Exploring Public Relations Exploring

Public Relations
Global Strategic Communication Fourth Edition

Ralph Tench Liz Yeomans

Global Strategic Communication

Exploring Public Relations

Exploring Public Relations is the definitive academic text on public relations. Now into its fourth edition, it
continues to offer a critical analysis, blending theory with real-life application, including many case studies, Fourth Edition
exercises and discussion questions. Beloved by practitioners and students alike, this is the ideal accompaniment to
any PR course.
This new edition has been updated with the following features:
A new chapter on digital and social media with updates to relevant chapters in relation to changes in digital
communications
Coverage of fashion, beauty and sports public relations
Societal changes and impact on public relations, for example, how Generation Y interacts with PR
Updated case studies and mini-cases throughout
Instructors manual and slides are available to lecturers.
This is a popular textbook for professional body and professional PR courses, as well as undergraduate and
postgraduate level, as it continues to engage students with the thought processes behind some of the latest PR
stunts.

Its an excellent introductory level textbook with a European perspective on public relations. The combination
of a written chapter with an extensive list of follow up reading is particularly useful. It covers a very wide range
of relevant subjects.
Derek Hodge, Teaching Fellow, University of Stirling

Professor Ralph Tench is Professor of Communication Education, Leeds Beckett University. Ralph was the subject leader
for public relations and communications at Leeds Metropolitan University for 10 years where he oversaw the expansion of
the undergraduate, postgraduate and professional course portfolio. He is widely published in books and academic journals, Fourth
ranging from management to education journals, and has presented his research around the world.
Edition
Liz Yeomans is Principal Lecturer, Public Relations and Communication, Leeds Beckett University. Since joining the
university in 1994, Liz has helped establish a centre of excellence in public relations education and training. As well as
contributing to the BA (Hons) Public Relations programme, she has developed and taught new courses for working Ralph Tench
professionals including the nationally recognised qualification, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Diploma.

Liz Yeomans

www.pearson-books.com

Cover image: David Madison/Getty Images

Ralph Tench Liz Yeomans

CVR_TENC12183_04.indd 1 15/03/2017 09:09

 Exploring Public Relations

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 1 23/03/2017 12:51

 At Pearson, we have a simple mission: to help people
make more of their lives through learning.

We combine innovative learning technology with trusted

content and educational expertise to provide engaging
and effective learning experiences that serve people
wherever and whenever they are learning.

From classroom to boardroom, our curriculum materials, digital

learning tools and testing programmes help to educate millions
of people worldwide more than any other private enterprise.

Every day our work helps learning flourish, and

wherever learning flourishes, so do people.

To learn more, please visit us at www.pearson.com/uk

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 2 23/03/2017 12:51

 Exploring Public
Relations
Global Strategic Communication

Fourth edition

Ralph Tench
Professor of Communication Education, Leeds Beckett University

Liz Yeomans
Principal Lecturer, Public Relations and Communication, Leeds Beckett
University

Harlow, England London New York Boston San Francisco Toronto Sydney Dubai Singapore Hong Kong
Tokyo Seoul Taipei New Delhi Cape Town So Paulo Mexico City Madrid Amsterdam Munich Paris Milan

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 3 23/03/2017 12:51

 PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED
Edinburgh Gate
Harlow CM20 2JE
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1279 623623
Web: www.pearson.com/uk

First published 2006 (print)

Second edition published 2009 (print)
Third edition published 2014 (print and electronic)
Fourth edition published 2017 (print and electronic)

Pearson Education Limited 2006, 2009 (print)

Pearson Education Limited 2014, 2017 (print and electronic)

The rights of Ralph Tench and Liz Yeomans to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by them in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The print publication is protected by copyright. Prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system,
distribution or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, permission
should be obtained from the publisher or, where applicable, a licence permitting restricted copying in the United
Kingdom should be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Barnards Inn, 86 Fetter Lane, London EC4A 1EN.

The ePublication is protected by copyright and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased,
licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as
allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased, or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright
law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and the publishers
rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Pearson Education is not responsible for the content of third-party internet sites.

ISBN: 978-1-292-11218-3 (print)

978-1-292-11220-6 (PDF)
978-1-292-20034-7 (ePub)

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for the print edition is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for the print edition is available from the Library of Congress

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
19 18 17 16 15

Cover image: David Madison/Getty Images

Print edition typeset in 9/12 pt Sabon LT Pro by SPi Global

Printed and bound by L.E.G.O. S.p.A., Italy

NOTE THAT ANY PAGE CROSS REFERENCES REFER TO THE PRINT EDITION

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 4 23/03/2017 12:51

 Brief contents

About the authors xvii

Foreword xxiii
Preface xxv
Publishers acknowledgements xxvii

Part 1 The context of public relations 1

1 Public relations origins: definitions and history 3

2 Public relations and the media 20
3 Digital and social media 35
4 Public relations and democracy 60
5 Community and society: corporate social responsibility (CSR) 74
6 Intercultural and multicultural context of public relations 97
7 Role of the public relations practitioner 111

Part 2 Public relations theories and concepts 145

8 Public relations theories: an overview 147

9 Strategic public relations planning and management 168
10 Public relations programme research and evaluation 196
11 Corporate image, reputation and identity 212
12 Public relations, propaganda and the psychology of persuasion 227
13 Public relations professionalism and ethics 248

Part 3 Public relations specialisms 267

14 Media relations 269

15 Internal communication 286
16 Managing community involvement programmes 308
17 Issues management 330

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 5 23/03/2017 12:51

 vi BRIEF CONTENTS

18 Crisis public relations management 343

19 Public relations and the consumer 362
20 Business-to-business public relations 378
21 Public affairs 392
22 Public relations in the world of finance 412
23 Integrated marketing communications 426
24 Sponsorship 445

Part 4 Sectoral considerations 471

25 Non-government organisations and pressure groups 473

26 Corporate communication 492
27 Celebrity public relations 510
28 Strategic communication and social marketing in healthcare organisations 526
29 What next? Future issues for public relations 538

Glossary 561
Index 567

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 6 23/03/2017 12:51

 Contents

About the authors xvii

Foreword xxiii
Preface xxv
Publishers acknowledgements xxvii

Part 1 The context of public relations 1

1 Public relations origins: definitions and history 3

Tom Watson
Introduction 4
Proto-public relations: the antecedents of modern public relations 5
The expansion of public relations in the twentieth century 8
The worldwide development of public relations since the mid-twentieth century 14
How public relations grew 15
Summary 16
Bibliography 17

2 Public relations and the media 20

Scott Davidson
Introduction 21
Media environments 21
Exchange theories: the information subsidy 22
Agenda setting and framing 25
Power shift towards public relations practitioners 28
Mediatisation 29
Summary 32
Bibliography 32

3 Digital and social media 35

Jim Macnamara
Introduction: the fourth media revolution 36
Web 1.0: the information age 36
Web 2.0: the social web 38
New media whats new, whats not? 38
Social media and social networks 39
Eight key fundamentals of social media 40
The social organisation and social business 42
Functions vs dysfunctions 42
Who owns social media in organisations? 44
How practitioners are using social media 45
PR practices in digital and social media 46

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 7 23/03/2017 12:51

 viii CONTENTS

Web 3.0: the Semantic Web 53

Ethics 54
Summary 54
Bibliography 54

4 Public relations and democracy 60

Neil Washbourne
Introduction 61
Democracy, media and expertise 61
PRs relation to democracy since the 1980s 62
PRs contribution to democracy 63
PR versus democracy 64
PR ethics codes and democracy 66
The problem of (PRs) expertise for democracy 69
Summary 70
Bibliography 70

5 Community and society: corporate social responsibility (CSR) 74

Ralph Tench
Introduction 75
Social and economic change 75
Sustainable business: corporate social responsibility (CSR) 77
Business case for corporate social responsibility: why be socially responsible? 80
Organisational responsibilities to stakeholders 82
Organisational responsibilities to society 83
Regulatory frameworks 87
Ethics and business practice 88
Summary 93
Bibliography 94
Websites 96

6 Intercultural and multicultural context of public relations 97

Dejan Veri
Introduction 98
The context of culture 98
Public relations and culture 99
Between universalism and relativism 100
Global principles and specific applications 101
Social media and activists in the global village 103
Uneven globalisation 104
How to prepare for international and global public relations 104
Key principles in intercultural and multicultural public relations 106
Public diplomacy 106
Summary 108
Bibliography 108
Websites 110

7 Role of the public relations practitioner 111

Ralph Tench and Lucy Laville
Introduction 112
Who are the public relations practitioners? 112

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 8 23/03/2017 12:51

 CONTENTS ix

Who does what: the bigger picture 113

Role of the communicator 118
The PR practitioner as communicator 119
What public relations people do: individual practitioners 124
Skills for the ideal practitioner 124
Role of theory in practice 134
Professionalism 136
Education and research 139
Summary 140
Bibliography 140
Webpage 143

Part 2 Public relations theories and concepts 145

8 Public relations theories: an overview 147

Martina Topi
Introduction 148
Communication theories in public relations 148
Relationship theories of public relations 150
Social influence theories 154
Mass communication theories 155
Rhetoric and engagement in public relations 157
Feminism and public relations 158
Postmodern and socio-cultural theories of public relations 159
Summary 163
Bibliography 163

9 Strategic public relations planning and management 168

Anne Gregory
Introduction 169
The importance of context 169
External environment 170
Internal environment 174
Implications of context 175
Strategic public relations programmes and campaigns 176
Why planning is important 177
Underpinning theories: the systems context of planning 177
Approaches to planning: the planning template 178
Summary 191
Bibliography 194

10 Public relations programme research and evaluation 196

Paul Noble
Introduction 197
Barcelona Principles 197
Valid metrics guidelines 198
Quantification of public relations 199
Objective setting 201
Research 202
Outcome evaluation 206
Output evaluation 207

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 9 23/03/2017 12:51

 x CONTENTS

Content analysis 208

Social media 208
Summary 210
Bibliography 210

11 Corporate image, reputation and identity 212

Finn Frandsen and Winni Johansen
Introduction 213
The controversy of image in public relations 213
Corporate image and reputation 214
New concepts 215
Corporate identity 216
Reputation management and corporate branding 218
Measuring corporate image and reputation 222
A critical point of view 223
Summary 224
Bibliography 224
Websites 226

12 Public relations, propaganda and the psychology of persuasion 227

Johanna Fawkes
Introduction 228
Public relations and propaganda 228
Public relations and persuasion 231
Who says: the question of credibility 233
Says what: the nature of the message 234
To whom: the audience perspective 237
To what effect: forming and changing attitudes and beliefs 238
Summary 244
Bibliography 244
Websites 247

13 Public relations professionalism and ethics 248

Johanna Fawkes
Introduction 249
Defining professions 250
Is PR a profession? 251
Professional ethics: an overview 252
The ethics of codes 254
Approaches to public relations ethics 255
The practitioner perspective 259
Summary 262
Bibliography 262

Part 3 Public relations specialisms 267

14 Media relations 269
Richard Bailey
Introduction 270
Media relations, publicity and public relations 270
Advertising or editorial 271

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 10 23/03/2017 12:51

 CONTENTS xi

Origins and development 272

Hacks versus flacks updated 273
Practical media relations 274
Evaluating media coverage 276
Influencer relations, content marketing and brand journalism 278
Summary 284
Bibliography 284
Websites 285

15 Internal communication 286

Liz Yeomans and Liam FitzPatrick
Introduction 287
What is internal communication? Perspectives and definitions 287
What does an internal communication function do? 289
What matters to employees: motivation in the workplace 291
Planning internal communication 292
Outcomes rather than outputs: choosing effective channels 299
The importance of evidence in IC planning and evaluation 302
Approaches to information gathering 303
Professionalisation: attributes, competencies and skills in internal communication 304
Summary 305
Bibliography 305

16 Managing community involvement programmes 308

Ralph Tench and Mavis Amo-Mensah
Introduction 309
Corporate community involvement (CCI) programmes 309
Employees and community programmes 314
Cause-related marketing (CRM) 316
Developing community programmes 322
Evaluating community programmes 325
Summary 328
Bibliography 328
Websites 329

17 Issues management 330

Tim Coombs
Introduction 331
Origins and essence and essence of issues management 331
Models of issues management 332
Expanding issues management beyond public policy 337
The big picture of issues management 340
Summary 341
Bibliography 341

18 Crisis public relations management 343

Tim Coombs
Introduction 344
Crisis public relations management: the context 344
Where do crises come from? 346
How to prepare for a crisis 348

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 11 23/03/2017 12:51

 xii CONTENTS

Communicating during a crisis 350

The internet and crisis public relations management 356
Summary 359
Bibliography 359

19 Public relations and the consumer 362

Paul Willis
Introduction 363
Public relations and marketing 363
Targeting and tailoring 365
Putting lipstick on a pig 365
Core activities 366
The media landscape: continuity and change 368
A shift to owned media 369
Branded content 370
Virtual influence 371
Its going to be a bumpy ride 373
Land-grab and reinvention 373
New activities and practices 375
Summary 375
Bibliography 376

20 Business-to-business public relations 378

Helen Gill (ne Standing)
Introduction 379
Core principles of business-to-business (B2B) public relations 379
B2B media relations 380
B2B social media 384
Coordinating the communications disciplines 387
Building corporate reputation 389
Summary 391
Bibliography 391
Websites and social media 391

21 Public affairs 392

Danny Moss
Introduction: why public affairs? 393
Locating the role of public affairs within the organisation 393
Defining public affairs: a confused professional identity 394
The scope of public affairs 394
Lobbying 396
International perspectives on public affairs and lobbying 401
Public affairs management 402
Summary 409
Bibliography 410
Websites 411

22 Public relations in the world of finance 412

Clea Bourne
Introduction 413
PR for global financial centres: the context 414
Public relations in wholesale financial markets 415

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 12 23/03/2017 12:51

 CONTENTS xiii

Public relations in retail financial markets 416

Media in financial centres 419
The global financial crisis 422
Summary 424
Bibliography 424

23 Integrated marketing communications 426

Neil Kelley
Introduction 427
Defining integrated marketing communications (IMC) 428
The planning process 430
Audiences 434
Marketing communications tactics 437
Touch points 439
Summary 442
Bibliography 443

24 Sponsorship 445
Ryan Bowd, Ioannis Kostopoulos and Ralph Tench
Introduction 446
Sponsorship: an overview (facts and figures) 449
Definitions of sponsorship 450
Benefits from a successful sponsorship 454
Activation strategies: in-depth case studies 456
Drivers of success 459
Developing a sponsorship strategy 461
Communicating a sponsorship 464
Evaluating sponsorship 466
Summary: the future of sponsorship 467
Bibliography 468
Websites 469

Part 4 Sectoral considerations 471

25 Non-government organisations and pressure groups 473

Nilam Ashra-McGrath
Introduction 474
What is an NGO? 474
Fishes and ponds: the international development context 477
What has changed for communicators in NGOs? 477
The importance of knowledge networks for NGO communicators 477
Common communication issues facing NGOs 478
Relationships with donors 478
Communication in small NGOs 480
PR and its link to fundraising 481
The power of the website 481
Advocacy and campaigning 481
Getting donations 483
Brand, reputation and identity 483
NGOs as corporations and superbrands 484

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 13 23/03/2017 12:51

 xiv CONTENTS

Summary 488
Bibliography 489
Websites 491

26 Corporate communication 492

Emma Wood
Introduction 493
Defining the term corporate communication 493
The purpose of corporate communication (or frameworks for practice) 494
Corporate communication in practice 496
The organisational context: how corporate communication fits into organisational structures 502
Summary 507
Bibliography 507

27 Celebrity public relations 510

Kate Fitch
Introduction 511
What is celebrity? 511
Celebrity PR 511
Celebrity and society 512
Celebrity and the internet 513
Celebrity PR in practice 517
Celebrity in different contexts 519
Summary 523
Bibliography 523
Websites 525

28 Strategic communication and social marketing in healthcare organisations 526

Paul Willis
Introduction 527
A healthy obsession 527
What do health communicators do? 528
Health communication and wicked problems 529
Social marketing to the rescue? 532
Summary 536
Bibliography 537

29 What next? Future issues for public relations 538

Ralph Tench and Liz Yeomans
Introduction 539
Campaigning and pressure groups 539
Internationalisation of public relations 539
Publics 540
Public relations identity 541
Issues 542
Technology 543
Practitioner roles and professionalism in public relations 543
Specialisation of public relations practice 544
Media fragmentation 546
Education 547

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 14 23/03/2017 12:51

 CONTENTS xv

Future trends and issues for public relations 548

Summary 557
Bibliography 558
Websites 560

Glossary 561
Index 567

Lecturer Resources ON THE

WEBSITE
For password-protected online resources tailored to
support the use of this textbook in teaching, please visit
www.pearsoned.co.uk/tench

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 15 23/03/2017 12:51

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 16 23/03/2017 12:51
 About the authors
Professor Ralph Tench is a full professor of commu-
nication education and a past director of research for
the Faculty of Business and Law at Leeds Beckett
University, with responsibility for the research strat-
egy for over 150 academics representing law,
accounting and finance, strategy and economics,
marketing and communications and human resource
management.
Dr Tench is the former subject head for public rela-
tions and communication at Leeds Beckett University,
where for ten years he oversaw the expansion of the
undergraduate, postgraduate and professional course
portfolio. As professor he teaches on undergraduate
and postgraduate programmes, as well as supervising
MA and PhD research students. His current focus is
on developing and delivering major research projects
in public relations and strategic communication in the
UK and worldwide. He was the principal investigator
for the first and largest EU public relations funded
programme, the ECOPSI (European Communications
Practitioners Skills and Innovation) programme. This
project explored the education, skills and competency
needs of European communication practitioners
(www.ecopsi.org.uk). The three-year project contrib-
uted to competency frameworks for communications
and the production of self-diagnostic tools (www
.p4ace.org). This research builds on another interna-
tional longitudinal research project (that celebrated
its 10th year in 2016) funded by European bodies
and private sector business, the European
Communication Monitor (ECM) survey. The ECM
(www.communicationmonitor.eu) is a qualitative and
quantitative trend survey of European communica-
tions directors using a sample of over 3000 practitio-
ners from 46 countries each year. Reflecting the
breadth of his research experience and application,
Professor Tench has recently directed another
European-funded project exploring deliberative
engagement and working in the SME sector (sme-
engagement.eu) as well as supporting research proj-
ects such as the Public Health England Whole Systems
Obesity multi-disciplinary project.
A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 17
Professor Tench is a past external examiner for
many UK and European universities, as well as a
visiting professor. His doctoral students are engaged
in research on issues of strategic communication
related to trust, responsibility, reputation and brand-
ing, health communication and relationship manage-
ment. He also supervises students on issues of
professionalisation and the development of the pub-
lic relations discipline. He has chaired over 30 PhD
examinations and sat on panels for candidates in the
UK, South Africa, Hungary, Ireland, Australia and
Denmark.
Professor Tench is president-elect of the European
Public Relations Research and Education Association
(EUPRERA) and is a past board member of the asso-
ciation since 2013. He is also past head of the Scientific
Committee for the Annual Congress (20092015).
He is a member of the International Communication
Association (ICA) and sits on the editorial board for
the Journal of Communication Management, the
Journal of Further and Higher Education, Corporate
Communications: An International Journal, Public
Relations Review and the International Journal of
Strategic Communication.
Ralph is a regular guest and keynote speaker at
academic and practitioner conferences and his
research has been published and disseminated in
over 200 books and journals worldwide. Previous
editions of Exploring Public Relations have been
translated into several European languages. Dr
Tench has edited two volumes on his research
interests in corporate social responsibility with
Emerald Corporate Social Irresponsibility: A
challenging concept (2013) and Communicating
Corporate Social Responsibility (2014). In 2017
he published Communication Excellence: How to
develop, manage and lead an exceptional commu-
nication department.
Dr Liz Yeomans is principal lecturer and former sub-
ject group head for public relations and communi-
cation at Leeds Business School (Leeds Beckett University),
23/03/2017 12:51
 xviii ABOUT THE AUTHORS
where she leads on research development and chairs
the research ethics committee.
Since joining the institution in 1994, Liz has
helped establish a leading centre in public relations
education. As well as contributing to the universitys
BA (Hons) Public Relations, Liz has led the develop-
ment of courses for working professionals and estab-
lished masters programmes in public relations and
corporate communications, including a Master in
International Communication together with four
European institutions that comprise the Geert
Hofstede Consortium. Her teaching focuses on the
social psychology of communication, research meth-
ods, public relations theory, stakeholder relations
and employee communication at undergraduate and
postgraduate levels.
Among her achievements, Liz obtained funding for
and led a successful Erasmus programme, Women in
Public Relations in Europe in 2014. The programme,
organised with partners at Istanbul University and
LMU, Munich, attracted over 20 postgraduate stu-
dents to a two-week residential summer school to
research and debate gender equality in the communi-
cation disciplines. In addition, Liz has supervised
numerous student research projects, three of which
have gone on to win the annual EUPRERA Jos
Willems dissertation prize.
Lizs research interests include emotion work in PR
(the topic of a monograph for Routledge, forthcom-
ing); women and gender equality; fair internships in
the communication industries; employee engagement
and qualitative research in communication. She
supervises doctoral work releated to these areas. She
has published in the Journal of Communication
Management, Corporate Communications: An
International Journal, PRism online journal, Public
Relations Inquiry and the Romanian Journal of
Communication and Public Relations, where she has
guest-edited a special issue on qualitative research in
communication. Liz has presented at several interna-
tional conferences including BledCom (Bled
International Research Symposium), EUPRERA
annual congress, and ICA and has reviewed numer-
ous conference papers and journal articles.
In addition to her administrative, research, and
teaching duties, Liz has extensive experience as an
external examiner at UK universities including Cardiff,
Bournemouth and Robert Gordon (RGU), Aberdeen.
Before joining academia, Liz held communication
management roles in UK government and local
g overnment.
A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 18
The contributors
Dr Mavis Amo-Mensah completed her PhD with
Professor Ralph Tench at Leeds Beckett University in
corporate social responsibility. She is a lecturer in
Communication at the Department of Communication
and Media Studies, University of Education, Winneba,
Ghana. She has taught various courses in communica-
tion since 2007. Mavis is an alumna of the Chartered
Institute of Public Relations and member of the
Institute of Public Relations, Ghana. She currently
serves as member of the Integrated Reporting steering
committee of the Centre for Governance, Leadership
and Global Responsibility at Leeds Beckett University.
Her research interests focus on corporate communica-
tion, public relations, corporate social responsibility
and sustainability communication.
Dr Nilam Ashra-McGrath is a research communica-
tions specialist and researcher for the non-profit sector.
She has extensive experience in communication and
training roles for development agencies and charities in
the Philippines, Republic of Maldives, Sri Lanka,
Nepal, Bangladesh and the UK. She delivers work-
shops on using plain English and storytelling to com-
municate research findings to multiple audiences, and
is the creator of The Ups and Downs of PhDs work-
shop series. Her research interests include open access
challenges for researchers, media representations of
development issues, oral histories, using diaries in
research, and the sociology of communications work.
Richard Bailey FCIPR MPRCA is an experienced pub-
lic relations educator. He has taught in universities
since 2003, has been a professional trainer and has
taught on and assessed professional qualifications. He
previously worked as a PR consultant and PR manager
in the technology sector (including time as chief press
officer for a FTSE 250 company) and before that wrote
for a business magazine about technology. He has
edited Behind the Spin magazine (www.behindthespin
.com) since 2008 and has published and presented on
media relations, social media, public relations educa-
tion and aspects of the history of public relations.
Dr Clea Bourne is a lecturer in public relations, adver-
tising and marketing at Goldsmiths, University of
London. Her research critically explores the media-
tion of finance. This has encompassed close scrutiny
of communication practices by a range of financial
institutions including central banks, hedge funds,
23/03/2017 12:51

rating agencies, investment banks, life insurers and
Ponzi schemes. Her work has been published in
Culture and Organisation, Public Relations Inquiry,
Journal of Public Relations Research and New Media
and Society, as well as several edited collections. Her
forthcoming monograph, Trust, Power and Public
Relations in Financial Markets, will be published by
Routledge.
Ryan Bowd is an award-winning strategic marketing
and PR practitioner, who mixes a professional life of
communications practice and academic teaching and
learning. Currently he acts as a consultant and advisor
to several key organisations and individuals in the
Qatar region and globally, including Josoor Institute,
in the areas of sport, event business and education. In
his previous role as director of education for Josoor
Institute, he helped to launch Josoor Institute and
deliver programmes in sport and events to over 1500
delegates from over 90 countries. Prior to this he was
head of practice for sport development, education and
mass participation for IMG; where clients included the
Abu Dhabi Tourist and Cultural Authority, Adidas
Eyewear, Asics, Etihad, Gatorade, GE, GE Capital,
inov-8, International Hotels Group (IHG), Tata
Consultancy Services and the Supreme Committee for
Delivery & Legacy. He also worked at Weber
Shandwick Public Relations and owned 1090 commu-
nications, the latter of which he sold to Connectpoint
PR (now Amaze PR). Bowd has also lectured at Leeds
Beckett University, Manchester Metropolitan
University and Leeds University at undergraduate and
postgraduate levels in a range of positions.
Professor W. Timothy Coombs, PhD, is a full professor
in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M
University and an honorary professor at Aarhus
University in Denmark. His research areas include
crisis communication, activist use of the Internet to
pressure organisational change, and issues manage-
ment. He is past recipient of the Jackson, Jackson and
Wagner Behavioural Research prize from the Public
Relations Society of America. His articles have
appeared in a variety of international journals and his
book chapters have appeared in major works in the
field of public relations, including the Handbook of
Public Relations and Encyclopedia of Public Relations.
His crisis books include the award-winning Ongoing
Crisis Communication and Code Red in the
Boardroom, and he co-edited The Handbook of Crisis
Communication with Sherry Holladay. His other
A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 19
ABOUT THE AUTHORS xix
books include Public Relations Strategy and
Application: Managing Influence, Managing Corporate
Social Responsibility: A Communication Approach
and the award-winning Its Not Just PR (all co-
authored with Sherry Holladay). He is currently the
editor of Corporate Communication: An International
Journal and is a member of the Arthur Page Society.
Dr Scott Davidson researches and teaches public rela-
tions, lobbying and campaign strategies at the
University of Leicester, UK. Recently he has been
researching PR and democracy, particularly in his role
as director of the EURPREA network on lobbying, as
well as agonistic theories that tell us why PR should
be doing more to stir up public passions on important
issues. He maintains a longstanding interest in com-
munications and ageing. Before becoming an aca-
demic he worked in media relations and campaigns
management for organisations such as AGE UK. In his
teaching he strives to inspire students to become inde-
pendent, strategically reflective, ethically grounded
practitioners.
Dr Johanna Fawkes is principal research fellow at
Huddersfield University, UK, where she is principal
investigator leading a major global research project
into public relations, professionalism and capability.
Since 1990, she has developed and delivered public
relations degrees, professional courses and doctoral
programmes at three UK and one Australian univer-
sity. Before becoming an academic, Johanna worked
in senior press and PR roles in the public sector. In
recent years she has delivered keynote speeches, writ-
ten numerous conference and journal articles, chap-
ters for leading textbooks and a well-received book,
Public Relations Ethics and Professionalism: the
Shadow of Excellence (Routledge 2015).
Dr Kate Fitch is a senior lecturer and academic chair
at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, where she
has taught since 2001. She has published extensively
on diverse public relations topics, including gender,
popular culture, pedagogy, and history. Her book,
Professionalizing Public Relations: History, Gender
and Education, was published in 2016. Recent publi-
cations focus on gender in public relations and on
promotional culture. Her current research investigates
historical representations of female practitioners and
celebrity public relations. Kate is on the editorial
boards of Public Relations Review, Public Relations
Inquiry and PRism.
23/03/2017 12:51
 xx ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Liam FitzPatrick is a consultant specialising in change
communications and works around the world with a
wide range of organisations. Before concentrating on
employee communications he worked in corporate
PR. In addition to his work as a practitioner he
teaches and writes extensively; he authored a book on
internal communications and has contributed chap-
ters to a number of textbooks and handbooks. He is
particularly interested in the tools and techniques used
in practice and how good communication brings tan-
gible benefits to organisations, their work forces and
stakeholders.
Professor Finn Frandsen is professor of corporate
communication and director of the Centre for
Corporate Communication at the School of Business
and Social Sciences, Aarhus University (Denmark).
His primary research interests are crisis communi-
cation and crisis management, environmental com-
munication, corporate communication, public
relations, marketing communication and organisa-
tion and management theories. Finn has been a
visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School,
BI Norwegian Business School, Lund University,
Aalto University, ICN Business School, IULM
University, USI Universit della Svizzera Italiana,
and Dakar Business School. He has edited and writ-
ten numerous books, book chapters and journal
articles. He is regional editor (Europe) of Corporate
Communication: An International Journal. In 2006,
he was elected Teacher of the Year at the Aarhus
School of Business.
Helen Gill (nee Standing) is founding director of
award-winning content-marketing agency Engage
Comms Ltd, working with clients in a range of sectors
from professional services to property. She has an MA
in public relations and over 10 years experience
working in a variety of communications roles in con-
sultancy and in-house in both the public and private
sectors. She has been named Outstanding Young
Communicator by the CIPR, one of PR Weeks Top
29 under 29 and a finalist for Some Comms brightest
social media communicator under 30. Her business,
Engage Comms, has won CIPR awards for Best Use of
Digital and Business and Corporate Communications
for its work with clients such as a medium-sized con-
struction firm. She is an experienced public speaker,
delivering training on topics including personal
branding for partners of professional services firms
and she is co-author of Amazon e-book Power Your
Personal Brand for 2013 aimed at business-to-
business professionals.
A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 20
Professor Anne Gregory is chair of corporate com-
munication at the University of Huddersfield and
immediate past chair of the Global Alliance. Anne
heads specialist research and consultancy pro-
grammes for public and private sector clients such as
the UK Cabinet Office, large Government
Departments and Tesco Corporate. She has led two
global initiatives, being a co-convenor of the
Stockholm Accords and the Melbourne Mandate
projects, and she is currently leading the Global
Capabilities project. She is an advisor to UK
Government, having completed three attachments,
and is a Departmental Reviewer for the Prime
Ministers and Cabinet Office. Anne was president
of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR)
in 2004, leading it to Chartered status. She was
awarded the CIPR Sir Stephen Tallents Medal in
2010 for her outstanding contribution to the profes-
sion and is the only UK academic to be given the
Pathfinder Award for her outstanding contribution
to research by the US-based Institute for Public
Relations. Dr Gregory has written and edited 20
books, including the globally available CIPR series,
authored 30 book chapters and 50 refereed journal
articles and conference papers. She was editor-in-
chief of the Journal of Communication Management
until 2016.
Dr Winni Johansen is professor of corporate commu-
nication and director of the Executive Masters
Programme in Corporate Communication at the
School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus
University (Denmark). Dr Johansens research inter-
ests include crisis communication and crisis manage-
ment, environmental communication, corporate
communication, public relations, marketing commu-
nication, visual communication and organisational
culture. Winni has been a visiting professor at
Universit della Svizzera Italiana (Lugano), ICN
Business School, BI Norwegian Business School,
Copenhagen Business School, IULM University, Lund
University, Aalto University and Dakar Business
School. Her research has been published in numerous
books, book chapters and journal articles. In 2004,
she was elected Teacher of the Year at the Aarhus
School of Business.
Neil Kelley is a chartered marketer and a senior lec-
turer responsible for undergraduate marketing course
leadership at Leeds Beckett University. He is a lead
examiner at the CIM, for both the CIM Digital
Marketing and CAM Mobile Marketing in Practice
modules, and an examiner at the University of
23/03/2017 12:51

Cambridge. Neil specialises in marketing communica-
tions, with a strong focus on digital, and has contrib-
uted chapters to a number of print and audio books
for the CIM and FT Prentice Hall, as well as co-
authoring Customer-Centric Marketing for Kogan
Page. As a former marketer, Neil has provided train-
ing and services for companies such as Electronic Arts,
Toyota, Trading Standards Institute and a number of
professional bodies.
Dr Ioannis Kostopoulos is a principal lecturer at Leeds
Business School, Leeds Beckett University. Previously
he taught marketing and PR at several universities in
the UK, Greece and Italy. He has directed or/and par-
ticipated in consulting and market research projects in
many countries, working with companies and organ-
isations such as Vodafone, Yamaha-Motor, E.E.T.T.
(the Greek national provider of telecommunications
and post offices) and many others. He has more than
40 publications in peer-reviewed journals such as the
Journal of Strategic Marketing, International Journal
of Innovation Management and Managing Service
Quality. He is a member of the European Marketing
Academy, the Academy of Marketing Science (USA),
the Higher Education Academy (UK) and the
Economic Chamber of Greece. His areas of expertise
include services marketing, innovation, sponsorship
and sports PR.
Dr Lucy Laville is a senior lecturer in public relations
at Leeds Beckett University. She has 15 years experi-
ence in PR and marketing practice, having worked for
global brands and a national charity, as well as a PR
agency. She was head of communication at Leeds
Metropolitan University (now Leeds Beckett
University), before joining the PR and communication
academic subject group in 2006. Lucy has experience
in a range of areas, including media relations, crisis
management, internal communications, community
relations, public affairs and marketing. She has spo-
ken at academic and PR professional conferences and
has a research interest in networking and mentoring in
the PR industry.
Professor Jim Macnamara, PhD, is professor of public
communication at the University of Technology
Sydney, a role he took up in 2007 after a distinguished
30-year career in professional communication prac-
tice spanning journalism, public relations, and media
and communication research. He is internationally
recognised for his research in relation to measurement
and evaluation of public communication, social
media, and engagement and listening. He is the author
A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 21
ABOUT THE AUTHORS xxi
of 15 books including The 21st Century Media (R)
evolution: Emergent Communication Practices (Peter
Lang, New York, 2014) and Organizational Listening:
The Missing Essential in Public Communication
(Peter Lang, New York, 2016).
Dr Danny Moss is professor of corporate and public
affairs at the University of Chester. Prior to moving to
Chester, he was co-director of the Centre for Corporate
and Public Affairs at the Manchester Metropolitan
University Business School, and programme leader for
the Universitys masters degree in international public
relations. He also established and led the first dedi-
cated masters degree in public relations at the
University of Stirling in the late 1980s. He is a former
external examiner for postgraduate programmes at
Leeds Metropolitan University. He is also the co-
founder of BledCom, the annual global public rela-
tions research symposium that is held at Lake Bled,
Slovenia. Danny is co-editor of the Journal of Public
Affairs, has published articles in a wide range of inter-
national journals and has authored and co-authored a
number of books, including Public Relations Research:
An International Perspective (1997), Perspectives on
Public Relations Research (2000), Public Relations
Cases: International Perspectives (2010) and Public
Relations: A Managerial Perspective (2011).
Paul Noble is a PR trainer, educator, consultant, and
mentor. His background includes setting up and manag-
ing PR consultancies, senior in-house corporate commu-
nications experience, and a spell as an academic,running
the PR degree at Bournemouth University. Paul is the
co-author of Evaluating Public Relations (Kogan Page).
As a trainer, he delivers short courses on a range of PR
topics for the CIPR, UK Government and others, at
home and abroad. As an educator, he is chief examiner
for the CIPRs Advanced Certificate and two units of the
CIPR Diploma. Paul is also heavily involved in theonline
AMEC College. He is a lead assessor for the CIPRs
Chartered Practitioner status. Finally, as well as mentor-
ing individuals, he provides management support to
growing PR consultancies.
Dr Martina Topi holds a PhD in sociology (University
of Zagreb, 2013), postgraduate diploma in media and
journalism (City University, London, 2007), and MA
degrees in political science and journalism (University
of Zagreb, both in 2003). She has worked as a jour-
nalist for print media in Croatia, Slovenia and Italy
(20039), as a research fellow at the University of
Zagreb (200713), and as a researcher on two large
international projects, UNESCO Media development
23/03/2017 12:51
 xxii ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Indicators (20078) and FP7 Identities and
Modernities in Europe (200912). She worked as a
graduate teaching assistant (201416), and since May
2016 as a lecturer in public relations at Leeds Business
School, Leeds Beckett University. She is a co-founder
of the Centre for Research in Social Sciences and
Humanities and fellow of the Higher Education
Academy. Her research interests include wider fields
of media and journalism, Public Relations, womens
studies, Jewish studies and cultural management.
Dr Neil Washbourne is senior lecturer in media stud-
ies at Leeds Beckett University. He teaches and pub-
lishes on media, politics, democracy and celebrity. He
published Mediating Politics: Newspaper, radio, tele-
vision and Internet (McGraw Hill /Open University
Press) in 2010. He serves on the editorial boards of
Media Education Research Journal and Celebrity
Studies. He is currently working on a book on United
Kingdom inter-war radio celebrity.
Professor Tom Watson is emeritus professor of public
relations in the Faculty of Media and Communication
at Bournemouth University. He ran a successful PR
consultancy for 18 years and was chairman of the
UKs Public Relations Consultants Association from
2000 to 2002. Awarded his PhD in 1995 from
Nottingham Trent University, Tom has written books,
book chapters and a wide range of peer-reviewed aca-
demic papers in international academic journals. He
established the annual International History of Public
Relations Conference in 2010 and has edited the
seven-volume National Perspectives on the
Development of Public Relations: Other Voices series
for Palgrave Macmillan.
A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 22
Dr Paul Willis is a researcher and teacher of public
relations at Leeds Business School. He works with
professional communicators in government, NGOs
and the private sector. Paul was the joint recipient of
the National Communication Association PRIDE
Award for outstanding contribution to public rela-
tions education. In 2016, he was appointed a member
of the Governments Future Communication Council
by the Prime Ministers Office and Cabinet Office. He
was a board director in a PR consultancy before join-
ing academia and worked as a communication advisor
for organisations including BMW, BT, Ernst & Young,
RWE, Proctor & Gamble, Walmart, the NHS, UK
Sport and The Football Association. His research can
be found in leading academic journals and text books
in the PR field. Paul is the co-author of Strategic
Public Relations Leadership which explores the key
facets of leadership for communication professionals.
He is a visiting fellow at The University of Waikato in
New Zealand.
Emma Wood is senior lecturer in public relations at
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, and a coordi-
nator of QMUs Centre for Dialogue. Her research and
communications practice focuses on the use of dia-
logue in communications, particularly in relation to
helping young people safely navigate situations involv-
ing alcohol (http://www.qmu.ac.uk/mcpa/cdial/
AlcoLols.htm). She publishes on corporate identity
and corporate communication and is a reviewer for,
and former editor of, the Journal of Communication
Management. She has a background in communica-
tion in both the financial and business sectors. Emma
is course leader of the CIPRs postgraduate diploma in
Scotland and a fellow of the CIPR; she is also a former
external examiner at Leeds Beckett University.
23/03/2017 12:51
 Foreword
With this 4th edition the editors and authors suc-
ceeded once more in presenting meaningful updates of
their contributions following the latest national and
international developments and insights in the fast-
changing world of public relations.
Like most people in the public relations scholarly
community, I have studied numerous books on public
relations, and on corporate communication or com-
munication management, as the field is often called in
other countries. Most books are very technical how
to books, promising that you will be able to do the
job as long as you follow the tips of the author. Some
books are very theoretical, analysing merely one single
theoretical focus, with the promise that you will
become a good practitioner as long as you follow this
approach. Exploring Public Relations is none of these,
or to put it differently: it is all of these books in one.
It is theoretical and practical at the same time, it pro-
vides an insight in almost all theoretical approaches
and different ideas on how to look at and do public
relations, and it raises unsettled questions about the
definition, the tasks of the professional, the debate
about professional ethics, and the issue of its impact.
This is the most open-minded book I know.
Look at the prudent way in which the editors have
challenged almost everything that is commonly left
un-discussed in the educational and practical fields of
public relations. That public relations has to do with
persuasion and also with propaganda, that the public
relations field has a problem with its legitimacy, that
there is no consensus whatsoever about what public
relations is and what its value is for organisations of
all kinds. The authors try to avoid taking a stand,
leading us through all the discussions, rumours and
evidence about these issues. What a book! It is fresh
and good, it covers all current topics and simultane-
ously opens up a lot of perspectives. And all this in a
very user-friendly manner. The book is built on the
premise that a textbook should put the student at the
centre of the learning experience. And that is exactly
what it does.
A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 23
It is an excellent book for undergraduates who
want to know more about the field. But at the same
time it is also enlightening and very practical for pro-
fessionals who want to open their windows and learn
more about the field they are working in. It not only
shows a variety of different approaches and models
within the discipline of PR but also interdisciplinary
connections with communication studies and the
wider context of social sciences. This makes the book
also relevant and important for masters programmes
in public relations and communication studies. Public
relations is an evolving discipline and its growth
requires continual questioning to challenge its bound-
aries and establish its terrain. The authors have bril-
liantly succeeded in doing that.
The first edition of Exploring Public Relations was
a milestone. It was both very British and very interna-
tional. Exploring Public Relations not only provided
helpful guidelines to practical action, but raised unset-
tling questions about impact and implications as well.
It was diverse, different, and consistently thoughtful
in departing from the US norm. Instead of simple
platitudes about equal exchanges, Exploring Public
Relations looked at how to actually perform public
relations in an ethical manner across very diverse cul-
tures. It was also theoretically inclusive, with a light
touch that challenged students to make up their own
minds at the same time as they learned how to become
competent practitioners. It was not uncritical of a field
where technical mastery can override moral behav-
iour, as my colleague Professor David McKie from
Waikato Management School, University of Waikato,
New Zealand wrote in his foreword for the first
edition.
Subsequent editions were updated in an enviable
way, including all kinds of new issues, for example
about the media context of contemporary public rela-
tions and journalism, about the intercultural and
multicultural context of public relations, about corpo-
rate image, reputation and identity, and last but not
least about research and evaluation. This fourth
23/03/2017 12:51
 xxiv FOREWORD
e dition has a further update, for example on commu-
nication theories (chapter8). The book includes refer-
ence to almost everything that has been written in the
last couple of years. It is updated with the newest
insights from European as well as American and Asian
perspectives. What an effort!
The first part of the book provides you with the
background knowledge you will require to under-
stand the role and purpose of public relations set
against the broader business and societal contexts in
which it plays an active role. Part two demonstrates
that public relations is multifaceted and can be inter-
preted through a number of theoretical perspectives.
In part three the focus is laid on the practice of public
relations and, finally, in part four all kinds of consid-
A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 24
erations are explored, on health communication, on
corporate communication, on positioning celebrities
and countries, and on the future of public relations.
This is a book every public relations author wished
(s)he had written. It will help to provide students with
an introduction into the field, and will also help teach-
ers to discuss important topics with their students.
You will not be disappointed.
Betteke van Ruler
Professor Emerita Corporate Communication and
Communication Management
Department of Communication Science
University of Amsterdam
The Netherlands
23/03/2017 12:51
 Preface
Welcome to the fourth edition
We first conceived of this book in the early 2000s and
it started with the idea that a textbook should put the
student at the centre of the learning experience. While
it is true that textbooks in general are becoming more
student-centred for subjects as varied as biology, law,
media and psychology, this was not and has not been
the case in public relations. Exploring Public Relations
very much led the way in this approach for our disci-
pline and the feedback and compliments the book
regularly receives are testimony to this. With this
approach we wanted students to have an improved
learning experience by involving them in a personal
journey that brought the subject to life on the page
and spurred them on to find out more. And this is
what we have tasked ourselves to do with this exciting
fourth edition. Our earlier editions brought challenges
and so has this version of the book. But we have ben-
efited from the ability to listen to students and aca-
demic colleagues in how they read, study with and
educate using the first three editions of the book and
its supplements. And through this listening we have
attempted to answer any questions or gaps in the ear-
lier versions to ensure it is fit for purpose in a chal-
lenging, changing world of communication.
The key areas we have addressed are the most obvi-
ous ones in contemporary life of how the techniques
used in public relations and communication have been
influenced by rapid technological change and its inte-
gration, particularly in the past five years. To reflect
this we have introduced a new chapter on digital and
social media, and have ensured that all chapters con-
sider the implications of technology and change on the
theory and practice of the discipline. Clearly some
chapters have integrated these influences more than
others. One of the key features of the book is that it is
an edited textbook and all chapters are written and
reviewed within a consistent framework. This means
that the book has a particular style and consistency
that we have been keen to preserve. This is partly
A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 25
achieved by only working with senior and experienced
academics and practitioners who share a mission to
understand and explain the discipline. We are there-
fore pleased to be able to include contributors from
around the world who are closely associated with us
individually and collectively at Leeds and have the
same aspirations to improve the subject knowledge
and application of public relations in society. Again
we feel this was and continues to be a unique feature
and strength of the book as it has evolved.
So who to write such a comprehensive text? For this
we looked to our colleagues at Leeds Beckett University
who teach on our well-established undergraduate,
postgraduate and research programmes. We also
looked to our wider network senior academics and
practitioners who have contributed to our subject area
and programmes, former colleagues who have moved
on to careers elsewhere and past external examiners.
Target audience
Feedback suggests there is a diverse range of readers
for Exploring Public Relations from senior practitio-
ners to undergraduate students. It is the preferred
textbook for universities around the world as well as
for professional bodies and professional courses
which adopt it as their core text. Its content is com-
prehensive, which perhaps explains this broad appeal.
That said, the book is written in a way that it can be
used and read by someone who is totally new to the
discipline as well as a student or practitioner with
significantly more depth of understanding. The con-
tents pages of the book demonstrate how it can be
used to support more practical and theoretical aspects
of the discipline and at different levels. Therefore it is
a perfect accompaniment for undergraduates and
postgraduates who are studying public relations as a
single subject (i.e. a bachelors or masters in public
relations), jointly with another subject, or as a single
module or unit within a wider programme.
23/03/2017 12:51
 xxvi PREFACE
Book style and structure
The book is divided into four parts. Part 1 provides
important background knowledge to help students
understand the broad business and societal context in
which public relations plays a role. Included here, for
example, are chapters on democracy and on the inter-
cultural and multicultural context of public relations.
New to this fourth edition, as mentioned earlier, is a
much-needed appraisal, in chapter 3, of digital and
social media. In Part 2 there is a chapter on the
related, but often ignored, topic of persuasion and
propaganda to help you arrive at your own defini-
tions, as well as a chapter on professional ethics a
topic of increasing importance; while Part 3 includes
emerging specialisms such as issues management,
community involvement, financial PR and public
affairs. Part 4 comprises chapters that are not conven-
tionally included within a public relations textbook,
for example, the chapter on pressure groups and
NGOS, health communication and celebrity public
relations. The final chapter looks to the future and
provides some themes and questions that we hope
student readers will take up as topics for investigation
and research. Public relations is an evolving discipline
and its growth requires continual questioning to chal-
lenge its boundaries and establish its terrain. As stu-
dents, teachers, researchers and practitioners we are
all responsible for achieving this aim.
Pedagogy and its place
This is an educational textbook for public relations
and therefore includes a number of devices that we
hope will help both students and tutors to get the
most out of the material. First, each chapter begins
with a list of the Learning outcomes which students
should achieve after engaging with the material. We
have structured the book to have a range of consistent
pedagogy which support the reader in understanding
the chapter subject. For example, there are regular
Explore features which give instructions on where to
look for further information or how to engage further
with topics. Think abouts are included to encourage
reflection and for the reader to pause and think a little
A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 26
more deeply about the issues and ideas that are being
presented and discussed. We have attempted to define
terms or phrases that may not be universally under-
stood or which form part of the specialist language
related to that topic or area of study which are
included in a glossary at the back of the book. Finally
we have included many cases studies (Case studies and
Mini case studies) which aim to exemplify and apply
the principles under discussion.
Over to you
We have been delighted and occasionally surprised at
the warm response to our first three editions. These
have been read and used for teaching literally all over
the world and with gratifying endorsements of our
original pedagogic strategy of making clear links
between theory and practice. However there are many
questions about public relations and its practice which
remain under explored. These we aim to highlight in
this book, inspiring readers to investigate further, pos-
sibly through detailed research for undergraduate and
postgraduate projects, dissertations and theses. We
hope this revised fourth edition continues to bridge
the divide between theory and practice and, above all,
is a thought provoking and enjoyable read for stu-
dents, practitioners and tutors alike.
Acknowledgements
In addition to the invaluable contributors already men-
tioned, we would like to thank all those at Pearson
Education for making this fourth edition possible.
Finally, but not least, we would like to thank our
families. For Ralph, this dedication goes to my father
John and of course to Catherine, Anna and Will. A
physical object like the book is some justification for
why I spend so much time in a bike-filled home
office.
For Liz, this fourth edition is dedicated to John,
Daniel and Hannah for their constant love and
support.
Ralph Tench and Liz Yeomans, 2016
23/03/2017 12:51
 Publishers acknowledgements

edn, Pearson Education, Inc. (Cutlip, Scott M., Center,

We are grateful to the following for permission to Allen H. and Broom, Glen M., 2000) p. 244 2000,
reproduce copyright material: Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education, Inc.,
Upper Saddle River, NJ; F igure 9.7 from Planning and
Managing Public R elations Campaigns, 3rd edn,
Kogan Page (Gregory, A., 2010) reproduced with
Figures permission; Figure 9.8 from Planning and Managing
Public Relations C ampaigns, 3rd edn, Kogan Page
Figure 3.1 from Defren, T. (2008). Social media press (Gregory, A., 2010) p. 44, reproduced with permission;
release: Template, Version 1.0, http://www.shiftcomm Figure 9.11 from Involving stakeholders in developing
.com/downloads/smprtemplate.pdf accessed corporate brands: the communication dimension,
28 October 2015; Figure 3.3 from Department of Journal of Marketing Management, 23, pp. 5973
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Crown Copy- (Gregory, A.), reprinted by permission of Taylor &
right 2017. Reproduced with permission of the Depart- Francis Ltd, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals;
ment for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Figure11.1 from The three v irtues and seven deadly
Figure 5.5 adapted from The pyramid of corporate sins of corporate brand management, Journal of
social responsibility: toward the moral management of General Management, 27 (1) Autumn, pp. 117
organizational stakeholders, Business Horizons, 34 (4), (Balmer, J.M.T., 2001), reproduced with permission;
pp. 3948 (Carroll, A. B.), Copyright 2013. With Figure 11.2 from Reputation Institute. The RepTrak
permission from Elsevier; Figure 5.7 from URL - System, http://www.reputationinstitute.com/thought-
http://financialtrustindex.org; Figure 7.2 after leadership/the-reptrak-system, reproduced with
Research by new2marketing, FT Creative Business, permission; Figure 14.2 from http://spinsucks.com/
13/07/2004, accessed www.ipr.org.uk, 20 July, The communication/pr-pros-must-embrace-the-peso-
Financial Times, The Financial Times Limited. All model/, PESO Model created by Gini Dietrich; Figure
Rights Reserved.; Figure 7.10 from R. Tench and 21.2 adapted from Public relations: A Managerial
J.Fawkes (2005), Mind the gap: exploring attitudes Perspective, Sage (Moss, D.A. and Desanto, B. (eds)
to PR education between academics and employers, 2011) Reproduced by permission of SAGE P ublications,
Paper presented at the Alan Rawel, CIPR Academic London, Los Angeles, New Delhi and Singapore.;
Conference, University of Lincoln, March, copyright Figure 22.1 from World Economic Forum, World
Johanna Fawkes MA MCIPR; Figure 8.2 from Prob- Scenario Series: The future of the global financial
lem solving and communicative action: a situational system: a near term outlook and long-term scenarios,
theory of problem solving, Journal of Communication, fig. 4, URL - http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF
61, pp. 12049 (Kim, J.-N., and J.E. Grunig, 2011), _ S c e n a r i o _ F u t u r e G l o b a l F i n a n c i a l S y s t e m _
Reproduced with permission of Blackwell Scientific in Report_2010.pdf (c) 2009 World Economic Forum,
the format Republish in a book via Copyright reproduced with permission; Figure 24.2 from http://
Clearance Center; Figure 9.2 from Strategy: Process, w w w. s t a t i s t a . c o m / s t a t i s t i c s / 1 9 6 8 9 8 / g l o b a l -
Content, Context, Thomson (De Wit, R. and Meyer, sponsorship-spending-by-region-since-2009/, Statista
R., 2010) reproduced with permission; Figure 9.4 Ltd; Figure 26.1 from The organisation of integrated
from Effective Public Relations, 8th edn, Pearson Edu- communications: toward flexible integration,
cation, Inc. (Cutlip, Scott M., Center, Allen H. and European Journal of Marketing, 42 (3/4), p. 440
Broom, Glen M., 2000) p. 244, Reprinted by permis- (Christensen, L. T., Firat, A. F., & Torp, S., 2008),
sion of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, reproduced with permission; Figure 26.2 from
NJ; Figure 9.6 from Effective Public Relations, 8th E xploring Strategy, 9th edn, Pearson Education

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 27 23/03/2017 12:51

 xxviii PUBLISHERS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

(Johnson, G, Whittington, R. and Scholes, K., 2011) Day website: www.dundeebeachcharitygolfday.com

fig. 5.7, reproduced with permission; Figure 26.7 Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/dundeebeachchar-
from Managing Public Relations, Holt, Rinehart & itygolfday; Case Study 9.1 from Christchurch City
Winston (Grunig, J.E. and T.E. Hunt, 1984) p. 141, Council; Case Study 10.2 adapted from By kind
reprinted by kind permission of James E. Grunig; permission of Clare Martin, Pompey in the Commu-
F igure 29.1 from http://www.ecopsi.org.uk/;
nity, reproduced with permission; Box 10.2 from
Figures 29.2, 29.3, 29.4 from Zerfass, A., Verhoeven, http://www.social-media-measurement-framework.
P., Moreno, A., Tench, R., and Veri, D. (2016). org/portfolio/top-tips/, Adapted with thanks from
European Communication Monitor 2016. Exploring http://www.social-media-measurement-framework.
trends in big data, stakeholder engagement and org/portfolio/top-tips/;Box 12.4 after Theoretical foun-
strategic communication. Results of a survey in 43 dations of campaigns. In RE Rice and CE Atkin (eds.),
countries. Brussels: EACD/EUPRERA, Quadriga Public Communication Campaigns, 2nd edn, Sage
Media Berlin. (Booklet and Chart Version); (McGuire, W.J.) Republished with permission of Sage
Figures29.5, 29.6, 29.7 from DPDHL Group. Publications, Inc. Books; permission conveyed through
Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.; Box 13.2 from Craig
Pearce, http://craigpearce.info/, This blog entry was
posted on January 11, 2012 by Australian strategic PR
Tables practitioner, Craig Pearce and is reproduced with
permission; Box 14.2 from Crimmons interview. Used
Table 5.1 after The pyramid of corporate social with permission of Laura Crimmons and Branded3;
responsibility: toward the moral management of organiza- Case Study 15.1 used with permission from Novo
tional stakeholders, Business Horizons, 34 (4), pp. 3948 Nordisk; Case Study 16.1 from BT Community
(Carroll, A. B.), Copyright 2013. With permission from Partnership Programme copyright Business in the
Elsevier; Table 5.3 adapted from Management learning Community (BITC); Case Study 16.2 adapted from
perspectives on business ethics. In J. Burgoyne and Leeds Cares: collaborative action, copyright Busi-
M. Reynolds (eds.) Tab. 10.1, Management Learning ness in the Community (BITC); Case Study 16.5 from
(Snell, R.) p. 185, Reproduced by permission of Sage American Express, copyright Business in the
Publications, London, Los Angeles, New Delhi and Community (BITC); Case Study 16.6 from HP Sauce,
Singapore; Table 7.2 from J. Fawkes and R. Tench copyright Business in the Community (BITC); Box
(2004b), Public relations education in the UK, A research 18.3 adapted from CSR as crisis risk: expanding how
report for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, we conceptualize the relationship, Corporate Commu-
copyright Johanna Fawkes MA MCIPR and Ralph nications: An International Journal 20(2), pp. 14462
Tench; Table 12.1 from Can ethics save public relations (Coombs, T. and S. Holladay, 2015); Case Study 20.1
from the charge of propaganda?, Ethical Space, Journal of from Interview with commercial architect Nigel
the Institute of Communication Ethics, 3 (1), pp. 32-42 Jacques BA(Hons) BArch(Hons) RIBA; Box 20.1 from
(Fawkes, J., 2006); Table 20.1 from www.theconstruction- Helen Standing, Director, Engage Comms; Consultant,
centre.co.uk (www.theconstructioncentre.co.uk/trade- Trimedia UK; Case Study 20.2 from David Moth,
periodicals-and-news/t.html), reproduced with permission; www.econsultancy.com, 9 September 2015; Box 21.5
Table 26.3 from Organizational identity: linkages between adapted from http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov
internal and external organizational communication. In .uk, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk,
F.M. Jablin and L.L. Putnam (eds.), The New Handbook Contains public sector information licensed under the
of Organizational Communication, Sage (heney, C.G. and Open Government Licence (OGL) v3.0.http://www
L.T. Christensen 2001) p. 238, Republished with .nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-
permission of Sage Publications, Inc. Books; permission licence.; Case Study 24.2 adapted/modified from www
conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. .netpromoter.com/why-net-promoter/know/2012, Net
Promoter Score, Net Promoter, and NPS are trade-
marks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain and Company,
Inc., and Fred Reichheld; Case Study 25.1 from Back
Text up, UK, with thanks to Back Up, UK; Case Study 25.1
from with thanks to Back Up, UK; Box 25.6 from with
Case Study 9.1 from Video: https://www.youtube.com/ thanks to Catarina Demony, C ommunications
watch?v=0Rwwmv_fukE Dundee Beach Charity Golf A
ssistant, Back Up, UK.

A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 28 23/03/2017 12:51


Photographs
The publisher would like to thank the following for
their kind permission to reproduce their photographs:
(Key: b bottom; c centre; l left; r right; t top)
123RF.com: rawpixel 302; Alamy Stock Photo: ALL-
STAR Picture Library 276, Angela Waye 442, Dino
Fracchia 41, EPA / Georgi Licovski 104, Fernando
Quevedo de Oliveira 196, greenwales 162, ICP 39,
Image Source 212, inga spence 394, John Gomez 339,
Life on White 308, Markus Mainka 312, Nancy
Honey 437, Nature Picture Library 168, Norbert
Michalke / vario images 7, Pictorial Press 10,
REUTERS 216, 385, Robert Landau 252, roberthard-
ing 286, 538, Thomas Lehne / lotuseaters 66, Tim
Graham 60, Vibrant Pictures 62, ZUMA Press, Inc.
321; Architects Journal: 381; Back Up Trust: 486
(br), Catarina Demony 486 (bl); BBC Photo Library/
Independent Talent Group Ltd: 119; Courtesy of
Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity:
374; CBI: 504; Crown Copyright Courtesy of the
Department of Health in association with the Welsh
Government, the Scottish Government and the Food
Standards Agency in Northern Ireland-Yorks and
Humber Strategic Health Authority: 533; Dundee
Beach Charity Golf Day: 192, 193; European Com-
munication Monitor. www.communicationmonitor.
eu: 546; Fotolia.com: DW labs Incorporated 284,
A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 29
PUBLISHERS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xxix
gudkovandrey 343, guinevra 492, hansstuart1nm
473, makieni 330, mrisv 445, nataba 526, nito 258,
retoncy 29, teksomolika 236, Uryadnikov Sergey
426, vlad61_61 378, Vladimir Konjushenko 412;
gallerystock.com: Oerg Mitter / Red Bull content pool
449; Getty Images: AFP 82, 374b, AFP 82, 374b,
Ashley Cooper 485br, Barbara Singer 232, Bloomberg
424, Caroline McCredie 517, Catherine Ivill - AMA
219, Fairfax Media 186, Miguel Vidal 78, Mike Flo-
kis 519, Paul Hardy - Concept Stills and Motion
485tl, Paul Souders 485tr, 485bl, Reinhard Dirscherl
147, Romeo Gacad 161, Rosa Perry / EyeEm 362,
Siegfried Layda 413, Stu Forster 456, Tim Platt 227,
Tim Robberts 544, Valery Hache 353; IHG: 458; Kyla
Flynn: 132; Marks and Spencer plc: 317; Pompey in
the Community: 200; Reuters: Raj Patidar 351; Rex
Shutterstock: FreemantleMedia Ltd 22; Shutterstock
.com: bikeriderlondon 534, ChameleonsEye 248,
Elena Elisseeva 405, HelloRF Zcool 392, I Wei Huang
493, Johnny Adolphson 97, Kletr 35, Martin Mecn-
arowski 20, Mathisa 111, ownzaa 510, Rafal
Cichawa 3, Ruimin Wang 269, Vadim Petrakov 336,
Volodymyr Burdiak 74; The Honest Truth. Regis-
tered Charity number 1160918: 205; Reproduced
with kind permission of Unilever from an original in
Unilever Archives: 290
Cover images: Front: Getty Images/David Madison
All other images Pearson Education
23/03/2017 12:51
A01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 30 23/03/2017 12:51
 Pa rt 1
The context of public
relations
This first part of the book provides you
with the background knowledge you will
require to understand the role and pur-
pose of public relations (PR) set against
the broader business and societal contexts
in which it plays an active role. Chapter 1
discusses how public relations is defined,
its early origins, including proto-public
relations practices, and how it evolved
across the globe as the contemporary
practice we recognise today. Chapter 2
discusses frameworks for analysing and
understanding the relationship between
public relations and the media/journal-
ism, while recognising how both practices
are changing in response to technological
and economic developments. Chapter 3
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 1
examines technological developments in
further depth, specifically digital and social
media which are taking public relations
into a new era of practice. Arguably, public
relations is essential to modern democratic
societies. In Chapter 4 the relationship
between democracy and public relations is
examined and critiqued. Chapter 5 exam-
ines the societal context of public rela-
tions from the organisations perspective,
highlighting the theme of corporate social
responsibility. In Chapter 6, the interna-
tional and multicultural context of public
relations is introduced. Finally, we turn to
the role of the public relations practitioner
in Chapter 7 to focus on what public rela-
tions practitioners do.
23/03/2017 12:52
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 2 23/03/2017 12:52
 Chapter 1Public relations origins: definitions and history 3

ch a p t er 1 Tom Watson

Public relations origins

Definitions and history

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
identify and discuss the main aspects of public relations development over time
review and critique the different interpretations of public relations history
analyse and discuss different national and cultural interpretations of public relations and its history
examine your understanding of historical research and identify sources, such as articles, books and archives,
for future research.

