of drugs, the safety
of food products, the safety and reliability of automobiles, and the ability of the U.S.
Government to detect and prevent terrorist attacks. These differences were predicted, but
also surprising in that they reflected very high levels of expectations and perhaps very
unrealistic expectations, regarding products, services, and organizations.
78

Unrealistic and Perhaps “Dangerous” Expectations
After viewing the ad featuring the new scanner technology, participants in the
experimental condition reported greater agreement with items indicating that doctors
should be able to cure all patients (Exp M=3.07, Con M=2.73; T (186)=2.35, p

Limitations
There were several factors that may have limited the generalizability of this
investigation. First, was the somewhat restricted range of the expectation ratings. As
noted above, across the board the data were negatively skewed with all participants
reporting high expectations. Given the subject matter (e.g the ability of doctors to detect
disease, the safety of food products, or the ability of the U.S. government to stop terrorist
attacks) it is not surprising that the participants in this investigation had high
expectations. However, restriction in range can and does impact reported effect size, and
to the extent that these data were somewhat skewed it may have been difficult to detect
moderate, but statistically significant effects. Conversely, it must be noted that the
observed effects were large enough be detected across all variables and that they did
attain statistical significance indicating that they were not due to chance.
A second limitation was the use of undergraduate college students, which may or may
not be reflective of broader populations. However, to the extent that college students
have beliefs, attitudes, and expectations that are shaped by what they see and hear in the
media there is little evidence to suggest that the cognitive processes that shape their
expectations differ from older, more mature populations.
Conclusion
In summary, the purpose of this investigation was to provide an empirical test of
the Technology-Image Expectancy Gap. The statistical results of this experiment were
consistent with the predictions made by TIEG model in terms of both the product specific
expectations generated by the advertisement and the broader expectations target at other
products and services. These findings have significant implications for the development
of theory in the public relations discipline and for both public and private organizations in
a wide variety of industries and sectors.
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Table 1.0: A Table of Descriptive Statistics.
Factor/Item Mean Median Mode SD Min. Max.
Healthcare Expectations 14.71 15.00 15.00 3.05 8.00 20.00
Doctors should be able to accurately diagnose all
forms of disease. 3.95 4.00 4.00 0.90 1.00 5.00
Healthcare providers should always be able to
accurately detect all forms of illnesses and
disease. 3.84 4.00 4.00 0.93 2.00 5.00
Doctors should always be able to accurately
identify a patients illnesses. 4.00 4.00 4.00 0.88 1.00 5.00
Given the state of medical technology doctors
should be able to cure all patients. 2.93 3.00 3.00 1.03 1.00 5.00
Drug Safety Expectations 11.68 12.00 12.00 2.42 4.00 15.00
Pharmaceutical/drug companies should be able to
produce drugs that are 100% safe for all patients. 3.86 4.00 4.00 1.05 1.00 5.00
Drug companies should be able to produce drugs
that are always safe from dangerous side effects. 3.79 4.00 4.00 0.99 1.00 5.00
Drug manufacturers should always be able to
predict the effects of the products they produce. 4.02 4.00 4.00 0.91 2.00 5.00
Automobile Expectations 16.23 17.00 16.00 2.89 8.00 20.00
Automobile manufacturers should be able to
manufacture a car that is 100% reliable. 3.97 4.00 4.00 0.92 1.00 5.00
Car makers should be able to make cars that
always start. 4.27 4.00 5.00 0.83 2.00 5.00
Auto makers should be able to produce cars that
are free of defects. 4.08 4.00 4.00 0.89 1.00 5.00
Car makers should be able to produce cars that
are 100% safe. 3.91 4.00 4.00 1.03 1.00 5.00
Food Safety 13.36 14.00 15.00 2.00 6.00 15.00
Food manufacturers should be able to produce
foods that are always safe for human
consumption. 4.44 5.00 5.00 0.75 1.00 5.00
Food companies should be able to produce
products that are free from contamination. 4.49 5.00 5.00 0.74 2.00 5.00
Producers of food products in the US should be
able to always guarantee the safety of their food
products. 4.42 5.00 5.00 0.78 2.00 5.00
National Security Expectations 18.04 18.00 17.00 4.01 5.00 25.00
The U.S. government should always be able to
detect a possible terrorist attack before it occurs. 3.58 4.00 4.00 1.02 1.00 5.00
The U.S. government should be able to accurately
track terrorists within the united states. 3.77 4.00 4.00 0.95 1.00 5.00
The U.S. government should be able to accurately
track terrorists anywhere on the planet. 3.11 3.00 3.00 1.08 1.00 5.00
The U.S. government should always be able to
protect the people of the United States against
acts of terrorism. 3.87 4.00 4.00 0.98 1.00 5.00
The U.S. government should always be able to
stop a terrorist attack on the United States. 3.74 4.00 4.00 0.95 1.00 5.00
83

