Strategic Communication Activities Research Articles

Tackling societal challenges as opportunities: a case study of a Swiss foundation's value-creating function

PurposeIn today's risk society, foundations are essential for sustaining democracies. However, the proof of a value-creating function of foundations is rarely assessed. Therefore, this study uses sensemaking theory and the communication value framework to explore to what extent a foundation achieved its overall mission in tackling societal challenges as opportunities.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs a case study approach of a Swiss foundation. Through 20 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, insights about the value-creating function of the foundation were gained, showing how strategic communication activities contributed to the foundation's overall mission in various spheres of action.FindingsThe stakeholders overall identified a value-creating function of the foundation. The feedback obtained from the interviews could be structured along the lines of the communication value framework, with minor adjustments, showing that the foundation brought about value through its strategic communication regarding tangible assets (e.g. publicity), intangible assets (e.g. unique reputation), room for maneuver (e.g. renowned network) and opportunities for development (e.g. new formats). However, on each level, value-limiting factors have also been identified (e.g. limited publicity).Originality/valueThis study is the first to employ sensemaking theory to assess a foundation's value-creating function in achieving its overall mission by interviewing direct stakeholders. It is also one of the few studies in the field that analyzes strategic communication of foundations. Thus, this study adds methodological, theoretical and practical knowledge to foundation communication, value-creation and strategic communication management.

Halkla İlişkiler Perspektifinden Karabağ’da Kültürel Mirası Koruma Çabalarının İncelemesi

This study discusses the activities of Azerbaijan to protect the intangible cultural heritage after the Karabakh War. This study also aims to analyze the strategic communication activities carried out to protect the elements of folk architecture. This study is critical because it is the first study to deal with the post-war communication strategy of Azerbaijan. In this study, semi-structured interviews have been conducted with civil servants in the field in order to determine the communication strategy of Azerbaijan, and the data have been analyzed in the Maxqda program. The findings are as follows: The first stage of strategic communication management in Azerbaijan is to analyze the situation by identifying the works that make up the folk architecture. Then, in the planning phase, the damage assessment steps have been determined. Later, institutions and funds were established for the restoration process, and planning and managing of the restoration process were initiated. In the third and fourth steps of strategic communication management, as communication and action strategies. Various communication methods such as lobbying activities, fight against infodemic and public advertisement have been used.

Lobbying and advocacy: the question of demarcation between strategic communication activities in the service of political influence objectives

Cet article questionne l’imprécision de la démarcation entre les pratiques de lobbying et de plaidoyer. Lobbying et plaidoyer sont définis conjointement comme la conception et la mise en œuvre d’un ensemble d’activités communicationnelles stratégiques à des fins d’influence politique. Une recension de la littérature est complétée d’une analyse des possibilités de diffusion des supports de communication à l’ère numérique et de la créativité des pratiques délibérément mises en œuvre et publicisées pour brouiller les lignes afin de revaloriser les métiers de l’influence politique au service d’intérêts privés (diplomatie et plaidoyer sociopolitique d’entreprise, grassroots lobbying, lobbying responsable ou d’intérêt général, travail coordonné entre lobbyistes et chargés de plaidoyer).

Calm the farm or incite a riot? Animal activists and the news media: A public relations case study in agenda-setting and framing

The ideological differences between animal activists and primary producers are long-standing, existing long before the advent of social media with its widespread communicative capabilities. Primary producers have continued to rely on traditional media channels to promote their products. In contrast, animal activists have increasingly adopted livestreaming on social media platforms and ‘direct action’ protest tactics to garner widespread public and media attention while promoting vegetarianism/veganism, highlighting issues in animal agriculture and disrupting the notion of the ‘happy farm animal’. This paper uses a case study approach to discuss the events that unfolded when direct action animal activists came into conflict with Western Australian farmers and businesses in 2019. The conflict resulted in increased news reporting, front-page coverage from mainstream press, arrests and parliamentary law changes. This case study explores how the activists’ strategic communication activities, which included livestreaming their direct actions and other social media tactics, were portrayed by one major Australian media outlet and the farmers’ interest groups’ reactions to them.