Structure
Proto-public relations: the antecedents of modern public relations
The expansion of public relations in the twentieth century
The worldwide development of public relations since the mid-twentieth century
How public relations grew

M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 3 23/03/2017 12:52

 4 Part 1The context of public relations

Introduction
In this chapter, the formation of pub-
lic relations (PR) as a practice will be
traced from its earliest indications in
the ancient world through two millen-
nia and up to the end of the twentieth
century. There are many antecedents
of public relations and these were
mainly methods of promotion and of
disseminating information. It was not
until the late nineteenth century that
the term public relations was first used,
although public relations-like practices
(also called proto-public relations) were
evident.
Organised communication practices,
recognisable as public relations, were
introduced in Germany and the United
States in the latter part of the nineteenth
century. In the United Kingdom, pub-
lic relations were noticeable from the
mid-1920s onward, primarily in govern-
ment. Professionalisation in the form
of university-level education and prac-
titioner associations mainly appeared
after the Second World War. From the
1950s onwards, the practices of public
relations as promotion (or marketing
PR) and public relations as communica-
tion management continued to expand
across countries in the Western world,
although it was suppressed in the Soviet
bloc of Eastern Europe and in China
until the early 1990s. By the 1980s, pub-
lic relations theory and practice were
evolving in more sophisticated forms
that focused on the formation of mutu-
ally beneficial relationships and as a
support for organisations reputation. In
this and following decades, it expanded
internationally and, notably, attracted an
increasingly feminised workforce that
was educated at university level.
This chapter will consider the defini-
tions of public relations as well as the
antecedent, the springboard (impe-
tuses for expansion) and the restraints
that held it back in some regions of
the world. Methods of interpreting the
history of public relations will also be
considered.
This chapter will thus consider how
public relations gradually became
identified as a planned, strategic prac-
tice whose purposes were to com-
municate and build relationships
in a mutually beneficial and ethical
manner. As it evolved, public rela-
tions developed from personal and
organisational promotion, benefited
from technologies such as print and,
later, mass media, became an impor-
tant element in empire- and nation-
building, and has formed worldwide
practices with increasing employ-
ment and economic importance.
See Explore 1.1.

Box 1.1 the management of communications (Grunig and Hunt

What is public relations?
At the outset of a chapter on the history and origins of
public relations, a definition of the topic is needed. How
does it differ from advertising, publicity, propaganda and
other forms of communication that aim to persuade and
inform? There have been innumerable attempts to define
public relations. In the mid-1970s, Rex Harlow identified
more than 400 versions or variations. Since then, more
have been proposed, discussed and, in some instances,
dismissed. Watson and Noble (2014) comment that some
commentators see the surfeit of definitions as a weak-
ness of public relations; others appreciate the debate that
surrounds them as an indication of vigour in the field
(p. 6). This chapter wont propose a single definition as it
will show that there have been a wide range of cultural,
managerial and political and religious influences upon
the formation of public relations theories and practices.
However, there are some characteristics that shape the
wide variety of forms of public relations that are evident.
It is a planned communication and/or relationship-
building activity with strategic or deliberate intent
(Lamme and Russell 2015). Some definitions emphasise
1984; Broom and Sha 2013), the management of rela-
tionships (Coombs and Holladay 2006) and the crea-
tion and maintenance of reputation (CIPR 2016).
It seeks to create awareness among specific groups,
often referred to as publics or stakeholders, and
engage their interest.
The interest of the public should result in a mutually
beneficial relationship or response, possibly as dia-
logue. Thus, it is different from publicity, which only
seeks to disseminate messages.
In its most common form, public relations has been
enacted through the media, which has been the gate-
keeper of communication. This is an important differ-
ence from advertising, which places messages through
the purchase of advertisement space and airtime (radio,
television and online). With the rise of social media,
public relations activity has increasingly become a form
of direct communication, bypassing media scrutiny.
Although the US public relations pioneer Edward L.
Bernays proposed that public relations attempts to engi-
neer public support (Bernays 1955: 45), the term to
engineer is rejected by many as implying manipulation
rather than truth-telling. Many scholars and practitioners
contend that ethical communication is the bedrock of
professional public relations.

M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 4 23/03/2017 12:52


Explore 1.1
Defining public relations
As a group exercise, each member writes a definition
of public relations. Now think about how you arrived
at that definition.
Is it based on your observation of PR practitioners
at work or personal experience of PR work?
Is it influenced by representation of PR work and
practitioners in popular culture such as TV, movies
and books? Is it based on reporting of PR activity
in the media (for example, a PR disaster)?
Is it based on what lecturers have told you about PR?
Now compare the definitions:
How different are they?
What do they have in common?
What are the differences and why do they exist?
As a group exercise, work together on the preparation
of a common set of ideas. Then share them with other
groups and see how much you agree or disagree.
Proto-public relations: the
antecedents of modern public
relations
When did public relations (or similar practices)
start? See Explore 1.2. Karl Nessman (2000: 211),
in a rather tongue-in-cheek comment, suggests that
it would date back to Adam and Eve, to the point
when people had to win over the confidence of others.
Explore 1.2
When did PR start?
Although the term public relations has been widely
used for a little more than a century, when do you
consider that public relations started as a practice?
Was it at the beginning of the twentieth century or did
it exist as an unnamed practice before then? You may
want to consider the characteristics that define those
activities as public relations and thus different from
other promotional or persuasive communication.
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 5
Chapter 1Public relations origins: definitions and history 5
Other suggestions include Sumerian wall-markings
from 2000 bce (in modern Iraq) to the persuasive
rhetors of Ancient Greece (400 bce) to Roman emper-
ors. Al-Badr (2004) has claimed that a 4000-year-old
cuneiform tablet found in Iraq was similar to a bul-
letin telling farmers how to grow better crops and
thus a form of promotional information. It has been
noted that Julius Caesar, when he was Consul in 59
bce, arranged a daily news tablet or sheet called Acta
Diurna (Daily Gazette) that offered information to
the Roman populace and showed him as an active
leader. In the Christian era, Robert Brown (2015) has
proposed that the Apostle St Paul was a first-century
example of a public relations practitioner because of
his influence on others, the campaign he undertook to
reach out and build relationships with faith communi-
ties and his writing and publication of letters (books)
of the Bible.
Other examples are the formation and promotion
of saintly cults (Watson 2008), and the promotion of
Crusades by Popes. These examples are not public
relations, because they were not seen as strategically
planned activity in medieval times and...did not use
the framing of language and accumulated best prac-
tice that are applied now (Watson 2008: 20). They
were PR-like but were not PR but were proto-public
relations (ibid), a term which is based on proto
meaning original or primitive (OED 2005: 601)
and draws to mind the term prototype (Watson
2013: 12).
Asia
Around the world there were other antecedents to
public relations. In China, PR-like activities can
be traced for thousands of years, occurring mainly
at state level with the intention of the ruler or the
emperor to establish a credible reputation among
his people, or to maintain a harmonious relation-
ship with different sectors of society (Hung-Baesecke
and Chen 2014: 24). These occurred in three forms:
collections of folklore and culture such as folk songs,
lobbying between rival states in order to avoid war
and prevent attacks, and diplomacy to open trade
links such as the Silk Road across Asia. Chinese, Tai-
wanese and Vietnamese researchers also point to the
tenets of Confucianism as both ancient and endur-
ing influences on proto-public relations and modern
practices. Keeping promises and valuing reputation,
an emphasis on interpersonal relationships and rela-
tional harmony, being firm on principles and eth-
ics yet flexible on strategy and the importance of
23/03/2017 12:52
 6 Part 1The context of public relations
propriety (respect, benevolence, fairness, friendship,
and harmony and being knowledgeable) (Hung-
Baesecke and Chen 2014: 23) led to the formation
of proto-public relations that was based on guanxi
(personal connections), which has both positive and
negative aspects. It is also found in Vietnam as quan
he., which also means personal network (Van 2014:
148). Confucianism emphasises the importance of
public opinion (Wu and Lai 2014: 115) and thus has
given a strong cultural base to modern public rela-
tions in East Asia in a manner not seen in other parts
of the world. Proto-public relations in Thailand,
which was never colonised, evolved through royal
institutions from the thirteenth century onwards
and was expressed in Buddhist religious beliefs and
supported the unity of the nation (Tantivejakul and
Manmin 2011). It was King Rama IV in the late
nineteenth century who used royal gazettes, printed
materials, royal photographs and the release of infor-
mation to the press to provide clear evidence of
PR-type activity to support national governance and
imperialism avoidance (Tantivejakul 2014: 130).
Although the western forms of public relations are
practised in Japan, it also has developed a cultur-
ally different form called kouhou, which originally
meant to widely notify (Yamamura et al. 2014: 64).
The term first appeared in a leading newspaper and
denoted an advertisement or announcement. In the
Meiji restoration starting in 1867, many older social
and political structures were broken down as part
of modernisation, although a more democratic soci-
ety did not evolve. The public did not exist, only
the emperors subjects did (Yamamura et al. 2014:
64). However, government formed news agencies to
supply information to the rapidly expanding number
of newspapers and the press agencies were the first
organisations to systematically engage in the pub-
licity business (Yamamura et al. 2014: 64). Unlike
in China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand, the press
agencies did not continue cultural and religious
traditions.
India, which was a British colony from the eigh-
teenth century to 1947, has a proto-public relations
history that harks back to the reign of King Ashoka
(272 bce232 bce) whose edicts and inscriptions on
rocks and pillars were imperial communications to
the subjects of his vast empire (VilAnilam 2014: 35).
During subsequent eras of Maurya, Gupta and Mogul
rulers, rulers communicated with society through
formal meetings (Darbar) at the emperors court at
which representations were made and decisions given.
VilAnilam (2014: 35) argues that early practices of
maintaining relations with the public cannot, however,
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 6
be compared with modern public relations. In this first
phase of Indias communication history until 1858,
which Reddi (1999) calls a propaganda era, there was
communication from the East India Company and the
formation of Indias first but short-lived newspaper
in Calcutta in 1780. It was followed by the public-
ity and information era until independence. Notably
this period included the formation of the governmental
Central Publicity Board during the First World War,
which was the first organisational communication
operation in the country (Bardhan and Patwardhan
2004), and the development of public relations activi-
ties undertaken by Indian Railways. Some authors con-
sider that Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian
movement for independence from the British and a
former newspaper editor, was the spiritual founder of
Indian public relations (Reddi 1999) because of his use
of mass media in campaigns against the coloniser and
to address poverty.
Middle East and Africa
In the Arab world, before technology accelerated the
speed of communication, traditional gathering points
such as the mosque and the majlis or diwaniyya, a
public gathering place for men, were both formal
and informal channels for dissemination and dis-
cussion of news (Badran 2014). Some scholars have
traced antecedents back 1400 years to the era of the
Prophet Mohammed when the new religion began to
be disseminated in the tribes of the Arabian peninsula
(Abdelhay-Altamimi 2014: 84). Poetry was important
in this culture and the poet was considered to be the
press secretary of the tribe, attacking the tribes ene-
mies, praising its accomplishments and strengthening
the fighters morale (Fakhri et al. 1980: 34). It is a
tradition that is still alive and well in the modern
Arabian Gulf region (Badran 2014: 8). The practice of
public relations, prior to the arrival of Western agen-
cies and corporate communication departments, was
limited to a protocol role of organising events and tak-
ing care of visitors (Abdelhay-Altamimi 2014; Badran
2014). In colonial Africa of the nineteenth and early
twentieth century, proto-public relations was in a
governmental information form, often supporting the
formation of newspapers in British colonies in Eastern
and Southern Africa (Kiambi 2014, Natifu 2014) and
Nigeria in West Africa (Ibraheem 2014). Kiambi has
found evidence of a Colonial Office information meth-
odology that may have been applied in African, Asian
and Caribbean colonies in the early to mid-twentieth
century.
23/03/2017 12:52

Australia and New Zealand
Australia and New Zealand, both British colonies
until the start of the twentieth century, also saw gov-
ernment communication as the preparatory stage for
public relations. In Australia, Government attempts
to inform, convince and persuade the widely spread
population relied on and exploited PR strategies
more than any single entity private enterprise could
hope to achieve (Sheehan 2014: 11). The promo-
tional activities undertaken by the provincial-style
colonies that made up nineteenth-century Australia
attracted immigrants to new settlements and miners
to the mid-century Gold Rush, as well as lobbying the
colonial master in London about independence and
trade issues. In New Zealand, promoters of the col-
ony sought immigrants and investors and to position
the country for a future separated from Australia as
an independent dominion of the British Empire. Gal-
loway (2014: 14) comments that nineteenth-century
New Zealand began to develop some skill in the press
agentry then beginning to emerge in the United States
and that strategic publicity took place in the London
Great Exhibition of 1851 and the Vienna International
Exposition of 1873.
Latin America
In Latin America, public relations is mostly seen as a
recent phenomenon, dating from mid-twentieth cen-
tury onwards. Only in Argentina, a Spanish colony
until 1810, is there clear evidence of publicity-type
activities in support of the nascent colony and its
ambitions to attract investment from Europe. These
included newspapers promoting political groups and
the national interest, and a diplomatic lobbying cam-
paign (Carbone and Montaner 2014). The start of
public relations in Brazil is set at 1914 when a Cana-
dian-owned tramway company in Sao Paolo set up the
Public Relations Department, but progress was very
slow until the 1950s. In Central America, corporate
public relations activity supported the Panama Canal
in 1914 but, like Brazil, this was a false dawn.
Europe
The European antecedents vary and are subject to con-
siderable debate. In Eastern Europe and Russia, some
scholars (e.g. awniczak 2005, 2014; Boshnakova
2014) consider that public relations arose only after
the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse
of the Soviet bloc (see Picture 1.1). It was a result of
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 7
Chapter 1Public relations origins: definitions and history 7
Picture 1.1 The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 led to rapid
expansion of public relations and political communication
in Eastern Europe. However, the German Democratic
Republic, which is now part of the Federal Republic of
Germany, had socialist public relations that employed
more than 3000 people in the 1980s.
the new democratic politics and governments. How-
ever, others have mapped out proto-public relations
activity in preceding decades and centuries, including
among former Soviet bloc nations such as the Czech
Republic, former East Germany, Hungary, Romania
and Slovenia. In Western Europe, it is Germany whose
public relations history is best developed with evidence
of organised strategic communication in the eighteenth
century.
Early proto-public relations activity can be traced
to leading writers being employed as publicists and as
state employees in the 1790s and a full time press
officer [was] hired by the Prussian Chancellor von
Hardenberg during the Vienna Congress (18141815)
which sought to solve boundary issues arising from the
French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars (Bentele
2015: 4849). In 1841, a central bureau of newspapers
was started in Prussia to correct wrong press reports,
with a succeeding Literarisches Cabinet or Buro,
Literary Cabinet or Bureau, continuing until 1920.
Another aspect of Prussian governmental communica-
tions was that official newspapers were established
and government-friendly newspapers given financial
support. Outside of political changes, economic and
technical progress also shaped PRs development (Ben-
tele 2015: 50). Coal mining and steel manufacturing
were the basis of heavy industry, and electronics and
chemicals were innovative sectors. From companies
such as Krupp (steel), Siemens and AEG (electronics)
and BASF, Bayer, Hoechst and Agfa (chemicals), which
were seeking national and international markets, the
beginnings of systematic, planned corporate and mar-
keting public relations were established. Alfred Krupp
23/03/2017 12:52
 8 Part 1The context of public relations
was a leader and along with Werner Rathenau and
Werner von Siemens simultaneously became leading
businessmen as well as architects of PR in the nine-
teenth century (Bentele 2015: 50). Krupp had a pub-
licity coup of a 2.5-ton block of cast steel at the 1851
Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace, London. In 1867,
a full-time Literat (man of letters) was appointed as
the manager of Krupps corporate communications,
followed in 1870 by a corporate press department
whose role was to monitor coverage of the company in
newspapers and prepare articles and brochures to pro-
mote Krupp and its products (Wolbring 2000). Other
German companies also developed press relations
operations. By the beginning of the twentieth century
AEG was evaluating its press coverage in an organised
manner; the sociologist Max Weber began research in
1910 into the sources of newspaper coverage, which
demonstrates how well the media economy and pro-
motional communication sector was established.
In much of the rest of Western Europe, little evi-
dence has come forth about proto-public relations
or planned publicity and press relations that can be
compared with the German experience. Although the
United Kingdom appears to have had well-organised
practices for informational communications in its colo-
nies, this was not evident in the four home nations until
after the First World War. There are notable exceptions
such as the Marconi Company issuing news releases
in 1910 about transatlantic telegraph services. In the
Netherlands, there was a long tradition of voorlichting
(a literal translation of Enlightenment), which meant
Box 1.2
The patron saints of
public relations
Saint Bernadine of Siena is the patron saint of public
relations who is commemorated on 20 May each year.
Bernardine (also known as Bernardino), a Franciscan
preacher, was born in 1380. He was a successful evan-
gelist and propagandist who travelled throughout Italy
for 30 years. Following his death at LAquila in 1444, a
basilica was built in the town and his body remains on
display there.
But how was he chosen as the patron saint for public
relations, which is a modern profession? It came about in
1956 when a successful petition was brought by Cardinal
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 8
giving people information in order that they could par-
ticipate in discussions about their society. There were
voorlichters who travelled around giving information
about health, farming, education, politics, etc. (van
Ruler and Cotton 2015: 91). However, voorlichting
can be interpreted as a communication mechanism
to show people how to conduct themselves as good
citizens and to control them. The history of PR in the
Netherlands can therefore be seen as a history of the
battle for information and emancipation on the one
hand and education and persuasion on the other but
always under the (Dutch uncle) of knowing what is
best (van Ruler and Cotton 2015: 91). In Norway,
socially radical policies were promoted by potetprest
(potato priests of the Lutheran church) in public infor-
mation campaigns in the mid-late eighteenth century
aimed at alleviating poverty through the planting of
potatoes. The priests used lectures, handbooks and
their enthusiasm in these planned activities.
The expansion of public
relations in the twentieth
century
As the previous sections demonstrated, public rela-
tions has many, time-varied beginnings. In some coun-
tries and regions, it has been influenced by religion
and culture; in others, it has been linked to political,
Lecaro of Bologna for the nomination of Bernardine as
Patron Saint of public relations practitioners in Italy. In
1960, Cardinal Feltin, Archbishop of Paris, sought and
obtained a similar designation of Bernardino as Patron
Saint of PR professionals in France. Since then, the Italian
preacher-writer has become the universal Patron Saint
of PR.
Bernardine is, however, not only public relations saintly
minder. He also stands for Italy, debtors and gamblers,
LAquila, California, advertisers and communication peo-
ple, and chest problems.
Saint Paul (also known as Saint Paul the Apostle) lived
during the first century in ancient Cilicia (which is now
part of Turkey), Syria, Israel, Greece and Italy. He is also
considered as a patron saint of public relations workers
as well as for journalists, authors and many others. Saint
Paul travelled widely as a promoter of the new Christian
faith and wrote many New Testament books of the Bible.
23/03/2017 12:52

governmental and economic developments such as
industrialisation and the development of parliamentary
democracies. In general, public relations is a phenom-
enon of the twentieth century. During the first half of
the century, its expansion was primarily in the United
States with some disrupted progress in Germany. The
United Kingdoms engagement with public relations
commenced after the First World War, but expanded
more rapidly from 1945 onwards, as did much of
Western Europe and other regions of the world out-
side of Eastern Europe. In Asia, Thailand established
governmental communications in the 1930s but other
nations in that continent and in Africa developed
public relations structures after independence, which
mainly came in the 1960s. The Peoples Republic of
China was closed by its Communist government from
1949 until 1979 after which public relations practices
were gradually introduced as the economy re-opened.
The advance of public relations in Latin America was
varied as many countries were under forms of military
government, often until the mid-1980s.
The United States
The dominant models of public relations practices were
developed in the United States from the final decades
of the nineteenth century onwards (see Mini case
study 1.1). These have been well recorded and taught
around the world through popular textbooks and the
example of US education. Although most countries
have national approaches to public relations, there are
International PR models of practice in general and
specialist areas that are used by multinational corpora-
tions and international organisations that have derived
from US practice.
Mini case study 1.1
Early media monitoring
The measurement and evaluation of media coverage is
a major professional issue, which seems to have arisen
from the 1970s onwards. However, the first president
of the United States, George Washington, had staff who
monitored newspapers in the new nations 13 states in
the late eighteenth century so that he could under-
stand political discussions and attitudes.
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 9
Chapter 1Public relations origins: definitions and history 9
Railway companies, religious organisations and
travelling entertainments (notably circuses) were all
engaged in public relations activity in the final two or
three decades of the nineteenth century (Lamme and
Russell 2010). The term public relations appeared
around that time, but it did not gain strong recogni-
tion for three or four decades. The most common prac-
tices, as shown in the examples of circuses, were press
agentry and publicity. Press agents earned their living
by selling stories about their clients into newspapers.
Publicists also sought media coverage for clients who
paid them.
One US innovation which has been widely imitated is
the agency for communication activities. Cutlip (1994)
names the Publicity Bureau of Boston, started by three
former newspaper reporters as a general press agent
business in 1900, as the first of this type. It lasted for
only 10 years but represented universities and American
Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T). It was followed in
1902 by a New York agency set up by another news-
paperman, William Wolf Smith, whose agency was a
publicity business aimed at assisting corporations in
countering press attacks and regulatory legislation. The
third agency, Parker & Lee, which followed in 1904,
is especially notable as it employed the newspaperman
Ivy L. Lee, who became the first high-profile public
relations adviser and a major influence on US practice
until his early death in 1934. Lees partner was George
Parker, who had served as President Grover Clevelands
press agent in his three presidential campaigns for the
Presidency. Apart from Parker, all founders of the pio-
neer agencies came from newspapers. This set the style
of practice as media relations for publicity purposes. Ivy
Lee, however, would become a policy adviser to future
employers such as the Pennsylvania Railroad and the
magnate John D. Rockefeller (see Explore 1.3). Lee set
out the case for companies to put their cases to the pub-
lic: If you go to the people and get the people to agree
with you, you can be sure that ultimately legislatures,
commissions and everybody else must give way in your
favor. Although Lee is portrayed as a public relations
pioneer, he used the term publicity as evidenced in his
1925 book, Publicity: Some of the Things It Is and Is
Not and did not promote a clear, organised vision of
public relations.
The agency business grew gradually and it was not
until after the First World War in 1919 that the earli-
est active promoter of public relations as a term and
a communications practice set up in business. This
was Edward L. Bernays, who with his soon-to-be wife
Doris Fleischman started their agency in New York.
Bernays importance is more related to his books,
Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), Propaganda
23/03/2017 12:52
 10 Part 1The context of public relations

buy advertisements. They were also recruiting journal-

Explore 1.3 ists to do their work; a practice that still continues.

PR and activism
Europe after the First World War
public relations has often been presented as a tool
of powerful organisations, such as governments and In Europe, public relations and publicity activity
corporations, but it has activist roots, especially in US expanded in Germany and the United Kingdom after
labour movements. In 1996, an advocacy campaign the First World War. In Germany, it was well devel-
by the environmental group Greenpeace against the oped in industry, national government and, especially,
energy corporation Shell led to Shell giving up plans to local and regional government. However, this came
sink a redundant oil rig, Brent Spar, in the Atlantic. Can to a halt in 1933 when the Nazis came to power
you identify other campaigns by advocacy groups and (Bentele 2015). The most important developments in
charities that have successfully influenced public opin-
the United Kingdom were the formation of the first
ion and led to changes on government policy and laws?
public relations agency, Editorial Services Ltd, by
Basil Clarke in 1924 (Evans 2013). Clarke used the
term industrial propaganda, especially in relation to
communication with employees. Propaganda prior
(1928) and The Engineering of Consent (1955), and
to its blackening in the Nazi era, was widely used in
less to his leadership in public relations in the 1920s
government and industry as a synonym for informa-
and 1930s, when he was seen by peers as a relentless
tional communication and awareness-creating public-
self-promoter. On starting his business, Bernays titled
ity. Another British pioneer in the establishment of
it as Edward L. Bernays, Counsel on Public Rela-
public relations led the work of the Empire Marketing
tions thus presenting the concept of public relations
Board (see Picture 1.2) to develop trade and business
counsel as a higher professional skill and calling than
amongst nations, dominions and colonies of the Brit-
those of publicist or press agent. He engaged with
ish Empire. Stephen Tallents, who later went on to
developments in psychology and sociology, as well as
advise the BBC and government departments, created
with academic developments such as the study of pub-
the campaigns (Anthony 2012). Tallents was the foun-
lic opinion. His importance, which came amongst US
dation president of the Institute of Public Relations in
practitioners from the 1950s until his death at 103 in
1948. Other countries that were introducing public
1995, was in promoting public relations as being much
relations included Australia, whose first self-styled
more than the negotiation of coverage in the media,
public relations adviser was George Fitzpatrick in
but still as a persuasive communication activity on
1929 (Gleeson 2012). Many of its state governments
behalf of clients. Lee and Bernays were not alone in
writing about publicity and public relations activity in
the 1920s. Often overlooked are Robert Wilder and
Katharine Buell who ran a public relations firm in New
York from 1919 to 1925 and published Publicity: A
Manual for the Use of Business, Civic, or Social Service
Organisations and Irving Squire and Kirtland Wilsons
Informing Your Public (1924), which Ivy Lee recom-
mended to Edward Bernays (Lamme 2015). By 1930,
the work of publicists and public relations people was
of such importance that they were being mentioned in
major US novels such as John Dos Passoss USA Tril-
ogy which had the publicist, J. Ward Morehouse as an
important if morally crossed character in its first and
third volumes. public relations and publicity work grew
through the 1920s until slowed by the Great Depres-
sion. It was a contested area. Tedlow (1979) found Picture 1.2 The Empire Marketing Board campaigns run
that media owners loathed press agents and publicists by Stephen Tallents in the 1920s and 1930s used rich visual
and called them space grabbers because they obtained images in posters and films to promote British Empire
coverage in newspapers for clients without the need to trade.

M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 10 23/03/2017 12:52


had information and publicity departments by 1930.
In Thailand, the government set up a Publicity Divi-
sion, modelled on German practices, in 1933 to pro-
vide information to the public. It has since evolved
into the Government Public Relations Department
(GPRD) and plays a major role in managing govern-
ment communication and relations with media indus-
tries (Tantivejakul 2014).
Second World War
During the Second World War, all combatants had
established propaganda and information operations.
In the United Kingdom, the Ministry of Information
was the mainstay of internal propaganda and public
information campaigns. It continued as the Central
Office of Information for decades until its closure in
2011. LEtang (2004: 59) notes that by the end of
the Second World War, the British State had invested
heavily in a variety of propaganda activities to sup-
port political, economic, and diplomatic objectives.
In the United States, the armed forces had public
relations staff who were trained to accompany units
into war zones, as well as keep domestic audiences
informed. An example was Daniel J. Edelman, who
later formed the international agency of the same
name. Edelman joined the US Army in late 1942 and
underwent the Army Specialized Training Program as
a public relations specialist before going to Europe in
the final year of the Second World War (Wisner 2012).
He, and other veterans, would drive the expansion
of public relations in the US and internationally in
decades to follow. The main propaganda organisations
in the United States were the Office of War Informa-
tion (OWI), which focused on disseminating informa-
tion worldwide, and the War Advertising Council,
which produced public service announcements. Both
provided platforms for public relations and publicity
employment, although as Lee (2015) found, employ-
ment in government departments dropped rapidly
as the war ended. In Germany, a previously diverse
media sector was forced to follow National Social-
ist doctrines after 1933 with information centralised
under the Reich Ministry of Public Information and
Propaganda headed by Propaganda Minister Goeb-
bels. Needless to say, the entire system of public com-
munication gained a propagandist character (Bentele
2015: 52). By the beginning of the war in the Pacific in
1941, Japan had an established information division
in its Cabinet office and the propaganda machine was
in place (Yamamura et al. 2014: 65).
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 11
Chapter 1Public relations origins: definitions and history 11
1945 onwards
After the end of the Second World War in 1945, public
relations expansion gathered pace, especially in North
America and Western Europe. Eastern Europe, which
was under Soviet control, and China, which would
come under Communist Party rule in 1949, were
extensive, highly populated exceptions. Asia, Africa
and Latin America would follow later.
In Western Europe, American influence was at its
height in the nations that had been affected by the war-
time conflict. US funding of the European Recovery
Program (known as the Marshall Plan) encouraged
the democratisation of politics, open economies and
the reconstruction of infrastructure. In some countries,
communicators travelled to the United States and were
briefed on public relations and promotional activity.
Belgium, which had pre-war experience of propaganda
and promotional activity from industries in its colonies,
sent economic missions to the United States which led
to the propagation of PR in different parts of Belgium
(van Ruler and Cotton 2015: 92). These visits noted that
successful companies nurtured their relationships with
publics through communication that had human dimen-
sions. Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Italy also
benefited from the Marshall Plan linkages. German pub-
lic relations historian Gnter Bentele calls the period
from 1945 to 1958 a New beginning and upswing:
Postwar upswing and orientation towards American
models in the early 1950s; emergence of a new
professional identity in the context of democratic
structures of the public sphere (PR defined as
distinct from propaganda and publicity); rapid
development of the professional field, particularly
in the economic sphere.
(Bentele 2015: 47)
In Greece, the exposure to American advertising
agencies and public relations practices in the tourism
market in the early 1950s was the springboard for the
formation of early agencies (Theofilou 2015). In Italy,
the United States Information Service (USIS) was very
active in recruiting Italians, producing films and docu-
ments, offering exchange visits to its homeland, and
assisting the Christian Democracy party (DC) in com-
batting the influence of the Communist Party (Muzi
Falconi and Venturozzo 2015). However, Portugal
and Spain, which were non-combatants in the Second
World War and ruled by military dictatorships since
the 1930s, were not part of the Marshall Plan funding
and programmes. Development of their national PR
sectors would be delayed until the mid-1970s when
23/03/2017 12:52
 12 Part 1The context of public relations
both dictatorships broke down. Spain started its pub-
lic relations sector during the final 15 years of the
Franco regime (see Mini case study 1.2) but it was
not until democracy returned in the mid-1970s that
it gained momentum (Rodriguez-Salcedo and Xifra
2015). Portugal shrugged off the Salazar regime at the
same time, but took a decade longer than its Iberian
neighbour to start developing a national public rela-
tions sector.
Professionalisation
Other aspects of the post-war expansion of public
relations were the formation of professional asso-
ciations and the introduction of university-level
education.
Professional associations
Although the Public Relations Society of America
(PRSA) was formed in 1947, it had antecedent
organisations that dated to 1936 (National Asso-
ciation of Accredited Publicity Directors). In the
United Kingdom, the Institute of Public Relations
(IPR) was launched in 1948 with the assistance of
a trade union, the National Association of Local
Government Officers. Other national bodies were
formed at a similar time: Australia (1949), Belgium
(1953), Denmark (1950), Finland (1947), France
Mini case study 1.2
Joaquin Maestre
founding influence of
Spanish PR
Despite working under the censorship and political
control of the Franco regime in 1960s Spain, Joaquin
Maestre identified the opportunity to develop public
relations services from a base in Barcelona. Influenced
by the French PR pioneer Lucien Matrat, he helped form
the first PR association in his country and the first school
of public relations, as well as develop a very successful
agency business. He was also the external face of Span-
ish PR during the Franco era and beyond. When the
Franco era ended in 1976, Spanish public relations was
able to expand quickly as a result of Maestres leadership.
Source: Rodriguez-Salcedo 2015
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 12
(1950), Germany (1958), Greece (1960), Netherlands
(1946), New Zealand (1954), Norway (1949), Spain
(1961) and Sweden (1950). Italy had three associa-
tions in the late 1950s, which merged into a single
organisation in 1970. In 1955, after several years of
talks, the International Public Relations Association
(IPRA) was launched in London and, for around 15
years, became the crossroads for international pub-
lic relations. Although an organisation composed of
individual senior practitioners, it played a leadership
role in defining aspects of public relations practice
such as codes of conduct and of ethics, early plan-
ning of public relations education and training and
seeking recognition for public relations as a profes-
sion. The IPRA was important from 1955 to 1970
in promoting public relations through Congresses,
publications and by bringing practitioners together.
From some of these connections, networks of agen-
cies were built, some being acquired by the US agen-
cies as they extended their offices and resources
around the world. Also in Europe, the Confdra-
tion Europenne des Relations Publique (CERP) was
formed through the initiative of Lucien Matrat of
France in 1959. Matrat was its first President and
also a prominent member of the IPRA. The CERPs
Research and Education wing later became the Euro-
pean Public Relations Education and Research Asso-
ciation (EUPRERA) in 2000. The IPRA continues as
an organisation, although its role of international
coordination and leadership has been taken over by
the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Com-
munication Management (see Think about 1.1).
Think about 1.1
Academics versus practitioners
Why does there appear to be a gap between academ-
ics and practitioners? The history of their relationship
is illustrated by different approaches to definitions of
PR and the development of education and training.
How do the definitions differ between those pro-
posed by academics and practitioners?
Why do the differences exist?
To explore this relationship, find examples of aca-
demic definitions and compare them with those from
the professional association in your country. Consider
the interests of the people who prepared the defini-
tions and the audiences they were prepared for.
23/03/2017 12:52

Education
The education and training of practitioners was seen
as a vital element in building the skills base of pub-
lic relations and defining it as a professional activity.
Although the first public relations course was offered
at the University of Illinois in 1920, it was not until
the late 1940s that the new professional associations
started to actively discuss education. In the United
States, Boston University established the first degree
programme in 1947, although around 10 courses
were offered at other universities. The first Canadian
university PR course was taught at McGill University
in 1948, but the first university degree was offered
by Mount Saint Vincent University in 1977 (Wright
2011). For at least two decades, the United States was
the leading provider of university-level studies, mainly
in second- and third-tier establishments.
The professional associations had education and
training as a priority. Sir Stephen Tallents said in his
1949 IPR presidential address that members first
function . . . was to educate themselves (LEtang and courses in the United Kingdom and Republic of
2004: 188). The IPR drew up its first draft syllabus
in 1954, although many senior members were dubi-
ous about the value of education. Sam Black, later to
be an honorary professor of public relations and an
internationally recognised educator, dismissed educa-
tion as a requirement for practice: It is not necessary to
have had any specialised training to have a good public
relations outlook. So much depends on common sense
and good taste (LEtang 2004: 190). He was to change
his stance and became one of the most widely travelled
public relations educators and trainers, the author of
several books and leader of some of the IPRAs policy-
making on university-level education.
The IPRA took the lead in shaping international
approaches to education. Its Gold Paper No. 2, Pub-
lic Relations Education Worldwide, published in 1976,
was primarily researched and written by the German
public relations leader, Albert Oeckl. Unlike later Gold
Papers, it proposed that public relations topics should
be part of a general humanities degree. It was followed
by three other Gold Papers in the succeeding 20 years
(1982, 1990 and 1997), all of them used by universities
and national associations to prepare degree programmes
and accreditation processes. Examples include Den-
mark, Russia, Ukraine and Zimbabwe. The Gold Papers
increasingly focused education and training on skills for
public relations practice, rather than a rounded syllabus.
This is a tension that has long existed between practi-
tioner organisation and universities around the world.
The adoption of public relations degree stud-
ies did not follow a continental or regional pattern.
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 13
Chapter 1Public relations origins: definitions and history 13
Early introductions, after the United States, were
Japan (1951), Belgium (1957), Taiwan (1963), Thai-
land (1965), Turkey (1965), Egypt (early 1970s),
Mexico (1976), Australia (mid-1970s) and Saudi Ara-
bia (1976). Much of Europe, both Eastern and West-
ern, launched courses in the 1980s and 1990s. In many
countries, public relations courses were taught within
other degree programmes or at Diploma level for one
or two decades. The introduction in Eastern Europe
came from 1991 onwards, after the collapse of the
Soviet bloc.
The United Kingdom, which had started discuss-
ing education and training in 1948, waited 40 years
before the first degrees commenced, firstly a master's
programme at the University of Stirling which started
in 1988; followed by bachelor programmes in 1989 at
the Dorset Institute of Higher Education (now Bour-
nemouth University); Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds
Beckett University) and the College of St Mark & St
John, Plymouth, which no longer offers the degree. At
the time of writing, there were 33 degree programmes
Ireland recognised by the Chartered Institute of Public
Relations.
International public relations
Western Europe became the target for American corpo-
rations as economies revived in the 1950s and 1960s.
This impetus gave the platform for the establishment
of the international arms of major public relations
agencies and for multinational corporations corpo-
rate communication departments. The first agencies to
expand from the United States were Hill & Knowlton,
Burson-Marsteller and Barnet & Reef. Hill & Knowl-
ton was established before the Second World War in
Cleveland and then New York. Burson-Marsteller was
set up in 1953 and Barnet & Reef, which no longer
exists, started in 1959. The agencies started by link-
ing with partners or associates in the new markets and
later acquiring either the partner agency or another
business. This enabled them to support American cli-
ents as they expanded into new territories and to grow
the agencies businesses. This development, and that
of the corporate communication expansion, also led
to the use of common public relations and publicity
approaches that could be planned and monitored from
a central position. The outcome was that American
models of public relations became known as Inter-
national PR with ubiquitous practices attempted in
many countries of greatly varying culture, politics and
societies. They have been very successful, as shown
23/03/2017 12:52
 14 Part 1The context of public relations
by their decades of operation, but not in all countries.
In Thailand, for example, international agencies have
come and gone. Often they tried to impose an inter-
national model of PR to satisfy clients, but failed to
gain desired results because they did not appreciate
Thailands Buddhist values and relationship culture
(Tantivejakul 2014).
The worldwide development
of public relations since the
mid-twentieth century
During the 1970s, the momentum built for the world-
wide expansion of public relations practices. Already,
the early international agency networks were in place,
corporate public relations departments were growing
as governments and multinational corporations sought
to expand their influence, and the technology for faster
communications, such as telephone, satellite communi-
cation, and television, was evolving. News media was
also expanding. In many Western countries, newspapers
could be printed in several cities; television news was
less reliant on film and able to access satellite-distrib-
uted material. All these developments sped up the news
gathering and dissemination processes (Gorman and
McLean 2009) and increased pressure on organisations
to respond quickly. It was also the decade in the United
States and Germany in which theoretical research began
to flourish. James Grunig, a noted academic theorist,
led the way in the United States by positioning public
relations as a management function. His definition of
public relations as the management of communica-
tion between an organisation and its publics (Grunig
and Hunt 1984: 4) is the most commonly cited. Other
academics began to undertake research and the first
academic journal, Public Relations Review, was estab-
lished by Professor Ray Hiebert in 1975. For much of
the next 20 years, American research and theorisation
would dominate public relations, until the academic
base became much more international.
Through the 1960s and 1970s, public relations was
mainly focused on media relations. This was a reflec-
tion of the journalistic background of many recent
entrants and the expectation of employers in compa-
nies and governments that media coverage was ben-
eficial. Media relations remains a major part of PR
practice today. This type of public relations would
change as graduates who had studied public relations
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 14
and related communication topics increasingly entered
agencies and organisations from 1990s onwards.
Now, around the world, public relations is a field in
which the vast majority of practitioners have a bach-
elor degree or similar academic award. Although the
most common form of public relations activity is in the
tactical, publicity-orientated form often called mar-
keting PR, the increased educational input led to the
introduction of strategy-led campaigns and the under-
standing that publics and stakeholders could be con-
tacted by methods other than through media gateways.
This became known as the relationship management
model (Ledingham and Bruning 1998).
1990s
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the col-
lapse of the former Eastern Bloc, public relations began
to flourish in these countries. For some this develop-
ment was wholly new, as it arose from the introduction
of democratic governments,whereas others interpreted
public relations rapid growth as the continuation of
practices from the former socialist countries. They
argued that many former governmental communica-
tions and propaganda people left their old jobs and
became PR entrepreneurs using many of the same tech-
niques and contacts.
In the 1990s, Europe led the PR world in two areas.
The first was the formation of the International Com-
munications Consultants Association (ICCO), which
brought the worlds PR trade bodies together and the
second was the interpretation of the Quality Assur-
ance (QA) movement into the public relations field.
One factor that supported growth of employment and
budgets had been the formation of national public
relations professional and trade bodies. In addition to
ICCO, the professional bodies formed the Global Alli-
ance for Public Relations and Communication Man-
agement later in the same decade. IPRA was behind the
formation of the International Quality in Public Rela-
tions organisation, which promoted QA approaches
to public relations. This was adopted in the UK as the
Consultancy Management Standard created by the
Public Relations Consultants Association and adopted
by several countries.
In this decade, there was rapid expansion of public
relations in consultancies, government and corpora-
tions. An important springboard was the privatisation
of governmental entities in many countries that fuelled
further internationalisation of agencies and corpo-
rate communication operations as companies moved
23/03/2017 12:52

rapidly into new markets through acquisition. Another
sector to emerge strongly was public relations for
non-profit organisations, such as charities and social
organisations.
A second springboard was technology public rela-
tions from the mid-1990s onwards. This brought
new types of expertise and communication methods
such as email and the early internet that were used
by practitioners and organisations as communication
and promotional tools. The period was called Web 1.0
and was the beginning of the biggest transformation of
public relations practices and strategies since the end of
the Second World War. Until then, technology change
was relatively slow with facsimile (fax) machines only
recently replacing telex and post. With Web 1.0, the
pace of change accelerated.
In Latin America, the ending of several military
governments and controlled economies led to greater
democracy in politics and open markets, which in
turn fostered communication such as public relations,
political communication and advertising. Watson
(2015: 14) notes that after restraints were eased PR
grew in all forms, as did education and training. In
the Middle East and Africa, a relatively liberal period
allowed the expansion of public relations especially as
the media environment became much more open and
international. In Israel, the period since 1995 has been
a golden age for public relations (Magen 2014: 53).
Although the bursting of the dotcom bubble around
2001 slowed the growth of public relations, it was only
temporary as employment continued to expand. For
example, in 2004 it was estimated that 45,000 people
worked in PR in the UK (CEBR 2005). By 2011 it had
risen to about 60,000 and in 2016 to 83,000 (PRCA
2011, 2016). Similar growth has been experienced in
many countries. For example, the annual European
Communication Monitor survey is sent to more than
30,000 mid-to-senior level corporate communicators
in 43 countries. (See also Chapter29 where the Euro-
pean Communication Monitor is discussed in greater
depth.)
How public relations grew
In a study of the public relations histories of more than
70 countries, Watson (2015) analysed the antecedents
of modern public relations, the factors that aided the
expansion of these practices (springboards) and the
restraints that slowed growth.
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 15
Chapter 1Public relations origins: definitions and history 15
Mini case study 1.3
Women in public
relations
Since the mid-1990s, women have become the major-
ity gender in PR in most countries.
But in the history of PR, women are under-represented.
Of the US pioneers, only Doris Fleischman, business
partner and wife of Edward L. Bernays, has been
accorded the standing which she deserved. After
the Second World War, it was not until 1973 that the
Public Relations Society of America elected its first
female president, Betsy Ann Plank. She was followed
by Margaret Nally, elected by the Institute of Public
Relations in the UK in 197576. Other national pro-
fessional associations were also slow to elect women
to leadership posts, although this has changed in the
past two decades. In the UK, for example, six out of
12 past presidents of the Chartered Institute of Public
Relations (since 2004) were women.
Antecedents
There were three common forms:
early corporate communications (e.g. Krupp in
Germany; railways in the United States);
governmental information and propaganda meth-
ods, especially in British colonies;
cultural influences linked to dominant religions
(Buddhism, Confucianism and Islam) in North
Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Springboards
There was a frequently observed sequence of influences
that enabled the expansion of public relations:
Governmental PR Corporate communication
Formation of a professional association Education
at universities and colleges Establishment of
agencies
There were exceptions, especially in the focus on
nation-building and politicised communication in post-
colonial societies in Asia and Africa, but this sequence
is seen in many more countries. In post-Second World
23/03/2017 12:52
 16 Part 1The context of public relations
War Western Europe and in Eastern Europe after 1989,
there was strong influence from American models of
practice, but these have been modified into national
forms of public relations.
Restraints
Since the middle of the twentieth century, public rela-
tions has not expanded at a uniform rate, even in
adjacent countries, for economic and political reasons.
Among the historic reasons were:
Box 1.3
Studying the history of
public relations
Study of the history of a profession or organisation is
valuable as it can shape understanding as to why and
how current practices and theories emerged. It indicates
the influences, opportunities and pressures that have
affected development (or decline) and shows that profes-
sions havent always developed with a constant upward
progression. British historian John Tosh makes the case
for applied history:
We cannot fully understand the features of the present
unless we see them in motion, positioned in trajectories
which link our world with that of our forebears. Without
historical perspective, we may fail to notice continuities
which persist, even in our world of headlong change.
Source: Tosh 2008: 141
Historical research into public relations is a relatively new
field which, until recently, was strongest in the United
States. One of the first biographies was about the PR pio-
neer Ivy L. Lee (Hiebert 1966) but there were few books
and articles until the 1990s when Scott Cutlip produced
Summary
Overall, public relations has expanded as a practice mostly
in democratic environments in which there is an open
economy. There are exceptions but these are mainly, as
in the case of Spain in the 1960s, when the controlling
regime was beginning to ease controls on the media and
politics. By the second decade of the twenty-first century,
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 16
closed or statist economies, one-party and military
governments that stifled free expression, the media
and the emergence of public relations;
propaganda was dominant in some countries (nota-
bly Eastern Europe) until democratic politics was
allowed;
public relations was practised as a protocol activity
to support rulers and not to foster dialogue (Middle
East).
two histories of US public relations in mid-decade. Soon
after, there were biographies of Edward L. Bernays (Tye
1998), John Hill and the Hill & Knowlton agency (Miller
1999) and Arthur W. Page (Griese 2001). In the UK, Jacquie
LEtang published a history of UK public relations (LEtang
2004) and there were papers, books and a conference in
Germany in the mid and late 1990s. However, the launch
of the International History of Public Relations Conference
in 2010 resulted in an explosion of research and publica-
tion in article and book form from around the world.
Researchers have used all the methods of historical
research: the creation and investigation of archives based
on documents and visual material from individual organ-
isations; interviews with practitioners have been recorded
and transcribed; documents such as industry journals and
how-to books have been read and analysed. The min-
utes of meetings and correspondence has, for example,
proved valuable in establishing accurate accounts of
important initiatives that had become mythologised
over time.
To research PRs history further, you can access online
resources such as http://historyofpr.com and a grow-
ing selection of texts from leading academic publish-
ers. Leading public relations research journals, such as
Public Relations Review and Journal of Public Relations
Research, have special issues devoted to the history of
public relations.
public relations has become a major communication
practice around the world. The very small beginnings,
such as Krupp in Germany and the first US PR agency
business in 1900, have led to widespread employment,
extensive use of practices and increasing research and
education. It is a long way from circuses, regional steam
railways and telephone companies publicising their activ-
ities to a very limited range of print media.
23/03/2017 12:52

Bibliography
Abdelhay-Altamimi, N. (2014). Kingdom of Saudi Ara-
bia in Middle Eastern and African Perspectives on
the Development of Public Relations: Other voices,
T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Al-Badr, H. (2004). The Basics of Public Relations and its
Practices. Riyadh: Dar Aloloom.
Anthony, S. (2012). Public Relations and the Making of
Modern Britain. Manchester: Manchester University
Press.
Badran, B.A. (2014). The Arab States of the Gulf in Mid-
dle Eastern and African Perspectives on the Devel-
opment of Public Relations: Other voices, T. Watson
(ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bardhan, N. and P. Patwardhan (2004). Multinational
corporations and public relations in a historically
resistant host culture. Journal of Communication
Management 8(3), 24663.
Bentele, G. (2015). Germany in Western European Per-
spectives in the Development of Public Relations:
Other voices, T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Bernays, E.L. (ed.). (1955). The Engineering of Consent.
Norman, OH: University of Oklahoma Press.
Boshnakova, D. (2014). Bulgaria in Eastern European
Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations:
Other voices, T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Broom, G.M. and B. Sha (2013). Cutlip and Centers
Effective Public Relations, 11th edition. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Brown, R. (2015). The Public Relations of Everything:
The ancient, modern and postmodern dramatic his-
tory of an idea. Abingdon: Routledge.
Carbone, C. and M. Montaner (2014). Argentina in
Latin American Perspectives on the Development of
Public Relations: Other voices, T. Watson (ed.). Bas-
ingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
CEBR (Centre for Economics and Business Research/
Chartered Institute of Public Relations) (2005).
48,000 Professionals 6.5 Billion Turnover: The eco-
nomic significance of public relations. London: Centre
for Economics and Business Research.
CIPR (Centre for Economics and Business Research)
(2016). What is PR? https://www.cipr.co.uk/content/
careers-advice/what-pr
Coombs, W.T. and S. Holladay (2006). Its Not
Just PR: Public Relations in Society. Chichester:
Wiley-Blackwell.
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 17
Chapter 1Public relations origins: definitions and history 17
Cutlip, S. (1994). The Unseen Power: Public Relations, A
History. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Evans, R. (2013). From the Front Line: The extraordinary
life of Sir Basil Clarke. Stroud: Spellmount.
Fakhri, S., A. Alsheekley and F. Zalzala (1980). Public
Relations. Baghdad: Ministry of Higher Education
and Research.
Galloway, C. (2014). New Zealand, in Asian Per-
spectives on the Development of Public Relations:
Other voices, T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Gleeson, D.J. (2012). George William Sydney Fitzpat-
rick (18841948): An Australian Public Relations
Pioneer. Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal 13(2),
212.
Gorman, L. and McLean, D. (2009). Media and Society
into the 21st Century: A historical introduction, 2nd
edition. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Gries, N.L. (2001). Arthur W. Page: Publisher, Public
Relations Pioneer, Patriot. Atlanta: Anvil Publishers.
Grunig, J.E. and T. Hunt (1984). Managing Public Rela-
tions. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Hiebert, R.E. (1966). Courtier to the Crowd: The story
of Ivy Lee and the development of public relations.
Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press.
Hung-Baesecke, C-J.F. and Y-R.R. Chen (2014). China
in Asian Perspectives on the Development of Public
Relations: Other voices, T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Ibraheem, I.A. (2014). Nigeria in Middle Eastern and
African Perspectives on the Development of Public
Relations: Other voices, T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Kiambi, D. (2014). Kenya in Middle Eastern and African
Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations:
Other voices, T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Lamme, M.O. (2015). Public Relations and Religion in
American History: Evangelism, temperance, and busi-
ness. New York: Routledge.
Lamme, M.O. and K.M. Russell (2010). Removing the
spin: Towards a new theory of public relations his-
tory. Journalism Communication Monographs 11(4),
280362.
Lamme, M.O. and K.M. Russell (2015). Theoriz-
ing Public Relations History: Strategic intent as a
defining characteristic. Presentation to the Interna-
tional History of Public Relations Conference, 89
July 2015, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth,
England.
23/03/2017 12:52
 18 Part 1The context of public relations
awniczak, R. (2005). Introducing Market Economy
Institutions and Instruments: The role of public rela-
tions in transition economies. Poznan: Piar.pl.
awniczak, R. (2014). Poland in Eastern European Per- Sheehan, M. (2014). Australia in Asian Perspectives on
spectives on the Development of Public Relations:
Other voices, T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Ledingham, J.A. and S.D. Bruning (1998). Relationship
management in public relations: dimensions of an
organizationpublic relationship. Public Relations
Review 24(1), 5565.
Lee, M. (2015). Government is different: A history of
public relations in American public administration in
Pathways to Public Relations: Histories of Practice
and Profession, B. St. John III, M.O. Lamme and J.
LEtang (eds). Abingdon: Routledge.
LEtang, J. (2004). Public Relations in BritainA history
of professional practice in the 20th century. Mahwah,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Magen, C. (2014). Israel in Middle Eastern and African
Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations:
Other voices, T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Miller, K.S. (1999). The Voice of Business, Hill & Knowl-
ton and Postwar Public Relations. Chapel Hill, NC:
The University of North Carolina Press.
Muzi Falconi, T. and F. Venturozzo (2015). Italy in
Western European Perspectives in the Development
of Public Relations: Other voices, T. Watson (ed.).
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Natifu, B. (2014). Uganda in Middle Eastern and African
Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations:
Other voices, T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Nessman, K. (2000). The origins and development
of public relations in Germany and Austria, in
Perspectives on Public Relations Research, Moss,
D., Veri, D., and Warnaby, G. (eds), London:
Routledge.
OED (2005). Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
PRWeek/PRCA (2011) 2011 PR Consensus. London: Pub-
lic Relations Consultants Association.
PRCA (2016) PRCA Census 2016. London: Public Rela-
tions Consultants Association.
Rodriguez-Salcedo, N. and J. Xifra, (2015). Spain in
Western European Perspectives in the Development
of Public Relations: Other voices, T. Watson (ed.).
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 18
Reddi, C.V.N. (1999). Notes on PR practice in India:
Emerging new human environmen a challenge. Asia
Pacific Public Relations Journal 1, 147160.
the Development of Public Relations: Other voices,
T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tantivejakul, N. (2014). Thailand in Asian Perspectives
on the Development of Public Relations: Other voices,
T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tantivejakul, N. and P. Manmin (2011). The practice
of public relations in building national unity: A his-
torical view of the kingdom of Thailand, Proceed-
ings of the International History of Public Relations
Conference 2011. 67 July, Bournemouth University,
Bournemouth, England. http://microsites.bourne
mouth.ac.uk/historyofpr/files/201011/IHPRC-2011-
Proceedings.pdf
Tedlow, R.S. (1979). Keeping the Corporate Image: Pub-
lic relations and business 19001950. Greenwich, CT:
JAI Press.
Theofilou, A. (2015). Greece in Western European Per-
spectives in the Development of Public Relations:
Other voices, T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Tosh, J. (2008).Why History Matters. Basingstoke: Pal-
grave Macmillan.
Tye, L. (1998). The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays
and the Birth of Public Relations. New York: Crown
Publishers.
Van, L.T.H. (2014). Vietnam in Asian Perspectives on
the Development of Public Relations: Other voices,
T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
van Ruler, B. and A-M. Cotton (2015). Netherlands
and Belgium in Western European Perspectives in
the Development of Public Relations: Other voices,
T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
VilAnilam, J.V. (2014). India in Asian Perspectives on
the Development of Public Relations: Other voices,
T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Watson, T. (2008). Creating the cult of a saint: Commu-
nication strategies in 10th century England. Public
Relations Review 34(1), 1924.
Watson, T. (2013). Keynote Address. Presentation to the
International History of Public Relations Conference,
24 June 2013, Bournemouth University, Bourne-
mouth. England.
Watson, T. (2015). What in the world is public relations?
in Perspectives on Public Relations Historiography
and Historical Theorization, T. Watson (ed.). Basing-
stoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
23/03/2017 12:52

Watson, T. and P. Noble (2014). Evaluating Public Rela-
tions: A guide to planning, research and measurement,
3rd edition. London: Kogan Page.
Wisner, F. (2012). Edelman and the Rise of Public Rela-
tions. New York: Eight Communications.
Wolbring, B. (2000). Krupp und die ffentlichkeit im 19.
Jahrhundert: Selbstdarstellung, ffentliche Wahrneh-
mung und gesellschaftliche Kommunikation [Krupp
and the public sphere in the 19th Century. Self-pres-
entation, public perception and societal communica-
tion]. Munich: C.H. Beck.
M01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 19
Chapter 1Public relations origins: definitions and history 19
Wright, D. (2011). History and development of public rela-
tions education in North America: a critical analysis.
Journal of Communication Management 15(3), 23655.
Wu, Y-C. and Y-J. Lai (2014). Taiwan in Asian Per-
spectives on the Development of Public Relations:
Other voices, T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Yamamura, K., S. Ikari and T. Kenmochi (2014). Japan
in Asian Perspectives on the Development of Public
Relations: Other voices, T. Watson (ed.). Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan.
23/03/2017 12:52
 c h ap t er 2 Scott Davidson

Public relations and the media

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
recognise some of the key theoretical approaches to understanding PRs relationship with the media
explore how different theories attempt to evaluate PRs power and influence over media content
explore how agenda setting and framing theory can be used to research mediatory power
identify how theory can explain the day-to-day relationship between PR practitioners and journalists
understand how the media influences PR practice and the long-term growth of the profession.

Structure
Media environments
Exchange theories: the information subsidy
Agenda setting and framing
Power shift towards public relations practitioners
Mediatisation

M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 20 23/03/2017 12:53

 Chapter 2Public relations and the media 21

Introduction for this chapter is on how organisations

This chapter presents several different
theories or frameworks for research-
ing and exploring the close relationship
between public relations, journalism
and the media more widely. The pro-
duction of news requires access to infor-
mation. In the language of journalism
studies, sources hold that information.
Sources are often private individuals
who may have been eye witnesses or
participants in an event, but the focus
and institutions are integral sources in
the process of gathering information
by journalists. Governments, business,
NGOs, charities, trade unions, profes-
sional associations and activist groups
all attempt to coordinate and strategi-
cally pursue their interactions with the
media. As sources they allocate staff
and resources to cultivate and man-
age their relationship with journalists.
These employees can have varied job
titles such as press officer or media
relations manager; but, regardless of
job titles, practitioners are normally
closely integrated into the PR strategies
of their employer. The media is a space
where the role in society for organi-
sations and corporations is debated,
but also where products, services and
political viewpoints are promoted (Ihlen
and Pallas 2014). The chapter will look
at the media systems that influence
PR and then turn to the main form of
exchange theory that has been used
to explore and explain the PRMedia
relationship the concept of the infor-
mation subsidy.