Corporate Web pages as a Key Communication Channel for Financial Publics
Eyun-Jung Ki, Ph.D., and Jee Young Chung
The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa
ki@apr.ua.edu
jchung@crimson.ua.edu
Abstract
This study was designed to examine the status and features of investor relations activities
the Fortune 500 utilized in their Web sites through analyzing the content of their Web
sites. This study found that majority of companies is taking full advantage of this new
communication medium for investor relations strategies. This study also found that the
features of investor relations on corporate Web sites have a positive association with
revenue and profits while the effect is small.
* For full paper, please contact authors.
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Framing Diversity:
A Qualitative Content Analysis of Public Relations Industry Publications
Lucinda L. Austin
University of Maryland, College Park
llaustin@umd.edu
Although women make up around 64 percent of public relations professionals,
women public relations professionals still earn 6 percent less on average than their male
counterparts (U.S. BLS, October 2008). In addition to this salary discrepancy, only 31
percent of the highest paid workers are women (U.S. BLS, 2006). While gender
disparities are apparent, disparities among different racial and ethnic groups are even
more obvious. Among public relations managers, approximately 91 percent are white
(U.S. BLS, September 2008).
These disparities within public relations have been given some attention in
various trade publications throughout the 1980’s and into the late 1990’s (Cline et al.,
1986; Toth & Cline, 1989; Grunig, Toth, & Hon, 2001; Toth, 1996), but little is known
about how these disparities are described, critiqued, or reified in modern public relations
trade publications. Popular American discourse about gender and diversity has shifted
over the last decade after events such as Hurricane Katrina that highlighted race and
poverty and the last presidential election in which a white woman and a black man were
frontrunners. Approaching the end of this first decade in a new millennium how has
coverage of gender and diversity changed in public relations publications, reflecting the
shift in the profession and in America today?
The purpose of this study is to look at how gender and diversity are covered in
public relations industry publications. This study seeks to further understanding of how
the public relations profession frames gender and diversity, not only within
organizational structures in the public relations industry itself, but also in terms of publics
affected by issues and organizations.
This study fills a gap in current research on gender and diversity in public
relations. While previous studies have looked at the concepts of gender and diversity
through interviews and surveys with public relations’ practitioners and managers, studies
have not explored public relations professional publications and the content that the
professionals writing these pieces are sharing with others in the field.
Literature Review
Gender and Diversity
Gender defined. Feminist communication theorists including Rakow (1992),
Wood (2002), and van Zoonen (1994) define gender as a social construction, not as
biological sex differences between males and females. Gender is a socialization process
through which individuals “learn” to be either masculine or feminine. This occurs
through gender stereotypes, such as a female as being more “feminine,” wearing dresses
or makeup, and having certain feminine characteristics such as being more emotional,
more open in communication, and more focused on relationship building. Some studies
suggest that feminine characteristics are actually more desirable for the practice of public
relations (Grunig, Toth, & Hon, 2000). Feminist studies have largely focused on feminine
identity and have neglected masculine identity and the concept of constructed male
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gender. Aldoory (2005, 2007) argues for a “(re)conceived” paradigm of gender that also
acknowledges males as gendered individuals. Gender analysis should focus not just on
women in the workplace, but on how both men and women interact and communicate
both inside and outside of the organization. Additionally, studies should explore
expectations ascribed to both men and women and frames for how men and women are
communicated about in relation to the workplace.
Diversity defined. Diversity is a vague and somewhat amorphous concept that has
lost meaning for many organizations. Diversity is referred to frequently by organizations
as an organizational commitment, and organizations frequently hold diversity trainings,
workshops, and seminars. What is meant by “diversity,” however, is usually left open to
interpretation.
Bhawuck and Triandus (1996) define diversity in an organizational context as
“difference in ethnicity, race, gender, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, disability,
veteran status, age, national origin, and cultural and personal perspectives” (p. 85). Sha
and Ford (2007) distinguish between primary and secondary dimensions of diversity.
Primary dimensions of diversity are differences that individuals themselves generally
cannot alter or change, such as race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender, or physical
abilities. Secondary dimensions are aspects over which individuals usually have more
control, such as income, marital status, language, values, and geography.
Pompper (2005) discusses “difference” for purposes of study, and defines this as
“difference by race, ethnicity, and culture in public relations research” (p. 140). This
study uses Pompper’s definition of diversity and looks primarily at race and ethnicity.
Keeping with other definitions as well, this study will look at gender as a part of diversity
and not as a separate concept.
Many definitions of diversity include the idea of minority groups that are different
from the majority. Grunig, Hon, and Toth (2001) define a minority as “a group of people
who, because of their physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out from the others
in the society in which they live for differential and unequal treatment, and who therefore
regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination” (p. 17). This study will also
look to see how minority populations are mentioned with regards to diversity in public
relations.
Diversity in public relations. Diversity is important to public relations both inside
and outside the organization. The internal element of public relations relates to diversity
of individuals in the workplace, including diversity of individuals working in public
relations and in the organization (Hon & Brunner, 2000). The external element relates to
publics of the organization or targets of public relations programming. In an increasingly
diverse communication environment, an understanding of diverse publics is needed. The
concept of requisite variety (Hon & Brunner, 2000) suggests that organizations are most
effective when their diversity or variability within the organizations matches the external
diversity or variability for the organization.
Framing Theory
According to Entman (1993), “To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived
reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote
a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment
recommendation for the item described” (p. 52). Emphasizing (or not emphasizing)
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certain message points can have an impact on how audiences perceive the importance of
concepts. Other framing aspects such as associating message points with positive or
negative frames can also impact individuals’ attitudes. The use of framing in media
messages and public communication often leads to the construction of social reality
(Scheufele, 1999).
Framing can occur within multiple parts of the communication process,
specifically within the communicator, the text, the receiver, and the culture (Entman,
1991; 1993). The communicator is the source of the message, who consciously or
unconsciously frames messages according to his or her own frames (schemata). The text
is the message(s) that contains selected information, clusters of facts or judgments that
suggest association, stereotypes, or other framing elements. Frames in the message are
also described as media frames (Scheufele, 1999). Much like the communicator, the
receiver of the message also has his or her own schemata through which interpretation is
made. Scheufele (1999) calls these frames located within audience members, internal
frames. Lastly, society represents commonly-held frames among social groupings that
may be “dominant” within a culture. Entman highlights the discursive domain in
connection with cultural experiences. Not only does meaning reside in the individuals
involved in the communication and in the text, but meaning also resides in the larger
society. Framing theory acknowledges that certain issues or problems can be framed
within messages in such a way that they influence receivers’ perceptions of the issues,
but also acknowledges that receivers also come to the table with their own frames and are
situated in a culture that also contains frames.
Research on media framing may look at frames as an outcome of other factors
that lead to the creation of these frames, or, conversely, may examine how frames
influence other factors such as how messages are perceived and acted upon by publics.
Framing Studies in Public Relations
Framing has been studied in public relations, albeit not as often as other meaning
making processes. Most public relations framing research has focused on frames used in
organizational communication to publics. Zoch et al. (2008) studied framing devices used
on activist organizations’ Web sites to see how these organizations used catchphrases,
depictions, exemplars, metaphors, visual images, and promotion of the organization as a
solution. Reber and Berger (2005) studied frames used by the Sierra Club in their
newsletters as well as newspaper stories written about the Sierra Club and found that
frames produced by the Sierra Club influenced media coverage; however, the Sierra Club
often had competing frames located within their messages and in the news stories about
them.
Danowski (2008) studied framing effects of a university public relations
campaign and found that use of the campaign frame in media increased by over 400
percent over the course of the campaign. Likewise, Darmon, Fitzpatrick, and Bronstein
(2008) studied how Kraft intentionally framed messages regarding obesity through press
releases and how these messages were reflected in media coverage about Kraft. The
authors found that Kraft’s messages were displayed in media coverage and argue that
organizations should seek to actively frame messages about important issues in their
correspondence to media. These studies on intentional media framing show how frames
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can influence publics and audiences through the language that organizations choose to
employ.
Other public relations studies on framing have focused on how publics are framed
in relation to issues. Myrick (1999) studied messages produced around an issue, instead
of those produced by a specific organization—how women have been framed in AIDS
PSAs and found that women were represented as to blame for the transmission of HIV
and responsible for education and prevention.
Framing Studies about Gender and Diversity
No published studies were found about how diversity in public relations is
framed, either by an organization or by the industry as a whole. Several other media
studies have, however, looked at how media frames gender and diversity within other
contexts. Poindexter, Smith, and Heider (2003) conducted a content analysis of how race
and ethnicity are framed in local news stories and found an absence of Latinos, Asian
Americans, and Native Americans in news coverage, both as subjects of news and as
reporters of news. Although they found that African Americans did report the news in
some areas, there still appeared to be segregation in the assignment of stories. African
Americans were the minority group most covered in the news.
Wachs and Dworkin (1997) studied media framing of HIV-positive athletes to see
how athletes who were homosexual versus heterosexual were framed. The authors found
that the heterosexual athlete in this case was framed as a hero in most articles, whereas
the heterosexual athlete was most often framed as being a carrier of AIDS, and not as a
hero or a victim. Other media studies featuring gender and diversity have looked at
sexual harassment in the Clarence Thomas case (Robinson & Powell, 1996), affirmative
action programs (Fine, 1992), and how the media have handled the women’s movement
(Terkildsen & Schnell, 1997).
Research Questions
Based on the research gaps identified in gender and diversity within public
relations, this study poses the following research questions:
RQ1: What are characteristics of articles about diversity in public relations
industry publications?
RQ2: How is diversity defined by public relations industry publications?
RQ2: How is diversity framed by public relations industry publications?
Method
This study uses a qualitative content analysis of public relations industry
publications to understand how gender and diversity are framed by public relations
professional media.
Procedures
Gender and diversity frames present in magazines and periodicals endorsed and
produced by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) are explored. Although
there are other trade publications and Web sources that could be examined, the sample in
this study is limited to PRSA trade publications. PRSA is the largest organization for
public relations professionals and a source of information for many professionals. PRSA
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features two trade publications on their Web site written specifically for practitioners:
Public Relations Tactics, a monthly newspaper with a circulation of around 27,500 PRSA
members and nonmembers (PRSA, 2009a), and Public Relations Strategist, a quarterly
magazine with a circulation of around 24,000 PRSA members and nonmembers (PRSA,
2009b). PR Tactics includes information about industry trends and news, as well as skills
and educational information for public relations professionals. The Strategist focuses on
use of public relations strategy at the management level for effective public relations
efforts. These two specific publications were analyzed qualitatively to understand how
gender and diversity in public relations are framed in profession publications.
Sampling
Articles from the January 2000 to the April 2009 Tactics issues and the Spring
2004 to the Winter 2009 Strategist issues were analyzed. The above publication dates
were chosen to look at how gender and diversity have been covered during the last
decade. The Strategist articles date only date back to 2004 because these are the issues
currently available online and through PRSA. To search for gender within diversity, the
terms “gender OR sex OR woman OR women OR female OR male OR man OR men”
were used. To search for the concept of racial or ethnic diversity, the search terms
“diversity OR race OR ethnicity OR minority OR Black OR White OR African American
OR Hispanic OR Latino OR Latina OR Asian OR Native American OR Arab OR Middle
East” were used. Full-text articles were searched using the Business Source Complete
Database. Articles retrieved in searches that did not mention gender or diversity as
described in this study, but that included one of the search terms above in a different
context were culled from the search. A total of 223 articles was pulled for analysis—39
Strategist articles and 184 Tactics articles. Of these articles, 66 mentioned gender and
170 mentioned the other types of diversity listed above.
Analysis
Because this study is driven by theoretical research questions based on concepts
of framing theory, established frame categories served as a guide for data analysis
(Altheide, 1987; Maher, 2001). Chong and Druckman (2007) encourage use of
preexisting media frames that have been identified for issues as a starting point, but
because there have been no published studies yet for this particular issue, open coding
was used for this study via a grounded theory approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1997; Strauss
& Corbin, 1998) to show how diversity is framed (or not framed). Using axial coding,
categories were grouped under similar themes. Brief quantitative description was also
used to show how many of the published articles referenced gender or diversity, how
many authors wrote about gender and diversity, and where these articles occurred within
publications.
A framework was used based on Knight’s (1999), Zoch et al.’s (2008), and
Gamson and Modigliani’s (1989) studies. The description of the problem—in this case
diversity—was studied using four framing devices as a beginning point for analysis:
“metaphors, exemplars, catch phrases, and depictions” (Knight, 1999, p. 387).
Metaphors in Zoch et al. (2008) were expanded to include analogies as well—this
combined framing device looks for comparisons of the problem to another scenario.
Exemplars involve real and hypothetical examples of a situation that illustrates the
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problem. Catchphrases are phrases or plays on words for the purpose of communicating
an idea. Depictions in Zoch et al. (2008) were broken down into general descriptions of
ideas, statistics about the problem, and testimony from another party about the problem.
Visual images were not considered in this study since articles were retrieved
electronically. Although the author could see visuals on article pages, pictures on facing
pages or throughout the publication could not be observed, which would also of
importance in a consideration of visual representations of diversity.
Results
RQ1: What are characteristics of articles about diversity in public relations industry
publications?
Out of 3,102 articles in both the Strategist and PR Tactics posted online when
searching from 2000-2009, 223 of these specifically mentioned one of the key search
terms listed above in the method. Of these 223, not all used these words to describe
diversity—some used the color “black” or the color “white” to describe an object and not
to people specifically, such as “flying the white flag,” “the White House,” “black suits”
as professional dress, etc., although most of these articles used these words to represent
diversity whether intentionally or unintentionally.
A total of 70 authors wrote these 223 articles. One author, Rochelle Ford, wrote
for a standing diversity column and had written one fifth (21%, n=27) of all of these
articles. Two editors for the PRSA publications, Allison Stateman (9%, n=19) and John
Elasser (4%, n=9), wrote another 13% of the articles. Just over a quarter of the articles
(27%, n=61) had no author listed, which is the format for some smaller articles and
sections written by publication staff as conference proceedings or interviews with other
professionals. This leaves less than half (39%) of the gender and diversity articles that
were written by other authors—these other authors wrote anywhere from 1 to 3 articles a
piece, with most writing only 1 article. Forty-eight (69%) of the total 70 authors wrote
only one article on diversity.
One of the search terms in this piece was the word “diversity.” As mentioned
earlier, diversity is a concept that is used quite frequently in the workplace, with little
clarity as to what this means. The actual word “diversity” was mentioned in 78 articles
(20 Strategist articles and 58 Tactics articles). Of the 20 Strategist articles on diversity,
60% occurred in the special diversity issue (February 2005). Of the 58 Tactics articles,
59% (n=34) occurred in the standing “Diversity Dimensions” column and most were
written by the same author, Rochelle Ford. Another 17% of the articles occurred in a
special section “Spotlight on Diversity” included in the August 2004 and July 2007
editions of Tactics. Of the remaining 26% of articles, many focused on diversity awards,
diversity training in the workplace, and profiles of women practitioners and practitioners
of color.
RQ2: How is diversity defined by public relations industry publications?
Diversity defined. Generally diversity was mentioned as encompassing gender,
race, and ethnicity. Some articles, however, went beyond this definition. Ford expands on
this definition in the column “Diversity Dimensions” where over a series of five months
she attempts to debunk the top diversity myths in public relations. As for the top diversity
myth, she writes “1. Diversity doesn’t involve white heterosexual males—False, it
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involves everyone.” She includes the definition listed above in the literature review from
her piece with Sha (2007) as a definition of diversity.
Diverse populations. Most articles about diversity mentioned primarily Hispanic
or Latino populations and Blacks or African Americans. A few articles also mentioned
Asian Americans, Native Americans, the LGBT community, and a very brief mention of
the Jewish community. One article addresses “LGBTinos,” as Latino LGBT individuals
who represent a “niche market” needing to be recognized. Women are also mentioned
frequently as contributing to workplace diversity.
Of the different racial and ethnic populations, the most articles (n=41) mentioned
Hispanics or Latinos, followed by 35 articles mentioning Black or African American
individuals. Around half of the articles mentioning Hispanic and Latino communities also
included a description of them in the title of the article (n=18). These titles mentioned
Latinos’ increasing importance as the fastest growing minority, as being important to
media usage and consumerism—and ultimately to the bottom line. While Black
individuals were also one of the more frequently mentioned “diverse” populations, only 6
of these articles (around 17%) mentioned the words “Black” or “African American” in
article titles, making these articles appear less visible than those about Hispanics.
However, although many populations are mentioned in some articles, some
populations are not mentioned often at all. Of the total 3,102 articles, only 5 mentioned
Native Americans—2 brief mentions, 2 articles entirely focused on Native Americans
and casinos, and 1 as a letter to the editor faulting the publication for the lack of coverage
of Native Americans. This author writes:
Thanks for the special issue on diversity last Fall, but did I miss something? Aside
from a reference on the cover, Native Americans were conspicuously absent.
None were interviewed as practitioners, and none were listed on your roundtable
panel. The only representative I found was a man whose PR firm ‘works closely’
with Native Americans, but most of his comments concerned Hispanics. Surely,
you could have found one Native-American practitioner for this issue. We may be
the smallest minority group, but we're not extinct. And our needs can't be assumed
to be the same as Asians, Hispanics, African-Americans, Jews, gays or the
disabled — all of whom were featured.
Although this letter to the editor mentions Jewish populations being featured, they
were actually featured even less, with only 3 articles feature them. Asian Americans,
however, were referenced more with 20 articles focusing on this group.
RQ3: How is diversity framed by public relations industry publications?
Diversity as “different”—separated from others. As mentioned above in the
descriptions of the articles, most of the articles that really delve into diversity appear in a
set place—the Diversity Dimensions section, special sections on diversity for that issue,
or even special diversity issues—diversity seems to be a formality that must be
addressed, but the diversity theme really doesn’t integrate throughout the articles. Other
articles that mentioned diversity outside of these columns or special issues only did so
briefly. They may say diversity of ideas are important or briefly mention someone being
a “woman” in one sentence of the article in reference to her job.
This is somewhat ironic as some other articles (found in special diversity issues
and columns) talk about the need to “make diversity an everyday part of doing business,
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not a separate entity all its own.” One organization “made a strategic decision not to
create a diversity department or designate diversity as a special initiative or program,”
saying that “we didn’t want to put it on an island like it was somebody else’s
responsibility… we really like to look at it as an operating principle—something we try
to weave into the fabric of everything we do.”
Language problem. Language also seems to be a concern in many articles—in the
language that organizations use to describe diversity in their organizations, as well as
how organizations talk about and write about diverse populations. For example, one
article discussed how strict adherence to AP style in terms or race can actually be
offensive to some groups. Currently the Associated Press Stylebook uses the word
“blacks” (with a lowercase “b”) as the approved style for communicating about this race,
as opposed to “Blacks” or “African Americans.” A special issue on diversity featured the
words “blacks,” “Asian Americans,” and “Native Americans” on the cover. The
magazine had several individuals to respond immediately and question why “blacks” was
not capitalized when other racial groups were and why “blacks” were not listed as
Americans, when others were in their descriptions. When the editor tried to explain to an
individual on the phone the precedence set by the AP Stylebook, she said “So you did it
that way because a book told you to?” This handful of individuals to contact the editor
believed that “using ‘black’ minimizes the significance of the race, and that is not fair.”
These individuals believed that it didn’t matter what the AP Stylebook said, that
individuals should make the most appropriate decisions for publics or others when
writing. After thinking more about these comments, the editor of the publication clarified
their new policy for the publication, “We will leave it up to each author whether he or she
prefers ‘black,’ ‘Black’ or ‘African-American.’ If we're generating the editorial, we will
use ‘Black’ to describe race (ditto for ‘White’); ‘African-American’ if other similar
constructs are being used. Of course, this may mean we have a hodgepodge of styles in
one issue.”
Language was also important for Hispanic and Latino populations, but in a very
different way. Most articles about language for this population focused on the importance
of Spanish language in communication to Hispanic and Latino populations and having
bilingual capabilities. Articles also focused on “establish(ing) relationships with Spanishspeaking
media,” although there seemed to be a shift in the idea of language for these
populations. As one article notes:
The single biggest mistake most organizations are making is focusing on
language. Let me be clear— effectively communicating to the Hispanic
population is not solely about Spanish. By this I mean it's more than just avoiding
bad translations, but rather the critical need to provide culturally competent
communication to effectively reach Hispanics. Communicators often think the
fastest and cheapest entry to the Hispanic market is translating existing
communication pieces into Spanish. The issue, however, is that those materials
were developed using knowledge of the behaviors of the general market
consumer, which aren't necessarily the same for Hispanics.
Diversity as a journey or as a process. Other articles described diversity as a
journey—as a process that might not have a clear ending, but instead that was more about
the process.
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An article writes about diversity that “the aim is not always to reach consensus (although
that IS desirable so we may act in a mutually satisfying way), but principally to engender
understanding.” Also “the beauty of diversity is in its very definition—that diversity in
thoughts and perspectives enriches more than confuses the PR and communication
community. And above all, we recognize that the journey has just begun—and must
continue.”
Responsibility. For diversity there was a focus on whose responsibility diversity
is. A diversity columnist writes a common myth that “human resources is responsible for
promoting diversity,” but really believes that “management should take the lead, and
human resources and public relations should support the effort.” The responsibility for
diversity was mixed, but it was clear that responsibility was a topic of conversation.
Many articles expressed that “diversity is everyone’s job.” Some articles talked
specifically about human resources’ job in recruiting and retaining employees, others
talked about management’s responsibility, and yet others mentioned the idea above that
diversity should be the responsibility of everyone in the organization. A company vice
president states, “I think it’s very important that it’s not coming out of HR… it’s coming
out of management.” Another article also focused on getting middle management focused
on diversity initiatives. Yet another article talked about the importance of bringing
marketing into the diversity discussion as well because of their connection to audiences.
Diversity impacting the bottom line. While most articles studied focused on the
importance of diversity, much of this focus was because of the “bottom line.” One
organization says that diversity is important “first (because), more clients are demanding
it…that’s particularly true of larger companies, many of which have internal mandates to
become more diverse.” Another article talks about “optimizing workplace diversity,”
saying that “other bottom-line benefits of workplace diversity are also apparent…an
organization’s success and competitiveness depend upon its ability to embrace diversity.”
Articles also focused on diverse audiences and consumers, although not
necessarily diverse “publics” (e.g. the growing Hispanic media boom, the prevalence of
Asian Americans using online technologies, and audiences of Black radio). The theme in
these articles, which described diverse media, was a focus on these groups as potential
consumers for their organization, ultimately contributing to the bottom line. These
individuals were seen as “a growing audience” or as “a force to be reckoned with.” These
audiences were seen as needing to be “reigned” in by articles such as one titled
“Harnessing the Booming Hispanic Market.” The cover of the 2006 special issue on
diversity focused on “the projected buying power of blacks, Asians and Native
Americans by 2010.” Another article states that “Hispanics have an annual purchasing
power of more than $750 billion, and are, perhaps, the most brand loyal segment of the
general population.”
Diversity as inclusion of “others.” The word inclusive was mentioned quite
frequently with individuals encouraging that we “constantly push for an open, inclusive
culture.” Most frequently, though, this idea of inclusion was more in the context of
allowing individuals to join the majority or join the existing culture, but to feel
comfortable in doing so. Although some tried to stress that it was more than this,
language still indicated that the organization was becoming “open” to others, not
necessarily changing for others. One professional notes, “you have to push to make
people feel that this is a culture that they want to work in, that they’re not a solo minority
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working in a white culture…It’s not just that we accept other cultures, it’s that we want
them, we push for them.” Others also mention the idea of “others” as “the status quo
tends to reject views from the fringes—sometimes labeling them as ‘radical’ or
‘extreme’.”
Several articles mentioned the idea of public relations as a woman’s field now,
although women are also described as “diverse” and adding to diversity in organizations.
One article in an “ask the professor” panel, featured a reader question: “I’m a male, five
years out of college and working in public relations for a large manufacturing company. I
was advised by someone to switch into marketing because ‘public relations is a woman’s
profession,’ and I won’t advance by staying there. Is this true?” This reader question is
interesting, because although women make up the majority of the field of public
relations, as stated at the beginning of this study, women are still talked about as part of
diversity throughout these articles, as an outsider. With the exception of this article and
one other column defining diversity, men are not mentioned in almost any articles with
regards to being an “other.” Men are generally not mentioned as adding to a “diverse
workforce.”
Changing corporate culture to retain diverse employees. Another focus present
in many articles was that of trying to accommodate diverse employees and help them to
feel comfortable within their organizations. This was important to organizations because
they were seeking to not only recruit diverse employees but also retain them. One
individual writes that he took a highly regarded intern out to lunch at the end of her
internship to talk about her experience. She told him, “You have to do more than just hire
Latino people… You have to make your company a place that’s more comfortable for
them—and for all people of different backgrounds.”
Enhancing the organization and the profession. Another underlying idea is that
idea that diversity enhances an organization. Articles expressed that diversity of thoughts,
ideas, backgrounds, and demographics all helped to bring together multiple perspectives
and to help the organization to better relate to diverse publics as well. As a professional
notes “people from different cultures and backgrounds often bring new perspectives and
ideas to the table.” Another article focuses on the professional benefits of diversity,
noting that “interaction among diverse practitioners can reap great personal and
professional benefits.”
Justification for diversity. As mentioned above with the concept of diversity
enhancing the organization, many articles offered a justification for diversity, describing
why diversity is important to organization both internally and externally. Articles focused
on proving diversity’s worth and stressing why this should be a focus for organizations.
In a few articles, however, professionals seemed to have moved beyond this stage. One
executive vice president of a major U.S. media company states about diversity, “A lot of
people spend a lot of time trying to justify the business case (for diversity) without just
accepting it…I think it’s a given now. We need to move beyond that.” Some articles
seemed to be moving away from the idea of diversity in the traditional sense as gender,
race, and ethnicity and moving towards the idea of diversity of thought.
Resource intensive. Diversity requires resources to be sustainable including
research, education, recruiting costs, and costs to improve the organizational culture and
environment. While many articles stressed the importance of diversity for the bottom line
overall, there was also another underlying theme that diversity could be a burden because
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of the resources required to sustain this. “A lot of midsize and smaller agencies don’t feel
they have the time or money to do this.” One common diversity myth that was noted was
also that “Diversity training does more harm than good.” The columnist in this article
debunked this myth by saying that diversity training does not do more harm than good,
but that “it can be harmful if implemented improperly and without research.” Another
article, however, features a study showing that “most diversity training backfires” as
“diversity training programs were also followed by declines in the number of women,
African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians in management positions.” When diversity
training was optional, however, these trainings usually resulted in a small increase in
diversification of management.
Throughout, the importance of research was emphasized when dealing with
diverse populations. Some authors mentioned the importance of really understanding the
needs of diverse populations through research. Others thought that research was not
enough and that the “lived experience” was needed. An article in the Diversity
Dimensions column indicated that diversity may not always matter in given situations,
but that research should be done to determine if it does matter. Another article stresses
that “simplistic segmentation” of audiences by race and ethnicity does not work in many
cases. Articles also focused on educating other professionals about diversity. The
Diversity Dimensions column focused the past 5 editions on debunking the myths of
diversity and educating about the “truth” of diversity.
Power. Power seemed to play into many mentions of diversity in articles. As
mentioned earlier some groups of individuals were not mentioned as often in the news
articles. Those that were mentioned the most were mentioned because of their “buying
power” and their “growth in numbers.” Groups that had the fewest number of mentions
were those who were smaller in size or who did not equal others in terms of buying
power and brand loyalty. Hispanic and Latino groups were mentioned more for the
reasons stated above, as well as African Americans and Asian Americans. Articles
focuses specifically on the buying power of these populations, go as far as calling some
groups (Asians) as “highly lucrative markets.”
Discussion
The majority of the articles that mention diversity or any of the key words listed
above were found specifically in columns dedicated to diversity or special spotlight
issues on diversity. The publications appear to put diversity aside in its own special box
and need to integrate diversity more fully. Just like the U.S. has Black History month,
Hispanic Heritage Month, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and other special days where
diversity is celebrated, these are a way of keeping the celebration of diversity out of
everyday life, boxed off in separate days or in the case of these publications, separate
columns or special issues. After these special days or months are celebrated many
Americans go back to living “normal” lives in the majority—after professionals read
these columns, they go back to reading the other “normal” columns, for the large part not
about diversity. Similar to the ineffectiveness of diversity trainings and seminars in the
workplace that some of these articles mention, diversity seems to be a formality that must
be addressed, but that is not integrated throughout the articles.
Articles about diversity do appear to mention more types of individuals than
previous studies (Poindexter, Smith, & Heider, 2003), including Native Americans,
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Jewish populations, Hispanics and Latinos, and even the LGBT community. However,
while some of these populations were mentioned in one or more articles, these
populations were still mentioned infrequently compared to the total number of articles
reviewed. Disparities exist among different minority populations as well and the attention
they receive in media.
Surprisingly, although there seems to have been an increased focus on the
problematics of diversity in popular media due to events such as Hurricane Katrina and
Obama’s presidency, there was not significant mention of these events in relation to
diversity or specific races. Most focus on Obama appeared to be not on his race, but
instead on the success of his campaign and his innovative use of digital media. Two
articles from 2008 in the Diversity Dimensions column did reference Obama in relation
to his race as breaking “the color barrier in the United States” with the title of the article
as “Hopeful for a United America.” Another article by the same author in the Diversity
Dimensions column indicates that Obama’s speeches have made us realize that “race
matters,” that there are lessons to be learned from the “fringes,” and that “we can't ignore
the far-reaching effects race, racism and slavery have on how wealth is distributed and
sustained in the United States.”
As for Hurricane Katrina, one article does mention Katrina’s race and class
implications, saying that this will “soon fade.” An interview with a native from New
Orleans indicated that “Hurricane Katrina ha(d) opened the door to discussing topics of
race and class that seem taboo in America.” Other articles talked about the importance in
sensitivity in language after Katrina, “However unintentional, some media
representatives and leaders made racist, insensitive and inappropriate comments. Words
such as refugee, looting and barbarian have colored the commentary of the hurricane’s
impact and relief efforts.” Most articles about Hurricane Katrina (n=23), however, do not
discuss diversity in terms of gender, race, or ethnicity, but instead discuss the importance
of crisis communication, compassion in situations such as these, and the importance of
emergency preparedness.
Also, as mentioned above some articles seemed to be moving away from the idea
of diversity in the traditional sense as gender, race, and ethnicity and moving towards the
idea of diversity of thought. Although diversity of thought is important, care must be
taken to ensure that the profession does prematurely not “check the box” on “traditional”
diversity issues, because there is more work to be done.
Limitations
A problem with framing theory is that frames are sometimes hard to identify
because “framing devices can appear as ‘natural’ unremarkable choices of words or
images” (Entman, 1991, p. 6). Entman suggests comparative analysis using multiple
more than one issue to help in identifying or distinguishing frames and highlighting
major differences. Chong and Druckman (2007) encourage use of preexisting media
frames that have been identified for certain issues as a starting point, but also note that
common definitions or understandings of these terms must be agreed upon before coding
of these frames begins. The problem with this, however, is that each research team
decides on their own unique definition of each frame they are coding and frames are
interpreted differently by different research. Inter-rater reliability may be achieved for
individual research teams, but is hard to achieve between different research studying
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frames for a particular issue. So even if frames are identified for one particular issue in a
very specific study, these frames can’t necessarily carry over for other studies. Another
issue is that frames must be issue-specific (Chong & Druckman, 2007), meaning that
frames cannot be applied from one issue to another.
Additionally, individuals use very different definitions for diversity. While I have
tried to include many of the possible terms that relate to gendered, racial, and ethnic
diversity, some articles could have been missed that used other types of words to talk
about these same types of diversity. Because of the format of this study, not all visual
representations could be analyzed for how they reflected diversity. Future studies should
also analyze visual representations of diversity to see how these may also impact frames.
Future Research Suggestions
A follow-up study should further explore how diversity is covered in public
relations news media after Barack Obama’s first term in office. Because Obama is so new
to the presidency, it’s hard to see a marked difference in public relations media mentions
of diversity after Obama’s election. A further study could compare media frames of
diversity before and after Obama’s run for office and election.
Though media should increase their awareness of framing and its effects, a more
critical look at message framing is also needed. Although Scheufele (1999) states that
media actively set frames that determine how individuals perceive and understand news
and politics and in a sense create a social reality, more emphasis needs to be placed upon
the individual and his or her role in interpreting frames. Standardized media framing
effects have been shown in many studies; however, framing theory doesn’t do enough to
address the receiver’s role in this communication process. Entman mentions framing as
occurring in the sender and Chong and Druckman (2007) mention the concept of “frame
in thought;” however, this concept seems to be lost in translation for practical
applications of this theory. Communicators who intentionally frame messages often
believe that these messages will be perceived exactly as they are sent, not taking into
account the internal frames of audience members.
Lundy (2006) found that this is not the case, in that individuals in her study had
significantly different thoughts for the same message frames, and that individuals who
were more involved with the issue were likely to think more about the message and frame
and generate different thoughts. Lundy suggests that practitioners need to better
understand individual differences among publics. Future study should explore how
practitioners and managers make meaning of frames found here after reading these in the
context of selected news articles. Although these frames have been identified here as
being present in these articles, PR practitioners and managers may not perceive these
frames in the same way depending on their own unique perspectives. Testing of how
publics receive frames is important to achieve a more complete understanding of frames
not only in messages, but also in receivers.
Conclusion
Disparities in public relations still exist among gender, racial, and ethnic groups
and must be addressed more fully in public relations’ professional publications. Groups
with less power must be given more voice and representation in media. Some minority
groups receive greater attention than others in publications. Additionally, men should be
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considered in the diversity equation within public relations—most focus on gender within
these publications highlights women in the profession and not both genders. Diversity
was often set off in its own recurring column, special issue, or special section, but was
not fully integrated into the whole of the publications. Diversity should be recognized
more continuously and not pushed aside in its own separate box. Further analysis of
publications produced by the public relations’ profession can provide additional insight
into the way public relations practitioners communicate about diversity.
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Impression Management and the Relational Approach:
The Concept of Self-Presentation and the Military Public Affairs Practitioner
* Betsy Plank Graduate Research Competition Student Award Winner
LCDR Tamara D. Lawrence, U.S. Navy
LCDR Michael Kafka, U.S. Navy
San Diego State University
tdlawrence19@gmail.com
Abstract
Public relations is often characterized by the mutual relationships established
between targeted stakeholders, and it is the responsibility of an organization’s public
relations professionals to build and maintain those relationships. The ability of any given
public relations practitioner to do this can significantly shape the relationship between the
organization and the media outlet. A complicated and delicate task for any individual in
any organization, the requirements for military public affairs practictioners can be even
more challenging when organizational messages conflict with personal beliefs.
This study utilized in-depth interviews and determined that military public affairs
officers do experience inter-role conflict when engaging with stakeholders such as
journalists, and they have different coping mechanisms in order to effectively accomplish
their mission. Military public affairs officers rely on relationships in their day-to-day
activities, and feel a professionally-personal relationship with media is critical to their
success as Navy spokespersons. Potential benefits of this study include a greater
understanding of the roles that public relations practitioners assume in order to establish
relationships with stakeholders and how inter-role conflict potentially impacts the
effectiveness of practitioners in their capacity as spokespersons.
Introduction and Literature Review
Public relations has become a critical component within any organization as mass
media increasingly plays a crucial role in communicating with targeted audiences. The
individual practitioner can have a significant role in shaping the relationship between the
organization and the news media outlet in a progressively more complex and, it is argued,
segmented society (Chaffee & Metzger, 2001). Requirements for practitioners in military
public affairs can be even more challenging as organizational messages may conflict with
personal beliefs. The purpose of this study is to explore the military public affairs officer
- news journalist relationship and how public affairs officers may assume roles to balance
personal beliefs with professional responsibilities in order to establish more effective
relationships. This study is important because a better understanding of the roles public
relations practitioners play to maintain relationships could explain the overall effect those
assumed roles have on the organization – news media relationship.
By examining Goffman’s theory of self-presentation and the concept of
relationship management, this study will explore how the theory of self-presentation can
be applied to military public affairs. It has potential implications for military public
affairs officers who balance potentially contradictory personal, social, or organizational
roles while striving to build and maintain relationships with stakeholders. This research is
unique from previous studies in that it examines public affairs from a role-playing
perspective. Inter-role conflict and role-playing clearly apply to situations beyond
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currently published research, and the study has the potential to contribute to the current
public relations body of knowledge.
Theory of Self-Presentation
Goffman (1959) researched the theory of social interaction and the relationship
between interpersonal interaction and social structure. He also compared face-to-face
interaction to the role an actor plays in front of an audience (Johansson, 2007). Using
theories of social psychology, Goffman assumed “that when an individual appears before
others, he will have many motives for trying to control the impression that they receive of
the situation” (1959, p. 15). By manipulating the setting, the sender’s appearance, or
mannerisms, the sender engages in impression management: a sender will “say and do
certain things and avoid doing other things so that the other’s definition of them” (Heiss,
1981, p. 70) will be the desired definition.
Impression management is the management of reality, or the individual sender’s
constructed reality, and consists of both verbal and non-verbal communication (Goffman,
1967; Goffman 1981; Johansson, 2007). Individuals, acting as message senders, will
sincerely believe in the impression presented to the audience, or message receivers, and
so appear as though the self they are presenting is the real self. Goffman also suggested
the individual as the sender can be cynical about the adopted impression, either adopting
the impression strictly for self-interest purposes or “for the good of the community”
(1959, p. 18).
While grounded in the individual’s self-presentation, impression management has
only been studied with respect to organizational crises (Allen & Caillouet, 1994).
Johansson (2007) identified that further research in impression management should study
the role of public relations practitioners in creating impressions within organizational
settings and how those impressions and beliefs are managed between actors of the
organization and within the audience. Additionally, it is through the development of an
alternative impression that practitioners may have to assume an identity that is distinctly
in conflict with the natural identity of the person. This phenonmeon is known as role
conflict and the practitioner’s ability to reconcile role conflict can have a gross effect on
relationships with stakeholders.
Role Conflict
Role theory states that role behavior is goal-oriented, and an individual adopts a
role that will increase the chances of success in a situation (Heiss, 1981). An individual
may choose a particular role to meet a specific situation or audience, and there may be
inherent conflicts when an individual assumes an identity other than the actual self
(Heiss, 1981). Researchers often interchange the terms identity and role, and while there
is no clear-cut explanation of either term (Cottrell, 1942; Gross & Stone, 1964; Klapp,
1969; Levy, 1952; Stone, 1962) and no consistent definition used in the literature (Biddle,
1979), this study will define identity in terms of how a person presents himself in social
situations (Gross & Stone, 1964) because it is in those social situations that an individual
may realize an adopted role is not appropriate (Heiss, 1981).
An individual’s developed identity for a specific situation may be in conflict with
the individual’s self-prescribed identity, or the individual may be unsure which is the
appropriate identity to use in a particular situation. This can lead to an uneasy identity
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adoption and reduce the effectiveness of that adopted role for the individual (Heiss,
1981). A person will often have an idea of a personal role definition that differs from
“their perceptions of the social definition of the role” (Heiss, 1981, p. 167). The
individual must determine the most effective role to meet identified needs or
requirements in a situation (Biddle, 1979), and may depend on perceptions of accepted
behavior. Inter-role conflict, the conflict that arises when one individual has two
contradictory roles (Gross, McEachern & Mason, 1966), can be applied to the identity
that an individual adopts toward an interpersonal interaction when social expectations are
not met.
Inter-role conflict has been applied primarily to gender or spousal roles with
regard to work-life balance, but the principles are indirectly applicable to interpersonal
relationships within an organization and between stakeholders in a variety of professions.
Attorneys are frequently faced with resolving inter-role conflict when they are assigned
to defend clients known to be guilty, or when clients have indicated they will commit
perjury (Freedman, 1966; Fried, 1976; Rosenberg, 1900; Siemsen, 2004). Specifically,
female attorneys rationalize their personal and often emotional values, and instead focus
on the legal ideology of the case in order to effectively defend clients accused of crimes
such as rape or domestic abuse (Siemsen, 2004). This inter-role conflict resolution is
distinct from that required by public relations practitioners in that the attorney-client
relationship is typically limited in scope and usually short-term, whereas a journalistpublic
relations practitioner relationship is more long-term and can expand across myriad
issues.
The increasing interdependence between public relations practitioners and
journalists has changed the nature of their relationship (Beltz, Talbott, & Stark, 1989;
Shin & Cameron, 2005). Practitioners and journalists alike perceive that there is an
inherent skepticism in the form of natural distrust and fear of manipulation between
public relations practitioners and journalists, which can be compounded when viewed
from an impression management perspective. When a false impression is maintained and
a role is assumed by an individual, it may be a threat to the entire relationship beyond that
of the individual (Goffman, 1966), and hence threaten the relationship between the
representative organizations. In this study, the relationship of concern is the relationship
between the practitioner and the journalist.
Relational Approach to Public Relations
Public relations practitioners have the responsibility to balance the interests of
their organization and their defined stakeholders through the management of the
relationship between the organization and the public (Ledingham, 2003). The concept of
public relations as a relationship function was first grounded in the field of sociology and
studied as inter-organizational relationships and their resulting interactions (Ferguson,
1984).
First advocated by Ferguson (1984), the concept of the relationship is the “prime
issue of concern, not the parties” (p. 23). Understanding relationships provides a richer
context in which to understand an organization’s interaction with, and role in, society
(Toth, 2000).
There is little empirical research on interpersonal relationships and
communication between journalists and public relations practitioners, even though the
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maintenance of those relationships is critical to public relations (Johansson, 2007). Most
scholarship is focused on relationships between corporate public relations practitioners,
their organizations, and their identified stakeholders, but other professional fields such as
government and non-profit organizations often rely on mass media to be the link between
organizations and stakeholders.
Organizational-public relationships are mutually beneficial when the relationships
are effectively managed among defined publics (Hendrix, 1998; Ledingham, 2003) and
they are built on trust and confidence between the practitioner and the journalist
(Johansson, 2007). The nature of the organization-media relationship plays a pivotal role
in how organizational relationships are established. Media function as a conduit between
an organization and its publics. Effectively cultivating a relationship with the media can
improve organizational-media outlet communication, which can potentially enhance the
credibility of the organization to its publics (Bridges & Nelson, 2000). It may be
necessary to strategically and deliberately use communication, including assuming an
alternative, public persona separate from the personal persona to convey those messages
effectively to stakeholders. This reconciliation of the personal and public persona was
conceptualized by Goffman (1959) and was used to develop a further understanding of
human behavior within relationships.
Role-Playing and Established Public Relations Roles
Goffman’s (1959) research on role-playing is distinct from public relations roles
within the framework of an organization (Cutlip, Center, & Broom, 2006; Dozier, 1992;
Grunig, Grunig, & Dozier, 2002). Roles within an organization are a function of whether
the public relations practitioner “participate[s] in strategic decision making of the
dominant coalition or simply execute[s] decisions made by others” (Dozier & Broom,
1995). The many functions of a public relations practitioner can be summarized into four
key practical roles: communication technicians, expert prescriber, communication
facilitator and problem-solving facilitator, as defined by Dozier and Broom (1995).
Public relations practitioners adopt one or more of these four roles depending on their
position within the organization or operating environment. Over time, a practitioner will
become dominant in one role over the others. As identified by research, the four roles
have condensed into two dominant roles within public relations: public relations
technician and public relations manager (Cutlip, Center, & Broom, 2006).
Whereas public relations technicians are primarly concerned with communication
activities such as writing, producing and distributing communication artifacts, public
relations managers require knowledge of strategic communication and strong research
ability, and they are usually part of the management’s strategic planning and decisionmaking
team (Cutlip, Center, & Broom, 2006; Dozier, 1992). Practitioners in a manager
role “do not limit their tactics to communication” (Cutlip, Center, & Broom, 2006, p. 42),
but use environmental scanning, issues management, and program evaluation to achieve
public relations goals.
Practitioners who are part of organizations that practice two-way symmetrical and
two-way asymmetrical communication are more likely to be placed in the public relations
manager role (Dozier, 1992; Grunig, 1992). Public relations is a “people-to-people
business” (Howard, 2004), and “the purpose and direction of an organization is affected
by relationships with key constituents in the organization’s environment” (Dozier,
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Grunig, & Grunig, 1995, p. 85). Media relations practitioners can establish lasting
relationships with journalists and, when media relations is identified as a key function of
the public relations manager, it can contribute significant value towards an organization’s
success (Dozier, 1992; Howard & Mathews, 2006).
Nature of the Journalist-Public Relations Practictioner Relationship
Public relations practitioners are often “characterized as obstructions in the
newsman’s path to the truth, while newsmen are often characterized as the watchdogs of
society” (Jeffers, 1977, p. 299). Jeffers further contended that newspersons believed they
were more ethical than public relations practitioners (Kopenhaver, Martinson, & Ryan,
1984). Ryan and Martinson (1988) postured that the perceived antagonism journalists feel
toward public relations practitioners is “firmly embedded in journalistic culture and that
the antagonism influences the mass communication process” (p. 139).
Shaw and White (2004) argue that the root of the tension between the two
disciplines is a concern over ethics, and that those outside of the public relations
profession are skeptical about the standards for professional ethics for public relations
professionals. Further research by Kopenhaver, Martinson, and Ryan (1984) used the coorientational
model to determine that journalists perceive a larger gap between their
views and the practitioner’s views and, as a result, journalists do not understand the
practitioner’s role in the communication process (Kopenhaver, Martinson, & Ryan,
1984).
Establishing the Journalist-Public Relations Practitioner Relationship
There is infinite research that describes the necessary steps a public relations
practitioner must take to establish an effective working relationship with news media, but
at the heart of the scholarship is that the relationship will remain adversarial because
“journalists and practitioners are not in the same business and often do not have the same
communication goals” (Cutlip, Center, & Broom, 2006, p. 268). There is a recognition
that the emphasis of any media relations program must be on the interpersonal
relationship with those journalists who report on the organization (Desiere & Sha, 2007;
Howard, 2004), and that those relationships are “based on a variety of contacts over time
and strengthened by experiences that foster growing knowledge and respect” (Howard &
Mathews, 2006, p. 65). There are differing approaches on exactly what is required to
establish those relationships.
One school of thought concludes practitioners must master the technical aspects
of the profession to maintain the public relations practitioner-journalist relationship. This
includes developing trust and credibility within their organization and with the media,
and understanding the demands of the news media industry (Howard & Mathews, 2006).
A second school of thought analyzes the public relations practitioner-journalist
relationship from an interpersonal approach. Known as Jeffers’ syndrome, the personal,
micro-level relationship between the journalist and public relations practitioner affects
the professional, meso-level relationship between the organization and news media outlet
(Jeffers, 1977).
Journalists initially mistrust the potential power that those informal relationships
have over their reporting, but those informal relationships help meet the needs of both
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professionals within their fields, and even provide a bridge to a more effective
professional relationship (Kim & Bae, 2006; Shin & Cameron, 2002).
Military Public Affairs
Most military public affairs officers’ first exposure to professional relationships
with the media occurs in a 43-day Public Affairs Qualification Course (PAQC) held at
the Defense Information School in Fort Meade, Maryland. The PAQC provides entrylevel
public affairs training for military officers and government agency civilians in
public affairs positions, and briefly explores public relations theory before focusing
primarily on the practical applications of public affairs such as interviewing, writing, and
building research skills (Department of Defense, January 2008).
There are two functional areas dedicated to the concept of media relations during
the PAQC: Media Techniques and Introduction to Media Relations. The Media
Techniques instruction focuses on the technical tools of a public affairs officer. The
Introduction to Media Relations instruction examines the characteristics of various
media, basic guidelines for good media relations, and how to conduct a media relations
program (Department of Defense, January 2008). The importance of relationships with
the media is discussed in the context of becoming familiar with media outlets and
journalists when reporting to a new assignment, and the instruction provides fundamental
strategies for building and maintaining media relationships, such as returning phone calls
and promptly answering media queries. The media relations lesson plan highlights the
need to connect with the media at times other than when answering media queries or in a
crisis situation; however, it does not explore the real-world aspects of those personal
relationships and instead relies primarily on the instructor’s experience (Department of
Defense, January 2008). The actual course instruction on relationship building is limited
in its discussion and leaves relationship management to be learned through mentorship
and experience at the public affairs officer’s first assignment.
The military public affairs discipline presents a unique case study for relationship
management, as military public affairs practitioners rely heavily on previously
established relationships with news media to accomplish their mission. Military public
relations practitioners move between representing the closed society (real or perceived)
of the U.S. military while working with the news media, which are functioning as
representatives of the American people. According to Fletcher and Soucy, “an effective
public affairs officer serves both constituencies – the press and military” (1983, p. 93),
and without a positive relationship with the press, the public affairs officer will find it
difficult to successfully span that boundary. All practitioners must understand their
appropriate roles in order to establish relationships with journalists and further the
organization’s mission and goals.
Defense Department messages may conflict with personal beliefs; however,
military public relations practitioners are duty-bound to maintain their role as official
military spokespersons, which may lead some practitioners to assume a different role in
order to convey those messages effectively and to establish a relationship with the
journalist. This assumption of alternative roles can lead to the feeling of inter-role
conflict, and require some level of rationalization or resolution on the part of the
practitioner in order to maintain those significant relationships.
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A review of current research does not draw any conclusions regarding military
public affairs officers and their relationship management activities. Military public affairs
officers are assigned to public relations positions for a limited time before moving to the
next assignment, potentially prohibiting interpersonal relationships with stakeholders
such as journalists from fully developing, requiring a reliance on formal, organizational
relationships to achieve the military’s public relations’ goals. Military practitioners often
seek opportunities to go beyond the traditional methods of public affairs and use informal
methods, such as daily conversations and personal relationships, to establish a
professional relationship in an effort to capitalize on the interpersonal connection with the
purpose of furthering military messages to stakeholders. Military public affairs
practitioners are uniquely positioned to establish nascent relationships with journalists
based on their position within the military organization. However, there is little available
research on the roles that military public relations practitioners assume to establish these
relationships, and the potential inter-role conflict that military public relations
practitioners may experience in their capacity as military spokespersons.
Significance of this study
Existing literature reviewed here examined the relational approach to public
relations and introduced the potential influence of Goffman’s theory of self-presentation
in affecting those relationships. Prior research on the relational approach to public
relations does not take into account the effect of interpersonal relations or the required
resolution of potentially conflicting personal opinions with professional obligations to
maintain relationships. Furthermore, while current research confirms the need to maintain
the relationships between an organization and its stakeholders, it does not investigate the
impact of interpersonal relationships on those organizational relationships.
The study thus proposed the following research questions:
RQ1: How does the kind of relationship a military public affairs officer (PAO)
establishes with a journalist impact the organizational-news media outlet
relationship?
RQ2: How do military public affairs officers create an overall impression for
themselves that may be in conflict with their personal beliefs, to establish and
maintain those relationships between the organization and the media outlet?
RQ3: How do military public affairs officers manage inter-role conflict, if
experienced?
Methodology
This study utilized in-depth interviews to determine participants’ perceptions of
their role in maintaining the organizational-news media outlet relationship, whether
public affairs officers assume a role in order to better establish a relationship with a
journalist, and the tactics used by public affairs officers to assume a role that will enhance
a relationship and manage potential inter-role conflict. In-depth interviews are an
appropriate method to elicit in-depth information about public relations and practitioners’
interactions with stakeholders (Jo & Kim, 2004). Researchers conducted in-depth
interviews with 11 Navy public affairs officers in a variety of military assignments from
March to April 2008. Each interview lasted approximately 60 minutes, and the interviews
were conducted at a location convenient for the participant. Four participants were
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assigned to military duties outside of the southern California area, overseas or at sea, and
those interviews were conducted via telephone. One interview was conducted via email
as the participant was transitioning military duty stations.
The interviewees were all U.S. naval officers and included five commanders (14–
20 years’ military experience), two lieutenant commanders (10–14 years’ experience),
three lieutenants (six to nine years’ experience), and one lieutenant junior grade (fewer
than four years’ experience). Six of those public affairs officers interviewed were male
and five were female. Two interviewees were recent transfers to the public affairs
community from other Navy specialties. The experience of the interviewees ranged from
two years to 18 years of military experience. The researchers sought to have a mix of
military and public relations experience as determined by the interviewees’ previous
work experience and military rank. The interviewees were selected by convenience
sampling based on a military public affairs network, which potentially impeded the
ability of the interviewees from giving fully “spontaneous and unstudied responses”
during the interview (McCracken, 1988, p. 27).
Interviewees were asked questions about their relationships with stakeholders
(primarily journalists), and how public affairs officers manage those relationships when
addressing difficult or controversial issues. Other questions asked the overall importance
of informal and formal relationships for the success of their job, and how public affairs
officers are taught to establish, maintain, and possibly manipulate relationships in their
professional sphere. It was imperative that researchers maintain social distance from the
interviewees through neutral body language and verbal conversation, as many of the
questions addressed potentially sensitive areas, and the researchers sought as honest an
answer as possible (McCracken, 1988).
Findings and Discussion
This study proposed three research questions to determine characteristics that
influence the public affairs officer-journalist relationship, and how military public affairs
officers maintain those relationships while resolving possibly conflicting personal
opinions with the professional responsibility to act as U.S. Navy spokespersons.
Respondents generally agreed that their relationship with the media was directly related
to their success as a public affairs officer. Applying Cutlip, Center, and Broom’s (2006)
definition of public relations, it is the responsibility of public affairs officers to cultivate
relationships with stakeholders, and the media are some of the most important
stakeholders in conveying the Navy’s mission to the American taxpayer. Commander J,
with 14 years of public relations experience, noted that it is the job of officers to “take
care of your people . . . the media are our people, and we need to take care of them.” An
officer with seven years of public affairs experience, Lieutenant Commander J,
emphatically stated that “relationships are the single most important factor in doing what
we do in communicating.”
Building Relationships
The researchers first sought to determine how the nature of the public relations
practitioner-journalist relationship impacts the organizational-news media outlet
relationship. Overwhelmingly, particpants said that the organizational relationship and
practitioner-journalist relationship are closely related, but participants had differing
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opinions of how to define informal and professional relationships. In the end, the term
“professionally-personal relationships,” coined by Lieutenant Commander J, appeared to
be a neutral concept that most respondents felt comfortable using to describe their
relationships with media. Not only was it recognized that relationships are critical, but
that it is vital to establish those relationships at an early stage in a public affairs officer’s
career. Lieutenant Commander J explained that “the reporters you work with as a more
junior officer will also move up to become more senior as you become more senior,” but
observed that junior officers are sometimes “reluctant to engage the media,” making the
professional relationship much more difficult to build at a later date.
When asked whether a personal relationship with a journalist affects the
relationship between the Navy and that media organization, most participants indicated
that what drove a personal relationship was the level of professionalism that journalist
exhibited in his work, including his accuracy, competency, and ethics in reporting. As
Lieutenant Commander C, with 12 years of public affairs experience, noted, “it’s the
professional relationship [that] affects the personal relationship, not necessarily the other
way around,” and this practitioner-journalist relationship directly supports the
organizational relationship. A media organization that employs journalists found by
military public affairs officers to be sloppy or unethical for example, is an organization
with which the Navy does not want to work.
There were a number of common factors identified by participants that influence
the public affairs officer-journalist relationship and, as such, the organizational
relationship: the importance of maintaining boundaries with journalists, balancing the
consequences within those relationships, and maintaining the public affairs officers’ trust
and credibility with journalists in order to be effective.
All participants indicated the need to maintain some boundary with journalists
with varying levels of impact on the organizational relationship. Each public affairs
officer had a different threshold in this regard; however, as Lieutenant R, a public affairs
officer with eight years of military public affairs experience, stated, “everybody needs to