Public Relations towards Member Engagement in Advocacy Networks: the ‘No Pesticides on My Plate’ Campaign

When civil society organisations (CSOs) of asymmetric size, structure and scope become members of an advocacy network, all those variations may lead to discrepant communicative behaviour. Therefore, encouraging member organisations to collaborate and co-create messages towards an advocacy goal is a major challenge. To examine member engagement in an advocacy network, this study scrutinizes the strategic communication activities of an environmental network in Turkey, and reviews their EU-funded campaign named ‘No Pesticides on My Plate’ accordingly. Grounded in the relationship management framework, this paper suggests that the power of relevant public relations strategies and tactics should be taken into account as to ensure the effectiveness of member CSOs’ actions in an advocacy network. Depending on a case study to examine the subject, it demonstrates how interpersonal communication and media tactics may be utilised to achieve member relations goals and finally to pursue social change.

Kamu Diplomasisinde İnsani Diplomasi Temelli Diyalog: Uluslararası İnsani Diplomasi Aktörlerinin Twitter Hesapları Üzerine Karşılaştırmalı Bir Analiz

Diyalog kurma ve ilişki inşa etmenin ana belirleyici olduğu yeni dünya düzeninde, aktörler mevcut ve potansiyel yumuşak güç kaynaklarına yönelerek stratejik iletişim faaliyetlerine odaklanmaktadır. Bu bakımdan devletler ve devlet dışı aktörler bir iletişim süreci olan kamu diplomasisi faaliyetleri ile uluslararası kamuoyunu ve yabancı halkları kendi amaç, hedef ve stratejilerine göre ikna etmeye çalışmaktadır. 21. yüzyıl küresel siyasetindeki bu iletişim temelli zorunlu dönüşüm ise uluslararası toplumdaki sorunlara karşın “insan odaklı” olma vurgusunu giderek zorunlu kılmıştır. Küresel sistem içerisinde dünyayı, özellikle de insanları derinden etkileyen birçok küresel sorun ve kriz giderek yoğunlaşmaktadır. Sorunların küresel düzeyde artması, kamu diplomasisinin bir uygulama alanı olan insani diplomasi faaliyetlerinin önemini arttırmış, bu durum krizlerin tarafları, paydaşları ve gönüllüleriyle diyalog kurulması ve ilişki inşa edilmesi için insani diplomasi aktörlerinin yeni iletişim teknolojilerini de etkili kullanmalarını zorunlu kılmıştır. Bu çalışmada dünyada en çok yardım yapan ve uluslararası insani diplomasinin ana aktörleri olan Türk Kızılay, Amerikan Kızılhaçı, İngiliz Kızılhaçı, Alman Kızılhaçı ve Kanada Kızılhaçı’nın sosyal ağları insani diplomasi açısından hangi düzeyde kullandıklarının ve kullanıcılarla diyalog temelli etkileşime girip girmediklerinin ortaya konulması amaçlanmaktadır. Bu kapsamda çalışmada öncelikle yeni kamu diplomasisi ve insani diplomasi kavramlarının çerçevesi çizilmiş, insani krizlerin çözümünde temel belirleyici olan bu kurumların İngilizce Twitter hesaplarındaki içerikler, sosyal ağları insani diplomasi açısından hangi düzeyde kullandıkları, diyalog temelli etkileşime girip girmediklerine yönelik hipotezler niceliksel içerik çözümlemesi yöntemiyle sınanmıştır. Çalışma sonucunda insani diplomasi faaliyetlerinde kurumların büyük bir kısmının Twitter’ı diyalog temelli kullanmadığı ve paylaşılan içeriklerde etkileşime girme oranının ise düşük olduğu saptanmıştır.

Datafied corporate political activity: Updating corporate advocacy for a digital era

Digital transformations have significant consequences for organizational attempts to shape their environments. Our focus is on how corporate political activity evolves in ways that require us to pay more attention to how information gets structured in digital spaces, and on how information ecosystems operate and shape strategic communication activities in organizational settings. We outline these digital transformations, offer a focus on corporate political activity as informational and develop a typology of datafied corporate political activity techniques to illustrate how the workings of digital spaces shape political issues more concretely. This serves to highlight the necessity of extending the focus of informational corporate political activity beyond the contents of overt and direct messages to include the more covert and subtle forms of influence made possible through the strategic structuring of information itself. This also contributes to our understanding of the political significance of corporate political activity, which is less about influencing political issues by composing appealing messages and distributing them to relevant audiences, and more about influencing political issues by organizing digital information and feeding algorithms. We suggest that such datastructures and algorithmic forms of sorting will become as important as message contents, and that datafied advocacy will become a central component of corporate political activity and other organizational activities.

