Public Relations Messages Research Articles

Regional Government Public Relations Communication Model in Handling Hoax Information during the Pandemic

This research aims to describe the management of regional government public relations messages and communication media in handling information hoaxes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The widespread spread of COVID-19 pandemic hoax information has increasingly increased public panic and anxiety, especially in Kendari City. For this reason, the Kendari City Government, through the public relations department, has made various communication efforts to prevent the spread of hoax information. Research data was collected through interviews, observation, and documentation and analyzed using descriptive qualitative data analysis methods to provide a comprehensive picture of the object under study. Research informants were determined using purposive sampling. The results of the research show that the communication model implemented by Kendari City Government Public Relations in preventing COVID-19 pandemic hoaxes is carried out using a participatory communication model using all available communication channels as information media that can be easily accessed by the public. First, by carrying out a thorough identification of the information and hoax news that is being spread. Second, utilizing all types of communication channels available, such as outreach with Regional Apparatus Organizations (OPD) and the community, billboards, collaboration with online news media, partner information service institutions (Kominfo and the Pandemic task force), installing billboards and standing banners, and developing its official website.

A Cognitive Linguistics approach to the ‘less is more’ paradox of communication, with specific reference to public relations messages

In this article the spotlight falls on the challenge to public relations practitioners toachieve a ‘less is more’ approach – not less communication, but less ambiguity. Thisarticle focuses on the way in which Cognitive Linguistics tools can facilitate clarity inpublic relations messages, as illustrated in the analysis of a slogan.The relationshipbetween assumptions within this framework and issues in public relations is pointed outand illustrated. Within the Cognitive Linguistic analysis presented here, it is argued thatpublic relations messages can be analysed in terms of specific conceptual metaphors,and that ambiguity can be limited by proposed mental mechanisms. The analysis ties inwith the claim that much of our conceptualisation of experience is metaphorical, whichboth motivates and constrains our creativity.The advantages of an analysis within CognitiveGrammar are shown to reside in its potential to interpret linguistic expressionsmetaphorically and to account for stylistic phenomena.

Public diplomacy message strategy (Public Diplomacy) (see also public diplomacy approach)

The variable “public diplomacy message strategy” (or “public diplomacy approach”) refers to public diplomacy efforts in a given country in order to investigate how and with which goal public diplomacy is strategically communicated in the given context. The variable reflects the communication style of a specific actor (a politician, government, or country).
 
 Field of application/theoretical foundation: 
 Analyses of public diplomacy message strategies or approaches mostly build on the taxonomy of public diplomacy (Cull, 2008) or the proposed categories of public diplomacy by Fitzpatrick (2010).
 
 References/combination with other methods of data collection: 
 Public diplomacy message strategies can, in addition to content analysis, be analyzed by conducting interviews or surveys with public diplomacy actors, which allow validating the results from content analyses.
 
 Example study: 
 Dodd & Collins (2017)
 
 Information on Dodd & Collins (2017)
 Authors: Dodd & Collins
 Research question/reseach interest: Comparison between public diplomacy approaches between Central Eastern European (not explicated) and Western countries (Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States)
 Object of analysis: Twitter content posted by 41 embassy accounts (not explicated)
 Time frame of analysis: March 2015
 
 Information about variable
 Varible name/definition: Public diplomacy practices: Communication strategy
 Level of analysis: Tweet
 Values:
 Building on Cull’s (2008) taxonomy of public diplomacy:
 (1) Listening (attempts to collect and collate information about foreign publics and their opinions)
 (2) Advocacy (activities that promote the country’s policies or general interests among foreign publics)
 (3) Cultural (efforts to promote cultural resources and achievements of a country)
 (4) International (activities that involve sending national actors abroad or receiving international actors to strategically manage the international environment)
 (5) News (use of radio, television and digital media to inform and involve foreign audiences)
 (6) Other
 Scales: Nominal
 Reliability: Krippendorf’s alpha = .50
 
 References
 Cull, N. J. (2008). Public Diplomacy: Taxonomies and Histories. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 616(1), 31–54.
 Dodd, M. D., & Collins, S. J. (2017). Public relations message strategies and public diplomacy 2.0: An empirical analysis using Central-Eastern European and Western Embassy Twitter accounts. Public Relations Review, 43(2), 417–425.
 Fitzpatrick, K. (2010). The future of U.S. public diplomacy: An uncertain fate. Martinus Nijhoff/Brill.

