Strategic Communication Research Research Articles

Can informal lobbying be responsible? Evidence from Brussels

PurposeThis study links the notion of responsible strategic communication to the field of lobbying at the European (EU) level. It provides empirical findings on the relevance of informal interaction and communication in EU public affairs (PA). Focusing on functional expectations and uses tied to informality from an actors’ perspective, this study not only includes lobbyists and their attempts to gain influence on political actors but also attempts of lobbyists to control journalistic output through informal relationships and exchange mechanisms. The results are discussed with a view to further inform the concept of “responsible lobbying.”Design/methodology/approachBuilding on a theoretical background from strategic communication, informal politics and interest group research, findings from a qualitative content analysis of 43 semi-structured interviews with actors from PA (n = 27) and journalism (n = 16) at the EU level are reported, focusing on one policy case.FindingsThe study shows motives for establishing and using informality for both actor types. Functional expectations relate to a range of tasks at the core of the respective actors’ day-to-day activities: monitoring political developments, pre-negotiating policy options in protected, confidential spaces with political decision-makers, receiving relevant sectoral background information and “technical coaching” on legislative dossiers directed to journalists.Originality/valueStudies on lobbying have rarely been conducted from a strategic communications perspective, especially focusing the EU level. Albeit widely accepted, the understanding of lobbying and PA as an informal activity has not been scrutinized by academic research.

Automated Communication’s Impact on Strategic Communication: Implications from a Systematic Review

ABSTRACT The trend of automation, artificial intelligence, and algorithms has taken hold of strategic communication research and practice. While research on specific automated communication phenomena, such as AI influencers and chatbots, is steadily increasing in fields such as marketing and journalism, its implications for strategic communication have not yet been addressed. To offer a comprehensive overview, a systematic review of 76 articles was conducted to study the conceptualisations, methods, and normative reflections of automated communication across different social science disciplines. Findings show that automated communication has been studied in various contexts, though rarely in strategic communication. Clear and consistent terminology is often lacking and various conceptualisations for sub-phenomena, if present at all, are put forward; automated communication as an overall phenomenon has not yet been defined. Moreover, a plethora of theoretical and methodological approaches have been used, pointing to a lack of coherent knowledge. Thus, current research on automated communication is fragmented and misses a unified understanding of the phenomenon. As a remedy, this study (1) provides a typology of automated communication, (2) proposes a definition of the concept, and (3) discusses its implications for strategic communication research and practice including a research agenda.

The Chair of the Supervisory Board as a New Corporate Communicator: Conceptual and Empirical Insights into Objectives and Responsibility for the Chair’s Communication

ABSTRACT This study extends the existing research on C-suite communication and corporate communicators by adding the perspective of the supervisory board. Building on principal-agent theory and the public arena model the supervisory board chair’s communicator role is conceptualized, and established and stakeholders are identified. Based on 28 qualitative expert interviews with supervisory board chairs, public relations, and investor relations managers from 10 DAX and MDAX companies, the study highlights the objectives for the chair’s communication as well as responsibilities within the public relations and investor relations departments. The findings show that transparency and the establishment and maintenance of relationships are the main objectives of the chair’s communication. Furthermore, the findings show that there is rarely a clear responsibility within the public relations or investor relations functions for the chair’s communication. Closer cooperation leads to more professionalized chair communication – but not necessarily more active external communication. The article contributes to communication management and strategic communication research by highlighting the conceptual-theoretical challenge of the communication of the supervisory board because its actions set the framework for the corporate strategy.

Multiple pathways to organizational legitimacy: Information visibility, organizational listening, and cross-sector partnerships

Given the critical role of legitimacy in attracting key resources for organizational survival and growth, organizational and strategic communication research has long sought to understand the mechanisms essential in improving organizational legitimacy. Guided by stakeholder research and configurational thinking, we examine three interconnected communication mechanisms for relationship management in organizational legitimation: (a) information visibility, (b) organizational listening, and (c) cross-sector partnerships. Based on survey and archival data from 44 U.S. nonprofit organizations, we employed a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to identify the pathways to high or low organizational legitimacy. Our results reveal the combinations of these factors can complement or substitute for one another to explain legitimacy. Specifically, high pragmatic legitimacy requires effective listening to stakeholders and collaborating with government agencies. By contrast, in low pragmatic legitimacy, organizations are often hindered by limited capacity for information visibility, ineffective listening to stakeholders, and no collaboration with corporate partners. These results suggest theoretical contributions to stakeholder research in public relations and organizational and strategic communication scholarship, as well as practical implications for improving organizational legitimacy for mission-driven organizations.