know what their role in the equation is” in order to establish an effective relationship.
Lieutenant Commander C, with 12 years of public affairs experience, shared that it is
possible to have a professionally-personal relationship because “we can mutually
recognize the boundaries.” Public affairs officers recognized they had to segment their
professional and personal relationships, but that the informal, or professionally-personal
relationships were a significant part of their daily activities.
Some public affairs officers defined the professionally-personal relationship
within the scope of spending a lot of time during the workday with a particular journalist.
A public affairs officer with 18 years of experience, Commander L explained that when
two people spend a lot of time together, “there’s certain knowledge that the more time
you spend with someone the more you share with them . . . There’s a psychological piece
to it.” Lieutenant R further explained that having a good personal relationship may mean
reporters will be more likely to seek information from him, providing greater
opportunities to share the Navy’s perspective. He stated, “I do think it helps my
organization and probably theirs as well, the fact that we’re on good terms.” Several
public affairs officers indicated they had relationships with media because of previous
experiences out of the Navy. Lieutenant S, who has 14 years of public relations
experience, explained that regardless of any previous relationship with media, it is
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possible to transition between the personal relationship and the professional relationship,
stating that “I always have to remind [a friend who is a reporter] that . . . we have to put a
wall between us” when talking about Navy issues. A possible explanation for the
difference in the variety of definitions is that the career experiences of the public affairs
officers interviewed varied greatly. Some public affairs officers followed a mediarelations
career path, while others focused more on the policy aspects of the field, and as
such, they are less comfortable with establishing professionally-personal relationships
with media. This phenomenon may also be a function of a career path that has consisted
of roles that have been primarily technician, rather than manager-focused.
Regardless of career path or experience, all public affairs officers recognized that
the establishment of a professionally-personal relationship required a recognition of the
risks and consequences therein. If public affairs officers have good personal relationships
with journalists, they can have discussions off the record to provide background
information or context to potentially contentious issues, possibly improving the quality of
the article or news report. This is a case where the personal relationship improves the
organizational relationship, but it often depends on the public affairs officer, the level of
comfort with a reporter, and the issues about which they are speaking.
Public affairs officers described the risks in terms of speaking beyond the scope
of the Navy’s talking points, and being aware of how words and nuances can be
perceived depending on the reporter. A public affairs officer with three years’ experience,
Lieutenant A emphasized that “as long as you’re right on the party line, nothing
controversial can be created” in the press. Nevertheless, it was evident that there are
times when public affairs officers share personal opinions on Navy issues with trusted
media. As Commander G, with 13 years of public affairs experience, explained, while
sharing personal opinions may improve relationships, it “would never be done with a
reporter who covers the subject I am discussing.” This was a significant distinction
among public affairs officers interviewed with determinations based on trust and the
longevity of the relationship, leading to highly variant conclusions on sharing personal
views. Commander L indicated that “whether or not a person was a known quantity”
would influence the decision to establish a professionally-personal relationship, whereas
Lieutenant Commander J explained that the relationship must be one of established trust
and longevity.
One factor influencing professionally-personal relationships with media was the
quality of mentorship from senior public affairs officers. When asked where they learned
how to establish professionally-personal relationships with media, all interviewed public
affairs officers indicated that it was not taught in any of their public affairs coursework,
but rather learned from mentors and experience. Commander L explained that one
informal relationship with a reporter was particularly fruitful during crises, but “I might
not have gone as far as I did . . . had that type of relationship not been recommended to
me by some PAOs who were in this position and [whom] I strongly respected.”
Lieutenant Commander J added that learning how to cultivate those relationships “is one
of the objectives of mentorship” and the reason why relationship management needs to be
“institutionalized.”
This study revealed that the level of trust between a public affairs officer and a
journalist truly defines both the personal and organizational relationships. When asked
what criteria they use to establish a personal relationship with a reporter, every public
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affairs officer interviewed addressed the need for some level of trust between the reporter
and the public affairs officer. Commander C, with 13 years of public affairs experience,
explained that a sense of trust between a journalist and public affairs officer creates a
better personal relationship, which leads to a more effective professional relationship.
Trust is built over time, and is influenced by previous interactions with reporters on
media queries and crisis situations. There is the recognition that relationships have to be
developed and a two-way symmetrical level of trust must be established in order to be
effective in conveying the Navy’s mission. Through professionally-personal relationships
developed over time, public affairs officers are even able to influence the outcome and
quality of a news feature because of that relationship. Moreover, two-way
communication assists public affairs officers in learning more about the reporters, and
gaining a better understanding of the media’s needs in order to improve the working
relationship.
Understanding the Landscape
The researchers also explored how military public affairs practitioners create an
overall impression for themselves that may be in conflict with their personal beliefs in
order to establish and maintain relationships with media, and accomplish their job as
Navy spokespersons. All public affairs officers interviewed indicated that organizational
loyalty was the driving factor behind their actions and behaviors as Navy spokespersons.
Lieutenant Commander C summarized most public affairs officers’ feelings: “[We’re] not
paid to talk about personal viewpoints. . . we’re paid to be disinterested representatives”
to the American taxpayer while communicating the Navy’s viewpoint. That being said,
there was a general recognition among interviewed public affairs officers that they did
employ certain strategies to assist in creating a more effective working environment.
Participants recognized the tactics of good media relations: accurately answering
media queries on time, providing honest information, and following potential news. On a
strategic level, participants indicated that public affairs officers must anticipate the
media’s needs and understand their point of view. Commander C said that it was
“absolutely imperative to be able to do the job that . . . you get to know what [the
media’s] jobs are and the demands . . . and speak their language . . . You have to know
the landscape.” Lieutenant R compared research on reporters and their issues to “counterespionage.”
Regardless of the issue, “in order to defeat the propaganda campaign,” said
Lieutenant R, “you have to see where [the media is] coming from, and what they’re
trying to achieve, and how they’re doing it.” That being said, it is necessary to create
relationships with media who can help further the cause of explaining the Navy’s mission
and, Lieutenant R continued, “it doesn’t hurt to let every reporter know, or believe, that
you like them” to get “as much positive exposure as [we] can for the Sailors” and the
Navy.
Public affairs officers felt that one way to maintain those relationships through
difficult issues was to maintain a sense of self-awareness of their personal view on
professional issues, and maintain a sense of control over the relationship with the media.
Participants indicated that researching reporters, the media organization, and the
reporter’s perspectives provides valuable information toward establishing a relationship.
Finding areas of commonality or personal interests can help maintain the relationship,
and provide an opportunity for the public affairs officer to connect with the journalist.
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This concept of relationships was consistent across all public affairs officers interviewed,
regardless of rank. An officer with two years of public affairs experience, Lieutenant
junior grade K indicated that having a connection with a reporter can “make having a
working relationship . . . easier because you do have that commonality,” a sentiment
reinforced by mid-grade and senior public affairs officers. This connection can either be
based on true common areas of interest, or based on common areas of interest fabricated
simply for the sake of establishing a relationship. Lieutenant R, a Boston Celtics fan,
agreed that first and foremost one had to be professional, but added that “if I found out [a
reporter] was a Lakers fan, I [certainly] wouldn’t give him my usual spiel about the
Lakers.” These created impressions were deemed critical in establishing and maintaining
relationships with the media.
However, all interviewed public affairs officers felt it was important to agree on
some level with the viewpoint that they were charged with conveying. Public affairs
officers differentiated between disagreeing with the fundamentals of Navy policy, and
disagreeing on smaller policy issues and the tactics used to convey the Navy’s message.
It was not judged to be unusual to use personal (informal) relationships to discuss these
disagreements with trusted reporters. However, Commander L noted that “we are on the
front lines, and we have to be able to talk with authority about these issues, and if we
don’t believe in them, no amount of personal relationships are going to save you.”
Sharing personal disagreements about major Navy policies with media had the potential
to undermine the credibility of public affairs as a whole, and potentially further the
agenda of media who support an alternate viewpoint. Public affairs officers have
developed coping mechanisms when they do experience internal conflict in order to
preserve their credibility and carry out their public affairs mission.
Coping with Conflict
Researchers sought to determine the tactics public affairs officers used to
negotiate inter-role conflict if it was experienced. Depending on their career history,
public affairs officers experience and manage inter-role conflict differently. Lieutenant
junior grade K said, “It’s almost like an out-of-body experience . . . because I’m just
repeating what I’m supposed to say,” while Lieutenant Commander J explained,
“whatever your personal opinion is, hide it, because it is just not relevant to the issue.”
When public affairs officers were asked how they hide their personal viewpoints
when talking to the media, across all ranks, they stressed the importance of understanding
and internalizing the approved top messages. A public affairs office creates guidance for
significant issues to ensure all spokespersons are aligned with the Navy’s message. When
faced with a complicated or challenging media query, Lieutenant A explained that if there
is any doubt on how to respond, “I don’t answer it right away. . . I look over my notes,
and then I’ll call back. I have to get in the zone.” Commander C simplified the idea by
saying, “Stick to guidance, know it, and be prepared.” Commander D, with 14 years of
public affairs experience, went even further, saying that “there’d be no room for my
personal feelings in any type of media engagement.” Military guidance is designed to
provide that standard language approved by Navy leadership which all public affairs
officers can use to overcome inter-role conflict and address media queries.
Part of the process of impression management is being aware of body language,
posture, and other non-verbal communication cues. Military public affairs officers must
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always be aware of how they present themselves because they, as Lieutenant Commander
J said, “are always on, you always have to think . . .what is the question, and what are the
implications of the question.” However, Commander C noted that “it’s not necessarily
working with media that I’m challenged to conceal my personal opinions” but rather
when engaging with friends and acquaintances. “I know that they will still perceive me as
a Navy public affairs person . . . and I feel pretty strongly about . . . not being perceived
as having any kind of agenda or representing any kind of agenda on the part of the
Navy.” Military service members are frequently told they represent the military 24 hours
a day, seven days a week, which could indicate that inter-role conflict occurs not just
during the workday. Public affairs officers and journalists recognize the potential
personal conflicts experienced by public affairs officers and abide by an “unspoken
agreement,” to not discuss personal opinions, according to Commander C. This
agreement could only occur when the relationship is based on trust. Lieutenant A
compared it to discussing religion and politics over dinner, and said that depending on the
topic, personal relationships can help media “understand the significance [of the issue]
and what [the Navy] is trying to achieve.” It is the responsibility of the public affairs
officer to “authoritatively put out what the message is,” according to Lieutenant
Commander J, and take the necessary steps to do that effectively because “we absolutely
cannot do that without a relationship [with the media].”
When interviewees were asked about methods to establish professionally-personal
relationships, two contradicting points of view emerged. One strategy to manage interrole
conflict and relationships with media was to pay particular attention to the process
used by military public affairs officers. When asked about negotiating inter-role conflict,
Lieutenant Commander C stated that the government in general will always face criticism
over the methods used in communication, and added that “we need to pay attention to the
processes we use to inform the public . . . and the way we deal with relationships is a
subset of the . . . processes we use.” This theme resonated throughout several interviews,
where public affairs officers concluded that once personal viewpoints are shared with
media, and informal relationships with media are established, the public affairs officer is
already shaping the media’s mind and perspective. The personal viewpoint becomes the
Navy’s viewpoint, and the credibility of the public affairs officer as an official
spokesperson is at risk.
On the other hand, several interviewed public affairs officers indicated that it was
not so much the process of working with the media, but rather the personality of the
public affairs officer that influences the relationship and their ability to negotiate interrole
conflict. When asked about establishing relationships with media, Lieutenant R
believed that effective public affairs officers have a specific personality. While
explaining the importance of personality as a public affairs officer, Lieutenant R shared
that at his high school job, “people would walk in for an [ice cream bar] and walk out
with an ice cream cake. We’re in sales, we’re selling a product and personality helps.”
Lieutenant A contended that learning how to manage relationships “is not something the
Navy can teach” but rather it is learned through experience and mentorship. Other junior
public affairs officers agreed. Lieutenant junior grade K said that it’s “personality-driven”
whether people are good at establishing personal relationships, while maintaining a level
of professionalism between the organizations. It is in the ability to effectively maintain
relationships that increases the effectiveness of a public affairs officer.
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Conclusion
This study specifically examined how U.S. Navy public affairs officers manage
relationships with media stakeholders when acting as spokespersons on issues with which
they may or may not agree. Public affairs officers feel that relationships are an important
aspect of their day-to-day job in conveying the Navy’s mission to the American taxpayer.
The exact make-up of those relationships varied among public affairs officers, but
consensus among participants is that those relationships are critical to their success,
regardless of how they are structured. Public affairs officers do experience inter-role
conflict, and they recognize the need to control how they are viewed in order to fulfill
their responsibilites as Navy spokespersons. The extent of inter-role conflict is a highly
variable factor in the public affairs officer’s experience, yet, the steps to facilitate good
media relations are consistent – be professional, be honest, and be competent.
This study did not attempt to examine which roles are most effective, or how
military public affairs practitioners can create effective roles to improve organizational
relationships, or how the military public affairs community should address the concept of
roles among its practitioners. This qualitative study was not considered generalizable to
all public relations practitioners. Yet, information from these interviews provides
valuable insight into how practitioners might establish and maintain relationships with
critical stakeholders when personal opinions differ from their organizations’ opinions.
This study contributes to the foundational knowledge of how roles are currently used by
practitioners and provides a roadmap for future studies on the role of relationships in the
success of organzations.
There may be a generational difference in how people respond in relationships
and how they manage potential inter-role conflict. Several participants expressed concern
that younger public affairs officers do not differentiate between their personal
perspectives and their public personas because of the influence and popularity of such
open technologies as Weblogs, Facebook, and MySpace. There are more than 70 million
active users on Facebook, a social-networking site, and more than 14 million photos are
uploaded each day (Facebook Statistics, n.d.). There are also more than 100,000 new
videos uploaded onto YouTube daily (Neptune, 2008). The sense of exhibitionism and
openness felt by current users of social networking tools may lead to greater inter-role
conflict in the future when they become organizational spokespersons and must conceal
their personal viewpoints.
A young person’s decision to join the military is often influenced by the
experiences of their family members, and that impact was a concern of interviewed senior
public affairs officers. As fewer people in society have military experience, and more
people are negatively affected by the current military environment, there is potential for
future military officers to experience greater inter-role conflict as U.S. Navy
spokespersons. Future research should examine generational differences between public
affairs officers and continue to examine how relationships are managed and maintained
while negotiating inter-role conflict.
Inter-role conflict research has been limited to the legal profession, but all public
relations practitioners have the same potential for experiencing inter-role conflict with
similar consequences. Impression management and the management of the presented self
happen on a daily basis and need to be examined regularly, as opposed to only during
times of crisis as observed by Goffman (1959). This study provides very specific research
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on how one organization’s public relations practitioners manage their day-to-day roles
and, as such, this study can contribute to a greater understanding of Goffman’s theory.
While collecting significant information on the nature of the public affairs officerjournalist
relationship, this research met the criteria for rigorous study and valid
evaluation. This research provides insight into the real tactics used by military public
affairs officers to manage internal conflicts, and their perspectives on the importance of
relationship management. One challenge to the credibility of the study, however, was the
participants themselves. Some of the questions asked interviewees to reveal their internal
professional conflicts, and it is possible that the interviewees answered those questions
how they thought they were supposed to answer in order to show themselves in the best
light. Researchers tried to counter this concern by rephrasing sensitive questions, and
allowing interviewees the time to expound as they felt necessary. Researchers maintained
a transparent process and allowed the interviews and the protocol questions to adjust as
the situation dictated.
As a practical application, a greater understanding of and familiarization with
inter-role conflict and self-presentation can help improve the effectiveness of military
public affairs officers, and public relations practitioners in general, while encouraging
mentorship of younger practitioners on relationship management techniques. As societal
events influence organizational messages, practitioners will inevitably feel inter-role
conflict, and greater discussion of coping mechanisms will enhance the ability of public
affairs practitioners to manage that conflict, and sustain relationships with stakeholders.
Relationship management is critical to an organization’s survival, and every practitioner
should be aware of how to speak openly and authoritatively on their organization’s
messages while managing relationships with media. In the end, that is the true value of a
public relations practitioner to any organization.
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Filmmakers as Social Advocates—A New Challenge for Issues Management:
Claims-making and Framing in Four Social Issue Documentaries
Mechelle Martz and Kirk Hallahan, Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA
Colorado State University
kirk.hallahan@colostate.edu
Abstract
This study examines the rise of the social issue documentary film as a medium deserving
serious attention by issues managers. After tracing the development of the genre, the
papers argues that commercial filmmakers serve as important secondary advocates for
causes through highly visible, commercial film productions that frame issues in
provocative ways, ascribe blame, and call for social change. A content analysis of four
contemporary American films targeting major corporations – Starbucks, McDonalds,
Wal-Mart and General Motors – examined the use of issue framing and five story-telling
devices identified in the claims-making literature: interviews, statistics, dramatizations,
symbols, and celebrities. An additional important tool was identified: the presentation of
documentary evidence. Implications for issues management are discussed.
Introduction
The social issue documentary film has been rejuvenated as an art form that draws
attention to social problems, and today the genre enjoys growing commercial success as
filmmakers strive to quench the public’s thirst for films with social relevance (Kipnes,
2004). Recent productions such as Robert Kenner’s Food, Inc. (2009), Al Gore’s An
Inconvenient Truth (2006) and Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) and Sicko
(2007) have prominently focused public attention on major social issues ranging from the
environment to healthcare reform.
Researchers in issues management and public relations generally have paid little
attention to independently produced documentaries as channels of advocacy. Filmmakers
generally have been dismissed as quirky gadflies, and their productions have been
marginalized in terms of their consequences. However, the influence of social issue
documentaries is growing, and researchers and issues managers alike need to better
understand this important form of infotainment (which also might be termed advotainment)
as a channel used to broaden public awareness and concern about public issues
and promote causes.
Beyond the popularity of these films, the topic is important because many of the
ground rules that apply to the discussion of public issues in the traditional news media
don’t apply to films. Except for maintaining credibility with audiences, filmmakers are
under no journalistic obligation to be fair or balanced – and are unfettered by institutional
pressures from advertisers or political figures that might otherwise circumvent coverage
of a controversial topic. This might be one of most important strengths of the genre,
which can tell stories persuasively in unconventional and deliberately provoking ways.
Documentary films dealing with social problems enjoy growing support from
investors, motion picture distributors, and film exhibitors who have recognized the market
potential of these films as entertainment fare. However, their commercial success in theaters
increasingly is overshadowed by DVD sales. The films themselves and the causes they
promote receive added exposure through movie trailers streamed on films’ official Web
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Sites, video sharing sites such as YouTube and Hulu, and file sharing among movie
enthusiasts and issue supporters. Moreover, newsworthy activities related to the films –
premieres at film festivals, endorsements by celebrities, releases in local theaters,
distribution on DVDs, awards received -- all provide platforms to raise public consciousness
of the issue addressed in the film. Importantly, such exposure results from publicity, reviews
and commentaries in the entertainment (versus public affairs or news) portions of public
media.
Drawing upon the framing and claims-making literature, this study examined the
development of the social issue documentary film and the techniques used by filmmakers
to advocate social action by analyzing four documentaries distributed between 2000 and
2006. All four films examined important social problems, framed social problems from
particular perspectives, and ascribed blame to major corporations. In so doing, this paper
suggests that issues managers should recognize the growing influence of these commercial
documentary films, understand how filmmakers construct arguments, and consider best
practices for responding to organizational attacks.
Origins of the Social Issue Documentary Film
The earliest motion pictures recorded by Thomas Edison in the United States and
the Lumière brothers in France recorded scenes of everyday life (Barsam, 1992). This
documentary film tradition has continued despite the evolution of the commercial motion
picture into a medium offering primarily fictional entertainment fare (Platinga, 2005).
Since its inception in the 1920s, the documentary film has been the subject of
controversy as critics debated whether documentaries should merely depict reality or
whether images should be manipulated to promote a particular ideological point of view
(Jacobs, 1971a). Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1922), acknowledged as the
first full-length documentary, was roundly criticized because much of its depictions of
life among natives on Hudson Bay was staged (Jacobs, 1971b). Purists emphasized the
need to avoid staging or manipulation. For example, Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov
(Guynn, 1990, pp.24-28) strived for “film truth” (kino-pravda) and argued that the goal
of a documentary filmmaker should be “to expose truth by genuinely cinematic means
that would reflect the hidden socioeconomic contradictions of a given environment”
(Petric, 1992, p. 90). Vertov was a forerunner of cinéma-vérité, the cinematic movement
popularized by Jean Rouch in the 1950s that called for recording life without staging,
rearrangement or ideological purpose (Baugh, 2005).
John Grierson, a British social scientist, was the first filmmaker to apply the term
documentary to a non-fiction film in the 1930s (Rabiger, 2004, p. 20). Grierson saw film
as a tool for social change, arguing, “Education is activist or it is nothing” (1966, p. 261).
Grierson dismissed the need for films to be commercially successful in theaters. Instead,
he popularized the idea of exhibiting documentaries in institutional settings such as
schools, hospitals, trade unions, and clubs (Guyun, 1990; L’Etang, 1999). His vision also
inspired the creation of pioneering documentary production companies in the United
States such as the Worker's Film and Photo League (1930), Nykino (1934), and Frontier
Films (1936).
Beginning in the late 1920s, governments funded documentary films for public
education and propaganda. Indeed, most of Grierson’s work was completed for the
British government. The French used film to promote progressive farming techniques
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(Levine, 2004, p. 77). The United States government hired film writer-reviewer Pare
Lorentz to produce films for the New Deal’s Resettlement Administration to encourage
the abandonment of unproductive farming and the relocation of families away from
impoverished rural areas during the Depression. German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s
Triumph of the Will, which documented the Nazi Party Congress rally in Nuremberg in
1934, and Olympiad, which chronicled the famous 1936 Berlin games, are considered
classics of modern film. Riefenstahl asserted that her films were simply facts as the
camera recorded what happened, not Nazi propaganda (Perez, 200, p. 30).
During World War II, governments in United States and elsewhere similarly hired
filmmakers to produce films for largely propaganda purposes. Notable examples
included Frank Capra’s Why We Fight series. The first film in the series, Prelude to War,
won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1942—the first full-length
documentary film so honored (Capra, 1971). Although these and other efforts were
highly influential, the use of documentaries for propaganda purposes sullied the
reputation of documentary films as artistic endeavors. Although the production of
government and corporate-sponsored films continued, many aspiring filmmakers saw
documentaries as unglamorous and artistically confining (Aufderheide, 2007).
Early theatrical documentaries met with little commercial success in the United
States compared to Europe, largely because motion picture producers and distributors
thought documentaries would not be accepted by theater-goers. After World War II, the
principal theatrical documentaries that were commercially viable were short and fulllength
nature films in the True Life Adventures series produced by Walt Disney from
1948 to 1960 and three full-length oceanographic films produced by Jacques Cousteau
(The Silent World, 1956; The Golden Fish, 1959; The World Without Sun, 1965). A
handful of other commercial productions all featured shows business personalities--
Lonely Boy (1961), Showman (1962) and Don’t Look Back (1967) (Jacobs, 1971c).
The advent of television helped kindle public interest in documentaries. Most
important was the pioneering works of Edward R. Murrow’s. These included the See It
Now series, CBS’s attacks on the demagoguery of Senator Joseph McCarthy, and Harvest
of Shame (1960), a 55-minute made-for-television documentary where Murrow reported
on the plight of migrant farm workers. Murrow’s reportorial style, which combined
interviews with live footage, was duplicated widely by filmmakers and lent credibility to
the documentary genre (Ellis & McLane, 2005).
Commercialization of the Documentary Film
From the 1950s until the late 1980s, social issue documentary films were mostly
short subjects that dealt with problems such as farm labor, drug use, prostitution and war
(Arnold, 1971). During this period a number of filmmakers also tackled the important
topic of civil rights (A City Decides, 1957; All the Way Home, 1958—see Sloan 1971).
But only a few notable filmmakers worked in the full-length format because of the high
cost of production and the limited audience interest. Notable exceptions were Frederick
Wiseman, who created full-length documentaries that focused on the oppression of
various groups. Wiseman’s controversial Titicut Follies (1968) exposed the horrible
mistreatment of the criminally insane but was banned from viewing by the general public
because of its controversial content (Anderson & Besson, 1991; Grant, 1998, 2006).
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Exhibition of documentary films remained largely limited to showings at libraries,
schools, and government institutions – and independent art houses clustered in major
cities or college towns. Then, in 1989, producer-director Michael Moore opened the gate
for wider distribution of documentaries in theaters with his production Roger & Me.
Using an offbeat approach, Moore’s film exposed the social cost of the downsizing by
General Motors on Moore’s hometown of Flint, Michigan (Moore, 2002; Stoll, 2009).
In a departure from the strategies used by other documentary filmmakers, Moore
persuaded Warner Bros. to distribute his low-budget film (which cost only $200,000 to
produce) in exchange for a $3 million license agreement. Warner Bros. agreed to
distribute the film to 1,300 screens and to show the film for free to unions and schools in
economically depressed locations (Warren, 2003). To date, the film has generated more
than $7 million in revenues (Box Office Mojo, 2008).
The theatrical financial success of Roger & Me was a surprise to critics and
filmmakers. As with many other documentary films, critics such as New Yorker’s
Pauline Kael (1989) chided Moore’s exaggerated claims and filming methods as
throwbacks to old propaganda films (Hardy & Clarke, 2004). Yet the public attended in
droves. Although Moore failed in his attempt to get GM to ease the plight of its laid-off
workers, his bristling commentary on corporate indifference and ineptitude prompted
extensive discussion -- even among people who didn’t see the film.
Roger & Me paved the way for many other documentary filmmakers to pursue
financing for larger-scale productions as well as distribution commitments from major
studios. Films that soon followed included Paris is Burning (1991), Brother’s Keeper
(1992), The War Room (1993), Hoop Dreams (1994), Unzipped (1995), The Celluloid
Closet (1996), Startup.com (2001) and The Fog of War (2003). All attempted to expose
elements of society, government and industry that other media forms had not. The trend
was fostered by the rise of new film festivals that celebrated documentaries, acceptance
by television and cable networks, and new digital technologies that reduced costs and
made production more accessible. Online promotion and delivery systems further
contributed to the success of these films.
The impact of the genre can be seen from the following statistics: From 1996 to
1998, premieres of documentaries on U.S. cable and broadcast networks jumped from 28
to 98. By 1999, fully 85% of American households reported watching at least one
documentary per week (Rabiger, 2004, p. 40). From 2001 to 2005, the productions of
full-length documentary films per year increased from 15 to 82 (Nash Information
Services, 2008). Due to the recent increase in theatrical releases of documentary films, in
late 2006 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued new, more stringent
requirements for feature-length documentary entries in the Oscar competition. For
Academy consideration, documentaries now must be screened for seven days in either
Los Angeles or New York City, as well as in 14 theatres in at least 10 states (Professor
documents…, 2008).
Advocacy And Social Claims-Making By Documentary Film Makers
Documentary films provide a unique vehicle to call attention to social problems
and the role of institutions in them. As pioneer filmmaker Pare Lorentz observed, the
documentary has the potential to “dwarf the stage, the press and literature with its power”
(cited in Hogan, 1998, p. 2). In part, this power is rooted in the artistic liberties accorded
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film artisans. Audiences also gravitate toward films in which they also have a high level
of interest or involvement (Bitzer, 1968) and are engulfed by the power of documentary
films to raise emotions (Rabiger, 2004). Many social issue documentary films focus on
the negative aspects of social conditions; psychological research suggests that people are
more persuaded by negative versus positive claims, including the threat of losses versus
gains (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979).
Activism, Advocacy, Social Issue Documentaries, and Claims-making Defined
Social issue documentaries are highly sophisticated tools of activism, i.e. or how
individual or groups identify situations in society as problematic and then organize to
resolve them (Salmon, 1990). More specifically, social issue documentaries are tools of
advocacy or communication used to broaden awareness of the issue, enlist supporters and
prompt social action (Alinsky, 1971; Cobb & Elder, 1972; Hallahan, 2001). Crable &
Vibbert (1985, p. 5) explain that an issue is created whenever one or more human agents
“attach significance to a situation or perceived problem.” Issues inherently involve the
exercise of power of society – and whether, how or by whom a problems will be defined
and resolved (Jaques, 2006, p. 412).
Social issue documentary films are rarely among the first tools deployed in
discussions of issues. The process typically begins with interpersonal communication
among people directly affected by a problem and who eventually become the issue’s
primary advocates. Other tools that follow are the use of controlled media (brochures,
pamphlets, etc), group events (meetings, speeches, rallies, etc.), interactive media (Web
sites, blogs, social networking sites) and publicity in newspapers, magazines, radio and
television – also efforts to push an issue onto the public discussion, media and public
policy agendas.
Social issue documentaries are advocacy tools that generally emerge as issues
mature – while resolution is still being debated and before any organizational changes or
public policy actions are undertaken. Unlike tools created by issue organizers themselves,
social issue documentary films are created by independent, third-party filmmakers who
become a) aware of a social problem, b) concerned and motivated to help the cause, c)
cognizant of a potential audience, and d) inspired with an idea for a film.
Social issue documentary films differ from sponsored films or videos that might
be produced by an issue’s principal activists or advocates. Documentary filmmakers
usually have no direct personal interest in resolving a particular problem. Instead, these
filmmakers might be better characterized as sympathetic supporters acting as secondorder
advocates. In addition to a genuine concern about the problem, documentary
filmmakers are inspired to become involved because of an array of other concerns
ranging from artistic satisfaction to professional reputation and financial reward.
Similar to the principal advocates involved in advancing a cause, documentary
filmmakers rely on rhetoric, the presentation of persuasive arguments intended to
produce action (Bitzer, 1968). Films are similar to other persuasive forms of
communication because of their reliance on the spoken word, but obviously also depend
on visual imagery. Rabiger (2004, pp. 59-78) explains that documentary films rely upon
observational and participatory evidence using sound and imagery and particularly
credible testimonials, witnesses and action. In so doing, documentary filmmakers go
“beyond the vital facts and opinions and produce evidence that will make a strong
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emotional impact” (Rabiger, 2004, p. 135).
One of the most important rhetorical techniques found in documentary films (and
other forms communication involving social issues) is claims-making, i.e. making
representations about situations (Best, 1987, 2003; Salmon, 1990). Claims-making is
central to the constructionist approach to social problems found in modern sociology
(Schneider, 1985) reflects and the gap between public perceptions and objective
conditions associated with issues (Miller, 1999). Claims involve defining the nature of a
problem, i.e. characterizing a problem as being of a particular type (a process known as
typification). Claims also frequently involve the cause of the problem, i.e. to attribute
responsibility or blame for an adverse situation. Finally, claims include arguments
favoring particular remedies for a problem, or what should be done to correct a situation.
Spector & Kitsuse (1987, p. 78) sum up the concept by suggesting that claims-making
involves one party interacting with another party to demand that something be done about
some putative condition.
Virtually all activists and social advocates make claims using whatever
communications tools are available to them. Michael Moore’s film Roger & Me (1989)
provided a classic example of claims-making by documentary filmmakers. The issue was
the economic plight of the economy and the people in Flint, Michigan. Moore ascribed
the cause specifically to irresponsible actions by General Motors and called for the
carmaker to provide more assistance to its laid-off workers and the Flint community.
Framing Issues to Define Problems and Attribute Responsibilities
Recent studies suggest that one of the most valuable techniques for making claims
is to frame a problem effectively. Framing theory primarily has been examined a process
of media story construction, but has been recognized as a basic strategy that can used in
persuasive communications generally (Hallahan, 1999). Framing theory thus focuses on
how messages are created and connected to the underlying psychological processing of
messages. Entman explains:
Framing essentially involves selection and salience. To frame is to select some
aspects of perceived reality and make them more salient in the communicating
text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal
interpretation, moral evaluation and/or treatment recommendation for the item
described (Entman, 1993, p. 55).
Parties involved in disputes essentially vie to have their preferred framing of a
social situations accepted by others and so focus on particular descriptions and
explanations for why a problem exists – while excluding all others (placing them out of the
perceptual frame). Framing provides audiences with a meaningful context for
understanding social problems – a context that usually is conducive to an advocate’s
preferred solution and detrimental to opponents. These involve the use of positively and
negatively valenced frames drawing upon culturally resonating themes, ideas, beliefs,
values traditions and rituals that people either cherish or disparage (Hallahan, 1999).
Attributing blame. Theories of claims-making and framing both suggest that
advocates in disputes strive to place responsibility for social problems squarely at the feet
of others. In today’s contentious society, blame for social problems can be ascribed
routinely to nations, political parties, politicians or other social actors, or institutions.
In the case of social issue documentary films such as Roger & Me (1989),
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corporations are favorite targets. Anti-corporate groups argue that the increased economic
and political power of corporations is the root cause of various social ills, ranging from
the depletion of precious resources to the deterioration in the quality of people’s lives
(Karagianni & Cornelissen, 2006). Anti-business sentiments in the United States can be
traced to the Progressive Era at the beginning of the 20th century, when social reforms
raised questions about the practices of Big Business and pressed government to intercede.
Today, corporation bashing is a global phenomenon because of the size, wealth and
influence of enterprises (Goodpaster, 2007; Larkin, 2003). Complaints about corporations
are often rooted in allegations of corporate social irresponsibility, i.e. taking actions that
only serve the profit motive and ignore the greater needs, concerns and interests of
ordinary citizens or communities at large.
Story-telling Devices. Documentary films frame messages through story-telling
devices that reinforce the framing of issues and the attribution of responsibility. A review
of the claims-making literature suggested at least five key techniques that might be
especially valuable. These include the use of celebrities, symbols, dramatizations, large
and official numbers, and interviews (see Salmon, 1990), although other devices can be
identified (see Gamson & Modigliani, 1989).
Celebrities. Claims-makers use famous people in the same way as advertisers—
to attract public interest in issues and to transfer positive thoughts and emotions
associated with the celebrity to the cause. Celebrities can be entertainment personalities,
politicians, community leaders, notable subject-matter experts or social activists familiar
to audiences.
Symbols. Familiar cultural and social icons are used in films to cogently express
ideas, associate a cause with particular social values, and invoke desired emotional
responses from audiences. Examples include patriotic emblems, historical icons,
organizational logos, people, and scenes that evoke either positive or negative feelings.
Dramatizations are depictions of actions that help audiences gain an
understanding of situations, ideas or events and are used to help explain complex ideas.
Dramatizations can include original footage shot with actors playing out situations, reengagements
of past events (Rabiger, 2004), or the inclusion of existing historical film or
video footage to tell a story.
Large or official numbers. Statistics are used in documentary film as an attempt
to demonstrate the significance of the claims being made. Statistics support and
dramatize claims and can help documentary storytellers to tie a local or singular story to a
wider trend or issue.
Interviews involve the personalization of the story through first-hand accounts of
events, the expression of opinions, or the sharing of insights by third-party experts.
Interviews validate arguments being advanced in the film and can subtly and cogently
advance the film’s story line. The reiteration of key points can often provide compelling
evidence about the veracity of claims.
Study Design And Method
This study examined four contemporary documentaries to understand how
documentary filmmakers use their talents to advance social issues. The three primary
research questions were:
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R1. How do social issue documentary filmmakers frame issues?
R2. How are claims-making devices used by social issue documentary
filmmakers?
R3. How do filmmakers attribute blame and call for improving corporate social
responsibility?
Films Selected for Analysis
The four films chosen were all produced between 2000 and 2006. The number
and scope of films was limited to make the study both manageable and current. All four
films enjoyed fairly wide commercial distribution in theaters or as DVDs, took a strong
position on a contemporary issue, and targeted specific organizations as responsible for
the problem. For details, see Table 1.
Black Gold (Francis & Francis, 2006; Black Gold, 2006) chronicled poverty
among more than 74,000 Ethiopian coffee farmers and was a catalyst for the current
coffee fair trade movement. The film sympathetically profiled efforts of leader Tadesse
Meskela to save his fellow countrymen from bankruptcy despite producing one of the
most valuable agricultural commodities in the world. The film did well on the film
festival circuit and was released in a handful of theaters in summer 2007. Even before its
debut, the film prompted Starbucks and major roasters to defend their coffee buying
practice (Nestle, S.A., 2003; Starbucks, 2008; Taylor, 2003).
Super Size Me (Spurlock, 2004; Super Size Me, 2004) challenged the nutritional
value, portion sizes, and marketing techniques used to promote the high calorie, fat-laden
fare sold by fast-food restaurants. The film’s arguments about the associated health risks
rang true for many audiences and received considerable media attention globally. While
claiming that plans to do so were already in the works, McDonalds and several of its
major competitors rushed to put healthier food choices on their menus during the time the
film was released (Associated Press 2004).
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (Greenwald, 2005; Wal-Mart: The High
Cost…, 2005) differed from other films in the study because it focused on a single
company and actually was one of several films that have attacked the world’s largest
retailer. (Also see the concurrently conducted study by Stokes and Holloway, 2009). The
film addressed a wide range of complaints about the company and challenged the
company’s “All American” persona. When this movie was released in late 2005, the film
received substantial attention from sympathetic audiences and seemed to hit a major
nerve (Barbaro, 2005).
Who Killed the Electric Car? (Deeter & Paine, 2006; Who Killed the …, 2006)
was exhibited in art houses, and then released on DVD in November 2006. The first half
of the film traced the development of General Motor’s EV1 electric car and the testing of
vehicles in California. The second half then deconstructs how plans to create an
alternative vehicle were systematically subverted and the EV1 was eventually withdrawn
from the market based on claims that replacement parts were unavailable (Barthhmuss,
2006). The 800 cars leased in the test were actually crushed in salvage yards despite the
growing demand for the more fuel-efficient cars.
Methodology
The films were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative content analysis
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y viewing DVDs of the films and by analyzing scripts obtained from the producers or by
creating verbatim transcripts. Each transcript was scrutinized using a formal coding
scheme to determine how underlying issues were framed and responsibility attributed –
as well as for the use of the story-telling devices outlined above.
Each film chosen for the study took aim at specific companies and their deficiencies
in terms of corporate social responsibility. Claims about corporate irresponsibility were
analyzed using Lerbinger’s (2006) pyramid model of corporate responsibility. Briefly
Lerbinger’s argues that companies can engage in a five-tier hierarchy of social responsibility
initiatives that range from making major economic contributions to society (lowest) to
promoting the public interest (highest):
5. Support public policies that are in the public interest
4. Make social investments to strength society’s infrastructure
3. Help to solve social problems
2. Minimize social costs imposed on society
1. Perform basic economic functions of producing goods and services for
society, and thereby provide jobs (Lerbinger, 2006, pp. 409-411).
Findings
Framing of Underlying Social and Attribution of Blame
As summarized in Table 2, each of the four films dealt with particular
contemporary social problems but opted to define the issue narrowly--consistent with
contemporary framing theory. Each film focused blame on particular organizations, and
sought remedies involving changes in organizational practices or public policy.
Black Gold. The underlying social problem depicted in this film was the abject
poverty in which Ethiopian coffee growers and their families live. While various factors
contribute to the problem, the filmmakers chose to focus on profiteering by the various
middlemen involved in exporting coffee beans to the American and European markets.
Needless bureaucracy sops up any potential for growers to get higher prices for their
crops. This premise breaks down into multiple smaller claims against private corporations
such as Starbucks, other coffee distributors, the New York Board of Trade, and the World
Trade Organization. According to the filmmakers, resolution requires the creation of a
streamlined distribution system where farmers can sell directly to major coffee retailers
(e.g. Starbucks) and major roasters (Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Sara Lee, etc.).
Super-Size Me fundamentally addressed the problem of child obesity in the United
States but also tackled the poor eating habits of Americans more generally. Importantly, the
filmmaker chose to define the issue in terms of the unhealthy choices provided by fast-food
chains such as McDonalds. High fat content, needlessly large portion sizes, and marketing
campaigns that focus on highly profitable (but marginally nutritious) menu items were cited
as the real problem—not, for example, poor food selections by consumers. Super-Size Me
particularly challenged McDonalds to provide more healthful menu choices, to inform
consumers about the nutritional content of its offerings, and to stop unscrupulous marketing
to children.
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price was an indictment of large-scale
corporations that can use their massive buying power, sophisticated management
systems, and marketing savvy to beat out smaller, less efficient local competitors.
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However, the film also chastised particular practices of Wal-Mart. Instead of addressing
unfair marketing practices (monopolization, selling below the actual cost of goods, etc.)
the film framed the problem in terms of human suffering imposed on employees, workers
in factories operated by foreign suppliers, and small business owners who can’t compete
in towns where Wal-Mart locates stores. A litany of specific complaints was cited: racial
and gender discrimination, denial of health and disability benefits, and requiring overtime
work without pay. Tangential issues included violations of Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) regulations and customer safety risks. Unlike the other productions, the
film particularly targeted Wal-Mart’s corporate management, particularly then-CEO Lee
Scott. The film suggests the need for a union and support for grassroots organizations
that are fighting to block Wal-Mart from opening stores in their communities.
Who Killed the Electric Car? focused on the underlying issue of America’s overreliance
on upon gasoline-powered automobiles and the attendant environmental
consequences. In particular; however, the film framed the problem in terms of resistance
by established automobile and oil companies to any alternative vehicles that might
jeopardize corporate profitably, eliminate the market for after-market consumables (fuel,
replacement parts, etc.), require significant new investments, or pose new competition.
Although various institutions are culpable – including government, oil companies and
state regulators – the film placed primary blame on General Motors. GM initially was a
major advocate and covered the research and development costs for the EV1, only to
renege on its commitment by citing unavailability of replacement parts (Associated Press,
2003). The film sought to put pressure on GM to resume production of the EV1 and to
lead in the energy conservation battle.
Uses of Storytelling Devices
Examination of the argumentations in the films revealed evidence of all five of
the story-telling devices identified in the literature review, plus one important technique
not identified previously: the use of documents as evidence—print ads, articles and legal
briefs or court decisions. As summarized in Table 3, the combination of techniques used
varied in each film.
Interviews or personal accounts were the principal story-telling device employed
in all films – a reflection of modern broadcast journalism practices. In all four films, parts
of the same interviews are spliced throughout the entire production. Thus, the counts in
Table 2 reflect only the net number of interviewees. On average, 57.5 people appeared in
each film. Super Size Me topped the list with 87 interviews; Wal-Mart: The High Cost of
Low Price came in second with 66, Who Killed the Electric Car? used 48, and Black
Gold included the fewest individual interviews with only 29.
The findings suggest that social issue documentary films depend on interviews to
forcefully present claims. The roles of the interviewees included victims (coffee farmers,
fast-food junkies, retail employees. car owners), experts (economists, medical
professionals and dieticians, educators, technicians and auto mechanics), advocates
(representatives of free trade groups, reformers, environmentalists), and ordinary citizens
(such as customers of McDonalds and Wal-Mart). Super-Size Me relied heavily on “man
on-the-street” interviews, which in part accounts for the large number of people who
appeared on camera.
Large or Official Numbers. Equally notable was the extensive use of large or
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official numbers. Although film is considered a medium that exploits visuals—and thus
mostly relies on emotional versus rational arguments--the films were notable in their
direct and indirect use of numbers. Large numbers were used several ways: First, the
sheer magnitude of some of the figures cited was staggering, e.g. the $92 billion spent on
treating Type 2 diabetes, Wal-Mart’s 26 million square feet of then-vacated store space,
and the $65 billion in oil company profits in 2005. Second, in two of the films – Black
Gold and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices – the differences between numbers
were used to focus attention on the plight of Ethiopian farmers and Wal-Mart employees.
The $2.90 paid for a cup of coffee at Starbucks was contrasted to the 23 cents per kilo
paid to farmers for their beans. Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott’s $27 million salary was shown
to dwarf the $13,861 in annual wages received by the typical Wal-Mart store worker.
Third, the sheer number of numbers used and the number of examples listed provided
compelling heuristic evidence for the claims made.
All four films relied heavily on showing key numbers (along with other facts and
lists) as text superimposed on the screen to underscore key points. This was an
unanticipated convention of storytelling not commonly used in broadcast journalism and
might differentiate social issue documentaries from other documentary forms where
providing compelling evidence to reinforce claims is not so important. This technique
was particularly prevalent in the Wal-Mart production. In one segment, a scrolling list of
white text overwhelmed audiences by enumerating 72 individual reports of violent
attacks that occurred in Wal-Mart parking lots.
The use of on-screen text in tandem with numbers in the narration facilitated
communicating complex ideas that might be difficult to grasp orally, although the
technique presumes audiences are able to read the screen. In the case of Super Size Me,
animations and accompanying sounds and pictures were used to illustrate statistics.
Dramatizations were instrumental devices used to advance each film’s story. Two
of the films followed the activities of principals to tell the film’s story. Black Gold took a
somewhat traditional approach by following farmer Tadesse Meskela for much of the
film and by showing his everyday life and efforts to assist his cooperative of coffee
growers, including visits to western supermarkets. In the tradition of Michael Moore,
filmmaker Morgan Spurlock dramatized the threat of unhealthful fast food in Super-Size
Me by chronicling a quasi-experiment where he ate nothing but three meals a day for 30
days at McDonalds. Rules of the stunt required him to try every item on the menu during
the month – and to “super size” his order anytime he was asked whether he’d like to do
so. Starting out with above-average health and fitness, Spurlock gained 25 pounds, lost
critical liver function, and reported being depressed. The film documented his regular
visits to doctors, physical therapists and nutritionists to assess and report on the rapid
decline in his health.
When shooting original dramatic footage was not feasible, another unanticipated
technique in three of the films – all except Black Gold – involved the use of pre-existing
filmed or video news clips or commercials. Filmmakers tapped readily available footage
from film, video, news or other archives to help tell their stories in compelling ways. In
Super Size Me, one interviewee talks about how many advertisements for fast-food and
junk foods a child sees in a single year. Meanwhile audiences viewed a rapid-fire
montage of 42 commercials in less than 60 seconds. The Wal-Mart film also heavily
relied on video clips--mostly of Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott speaking at corporate
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conferences or in TV news stories. Scott’s favorable comments about Wal-Mart’s were
then juxtaposed to complaints aired in TV newscasts. Audiences could readily conclude
that, in fact, the alleged violations were widespread.
Symbols. All four films were notable for their use of powerful imagery to draw
contrasts between situations. Black Gold effectively compared affluent Westerners who
sipped on expensive lattes mixed for them by Starbucks baristas to the indigent Ethiopian
farmers who were dependent on US AID packages and Red Cross relief—images that
were purposefully inserted in the film. The film also featured Tedesse Maeskela himself
as a symbol -- the noble, visionary reformer whose efforts should be admired. In Super-
Size Me, the symbolic contrasts juxtaposed unhealthful symbols such as overweight girls,
restaurant menu boards, soda and junk food vending machines to abandoned toys and
playground equipment and pedometers representing the need for people to exercise more.
Symbolism in Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price mostly evolved around
characterizations of the people involved: the greedy corporate executive personified in
CEO Lee Scott, the sympathetic but powerless district and store manager, and the beatendown
family business owner forced to quit (a reversal of the David v. Goliath story).
Finally, similar to two of the other films, Who Killed the Electric Car? relied heavily on
environmental symbolism by contrasting footage of urban smoke stacks and traffic
congestion created by gas-guzzling cars to pristine nature scenes with free-flowing
streams and clean air. In this same vein, Black Gold struck a responsive chord with
audiences by prominently featuring the pastoral beauty of the Ethiopian countryside,
while Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price tapped the audience’s concerns about
environment by pointing our Wal-Mart’s alleged dumping of pesticides in South
Carolina’s idyllic Catawba River.
Importantly, all four films prominently used applicable corporate logos and other
icons in their targeting of culpable corporations—including but not limited to Starbucks,
McDonalds, Wal-Mart and GM. Three of the films – all except Black Gold – made
prominent use of the American flag to conjure up visions of American ideals. The same
films featured exterior shots of the White House to represent suggest that the federal
government had the power to remedy the problem addressed.
Celebrities. Among the major story-telling techniques investigated in this study,
the least used devices were endorsements by famous people. Only Who Killed The
Electric Car? relied on this technique -- by prominently naming the various Hollywood
entertainment figures who initially leased electric cars: Phyllis Diller, Tom Hanks and
Mel Gibson, among others. Actor-activist Ed Begley Jr. and Ralph Nader, both advocates
for clean air and alternative fuels, presented their stories. The film also relied on film
clips to suggest support by former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and
George W. Bush. Particularly compelling was actor Peter Horton, who was interviewed
while GM representatives were shown in the background repossessing his car at the
conclusion of its lease.
Documentary Evidence. An unexpected finding that became readily evident in
reviewing the films was the extensive use of documentary evidence in three of films – all
except Black Gold. Showing pictures of news articles, print ads and legal documents
related to events that lead up to the production of the film enhanced the impact,
legitimacy and authority of the films’ claims. Super Size Me featured the most instances
of showing print ads, articles, and legal documents (22 examples), which can be
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explained in part by the fact the film’s concept was inspired by a lawsuit. However, Who
Killed the Electric Car? followed closely behind (18 examples) while claims against
Wal-Mart were highlighted 11 times in this way.
Attribution of Blame and Calls for Improved Corporate Social Responsibility
In considering the four films from within the context of Lerbinger’s (2006)
pyramid of corporate social responsibility, none of the films chided the targeted
organizations for failing to perform their fundamental functions of producing goods and
services for society and producing jobs. Yet it can be argued that all four of the films
targeted organizations that failed at the second tier of corporate social responsibility -- to
minimize the social costs imposed on society (poverty among coffee growers, child
obesity, human suffering among workers, and pollution/dependence on foreign oil). All
four films also suggested that the focal organizations failed in their affirmative
responsibility to solve these social problems.
In terms the higher-order responsibilities cited by Lerbinger, only Super Size Me
did not address the question of making social investments to strengthen the infrastructure
of society. Similarly the film didn’t state or imply that the fast-food industry were in
violation of public policies or should be regulated (except to suggest that schools ought to
limit sales of soda and empty-calorie junk foods to students). Yet, effecting public policy
changes were clearly among desired changes sought in the other films in the areas of
coffee importation, enforcement of employee rights and environmental protection, and
investing in alternative modes of transportation and energy conservation.
Discussion
These findings suggest that the social issue documentary film, in fact, has become
an effective tool for advocacy. The results also support the idea that filmmakers frame
social problems in particular ways to advance preferred solutions and also rely heavily on
the identified story-telling devices identified in the claims-making literature.
Importantly, this framing provides a valuable creative focus for their works.
The implications that can be drawn from this study are obviously limited because
this study examined only four films produced within a comparatively narrow time period.
The inclusion of other films might reveal disaffirming conclusions, and the same
approaches might not be found in films that do not so narrowly target corporate culprits.
A case in point might be Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, which positions climate
change as a universal problem for which everyone is responsible. Similarly, this study did
not examine all possible story-telling devices that might be used by filmmakers. nor
cinematic techniques (such as the use of postmodern editing, special effects or sound)
that would primarily be of interest to filmmakers.
Clearly, documentary filmmakers can be seen as highly visible, albeit secondorder
advocates for social change. It is important to note that all four of these
productions were produced after the issues they covered were well established by
advocacy groups, which helped create a ready audience willing to pay admission to
theaters or to purchase DVDs. Although critics might charge that the filmmakers merely
exploited public concern about these issues, the conviction with which all four of the
filmmakers addressed these problems – and the considerable professional and financial
risks taken -- suggest otherwise.
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Worthy of particular mention is the fact that anti-corporate sentiments are
prominent in these films. But pointing a finger of blame at a specific corporation does
not always mean that the corporation alone is the cause of the problem. It appears that
these moviemakers fully recognized the larger issues and attempted to acknowledge that
there might be various causes. For example, Super Size Me ventured beyond McDonalds
and the fast-food industry to point out that school foodservice and vending programs also
contributed to the problems of child obesity and poor diet. Who Killed the Electric Car?
actually acknowledged at least seven culprits for the demise of the EV1, ranging from
state regulation, the technology of fuel-cells, and consumer indifference. Ironically, such
attempts at balance can actually work against the effectiveness of a film in calling for
remedies by diluting its message. Although the films made some attempt at providing a
broader perspective, all four films will probably be remembered for their anti-corporate
attacks.
All four films illustrate the important point that leaders in institutional or industry
categories—such as Starbucks, McDonalds, Wal-Mart and General Motors—carry a
special burden that comes with their number-one position. All four films imply that these
large corporations have a dominating influence over government and various elements of
public policy, potentially can abuse their power, and ultimately must take responsibility
for societal problems. At minimum, the filmmakers suggest that these corporations, as the
leaders within their industries, have the ability and duty to mitigate the social problems
described.
The impact of these films is open for debate and requires a separate, more thorough
analysis. However, all four of the issues addressed in them remain unresolved (Procter &
Gamble, 2007). In the cases of Black Gold, Super Size Me and Wal-Mart: the High Cost of
Low Price, company officials had suggested that the kinds of changes called for in the films
were already being planned (MacArthur, 2004; Maldonado, 2004; McDonald’s 2004, 2008).
In fact, this might be true. Because social issue documentaries aren’t produced until an
issue has already widely visible, it is possible that these actually had little direct effect and
that changes were implemented as a result of internal initiatives or other sources of pressure.
Such a conclusion, however, might lead companies to mistakenly dismiss the potential
impact of documentary films. All the companies featured were aware that these
documentaries were being produced; the fear of possible negative public reaction might
have been sufficient to prompt changes. Thus the resulting changes in corporate practices
might have been an indirect effect.
From an issues management perspective, key questions center on how
organizations should respond when they know they might be featured in these kinds of
documentary productions. Should an organization follow conventional wisdom that it’s
better to provide accurate and favorably frame information from the company’s
perspective (Hoger & Swem, 2000)? Or should an organization purposely ignore
documentary filmmakers? With the guerilla techniques used by directors such as
Michael Moore, many corporations might take the position that no what matter what they
might say, it is unlikely their arguments will be included or will be edited in a favorable
or balanced way.
Within the four films, only one official corporate spokesperson appeared on
camera when a GM corporate communications executive vainly attempted to defend the
company’s stance on aborting the EV1 in Who Killed the Electric Car? (Kage, 2006).
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Black Gold featured a Starbucks retail manager who talked about the popularity of
Starbucks but did not address (or was not asked about) the company’s stance on fair trade
coffee. Whether a Wal-Mart spokesperson was asked to participate is uncertain; the
company’s official positions were represented entirely through available video excerpts
of CEO Lee Scott. McDonalds avoided speaking with the director of Super Size Me – a
fact adroitly documented when the filmmaker recorded on film one of the short
dismissive phone conversations where he attempted to set up an interview with
McDonald’s director of corporate communications. The segment suggested that the
company either wanted to dodge the issue or didn’t take the filmmaker seriously.
Clearly one of the lessons illustrated in these four films is that filmmakers are not
required to abide by the same standards of fair reporting associated with mainstream
journalism. This technique makes social issue documentaries more provocative and more
entertaining than the typical discussion of public issues in the news. The more
controversial, the greater will be the public attention that can be generated when the film
appears at film festivals, releases in theaters or distributes on DVDs.
Further research about social issue documentaries is required. In particular,
documentary filmmakers need to be interviewed to better understand their motivations,
techniques, and perceptions about themselves as advocates for social change. Also
filmmakers can shed valuable insights on how limitations of time, budget and access to
materials and materials bias their creative work. Attention also needs to be paid to how
the production of a highly visible documentary can help thrust an otherwise languishing
issue into the public, media and public policy limelight – and how the efforts of
documentary filmmakers can operate synergistically with the continuing efforts of an
issue's primary activists/advocates/claims-makers.
In particular, more needs to be understood about the important role of secondary
media coverage in both promoting the films and advancing the issues. In a content analysis
of one year of news coverage related to two of these films, Pompper and Higgins (2007)
found 85 news stories about Super Size Me from the period using two major news databases.
McDonald’s response appeared in only 13% of these stories, representing 1% of the average
story length (average total word count: 737). Their analysis uncovered 55 stories about the
Wal-Mart movie; corporate responses appeared in 36% of these stories and represented only
5% of each story (average total word count: 871 words). Importantly, only one-third of the
coverage for films appeared in the week prior to release, or during the week of the film’s
release. This suggests that fully two-thirds of the coverage focused on analysis and
discussion of the films’ themes, underlying issues, or corporate responses for up to a year
after release—with little space devoted to contradictory perspectives.
Research also should be pursued to understand the motives, perceptions and
responses of audiences – particularly how the release of a highly visible documentary can
stimulate word-of-mouth discussion among audience members who might otherwise be
reticent to discuss the issue with family or friends. Audience research also needs to
consider the importance of documentary films to audience segments already favorably
predisposed to an issue versus the impact of films on audiences who are only aware of a
problem but might become involved as a result of seeing a film. Finally, more needs to
be learned about how targeted organizations perceive these kinds of documentary
productions and their strategies for response. A cursory analysis suggests that responses
to these films varied from corrective action to defiance (Associated Press, 2004; Wal-
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Mart Stores, 2005, 2007; Wickstrom, 2006). But more needs to be learned about how
issues managers and organizational executives perceive documentary films as an
adversarial tool.
Understanding how documentary films frame issues and make claims can help
practitioners understand the role of today’s documentary as a tool used in postmodern
activism (Rober & Toledano, 2005; Tyler, 2005). Such understanding can help
practitioners and their clients go far in developing best practices for responding to this
provocative – and provoking – new medium of issue communication.
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http://www.starbucks.com/coffee.
Stokes, A. Q. & Holloway, R.L. (2009). Documentary as an activist medium. The Wal-
Mart movie. In R.L. Heath, E.L. Toth & D. Waymer (Eds.), Rhetorical and
critical approaches to public relations II (pp. 343-359). New York: Routledge.
137