Police as cop show viewers

Despite the popularity of Australian television drama and reality series featuring police, there has been a paucity of research into what these programs communicate about real world policing. These ‘cop shows’ are productive forms of public relations for police agencies, particularly the co-produced reality TV variety, and as such are valuable broadcasting and policing commodities. As complex audio-visual texts, cop shows can generate myriad meanings and messages. As cultural objects these programs also rely upon and generate expressions of national identity. Drawing on 25 interviews with policing students and serving and retired police officers, this qualitative research provides insight into how prospective, current and retired police interpret televisual representations of the profession. It was found that interviewees more deeply embedded in the police culture were more cynical of the public relations messages and contested the role of women, while aspirants to the profession were more likely to endorse depictions of a diverse work force. Although interviewees regarded Australian cop shows as reflecting national attributes and cultural context, they reflected on aspects of cop shows produced in other countries to articulate what locally produced cop shows were not.

Perceived Differences: Chinese and Russian Farmers on Business, Law, Management, and Environment

AbstractThe People's Republic of China has been following a strategy for several decades to encourage its enterprises to invest overseas. Since the liberalization of the Sino‐Soviet border in the 1990s, Chinese farmers have been actively engaged in the economy of the Russian Far East (RFE). This article examines Chinese and Russian public relations messages broadcast by media about Chinese‐Russian agricultural cooperation that use different arguments, methods of reasoning, and points of view. There is a clash of different national management methods. Legislation applying to Chinese working in Russia has been erratic and unstable, and that makes cooperation more challenging. The concepts of environmental protection and obedience to the law are understood differently by Russians and by Chinese. Cross‐cultural management differences affect the way people on both sides interpret institutions, interactions, and the ability to trust third parties. There are different values and priorities expressed by Russians and by Chinese when it comes to development of rural areas in the RFE.

He who pays the piper, calls the tune? Examining Russia’s and Poland’s public diplomacy efforts to shape the international coverage of the Smolensk crash

The study explores Polish and Russian governments’ communication efforts to shape international news coverage of the 2010 airplane crash near Smolensk, Russia, which killed the Polish President Lech Kaczynski and most of his Cabinet. More specifically, the study attempts to assess the role of government communication in shaping the international agenda regarding the crash vis-à-vis the role of Polish and Russian media outlets which also served as information sources for international media. In addition, it examines politico-cultural proximity and economic relatedness as the factors influencing the outcomes of mediated public diplomacy efforts. The findings suggest that, in addition to the governments’ public relations messages, Polish and Russian news outlets played a significant role as their countries’ advocates in determining the international media agenda. Moreover, we found that it was economic relatedness rather than the similarity of culture or political systems that contributed to the success of governments in shaping the international agenda about the crash. Theoretical and practical implications for public relations and public diplomacy are discussed.

The future of PR is ‘fantastic’, ‘friendly’ and ‘funny’: Occupational stereotypes and symbolic capital in entry-level job advertisements

Over the past decade, there has been a move towards examining public relations as a socio-cultural practice, acknowledging practitioners as influential communicators who produce and symbolise cultural values through public relations messages. Ideally, a diverse group of professionals would aide in representing a diverse society, but to date, the profession remains female dominated. In this article, it is proposed that practitioners’ own discourse do not only establish what is most valued in the occupation and which habitus suits the practice best, but that the discourse also opens and closes occupational entry for new practitioners thereby contributing to a lack of diversity.This article presents the findings of an indicative thematic content analysis of one of the most common, yet under-research sites of discourse, namely entry-level job advertisements in New Zealand and Australia. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the analysis found that the advertisements placed little to no emphasis on the nature of the work, instead focusing on elements of ‘fit’ whereby new entrants were expected to be charismatic, friendly, and willing to work in an environment that is ‘fun’ and ‘flexible’. In doing so, public relations practitioners tacitly created invisible barriers, a self-limiting occupational culture and furthered existing stereotypes of the ‘perfect’ practitioner.

Mediated public diplomacy in the digital age: Exploring the Saudi and the U.S. governments’ agenda-building during Trump’s visit to the Middle East

This study analyzed the agenda-building capacity of political public relations messages of the Saudi and the U.S. governments during Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East and scrutinized their influence on the media coverage and public opinion. The findings indicate that all three levels of agenda-building received solid empirical support from the data: governmental information subsidies significantly influenced media coverage and public opinion on the level of issues and stakeholders (1st level), their attributes (2nd level), and networked co-occurrences of issues/stakeholders (3rd level of agenda-building). Traditional information subsidies emerged as a powerful tool driving the agenda-building process. The study confirms the effective capacity of public relations communication to build the media and the public agendas in non-Western media culture and expands the applicability of the agenda-building network analysis research to the Middle Eastern media market.