PERAN HUMAS PEMBENTUK OPINI PUBLIK DALAM UPAYA PENCITRAAN LEMBAGA PENDIDIKAN

The existence of public relations management is very important in an educational institution, especially in communication with the community to form a good opinion. Education is the biggest source of investment in developing and making people whole (insanul kamil). Understanding someone's opinion, in this case public opinion is not easy. Because it is the formation of public opinion formed by the selective public, because in all problems there is always every public. Public Relations plays a very important role in every institution or institution, because public relations is one of the strategic ways in creating a positive or negative image in an institution. In this case public relations has a broad relationship, and the role of public relations in the development of education has a very urgent position, especially in determining the direction of education in accordance with the wishes of all parties, especially customer demands. The development of public opinion with a variety of characters increasingly diverse, both internal and external requires special solutions in communicating with them. Organizational communication activities are strategic communication activities that need to be carried out by the organization. Because this is related to the image of the educational institution itself.

An analysis of national image communication strategies of Chinese corporations in the context of one-belt-one-road

In this study, we examine how Chinese private corporations functioned as national image communicators in the context of the one-belt-one-road (OBOR) initiative. In exploring the role that business organizations can play in strategic national image communication, existing literature has shown the importance of expanding the scope of national image communication, and the conceptualization of strategic communication activities. In order to examine the broad conceptualization of national image communication carried out by corporate communicators, we selected a purposive sample of eight Chinese corporations with active business operations in the OBOR area. We conducted in-depth interviews and small focus group discussions with management personnel that influence corporate communication strategies. In our analysis, we delineated a set of features of OBOR as the context of China’s national image communication, and examined some key characteristics of private enterprises as national image communicators. We identified several key national image communication strategies: (a) products and services as the main medium of national image communication; (b) strategic detachment from the state discourse; (c) developmental discourse at the center of understanding the relationship between the Chinese corporation and the local community; and (d) the strategic role of the individual in cross-cultural communication.

Towards the final frontier: using strategic communication activities to engage the latent public as a key stakeholder in a corporate mission

ABSTRACTPrivate corporations that do not normally interact with, nor regularly communicate with, the public often do not perceive the public as a relevant or active stakeholder. The public may not view themselves as a stakeholder, particularly when they are unaware of, have no direct dealings with, or do not have any problems associated with such a corporation. The current study, utilizing a national survey of the United States public (N = 424) found that through directed strategic communication activities of a private spaceflight corporation, utilizing social and new media tools, a latent public can perceive a corporation and its mission in a positive manner, and transition it towards a status of an aware public and possible active public. Positive perceptions were found regarding corporate credibility, brand awareness, public engagement, communicating a corporate mission, educating the public, and influencing public opinion.

International Image of the Country through Strategic Communication, Case of Kosovo

Countries aim to enhance their image in order to derive economic, trade, tourism benefits, but also to create political and military alliances, cultural or ideological benefits. For this reason, the increase of image is an important dimension for the performance of the state interest. To accomplish this interest by increasing international image of the country, state and non-state actors take various measures often using communication channels, spots, they organize various student’s visits, or cultural exchanges etc. This paper deals with strategic communication activities in Kosovo to increase its image, the value selected for this purpose, is communication channel and the expected effect of these activities. Findings show that the most expensive campaigns, was wrong value message, communication channels and the public didn't see in holistic perspective.

Finding strategic communication & diverse leadership in the ancient world: The case of Queen Cleopatra VII, the last pharaoh of Egypt

AbstractThe reign of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt offers a rare historical glimpse into ancient communication activities and how communication was used by the world’s last pharaoh. This historical research reveals how Cleopatra used public relations and strategic communication activities to advance both her reign as a lone woman sovereign and the interests of the Egyptian empire. Cleopatra was perhaps the first woman sovereign in history to rule alone for a period of over a decade. Her leadership showed skilled use of public communication and diplomacy with which she forestalled the fall of Egypt to Rome. A grounded theory approach allowed data to emerge naturally, surrounding communication activities, and then for a theoretical framework to be imposed that could explain the common themes in that data. This research compares Cleopatra’s activities with public relations theory using the classic four models of public relations to classify public communication. Findings show that Cleopatra used research in a...

Expanding the sales professional's role: A strategic re-orientation?

Based in social exchange theory, this study empirically examines a model of salesperson participation in strategic communication activities. Results show that performance of sales professionals often stems from roles and activities that extend beyond the traditional selling function. Findings indicate that managers' orientation toward change, the firm's selling strategy, and salesperson's trust in their manager all play an important role in the salesperson's likelihood to engage in greater strategic communication activity. Participation in these activities is linked to individual selling performance. Thus, the study provides evidence that expanding the salesperson's role beyond the selling function can add firm value.