Mediated crises and strategic crisis communication of third sector organizations: a content analysis of crisis reporting in six countries

PurposeThis study aims to contribute to strategic crisis communication research by exploring international media representations of third sector crises and crisis response; expanding the range of crisis types beyond transgressions; and developing a framework that integrates framing and crisis communication theory.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative content analysis was applied to identify patterns in crisis reporting of 18 news media outlets in Canada, Germany, India, Switzerland, UK and US. Using an inductive framing approach, crisis coverage of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) between 2015 and 2018 was analyzed across a wide range of crises, including but not limited to prominent cases such as Oxfam, Kids Company, or the Islamic Research Foundation.FindingsThe news media in six countries report more internal crises in the third sector than external crises. The most frequent crisis types were fraud and corruption, sexual violence/personal exploitation and attacks on organizations. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three components of crisis response strategies quoted in the media, conditional rebuild, defensive and justified denial strategies. Causal attributions and conditional rebuild strategies significantly influenced media evaluations of organizational crisis response. Three frames of third sector crises were detected; the critique, the damage and the victim frame. These frames emphasize different crisis types, causes, crisis response strategies and evaluations of crisis response.Originality/valueThe study reveals the particularities of crises and crisis communication in the third sector and identifies factors that influence mediated portrayals of crises and crisis response strategies of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) from an international comparative perspective. The findings have relevant implications for crisis communication theory and practice.

Dealing with risk in stakeholder dialog: identification of risk indicators in a public service media organization's conversation and discourse with citizens

PurposeThis study operationalizes risks in stakeholder dialog (SD). It conceptualizes SD as co-produced organizational discourse and examines the capacities of organizers' and stakeholders' practices to create a shared understanding of an organization’s risks to their mutual benefit. The meetings and online forum of a German public service media (PSM) organization were used as a case study.Design/methodology/approachThe authors applied corpus-driven linguistic discourse analysis (topic modeling) to analyze citizens' (n = 2,452) forum posts (n = 14,744). Conversation analysis was used to examine video-recorded online meetings.FindingsOrganizers suspended actors' reciprocity in meetings. In the forums, topics emerged autonomously. Citizens' articulation of their identities was more diverse than the categories the organizer provided, and organizers did not respond to the autonomous emergence of contextualizations of citizens' perceptions of PSM performance in relation to their identities. The results suggest that risks arise from interactionally achieved occasions that prevent reasoned agreement and from actors' practices, which constituted autonomous discursive formations of topics and identities in the forums.Originality/valueThis study disentangles actors' practices, mutuality orientation and risk enactment during SD. It advances the methodological knowledge of strategic communication research on SD, utilizing social constructivist research methods to examine the contingencies of organization-stakeholder interaction in SD.

Multi-Faceted Influences on Perceived Messaging Effectiveness: Strategic Communication for Enhancing COVID-19 Risk Mitigation

ABSTRACT This study examines how situational motivation interacts with self-concept when responding to the different messaging strategies regarding a COVID-19 symptom map (CSM). In an online experiment, participants read either an individual-framed message emphasizing the benefits of CSM in enhancing a sense of control and self-reliance during the pandemic, or a community-framed message highlighting the benefits of CSM in protecting local communities. Findings suggested that self-construal, together with situational motivation, moderated the effects of message frames. This study advances strategic communication research by exploring a multi-faceted approach to understanding public perceptions of messaging frames and expanding cultural consideration to individual-level cultural traits that may go beyond demographics.