Effects of Message Variation and Communication Tools Choices on Consumer Response

In the midst of budget constraints, marketers need to plan their choices of messages and communication tools appropriately and efficiently. As studies exploring both factors and their interactions are rare, this study uses the advertising, sales promotion and public relations messages of a retail outlet, to study the effects of two different types of message variation: cosmetic and substantive and three choices of communication tools on consumer response on the messages and on the brand. An experiment of 198 subjects under six conditions reveals significant main effects and an interaction for consumer response on the messages. However, only message variation significantly affects consumer response on the brand. Customers generally seek for the types of messages and communication tools that can increase the amount of information and perceived value to make an informed purchase decision. Discussions of the results and implications for marketing communications are provided.

Uses of social media in government agencies: Content analyses of public relations strategies and message tactics comparison between South Korea and the United States of America in 2011 and 2014

We investigated five different government organizations' uses of social media in two countries: South Korea and the United States. Two content analyses were conducted in two time periods: 2011 and 2014. We found that the majority of government organizations in both countries use social media within the public information model (for dissemination of information), followed by the two‐way asymmetrical model (for persuasion). As expected, the most prevalent public relations strategy is informative strategy, followed by persuasive strategy. The majority of government organizations use the information dissemination message strategy. Specific differences were found between 2011 and 2014 as well as between two countries.

Public relations message strategies and public diplomacy 2.0: An empirical analysis using Central-Eastern European and Western Embassy Twitter accounts

This study examined 41 embassy Twitter accounts representing Central-Eastern European and Western countries. Western embassies were more likely to have Twitter accounts and demonstrated more average followers, but a CEE account (the Polish embassy in the United States) had the highest influencer score. A content analysis of 482 tweets brought together relevant literature from public diplomacy and public relations scholarship. A significant association was found between the diplomatic approaches and public relations message strategies, thus identifying a relationship between disciplines that are frequently considered separately. With regard to public diplomacy strategies, Western embassies engaged primarily in advocacy, whereas CEE embassies engaged primarily in cultural diplomacy. Listening was the least likely approach to be taken by both Western and CEE embassy accounts. With regard to public relations strategies, Western and CEE embassy Twitter accounts primarily engaged in message strategies aimed at information sharing (versus facilitative, persuasive, cooperative, etc.). Overall, analyses indicated that embassy Twitter accounts primarily engaged in approaches that may lack strategy, despite their purpose being diplomatic communication. This research provides a basis for predictive, best practices research and recommendations that merge disciplines.

A Study on Development of Effective Organ Donation Education and Public Relations Message: Focusing on Personal Characteristics and Value Factors

A Study on Development of Effective Organ Donation Education and Public Relations Message: Focusing on Personal Characteristics and Value Factors

Of sorcerers and thought leaders: marketing the information revolution in the 1960s

Hoopla about the emergence of an information economy was widespread by the 1990s, when academics, politicians and the press celebrated the social transformations brought about by computers. Yet the rhetoric of high-tech revolution long predates Windows 95 or even the World Wide Web. Building on the work of Howard Brick and others on postwar debates over technology and the economy, this article explores how the trope of the “information revolution” entered public discourse in the United States in the 1960s. It considers how the general idea of a post-industrial society – an economy in which manufacturing might play a diminished role – became specifically tied in the public imagination to information technology and intellectual property. Technology firms waged a concerted campaign to assuage anxieties about technological unemployment while extolling the importance of computing and other new technologies to the nation’s economic future. It illustrates how advertisers developed a public relations message for firms such as RCA and IBM, aiming to reassure the public about the potential of computers and automation to transform society for the better. This promotion of the information revolution actually predated the influential discussions of a post-industrial society by theorists such as Daniel Bell and Alain Touraine in the early 1970s. The essay also highlights how prominent public intellectuals, such as Margaret Mead and Herman Kahn, and government officials lent their credibility to claims about the value of a future economy based on creating and processing information during the 1960s.

Agenda Building and Agenda Setting in Business: Corporate Reputation Attributes

Grounded in an agenda-building and agenda-setting framework, the current study explored the transfer of salience relationships among public relations materials, news media coverage and online public communications in a business communication context. A total of 2,576 communication messages were analyzed in terms of the dominant business corporation (object), corporate attributes (substantive attributes) and the tone of attributes (affective attributes). Our results showed that the transfer of salience relationships were strongly supported at the second-level among corporate public relations messages, media coverage and consumers’ messages online. The salience of corporate attributes has a stronger correlation than the salience of the corporate names among communication messages. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Tobacco industry use of personal responsibility rhetoric in public relations and litigation: disguising freedom to blame as freedom of choice.