Media environments to suggest that some mainstream media institutions

The social and technological trends that forge the
shape of the media are a constant factor in understand-
ing the growth and practices of PR. PRs initial growth
as a profession was closely linked to inter-connected
social trends. For example, in the first part of the twen-
tieth century in the UK and Europe the masses became
increasingly literate and were winning the right to vote
in elections. At the same time there was an associated
rise of mass-circulation newspapers, followed by new
broadcast technologies: first radio, and then television.
Mass public opinion mattered and the media were
central to the flow of information and public debate.
Concurrently, demand for professionals who help
organisations participate and influence the new medi-
ated democracies grew.
The structural relationships between the PR and
media industries are constantly evolving in the con-
text of rapidly shifting media landscapes, not least by
the way in which digital technology and social media
are transforming the production of media content (see
Box2.2 Rise of the robots, page 31). Newspapers and
the wider print media peaked in sales in the 1950s
and have been in steady decline ever since. However,
they remain significant, with close to half of UK adults
reading a daily newspaper at least three times a week
(DCMS 2015). In many countries newspapers have lost
sales as readers stop buying printed editions in favour
of reading web versions of the same title, while at the
same time income from advertising has been lost to the
tech giants such as Google and Facebook who promise
to advertisers they can locate their target audience with
much more precision. Some newspapers have stopped
printing and shifted to online only; many others have
closed altogether, no longer considered economically
viable by their parent company. But there is evidence
have adapted to the new digital world, will do more
than just survive and will continue to exert consider-
able influence over public information seeking or the
process of agenda setting. The UKs Guardian news-
paper has continually declined in physical sales since
the 2000s, now selling well below 200,000 copies per
day, but has found new success online with over 8 mil-
lion unique browsers visiting its site every day. Like-
wise, the Daily Mail now enjoys over 13 million unique
browsers per day (source: newsworks.org.uk).
Radio remains a popular form of media that is dis-
tinctive for the way in which it is consumed when trav-
elling to work in the car or in the workplace itself. The
additional ability to broadcast digitally and through
internet streams, alongside the availability to listen-
ers of time-shifting listening through podcasts, have
meant radio has been less vulnerable to losing its mar-
kets because of new technology. Likewise, television
remains a mass medium, although patterns of viewing
are shifting. There has been a decline in the time people
spend watching TV on TV sets in recent years, along-
side an increase in the use of the on-demand services
that most broadcasters now provide. Nonetheless,
there has begun to be a decline in the overall minutes
per day people spend watching live or time-shifted TV,
with UK viewers watching an average of 221 minutes
per day (OFCOM 2015). Within this trend a steady
decline in viewing figures for news programmes on
television has been detected over the last five years,
with a pronounced decline in viewing by younger peo-
ple: while major television channels are still pulling in
large audiences, these audiences are eroding and ageing
while a range of new entrants seem to pick up younger
audiences (Nielsen and Sambrook 2016: 5).
In this new media environment, the traditional
media institutions which survive increasingly find

M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 21 23/03/2017 12:53

 22 Part 1The context of public relations

themselves in a much more complex network of pro-

ducers of what can be considered as news and media Explore 2.1
content. This new media world includes citizen jour-
nalists, expert bloggers and organisations themselves Fracturing television audiences
as significant producers of content. PR practitioners
are increasingly employing or commissioning journal- On Christmas Day 1977 over 27 million people in the
ists to produce that content. This trend sometimes is UK watched the television specials of both the Mike
described as brand journalism, as organisations draw Yarwood and Morecambe and Wise Shows (Wash-
on journalistic skills of creating stories, distributed bourne 2010). This was not only before the ability to
digitally download and watch programmes later, but
through their own communication channels that
also before most households owned a VHS or Beta-
attract the attention of target publics. Some brands
max video recorder. The viewing figures for these
such as Red Bull have become prolific producers of shows approached nearly half of the whole popula-
TV, short movies, mobile video and game content tion. It was the zenith of popular TV programmes as
(Veri and Veri 2015). events that made an impression on the whole nation
and its cultural reference points. Today, TV audiences
are dispersed over an increasing array of terrestrial,
digital, satellite, cable, internet and other viewing
Exchange theories: the options. Understanding changes in audience con-
sumption habits is an important task for PR practi-
information subsidy tioners devising their media relations strategies. The
most recent trends can be explored by reading the lat-
est reports produced by OFCOM the regulator of UK
Exchange theories typically draw on the ideas and
communications industries at http://stakeholders
concepts used in economics, but they have been fre- .ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/market-data/
quently applied to other academic fields. Exchange communications-market-reports/
theories assume individuals or groups interact with
each other by one side giving something and the other
receiving it. In sociology, people can be seen as rational
pursuers of their goals who regularly exchange valu-
able resources with others if the transaction is believed
to help move towards attaining those goals. For these
social exchanges to become a regular interaction they
need to constitute a mutually rewarding process for
both sides (Blau 1964).
In the exchange between PR and journalism, PR
provides an information subsidy. Gandy provides
a general definition of this subsidy as reducing the
prices faced by others for certain information in order
to increase its consumption (Gandy 1982: 12). The
significance is that the information subsidy provides a
framework for exploring how PR is able to reduce the
amount of time it takes for journalists to identify topics
and research stories; in exchange the journalists media
outlet supplies public attention to the information and
messages that the PR practitioner would wish them
to see (Fengler and Ru-Mohl 2008). As Turk (1985)
neatly summarises: Public relations practitioners use
information subsidies to systematize their attempts, on Picture 2.1 Morecambe and Wise television show
behalf of the organizations and institutions for which
they work, to influence media content and the opin-
ions of those who rely upon the media for information The information subsidy can be seen as a mecha-
Turk 1985: 12). To understand how information subsi- nism to explain how elites dominate media spaces.
dies operate, see Box2.1 on how PR helps journalists Organisations that can dominate, or even flood, media
do their work. spaces with their information and their interpretations

M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 22 23/03/2017 12:53


Think about 2.1 Media systems
When thinking about PRs relationship with the media,
it is always important not to assume the media work
in identical ways across time periods, geographies and
cultures. The media clearly plays differing roles, depend-
ing on the country being considered. Hallin and Mancini
(2004) famously tried to develop an academic framework
for understanding, for any particular country, why the
media are as they are. They did this by comparing the
media systems of different countries and put forward four
dimensions for analysing media systems. Brggemann et
al. (2014) amended and developed these further.
Inclusiveness of the press market The importance of
differences in terms of how far the press is only read
by local elites, or if they reach a broad audience with
an emphasis on reaching working class and female
readers.
Political parallelism This is an indicator to com-
pare to what extent journalists see themselves as
being close to and supportive of political parties. In
turn, how far do they allow this support to influence
their reporting? This dimension includes the extent
of political bias in news reporting and the degree to
which audiences choose to consume media that fit
with their own political preferences.
Journalistic professionalism This dimension
includes indicators of professionalism. For example,
Box 2.1
How PR can make news
reporting faster and
cheaper
PR practitioners help journalists in a number of ways:
The provision of information, statistics and
fact checking for journalists: When researching a
story, journalists need to find out or reassure them-
selves about the latest facts and research about the
issue at hand. They receive advice and data from
PR practitioners, often through inter-personal com-
munications. The relationship works if the journal-
ist believes the PR practitioner will provide reliable
information and is a legitimate source of expertise
on the topic.
M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 23
Chapter 2Public relations and the media 23
the degree to which journalists are autonomous
able to report independent of forces inside or
outside of their news organisation, i.e. politicians,
advertisers, media o wners as well as the degree
of common ethical standards and orientation to
serving the public interest.
Role of the state This more complex dimension
centres on the extent and ways in different countries
that the state attempts to intervene and influence
the media. The state can intervene by supporting
public service broadcasters such as the BBC, or it can
attempt to help newspapers by providing subsidies.
The state might censor and prevent critical reporting
of leaders or their political parties. Many states have
rules to prevent rich individuals or corporations own-
ing too many newspapers or TV stations.
Using these four dimensions, how would you categorise
and then compare the media in the UK, USA and Rus-
sia? (Of course, you can choose to compare other coun-
tries.) Are there differences in the political parallelism of
journalists working on newspapers compared to broad-
cast journalists on radio and TV? How would a stronger
understanding of the media systems in these countries
influence the strategies pursued by PR campaigns?
Picture and events: All forms of media, including
traditional printed newspapers, place a high value
on securing striking visual images. Strong visuals help
tell the story, but can also help increase newsstand
sales or lengthen the time an online visitor spends
on their website. Hiring professional photographers
or bringing lots of people together for a public event
are costly in terms of both time and money. PR prac-
titioners know any event that produces quality, per-
haps quirky, picture opportunities will have a good
chance of securing coverage in target media.
Real-life case studies: One highly time-consuming
task for journalists is to find real people who have
been affected by the issue in their story. Not only that,
they need to find real people who will agree to be
quoted or be filmed talking about this issue. The task
becomes harder as people will be naturally reluctant
to talk publicly about some issues such as personal,
23/03/2017 12:53
 24 Part 1The context of public relations
box 2.1 (continued)
financial or health problems. This explains why PR
practitioners, in advance of issuing a news release or
organising a publicity event, will work hard on identi-
fying people who are prepared to talk to the media.
Ideas for stories: PR can also subsidise the creative
process of forward planning future media content. In
her 1999 study, Curtin found that, even if they didnt
use any of their text, journalists were heavily reliant
on looking at news releases sent to them by PR prac-
titioners for ideas for new stories or features (Curtin
1999). This process also takes place in the inter-
personal communications between practitioners
and certain journalists who speak on a regular basis.
These form opportunities to float or pitch story ideas
to the journalist. This process widens involvement in
of current affairs will be able to influence public
life. PR-subsidised information and news reporting
becomes an indirect subsidy for influential political or
policy-making elites as they frequently rely on informa-
tion provided by the media in their decision-making
(Gandy 1992). But the information subsidy also helps
us understand how relatively resource-poor, chari-
ties, NGOs, community groups, can influence public
agendas. PR practitioners working for these organisa-
tions have found that providing an effective informa-
tion subsidy on the issues and causes on which they
campaign has influenced or even changed the language
and assumptions used in media reports. Information
subsidies as a PR strategy are open to both elites and
outsiders (Davis 2002). A constant information sub-
sidy can also build legitimacy. Being regularly quoted
or associated on stories about a particular topic builds
the organisations reputation for holding expertise on
the issue, or being accepted as holding an interest in
helping find solutions to help communities perhaps
negatively impacted upon by the issue.
Some PR departments, such as those in government
departments (ministries) or global corporations, pub-
lish huge amounts of information, with new exchanges
taking place with journalists on an hourly basis. This
presents government communicators with the oppor-
tunity to use their position to develop news manage-
ment strategies. Looking at the communications of the
British government, Gaber (2000) was usefully able
to break down news management strategies into their
constituent parts. To begin with, PR departments who
handle the publication of a large amount of informa-
tion will, as much as possible, time announcements
to maximum effect. Sometimes this will be to ensure
maximum media coverage for an important or positive
event; on other occasions practitioners might release
M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 24
the forward planning process, and would be a signifi-
cant cost to the media organisation if they had to pay
for this creative advice coming from PR.
Interviews and quotes: A typically formatted news
story will include quotes from relevant people,
including senior leaders in organisations involved in
the event. PR speeds up the process of asking for a
quote in response to an issue or story by supply-
ing and distributing these quotes. Many organisa-
tional news releases consist just of a quote from a
senior figure responding to a news event. Longer
form interviews are also a regular media format
and the process of finding and organising these
interviews can be simplified and accelerated by PR
practitioners.
stories as a firebreak to divert attention away from
other perhaps embarrassing stories. Equally, they will
also sometimes pre-empt Sunday newspaper exclusives
by releasing the story themselves on the Friday or Sat-
urday. The story is still a negative one for the depart-
ment, but an element of control has been reasserted by
choosing when and how the information is released.
Alternatively, disappointing statistics or reports can be
released and buried while journalists are concentrat-
ing on another bigger event. Message coordination is
another strategy: sometimes in the fear that different
employees or representatives will provide journalists
with conflicting viewpoints, the PR team will use inter-
nal communications to ensure anyone who speaks to
the media is emphasising the desired message or narra-
tive. These strategies can annoy and frustrate journal-
ists, but a bigger source of tension in the relationship
can come when PR practitioners attempt to reward
or punish journalists for the content of their previous
stories. For example, refusing to reward a journalist
with an exclusive story because of unhappiness with
their previous writing. The more a journalist is depen-
dent on the information subsidy provided by PR, then
in theory the more there is scope for PR departments
to implement proactive, or what some might consider
aggressive, news management strategies.
It is worth noting that the information subsidy is
equally useful as a concept for exploring the relation-
ship between PR practitioners working in public affairs
and lobbying and their relationships with policy-mak-
ers and politicians. In this context, PR provides a con-
stant supply of research that decision-makers rely on to
make sense of current or future policy options (Gandy
1992). In media relations, PR seeks to provide infor-
mation to journalists which fit with their concepts of
what makes something newsworthy; in public affairs,
23/03/2017 12:53

PR will translate information to show how it helps
policy-makers understand and solve problems facing
society, with the prospect of PR departments gaining
a competitive advantage over their rivals if successful
(Davidson and Rowe 2015).
Finally, to conclude this section, as ever, it is impor-
tant to consider social, economic, political and cultural
contexts before assuming any concept might be univer-
sally applied to all relationships between PR and the
media. Consider that, although most journalists and
PR practitioners across the globe do not believe it is
professional for the media to accept payments from
PR sources in return for publishing a story, interna-
tional surveys have found the practice to be wide-
spread. This practice includes PR news releases being
published in exchange for paid advertisements in the
same media outlet or direct payments to a journalist by
a news source (Tsetsura 2008). For example, in Rus-
sia, payments, either directly or through patronage, are
accepted as routine by some journalists (Pasti 2005)
and there is a documented history in southern Europe
of payments of cash to journalists from grateful con-
nections (Hallin and Papathanassopoulos 2002).
These differences can be an important difficulty for
PR practitioners working in intercultural locations. As
Fitch (2012) discovered, attitudes and expectations in
relation to international PR departments paying for
Think about 2.2 PR paying journalists expenses
Read the two quotations below.
1. Cassandra Cheong, CEO the Hoffman Agency:
The press release still has a place in Chinese media rela-
tions, but it is press conferences and events that are most
likely to guarantee coverage...But press conferences
come with an added component that would be alien to
most PRs in the West because in China, it is expected
that the brand holding the press conference would pay
between 55 and 220 in travel allowance, depending
on seniority, to the journalists who attend.
Source: Griggs, I. (2016). Want to make
it big in China? Its hard and local
journalists expect travel expenses.
PR Week, 27 April 2016.
2. (In China) Newspaper and magazine advertis-
ingdepartments continue to openly discuss their rates
even when a researcher making inquiries identifies
herself as working for The New York Times...an
account manager at Yashi Media, a Beijing agency
M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 25
Chapter 2Public relations and the media 25
journalists to write a story may clash with the ethi-
cal norms of some PR practitioners, as well as with
the determination of some other organisations in the
region to refuse to make such payments even if they
are non-controversial in a localised context. Where
cash payments to journalists are widespread, there
needs to be caution in assuming that an exchange took
place primarily because PR practitioners were able to
produce and subsidise genuinely newsworthy content.
Agenda setting and framing
Agenda setting
While exchange theories such as the information sub-
sidy help explore and understand why PR practitioners
have such a close working relationship with journal-
ists, this section will look at what theories might help
assess further how this might translate into influenc-
ing the way in which successful media relations strate-
gies could be seen as a significant factor in shifting or
entrenching public opinion on various issues. The first
of these will be the concept of agenda setting.
As communication studies moved away from mak-
ing simplistic assumptions that media content would
directly mould public opinion, there was a shift to
that helps companies obtain coverage in print and
broadcast media...said...If your boss wants
to comment on something brief and we shoot him in a
news program for 15 seconds, it would be $9,000. And
if your boss wants an exclusive interview for 10 min-
utes, the rate is much higher.
Source: Barboza, D. (2012). In China Press, best
coverage cash can buy. New York Times, April 3,
2012. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com
/2012/04/04/business/media/flattering-news-
coverage-has-a-price-in-china.html?
Can handing over envelopes full of cash to journal-
ists to write stories be justified if other companies
are also doing it? Or if it helps boost the income
of reporters on low pay? What ethical responsibil-
ity do PR practitioners working for international
brands have in regard to the reliability of the media
in countries such as China? Does the existence of
this practice mean information subsidy theories
need updating?
23/03/2017 12:53
 26 Part 1The context of public relations
theories that accepted that media effects were highly
contingent on a number of factors. Agenda setting
attracted interest and became credible because there
appeared to be a strong link between issues that were
prominent in news media and how audiences ranked
the importance of issues that faced society (McCombs
and Shaw 1972). For example, influential studies of TV
news in the USA found that news programmes affect
which social problems viewers believe to be the most
important, and also suggested problems that were the
subject of prominent coverage on evening news bul-
letins were accorded more weight in how audiences
evaluated the performance of the president (Iyengar et
al. 1982). As Cohen (1963) so neatly summarised the
concept: media content does not successfully tell audi-
ences what to think, but can be stunningly successful
Explore 2.2 The public versus other agendas
In reality, there is no one public agenda that accu-
rately describes the priority concerns of all citizens.
Differing sections of society will have variations in the
issues they believe to be the most important, as well
as differing views on what should be done about those
issues.
There are a number of freely available resources to help
us research the issues, concerns and attitudes of the pub-
lic, the media and of those in politics and policy-making.
Here are some suggestions.
Public attitudes
British Social Attitudes an annual survey looking at
a wide range of social and political attitudes in the
UK: http://www.natcen.ac.uk/our-research/research/
british-social-attitudes/
Pew Research Center conducts regular surveys of
public opinion and attitudes in the USA: http://www.
pewresearch.org/
The polling and research company YouGov publish
regular updates on the results of their work.
YouGov findings on social attitudes: https://
yougov.co.uk/news/categories/life/
YouGov data on public responses to issues affect-
ing brands in the news: https://yougov.co.uk/news/
categories/consumer/
Every month for decades the research company Ipsos
MORI have been asking people what they believe
are the most important issues facing Britain. Their
results from 1974 until the current day are avail-
able on their website: https://www.ipsos-mori.com/
M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 26
in telling audiences what to think about. But, as we will
see, the power to influence what audiences think about,
in the right circumstances, will also impact on what
they believe should happen about that issue.
The logical assumption behind agenda setting is that
the process of the media frequently reporting and dis-
cussing certain issues will mean that large segments of
the public will come to perceive these issues as being
more important than others. It should also be noted
that there is not a singular agenda different com-
munities and sectors of society will each hold a varia-
tion in the configuration of issues they perceive to be
important. So, for example, as well as the general pub-
lic agenda, there will be a policy agenda for people
involved in government and public affairs (Coleman
et al. 2009). Put another way, this is a process where
researchpublications/researcharchive/2420/Issues-
Index-Archive.aspx
Media and policy agendas
There are several high-quality email newsletters that can
be subscribed to that offer daily summaries of what issues
are high on the media agenda and how politicians are
responding. Two good examples are the daily email from
Paul Waugh on the Huffington Post and the Red Box pro-
duced by The Times.
Paul Waugh of the Huffington Post daily briefing: sign
up by visiting: huff.to/1CKGj5Y
The Times Red Box daily briefing: http://www
.thetimes.co.uk/redbox/signup/
To complement the briefings from journalists, daily sum-
maries from authoritative websites attached to the major
political parties are also a good information resource:
Sign up for the daily email from LabourList via: http://
labourlist.org/
Sign up for the daily email from Conservative-
Home via: http://www.conservativehome.com/
conservativehomes-daily-email
The Secretary General of the United Nations pro-
duces a daily briefing which gives insights into what
is on the international agenda: http://www.un.org/
press/en/content/noon-briefings
In addition to searching for stories and topics on news-
paper websites, for students most university libraries sub-
scribe to databases that allow you to search newspaper
and magazine archives.
23/03/2017 12:53

real-world issues are drawn to the attention of the
media by organisations through their use of media rela-
tions strategies: the media increases its coverage of the
issue; in turn, the media coverage amplifies the pub-
lics interaction with the issue in its real-world context;
finally an opinion leader, such as a large organisation
or government, reacts to the rising public interest/con-
cern (Johnson et al. 1996).
Framing
PR practitioners are not simply supplying an informa-
tion subsidy in order for an issue to gain media atten-
tion; they also pay great attention to assessing how this
coverage could best advance their objectives on any
given issue of the day. For any PR campaign, the objec-
tive will be to do more than merely set the agenda:
framing theory provides a framework for exploring
how issues are framed in order to build consensus on
what needs to be done. Framing assumes that how
information is presented to us will influence the deci-
sions we make. Research evidence suggesting varia-
tions in how information is presented on essentially
identical decision-making scenarios will influence audi-
ence choices (Scheufele and Tewksbury 2007).
Framing involves a process of culling a few elements
of perceived reality and assembling a narrative that
highlights connections among them to promote a par-
ticular interpretation, a decision to select some aspects
of a perceived reality and make them more salient in
a communicating text (Entman 1993). Entman sug-
gested that fully developed frames typically perform
four functions: problem definition, usually succinctly
summarising a problem and the negative costs of its
impact; causal analysis that suggests who or what is
creating the problem; moral judgments are intimated in
regard to the people or values being associated with the
cause of the problem; and remedy promotion where
the frame suggests actions that would solve or at least
alleviate the problem. But also we can understand the
mechanics of how framing influences public opinion
through priming: frames introduce or raise the salience
or apparent importance of certain ideas, activating
schemas that encourage target audiences to think, feel,
and decide in a particularly way (Entman 2007: 164).
So, in that way we can understand that the objective
of media relations components of PR campaigns is to
frame and prime and this makes it patently clear why
PR practitioners typically take great care when select-
ing the words, visuals and message medium.
One essential element to framing theory is that PR
campaigns, and their attempts to frame issues, take
M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 27
Chapter 2Public relations and the media 27
Think about 2.3
Framing
Entmans model of framing suggests frames typically
perform four functions:
problem definition
causal analysis
moral judgement
remedy promotion.
Consider the following three alternative descriptions
of the same incident. Each account highlights or
omits relevant information. For each account, how
might an audience be expected to respond using
Entmans four functions of framing?
Description 1: An infant left sleeping in his cot
was bitten repeatedly by rats while his 16-year-
old mother went to a local post office to pick up a
welfare payment. A neighbour had to respond to
the cries of the abandoned child and took him to
the local hospital.
Description 2: An eight-month-old boy was
treated in hospital yesterday after being bitten by
rats while sleeping in his cot. Other tenants living
in neighbouring flats said that repeated requests
for the landlord to organise a visit from pest con-
trol had been ignored. Meanwhile, the landlord
claimed that the tenants had ignored her remind-
ers to properly dispose of their rubbish.
Description 3: Rats bit eight-month old Michael
Burns five times yesterday as he napped in his cot.
Burns is the latest victim of a rat epidemic plagu-
ing inner-city neighbourhoods. A spokesperson
for the city council explained that central govern-
ment cutbacks had led to short-staffing at pest
control and environmental health departments.
A spokesperson for the local hospital confirmed
admissions owing to rodent bites had doubled
over the last two years.
Source: Adapted from Ryan (1991)
place in highly competitive environments. For any sig-
nificant social or economic issue there will be differ-
ences of opinion with some groups likely to benefit,
but equally some likely to lose out, depending on what
policies are adopted. So, it will frequently be the case
that the public will see and hear competing frames that
make contradictory claims and recommendations for
23/03/2017 12:53
 28 Part 1The context of public relations
action. Chong and Druckman (2007) explored this
aspect of framing by considering the issue of a hate
group wanting to march through a town centre. This
could be framed as an issue of the right to free speech,
or one of a threat to public safety. Some members of
the public could potentially agree that both free speech
and public safety are important to them. With such a
conflict of reasonable arguments, individuals will tend
to assess which frame is closest to their own personal
values.
However, this is not to say that all organisations
will have the same opportunity or resources available
to them in order to ensure the media use their framing
of an issue. For example, some PR practitioners will
have access to greater resources to research the frames
that appeal the most to the public, or recruit important
personalities or celebrities to help generate media inter-
est (Chong and Wolinsky-Nahmias 2003).
Power shift towards public
relations practitioners
Research and debates around concepts such as the
information subsidy, agenda-setting and framing have
recently been contextualised by what some believe is a
power shift away from journalism and towards public
relations practitioners. The speculation on the chang-
ing power relationships is grounded in how changes
in economics and technology have impacted upon the
news media as an industry.
Academics have long been interested in understand-
ing how much news content is the result of proactive
journalistic inquiry, and what proportion originates
from the activities of public relations practitioners.
This question is seen as important by some as it might
indicate who is setting public agendas and the balance
between pure news values driving the agenda versus
the possibility that outside interest groups are success-
fully moulding news agendas. Some believe PRs power
over the media is a modern reality with a PR-saturated
media environment (Davis 2002) where Journal-
ists...have generally become mere passive proces- pre-agreed that is to say a process of copy approval
sors of unchecked, second-hand material, much of it
contrived by PR to serve some political or commercial
interest (Davies 2008).
There is some longstanding evidence for the abil-
ity of PR to influence media content. In the 1970s it
was estimated 45 per cent of newspaper stories origi-
nated in PR materials (Cutlip 1976), which were also
M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 28
highly influential on the content of TV news (Golding
and Elliot 1979). One study tracked press releases
and found that more than 98 per cent were success-
ful in generating media interest, with up to 70 per
cent of the content of some small trade, specialist
and suburban media being sourced from PR activity
(Macnamara 1993). One more recent, and influential,
study (Lewis et al. 2008) found that national news-
papers in the UK on average included 24.4 pages of
content not including adverts; the number of pages
had increased 30 years later to 41.0. However, the
number of journalists employed by the newspapers
has not increased in the same way and journalists are
expected to fill more pages. If we consider that it also
normal practice now for national newspaper journal-
ists to write additional stories that are only published
on the web version of the paper and also contribute
to the production of video and podcast content, we
can see how they might lack the space and time to do
extensive research for new stories, and so accordingly
may become more reliant on the information subsidy
produced by PR.
As with related debates about the extent of PRs
ability to exert communicative power, in regard to the
power, PRs influence is highly contingent it depends
on a number of factors. PR practitioners are some-
times portrayed as being in some form of ascendency
where they can manipulate and exploit beleaguered
journalists desperate for news content. However, after
conducting a set of interviews, Jackson and Moloney
(2015) found that practitioners were telling them that
they believed journalists working on national news-
papers were still powerful and independent figures
and, furthermore, the growth of the use of PR by all
kinds of organisations meant that journalists were in a
position to select from a large number of well-pitched
story ideas. Although journalists working for national
newspapers may retain much of their power, in other
types of media the journalists could be said to hold
much more subservient roles. For example, during the
proceedings of the Leveson Inquiry into the culture,
practices and ethics of the press, it was revealed that
in the entertainment industry, a high proportion of
stories that appear in celebrity-focused magazines are
took place where the PR representative would have
the right to see the story before it was printed and be
able to suggest changes they wanted to see, or with-
draw the magazines right to print the interview. The
editors of Hello! and OK! magazines told the inquiry
that between 7080 per cent of celebrity stories or
interviews were pre-agreed with PR representatives
23/03/2017 12:53

(Leveson Inquiry 2012). This strongly suggests that,
in contrast to the independence of the national news
media, PR practitioners can exert high degrees of
control over journalists working for entertainment
and celebrity-focused magazines (see also Chapter27
Celebrity public relations).
A combination of structural changes to the PR and
media industries is leading many to believe that PR
is increasingly able to exert high levels of influence
over journalists. These changes are driven by continu-
ing growth in the employment of PR practitioners
by large organisations, but also by the realisation by
smaller organisations that good media relations strat-
egies might allow them to punch above their weight.
At the same time there has been a decline in editorial
resources. Some forms of media, such as local news-
papers, have lost readers and advertising income to
the internet and have reduced staffing levels. Finally,
organisations can also create their own media content
and distribute this to their publics via websites and
social media platforms.
Mediatisation
The theories and concepts that have been the focus so
far for this chapter are without doubt valid and useful
for studying the manner in which the PR and media
industries have become so closely intertwined. How-
ever, there is a potential problem in the way that they
could suggest that the relationship was a binary one,
where if one side is gaining power, then automatically
Picture 2.2 Many believe that PR is increasingly able to
exert high levels of influence over journalists, particularly
those working for entertainment and celebrity-focused
magazines
M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 29
Chapter 2Public relations and the media 29
that must mean the other side is losing influence.
Exchange theories, agenda setting and framing are
clearly useful theories for understanding day-to-day
PR-media interactions and for exploring the contests
to influence the production of media content. But what
if the relationship was less of an exchange or a power
struggle, but was instead more of a free-flowing circuit
of interaction and influence, with no visible joins or
borders between the two industries? This final section
will look at the process that arises out of the actions
initiated by organisations who believe the media is
powerful, and because of this power they place so
much effort in trying to influence the media, that they
begin to mirror or internalise media logics, values and
assumptions.
Mediatisation theory can broadly be separated into
an institutional and a social-constructivist tradition
(Hepp and Krotz 2014). The main focus here is the
institutional paradigm which assumes the media are a
network of independent social institutions that oper-
ate according to their own sets of rules and practices.
Together these rules constitute media logic. Organisa-
tions will need to understand and make compromises
with media logic if they want to be recognised and
attain media coverage of their brand or issue. There is
also the social-constructivist paradigm, which places
the media as holding a ubiquitous presence in everyday
life and as such the media have become central to the
social construction of reality. As Hjarvard summarises,
overall mediatisation can be defined as the process
whereby culture and society to an increasing degree
become dependent on the media and their logic in that
the media have become integrated into the operations
of other social institutions as a consequence...social
interactions...increasingly take place via the media
(Hjarvard 2013: 17).
Institutional mediatisation and
media logic
Institutional mediatisation is primarily concerned
with understanding the rules and routines that under-
pin media practice and how organisations and social
institutions adapt themselves in order to fit in with
media logic. PR practitioners can be seen as bound-
ary spanners who attempt to harmonise and recon-
cile the logic of their own organisations to that of the
media. Because media coverage is frequently seen as
a vital component in any issue campaign or branding
exercise, PR is at the forefront of accommodating the
logic of news values, editorial routines and journalistic
23/03/2017 12:53
 30 Part 1The context of public relations
techniques for storytelling. Indeed, this is an impor-
tant way of conceptualising the medias power over
PR: the media are powerful exactly because people and
organisations will adopt their logic (Altheide and Snow
1979). In many modern societies the ability to secure
media attention is a vital component of potential influ-
ence, so PR practitioners across various sectors, but
particularly those who wish to influence public opinion
on issues and policies, place a high value on publicity
initiatives and building relationships with journalists.
They do so in the understanding that their competitors
are seeking to implement a similar strategy and that
to be successful their events and news content need to
Mini case study 2.1
How mediatisation
impacts on the work of
civil servants in Norway
Research in Norway (Thorbjrnsrud et al. 2014) has
found how media logic transfers, initially via the PR
and communications department, and alters the daily
practices, routines and priorities of civil servants. The
study focused on the daily working practices of civil
servants working in two organisations: the Norwegian
Ministry of Justice and the Directorate of Immigration.
The researchers identified four characteristics of
a process of intensifying mediatisation of the work-
ing lives of civil servants. The first characteristic was
an adaptation to the rhythm of news. Interaction
with journalists has become part of the normal daily
routine of civil servants. In contrast to some of the
long-term projects that civil servants are working on,
journalists are typically working to tight deadlines and
expect a quick response to their requests. Attending
to these urgent deadlines meant that other impor-
tant tasks would be delayed and, even though civil
servants would initially ask the journalists to speak to
the PR team, they would still be needed if the journal-
ist required a detailed briefing on a particular policy
or set of statistics. Because the needs of the media
were being attended to on a daily basis, pressure was
exerted on the civil servants to come up with ideas
for positive news stories about the work of their
organisation. The second characteristic was the visible
adaptation of the language and format of news. News
writing is typically short form and favours simplicity,
use of everyday language and is centred on person-
alised stories and narratives. In contrast, following the
M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 30
conform to the logic of their target media (Blumler and
Gurevitch 1996).
Some caution is required. There could never be a
single unified media logic, one that applied equally to
all media institutions in all situations. Also it would be
unwise to assume all PR practitioners work for organ-
isations who will always automatically bend to media
logic, not least because their organisation and the sec-
tor within which it is located, is likely to also hold their
own needs and logic.
One important area for studying this issue has been
in assessing how the logics of the media and of politics
intermittently clash or harmonise with each other. In
logic of good governance, civil servants are orientated
towards correctly following procedures and produc-
ing comprehensive documents full of information
and often using technical or legalistic language in
order to be compliant with legislative requirements.
In order to improve the daily interactions with jour-
nalists, media training is organised for civil servants
by their PR colleagues and this has started to impact
on their style of writing, often adopting journalistic
styles when communicating directly with the public.
The third characteristic is a belief in the significance
of news. In this instance civil servants, politicians and
communications staff accept and invite the media to
carry out its democratic function of being a watch-
dog scrutinising the work of government. But, also
the politicians with power over civil servants see the
media as vital in managing their own reputation or
issue campaigns. Consequently this belief in the legiti-
macy and significance of the news media leads to the
fourth characteristic, the reallocation of resources and
responsibilities. Most obviously this has resulted in
increasing financial and time resources being devoted
to media relations. But, this effect also manifests itself
in changes to the personal skill sets seen as impor-
tant for senior civil service jobs, such as the ability
to work quickly in order to respond to fast-moving
24-hour news cycles. The research also tells us that if
an issue is gaining a lot of media attention, this issue
becomes a priority, not just for PR staff, but for non-
communications civil servants who will prioritise the
issue over others. For example, when the media take
an interest in an individual immigration case involving
a family, this case would be brought to the front of
the queue for attention, raising the prospect that the
decision on immigration status might result in a dif-
ferent outcome than the one likely if there had been
no media interest.
Source: Thorbjrnsrud et al.: 2014
23/03/2017 12:53

politics, the primary focus is on issues and problems that
face society, with processes and motivations centred on
potential solutions and the need to gain legitimacy for a
chosen path of action (Patterson 1993). In any country,
Strmbck (2008) has argued that the degree to which
politics has been mediatised depends on four factors:
1) how far the media are the most important source
of information on political issues; 2) the level of media
independence from political control; 3) the degree to
which the media themselves accept political logic when
reporting on issues; 4) conversely, the degree to which
politicians believe they need to bend to media logic to
be successful.
Mediatisation is an overarching theoretical con-
cept which can be used to study any of the rela-
tionships and interactions between media, PR and
cultural or technological change in society. As seen
in this section, the continual process of mediated
social change has prompted organisations to draw
on PR expertise to understand how they might be
able to accommodate media logic. The role the media
play in social change also applies to: how it extends
human communication capacity with increasing time
and space; the manner in which the media substitute
social activities such as online banking in place of
high street banks, or apps for internet chat replac-
ing face-to-face conversation; and the amalgamation
or merger of media and non-media activities such as
jogging and listening to the radio, or watching TV
while simultaneously discussing TV on a social media
platform (Schulz 2004).
Through the combination of the information sub-
sidy and the relentless activism and creativity of PR
Box 2.2
Rise of the robots:
how algorithms are
influencing journalism
and PR
Although still in its early stages, we can see the emer-
gence of a wave of automation in the generation of
media content, and in the manner in which citizens
encounter and discursively interact with PR content.
By automation we mean how software and technology
is used to support, and replace, the need for human
workers. Part of this process is the role of algorithms.
M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 31
Chapter 2Public relations and the media 31
practitioners, it could be argued that the mainstream
media have become dependent on PR. Mediatisa-
tion suggests this comes at the cost to organisations
of privileging media conceptions of what constitutes
a news story (news values), and the best timing of an
event (news routines). But, this process should not
be considered to be in any way a neutral or objective
process power is a constant variable when attempting
to understand PRs interaction with the social world.
Some PR practitioners work for powerful organisations
with a high profile; others work for smaller organisa-
tions who may need to engage, sometimes reluctantly,
with powerful media institutions. As Bentele and
Nothaft (2008: 36) summarise: While one organisa-
tion may be very powerful and able to impose its own
rules on journalists, another organisation may find it
necessary to make concessions in order to attract any
journalistic attention at all. This could lead to a belief
that there exists in some form a mutually influential
relationship between PR practitioners and journalists,
although caution is required as there is no reason to
believe this in any way translates into constituting a
balanced or mutually beneficial relationship, or indeed,
one that might meet normative expectations of produc-
ing media content that informs or empowers citizens in
a democracy.
Finally, as mentioned earlier in this chapter, digi-
tal technology and social media are transforming
journalism and public relations. A glimpse into the
changing methods of media and PR content produc-
tion, discussed in Box 2.2, suggests that a chapter
on PR and the media may look very different in the
future.
These are rules which tell social media and other digital
apps how to respond to data generated on the internet;
for example, Google and Facebook use algorithms to
determine what content is giving the most prominence
on user accounts, often creating filter bubbles where the
algorithm chooses to highlight content and viewpoints
which it believes the user already agrees with or likes.
Some examples of this trend are outlined below.
Robot journalism
The news wire service Associated Press (AP) have already
begun to publish stories written by robots. Working with
a company called Automated Insights, AP now uses auto-
mation technology to regularly convert financial data in
news stories on subjects such as corporate results and esti-
mates for future share earnings. In 2011 Statsheet began
23/03/2017 12:53
 32 Part 1The context of public relations
box 2.2 (continued)
to use algorithms to automatically generate stories and
baseball match reports on the basis of game statistics and
a set of stock phrases (van Dalen 2012). Significantly Cler-
wall (2014) found that readers were not able to tell apart
automated content from content written by a human.
Robot PR
As algorithmic journalism evolves, so we see mirror
trends in PR.
The PR industry is driven by a need to understand and
interpret shifts in public attitudes and behaviours. Digi-
tal technology has opened up huge flows of potentially
useful data to practitioners, particularly in relation to
sentiment expression on social media. A number of
companies seek to monetise this demand by offering,
often rather rudimentary, analysis that assists sense-
making of online content, which is then utilised to
categorise citizens into segmented clusters. This has
Think about 2.4
Kaku (2014) argues that no one is going to accidentally build
a robot, or an algorithm, that wants to rule the world; for
that to happen, first someone would need to build a super-
bad robot, before that someone has to build a mildly bad
Summary
This chapter locates a large proportion of the PR
industry and its practitioners as holding a close, rather
symbiotic relationship with the media. Indeed, the
line between real journalism and the informational
or promotional content produced by PR practitioners
is increasingly blurred. It has examined several theo-
retical approaches for understanding the relationship
between PR and the media, in the process providing
Bibliography
Altheide, D.L. and R.P. Snow (1979). Media Logic. Bev-
erly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Bentele, G. and H. Nothaft (2008). The intereffication
model: Theoretical discussions and empirical research
M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 32
begun to enable the automation of the creation of
media content that is targeted and transmitted to indi-
viduals. At the time of writing this chapter (2016), the
cosmetic brand Dove tracked tweets that were possible
utterances by females of negative self-esteem, which
then automatically generated positive advice tweets
in response.
At the level of global geo-politics both the US and Rus-
sian governments have been documented as developing
programmes of online persona management, or in more
everyday language, armies of sockpuppets: creating fea-
sible online personas so that comments and opinions can
be posted on newspaper websites that appear to be from
real people.
Communicators are also using algorithms alongside
nudge theories to design online interactions with con-
tent to prompt publics into making better decisions in
areas such as health and personal finance.
robot and before that a not-so-bad robot. Think about the
quote from Kaku: in what ways will the automation of news
and information benefit society, but equally, what are the
potential risks or unintended outcomes?
conceptual tools for exploring the debates around if
and how PR is able to influence media content, and
in turn, public attitudes to issues or brands. When
thinking critically about PR and the media this chapter
provides tools to support discussions and debates as
to whether their relationship is beneficial or harmful
to modern, democratic societies. Finally, this chap-
ter briefly considers how both journalism and PR are
being shaped by developments in digital technology
and social media.
in Public Relations Research European and Interna-
tional Perspectives and Innovations. A. Zerfass et al.
(eds). VS: Wiesbaden. 3347.
Blau, P. (1964). Exchange and Power in Social Life. New
York: Wiley.
23/03/2017 12:53

Blumler, J. and M. Gurevitch (1996). Media change
and social change: Linkages and junctures in Mass
Media and Society. J. Curran and M. Gurevitch (eds).
London: Edward Arnold.
Brggemann, M., S. Engesser, F. Bchel, E. Humprecht
and L. Castro (2014). Hallin and Mancini revisited:
Four empirical types of western media systems. Jour-
nal of Communication 64(6): 103765.
Chong, D. and J. Druckman (2007). Framing the-
ory. Annual Review of Political Science 10(2007):
103126.
Chong, D. and Y. Wolinsky-Nahmias (2003). Framing
the growth debate. Paper presented at the Annual
Meeting of the American Political Science Association,
Philadelphia, August 2831, 2003.
Clerwall, C. (2014). Enter the robot journalist. Journal-
ism Practice 8(5): 51931.
Cohen, B. (1963). The Press and Foreign Policy. Prince-
ton, Princeton University Press.
Coleman, R., M. McCombs, D. Shaw and D. Weaver
(2009). Agenda setting in The Handbook of Jour-
nalism Studies. K. Wahl-Jorgensen and T. Hanitzsch
(eds). London: Routledge. 147160.
Curtin, P.A. (1999). Reevaluating public relations infor-
mation subsidies: Market-driven journalism and
agenda-building theory and practice. Journal of Pub-
lic Relations Research 11(1): 5390.
Cutlip, S. (1976). Public relations in the government.
Public Relations Review 2(2): 528.
Davidson, S. and O. Rowe (2015). Emerging from the
shadows? Perceptions, problems and potential consen-
sus on the functional and civic roles of public affairs
practice. Public Relations Inquiry 5(1): 532.
Davies, N. (2008). Our media have become mass produc-
ers of distortion. Guardian, 4 February 2008.
Davies, N. (2011). Flat Earth News: An award-winning
reporter exposes falsehood, distortion and propa-
ganda in the global media. Random House: Chicago.
Davis, A. (2002). Public Relations Democracy: Pub-
lic relations, politics and the mass media in Britain.
Manchester: Manchester University Press.
DCMS (2015). Taking Part 2014/15, Focus on Newspa-
per Readership. Department for Culture, Media and
Sport. Statistical Release. November 2015.
Entman, R.M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of
a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication
43(4): 518.
Entman, R.M. (2007). Framing bias: Media in the distri-
bution of power. Journal of Communication 57(1):
16373.
M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 33
Chapter 2Public relations and the media 33
Fengler, S. and S. Ru-Mohl (2008). Journalists and the
information-attention markets: towards an economic
theory of journalism. Journalism 9(6): 66790.
Fitch, K. (2012). Industry perceptions of intercultural
competence in Singapore and Perth. Public Relations
Review 38(4): 60918.
Gaber, I. (2000). Government by spin: an analysis of the
process. Media, Culture & Society 22(4): 50718.
Gandy, O.H. (1982). Beyond Agenda Setting: Informa-
tion subsidies and public policy. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Gandy, O.H. (1992). Public relations and public policy:
The structuration of dominance in the information
age in Rhetorical and Critical Approaches to Public
Relations. E.L. Toth and R.L. Heath (eds). Hillsdale,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Golding, P. and P. Elliott (1979). Making the News.
London: Longman.
Hallin, D. and S. Papathanassopoulos (2002). Political
clientelism and the media: Southern Europe and Latin
America in comparative perspective. Media, Culture
& Society 24(2): 17595.
Hallin, D. and P. Mancini (2004). Comparing Media Sys-
tems: Three models of media and politics. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Hepp, A. and F. Krotz (2014). Mediatized worlds:
Understanding everyday mediatization in Media-
tized Worlds: Culture and society in a media age.
A. Hepp/F. Krotz (eds). London: Palgrave.
Hjarvard S. (2013). The Mediatization of Culture and
Society. London: Routledge.
Ihlen, . and J. Pallas (2014). Mediatization of corpora-
tions in Handbook on Mediatization of Communica-
tion. K. Lundby (ed.), Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Iyengar, S., D.R. Kinder and M. Peters (1982). Experi-
mental demonstrations of the not-so-minimal con-
sequences of television news programs. The American
Political Science Review 76(4): 84858.
Jackson, D. and K. Moloney (2015). Inside Churnalism:
PR, journalism and power relationships in flux. Jour-
nalism Studies (ahead-of-print), 118.
Johnson, T., W. Wanta, T. Boudreau, J. Blank-Libra, K.
Schaffer and S. Turner (1996). Influence dealers.
A path analysis model of agenda building during
Richard Nixons war on drugs. Journalism and Mass
Communication Quarterly 73: 18194.
Kaku, M. (2014). The Future of the Mind. New York:
Doubleday.
Leveson Inquiry (2012). Leveson Inquiry: Culture, Prac-
tices and Ethics of the Press. November 2012. Tran-
script of Morning Hearing 18 January 2012.
23/03/2017 12:53
 34 Part 1The context of public relations
Lewis, J., A. Williams, B. Franklin, J. Thomas and N.
Mosdell (2008). The Quality and Independence
of British Journalism. Mediawise report. Avail-
able from: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/resources/
QualityIndependenceofBritishJournalism.pdf.
Macnamara, J. (1993). Public relations and the media: A
new influence in agenda-setting and content. Unpub-
lished masters thesis, Deakin University, Geelong,
Australia.
McCombs, M. and D. Shaw (1972). The agenda-setting
function of the mass media. Public Opinion Quar-
terly 36(2): 176817.
Nielsen, R.K. and R. Sambrook (2016). What is Happen-
ing to Television News? Reuters Institute for the Study
of Journalism, 2016.
OFCOM (2015). The Communications Market 2015: Tel-
evision and audio-visual. OFCOM 2015.
Pasti, S. (2005). Two generations of contemporary Rus-
sian journalists. European Journal of Communication
80(1): 89115.
Patterson, T. (1993). Out of Order. New York: Vintage.
Ryan, C. (1991). Prime Time Activism: Media strategies
for grassroots organizing. South End Press: Boston.
Scheufele, D.A. and D. Tewksbury (2007). Framing,
agenda setting, and priming: The evolution of three
media effects models. Journal of Communication
57(1): 920.
M02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 34
Schulz, W. (2004). Reconstructing mediatisation as an
analytical concept. European Journal of Communica-
tion 19(1): 87101.
Strmbck, J. (2008). Four phases of mediatization: An
analysis of the mediatization of politics. International
Journal of Press Politics 13(3): 22846.
Thorbjrnsrud, K., T.U. Figenschou and . Ihlen (2014).
Operationalizing mediatization: A typology of medi-
atization in public bureaucracies. Communications:
The European Journal of Communication Research
39(1): 322.
Tsetsura, K. (2008). Media Transparency Initiative: An
exploratory study of global media practices. Paper
presented to the IPRA Summit, June 2008, London.
http://www.instituteforpr.org/global-media-relations-
practices-2008/
Turk, J.V. (1985). Information subsidies and influence.
Public Relations Review 11(3): 1025.
Van Dalen, A. (2012). The algorithms behind the headlines:
How machine-written news redefines the core skills of
human journalists. Journalism Practice 6(56): 64858.
Veri, D. and A.T. Veri (2015). The new publicity:
From reflexive to reflective mediatisation. Public Rela-
tions Review 14. doi: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2015.07.008
Washbourne, N. (2010). Mediating Politics: Newspapers,
radio, television and the internet. New York: Open
University Press.
23/03/2017 12:53
 Chapter 3Digital and social media 35

ch ap t er 3 Jim Macnamara

Digital and social media

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
identify and discuss communication and media theories that inform our understanding of social media and
their use
critique social media practices in the context of communication and media theories
understand the opportunities as well as the risks and dysfunctions of social media
know how to apply social media in public relations practice.

Structure
Web 1.0: the information age
Web 2.0: the social web
New media whats new, whats not?
Social media and social networks
Eight key fundamentals of social media
The social organisation and social business
Functions vs dysfunctions
Who owns social media in organisations?
How practitioners are using social media
PR practices in digital and social media
Web 3.0: the Semantic Web
Ethics

M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 35 23/03/2017 12:55

 36 Part 1The context of public relations

Introduction: the fourth media revolution

The internet and particularly social
media have been described as the
fourth media revolution, following the
development of writing in various parts
of the world between 4000 and 3000
BCE (before the common era; also
taken to mean before the Christian era
the calendar dating from the birth of
Christ), invention of printing presses in
China and Europe between the eleventh
and fifteenth century, and development
of broadcasting in the early twentieth
century (Balnaves et al. 2009: 12). Not-
withstanding a number of criticisms of
the internet, which will be examined
in this chapter along with its benefits,
media scholar Robert McChesney
acknowledges the digital revolution
and its primary site, the internet, as
the most extraordinary and important
development of the past half century
(2013: xi).
Media are recognised as integral
to human communication. Although
interpersonal face-to-face communica-
tion is central to human society, much
if not most human communication is
mediated. Beginning with the use of
cave drawings, carved illustrations in
wood and stone, smoke signals and
drums to convey messages to others
across time and space, through major
inventions such as writing, paper, the
printing press and the telegraph, to
today s Information Age and global what is referred to as Web 2.0 and the
network society (Castells 2010),
humans have found it necessary to use
tools to communicate. Along with his
famous aphorism the medium is the
message, McLuhan (1964) described
media as extensions of man or, in
preferable non-gendered terms, exten-
sions of humans. Modern humans
(Homo sapiens) are characterised as
makers and users of tools that extend
the capabilities of their bodies and
communication media are among their
most important tools.
In the early twenty-first century,
human society is in the midst of another
major transformation in communica-
tion media enabled by digitalisation,
which has made possible the internet,
the world wide web and particularly
nascent Web 3.0. PR practitioners need
to be fully familiar with these new forms
of media and understand their uses and
misuses, their functions and dysfunc-
tions, their benefits and their risks.

Web 1.0: the information age
The internet was developed in the late 1960s by the
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the
US Department of Defense working with computer
scientists at universities including the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT). (Some identify the birth
of the internet as the changeover from NCP (Network
Control Protocol) to TCP/IP (Transmission Control
Protocol and Internet Protocol) on 1 January 1973,
which provided instructions for the transmission of
data that became adopted worldwide.) However, the
world wide web was established in the last decade of
the twentieth century. Its creation is attributed primar-
ily to Englishman Tim Berners-Lee who led a team
of scientists at the Geneva-based Conseil Europeen
pour la Recherche Nucleaire (European Organization
for Nuclear Research), commonly known as CERN.
Although work began in 1989, the first successful build
of a web server and a web browser was completed on
Christmas Day 1990 (History of the World Wide Web
2000). Two key elements that made the web possible
and popular were:
Development of the Hyper Text Mark-up Language
(HTML), a programming language that allows text,
graphics, photos and even videos to be coded so
that they can be viewed on any computer without
the user needing to have the software in which
the content was produced (unlike most text docu-
ments, graphics, spreadsheets, etc. that require the
relevant application to be installed before they can
be opened); and
Development of web browsers, desktop applica-
tions that enable internet users to view HTML
programmed pages hosted on web servers. The
first publicly available web browser, called
WorldWideWeb, was written by Berners-Lee
and released in 1991. In 1992, the first widely
used web browser, Mosaic, was developed at
the National Center for Supercomputing Appli-
cations (NCSA) at the University of Illinois
(Urbana-Champaign), led by Marc Andrees-
sen. Today, Microsofts Internet Explorer and
Mozillas Firefox are popular web browser
applications.
The Digital Revolution that enabled the rapid
development and use of computers and the internet
was the catalyst for what is termed the Information
Age (Castells 1996, 1997, 1998), just as the Industrial
Revolution marked the beginning of the Industrial Age.
The Information Age is predicted to create increased
access to information for all, leading to new types of

M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 36 23/03/2017 12:55


economies and business models, new ways of working
and increased social equity.
One-way transmission and
broadcasting
Even though the founder of the web, Tim Berners-Lee,
said that the web was always intended to be about
what he called intercreativity (2000: 183), the internet
and early iterations of the web continued to be part of
what Poster (1995) calls the First Media Age. Poster
describes the first media age as characterised by cen-
tralised content production and one-way distribution
of information under the control of the State or large
capitalist organisations that mainly represent elites and
treat audiences as consumers of information (Poster
1995) (see Table3.1).
What is retrospectively termed Web 1.0 (Vergeer
2013) was made up of websites with static, centrally-
controlled content that is, no interactivity other than
the facility to select from menus and links by mouse
clicking. Content was controlled by Web masters
employed by the owners of websites. Visitors to web
pages could not post content or comment. Digital com-
munication between users could only be conducted via
email, which was developed in 1972 either via spe-
cialist email applications or from embedded Contact
us email apps in websites.
Thus, early web communication followed the Math-
ematical Theory of Communication and the trans-
missional model developed by Shannon and Weaver
(1949) and various derivatives such as the Sender,
Message, Channel, Receiver (SMCR) model of Berlo
(1960). It was one-way, predominantly top-down, and
broadcast information to mass audiences.
First media age
Centralised content production
State control (or capitalist control in concert with the state)
One-way distribution of information
Audiences conceived and treated as mass
Elites dominate media content and reproduce existing social
structures
Table 3.1Comparison of the first media age and second media age (source: based on Poster 1995)
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 37
Chapter 3Digital and social media 37
Therefore, although digitalisation brought
increased speed to communications and online access
to documents, photos, graphics and video via the
web, the technology to turn various forms of con-
tent into digital files able to be sent electronically
did not of itself bring transformation to society as
some predicted. Early websites were largely a con-
tinuation of the traditional approach of mass media
communication.
Traditional media go digital and
online
Furthermore, traditional media have taken advantage
of digitalisation and the internet. Newspapers rapidly
developed online editions in the late 1990s and early
2000s. Also, radio and TV progressively changed from
analogue technology to digital, and today most pro-
grammes can be accessed via the internet as well as
through broadcasting technology using sound waves,
microwave, or satellite transmissions. Music record-
ings progressively evolved from impressions cut into
vinyl records to magnetic tape (reel to reel and then
cassettes) to CDs (compact discs) containing digital
files of recordings, while images were transferred from
film to magnetic video tape and then to digital video
discs (DVDs). Today, of course, music, photographs,
movies and short videos are all easily accessible in digi-
tal form from websites.
Referring to media and communication as digital
does not differentiate between traditional and new
forms of media, as increasingly all media are digital.
To understand media today, we need to look beyond
digitalisation and the underlying technologies. Jenkins
(2006) identified the trend of convergence, and one
Second media age
Decentralised content production (e.g. user-generated
content)
Beyond state and capitalist control; democratising; open
access
Two-way interactive communication
Fragmentation of audiences
Individuals use media to construct themselves as subjects,
enabling social change
23/03/2017 12:55
 38 Part 1The context of public relations
key example of convergence is that all media content
today is digital, or capable of being digitalised.
Web 2.0: the social web
The term Web 2.0 was reportedly first used by Darcy
DiNucci in a 1999 article. However, DiNucci (1999)
used the term in relation to design and aesthetics in her
article targeted at web designers. Although she hinted
at a second iteration of the web, current use of the term
Web 2.0 emanates from a conference organised by Tim
OReilly and Dale Dougherty in 2004 that discussed
interactive web applications (OReilly 2005). They
used the term Web 2.0 to refer to a second genera-
tion of internet-based services and applications that are
open for collaboration and high levels of interactivity.
Understanding of the unique characteristics and affor-
dances of Web 2.0 and the forms of communication
that it enables can be gained from examining the state-
ments of pioneering practitioners as well as media and
communication researchers.
OReilly emphasised that Web 2.0 is a new way of
thinking more than technologies, even though tech-
nologies such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and
search engines are important enablers of the web ser-
vices that we enjoy today. In a much-quoted essay titled
What is Web 2.0, OReilly said that a central principle
of Web 2.0 is harnessing collective intelligence (2005:
para. 25), a concept discussed extensively by sociolo-
gist Pierre Lvy (1997). While acknowledging the
web as a technological platform, OReilly described
Web 2.0 as primarily a set of principles and practices
(2005: para. 7). Many other architects and develop-
ers of Web 2.0 have similarly discussed its significance
in non-technological terms. For example, pioneering
blogger Peter Merholz (1999), who created the abbre-
viation blog in 1999 from the term Weblog that was
first coined in 1997 by John Barger (Wortham 2007),
refers to Web 2.0 in terms of a philosophy and prac-
tices. In his blog Peterme.com under a heading Web
2.0 Its not about the technology, Merholz wrote:
Web 2.0 is primarily interesting from a philosophical
standpoint. Its about relinquishing control, its about
openness, trust and authenticity (2005: para. 5).
In a section titled What is Web 2.0 on the ICT
industry journal site ZDNet, Richard MacManus lists
a number of definitions of Web 2.0 including describ-
ing it as an attitude not a technology and specifically
as the underlying philosophy of relinquishing control
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 38
(2007: paras 2, 3, 5). In his treatise on convergence,
Jenkins emphasises that convergence is about culture
more than technology and, in particular, participatory
culture (2006: 243).
In academic research literature, Bucy (2004) notes
that interactivity is the defining element of Web 2.0
communication. Similarly, in their review of Web 2.0,
Harrison and Barthel say that collaborative content
creation is the sine qua non of Web 2.0 applications
(2009: 163). They elaborate, saying: Web 2.0 is
founded on a radical reconceptualisation of the user,
from consumer of online products and information
produced by companies to producer of online products
and information that they share with others, including
companies (Harrison and Barthel 2009: 160).
The media user who is a producer as well as con-
sumer of content was labelled the prosumer by futurist
Alvin Toffler (1970, 1980) and is also referred to as a
produser (producer and user) by some media scholars
(Picone 2007; Bruns 2008).
New media whats new,
whats not?
This significant shift from media that are controlled
by a handful of large corporations or governments
engaged in broadcasting centrally produced content,
to open, publicly accessible media in which anyone
can produce and distribute content and engage with
others interactively, led to widespread description of
these new forms and formats as new media (Lievrouw
and Livingstone 2002; Jenkins 2006; Lister et al. 2009;
Siapera 2012; Flew 2014; Fuchs 2014).
However, the term new media is problematic in
several respects. First, the term itself is not new. Ben-
jamin Peters notes that the Oxford English Dictionary
attributes first use of the term new media to Mar-
shall McLuhan in 1960 and he argues that McLuhan
used the term as early as 1953 in an article about
eminent media scholar Harold Innis (Peters 2009:
16). Second, some media that MIT media scholar Lisa
Gitelman says are familiarly and collectively referred
to as new media (2008: 1) cannot be accurately
described as new. For example, online chat and an
early form of online social networks have existed
since 1979 when Duke University graduate students
Tom Trucott and Jim Ellis created Newsgroups on
UseNet, a pre-web text-only section of the internet
23/03/2017 12:55

