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• Do you agree the events of September 11,
2001 have had any impact on your
organization’s public relations and communications
function
Analysis of the October data suggested the
terrorist attacks might have precipitated a
paradigm shift advancing communication and
public relations into a more significant role
in corporate America. Furthermore, some
evidence suggested the events of September
11 triggered some executive leadership teams
within many companies to become more
aware of the importance of communicating
openly, effectively, and in a timely manner.
Consequently, these two questions became
part of the March questionnaire.
• Do you agree the September 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks precipitated a paradigm
shift advancing communications and
public relations into a more significant
role in corporate America
• Do you agree your company’s executive
teams have been more aware of the
importance of communicating openly,
effectively, and in a timely manner since
September 11, 2001
March respondents also were invited to
answer this open-ended question: ‘In the
space below, please feel free to offer any comments
regarding the impact the events of
9–11–2001 have had on public relations and
corporate communications.’
Qualitative methods
In addition to the study’s quantitative measures,
data also were gathered through a variety
of qualitative methods. These included
responses to open-ended questions on the
October and March email questionnaires;
email conversational interviews with subjects
who entered into periodic, electronic dialogue
with the researcher; plus several telephone
and personal interviews with subjects in this
study. Qualitative data gathering began in
September 2001 and continued up to March
2002.
Data analysis
Quantitative responses were imported from
the author’s emailbox and data were coded
and entered into the Statistical Programme for
the Social Sciences (SPSS). Responses to each
question were then broken down into frequency
response percentages and means. This
yielded most of the information necessary to
describe the study’s findings. Finally, multiple
statistical tests were run on the data in an
attempt to measure for any significant differences
between October and March responses.
Specifically, a t-test was run comparing both
of these groups of respondents. Qualitative
data were analysed via informal content
analysis.
Results and discussion
RQ1: Do senior-level corporate public relations
executives believe the events of
September 11, 2001 changed how their
companies communicate
As Table 20.1 shows, roughly two-thirds of the
senior-level, US-based, corporate communication
executives surveyed in this study agree
the tragic events of September 11, 2001 have
changed how their companies communicate.
Differences between perceptions in October
2001 and March 2002 are minimal, although
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors