Abstract

Public relations research has traditionally focused on how public relations efforts make organizations more effective. Recently, scholars have argued for the broader role of public relations in society. That is, how can public relations be used to improve society rather than simply making organizations more effective? Existing studies have emphasized the relationship between internal public relations and organizational social capital. Lack of scholarly attention has been paid to how public relations efforts affect citizens’ social capital in general. To fill the gap in this area, this study examines how different types of public relations efforts contribute to citizens’ social capital. Specifically, this study uses data from the 2010 Pew Internet and American Life Project ‘Social Side of the Internet’ survey to examine the influence of public relations efforts by various organizations in individuals’ social capital. Overall, the analyses suggest that organizations’ face-to-face meetings with their members enhance interpersonal trust and civic engagement, and that organizations’ strategic use of social media boosts civic engagement, whereas strategic communication via email, blogs, and websites decreases civic engagement. This study provides empirical evidence and practical implications for the important role of strategic social media use and interpersonal communication in enhancing social capital.

Highlights

  • Public relations research has traditionally focused on how public relations efforts make organizations more effective

  • To fill the vacuum in this area, this study examines the influence of public relations efforts in social capital by using data from the 2010 Pew Internet and American Life Project Social Side of the Internet survey

  • The public relations discipline is closely related to the society at large, but the crucial role of public relations in society is often neglected by public relations scholars

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Summary

Introduction

Public relations research has traditionally focused on how public relations efforts make organizations more effective. Social capital is defined as encompassing various forms of citizen engagement in community affairs and features of social life such as networks, norms, and trust which enable citizens to effectively work together to improve society at large (e.g., Putnam, 1995). It typically includes threemajor dimensions: social relations/connections/networks, the nature of social relations such as norms of generalized reciprocity and trust (interpersonal trust and institutional trust) that are embodied within the relationship (Paxton, 1999) and civic engagement. Dependent variables include social capital (interpersonal trust and civic engagement)

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