(Hauben and Hauben 1998). The first online journal
in a format later called a blog was published by Clau-
dio Pinhanez in 1994 on the MIT Media Lab web-
site. Pyra Labs released its online journaling software
product called Blogger in 1999, which digital media
researcher D. Travers Scott describes as bloggings
big bang as it spread blogging beyond the digital
elite (2008: 275). The first online social network in
the modern form, SixDegrees, was established in 1997
and gained several million members before it closed in
2001 (Boyd and Ellison 2007). So, by the mid-twenty
teens, online chat was almost 40 years old, blogs had
existed for more than 20 years, and online social net-
works had been around in some form for almost 20
years. Facebook is well into its second decade and
YouTube and Twitter were a decade old in 2015 and
2016 respectively. As the author of New Media, Terry
Flew, has acknowledged: Digital media technologies
are now so pervasive in our work, our home lives, and
the myriad everyday interactions we have with each
other as well as with social institutions, that they are
ceasing to be new in any meaningful sense of the
term (2008: 2).
Third, as well as being inaccurate by most defi-
nitions of new, the term new media is relative and
time-bound. As Gitelman points out, all media were
once new (2008: 1). Calling particular technologies
and practices new will become increasingly problem-
atic as further developments occur. Describing media
in this way is, at best, a temporary step and contributes
little to understanding their distinctive characteristics.
Furthermore, Carpentier and de Cleen have pointed
to problems caused by the discourse of novelty that
accompanies much discussion of the web and new
Picture 3.1 A social network comprising blogs.
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 39
Chapter 3Digital and social media 39
media (2008: 7) and leads to considerable hype and
what Woolgar (2002) calls cyberbole.
Social media and social
networks
The terms social media and social networks are also
widely used to describe a range of new communica-
tion applications enabled by Web 2.0. These are often
conflated into the single collective term social media
and there is continuing debate about terminology in
our changing media environment (Macnamara 2014).
However, social media is a more appropriate and useful
term than most others because it encapsulates the fun-
damental difference between emergent forms of Web
2.0-based media and traditional media. Kaplan and
Haenlein define social media as a group of internet-
based applications that build on the ideological and
technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow
the creation and exchange of user generated content
(2010: 61). This definition usefully draws attention
away from focus on the technological dimension of
so-called new media, which leads to the pitfalls of tech-
nological determinism (Deibert 1997; Lievrouw 2002)
and the discourse of novelty (Carpentier and de Cleen
2008: 7), to recognise the social, cultural and political
context of these media and the changing media prac-
tices of production and consumption (Couldry 2004).
Social media are part of what Poster calls the sec-
ond media age. Poster sees the second media age as
characterised by a decentralised network of commu-
nications [that] makes senders receivers, producers
consumers, rulers ruled, upsetting the logic of under-
standing of the first media age (Poster 1995: 33). He
further proposed that media in the second media age
were beyond state control and democratising through
their affordance of two-way decentralised communi-
cation (2001: 63) and interactivity, which he argued
are essential elements for individuals to construct
themselves as subjects and for the effective function-
ing of society (Poster 2001: 82). In short, social media
are so called because:
1. access and content are open and largely controlled
by society not by government or elite organisa-
tions; and
2. they are used for social interaction (i.e. conversa-
tion, sharing and collaboration) not one-way
transmission of information.
23/03/2017 12:55
 40 Part 1The context of public relations
Eight key fundamentals of
social media
There are at least eight fundamental characteristics
and affordances of social media that need to be under-
stood to use them appropriately and effectively. Many
of these are not new in the history of media, and cer-
tainly not in the history of human communication, as
will be further explained in the following. But these
characteristics and features are highlighted and gain
new relevance in social media.
One: The interactive turn
The philosophy of relinquishing control ( MacManus
2005; Merholz 2007) and adopting protocols, prin-
ciples and practices that enable and foster inter-
activity have already been identified in examining
the shift in web practices referred to as Web 2.0
(OReilly 2005), and are recommended in social
media research (e.g. Bucy 2004; Boler 2008). How-
ever, interactivity is understood in varying ways and
needs clarification.
McMillan identifies three levels of interactivity,
which she describes as user-to-system, user-to-docu-
ments and user-to-user interactivity (2002: 16672).
In this typology, the first level relates to the Human
Computer Interface (HCI), such as the use of graphi-
cal user interfaces (GUI) and basic interactions such as
clicking on menus and icons to select content, which
Carpentier refers to as person-to-machine interactiv-
ity (2007: 221). McMillan emphasises the higher levels
of user-to-documents and particularly user-to-user
interactivity, as does Stromer-Galley in discussing
human-interactive features in political communica-
tion (2000: 111).
Sundar and colleagues identify two types of inter-
activity offered by websites: (1) functional interac-
tivity that allows users to select content in different
modalities (e.g. text, audio, video) and limited oppor-
tunities to comment, such as in feedback or con-
tact us boxes (Sundar 2007); and (2) contingent
interactivity which involves reciprocity in send-
ing and receiving messages, so-named because such
interactive exchanges are contingent on the con-
tent under discussion and messages sent (Sundar
et al. 2003). Guillory and Sundar (2014) report
from their research of organisation websites that the
experiences and perceptions of users are enhanced
by both functional interactivity, which is similar to
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 40
what Carpentier calls person-to-machine interactiv-
ity and McMillan calls user-to-system and user-to-
documents interactivity, and contingent interactivity:
person-to-person or user-to-user in Carpentiers
and McMillans terms. Nevertheless, there is general
agreement among researchers that the higher levels of
interactivity in which users can interact and engage in
dialogue, collaboration and content creation (i.e. pro-
duction), rather than selection and consumption of
pre-determined content, are the key affordances that
characterise social media and lead to engagement and
participation.
Two: Turbocharging two-way
communication
Excellent public relations is defined as two-way com-
munication, as discussed in previous chapters (Grunig
et al. 2002). However, mass media have traditionally
afforded little opportunity for two-way communi-
cation. Likewise, traditional Web 1.0 sites, printed
corporate and organisational publications such as
newsletters and annual reports, and even many events
have offered limited potential for two-way symmetri-
cal communication, or even two-way asymmetrical
communication.
Through their interactive features and open access,
social media enable and facilitate two-way communi-
cation. In theory, social media offer the potential to
significantly enhance public relations although we
will see later in this chapter that this potential is not
yet being realised in many cases.
Three: Monologue to dialogue
Philosophers and communication theorists have
long argued that true communication must involve
d ialogue not monologue (Bakhtin 1963/1986,
1981; Buber 1923/1958, 1947/2002; Craig 1999;
Craig and Muller 2007). Gadamer (1960/1989)
argued that openness to the other is essential for
communication and relationships a cause taken
up by many contemporary sociologists (e.g. Dewey
1916; Carey 1989/2009). In public relations, Kent
and Taylor have applied these important principles
of communication to create a dialogic theory of PR
(Kent and Taylor, 2002; Taylor and Kent 2014),
which emphasises the importance of two-way inter-
action. By increasing the opportunities for two-way
communication, social media are enablers of dialogic
public relations.
23/03/2017 12:55

Four: Consumers to prosumers and
produsers
As noted previously, futurist Alvin Toffler forecast
the rise of what he called the prosumer as early as
1970 in his book Future Shock. In the early twenti-
eth century, with the increasing popularity of social
media, Leadbeater and Miller (2004) described the
profound shift in the mediascape as the PRO-AM
revolution a growing interaction between pro-
fessional and amateur producers of media content.
More recently, in his studies of what he calls the
produser, Bruns (2008) has reported that much of the
news and information and even music in circulation
today is produced by people previously referred to
as consumers and audiences. The rise of social media
has turned notions of audiences as passive recipients
of information on its head (Ruddock 2007; Napoli
2011). Social media offer opportunities for collabo-
ration, particularly through specialist applications
such as wikis. For instance, think of Wikipedia. In
the past it was inconceivable that an encyclopaedia
with more than 5 million articles in English and
many more in other languages could be produced
collaboratively by ordinary citizens and be available
for free.
Five: Engagement
Engagement has become a buzzword in marketing
and in public relations. Often, low-level interactiv-
ity such as clickthroughs, views, likes on Facebook,
follows on Twitter, retweets, shares and downloads
are seen as indicators of engagement (e.g. Marklein
Picture 3.2 Engagement has become a buzzword in
marketing and in public relations.
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 41
Chapter 3Digital and social media 41
and Paine 2012). However, social media offer much
greater opportunities for engagement through their
capacity for two-way communication leading to dia-
logue and collaboration. Some progressive organisa-
tions use social media to involve their employees,
customers, and other stakeholders in planning proj-
ects and even producing content. This is an impor-
tant use of social media because real engagement is
not created by clicking a mouse or even following
an organisation or person on Twitter. Engagement
is more than thinking about someone or something
(cognition). Engagement involves a level of passion,
commitment and investment of discretionary effort
(Erickson 2008). Organisational psychologists iden-
tify three key components of engagement, all of which
can be fostered through open interactive use of social
media.
1. A psychological bond based on affective commit-
ment (i.e. emotional attachment such as a sense of
belonging, feeling valued, etc.) that goes beyond
cognitive processing of information received and
experiences.
2. Positive affectivity: a deeper level of positive emo-
tional engagement which involves pride, passion
and absorption, enthusiasm, energy and even
excitement.
3. Empowerment of those we are trying to engage,
which psychologists and political scientists say is
most effectively achieved through participation
(Meyer and Smith 2000: 320; Rhoades et al. 2001;
Macey and Schneider 2008).
Six: Relationships
As well as being theorised as two-way communication,
public relations is ultimately aimed at building and
maintaining relationships, according to a large body
of literature already discussed in this text (Ledingham
and Bruning 1998, 2000; Hon and Grunig 1999).
Through their interactive capabilities that enable two-
way communication, dialogue and engagement, social
media can contribute to building and maintaining
relationships. Although online communication does
not replace interpersonal communication, it extends
communication temporally and spatially i.e. people
do not have to be co-located in time and space to inter-
act online. Contact can be maintained across vast dis-
tances. Also, organisations and their stakeholders can
interact online more frequently than physical meetings
normally allow.
23/03/2017 12:55
 42 Part 1The context of public relations
Seven: Top-down to bottom-up and
side-to-side (peer to peer)
The facility for almost anyone to access social media
and distribute information and advocate means that
public communication no longer flows predomi-
nantly top-down from elites such as political leaders
and management. With social media, communication
flows bottom-up and side-to-side in society referred
to as peer-to-peer (P2P). For example, travellers today
regularly rely on reviews of hotels, resorts and restau-
rants published by other travellers on TripAdvisor. It
is argued that such reviews are more authentic than
the websites of the organisations themselves, which are
inevitably promotional. Also, social media potentially
offer voice to groups that have been marginalised from
traditional media and political representation.
Eight: One-to-one, to one-to-many,
to many-to-many
One-to-one interpersonal communication has existed
throughout 50,000 years of human history. Mass
media created opportunities for one-to-many informa-
tion dissemination such as prime ministers, presidents
and office-bearers in government addressing citizens
and corporations advertising their products and ser-
vices to shareholders and customers. The second media
age has brought the opportunity for many to talk to
many. Customers can share experiences of a product or
service online. Citizens can make their feelings known
and share views on political issues. Activists can rally
the way many did during the Arab Spring in Tunisia,
Iran and Egypt between 2009 and 2011.
The social organisation and
social business
Business, industry and government have embraced
digital and social media. For instance, a 2013 McK-
insey survey estimated that 83 per cent of companies
use at least one form of social media. McKinsey (2013)
reported that companies mostly use online video con-
ferencing (60 per cent), social networks (53 per cent),
blogs (43 per cent), video sharing (4 per cent), wikis
(26 per cent), microblogging (25 per cent) and pod-
casts (25 per cent). Digital media such as the web as
well as social media have enabled what some refer
to as Government 2.0 (Government 2.0 Taskforce,
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 42
2010), a combination of e-government that focuses on
online delivery of services such as submission of tax
forms and visa applications, and e-democracy, which
offers online forms of participation in politics and civic
affairs such as online public consultation.
In 2011, IBM declared itself a social business, stat-
ing that a tectonic shift in the marketplace occurred in
the previous decade and noted that instead of simply
pushing messages and offers out to the market, mar-
keting is engaging customers through open dialogue
integrated with rich media capabilities that cater to
customers preferences, buying patterns and personal
networks (IBM 2011: 2, 5). The global business con-
sulting firm Gartner has published a book titled The
Social Organisation: How to Use Social Media to Tap
the Collective Genius of Your Customers and Employ-
ees (Bradley and McDonald 2011).
Many political and social leaders see social media as
an opportunity to engage youth, who are increasingly
disengaging from traditional politics, and to redress
what is referred as the democratic deficit (Couldry
2010: 49; Curran 2012: 86) and revitalise the pub-
lic sphere (Habermas 1989, 2006). As Corner notes,
many pin their hopes on the internet, particularly Web
2.0 communication, bypassing...the degraded cen-
tral systems of mediation in favour of a more indepen-
dent, varied and critical range of resources for political
knowledge (2007: 223). Siapera says social media are
facilitating a democratisation of media (2012: 55)
leading to increased access to tools of public commu-
nication (i.e. inclusion) and increased social interaction
and civic participation.
Functions vs dysfunctions
Discussion of many new technologies are characterised
by considerable hype (Gartner 2008), cyberoptimism
sometimes to the point of utopianism (Zhao 2014), or
what Woolgar (2002) called cyberbole. On the other
hand, there is also cyberpessimism, scepticism and dys-
topian views expressed by critics who warn of risks
and dangers in the changes described. Without wishing
todampen enthusiasm for the potential of social media
to transform many aspects of our lives, it is important
to balance discussion by noting warnings and to develop
an integrated view of the uses and potential of social
media. In a review of the rise of the Occupy activist
movement (such as Occupy Wall Street, http://occu-
pywallst.org), largely organised through social media,
DeLuca et al. noted that discussion of social media is too
often simplified into a debate between techno-utopians
23/03/2017 12:55

and techno-cynics (2012: 485). Noted media scholars
Robin Mansell (2012) and Robert McChesney (2013)
describe the two camps as the celebrants and the scep-
tics. The following are some factors to think about in
developing an understanding of and using social media.
The digital divide
Despite rapid growth of internet users around the world
to more than 3 billion in 2015 (Internet World Statis-
tics 2015), it has to be borne in mind that that worlds
population was more than 7 billion at that time (World
Population Clock 2015). Thus, almost 60 per cent of
people in the world do not use the internet. This lack
of access to information and communication is referred
to as the digital divide (DiMaggio and Hargittai 2001;
Norris 2001). Even as technological access expands
rapidly through wireless networks and mobile devices, a
number of researchers point out that there are socioeco-
nomic and cultural forms of digital divide because many
sectors of society such as the poor, the under-educated,
indigenous communities and some ethnic groups have
low levels of online participation (DiMaggio and
Hargittai 2001; Jenkins 2006). This needs to be borne
in mind in planning communication activities.
Lurking
A second key factor is that many users of social media
are lurkers that is, they observe and monitor but
do not actively contribute to discussions or content.
Co-founder of the Nielsen Norman research company,
Jakob Nielsen (2006), estimates that up to 90 per cent
of internet users are lurkers that is, only 10 per
cent are active participants in interactive environments.
In a Social Technographics report, Forrester Research
presents a six-rung Ladder of Participation on which
it estimates that only 13 per cent of adults online are
creators, compared with 52 per cent inactives and 33
per cent who are spectators (Li 2007).
Think about 3.1
If you were employed to design a digital communica-
tion campaign using the web, social media and email
for an organisation in your local area, what groups
would be potentially missed? How could you plan
communication to reach different age groups, cul-
tures, socioeconomic levels and so on?
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 43
Chapter 3Digital and social media 43
In one sense, this questions the grand claims of
social networks such as Facebook, which claimed 1.5
million active monthly users in late 2015 (Facebook
2015). By active, Facebook means that those users
logged in at some point during the month, but they
may not have contributed any content or comment
or even liked or followed anyone. However, oth-
ers point out that even in reading and viewing content
and following others posts, lurkers are learning and
becoming informed. Therefore, even lurking can be
seen to be a form of participation.
The loss of media gatekeepers
One of the most serious concerns raised in relation to
social media is that content bypasses the gatekeep-
ers who operate in traditional media (White 1950)
the editors, subeditors, and fact checkers who verify
sources and confirm the veracity of statements and
claims made. Notwithstanding concerns that tradi-
tional media gatekeepers often fail in their role, social
media are open to anyone with internet access and
rely on what Jenkins calls a self-correcting adhocracy
(2006: 255). (The term self-correcting adhocracy
was first used by Cory Doctorow (2003) in his science
fiction novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom,
referring to self-organising groups.) Author of The
Cult of the Amateur, Andrew Keen warns:
The Web 2.0 revolution is depleting the ranks of
our cultural gatekeepers, as professional critics,
journalists, editors, musicians, moviemakers and
other purveyors of expert information are being
replaced by amateur bloggers, hack reviewers,
homespun moviemakers and attic recording artists.
(Keen 2007: 27)
Keen disparagingly describes social media users,
particularly citizen journalists, as a pyjama army
engaged in presenting opinion as fact, rumour as
reportage and innuendo as information. Web 2.0,
according to Keen, is the great seduction and he
claims that a chilling reality in this brave new digital
epoch is the blurring, obfuscation and even disappear-
ance of truth (2007: 27).
However, some studies such as those of Eysenbach
(2008) indicate that, even though social media content
is not controlled by intermediaries (where inter means
standing in between producers and receivers), apome-
diaries (where apo means stand by or alongside, such as
peers) are often effective in maintaining quality of con-
tent and credibility. Wikipedia is an example of apome-
diaries at work peers who correct misinformation and
23/03/2017 12:55
 44 Part 1The context of public relations
Explore 3.1
Citizen journalism or
misinformation?
From your reading of social media, can you iden-
tify examples of citizens breaking news or exposing
important information via social media? Similarly, can
you identify examples of misinformation being dis-
tributed through social media in the form of opinion,
rumours and untruths?
Research current examples. Or, if you cannot find a
good current example, search online discussion of the
London riots of 2011 in which Blackberry text mes-
sages were blamed for stirring up the riots, but social
media were also used by citizens to organise clean-
ups and restore order (Vis 2013).
How would you classify WikiLeaks citizen media, a
new form of media altogether, or not journalism at all?
Feedback
Consider the following in examining social media.
1. Deuze et al. (2007) point out that citizen journal-
ism and citizen media are blanket terms for a
range of publishing models and significant differ-
ences in approach, content and uses need to be
understood.
2. For example, building on Deuze et al. (2007) and
other studies, Australian journalist Margaret
Simons (2013) identifies nine types of blogs as (1)
pamphleteering blogs, (2) digest blogs, (3) advo-
cacy blogs, (4) popular mechanics blogs, (5) exhi-
bition blogs (6) gatewatcher blogs, (7) diary blogs,
(8) advertisements and (9) news blogs. This illus-
trates that the uses of social media range from
news and information to campaigning, personal
diaries and entertainment.
maintain an encyclopaedia that is almost as accurate as
the Encyclopaedia Britannica (Giles 2005).
Misinformation, privacy and
cyberattacks
Despite the self-correcting adhocracy of social media
through the work of vigilant peers, major concerns are
expressed in relation to:
the spread of misinformation;
breaches of privacy and security;
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 44
attacks by trolls and hactivists; and
cyberbullying.
These concerns are deservedly a focus of atten-
tion by governments, organisation management and
social leaders. They are not easily resolved, as they are
part of a long-running debate over media regulation
versus self-regulation. In all media, rights to freedom
of speech and freedom of media need to be balanced
against the rights of individuals to privacy, security and
freedom from bullying and harassment.
In all use of social media it needs to be borne in
mind and communicated throughout an organisation
that everything posted in social media is public. Even if
content is removed from live pages, many servers and
computers connected to the internet will have cached
that content and will continue to distribute it. There is
a salutary saying: What happens on the internet stays
on the internet forever.
Colonisation by commercial
interests
Another concern is that social media will be colo-
nised by commercial and other vested interests and
be blatantly exploited for marketing and propaganda.
Political parties and candidates in many countries
have flocked to social media to garner support for
their various policies and causes (Gibson et al. 2010;
Macnamara 2014). Monetisation is a buzzword in
the online world as the owners of sites and applica-
tions try to find ways to generate income from their
products and services. In free enterprise societies,
commercial activities comprise a legitimate use of the
internet and social media. But practitioners need to
bear in mind the essential differences between com-
mercial media advertising and social media, as noted
earlier in this chapter. Excessive commercialisation of
social media can lead to a backlash. And, in the age
of Web 2.0, voters, customers, employees and other
stakeholders have channels available to disseminate
and amplify their voice.
Who owns social media in
organisations?
Social media communication is managed through
various functions in organisations including market-
ing, PR/corporate communication and sometimes even
IT. Clearly, IT support is required to provide access to
23/03/2017 12:55
 Chapter 3Digital and social media 45

statements by management on sites such as Twitter,

Think about 3.2
If media organisations, corporations and individual
online publishers do not make money from their
digital communication investments (e.g. through
charging for content or advertising and promotion),
their sites may stagnate or be closed down because
of unrecovered costs of operation. However, seek-
ing to make money from social media can turn off
visitors. How and when is it appropriate to use social
media for commercial purposes and when is it not
appropriate?
platforms a challenge in itself sometimes, as some
organisations still ban social media at work and some
governments have IT policies that preclude the view-
ing of videos or use of news services such as BuzzFeed.
Clear social media policies and guidelines should
be in place in all organisations, specifying who can
comment on work-related matters in social media as
well as outlining protocols and standards to follow,
and nominating who is responsible for social media
monitoring and reporting (Zerfass et al. 2011; Mac-
namara and Zerfass 2012). Because many social media
accept advertising, management of social media fol-
lows the tradition of advertising in many organisations
and falls under marketing. However, posting news and
Facebook and YouTube, monitoring social media,
and responding to online comments when required,
is more typically a PR or corporate communication
responsibility. Leaving all social media engagement to
marketing can be dangerous. In a 2015 study of public
communication by major corporate and government
organisations, one very experienced social media spe-
cialist observed that marketing staff cannot help giv-
ing in to the urge to sell (Macnamara 2016: 170).
It is important to not be salesy or overly promo-
tional in using social media except when using these
platforms for paid advertising. Blatant selling or
promotion is seen as inauthentic and contrary to the
philosophy, principles and practices of social media,
as outlined earlier in this chapter. Organisations that
engage in news jacking and meme-jacking practices of
jumping on to news stories or issues simply to promote
products can find that these tactics backfire and lead
to criticism or even cyberattacks on the organisation.
How practitioners are using
social media
Public relations researchers and practitioners have
greeted new forms of digital and social media with
great enthusiasm. For example, Hazelton et al. claim

Internet impact Positive Negative

1. Inequality New access to information based on computer use Patterns of access, availability and use of ICTs
and availability (digital opportunity) reflect other social inequalities (digital divide)

2. Community New forms of social interaction and community Online activities become an obstacle to real-life
formation through virtual communities that are interactions; declining commitment to locality-
not space-bound based social capital formation

3. Politics New opportunities for online political engagement Isolation from others in politically ineffective
(e-democracy), information exchange and geographic locales; management of participation
deliberation; a virtual public sphere by political and economic elites

4. Organisations Flexible organisations; networked interaction New forms of internal surveillance; online
among those within and outside of the communication remains hierarchal; online as a
organisation; more horizontal channels of online low-trust communications environment
communication

5. Culture Demassification of access to and use of media Hyper-segmentation and I media as a barrier to
content; new opportunities for users to become communication with others; fragmentation and
media producers (produsers) (Picone 2007; Bruns dilution of a common culture
2008)

Table 3.2 Positive and negative impacts of digital and social media (based on DiMaggio et al. (2001) as updated in
Macnamara (2014))

M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 45 23/03/2017 12:55

 46 Part 1The context of public relations
that public relations is undergoing a revolution
because of social media (2007: 91). In the foreword
to PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences
(Breakenridge 2008), social media advocate Brian Solis
effuses: Welcome to what just may be the greatest evo-
lution in the history of PR (Solis 2008: xvii). Solis
claims that with the shift to social media monologue
has given way to dialogue (xviii). In the title of another
book, Solis and Breakenridge (2009) claim that Web
2.0 is putting the public back in public relations. Simi-
larly, in Corporate Communication: A Guide to The-
ory and Practice, Cornelissen (2011) states that social
media create new ways of reaching and engaging with
stakeholders. He adds that the development of new
media provides an organisation with the opportunity
to engage in conversations and to tell and elaborate
its story or key message to stakeholders or the general
public in an interactive way (2011: 154). Similarly,
Duh and Wright (2013) claim that social media pro-
vide opportunities for stakeholders to engage in dis-
cussions on participative platforms that open up new
opportunities for dialogue, and in an analysis of the
new media ecology and social media use by PR practi-
tioners in the US and Europe, Swerling et al. claim that
it is now generally recognised that we are undergoing
a major transformation to a new era for communica-
tion, one in which transparency and actual dialogue
with stakeholders play key roles (2014: 4).
However, despite a body of research emphasising
the importance of openness and interactivity for dia-
logue, participation and engagement, there are signs
that social media are not living up to the transformist
promises proffered by optimists. For example, despite
much being made of social media use in the Obama
2008 and 2012 US presidential election campaigns,
a Pew Research Center report was subtitled Obama
leads but neither candidate engages in much dialogue
with voters (Rosenstiel and Mitchell 2012) and com-
mented that rarely did either candidate reply to, com-
ment on, or retweet something from a citizen or
anyone else outside the campaign (Rosenstiel and
Mitchell 2012: 3). Crawford has reported that dur-
ing the times of heaviest use of digital technologies,
the Obama Online Operation did not reply to follow-
ers, or indicate that direct messages were being heard
(2009: 530). Similarly, studies of the much-vaunted use
of social media for citizen engagement in UK election
campaigns (e.g. Gibson et al. 2010; Gibson and Canti-
joch 2011) and Australian federal elections (e.g. Bruns
and Burgess 2011; Macnamara and Kenning 2014)
have not produced evidence of any substantial dialogue
or increased citizen engagement through social media.
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 46
Rather, numerous research studies have reported use of
social media for one-way transmission of political and
organisational messages. A recent review by Vergeer
concluded that the conduct of election campaigns has
not changed drastically (2013: 10).
Despite claims of a shift to social businesses and
social organisations allegedly interacting, engaging
and collaborating with stakeholders, studies show that
the reality is mostly a case of business as usual. A
review of 10 years of discussion of use of the internet
for dialogic communication by McAllister-Spooner
reported that organisations do not seem to be fully
utilising the interactive potential of the internet to
build and maintain organisation-public relationships
(2009: 320). A longitudinal study of organisational
social media use over six years from 2006 to 2012 by
Wright and Hinson noted a focus on one-way dissemi-
nation of messages (2012: 1). A 2012 qualitative study
of social media use by PR practitioners in Australia
reported:
All participants understood the rules and ideals
around social media (authenticity, interactivity,
two-way communication, etc.) but they are not
necessarily adopting them in their practice. The
interviewees primarily used social media platforms,
or believed they are best for, one-way communica-
tion and message dissemination.
(Robson and James 2013: 6)
In the US, Kent has concluded: If we look at the
use of social media by most large corporations, we see
that the communication tools that were invented for
sociality are typically used in a one-way fashion to
push messages out to publics (2013: 342).
Research indicates that there are major opportuni-
ties for PR practitioners to develop practices that take
advantage of the unique characteristics and affordances
of social media, as well as digital communication gen-
erally. In the concluding sections of this chapter, some
of the practical PR applications of digital and social
media are noted with tips for how to take advantage of
these channels and generate benefits for both organisa-
tions and their stakeholders and publics.
PR practices in digital and
social media
The following are some of the typical applications of
digital and social media in public relations.
23/03/2017 12:55

E-newsletters and digital
publications
Print publications are often expensive to produce,
particularly when colour printing on quality paper is
involved. Also, printing takes time, often adding sev-
eral weeks to production schedules. In contrast, high
impact digital publications can be produced more
quickly at much less cost. For example, e-newsletters
are now a common form of communication with
employees, members of organisations, communities,
customers and other stakeholders. Similarly, reports,
brochures and information sheets can be designed and
distributed as digital documents (e.g. as PDFs). Updat-
ing can be done in minutes, without expensive correc-
tions to printing plates or film and reprinting.
Websites
Almost every organisation has a website today
although that does not mean that organisation web-
sites are always informative and easy to use. Some
organisations see websites as an IT responsibility.
Although building the back end of websites is an IT
responsibility e.g. creating databases to hold infor-
mation and HTML or XML programming content
should be user-focused. Wherever possible, PR and
communication practitioners should seek to be involved
in planning and creating content for organisation web-
sites to ensure it is customised to stakeholders and pub-
lics and written in an accessible, user-friendly way.
Content should be more than text. Increasingly, suc-
cessful websites feature videos, photographs, sound
files (e.g. speeches), graphics and even animations to
capture attention. See further discussion on rich media
content in the following section.
Intranets and extranets
Special websites can be created with password
restricted access to provide specialised information to
internal stakeholders such as employees (referred to
as intranets) and external stakeholders such as chan-
nel partners i.e. distributors and retailers (called
extranets). If you feel that your organisation and its
key internal or external stakeholders could benefit
from having an intranet or extranet, you should dis-
cuss this with your IT staff. But bear in mind that IT
can only provide the technical infrastructure. Content
that is relevant and interesting to the target audience
will need to be created and regularly updated.
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 47
Chapter 3Digital and social media 47
Social media monitoring and
analysis
A good rule of thumb in social media is to start by
listening. Listening in social media can be done by indi-
vidually following, subscribing to, or visiting various
sites, or by using a specialist social media monitoring
application or service. Applications commonly used
for social media monitoring include Google Alerts
as well as more specialised tools such as Hootsuite,
Sprout Social, Social Mention, Netvibes, Tableau and
Trackur. Alternatively, organisations can subscribe to a
service provider such as Gorkana, which will monitor
social media based on key words and provide relevant
content.
Beyond simply monitoring social media, practitio-
ners can gain insights from social media analysis a
form of media content analysis applied specifically to
social media. Major companies offering specialised
social media analysis include Radian6, Brandwatch
and Nielsen BuzzMetrics. Also, some traditional media
analysis companies such as Gorkana, Kantar Media,
Prime Research, BurrellesLuce in the US, Cision (which
owned Cymfony and Visible Technologies at the time
of publication) and iSentia in Asia, Australia and New
Zealand offer social media analysis (see Figure 3.3,
page 53). (Note that these companies and products
change names often, because the digital and social
media monitoring and analysis market is dynamic,
with frequent takeovers and mergers.)
The social media release
In 2006 former Financial Times journalist Tom Forem-
ski declared in a widely quoted blog post: Die! Press
release! Die! Die! Die! Foremski (2006) called for
a new format for information supplied to media. In
response, a number of PR practitioners have argued
that media releases are not dead, but that a new kind
ofmedia release is required in the era of digital and
social media. One who has led this debate online
is social media expert and author of the blog PR-
Squared, Todd Defren, who has published a template
for a social media release (Defren 2008). Version 1 of
the template shown in Figure3.1 identifies the types
of content recommended for inclusion in a social
media release. Social media releases are much more
than media releases sent to new types of social media.
Defren recommends that all information provided to
media should be a social media release. The key fea-
tures proposed by Defren are outlined below.
23/03/2017 12:55
 48 Part 1The context of public relations

Figure 3.1 A social media release template produced as an open source guide for PR practitioners by Todd Defren of
Shift Communications (source: http://www.shiftcomm.com; Defren 2008)

There is no long text. Instead, a social media
release leads with a catchy headline and a series
of bullet points highlighting the main news and
information.
Multimedia content should be included, either
embedded or linked, including MP3 sound files
such as speeches by organisation executives, short
videos, photos and graphics (e.g. infographics).
Hyperlinks should be provided for RSS feeds (e.g.
to receive updates) and to link to the organisations
blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube
channel and other social media.
Contact details should include Skype and Instant
Message (IM) addresses as well as email and phone
numbers.
Defren (2012) has updated his social media release
template with Version 2.0 that is available online with
additional tips and advice. A sample of a UK government
social media release is available at http://pressitt.com/
smnr/Building-Britains-Digital-Future-Government-
Unveils-Action-Plan-for-the-Digital-Economy/124.
The social media newsroom
In addition to developing new formats of media
releases, progressive PR practitioners are also devel-
oping purpose-built social media newsrooms (Zerfass
and Schramm 2013). Todd Defren (2007) released a
template for a social media newsroom on his blog PR-
Squared in 2007 (see Figure3.2).
Writing for and in social media
All of the principles of good writing apply in digital
and social media, particularly the key fundamentals
outlined in this and numerous specialist texts for media
and PR writing. These include:
know your subject to be accurate and clear;
keep it simple (the KISS formula), avoiding jargon
and technical mumbo-jumbo;
write for your audience i.e. in a tone, voice and
style that is appropriate to them and focussing on
issues of interest to them;

M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 48 23/03/2017 12:55


Figure 3.2 A social media newsroom template produced as an open source guide for PR practitioners by Todd Defren of
Shift Communications (source: http://www.shiftcomm.com; Defren 2008)
be brief as possible;
provide all relevant information in particular
answer the golden rule of journalists by explaining
who, what, where, when, why and how (Treadwell
and Treadwell 2005; Bivins 2011; Macnamara
2012: 3535).
In addition, social media require some additional
skills and adaptations in style. Because social media
are interactive, they require a personal and engag-
ing style of writing not a didactic, authoritative
approach. Large organisations often struggle with this
characteristic of the genre. The tone of social media
writing, particularly in microblogging, is informal and
conversational.
As well as writing posts in blogs, Facebook pages
and other sites, social media users need to be prepared
to write responses. First and foremost, these must be
timely, as social media operate 24/7. Responding to a
question or inquiry a week or even several days after
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 49
Chapter 3Digital and social media 49
it was submitted is generally not acceptable in social
media. Some government departments and agencies
that have policies of responding to correspondence
within 14 or even 21 days struggle with expected
response times in social media and are being forced to
revise their policies and work practices. Some compa-
nies and government organisations are rostering com-
munication staff to monitor social media on weekends
with authority to respond or at least post an initial
response (e.g. acknowledgement) even when time is
required to prepare a detailed answer or comment.
Second, responses should be respectful of others com-
ments, even when disagreeing with them. Organisa-
tions need to remember that there are no gatekeepers
to intervene and no control mechanisms to remove or
stop others posting their comments and opinions uned-
ited. If you are seen as rude, aggressive or arrogant, the
organisation can be on the receiving end of flaming
an outburst of angry sentiment expressed online (see
also Chapter18, Crisis public relations management).
23/03/2017 12:55
 50 Part 1The context of public relations
On the other hand, positive, friendly participation can
result in organisations joining in online conversations
to have their views known, communicate their point of
view and build networks of trust and influence.
Interactive and rich media content
As discussed in a number of the previous sections,
a major affordance of digital media including social
media is the capability to include interactive features
and what is termed rich media content. This refers
to content other than text in particular, semantically
sophisticated content such as infographics, video, ani-
mations and sound.
The shift to video
With the previously high cost of movie films and video
reducing dramatically through digitalisation, and a
widely recognised privileging of the visual in modern
societies, video is one of the fastest growing forms of
communication media content. For instance, YouTube
has more than one billion users who watch hundreds
of millions of hours of video each month. The number
of video viewers on YouTube increased by 40 per cent
between 2014 and 2015 (YouTube 2015). In late 2015
Facebook expanded its video capabilities with new
video services allowing users to find, view and share
videos live and on mobile devices (Cathcart 2015). In
addition to 70 local YouTube sites operating in 76 lan-
guages (YouTube 2015) and 4 billion videos viewed
each day on Facebook (Zuckerberg 2015), countries
such as China have their own major online video sites
with hundreds of millions of users, such as Youku
Tudou. See Mini case study 3.1 for an example of how
video is changing the face of PR.
Curating social media
crowdsourcing, collaboration,
co-production
An important practical consideration in managing
social media sites, that is informed by understanding
of the interactive and collaborative approach of Web
2.0 and the rise of prosumers or produsers, is that PR
practitioners do not need to be the producers of all
content. Many organisations are discovering and tak-
ing advantage of the collaborative culture of social
media and crowdsourcing content and even work that
traditionally has been done by paid employees.
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 50
Explore 3.2
The wisdom of the crowd
Can you identify an example of a project successfully
carried out using crowdsourcing to access informa-
tion, expertise, or even money? In researching crowd-
sourcing, you might want to check out the following.
Feedback
1. In the early 2000s, NASA invited amateur astron-
omers to help it identify and categorise craters on
Mars from thousands of photographs taken by
the Viking orbiters in what became known as the
Mars Clickworkers project. More than 80,000
people identified around two million craters for
scientific measurement and study and classified
the relative age of another 300,000 a task that
would have taken scientists years, if not decades,
to complete. Furthermore, American Scientist
reported that this collaborative public effort was
almost as accurate as work done by expert plan-
etary geologists (Szpir 2002).
2. More recently, in 2013 two collaborative projects
resulted in the release of Google maps of North
Korea a country renowned for its secrecy.
Google Map Maker Jayanth Mysore reported in
his blog that a community of citizen cartogra-
phers...came together in Google Map Maker
to make their contributions such as adding road
names and points of interest (Mysore 2013: para.
2). Simultaneously, PhD student Curtis Melvin
and a team of researchers working on a project
called North Korea Uncovered and, most recently,
with a project of the US-Korea Institute at Johns
Hopkins School of Advanced International
Studies called 38 North (www
.38north.org) produced the DPRK [Democratic
Peoples Republic of Korea] Digital Atlas. Based on
analysis of Google Earth photos, eye witness
accounts, news reports, books, and other infor-
mation sources, this provides comprehensive
information on North Korean economic, cultural,
political, and military infrastructures (see http://
38northdigitalatlas.org).
Instead of being the producer of all content, com-
munication professionals can adopt the role of cura-
tor, bringing together ideas, user-generated content
and knowledge contributions from many sources and
integrating them. See Mini case study 3.1 for an exam-
ple of co-production of content and curation of user-
generated content.
23/03/2017 12:55

Mini case study 3.1
A Fortune 50 internal
communication revolution
One of the worlds largest corporations, with 250,000
employees and consolidated revenue of more than
US$100 billion, faced a challenge in its internal communi-
cation in 2014, as it had a relatively small communication
staff of just nine, a requirement to implement budget cuts
and evidence that many employees were not reading the
companys expensive glossy employee magazine and var-
ious internal newsletters. The Vice President, Corporate
Communication and the head of internal communication
took a bold step with the support of the companys CEO.
They discontinued the expensive printed employee maga-
zine and several printed newsletters, thereby reducing costs
considerably. In their place, they launched a series of four
video programmes produced twice-weekly: one specifi-
cally focussed on staff matters; one covering international
news; one for business partners; and one for employees to
engage external audiences as advocates for the company.
This decision was based on research, which found that
employees preferred video to textual information.
The question that arose, however, was how could effec-
tive video programmes be produced at less cost than
printed communications? The answer was found in the
characteristics of social media outlined in this chapter
and in overlooked capabilities that existed under their
noses, so to speak.
A substantial proportion of the content of the video pro-
grammes was user-generated by employees. Engineers,
customer service staff, field workers, service technicians
and administrative staff used camera phones, small video
cameras and GoPros to record events and interview col-
leagues on issues of interest.
Many interviews and reports from the field were presented
in low resolution video with signs of being shot on a hand-
held camera. But, rather than being detrimental, this gave
the reports authenticity, as they contained clear visual clues
that they were not staged and that they were recorded by
eye witnesses rather than professional camera crews.
Real-time research listening
as well as talking
A major use of social media that is widely overlooked
is that they provide real-time information about what
people are interested in, concerned about, what they
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 51
Chapter 3Digital and social media 51
Further cost efficiencies were gained by producing the
programmes in-house. The VP, Corporate Communica-
tion explained:
We had quotes from $30,000 up to $100,000 per pro-
gramme. But we looked around internally and found we
had people with experience in TV or stage work who
were willing to give it a go at being anchor. One of our
staff had worked at a TV studio previously. The other
anchor was a former beauty queen who we trained up.
The result is that the programmes are presented with
anchors introducing segments on a professional-looking
set similar to TV news and talk shows. The VP explained
further how this was done at low cost:
We go up to a little studio on the 24th floor of
headquarters. The backdrop looks like some big fancy
thing, but its just a screen that flips. We write the
script its usually a team effort. We put these
programmes out on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Its
usually shot in the studios at about 7 am. Then the
file gets digitally sent back to the employee
communication video team in Connecticut. They add
in all the B-roll stuff and come up with the final thing.
Then they send it back and we post it online. Its
typically posted around 2 pm or 3 pm.
Source: Personal communication, 14 January 2015
The result is a series of video programmes that contain
highly credible content that is relevant to audiences,
edited and curated to a high standard. And evaluation has
shown a major improvement in internal communication.
Employee surveys are conducted twice a year and in late
2014 an online survey was sent to 40,000 employees from
among 138,000 who had watched at least one episode
of the international news video programme. The survey
received 5570 responses (a 14 per cent response rate),
of which 93 per cent said the programme was interest-
ing and worth watching. The survey also asks employees
what types of information they prefer and this informs
ongoing programme planning. Focus groups are also
conducted regularly to gain further qualitative insights.
This testing and feedback has resulted in the video pro-
gramme segments being 23 minutes in length. Thats
the attention span for an internal video, the VP corporate
communication said (personal communication, 14 Janu-
ary 2015).
want to know and what they would like to see happen.
Social media can provide real-time research. Although
this is not obtained from a probability sample, listening
through social media can provide valuable insights to
identify issues and trends in a timely way and inform
strategy.
23/03/2017 12:55
 52 Part 1The context of public relations
A two-year, three-country study that closely exam-
ined the public communication practices of 36 major
organisations in the US, UK and Australia, including
their research, public consultation and customer rela-
tions as well as social media use, found that, on aver-
age, 80 per cent of their communication resources and
time is devoted to disseminating the organisations
messages that is, speaking. In some cases, up to 95
per cent of so-called public communication is organ-
isational speaking. On average, only 515 per cent of
public communication resources and time are assigned
to listening through various methods such as research
and monitoring social media (Macnamara 2016).
Evaluation of digital and social
media communication
Use of social media should be measured and eval-
uated in the same way and to the same standards
as other PR activities. A number of social media
monitoring and analysis software applications and
Mini case study 3.2
UK Government
Communication Service
mandates evaluation
The UK Government Communication Service (GCS),
based in the Cabinet Office, Whitehall, has mandated
evaluation of all strategic communication including social
media. This evaluation programme was still in develop-
ment at the time of publication, but it is a landmark in
the adoption of rigorous measurement and evaluation of
communication and public relations worldwide. UK gov-
ernment campaigns won awards at the 2015 International
Summit on Measurement hosted by the Association for
Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC).
Social media evaluation is an integral part of GCSs overall
evaluation framework. This involves:
a mandatory requirement for all UK government
departments and agencies to report monthly on the
outputs, outtakes and outcomes of their communi-
cation activities;
adherence to international standards for measure-
ment and evaluation developed by AMEC in associa-
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 52
services have been noted already in this chapter (see
Social media monitoring and analysis and Fig-
ure3.3). Typical metrics collected to evaluate social
media communication are the volume of views of
pages or content such as videos, volume of subscrib-
ers (e.g. to e-newsletters or forums) and the number
of friends, followers, likes, retweets, shares and pins.
However, it needs to be borne in mind that these
measure outputs only (what information was distrib-
uted) and, whereas likes, retweets and shares give
some indication of support, they are mostly quan-
titative measures. Qualitative analysis can include
examination of the content and tone of posts such
as comments and reviews using content analysis soft-
ware or service providers. Comments provide indica-
tions of awareness, understanding and attitudes as
well as intention (e.g. likelihood or unlikelihood to
buy a product or service). Other qualitative factors
that can be measured include key messages (the main
themes being expressed online) and issues and topics
being discussed (these indicate interests and concerns
of users)
tion with 15 other communication, PR, advertising
and marketing organisations worldwide;
provision of templates for reports. These typically
require charts and tables as well as textual reporting;
provision of a professional development programme
for UK government communicators to develop
Evaluation Champions. This programme has
Introduction, Advanced and Champion levels and
includes regular master classes as well as online
resources.
UK government departments and Arms Length Bod-
ies (ALBs) use a range of software tools for social media
evaluation including Google Analytics, Hootsuite and
Netvibes, as well as service providers such as Gorkana
Radar and Gorkana Social Media Pro.
The UK Government also commissions an annual Rep-
Trak study conducted by Ipsos-MORI to evaluate pub-
lic perceptions of departments and ALBs; undertakes the
annual Civil Service People Survey to evaluate govern-
ment employee attitudes, perceptions and satisfaction;
and subscribes to the British Social Attitudes Survey
conducted by NatCen Social Research to understand
public attitudes, perceptions and expectations. Also,
many departments and ALBs conduct customer sat-
isfaction surveys and their own specialised employee
surveys.
23/03/2017 12:55

Figure 3.3 A social media analytics presented as part of a UK Government department evaluation of communication
(source: Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Web 3.0: the semantic Web
The web is evolving further to what its founder, Sir Tim
Berners-Lee (2002), calls the Semantic Web and others
refer to as Web 3.0. Berners-Lee (2002) says that further
change in how the web is structured and used is neces-
sary for the web to reach its full potential. Although
the technicalities of these developments do not need to
be known by PR practitioners, a broad understanding
of the impact on communication practices is essential.
The Semantic Web is so-called because it will have far
greater sense-making potential than current technolo-
gies and will recognise meaning not just strings of
characters and words. While HTML allows digital files
to be tagged with identifiers that can be found through
searching, it works largely through matching human
language words albeit supplemented with Natural
Language Processing (NLP) technology. Files can only
be found when they contain exact word matches.
The Semantic Web works by describing information
online using a sophisticated machine language such as
Resource Description Framework (RDF), which catego-
rises and describes people, products and concepts using
metadata rather than textual data. It can be thought
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 53
Chapter 3Digital and social media 53
of as computer code attached to each file that is invis-
ible to humans, but visible to computers. This enables
users of the Semantic Web to move beyond simple word
matching to conceptual searching. For example, a con-
ceptual search for companies investing in green energy
could return data about companies investing in solar,
wind and other alternative sources of energy not only
documents containing the specific search words.
You dont find information it finds
you
With increased semantic capabilities, Web 3.0 will
increasingly deploy recommendation engines. Although
search engines such as Google allow users to find spe-
cific information that they search for, recommendation
engines already evident in sites such as Amazon.com
track users digital trails and proactively offer infor-
mation that is relevant to them based on their interests
as indicated in previous searches, views, downloads,
posts and purchases. Increasingly in future, web users
will not have to find information relevant informa-
tion will find them.
23/03/2017 12:55
 54 Part 1The context of public relations
When combined with technologies such as geoloca-
tion tracking and Big Data the vast repositories of
information now captured and stored in databases this
will revolutionise targeting, making it possible to send
messages to people in specific locations at specific times
based on their specific interests. This has major implica-
tions for marketers and providers of government services.
Ethics
With such evolving and expanding capabilities, PR
practitioners need to be mindful and respectful of
the rights of social media users and be ever more
Summary
Digitalisation of all types of information including text,
statistical data, photos, graphics and video has changed
the media and communication landscape, allowing
information to be easily transferred between computers.
The internet has enabled digital files and images to be
transmitted easily and almost instantly around the world
and for communications to occur online 24/7. However,
beyond the major changes in information distribution,
the most significant changes caused by the fourth media
revolution in what Mark Poster calls the second media
age are changes in the practices of information produc-
tion and consumption. Whereas in the past media were
centralised and controlled by a few and information
flowed predominantly one way, top-down, today social
media have spawned the prosumer and produser who is
a producer as well as a consumer of information. The
twenty-first century media revolution has brought many
challenges, ranging from the need for fast response to a
growing range of voices and increased risks of criticism,
to sinister dysfunctions of the internet such as invasion of
Bibliography
Bakhtin, M. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination: Four
essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Bakhtin, M. (1986). Speech Genres and Other Late
Essays. C. Emerson and M. Holquist (eds); V. McGee
(trans.). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. (First
published 1979.)
Balnaves, M., S. Donald and B. Shoesmith (2009). Media
Theories and Approaches: A global perspective.
Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Berlo, D. (1960). The Process of Communication: An
introduction to theory and practice. New York, NY:
Harcourt/Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 54
mindful of ethics. Use of data and targeting should
not invade privacy. Organisations should not mis-
represent their intentions in participating in social
networks and should be transparent in their mar-
keting and promotional activities. The blurring and
disappearing boundaries that are occurring online
between advertising, news and commentary in new
forms of content such as native advertising, spon-
sored content, paid content, embedded market-
ing and other euphemistic terms such as content
integration (de Pelsmacker and Neijens 2012; Mac-
namara and Dessaix 2014) need to be carefully con-
sidered and addressed with reflective practices and
appropriate codes of ethics.
privacy, breaches of security, cyberbullying and trolling.
However, the reduced costs and speed of digital com-
munication and the open access of social media, pro-
vide increased opportunities for organisations to engage
directly with their stakeholders and publics in dialogue
and even collaboration.
For discussion and research
What forms of Big Data can you identify? Think
about all forms of data that citizens provide to gov-
ernment and corporations, which are entered into
databases, as well as data that citizens post online
themselves.
What are the potential downsides and risks of regu-
lation of internet content by governments (e.g. to
remove offensive and inaccurate content), as well as
potential benefits?
What are the legal and ethical requirements for
ensuring the accuracy of information posted online
and the disclosure of the source of information and
commercial or political interests of the author?
Berners-Lee, T. (2000). Weaving the Web: The past, pre-
sent and future of the World Wide Web by its inventor.
London, UK: Texere.
Berners-Lee, T. (2002). Foreword in Spinning the Seman-
tic Web: Bringing the World Wide Web to its full
potential. D. Fensel, W. Wahlster, H. Lieberman and
J. Hendler (eds). Boston, MA: MIT Press.
Bivins, T. (2011). Public Relations Writing: The essen-
tials of style and format, 7th edition. New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill.
Boler, M. (ed.). (2008). Digital Media and Democracy:
Tactics in hard times. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Boyd, D. and N. Ellison (2007). Social network sites:
Definition, history and scholarship. Journal of
23/03/2017 12:55

Computer-Mediated Communication 13(1), Article
11. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.
html, accessed 20 October 2015
Bradley, A. and M. McDonald (2011). The Social Organi-
zation: How to use social media to tap the collective
genius of your customers and employees. Boston, MA:
Harvard Business Review Press.
Breakenridge, D. (2008). PR 2.0: New media, new tools,
new audiences. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press/Pear-
son Education.
Bruns, A. (2008). Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and
Beyond: From production to produsage. New York,
NY: Peter Lang.
Bruns, A. and J. Burgess (2011). #ausvotes: How Twitter
covered the 2010 Australian federal election. Com-
munication, Politics and Culture 44(2): 3756.
Buber, M. (1958). I and Thou. R. Smith (trans.). New
York, NY: Scribners. (First published 1923.)
Buber, M. (2002). Between Man and Man. R. Smith
(trans.). London, UK: Kegan Paul. (First published
1947.)
Bucy, E. (2004). Interactivity in society: Locating an elu-
sive concept. Information Society 20(5): 373383.
Carey, J. (2009). Communication as Culture: Essays on
media and culture. New York, NY: Routledge. (First
published 1989.)
Carpentier, N. (2007). Participation, access and interac-
tion: Changing perspectives in New Media Worlds:
Challenges for convergence (pp. 21430). V. Night-
ingale and T. Dwyer (eds). South Melbourne, Vic:
Oxford University Press.
Carpentier, N. and B. de Cleen (2008). Participation and
Media Production. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Schol-
ars Publishing.
Castells, M. (1996). The Rise of the Network Society, The
Information Age: Economy, society and culture (vol.
I). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Castells, M. (1997). The Power of Identity, The Infor-
mation Age: Economy, society and culture, (vol. II).
Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Castells, M. (1998). End of Millennium, The Information
Age: Economy, society and culture (vol. III). Malden,
MA: Blackwell.
Castells, M. (2010). The new public sphere: Global
civil society, communication networks, and global
governance (pp. 3647) in International Commu-
nication: A reader. D. Thussu (ed.). New York, NY:
Routledge.
Cathcart, W. (2015). Testing new video experiences.
Facebook Newsroom. http://newsroom.fb.com/
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 55
Chapter 3Digital and social media 55
news/2015/10/testing-new-video-experiences accessed
20 October 2015
Cornelissen, J. (2011). Corporate Communication: A
guide to theory and practice, 3rd edition. London,
UK: Sage.
Couldry, N. (2004). Theorising media as practice. Social
Semiotics 14(2): 11532.
Couldry, N. (2010). Why Voice Matters: Culture and poli-
tics after neoliberalism. London, UK: Sage.
Craig, R. (1999). Communication theory as a field.
Communication Theory 9: 11961.
Craig, R. and H. Muller (eds). (2007). Theorising Com-
munication: Readings across traditions. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Crawford, K. (2009). Following you: Disciplines of lis-
tening in social media. Continuum: Journal of Media
& Cultural Studies 23(4): 52535.
Curran, J. (2012). Reinterpreting the internet (pp. 333)
in Misunderstanding the Internet. J. Curran, N. Fen-
ton and D. Freedman (eds). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
de Pelsmacker, P. and P. Neijens (2012). New advertising
formats: How persuasion knowledge affects consumer
response. Journal of Marketing Communications
18(1): 14.
Defren, T. (2007). The social media newsroom tem-
plate debuts: Download a copy today! PR-Squared,
5 February. http://www.pr-squared.com/index.
php/2007/02/the_social_media_newsroom_temp
accessed 28 October 2015
Defren, T. (2008). Social media press release: Template,
Version 1.0. http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/
smprtemplate.pdf accessed 28 October 2015.
Defren, T. (2012). Social media press release 2.0. http://
www.shiftcomm.com/2012/12/social-media-press-
release-2-0 accessed 28 October 2015.
Deibert, R. (1997). Parchment, Printing, and Hyperme-
dia: Communication in world order transformation.
New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
DeLuca, K., S. Lawson and Y. Sun (2012). Occupy Wall
Street on the public screens of social media: The many
framings of the birth of a protest movement. Com-
munication, Culture and Critique 5(4): 483509.
Deuze, M., A. Bruns and C. Neuberger (2007). Preparing
for an age of participatory news. Journalism Practice
1(3): 322338.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education, New York,
NY, Macmillan.
DiMaggio, P. and E. Hargittai (2001). From the digital
divide to digital inequality: Studying internet use as
penetration increases. Center for Arts and Culture
23/03/2017 12:55
 56 Part 1The context of public relations
and Policy Studies Working Paper No. 15. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University.
DiMaggio, P., E. Hargittai, W. Neuman and J. Robinson
(2001). Social implications of the internet. Annual
Reviews of Sociology 27: 30736.
DiNucci, D. (1999). Fragmented future. Print 53(4).
http://darcyd.com/fragmented_future.pdf accessed 10
October 2015.
Doctorow, C. (2003). Down and Out in the Magic King-
dom. New York, NY: Tor.
Duh, S. and D. Wright (2013). Symmetry, social media,
and the enduring imperative of two-way communi-
cation (pp. 93107) in Public Relations and Com-
munication Management: Current trend and emerging
topics. K Sriramesh, A. Zerfass and J. Kim (eds). New
York, NY: Routledge.
Erickson, T. (2008). Plugged In: The generation Y guide
to thriving at work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business
School.
Eysenbach, G. (2008). Credibility of health information
and digital media: New perspectives and implications
for youth (pp. 123154) in Digital Media, Youth and
Credibility. M. Metzger and A. Flanagin (eds). Cam-
bridge, MA: MIT Press.
Facebook (2015). Newsroom, Statistics. http://news-
room.fb.com/company-info accessed 28 October 2015
Flew, T. (2008). New Media: An introduction, 3rd edition.
South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press.
Flew T. (2014). New Media, 4th edition. South Mel-
bourne, Vic: Oxford University Press.
Foremski, T.I. (2006). Die! Press Release! Die! Die! Die.
Silicon Valley Watcher.
Fuchs, C. (2014). Social Media: A critical introduction.
London, UK: Sage.
Gadamer, H. (1989). Truth and Method, 2nd edition.
J. Weinsheimer and D. Marshall (trans). New York,
NY: Crossroad. (First published 1960).
Gartner Research (2008). Hype cycles: Interpreting tech-
nology hype. Stamford, CA. http://www.gartner.com/
technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp,
accessed 20 October 2015.
Gibson, R. and M. Cantijoch (2011). Comparing online
elections in Australia and the UK: Did 2010 finally
produce the internet election? Communication, Poli-
tics and Culture 44(2): 417.
Gibson, R., A. Williamson and S. Ward (2010). The Inter-
net and the 2010 Election: Putting the small p back
in politics. London, UK: Hansard Society.
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 56
Giles, J. (2005). Special report: Internet encyclopaedias
go head to head. Nature 438: 900901. http://www.
nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/full/438900a.
html.
Gitelman, L. (2008). Always Already New: Media history,
and the data of culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Government 2.0 Taskforce (2010). http://gov2.net.au
accessed 20 October 2015.
Grunig, L., J. Grunig and D. Dozier (2002). Excellent
Organizations and Effective Organizations: A study
of communication management in three countries.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Guillory, J. and S. Sundar (2014). How does web site
interactivity affect our perceptions of an organisa-
tion? Journal of Public Relations Research 26(1):
4461.
Habermas, J. (1989). The Structural Transformation of
the Public Sphere. Cambridge, UK: Polity. (First pub-
lished 1962.)
Habermas, J. (2006). Political communication in media
society: Does democracy still enjoy an epistemic
dimension? The impact of normative theory on
empirical research. Communication Theory 16(4):
41126.
Harrison, T. and B. Barthel (2009). Wielding new media
in Web 2.0: Exploring the history of engagement with
the collaborative construction of media products.
New Media and Society 11(1/2): 15578.
Hauben, M. and R. Hauben (1998). The evolution of
UseNet: A poor mans ARPANET. First Monday
3(7), 6 July. http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/
bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/608/529 accessed
20 October 2015.
Hazelton, V., J. Harrison-Rexrode and W. Keenan (2007).
New technologies in the formation of personal and
public relations; Social capital and social media in
New Media and Public Relations (pp. 91105).
S. Duh (ed.). New York: Peter Lang.
History of the World Wide Web (2000). http://www
.w3.org/History.html accessed 28 October 2015.
Hon, L. and J. Grunig (1999). Guidelines for measur-
ing relationships in public relations. Gainesville,
FL: Institute for Public Relations. http://www.insti-
tuteforpr.org/measuring-relationships accessed 28
October 2015.
IBM (2011). Social business: Exploring new approaches
for the next era of business. ftp://ftp.software.ibm.
com/software/lotus/info/social/IBM_Social_Business_
Jam_Report.pdf accessed 20 October 2015.
23/03/2017 12:55

Internet World Statistics (2015). Internet usage statis-
tics. http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm,
accessed 28 October 2015.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where old and
new media collide. New York, NY: New York Uni-
versity Press.
Kaplan, R. and M. Haenlein (2010). Users of the world,
unite! The challenges and opportunities of social
media. Business Horizons 53(1): 5968.
Keen, A. (2007). Disentangle it now, this web of deceit.
Extract from The Cult of the Amateur in The Week-
end Australian, Inquirer, 4 August.
Kent, M. (2013). Using social media dialogically: Public
relations role in reviving democracy. Public Relations
Review 39: 33745.
Kent, M. and M. Taylor (2002). Toward a dialogic theory
of public relations. Public Relations Review 28(1):
2137.
Leadbeater, C. and P. Miller (2004). The Pro-Am Revolu-
tion: How enthusiasts are changing our economy and
society. London, UK: Demos.
Ledingham, J. and S. Bruning (1998). Relationship
management and public relations: Dimensions of an
organisation-public relationship. Public Relations
Review 24(1): 5565.
Ledingham, J. and S. Bruning (eds) (2000). Public Rela-
tions as Relationship Management: A relational
approach to the study and practice of public relations.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Lvy, P. (1997). Cyberculture. Paris: Editions Odile Jacob.
Li, C. (2007). Forresters new social technographics
report. Groundswell blog, 23 April Cambridge MA:
Forrester Research. http://forrester.typepad.com/
groundswell/2007/04/forresters_new_.html, accessed
28 October 2015.
Lievrouw, L. (2002). Determination and contingency in
new media development: Diffusion of innovations and
social shaping of technology perspectives (pp. 183
199) in The Handbook of New Media. L. Lievrouw
and S. Livingstone (eds). London, UK: Sage.
Lievrouw, L. and S. Livingstone (eds) (2002). The Hand-
book of New Media. London, UK: Sage.
Lister, M., J. Dovey, S. Giddings, I. Grant and K. Kelly.
(2009). New Media: A critical introduction, 2nd edi-
tion. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Macey, W. and B. Schneider (2008). The meaning of
employee engagement. Industrial and Organizational
Psychology 1(1): 330.
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 57
Chapter 3Digital and social media 57
MacManus, R. (2007). 10 future web trends. Read-
WriteWeb, 5 September. http://www.readwriteweb.
com/archives/10_future_web_trends.php accessed
20 October 2015.
Macnamara, J. (2012). Public Relations Theories, Prac-
tices, Critiques. Sydney, NSW: Pearson.
Macnamara, J. (2014). The 21st Century Media (R)evolu-
tion: Emergent communication practices, 2nd edition.
New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Macnamara, J. (2016). Organizational Listening: The
missing essential in public communication. New York,
NY: Peter Lang.
Macnamara, J. and A. Dessaix (2014). The ethics of
embedded media content: Product placement and
advertorial on steroids in D. Bossio (ed.), Refereed
Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Com-
munication Association Conference: The digital and
the social: communication for inclusion and exchange
(ISSN 1448-4331). http://www.anzca.net/conferences/
past-conferences/2014-conf/p2.html accessed 29
October 2015.
Macnamara, J. and G. Kenning (2014). E-electioneering
20072014: Trends in online political communication
over three elections. Media International Australia
152: 5774.
Macnamara, J. and A. Zerfass (2012). Social media com-
munication in organisations: The challenges of balanc-
ing openness, strategy and management. International
Journal of Strategic Communication 6(4): 287308.
Mansell, R. (2012). Imagining the Internet: Communi-
cation, innovation, and governance. Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press.
Marklein, T. and K. Paine (2012) The march to stand-
ards: #SMMStandards progress and roadmap (Fourth
European Summit on Measurement, Dublin, Ireland)
[Presentation].
McAllister-Spooner, S. (2009). Fulfilling the dialogic
promise: A ten-year reflective survey on dialogic
internet principles. Public Relations Review 35(3):
32022.
McCorkindale, T. (2010). Can you see the writing on my
wall? A content analysis of the Fortune 50s Facebook
social networking sites. Public Relations Journal 4(3):
113.
McChesney, R. (2013). Digital Disconnect: How capital-
ism is turning the internet against democracy. New
York, NY: The Free Press.
McKinsey (2013). Evolution of the networked
enterprise. McKinsey and Company. https://
w w w. m c k i n s e y q u a r t e r l y . c o m / E v o l u t i o n _ o f _
23/03/2017 12:55
 58 Part 1The context of public relations
the_networked_enterprise_McKinsey_Global_
Survey_results_3073 accessed 20 October 2015.
McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding Media: The exten-
sions of man. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
McMillan, S. (2002). Exploring models of interactivity
from multiple research traditions: Users, documents
and systems (pp. 163182) in Handbook of New
Media, 2nd edition. L. Lievrouw and S. Livingstone
(eds). London, UK: Sage.
Merholz P. (1999) Ahoy Metaphorphiles. Peterme.
Merholz, P. (2005). Its not about the technology. http://
www.peterme.com/archives/000560.html accessed 28
October 2015.
Meyer, J. and C. Smith. (2000). HRM practices and
organisational commitment: A test of a mediation
model. Canadian Journal of Administrative Services
17: 31931.
Mysore, J. (2013). Publishing more detailed maps on
North Korea. Google Maps blog post, 28 January
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/pub-
lishing-more-detailed-maps-of-north.html accessed
28 December 2015.
Napoli, P. (2011). Audience Evolution: New technolo-
gies and the transformation of media audiences. New
York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Nielsen, J. (2006). Participation inequality: Encouraging
more users to contribute. Jakob Nielsens Alertbox,
9 October. Nielsen Norman Group http://www.useit.
com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html accessed
28 October 2015.
Norris, P. (2001). Digital Divide: Civic engagement, infor-
mation poverty, and the internet worldwide. Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
OReilly, T. (2005). What is web 2.0: Design patterns and
business models for the next generation of software.
OReilly blog, 30 September. http://oreilly.com/pub/a/
web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=1 accessed
28 October 2015.
Peters, B. (2009). And lead us not into thinking the new
is new: A bibliographic case for new media history.
New Media and Society 11(1/2): 1330.
Picone, I. (2007). Conceptualizing online news use.
Observatorio Journal 3: 93114.
Poster, M. (1995). The Second Media Age. Cambridge,
UK: Polity.
Poster, M. (2001). The Information Subject. Amsterdam:
G+B Arts International and Gordon and Breach.
Rhoades, L., R. Eisenberger and S. Armeli (2001). Affec-
tive commitment to the organisation: The contribution
M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 58
of perceived organisational support. Journal of
Applied Psychology 86: 82536.
Robson, P. and M. James. (2013). Not everyones aboard
the online public relations train: The use (and non-
use) of social media by public relations practitioners.
PRism 9(1): 118.
Rosenstiel, T. and A. Mitchell (2012). How the presi-
dential candidates use the web and social media.
Washington, DC: Pew Research Center Project for
Excellence in Journalism http://www.journalism.org/
analysis_report/how_presidential_candidates_use_
web_and_social_media accessed 28 October 2015.
Ruddock, A. (2007). Investigating Audiences. London,
UK: Sage.
Scott, D. (2008). Tempests of the blogosphere in Digi-
tal Media and Democracy: Tactics in hard times (pp.
271300). M. Boler (ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
Shannon, C. and W. Weaver (1949). The Mathematical
Theory of Communication. Urbana, IL: University of
Illinois.
Siapera, E. (2012). Understanding New Media. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Simons, M. (2013). Towards a taxonomy of blogs. Crea-
tive Economy. Queensland University of Technology
Creative Industries Faculty blog http://apo.org.au/
commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0 accessed 20
November 2015. (Original work published 2008.)
Solis, B. (2008). Foreword in PR 2.0: New media, new
tools, new audiences. D. Breakenridge. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: FT Press/Pearson Education, pp. xviixx.
Solis, B. and D. Breakenridge (2009). Putting the Public
Back in Public Relations: How social media is rein-
venting the aging business of PR. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: FT Press/Pearson Education.
Stromer-Galley, J. (2000). On-line interaction and why
candidates avoid it. Journal of Communication 50(4):
11132.
Sundar, S. (2007). Social psychology of interactivity in
human-website interaction in The Oxford Handbook
of Internet Psychology (pp. 89104). A. Joinson, K.
McKenna, T. Postmes and U. Reips (eds). Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press.
Sundar, S., S. Kalyanaraman and J. Brown (2003). Expli-
cating website interactivity. Communication Research
30: 3059.
Swerling, J., K. Thorson and A. Zerfass (2014). The role
and status of communication practice in the USA and
Europe. Journal of Communication Management
18(1): 215.
23/03/2017 12:55
 Chapter 3Digital and social media 59

Szpir, M. (2002). Clickworkers on Mars. American Sci- http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/

entist, May June http://www.americanscientist.org/
issues/pub/clickworkers-on-mars accessed 28 Decem-
ber 2015.
Taylor, M. and M. Kent (2014). Dialogic engagement:
Clarifying foundational concepts. Journal of Public
Relations Research 26(5): 38498.
Toffler, A. (1970). Future Shock. New York, NY: Random
House.
Toffler, A. (1980). The Third Wave. New York, NY: Wil-
liam Morrow.
Treadwell, D. and J. Treadwell (2005). Public Relations
Writing: Principles in practice. London, UK: Sage.
Vergeer, M. (2013). Politics, elections and online cam-
paigning: Past, present...and a peek into the future.
New Media and Society 15(1): 917.
news/2007/12/blog_anniversary accessed 20 Novem-
ber 2015.
Wright, D. and M. Hinson (2012). Examining how social
and emerging media have been used in public relations
between 2006 and 2012: A longitudinal analysis.
Public Relations Journal 6(4): 140.
YouTube (2015). Statistics. http://www.youtube.com/t/
press_statistics accessed 28 October 2015.
Zerfass, A., S. Fink and A. Linke (2011). Social media
governance: Regulatory frameworks as drivers of suc-
cess in online communications (pp. 10261047) in
Pushing the Envelope in Public Relations Theory and
Research and Advancing Practice: 14th International
Public Relations Research Conference. L. Men and
M. Dodd (eds). Gainesville, FL: Institute for Public
Relations.

