Activist Publics Research Articles

Storytelling as a Tool for Activist Public Relations: A Qualitative Study in Case of Women

This study focuses on storytelling in activist public relations. Stories emerge as an important "activist public relations" tool in non-governmental organizations' social change and awareness-raising efforts. The research aims to investigate both short and long-term effects of storytelling on emotions, awareness levels, and behavioral changes across different age groups. To illustrate the use of storytelling in activist public relations within the cosmetics industry, the researchers selected the short film "Save Ralph," produced by Humane Society International in 2021. The short film tells in an emotional tone, from the mouth of a rabbit, what happened to him during cosmetic experiments. The research, employing a qualitative research design, comprises three stages. Firstly, a survey was conducted among 30 women from various age groups to gather insights into their definitions of cosmetic products, usage frequency, and factors influencing their preferences. In the second stage, participants were shown the selected short film, followed by in-depth interviews. Lastly, follow-up interviews were conducted with the same group of women three months later. The findings revealed that storytelling had the most significant impact on emotions, awareness levels, and behavioral changes among women aged 18-23. This underscores the effectiveness of storytelling as a strategy for driving social change and raising awareness within activist public relations initiatives.

Decoding Activist Public Opinion in Decentralized Self-Organized Protests Using LLM

Decoding Activist Public Opinion in Decentralized Self-Organized Protests Using LLM

From Tragedy to Activism: Publics’ Emotions, Efficacy, and Communicative Action on Twitter in the Case of the 2017 Las Vegas Mass Shooting

ABSTRACT Guided by the Anger Activism Model and pain and loss activism literature, this study analyzes online public discussion in a particular case of activism on social media (i.e., the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting). On the basis of the content analysis of 4,611 tweets, this study explored the role of emotions as well as efficacy beliefs in engaging people in online political conversations during pain and loss events. Key insights about the joint effects of emotion and efficacy in activism communication provide communication practitioners and advocacy groups with more informative approaches to strategically communicate with activist publics in the online environment.

Activist Public Relations in Theory and Practice: Communication for Society and Social Change

Activist Public Relations in Theory and Practice: Communication for Society and Social Change

Public relations and dissent: Anti-racism digital advocacy Portuguese case study

Social media platforms are being used to shift the balance of power, functioning as tools of resistance for activist publics on social justice issues. This article uses a postmodern approach to public relations with the purpose of clarifying the role of dissensus in social media contexts, connecting it to the principles of the ethics of care that promote dialogue but not necessarily with the aim of achieving consensus. Scholars and practitioners can claim a broader role for public relations in society by considering and analyzing conflicting perspectives in digital communication as a way to engage with activist struggles in social justice and human rights causes. By applying critical discourse analysis (CDA) to a case study that articulates interdisciplinary concepts, this research analyzes the first national weekly Portuguese newspaper Expresso support for the anti-racist cause through its promotion of a manifesto and a Facebook post against racist intimidation. In a contemporary society characterized by fragmentation, taking a public stance on important social and political issues, as in the case analyzed, demands moving beyond consensus-driven communication. The data confirm that social media platforms are not necessarily dialogic spaces and that conflicting communicative perspectives may be a useful way to analyze social change in public relations theory and practice. By taking a public stand against racist intimidation, assuming the possible alienation of specific publics –and “Facebook bullying”– this private newspaper also demonstrated the practical application of the assumptions of the ethics of care.

Contingency theory informs relationship management: Exploring the contingent organization-public relationships (COPR) in a crisis of Mainland China

This paper demonstrates the theoretical rationale for incorporating the concept of relationship management into the contingency theory of strategic conflict management (the contingency theory thereafter). Such a contingency approach is created to aid organizations in evaluating organization-public relationships (OPR) across stages of crises. Based on cross-disciplinary scholarship from crisis communication and public relations, this study explores how the identified three categories of contingency factors, such as predisposing, situational, and proscriptive elements affect relationships in the crisis management process. A case study of the Wukan crisis between governments and activist publics in mainland China is analyzed to examine the contingent organization-public relationships (COPR) and its predecessors. Implications of this study are to move the contingency theory beyond the static measurement of stances and extend its scope into relationship management. This study also adds value to the crisis communication literature, which mainly focuses on organizations in Western contexts.

