Public Relations Review最新文献

Through one pilot test and two main studies using experimental design, this research examines publics’ responses to the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in corporate ability (CA) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Results from Study 1 (N = 113) revealed that the application of AI in CSR practices generated greater word-of-mouth intention and purchase intention than that in CA practices, and perceived warmth of the company mediated this effect. Results from Study 2 (N = 122) replicated the results from Study 1, and further revealed the boundary conditions created by publics’ varying levels of uneasiness with robots. The more positive outcomes generated by the application of AI in CSR (vs. CA) practices were more pronounced among those with high levels of uneasiness with robots, but such an effect was not significant among those with low levels of uneasiness with robots. Findings were discussed based on interdisciplinary theoretical insights from the CA-CSR typology, HAII-TIME model, and Stereotype Content Model. Implications for public relations scholarship and practices were discussed.

This study explores an area that has not been widely researched in the Latin American and Caribbean region: the identification of a capability gap in relation to key strategic public relations and communication management issues and activities. To this end, this article presents findings and analysis from a survey conducted in 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2020. The existence of a capability gap in relation to key issues and activities in public relations and communication management is confirmed, which represents a challenge for the development of the public relations field as well as for higher education institutions across the region.

This study investigates how people participate in activism against Asian hate crimes (i.e., Asian Lives Matter (ALM)). In contrast to numerous studies that use Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS) to predict information behaviors, this study introduced and examined a streamlined model focused on predicting activism behaviors. Moreover, this study tests the Problem Chain Recognition (PCR) effect by exploring how situational motivation in problem solving related to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement affects individuals’ perceptions and communicative acquisition about the issue of anti-Asian hate crimes. Further, this study examines the differences among three American socialized racial groups in terms of problem recognition, constraint recognition, involvement recognition of activism against Asian hate crimes, and activism behaviors. The results of this study revealed that situational motivation in problem solving and referent criterion lead to activism against anti-Asian hate crime. In addition, this study found positive PCR effects between BLM and ALM. This represents a pioneering utilization of the PCR effect to the field of racial activism. Importantly, there were significant differences to perceive activism for anti-Asian hate crimes among three racial group (Blacks, Whites, and Asians). Therefore, the results of this study contribute to the theoretical building of STOPS and practical implications for understanding the complexity of the American socialized racial discourse and predicting racial activism in relation to BLM and ALM.

The Hispanic or Latina/o community is an important and growing part of the economy, culture, and politics of the United States. As such, public relations professionals need to be knowledgeable about and responsive to the needs of Hispanic or Latina/o publics. Despite a growing emphasis on diversity and inclusion in the field of public relations, research on Hispanic public relations (HPR) remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, the present study conducted a Delphi panel with 17 experts in HPR in the U.S. The panel used a multi-iteration and consensus-building approach to evaluate different aspects of HPR, including the state of the profession, the competencies required to practice HPR effectively, the value of incorporating HPR courses into academic curricula, and strategies for recruiting and retaining HPR students. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for public relations scholars, educators, and industry leaders. By examining the current state of HPR and identifying key issues and challenges, this study contributes to a better understanding of the profession and its potential for growth and development. By highlighting the importance of HPR education and training, this study also offers practical guidance for those interested in advancing the field of HPR.

Dyadic assumptions permeate organization-public relationship (OPR) research. However, corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives need to be understood not only in the dyadic organization-public context (i.e., examining effects of an organization’s CSR on one particular public), but also in the multifaceted organization-publics context where the interconnectedness among publics themselves needs to be considered. The purpose of this study is to examine how CSR brings relational outcomes when intergroup dynamics are considered. Through an experimental design where a public’s identity threat was manipulated, the study suggests that CSR leads to relational outcomes through establishing identity congruity and a public’s self-expansion (validating and affirming one’s identity through the organization). Moderated mediation analysis also showed that the indirect effect of CSR on the relational outcome through congruity became greater when participants were exposed to potential identity threat. The study provides important implications for how we approach and understand the connections between a public and an organization.