Vis, F. (2013). Twitter as a reporting tool for breaking Zerfass, A. and D. Schramm (2013). Social media news-
news. Digital Journalism 1(1): 2747. rooms in public relations: Developing a conceptual
framework and researching corporate practices in the
White, D. (1950). The gatekeeper: A case study in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.
selection of news. Journalism Quarterly 27: 383390. Paper presented to the International Public Relations
Woolgar, S. (2002). Five rules of virtuality (pp. 122) Research Conference, Miami, FL, 9 March.
in Virtual Society? Technology, cyberbole, reality.
Zhao, Y. (2014). New media and democracy: Three
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. competing visions from cyber-optimism and cyber-
World Population Clock (2015). Current world popu- pessimism. Journal of Political Sciences and Public
lation. http://www.worldometers.info/world- Affairs 2(1): Article 114.
population, accessed 20 October 2015. Zuckerberg, M. (2015). Facebook post, 27 August. https://
Wortham, J. (2007). After 10 years of blogs: The www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10102329188394581
futures brighter than ever. WIRED, 17 December accessed 28 October 2015.

M03 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 59 23/03/2017 12:55

 c h ap t er 4 Neil Washbourne

Public relations and democracy

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
identify and discuss the dilemmas of public relations (PRs) role in contemporary democracy
understand democracy as an unfinished process, and one not merely concerned with voting and elections
analyse PRs contribution to specific dilemmas around fake news, lobbying in secret and the misuse of
social media
explore PR professional bodies codes and their relevance to PRs ethical dilemmas and democratic
responsibilities
understand how PR practitioners aims to serve client interests and the (material) interest that PR has that
its expertise is recognised, may be in conflict with democracy.

Structure
Democracy, media and expertise PR versus democracy
PRs relation to democracy since the 1980s PR ethics codes and democracy
PRs contribution to democracy The problem of (PRs) expertise for democracy

M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 60 23/03/2017 12:57

 Chapter 4Public relations and democracy 61

Introduction
This chapter is a critical analysis of the
role played in democracy by public
relations (PR), focusing on the role of
political public relations, public affairs
and comprehensive political market-
ing. This exploration is necessary, firstly,
because of the neglect of discussion
of democracy in recent and influen-
tial PR texts. Secondly, it is necessary
because of the ethical dilemmas that
face contemporary PR, which relate
both to structural problems with its role
in the world and well-founded percep-
tions of the negative consequences of
PR for democratic life. The perspective
from which this chapter is written is a
critical one that recognises problems in
the great inequality existing in (the com-
munication channels of) contemporary
society. This critical approach argues
that there are problems with the liberal
pluralist assumption that we should be
satisfied with the validity and diversity of
information in the current marketplace
of ideas, which does not take seriously
the implications of such inequalities.
The existence of such inequalities raises
challenging questions about how to
reform the institutions and practices of
PR to benefit democracy.

Democracy, media and democracy involves a complex attempt at representa-

expertise
Democracy is both an ideal, based on the commit-
ment to the political equality of citizens, and a reality.
This ideal requires at a minimum, involving ordinary
citizens in debate and making decisions accountable to
them (Kelley 1966: 21718, 225; Washbourne 2010:
1920; Waymer 2013: 3223). Debate is: an exchange
of opinion in which participants are willing to be per-
suaded of the truth or justice of something. The idea
that such discussion is possible is basic to...democ-
racy (Turner 2003: 48, 69).
In large-scale societies citizens cannot be involved
in every decision and are both physically distant from
where decisions are made and mentally distant from
the array of expertise necessary to complex contem-
porary political life. Discussion is organised through
representative democracy and media is central to pro-
viding publicity of the content and contexts of that
discussion. Ordinary citizens elect people to represent
their interests, views, opinions and identities. Those
elected are meant to make public policies for all. Rep-
resentative democracy should ensure that even though
citizens are not actually present at the making of politi-
cal decisions, their interests, values and concerns are
properly considered in those decisions. Voting institu-
tionalises a degree of power vested in citizens to remove
politicians and governments, and elections as special
events in which that power is expressed. However,
representation means more than voting. Representa-
tion by elected representatives also goes on between
elections. Representation is evident in the content of
politicians speeches as they address the people. It
is also evident in the consultation of individuals and
interest groups that occurs when proposed legislation
and policy are discussed. Further, such representation
is present in various forms of media content as well as
in face-to-face meetings (Saward 2009). Contemporary
tion, of which the election itself is only an important
and highly visible manifestation. Media and expertise
are both necessary to contemporary democracy but
may both pose problems for the fulfilment of the ideal
of democratic equality.
The ideals embedded in representative democracy
include political equality, encouragement and sup-
port for widespread participation (including space
and time to enable deliberation) and the defence of
rights, in particular for minorities, in order to forestall
the development of tyranny (Davis 2002: 4; Wash-
bourne 2010: 56: Fishkin 2011: 65; Waymer 2013:
322). Democratic ideals also require that media pro-
vision supports the needs of citizens for information,
and access to debates, and provides an arena through
which representatives can be held to account (Wash-
bourne 2010: 612, 6875). However, as we shall see
later when considering lobbying although very far
from all important relationships and ideas are made
public via media media are both at the centre of rep-
resentative democracy and also much of the activity
of PR practitioners. Mediated democracy should do
two things. Firstly, it should involve citizens in debates
and contribute to their awareness both of a range of
political knowledge and concerning policies, parties,
pressure groups and problems. Secondly, it should link
citizens thoughts, perceptions and concerns captured
in such debates to those with responsibility for politi-
cal decisions governments, ministers and MPs. The
activities of PR practitioners involve them in influenc-
ing both aspects of mediated democracy.
Democratic ideals are but imperfectly realised any-
where in the world. Ideals of the democratic involvement
of citizens in debate and decision-making appear to fall
short even in those countries widely accepted as leading
democracies (Washbourne 2010: 78, 289, 815). This
suggests that democracy is not so much an end point at
which to aim, but rather, a process potentially without
end whose progress is uncertain (see Think about4.1).

M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 61 23/03/2017 12:57

 62 Part 1The context of public relations

Think about 4.1

Does thinking about democracy

as representation rather than
as voting make a difference
to how PR practitioners might
influence it?
What difference might serving or engaging democ-
racy as democratic representation rather than
democracy as merely elections and voting make to
the professional lives and activities of PR practition-
ers? Is voting in elections really the only role for citi-
zens? Can PR practitioners facilitate debate or is their
role likely to impede debate? What roles in democ-
racy do PR practitioners have (should they have)?
Can you find (or imagine) contexts when these roles
might come into conflict with the ideal of political
equality of all citizens?

Picture 4.1 The leave result of the referendum on the

PRs relation to democracy
since the 1980s
PR has grown in funding and importance since the
1980s in the UK and Western Europe. It has further
expanded and intensified its activities in the US, and
been spread around the world, by adopting US prac-
tices or establishing and developing local ones. These
developments have put PR into a relationship of deep
significance to democracy everywhere (Banks 2000;
Davis 2002: 3, 5; Moloney 2006; Curtin and Gaither
2007; Davis 2007: 213; Morris and Galsworthy
2008). We do not have to be hyperbolic about PRs
influence on public discussion and democracy in the
contemporary world but rather track its dominant
modes and major attempts to influence such debate.
In spite of the importance of PR to democracy, how-
ever, PR texts have greatly neglected consideration of
democracy (barely a mention in the following: Fitzpat-
rick and Bronstein 2006; Wilcox and Cameron 2009;
Green 2010; Strmbck and Kiouis 2011; Guth and
Marsh 2012), although there exists welcome evidence
of a resurgence of interest (cf. Heath et al. 2013; Kent
2013; Waymer 2013; LEtang et al. 2016: 215, 2534
and throughout). Famously, Davis (2002) has nega-
tively labelled contemporary political regimes Public
Relations Democracy, which is dominated by pro-
motional culture rather than open argument (Davis
UKs membership of the European Union in 2016 was met
with strong protests. Critics claimed that the arguments
for leave and remain were dominated by soundbites
and propaganda on both sides, instead of fully informed
debate.
2013). Davis (2002) argues that PR practitioners have
significant and negative influence on democratic poli-
tics. According to Davis, this influence has led to the
illicit sidelining of public and political institutions as
PR offers to listen to the thoughts and feelings of citi-
zens through polls and surveys on behalf of parties and
governments (Davis 2002: 8). This privatises the think-
ing of citizens rather than allowing it to emerge in, and
contribute to, debate. Davis also asserts that the impact
of this privatisation of discussion is exacerbated by
PR practitioners likely support for political policy
solutions based on the so-called free market and the
denigration of forms of public provision (Davis 2002:
8). The negative effects of sidelining of specifically
political institutions can be seen in PRs contributions
to the deficit of political, regulatory, oversight of finan-
cial institutions before and during the current financial
crisis (Davis 2002: 77, 82; Davis 2013; 1869; Fren-
ken 2010: 3940, 60). PR practitioners acted to limit
relevant institutional reform of finance in promoting
the interests of corporations and fund managers rather
than citizens (Frenken 2010: 60).

M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 62 23/03/2017 12:57


PRs contribution to
democracy
This section explores PRs positive contribution to
democratic debate. Firstly, it investigates criticism of
bossism and claims of PRs democratic superiority to
it. Secondly, it considers and assesses the information
subsidy provided by PR practitioners to newsgathering
and provision of the information upon which citizens
rely. Thirdly, it explores PRs challenge to radical cri-
tiques which assert that PR, necessarily and structur-
ally, forms the opposite of democratic debate.
PR bypasses bossism
Proponents of PR often claim that PR aids democracy
by taking it out of the arena of old-style politics which
was deeply unresponsive to citizens and voters. We
often forget that contemporary democracies were very
undemocratic even in the recent past. In the UK and
the US between the 1920s and 1960s national (prime
ministers or presidents) or local (municipal council
leaders, US city mayors and state governors) bosses
often took the most important decisions in backrooms
away from democratic debate. Such bosses thought
about their supporters as clients requiring services not
citizens to be involved in debate. Although bossism
might well have served some of the important material
interests of citizen clients, such as finding them a job
or a home, it also produced a high-handed attitude
towards voters and citizens as potential political dis-
cussants (Kelley 1966: 2067, 217; Bloom 1973: 257,
273; Lees-Marshment 2001: 131; Lees-Marshment
2009). Such bossism did not usually acknowledge
that it was undemocratic, yet the democratic creden-
tials of such bossism were very much a sham (Kelley
1966: 217). The activity of PR practitioners may be an
improvement on this. In its criticism of bossism, PR
authors have argued that PRs use of surveys and focus
groups to capture the thoughts, values and concerns
of ordinary citizens means they can be listened to and
that political leaders are thus able to know and address
their concerns (Leach 2009: 86, 89; Washbourne 2010:
3840). Thus, the idea is that the use of PR can lead
to something significantly closer to democratic ideals
that bossism did. PR claims to aid two-way commu-
nication between actors citizens/publics/stakehold-
ers/politicians where they may otherwise mutually
misunderstand each other (Pimlott 1961: 238; Kelley
1966: 213). PR practitioners are here credited with
uncommon expertise in communicational skills and
M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 63
Chapter 4Public relations and democracy 63
specialist knowledge of media that may benefit others.
These claims are also underpinned by the notion that
PR can both involve ethical acts and function as a neu-
tral mediator and, thereby, play a positive public role
(Leach 2009: 86; Washbourne 2009: 789).
PR provides information subsidies
PR can aid democracy by providing information subsi-
dies. (Information subsidies are also discussed in Chap-
ter2 Public relations and the media.) The argument
here is that information (especially news) is central to
the functioning of democracy, yet is very expensive
to provide. It takes a great deal of work and use of
resources to collect and validate (Kelley 1966: 204
205; Gans 2003). PR can aid newsgathering and make
us aware of information by collecting and arranging
news and providing it to journalists and others in
a timely manner for free (Davis 2002: 323; Lieber
and Golan 2011: 60; Tedesco 2011: 81). The claim
has become more important since news provision is
undergoing difficulties in the contemporary world.
Newspapers are losing readership, making their task
less economically viable and creating a crisis for their
business model (Washbourne 2010: 645). Television
news loses viewers and may have decreasing amounts
of money invested in it by commercial, thus profit-
sensitive, broadcasters (Washbourne 2010: 678).
Although web-based sources may be making some
difference in lowering the costs of newsgathering and,
for example, expanding the online readership and rev-
enues of print newspapers (Washbourne 2010: 136)
the PR information subsidy seems necessary (Lieber
and Golan 2011: 612). Thus, the claim is that PR
benefits democracy by supporting the timely provision
of information essential to citizens.
PR cant be too bad since
democracy has not disappeared
Moloney (2006: 73) argues uncommonly among
even former PR practitioners that PRs relation to
democracy is the most important question concerning
PR. He further argues that PRs effect cannot be sim-
ply anti-democratic, as some radical theorists assert,
since rich Western countries continue to be democra-
cies in spite of massive expansion and intensification
of PR in the last 30 years. It is an important argument
against reductive accounts that suggest that PR has
been an all-powerful and entirely negative influence
on the accountability central to democracy (cf. Miller
and Dinan 2007).
23/03/2017 12:57
 64 Part 1The context of public relations
However, in relation to PRs opposition to bossism,
its provision of information subsidies and its contem-
porary happy co-existence with democracy, it is appo-
site to repeat a claim made first in the 1950s that these
activities of PR have little to do with the people con-
sulting together (Kelley 1966: 227). PRs potentially
democratically positive activities have nothing directly
to do with peoples involvement in democratic debate.
Furthermore, the positive effects of these activities of
PR are typically assumed rather than demonstrated in
PR texts. Perhaps, at best, where they are realised they
may aid the consensual management of society.
PR versus democracy
A larger part of the claims concerning PR and democ-
racy, however, relate to the idea that PR may be harm-
ing the fulfilment of democratic ideals. These harms
can be seen in two main areas. Firstly, the question of
debates that are not made public, in short the role of
public silence or invisibility concerning PR practitio-
nerss relations with journalists (fake news) and poli-
ticians (secret lobbying), concerns of long standing
in critical analyses of PR (Pimlott 1961: 214; Bloom
1973: 266, 268; Davis 2002: 13, 557, 82; Davis 2007:
179). These silences concern not so much the question
of manufacturing mass consent but, in a key feature
of Public Relations Democracy, that of excluding
both the general public and non-corporate elites from
debate or being made aware of significant develop-
ments (Davis 2002: 82). Secondly, the role of such
expertise as PR practitioners lay a claim to and how
democracy should deal, democratically, with (such
claims to) special knowledge and skills.
PR and fake news
Fake news is the negative side of information sub-
sidy. The claim is that much news is now dominated
by thinly veiled and barely edited publicity releases.
This has been asserted since the 1950s and affirmed
in detail since then (Davis 2002: 257, 1723; Gans
2003; Davis 2007; Tedesco 2011: 82). Those public-
ity releases, although they may sometimes provide
useful information, do so in furtherance of the mate-
rial interests of PR practitioners clients and moreover
do so without being declared as publicity releases.
Furthermore, there is more evidence of PRs interfer-
ence with the provision of a diversity of information,
since only some information will serve their clients
M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 64
interests, and the provision of selective interpretations
of information in line with particular interests, than
there is that information subsidy benefits democratic
media. For instance, Bell Pottingers plans to enhance
the reputation of a human-rights abusing political
regime by strategic placement of news stories high-
lighting positive developments and downplaying criti-
cism could consequentially change attitudes in spite
of no changed behaviour of the regime (see Mini case
study 4.1, below). Minimally, PR may contribute to
disrupting some of the main normative roles of news
media in democracies, which are: providing objective
information, playing a watchdog role in relation to the
activities of the powerful, providing an arena for ratio-
nal debate and an access point both for citizens and
a wide range of interest groups to put forward their
views (Davis 2002: 4, 55).
PR and lobbying in secret
Lobbying is the attempt to influence the decisions of
public authorities. Firstly, by building relationships
with, and influence on, local, national or international
politicians or administrators (LEtang 2008: 113). Sec-
ondly, lobbyists seek, by the framing of messages in
media and society, behind the scenes, to benefit PR
practitioners or their clients (Strmbck and Kiousis
2011). Lobbying is an activity which is very old but
which has undergone great change. The most impor-
tant of recent changes has been the development and
intensification of professionalised lobbying, organised
in relation to multiple-clients as well as in-house. Such
lobbying is recognised in the existence of a number of
professional bodies (CIPR; APPC; PRCA) which sup-
port, and seek to normalise, lobbyings spread around
the world.
Open, publicly visible lobbying of public authori-
ties by non-governmental organisations, such as that
of Libertys Shami Chakrabarti in arguing for defence
of human rights, is an obviously legitimate pursuit. The
very openness allows competing interests and alterna-
tive viewpoints and arguments to be raised in public
debate (Norman 2011). It is, however, less clear that
closed or secretive lobbying is as legitimate an activ-
ity as is often assumed in the PR literature (LEtang
2008: 113). It has become widely apparent in recent
years that lobbying presents significant problems for
democracy. Its spread, intensification and professionali-
sation raises issues of access to politicians for resource-
poor individuals and groups (Bernhagen and Mitchell
2009; Miller and Harkins 2010; Kluver 2011). Lobby-
ing also raises broader concerns about sidelining the
23/03/2017 12:57

open debate that is central to democracy (Davis 2002;
2007; Dinan and Miller 2007). The problem is that
powerful interests will influence governments to cre-
ate policy or legislation that serves their interests but
not the public interest all the while conducting their
activity in secret, thereby ensuring that their influ-
ence cannot be challenged. Those concerns have led
to the creation of organisations to bring to light and
criticise the activity of lobbyists in and across coun-
tries (Spinwatch, Alliance for Lobbying Transparency
see Think about4.2).
The potentially undemocratic influence of pow-
erful economic actors on public life in this under-
hand or devious manner has led to the demand for
various measures to make such relations transpar-
ent. These measures include the registration of
lobbyists and clients and accounts of the money
spent on lobbying (PASC 2009: esp. 456, 501).
It seems that, in spite of resistance by PR profes-
sional bodies (PASC 2009: 910, 1920), a system
of statutory regulation and transparency concern-
ing lobbyists, clients and money spent is necessary
in the United Kingdom. This would bring the UK in
line with such systems that have been developed in
the United States, Canada and Australia, and which
may be in development in the European Union
(PASC 2009: 60). This has been more widely and
profoundly recognised in the UK in late 2011 in
relation to a major scandal involving Bell Pottinger
(see Mini case study4.1).
Lobbying in representative democracies depends
upon silence and invisibility rather than open discussion
(Davis 2002: 13). It also depends on the opaqueness of
Think about 4.2
Watchdogs of lobbying: Do they
serve democratic purposes?
Are lobby watch-style organisations (Spinwatch and
the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency) necessary
to hold PR practitioners to account? Are they of
benefit for ethical PR activities and only a problem
for unethical ones? What defence, if any, of secret
lobbying do you find convincing? Why? What role
should it have, if any, in a democracy? Fawkes (2015:
221) argues that these transparency bodies may be
important in revealing PRs manipulation of media
and the inadequate use of disciplinary procedures
by PR professional bodies with regards to errant indi-
viduals and firms.
M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 65
Chapter 4Public relations and democracy 65
Mini case study 4.1
The Bell Pottinger
lobbying scandal
The scandal, revealed by the press in December 2011,
concerning Bell Pottingers (hereafter, BP) role as a lob-
byist was highlighted by The Independent newspaper
and the Bureau for Investigative Reporting (Grice 2011;
The Independent 2011; Newman and Wright 2011a;
2011b; Wright 2011; Wright and Duff 2011). BP agreed
to secretly lobby the UK government and to place sto-
ries in the media to downplay the human rights abuses
of their client state. In addition, BP offered to secretly
edit content of user-generated websites such as Wiki-
pedia to benefit the reputation of their client and
in contradiction to the ideals of Wikipedia. Person-
nel from Bell Pottinger discussed these options with
undercover journalists posing as representatives of the
human-rights abusing state, Uzbekistan. This case is
invaluable since it reveals certain features of contem-
porary PR which are troubling for democracy. These
include: the use PR firms make of contacts with domes-
tic politicians and senior public servants; BPs prepared-
ness to secretly edit social media content to benefit
their clients interests; the failure of self-regulation of
PR lobbying; and the multinational, cross-jurisdictional
organisation and client list of major PR firms, raising
complex questions concerning the representing of the
interests of other countries to domestic politicians and
the complexity of PR practice causing increased diffi-
culties bringing such practices to account.
Alhough BP was welcomed into PRCA membership,
this does not seem to have regulated its behaviour.
Further, on 4 April 2012, BP was cleared by the PRCA
Code of Conduct procedure of any wrongdoing, in fact
being found fully compliant with the PRCAs Code of
Conduct and best practice guidelines (PRCA 2012b,
authors italics). This makes one suspect either the con-
tent of this code or the judiciousness of its application.
The fact that BP is fully prepared to represent states
that abuse human rights raises important issues for
the ethics of PR. Such questions are also raised by BPs
plans (and ongoing actions) over editing Wikipedia.
It is a measure of the fact that some individuals and
firms do behave ethically that two PR firms immedi-
ately rejected the approach of these dubious (pretend)
clients. Ethical behaviour by individual practitioners
and PR firms is very important even if it will check only
some aspects of the impact of unethical behaviour
and in relation only to the most flagrantly or obviously
unethical clients.
23/03/2017 12:57
 66 Part 1The context of public relations
Picture 4.2 Bell Pottingers lobbying practices in the UK
on behalf of its client, the state of Uzbekistan, reveals
certain aspects of contemporary PR that are troubling for
democracy.
relations of lobbyists to officials, and of the claims of
expertise which lobbyists make to clients. It is thus in
powerful tension with the access of ordinary citizens
to political debate.
PR ethics codes and
democracy
So what do the ethical codes of professional PR bodies
require, how do they attempt to regulate the ethics of
their members and what role does democracy play in
these codes?
Walle (2003) has argued that the PR codes in a
range of countries the US (PRSA), Canada (CPRS),
Australia (PRIA), New Zealand (PRINZ) and South
Africa (RISA) have in common neglect of broader
responsibilities such as practitioners duties towards
the public and to society in general (Walle 2003:
1, 23). Moreover, she also found that ethical com-
mitments are often in tension with these broader
duties by being orientated to ease relations with cli-
ents. For example, she found that none of the codes
imposed obligations to truthfulness of PR prac-
tice. The codes may often disavow lying, but do not
require full and truthful disclosure, therefore making
it easy to support clients requirements but routine
to contribute to misleading others. She also noted
the absence in codes of directives that might help
practitioners navigate the complex relations between
truthfulness and public interest (Walle 2003: 3).
She also found that the codes did not require PR
M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 66
practitioners responsibility for client behaviour even
where it might conflict with the social good. None
mentioned assessment of social interest in client
selection (Walle 2003: 4).
Walle expresses concern over the lack of encour-
agement of moral reflection. Such moral reflection
might be beneficial to PR practitioners in negotiating
real-world dilemmas. Such reflection is the central
concern of the contemporary PRSA code, which is
designed to anticipate and accommodate, by prec-
edent, ethical challenges that might arise (PRSA
2012a: 1). This is surely valuable for PR practitio-
ners. However, this is more appearance that achieve-
ment. The PRSAs focus on aiding the negotiation
of ethical dilemmas actually arises out of its pro-
found failure to sanction practitioners. The PRSA
had half-a-century of attempting to enforce a code,
yet, the meager [sic] results of the effort in relation
to the time and resources required, failed to provide
a valuable return on investment for the PRSA, its
members or the broader profession from whom they
had a lack of cooperation (PRSA 2012b). Other PR
professional bodies, such as the UKs CIPR (2012a),
do seek to maintain the option of sanctioning their
members. The CIPR has also sought to make its
guidelines on lobbying more rigorous in response to
the Bell Pottinger scandal and public concern over
lobbying present in the UK Public Administration
Select Committee on lobbying (PASC 2009; CIPR
2012b; Owens and Luker 2012). However, the
CIPR code can aid its members ethical behaviour
only somewhat since it offers no advice on how to
handle contradictions between different elements of
its code (see Explore4.1). One important contradic-
tion is conflict between public benefit and serving
specific clients interests. There may be positive con-
sequences in the existence of the code, however, since
it may encourage motivated members to discuss the
ethical implications of their (in) actions. Certainly,
very many do not wish to behave at all like Bell Pot-
tinger (cf. CIPR 2012c). However, as Bloom (1973:
273) argued four decades ago: [f]ailure to establish
a rather rigid code of ethics in political public rela-
tions does a disservice not only to the profession but
also to the nation.
The CIPR code is also replete with merely worthy
clauses, such as those on integrity and honesty that
oppose concealment of the practitioners role as repre-
sentative of a client (CIPR 2012a, section A.2). That
opposition to concealment, however, is violated in
much routine PR practitioner activity, particularly,
and by definition, secret lobbying.
23/03/2017 12:57

Explore 4.1
Do PR professional bodies aid ethical
behaviour?
Investigate PR professional bodies ethical codes in
your own country by examining their websites. What
is the role of PR professional bodies in the regulation
of ethical behaviour? Should such ethical codes spe-
cifically articulate support for democratic debate in
contemporary society? Why do their codes differ (e.g.
PRSA, CIPR)? How do the concrete differences in such
codes affect or encourage the:
ethical behaviour of PR practitioners?
ethical reflection of PR practitioners?
democratic involvement of citizens in debate?
There is ongoing debate in the PR industry itself
and governmental circles about the extent to which
lobbying is problematic and not sufficiently or appro-
priately addressed in the ethics of PR. That debate is
also concerned with whether those problems relate
primarily to individual ethical behaviour (PR practi-
tioner or PR firm) or more directly to democracy itself
(PASC 2009; Owens and Luker 2012). There are deep
concerns among politicians and the public that self-
regulation has involved more self than regulation in
areas of PR ethics across the PR professional bodies
(Washbourne 2009).
Ethics, democracy and PRs use of
Wikipedia
These considerations of PRs ethics and PR practi-
tioners role in democracy have come to the fore in
a particularly stark way in the new information and
communication environment provided by social media.
PR ethics codes have yet to be updated in order to
comprehend the distinctive features of social media and
the democratic and broader social questions in which
they may involve PR practitioners. Social media are
popular new media forms defined by their production
by their everyday users (Levinson 2009: 90). The use
of social media by PR practitioners raises important
ethical concerns and bears democratic implications.
Yet, because of the perceived importance of Wikipedia
to the public reputation of firms, presently PR practi-
tioners are editing its pages in the private interests of
M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 67
Chapter 4Public relations and democracy 67
their clients (DiStaso 2012: 1, 911; CIPR 2012c: 23;
Di Staso 2013). That form of editing not only raises
ethical questions for PR practitioners and violates the
community code of Wikipedia (material interests in a
topic disqualify editing the relevant page), it also raises
important democratic considerations (Levinson 2009:
93; Lievrouw 2011: 177ff.). Edits of Wikipedia pages
by Bell Pottinger practitioners were made using fake
online identities. This, surely, provides evidence that
their activities were considered ethically dubious even
by themselves?
However, the key concern here is the role of Wiki-
pedia as a supplementary information source in and
for democracy. Since Wikipedia circulates much valid
and up-to-date information, PR practitioners editing
pages in line with their clients interests raises the
same concerns that fake news and secret lobbying
do more generally. If allowed this will make this user-
driven source another space for dominant institu-
tions, including corporations, with the added feature
that the activity of the powerful remains invisible to
the users of Wikipedia (see Explore4.2). However,
the discussion of these issues, even among ethically
inclined PR practitioners, often downplays and con-
fuses the crucial difference between private interests
(of clients and PR practitioners themselves) and the
(democratic) public interest in valid and up-to-date
information (cf. CIPR 2012c: 2; DiStaso 2012:4;
more generally on this issue see Fawkes 2015). PR
practitioners most often sideline questions of (mate-
rial) interests, preferring to claim justification to
edit on the basis that PR practitioners are especially
knowledgeable and, in particular, that they are trust-
worthy since they are regulated by the ethical codes
of their profession. As we have seen above, how-
ever, both the content of the codes of conduct and
the actual regulation of PR practitioners by them is
questionable. The major reason for PR practitioners
editing social media is not qualification but competi-
tion. PR practitioners clients pressure them to, so
they and other competing PR practitioners will likely
comply with such pressure (CIPR 2012c: 23; DiS-
taso 2012: 1, 4, 5).
PR needs to have a proper debate about its relation-
ship to Wikipedia and other social media in order to
explore the wider public interest in relation to such
activity rather than allowing its own material interests
(satisfying the client, competing with other PR practi-
tioners) to forestall a debate of great importance for
democratic societies. The agreement with Wikipedia
(and keeping to it and encouraging all PR firms and
PRPs to comply) is a great start.
23/03/2017 12:57
 68 Part 1The context of public relations
Explore 4.2 Ethics, democracy and PRs use of Wikipedia
What role does Wikipedia play in the democratisation of
information? Do you edit Wikipedia? How do PR prac-
titioners, about whom you know, edit it? How do you
think PR practitioners desire to use Wikipedia should be
negotiated with Wikipedians culture and administrative
rules as agreed by major PR firms in June 2014? (see
Mini case study 4.2) Would you consider editing using a
fake identity? Is it ethical to do so? Do you know of col-
leagues who have felt pressured to do so by the clients
requirements? Search back copies of PR Week (or other
professional magazines), PR blogs and other social media
used by PRPs to discuss these issues. Can you find exam-
ples of the editing of Wikipedia (or other social media)
being discussed? What are the democratic and ethical
implications for PR practitioners doing so? Are those
Mini case study 4.2
Wikipedia again: PR
accepts Wikipedia
editing rules?
The Bell Pottinger Scandal (see Mini case study4.1) was
only the first of PR firms difficulties with Wikipedia with
important PRPs such as Philip Gomes, a spokesman for
Edelman Digital arguing in January 2012 that the site
was so important to global reputations that communica-
tions staff of companies affected would always want to do
something (Magee 2012). DiStasos (2013: 9) most recent
survey of (largely North American) PRPs demonstrates per-
ceived high ongoing levels of editing on behalf of clients.
Both the Bell Pottinger and the Wiki-PR scandals (for the
latter see: Advertising Age 2013; Arthur 2013; Barrett 2013;
Wikipedia 2015) reveal ongoing and broader PR problems
with the online encyclopaedia (Cieply 2013; Magee 2012;
Public Relations Tactics 2013). The Texas-based Wiki-PR
firm was at the centre of this debate, though far from the
only PR firm misusing Wikipedia, because of the scale of
their activity and their specialisation in offering a Wikipe-
dia reputation editing service: We write it. We manage it.
You never worry about Wikipedia again (cited in Advertis-
ing Age 2013). The term arising out of these debates and
what the PR firms were being accused of is sock-puppetry
defined by Barrett (2013) as using an online identity to
deceive others. Wiki-PR was accused by Wikipedia of
using more than 250 online accounts to edit on behalf
of clients (Wikipedia 2015) in violation of Wikipedia edit-
ing rules which ban editing by individuals or organisations
M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 68
implications discussed? Are the ethical (or democratic)
implications foregrounded as important for PR practitio-
ners to debate? Are you as a (potential future) PR prac-
titioner encouraged to explore those implications? On
reflection what would you do in their place if you were
asked to edit social media content (especially covertly)?
Perhaps the ethics codes of PR bodies need to be
expanded beyond the Wikipedia agreement men-
tioned above in order to consider the ethics of truth-
fulness of the profession specifically in relation to social
media? How would it be best to do this? Can citizens in
a democracy rely upon Wikipedia as a source of reliable
information if it is (secretly) edited by PR practitioners
in the (material) interests of their clients?
whose own material interests are involved. Wiki-PR was
sent a cease-and-desist letter by Wikipedias lawyers in
November 2013 (Arthur 2013) and was a blatant and per-
sistent infringer of Wikipedia editing rules and any ethi-
cal engagement with it more generally. Although Wiki-PR
CEO Jordan French asserted that his company had been
demonized by Wikipedia (Bort 2014) the debate had
already moved on as other PR firms had realised the need
for a more just (or at least more workable) relationship
and were talking to Wikipedia to ensure that happened
(Magee 2012; Bradley 2014). As a result of multi-layered
discussions in June 2014, 11 leading PR firms Ogilvy and
Mather, Edelman, Burson-Marsteller, Fleishman Hillard,
Ketchum, Porter Novelli, Voce Communications, Glover
Park Group, Peppercom, Allison and Partners and B eutler
Ink issued a statement promising to abide by the fun-
damental principles guiding Wikipedia, to investigate
within their firms if it seemed to be happening and to
seek corrective action if such were the case (BBC 2014; The
Independent 2014). Journalists treated the statement as an
admission there was a culture within the PR industry of
agencies editing references to their clients...of deleting
negative references...and rewriting pages to present
them in a better light (The Independent 2014). Although
these large PR firms involvement in a more measured
and cooperative relationship to Wikipedia marks a defi-
nite advance in itself, it has not stopped firms such as the
Washington, NY-based Sunshine Sachs, who have edited
on behalf of celebrity clients such as Naomi Campbell and
so played loose with Wikipedias standards and recently
violated the sites updated terms of use agreement, by
employing paid editors who fail to disclose their conflict
of interest on the website (Cieply 2015). Clearly more is to
be done in relation to the culture and political economy
of contemporary PR.
23/03/2017 12:57

Ordinary citizens, whose role is central to democ-
racy as both practice and ideal, are amateurs who
possess, by definition, no special skills, knowledge or
contacts in relation to public-political life. The role of
PR expertise (or claims to such) itself raises issues of
concern to democracy.
The problem of (PRs) expertise
for democracy
PR involves a claim to expertise
PR involves a knowledge claim. It is that two-way
PR takes a comprehensive approach to understand-
ing and re-forming the relations between political
authorities and people (Pieczka 2002: 322). PR aims
to fill a lack in other members of society includ-
ing citizens themselves (Kelley 1966: 45, 7, 1423).
This expertise, it is claimed by PR practitioners, can
make [political] parties more democratic and con-
solidate representative democracy (Lees-Marshment
2001: 225, 226). However, PR expertise is deployed in
conditions of inequality, often on behalf of powerful
groups ( Pimlott 1961: 238, 258) which implicates PR
in the existence and effects of such inequality (Fischer
2009: 5; Wilkinson and Pickett 2009). Working for
the powerful may deflect even ethical PR practitioners
from using that expertise on behalf of professional ide-
als of serving the public interest (Leach 2009: 93, 95;
Washbourne 2009).
Problems of expertise: hiding the
(material) interests in knowledge
claims
Turner (2003) and Fischer (2009) assert contempo-
rary versions of early twentieth-century focus on the
negative relationship between expertise and democ-
racy (Michels 1962; Washbourne 1999; 2001). As
we have seen, expert knowledge is now increasingly
and systematically embedded in everyday practices
of politics and administration. It therefore threat-
ens the involvement of people in political deci-
sion-making (threatens political equality). Public
political discussion in representative democracy is
often limited only to those topics not delegated to
experts. The legitimacy that lobbying possesses, and
the forms that legitimacy takes in contemporary PR,
is limited, however, since, for example, the revela-
tion that lobbying has occurred the making visible
M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 69
Chapter 4Public relations and democracy 69
of lobbying immediately raises doubts about the
knowledge claimed. This is somewhat different
than the case with the established expertise of those
across an array of arenas of expert decision such as
in environmental policy, law (think of arguments
for the end of jury trials because of the need for
expert knowledge) and healthcare. Yet, these issues
arise according to Turner (2003: 36) not because
of the character of expert knowledge itself and its
inaccessibility to the public not because we citi-
zens dont know enough science for example but
from the sectarian character of the kinds of expert
knowledge that bear on...decision making (ibid.,
authors italics). Here sectarian means partisan
knowledge used in a narrowly confined or limited
way. To maintain or expand democracy in condi-
tions of increased expert knowledge requires that
such knowledge be validated by public achievements
and debate rather than by mere acceptance of the
authoritative advice of experts themselves. It is the
fact that the public has no effective way of check-
ing the competence of those discretionary decisions
that is the source of the problem (Turner 2003: 42).
This highlights that experts dont typically exert
their influence by persuasion conducted in public
but, rather, by manipulating the conditions of social
existence (Turner 2003: 23). This is precisely the
case with most examples of PR work it is carried
out behind the scenes in order to influence public
opinion by stealth. Yet this fundamentally excludes
the debate and persuasion that is central to demo-
cratic politics (Turner 2003 48, 69).
This democratic perspective on expertise implies
public testing of acknowledged expert advice.
This neednt be impractical. As Fischer (2009: 45,
authors italics) argues: democracy would not
require participatory discussion of every issue. But
is should include open deliberation about which
decisions should be dealt with democratically and
which need not. As we have seen, routine activities
of PR practitioners in fake news and secret lob-
bying bypass such debate and rational persuasion
and require that we investigate such activities more
closely.
PR is a practice and discourse emerging in the
world of competing expertise trying to establish its
value and role (Pimlott 1961: 201; Kelley 1966: 203;
Washbourne 2009: 78). And expertise exists in a world
where debate over that expertise, once institution-
alised, is conducted only among the experts them-
selves, as we have seen, in silence and in the dark. PR
might even have an interest in portraying the citizen in
a poor light (Kelley 1966: 231). In short, expertise is, in
part, a strategy of de-politicisation reliant upon the
23/03/2017 12:57
 70 Part 1The context of public relations
pretence that the claim to expertise is not being used
in a sectarian way. Where in the proposed role of PR is
the chance for the public...[to have a role in] check- serve, the interests they themselves embody and the
ing the competence of those discretionary decisions
Summary
Public relations is only partially professionalised, which
leaves it unable to sanction its members, and at best able
to give them a little ethical guidance in a complex and
competitive role (Washbourne 2009). Many practition-
ers act ethically and wish to benefit from the support of
professional organisations in order to increase the range
of that ethical activity. We will all benefit if they are able
to do so. Rogue and unethical colleagues cause the most
problems and get a great deal of attention. However, the
problematic relationship between PR and democracy
depends not merely or even mostly on those rogue prac-
titioners. It rather depends on the structural role PR plays
in contemporary society. This chapter has argued, from a
critical perspective, that PR is the exploitation of a range
of tools, knowledge and contacts to present organisa-
tions and individuals in the best light. It brings an instru-
mental approach to the creation of news and events that
serve particular interests. It often muddies the meaning
of news by creating fake news. It contributes through
secret lobbying to squeezing many issues of public con-
cern out of the arena of public debate. Furthermore, PR
has its own interest in others belief in its expertise since
it needs others belief to create a market for its skills and
tools. The activity of PR does not intrinsically benefit
Bibliography
Advertising Age (2013). Wikipedia kills accounts in war
on PR. Advertising Age 84(38): 7.
Arthur, C. (2013). Wikipedia sends cease-and-desist letter
to PR firm offering paid edits to site. The Guardian,
21 November. www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/
nov/21/wikipedia-cease-abd-desist-pr-frim-offering-paid-
edits accessed 5 November 2015.
Banks, S.P. (2000). Multicultural Public Relations: As
ocial-interpretive approach, 2nd edition. Ames, IA:
Iowa State University Press.
Barrett, S. (2013). Why Wikipedia needs the PR indus-
try. PR Week Blog, 22 November www.prweek.com/
article/1274033/why-wikipedia-needs-pr-industry
accessed 2 October 2015.
M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 70
(Turner 2003: 42)? Minimally, transparency is needed
about PR and lobbying activities, the interests they
investments they imply.
democracy based, as it should be, on public discussion
of public things via a proper exploration of all relevant
alternative policies and information (Bloom 1973: 251).
However, ethical PR is better than non-ethical. PR prac-
titioners who give their labours pro bono to worthy but
resource-light causes are better than those who do not.
Through having an elective affinity with market solu-
tions PR sidelines politics and democracy, not treating
them as crucial procedures whereby decisions are made
(Bloom 1973: 246; Davis 2002: 180; Moloney 2006: 32). It
is strange that PR practitioners rarely consider why there
is widespread suspicion of PR a suspicion that appears
to go back more than 60 years (Pimlott 1961: 199). PR
textbooks mention but rarely consider this suspicion. If
PR addresses this suspicion it prefers to understand it
as related to the reputations of their corporate clients.
PR practitioners forget to look at their own activity, they
forget they their job is to advance the best claims, create
the best images regardless of the exact worth of the cli-
ent, product or service for which they are working. They
forget, too, to look at themselves yet their foremost PR
task is the promotion of a belief in their own expertise.
Yet, as Moloney concludes about PRs status, even after
real ethical reforms (if such prove possible) of the profes-
sion, the positive effects of PR on democracy and public
life will only just outweigh the negative ones (2006: 176).
BBC (2014). PR forms pledge ethical use of Wikipedia,
12 June. www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27816379
accessed 10 November 2015.
Bernhagen, P. and N.J. Mitchell (2009). The determinants
of Direct Corporate lobbying in the European Union.
European Union Politics 10(2): 155176.
Bloom, M.H. (1973). Public Relations and Presidential
Campaigns: A crisis in democracy. New York: Crowell.
Bort, J. (2014). PR company says it was demonized by
the worlds biggest internet encyclopedia Business
Insider, 25 January. www.businessinsider.com/wiki-pr-
ceo-says-wikipedia-ban-was-unfair-2014-1?IR=T
accessed 15 November 2015.
Bradley, D. (2014). PR firms outline Wikipedia com-
pliance in joint statement, 10 June. www.prweek
.com/article/1297798/pr-firms-outline-wikipedia-
compliance-joint-statement accessed 30 October 2015.
23/03/2017 12:57

Cieply, M. (2015). A P.R. Firm alters Wikipedia pages of
its star clients. The New York Times, 23 June: B3(L).
CIPR (2012a). Code of Conduct www.cipr.co.uk/sites/
default/files/CIPR%20Code%20of%20Conduct%20
08-03-2012.pdf accessed 20 February 2012.
CIPR (2012b). Lords report highlights role of CIPR
Code of Conduct, 16 February, newsroom.cipr.co.uk/
lords-report-highlights-role-of-cipr-code-of-conduct
accessed 20 March 2012.
CIPR (2012c). Defining PR ethically conversation
.cipr.co.uk/posts/david.phillips/defining-pr-ethically
accessed 20 April 2012.
Curtin, P.A. and T.K. Gaither (2007). International Public
Relations: Negotiating culture, identity, and power.
Thousand Oaks, London and New Delhi: Sage.
Davis, A. (2002). Public Relations Democracy: Pub-
lic relations, politics and the mass media in Britain.
Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Davis, A. (2007). Spinning money: Corporate public rela-
tions and the London Stock Exchange, in Thinker,
Faker, Spinner, Spy: Corporate PR and the assault
on democracy, pp. 212225. W. Dinan and D. Miller
(eds). London: Pluto.
Davis, A. (2013). Promotional Cultures. Cambridge: Polity.
Dinan, W. and D. Miller (eds) (2007). Thinker, Faker,
Spinner, Spy: Corporate PR and the assault on democ-
racy. London: Pluto.
DiStaso, M.W. (2012). Measuring public relations Wiki-
pedia ENGAGEMENT: How Bright is the rule? Pub-
lic Relations Journal 6(2): 124.
DiStaso, M.W. (2013). Perceptions of Wikipedia by pub-
lic relations professionals: A comparison of 2012 and
2013 Surveys. Public Relations Journal 7(3): 123.
Fawkes, J. (2015). Public Relations Ethics and Profes-
sionalism: The shadow of excellence. London/New
York: Routledge.
Fischer, F. (2009). Democracy and Expertise: Reorienting
policy inquiry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fishkin, J.S. (2011). When the People Speak: Deliberative
democracy and public consultation. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Fitzpatrick, K. and C. Bronstein (eds) (2006). Ethics in
Public Relations: Responsible advocacy. Thousand
Oaks, London and New Delhi: Sage.
Frenken, R. (ed.) (2010). Covering the Crisis: The role
of media in the financial crisis. Maastricht: European
Journalism Centre.
Gans, H.J. (2003). Democracy and the News. New York:
Oxford University Press.
M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 71
Chapter 4Public relations and democracy 71
Green, A. (2010). Creativity in Public Relations, London:
Kogan Page.
Grice, A. (2011). Plenty of talk about cracking down on
lobbying but still no action. The Independent, 6
December: 7.
Guth, D.W. and C. Marsh (2012). Public Relations: A val-
ues driven approach, 5th edition. Boston, MA: Allyn
and Bacon/Pearson.
Heath, R.L., D. Waymer and M.J. Palenchar (2013). Is
the universe of democracy, rhetoric, and public rela-
tions whole cloth or three separate galaxies? Public
Relations Review 39: 2719.
Kelley, S. (1966 [1956]). Professional Public Relations
and Political Power. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins
University Press.
Kent, M.L. (2013). Using social media dialogically: Pub-
lic relations role in reviving democracy. Public Rela-
tions Review 39: 33745.
Kluver, H. (2011). The contextual nature of lobbying:
explaining lobbying success in the European union.
European Union Politics 12(4): 483506.
Leach, R. (2009). Public relations and democracy, in
Exploring Public Relations, 2nd edition, pp. 8296.
R. Tench and L. Yeomans (eds). Harlow: Financial
Times Prentice Hall.
Lees-Marshment, J. (2006). Political marketing theory
and practice: A reply to Ormrods critique of the Lees-
Marshment market-oriented party model Politics
26(2): 11925.
Lees-Marshment, J. (2009). Political Marketing:
Principles and Applications. London, New York:
Routledge.
LEtang, J. (2008). Public Relations: Concepts, Practice
and Critique. London, New York, New Delhi and
Singapore: Sage.
LEtang, J., D. McKie, S. Snow and J. Xifra (eds) (2016).
The Routledge Handbook of Critical Public Relations.
London: Routledge.
Levinson, P. (2009). New New Media. New York/
London: Pearson.
Lieber, P.S. and G.J. Golan (2011). Political public rela-
tions, new management, and agenda indexing, in
Political Public Relations: Principles and applications,
pp. 5474. J. Strmbck and S. Kiousis (eds). London
and New York: Routledge.
Lievrouw, L. (2011). Alternative and Activist New Media.
Cambridge: Polity.
Magee, K. (2012). Wikipedia: Friend or Foe? PR
Week, 2 February www.preweek.com/article/
23/03/2017 12:57
 72 Part 1The context of public relations
1114954/wikipedia-friend-foe accessed 17 September
2015.
Michels, R. (1962 [1915]). Political Parties. Free Press:
New York.
Miller, D. and W. Dinan (2007). Public relations and
the subversion of democracy, in Thinker, Faker,
Spinner, Spy: Corporate PR and the assault on
democracy, pp. 1120. W. Dinan and D. Miller
(eds). London: Pluto.
Miller, D. and C. Harkins (2010). Corporate strategy,
corporate capture: Food and alcohol industry lobby-
ing and public health. Critical Social Policy 30(4):
564589.
Moloney, K. (2006). Rethinking Public Relations, 2nd
edition. London and New York: Routledge.
Morris, T. and S. Galsworthy (2008). Public Relations for
Asia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Newman, M. and O. Wright (2011a). Caught on Cam-
era: Top lobbyists boasting how they influence the
PM. The Independent, 6 December: 13.
Newman, M. and O. Wright (2011b). Exposed: Public
relations firms dealings with some of the worlds most
controversial regimes: We wrote Sri Lankan civil war
speech, say lobbyists. The Independent, 6 December: 6.
Norman, M. (2011). Do they feel any pain at the dirty,
seedy role they play in politics? Unethical lobbyists.
The Independent, 7 December: 16.
Owens, J. and S. Luker (2012). CIPR moves to stiffen
ethics guidelines as lobbying scrutiny intensifies PR
Week, 1 March www.prweek.com/uk/news/1119649/
CIPR-moves-stiffen-ethics-guidlines-lobbying-scru-
tiny-intensifies accessed 5 April 2012.
Pieczka, M. (2002). Public relations expertise decon-
structed. Media, Culture & Society 24(3): 20123.
Pimlott, B. (1961 [1951]). Public Relations and American
Democracy. Port Washington, NY/London: Kennikat
Press.
PRCA (2012a). PRCA Professional Charter, Public
Affairs Code of Conduct, Healthcare Public Relations
Codes of Practice, Arbitration and Disciplinary Pro-
cedures www.prca.org.uk/assets/files/AboutUs/Files/
PRCA_Codes_of_Conduct_and_Professional_Charter.
pdf accessed 10 April 2012.
PRCA (2012b). PRCA Rejects Complaint against
Bell Pottinger Public Affairs www.prca.org.uk/
PRCARefjectsComplaintagainstBellPottingerPublic
Affairs accessed 26 April 2012.
PRSA (2012a). Code of Ethics www.prsa.org/
AboutPRSA/Ethics/documents/Code%20of%Ethics. Waymer, D. (2013). Democracy and government pub-
pdf accessed 15 January 2012. lic relations: Expanding the scope of Relationship
M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 72
PRSA (2012b). About Enforcement www.prsa.org/
aboutprsa/ethics/avboutenforcement accessed 30 Jan-
uary 2012.
Public Administration Select Committee (2009). Lobby-
ing: Access and influence in Whitehall, 5 January.
Public Relations Tactics (2013). Survey: Wikipedia Errors
Damage Company Reputation. Tactics, October: 6.
Saward, M. (2009). The Representative Claim. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Sommerfeldt, E.J. (2013). The civility of social capital:
Public relations in the public sphere, civil society, and
democracy Public Relations Review 39: 2809.
Strmbck, J. and S. Kiousis (2011). Political Public Rela-
tions: Principles and applications. London and New
York: Routledge.
Tedesco, J.C. (2011). Political Public Relations and
agenda building, in Political Public Relations: prin-
ciples and applications, pp. 7594. J. Strmbck, and
S. Kiousis (eds). London and New York: Routledge.
Turner, S.D. (2003). Liberal Democracy 3.0. London and
New York: Sage.
The Independent (2011). Evidence of lobbying industry
out of control [Leader article]. The Independent, 6
December: 18.
The Independent (2014). PR firms promise not to rewrite
Wikipedia for clients. The Independent, 12 June: 18.
Walle, M. (2003) Commentary: What happened to public
responsibility? The lack of society in public relations
codes of ethics. PRISM Journal www.prismjour-
nal.org/fileadmin/Praxis/Files/Journal_Files/issue1/
Commentary-paper1.pdf accessed 15 February 2012.
Washbourne, N. (1999). Beyond Iron Laws: Information
Technology and Social Transformation in the Global
Environmental Movement. Unpublished Doctoral
Thesis, University of Surrey.
Washbourne, N. (2001). Information technology and
new forms of organising? Translocalism and networks
in Friends of the Earth, in Culture and Politics in the
Information Age: A New Politics?, pp. 12941. F.
Webster (ed.). London: Routledge.
Washbourne, N. (2009). The media context of public
relations and journalism, in Exploring Public Rela-
tions, 2nd edition, pp. 6881. R. Tench and L. Yeo-
mans (eds). Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Washbourne, N. (2010). Mediating Politics: News-
papers, radio, television and the internet. Open
University Press/McGraw Hill: Maidenhead and
New York.
23/03/2017 12:57

in public relations research. Public Relations Review
39: 32031.
Wikipedia (2015). Wiki-PR editing of Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki-PR_editing_of-Wikipedia
accessed 14 November 2015.
Wilcox, D.L. and G.T. Cameron (2009). Public Relations:
Strategies and tactics, 9th edition. Boston: Pearson/
Allyn and Bacon.
M04 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 73
Chapter 4Public relations and democracy 73
Wilkinson, R. and K. Pickett (2009). The Spirit Level:
Why more equal societies almost always do better.
New York/London: Routledge.
Wright, O. (2011). Vested interests are entitled to argue
their case, but it must be in the open. The Independ-
ent, 6 December: 5.
Wright, O. and O. Duff (2011). We can help you for a
million. The Independent, 6 December: 45.
23/03/2017 12:57
 c h ap t er 5 Ralph Tench

Community and society

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
critically evaluate the role of organisations in their society(ies)
define the concept of corporate social responsibility in the context of relevant regulatory frameworks
define and critically evaluate the role of ethics in business policy and practice
diagnose ethical problems and identify strategies for making ethical decisions in organisational/cultural contexts
appreciate the environmental complexities that influence organisational communication and public
relations strategies.

Structure
Social and economic change
Sustainable business: corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Business case for corporate social responsibility: why be socially responsible?
Organisational responsibilities to stakeholders
Organisational responsibilities to society
Regulatory frameworks
Ethics and business practice

M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 74 23/03/2017 12:58

 Chapter 5Community and society: corporate social responsibility (CSR) 75

Introduction
Google, Facebook, Amazon, eBay and
Apple are some of our favourite and
most used brands day to day. But they
also top the hit list of corporate pariahs
for many. In 2016 they were accused of
avoiding 1billion of UK tax (Huffing-
ton Post, 3 February 2016). So it seems
corporate behaviour continues to be
questioned and, more worryingly, seri-
ous wrongdoing is not going away. You
might have thought that financial cri-
ses and corporate scandals would put
executives off steering their companies
down a path that will clearly raise the
hackles of consumer groups and key
stakeholders. In the past 10 or 15 years
we have seen corporate goliaths such
as WorldCom, Enron, Shell UK, Union
Carbide, BP, Wal-Mart, Lehman Broth-
ers and Exxon Corporation fall under the
worldwide media spotlight for their cor-
porate actions and activities. Executives
from these companies have at varying
times over the past two decades been
vilified by the media, attacked by share-
holders and customers and in some
instances imprisoned. Why? Because the
organisations they represent have had a
major impact on the social and physi-
cal environments in which they operate
(e.g. oil and chemical leaks and, more
recently, financial mismanagement). This
chapter will explore the role of organi-
sations in society and how, irrespective
of the profit or not-for-profit impera-
tives, many are taking a critical view of
their roles and responsibilities. In many
instances (including some of the com-
panies above), this has involved a radi-
cal repositioning of the organisations
vision and values that are impacting
on the operational as well as the pub-
lic relations (communication) strategies
they employ.
Concern for the environment in
which a business operates is not a
new phenomenon, but its prevalence
in business policy across the globe is
growing and, owing to the interna-
tionalisation of markets and business
practice, this is influencing corpo-
rate strategy for large PLCs and small
to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
throughout the world. These corporate
policy changes are encouraging organi-
sations to increase their awareness and
concern for the society(ies) in which
they operate. An additional develop-
ment is in the more sophisticated busi-
ness use of the societal relationship as
part of the corporate strategy and as
a marketing tool. This has been dem-
onstrated through the expansion of
sponsorship programmes (see Chapter
24) as well as through the development
of cause-related marketing (CRM)
associating companies or brands with
charitable causes (see Chapter 16). This
chapter will describe in detail the rela-
tionships between an organisation and
the community within which it oper-
ates. It will explore the complex issue of
business ethics with guidelines on how
to promote ethical decision-making
in practice. There are links from this
chapter to Chapter16, which explores
how public relations is responding to
an increasingly CSR-conscious business
environment through the development
of communications programmes (see
Case study5.1).

Social and economic change
All our societies are continually changing and evolving.
Factors such as economic and financial performance
have a significant influence on our standards of living
and manifest themselves in day-to-day measures such
as inflation, taxation, fuel and food prices. These issues
are increasingly being highlighted and recognised as the
world comes to terms with the significant changes in
economic power as North America and Europe move
in and out of more regular economic downturns. It
is relevant to note the impact worldwide of the US
originated credit crunch in 2008/9 where the ability
for banks to lend money to businesses and individuals
had a major rippling effect on established economies
and even brought down some major companies such as
Lehman Brothers in September 2008. The effect from
this credit crunch reverberated for many years, impact-
ing significantly on other economic regions with the
Eurozone suffering severe financial crises in 2012 and
leading to an ongoing lack of confidence across Europe,
raising questions about its viability and sustainability,
not least with the UKs decision to withdraw from the
EU in 2016. As some national economies have experi-
enced recession or a slowdown in growth others such
as India, China and parts of South America expanded
rapidly but then also faced economic slowdown and
instability. Brazil saw this in sharp focus during 2016:
when it should have been celebrating the arrival of the
international caravan that is the Rio Olympics, the
country was in financial and economic turmoil with
a health crisis on top. The role of business is therefore
put into the spotlight as we witness patterns of change
in the climate and the environment more generally.
Issues such as health scares (AIDS or the Zeka virus,
2016) and the ongoing issue of global warming are
as a consequence brought into sharp focus by a range
of campaign and interest groups as well as by senior
public and political figures (Kofi Anan with the United
Nations, Bill Gates and former US p residential candi-
date Al Gore).