We examined the tobacco industry's rhetoric to frame personal responsibility arguments. The industry rarely uses the phrase "personal responsibility" explicitly, but rather "freedom of choice." When freedom of choice is used in the context of litigation, the industry means that those who choose to smoke are solely to blame for their injuries. When used in the industry's public relations messages, it grounds its meaning in the concept of liberty and the right to smoke. The courtroom "blame rhetoric" has influenced the industry's larger public relations message to shift responsibility away from the tobacco companies and onto their customers. Understanding the rhetoric and framing that the industry employs is essential to combating this tactic, and we apply this comprehension to other industries that act as disease vectors.

The Ramparts We Watch: film documentary discourse in the field of Public Relations / The Ramparts We Watch: el discurso del cine documental en el campo de las Relaciones Públicas

The aim of this article is to analyze Louis de Rochemont’s The Ramparts We Watch as a public relations war effort from the past century. Arising from the informative and propagandistic strategy of late 1930s newsreels, the aforementioned documentary was made using very appropriate narrative techniques to award it the dimension of objectivity and truthfulness characteristic of public relations messages, without losing sight of its educational and persuasive function. From this standpoint, The Ramparts We Watch founded a genre and constituted one of the clearest precedents of public relations war films in America.El objetivo de este artículo es analizar el film de Louis de Rochemont, The Ramparts We Watch, en tanto que un esfuerzo de relaciones públicas en tiempos de guerra. Surgido de la estrategia informativa y propagandística de los noticiarios de la segunda mitad de los años 30, este documental se realizó mediante el uso de técnicas narrativas muy adecuadas para conseguir la dimensión de objetividad y veracidad que debe caracterizar los mensajes de relaciones públicas, sin perder de vista su función educativa y persuasiva. Desde ese punto de vista, The Ramparts We Watch adquirió un carácter fundacional y constituyó uno de los más claros precedentes de los filmes de relaciones públicas realizados en Estados Unidos, en el contexto de la guerra.

Exploring the role of the Senate Majority Leader's political public relations efforts

Grounded in first- and second-level agenda building, this study explored the role of the U.S. Senate Majority Leader in shaping the salience of issues and issue attributes in news media coverage and policymaking in 2011. A total of 358 public relations messages, 164 newspaper articles, and 83 policymaking documents were analyzed. Significant correlations were found supporting agenda-building linkages at both levels. Different types of information subsidies were explored, including press releases, blog posts, Facebook posts, and Twitter messages.

As others see us: Differing perceptions of public relations in Nigeria among practitioners and the general public

This study investigates the extent to which there exists a relationship between the perception of professionals and members of the general public regarding image of public relations (PR) profession in Nigeria. Four operational hypotheses were tested using Chi-square cross tabulation. The result shows that members of the general public and professionals perceived PR messages as credible. However, members of the general public, unlike professionals, perceived the loyalty of PR professionals to be more on the side of employers and clients; the role of PR was perceived as basically oriented towards media relations; and PR profession was perceived more as a tool for repairing damaged organisational image. Appropriate recommendations are offered.

Crafting Nationalist Consumption

Following the revolution of 1932 that ended absolute monarchy in Siam, a new government came into power that sought to legitimize its rule by encouraging mass identification with the state. Practically, the expansion of a wage economy and the development of a state-led education system were seen by government officials as central to promoting a sense of citizenship to as yet disinterested rural communities. Throughout its first decade in power, the government thus set up projects to provide such groups with skills that might contribute to their overall material advancement. Following the lead of similar endeavours, particularly in India, one of the principal ways in which it would do this was through the production and bringing to market of cotton textiles. However, with foreign imports both superior in quality and cheaper than anything produced internally, the state struggled to establish a public relations message that might convince consumers to purchase Thai-produced textiles. As a result of specific limitations rooted in Thailand's ambiguous status globally, this meant that Thai leaders struggled to replicate the success of such movements elsewhere.

Police Departments’ Use of Facebook

Police departments (PDs) are increasingly using social networking sites (SNS) as a method of public communication. Over 75% of the largest U.S. departments currently have a presence on at least one of the three major SNS (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace). However, little is known about how departments are actually using these sites. To explore this issue, we conducted a content analysis of messages posted by the 23 largest U.S. PDs using Facebook over a 3-month period. Our results indicate that the content pattern was, to some extent, dependent upon the frequency that departments posted messages. Departments posting more frequently typically used Facebook for crime-related messages, whereas those posting less often were more likely to convey public relations messages. We also identified several message characteristics associated with greater responsiveness on the part of individuals following departments on Facebook. Policy implications of these trends are discussed.