Networked publics in #NoDAPL protests: Interactions among activist publics and influence of locality and proximity on socially mediated networks

Hashtag “#NoDAPL” was used by environmental activists for a series of protests against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline beginning in early 2016. Utilizing 2 million tweets with the main hashtag, as well as the auxiliary hashtags, from around 550,000 unique users between November 2016 and February 2017, the study investigated the interactions among four groups—regular activists, Native American activists, reporters, and organizations identified based on their bio information, and the effects of physical location on network attention. Exponential random graph models (ERGMs) on the retweet network showed that Native American activists occupied the most prominent positions and that different groups assumed different network roles. Location analysis based on Poisson regression showed that physical proximity’s effects on attention depended on group status, and the effects were moderated by users’ authority. Implications of the study results on networked publics and the influence of locality and proximity on socially mediated networks were discussed.

Contingent organization-public relationship (COPR) matters: reconciling the contingency theory of accommodation into the relationship management paradigm

ABSTRACT Although the relational approach has been a focus in many published public relations studies, the dynamic and longitudinal aspects of relationships deserve more exploration. Through explicating and examining the concept of contingent organization-public relationship (COPR) in two empirical studies, this article investigates relationships between corporations and activist publics, and provides dynamic instances of the value of COPR and its six modes in conflictual situations. By tracking the stances of each corporation and its activists longitudinally through content analysis, results generate the occurrence and changes of relationship modes over time. Findings show that COPR is equally applicable in both resolved and unresolved U.S. conflicts. Regardless of whether the problems were resolved or not, competing relationships occurred more frequently than cooperating relationships, which strengthens the argument that both parties maintain competing relationships for self-interests and may adopt strategies to achieve mutual benefits as well. The integrating of the contingency theory of accommodation into the relationship management paradigm shows great promise reflected in current findings as well as future directions.

On (not) knowing what is to be done (in 17 affective registers)

What is the sound of (not) knowing what is to be done, and what effects do expressions of knowingness or uncertainty have, especially on the formation of activist publics and their subsequent collective doings? This article explores a number of political discourses – from the right, left and centre – in the hopes of illuminating the sounds, affects and effects of (not) knowing what is to be done. In a world that has passed from ‘actually existing socialism’ to ‘the end of history’ to the Great Recession to the global rise of authoritarianism, how do progressive and left activists in the US navigate knowing and not knowing, certainty and its absence; what sorts of affects are produced by knowing, or not, what is to be done; what is opened, and foreclosed, with the genre of the blueprint as compared to the genre of the brainstorm; and what sorts of activist publics are formed thereby? Interested in how senses of political possibility and impossibility emerge and take hold, the article explores how, in the shadow of pronouncements by all manner of those who know what is to be done – from conservative, moderate and liberal establishmentarians to armchair activists and progressive or leftist scolds – activists inhabit uncertainty about what is to be done and figure out what to do even so.

Social Media Activism in the Digital Age: Testing an Integrative Model of Activism on Contentious Issues

The purpose of this study was to propose an integrative model of activism that explains why and how individuals in the networked society are engaged in contentious issues. Incorporating the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS), hostile media perception, affective injustice, and social media efficacy, this study examined how the integrative model of activism predicts social media activism and offline activism on three issues of gun ownership, immigration, and police use of power. The integrative model of activism provides a valuable standpoint to understand activist publics and serves as a springboard for further scholarly discussion on activism and conflict resolution.

Inquiring into activist publics in chronic environmental issues: use of the mutual-gains approach for breaking a deadlock

This study aims to understand different publics’ communicative behaviors for problem solving surrounding an oil spill issue in Korea. Specifically, it explores the differences between chronic activists and other types of publics who were affected by this chronic environmental issue. A total of 24 interviews were conducted, from which five different types of publics were identified. The findings suggest that the majority of activists who are currently working on the issue are closed-chronic activists, which are slightly different from Ni and Kim’s findings on chronic activists’ communicative behaviors. Interviews were also conducted with five communication experts to propose viable conflict resolution strategies for the issue. The mutual-gains approach is recommended as a viable organization‐public conflict resolution strategy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Responding to an Activist Public: Hangzhou Press Office rethinks its role

In China as elsewhere, netizens have made new demands upon government and challenged conventional media to respond to popular concerns. Established approaches to controlling the media may be otiose; Party leaders are stressing the value of cooperation rather than confrontation and calling for a new relationship between media and authority. This article examines how the department of a city government traditionally tasked with controlling the media and shaping opinion is seeking to come to terms with the calls from the centre and, in the process, think up a different kind of relationship with the media. From dealings with press officers over four years, the authors identify a reflective and dynamic response to the present challenges. The respondents speculate that arrangements being put in place to deal with the new media environment may change fundamentally the relationships between authority and citizen, and the authors evaluate this.