Stoll, J.D. (2009, October 23). Michael Moore: A love story? Not so much. Cottage
industry of filmmakers targets the combative directory; a hometown heckler. Wall
Street Journal, p. A1, A18.
Super Size Me. (2004). About the movie. Retrieved March 19, 2009 from
http://web.archive.org/web/20070302115531/www.supersizeme.com/home.aspx?pa
ge=aboutmovie
Taylor, S. (2003). Living our values: Corporate social responsibility fiscal 2003 annual
report [Electronic version]. Retrieved August 10, 2008 from
http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/csr.asp.
Tyler, L. (2005). Towards a postmodern understanding of crisis communications. Public
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Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005). About the film. Retrieved March 1, 2007
from http://www.walmartmovie.com/about.php.
Wal-Mart Stores (2005, October 26). Wal-Mart calls on videomaker to fix errors in trailer
or take it down. Wal-Mart Facts & News (web site). Retrieved August 10, 2008,
from http://walmartstores.com/FactsNews/NewsRoom/5443.aspx.
Wal-Mart Stores. (2007, March 8). Video critical towards Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart Facts &
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15, 2009, from http://www.avrev.com/dvd-movie-discreviews/documentary/roger-me.html.
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www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/
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.
138

Table 1. Profile of Four Films Analyzed
Black Gold
Super Size Me
Wal-Mart:
The High Cost
of Low Price
Who Killed the
Electric Car?
Year of Production 2006 2004 2005 2006
Filmmakers
Running Time
MPAA Rating
Director-
Writers: Marc
and Nick
Francis
Producer:
Christopher
Hird
Director-
Producer:
Morgan
Spurlock
77 mins. 100 mins.
PG-13
Director:
Robert
Greenwald
Producer: Jim
Gilliam
Director-
Producer:
Chris Paine
97 mins. 93 mins.
PG
Distributor
California
Newsreel
Samuel
Goldwyn Films
/Roadside
Attractions
Brave New
World
Disinformation
Company
Sony Pictures
Corporation
Production Cost Not available $2 million ~$1.5 million Not available
Theaters Exhibition
Revenues
# Theaters
$227,105
6
$11.5 million
230
Direct to DVD
$1.6 million
74
Web Site
www.blackgold
movie.com
www.supersize
me.com
www.walmart
movie.com
www.sonyclassics.com/whokill
edtheelectriccar
Notes
Official
Selection
Sundance Film
Festival
Academy
Award
Nomination for
Best
Documentary;
Best Director
Sundance Film
Festival
Official
Selection
Sundance Film
Festival
Tribeca Film
Festival
139

Table 2. Summary of Issues, Framing and Attribution of Blame
in Four Contemporary Social Issue Documentary Films
Black Gold
Super Size Me
Wal-Mart:
The High Cost
of Low Price
Who Killed the
Electric Car?
Social
Problem/Issue
Addressed
Framing of the Issue
Poverty of
Ethiopian
coffee farmers
Exploitation,
needless
profit- taking
by coffee
distributors
Target of Blame Coffee
middle-men,
sellers,
especially
Starbucks and
major roasters
Advocated Solutions Streamline
distribution,
remove coffee
exchanges,
improve
prices paid to
Violations of
Lerbinger’s pyramid
of corporate social
responsibility (see
legend)
Childhood
obesity;
Unhealthy
choices,
marketing by
fast-food
chains
McDonalds
Competitors,
including
school
foodservice
Offer more
healthful
menu choices
Displacement
of traditional
retailing by
large
corporations
Exploitation
of employees,
workers,
suppliers;
destruction of
communities*
Wal-Mart
management
Change
company
policies; Stop
building new
stores;
Unionization.
farmers
goals.
3, 4, 5 2,3 2,3,4,5 2, 3, 5
Dependence on
automobile
transportation,
including
pollution
Co-option of
alternative
vehicles
General Motors
Also
government, oil
companies,
state regulators
Resume EV1
production;
eliminate
energy waste;
adhere to
public policy
* Secondary claims dealt with environmental pollution; risks to customer safety.
** Levels in Lerbinger’s (2006) pyramid of social responsibility included:
5. Support public policies that are in the public interest
4. Make social investments to strength societies infrastructure
3. Help to solve social problems
2. Minimize social costs imposed on society
1. Perform basic economic function of producing goods and services for society, and
there by provide jobs (Lerbinger, 2006, pp. 409-411).
140

Table 3: Framing and Story-Telling Devices Used in the Four Films -- Number of
examples
Black Gold
Super Size Me
Wal-Mart:
The High Cost
of Low Price
Who Killed the
Electric Car?
Interviews
(Net number of people
interviewed)
29 87 66 48
Dramatizations
Featured Character
Staged/re-creations
Film/video clips
1
0
0
1
13
51
0
1
78
0
0
28
Large and/or
Official Numbers
Cited in narrative
Screen text with
facts
19
17
10
22
71
55
47
11
Symbols
(Notable examples)*
Wealthy coffee
drinkers
Baristas
Noble reformer
Rural
pastoralism
Red Cross
relief trucks
US AID bags
Overweight
girls
Unused toys,
playgrounds
Pedometers
Soda, vending
machines
Menu boards
Greedy
executive
Powerless store
manager
Exploited
workers
Family
business
owners
Smokestacks,
smog
Auto congestion
Gas guzzlers
Pristine nature
scenes
Auto salvage
yard
Celebrities 1 2 3 18
Documentary
Evidence
Print ads, articles,
or legal documents
0 22 11 18
* All films prominently featured company logos, buildings and other icons. Films except Black Gold also
incorporated the American flag as well as exterior shots of the White House.
141