M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 75 23/03/2017 12:58

 76 Part 1The context of public relations
Case study 5.1
BBC World Service Trust
international impact
The aim of the BBCs World Service Trust and BBC Media
Action is to help developing countries and countries in
transition to build media expertise for the benefit of the
population.
Following over 30 years of conflict in Afghanistan, the
country is now looking to the future and the Afghan
media have a major role to play in uniting the nation,
rebuilding its culture and changing the populations
mindset from one of war to peace.
The BBCs role has been to help develop the media
infrastructure. The work of the BBC World Service Trust
has been focused on helping the Afghanistan media to
rebuild themselves and ensure they have the necessary
broadcasting skills and principles.
The BBC World Service Trust has helped set up a new
public service broadcasting body, a strong and indepen-
dent media network that may reassure the Afghan people
that action is being taken to recreate a democratic soci-
ety. The BBC World Service Trust claims the programme
has gone far beyond its remit to rebuild Afghanistans
media infrastructure.
According to the BBC World Service Trust, the impact is
as follows:
Al Gores seminal book (2007) and film (2006) An
Inconvenient Truth (www.climatecrisis.net) focused
on and highlighted the environmental damage being
caused by modern, consumptive societies/businesses.
Although a debated concept, Gores work did raise
the level at which such discussions were being held
in nation states. It is not directly as a consequence
but in line with this increased awareness there are
now many more and powerful organisations asking
questions about the role and responsibilities of busi-
ness in a global society (see the Global Responsible
Leadership Initiative (www.grli.org) and the UN
Global Compact established in 2000 (www.unglobal
compact.org).
More recently, challenges are being made on the
foundations of business principles and how they are
governed. Particularly this has relevance following
the lack of governance in the finance sector which
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 76
increased audience now estimated at 85 per cent
of the population and improved profile for the BBC
as a social broadcaster
staff development opportunities and enhanced
motivation for staff from different BBC divisions
including developing skills for BBC journalists work-
ing on newsgathering
increased trust as a result of the BBCs long-term
commitment to Afghanistan and production of educa-
tion programmes, covering human rights, civil society,
voter education, womens rights and minority rights
establishment of an independent media with a
robust infrastructure that allows the reconstruction
process to be communicated to even the most iso-
lated communities
training for Afghan journalists of whom 20 per cent
are women (who were denied employment and
education under the Taliban regime)
media resources and training to use radio and
studio equipment.
This example demonstrates how an organisation can get
involved with a section of society and make real improve-
ments. In this example, the BBC is using its experience
as a broadcaster to help improve the media landscape
in a specific country. The engagement with the issues is,
however, more than just a practical one; other outputs
relate to the communications impact in Afghanistan, staff
development, perceptions of the BBC and an ability to
meet the corporate objectives/mission of the BBC.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/what-we-do
was blamed in large part for the 2008 financial cri-
sis (Sun et al. 2011). Clarke (2009) has argued that
this system permitted and even encouraged corpora-
tions to manipulate share price and abuse corporate
accounting principles in the name of shareholder
value (see Enron, WorldCom, Lehman Brothers and
others and captured in the hit film The Big Short in
2015). From this context we have seen a lot of new
governance codes in the UK and USA since 2008,
but we are still experiencing accusations of excessive
bonuses for CEOs and senior managers as well as
banks perceived as too big to fail. From this per-
spective Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank
of England, claimed Britain was at risk of another
financial crisis without reforms to the banks (Moore,
2011), and Nobel prize-winning economist Robert
Shiller (2015, 2016) also warned of repeats of the
economic collapse worldwide.
23/03/2017 12:58
 Chapter 5Community and society: corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Sustainable business:
corporate social responsibility
(CSR)
There is no agreement on the extent to which compa-
nies should engage with societies in which they oper-
ate (Carroll 1991; Dahlsrud 2008; Tench et al. 2014;
Topi and Tench 2016).
Individual members and groups in the community in
which an organisation operates are increasingly being
recognised as important stakeholders in the long-term
security and success of large and small enterprises.
Building relationships with these community groups is,
therefore, an important issue in corporate and commu-
nications strategy. In order to understand how this can
be achieved, it is essential to understand in more detail
the complexities of the relationships between a business
and its community(ies). It is also important to define
some of the business terminology that is frequently used
when analysing businesses in their societal contexts.
Corporate social responsibility
A well-used business and management term, corporate
social responsibility (CSR), is often associated with the
phrase enlightened self-interest how organisations
Figure 5.1 Impact of a business on its environment (source: after Peach 1987: 1913)
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 77
77
plan and manage their relationships with key stakehold-
ers. CSR is, therefore, an organisations defined respon-
sibility to its society(ies) and stakeholders. Although
organisations are not a state, country or region, they
are part of the infrastructure of society and as such they
must consider their impact on it. A simple analogy for
the impact organisations have on their community has
been presented by Peach (1987; see Figure5.1), which
shows the ripples from a stone thrown into a pond to
represent the impact of a business on its environment.
There are three levels of impact ranging from the basic in
which a company adheres to societys rules and regula-
tions to the societal where a company makes significant
contributions towards improving the society in which it
operates. In the middle level, companies are perceived
to manage their activities so they adhere to the level and
go beyond it. For example, this might be a company
obeying legal requirements on employment rights as a
foundation and then providing more generous interpre-
tations of these legal rulings. Also the company may
seek to reduce the negative impact of the organisation
on its society without necessarily taking positive action
to make improvements that would take it to level three
(see also Box 5.1).
Companies operating at the highest level, soci-
etal, do exist: companies are increasingly obtaining
public recognition and visibility for their positive
corporate actions. For example, in the UK, Business
23/03/2017 12:58
 78 Part 1The context of public relations
Picture 5.1 Being corporately responsible should mean taking steps to avoid having a negative impact on the society in
which an organisation operates. (source: Reuters/Corbis)
Box 5.1
Peach model in action
Some clear examples at the basic level might be a
company in the supermarket retail sector that is
profitable, pays its taxes and maintains minimum
terms and conditions for its employees. At the high-
est, societal, level you could describe a supermar-
ket retailer that conforms to society s rules and laws
but also contributes to its society by funding com-
munity initiatives (e.g. holidays for disadvantaged
children, investments in school facilities, transport
for elderly people, lobbying for improved treatment
of waste by local companies in line with its initia-
tives, contributing to positive legislation change in
support of society, surpassing national and interna-
tional employment rights and conditions, innova-
tion in childcare or part-time mothers conditions
of work, etc.).
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 78
in the Community (BITC) has a CommunityMark
(launched in 2007 and formerly the Percent Standard/
Club, started in 1986, which was awarded as a volun-
tary benchmark to companies donating at least 1 per
cent of pre-tax profits to community/social benefits).
The CommunityMark was launched with an initial
21member companies which met the 5 principles (see
www.bitc.org.uk/communitymark/five_community
mark.html). See also Box 5.2 and Figure5.2.
When considering CSR it is important to make a dis-
tinction between corporate activities that are intended
to contribute to the society and charitable acts or phi-
lanthropy (see Explore5.1).
Philanthropy
One simple definition of philanthropy is that cor-
porations perform charitable actions. This is very
different from CSR, with philanthropy being a chari-
table act not necessarily linked to the expectations
of society. Philanthropy did occur in large industrial
23/03/2017 12:58
 Chapter 5Community and society: corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Box 5.2
CommunityMark
pioneer companies
The 21 initial businesses to achieve the Community-
Mark at the launch in September 2008 were:
Axis, Barclays, Blackburn Rovers Football & Athletic
Club, BT, Contract Scotland, Deloitte, Design Links,
Elementus, Ernst & Young, GlaxoSmithKline, HBOS,
Heart of Midlothian Football Club, KPMG, Marks and
Spencer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Rangers Football
Club, RWE npower, Sainsbury s, Tesco, The Town
House Collection, Zurich Financial Services (UK).
A list of the latest CommunityMark holders is published
at http://www.bitc.org.uk/services/awards-recognition/
communitymark/current-holders-communitymark
Source: Business in the Community (www.bitc.org.uk)
firms in the UK during the nineteenth century (such
as Joseph Rowntree, Titus Salt) through the donation
of money and amenities such as schools, hospitals
Figure 5.2 BITC CommunityMark five principles (source: www.bitc.org.uk)
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 79
79
Explore 5.1
Business impact on society
Identify, name and describe a company or organisa-
tion that fits into each of the levels in the stone in the
pond analogy.
What would those organisations in levels one and two
need to do to move towards the third, societal level?
Feedback
You need to consider what changes in ethical business
policy or practice would make a difference to society.
It is not enough just to make statements of intent.
or housing for employees and their communities.
Corporate philanthropy can be perceived as a short-
term one-way relationship, which is unpredictable on
behalf of the recipient and therefore more difficult to
manage and strategically plan for. For example, dur-
ing the dotcom boom (during the late 1990s when the
financial performance and market impact of web-based
businesses and technology companies in general were
23/03/2017 12:58
 80 Part 1The context of public relations
seriously exaggerated), technology company directors
commonly gave large sums in charitable donations.
The Slate 60 was an annual list of US charitable gifts
and pledges that reported between 1996 and 2010: in
2010 the total giving came to $3.36 billion. Interest-
ingly, this was a reduction reflecting economic condi-
tions as previous returns had been significantly higher
($4.29 billion in 2009; $15.78 billion in 2008; and
7.79 billion in 2007 see www.slate.com). Corpo-
rate giving is reported by different bodies, with Forbes
recording that US corporate giving in 2015 increased
to $18.46 billion a 3.9 per cent increase from 2014
(The Giving Institute 2015).
Depending on the general and sector-specific eco-
nomic performance, individuals go on or off the giving
lists, reinforcing the unpredictable nature of this type
of activity. For example, Bill Gates (the worlds rich-
est man and Microsofts founder) was on the list in
2001 with $2 billion in gifts. In 2005 Gates made the
largest ever private donation of 400 million ($750
million) to the child health charity he set up with his
wife, Melinda, the Bill and Melinda Gates Founda-
tion (www.gatesfoundation.org). In 2008 Bill Gates
relinquished his management of Microsoft to become
non-executive chairman and his foundation to date
has given grants and donations totalling $36.7 billion
(audited financial accounts for 2015). He has also set
up with fellow businessman Warren Buffet The Giving
Pledge to encourage the super rich to give away their
wealth. Buffet is quoted (www.slate.com 2011):
Ive worked in an economy that rewards someone
who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a
medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you
notes from parents, but rewards those who can
detect the mispricing of securities with sums reach-
ing into the billions, Buffett wrote, reiterating his
decision to give away 99 percent of his wealth.
That reality sets an obvious course for me and my
family: Keep all we can conceivably need and dis-
tribute the rest to society, for its needs.
Although gifts can be turned on and off by the donor
like a tap, there are some benefactors who donate
through trusts, which enable the act to be sustained
over longer periods of time (e.g. the Rowntree Foun-
dation or the Wellcome Trust in the UK, the John D.
Rockefeller Foundation or the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation) (see Explore5.2).
In recognition of the interest shown by various
stakeholder groups employees, customers and par-
ticularly the financial community and investors it is
now common business practice for large and small to
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to publish corporate
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 80
Explore 5.2
Identifying CSR and philanthropic
actions
List examples of what you might consider to be CSR
or philanthropic actions by an organisation/company.
Feedback
Can you make distinctions between the two? Think
about each organisations objectives for the action.
What was the intended outcome? What did it hope
to achieve? Was it long term? Was it pre-planned or
in response to an individual(s) request?
literature and brochures giving details of their com-
munity activities and CSR. Non-financial reporting
on corporate responsibility in annual reports became
prevalent in the mid-1990s. In the UK, for example,
BTs annual review and summary financial statement
(1996/7), included a section called Why we are help-
ing the community: were all part of the same team.
Within the report BT stated that:
It is increasingly clear that businesses cannot
regard themselves as in some way separate from the
communities in which they operate. Besides,
research has shown that the decision to purchase
from one company rather than another is not a
decision about price alone.
The practice has evolved to such a degree that com-
panies now produce specific corporate responsibility
reports. For example, O2 (now owned by Spanish firm
Telefonica, but formerly part of BT) is a Europe-wide
mobile telephone company that launched its first cor-
porate responsibility report in 2003. It continues this
tradition with a current campaign, Think Big, aiming
to be an agent of positive and sustainable change (www
.o2sustainability.co.uk) and in December 2015 pro-
duced its first Think Big Blueprint sustainability plan
that recorded the companys responsibility pledges.
Business case for corporate
social responsibility: why be
socially responsible?
Organisations in developed economies are today influ-
enced by public opinion, shareholders, stakeholders
(who can be shareholders, consumers and members
23/03/2017 12:58
 Chapter 5Community and society: corporate social responsibility (CSR)
of campaign groups) and the political process. Con-
sequently, organisations that ignore their operational
environment are susceptible to restrictive legislation
and regulation. This is a particular issue in Europe
with the increasing power and influence of the Euro-
pean Union, the single currency and the European
parliamentary process. Representative bodies for busi-
ness such as Business in the Community (BITC), CSR
Europe, Institute of Business Ethics, Business for Social
Responsibility, and the Prince of Wales International
Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) have formed to help
senior managers deal with the demands of varied stake-
holder groups. Outside the EU, influencers such as the
United Nations (UN Global Compact) are making an
impact on business and political decision-making.
Is CSR good business practice? On the one hand,
many companies profited from unethical practices in
the early part of the twentieth century, as demonstrated
by the success of textile and mining industries and more
recently with companies manufacturing chemical-based
products such as asbestos. Furthermore, Milton
Friedman has been championed as the consistent (if
sometimes mis-quoted) business voice stating that the
business of business is simply to increase profits and
enhance shareholder value. Friedman (1970) wrote key
articles arguing these views in the 1960s and 1970s.
Although there are few contemporary academic papers
supporting his views, they are frequently cited as the
opposing arguments to CSR.
On the other hand, in contrast to Friedmans views,
there are the examples of both old and new companies
benefiting themselves, their stakeholders and employ-
ees through more ethically based practice. Worldwide
examples include Cadbury, Levers, IBM, Co-Operative
Bank and Coca-Cola. Even before corporate responsi-
bility became a boardroom agenda item around the
turn of the millennium, there is evidence of its com-
mercial value. For example, Johnson & Johnsons
chief executive officer, James Burke, demonstrates
that companies with a reputation for ethics and social
responsibility grew at a rate of 11.3 per cent annually
from 1959 to 1990, whereas the growth rate for simi-
lar companies without the same ethical approach was
6.2 per cent (Labich 1992). Furthermore, arguments
and evidence are put forward to support CSRs contri-
bution to the financial performance of organisations
(Little and Little 2000; Moore 2003).
CSR can contribute to corporate image and reputa-
tion (Lewis 2003; Sagar and Singla 2004). The impor-
tance of a good reputation can include the following:
others are more willing to consider the organisa-
tions point of view.
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 81
81
it helps to strengthen the organisations informa-
tion structure with society and therefore improve
resources in all areas.
it makes it easier for the organisation to motivate
and recruit employees and to promote increased
employee morale (Lines 2004).
it will enhance and add value to the organisations
products and services.
A socially responsible reputation is also a way of
differentiating organisations and providing competi-
tive advantage. This is supported by announcements
from companies such as McDonalds and BT in the UK
that they would be investing more time and resources
into socially responsible activities. BT was influenced
by a MORI report, which stated that 80 per cent of
respondents believed it was important to know about
an organisations socially responsible activities in order
to form a positive opinion about them. CEOs world-
wide are starting to recognise that CSR is an important
agenda item. Research by the India Partnership Forum
(2003) claimed that nearly 70 per cent of CEOs stated
that CSR was vital to profitability and that, irrespec-
tive of economic climate, it would remain a high prior-
ity for 60 per cent of CEOs across the globe.
A company with an acknowledged strategy change
on corporate responsibility and environmental engage-
ment is oil firm Royal Dutch/Shell. During 1998, Shell
had its first meeting with institutional shareholders
(major company investors, e.g. on behalf of pension
funds) to explain the companys new policies on envi-
ronmental and social responsibilities. This initiative
came following criticism of the companys action in
high-profile environmental issues (e.g. when Shell was
challenged by campaign groups over its decision to dis-
mantle the Brent Spar oil platform at sea rather than on
land owing to the supposed environmental impact) and
human rights cases (execution of human rights activ-
ist Ken Saro-Wiwa, in Ogoniland, where Shell had a
dominant interest).
At the meeting with shareholders, Mark Moody Stu-
art of Shell Transport and Trading (the companys UK
arm) stated that he did not agree with arguments that
institutional shareholders were not interested in issues
such as social responsibility: I dont think there is a
fundamental conflict between financial performance
and soft issues. Many shareholders want outstand-
ing financial returns in a way they can feel proud of
or comfortable with (see Think abouts 5.1 and 5.2).
The business case for CSR continues to be made, and
particularly by communications professionals. Zerfass
et al. (2008) in a survey of over 1500 communications
23/03/2017 12:58
 82 Part 1The context of public relations
Picture 5.2 Ken Saro-Wiwa was a human rights activist
from Ogoniland where Shell had a dominant interest.
(source: AFP/Getty Images)
practitioners across Europe found that three out of four
of them are involved directly with CSR activities as part
of their job (profit and not-for-profit organisations).
Furthermore they found that the main driver for CSR
Think about 5.1
Shell Europe
During both the Brent Spar and Ogoniland crises,
Shell faced a Europe-wide consumer boycott of its
fuel products as well as significant media criticism
(see above, www.shelluk.co.uk, www.greenpeace.org.
uk). Why do you think Shell took the potentially risky
strategy of re-opening debate about environmental
and societal issues after such high-profile vilification
by the two important stakeholder groups (consumers
of their products and the media)?
Feedback
This initiative by Shell clearly demonstrates the com-
pany directors desire to tackle key issues head on but
also to make the company more accountable to its
publics and specifically to the communities (and
therefore stakeholder groups) in which it operates.
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 82
Think about 5.2
Business effects of CSR
Does CSR stretch an organisations relationship with,
and activities of, its supply chains (companies that sup-
ply products and services)? Can you think of suppliers
for a company that it should not be associated with?
Feedback
Some companies have developed supplier policies
that define the requirements for supplier organisa-
tions. For example, it would not be socially responsible
for a furniture retailer that operates a green purchas-
ing policy to buy its raw materials from suppliers who
purchase their wood from unsustainable sources.
in the sample (70 per cent) was for reputation manage-
ment. Again according to Zerfass et al.s study the main
focus of communication on CSR is for enhancing the
corporate profile (values and strategies of the organ-
isation). Interestingly though, regional differences in
Europe were identified with social action being a prior-
ity in Southern and Eastern Europe whereas corporate
ethics plays a more important role for organisations in
Northern and Western Europe. Also, through moni-
toring predictions of the most important disciplines in
communication management across Europe, the ECM
survey, now in its tenth year (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010,
2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016) has found
that CSR is predicted to gain in importance for com-
munication practitioners working in profit and not-for-
profit organisations (Tench et al. 2017, see also www
.communicationmonitor.eu).
Organisational responsibilities
to stakeholders
Stakeholder analysis is a clear way of defining those
groups and individuals who have a significant relation-
ship with an organisation (see also Chapters8 and 9).
Stakeholders can be described as those with a vested
interest in the organisations operations. Figure 5.3
simply demonstrates the most common stakeholders
in for-profit organisations.
These are simplified stakeholder groups which can
be expanded and broken down into subgroups. In order
for an organisation to act with social responsibility it is
23/03/2017 12:58
 Chapter 5Community and society: corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Figure 5.3 Typical for-profit organisational stakeholders
necessary to understand the fundamental elements of
the organisations operations and its relationships with
stakeholders. To achieve this it can be helpful to ask
and analyse the following questions:
How is the organisation financed, e.g. shareholders,
private ownership, loans, etc.?
Who are the customers for the products and ser-
vices, e.g. agents, distributors, traders, operators,
end users, etc.?
What are the employee conditions and terms,
including status, contracts and hierarchical
structures?
Are there community interactions at local, regional,
national and international levels?
Are there governmental, environmental or legisla-
tive actions that impact on the organisation?
What are the competitor influences on the organisa-
tion, e.g. markets, agents, distributors, customers,
suppliers?
What are the supplier influences on the organ-
isation, e.g. other creditors, financial supporters,
competitors?
Are there any issues or potential risks that may be
affected by local, national or international pressure
groups or interests?
CSR from a stakeholder perspective may bring the
organisation closer to its stakeholders and importantly
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 83
83
improve the two-way flow (Grunig and Hunt 1984) of
information and subsequently understanding.
Once stakeholders are identified, you need to define
the responsibilities you have towards them and then
define and develop strategies to manage these relation-
ships (see Explore5.3).
Organisational responsibilities
to society
Business ethics writer Carroll (1991) argues there are
four kinds of social responsibility: economic, legal,
ethical and philanthropic demonstrated through the
CSR pyramid in Figure5.4.
To aid managers in the evaluation of an organisa-
tions social responsibilities and to help them plan how
to fulfil the legal, ethical, economic and philanthropic
obligations, Carroll designed a stakeholder responsi-
bility matrix (see Table5.1). Carroll makes the clear
distinction that social responsibility does not begin
with good intentions but with stakeholder actions.
Carrolls matrix is proposed as an analytical tool or
framework to help company managers make sense of
their ideas about what the firm should be doing, eco-
nomically, legally, ethically and philanthropically, with
respect to its defined stakeholder groups. In practice,
the matrix is effective as it encourages the manager
to record both descriptive (qualitative) and statistical
data to manage each stakeholder. This information is
then useful when identifying priorities in long- and
short-term business decision-making that involves
the multiple stakeholder groups that influence most
Explore 5.3
Defining organisational stakeholders
Choose an organisation and define its stakeholders.
How would you prioritise these stakeholders in
terms of their importance to financial perfor-
mance for the organisation?
Feedback
Financial performance is important for all organisa-
tions but this prioritised list may look different if
instead it were arranged according to CSR perfor-
mance towards stakeholders.
23/03/2017 12:58
 84 Part 1The context of public relations

Figure 5.4 Corporate social responsibility pyramid (source: after Carroll 1991)

organisations. It enables these decisions to be made in
the context of the companys or organisations value
systems what it stands for as well as accommo-
dating economic, social and environmental factors. To
express this simply, the manager is able to make deci-
sions in a more informed way with a clear map of the
numerous factors that will impact on these decisions. It
is a detailed approach to stakeholder management but
is one way of providing informed foundations about
stakeholders to enable strategies, actions or decisions
to be taken that reflect the complex environment in
which most organisations operate (see also Figure5.5).
Table5.2 provides an example of the matrix applied
to one stakeholder group and the types of recorded
data required. The organisation is a small clothing
manufacturing business. The stakeholder group used
for the analysis is customers. Each social responsi-
bility cell has been considered in the context of this

Stakeholders: Economic Legal Ethical Philanthropic

Providers of capital

Customers

Employees

Community

Competitors

Suppliers

Pressure groups

General public

Table 5.1 Stakeholder responsibility matrix (source: after Carroll 1991)

M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 84 23/03/2017 12:58

 Chapter 5Community and society: corporate social responsibility (CSR) 85

Figure 5.5 Carrolls responsibility matrix (source: adapted from Carroll 1991)

Stakeholders Economic Legal Ethical Philanthropic

Customers Financially Conform to consumer Fairly priced products Give waste products to
well-managed health and safety product needy organisations
company guidelines (e.g. quality
controls and standards for
fire safety of garments, etc.)

Clear financial Correct labelling Highest quality Give unsold products

reporting to customers preferred
charities or homeless groups

National and transnational Products are designed for Support other employee
product labelling, e.g. and fit for purpose (e.g. if and customer initiatives
European standards for specialist sector such as
workwear)

Provide best products with

the highest standards of
care for employers and
suppliers

Transparent sourcing
of materials (no use of
child labour or low-paid
employees)

Do not abuse suppliers or

workers

Table 5.2An application of the stakeholder responsibility matrix to a small clothing manufacturer

M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 85 23/03/2017 12:58

 86 Part 1The context of public relations
stakeholder group and data input currently avail-
able about the responsibility the firm acknowledges
towards this group. Clearly the data included are not
exhaustive and further records could be sought or
gaps in information identified and subsequently com-
missioned by the public relations or communications
team. This information will help managers when the
organisation is defining corporate strategies for long-
and short-term decisions to ensure they accommodate
the multiple stakeholder interests.
Corporate responsibility and
irresponsibility
Tench et al. (2007) and Jones et al. (2009) build on
and critique some of Carrolls early work to discuss
alternative interpretations. The main conclusions of
this discussion are in the exploration of corporate
social irresponsibility (CSI) as a concept in contrast
to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the con-
sequences of this dichotomy for corporate communi-
cations. The CSICSR model is described, explained,
analysed and used as a conceptual tool to make the the-
oretical move from a pyramid or level-based approach
(Carroll) to a more dynamic corporate framework for
communication.
Figure5.6 serves to show that internal and external
variables, as well as mixing with and affecting each
other, also interact and impact on the CSICSR con-
tinuum. The model is a rotating sphere intersected by
its axis, the continuum. The need of business to make
profit can, and does at times, coincide as well as con-
flict with its stated ethical aims and objectives. Com-
peting stakeholders with differing needs, rights and
Figure 5.6 CSICSR Environmental Dynamic model (source: Jones et al. 2009)
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 86
obligations have to be managed to ensure conflict is
minimised, the business survives, grows and is able to
meet its commitments to CSR.
The model moves away from a definition, expla-
nation and analysis of CSR as a staged hierarchy, as
espoused by Carroll (1991) in his pyramid of corpo-
rate social responsibility. Here, an alternative con-
ceptualisation is suggested, based on the notion that
CSI should be separated out from CSR to facilitate
greater understanding of the terms, their meaning,
nature and purpose. Issues interspersed and feeding
into the CSICSR continuum are affected by internal
and external environmental factors. Such factors give
shape, form and context to corporate governance and
CSR. Placing Carrolls (1991) pyramid of corporate
social responsibility metaphorically in the sphere rec-
ognises that the levels of responsibility are intrinsic
to the way in which CSR is conceived. However, in
suggesting that the pyramid, and by implication the
levels, can be rotated, the inference is that the levels
are neither hierarchical nor static but fluid and nec-
essary to each other. By introducing the concept of
CSI it counteracts the tendency to treat the concept of
CSR as a one-dimensional single entity and unpacks
the terms to reveal multifaceted layers of complexity
that are shaped by context.
The majority of companies are keen to embrace CSR
issues and, of their own volition, go beyond legal mini-
mum requirements. Not only do companies want to
do well by doing good, but also some want to do good
because they believe it to be the right and proper thing
to do. Not all businesses are communicating what it
is they do in regards to CSR to best effect. Regarding
their social responsibility practices, a CSICSR audit
can help businesses identify areas of strength and areas
23/03/2017 12:58
 Chapter 5Community and society: corporate social responsibility (CSR)
for improvement. In itself such an exercise can act as a
useful vehicle of and for communication.
Adding to and supporting this debate in their empir-
ical analysis based on an extensive 15-year panel data-
set that covers nearly 3000 publicly traded companies
in the USA, Kotchen and Moon (2011) find that com-
panies actually engaged in CSR in order to offset their
CSI. CSI is a rich and challenging alternative concept
to CSR and as a conceptual field of enquiry is discussed
in detail in an edited volume of essays on the topic by
Tench et al. (2013). As discussed, it is increasingly rec-
ognised that adopting a CSR approach can be both an
ethical and a profitable way to manage a business. Eth-
ics and profit are not mutually exclusive terms but have
a symbiotic relationship in the form of CSR. However,
at the end of the day, and as Friedman (1962) rightly
noted, the purpose of business is to make profit.
Regulatory frameworks
While present public attention is on business and the
economy, it is being recognised increasingly that a
greater understanding of the role and societal impact
of business is essential. This is reflected in a range of
transnational initiatives such as the EUs new sustain-
ability and responsibility policy for business and the
launch in 2010 of the ISO CSR standards, which were
updated in 2011 to focus explicitly on SMEs (Euro-
pean Commission Enterprise and Industry 2016; ISO
26000 CSR Guidance 2010). The OECD Guidelines
for Multinational Enterprises also provides a regular
forum for debating these issues with participants from
governments, businesses, trade unions and civil society
(OECD Conference June 2016). The UK CBI (2011)
a business lobby organisation representing UK business
and commerce in its current priorities has recognised
this need to focus on the role of business in society
and the important role that business plays in creating
and sustaining communities. This higher ambition
(Beeret al. 2011) of a responsibility of businesses for
creating and balancing both economic and social value
is becoming more widely accepted, increasing in paral-
lel with the negative impact of recessionary economic
trends on consumer and society confidence as well as
trust in business and wider institutions.
The business case is reinforced in higher ambition
(Beer et al. 2011) with research showing the positive
relationship of these business values with business per-
formance. The success and longevity of brand names
such as Cadbury and Kellogg, illustrate the way in
which both economic and social values can be balanced
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 87
87
to deliver strong business performance over genera-
tions (Hopper and Hopper 2007; Cadbury 2010).
As consumers we have product choice do we go
for brand, price or even ethical or corporate respon-
sibility performance? Companies such as Shell, Nike
and Nestl have experienced the threat and financial
effects of global boycotts and are realising that greater
mobility of stakeholders and globalisation of commu-
nication mean that reputation management is increas-
ingly important. One manifestation of this is the speed
of communication and in particular news distribution
globally via new technology, satellite and the emer-
gence of 24-hour news channels. The process of news
gathering has been speeded up as has the news produc-
tion cycle all of which is crucial for public relations
when managing reputation and communication for
organisations. Research by the World Economic Forum
in 2003 revealed that 48 per cent of people express
little or no trust in global companies. Consequently,
even large and powerful corporations must adopt more
ethical working practices in order to reduce risk and
maintain favourable reputation. The growth of organ-
isations such as Business in the Community in the UK
and CSR Europe is helping to place CSR in the main-
stream of business thinking and encourage more organ-
isations to leverage the opportunities of CSR. This has
a number of implications, including the increased need
for guidance for companies. Subsequently, the past few
years have seen the emergence of an increasing number
of standards and guidelines in the areas of CSR and
sustainable development. These include:
Dow Jones Sustainability Index
FTSE 4 Good Index
Business in the Communitys Corporate Responsi-
bility Index
Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) Reporting
Guidelines.
Public and business attitudes have changed over
recent years and in 1999 a global poll of 25,000 citizens
(MORI 1999) showed that perceptions of companies
was more strongly aligned with corporate citizenship
(56 per cent) than either brand quality (40per cent)
or the perception of the business management (34 per
cent). Further evidence of the public attitude change
was reported by Fombrun and Shanley (1990) who
found in earlier studies that a business that demon-
strates responsiveness to social concerns and gives pro-
portionately more to charity than other firms receives
higher reputation ratings by its publics.
More worryingly, and mirroring the questions
raised by Sir Mervyn King earlier in the chapter, the US
23/03/2017 12:58
 88 Part 1The context of public relations
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
2009 2010 2011
Figure 5.7 Percentage of people trusting various components that comprise the Financial Trust Index
(source: www.financialtrustindex.org)
Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index
highlights fluctuating trust of financial institutions (see
Figure5.7).
As Sapienza and Zingales, the joint authors from the
Chicago Booth/Kellogg Schools, suggested when they
reported in December 2015:
Shares of European and American banks tumbled
and lost more than one quarter of their value this
year. Markets are scared by the eurozone economy,
exposure to the energy sector and China, and prob-
lems in banks balance sheets, said Sapienza. But
these fears are not currently reflected in the publics
trust in banks.
The Financial Trust Index peaked in December
2015, said Zingales. As in previous surveys, we
see that the publics trust is highest in credit unions
and in their local banks, and significantly lower in
the national banks.
The Edelman Trust Barometer Findings (2016)
reported an interesting dichotomy of responses and
stated that a yawning trust gap is emerging between
elite and mass populations. The global survey asks
respondents how much they trust the four institutions
of government, business, nongovernmental organisa-
tions and media to do what is right. The Edelman sur-
vey shows that trust is rising in the elite or informed
public group who are defined in the survey as those
with at least a college/university education, and who
are very engaged in media, and have an income in the
top 25 per cent. However, in the mass population (the
remaining 85 per cent of the sample), trust levels have
barely moved since the 2008/9 financial crisis.
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 88
Credit unions
Local banks
Banks
National banks
Banks in which the
govt. has a stake
2012 2013 2014 2015
There is a range of research that demonstrates
consumers willingness to reward socially responsible
companies, with far-reaching effects. One such effect
is the changing focus of investment decisions. This has
resulted in the emergence of triple bottom-line report-
ing, whereby social and environmental performance
hold equal importance to financial performance. It can
therefore be argued that, in the eyes of consumers, the
media, legislators and investors, social and environ-
mental responsibilities are increasingly powerful driv-
ers of reputation (see Case study5.2).
Ethics and business practice
Before looking in detail at the techniques for operat-
ing a business in society (and for implementing CSR
programmes, discussed in Chapter16), we need to con-
sider the important issue of ethics and ethical business
practice. Business ethics is a substantial issue and an
important part of understanding what is called cor-
porate governance. It ranges from high-profile issues
about equal opportunities, glass ceilings for women in
work, whistleblowing (employees reporting on uneth-
ical or illegal activities by their employers), whether
large PLCs pay their SME suppliers or contractor on
time, down to whether it is all right for a director or
senior manager to take a ream of paper home for a
computer printer, when this is a sackable offence for
an office junior!
Business ethics is therefore about us as individual
members of society, as part of the community or as
23/03/2017 12:58
 Chapter 5Community and society: corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Case study 5.2
European campaign
GlaxoSmithKline
Barretstown
Therapeutic recreation for children with
serious illness
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is one of the worlds largest phar-
maceutical companies. The companys partnership with
Barretstown in Ireland began in 1994 to kick-start their
European Community Partnership Programme focusing
on childrens health.
Barretstown was established as the first hole in the wall
camp in Europe, building on the success of the first North
American camp to enable children with serious illnesses
to experience summer camp by providing first-class
medical facilities on the site of the camps. Barretstown
Castle was donated by the Irish government to provide a
similar facility and additional facilities were constructed
to adapt to the childrens special needs.
Through a programme of activities and adventure in a
safe and medically supported environment, children
meet and develop friendships with other children. Many
paediatricians see their patients participation in Barret-
stown as an integral part of clinical treatment. As well as
helping children feel better through greater confidence
and self-esteem, their experience at Barretstown helps
them do more than they ever thought they could. Being
involved with the programme helps GSK volunteers learn
how to deal sensitively with issues relating to disability.
As Barretstown involves children from countries where
GSK has a business operation, it reflects their regional
part of organisations (whether these are work or
leisure/interest organisations). For example, we may
be an employee of a national supermarket chain and
a trustee for a local school or scout group. We make
decisions within these environments that have ethi-
cal implications and societal impact (see Peach 1987:
Figure 5.1). Ethics is an important part of business
reality, as managers make decisions that affect a large
range of stakeholder groups and communities, from
the employees of the organisation to the residents who
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 89
89
structure and draws different GSK businesses together
to work on a shared programme. GSK employees from
these countries participate as volunteer carers (helpers)
and GSK businesses provide practical support locally,
for example funding childrens flights to Ireland. GSKs
funding has been focused on establishing the European
Liaison Network, an important interface between
Barretstown and childrens hospitals. The network provides
a framework across 19 countries for raising awareness about
the camp among doctors, parents and children, as well as
recruiting children to participate. More than 110hospitals
across Europe nominate children to participate. According
to GlaxoSmithKline, the impact is as follows:
Barretstown provides volunteers with opportunities
for personal development, in particular for develop-
ing creativity, teamwork and diversity awareness. GSK
volunteers learn how to deal sensitively with issues
relating to disability, especially the way those chil-
dren feel about their appearance and body image.
GSK Barretstown has created a model for other GSK
businesses to adapt to local programmes. Several of
GSKs businesses have adopted therapeutic recrea-
tion as a focus in developing their own community
programmes. GSK supports smaller scale pro-
grammes with local childrens hospitals in Hungary,
Portugal and Romania.
Early data show that the main benefits of the pro-
gramme are that the children regain self-esteem,
develop confidence and have some of their inde-
pendence restored after what may be long periods
of isolation and hospitalisation.
From serving 124 children in 1994, Barretstown has
grown and now supports over 10,000 children drawn
from 110 hospitals in 19 European countries.
The partnership with Barretstown has been key in
contributing to building GSKs reputation as a good
corporate citizen among internal and external stake-
holders.
Source: www.gsk.com/www.bitc.org.uk
live close to its business sites. (See Think abouts 5.3,
5.4 and 5.5; see also Box 5.3)
Ethical decision-making: theory and
practice
Business ethics author Snell (1997) argues that there are
two approaches to the teaching and understanding of
business ethics by practitioners. One of these is termed
23/03/2017 12:58
 90 Part 1The context of public relations
Think about 5.3
Ethical dilemmas
Ethical dilemmas occur when we are faced with deci-
sions that cause dissonance (conflict) in our loyalty
(taken from Festingers theory of cognitive disso-
nance, see Chapter 12). Take the example of a cheat-
ing colleague who is extracting small amounts of
money from the organisation through false expenses
claims. If we know about their actions, should we
show loyalty to them or to our organisation? We are
left with an ethical decision. What do you think you
would say or do if it were a director or management
colleague in this case? How would you manage the
ethical dilemma?
Feedback
Ethical problems are not caused entirely by bad
apples. Theyre also the product of organisational
systems that either encourage unethical behaviour
or, at least, allow it to occur Trevino and Nelson
(1995: 13).
You need to gather all the facts and also consider the
impact of your decisions/actions on the organisation
as a whole. See the section on ethical decision-making.
Think about 5.4
Good apples and bad apples
The good and bad apple analogy is frequently used
in the context of ethics. Apply this analogy to your
own experience and think of an example of unethi-
cal conduct. Was it the responsibility of the individual
(apple) or the organisation (barrel) or was it a combi-
nation of the two?
Feedback
Arguably, we are born amoral, not moral or immoral.
Psychologists have argued that ethics, as such, are not
innate. They are culturally bound and influenced by
the social environment we grow up in. We develop
and change our personalities throughout our lives
including during our adult life and research (Rest
and Thoma 1986) has found that adults in their 30s
who are in moral development programmes develop
more than young people.
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 90
Think about 5.5
Individual and corporate ethics
Dissonance or conflict is what causes individual
problems with corporate ethics, and there are stark
examples such as a religious person working for a
pharmaceutical company that decides to market an
abortion product, or an environmentally conscious
employee working for a high-polluting company.
What should these individuals do to manage the con-
flict? What should their management do?
Box 5.3
Example of ethical
guidelines
Unilever has published its ethical guidelines or
ethical principles as follows: Unilever believe that
economic growth must go hand in hand with sound
environmental management, equal opportunities
worldwide and the highest standards of health and
safety in factories and offices.
Its code of business principles covers sensitive issues
such as bribery: Unilever does not give or receive bribes
in order to retain business or financial advantages. Uni-
lever employees are directed that any demand or offer
of such a bribe must be immediately rejected.
Source: www.unilever.com
systematic modernism, which is the more explana-
tory, conservative voice of business leaders and politi-
cal leaders on societal issues. The explanations are more
functional and seek resolutions in the short to medium
term, i.e. through legislation, the use of law and order
and reliance on individuals social responsibility. In
contrast, critical modernism is the current underdog,
yet this has been influenced more by theoretical ethical
debates. It is argued therefore that the critical approach
takes business ethics a stage further than just face-value
explanations of why something is right or wrong.
Table5.3 highlights how the two schools of thought
operate and interpret different ethical issues (see
Explore5.4).
23/03/2017 12:58
 Chapter 5Community and society: corporate social responsibility (CSR) 91

Issue Typical systematic modern narrative Typical critical modern narrative

Corruption: bribery Bad because it dents local or national pride, Bad because it is inherently unfair,
and extortion deters inward investment and is a sign of disadvantaging the politically and economically
backwardness weak

Protection of the Our sons and daughters will suffer or perish Indigenous (native) peoples, rare animal species
environment unless we adopt proper controls and future citizens are entitled to a habitable
environment

Inflated executive One should set up systems of corporate One should campaign for wider social justice,
salaries governance overseen by non-executive directors including action to help the poor and reduce
to safeguard minority shareholders interests unemployment

Function of codes They are tools for inspiring the confidence They are a starting point only. People should be
of ethics of customers and investors, and a means of encouraged to develop their own personal moral
controlling staff code

Preferred Kohlberg Conventional reasoning: preserving stability, the Post-conventional reasoning: concern for social
stages rule of law and order and social respectability welfare, justice and universal ethical principles

Table 5.3 Competing modern narratives on business ethics (source: adapted from Snell 1997: 185)

Philosophers have studied ethical decision-making Generally, utilitarian ethical decision-making is

for centuries and tend to focus on decision-making
tools that describe what should be done in particular
situations (see also Chapter13). The most well-known
philosophical theories are categorised as consequential-
ist, regarding the consequences of actions, with utili-
tarianism being the best known and associated with
the greatest happiness principle (i.e. the greatest hap-
piness for the greatest number of people). Trevino and
Nelson (1995: 67) state that a utilitarian approach to
ethical decision-making should maximise benefits to
society and minimise harms. What matters is the net
balance of good consequences over bad.
Explore 5.4
Ethics in everyday life
Think about how you act in different situations. How
would you react if a college friend started telling jokes
about people with physical disabilities? Would you
smile in an embarrassed way, laugh and hope they
wouldnt carry on, confront the speaker and ask them
to stop, or what?
Feedback
It is often useful to reflect on our codes of ethics,
what we see as right and wrong, and on whether we
act on our beliefs or are more interested in how oth-
ers perceive or see us.
therefore focused on what we do and what are the
consequences of our actions, i.e. who will be harmed
or affected. In a business context, this means which
stakeholders will be affected. One method of test-
ing this approach is to ask if everyone acted in the
same way, what sort of environment would be cre-
ated? Just imagine what the impact would be if each
of us dropped our lunch wrappers and leftovers onto
the floor every day! Extend this out to all businesses
draining their waste water/fluids into the nearest river/
ocean outlet. This theory does underlie a lot of business
writing and thinking and peoples approaches to ethical
decision-making.
A second strand of philosophical thinking is cat-
egorised under deontological theories, which focus on
motives and intentions through duties or the action
itself rather than the outcome or results. German phi-
losopher Emmanuel Kant wrote about the categorical
imperative, which asks whether your ethical choice is
sound enough to become universally accepted as a law
of action that everyone should follow (see Kant 1964).
The obvious example is whether telling lies is ever
acceptable. Imagine a company context where it was
perceived that telling a lie for the good of the company
was to its benefit. Kant would argue against this case
unless the company is prepared to accept that from
that point forward all employees were permitted to
lie a categorical imperative. You need only consider
the case of Enron in the USA to appreciate where such
an ethical management system will lead with regard to
telling mistruths and lies to a range of stakeholders.

M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 91 23/03/2017 12:58

 92 Part 1The context of public relations
Another ethical approach that is popular with busi-
ness ethics academics and fits into the business context
is virtue ethics, which is also founded in traditional
philosophical theory. It focuses on the integrity of the
actor or individual more than on the act itself. Within
this approach it is important to consider the relative
importance of communities or stakeholder groups. For
example, in a professional context you may be bound
by community standards or practical codes of conduct.
This can help the individual make ethical decisions
because it gives them boundaries to work within.
Changing the culture and changing
organisational ethics
Any attempt to change ethical practice within an
organisation must be based on a simple assumption
that all human beings are essentially good and capable
of development and change. Changing ethical practice
through changing the culture of an organisation is not
a quick fix; it takes time as you have to address the
formal and informal organisational subcultures. The
culture of an organisation clearly affects what is appro-
priate or inappropriate behaviour. To understand the
culture, an audit is necessary and can be carried out
through surveys, interviews and observations.
Having completed an audit, the next stage is to
write a culture change intervention plan that includes
targeting the formal and informal systems.
The formal systems are more transparent and easier
to change, as follows:
draw up new codes of conduct
change structure to encourage individuals to take
responsibility for their behaviour
design reward systems to punish unethical
behaviour
encourage whistleblowers and provide them
with appropriate communications channels and
confidentiality
Case study 5.3
Lidl in the UK and
Croatia case study
Topi and Tench (2016) conducted an analysis of the leading
supermarket company, Lidl, in two countries: theUK and
Croatia. This case specifically looks at how the company
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 92
Explore 5.5
Ethics in practice
To conclude this chapter on business and its role in
communities and society, think about the following.
Managers are the key to ethical business practice as
they are the potential role models for all employees,
customers, suppliers, etc., and also the endorsers of
ethical policies. Owing to changes in management
practice, business process re-engineering and the
downsizing of western companies, many modern
businesses have fewer managers today yet each
manager has more staff to control:
How should organisations be ethical? Identify
three or four reasons. Divide these reasons into
those that are linked to financial gain and those
that are societally sympathetic.
Are employees attracted to ethical employers?
Give reasons why you believe they may or may
not be.
List those companies you would be proud to
work for and those that you would be ashamed
to be employed by or represent. What are the key
features of each? What are the similarities and
differences?
change decision-making processes to incorporate
attention to ethical issues.
For the informal system, the following may be
important:
re-mythologise the organisation revive old myths
and stories about foundations, etc. that guide
organisational behaviour (revived myths must,
however, fit with reality).
See Explore5.5 and Case study5.3.
uses communication campaigns to disseminate and pos-
sibly promote its CSR activities. From the analysis its clear
they are following a standard European stakeholder orien-
tation in their business. This is particularly visible in the fact
they report on their relations with employees, customers
and suppliers in their statements on CSR on their website.
On the other hand, this policy is then transformed into cor-
porate advertising, but in different ways.
When it comes to Croatia, Lidls communication strategy
showed superior understanding of the social context and,
23/03/2017 12:58
 Chapter 5Community and society: corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Case study 5.3 (continued)
therefore, Lidl promotes employment opportunities in a
social context where bullying at work and low employee
rights are a social reality. However, to accomplish this Lidl
turned to CSR Advertising and imposed CSR policies as
a measurement of what it means to be European. Lidl is
clearly selling CSR as a measurement of what it means to
be a good company in a context where this is not nor-
mally important, by promoting itself as a good employer
and as a generous philanthropist, and as such the com-
pany is also selling CSR.
On the other hand, CSR is not implemented in the
UK almost at all, whereas in Croatia Lidl donates large
amounts to philanthropic activities, even though this is
not required. This is in the context that Lidl has developed
a new strategy in the UK to appeal to higher demographic
groups (e.g. the middle classes) and it is perhaps unusual
that they did not develop a CSR policy in the UK. How-
ever, research from the UK Government (2014) has shown
there is a decrease in ethical purchasing, which may have
encouraged Lidl to estimate that introducing CSR is not
necessary to achieve their business goals, and this then
had an effect on their communication strategy.
Arguably, in the UK a lot of attention to CSR has come
from loud and critical NGOs such as the Ethical Consumer
that often launches campaigns against various compa-
nies, while new research shows that ethical purchasing
is in decline (UK Government 2014; Ethical Consumer
2013). It seems, therefore, that Lidl has clearly recognised
this trend and decided to push its CSR strategy aside
and focus on a change of image, whereas in the Croa-
tian case, the company has clearly focused on address-
ing social issues to achieve better positioning and has,
Summary
Milton Friedmans perception that the business of busi-
ness is simply to increase profits and enhance share-
holder value has less credibility in the twenty-first
century. Also, the public is increasingly sophisticated
on health, environmental and ethical issues such as:
global warming; worldwide natural disasters such as
the Asian tsunami in 2004, Hurricane Katrina in 2005,
earthquakes during 2011 in Turkey and New Zealand
and the Zika virus in 2016, with the related business
responses; animal testing; hunting with dogs in the UK;
or whale hunting. There is rising power for the con-
sumer in national and international contexts as dem-
onstrated by Shell (fuel filling station protests), Nestl
(palm oil and deforestation, 2010) and Fruit of the Loom
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 93
93
consequentially, used CSR in its advertising and com-
munication campaigns. On the other hand, given the
lack of CSR initiatives in the UK, it is difficult to speak
of genuine CSR in Croatia when the available research
shows that consumers in the West also do not like expos-
ing CSR policies as a means of promoting the business
(Morsing et al. 2008; Nielsen and Thomsen 2007; Mohr
et al. 1998; OSullivan 1997), which might be another rea-
son for refraining from using CSR for positioning in the
UK market.
Nevertheless, in the Croatian case, CSR seems to be
driven by the EU, with programmes for (re)awarding
companies that enforce CSR, whereas in the UK CSR
seems to be driven by the Government and, again, not
so much by the market. In other words, CSR is driven
from the above as a top-down measure. In this partic-
ular case, Lidl is apparently trying to cope with that by
exploiting CSR in one context and by downplaying the
CSR in the other. Future research emerging from this case
could look at demographics more closely, i.e. to examine
who are the drivers of CSR in the EU, who are the people
who care for CSR and ethical purchasing, and how many
people in general genuinely care about ethical purchas-
ing. In addition, future work should look at the role of the
EU and national governments in driving CSR given the
fact the British government considered stricter CSR mea-
sures, even though ethical purchasing does not show any
increase but rather stagnation or downfall, while in Croa-
tia the EU is funding an award programme for companies
that enforce social responsibility policies even though the
public does not express an interest in CSR.
Source: Topi and Tench (2016)
(union rights of workers, 2010). The influence of corpo-
rate image and reputation on an organisations business
success (Lehmann Brothers; Andersen; McDonalds/
McLibel) is increasingly recognised, as is the use of
business ethics to create competitive advantage (Co-
Operative Bank; Fairtrade, the Body Shop). Enhanced
communication (social media and the internet) for and
with stakeholders and interest groups, media expansion
and global influence (24-hour news) and the mobili-
sation of national and international issue and pressure
groups (such as Greenpeace; the occupy movement
in 2011 (Occupy London, Occupy Wall Street 2011) or
the anti-war lobbies; UN Global Compact; or influential
and high-profile figures such as Al Gore, Angelina Jolie
and Leonardo DiCaprio, can all separately and together
affect any business today.
23/03/2017 12:58
 94 Part 1The context of public relations
summary (continued)
This chapter has focused on the role organisations play
in their society(ies) and how the understanding of busi-
ness ethics and CSR may improve business performance
and enhance reputation through more effective use of
public relations and communication to build understand-
ing and awareness. Chapter 16 will build on these princi-
ples to discuss how CSR is being incorporated into many
organisations strategic p
lanning and how public relations
is being used to support this.
Bibliography
Beer, M., R.A. Eisenstat, N. Foote, T. Fredberg and F.
Norrgren (2011). Higher Ambition: How great
leaders create economic and social value. Boston,
MA: Harvard Business Press Books.
Cadbury, D. (2010). Chocolate Wars: From Cadbury to
Kraft: 200 years of sweet success and bitter rivalry.
London: Harper Collins.
Carroll, A.B. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social
responsibility: toward the moral management of
organizational stakeholders. Business Horizons
34(4): 3948.
CBI (2011). CBI website: CBI priorities http://www.cbi.
org.uk/campaigns/the-role-of-business-in-society
accessed 5 November 2011.
Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index
(2011). 19 October 2011 http://www.financialtrustindex
.org/resultswave12.htm accessed 5 November 2011.
Clarke, T. (2009). A critique of the Anglo-American
model of corporate governance. CLPE Research
Paper 15/2009, vol. 5 no. 3, available at: http://ssrn
.com/abstract=1440853.
Concise Oxford English Dictionary (1995). 8th edition
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Cutlip, S.M., A.H. Center and G.M. Broom (2000). Effec-
tive Public Relations, 8th edition. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
Dahlsrud, A. (2008). How corporate social responsibility
is defined: an analysis of 37 definitions. Corporate
Social Responsibility and Environmental Management
15(1): 113.
Edelman Trust Barometer Findings. (2016). http://www.
edelman.com/insights/intellectual-property/2016-
edelman-trust-barometer/ accessed 16 June 2016.
Ethical Consumer (2013). Ethical Consumer market report
2013 https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/portals/0/
M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 94
Discussion in this chapter has focused on:
responsible and irresponsible business behaviour
stakeholder influences
ethical decision-making
changing cultural and organisational ethics.
downloads/ethical_consumer_markets_report_2013.
pdf accessed 11 October 2016.
European Commission Enterprise and Industry (2011).
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sustainable-
business/corporate-social-responsibility/index_en.htm
accessed 7 November 2011.
European Commission Enterprise and Industry (2016).
http://ec.europa.eu/growth/ accessed 1 September
2016.
Fombrun, C. and M. Shanley (1990). Whats in a name?
Reputation building and corporate strategy. Academy
of Management Journal 33: 233258.
Friedman, M. (1970). The social responsibility of busi-
ness is to increase its profits. New York Times Maga-
zine 13 September: 32.
Gore, A. (2006). An Inconvenient Truth. Paramount,
director, David Guggenheim.
Gore, A. (2007). An Inconvenient Truth. Viking Juvenile.
Grunig, J. and T. Hunt (1984). Managing Public Rela-
tions. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Hopper, K. and W. Hopper (2007 and 2009). The Puritan
Gift: Reclaiming the American dream amidst global
financial crisis. London: I.B. Taurus.
Huffington Post (2016). http://www.huffingtonpost.
co.uk/ryan-curran/google-tax_b_9125406.html,
3February 2016 accessed 8 June 2016.
India Partnership Forum (2003). www.ipfndia.org/home
accessed 30 September 2008.
ISO 26000 CSR Guidance (2010). http://www.iso.org/iso/
home/standards/iso26000.htm accessed 8 June 2016.
Jones, B., R. Tench and R. Bowd, (2009). Corporate
irresponsibility and corporate social responsibility:
competing realities. Social Responsibility Journal,
Emerald 5(3).
Kant, I. (1964). Groundwork of the Metaphysic of
orals. London: Harper & Row.
M
23/03/2017 12:58
 Chapter 5Community and society: corporate social responsibility (CSR) 95

Kotchen, M.J. and J.J. Moon (2011). Corporate Social Peach, L. (1987). In Effective Corporate Relations.
Responsibility for Irresponsibility, National Bureau N.Hart (ed.). Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill.
of Economic Research Working Paper 17254, avail-
Rest, J.R. and S.J. Thoma (1986). Educational programs
able at http://www.nber.org/papers/w17254.
and interventions in Moral Development: Advances in
Labich, K. (1992). The new crisis in business ethics. For- research and theory. J. Rest (ed.). New York: Praeger.
tune 20 April: 167176.
Sagar, P. and A. Singla (2004). Trust and corporate social
Lewis, S. (2003). Reputation and corporate social respon- responsibility: Lessons from India. Journal of Com-
sibility. Journal of Communication Management munication Management 8(3): 282290.
7(4): 356364.
Shiller, R. J. (2015). Irrational exuberance. Princeton,
Lines, V.L. (2004). Corporate reputation in Asia: Look- Princeton University Press.
ing beyond the bottom line performance. Journal of
Shiller, R. J. (2016). Fighting the Next Global Finan-
Communication Management 8(3): 233245.
cial Crisis Project Syndicate 18 May 2016,
Little, P.L. and B.L. Little, (2000). Do perceptions of https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/
corporate social responsibility contribute to explain- financial-regulation-public-narratives-by-robert-j--
ing differences in corporate price-earnings ratios? A shiller-2016-05
research note. Corporate Reputation Review 3(2):
Snell, R. (1997). Management learning perspectives on
137142.
business ethics in Management Learning. J. Burgoyne
Mohr, L.A., D. Erolu and S.P. Ellen (1998). The develop- and M. Reynolds (eds). London: Sage.
ment and testing of a measure of skepticism toward
Sun, W., J. Stewart and D. Pollard (eds) (2011). Corporate
environmental claims in marketers communications.
Governance and the Global Financial Crisis: Interna-
Journal of Consumer Affairs 32(1): 3055.
tional perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Moore, C. (2011). We prevented a Great Depres- Press.
sion...but people have the right to be angry. The
Tench, R., A. Zerfass, M. Moreno, D. Veri and
Daily Telegraph (5 March 2011) http://www.telegraph.
P. Verhoeven (2017). Communication Excellence:
co.uk/finance/economics/8362959/Mervyn-King-
How to develop, manage and lead exceptional
interview-We-prevented-a-Great-Depression...-but-
communication departments. London, Palgrave
people-have-the-right-to-be-angry.html accessed 5
Macmillan.
August 2016.
Tench, R., W. Sun and B. Jones (eds) (2014). Communicat-
Moore, G. (2003). Hives and horseshoes, Mintzberg or
ing Corporate Social Responsibility: Perspectives and
MacIntyre: What future for corporate social respon-
practice (Vol. 6). Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.
sibility? Business Ethics: A European Review 12(1):
4153. Tench, R., R. Bowd and B. Jones (2007). Perceptions
and perspectives: corporate social responsibility and
MORI (1999). Winning with integrity. London: MORI.
the media. Journal of Communication Management
Morsing, M., M. Schultz and K.U. Nielsen (2008). The 11(4): 348370.
catch 22 of communicating CSR: Findings from a
The Giving Institute (2015). http://www.givinginstitute.
Danish study. Journal of Marketing Communications
org accessed 1 July 2016.
14(22): 97111.
Think Big (2011). http://www.o2sustainability.co.uk/2010
Nielsen, A.E. and C. Thomsen (2007) What they say
accessed 17 November 2011.
and how they say it. Corporate Communications: An
International Journal 12(1): 2540. Topi, M. and R. Tench (2016). The corporate social
responsibility in Lidls communication campaigns
OSullivan, T. (1997) Why charity schemes need a deli-
in Croatia and the UK. The Qualitative Report
cate touch. Marketing Week 20: 2024.
21(2):352.
OECD (2016). Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises,
Trevino, L.K. and K.A. Nelson (1995). Managing Busi-
conference 89 June 2016, http://mneguidelines.oecd.
ness Ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right.
org/globalforumonresponsiblebusinessconduct/#d
New York: Wiley & Sons.
.en.230714 accessed 14 June 2016.
UK Government (2014). Public views on ethical research.
Occupy London (2011). http://occupylondon.org.uk/
Research Series No. 177. http://www.gov.uk/
accessed 5 November 2011.
government/uploads/system/uploads/attachmentdata/
Occupy Wall Street (2011). http://occupywallst.org/ file/322624/Public-views-on-ethical-retail.pdf accessed
accessed 6 November 2011. 11 October 2016.

M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 95 23/03/2017 12:58

 96 Part 1The context of public relations

UN (2011). United Nations Millennium Development
Goals 2015, www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ accessed
17 November 2011.
World Economic Forum (2003). www.weforum.com,
accessed 26 March 2005.
Zerfass, A., A. Moreno, R. Tench, D. Veri and P. Ver-
hoeven (2008). European Communication Monitor
2008. Trends in Communication Management and
Public Relations Results and Implications. Brussels,
Leipzig: EUPRERA, University of Leipzig. Available
at: www.communicationmonitor.eu
2010. Status Quo and Challenges for Public Relations
in Europe. Results of an Empirical Survey in 46 Coun-
tries. Brussels: EACD, EUPRERA. Available at: www.
communicationmonitor.eu.
Zerfass, A., B. Van Ruler, A. Rogojinaru, D. Veri and
S. Hamrefors (2007). European Communication
Monitor 2007. Trends in Communication Man-
agement and Public Relations Results and Impli-
cations. Leipzig, Brussels: University of L eipzig,
EUPRERA. Available at: www.communication
monitor.eu.

Zerfass, A., A. Moreno, R. Tench, D. Veri and P. Ver-
hoeven (2009). European Communication Monitor
2009. Trends in Communication Management and
Public Relations Results of a Survey in 34 Countries.
Brussels: EACD, EUPRERA.
Zerfass, A., R. Tench, P. Verhoeven, D. Veri and A.
Moreno (2010). European Communication Monitor
Zerfass, A., P. Verhoeven, R. Tench, A. Moreno and
D. Veri (2011). European Communication Monitor
2011. Empirical Insights into Strategic Communica-
tion in Europe. Results of a Survey in 43 Countries.
Available at: www.communicationmonitor.eu.
Zingales L. (2011). Citation in Marketwatch, 19 October
2011.