The Dynamics of Activist Power Relationships: A Structurationist Exploration of the Segmentation of Activist Publics

The segmentation of publics is acknowledged to be a central component of effective strategic communication practice. Although most research on segmentation has used Grunig's situational theory of publics—a functional theory created for profit-based organizations—little attention has been paid to the process or thought behind how activist group organizations may segment their own publics. As such, this article discusses why the situational theory of publics is an inappropriate perspective from which to examine activist publics, and offers Giddens' structuration theory as a viable theoretical alternative to understand activist group publics. Using this framework, the article presents the results of an exploratory study of activist communication practitioners aimed at identifying how activists conceptualize and communicate with their publics. The results indicate that activist publics can be described by the dynamics of the power relationship a certain public has with the activist organization, and labels five recognizable activist publics as mediators, moderators, interferers, targets, and bystanders. Finally, implications for the role of structuration theory in explaining purposeful communication between organizations and publics are offered.

Tracking organization–public relationships over time: A framework for longitudinal research

Acknowledging the unique and potentially powerful positions held by activist publics, the author argues that the state of organization-activist relationships can be tracked over time through the public statements they make about their shared issues of concern, as reported by the news media. The findings of three case studies of Australia's major banks and their activist publics over 21 years are reported.

Revelations of an ecological perspective: Issues, inertia, and the public opinion environment of organizational populations

Many public relations scholars identify the importance of environment. Contentions about the role of public relations in helping organizations to continuously adapt to their social environment underpin mainstream research and theoretic literature. However, the field has paid limited attention to specifying, testing, and explicating such complex and problematic presuppositions. This article responds to the resulting opportunity for theory building by applying the untried and underutilized ecological lens to conceptualize and explore a primary sector of organizational social environments, the public opinion environment, at the population level of analysis. Four dimensions of the organizational population's public opinion environment are proposed: stability, complexity, intensity, and direction (favorability). Using macro-level variations in the public opinion environment to explain micro-level responses —specifically, the emergence of activist publics —the article explores four theoretic propositions longitudinally, using three case studies of the same organizational population, Australia's major banks from 1981 to 2001. It lays the foundation for contesting much vaunted but unproved presuppositions about the place of public relations in helping organizations to adapt continuously to their changing environments.

Public Relations in a Democratic Society: Value and Values

Each of the articles in this special issue merit attention based solely on the authors' contributions to alternative ways of doing and understanding public relations. More important, as a body of work, the authors expand on Schudson's (1997) provocative article about the role of conversation in a democratic society. In this review, I summarize the strengths of each article, discuss the focus on activist publics, highlight concepts new to the study of public relations, and suggest avenues for further thought based on the ideas presented in this issue. I conclude with the proposal that in a democratic society, public relations should facilitate making profoundly uncomfortable conversations more comfortable.

Newsgroups, activist publics, and corporate apologia: The case of Intel and its Pentium chip

Historically, the study of an organization’s publics has been primarily a research tool to profile the different stakeholders with whom organizations regularly come into contact. Using the case of the flawed Intel Pentium chip, this study applied Grunig’s theory of publics to the phenomenon of Internet newsgroups arguing that technology facilitates the rapid movement of publics from the theoretical construct stage to the active stage. This creates an environment in which these publics become communities of individuals who behave in ways that have a tangible effect on companies. Consequently, organizations are urged to maintain a presence on the Internet to monitor potentially damaging rumors as well as to provide a vehicle for feedback during crisis management. Keith Michael Hearit is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Western Michigan University.

The limits of collaboration

The premise of the essay is that collaborative public relations is unfeasible in some situations. Certain types of conflicts virtually require asymmetric or win-lose public relations efforts. The involvement of multiple parties in a dispute or the timing of a dispute, may necessitate reactive and confrontational responses on the part of public relations personnel. Practitioners sometimes perceive few degrees of freedom in how they may respond to a situation. There are also cases in which activist publics are motivated to pursue confrontation and to avoid open communication and collaboration.

Identifying and Responding to Activist Publics: A Case Study

Activist groups are strategic publics because they constrain an organization's ability to accomplish its goals and mission. Activists create issues; they appeal to government, the courts, or media for litigation, regulation, or other forms of pressure. As a result, research on activism has become one of the most important domains of public relations research. I begin this article with the premise that public relations practitioners must develop sensitivity to activists, he able to identify activist publics before they become active, and develop communication strategies to foster mutual understanding with them. The results are reported of a case study of environmental activism against a multinational company working in the Central American country of Belize. The organization failed to identify activist publics at the beginning of its Belize project and made no attempt to communicate with them. The activists then went elsewhere for information and escalated overt pressure on the organization. Media coverage...