Exploring the Influence of Personal Values and Perceived Work Climate on
Decision Making in Ethical Dilemmas
Riyani Indriyati
University of Houston
riyani.indriyati@gmail.com
Introduction
Ethics in public relations has been under public scrutiny for many years. Some of
the criticism concerns whether public relations practitioners adhere to their ethical
guidelines when making decisions and, whether the codes of ethics that Public Relations
Society of America (PRSA) pledges have any effect on its members’ ethical behavior.
Studies in business ethics show that individual’s ethical decision making is
influenced by practitioner’s personal values and their work situation. Previous studies
have been conducted on these two factors but no previous study has addressed them
simultaneously.
This paper is drawn from the Master thesis submitted to the University of
Houston for Spring 2009 graduation. It examines the influence of one of the personal
variables i.e., personal values and one of the situational variables i.e., work climate to
explore whether these two factors relate to decision making in ethical dilemmas. The
paper begins by reviewing literature regarding personal values and work climate, follows
by presenting the research questions and method. Next, it features the results of the study
and concludes with discussion section and implication for future practice as well as
suggestion for future directions.
Literature Review
Personal Values
Personal values have been defined as learned beliefs about preferred ways of
acting or being which serve as guiding principles in the life of a person or other social
entity (Costa & McCrae, 2001; McCrae & Costa, 1999; Rokeach, 1973; Schwartz, 1994).
They are “concepts or beliefs about desirable end states or behavior that transcend
specific situations, guide selection or evaluation of behavior and events, and are ordered
by relative importance” (Schwartz & Bilsky, 1987, p. 551). This study defined personal
values as a set of learned guidelines that individuals possess and use to assist them in
forming attitudes, and ultimately the action that they choose.
Personal values are derived from particular groups or systems such as culture,
religion or political party. They are also unique because one’s genes, family, nation, and
historical environment shape one’s personal values. These values are construct
representing preferred behaviors or states of affairs that are considered by individuals to
be important (Yulk, 2002).
Personal values have been defined as recommendable quality that has an impact
on the choice of objectives, means, and manner available, and is used as a criterion in
assessing various phenomena. In work place settings for example, values can affect
decisions about whether to join an organization, make an organizational commitment,
foster relationships with co-workers, and leave or stay in an organization. According to
Pucik, Ticy and Barnett (1993), one of the useful ways to look at individual’s behavior in
organizations is through the socialization they have received before joining the
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organization and the socialization they receive at work. This approach can explain why
equally gifted persons act differently in a given situation, especially when responding to
ethical dilemmas.
Work Climate
Citing the work of Scheider (1975), Victor and Cullen (1988) defined work
climate as perceptions that “are psychologically meaningful molar descriptions that
people characterize a system’s practices and procedures” (p. 101). Schneider and
Rentsch (1988) defined the work climate as a multi-facet construct reflecting key
organizational functions or goals, such as safety climate or service climate. In the same
vein, organizations are also believed to have ethical climate (Victor & Cullen, 1988) that
reflects common perceptions and beliefs concerning organizational expectations or
proper conduct.
Studies in the past have claimed that people tend to accept and internalize the
climate of the organization in which they work, and that the perception of climate has an
important impact on their behavior (Hellriegel & Slocum, 1974; Friedlander &
Greenberg, 1971; Litwin & Stringer, 1968). For instance, perceptions of a positive work
climate were significantly related to job satisfaction in work organizations (Friedlander &
Margulis, 1969), to unit effectiveness in a military setting (Wietzman, 1985), and to
employee performance in a large print shop (Landau, 1981).
Victor and Cullen (1988) defined ethical climate by using two typologies called
ethical criterion and locus of analysis. The first typology represents the ethical criteria
used for organizational decision making and the second typology represents the locus of
analysis used as a referent in ethical decisions. From these two typologies yields six
dimensions of work climate: caring, law and code, rules, instrumental and, independence.
Personal Values and Ethics
Rokeach (1967, 1969, 1973, 1979) maintained that an individual’s behavior is
shaped by his or her personal values; ways of being and acting that are seen as desirable
or ideal. Feather (1988, 2003) determined that personal values are at the core of an
individual’s personality and influence, among other things, the individual’s judgments
that in turn influence behavior. Jones (1991) also theorized that the likelihood individuals
would engage in unethical behavior depends partly upon their personal values, which
influence their evaluation of actions and moral judgments.
Modern marketing ethics theories generally recognize an individual’s values
system as an important determinant of their ethical decision process. For example, the
model of marketing ethics by Ferrell and Gresham (1985) includes value structure as a
part of “individual factors” influencing the ethical or unethical decision process. Another
marketing ethics model proposed by Hunt and Vitell (1986, 1993) portrays the marketing
ethics decision-making process as consisting of two types of evaluations based on moral
philosophies, deontological ethics and teleological ethics. Of particular interest to this
study, Hunt and Vitell included professional environment (i.e. informal norms, formal
codes, code enforcement) and personal characteristics (including one’s value system) as
background factors influencing many components of a marketer’s ethics decision-making
process.
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Ethical Dilemmas
Research indicates that ethical dilemmas are felt the strongest at the bottom rather
than at the top of the corporate ladder (Brenner & Molander, 1977) and that middle
managers are more likely to take unethical actions than top management (‘middle
managers, 1987). One possible reason for this is that managers behave unethically
because they perceive themselves as having little power and control over decisions or
conduct they know will have ethical consequences (Waters & Bird, 1986).
According to Hunt and Vitell (1986), one’s ethical judgment is dependent on the
existence of a perceived ethical issue(s). The perception of an ethical problem provides
the “catalyst” for the “ethical decision making process”. Singhapakdi et al (2000)
identified and proved that the “perception of an ethical issue or problem is considered to
be an important prerequisite for ethical decision making (p. 274). Singhapakdi and Vitell
(1991) identified that framing a situation as an ethical challenge is a prerequisite to seeing
it as a problem to be resolved. Singhapakdi et al., (2000) also argues that “ethical
intention” of a business manager is “a function of his or her personal moral philosophies”
(p. 237), especially they concluded that “idealism will influence an individual’s intention
in a positive way and the opposite for relativism” (p. 274).
The ethical dilemmas or conflicts employees face in their professional life need to
be act upon or respond to. Responses to these ethical situations obviously involve
thinking about the issue but also go beyond it. Responses include what people say, how
they say it and how they behave. There are two main cognitive processes involved in
choosing responses, categorization and particularization (Billig, 1996). The first involves
putting an issue into a box of category and saying, “that is the way in which I will deal
with this matter”. These categories are based on values. Someone might decide for
example that an issue is a matter of following the core values set by an organization, or
that an issue is a question of loyalty. The second category however, is the details of a
situation that make people debate under which value an issue should be categorized or
indeed whether it should be put in a separate category of its own.
Although numerous studies have looked into factors affecting ethical decision
(Ferrell & Gresham, 1985; Trevino, 1986; Hunt & Vitell, 1986; Dubinsky & Loken,
1989), definitions of the terms ethical and unethical have not been provided. For the
purpose of this paper an ethical decision is defined as a “decision that is both legal and
morally accepted to the larger community” whereas an “unethical decision is either
illegal or morally unacceptable to the larger community” (Jones, 1991 p. 367).
Decision Making and Decision Making Model
Decision making could be logically located within the individual because the
source of moral law is internally rather than externally imposed by lawgivers (Beck,
1963). Sullivan (1994) concurred that the source of moral decision making is the rational
intellect rather than rules prescribed by religions or lawmakers. This distinction plays an
important role in the decision making of public relations practitioners because the
individual practitioners must engage his or her autonomy to objectively decide the issue.
In the field of public relations, a study conducted by Ryan and Martinson (1984)
on ethical decision making revealed and raised significant concerns about the lack of
consistency of ethical decision making by public relations professionals and the lack of
objective standards of ethical conduct.
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Jones (1991) provides a most comprehensive synthesis of ethical decision making
model. The model integrates previous ethical decision making models and represents
overall agreement regarding the variables that influence ethical decision making and
introduces the concept of “moral intensity”. Jones believed previous studies failed to
consider the nature of the ethical issue. Moral intensity is “the extent of issue-related
moral imperative in a situation” (p. 372). Jones (1991) uses Rest’s (1986) four stages to
link the positive ethical decision making models and assumes that ethical choices are not
just individual decisions, but are determined by social learning in the organization.
The present study has two independent variables, personal values and perceived
work climate, and two dependent variables, the general ethical decision making or
General EDM and public relations ethical decision making or PR EDM. General EDM is
a list of ethical dilemmas drawn from business ethics study which contains statements
that are not related to specific codes of ethics but are ethical violations in general that can
be faced by any individual in their day to day work activities. Based on the questions,
general EDM is actually operationalized as general ethical violations, the opposite of
ethical decision making. The questionnaires were set up that it asked a negative question
so the lower the score means the respondents would not engage in the statement which
means the more ethical that person is, so this section will be treated as reversed code in
data analysis process. PR EDM on the other hand is a list of dilemmas statements drawn
from Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) codes of Provisions therefore it is
called PR EDM. The word relate used in the hypotheses and research questions refer to
how a particular value co vary with people’s in decision making in general EDM and PR
related issues.
Research Questions and Hypotheses Regarding Personal Values
The most cited work on the types of personal values is produced by Schwartz
(1992) who based his types on basic human values and identified 56 values. Schwartz
positions values as an expressive of and motivation for the fulfillment of basic human
needs to sustain an individual’s biological and social wellbeing and functioning.
Schwartz (1992) theory of basic human values identifies 56 values that cluster into 10
motivationally distinct value types, namely in alphabetical order are: achievement,
benevolence, conformity, hedonism, power, security, self-direction, stimulation, tradition
and universalism.
Achievement. Schwartz (1992) defined achievement as gaining personal success
by demonstrating competence according to social standards. Values in this type include
successful, capable, ambitious, influential, and intelligent. A substantial body of literature
studied the need for achievement (McClelland, 1961) in organizations, Auperle et al.,
(1985) demonstrated that there are conflicts between the ethical and economic
dimensions of corporate social responsibilities. He explained that individuals with a high
need for achievement have consistently been shown to place performance and reaching
goals as their priority. Therefore, this study posits that:
H1. Achievement is negatively related to general EDM and PR EDM
Benevolence. Benevolence is described as the preservation and enhancement of
the welfare of people with whom one is in frequent personal contact with. Values such as
helpful, honest, forgiving, loyal, responsible, true friendship, mature love, meaning in life
and spiritual life are within this type. Previous research has found that honesty is
145

positively related to decision making in the study of good police officers (Sanders, 2003),
as well as in auditing and accounting (Shafer, Morris, & Ketchan, 2001; Vanasco, 1998).
This study posits that:
H2. Benevolence is positively related to general EDM and PR EDM
Conformity. The definition of conformity is the restraint of action, inclinations,
and impulses likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms. For
example politeness, obedient, self-discipline, honoring parents and elders are within this
type of values. This value could have two implications. It is possible that the more one
focuses on confirming to the tradition one will make more ethical decision because one
would not want to go against the social norm. However, it is also possible that because of
one’s inclination to restrain his or her action and impulses to conform one will not
express one’s own independent thought so one will also likely to make unethical decision
making. No previous research has found the relationship between conformity and
decision making, therefore this study propose this research question:
RQ1. How does conformity relate to general EDM and PR EDM?
Hedonism. Values such as pleasure and enjoying life are included in hedonism
which emphasizes seeking pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself. This definition
has a negative connotation and since no previous study has been done in the relationship
between hedonism and decision making, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H3. Hedonism is negatively related to general EDM and PR EDM
Power. If the value is focusing on seeking social status and prestige, control or
dominance over people and resources such as social power, authority, wealth, preserving
one’s public image, and social recognition, then they are categorized into power. This
explanation has a negative connotation the following hypothesis is proposed:
H4. Power is negatively related to general EDM and PR EDM
Security. Values such as family security, national security, social order, clean,
reciprocation of favor, healthy and a sense of belonging are categorized into security
since they are seeking for safety, harmony and stability of society, or relationship, and of
self. It implies that the more one focuses on being secured in their personal or social life
the more likely one will make ethical decisions and for this logic, it is reasonable to
propose the following hypothesis:
H5. Security is positively related to general EDM and PR EDM
Self-direction. Self direction focuses on independent thought and action-choosing,
creating and exploring. They are values such as creativity, freedom; independent, curious,
and choosing own goals. An assumption can be made that people who posses these
values have the capability of making ethical judgment therefore the following hypothesis
is proposed:
H6. Self-direction is positively related to general EDM and PR EDM
Stimulation. Stimulation value is concerned with excitement, novelty, and
challenge of life such as daring, a varied life and exciting life. This value can have two
implications, the more one focuses on stimulating his or her life with challenges the more
one will make ethical decision because of one’s broad perspective. However, it is also
possible that because of one’s focused on his or herself that one would likely to make
unethical decision. Therefore, the following research question is posed:
RQ2. How does stimulation relate to general EDM and PR EDM?
146

Tradition. Tradition emphasizes respect, commitment, and acceptance of the
customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion impose of the self such as being
humble, accepting one’s fate in life, devotion, respect for tradition, modern and
detachment. It can have a positive influence or negative influence for one who focuses on
this value. Therefore the following research question is posed:
RQ3. How does tradition relate to general EDM and PR EDM?
Universal. Universal seeks understanding, appreciation, tolerance and protection
for the welfare of all people and for the nature as well. Values such as broadminded,
wisdom, social justice, equality, a world at peace, a world of beauty, unity with nature,
protecting the environment, and inner harmony are within the universal value. Neither
research nor study has been done to test the relationship between universal values and
ethical judgment. So, the following research question is posed:
RQ4. How does universal relate to general EDM and PR EDM?
Hypotheses of Work Climate
This section presents the hypotheses on how work climate relates to decision
making in ethical dilemmas. The hypotheses are based on the climate typology proposed
by Victor and Cullen (1988) who proposed five climate types; caring, law and code,
rules, instrumental, and independence.
Caring. A caring work climate emphasizes on harmony and consideration toward
other people’s needs. Things that are most prominent in this climate are what is best for
everyone and how each employee looks after one another. It implies that the more the
work climate focuses on this environment, the more likely that the people in this
company will make more ethical decision. Therefore, the following hypothesis is posited:
H7. Caring is positively related to general EDM and PR EDM
Law and code. The most visible characteristic of this climate is the obedience to
the professional codes of ethics. People in this work climate adhere to their professional
standards over and above other consideration. It implies that the more the work climate
focuses on this, the more likely the people will make more ethical decision because
generally they tend to adhere to their professional entities and concern with their
reputation among their peers. For example PRSA members are concerned with the
reputation among their professionals regarding their ethical Based on this rationale this
study posits the following hypothesis:
H8. Law and Code is positively related to general EDM and PR EDM
Rules. In this climate, people are generally following the company’s rules and
policy to carry out their daily work activities. Everyone is also expected to stick by
company’s regulations and in general, successful employees are those who go by the
book. It implies that the more the work climate focuses on this environment, the more
likely that the people in this company will make more ethical decision because generally
a company that imposes a certain type of rules will have less people who display the kind
of behavior opposite to what is acceptable in this environment. This rationale resulted
into this proposition:
H9. Rules is positively related to general EDM and PR EDM
Instrumental. The typical climate in this type is dominated by what is the best for
the company. Employees are putting their interest to protect themselves and therefore no
room for personal ethics. This definition in itself has negative connotation because
147

individuals are not given the freedom to make their own decision. Therefore the
following hypothesis is posited:
H10. Instrumental is negatively related to general EDM and PR EDM
Independence. In contrast to the instrumental type, independence work climate
emphasizes on following individuals’ personal values. Employees are given the absolute
freedom to exercise and apply their values in the daily decision. This has a positive so it
seems reasonable that the study propose the following hypothesis:
H11. Independence is positively related to general EDM and PR EDM
Aside from above research questions, this study also asks the following general
research questions:
RQ5. Which of the personal value types have a greater effect on the general
EDM?
RQ6. Which of the personal value types have a greater effect on the PR EDM?
RQ7. Which of the work climate types have a greater effect on the general EDM?
RQ8. Which of the work climate types have a greater effect on the PR EDM?
Method
The present study employs quantitative survey method and includes three sets of
questions to assess personal values, perceived work climate, and decision making in
ethical dilemmas. The questionnaire is closed-ended questions, administered on-line and
was estimated to be completed between 15-20 minutes.
Sample
The participants are members of Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
Houston chapter. PRSA is the world’s largest organization for public relations
professionals based in New York City. This chapter is one of 100 PRSA chapters
nationwide, currently with 450 active members and one third of them are accredited
public relations professionals (APR).
Procedure
With permission of the Chapter and The University of Houston’s Committee for
the Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS), an email message was sent to 450 members
inviting them to participate and providing a Web address that they can click to complete
the survey.
Data Analysis
Data analysis was conducted with SPSS application and used correlation and
regression. Correlation was mainly used to test the hypotheses regarding the relationship
between personal values and ethical decision making as well as between ethical work
climate and ethical decision making. Regression was used to examine research questions
regarding the relative importance of different personal values and work climates.
Results
Respondent’s Demographic Profile
From 450 email receivers, 89 respondents completed the survey, which account
for 19.7% response rate. The majority 72 (80.9%) are female and only 17 (19.1%) are
148

male. Thirty eight respondents are in their twenties or early thirty (42.7%), 13 (14.6%)
are between 34-42 years, 12 (13.5%) are between 18-24 years, 11 (12.4%) are between
43-51 years and 15 of them are 52 years of age or over. The majority are permanent
employees, 73 (82.0%), the other 13 (14.6%) are contractor and 3 did not identify their
employment status.
Forty three of them (48.3%) are staff members, 40 (44.9%) are members of
management and 6 (6.7%) failed to identify. Sixty one respondents (68.5%) are
Caucasian, ten (11.2%) as Latin-American, ten (11.2%) as African-American, four
(4.5%) as Asian-American, and three people (4.5%) did not choose their ethnicity.
Twenty five (28.1%) respondents work in education, 13 (14.6%) in health, six
(6.7%) in government, 6 (6.7%) in energy industry, five (5.6%) in hospitality, one (1.1%)
in chemical and one (1.1%) in banking. It is important to report that a big number of
respondents, 32 (36.0%) failed to check what type of industry they belong to. One
possible explanation could be because the industry they work for is not listed. In terms of
the amount of work experience, 41 (46.1%) of them have between 1-5 years of
experience, 22 (24.7%) have less than 1 year, 14 (15.7%) have between 5-10 years, six
(6.7%) between 10-15 years, two (2.2%) have between 15-20 years and only three (3.4%)
have more than 20 years of experience. One person did not identify. In terms of education
level, more than half, 64 (71.9%) have bachelor degree, 22 (24.7%) have Master’s
degree, and only three (3.4%) have some college education.
Results on Hypotheses Regarding Personal Values and Ethical Decision Making
H1 was not supported. It proposed that achievement is negatively related to
general EDM and PR EDM. The result revealed that it was all non-significant.
H2 was fully supported. Benevolence was significant to both general EDM and
PR EDM, with r = -.243, p=.022 for general EDM violations -self, r = -.209, p=.049 for
general EDM violations -peers, r = .274, p=.009 for PR EDM-self, and r = .362, p=.000
for PR EDM-peers.
H3 was partly supported. Hedonism is significant to general EDM (with r = .221,
p=.036 for general EDM violations-peers). All the other relations are non-significant.
H4 was not supported. It posited that power is negatively related to general EDM
and PR EDM. All relationships are non-significant.
H5 was partly supported. Power is only significant to PR EDM-peers with r =
.260, p= .014. All other relationships are non-significant.
H6 was partly supported. Self-direction is significant to only PR EDM (with r =
.230, p=.030 for PR EDM-self, and r = .241, p= .023 for PR EDM-peers). The correlation
with general EDM is non significant.
Results on Hypotheses Regarding Perceived Organizational Climate and Ethical
Decision Making
H7 was fully supported. Caring is significant to both general EDM and PR EDM
(with r = -.250, p=.018 for general EDM violations-self, r = -.446, p=.000 for general
EDM violations-peers, r = .232, p=.029 for PR EDM-self, and r = .441, p= .000 for PR
EDM-peers.
H8 was partly supported. Law and code is significant to general EDM (with r = -
.334, p=.001 for general EDM violations-peers), significant to PR EDM-self with r =
.237, p=.026, and significant to PR EDM-peers with r = .467, p= .000.
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H9 was partly supported. Rules is significant to general EDM (with r = -.235,
p=.027 for general EDM violations-self, and r = -.381, p=.000 for general EDM
violations-peers), and significant to PR EDM-peers with r = .355, p= .001
H10 was partly supported. Instrumental is significant to general EDM (with r =
.246, p=.020 for general EDM violations-peers) and to PR EDM-peers with r = -.245, p=
.021. However, it is significant to PR EDM-self with r = .289, p=.006.
H11 was partly supported. Independence is significant to general EDM (with r =
.225, p=.035 for general EDM violations-self). All other relationships are non-significant.
Results on Research Questions Regarding Personal Values and Ethical Decision Making
RQ1 asks the relationship between conformity and general EDM and PR EDM.
Conformity is significant to general EDM (with r = -.235, p=.026 for general EDM
violations-self), to PR EDM-self with r = .263, p=.013, and to PR EDM-peers with r =
.355, p=.001.
RQ2 asks the relationship between stimulation and general EDM and PR EDM.
Stimulation is only significant to PR EDM-self with r = .231, p=.030.
RQ3 asks the relationship between tradition and general EDM and PR EDM. No
significant correlation between tradition and these EDM dimensions.
RQ4 examines the relationship between universal and general EDM and PR
EDM. Universal is only significant to PR EDM-peers with r = .215, p= .043. All other
relationships are non-significant.
Results Regarding General Research Questions
RQ5 asks which types of personal values have greater effects on the general
EDM-self and peers. Thirty one percent of the total variance in general EDM-self is
explained by personal values, the three significant predictors being conformity (β = -.489,
p = 0.008), hedonism (β = .384, p = 0.001), and power (β = .363, p = 005). For the
general EDM-peers, 27.2% of the total variance is explained by personal values, the three
significant predictors being hedonism (β = .419, p = .001), power (β = .292, p = .027),
and stimulation (β = -.335, p = .026).
RQ6 asks which types of personal values have greater effects on the PR EDM self
and peers. The results revealed that 21.8% of the total variance in PR EDM-self is
explained by personal values, with one value being a significant predictor, stimulation (β
= .398, p = .011). For the PR EDM-peers, 26.9% of the total variance is explained by
personal values, with three significant predictors of benevolence (β = .423, p = .036),
conformity (β = .370, p = .048), and tradition (β = -.391, p = .012).
RQ7 asks which types of work climate have greater effects on general EDM self
and peers. The results revealed that 15.8% of the total variance in general EDM-self is
explained by work climate, with one significant predictors, independence (β = .252, p =
0.017). For the general EDM-peers, 27.7% of the total variance in general EDM-peers is
explained by work climate, with two significant predictors, caring (β = -.314, p = .015)
and instrumental (β = .195, p = .043).
RQ8 asks which types of work climate have greater effects on PR EDM self and
peers. The results revealed that 14.9% of the total variance in the PR EDM-self is
explained by work climate, with one significant predictor, instrumental (β = -.278, p =
.008). For the PR EDM-peers, 31.6% of the total variance is explained by work climate,
with two significant predictors, law and code (β = .365, p = .003) and instrumental (β = -
.213, p = .024).
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This paper also conducted a post hoc analysis to explore the relationship between
position to general EDM and PR EDM. It shows that the relationship is significant.
Respondents in management position were related to general EDM self with β = .348, Sig
= .001, as well as to general EDM peers with β = -.358, Sig = .001. They relate to PR
EDM self with β = .387, Sig = .000, as well as to PR EDM peers with β = -.249, Sig =
.023.
Conclusion
This section presents the overview of some major findings, explains the
theoretical and practical implication and followed by explaining the limitations and
concluded with suggestions for future research.
Summary of Major Findings on Personal Values
Benevolence is positively related to PR EDM self and peers as well as to general
EDM self and peers. It implies that people who believe or hold a higher level of
benevolence as values are likely to make ethical decisions related to general issues as
well as to PR related issues and they believe that their peers would also do the same.
Hedonism is positively related to general EDM peers. It implies that people who
hold higher level of hedonism believe that their professional peers would be likely to
engage in making ethical decisions on the general related issues.
Security is positively related to PR EDM peers. It implies that people who hold
higher level of security believe that their professional peers would be likely to engage on
ethical decisions on the PR related issues.
Self-direction is positively related PR EDM self and peers. This finding suggests
that people who hold higher level of self-direction believe that they would make ethical
decision making related to PR issues and believe that their peers would make ethical
decision making to PR related issues.
Summary of Major Findings on Perceived Work Climate
A caring climate was found to be the type of climate that would encourage
employees as well as their peers to make the most ethical decisions on general related
issues as well as PR related issues. In law and code climate was found that people within
this climate perceived that their peers would likely to make unethical decisions on
general issues but they and their peers would make ethical decisions related to PR issues.
In rules climate suggests that those people who perceive that they would be likely
to make unethical decisions on the general issues and they also believe that their
professional peers would be likely to also make unethical decisions on general issues.
However, these people believe that their peers would be likely to make ethical decisions
on PR issues. In Instrumental climate it suggests that those people believe that their
professional peers would be likely to make ethical decisions on general issues. These
people also believe that they would likely to make ethical decisions on PR issues and that
they believe their professional peers would be likely to make unethical decisions on PR
issues. In independent climate people believe that they would be likely to make ethical
decisions on general issues.
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Theoretical Implications
Many scholars have acknowledged the importance of ethics in public relations
(Bivins, 1987; Bowen, 2008; Elspeth, 2005; Pratt, 1991) and have explored ways to assist
with ethical decision making (e.g., Bowen, 2004, 2005). Not many studies have examined
factors at both the individual level and organization levels that might influence ethical
decision making. In fact, to “address the organizational and individual characteristics that
foster ethical decision making in public relations” is suggested as one of the most
pressing need for future research in public relations ethics (Bowen, 2007, p. 290). This
study does just that.
One of the major findings of the current study is that the personal value of
benevolence and the perceived organizational climate of caring are most related to ethical
decision making. These two factors are essentially related, both referring to the basic
good nature of human minds to be nice, considerate, and take into consideration other
people’s interests. According to Bowen (2004), one of the key elements in the
deontological approach to ethics is the good intention or a morally good will. She
indicated that Kant accorded a good will the highest ultimate value in his moral
philosophy. He discussed how courage, honesty, and other characteristics may become
negative when possessed by the ill-willed person.
In addition, we cannot ignore the influence of the personal value of conformity
and the organizational climate of law and code as well as rules. These factors also have
positive relations with ethical decision making in public relations. This seems to suggest
that although people may be skeptical about the value of rules or codes of ethics that are
enforced in organizations or professional associations, these instruments do play a role in
people’s decision making, especially if someone holds the personal value of conforming
to social standards. What is more the reason for this study to be conducted in the first
place was to explore more on ethics in public relations, especially to extend the
excellence study. The excellence study resulted into some major findings in public
relations. However, as admitted by its authors, one of the shortcomings in that original
study was that ethics was not identified as one of the elements of excellent public
relations function even though it was implied and was added later when the study was
replicated internationally (e.g., Vercic, J. Grunig, & L. Grunig, 2000). The current study
contributed to that stream of research by specifying what kind of organizational
environment would facilitate ethical decision making, and in turn, would contribute to an
excellent public relations department. Some of the specific types of organizational
climate as identified in this study will help public relations practitioners work toward, if
not create, the kind of conducive environment. This may help address some of the
concerns from critical scholars who argue that public relations practitioners should try to
change organizational culture and serve as a kind of resistance role (e.g., Berger, 2005;
Berger & Reber, 2006) or internal activists (Holtzhausen, 2000; Holtzhausen & Voto,
2002). This study suggests that to influence organizations, practitioners need to first have
a good understanding of what kind of climate is conducive to ethical decision making,
and then work toward changing it.
Practical implications
One practical implication is this study demonstrated the effectiveness of PRSA
codes of ethics by using its code of provisions as one of the elements in ethical decision
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making item. Many critiques have been written regarding the usefulness of PRSA codes
of ethics and this study shows that PRSA Codes of ethics in general has an acceptable
level of reliability as a measure for ethical decision making, even though not very high.
Another practical implication is it brings out the type of personal values as well as
the perceived organizational climate that may encourage ethical decision making in
organizations. As shown, individual values such as benevolence and conformity made
more ethical decisions compare to other values and work climate of caring, law and code,
and rules are shown to be the kind of value that encourage individuals in making ethical
judgments. Organizations may use the findings to design workshops, training courses, or
use orientation sessions to highlight or reinforce the kinds of work climate that are
conducive to ethical decision making.
Limitations
One limitation is the social desirability factor. It is possible that some respondents
may have been guided in the way they response by their desire to answer in such a way
that would put their position and the organization they represent in a positive light. The
way the wording of the statements presented in the survey made it fairly easy for
respondents to choose which statements represent the most positive working
environment. This limitation has been reduced by conducting the survey on-line and
made sure that the responses were anonymous as well as by asking the respondents to not
only rate their own ethical decision making but also to rate their professional peers.
Another limitation is the sample size that was low therefore it can be expanded to include
more samples. It can be expected that the increase of respondents will improve the
significant correlations of variables.
As a side note, the author realizes that in most quantitative studies, intention
rather than actual behavior is measured and as we all know intentions are not necessarily
good predictions of behavior. However, the author must agree that as shown by Ajzen
and Fishbein (1977), intentions are good predictors of behavior in high involvement
situations such as ethical dilemmas.
Suggestions for Future Research
One possibility is to conduct a comparative study between one PRSA chapters to
another or to perform an in house study in a company that will allow an in depth look at
the role of these factors and another venue that can be taken is exploring the correlation
between professional values and company’s value to look at what happens if the value of
the practitioners collides with the value of the organizations. This kind of analysis will
contribute to finding the solution to the common situation face by many practitioners.
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Cambridge, MA: University-Press
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exploration into the case of an exemplar. Journal of Business Ethics. 52, 311–324.
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ethics counsel, Journal of Public Relations Research, 20, 271-298.
Brenner, S. N., & Molander, E. A. (1977). Is the ethics of business changing? Harvard
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Holtzhausen, D. R. (2000). Postmodern values in public relations. Journal of Public
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Holtzhausen, D. R., & Voto, R. (2002). Resistance from the margins: The postmodern
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155

PEDAGOGICAL
POSTERS
156

Maven Formula: A New Teaching and Coaching Tool for PR Professors
Robert J. Petrausch, Ph.D.
Iona College
Rpetrausch@iona.edu
The Maven Formula is a teaching and coaching tool to help PR professors
generate ideas and present them in a PR Campaigns course. The Maven Formula has five
elements that include: Messaging for clarity and exposure. Audience profiling for better
message understanding. Vehicle Delivery for improved message distribution. Emotional
Component Connection for message receptivity. New approaches, New Ideas, and New
Tactics for creative solutions and implementation.
The Maven Formula is more design and visually focused than other teaching
tools, and it generates ideas that will stick with students throughout the semester. The old
way of making ideas stick typically relies on left-brain strategies of using statistics and
facts as the primary means to make a case with students. The new teaching tool is a
visually oriented and a right-brain approach to make an argument and campaign proposal
better received and remembered than a left-brained fact supported approach. The teaching
tool will also help stimulate discussion and provoke debate in class on important issues.
An added benefit of this tool is that it will help students think more effectively on paper
and well as on their feet.
Persuasion as Communication
The Maven Formula is designed so that it addresses four critical questions
associated with the Motivational Theory of Persuasion offered by Wayne C. Minnick
(1968).
1. Does the communication catch and hold the attention of the receiver? The Maven
Formula suggests a high concept message that catches the attention of the receiver
and makes it stick. Audiences do not react to communication messages that do not
catch and hold their attention.
2. Does the communication make the intended hypothesis clear and understandable?
While a receiver will ordinarily entertain competing or alternative hypothesis to
those advocated by the communicator, he or she must have a positive expectancy
toward the subject with which the communicator wants to present. If the receiver
misunderstands the message, it may lead him or her to misperceive the intention
of the communicator and reject the message.
3. Is the central hypothesis of the communicator properly framed? One way to
achieve hypothesis strength is through adequate consensual support. We tend to
accept judgments that are supported by people we highly admire and we tend to
accept judgments of reference groups to which we believe (church, fraternity and
professional associations).
4. Does the communicator provide a means of overcoming barriers? A professional
communicator must recognize barriers and suggest means to overcome them.
Tangible obstacles prevent or limit action even though a person may have a strong
desire to act. In many cases, a person will reject an appeal or course of action
because he or she does not have the means (financial, approval of superiors, etc).
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As a rule, a hypothesis is likely to be accepted, the more congruent it is with existing
cognitions (attitudes, judgments, beliefs) that the receiver entertains about the world. The
communicator must offer an alternative means to overcome the obstacle to reach the
desired action.
Strategic Story Line for Buy-In
The Maven Formula if used properly helps generate buy-in. The buy-in approach that
underpins the Maven Formula has been documented in Mark Walton’s book Generating
Buy-In. Walton is CNN’s former chief White House correspondent and very familiar with
how powerful presentations and campaigns are put together in corporations and in the
broadcasting field. He suggests that the communicator develop a strategic story line to
present to stakeholder audiences. It starts with goal setting and determining your buy-in
objective. In other words, what action do you want your audience to take regarding your
idea, proposal, product, and service? The first step is to establish your strategic story line.
For example, what is the “ big picture” or vision of a positive future you want your
audience to envision? The communicator needs to take the audience on a journey with
words, symbols, and pictures that support the themes or ideas of the presenter. The
second step is to develop the story line in three chapters that targets your audience’s
agenda. For instance, what are the particular audience needs, wants, and future goals. The
communicator must present the three most important ways in which the audience’s
agenda will be fulfilled. The third and final step is to call the audience to action. The
communicator needs to ask for a commitment or first step to action he or she wants the
audience to take. An effective story line is important for shaping the emotional
component so critical for buy-in. The audience needs to feel an emotional connection to
the story line, an approach that makes them more comfortable with accepting the idea,
proposal, or new way of doing business.
Communication Styles: Tell /Sell, Consult/Join
The Maven Formula can support a variety of communications styles. Mary
Munter (2000) in her book Guide to Managerial Communications explains the benefits of
using the tell/sell and consult/join communications styles. In the tell style, you are
explaining a point of view and want the audience to understand something you already
know. In the sell style, you are persuading or advocating something and you want the
audience to do something different from what they have done in the past. In the consult/
join style, you want to learn from the audience and are willing to collaborate with them
through a brainstorming session or question and answer period. With this type of
approach, your audience will be more receptive to coming up with new approaches, new
ideas, and new tactics for a proposal or publicity campaign. By bringing the audience into
the conversation, the communicator is asking the audience to come up with message
content together. In sum, in the tell/ sell style, the communicator wants or needs to
control the message content and make it believable to the audience. In contrast, in the
consult/join style the communicator does not have all the information that he or she needs
and wants to understand other people’s opinions, ideas, and inputs.
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Making Ideas Stick
As noted, the Maven Formula is a teaching and coaching tool to help make ideas stick
and become memorable for audiences. Chip and Dave Heath (2007) in their book, Made
To Stick identify five steps that will make a communicator’s idea memorable in the mind
of the audience.
Step 1. Pay Attention. The communicator must give the audience something
unexpected so that they will remember it. In other words, the communicator needs an
element of surprise or mystery to capture the attention of the audience.
Step 2. Understand and Remember It. The communicator must make the idea
concrete and visual so that the audience will remember it and repeat it to friends and
colleagues.
Step 3. Agree/ Believe. The communicator must be credible and his or her idea must
be achievable and convincing. The communicator can rely on strong testimonials to
make the idea even more convincing.
Step 4. Care. The communicator must create an emotional connection with the
audience and allow them to feel empathy with the idea or proposal.
Step 5. Be able to Act on It. The communicator must present a convincing story that
will let the audience know they can act on it. The story must have a challenge element
(to overcome obstacles), a connection element (to get along or reconnect) and a
creative element (to inspire a new way of thinking).
References
Heath, C. & Heath, D. (2007). Made to Stick. New York. Random House
Minter, W.C. (1968). The Art of Persuasion. Second Edition. Boston. Houghton Mifflin
Company
Munter, M. (2000). Guide to Managerial Communications. Fifth Edition. New Jersey.
Prentice
Hall
Walton, S. (2004). Generating Buy-In. New York. AMACOM
159