Websites
BBC: www.bbc.co.uk
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: www.gatesfoundation.org
British Society of Rheology: www.bsr.org.uk
Business in the Community: www.bitc.org.uk
CadburySchweppes: www.CadburySchweppes.com
Chartered Institute of Public Relations: www.cipr.co.uk
Co-operative Bank: www.co-operativebank.co.uk
CSR Europe: www.csreurope.org
GlaxoSmithKline: www.gsk.com
Global Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI): www.grli.org
Greenpeace: www.greenpeace.org.uk
Institute of Business Ethics: www.ibe.org.uk
Nike: www.nike.com
02: www.mm02.co.uk
The Shell Group: www.shell.com
Slate 60 www.slate.com
United Nations Global Compact: www.unglobalcompact.org
Unilever: www.unilver.co.uk

M05 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 96 23/03/2017 12:58

 Chapter 6Intercultural and multicultural context of public relations 97

ch ap t er 6 Dejan Veri

Intercultural and multicultural context of

public relations

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
identify and discuss relevant key theories, principles and their development up to the present day in rela-
tion to the intercultural and multicultural context of public relations
review and critique relevant key theories and principles in relation to the intercultural and multicultural
context of public relations
analyse and apply an intercultural and multicultural context of public relations theories/principles to practice
evaluate your learning about the intercultural and multicultural context of public relations and pursue
further sources for investigation.

Structure
The context of culture
Public relations and culture
Between universalism and relativism
Global principles and specific applications
Social media and activists in the global village
Uneven globalisation
How to prepare for international and global public relations
Key principles in intercultural and multicultural public relations
Public diplomacy

M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 97 23/03/2017 12:59

 98 Part 1The context of public relations

Introduction
Culture is a noun with many meanings.
Each of us carries her or his own indi-
vidual combination of cultural traits that
we have acquired as members of sev-
eral collectives class, ethnic, gender,
national, professional, racial, voluntary
and other organisations and communi-
ties. All these can be described as hav-
ing certain qualities we recognise as
cultures. They exist in larger collective
systems denoted as societies, having
their own societal cultures. Because we
are born into our cultures, they exist as
our true nature and we are rarely aware
of them. It is when we geographically or
socially move and meet (or even collide
with) cultures different from ours that we
become conscious of others and/or our
differentness. In recognition of us being
different from others we develop our
sameness, i.e. identity (Sha et al. 2012).
Public relations as management of com-
munication and relationships between
an organisation (with its culture) and
its stakeholders (with their cultures) is
always an intercultural practice, and
public relations practitioners are inter-
cultural interpreters (Banks 1995).

following their own will, which is different from the

Explore 6.1
The nature/nurture debate
Everybody has an opinion about how much of what
we are is given to us biologically (in genes) and how
much culturally (through learning). It is a centuries-old
debate. Westernist scientists and philosophers prefer
culture over nature (or anything else larger than us)
as an explanatory variable of our behaviour. A recent
book on the topic summarising arguments is Prinzs
(2012) book, Beyond Human Nature: How culture and
experience shape our lives.
Feedback
Where do you stand on the nature/nurture debate?
How much of what you are is in your genes (or any-
thing else permanent and directly passed on from your
parents) and how much in how you were brought up?
Can we transcend our nature?
The context of culture
Culture entered the language of management to alert
leaders that social organisations (like companies) are
not as easily engineered as machines. The latter follow
rules of Newtonian causality: providing resources, you
can make or break them at your will and if designed
and produced properly, they will automatically follow
an authors instructions. Companies and other human
organisations behave more like plants than machines:
you have to nurture (cultivate) them, for certain pro-
cesses they take their own time and they behave as if
will of their constructors and/or members. In this sense,
managers talk of corporate cultures they would like
to manage. Dominant cultures can be further broken
into subcultures and often contra-cultures that defy
the ruling interpretation of the right order of a system
(organisation or society). Culture is also about power
and dominance (Dutta 2012).
Throughout history, travellers have encountered
a different sense of culture: that of other countries
and peoples. With the emergence first of empires and
then of multinational companies, national cultures
gained prominence in helping people understand why
others behave differently than us. Today, interna-
tional and global operations of all kinds of organisa-
tions companies, non-governmental organisations,
governments, international governmental and non-
governmental organisations depend on intercultural
and multicultural knowledge. Public relations, as it is
presented throughout this book, is an occupation that
is continuing to gain in importance as an essential car-
rier of that knowledge.
You dont have to travel to be exposed to other cul-
tures. Some major towns are themselves multicultural
London has 7 million inhabitants who speak around
300 languages (www.multicultural.co.uk). You may
live in Sub-Saharan Africa and be influenced by for-
eign interests searching for minerals. In Asia you may
be employed by a multinational company from the
West, or by an Asian company expanding its opera-
tions worldwide. There is no place to hide from other
cultures and there is no alternative but to learn how
to live with and in them. All of us share several cul-
tures not only ethnic/national, but also professional,
racial, gender, class or caste, organisational, associa-
tional or gang. Humans are multicultural beings.

M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 98 23/03/2017 12:59

 Chapter 6Intercultural and multicultural context of public relations
Think about 6.1
Cultures, nations, countries and
states
What in English language is commonly referred to
as a country or a nation, international law defines as
a sovereign state. Although there seems to be a cor-
respondence between ethnic cultures and sovereign
states sometimes referred to as nation-states (i.e.
France is a sovereign state of the French, China of the
Chinese and Nigeria of Nigerians), the real world is far
more complicated (even when discounted for interna-
tional migrations). Even in France, as a highly centralised
state, there are different populations that are French by
citizenship but not ethnically Basques on the border
with Spain or Corsicans on the island of Corsica in the
Mediterranean Sea. In Switzerland they speak three
major languages (French, German and Italian) and one
minor (Retroroman). England is a country in the United
Kingdom (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland being
other constitutive entities of the monarchy). When on
23 June 2016, the citizens of the UK voted on a refer-
endum to leave the European Union, on 24 June, lead-
ers of Scotland and Northern Ireland demanded their
own referenda to leave the United Kingdom. Although
over 90 per cent of Chinese citizens belong to the larg-
est ethnic group Han the Government recognises
55 other distinct ethnic groups. In India, currently the
second largest country in the world and projected by
2025 to surpass China and become the most populated
country in the world, where four of the worlds major
religions originated Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism
and Sikhism there are 30 languages spoken by more
than a million, and 122 languages spoken by more than
10,000 speakers. In Indonesia there are around 300 dif-
ferent ethnicities living in that country and speaking
742 different languages and dialects. Nigeria, the most
populous country in Africa and with one of the fastest
growing populations in the world, has more than 250
ethnic groups. South Africa has eleven languages recog-
nised in its constitution. In the United States of America,
some federal States (Arizona, New Mexico and Texas)
have Spanish next to English as their de jure or/and de
facto official language.
At the beginning of 2016 there were 193 member
states of the United Nations, and there are at least a
dozen more states that are not included in the UN
system and whose sovereignty is disputed.
Feedback
Try to list as many countries per continent as you can.
For selected countries, try to see how many ethnic
cultures and major religions you can identify.
M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 99
99
Public relations and culture
If we think of public relations as purposeful, persua-
sive communication, then it is as old as the human
race. But as a contemporary practice of strategic com-
munication, responsible for management of mutually
beneficial relations between organisations and their
publics, it is of a much more recent origin (Sriramesh
2008). We can think of public relations as a social tech-
nology that exploits developments in social sciences
to influence human behaviour. To flourish, it needs
educational and institutional infrastructure to enable
training and funding for practitioners and their activi-
ties (Edwards 2012). It emerged in the second half of
the nineteenth century in Europe and in the United
States and its birth was closely related to developments
in information and communication technology, specifi-
cally the mass media.
Investments in the practice of public relations are
unequally distributed around the world (Sriramesh
and Veri 2007). Societies provide resources that
are needed for public relations to work: practitioners,
equipment, funding. Societies also provide institu-
tional environments that are more or less hospitable to
public relations practices. Generally, public relations
requires open democratic social environments with
free speech and rights to communication and associa-
tion; dictatorships and autocratic regimes dont use
communication and relationships to rule they rely
on physical force. (But they may use public relations
in other countries to try to polish their image abroad,
e.g. agency Bell Pottinger was criticised for its work
on behalf of Egypts Hosni Mubarak, Quorvis Com-
munications for Equatorial Guineas Teodoro Obiang,
Brown Lloyd James for Libyas Muammar Gaddafi,
Hill and Knowlton for Ugandas Yoweri Musaveni and
Shandwick for its work for Columbia.) Social, politi-
cal and media cultures of a country in that respect
determine ways in which public relations can be prac-
ticed in a country, and in that context we can say that
culture operates as an antecedent to public relations
(Sriramesh 2012).
But as on one side social (and political) cultures
determine ways in which public relations can be
practised in a country, so does public relations co-
create these very societal (and political) cultures
(Mickey 2003; awniczak 2005; McKie and Munshi
2007; Heath 2012). The ways in which we see our-
selves, objects around us, other people and nations
is today presented to us with the help and support
of public relations work. Public relations is a great
force in creating meaningful social environments for
23/03/2017 12:59
 100 Part 1The context of public relations
us. In that context we can say that culture not only
operates as an antecedent to public relations, but it
is also a consequence of these very public relations
practices.
Not only that, we can extend the metaphor of cul-
ture further, also to organisations practicing public
relations and to the very occupation of public rela-
tions. We can describe organisations as having dif-
ferent cultures, more or less open (or closed), more
mechanical, machine-like, or organic, like biological
organisms. Organisational or corporate (similarly as
societal) cultures are environments promoting or hin-
dering the use of public relations (Sriramesh and Veri
2012). Therefore the usefulness of public relations is
dependent not only on the skills of practitioners, but
also on the expectations and support of their clients
(see also Chapter25).
Even public relations as an occupation can be
observed as having a culture of its own (Edwards
2012), and it is different from cultures of managers
(Veri and White 2012): while managers are usually
focused, goal- and numbers-orientated, public rela-
tions practitioners are often seen to be much softer,
creative and not so results-orientated. Veri (2012)
also analysed public relations firms using differences
in their cultures as a criterion. He found that there are
public relations agencies that specialise in producing
publicity and that sell mainly journalistic skills of prac-
titioners who are often ex-journalists. Then there are
public relations services operating as outsourcing posts
for communication departments of corporate clients
their rationale is often critiqued as buy cheap (young,
mainly female workers or interns) and sell expensive.
And there are public relations consultancies, some of
which are really in the business of providing research-
based advice, with the best being founded on public
relations theoretical knowledge.
It is not only products, services and organisations
as whole corporate bodies, but countries also that
use public relations tools to build (Taylor and Kent
2006) and to present themselves (Kunczik 1997; Taylor
2001).
The notion of culture has recently become very impor-
tant for contemporary life. A notion of cultural intelli-
gence CQ has been added to more familiar concepts of
cognitive intelligence IQ and emotional intelligence EQ
M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 100
(Wertz 2013). An anthropologist, Grant McCracken,
wrote a book proposing for each company to employ
its own Chief Culture Officer (2009).
Between universalism and
relativism
The current public relations theory and practice are
founded in the West, predominantly Western Europe
and the US. Only recently have researchers addressed
the issue of differences in thinking and doing pub-
lic relations around the world. In the past 15 years,
several key books were published on the subject:
Culbertson and Chen (1996) International Public
Relations: A comparative analysis, Curtin and Gaither
(2007) International Public Relations: Negotiating
culture, identity, and power, Ruler and Veri (2004)
Public Relations and Communication Management
in Europe: A nation-by-nation introduction to pub-
lic relations theory and practice, Sriramesh (2004)
Public relations in Asia: An anthology, Sriramesh and
Veri (2009) The Global Public Relations Hand-
book: Theory, research and practice, Sriramesh and
Veri (2012) Culture and Public Relations: Links
and implications and Tilson and Alozie (2004)
Toward the Common Good: Perspectives in interna-
tional public relations.
Research shows that public relations practitioners
are more numerous in the most developed parts of the
world, although their services might be more needed
elsewhere (Sriramesh and Veri 2007). Observa-
tions of large multinationals headquartered in the UK
have found that their offices in different parts of the
world vary significantly, from one to ten practitioners,
without any consistency in size or the scope of their
work in relation to their responsibilities. Moss et al.
(2012) found that the UK headquarters and their clos-
est offices in Europe had numerically more and more
qualified staff than more distant offices, even if these
were covering much larger territories.
Certain principles, such a those inscribed in the Ten
Principles of the Global Compact, seem to be universal
and need to be followed worldwide. Respect for local
23/03/2017 12:59
 Chapter 6Intercultural and multicultural context of public relations
Think about 6.2
Public relations around the
world
It is easy to forget that both management and public
relations are concepts of a Western origin, and there-
fore culturally loaded. Furthermore, in their current
dominant interpretation they are very North Ameri-
can. It is impossible to translate the term public rela-
tions in many languages, and there are differences
in popular understanding of the term even between
British and American English. While public relations
in American English commonly stands for manage-
ment of relationships with publics, in British English
it often means relations with the media (with public
affairs in British English standing for American English
public relations while public affairs in American
English stands for government relations). The term
public relations was translated in German as ffen-
tlichkeitsarbeit (literally meaning public work and in
German often described as work in public for the
public), referring to work in general public or the pub-
lic sphere. Similar problems exist in other Germanic
and Slavonic languages (generally, translating public
relations into relations or contacts with the public
in the singular). Other language groups and cultures
have even more approximate and vague translations.
Feedback
How many different meanings of the term public
relations do you know in your language?
How many similar terms used as synonyms for public
relations do you know?
Discuss denotations and connotations of these dif-
ferent terms. (Denotation stands for literal, vocab-
ulary, or explicit and primary meaning of a term
and connotation for subjective, emotional,
implicit or secondary meaning of the term, usually
implying valuation and related positive and nega-
tive associations.)
cultures, localisation of organisational practices and
communications is responsible only if it adheres to the
highest ethical standards. But somehow many people
M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 101
101
believe that when abroad, they can lower their moral
guard and do things they would never do at home. This
is a problem of double standards that many multina-
tional companies (MNCs) are accused of: Jahansoozi et
al. (2012) provided a thorough and vivid description of
the double standards that Shell and other MNC oil com-
panies use in Nigeria as compared to their behaviour in,
for example, Canada.
It seems that humans have evolutionarily developed
a tendency to categorise other humans between us
and them. We belong to the same culture, while
they think, decide and behave differently. This goes
symmetrically in all directions: they are always differ-
ent from us, and we are different from them. And it
is we who know what is right, and if they do it differ-
ently, it is wrong. Every civilisation in history wanted
to civilise others. The very term barbarian, which
nowadays stands for describing uncivilised behaviour
or individuals, originated in Old Greek and it described
anybody who was not Greek.
Global principles and specific
applications
A general explanation of how public relations adds
value to organisations is proposed in the Excellence
Theory (Grunig et al. 2002). It is a result of a decade-
long research project aimed at the development of a
general theory of public relations and it is generally
credited to be the mainstream theory in public relations
in American academia and around the world (see also
Chapter8 for a discussion and critique). This theory
proposes nine general principles, or characteristics, that
public relations needs to contribute to organisational
effectiveness: (1) involvement of public relations in stra-
tegic management; (2) empowerment of public relations
in the dominant coalition or a direct reporting relation-
ship to senior management; (3) integrated public rela-
tions function; (4) public relations as a management
function separate from other functions; (5) the role of
the public relations practitioner; (6) two-way symmetri-
cal model of public relations; (7) a symmetrical system
of internal communication; (8) knowledge potential for
23/03/2017 12:59
 102 Part 1The context of public relations
Mini case study 6.1
Others are different:
the bribery scandal at
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is the largest Europe-based electronics
and electrical engineering company, operating in the
industry, energy and healthcare sectors. Headquartered
in Munich, Germany, it is 160 years old and, together
with its subsidiaries, it employs around 340,000 peo-
ple in more than 200 countries. In 2015 it generated
revenues of 75.6 billion. For decades, Munich-based
Siemens paid kickbacks and bribes to win contracts in
places including Russia, Bangladesh, Venezuela and
Nigeria, according to investigations in more than a
dozen countries (www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-
01-27/siemens-bribery-scandal-leaves-von-pierer-
unbowed-in-his-ceo-memoir-books.html). After being
investigated in several countries, including the US
and Germany, in 2008 Siemens agreed to settle cases
of bribery, corruption and trying to falsify corporate
books. The total fine for Siemens was more than US$2.6
billion to clear its name: US$1.6 billion in fines and fees
in Germany and the United States and more than US$1
billion for internal investigations and reforms. Top man-
agement has been replaced. The new management has
put compliance with new rules, values and principles
at the centre of its business (Pohlman 2008). Siemens
is today one of the promoters of the United Nations
Global Compact, which is a strategic policy initiative
for businesses that are committed to aligning their
operations and strategies with ten universally accepted
principles in the areas of human rights, labour, envi-
ronment and anti-corruption. By doing so, business, as
a primary driver of globalisation, can help ensure that
markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in
ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere
(http://www.unglobalcompact.org/). Nonetheless, in
2013 the company admitted another case of bribery
and price-fixing in Brazil (Knobloch 2013).
The UN Global Compacts Ten Principles
Human rights
Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect
the protection of internationally proclaimed human
rights; and
Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in
human rights abuses.
M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 102
Labour
Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of
association and the effective recognition of the right to
collective bargaining;
Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and
compulsory labour;
Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and
Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect
of employment and occupation.
Environment
Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary
approach to environmental challenges;
Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater
environmental responsibility; and
Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion
of environmentally friendly technologies.
Anti-corruption
Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption
in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.
Companies such as Siemens before 2008 are victims of
cultural myopia (short-sightedness): rules in other coun-
tries seem to them different than those at home and so
they believe that they can do things abroad they wouldnt
dare do at home.
Transparency International is the global civil society
organisation leading the fight against corruption (http://
www.transparency.org/). In its reports on corruption
around the world, Finland always comes out as one of
the least corrupt countries. Yet Patria, a defence com-
pany that is majority-owned by the Finnish government,
is suspected of exporting corruption by paying bribery
in places such as Egypt, Slovenia and Croatia (Helsingin
Sanomat 2008; Rubenfeld 2011).
Feedback
Do you think that corruption is a cultural phenomenon,
being more acceptable in some rather than in other
countries?
Do you think that international initiatives such as the
Global Compact to promote human rights, fair labour
practices, respect for the natural environment and to
fight corruption make a difference to the world in which
we live?
23/03/2017 12:59
 Chapter 6Intercultural and multicultural context of public relations
managerial role and symmetrical public relations; and
(9) diversity embodied in all roles (Grunig 1992; Dozier
et al. 1995; Grunig et al. 2002).
In 1989, Anderson proposed to distinguish between
international public relations and global public rela-
tions. International public relations denotes practices
when organisations develop distinctive programmes
for different markets in different locations. Global
public relations, however, denotes an overall perspec-
tive, an approach to work in two or more countries,
recognising similarities while adapting to differences
(Anderson 1989).
Explore 6.2
Worldviews
At the beginning of the new millennium, Western
scholars were full of optimism in seeing their way
of life and their worldview as a model for the whole
world. Francis Fukuyama, an American political sci-
entist, had even declared The End of History (1992). In
the 20 years since the publication of his book (which
is an expanded version of the argument first presented
three years earlier in a journal article) everything
changed, and not only did history not stop, it seems
to be accelerating. Cultural presuppositions implicit
in the mainstream public relations theories (indi-
vidual human rights, political liberalism and market
economy) have recently been challenged from Asia,
but also Africa. Huang (2012) presents her arguments
from a Chinese perspective: The difference between
Chinese and Western worldviews, respectively, can
be succinctly summarised: (1) emphasis on whole-
ness versus parts, (2) complex interpersonal relation-
ships versus individuals, (3) emphasis on emotional/
spiritual versus cognitive outcomes, and (4) nature of
communication being intuitively and directly experi-
enced versus language-centered. (p. 96). She notes
two reasons for a shortage of cultural sensitivity in
research: deliberate avoidance that favours context-
free research to contextualised knowledge, and care-
less oversight due to ethnocentric insensitivity.
Feedback
Can you explain differences in worldviews from a
Western, a Confucian, a Buddhist and a Taoist per-
spective? Use the internet to learn more about them,
adding also other non-Western worldviews you can
find.
M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 103
103
Veri et al. (1996) adopted the nine excellence
principles of public relations as global principles and
adjusted their use around the world using specific
(localised) applications determined by five environ-
mental variables:
political ideology
economic system (including the level of develop-
ment of the countrys economy)
degree of activism (the extent of pressure that
organisations face from activists,
culture and
media system (the nature of the media environment
in a country).
Sriramesh and Veri (2009) collapsed these five
variables into three factors:
a countrys infrastructure (composed of political
system, economic system and level of development,
legal system and social activism);
media environment (with media control, media dif-
fusion and media access being critical);
societal culture.
The notion of culture and public relations has been
taken further by Sriramesh and Veri (2012).
Social media and activists in
the global village
When Marshal McLuhan, in his book The Guttenberg
Galaxy: The making of typographic man (1962), put
forward an idea that the world has been contracted
into a village by electronic technology and the instanta-
neous movement of information from one continent to
another, social media were not yet invented. Fifty years
later we really do live on a contracted planet, in what
Manuel Castells calls The Rise of the Network Society
(Castells 2007, 2009, 2010).
The emergence of social media and mobile tech-
nologies in the first decade of the twenty-first century
enabled a mushrooming of activism, demonstrations
and social movements at the beginning of the sec-
ond decade. Times Person of the Year 2011 was
The Protester from 26-year-old street vendor
Mohhamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire in the
Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, to millions protesting
23/03/2017 12:59
 104 Part 1The context of public relations
Box 6.1
Eyes and ears of God
Nuba peoples live in Southern Kordofan, a territory in
the centre of the Sudan (about 30,000 square miles,
about the size of Scotland). According to some of their
sources, there may be up to two million of them. They
represent a wealth of cultures, speaking more than 50
languages. For at least 20 years they have been victims
of cultural and often physical cleansing. Their suffering
has gained the attention of many celebrities, including
George Clooney and Mia Farrow. In 2008, Slovenian
in Greece, Egypt, Myanmar, Nigeria, Russia, Spain,
USA all around the globe (Andersen 2011). Digital
media have also been credited for the resurgence of
democracy in Latin America (Molleda 2015).
Uneven globalisation
Globalisation is a process that seems to make the world
smaller. In defining the term, globalisation, Scholte
(2005) offers five different meanings of the term:
globalisation as internationalisation, globalisation
as liberalisation, globalisation as universalisation,
globalisation as westernisation, and globalisation
Picture 6.1 International public relations are a part of
daily routines for communicators. Consider the impact
of current international border movements of citizens
in different parts of the world and the implication for
international communication.
M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 104
peace activists Tomo Krinar and Klemen Miheli
started distributing small cameras (over 400 hundred
so far), together with satellite modems, laptops and
instructions about how to upload the shots, to enable
locals to raise the awareness of the international com-
munity about the crimes against these indigenous peo-
ples. In 2012, Tomo Krinar and filmmaker Maja Weiss
produced a documentary about ethnic Nuba civilians
defending themselves in one of the most remote and
inaccessible places in all of Sudan with this modern
technology.
See the whole documentary, Eyes and Ears of God, on
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL61773FC2FF
46F738
as respatialisation with the spread of transplanetary
social connections with global, transplanetary,
transworld and in certain aspects also supraterri-
torial social spaces (Scholte 2005: 3). Results of the
European Communication Monitor, the largest annual
multinational research project in public relations, show
that international public relations are a part of the
daily routine for more than 90 per cent of chief com-
munication officers in Europe, with nearly a quarter of
them dealing with 20 countries or more (Veri et al.
2015). But, it is important to notice, the international,
globalising practices are in for-profit corporate public
relations environments in Europe, with non-profit and
government sectors lagging behind (Zerfass et al. 2013,
2014; Veri et al. 2015).
How to prepare for
international and global public
relations
Technology has enabled globalisation, and together
they have changed our lives forever. We travel for edu-
cation, business or fun to other countries, we meet
people coming to our towns and villages from around
the world. We can try (in vain) to stop the world going
round, or we can prepare for living in a multicultural
global society. If planning to work internationally, one
should consider enlisting on an intercultural training
programme. Browsing on the internet produces long
lists of public and commercial providers of seminars
and other educational formats for acquiring intercul-
tural competence for different parts of the world. (In
general, the vast majority of these programmes are
23/03/2017 12:59
 Chapter 6Intercultural and multicultural context of public relations
Think about 6.3
The European migrant crisis
In 2015 and 2016, the European Union witnessed
an increased number of immigrants, primarily from
Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. The UN Refugee Agency
reported 950,317 arrivals by sea and 3605 dead/
missing (UNHCR 2015). There are various causes
for this recent relocation of Nations, from envi-
ronmental devastation, conflicts and wars, to a very
simple fact that people have always been moving
from less to more wealthy places. Unable to protect
their common external borders, individual Euro-
pean countries that are members of a borderless
Schengen area (22 of the 28 EU member states plus
Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland; six
of 28 EU member states are outside the Schengen
zone Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, Romania
and the now withdrawn UK) started to erect barri-
ers on their borders, even razor barbed wire. Hun-
garian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has framed the
arrival of so many Syrian refugees as a civilizational
challenge to Hungary s Christian culture (Tharoor
2015). The historical irony is that Hungarians (as all
Europeans) are immigrants to their contemporary
territories (they arrived in the ninth century) and
that the Christian culture they are protecting today
is of Middle Eastern origin and it came to them in
the eleventh century.
International public relations are a part of daily rou-
tines for communicators. Consider the impact of
current international border movements of citizens
in different parts of the world and the implication for
international communication.
Feedback
What do you know about the history of migrations
on the territory where you were born and/or where
you live?
Can you deconstruct your culture into its historic
ethnic, linguistic, atheist/agnostic/religious roots?
for Westerners moving to other parts of the world.)
Such programmes have four goals. First, they are pre-
paring people to enjoy and benefit from their experi-
ences with people from other cultures. Second, they
try to make these positive feelings reciprocated by
host nationals with whom sojourners work. Third,
sojourners should be able to manage the stress that
is inherent in overseas assignments. And fourth,
M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 105
105
sojourners should be able to accomplish the tasks
called for in their work assignments (Brislin 2008:
23312332).
Intercultural public relations is more than just
practicing public relations geographically away from
home it doesnt even need to be a question of physi-
cal distance. Intercultural public relations is interesting
because it is a matter of social distance that is invisible
to the eye and, more often than not, can be experienced
only in ones heart.
Mini case study 6.2
When operating
procedures and cultures
collide
With 3.2 million employees, the US Department of
Defence is the largest employer in the world. It is
also one of the most multicultural organisations in
the world. Its personnel are of different races, ethnic
origin, gender, occupational and military specialities,
and deployed all around the globe. The US Depart-
ment of Defence is investing in research, education
and training of its public relations function, which it
calls public affairs.
Allen and Dozier (2012) present a case study on rela-
tions between the US military public affairs officers
(PAOs) and Arab journalists in the Middle East. The
US military are Western-trained professionals favour-
ing personal responsibility and exchange relations
enabling expediency, while Arab journalists belong
to a culture founded on family, community and giv-
ing importance to honour. The PAOs have relatively
short deployments in a foreign country, so they cant
develop long-term, communal relations with the
Arab media. This experience is shared by expatriates
working in multinational companies or international
organisations: they are responsible for establishing
and maintaining symbiotic relationships with relevant
publics, but they are limited in their opportunity(ies)
to do so, because they are called back home or moved
to another position somewhere else. While in host
cultures, it could take years to develop trusted rela-
tionships and become an accepted member of a com-
munity. Operating procedures of many organisations
prevent their employees going local by moving them
before they can localise.
23/03/2017 12:59
 106 Part 1The context of public relations
Explore 6.3
Understanding the other
In a chapter proposing a framework for indigenous
engagement based on examples related to New Zea-
land Maori, Motion et al. (2012) concluded that we
need to develop a culturally contextualised public
relations practice that is open, adaptable and flexible
in relations with groups that are different from us in
one or another respect.
Feedback
How often do you engage in communication with
people that you perceive as different from you,
because they belong to another ethnicity, have a dif-
ferent legal status (illegal or temporary immigrants),
or maybe simply belong to another class, caste or any
other groups characteristic that is meaningful to you?
What are your experiences from such encounters?
Key principles in intercultural
and multicultural public
relations
Intercultural and multicultural public relations is the
management of diverse public relations practices: there
is a multitude of people and worldviews around us and
we must learn to embrace the rainbow. This, however,
is far from easy and there are no quick recipes for the
management of successful multicultural programmes.
Instead of searching for short-cuts, it is better to face
the practical challenges and attempt to resolve what
may appear to be paradoxes in the delivery of public
relations programmes.
Increase the complexity and focus on simplicity: if an
organisation operates in a culturally rich environment
(and it is practically impossible to operate differently),
it must work towards increasing its own cultural
richness internally. Only that way can it understand
and communicate with various publics. But cultural
multitude is not the same as chaos. Common values
should provide guiding principles that bring simplic-
ity to the multitude. Communication is instrumental
in co-production of common foundations.
Communication belongs to the top and can only
work at the bottom: public relations is more than
a set of tools to broadcast messages from the top of
an organisation downwards and outwards. Public
M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 106
relations can best serve organisations by performing a
role of ears and eyes of management, through which
it is tuned to the larger society. To be influential at
the top, public relations needs to have its top per-
son positioned at the top of an organisation. But it is
impossible to communicate to everybody everywhere
from there, so local teams are needed to have local
experiences, and relationships need to perform well.
Good external communication is founded in good
internal communication: organisations can be
trusted only if they communicate what they mean,
and in that respect internal communication pro-
vides a foundation for authenticity of expressions
for organisational members when they engage with
others. Even before social media penetrated organ-
isational borders, they were anything but firm. In
todays information environments, all organisations
leak all the time. Engaging insiders is a prerequisite
for successful engagement with anybody else.
The science of communication is universal, but the
art of communication is always cultural = local:
modern science based on empirical research is a
powerful force that has transformed humanity in
the past three to four hundred years. Social sci-
ences have been with us for half of that period,
and public relations as an applied communication
and management science has only been extensively
studied since the 1980s. But scientific research in
public relations offers powerful technological solu-
tions that easily travel around the globe. However,
human communication can never be only scientifi-
cally programmed and there is always an artistic,
creative side to human intercourse, closely linked
to cultures as small universes of meanings.
Public diplomacy
When watching international news on television, one
can see that we live in a violent world. But [v]iolence
has declined by dramatic degrees all over the world
in many spheres of behaviour: genocide, war, human
sacrifice, torture, slavery, and the treatment of racial
minorities, women, children, and animals (Pinker
2011b; see also Pinker 2011a). And notwithstanding
the current depressive economic and political climate
in the Western world, there is a good chance that our
lives will continue to get better (Diamandis and Kotler
2012) but progress is not an automatic ride, it is a
human-made condition. And at the centre of that con-
dition is communication.
23/03/2017 12:59
 Chapter 6Intercultural and multicultural context of public relations
Think about 6.4
Can(t) buy me love
In 1953, the US President Dwight Eisenhower established
the United States Information Agency to understand,
inform, and influence foreign publics in the promotion
of the US national interest, and to broaden the dialogue
between Americans and US institutions, and their coun-
terparts abroad (USIA 1998). In 1961, John F. Kennedy
appointed Edward R. Murrow the director of the USIA.
Murrow was previously a prominent US broadcast jour-
nalist who had made his name first during his wartime
reporting from Europe from 1938 to 1945, and then by
producing a series of TV news reports that were instru-
mental in censuring Senator Joseph McCarthy, an infa-
mous fighter against Red Scare (communism) in 1950s
USA. Murrow resigned as the director of the USIA due
to illness in 1964 and died in 1965 from the lung cancer
he developed as a chain-smoker. In 1965, the Edward
R. Murrow Centre of Public Diplomacy was established
at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts
University its Dean, Edmund Gullion, is credited with
inventing the term public diplomacy in its present
usage. The same activities were previously known, and
are still referred to by critics, as international propa-
ganda. The USIA is known for being effective in influ-
encing public opinion behind the Iron Curtain during the
Cold War, but was in the mid-1990s downsized as part of
a budget-cutting peace dividend. In 1999, the Clinton
administration merged the USIA into the State Depart-
ment. Before being abolished, the USIA had a budget of
US$1,109 billion and was employing 6352 employees.
Inside the US State Department, public diplomacy is
now run by the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy
and Public Affairs, who defines its mission as follows:
The mission of American public diplomacy is to
support the achievement of US foreign policy goals
and objectives, advance national interests, and
International relations, relations between states or
countries, can be conducted by war, trade or diplo-
macy, i.e. force, money or communication. Traditional
diplomacy covers communication between representa-
tives of governments. It is possible to talk about cul-
tural diplomacy that has been practiced for centuries
between traders and scholars travelling to other coun-
tries in search of profit, knowledge or simple adven-
ture. Public diplomacy meant only civility when it first
emerged in the English language in the mid-nineteenth
century. In the mid-twentieth century it stepped into
M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 107
107
enhance national security by informing and
influencing foreign publics and by expanding and
strengthening the relationship between the people and
government of the United States and citizens of the
rest of the world.
The Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public
Affairs leads Americas public diplomacy outreach,
which includes communications with international
audiences, cultural programming, academic grants,
educational exchanges, international visitor programs,
and US Government efforts to confront ideological
support for terrorism. The Under Secretary oversees
the bureaus of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Public
Affairs, and International Information Programs, and
participates in foreign policy development.
Source: US Department of State 2012
Currently, the US budget for public diplomacy is around
US$1.5 billion, which is comparable in size to sums
spent by France or Britain (Armitage and Nye 2007).
Comparing sizes and international responsibilities, one
could say that the US Government is seriously underin-
vesting in public diplomacy. Many still believe that dis-
mantling of the USIA was a strategic mistake. However,
US$1.5 billion per year is still a respectable sum of
money. It is interesting to see how it reflected in public
opinion in Western Europe, the closest ally of the US in
the world.
Feedback
What are the similarities and differences between prop-
aganda, public relations and public diplomacy?
How would you answer a question posed by US diplo-
mat Richard Holbroke: How can a man in a cave out-
communicate the worlds leading communications
society? (Where a man in a cave denotes Osama bin
Laden and the worlds leading communication society
the USA.)
political language to replace the term international
propaganda that was largely discredited during the
Second World War. Defined simply, public diplomacy
means communication of governments with peoples
of other countries. McClellan (2004) defines it as the
strategic planning and execution of informational, cul-
tural and educational programming by an advocate
country to create a public opinion environment in a tar-
get country or countries that will enable target country
political leaders to make decisions that are supportive
of advocate countrys foreign policy objectives.
23/03/2017 12:59
 108 Part 1The context of public relations
Related to public diplomacy is the notion of soft
power:
The basic concept of power is the ability to influ-
ence others to get what you want. There are three
major ways to that: one is to threaten them with
sticks; the second is to pay them with carrots; the
third is to attract them or co-opt them, so that they
want what you want. If you can get others to be
attracted, to want what you want, it costs you
much less in carrots and sticks.
(Nye and Myers 2004)
Summary
We live in a multicultural world, and public relations prac-
titioners are in the business of intercultural mediation.
Wherever we live, we are exposed to other cultures. Cul-
tures, as mental programming of our minds, are reflect-
ing not only our ethnic or national background, but also
Bibliography
Allen, M.R. and D.M. Dozier (2012). When cultures
collide: theoretical issues in global public relations in
Culture and Public Relations: Links and implications.
K. Sriramesh and D. Veri (eds). New York/London:
Routledge.
Andersen, K. (2011). The protester. Time Person of
the Year. www.time.com/time/specials/packages/
article/0,28804,2101745_2102132,00.html
Anderson, G. (1989). A local look at public relations in
Experts in Action: Inside public relations, 2nd edition,
B. Cantor (ed.). New York, NY: Longman.
Armitage, R.L. and J.S. Nye (2007). CSIS Commis-
sion on Smart Power: A smarter, more secure
America. http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/071106_
csissmartpowerreport.pdf accessed 19 June 2012.
Banks, S.P. (1995). Multicultural Public Relations: A
social-interpretive approach. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Brislin, R.W. (2008). Intercultural communication train-
ing in International Encyclopedia of Communication,
Vol. VI. W. Donsbach (ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Castells, M. (2007). Communication, power and counter-
power in the network society. International Journal
of Communication 1: 23866.
Castells, M. (2009). Communication Power. Oxford/New
York: Oxford University Press.
M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 108
For Nye (2004), soft power is founded in a nations
culture (in places where it is attractive to others), its
political values (when it lives up to them at home and
abroad) and its foreign policies (when they are seen
as legitimate and having moral authority) (p. 11).
Soft power, therefore, comes from a nations behav-
iour and not from symbols it uses to present itself to
others.
Today, practically all countries use public diplomacy
with varying degrees of success.
class, professional, racial, gender and other differences.
We trust our cultural views to be natural because we are
born in them but so are others in theirs. Public relations
as management of communication and relationships is
directly concerned with the management of cultural dif-
ferences. To provide an alternative image and compari-
son we can also say that public relations practitioners are
required to perform like intercultural interpreters.
Castells, M. (2010). The Rise of the Network Society, 2nd
edition. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Center for Strategic and International Studies (2008).
Appendix to Armitage-Nye Joint Testimony before US
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, April 24. http://
csis.org/files/media/csis/congress/ts0804024Armitage-
Nye_Appendix.pdf accessed 26 June 2012.
Culbertson, H.M. and N. Chen (eds) (1996). International
Public Relations: A comparative analysis. Mahwah,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Curtin, P.A. and T. Gaither (2007). International Public
Relations: Negotiating culture, identity, and power.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Diamandis, P.H. and S. Kotler (2012). Abundance: The
future is better than you think. New York, NY: Free
Press.
Dozier, D.M., L.A. Grunig and J.E. Grunig (1995). Man-
agers Guide to Excellence in Public Relations and
Communication Management. Mahwah, NJ: Law-
rence Erlbaum Associates.
Dutta, M.J. (2012). Critical interrogations of global pub-
lic relations in Culture and Public Relations: Links
and implications. K. Sriramesh and D. Veri (eds).
New York/London: Routledge.
Edwards, L. (2012). Public relations occupational cul-
ture: habitus, exclusion and resistance in the UK
context in Culture and Public Relations: Links and
implications. K. Sriramesh and D. Veri (eds). New
York/London: Routledge.
23/03/2017 12:59
 Chapter 6Intercultural and multicultural context of public relations
Fukuyama, F. (1992). The End of History and the Last
Man. New York, NY: The Free Press.
Grunig, J.E. (ed.) (1992). Excellence in Public Relations
and Communication Management. Hillsdale, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Grunig, L.A., J.E. Grunig and D.M. Dozier (2002). Excel-
lent Public Relations and Effective Organizations: A
study of communication management in three coun-
tries. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Heath, R.L. (2012). Western classical rhetorical tradition
and modern public relations: culture of citizenship in
Culture and Public Relations: Links and implications.
K. Sriramesh and D. Veri (eds). New York/London:
Routledge.
Helsingin Sanomat (2008). Finlands central criminal
police to investigate Patria deals in Slovenia and
Egypt. Helsingin Sanomat: International Edition,
15 May www.hs.fi/english/article/1135236367677
accessed 19 June 2012.
Huang, Y.H.C. (2012). Culture and Chinese public rela-
tions research in Culture and Public Relations: Links
and implications. K. Sriramesh and D. Veri (eds).
New York/London: Routledge.
Jahansoozi, J., K. Eyita and N. Izidor (2012). Mago
Mago: Nigeria, petroleum and a history of misman-
aged community relations in Culture and Public Rela-
tions: Links and implications. K. Sriramesh and D.
Veri (eds). New York/London: Routledge.
Knobloch, A. (2013). Siemens bribery case spreads to
Brazilian politics. Deutsche Welle, 3 December. http://
www.dw.com/en/siemens-bribery-case-spreads-to-
brazilian-politics/a-17268276
Kunczik, M. (1997). Images of Nations and International
Public Relations. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
awniczak, R. (2005). Introducing Market Economy
Institutions and Instruments: The role of public rela-
tions in transition economies. Pozna: Piar.pl.
McClellan, M. (2004). Public diplomacy in the context of
traditional diplomacy. Presented to Vienna Diplomatic
Academy on 14 October 2004. www.publicdiplomacy
.org/45.htm accessed 13 June 2012.
McCracken, G. (2009). Chief Culture Officer: How to
create a living, breathing corporation. New York, NY:
Basic Books.
McKie, D. and D. Munshi (2007). Reconfiguring Public
Relations: Ecology, equity, and enterprise. London/
New York: Routledge.
McLuhan, M. (1962). The Guttenberg Galaxy: The
making of typographic man. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press.
M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 109
109
Mickey, T.J. (2003). Deconstructing Public Relations:
Public relations criticism. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
Molleda, J.C. (2015). Digital communications aid a dying
democracy in Latin America. 14 December. http://
www.instituteforpr.org/digital-communications-aid-
a-dying-democracy-in-latin-america/
Moss, D., C. McGrath, J. Tonge and P. Harris (2012).
Exploring the management of the corporate public
affairs function in a dynamic global environment.
Journal of Public Affairs 12: 4760.
Motion, J., J. Haar and S. Leitch (2012). A public relations
framework for indigenous engagement in Culture and
Public Relations: Links and implications. K. Sriramesh
and D. Veri (eds). New York/London: Routledge.
Nye, J. (2004). Soft Power: The means to success in world
politics. New York, NY: Public Affairs.
Nye, J.S. and J.J. Myers (2004). Soft power: The means to
success in world politics. (Carnegie Council for Ethics
in International Affairs, audio transcript.) http://www.
carnegiecouncil.org/studio/multimedia/20040413/
index.html
Pinker, S. (2011a). A history of violence: Edge master
class 2011. http://edge.org/conversation/mc2011-
history-violence-pinker accessed 13 June 2012.
Pinker, S. (2011b). The Better Angels of our Nature: The
decline of violence in history and its causes. London:
Penguin.
Pohlman, A. (2008). A new direction for Siemens: improv-
ing preventive systems. Compact Quarterly. www
.enewsbuilder.net/globalcompact/e_article001149152
.cfm?x=bd2Hd2m accessed 18 June 2012.
Prinz, J.J. (2012). Beyond Human Nature: How culture
and experience shape our lives. London: Allen Lane.
Rubenfeld, S. (2011). Finland expands Patria bribery
investigation into Croatia sales. http://blogs.wsj.com/
corruption-currents/2011/01/04/finland-expands-
patria-bribery-investigation-into-croatia-sales/
accessed 19 June 2012.
Scholte, J.A. (2005). Globalization: A Critical Introduc-
tion, 2nd edition. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sha, B.-L., N.T.J. Tindall and T.-L. Sha (2012). Identity and
culture: implications for public relations in Culture and
Public Relations: Links and implications. K. Sriramesh
and D. Veri (eds). New York/London: Routledge.
Sriramesh, K. (ed.) (2004). Public Relations in Asia: An
anthology. Singapore: Thomson Learning.
Sriramesh, K. (2008). Public relations, intercultural in
International Encyclopedia of Communication, Vol.
IX. W. Donsbach (ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
23/03/2017 12:59
 110 Part 1The context of public relations
Sriramesh, K. (2012). Culture and public relations: for-
mulating the relationship and its relevance to the
practice in Culture and Public Relations: Links and
implications. K. Sriramesh and D. Veri (eds). New
York/London: Routledge.
Sriramesh, K. and D. Veri (2007). Introduction to this
special section: the impact of globalization on public
relations. Public Relations Review 33: 3559.
Sriramesh, K. and D. Veri (eds) (2009). The Global
Public Relations Handbook: Theory, research, and
practice, expanded and revised edition. New York,
NY: Routledge.
Sriramesh, K. and D. Veri (eds) (2012). Culture and
Public Relations: Links and implications. New York,
NY: Routledge.
Taylor, M. (2001). International public relations: oppor-
tunities and challenges for the 21st century in Hand-
book of Public Relations. R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Taylor, M. and M.L. Kent (2006). Public relations the-
ory and practice in nation building in Public Rela-
tions Theory II. C.H. Botan and V. Hazleton (eds).
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Tharoor, I. (2015). Far-right Hungarian mayor makes
absurd anti-refugee action video. The Washington Post,
17 September. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/
worldviews/wp/2015/09/17/far-right-hungarian-mayor-
makes-absurd-anti-refugee-action-video/
Tilson, D.J. and E.C. Alozie (eds) (2004). Toward the
Common Good: Perspectives in international public
relations. Boston, MA: Pearson.
UNHCR (2015). Refugees/migrants emergency response
Mediterranean. http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/
regional.php
US Department of State (2012). Under Secretary for Pub-
lic Diplomacy and Public Affairs. www.state.gov/r/
accessed 17 June 2012.
Websites
The European Public Relations Education and Research Association: www.euprera.org
The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management: www.globalalliancepr.org
Human Development Index: http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/hdi/
The International Association of Business Communicators: www.iabc.com
The International Public Relations Association: www.ipra.org
Transparency International: www.transparency.org/
M06 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 110
USIA (1998). United States Information Agency.
http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/usia/usiahome/overview.pdf
accessed 13 June 2012.
van Ruler, B. and D. Veri (eds) (2004). Public Relations
and Communication Management in Europe: A nation-
by-nation introduction to public relations theory and
practice. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Veri, D. (2012). Public relations firms and their three
occupational cultures in Culture and Public Rela-
tions: Links and implications. K. Sriramesh and D.
Veri (eds). New York/London: Routledge.
Veri, D. and J. White (2012). Corporate public rela-
tions as a professional culture: between management
and journalism in Culture and Public Relations:
Links and implications. K. Sriramesh and D. Veri
(eds). New York/London: Routledge.
Veri, D., L.A. Grunig and J.E. Grunig (1996). Global
and specific principles of public relations: evidence
from Slovenia in International Public Relations: A
comparative analysis. H.M. Culbertson and N. Chen
(eds). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Veri, D., A. Zerfass and M. Wiesenberg (2015). Global
public relations and communication management.
Public Relations Review 41(5): 785-793.
Wertz, E. K. (2013). Cultural intelligence in Encyclo-
pedia of Public Relations, 2nd edition, Vol. 1. R.L.
Heath (ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Zerfass, A., . Moreno, R. Tench, D. Veri and P. Ver-
hoeven (2013). European Communication Monitor
2013. A Changing Landscape Managing Crises, Dig-
ital Communication and CEO Positioning in Europe.
Results of a survey in 43 countries. Brussels, Belgium:
EACD/EUPRERA, Helios Media.
Zerfass, A., R. Tench, D. Veri, P. Verhoeven and
. Moreno (2013). European Communication Moni-
tor 2014. Excellence in Strategic Communication
Key Issues, Leadership, Gender and Mobile Media.
Results of a survey in 42 countries. Brussels, Belgium:
EACD/EUPRERA, Helios Media.
23/03/2017 12:59
 Ch ap t er 7 Ralph Tench and Lucy Laville

Role of the public relations practitioner

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
describe issues and debates surrounding the role of the public relations practitioner
consider the role of public relations in society
recognise the range of activities undertaken by practitioners
evaluate the skills needed by individual practitioners
recognise the issues around the education and training of the public relations practitioner
apply the above to real-life contexts.

Structure
Who are the public relations practitioners? Skills for the ideal practitioner
Who does what: the bigger picture Role of theory in practice
Role of the communicator Professionalism
What public relations people do: Education and research
individual practitioners

M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 111 23/03/2017 13:00

 112 Part 1The context of public relations

Introduction
Its impossible to explain exactly what a
public relations (PR) practitioner does,
as the job is highly varied depending on
your employer or the type of agency you
work for and even the country you are
working in. However, this chapter will
explore what PR practitioners do on a
day-to-day basis and highlight the huge
variety in the types of work that a PR
practitioner does. It is certainly a highly
varied, exciting and often challenging
environment and the reality is often a
long way from the traditional views of
what PR people do.
With a reputation for long lunches,
celebrity parties and salacious story-
telling, most practitioners would chal-
lenge this view and argue there is a very
serious side to the work they do, which
may involve hospitality and events but
is always focused on achieving strategic
objectives.
If youve already read other chapters in
this book, you will see that each chapter
addresses a particular area of public rela-
tions theory or practice, which shows that
PR is used by a wide variety of organisa-
tions, governments and individuals for a
whole range of purposes and in its deliv-
ery is well thought through and actioned
by professional individuals and teams.
This chapter aims to show where
people work in public relations and
what they do in their jobs. It explores
the problems caused by difficulties in
defining the field, but also the oppor-
tunities for individual and professional
development. Public relations practice is
linked to public relations theory, and the
need for individuals to undertake lifelong
learning is stressed. The role of educa-
tion and the question of professionalism
are also discussed, along with the role of
professional and trade bodies.
This chapter aims to bridge the divide
between detailed academic books and
how to text books by setting prac-
tice clearly in a theoretical context and
including examples of practice from dif-
ferent countries. It also reflects a range
of experiences, through case studies
and diaries, of being a practitioner in
the twenty-first century. Throughout the
chapter you will be able to read mini
case histories and diaries of public rela-
tions practitioners who are working in
different types of settings to help you
appreciate the diversity of the practice
and gain an insight into what people
actually do.

Explore 7.1 What is public relations all about?

If youve ever asked your friends and family what they
think PR is and/or which PR practitioners they have heard
of, you will get a variety of answers.
Feedback
Many will describe activities or individuals with a significant
media interest in areas such as sport, music or politics, and
may not all be positive. Yet the bona fide public relations
practitioner will not be seeking exposure for themselves,
but for the client or the organisation they work for.
You may also find that media relations, rather than public
relations, is the function or activity most closely associ-
ated with these high-profile individuals or sectors. How-
ever, the breadth and range of subject matter covered
in this book will dispel the misunderstanding that most
people will have of the practice.

Who are the public relations
practitioners?
Because of the huge variety of industries to work in and
PR roles within different environments, there remains
a lot of confusion about who does what in PR see
Explore 7.1. It may be helpful to look at some facts
about the industry in Britain (see Box 7.1). You can
explore the many PR associations websites, as most
countries worldwide have a PR association that repre-
sent practitioners. Many are busy lobbying on behalf
of the industry and engaging in research into the state
of the profession in their country. Most of these pro-
fessional bodies are members of the Global Alliance
for Public Relations and Communication Management
(www.globalalliancepr.org), which formally started
operating in July 2002 with 25 members including all
major PR associations. Its vision is to enhance the role
and value of public relations and communication man-
agement to organisations, and to global society. It aims
to define universal principles of public relations while
embracing diversity. See Box 7.2 for a review of the
origins of PR in some of its key members countries.

M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 112 23/03/2017 13:00


Box 7.1
Key facts about public
relations in Britain
According to the UKs Chartered Institute of Public Rela-
tions (CIPR) and the Public Relations Consultants Associa-
tions (PRCA) annual surveys of PR practitioners:
On a global scale, the UK PR market is second only to
that of the United States.
The UK PR industry was worth over 9.62 billion in
2013, up from 7.5 billion in 2011.
PR departments are working closely on social or
digital media (60 per cent), internal communications
(54 per cent), event management (47 per cent),
media relations (46 per cent), strategic planning
(44per cent) and branding (42 per cent).
PR is seen as a vibrant, attractive industry, consist-
ently ranking among new graduates top three career
choices (CIPR).
Half of UK practitioners agree that PR campaigns can
be more effective with ethnically diverse teams, as
well as a gender balance of males and females.
Three-quarters of employers require new recruits
to have an undergraduate degree or a professional
qualification.
Challenges to the industry include meeting demands
of an expanding skills set; demonstrating value or a
return on investment through measurement and
evaluation; and tacking an under-representation at
board level of communication specialists.
All listed FTSE100 companies have a PR (or equiva-
lent) department communicating on their behalf.
61 per cent of practitioners work in-house with
26per cent working in PR consultancies and 13 per
cent as independent practitioners (SOPR15).
Who does what: the bigger
picture
Definitions of field
Chapter1 has already explored the historical evolu-
tion of PR and discussed the various definitions that
are provided from a range of sources including aca-
demics, practitioners, national and international pro-
fessional bodies.
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 113
Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 113
The UK PR Industry employed around 62,000 people
in 2013.
25 per cent of PR practitioners work in London.
Men outnumber women in the senior jobs in PR, with
50 per cent of board level practitioners being male
(SOPR, 14), despite 64 per cent of practitioners being
female and 36 per cent male (SOPR15).
Across Europe, figures demonstrate a female domi-
nance (for example in the European Communica-
tion Monitor survey of practitioners in 41 countries,
59per cent were female and 41 per cent male, ECM,
Zerfass et al. 2015).
6.5 per cent of the profession comes from an ethic
minority and 2 per cent describe themselves as
disabled.
The CIPRs PR 2020 The Future of Public Relations
report by Dr Jon White (2011) highlighted the following
expectations of the profession by current practitioners
in 2020:
The practice will be clear on what public relations is,
and the benefits it can deliver.
The profession will be strongly led, respected and
established as a senior management discipline.
PR practitioners will be confident, committed to
professional development and working to well-
developed codes of conduct.
The CIPR will provide strong leadership to the prac-
tice, and there will be recognised and credible role
models speaking out for the practice.
Source: www.cipr.co.uk (CIPR)
Feedback
Check out other websites how do their ideas and sta-
tistics vary? How many have English translations? Does
the UK site have other languages available? If not, why
not? (See also Chapter6, Intercultural and multicultural
context of public relations.)
This lack of an agreed definition is, however, still a
problem for the practice. Deciding what it is and what
people do has evidently caused much distraction and
expenditure of individual and collective energies. Some
of the long-winded definitions still do not easily con-
vey what the discipline stands for and what people do.
Fawkes (2008) argues that the synthesised UK CIPR
definition of PR, below, is one that at least simplifies
the discussion and helps students and practitioners
understand what it is they do or should be doing: Pub-
lic relations is about reputation the result of what
23/03/2017 13:00
 114 Part 1The context of public relations
Box 7.2
Country profiles from
the Global Alliance a
sample
The following is not an exhaustive list of member states
or associations but a sample from different continents
to indicate the range and variety of PR education, with
a brief history of the development of the field or the
professional organisation to indicate the relationship
between the two. For further, more current, details on
the status of PR in a range of countries, see the Global
Alliance website www.globalalliancepr.org.
Europe
United Kingdom
According to LEtang (1996, 2002) the origins of British
PR lie in the public rather than private sector: during and
after the Second World War, the number of PR consultants
appointed in government departments increased greatly
to enable the handling of information and intelligence,
propaganda and psychological warfare and persuasion
and public relations. The UK professional body, the CIPR
has been involved in education since its inception in 1948,
though originally these were closer to training than aca-
demic courses. PR education in Britain in the past 20 years
has seen an expansion in public relations courses, often
influenced by the location of the course in either a busi-
ness or media school. Tench and Fawkes (2005) suggest
there are two types of courses: a business school curricu-
lum and a media school curriculum. Most PR education
has moved from technical training in skills required by
public relations practitioners, embodied in the Public
Relations Education Trust (PRET) Matrix to a broader,
more academic approach. While most PR educators have
practitioner backgrounds, many have over a decade of
teaching and research experience. However, according to
Tench and Fawkes (2005) the pressure on the post-1992
sector to manage large cohorts and prioritise teaching
over research, has left a gap in UK research into PR.
The Netherlands
Van Ruler and Veri (2004) argue that the rebuilding of
the Dutch society after the Second World War involved
the promotion of business and social goods, although
society had a new, powerful repugnance towards propa-
ganda. In 1945, the first professional association to ease
the exchange of knowledge between journalists and
PR officers representing government, businesses and
agencies was established, leading to the Association for
Public Contact, later renamed the Association for Public
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 114
Relations in the Netherlands, and now the Dutch Associa-
tion of Communication.
The first course in PR in the Netherlands was in 1940 and
this was offered as optional in universities under mass
communication and journalism. Current PR education
in the Netherlands is very well developed, with about 30
full Bachelor of Arts (BA) programmes in organisational
communication or communication management. They
further state that all 13 research universities offer BA
streams in the area of organisational communication or
communication management. The Netherlands School
of Communication Research (NESCoR) offers a Doctor-
ate in Philosophy (PhD) programme in communication
science.
France
The communicational paradigm in France that emerged
during the early 1980s was the Communicational Director
model, due to the emergence of the concept of corporate
image, management requirements, institutional advertising
and that of consultancy agencies in overall communica-
tions. The term PR is rarely used even though it is popular
in consultancies. In the PR educational field, van Ruler and
Veri (2004) state that the number of professional univer-
sity training courses is extremely high, as a result of which
the private sector plays a minor role in education. France
has undergraduate BA programmes as well as postgraduate
education and doctoral programmes, with some doctorates
in information and communication science.
Germany
Public relations development in Germany has been related
to political, economic and social conditions (van Ruler and
Veri 2004). Six periods of German public relations his-
tory have been defined, including Nazi-era propaganda.
After 1945, PR did redefine its tenets of practice under a
democratic government, but PR and research in PR are in
their initial stages, with purpose-free research undertaken
in universities, and applied research, which aims to solve
concrete practical problems, privately financed.
In the 1980s, PR entered the universities and polytech-
nics and in the 1990s, several universities established PR
courses within their communication programmes. Most
universities in Germany today offer BA, Masters and Doc-
torate in Philosophy (PhD) programmes. In some poly-
technics, PR Diploma courses are offered.
Bulgaria
The term Public Relations was first mentioned in Bulgaria
in 1972 in an article by Svetozar Krastev as a component
of marketing. Bulgaria discovered the real PR profession
23/03/2017 13:00

after the changes to democracy in 1989. In 1996 the first
Bulgarian professional association, the Bulgarian Public
Relations Society, was founded. It constitutes practition-
ers and teachers in the sphere of PR, marketing, com-
munication and advertising.
Attempts to teach PR as an academic subject were made
by the first private university in Bulgaria, the New Bulgarian
University in Sofia. In March 1991, the Department of Mass
Communication of the new private university opened its
first 3-year experimental course in PR as a separate special-
ity. Bulgarian universities now offer a three-year degree,
and postgraduate education and PhD courses in PR.
Romania
In Romania, multinational companies were the first to
introduce public relations at the beginning of the 1990s.
Today there are PR agencies, PR departments within
companies and advertising agencies, officers and spe-
cialists within government institutions. Non-governmen-
tal Organisations (NGOs) also employ public relations
specialists. There have been several institutions trying to
represent PR practitioners and promote PR in Romania,
including the Romanian Public Relations Association
(ARRP); the Club of the Romanian Public Relations Agen-
cies; and the Forum for International Communications.
The first recognised college-level course in public rela-
tions was not taught in Romania until 1993 at the
University of Bucharest. This PR course was added to
undergraduate programmes for The Faculty of Journalism
and Communication Studies and, according to the Global
Alliance, was a milestone in the development of PR prac-
tice in the country, which was followed by a couple of
other state and private universities.
Italy
The Federazione Relazione Pubbliche Italiana and
Associazione Comunicazione Pubblica (FERPI), since
the mid-1950s, have helped in the development of
PR in Italy. The history of PR has gone through many
phases from the late 1940s through to the 1990s. FERPI
currently has about 70,000 practitioners who operate
professional PR in private, public and not-for-profit
organisations, according to Global Alliance (see www.
globalalliancepr.org).
In the last ten years, with a focus on university reorgan-
isation, the Italian academy has seen an expansion in
degree programmes in Communication Science in PR,
with postgraduate specialisation in the fields of commu-
nication, public relations and organisation. According to
van Ruler and Veri (2004) many in Italian universities
question the scope of PR and its roots in sociological,
psychological, historic-geographic, legal and economic
disciplines.
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 115
Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 115
The Americas
Canada
The professional body Canadian Public Relations Society
(CPRS) was founded in 1948 in two original groups, the
first in Montreal and the second in Toronto. The CPRS
has about 2000 members; it is estimated that 10 per cent
of practitioners become members. Owing to the dual
culture of the country, national public relations includes
special considerations for communication with the Fran-
cophone market. Public relations education in Canada is
a vital area, with many students graduating with majors
and minors in public relations; in addition to the formal
education, colleges and other adult education courses
offer certificates in public relations.
The United States of America (USA)
The subject of public relations has been taught in univer-
sities for more than 70 years and there are now reported
to be over 3000 degrees in the discipline. The US public
relations education is associated with schools and depart-
ments of journalism or mass communications; with the
first practitioners being trained journalists, priority was
given to the ability to write well.
In 1975 the first commission for public relations educa-
tion recommended that public relations programmes
should consist of a minimum of 12 hours per semester,
which was upgraded in 1978. A model curriculum con-
sisting of a minimum of five courses in public relations
was later introduced (Grunig and Grunig 2003). It has
been argued that, although several practitioners empha-
sised the increase in international public relations, the
fact that public relations education in the USA focused
on technical skills rather than on theory and research
resulted in this area being overlooked to a large degree
in public relations programmes.
The Port of Entry (1999) and The Professional Bond
(2006), research-based reports by the Public Relations
Society of America (PRSA), demonstrated a congru-
ity between what practitioners and scholars believe is
vital to the public relations curriculum. The Port of Entry
recommended undergraduate and graduate education
in which curricular models are grounded in the liberal
arts, theory-based across the curriculum and with the
emphasis on courses rather than departments where
these courses are undertaken.
It has been suggested that in the US, PR education can
be seen as technical training, in contrast to Europe where
strategic communication is the focus of public relations
education. This has led some to question whether the
public relations profession will be able to handle the
23/03/2017 13:00
 116 Part 1The context of public relations
box 7.2 (continued)
challenges to be faced in the twenty-first century. How-
ever, an area of strength that American public relations
has is the issue of ethics. Verwey (2000) suggests the
practice of ethical public relations may become a force
to reckon with in the twenty-first century for public rela-
tions professionals. This will invariably demarcate the
lines that the postmodern public relations practitioner
will need to serve as the agent for change to an organisa-
tion, while also being the conscience of the organisation.
Argentina
The growth of public relations was affected by Argentinas
military rule, but when the country emerged as an inde-
pendent and democratic nation, PR played a more promi-
nent part in society. Argentina has two professional councils
of public relations, the first founded in 1997 to represent
public relations professionals with university and other ter-
tiary education degrees in public relations or related com-
munication fields. There are two professional associations
active in the province of Buenos Aires: The Professional
Council of Public Relations of the Buenos Aires Province
and the Professional Council of Public Relations.
According to Tench and Deflagbe (2008), public relations
education is still developing; there are also specialised
educational courses offered by universities and institu-
tions, including three- to five-year programmes in PR.
Puerto Rico
Public Relations in Puerto Rico follow US practice closely,
but adapted to the cultural implications of the Puerto
Rican society. The driving force of PR in Puerto Rico is the
Asociacin de Relacionistas Profesionales de Puerto Rico
(ARPPR). The ARPPR was founded in 1970 and now has
more than 200 members.
Communication programmes can now be found in
various educational institutions in Puerto Rico, offering
bachelors degrees in communications or journalism, or
related curriculum as part of social science programmes.
Africa
It has been suggested that the concept of PR was prac-
ticed in Africa long before colonialism, if one sees the
similarity between the task of a PR practitioner and
that of a chief s spokesperson in traditional African vil-
lages. The move towards democracy on a broad front
has promoted the development of public relations in
Africa. As regards education, courses in public relations
in Africa are varied, and range from in-service training
by employers and within government ministries (Ferreira
2003) to formal tertiary diploma, degree and post-
degree courses. A variety of short courses are offered
in different countries by development agencies, profes-
sional institutes and private colleges and at tertiary level,
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 116
many public relations programmes are taught as part of a
bachelors degree in communication, mass communica-
tion or journalism (Ferreira 2003). Some universities also
teach public relations to complement other disciplines
such as marketing and business management. A number
of distance-learning programmes in public relations are
also available in Africa
However, Ferreira (2003) states that one cannot pin down
or make a generalisation of the state of public relations
education in Africa. He is of the view that some public
relations officers have entered the career through jour-
nalism, as in the UK and the US indeed some of these
officers have been trained abroad. In some countries the
training is informal and is undertaken by other external
bodies such as banks and private institutions, private
companies and sometimes by the public relations insti-
tute or societies in that country.
Asia and the Middle East
India
Public relations began to increase in India in the early
1990s when the government opened the economy and
multinational corporations began to enter the country.
Public relations companies emerged, offering strategic
advice and integrated communication solutions. Spe-
cialisation has become increasingly important and firms
are demanding higher qualifications and skill sets from
workers (Tench and Deflagbe, 2008).
The Public Relations Consultants Association of India
(PRCAI) was established in 2001 to develop standards,
ethics, expertise and knowledge in the public relations
industry in India. In each of these areas, the primary
objective is to align the public relations industry in India
with international practices.
Sriramesh (1996) argues that almost all of Indias big com-
panies have separate public relations departments, either
working in marketing, social welfare of consumer affairs.
China
According to Culbertson and Chen (1996) the develop-
ment of public relations in China began 20 years ago
with much emphasis on interpersonal communication.
About 150 public relations societies exist throughout
China at the local and provincial as well as national lev-
els. The China International Public Relations Association
(CIPRA) seeks to enhance professionalism, according to
Culbertson and Chen (1996). The CIPRA sets standards
for PR education, not the national Ministry of Educa-
tion. CIPRA and Shanghai Public Relations Association
23/03/2017 13:00