The effects of narrative and statistical messaging about air quality

ABSTRACT Air pollution is among the world’s greatest environmental health threats. Still, little strategic communication research has addressed it. We report two pre-registered experiments examining narrative and statistical message effects. Study 1 (N = 1,282, U.S.) showed little effect for either. Study 2 (N = 754, California), which accounted for potentially problematic design features of Study 1, found effects for both types across a range of attitudinal outcomes (emotional response, efficacy, risk). Narrative messaging also had a small effect on mitigation intention. Carefully designed messages may produce positive changes on this issue, but success depends on alignment between message construction, recommended behaviors, and audience relevance.

A revised digital media–arena framework guiding strategic communication in digital environments

PurposeThis paper refines the Digital Media–Arena (DMA) framework to address the diversity of stakeholders contributing to the production, (re)appropriation and (re)distribution of organisational messages in digital environments. It also presents a case analysis for the purpose of demonstrating the applicability of the revised conceptual framework to a critical situation.Design/methodology/approachGrounded in key public relations, corporate communication and strategic communication research, this study first extends the DMA framework by introducing six new forms of media-arenas. Next, the study takes a public sector perspective to analyse the revised framework against a critical situation involving the Finnish prime minister in summer 2022.FindingsThe application of the revised DMA framework to analyse the critical situation shows the importance of mapping and understanding diverse discourses across multi-arenas and their communication role in a rapidly unfolding scandal surrounding the prime minister of Finland. Findings also reveal the diversity of stakeholder voices forming their own versions of organisational messages and sometimes converging organisational messages within and across DMAs.Practical implicationsThe DMA framework can offer practical suggestions to guide communicators to make strategic choices in what, where, how and with whom they can communicate.Originality/valueThe revised DMA framework contributes expanding the field's knowledge of the strategic communicative use of the digital environment in typically highly volatile and multi-vocal situations by offering instrumental understanding of the conflicting challenge between subjugating and liberating organisational messages across the digital spectrum.

한국군 전략커뮤니케이션 연구 경향분석 및 제언 : 한국군 도입시기인 2008년부터 2023년을 중심으로

한국군 전략커뮤니케이션 연구 경향분석 및 제언 : 한국군 도입시기인 2008년부터 2023년을 중심으로

Argumentation strategies in lobbying: toward a typology

PurposeThis paper develops a typology of argumentation strategies used in lobbying. Unlike in other strategic communication functions such as crisis or risk communication, such typologies have not been proposed in the sub-field of public affairs.Design/methodology/approachThe article synthesises the strategic communication, political communication and policy studies literature and employs exchange theory to explain the communicative-strategic exchange in public affairs. It showcases its explanatory potential with illustrative examples from Big Tech lobbying.FindingsThe paper describes that categories of argumentation strategies that a public affairs professional will choose are based on the contingency of the issue, policy objective and lobbying objective. The descriptive typology will require empirical testing to develop further.Social implicationsThe paper describes how public affairs professionals influence public policy through their argumentation strategies, which sheds light on the usually opaque activities of lobbying.Originality/valueThe proposed typology is the first of its kind for the field of public affairs. Beyond, it contributes communication-scientific insights from a rhetorical tradition to strategic communication research and other social science fields where lobbying is studied, e.g. policy studies.

Emotion in Strategic Environmental Communication Research: Challenges and Opportunities

Emotion and affect play a central role in persuasion, decision-making, and human behavior. Because of ongoing environmental crises, there is a strong need to better understand how emotions shape selection, attention, processing, and effects of environmental communication. Here, I highlight three main areas that contain challenges and opportunities for building a synergistic relationship between the affective sciences and research on strategic environmental communication: (a) identifying the causal effects of emotions in environmental communication; (b) the role of emotions in the durability of environmental messaging effects; and (c) how closing the gap between the laboratory and the field can generate innovative research and more applicable inferences.