Toward a Virtual Public Relations World: An Introduction to PR Practice
Peter M. Smudde, Ph.D., APR
Illinois State University
psmudde@ilstu.edu
Abstract
When students want to experience public relations, they may not have to wait
until they secure an internship. I am working on a project supported by a grant from
Illinois State University’s Instructional Virtual Reality Development Initiative that would
create a first-of-its-kind virtual world in which students could explore public relations
thinking, decision-making, and consequences in an online, scenario-based, problemsolving
learning environment using SecondLife. Given my existing course design for
online and traditional learning for COM 178 Introduction to Public Relations, the
ultimate outcome of this project would be a virtual public relations world that allows
students to explore the “real world” demands of PR professionals.
Narrative
Public relations is known primarily for what its practitioners create—texts. The
types of texts that public relations professionals plan, create, and evaluate are, in fact,
numerous and ubiquitous, and they can be oral, printed, or symbols-based. From press
releases to social media, public relations’ role in society is a discursive one. Sadly, the
focus on texts alone is limiting. So much more is demanded of effective public relations
than the mere final product of one’s or a group’s work to bring a text into being for
specific audiences and particular purposes. The outputs of public relations must have a
larger yield than what they can gain immediately upon their release. There is always
much more at stake in the bigger picture for both an organization and its publics, and
public relations can and must complete the work systematically to realize success in that
bigger picture.
Public relations students learn that effective PR requires sound process and
product, the latter being the result of the former. Students learn about public relations
process and product through traditional methods, which serve them well. If students
secure an internship—which is usually not required for graduation—they can experience
PR in “real world” action. But if students want to “try before they buy” public relations
as a field of study, there is no way to secure such experience. Recent technological
developments, however, offer a way students can experience public relations: virtualreality
games. I am unaware of any other public relations program anywhere that has
such a learning opportunity, and this project would be the first of its kind.
Thanks to the support from a grant from Illinois State University’s Instructional
Virtual Reality Development Initiative, my project focuses on creating a virtual world for
students taking COM 178 Introduction to Public Relations, which is required of all public
relations majors at Illinois State University and is open to other students as an elective.
Students would experience “realistic” public relations problems and concepts online in
conjunction with course content. The virtual public relations world would initially run on
SecondLife and, perhaps in a later, more-sophisticated version, resemble a The Sims
virtual reality game (i.e., a commercially available game that is an electronic simulation
of actual life matters). Students would investigate concepts, dig into practices, and play
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out scenarios based on realistic situations, weigh the risks, and reap the benefits or suffer
the pains from their decisions—all based on the content about the profession covered in
class sessions and the readings.
Ideally, the virtual PR world in COM 178 would take advantage of the complexity
of educational objects in the game to demonstrate realistic and relevant situations from
which students can dive into and learn how to handle at a beginner’s level. From an
instructor’s perspective, the virtual public relations world would capitalize on the
following pedagogical strategies:
• Engage students in authentic problem that approximate the “real world” demands of
professional communicators as they assess PR situations, make decisions, take action,
and measure effectiveness.
• Nurture problem-solving abilities that require various levels of cognitive processing
at different stages during the course’s schedule.
• Give students direction and feedback about their work related to both the theoretical
and the practical dimensions of real/realistic PR scenarios.
• Design course content that fits an instructor’s teaching style and planned course
content, including customizing content that can be made to fit any introductory
textbook that is chosen.
From a student’s perspective, the virtual public relations world would be a key
component to the COM 178 course that would fulfill the following learning objectives:
• Learn the process, practices and professionalism required of real PR practitioners.
• Connect the dots better between theoretical concepts from the fields of public
relations, communication, and organizations to the practical moves they make in the
game.
• Promote self reflection about one’s knowledge construction.
• Be well-prepared to solve complex, ill-structured, real/realistic PR problems that may
have many solutions.
I already have an online course design for COM 178, and the integration of the virtual PR
world would be a fine complement to the course’s content. The virtual world would also
complement traditional and hybrid versions of the course. Overall, the basic process for
this project has proceeded along the following stages:
• Conceived project after seeing others’ cases in different fields at ISU.
• Reviewed ample literature on game theory, game design, and multimedia and
pedagogy.
• Applied for and received the grant and, later, wrote a conference paper.
• Enrolled in course about using SecondLife.
• Sketched initial SecondLife site content.
• Acquired land in SecondLife, which is part of land owned by ISU.
• Consulted with campus guru on SecondLife.
• Built initial places and in process of building others.
• Engaged in continuous improvement (never-ending).
All but the last two steps were completed easily enough. I am in the building stage for the
site itself, which I call “IntroLand to Public Relations,” in SecondLife. Indeed, building
the initial site has proven to be the most labor- and time-intensive stage, but “once it’s
done, it’s done.”
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Thus far during this project’s development, I learned important lessons that are
important to share. First and most important, I underestimated the amount of time it takes
to make a “good” experience. As my literature survey (below) shows, the most realistic
virtual world is essential to making a visitor’s experience as “real” and, therefore, as
effective as possible. Creating a “good” site in SecondLife requires mastery of the
technology and the techniques, both of which are not easily done, even though I am quite
comfortable with technology. According to Bill Shields, the developer of ISU’s virtual
campus on SecondLife, it takes more than a year of constant practice to master the
program (personal communication, July 22, 2009). I have only been working on
SecondLife for a few months. Indeed, through this project I learned that the time
dedication for developing a SecondLife site takes several hours per sitting nearly daily (or
at least weekly). This time dedication includes taking numerous hours of either free or
paid training courses available on SecondLife and elsewhere, including ISU. Given
commitments and responsibilities on and off the job, working on this project has been
challenging. The bottom line on development is this: To do a project like this means
almost exclusive dedication to it—to almost literally dedicate a second life to it.
The grant awarded to me through ISU’s Instructional Virtual Reality Development
Initiative has been valuable as a starting point for what is truly a bigger project that needs
far more work and funding. I have come up with at least three viable solutions to help me
along in the completion of my SecondLife site. The first solution is to design COM 178
so that students create 3-D places about areas of public relations, which would amount to
large semester project. The second solution would be to apply for more grants that I
would use to pay graduate students and/or technical professionals to help me. The third
solution is to design and offer a graduate-level class in the teaching of public relations,
and have at its core the students applying research, pedagogy and practice to the design
and building of areas and functionality of the SecondLife site. (Familiarity with
SecondLife would be essential and possibly required.) In all three cases, having university
resources already available would be invaluable.
My SecondLife site is formally part of a four “island” cluster that Illinois State
University owns, and each island is at a different stage of development. One of the
islands is shaping up to be a complete, virtual recreation of ISU’s campus, and it is being
created by Bill Shields. My project, then, is part of a larger one at ISU and is much more
long-term than originally conceived. I originally planned my virtual public relations
world for COM 178 to be developed by the end of the spring 2010 semester then
launched in the fall. However, applying the lessons I learned so far, a more realistic
timeline now focuses on site development alone, and it will take until the fall 2011 at the
earliest to launch.
Ultimately, my vision for my SecondLife island is for it, in the near term, to be shared
with and used by all members of the public relations faculty in ISU’s School of
Communication, giving them a new and potentially powerful teaching and learning tool
that can be used in traditional, hybrid or completely online versions of the COM 178
course and beyond. Over the medium term, I foresee the virtual PR world serving as a
model for similar teaching tools for other courses in the curriculum. For the long term,
my ultimate vision for this project is to lead to a full simulation of public relations
decision-making that, like true virtual reality games (e.g., Darfur is Dying, Energyville,
and The Sims), could be used in higher education and, especially, in professional training
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in organizations like the Public Relations Society of America and the Chartered Institute
for Public Relations in the United Kingdom. Even with at this early stage of
development, there is interest from one textbook publisher that would like to consider
using my project to augment its introductory text in public relations and include material
suitable to its full range of public relations texts.
Relevant Literature
This project focuses on using electronic media to create a virtual, threedimensional
world where students can learn about the basics of public relations. Given
the vision for this project over the near to long terms, the project can be considered a kind
of game to facilitate student learning. Although the point of the “game” is far from being
something for entertainment purposes, its very design and content would invite a certain
amount of expectations for having fun during learning—short of being “edutainment.” In
this way, then, three areas of research are particularly appropriate to this project: game
theory, game design, and pedagogy. To the extent that all three overlap, especially in the
third research area, application of theory to practice would be especially fruitful.
Game theory covers what people do rationally during games and how outcomes
may be predicted. Games include structured play but, more broadly speaking, any
situations in which assessments about situations can be made and strategies surmised and
enacted to achieve certain outcomes. Game theory can be addressed in highly technical,
mathematical terms, as McKinsey (2003) does. For this project’s purposes, a
nontechnical understanding is appropriate. Binmore (2007) and Davis (1983) set aside the
heavy mathematics to present game theory’s fundamentals. What is most important about
these two works is their examples from both the gaming world and the “real world,” like
economics, politics and others. Tying the theory to everyday practice is key in these
books and this project, as making a realistic experience that fits students’ mindsets
coming into a virtual-reality presentation of public relations is key. The gamer mindset is
the focus of Wark’s (2007) exploration of gamer thinking at the intersection of formal
games and everyday life, where people should be thought of more as gamers than as
citizens. This focus on everyday living is also essential to this project, and in particular
the combination of game theory and strategy (especially business strategy) is very
appropriate. Public relations students should be exposed to the kind of thinking that is
germane to the work of practitioners and organizational executives. Miller (2003)
addresses how the outcomes of others’ choices influence one’s own strategic moves, and
he devises a method for people to cope with and excel in situations where confrontation
and competition are central, like negotiations, managing people, managing budgets,
pricing, market positioning, and others. Similarly, Dixit and Nalebuff (2008) extend the
basic foundations of game theory to the rationality essential to effective strategy in game
situations. Those situations encompass typical life/social experiences and, in particular,
business/professional experiences, where people are especially challenged to build
cooperation and account for results. Straffin (1993) applies simple algebraic rigor to the
same themes to address how to identify the best people to work with, how to anticipate
the outcomes of conflict and cooperation, and what implications there may be for sharing
success and blame.
Game design addresses the creation of optimum game experiences in any medium
that challenge players’ abilities to assess situations, size-up opponents, devise strategies,
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and achieve desired outcomes or reformulate strategies in the face of undesired outcomes.
Sources like O’Luanaigh (2006) and Meigs (2003) explain game design by focusing on
the resources, opportunities, limitations, and processes necessary for creating games—
from the basic story line and characters to the branding and licensing of final game
products. Bateman and Boon (2006) take a more theory-driven approach to explain why
effective game designs work from a player’s perspective, emphasizing the identification
of relevant “play styles.” Bateman and Boon also address the matters of game production,
marketing, and distribution. Extensive “handbook” volumes on game design include
those by Salen and Zimmerman (2004, 2006), where they address all matters—from core
theory, graphic design and storylines to rules of play, culture and criticism—related to
effective game design itself and not the matters related to commercialization. Specific
examinations of video games and the theory related to them is addressed in Wolf and
Perron (2003) and Perron and Wolf (2009). These two edited volumes explore the
breadth of topics in video game theory since its inception in the late 1970s, and they are
especially focused on what matters in present-day video games. The volumes set the
foundation for the terminology, ideology, and critical-analytical methods for
understanding the dynamics among game creators, games themselves, players, and the
worlds they share. Increasingly tied to video games is the subject of virtual reality or
virtual environments. Sherman and Craig (2003) explain what virtual reality is and how it
functions as a medium, especially for gaming but also for other occasions, like education
and engineering. The key is rendering a world that appears “realistic” and allows people
to engage within that world “realistically,” which leans in large part on sensory interfaces
and feedback and other features. Stanney (2002) provides a thorough collection of
chapters about a full range of topics on virtual environments, including basic principles,
systems/technology, design/development, health and safety, evaluation, and example
applications.
Pedagogical principles at the heart of this project primarily are constructivistic, where
learning precedes the development of students’ skills, and an instructor’s guidance is
similar to a master-apprentice relationship (Karpov & Bransford, 1995, p. 61); whereas,
“socially shared activities [transform] into internalized processes” (John-Stener & Mahn,
1996, p. 192). Such an approach, like a virtual reality public relations experience, is one
that allows students to participate in knowledge building under the guidance of an
instructor or other more-competent person (i.e., working within their “zone of proximal
development”) that is at once social and individual. An ideal constructivistic learning
environment (cf. Driscoll, 2000, pp. 382-391) in courses would take advantage of the
complexity of the virtual-reality educational objects to demonstrate realistic and relevant
situations from which students can dive into and learn how to handle at an appropriate
level (i.e., beginner, intermediate, and advanced). Class discussions or small-group work
would facilitate a communal dimension for learning, as students’ perspectives on
theoretical and practical issues are wrestled with socially and collaboratively. Students
would be encouraged to entertain multiple perspectives to understand real/realistic
communication situations because multiple views of what can be done can stem from
multiple models and research about what effective real/realistic communication, and
thereby be used to explain responses to assignments.
Realizing that the choice of media used for instructional purposes has an effect on
cognitive processing, Cobb (1997) argues that the most efficient instructional media are
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those that “do some of the learners’ cognitive work for them” (p. 32). This idea means
that the way information is presented through a chosen medium gives the learner some
amount of data to work from beyond what is in memory, and the learner builds
knowledge about the task and subject by working through the problem-solving process at
increasingly deeper levels. This “cognitive efficiency” with which someone works with
information in a given medium is based on the rationale that while different media may
not create different cognitive products, such as concepts, schemas, and mental models, . .
. they clearly do create different cognitive processes at different levels of efficiency (with
regard to speed, ease, effectiveness). In other words, the form in which information is
presented can determine how it is processed in a mind, and hence how it can be learned
(Cobb, 1997, p. 27).
Research has probed how video, films, television, and multimedia generally can be
used in particular subject areas. Research in this vein tackles particular pedagogical
problems in English as a second language (Aiex, 1988, 1999; Arcario, 1992; Stempleski,
1992), history (Rebhorn, 1987), medicine (Dequeker & Jaspaert, 1998; Sözmem, 2002),
psychology (Gregg et al., 1995;), sociology and social problems (Dressel, 1990), and
speech pathology (Hallett, 2002). Additional work examines the application of
multimedia technologies in the classroom. Such research includes the use of CD-ROMs
in chemistry courses (Rodrigues et al., 2001), the use of optical videodisc and CD-ROMs
in art courses (O’Connor, 1988), and the construction of hypervideo for dynamic class
lessons (Locatis et al., 1990).
Most especially, Rainie (2007, 2009), in his work with the Pew Internet and
American Life Project, and Dorman (2007) show in detail the applications to and
implications of “new media” (i.e., blogs, podcasts, wikis, social media, etc) on teaching
and learning of “digital natives” (i.e., students who grew up with these technologies) and
“digital immigrants” (i.e., those [especially instructors] who have come to learn about
and use new media later in life). In broad-based analyses of the pedagogical implications
of multimedia, Clark and Feldon (2005) address the common misconceptions about
multimedia instruction as more beneficial, motivating, engaging, accommodating of
multiple learning styles, and problem solving-based. Sweller (2005) examines the impact
on memory (long-term and working) that multimedia has on individuals and what
instructional design matters must be taken into account. Van Merriënboer and Kester
(2005) propose a model for instructional design that accommodates principles of
multimedia learning with the four components of complex learning. Each of these
analyses offers useful insights about how others have applied media technology at any
level of complexity to their classroom situations. Insights achieved and lessons learned
from each of these applications may be valuable, and the articles serve as good starting
points for my virtual-reality PR project and anyone interested in using these technologies
in her or his own courses.
References
Aiex, N. K. (1988). Using film, video, and TV in the classroom. ERIC Digest, 11.
(ED300848)
Aiex, N. K. (1999). Mass media use in the classroom. ERIC Digest D147 (ED436016).
Retrieved from the World Wide Web May 28, 2003, from
http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed436016.html.
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Arcario, P. (1992). Criteria for selecting video materials. In S. Stempleski & P. Arcario
(Eds.), Video in second language teaching: Using, selecting, and producing video
for the classroom (pp. 109-122). Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to
Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. ERIC Reproduction Services (ED388082).
Bateman, C., & Boon, R. (2006). 21 st century game design. Hingham, MA: Charles River
Media.
Binmore, K. (2007). Game theory: A very short introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press.
Clark, R. E., & Feldon, D. F. (2005). Five common but questionable principles of
multimedia learning. In R. E. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of
multimedia learning (pp. 97-115). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cobb, T. (1997). Cognitive efficiency: Toward a revised theory of media. Educational
Technology Research and Development, 45(4), 21-35.
Davis, M. D. (1983). Game theory: A nontechnical introduction. Mineola, NY: Dover
Publications.
Dequeker, J., & Jaspaert, R. (1998). Teaching problem-solving and clinical reasoning: 20
years experience with video-supported small-group learning. Medical Education,
32, pp. 384-389.
Dixit, A. K., & Nalebuff, B. J. (2008). The art of strategy: A game theorists’s guide to
success in business and life. New York: Norton.
Dorman J. C. (2007, February). Engaging digital natives: Examining 21 st century
literacies & their implications for teaching in the digital age. Presentation given
at Pennsylvania Educational Technology Exposition and Conference in Hershey,
PA. Available online http://petec2007.wikispaces.com/
Dressel, P. (1990, April). Films that put social problems in global context. Teaching
Sociology, 18, pp. 226-230.
Driscoll, M. P. (2000). Psychology of learning for instruction (2 nd ed.). Boston, MA:
Allyn and Bacon.
Gregg, V. R., Hosley, C. A., Weng, A., & Montemayor, R. (1995, March). Using
Feature Films To Promote Active Learning in the College Classroom. ERIC
(ED389367).
Hallett, T. L. (2002, June 11). The impact of technology on teaching, clinical practice,
and research. The ASHA Leader, pp. 4-5, 13.
John-Steiner, V., & Mahn, H. (1996). Sociocultural approaches to learning and
development: A Vygotskian framework. Educational Psychologist, 31, 191-206.
Karpov, Y. V., & Bransford, J. D. (1995). L. S. Vygotsky and the doctrine of empirical
and theoretical learning. Educational Psychologist, 30(2), 61-66.
Locatis, C., Charuhas, J., & Banvard, R. (1990). Hypervideo. Educational Technology
Research and Development, 38, 2, pp. 41-49.
McKinsey, J. C. C. (2003). Introduction to the theory of games. Mineola, NY: Dover
Publications.
Meigs, T. (2003). Ultimate game design: Building game worlds. New York: McGraw-
Hill
Miller, J. (2003). Game theory at work: How to use game theory to outthink and
outmaneuver your competition. New York: McGraw-Hill.
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O’Connor, R. J. (1988). Integrating optical videodisc and CD/ROM technology to teach
art history. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 17, pp. 27-32.
O’Luanaigh, P. (2006). Game design complete. Scottsdale, AZ: Paraglyph Press.
Perron, B., & Wolf, M. J. P. (Eds.) (2009). The video game theory reader 2. New York:
Routledge.
Rainie, L. (2007, April). The new media ecology of students: How the marketplace of
ideas & learning is different for “digital natives.” Presentation given at the
Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology at Penn State University.
Available online http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2007/The-New-
Media-Ecology-of-Students.aspx
Rainie, L. (2009, November). Teens in the digital age. Presentation given at NCTI
Technology Innovators Conference in Washington, DC. Available online
http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2009/49-NCTI-Technology-Innovators-
Conference.aspx
Rebhorn, M. (1987). Hollywood films as a teaching tool. ERIC Digest, ED286815, 6 pp.
Rodrigues, S., Smith A., & Ainley, M. (2001, June). Video clips and animation in
chemistry CD-ROMs: Student interest and preference. Australian Science
Teachers Journal, 47, pp. 9-16. Retrieved from EBSCO Host May 21, 2003.
Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (Eds.) (2004). Rules of play: Game design fundamentals.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (Eds.) (2006). The game design reader: A rules of play
anthology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Sherman, W. R., & Craig, A. B. (2003). Understanding virtual reality: Interface,
application and design. Boston: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
Sözmem, E. Y. (2002). Interactive lecture supported by multimedia presentation: A new
teaching tool for faculties with crowded classes and limited budgets. Education
for Health, 15, pp. 391-393.
Stanney, K. M. (Ed.) (2002). Handbook of virtual environments: Design, implementation
and applications. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Straffin, P. D. (1993). Game theory and strategy. Washington, DC: Mathematical
Association of America.
Stempleski, S. (1992). Teaching communication skills with authentic video. In S.
Stempleski & P. Arcario (Eds.), Video in second language teaching: Using,
selecting, and producing video for the classroom (pp. 7-24). Alexandria, VA:
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. ERIC Reproduction
Services (ED388082).
Sweller, J. (2005). Implications of cognitive load theory for multimedia learning. In R. E.
Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning (pp. 19-30). New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & Kester, L. (2005). The four-component instructional design
model: Multimedia principles in environments for complex learning. In R. E.
Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning (pp. 71-93). New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Wark, M. (2007). Gamer theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wolf, M. J. P., & Perron, B. (Eds.) (2009). The video game theory reader. New York:
Routledge.
167

Defining Public Relations: Constructing Definitions Through
A Social Construction Lens
Barbara DeSanto, Ed.D., APR, Fellow PRSA
Maryville University of Saint Louis
bdesanto@maryville.edu
Introduction
The public relations literature has many studies that highlight the difficulties that
public relations practitioners and educators have on arriving at or agreeing on one
definition of public relations. The definitional challenge is even greater outside the
profession. It’s little wonder, then, that public relations students experience the same
angst in defining what public relations truly is.
This pedagogical approach actively involves students exploring and creating their
own definitions of public relations through a social construction of reality framework in
which they study the language of public relations job descriptions. This analysis provides
students with concrete examples of how real-world practice is described and gives them a
framework to relate the real-world elements to the academic descriptions and discussions
provided in class.
Literature Review
The development of public relations as profession and practice grew
tremendously in the years following World War II. Along with the increase in practice,
public relations definitions abounded. Practitioner Rex Harlow, alarmed by the many and
varied descriptions, collected nearly 500 definitions of the term, with the goal of creating
one universal definition that would give the profession a stable, clearly recognizable face
via his 87-word definition (Guth & Marsh, 2003). The Public Relations Society of
America (PRSA) soon followed with its Official Statement on Public Relations, which
also purported to offer the one definitive definition (Guth & Marsh, 2003). But having an
official association definition did not stop practitioners and non-practitioners alike from
continuing to manufacture their own definitions, the majority of which reflected the tasks
and duties practitioners performed, such as media relations, reputation management, or
corporate social responsibility.
Another factor contributing to more definitions of public relations comes from the
euphemisms substituting for the term public relations, such as the 1913 Gillett
Amendment, which forbids the U.S. government from spending tax dollars to influence
public opinion (Wilcox et al. 2001), resulting in the substitute term “public affairs.”
Similarly, organizations and corporations often use terms like “corporate
communication” or “government affairs” to circumvent what they perceive as negative
connotations associated with the term public relations.
The above terms are rather value-neutral definitions of public relations; however,
the use of derogatory terms to define public relations adds even more confusion and
terminology to the public relations moniker debate. The terms “spin doctor,” or “flack”
are routinely used to describe practitioners, while journalists continue to use the phrase
“in a public relations move” to describe any questionable or seemingly sneaky
organizational behavior.
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Several studies have also addressed the devaluation of public relations because of
the practice’s definition problem. Hutton’s 1999 study of public relations definitions was
a call to the profession to develop one definition to avoid encroachment on the practice
by other disciplines, such as marketing. Gordon (1997) reviewed different public
relations definitions to find shared concepts and ideas inherent in each definition from
which she proposed her own definition to bring about more understanding of the term. In
her initial study in 2003, Bowen surveyed her beginning public relations students to
assess their own understandings about the practice and found misconceptions and wrong
assumptions among their variety of definitions. Building on her 2003 study, Bowen’s
2009 study found that public relations majors understood the major tenets and
requirements of practice, but non-majors did not, indicating an ongoing lack of
knowledge – and definition – about the profession outside the profession itself.
A review of four of the current introductory public relations textbooks also
addresses the definition problem. Three of the four texts’ first chapters are entitled “What
is Public Relations? (Lattimore, Baskin, Heiman, Toth, & Van Leuven, 2004; Wilcox,
Ault, Agee, & Cameron, 2001; Guth & Marsh, 2003). Each chapter also provides at least
one definition of public relations. However, none of the four definitions were identical;
each had its authors’ individual stamp. Two of the four (Lattimore, Baskin, Heiman,
Toth, & Van Leuven, 2004; Wilcox, Ault, Agee, & Cameron, 2001;) provided the
content of the PRSA Official Statement in a separate text box, and the other two (Guth &
Marsh, 2003; Newsom, Turk, & Kruckeberg, 2007) included a discussion of it in the text.
The textbooks provided key words in the definitions such as management, relationships,
publics, (Lattimore et al; Wilcox et al); elements of practice (Guth & Marsh); or
principles and organizational roles (Newsom et al). The result – even more definitions of
public relations.
By comparison, public relations job descriptions seem totally unrelated to the
academic definitional discourse because the job descriptions focus on skills and specific
tasks as opposed to definitions, concepts, and key terms. It’s as though the definitions
and the job descriptions were written on different planets. The result is a strong example
of standpoint theory, which states that individuals construct social worlds based on their
experience (Littlejohn & Foss, 2005). Academics study the public relations profession to
come up with one universal definition, while employers write a job description for
specific tasks and duties for a specific environment or context in which they live.
DeSanto & Moss (2004) found another definitional saga factor in their study of U.S.
public relations managers: The majority of managers interviewed said the job
advertisements they responded to were not written by public relations practitioners,
which resulted in the managers rewriting their job descriptions to more accurately reflect
their public relations status and duties after they got the job.
So public relations students study the academic definitions, concepts, and
functions in school, but then encounter a different public relations world when they begin
to apply for jobs. This can be troublesome for students who need to develop their own
personal public relations definition to first understand for themselves what public
relations is, and then to be able to confidently explain to others, including co-workers,
what public relations is. Ultimately, this exercise helps students understand how the
academic definitions of public relations relate to the world of practitioner work.
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The Assignment
This assignment is particularly appropriate for the introduction to public relations
courses, where students generally come in with preconceived, often erroneous ideas of
what public relations is (Bowen, 2003, 2009). The assignment follows the first class
assignment where I send each student out to ask three people to define public relations.
After analyzing these responses that illustrate the variety of misconceptions and/or
limited ideas of what public relations is, students are ready to research and form their
own definitions. I designate the job sources, such as PRSA’s Job Center and PR Week’s
classified ads, where students search for job ads to ensure that the jobs are true public
relations jobs. Students choose one that interests them, and clear their choice with me to
avoid duplication of jobs chosen.
The Analysis Paper
Students write a short paper addressing the following elements:
• Identifying the source of the job ad and the official job title. The different titles
provide first-hand, real-world illustrations of the variety of terms used to describe
public relations positions.
• Describing the name and/or industry sector of the organization advertising the job.
Students become aware of the different sectors from government to corporate in which
public relations is practiced.
• Constructing a list of the knowledge, skills, and (if included) the education required
for the public relations position. This list helps students understand what their
knowledge base must include, as well as what specific skills, such as writing, they
must master.
• Locating the job in the most appropriate PRSA Career Guide level by comparing the
“Skills & Knowledge Typically Required at this Level” with the list of knowledge and
skills they found in the job description. This component illustrates the career
progression in public relations, something that students often are unaware of.
• Commenting on whether this job is one he/she might pursue and/or enjoy. This
requires students to think about how their personalities, work expectations, and
knowledge and skills will fit in the public relations profession.
Students conclude their papers with a discussion of how this job description and analysis
is helping them form their own definitions of public relations.
Class Presentation & Discussion
Students then present their jobs to the class. Each job is recorded on a chart that
lists responses to each of individual job analysis questions. This chart provides the basis
for the class discussion of how each student begins to construct his/her own definition
based on the different analyses.
Learning Outcomes
Student feedback from this assignment indicates four important learning outcomes:
• Identifying the concrete elements of the job descriptions make the textbook terms
more understandable;
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• The Guide’s typical titles, usual responsibilities and skills & knowledge needed at the
different levels help students understand the concept of career progression and what
experiences contribute to that progression.
• Students report they can also begin to see how the academic terms like “planned,”
“deliberate,” and “research-based,” relate to specific jobs at specific levels; and lastly,
• Students have first-hand experience with the complexity of defining public relations
practice for themselves as well as understanding how others outside the profession
arrive at their definitions. This assignment gives them the tools to be able to begin to
construct a personally meaningful definition of public relations based on situations,
job contexts, and public relations academic knowledge. They also learn that they can
adjust and continually update their definition during their studies, and ultimately, can
confidently express their definition and understanding of the term public relations in
their future practice.
References
Bowen, S.A. (2003). I thought it would be more glamorous. Public Relations Review,
29(1), 199-214.
Bowen. S.A. (2009). All glamour, no substance? How public relations majors and
potential majors in an exemplar program view the industry and the function.
Public Relations Review, 35(3) Web copy accessed August 15, 2009.
DeSanto, B. and Moss, D. (2004). Rediscovering what PR managers do: Rethinking the
measurement of managerial behaviour in the public relations context. Journal of
Communication Management, 9(2), 179-196.
Gordon, J.C. (1997). Interpreting definitions of public relations: Self assessment and a
symbolic interactionism-based alternative. Public Relations Review, 23(1), 57-66.
Guth, D. & Marsh, C. (2003). Public Relations: A Values Driven Approach. 2 nd Edition.
Allyn & Bacon, Pearson Education, Inc.. Boston.
Hutton, J. G. (1999). The definition, dimensions and domain of public relations. Public
Relations Review, 25(2), 199-214.
Lattimore, D., Baskin, O., Heiman, S.T., Toth, E.L., & Van Leuven, J. K. (2004). Public
Relations: The Profession and the Practice. McGraw Hill, Boston.
Littlejohn, S.W. & Foss, K.A. (2005). Theories of Human Communication. Eighth
Edition. Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont, Calif.
Newsom, D., Turk, J.V., & Kruckeberg, D. (2007). This is PR: The Realities of Public
Relations. 9 th Edition. Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont, Calif.
The PRSA Foundation. (1993). Public Relations Professional Career Guide. Public
Relations Society of America. New York.
Wilcox, D.L., Ault, P.H., Agee, W.K., & Cameron, G.T. (2001). Essentials of Public
Relations. Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc., New York.
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Public Relations Entrepreneurship Course
Betsy A. Hays, Ph.D., APR
California State University, Fresno
bhays@csufresno.edu
Background
The field of entrepreneurship has been defined in several ways. Gartner (1988) proposed
that “entrepreneurship is the creation of new organizations” (p.26). Kuratko (2005) goes
further, stating that “entrepreneurship is more than the mere creation of business.
Although that is certainly an important facet, it is not the complete picture. The
characteristics of seeking opportunities, taking risks beyond security, and having the
tenacity to push an idea through to reality combine into a special perspective that
permeates entrepreneurs” (p. 578). A public relations entrepreneur, therefore, would be
someone who creates a new organization in the public relations industry.
The public relations field, being one of consulting, is an ideal field for the
entrepreneur. In fact, the industry is full of solo practitioners and entrepreneurs running
small and medium-sized PR firms. Given the reality that many PR practitioners at some
point go out on their own, and many move in and out of entrepreneurship, California State
University, Fresno’s Mass Communication and Journalism Department began exploring the
idea of bringing entrepreneurship education to its public relations curriculum.
Inspired by the university’s Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s
move to Streeter, Jaquette and Hovis’ radiant model (2004) of creating university-wide
entrepreneurship education, the department offered what it believed to be the first-of-its
kind “Public Relations Entrepreneurship” course designed to help students explore the idea
of being an entrepreneur in the field of public relations. Twenty-six students (including
three entrepreneurship majors) took the initial 1-unit experimental course in Spring 2007,
and feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Seeing an educational void and potential to
provide significant benefit to both students and the public relations profession, additional
research was conducted to assess national student interest in studying and engaging in
entrepreneurship education, as well as public relations educator interest and input on the
necessity of the subject. Interest in the subject area is clear, and as such, the “Public
Relations Entrepreneurship” course is now a regularly-offered elective to augment
California State University, Fresno’s public relations and entrepreneurship curriculum.
The course has been offered twice as a full 3-unit course – in Spring 2008 and
Spring 2009 – with a mixed enrollment of public relations and entrepreneurship majors,
and now includes an in-depth public relations entrepreneurship research project that has
resulted in papers accepted for conference presentation and publication.
Purpose and mission for course
To provide public relations students with an introduction to the keys to success in
public relations entrepreneurship in order to benefit both to the students and the public
relations profession.
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Course objectives
This course is designed to help students explore the idea of being an entrepreneur
in the field of public relations. Upon completion of this course, students will have
demonstrated knowledge, comprehension and, in most cases, successful application of:
1. Internal and external components of successful entrepreneurship
2. A new business venture and components of a business plan
3. Basic structure and workings of a public relations/communications consulting
business
4. Opportunities and challenges associated with owning/managing a public
relations/communications consulting business
5. Development of a business mantra and positive organizational culture
6. Effective new business development and agency promotion
7. Successful client relations
8. Agency ethics
9. Agency management, staffing, billing and planning techniques
Students course is designed to serve
Public relations students, other mass communication students (advertising, production,
etc.), and entrepreneurship students interested in learning about best practice strategies
related to public relations entrepreneurship and creating, owning and operating a
successful consulting practice.
Course benefits for students
Because of the one-of-a-kind nature of the course, it provides students with access to depth
of information not found elsewhere in any public relations curriculum. Research for the
course included in-depth interviews with local and regional public relations entrepreneurs.
Feedback from the entrepreneurs included comments such as “I want to take this course.”
And “Wow, I wish there was something like this for me before I went out on my own.”
Textbooks
• Managing a Public Relations Firm for Growth and Profit by A.C. Croft – 2 nd Edition
• The New Conceptual Selling: The Most Effective and Proven Method for Face-to-
Face Sales Planning by Robert B. Miller, Stephen E. Heiman, Tad Tuleja, John Philip
Coghlan
Course Content
The course includes lecture, small group discussion, small group activities and large
group discussion pedagogies. Course topics include:
- What is entrepreneurship?
- Team building
- Business Plans
- Creativity
- Logos, business systems and promotional materials
- Building your cabinet of allied professionals
- Partnerships
- New business development
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- Marketing your business
- Selecting clients
- The “business” of being in business
- Fees, billing and collections
- Managing growth
- Working with subcontractors
- Effective client relations
- Advanced client management
- Achieving work/life balance
Assignments include an in-depth research project, business planning project, new
business development plan, elevator pitch development and a business pitch assignment.
The course also utilizes a myriad of guest speakers and at least one field trip – the last
one to City Hall to discuss municipal resources for entrepreneurs.
Unique aspects of the course
This course is unique because it is believed to be the first of its kind. To date, we
have not found another course specifically focused on public relations entrepreneurship,
but there are some offerings that including similar course content. Ursuline College has a
mandatory undergraduate course titled “Media Analysis and Client Issues” that has a
strong section on client relationships, but the focus of the course is not on becoming a
public relations entrepreneur (L. Hammel, personal communication, June 16, 2009).
Point Park University offers two graduate-level courses, “Free Lance Communications
and Consulting” and “PR/Ad Agency and Department Management” that are closely
aligned with entrepreneurship (R. O’Gara, personal communication, June 16, 2009).
Belmont University has a co-curricular program between entrepreneurship and public
relations that centers around a student-run public relations firm that works with student
entrepreneurs, but there is no specific course attached to it (J. Cornwell, personal
communication, June 16, 2009).
Sources of funding and/or support for the course
The idea for the course was inspired by the Coleman Fellowship program
coordinated by the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at California State
University, Fresno. The Lyles Center initiated a call to the campus for faculty interested
in bringing entrepreneurship education into their academic curriculum, tying into the
movement within the entrepreneurship discipline to share its precepts throughout college
campuses. Because entrepreneurship can exist in any field, it is an ideal interdisciplinary
thread. Proposals are gathered, and the most viable are accepted by the Lyles Center. The
faculty members who submitted the proposals are named as Coleman Fellows (after the
sponsor of the program, the Coleman Foundation). These Coleman Fellows are then
charged with implementing their proposals and creating or augmenting a course in their
academic discipline to include entrepreneurship education.
Additional support for the course came from the Interim Chair of the Department
of Mass Communication and Journalism Dr. Roberta Asahina, the Chair of the
Department of Mass Communication and Journalism Prof. Don Priest, as well as the
Dean of the College of Arts & Humanities Dr. Vida Samiian.
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The future
Even in this time of budgetary crisis in the California State University system, the course
is on the schedule for the Spring 2009 semester and the Mass Communication and
Journalism Department plans on making the course a permanent part of the curriculum
once the budget turns around.
The idea is completely transferable, and perhaps additional courses of this type might be
taught at other universities in the near future.
References
Gartner, W. B. (1988). “'Who is an entrepreneur?' Is the wrong question,” American
Journal of Small Business 12(4), 11-32.
Kuratko, D.F. (2005). “The emergence of entrepreneurship education: Development,
trends, and challenges,” Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice 29(5), 577-598.
Streeter, D. H. and Jaquette, Jr. J.P. (2004). “University-wide entrepreneurship education:
Alternative models and trends,” Southern Rural Sociology 20(2), 44-71.
175