Although scholarship discussing public relations professionals’ roles has been abundant, ethical dilemmas facing public relations professionals remain implicit in such roles. Specifically, a theoretically-derived typology explaining the origin of these dilemmas and categorizing them into distinct profiles has been lacking so far. We address this lacuna by utilizing role theory to elucidate the origin of public relations professionals’ ethical dilemmas and employ a deductive approach to extricate such dilemmas from each part of the name “public relations professional.” Each part of the name signifies a distinct role with specific functions and inherent expectations. Put differently, each part implies specific values that role constituents expect role incumbents to uphold. As such, the name “public relations professional” has been deliberately chosen as it carries value-laden meanings, referring to an individual who exhibits an orientation and a commitment to publicness while developing, maintaining, and promoting relationships and upholding professionalism. In building our typology, we portray the “public” role as the midpoint on a continuum, with organization at one end and society at the other; the “relations” role as the midpoint between transactions and bonds; and the “professional” role as the midpoint between employee and citizen. This leads to a multidimensional typology that includes three types of ethical dilemmas: organization-versus-society, transactions-versus-bonds, and employee-versus-citizen. We advance extant scholarship by explaining the origin of public relations professionals’ ethical dilemmas and unifying such dilemmas in an exclusive-inclusive typology.

While businesses are increasingly active in raising voices for social and political issues, known as corporate social advocacy (CSA), the strategies, impacts, and ethics of controversial businesses’ CSA are largely unknown. This study draws on the visual framing theory and CSA literature to explore how visual framings are constructed in cannabis companies’ CSA and their effects on public engagement (i.e., likes and comments) on Instagram. Findings from content analysis of 502 Instagram posts by 42 cannabis companies reveal that cannabis companies construct the meaning of CSA via various visual strategies. However, they may still have a long way to go before initiating authentic image-based CSA. Regression analyses found that gender, color, and issue category are among influential visual characteristics that can foster or impede public engagement, raising critical consideration of cannabis companies’ positionality in corporate activism. This study advances the theory-driven, nuanced, and contextualized understanding of corporate communication in today’s polarized public opinion environment and increasingly visual-focused media landscape.

Cancel culture is a socio-political movement that aims to financially punish or ostracize a person from the public sphere due to a transgression. Such offenses range from criminal acts to the public expression of controversial opinions. In response, digital activism coalesces into a socio-political force that seeks to shame, silence, or punish the offending individual. This study seeks to understand the agonistic reputational wrangle facilitated by cancel culture using an original theoretical framework that combines the rhetorical paradigm from public relations with deviance theory from sociology and media studies. Specifically, this study analyzes the cancellation and reputational repair strategies of four celebrities—Louis C.K., Logan Paul, Jussie Smollett, and J.K. Rowling. It utilizes large-scale social media sentiment analysis to reveal varying degrees of reputational decay and recovery. The study shows that factors impacting the severity of cancellation and the likelihood of reputational recovery include distinguishing between criminal acts and controversial opinions, as well as social variables and the strength of a parasocial relationship between a celebrity and their fandom.

Public relations histories have frequently credited Ivy Lee as providing the first press release. This research uses primary and secondary historical sources to demonstrate that the American branch of the international peace movement was using press releases decades before Lee’s birth. Starting at least as early as 1819, the movement disseminated press releases to newspapers. This program of sending out press releases increased in size until it was reaching as many as 1,000 separate newspapers in the 1840s. At that time, a young advocate named Elihu Burritt took over the operation. Using a newspaper loophole in postage laws, Burritt was able to regularly disseminate messages to as many as 1,500 separate newspapers, averaging over 200 article placements per message and reaching hundreds of thousands of newspaper readers. This research discusses implications for public relations history.

Some organizations are highly visible in the media. This media coverage informs employees about others’ perceptions of their organization. Consequently, perceived visibility may be related to how employees think about their organization and how they construe organizational identity. This study empirically tests this proposition. It therefore combines aspects of Hatch & Schultz’ model of organizational identity dynamics with mediatization to understand to what extent employees are sensitive toward their environment when forming an organizational identity. In two online surveys comparing employees’ (N = 109) and a representative sample of citizens’ (N = 1417) views on a highly visible Dutch public organization from the crime sector, we disentangle the identity-reputation process considering the role of perceived media impact. We further compare identity perceptions of two intraorganizational sub-groups. We find that citizens view the organization more positively than employees, which points to a misalignment between employees’ and citizens’ perceptions of the organization. In one of the two organizational sub-groups, the findings show that the larger the misalignment between construed reputation (how do employees think that citizens perceive their organization?) and actual reputation (how do citizens in fact perceive the organization?), the weaker employees’ perception of identity. Furthermore, employees appear to be sensitive toward the media coverage of their organization and citizens’ reputation perceptions. Yet, this environmental sensitivity does not impact on their organizational identity. We interpret this as a resilient identity, which represents the maneuvering of employees between their organizational identity perception (what they perceive as central, distinct, and enduring) and external stakeholders’ (i.e., the media, citizens) perceptions of the organization that over time positively distinguishes what the organization is and will remain.