Informality in strategic communication. Making the case for a forgotten concept

PurposeAlthough current strategic communication research is particularly interested in deviations from normative ideals, there is a surprising lack of interest in the structures that lead to such deviations from formal specifications. To this end, this paper explores the classic, but of late largely forgotten concept of informality. The aim is to develop a theoretical framework and a systematization that can be used to answer central questions in strategic communication research. The focus is on three research questions: How can formal and informal structures of strategic organizational communication be systematized? How are formal and informal organizational structures thematized in strategic organizational communication? What is the relationship between (in)formal structures of strategic organizational communication and the thematization of (in)formal organizational structures?Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual contribution is based on systems theoretical organization theory, which understands formal structures as decided decision premises and informal structures as undecided decision premises.FindingsThe understanding of informal expectation structures presented here has enormous potential for describing and researching central issues in strategic communication research in a far more significant way, both theoretically and empirically. For example, decoupling can be described in a much more differentiated way than is possible using the neo-institutionalist perspective.Practical implicationsThe systematizing framework for researching informal structures enables a deeper understanding of informal structures and thus a better handling of them in practice. In addition, the framework provides a basis for future empirical studies.Originality/valueInformal phenomena and structures seem to be the elephant in the room in many discourses in strategic communication research. With the theoretical perspective and systematization presented here, these phenomena can finally be explored in a differentiated and meaningful way.

Navigating moral minefields in a VUCA world: the contribution of moral foundations theory to strategic communication research and practice

PurposeIn today's volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world, organizations deal with fragmented publics in contested public spheres. At the core, public opinion is not so much divided by issues per se but by deeply rooted moral concerns. Hence, while normative perspectives on morality prevail in strategic communication research, understanding the moral motives of stakeholders and publics from a descriptive standpoint becomes vital. In this light, the present conceptual paper discusses the implications of moral foundations theory (MFT), as an influential evolutionary-anthropological approach to morality, for strategic communication research and practice.Design/methodology/approachAdopting micro-, meso- and macro-perspectives, MFT's potential contribution to strategic communication research is explored regarding three foci: (1) moral framing, (2) narratives and (3) public discourse dynamics.FindingsThe paper concludes that frames and more complex narratives in strategic communication allude to MFT's five foundations – care, fairness, loyalty, authority and purity – in diverse ways and are given different readings by stakeholders and publics. Building on MFT, novel empirical tools are available to access and understand the complex web of moral meaning infused in public discourses.Originality/valueFor the first time, MFT is discussed systematically and in detail in the context of strategic communication research. The theory contributes to deepening the understanding of the conditions, e.g. for issues management and strategic mobilization. On broader view, this paper adds to the discussion on evolutionary perspectives in strategic communication research.

Media Psychophysiology and Strategic Communications: A Scientific Paradigm for Advancing Theory and Research Grounded in Evolutionary Psychology

ABSTRACT Researchers working in the discipline of Strategic Communications can significantly enrich strategic communication by grounding theorizing in evolutionary psychology. This opportunity can be more fully realized through the application of a rigorous scientific paradigm for strategic communication that conceptualizes human brain processes as well as the attitudes and behaviors produced by brain activity through the lens of evolutionary psychology. The importance of scientific paradigms in mass communication research has been outlined before. Many of these ideas seem to apply to strategic communication research as well. We present media psychophysiology as a theoretically rigorous and practically valuable scientific paradigm for advancing the application of evolutionary psychology and the mind sciences in the strategic communication discipline. This article reviews the necessity of a newer scientific paradigm for strategic communication research, overviews the media psychophysiology paradigm, and provides recommendations for applying evolutionary theory and the media psychophysiology paradigm to advancing mind-science-based strategic communication research and theory.

Peacocks, Penknives and Power

ABSTRACT This article conceptualizes evolutionary theory as a bridge between existing theorizing in strategic communication on the one hand, the mind sciences on the other. It discusses six core concepts of evolutionary psychology that have a bearing on strategic communication theory: a) the human as a highly flexible social species; b) the regulation of individually-minded vs. collectively-minded behavior; c) advanced, symbolic communication as a mode of regulation and its second-order problems; d) a consilient conceptualization of communication; e) evolutionary psychology’s role as a heuristic; and f) the limits of cognitive capacity and the role of heuristic shortcuts. The article concludes with a note on the theory of science in strategic communication research and cautions against the common misunderstanding of evolutionary psychology’s agenda.