Tribulations and Triumphs of Teaching Real-World, Client-Based PR:
An Assessment of the Campaigns Course Pedagogy
Carolyn White Bartoo, APR
University of Delaware
bartoo@udel.edu
Jonathan R. Slater, Ph.D.
SUNY College at Plattsburgh
jonathan.slater@plattsburgh.edu
Many higher education institutions with a public relations curriculum offer a campaigns
course in accordance with recommendations for the PRSA-certifiable academic sequence.
This course presents significant opportunities for student learning and faculty-student
engagement, but also carries a number of challenges for students beyond what they have
become accustomed to in preparing individual assignments or group projects in
conventional course offerings.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that a frequently used format for the campaigns class
is the client-agency model. Literature on service-learning seems to support the notion that
students exposed to a client-agency model experience deep, rich learning, gain tangible
skills, and later show long-term retention of both concepts and competencies. Moreover,
students acquire a strong, first-person knowledge of the ethical underpinnings and
repercussions of their professional behaviors. Employing such a model can also help to
mitigate the anxiety some students may express about elaborating their first real-world
public relations campaign.
While service learning may at times seem burdensome to instructors because it
often implies a heavier workload, there exist methods faculty can employ to streamline
classroom/project management without sacrificing students’ development of cognitive
skills and problem-solving abilities. Drawing on multiple years of teaching the campaigns
course, the present authors have distilled from their respective approaches three elements
which they believe can facilitate the client-agency model as a viable means to support
student learning outcomes, enhance faculty morale and advance programmatic
development.
Planning
Course preparation and advance planning are crucial to the success of the
campaigns course for students and instructors alike because of the course’s nontraditional
structure and complexity. Fink (2003) provides a useful framework for
establishing the learning objectives for the campaigns course, which we have adapted and
apply thusly:
1. Foundational knowledge: Students should know and remember the steps involved in
creating a public relations plan and use them to create innovative, strategic public
relations plans.
2. Application: Students need to develop their ability to plan ahead and elaborate precise
task schedules allowing them to manage complex, multi-stage projects on a strict
timeline. Students should also be able to identify relevant resources.
3. Integration: Students should recognize ways to present and contextualize an effective
argument or story.
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4. Human Dimension: Students must tap into their persuasive skills, appreciate their
creative dimension and understand how to manage a large, team project.
5. Caring: Students need to learn the value of well-planned, strategic communication,
even if such an approach takes longer to produce concrete results than taking a
disjointed and incremental approach to management.
6. Learning how to learn: Students ideally become self-directed learners and
responsible, responsive team members.
Teamwork
Instructors are free to employ different formats for the campaigns course, but the
authors recommend breaking up students into teams that act ostensibly as public relations
agencies. Teamwork is vital to the outcomes of the campaigns course because it provides
a substantive, semester-long experience that replicates a working-world environment.
The present authors have tended to choose team members based on the instructor’s
familiarity with each student’s strengths and weaknesses (but this is merely one option
available to instructors). Teams of between three and six students – depending on the
enrollment in the course and the number of clients served by the entire class – seem to
function well. Teams at the larger end of this range may, at first, seem unwieldy to
supervise and evaluate, yet the authors have not observed any deleterious effects of larger
team size upon students’ retention of key concepts and practices.
Multi-step strategic plan
Some students can become overwhelmed when undertaking a semester-long
project, particularly one dependent upon group collaboration. Instructors can provide a
certain level of relief to such students by requiring and teaching them the practice of
utilizing a step-wise strategy in their planning. A methodology based largely on the
RACE (research, action, communication and evaluation) model proves particularly
instructive:
Phase 1 (Familiarization) – students immerse themselves in initial client research
and complete a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis.
Phase 2: (Strategic planning) – Students develop goals, objectives, strategies,
tactics, timetable, budget, activities, etc. Students will pitch their concepts to their
clients.
Phase 3: (Execution) – Students actually complete some or all of the strategic plan
(based on client’s needs and time constraints of the semester schedule) such as
developing a media kit, conducting media pitches to follow-up on distributed media
releases, staffing or managing a special event, reworking a website, development of
collateral materials, or other tactics. Students will present their communication
products to their clients.
Phase 4: (Debriefing and evaluation) – This final step entails students both editing
and reworking their tactics and meeting as a team with the instructor to assess
planning, productivity and team outcomes.
References
Fink, L.D. (2003) Creating significant learning experiences: an integrated approach to
designing college courses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
177

Using a Quasi-Experiment to Evaluate a PR Campaigns Class’s Efforts
to Promote Energy Conservation in Eight Residence Halls
Lynne M. Sallot, Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA
University of Georgia
sallot@uga.edu
While most public relations educators agree that teaching research methods,
measurement and evaluation are essential in the PR curriculum (O’Neil, 2005),
particularly in the capstone campaigns course (Benigni, Cheng & Cameron, 2004),
few—if any—have used quasi-experiments in PR Campaigns. This abstract reports
the results of a campaigns class that used a quasi-experiment to assess its efforts to
promote energy conservation to residents of eight dormitories at a large university in
the southeastern U.S. The class implemented a competition with a full complement of
PR tactics in the two halls equipped with meters measuring residents’ daily energy
consumption; some conservation PR strategies in four of the halls; and did no
promotions of any kind in two other “control” halls. A pre-experiment survey of
residents’ self-reported conservation attitudes and behaviors revealed no significant
differences among the eight halls. In the class’s post-experiment survey, there were
several differences among residents in the eight halls. In the two halls receiving the
full promotional treatments, residents were more likely to say energy conservation is
important to them, they make an effort to conserve energy, and they rated their
personal energy conservation habits higher than all but one of the other six residence
halls. Also, analysis of records of daily energy consumption in the two “competition”
halls revealed consumption dropped for up to 48 hours immediately following
implementation of specific PR tactics. However, the post-survey revealed that
residents in one of the “control” halls where the class had no public relations
activities became as energy conservation conscious as residents in the two
“competition” dormitories. The class investigated and learned that a resident majoring
in ecology in that “control” dorm had launched her own one-woman campaign
reminding her fellow residents in a variety of ways during the semester to conserve
energy, proving to the class that just one person using public relations tactics can
make a difference, such as effectively persuading residents of an entire dormitory to
conserve energy!
178

Service Learning as a Structured Pedagogical Strategy in Teaching the
PR Practicum Class
Ahlam Muhtaseb
California State University, San Bernardino
amuhtase@csusb.edu
Introduction
Communication studies, PR in particular, remain a fundamentally applied area of
study, which makes it the discipline for service-learning classes. Usually, when the
pedagogy of service learning is used in reaching public relations, the campaigns class is
the natural area of implementation. Actually, public relations campaigns classes have,
since their initiation in the 1970s, been service learning-oriented (Kinnick, 1999).
However, one can argue that all public relations classes could be well-suited for service
learning. Using the pedagogy of service learning, I would like to share my experience of
transforming a public relations practicum class into a service-learning one. I will discuss
the theoretical and experiential aspects of this class, providing some tips to colleagues
who are interested in applying such pedagogy. In addition, I will provide a brief
description of some of the service learning projects I use in my other public relations
classes that are not necessarily campaign classes.
Literature
Born out of John Dewey’s “educative experience” (Tannenbaum & Brown-Welty,
2006), service learning has proved to be an effective pedagogy that helps students apply
their academic knowledge to community service projects. Jacoby (1996) defines it as “a
form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human
and community needs together with structured opportunities intentionally designed to
promote student learning and development” (p. 5). Through service learning, “students
are reminded that the privilege of higher education brings an obligation to serve”
(Applegate & Morreale, 1996, p. X). Service-learning, as a pedagogical strategy, has
gained a lot of respect over the years and has been applied in numerous classes of
different discipline, including math, sciences, finance, sociology, etc. In terms of class
outcomes, there is also a body of research to indicate that service learning is a useful
pedagogical tool. A meta-analysis conducted by Novak, Markey, and Allen (2007)
revealed that the addition of a service learning component increases learning outcomes,
which translates into a 53% improvement.
Communication has been one of these disciplines. According to Soukup (1999),
“communication study remains a fundamentally applied area” (p. 7), which makes it the
discipline for service-learning classes. Soukup traces at least six benefits to students,
faculty, and departments of communication that include making the connection between
theory and practice; reducing self centeredness among students; teaching research
methods through practical application; getting hands-on experiences—especially in PR
and journalism classes; keeping the balance between critiquing corporate practices and
working for those corporates on the part of students; and facilitating the growth of
students as citizens in a democratic system. In addition, the author discusses other
practical benefits to the educational institution and the community organizations that
benefit from students’ work.
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Public Relations Classes as Service Learning Classes
Public relations, as a sub-discipline of communication, is a highly applied field of
study, and therefore, it can be a perfect context for integrating community service into
learning. There are several classes in the public relations area that can be utilized for
enhancing service-learning; first, the public relations writing class, in which students can
select a community client and produce different pieces of writing for them, including
media kits, news releases, brochures, etc. Second is the public relations practicum class,
which is based on the idea of providing students with hands-on experience; again, this is
another good class where students can practice while working for a community client or
partner. Third, the issues management and crisis communication classes, in which
students can help community partners or organizations either scan for issues of concern
among their publics or develop (or update/maintain) their crisis communication plans
(CCPs). These are three basic classes, but others could also be suitable for service
learning.
Using the pedagogy of service learning, I would like next to share my experience
of transforming a public relations practicum class into a service-learning one. I will
discuss the theoretical and experiential aspects of this class, providing some tips to
colleagues who are interested in applying such pedagogy.
Implementation
The Public Relations Practicum class is an applied public relations class that aims
at providing students with hands-on experience in the field of public relations. In the past,
students used to select among four types of projects and conduct one of them for an on or
off-campus organization of their choice. In the Fall of 2006, and with the help of a
service learning grant from my school, I transformed the practicum class into a structured
service-learning class, during which students helped those organizations that actually
needed their help; in other words, nonprofit organizations in the region.
Helping those organizations can result in a better exposure of the organizations
and their services, good fundraising events, enhancement of media relations, and
assistance in several other areas. Students can help organizations in four general areas:
research, planning and organizing of public relations programs, implementation of public
relations programs, and evaluation of public relations programs (the four-step process).
On the other hand, students benefit from the hands-on experience not only to learn
experientially, but also to enhance their job portfolios. Lastly, a service-learning class
may raise the level of empathy on the part of students into more involvement with
community, especially nonprofit organizations.
Class Structure
The students were divided into 6 groups. Each group consisted of 3-5 students and
students were given the chance to select their partner by listing their three top favorite
projects. Students were placed in their either first or second project choice, so all of them
were satisfied at the end of the day. Students had to research the organization and its
needs, negotiate with their organizations’ liaisons, and sign contracts with their
organizations during the first three weeks. For the remainder of the quarter (seven
weeks), students worked on the implementation, including evaluation, of their projects.
They also constructed project timelines by the fourth week.
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Selection of Community Partners
During the summer of 2006, and with the help of the Office of Community
Partnership on campus, 10 potential non-profit organizations were located to possibly
become the community partners for the practicum class. The final selection included five
organizations with six needed projects. Appendix A includes a sample of the form that
was used to describe, briefly, every organization and its project, which helped students in
their selection of their partner. Each partner was selected based on 1) the status of the
organization (non-profit), 2) the willingness of the organization to cooperate with the
students and designate a liaison, and 3) the potential practical benefit and appeal of the
projects to the students.
Each organization designated a liaison to be the contact point with the students
working on its project. The students were instructed to have meetings with the liaisons on
a regular basis (at least once every two weeks). At the beginning of the quarter, however,
all organizations were invited to send a delegate (the liaison or the head of the
organization) to speak to the class introducing the organization, its history, its
background, and its needs. The students took notes of each organization and its general
needs then decided on the organization they wanted to work for. This face-to-face
meeting was very important for creating the initial impression of the organization among
the students. Except for one, all organizations sent a delegate to meet with the class. The
organization that failed to send the delegate was actually the organization that proved to
be very unprofessional when it came to working and interacting with the students. In
spite of these problems, students in this group were still able to finish their project.
Lastly, the liaisons of the organizations had to submit an official evaluation of the
project in general, of the students as a group, and of the students as individuals. Overall,
the liaisons were appreciative of the projects. Of course, there was excellent feedback
from some of the liaisons on enhancing future cooperation; e.g., one liaison suggested
more interaction with the students and more presence of the students on location.
Evaluation and Assessment
The class final grade was based on the following: attendance and class
participation (15%), group proposal (15%), weekly reports (10%), and a final project
(60%). I learned from experience that structure is very important for a successful smooth
class; therefore, I made sure students attended the weekly meetings of the class and that
they reported every week on their progress individually. This way, students who were
slackers or dependent on other members to do the work knew that their work is being
monitored on a weekly basis. This leads to a more equitable distribution of work load and
to balancing group and individual work. In addition, the final project included self and
peer evaluations of each student in the class, in addition to the organizational evaluation
of each student and of the projects. This exhaustive process of evaluation makes students
focused on their projects, especially as they lose their enthusiasm and caliber towards the
end of the quarter. It also helps the instructor keep track of the projects and solve any
problem at an early stage.
Students, as groups, were encouraged to approach any student who did not do
his/her expected job. They were also instructed to report that student to the instructor
when all other means of getting him/her back on track had failed. This dealt with any
possibility of students working more than others.
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Conclusion
Adopting a service learning pedagogy is a very rewarding experience. It is always
interesting to read students’ reflections about their experience helping people in need. It
definitely enhances students’ civic engagement and social capital. One of my students
who worked for one the Ronald McDonald’s houses that host families of children with
cancer and other chronic illnesses decided to work in the non-profit PR field, which gave
me more satisfaction about my job as a teacher than anything else I could have done.
References
Applegate, J., & Morreale, S. P. (1999). Service-learning in communication: A natural
partnership. In D. Droge, & B. O. Murphy (Eds.), Voices of strong democracy:
Concepts and models for service-learning in communication studies (pp. IX-
XIV). Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education.
Jacoby, B. (1996). Service-learning in today’s higher education. In B. Jacoby (Ed.),
Service-learning in higher education: Concepts and practices (pp. 3-25). San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Kinnick, K. N. (1999). The communication campaigns course as a model for
incorporating service-learning into the curriculum. In D. Droge, & B. O. Murphy
(Eds.), Voices of strong democracy: Concepts and models for service-learning in
communication studies (pp. 150-163). Washington, DC: American Association
for Higher Education.
Novak, J., Markey, V., & Allen, M. (2007). Evaluating cognitive outcomes of service
learning in higher education: A meta-analysis. Communication Research Reports,
24(2), 149-157. Retrieved September 1, 2009, doi:10.1080/08824090701304881
Soukup, P. A. (1999). Service-learning in communication: Why? In D. Droge, & B. O.
Murphy (Eds.), Voices of strong democracy: Concepts and models for servicelearning
in communication studies (pp. 7-11). Washington, DC: American
Association for Higher Education.
Tennenbaum, S. C., & Brown-Welty, S. (2006). Tandem pedagogy: Embedding servicelearning
into an after school program. Journal of Experimental Education, 29 (2),
111-125.
Appendix A - List of Partners and Description of their Projects
Group A
Organization Name:
Organization Description:
Contact Information:
Liaison Name and Contact:
Brief Description of Project(s):
182

Just Neighbors: How Seniors In A PR Portfolio Class Helped The
Immigration Issue
Gemma Puglisi
American University
puglisi@american.edu
Project Description
Client: “Just Neighbors”
Undergraduate students in the PR Portfolio class were given the opportunity to
work with a nonprofit that helps immigrants. This organization has helped so many
immigrants that have nowhere to turn.
Objective
There were several goals. The students were asked to get more visibility for the
organization that provides legal help to immigrants. The students were asked to get
media; contact organizations that could help with translators; outreach to businesses to
get involved; coordinate an event for board members; and help with an on-line auction to
raise funds.
Challenge
The immigration issue is controversial and the students were not sure what to expect with
support from businesses, the community, and the public in general. Their contributions
were important and this class had an impact on “JUST NEIGHBORS.”
Process
The class was divided into three teams: (total of 18 students)
TEAM 1—The Events Group
These students’ strategy included promoting the nonprofit and the issue of
immigration through events. Students also hoped to create events that were “meaningful”
and connect with various audiences. Finally the students wanted to create events that
would encourage the media to either cover or attend.
The students coordinated a panel discussion during the university’s “Founder
Week” and invited three panelists along with the moderator: Rob Rutland-Brown—the
director of the organization. Other panelists included: Esteban Garces, Raids Response
Coordinator from the National Capital Immigrant Coalition; Eleanor Pelta, Vice
President and an attorney with Morgan Lewis; and Professor Daniel Kanstroom, Director
of the International Human Rights Program and a Professor of Law at Boston College.
TEAM 2—The Outreach Group
This group hoped to build relationships with faith organizations to educate
immigrants that there was a place they could go—and that they are not alone. Students
also worked on establishing relationships with local businesses and recruit possible
volunteers to serve as translators. Their job was also to create a database for
donation/volunteer opportunities and work on organizing an on-line auction on E-Bay.
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TEAM 3—The Media Group
These students created a blog for the nonprofit; set up an e-mail account for all
media contacts for class use; created a “Twitter” and “Facebook” account for promotion;
and pitched media. Students also created a small film that is on the organization’s website
about what “Just Neighbors” has done to help the immigrant community.
Discussion
1) How did the project come to us?
This PR Portfolio class has received a great deal of recognition outside the university
as well. We are often approached by nonprofits and organizations to help. I also look for
interesting projects that I think the students would learn a great deal from and I often
contact people to hear what is out there. This project came to us from a colleague in the
film department.
2) Why was the project a challenge?
Immigration is a very controversial issue thus some businesses/organizations may not
be receptive. Also, students were asked to get as much media as possible, and though
immigration is a “hot topic,” reporters weren’t too interested in what the organization
does. Thus, some students got frustrated if they could not get media immediately.
3) How did the students feel about the project?
I think they were very passionate about it. I think it all came together for them when
they actually met a family from Africa who beautifully articulated the impact Just
Neighbors had on their lives. The couple brought their 6-month old daughter, Grace, to
class and the students were so moved.
4) How did JUST NEIGHBORS feel about the students’ work?
The director couldn’t have been more enthusiastic and pleased. He sent the students a
beautiful letter that I copied and placed in their portfolios. The students were named
“Volunteers” of the month and at the end of the semester, the class won the “best PR
Portfolio” in the department.
Evaluation
Just Neighbors, which provides legal services to immigrants, proved that they
could use expertise from students not in law school, but public communication.
The overall accomplishments by the students:
• Created the on-line auction on E-bay
• Students found auction items including restaurant gift certificates, spa treatments,
concert and theater tickets, books, autographed baseball from a former Red Sox,
and tickets to AU men’s basketball team game. (The auction raised over $l,000.)
• Students did a great deal of social networking/marketing. They also created a
blog and a small film that showed a new immigrant with his social security card.
This is used on the organization’s website.
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• Media secured including Rutland-Brown on WUSA-TV, Channel 9, the CBS
affiliate in Washington. He discussed the immigration issue and what his
organization does. Students also had two events planned mentioned on
community television websites, including WJLA, Channel 7 and News Channel 8.
An article appeared in a Spanish local newspaper, and the class was featured on
the American University website.
• Students also coordinated panel discussion featuring experts on immigration.
They also sponsored a “toy drive.” Stuffed animals are given to the children of
immigrants who come to the nonprofit seeking help. Students also worked with a
local restaurant in DC to host the board’s “meet and greet.” This was important
because in the past, this was done in the home of one of the board members.
Students felt that the organization needed to raise their visibility and that having
the event at a nice restaurant, would attract possibly more donors/board members.
Contents For The Poster
• Elements of the power point presentation the students put together for last class
• Invitations students created
• Pictures from the Panel discussion
• Letter from the director thanking students
• Certificate of students—winning best PR Portfolio
• Some of the marketing tools created by the students
• Possible pics from the final video the students created
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Teaching PR Leadership: Tracking Student Leadership Potential
Through Outcomes Cluster Analysis
Bonita Dostal Neff, Ph.D., Alex Moulchin, and Kathryn Sershon
Valparaiso University
Bonita.neff@valpo.edu
Background on the Development of the Outcome Variables
The report of the October 1999 Commission on Public relations Education,
Public Relations Education for the 21 st Century: A Port of Entry, established the outcome
variables for undergraduate and graduate studies in public relations. A task force of 45
representatives from communication associations (Association for Women in
Communication, Public Relations Society of America, International Communication
Association, International Association of Business Communicators, National
Communication Association, Institute for Public Relations, Association for Education in
Journalism and Mass Communication, and International Public Relations Association)
met to facilitate a session identifying key outcome variables in public relations.
Participants were asked to brainstorm individually their personal outcome ideas and those
ideas were posted on the walls. The second session allowed participants to “cluster” the
outcome variables. The third session named the “clusters.” The result of this process
serves as the basis of this study. For this research presentation, only the outcome
variables for the undergraduate level are examined.
Issues in Public Relations
Over the years the key concept of “relationship” and “leadership” evolved from a
teaching perspective in a public relations program located in a private institution. In prior
research a presentation at the International Communication Association in May 1984
(San Francisco) entitled, “Organizational Communication in Language,” the emphasis on
the importance of “relationship” developed through languaging was established. From
this basis, the idea of leadership was evolving with the emphasis on team building,
connecting with publics, and leadership development. After years of working with these
concepts in the development of the intro course in public relations, the results were
reported out in Public Relations Review in an article entitled: “Integrating a Leadership
Process Redefines the Principles Course.” (Neff, Spring 2002). A later journal article in
the Journal of International Business Disciplines focused further on the “outcome
variables” impact on the majors in the program. This article focused on “Comparison of
Outcome Variables for Public Relations Majors: An Integrated Communication
Perspective” (Neff, November 2008) and was the beginning of the cluster model for
undergraduate public relations education. Having established the “clustering” emphasis
in public relations education as a critical bound between educators and practitioners, this
research piece proposes to examine a new challenge: How far out do we educators
prepare public relations majors? Should the preparation begin with the basic intro course
(prior research from this program suggests this approach) and thus focus primarily on the
“entry-level position?” Or should one look at the potential of the preparing
undergraduates for the first five years of their professional life, commonly called the
Young Professional (YP)? This research developed an approach to addressing the latter
question.
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Methodology
Students enrolled in the fall courses of public relations were given a “cluster
outcomes” instrument to assess their personal evaluation of their abilities on a series of
clusters. The students reported out not only an evaluation of their personal assessment
but also were asked to report on the perception of an employer’s perception. However,
because this data focused on a five-year perspective, only the personal data was reported
out.
The analysis was framed in terms of the five year perspective and the APR
standards as reflected in the computerized exam. This framework reorganized the
outcome variables into the key categories on the APR exam. Next the students responses
within this framework served as the evidence for determining if an undergraduate met the
expectations of an APR (usually five years of experience for the exam is considered
important).
Thus the organization of the outcome variables followed the emphasis in the exam
and included the following items: research (30%), ethics (10%), theory (10%), business
(10%), client work (10%), media (5%), thinking/solving (5%), social/current events
(5%), skill set (5%). However, the response from the students was primarily a reverse
effect. The APR clustered areas (as listed in the instrument) were essentially reversed by
the student responses. The results suggest a variety of approaches. First, the type of
student population needs to be clearly identified. Are these all PR majors enrolled or are
other majors required to take the principles course? A further step would be to have the
peer group evaluate each other on these characteristics. This evaluation would come
from the team work during the course. Below is the instrument with the clusters
organized according to the APR emphasis in terms of the exam. The second and third
column indicated results in terms of average score with the student rankings.
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Name________________ Semester _________Class____
Courses completed or enrolled in Public Relations:
265___374__375___376___368__
Need to only fill out one form per semester
On a scale of 1 (low) to 7 (high), circle the response best describing you (first column)
and the response PR professionals require in an entry-level position (second column).
My Personal Ability Average Rank
Research 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3.23 8
Statistics 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Knows assessment tools 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Knows evaluation techniques 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Conducts communication audits 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Knows PR code of ethics 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4.19 6
Makes ethical decisions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Knows theory 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3.09 10
Applies theory to work 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Knows business 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3.25 7
Budgets Project 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Reads accounting ledger 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Experience in handling clients 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4.53 4
Works well in teams 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Group decision making expertise 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Handles issue/crisis communication 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3.93 5
Protocol (media) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3.18 9
Info on mass media 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Sorts fact & opinion 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4.87
1Strategic Thinking 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Creative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Problem Solving 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Critical Thinking 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Aware of Social Trends 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4.62 3
Current events 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Interpersonal skills 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4.70 2
Communicate publicly 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Skill in technology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
E-mail/work processing 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Desktop publication/graphics 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Internet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Presentational software 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Plans special events 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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Results
The results suggest students are not being prepared in terms of the profile of the
APR exam. However, all of the outcome variables outlined by the exam are included in
the outcome variables identified by both academics and practitioners. The difference in
cluster ranking reflects more the emphasis stressed in courses and that may be addressed
more easily than if content areas were missing.
References and Background
Banks, S. (2000). Multicultural Public Relations: A Social-Interpretive Approach.
Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press.
Public Relations Education for the 21 st Century: A Port of Entry. (1999, October).
Commission on Public Relations Education.
The Professional Bond: Public Relations Education and the Practice. (2006,
November). Commission on Public Relations Education. www.commpred.org
Hanson-Horne, T. and Neff Dostal, B. (2008). Public Relations: From Theory to
Practice. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Neff, B. D. Comparison of Outcome Variables for Public Relations Majors: An
Integrated Communication Perspective, Journal of International Business
Disciplines, Volume 3, Number 1, November 2008.
Neff. B. D. (Spring 2002) Integrating a Leadership Process Redefines the Principles
Course, Public Relations Review.
Neff, B. D. (1989) The emerging theoretical perspective in PR: an opportunity for
communication department. Public Relations Theory, Botan and Hazleton, eds,
Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Neff, B.D. (1998). Harmonizing Global Relations: A Speech Act Theory Analysis of
PRForum. Public Relations Review, 24, 3, 351-376.
Neff, B.D. (1985). State of the art in public relations: An international perspective.
Paper presented to the International Communication Association, San Francisco,
CA.
Neff, B.D. (2008). Comparison of Outcome Variables for Public Relations Majors: An
Integrated Communication Perspective, refereed paper presented at the annual
conference of the International Academy of Business Disciplines, Houston,
Texas.
Neff, B.D. (May 1984). Organizational Communication in Language. A refereed paper
presented at the International Communication Association’s annual meeting, San
Francisco, Ca.
189

Integrating Research and Public Relations Writing Using an Agency Model
Anthony Fulginiti, APR, Fellow PRSA
Rowan University
tonyprof@verizon.net
Background
The Research Dilemma
Public relations teachers work hard to teach the importance of research in writing
exercises. But given the typical 15-week semester model, it’s difficult enough to teach
writing templates for advanced PR products, let alone require students to conduct
research, some of it primary.
Students don’t have time to properly inform their products with audience,
message and channel research. So they frequently use only secondary research, depend
on the mini information backgrounder the professor supplies, or skip it entirely.
The result is often “template writing,” surface coverage of issues, using students’
modest experience, or recollections from a PR casebook.
The Writing Dilemma
Advanced PR writing professors constrain themselves to a half dozen or more PR
products they consider important to a future generalist, or conform to the talent and
experience of the professor. Consequently, backgrounders, media releases, PowerPoints,
brochures, ads, etc. dot the writing landscape of student experiences.
And typically, most courses require all students to construct the same products –
with little opportunity to customize products to a like-like writing need.
Strategy
Use research from a previous research course, graduate or undergraduate, to
inform an array of PR products in a subsequent PR writing course. Ask students produce
diverse PR products as components of proposals they write in response to a specific
Request for a Proposal (RFP), in writing teams, simulating an agency setting.
This model frees both students and professors from the constraints of producing
PR products bereft of research. In essence, this 30-week model uses two existing 15-
week PR courses in the student’s major to produce high quality products in “real time.”
The reality of the research performed for specific clients in the research course
determines the reality of products for clients with real needs for the writing course.
The model avoid two “undesirables” – producing research that never sees fruition
for students in the PR work world, and producing PR products that merely simulate
serving real clients.
Tactics
PR Research Course (Fall 2008)
Students assembled in groups to study current affairs topics using one of several
public relations research techniques. Each group conducted a field study. Students
learned sample selection (for probability studies), data collection, and analysis, using the
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS.) All groups wrote research reports and
presented findings in PowerPoints.
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PR Advanced Writing Course (Spring 2009)
Instead of asking students to hypothesize about research for deliverables, the
professor asked them use data from the previous research course – thus integrating their
education.
In all, the class produced 14 products, comprising:
• Three proposals
• Two PowerPoints (script, story board, and narration)
• Media kit (position, fact sheet, bio, brochure, news release, PSA, PowerPoint)
• Q&A brochure
• Town hall meeting (invites, agenda, speeches, et al)
• Three Internet mechanisms (social networks, interactive web page)
• Two marketing brochures
• Direct-mail packet
• Flight of five camera-ready ads
Each team (three teams of fives students each) received a customized RFP at the
beginning of the course. Each team produced five deliverables based on the RFP.
Each student was “lead writer” for one product and “team writer” for the other
four products in the student’s team.
The teams copyedited and proofread each product through five stages of
development from concept, to agency meetings for messaging and approach, to two
drafts, and final production.
Students received 10 grades based on personal and group work quality. The
professor matched his proofread and copyedited work against the students’ work through
visuals and group discussions. Group meetings shared reviews of the lead writer’s work
for that week.
Discussion
The courses were conducted on the graduate level in the PR program at Rowan
University. But they could be conducted just as easily on the undergraduate level.
Objectives
• Students would become acquainted with higher-level public relations writing
• experiences, cognitive formation for writing, and persuasive copy presentation
skills.
• Students would demonstrate acceptable to exceptional skill in analyzing and
prescribing components of effective public relations writing.
• Students would cooperate in groupthink, practice advanced editing techniques,
and appreciate the process involved in preparing professionally acceptable
(“deliverables”).
• Students would perfect skill in editing copy for expressive and persuasive
content.
• Students would prescribe an effective array of PR writing deliverables to
achieve the purpose of the RFP.
• Students would demonstrate mastery of grammar, syntax, spelling and
punctuation, and principles and theories of persuasive copywriting.
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• Students would acquire an attitude of willingness to accept criticism and
remediate personal writing problems.
• Students would acquire the requisite attitude to survive internal tensions within
a PR agency.
• Students would understand the features and benefits of the major branches of
public relations writing – Internal Writing, External (Marketing) Writing, and
Journalistic Writing
Details
The professor (taking the role of the client) wrote a customized RFP for each
team based on the research conducted in the previous semester. (About half the class of
15 were the same students.) The three RFPs covered these areas:
• Changing the Legal Drinking Age to 18 to Reduce Binge Drinking on College
Campuses (A group of college presidents pushed for this reform in 2008-09)
• Marketing the Graduate Public Relations Program at Rowan University
• Using a University Recreation Center as a Recruiting Tool
Student agency members met with the professor and discussed the elements for a
proposal. One team member became the lead writer (taking the role of account manager)
and drafted the proposal. The proposal comprised four other deliverables – one for each
of the other team members (taking the role of account executives), who became lead
writers for each of those. Products staggered across a 15-week course.
Initial Consultation
The professor (taking the role of the client) and agency members met and
discussed the strategy, tactics, content and tone for each deliverable. Important teaching
occurred in this stage as both professor and students mutually agreed to the elements.
Deliverable Drafted
The lead writer drafted the deliverable and gave each team writer and the
professor (taking the role of agency president) a copy. All took the ensuing week to
copyedit and proofread the product.
Copyediting and Proofreading
The professor (agency president) and each team writer returned a copyedited and
proofread copy to the lead writer and the professor. In this stage, each team writer
contributed content, tone and personal observations. In the ensuing week, the professor
graded each team writer’s edited copy for a personal grade. This practice alerted students
that in an agency, everyone’s contribution is necessary for the best product.
Showtime
The professor (agency president) returned the graded drafts to the team. Students
learned how to take copyediting seriously and value the importance of meticulous
proofreading. Students shared with the professor the task of making certain that copy was
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eady for delivery to the client. In many traditional writing courses, only the professor is
responsible for this.
This was an important stage. The professor made overhead transparencies of each
team writer’s edited copy and shared them with the team. In an agency, no one can or
should anonymously hide from ownership of comments or talent to take the job seriously
and do it right. It was sobering for some students.
Deliverable Redrafted
The lead writer returned a redrafted copy of the deliverable to the professor and
the team, having incorporated all the suggestions from the edited drafts and agency
conversation. If the lead writer disagreed with any comment, the writer (account
manager) argued the position with the team writers (account execs) and the professor
(agency president).
Go or No-Go Meeting
In the ensuing week, all considered the “final” draft. In a final meeting, the team
presented the deliverable to the professor for approval. If the product was acceptable, it
was delivered to the client. If it was not, the lead writer fine-tuned it to “camera ready”
perfection. The professor (now the client again) role-played an unknowing but intrusive
client demanding explanations for each part of the deliverable, before accepting it.
Students learned important client relations lessons.
Results
• Using research from a previous class worked exceptionally well. Each previous
study came complete with a hefty written report of SPSS findings, percentages
and crosstabulations and a PowerPoint presentation. Students mastered the
research before addressing the RFP. In all disputes, the research became the
tiebreaker. The project might be possible to replicate without existing research,
but it will use only weaker, hypothesized data, and cost students one or two
deliverables for the time they will have to spend conducting research.
• Each agency team produced five fully produced products, including a proposal. In
all the class produced 14 products (list above) – some the same (PowerPoints,
for example) many different. Each product went beyond camera-ready to
production.
• Some students were not able, on their own, to go to production because they had
not yet had the appropriate class. Agency account execs taught them the missing
skills.
• The professor taught the entire class the skills needed for each product –
persuasive copywriting, layout and design, scriptwriting, position writing, ad
copywriting, etc., and tonal approach. (Examples: The Rec Center client needed a
story-like case study of contrasting student guides in a PowerPoint to properly
motivate the guides to promote the virtues of the Rec Center. The Town Hall
meeting for reducing the drinking age needed a Q&A prep piece to arm the
college presidents for the floor discussion.)
• Some students were not sufficiently motivated to participate in meticulous
copyediting and proofreading. The agency scenario surprised them. They were
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used to the professor doing all the heavy lifting for these issues. Their grades
reflected their participation.
• Not surprising, really strong students sometimes dominated the discussions. The
professor had to invite the less willing to take them on.
• The professor needed to switch roles from agency president to client. If
professors replicate this exercise, they should know that as agency presidents,
they might want their vision of the product to prevail. And though they might be
right, they need to let students arrive at the same place through the group process.
(TIP: Use the client role to press again for what’s right, even if the group can’t see
it.)
Grading
Each product received a group grade, lead writer personal grade, and team writer
personal grade.
Grade Categories, Percentages
Personal lead writer (account manager) grade 60% (one of these)
Personal team writer (account executive) grade 20% (four of these – 5% each)
Group deliverable grade 20% (five of these – 5% each)
Total all personal grades – 80% Total all group grades – 20%
* If you would like a copy of the agency writing schedule, please contact the author.
194

The Public Relations Portfolio: A New Spin for Job Search and Job Preservation
Denise M. Casey, Angela Aguilar, Stephanie Miranda, and Jamie Zehner
The University of San Diego
dcasey@sandiego.edu
The enormous competition for employment in this lagging economy makes it
crucial for our public relations students to have cutting-edge skills. It is even more
important for them to be able to present the perspective employer professional samples of
these skills, prior to hire. Beyond hire, our students must possess the confidence to
assume the daily tasks of the public relations workplace. The joy that accompanies the
job well-landed often gives way to the self-doubt of personal competency. Soon, tasks
that were learned in an academic setting begin to fade with the stress of on-the-job
performance concerns. The solution to both hiring and job maintenance challenges is the
Public Relations Portfolio- a collection of all the public relations documents usually
learned in the Writing for Public Relations classroom. (Wilcox, 2009)
These documents, compiled in a professional folder and accompanied by an electronic
version of same, allow the student to respond to the interview question-“what do you
know how to do?” Additionally, the portfolio can act as a personal resource in the
workplace providing templates of document types and memory refresher for less
frequently used documents. The following paper will discuss the development of the
portfolio, the public relations portfolio for multiple purposes, the major contents of a
functional portfolio, and some suggestions on how the student can use it in an interview.
What is a portfolio?
The most common explanation of a portfolio is simply a collection of your
achievements and work which includes classroom, volunteer, and internship all neatly put
together and presented in a three ring binder which you can then bring with you to
interviews that you attend. (http://workforce2.org/resume-portfolio.htm). The portfolio,
once the domain of the student teachers, was a “show and tell” document that allowed
student teachers to showcase their lesson plans, organizational skills, penmanship, and
their ability to make content graphically pleasing to children. The concept was readily
adopted by graphic artists, journalists, and other job seekers who had a product to
display. However, recently, the concept has caught on for all types of job-seekers
(http://www.quintcareers.com/job_search_portfolio.html). Using a portfolio in the search
for work helps put the job seeker in tune with the new emphasis on portability of career
and marketability of skills (Kimeldorf, 2009). Constructing a portfolio requires looking
upon an education (or an entire life) as a collection of experiences, which can be grouped
and re-ordered to match the changing direction of one's vocational path.
E-portfolios are submitted electronically for some prospective employers
(Carliner, 2005) or brought into face-to-face interviews to present to other prospective
employers. Regardless of the channel, the portfolio is an essential part of the modern
interview process.
The public relations portfolio for multiple purposes
The Public Relations portfolio can fulfill multiple roles and can communicate
several non-verbal messages. A portfolio demonstrates organization and attention to
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detail. Including it in the interviewing process implies superior motivation and passion to
succeed. A well formatted portfolio can demonstrate your expertise with technical
applications. A portfolio provides a concrete visual image of your ability.
(http://blogs.edweek.org/topschooljobs/careers/2009/07/portfolios_in_the_job_sear
ch_b.html). It is presented in the interview as solid proof of the public relations
documents that a practitioner knows how to write and can also become a chronicle and
repository of writing skills. The portfolio can also be a “job-aid” to provide the new
public relations professional a dependable resource for samples and templates.
The major contents of a functional portfolio
Wilcox (2009) has identified and explained many of the most frequently used
public relations documents including: press release- hard copy, press release- electronic
copy, corporate profile, backgrounder, fact sheet, brochure, newsletter, speech outline,
accompanying visual aids and feature story. A press kit can also be included if there is
sufficient space. There are other documents that round out the cadre of examples
including: an introductory speech outline, a mission statement, a personal logo, a letter of
recommendation from a public relations professional, a resume, and a table of contents.
All of these documents have a place in the portfolio.
The arrangement of the portfolio
The portfolio is an extension of self. Just as an interviewee is judged on
appearance and sophistication, so is the portfolio judged. Use a portfolio folder of the
highest quality, leather if possible. Use dividers that are also of superior construction.
Choose paper that would be suitable for a resume- a high quality bond paper- white or
parchment. Consider this an investment in your vocation.
Start the portfolio with a cover letter that acts as an executive summary. Use a
business letter format with a generic salutation- Dear prospective employer. Follow this
with a table of contents- double spaced. There is no need for pagination because the
dividers will serve that function.
The first document should be a Personal Mission Statement- remember to include
the words ethics and integrity. This document serves two purposes- first it allows the
interviewer insight into your persona. Second, it demonstrates that you understand the
value and the essential content of a mission statement.
Next, the introductory speech outline is your first pitch. It should answer the
question why should we hire you? This outline also reveals your ability to organize and
prioritize information. This should be followed by the press releases, both electronic and
hard copy. The press release is considered by most the cornerstone of public relations
writing. An accompanying fact sheet should follow the press release. The corporate
profile, backgrounder and feature story round out the best examples of writing.
The more creative documents- the news letter and brochure exhibit your desktop
publishing skills. The color choice, the use of photos and the layout are eye-catching and
impressive.
Finally, an informative speech outline, an accompanying Power Point
presentation, and speaker note cards tell an employer that you possess both writing and
speaking skill. Not all professionals can write speeches for clients and prepare them for
delivery.
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The use of the portfolio
The portfolio is the property of the interviewee. It is not a token package to be left
for the employer to peruse. It is not a manual that accompanies a resume. The portfolio is
not the focus of the interview. Because the portfolio is an extension of self, it should be
managed accordingly. It is produced only when the interviewee is queried about skills. It
is presented with panache. The interviewee maintains control of the portfolio and turns
the pages as he/she identifies each document. Upon review completion, it is removed
from the discussion.
The Public Relations portfolio works
The portfolio works. Former students and job-hunters have expressed appreciation
for the Public Relations portfolio. Melissa Mack, Director of Technical Assistance of the
National Family Justice Center Alliance, believes that the portfolio gave her an industry
advantage over other candidates.
The faltering economy and the fierce competition for scarce positions, requires
strategic preparation. The conventional approach to the job market may land an
interview, but now more than ever, does not necessarily guarantee a job. The public
relations portfolio is a tool that can make the difference.
References
Carliner, S. (2005). E- portfolios: The tool that can increase your marketability and
refine your skill development efforts. TD 5, 2005.
De Carlo, L. Career portfolios: Defending your career, winning the interview.
Retrieved November 3, 2009 from http://www.jobhunt.org/job_interviews/winning-the-interview.shtml
Galindo. L. Using a Portfolio to Ace a Job Interview: Several pictures are worth a
Thousand words. Retrieved November 3, 2009 from http://www.stcsf.org/newsletter/2009-jun/april_review.html
Hansen, R.S. Your job skills portfolio: Giving you an edge in the marketplace. Retrieved
November 3, 2009 from http://www.quintcareers.com/job_search_portfolio.html
How to Use Interview Portfolios to Your Advantage? Retrieved November 3, 2009 from
http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/184369/job_interview/how_to_use_i
nterview_portfolios_to_your_advantage.html
Job search: Back up your resume with a portfolio. Retrieved November 3, 2009 from
http://workforce2.org/resume-portfolio.htm
Kimeldorf, M. Using job search portfolios in and uncertain labor market.
Retrieved November 3, 2009 from
http://www.amby.com/kimeldorf/portfolio/p_mk-02.html
Paulson, F. L., Paulson, P.R. & Meyer, C.A. (1991). Education Leadership, February p.
60-63
PORTFOLIOS IN THE JOB SEARCH: Busy Work or Competitive Edge? Education
Week Top school jobs. Retrieved November 3, 2009 from
http://blogs.edweek.org/topschooljobs/careers/2009/07/portfolios_in_the_job_sear
ch_b.html
197

Learning to Work Together:
Integrating Public Relations and Journalism Classroom Assignments
Bey-Ling Sha, Ph.D., APR
Amy Schmitz Weiss, Ph.D
San Diego State University
bsha@mail.sdsu.edu
Public relations practitioners and journalists depend on each other to get their jobs
done, yet this mutually beneficial working relationship is often complicated by
misunderstandings on each side of the other (Broom, 2009). This pedagogical paper
proposes an educational strategy to expose public relations and journalism students to the
workings of their counterpart profession through the integration of classroom
assignments in a public relations techniques class and a digital journalism class.
Grounded in theories of experiential learning and professional identity, the paper outlines
(1) course learning outcomes for both public relations and journalism students, (2)
classroom and homework assignments to help students achieve the learning outcomes,
and (3) assessment methods for evaluating the learning outcomes, the learning process,
and the development of students’ sense of professionalism and professional identity. We
envision this conceptual paper as the precursor to a subsequent data-driven paper that will
report the results of the pedagogy being proposed.
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Event Planning: a Transformative Learning Experience Linking Theory to Practice
Ann D. Jabro, Ph.D.
Robert Morris University
jabro@rmu.edu
Event Planning has traditionally been a career associated with the hospitality and
tourism industries with little attention to the plethora of communication and public
relations theory that informs decision-making and problem solving as well as relationship
management in the client – event planner relationship. Due to the current recession and
dismal economic outlook, many organizations are no longer contracting with event
planning agencies; they are utilizing in-house public relations practitioners to plan and
execute events for the organization (Leutter, 2008). A cogent review of public relations
texts suggests that event planning is a skill and task associated with the profession;
however, there is limited research on event planning in the public relations literature and
even less information on event planning course components for public relations majors or
a concentration. This presentation focuses on the development and execution of a
communication elective developed from a blend of communication and public relations
theory and designed with a service-learning component. This blending of theoretical and
applied concepts has long been heralded as a best learning practice and is commonly
referred to as service learning (Jabro, 2006). The course was designed for
communications majors but open to all university students. During its first offering
(spring 2009), the course enrolled 24 students with a waiting list of 10 additional
students. Nineteen students finished the course.
Course Description
The course was designed for students to explore the public relations and
communication theories that underlie successful coordination of minor and major events
and develop the skill set to execute the planning of an event. No event can be
coordinated without a solid business/professional relationship between the client and the
event planner. There were several major theoretical areas that served as the foundation of
the course: the communication process and relationship development and maintenance;
effective facilitation, conflict management and resolution and negotiation, visual
communication, and leadership and teamwork. The volume of literature published in
these respective areas in both academic and professional/popular publications support
these content areas are skills necessary to cultivate and to maintain the client-event
planner relationship. The applied component of the course focused on small teams
working with community partners to apply the theory to plan and execute an event. Thus,
preparation of contracts, budgeting, proposal writing, use of social media and other
technologies to solicit, promote and publicize events were content areas also stressed in
the course.
Course Goals and Text
Four goals were established for the course: (1) As aspiring communication
professionals, understand the nature of theory and the role theory plays in our facilitating
discussion, negotiating ideas and managing conflict in the event planning context. (2). As
committed students, understand the components of planning an event and the specific
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needs of the client and audience the client wishes to serve. (3). As participants in myriad
communication processes, know and understand the interrelationships between the
audience, client, providers and event planner as well as the resource and financial
constraints limiting the attainment of specific goals. (4). As consumers of theory,
demonstrate the ability to inform in writing and through oral presentations, graded
assignments and classroom demeanor, your comprehension of class content. The required
text for the course was authored by Judy Allen in 2009 and was titled, Event Planning:
The Ultimate Guide to Successful Meetings, Corporate Events, Fundraising Galas,
Conferences, Conventions, Incentives & Other Special Events. Additional readings were
obtained from peer reviewed publications, the electronic event organizer’s ēJournal and
Public Relations Tactics. Students visited four locations to observe work environments
and listen to event planners discuss event planning in their specific context: business to
business, hotel-restaurant, educational conferences and career services.
Theory Base/Content Areas/RTIRD Process
Some of the major theories/models covered in the course include: Communication
Process Model, Open Systems Model of Public Relations, Relationship Management
Theory, Power Resource Management Theory, Speech Act Theory, Contingency Theory,
Communication Rules Theory and Social Exchange Theory and Rhetoric. An effective
pedagogic tool is modeling or showing students how to use information to attain a goal.
Hansen-Horn & Dostal Neff published a text in 2008 titled, “Public Relations from
Theory to Practice”. The authors stated:
There is nothing as practical as a good theory. However, for many students
(academic and Professional) of public relations, attaining the theory-practice
connection can be taught. It is not always an easy matter to take theoretical
constructs and predictions and apply them to practice in what we call praxis (p.
xvii).
And it is precisely at the intersection of theory application in an applied learning context
that true learning occurs and the utility and value of theory can be realized. Not all course
content can be presented in a similar manner for myriad reasons: sophistication of the
student, complexity of the course content, pedagogic acumen of the instructor, time and
meeting of the class. Research supports when theory is presented in context,
comprehension, recall, and the ability to link theory with content is stronger. While I
applaud the efforts of Hansen-Horn & Dostal Neff for attempting to close the knowledge
gap between theory and practice, I maintain that the presentation of the text content isn’t
audience-centered. Generation X’ers, the dominant audience consuming the text, is egocentric
and about today – relevance, utility and self-gratification derived from
information tend to be the determining factors regarding selective exposure and retention
of information. Thus, I maintain that my colleagues’ approach to the presentation of
theory-application can be altered based on course content and learning style. In order to
better serve the needs, wants and desires of today’s learners, I propose the RTILD model
where the first component of the theory-to-application process focuses on the user of
information by positioning them in a context that is real. In essence, theory becomes a
tool for problem-identification, problem solving and practice.
To model how theory can be used for problem recognition, problem solving and
decision making during event planning scenarios, I designed the five-step RTIRD
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process: (1) Real World scenario presentation, (2) Theory: introduction of a public
relations or communication theory, (3) Integration of theory to scenario, (4) Reflect and
Link other theories applicable to analysis of the situation, and (5) Discussion of options
to pursue leading to a decision. Students reported that the RTIRD process promoted
theory integration with event planning processes and altered their perceptions of the
usefulness of theory in general and its relevancy to event planning, specifically.
Figure 1: RTILD Model
Real World Scenario ► Theory Presentation
↨ Integrate Theory with Real World ↨
Reflection and Link (other applicable theories)
↨
Decision – Identification of Behavior/Action
The following passage demonstrates how the model works: (1). Scenario: You
are about to meet with your community partner to discuss an event that he or she would
like for you to coordinate. You establish the meeting for 10:00 am on Monday and
request 30 minutes of the client’s time. You arrive at 10:15 and apologize for being late,
but provide no reason for your tardiness. You didn’t bring a notebook and you forgot to
do any research on the company. When you and the client begin to discuss event options,
you feel that you’re not getting a very exciting assignment. At 10:30, the client indicates
another meeting is about to begin and perhaps you can meet again in a week or two. You
shake hands and leave. (2) Theory presentation: After this scenario is presented, the
communication model is explicated. (3) Integrate: The students are asked to link the
components of the model to the scenario. (4) Reflect and Link: The instructor facilitates
recall of other theories, for example, relationship management theory – did the behavior
promote trust? Did control mutuality exist? Students can also offer other theories that
they believe “fit” the scenario. (5) Decision – Using the theory as an analytic tool, what
could be changed to promote effective communication? The next component of the
course was the applied learning component or the development and maintenance of a
relationship between the student event planners and service learning community partner.
Course content was assessed three times during the course of the semester. The majority
of students strongly agreed that the overview of theory and linkage to specific aspects of
event planning was relevant, could be easily understood, and made sense. One student
commented, “This is the first time I really understood the communication model and why
encoding a message based on the receiver’s frame of reference was critical.”
Service Learning
Service-learning focuses on active learning or combining community service with
experiential education (Anderson & Hill, 2001; Dewey, 1938; Jabro, 2006; Giddings,
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2003; Thomas, 2005; Turner & Grazzaffi, 2003). While exceptionally time consuming
and demanding, students in the event planning class opted to work in small teams with
on-campus clients or with community clients. Two students worked alone due to
schedule conflicts and interests. The instructor generated a potential list of clients with
event planning needs. Students were also permitted to identify their own clients. The
clients for the semester included:
1. Coraopolis Community Development Center. A team of five students
prepared an event for the opening celebration of the community youth center.
2. Seeing Tomorrow Together. A team of four students designed an event to
motivate community members to participate in a survey about their
community.
3. Be a Star in PR. Four students created an event to generate awareness about
the Public Relations Society of America and the new student club.
4. Special Olympics – Olympic Village Event Planner. One student coordinated
this event.
5. Journalism Symposium – Social Media in Public Relations Session. Three
students coordinated the content, activities and presenters for this event.
6. Fraternity Banquet – One student coordinated the banquet for his fraternity.
During the 15-week course, students maintained application logs which entailed
the following components: (1) hours worked, (2) identification of team members’ tasks,
(3) evaluation of group performance, (4) RTILD model - a description of the scenario
they were managing with a discussion of the model components and (5) concerns they
instructor should know about or address, (6) reflection of the experience. At the
conclusion of the semester, students made oral presentations about their events. The
presentations covered the generation of the theme, budget requirements, communication
tools utilized, photos of the actual event, reflections on the theories that influenced their
decision-making and problem solving efforts. Finally, students completed a course
assessment and evaluation that was designed to identify what students learned about
event planning, theory to application and relationship development and maintenance in
the small group and professional setting. Student comments to the open-ended question,
“Describe in detail how your understanding of event planning changed, if it did, as a
result of taking this course?’” were fairly consistent. Approximately one-fourth of the
comments focused on career perceptions: “I had no idea that event planners had to
manage all these intricate details and could actually get sued for not following laws! This
is much more work that I expected and I need to really think about what I am getting in
to.” More than one-half of the comments appeared to focus on the general structure of the
course and content.
I really loved coming to class. Sometimes, I knew that I had learned stuff before,
like the communication model, but this time, I actually understood why I was
learning it. I didn’t always get how to apply the theory the first time, but I
actually found myself thinking about it later in a different situation. Like the
relationship management theory and my boyfriend. You explained the theory was
about organizations, but I got it. I knew that it started in interpersonal and just
keeps building. I loved my client. I loved my team. I am really proud of what
we accomplished.
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The remaining comments focused on course administration and provide excellent
feedback about how to rethink event planning teams.
I picked the worst teammates possible. I know you warned us not to team with
friends, but I really believed we would be able to pull this off. I spent more time
being frustrated that excited. I am so happy this is over. I learned more about
working with teammates than anything else. For the next class, offer more small
group assignments so we can see who doesn’t work and who does.
Conclusion
Event planning is an applied learning course that can be married with
communication and public relations theory. The results of this teaching effort and the
generation of the RTILD model support that students’ valued comprehension and utility
of theory and thus, a transformative experience was observed. Students responded
favorably to applying theory to communication situations when the situations are
contextualized around their needs and experiences. While this discussion focused on 19
student experiences, future research should focus on testing and refinement of the model.
References
Anderson, J.B. & Hill, D. (2001). Principles of good practice for service-learning in
teacher education. In Anderson, J.B., Suick, J.Y. & Yff, J. (Eds.) Servicelearning
in teacher education: Enhancing the growth of new teachers, their
students, and communities. Washington, DR: American Association of Colleges
for Teacher Education.
Dewey. J. (1938). Experience and education. New York, NY: Collier Books.
Giddings, L.R. (2003). Why use service-learning in college instruction? U.S. Department
of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), National
Library of Education. ERIC #475 416.
Hansen-Horn, T. D. & Dostal Neff, B. (2008). Public Relations From theory to Practice.
Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
Jabro A.D. (2006). What you don’t know will hurt you: Information literacy, servicelearning,
and future public relations practitioners. Communication Annual, 62.
pgs. 22- 34.
Luettger, L. (Jul 18, 2008). Event planners generate business, project growth.
Rochester Business Journal, 24(16), pg. 25.
Occupational Outlook www.occupationaloutlook.gov
Thomas, J. (2005). Keeping the ‘learning’ in service-learning. Academic Exchange
Quarterly, 9 (1), pgs. 7-11.
Turner, R. M. & Grizzaffi, K. (May, 2003). Creative alternatives for service-learning: A
project based approach. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational
Research and Improvement (OERI). National Library of Education. ERIC #482
496.
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The Resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine and
its Implications for Public Relations Education and Practice
Joseph Basso, Ph.D., JD, APR, and
Suzanne Sparks FitzGerald, Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA
Rowan University
basso@rowan.edu
sparks@rowan.edu
Developing a sound foundation in First Amendment Jurisprudence is essential to a
public relations education. Therefore, developing an understanding of the First
Amendment, particularly as it relates to the Fairness Doctrine, must be an essential part
of public relations education since any resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine potentially
may place restrictions on other channels. This is particularly unsettling since the Internet
is so unregulated. It's the Wild-Wild-West.
As public relations educators and practitioners, the infringement of free speech should
concern us. The potential impact of the proposed resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine
poses a challenge to public relations educators and practitioners.
We will explore the rationale behind the original intent of the Fairness Doctrine, and
the reasons the doctrine was abolished. The researchers will then discuss examples of
how reinstating the Fairness Doctrine will affect media channels including print,
electronic and even online content. For example, traditionally liberal television networks
would be forced to air opposing points of view. Also, conservative talk radio may be
forced to move over to satellite radio to maintain current content.
The fallout from this resurrection may severely impact the print industry. As
educators, we must prepare students and those entering the workplace to face the
challenges of a reinstated Fairness Doctrine.
Some public relations professionals believe that free speech is not absolute, and that
regulation among select channels stifles their ability to protect their clients and
organizations against libelous and inflammatory language communicated via alternative
media.
Efforts to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine, vehemently endorsed by senate democrats
such as Nancy Pelosi, seem largely directed at selected media. This disparity in
implementing a proposed regulation draws into question the legal legitimacy of this
restriction of free speech as well as the practical difficulties for coping with the
restrictions organizationally.
This research explores possible responses to both the spirit and actual compliance with
the Fairness Doctrine.
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