Certain Characteristics of Strategic Communication in Armed Conflicts over the Past Decades

This article argues a discrepancy between the low degree of interest afforded to military disciplines in strategic communication research and the high degree of significance of strategic communication to modern military practice. A relatively low number of scholarly articles have been published in the field of strategic communication which focus on military disciplines, with most of them being empirical studies addressing research objects on the frontiers of military science. Meanwhile, strategic communication has become increasingly central to military practice in the post-1990 period, as seen in armed conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

IScotland: building a unified model of activism in multi-platform communication environments from traditional PR theory

PurposeIn recent years, there has been a growth in research aimed at understanding the foundations of modern activist communication in media-rich and multi-platform environments. For example, Chon and Park's analysis of the American Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement built on Kim and Grunig's STOPS model. Yet, social and political injustice can exist for extended periods of time without successful movements emerging, so what leads people to demand social and political change through activism? This paper posits that crisis is trigger that motivates people to activism and evaluates that within the context of the Scottish independence movement.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on in-depth interviews with 26 advocates for Scottish independence, which yielded more than 32 h of data. Data were analysed using Strauss and Corbin's (1990) constant comparative method approach using open coding, axial coding and selective coding finding thematic saturation after only 10 interviews.FindingsThe study provides a clear extension of Chon and Park's model of activism by finding that crises are critical triggers for activism. Moreover, these findings also provide insights into not only the Scottish independence movement but more broadly the extension of traditional public relations and communication theory in multi-platform and multi-actor environments.Originality/valueThere are several contributions this piece makes. First, this paper extends activist, crisis and strategic communication research to more systematically consider the role that crisis plays in social and political advocacy. Second, this paper affords the opportunity to consider the challenges of communication, democracy and activism in the social media age. Finally, this paper supports an international view that discrimination and affective injustice experiences cut across many different kinds of identities and experiences instead of the traditionally considered ethnic, religious and gender-based experiences traditionally addressed.

Actions speak louder than words – strategic communication and (un)intentional signalling: a semio-pragmatic taxonomy

PurposeThe article tackles the under-defined notion of communication in strategic communication research and elaborates a taxonomy of semiotic processes, which distinguishes different types of communicative and signalling events. The purpose is to offer an improved analysis of the processes by which meaning emerges from strategic communication situations.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed taxonomy is based on a conceptual framework combining semiotics, linguistic pragmatics and signalling theory. Several real cases of strategic communication are analysed to exemplify the taxonomy.FindingsDifferent sub-types of signalling events are highlighted and explained. The communicative function of performed behaviours (i.e. when actions speak and do it louder than words) depends on how informative and communicative intentions are managed by the message source and inferentially interpreted by different receivers. It is suggested that the ways in which meaning is signalled can be best understood with an argumentative perspective that foregrounds the inferential processes of persuasion, interpretation and decision-making. The limitations of the transmission vs. ritual and the one-way vs. two-way theories of strategic communication are highlighted.Originality/valueThe article discusses strategic communication events with the under-considered perspective of communication theories in the fields of semiotics and pragmatics. Signalling phenomena are interpreted from a communicative viewpoint, emphasising the argumentative dynamics that constitute them.

How Purpose-Driven Organizations Influenced Corporate Actions and Employee Trust during the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 global pandemic drove many companies to reevaluate their approach to business and, as a result, some focused their efforts on leading with purpose. Purpose is an organization's fundamental goal that goes beyond profit maximization. It is an all-encompassing principle that guides everything the organization does and determines its strategies. Effective strategic communication is an essential element of purpose as it can empower employees to align their personal goals with organizational values and thus more closely identify with their organization. However, while the benefits of purpose are frequently proclaimed in practical literature, the impact of communicating purpose on employee outcomes remains unexplored in strategic communication research. To address this critical research gap, this study examined why and how communicating purpose could be an effective tactic in strategic communication. Specifically, this study introduced the concept of purpose and examined how purpose directed organizations’ actions in response to COVID-19 as well as the impact of purpose on employees’ organizational identification and trust. The findings offer practical implications regarding the importance of strategic communication about purpose in terms of building employee organizational identification and trust during times of change.