(SPRA) both encourage and support academic research
and theory development. According to CIPRA, there are
only two PR masters degree programmes in China.
Culbertson and Chen (1996) suggest that Chinese pub-
lic relations education has undergone many challenges,
that public relations in China is diverse, and is offered in
interdisciplinary programmes, mass communication or in
departments of journalism, and units that offer speech and
interpersonal communication. Public relations education
is offered in four-year baccalaureate degree programmes,
in two-year technical colleges, and through television and
distance learning targeted at older and non-traditional PR
students. In 2001, the CIPRA introduced the first accredi-
tation examination for public relations practitioners.
(http://www.cipra.org.cn/english/memo/memo1.htm).
Culbertson and Chen (1996) describe public relations
professors in China treating theory and practice equally,
using Confucius and other classic Chinese philosophers,
in addition to Western ideas.
Australasia
Although there are historical, cultural and economic
differences between Australia and New Zealand, public
relations has evolved in similar ways. The development
of public relations in New Zealand has been described as
following a meeting in the Auckland Star Hotel in 1954,
which led to the creation of the Public Relations Institute
of New Zealand (PRINZ). Singh and Smyth (2000) state
that public relations practitioners in New South Wales
you do, what you say and what others say about you
The CIPR goes on to explain that public relations is
the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim
of earning understanding and support and influencing
opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained
effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual
understanding between an organisation and its publics
(CIPR 2015). It also defines organisation, publics and
understanding, with organisation being any corpora-
tion, government or voluntary body or service, publics
as audiences that are important to the organisation and
understanding as a two-way process of engagement. engaged practitioners and enhancing, rather than lim-
Tench and Deflagbe (2008) noted that public rela-
tions (PR) education was responding to the challenges
of the globalisation of communication and econo-
mies but slowly and unevenly. They identified that
problems defining the field are multiplied when the
different cultural perspectives on public relations itself
come into play. Even within Europe the term has vary-
ing connotations reflecting cultural associations with
the public sphere. Several scholars express concern
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 117
Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 117
formed a professional body in Australia, five years ahead
of practitioners in New Zealand, which led to the national
Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) which has
divisions in all states. The PRIA currently has over 3000
members
Australia has developed an approach to public relations
education, which bridges and cooperates between edu-
cators and practitioners. Formal education in public rela-
tions began in New Zealand in the latter part of the 1960s.
Summary
The pattern which emerges from this brief survey of the
development of professional organisations and PR edu-
cation in a range of countries is that most of the former
were founded in the post-war period, with exceptions
where democracy (or, in the case of China, capitalism)
was not established until later.
Most early practitioners in the countries covered were
originally journalists, a fact which influenced the content
of early PR education. This largely consisted of technical
training for many years, with a growth of theoretical and
reflective approaches at undergraduate and postgradu-
ate levels in the 1990s. Some countries are still in the
technical stage, with PR officers envisaged as little more
than errand boys (Deflagbe 2004). Most have found
a correlation between the development of under and
postgraduate courses and the status of the profession
as a whole.
that the lack of a central concept for PR is weakening
its hold in the marketplace. These debates in the litera-
ture reflect tensions between academics and between
academics and practitioners, and illustrate some of the
problems facing the project of a global curriculum (see
also Chapter6 for a discussion on intercultural and
multicultural issues for public relations).
Professional bodies, academics and most practi-
tioners are keen to ensure that education continues
to play its crucial role in improving the professional
standards of public relations, producing reflective and
iting, public relations important role in the changing
global environment.
Despite the CIPRs definition of PR, detailed above,
modern ideas about PR are moving away from reputa-
tion management as the key concept, to relationship
building, so the CIPR definition may be revised or
fade from use. The Public Relations Society of America
adopted a new definition of public relations in March
2012 following a global crowdsourcing campaign and
23/03/2017 13:00
 118 Part 1The context of public relations
public vote. It reads: Public relations is a strategic
communication process that builds mutually beneficial
relationships between organizations and their publics.
Note also the rather different description by the
Spanish public relations association (www.adecec.
com) and also the varied country profiles of public
relations in Box7.2. In fact, it is worth pointing out
that the problem with definitions extends to problems
with language. As Veri et al. (2001) point out, the
term public relations is founded wholly on US refer-
ences and does not translate across the Atlantic. Their
own three-year research programme on PR in Europe
(European Body of Knowledge [EBOK]) showed that
all except English speakers had problems with the term
public relations. For example, the German Offentlich
keitsarbeit carries associations with the public sphere
and public opinion, perhaps rooted in the origins of
European PR through public bodies, such as central
and local government, rather than the corporate work
of early PR in the United States.
So, shall we abandon the search for a decent
description? It could be said that it encourages ring-
fencing and competition and works against integrated
communication approaches to problem solving. Other
disciplines, such as marketing, share these challenges.
However, Hutton (2001) says that PR has lost the
battle for supremacy with marketing and is terminally
threatened by its failure to define itself and to develop
sophisticated and progressive theory or develop its
central tenet or core concept. He comments that there
remains a critical need for public relations to define its
intellectual and practical domain...to regain control Role of the communicator
of its own destiny (2001: 205). See Explore 7.2. More
recent texts on public relations includes Trust Me, PR
is Dead, by Robert Phillips (2015), who charts the
demise of traditional industries, disciplines, hierarchy
and command and control, and the rise of individual
empowerment and the need for radical transparency at
the heart of business. Critics, however, argue that he is
correct in arguing that businesses should be account-
able and transparent, leading and responding to key
social and environmental challenges, but that good
communication is still at the heart of engaging with
stakeholders. They also argue that this crowdfunded
e-book may not have had the rigorous editing process
that a traditional book publisher would provide. The
debate continues to unfold in journals and textbooks
and at conferences, and will do so for years to come.
In the meantime, students and practitioners still need
to be able to describe their jobs in terms meaningful to
their friends and family. This chapter aims to provide
information and insight to assist in that goal.
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 118
Explore 7.2
Job descriptions
One way of gathering information about what PR
practitioners do is to look at the job ads. Look
online at PR Week or The Guardian for PR jobs (see
www.prweekjobs.co.uk or jobs.guardian.com/PR-
Jobs) or LinkedIn. Read the adverts and make a
note of what the employers are looking for. What
job titles are advertised? What skills do they men-
tion? How many ask for relevant qualifications?
What specific knowledge (e.g. social media)? What
personal qualities?
Feedback
Some of the job titles will vary, even for similar posi-
tions. The duties described may not vary so much.
The differences and similarities in these ads offer real
insight into what people do in PR.
Of course, the answers to many of the questions
raised by Explore 7.2 will depend on the type of role,
its level and whether it is in-house or consultancy. The
next section looks at how organisations see the role of
the PR practitioner, before going on to look at what
individuals do on a daily basis.
In Chapter9 we discuss the division between managers
and technicians in PR practice. However, the dichot-
omy is not always clear-cut. Most PR practitioners are
involved in both manager and technician work, but it
is generally accepted that one role may dominate. On
entry into the practice and at the start of their career,
most recruits are given technical tasks. Through expe-
rience and after time this generally means they move
on to fulfilling the more managerial role (see Mini case
studies 7.1 and 7.2, on practitioner roles and responsi-
bilities, and Figure7.1).
The emphasis on these roles of the communicator
has also had an effect on the advancement of women
in PR, as is explored more fully in Chapter8. Another
issue about the roles of communicators is that so many
of the texts have traditionally been US based, but this
is changing with many more books emerging from
Europe and Australasia as well as long-term macro
studies of the roles of communicators such as Tench
23/03/2017 13:00

Figure 7.1 The public relations practitioner as communicator.
Picture 7.1 Does Siobhan Sharpe from the BBCs Olympics
spoof, Twenty Twelve, represent what public relations is
and what practitioners do?
et al.s 201113 study of competences (www.ecopsi.
org.uk).
In many ways, the struggle to define the role of the
communicator has an edge to it: this is not just an
academic debate. PR practitioners need to demonstrate
their value to the employing organisations whether it
is reputation management or relationship building that
they are offering.
These debates are supported by European research
(Zerfass et al. 2008) in a survey of 1500 communica-
tions professionals across 37 countries. The detailed
survey revealed that 75 per cent of practitioners believe
they are taken seriously by senior management but
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 119
Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 119
only 64 per cent are actually involved in decision-mak-
ing and planning. This research has been conducted
every year since 2007 as a longitudinal study to enable
annual comparisons of trends in PR across Europe.
For 2015 the number of countries expanded to 41
with 2391 senior communicators responding to an in-
depth, online survey (see www.communicationmonitor.
eu). From the 2015 data there were some interesting
findings on the evolving complexity of communication,
which affects the role of the modern practitioner. For
example, 86 per cent of respondents believe there is
an overall need to integrate communication activities
that affect all functions in the organisation. That said,
comparison with ECM research from 2011 demon-
strates that there has been limited progress in integrat-
ing communication between and across organisational
functions. Also, communication practitioners perceive
emerging concepts as very important such as content
strategy (93 per cent), content marketing (88 per cent)
and brand journalism (75 per cent).
The PR practitioner as
communicator
The drive to get on the board of directors is also con-
nected to the desire to be taken seriously. There is some
success in this area: as Box 7.1 shows, all the top 100
23/03/2017 13:00
 120 Part 1The context of public relations
Case study 7.1
Public relations in Brazil
The biggest country in South America, Brazil is one of the
emerging democratic nations and the seventh economy
in the world. It has celebrated one hundred years of pub-
lic relations, in which professionals work dynamically
across this vast multi-ethnic and diverse country, from
north to south and east to west, in a wide variety of sec-
tors, both in-house and in agencies.
The date 30 January 1914 represents a cornerstone in the
history of PR in Brazil, when the first Department of Public
Relations was created at the So Paulo Tramway Light &
Power Company Limited, currently AES Eletropaulo (ABRP
2015). Eduardo Pinheiro Lobo founded the in-house
office in order to enhance the firms media relations with
the public and the publics services. This date also signi-
fies the institutionalisation of PR activity, a philosophy of
communication and relationship management, which
cuts across enterprises that value dialogue, transparency,
quality and ethics, and has developed as Brazils business
environment has also flourished, grown and diversified.
Subsequently, the Public Relations Brazilian Association
(ABRP) was founded in So Paulo, on 21 July 1954, and
focused on uniting professionals for vocational and cor-
porate purposes.
According to Professor Cleuza Gimenes Cesca (2016), the
public relations activity in Brazil was developed by self-
taught people until higher education courses in public
relations were developed in 1967 at the University of So
Paulo. However, public relations undertook a period of
stagnation in the period of military dictatorship that was
imposed on the country from 1964 to 1985.
In 1967, the profession was accredited as an academic
discipline and the first bachelors degree programme was
founded by Candido Teobaldo de Souza Andrade, at the
University of So Paulo (Universidade de So Paulo, known
as USP in Brazil). Currently, there are 54 universities in the
country teaching public relations (SINPRORP 2015). So
Paulo city has the highest number of universities with over
10 faculties across the capital city of the State of So Paulo.
Each year, 1971 students graduate after a four-year part-
time course (Guia da Carreira 2015; MEC 2015). A signifi-
cant change in the education of PR happened in 2015: the
public relations programs must fit the curriculum guidelines
approved in September 2013 by the governments Minis-
try of Education. These major changes are: the professional
placement is now mandatory; the class duration increases
from 50 to 60 minutes for each lecture; hours went up
from 2700 to 3200 in four years and the dissertation, which
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 120
previously could be done in a group, became an individual
piece of work (Guia do Estudante 2015; MEC 2015).
According to the ABRP So Paulo (2015), there are 800
corporate communications agencies in Brazil, 17 per
cent are PR and other professionals as well; the most
demanded PR activities are media relations (35 per cent
of profits), communication training (8 per cent), inter-
nal communication (7 per cent), and communication in
social networks (7 per cent).
Currently, the Public Relations Brazilian Associations So
Paulo unit proposes to increase research on the market
of public relations, with two main streams:
1. Focus on sectors of the economy that have not been
reached by other organisations, such as communica-
tions institutions like ABRACOM, ABERJE and
CONFERP, and work in partnership with the organi-
sations representing these sectors (such as as APADi,
UBRAFE, ABEOC, ABIH, FIESP, CIESP, Sebrae,
Fecomercio), as well as the public sector, expanding
perspectives on and the recognition of PR activity;
2. Engage students of PR courses in processes for the
production and processing of such data, combining
research and practices under faculty supervision as
well as community involvement.
Furthermore, according to the Public Relations Brazilian
Association, SP (ABRP 2015), their professional values are
as follows: quality, dialogue, entrepreneurship, engage-
ment, respect, memory and collaboration.
Besides the Public Relations Brazilian Association, in
some states there are several Regional Councils of Public
Relations Professionals (CONRERPs) delivering training,
conferences, events, research and management of pro-
fessionals memberships.
The Federal Council of Public Relations, CONFERP, is
located in Brasilia, D.F., Capital of Brazil, and is in charge
of enhancement of the PR profession with regards to
the laws, elections, ethics, trends, conferences, awards
and international institutions links. The European
and Latin American Communication Monitor (www
.communicationmonitor.eu) are the largest and longest
running longitudinal studies of international trends in
strategic communication and public relations, and are
listed in the Councils webpage.
According to the Federal Council of Public Relations
(2015), around 5200 professionals are officially registered
with the institution. However, it is known that there are
more graduate professionals who are not associates or
who do not work in PR positions.
23/03/2017 13:00
 Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 121

For Professor Cleuza Gimenes Cesca (2016), nowadays,
PR is recognised as a profession without which organisa-
tions could not survive. However, in a survey conducted
by her, it was revealed that there are several different
denominations of public relations in Brazil, such as:
communications manager, internal communications
coordinator, customer service coordinator, relations
coordinator with the community director government
relations, manager of institutional relations with envi-
ronmental relations coordinator, relations coordinator
with the third sector, press officer and internal commu-
nications. Even though the field is open to professionals
from some other backgrounds (degrees), the position
of public relations requires training and is managed by
the professional councils Federal Council of Public Rela-
tions and the Regional Council of Professionals Public
Relations in the country. But according to this research,
there is a preference at the time of recruitment and
selection by the organisations for professionals with a
degree in public relations to work with different denom-
inations as above.
Facebook has a community page named RP Brasil (trans-
lated as Relaes Pblicas in the Brazilian Portuguese lan-
guage) with more than 18,000 dynamic members and
regular posts and topics for engagement and information.
In Brazil, Public Relations Day is celebrated on 2
December in order to honour the profession and pro-
mote celebratory gatherings of professionals around
the country.
(Source: Fabiana Gondim Mariutti).
References
Professor Cleuza Gimenes Cesca, Dr. (2016). Interviewed
by email. CONFERP Federal Council of Public
Relations (2015). Available at http://www.conferp
.org.br/
Guia da Carreira (2015). Available at http://www
.guiadacarreira.com.br/profissao/relacoes-publicas/
Guia do Estudante (2015). Available at http://
guiadoestudante.abril.com.br/profissoes/comunicacao-
informacao/relacoes-publicas-688024.shtml
MEC Ministry of Education (2015). Available at http://
www.mec.gov.br/
ABRP Public Relations Brazilian Association (2015) Avail-
able at http://abrpsp.org.br/institucional-2/
SINPRORP Union of Public Relations Professionals (2015)
Available at http://www.sinprorp.org.br/

companies in Britain have PR departments. The ques-

tion is: how much authority do they have within those
companies? A survey by Watson Helsby Consultancy of
PR directors at 28 of Britains top companies, including
BP, Vodafone and HSBC (Financial Times, 22 October
2003), found that while most reported directly to the
chief executive, many failed to get the attention of the
board. The survey found that only 30 per cent of PR peo-
ple sat on their company executive committees and none
on the board. The UKs Public Relations Consultants
Associations (PRCA) In-house Benchmarking Report
2014, however, reported a year-on-year healthy increase
of PRs representations at senior management/board level,
from 72 per cent to 77 per cent, which is a great improve-
ment from the early years of the new millennium.
Other evidence suggests a flourishing time ahead for
PR. For example, PR was considered the best return on
investment by entrepreneurs in a survey for the Finan-
cial Times in 2004, and in 2014 Forbes.com reported
that In todays socially connected world, public rela-
tions is more important than ever before, as shown in
Figure7.2.
Mini case study 7.1 illustrates the kind of career
Figure 7.2 What type of marketing activity gives the best
available in PR and the richness (and challenge) of the return on investment for startup SMEs?
PR role at a senior level. The communicator is often (source: FT Creative Business, 13 July 2004, based on research by
expected to play a wide range of roles. new2marketing accessed www.ipr.org.uk, 20 July)

M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 121 23/03/2017 13:00

 122 Part 1The context of public relations
Mini case study 7.1
Katherine Bennett OBE
Vice President, Head of
Political Affairs, Airbus
SAS UK
Role at Airbus
Katherine joined Airbus in August 2004 and became UK
Director of Communications and Government Affairs in
2007. She commenced the role of Vice President, Head
of Political Affairs for Airbus SAS in October 2010. Her
government affairs role encompassed managing rela-
tionships between Airbus and national, regional and
local government. She takes the lead on all public policy
issues affecting the company and ensures that key gov-
ernment and interested stakeholders are kept informed
and aware of company developments. Her time is split
between Bristol, where Airbus SAS UKs HQ is based
and an office in Westminster, London. The Government
Affairs Department has a direct reporting function to the
managing director in the UK.
In the public affairs industry, the managing directors
direct involvement is a prerequisite for the function.
Government affairs need to be integral in company strat-
egy and direction. This integration can take a number of
forms, whether in considerations over avoidance of risk,
ensuring there is a supportive legislative background for
the companys forward plans and product development,
or indeed issues surrounding sustainability and CSR.
Airbuss Communications Team is a sister department
to Government Affairs and the two functions are closely
aligned, which allows joint allocation of resources when
required and the necessary coordination of messages to
Airbuss key audiences.
Issue management
Airbus is the market leader in aircraft manufacturing and
sales, employing over 50,000 people worldwide, of which
13,000 are in the UK and represent highly skilled research
and development (R&D) and manufacturing jobs. The
UK business is the Airbus Centre of Excellence for wing
The PR practitioner must be adaptable, energetic,
versatile, diplomatic and resilient to get along with
a mixed group of clients and stakeholder groups.
Pieczka refers to the existence of an expertise which
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 122
design and manufacture and also heads up the integra-
tion of landing gear and fuel systems for Airbus aircraft.
One of Katherines first challenges was to ensure the UK
business was fully represented and involved in the unveil-
ing of the new A380 aircraft. With the capacity of seat-
ing 555 passengers, this is the largest civil airliner ever
launched and brought a completely new dimension to
the aircraft market in terms of customer offering and
innovative systems technology.
The unveiling ceremony took place in Toulouse, France,
in front of over 5000 assembled media, government
representatives and customer representatives. Kather-
ine undertook the coordination of the logistics, media
activity and protocol surrounding the participation of UK
Prime Minister Tony Blair. The key part of this activity was
to ensure the smooth running of a two-way satellite link
between Blair and Airbus employees back in the UK.
The event was probably one of the largest product unveil-
ings ever seen and the media coverage reflected this. Over
500 media representatives with 60 film crews attended
the ceremony. In the UK, the event attracted 650 separate
items of media coverage, including BBC/ITV main TV news
slots of more than two minutes. The Airbus website had
live coverage, and received 3,419,398 hits that day.
Background
Katherine is a member of the Chartered Institute of Pub-
lic Relations and graduated in history and politics from
Leicester University. She has a postgraduate diploma in
marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Katherines previous employment was with Vauxhall/
GM UK where for nearly nine years she also headed up
their government affairs function. Her time at Vauxhall
involved managing numerous public policy lobbying
campaigns, and issues management, such as major indus-
trial restructuring programmes and CSR. Her time with
GM included several months based in the USA. Before
joining Vauxhall, Katherine was an account manager in
the Public Affairs Department of Hill and Knowlton (an
international PR company) working on behalf of energy,
charity and automotive clients. While at Hill and Knowl-
ton she undertook several in-house training courses.
Katherine was awarded the Order of the British Empire in
June 2004 for services to the motor industry and charity.
Source: based on interview with author and
information supplied by Katherine Bennett.
is distinctive yet flexible enough to be applicable
across a wide field and suggests that public relations
expertise is a complex interactive structure organ-
ised through past experience and current exigencies
23/03/2017 13:00

(demands), which modifies itself through action
(Pieczka 2002: 321322).
This perspective would suggest that there is no
one paradigm or template for the role, but that it is a
dynamic process created through the interface of our
past and our interactions with the present. Figure7.3
presents a model that uses systems theory as the basis
for the concept of this role as a dynamic, interactive
and open system.
Systems theory works on the basis that everything in
the social world is part of a system that interacts with
other systems in that the whole equals more than the
sum of its parts (von Bertalanffy 1969). Building on the
work of Katz and Kahn (1978), PR scholars (e.g. Cut-
lip et al. 2000, 2008) use systems theory to explain the
interactions between organisations and their environ-
ments, interactions between organisations and inter-
actions within organisations. (Systems theory is fully
explained in Chapter8.)
This model assumes that the PR practitioner is part
of an open system interacting with other systems, and
therefore the nature of the role will not be fixed but
depend on the influences both in and out of the sys-
tem, from early experiences and education through to
ongoing continuing professional development (CPD).
Key to this model is that the system does not exist in
isolation, but only exists insofar as it relates to other
systems. This model also reaffirms that the PR practi-
tioner as counsel must be aware of the context of their
own role, and the context of the organisation or cli-
ent they are representing, and acting as the boundary
Figure 7.3 Public relations practitioner role within systems theory
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 123
Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 123
spanner. That requires an interest in, and understand-
ing of, the wider community, whether it is political,
economic, sociological, and any number of other ways
to frame the narrative of the twenty-first century.
There is an increasing body of research, with enor-
mous potential for further development, looking at the
role of the practitioner and using a number of meth-
odologies to explain and measure the role. Moss et al.
(2004) have identified a number of common themes
in both the UK and USA among senior practitioners,
such as their part in the dominant coalition and their
contribution to strategic decision-making.
Wilkin (2001) provides an interesting and contro-
versial perspective on the implications of global com-
munication; Allan (2000) on the social divisions and
hierarchies reproduced by the news media. Research
among employers needs in graduates tends to high-
light the requirement for employees who can manage
change and understand the context the organisation
is functioning in and can evidence the more abstract
cognitive powers.
The argument supports the idea that the role of the
PR practitioner is a very wide-ranging one, far wider
than many PR exponents might feel happy with, but
worth considering if we want to move PR onto a higher
plane. Those with a background in corporate commu-
nications will already recognise the role. It is often with
the introduction of a corporate communicator and the
playing out of territorial and functional wars that the
true potential of a role, which both oversees and con-
nects, is appreciated, not only by senior management
23/03/2017 13:00
 124 Part 1The context of public relations
Figure 7.4 Public relations/communication role within an
organisation
but also by the organisation as a whole, and signifi-
cantly by other functions within the organisation (such
as marketing). This is a role which, with the right train-
ing and development, can become synonymous with
the PR role (see Figure7.4). (See also Chapter10 on
the management and planning of PR activities.) See
Think about 7.1.
Consider the role that PR plays in communicating
with employees as well as external stakeholders.
What public relations people
do: individual practitioners
Lots of people work in PR and in a range of roles. As
Explore 7.2 showed, there is a huge variety of job titles
in job adverts for PR practitioners, including public rela-
tions/corporate communications consultant, executive,
Think about 7.1
Public relations and its influence
within organisations
Is there anywhere in the organisation where public
relations does not have a role to play?
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 124
manager, director, officer, advisor, counsellor, etc. To
help us understand in more detail what these individuals
are actually doing it is necessary to simplify and classify
the locations in which they are working. So, there are
three simple categories of where people work in public
relations:
1. In-house (employed by an organisation, whether a
public or private company or a public body, char-
ity or non-governmental organisation, NGO).
2. Consultancy (agency where practitioners work for
one or more different clients for a fee).
3. Freelance practitioner (where an individual works
for himself and is employed by in-house depart-
ments or consultancies on a short-term contract
basis, either for a specific project or to fill in during
peaks in demand or because staff absence requires
additional resource).
While much of the work is the same across these
categories, there are key differences:
In-house: get to know one organisation in depth;
work across wide range of PR activities, from
writing/editing house journals, blogs, websites to
arranging visits by or to MPs/opinion formers,
etc.; get to know a sector and industry very well,
be it music, motoring, education, engineering, high-
street fashion or even farming and travel.
Consultancy: work across many accounts, with
a variety of clients; may work in specialist areas
such as technology, finance or public affairs. Con-
sultants tend to be specialists in either business-to-
business PR or business-to-consumer PR, with both
areas providing vibrant and varied careers.
Fawkes (2008) argues that understanding the
practice is helped by analysing how people engage
in different activities. She does this by describing the
common PR areas with examples of what practitio-
ners will do in each area (see Table7.1 and Explore
7.3.).
Skills for the ideal practitioner
So what skills are needed to work in PR? It would
probably be quicker to identify those which are not
required, although that is not easy either. Because
there are so many kinds of work and so many kinds of
employer, there is room in PR for everyone from the
extrovert party person to the researcher glued to their
tablet or PC.
23/03/2017 13:00
 Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 125

Public relations activity Explanation Examples

Internal communication Communicating with employees In-house newsletter, suggestion boxes

Corporate PR Communicating on behalf of whole Annual reports, conferences, ethical

organisation, not goods or services statements, visual identity, images

Media relations Communicating with journalists, specialists,
editors from local, national, international
and trade media, including newspapers,
magazines, radio, TV and web-based
communication
Press releases, photocalls, video news
releases, off-the-record briefings, press
events

Business to business Communicating with other organisations, Exhibitions, trade events, newsletters
e.g. suppliers, retailers

Public affairs Communicating with opinion formers, Presentations, briefings, private meetings,
e.g. local/national politicians, monitoring public speeches
political environment

Community relations/corporate Communicating with local community, Exhibitions, presentations, letters,

social responsibility elected representatives, headteachers, etc. meetings, sports activities and other
sponsorship

Investor relations Communicating with financial Newsletters, briefings, events

organisations/individuals

Strategic communication Identification and analysis of situation, Researching, planning and executing a
problem and solutions to further campaign to improve ethical reputation of
organisational goals organisation

Issues management Monitoring political, social, economic and Considering effect of US economy and
technological environment presidential campaign on UK organisation

Crisis management Communicating clear messages in fast- Dealing with media after major rail crash
changing situation or emergency on behalf of police, hospital or local
authority

Copywriting Writing for different audiences to high Press releases, newsletters, web pages,
standards of literacy annual reports

Publications management Overseeing print/media processes, often Leaflets, internal magazines, websites
using new technology

Events management, exhibitions Organisation of complex events, exhibitions Annual conference, press launch, trade
shows

Table 7.1 Examples of what public relations people do (source: Fawkes 2008)

However, some indication of what employers
are looking for can be gleaned by their responses to
questions posed by Fawkes and Tench (2004b) (see
Table7.2). This research shows that there was agree-
ment from employers that literacy was the primary
skill required by PR graduates. This is supported
by the UKs Chartered Institute of Public Relations
(CIPR) whose annual State of the Profession report
2015, found that competences remain focused on tra-
ditional PR skills such as written communication and
interpersonal skills (64 per cent). There is an increasing
demand for digital and technical skills, such as SEO,
HTML and coding when hiring junior and senior PR
practitioners (20 per cent). Both in-house and consul-
tancy employers also ranked teamwork as the next
most important attribute, followed by problem solving,
analytical thinking, research skills, IT skills and numer-
acy. There were some variations between the employer
groups, with in-house employers giving greater weight-
ing to IT skills over research skills the opposite of
consultants priorities.
Another insight into skills required by PR practitio-
ners can be found in the results of the major research-
based investigations into PR education in the United

M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 125 23/03/2017 13:00

 126 Part 1The context of public relations
Explore 7.3
In-house and consultancy jobs
Look at the job ads you gathered in Explore 7.2. How
many of them are for in-house, and how many for
consultancy jobs? What differences are there in the
skills, qualifications and interests they require?
Feedback
It may be easier to find in-house jobs, especially for
public sector jobs, as they are more likely to advertise
in national newspapers. Consultancies often advertise
in PR Week in the UK or recruit informally through
word of mouth and headhunting (asking an individ-
ual to change agencies). You can find out about some
of these jobs by looking at the PR agencys website.
States, presented in the Public Relations Society of Amer-
ica (PRSA) Port of Entry report (1999) and the follow
up report, the Professional Bond (2006) (see Table7.3).
This surveyed employers and debated with other aca-
demics before concluding that the range of knowledge
and skills listed in Table7.3 were desirable in PR prac-
titioners. More interesting work on the skills and capa-
bilities of practitioners has been developed through the
largest EU-funded PR research project into practitioner
skills and competencies, the European Communication
Skills and Innovation Programme (ECOPSI) (Tench et
al. 2012, 2013, 2015a; Moreno et al. 2014, 2015; Tench
and Konczos 2015; Tench and Moreno 2015).
Furthermore, research suggests that some practitio-
ners may exaggerate their contribution, particularly
consultants. Zerfass et al. (2008), for example, showed
that 83 per cent of respondents working in agencies
(consultancies) thought that they were used for strategic
Employers combined
evaluation of skills Not important % Fairly important
Numeracy 7 7
Literacy 0 0
IT skills 2 2
Problem solving 1 1
Analytical thinking 0 0
Teamwork 0 0
Research skills 0 0
Table 7.2 Key graduate skills (source: Fawkes and Tench 2004b)
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 126
and/or market insight/experience. However only 42 per
cent of their clients agreed (see Figure7.5). Further to
the 2008 survey, the 2012 European Monitor research
found that both advisory and executive influence were
down in Europe. Advisory is the perception of how
seriously senior managers take the recommendations of
communication professionals, and executive influence
is the perception of how likely it is that communication
representatives will be invited to senior-level meetings
dealing with organisational strategic planning. The per-
ception of advisory influence went down from nearly
78 per cent in 2011 to less than 70 per cent in 2012.
Executive influence went down from almost 77 per cent
to 72 per cent (Zerfass et al. 2011, 2012). 2012 was the
first year since the monitor started that these figures
have dropped. A comparison shows that communica-
tion functions in the United States are better in these
dimensions on average however, all Scandinavian
states as well as Germany, the United Kingdom and
the Netherlands report a stronger and partially much
stronger executive influence (see Figure7.6).
From the 2008 European ECM study, when results
were compared with data from a US study it was appar-
ent that clients in Europe are less dependent on agen-
cies than their counterparts in the US. See Figure7.7.
Before turning to the academic debates about skills,
it is worth looking at Mini case study 7.2, which
lists the kind of skills required by one particular sec-
tor, financial and investor relations (IR). (See also
Chapter22).
The skills debate
What skills do PR practitioners need in order effec-
tively to deliver results and how do they acquire these
skills? The wider UK contextual framework for edu-
cation and training puts skills centre stage. In some
% Very important %
65 63 28 27
0 0 101 98
49 47.5 49 47.5
21 20 77 75
26 25 73 70
11 10 87 84
56 54 45 44
23/03/2017 13:00
 Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 127

Necessary knowledge includes Necessary skills include

Communication and public relations theories Research methods and analysis

Societal trends Management of information

Legal requirements and issues Problem solving and negotiation

Public relations history Management of communication

Multicultural and global issues Strategic planning

Participation in the professional PR community Issues management

Working with a current issue Audience segmentation

Applying cross-cultural and cross-gender sensitivity Informative and persuasive writing

Communication and persuasion concepts and strategies Community relations, consumer relations, employee
relations, other practice areas

Relationships and relationship building Technological and visual literacy

Ethical issues Managing people, programmes and resources

Marketing and finance Sensitive interpersonal communication

Use of research and forecasting Fluency in a foreign language

Organisational change and development Ethical decision-making

Message production

Public speaking and presentation

Table 7.3 Port of Entry and Professional Bond recommendations on knowledge and skills (source: PRSA 1999 and 2006)

Figure 7.5 Reasons for cooperation: different perceptions between PR agencies and their clients (Zerfass et al 2008).
See also Zerfass et al. (2015)

M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 127 23/03/2017 13:00

 128 Part 1The context of public relations

Figure 7.6 Decline of influence across Europe? (source: Zerfass et al. 2012. European Communication Monitor,
www.communicationmonitor.eu)

Figure 7.7 Clients in Europe are less dependent on agencies than those is the US (source: Zerfass et al. 2008. European
Communication Monitor, www.communicationmonitor.eu)

M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 128 23/03/2017 13:00


Mini case study 7.2
Financial investor
relations skills
Have in-depth understanding of how the markets
work
Count top opinion formers among contacts
Able to talk to top broadsheet financial journalists
and key bloggers
Have the ear of the board members, if not on the
board
Understand the financial calendar and rules/regu-
lations of the Stock Exchange
Overview of all online and offline communication
activity related to financial and investor relations
Oversee production of annual report, etc.
Effective proof-reading skills/on-press checking
Manage media events
Train senior management in media interviews
Produce media and other stakeholder information
ways this has worked in favour of PR education and
training. No one will argue with the need for skills
in one form or another. In many areas the creative
industries (which include PR consultancies) are seen
as a growth sector. The debate over skills has been
muddied by the different terminologies employed and
by the fact that whereas some skills may be transfer-
able and portable, others are very subject specific.
Undergraduates may lack basic literacy skills, for
example, something we might see as essential for the
PR role and practitioners do, according to Fawkes
and Tench 2004a). A look at the job specs for PR
positions today reveal an increasing trend for digital
and online media skills, especially at executive level
(see Chapter3).
Skills have become an integral component of bench-
marking (setting achievement and quality levels), and
are therefore now part of the curriculum. There has
been a trend in the last decade towards generic skills
and towards the involvement of employers and educa-
tionalists in defining those skills. This has led to new
concepts such as employability and externality.
These have translated in the UK into the requirement
for all students to have a personal progress file, which
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 129
Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 129
records and reflects on their individual achievements,
and which follows on from school-based records of
achievement. This sits well with the portfolio-based
work of many PR-related HE courses. As discussed
earlier, skills is also an important agenda item for prac-
titioners in the training, development and continuing
evolution of the practice (see Tench et al. 2012; Tench
and Moreno 2015).
This at least provides us with a potential paradigm
for the PR practitioner where they become a lifelong
learner and are able to reflect on their own learning and
development throughout their career (and beyond).
Education and training does not end with the last day
of term or the last exam. From school, through edu-
cation and training where learning logs or portfolios
are used to evidence and assess certain skills, including
reflection, through to CPD responsibility for our own
learning, we never stop learning.
Hargie (2000) suggests that competence in a profes-
sion involves three sets of skills:
1. cognitive (the knowledge base)
2. technical or manipulative skills inherent in a pro-
fession
3. social or communication skills.
He points out that education and training have
usually focused on the first at the expense of inter-
personal skills. For the PR practitioner, interpersonal
skills must surely be as important as any other and
are perhaps even a given.
This is a confusing situation, but the graduate in
disciplines related to PR has the advantage that the
sector already encompasses skills and employability as
a key component, even intrinsic to the subject mat-
ter. Therefore, a portfolio that may evidence skills the
student has mastered, illustrated in outcomes such as
strategic campaign planning, online social media and
activities, press release writing or event management,
may also be valuable for taking around to interviews
to show employers what the student can actually do
and has done.
The Hargie approach to the skills debate, outlined
above, mirrors the earlier suggestion that PR practi-
tioners must have a wide range of skills to move up
the continuum. The UK-based perspective is sup-
ported by evidence from the United States. The PRSA
studies (1999 and 2006) provide a wide perspective
on addressing the next PR crisis, which is ensuring
appropriate education and training. The emphasis here
is on the complementary approach of knowledge that
graduates are expected to have and skills specific to the
profession (see Figure7.8).
23/03/2017 13:00
 130 Part 1The context of public relations
Figure 7.8 Public relations practitioner life cycle.
This debate is continuing and the Commission on Pub-
lic Relations Education Industry held an Educator Sum-
mit on public relations education in 2015 in New York
where approximately 50 international public relations
Case study 7.2
A week in the life of
a PR agency account
director: Kyla Flynn,
Account Director, MCG,
London and Leeds
A typical Monday involves a lot of planning and creativity.
Its when I sit down with the team to discuss the week.
But before I even get to the office, I check Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram for our clients.
I always have my phone attached to me, its part and par-
cel of having a job where youre on the go all the time.
So much communication now takes place across social
media, most of our communication strategies we offer to
clients are integrated. Social media is such a big talking
point throughout the day from the minute I wake up to
when I go to bed. For example all of our clients would
love to be involved with TV programmes like the BBCs
Great British Bake Off, so Im permanently attached to
my phone so I can check for opportunities. We do have
a dedicated social media person in the office and she
keeps an eye on all of our clients channels and conver-
sations on social. She also keeps her eyes peeled for new
business opportunities. However, those opportunities
often spring from conversations we have. We direct Alice
to keep an eye on certain brands wed like to work with,
to see what theyre doing, so a lot of our work is research.
We also use social media to keep a check on what our
clients competitors are doing, what creative and cam-
paign content they are pushing. We really want to take
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 130
industry leaders and educators debated topics related to
undergraduate public relations education, with a heavy
focus on how best to prepare students for a career in the
public relations industry (see www.commpred.org).
our clients into a different sphere, be it lifestyle, fitness,
fashion, beauty etc. so it can lead to a lot of conversa-
tions. Bloggers are also a key target area for us. Many
have made strong business models out of their blogs,
the reach and influence they have can be phenomenal.
Look at vloggers like Zoella, shes baking, shes bought
a house so she now includes cooking and interiors as
well as fashion and make-up in her blog posts. We really
have to keep an eye on what and whos trending. I use
TweetDeck and Facebook apps to manage all my pages
in one place. For Instagram I use my personal account for
all my clients, as it still has a bit of a way to go to become
as sophisticated as other popular social media chan-
nels, but they now do sponsored links which is prog-
ress. Pinterest is a growing platform which I also check
throughout the week.
We work with different clients in different ways, some
have to approve every comment and interaction,
whereas others have agreed a tone of voice with
us so we can respond immediately and use our own
discretion.
I also check my phone for calls. Then I go for a run, which I
do every day, a run on Hampstead Heath, and then I check
my phone and the apps again after this. I dont know what
Id do without Hampstead Heath, its my escape. Once Im
in the office we have Monday morning catch up meetings.
I have colleagues based in different offices so I usually
FaceTime colleagues. We refer regularly to our planner
because it details what has been approved by the client
and it means we know exactly whats coming up, and what
to look out for. For example it was national curry week last
week. We know about it well in advance and therefore
work hard to get coverage for our food clients through
strategically planned approaches.
23/03/2017 13:00

We always know that a few months in advance we need
to be speaking to the long leads like the monthly maga-
zines, and a month in advance for the short leads, like
the dailies and the bloggers, to see what they are doing
and what we might be able to do together. The planner
gets printed onto A3 and Ill ask the account executives
what theyre doing to address the planner, and any feed-
back from the previous weeks conversations with jour-
nalists and bloggers. For instance my colleague might
say shes spoken to Country Living and theyve finished
putting together their December edition. Therefore we
need to start thinking about Valentines Day and get some
creative ideas agreed upon. If were working towards a
regular calendar of events we have to make sure the
communications integrate for both traditional and social
media. Theyre both so key to help us achieve little and
big goals. I also check this against our targets for the client
to make sure were working well.
We speak to people in the team constantly so we all
know what were doing. Were not afraid to keep asking
what everyones doing to make sure nothing is missed. If
weve got an event coming up that tends to take priority
but we also review things that slip to the bottom of the
pile from the week before.
Each Friday we print off an update for each client and if
there are any discussion points from that we roll it over
to the Monday morning discussion.
On a Monday the directors and I will sit down and discuss
budgets. We also review our strategies to make sure were
on target for the next quarter campaigns. I also keep my
hand in with journalists and I struggle to balance my time
between being strategic, working with the client and
making sure I still have that daily contact with journalists.
Ive worked so hard to build these contacts over the last
seven years. Youve got to work hard at these relation-
ships, talking to an editorial assistant is so powerful as
they may become lifestyle editor one day for example.
My relationships are my currency!
At the moment Im working on between six retained and
a few project-based clients. For example Ive got three
or four clients who all want to be on BBCs Great British
Bake Off. The majority of clients are realistic and know
that were not going to get branded goods onto such a
popular BBC programme. They understand that its more
about the discussion around the programme, although
we did get Mary Berry wearing one of our clients blazers,
which was brilliant. An apple-producing client wont be
featured but well be Tweeting about our client and their
products during and after the programme each week.
We speak to clients as and when they want to speak to us,
we can go a couple of weeks without speaking to them,
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 131
Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 131
and we can get on with the work. But we also have hourly
conversations with others, especially if they have prob-
lem or a great opportunity comes up. Thats the nature of
agency work. We are there to support our clients, were at
their beck and call. Fortunately Ive never had an overly
demanding client.
Ive got a restaurant opening in a couple of weeks and Im
speaking to the client regularly. Its often about reassurance,
and telling them whats going on every step of the way. You
cant be afraid to pick up the phone and speak to people,
clients much prefer that to worrying about whats going on.
Im in a planning meeting with a client on Tuesday to
strategically plan next years key activities. Were meet-
ing in a central London hotel, away from the offices. Its
important to be in a nice surrounding with the client.
We have a journalists breakfast on Wednesday morning,
then back in the office till the afternoon when Ive got a
meeting with a magazine to discuss some issues a client
has had with them and how we can resolve those issues.
Weve found that sending a press release and product to
a journalist has to have a standout factor. We often send
products and press releases by bike or post, and of course
by email. The journalists get so many releases every day,
so you need to work on whats going to give you that.
We know the product on its own isnt going to give you
the standout so you have to work really hard to make it
standout. Most of the time were not sending them cham-
pagne or caviar! Last week we launched a new Indian
food range for a client, so we took hot meals to all of our
relevant journalist contacts. We delivered a whole Curry
Club Bag to them. We usually do that in person as I want
to be in front of the journalist to see what they think. We
always ring in advance, make an appointment or say were
popping round, can you come to reception to meet us.
When we did a delivery drop recently another agency had
dropped off a cheese product with reception, the journal-
ist came down and the receptionist just gave it to him. He
didnt know anything about it, and he gave it to us, he
wasnt eating cheese and didnt know who it had come
from. Some agencies just use couriers to do the drops.
The fashion journalist were meeting for breakfast will be
telling us what her priorities are for the next few months.
Even though its October well be discussing when she
will be featuring spring shoes for example. We need to
know what themes they might be thinking of, well also
make suggestions, and build on the relationship. I enjoy
getting to know the journalists well. I often find I get calls
from them asking for advice on careers as well as helping
them out with a story idea because theyve got to know
23/03/2017 13:00
 132 Part 1The context of public relations
case study 7.2 (continued)
us. Everybody is helping each other but you have to work
hard to build trust and be able to respond quickly to their
requests. Our office is full of fridge freezers and clothes
racks galore to store our clients products so we can fulfil
journalists requests quickly and plan our drops.
I usually have lunch on the go, but often Im at nice res-
taurants with clients or journalists. You really have to
offer journalists a good experience, you have to know
the best cafes, bars and new places to go that a journalist
will want to experience. If I dont have a lunch appoint-
ment I like to get out of the office, even if its for 20
minutes.
We monitor our clients coverage through a cuttings
service, and many of our clients also have a cuttings
service. We use Scout to keep an eye on online plat-
forms. Weve got good contacts who will tell us whats
going on in the media. Usually we get a quick call from
the journalist to let us know if our client is going to be
featured. We also buy the papers and magazines every
day too.
I share a flat with a PR person who works in health,
so we share knowledge, and I have a lot of in-house
PR contacts too. Its always really useful to get their
Picture 7.2 Kyla Flynn, pictured centre, with colleagues at
MCG. (source: Kyla Flynn)
The model of the PR practitioner is now someone
who encompasses both higher level and how to skills,
and is still (and always will be) learning. This provides
a continuum with, at one end, someone ready to learn
and, at the other, no end point as there is always room
to learn more. What point they are at on that contin-
uum will depend on background and experiences and
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 132
perspective on PR agencies. I also go to client evening
events, and breakfast briefings which can be really
useful to network at, get your agency name around,
and listen to guest speakers like editors from the big
publications.
We tend to finish work at 5:30pm, but I know of other
PRs who work much longer hours. Our directors recog-
nise we have to turn off at some point. We always check
there are no issues that have been left undone towards
the end of the day.
If a crisis hits that will take priority, the senior members
of the team will get together and often stay late, its a
different ball game when that happens. We make sure
journalists have our mobiles so we can keep the lines of
communication going, even if its to say well have to get
back to you on that or no comment.
The things I would never want to be without are my
mobile and my laptop, having access to the cloud means
I can access information wherever I am. I can work any-
where in London with them, Im always nipping into
coffee shops and hotels where I know I can log into the
cloud. Its a fun job, but its demanding, I cant think of
anything else Id rather be doing.
the context in which they function. The school leaver
who joins an agency on a trial period or an apprentice-
ship programme will be at one end of the continuum. If
the employer provides in-house training, supports them
through further education and training and the student
wants to learn and develop, then they are as likely to
get to the boardroom position in due course as someone
who has come up a different route. They will be mov-
ing up the continuum. Their ability to succeed will be a
combination of their own abilities and experiences and
the expectations and input of others around them. This
links well with the model of the practitioner as a system.
Competencies of public relations
practitioners
What is clear from studies of skills, knowledge and per-
sonal attributes is that they overlap in terminology and
that there is a pattern forming about how skills, knowl-
edge and personal attributes lead to broader competen-
cies (Tench and Moreno 2015; Tench, Veri, Tkalac and
Juma 2013a). Gregory (2008) uses the following defini-
tion of competencies in a study of senior communication
managers in the UK: behavioral sets or sets of behaviors
23/03/2017 13:00
 Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 133

that support the attainment of organizational objectives.
How knowledge and skills are used in performance
(p. 216). This distinguishes competencies from skills,
knowledge and personal attributes (see Table7.4).
Jeffrey and Brunton (2011) highlight the advantage
of studying competencies over roles as...roles outline
tasks and responsibilities in the job description, in todays
dynamic workplace these same roles are likely to change
frequently. In contrast, competencies are the underlying
foundational abilities that are integral to successfully car-
rying out the tasks and responsibilities, and thus remain
a stable blueprint for practice over time (p. 60).

Skills Knowledge Personal attributes

Writing and oral communication Business knowledge/literacy Handling pressure

Project planning and management Current awareness Leadership

Critical thinking Theoretical knowledge Integrity/honesty/ethical

Problem solving Knowledge of PR history Objectivity

Media skills Knowledge of other cultures Listening

Persuasion Knowledge of communication models Confidence/ambition

Strategic thinking Knowledge of how to apply PR theory Team player

Mentoring and coaching Energy/motivation

Advanced communication skills Discipline

IT skills (including new media channels) Intelligence

Crisis management Ability to get on with others/

interpersonal skills

Research Wide interests

Reading comprehension Intellectual curiosity

Community relations Creativity

Consumer relations Flexibility

Employee relations Judgement and decision-making

Professional service skills Time management

Social responsibility Respect for hierarchy

PR ethics Follows organisational rules

Honesty

Adaptability

Integrity

Ambition

Reliable attendance

Willingness to accept assignments

Completes work on time

Table 7.4 Range of skills, knowledge and personal attributes identified in public relations literature (source: Tench (2013b)
adapted from Pieczka (2002), Ahles (2004), Oughton (2004), Brown and Fall (2005), DPRG (2005), Goodman (2006),
McCleneghan (2006), Schumann (2007), Schick (2010), Jeffrey and Brunton (2011) and Sha (2011a))

M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 133 23/03/2017 13:00

 134 Part 1The context of public relations
Box 7.3
Public relations
competency debate
some definitions
Knowledge: can be defined as what practitioners are
required to know in order to do their job/role effectively
(see PRSA Professional Bond/Port of Entry 1999, 2006
and Tench and Moreno 2015).
Skills: these are the things practitioners are able to do
to perform their job/role effectively (Katz 1974; PRSA
1999, 2006; Goodman 2006; Gregory 2008). Identifying
The difficulty in establishing a workable defini-
tion of competencies has been discussed in work for
the European Centre for the Development of Voca-
tional training (CEDEFOP), which aimed to clarify
the concepts of knowledge, skills and competences
(Winterton et al. 2005). This highlights the usefulness
of competences as providing a link between educa-
tion (and skills) and job requirements (roles). For
example, there is
conceptual competence which refers to knowledge
about an entire domain;
procedural competence which refers to the appli-
cation of conceptual competence in a particular
situation; and
performance competence which is required to
assess problems and select a suitable strategy for
solving them (p. 15).
In the context of public relations, Oughton (2004)
suggests that there is a difficulty with defining compe-
tency because it can refer either to the ability to per-
form a task or how people should behave in order to
carry out the role. Szyszka (1995) subdivides two cat-
egories of competencies of PR practitioners:
specific qualifications those qualifications which
are directly connected to the topic public relations;
and
unspecific qualifications those qualifications, like
leadership, which can be seen as a core competence
for PR practitioners.
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 134
skill will be a complex process, but a useful defini-
tion by Proctor and Duttan (1995) will help us: goal-
directed, well-organized behaviour that is acquired
through practice and performed with economy of
effort (p. 18).
Personal attributes: are defined in the literature as sepa-
rate from competencies, the distinction being that per-
sonal attributes can determine how well a competency
is performed and, secondly, competencies can be taught,
whereas personal attributes are modelled or fostered
( Jeffrey and Brunton 2011: 69; Tench and Moreno 2015).
Competencies: are the sets of behaviours the person can
perform. These behaviours are based on the application,
combination and potential integration of knowledge
and skills (see Boyzatis 1982; Bartram 2004; Tench and
Moreno 2015; Jeffrey and Brunton 2011).
Although some studies have focused on the skills,
knowledge and personal attributes of practitioners,
there was no definitive research that brought these ele-
ments together in a single study until the EU funded
ECOPSI project (Tench 2012; Tench and Moreno
2015). Given the focus of roles and labelling practitio-
ners according to the tasks they undertake, or where
they are in the organisational hierarchy, specialisms
are difficult to define. There is also a lack of research
on social media practice within the PR sector, and the
skills, knowledge and personal attributes needed to ful-
fil this role efficiently.
The ECOPSI programme has taken the broad labels
provided by prior research, and used them to examine
four roles: internal communications, social media, cri-
sis communication and communication director. This
research fills a gap in knowledge about how these roles
are enacted across Europe, and the skills, knowledge
and personal attributes required, which subsequently
contribute to the competencies needed by practitioners
to fulfil these roles efficiently. Figure 7.9 illustrates
how ECOPSI views skills, knowledge and personal
attributes.
Role of theory in practice
The value of theory as underpinning practice is up for
discussion. Some practitioners will have managed very
well for many years without theory, or rather they
23/03/2017 13:00

Figure 7.9 Skills, knowledge and personal attributes
contributing to competencies. (source: Tench et al. 2012,
Tench and Moreno 2015)
will have relied on their own version of common sense
theory. Others have taken postgraduate courses, like a
masters degree or professional postgraduate qualifica-
tion (such as those from the CIPR) and been exposed
to theory through education. Increasingly, public rela-
tions graduates who have studied theoretical modules
in their degree courses are joining the profession and
shaping the expectations of the next generation. The
theory that practitioners have been exposed to will
inform the role they play.
Relevant to this discussion is research conducted
by Tench and Fawkes (2005) into PR education in
Britain. Research was conducted with employers of
PR students who were asked about different aspects
of the curriculum and its value. In relation to theory,
the practitioners were asked about the dissertation
and how important it was as a core part of a PR cur-
riculum. The research found there was more enthusi-
asm for dissertations among in-house employers than
consultancies, with over three-quarters (78 per cent)
of the former supporting dissertations, as against 56
per cent of consultancies. Qualitative comments help
explain these responses. Support for the dissertation
was expressed as: [proves] the students understanding
and application of theory and practice, assuming that
the topic of the dissertation is relevant; closest thing
to thinking through a situation from start to finish
which is what is required to handle PR campaigns for
clients; a dissertation shows an ability to think and
analyse, takes planning and writing skills and hope-
fully places demands on a student. It should be noted
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 135
Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 135
that a minority of employers were extremely dismis-
sive of all theory, and dissertations in particular: PR
is concise; dissertations are long, said one.
Tench and Fawkes argue that the supporters seem
to appreciate what a dissertation involves, unlike the
detractors who clearly place no value at all on abstract
thought. They argue that there are serious implications
for the intellectual health of the industry. There is also
evidence of a shopping list approach to education,
with [a number of] employers mentioning the lack of
benefit to them of a dissertation.
The range of theory relevant to PR is explored in
Chapter9, but it is worth pointing out here that the
majority of employers do value the role of theory in
educating practitioners, albeit not so much as they
value actual practical experience. Moreover, it is not
only the views of employers that count in this debate.
See Think about 7.2, as Cheney and Christensen (2001:
167) point out: Still, it is important that a disciplines
theoretical agenda not simply be beholden to trends
already present or incipient in the larger society. Oth-
erwise, a discipline can fail to exercise its own capacity
for leadership on both practical and moral grounds.
Think about 7.2
Disciplines that inform public
relations
Which subject disciplines could inform the PR role
(apart from PR)?
Feedback
There are lots of disciplines that are relevant to the
education and training of the PR practitioner:
business and management/human resource
management
communication subject areas: marketing/market-
ing communication/advertising
psychology
cultural studies
politics/sociology/social psychology
media
human geography.
The list is, in fact, endless. Are there any that are not
in some way relevant?
23/03/2017 13:00
 136 Part 1The context of public relations
Figure 7.10 COMPAS: this acronym defines the
competencies in the Communication Roles Matrix
developed from the largest EU funded research project
into communication in Europe, www.ecopsi.org.uk
(source: Tench et al. 2012, 2013c)
Professionalism
The issue of defining PR to protect its jurisdiction (or
borders), discussed at the beginning of the chapter, has
an impact not only on practice, as described earlier, but
also on issues concerning the professionalisation of PR
(LEtang and Pieczka 2006).
There are a number of different approaches (called
trait and process) to what defines a profession and the consequential communications needs generated by
some controversy over whether PR qualifies for the
term. For example, practitioners are not licensed, as
doctors or lawyers are indeed, even the UK CIPRs
10,000 plus members represent relatively few of its
estimated 70,000 practitioners.
In 2000 the Global Alliance of PR associations,
however, declared its guiding principles of profession-
alism to be characterised by:
mastery of a particular intellectual skill through
education and training;
acceptance of duties to a broader society than
merely ones clients or employers;
objectivity and high standards of conduct and
performance.
The problematic nature of some of these concepts,
such as defining or measuring objectivity or the
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 136
Think about 7.3
Professions
Is PR a profession? Throughout this book we do use
the term profession and associate it clearly with PR.
However, it is important to acknowledge that, accord-
ing to sociological definitions of professions, there is
debate about whether PR meets the criteria. This is a
useful topic for future discussion, research and student
dissertations.
difficulties in controlling members standards of behav-
iour, is not examined.
Merkelson (2011) suggests that being or feeling
part of a profession adds value to career development
and that building a profession is a way of ensuring
legitimacy. Meanwhile Gilmore and Williams (2007)
identify a profession as having tightly defined profes-
sional standards that drive its educational syllabus,
has principle texts, commissions its own research
and has highly technical processes of quality assur-
ance that govern its education programmes. LEtang
(2002) called education the crucial plank in PRs quest
for professional status and this view is shared by the
PRSA Port of Entry (1999), which quotes Kerr (1995)
as saying a profession gains its identity by making the
university the port of entry.
Research on the legitimacy of PRs to operate in
2008 identified that a revolution of the sector had
been enhanced by developments in the digital genera-
tion, global integration and stakeholder empowerment
(Johansson and Ottestig 2011: 146). However, despite
the internet for business and organisations, the oppor-
tunity for PR to gain internal status and legitimacy
appear to be dependent on the attitudes of other execu-
tives (ibid).
For PR the route to professionalisation seems to be
linked to boardroom acceptance, empowerment legiti-
macy is dependent on attitudes of senior executives
(Johansson and Ottestig 2011: 164). This view appears
to be embedded in PR theory: degrees of influence are
also leading factors in CEOs decision to grant a role
within dominant coalition (Berger 2005 quoted in Val-
entini 2010: 158).
Merkelson (2011) argues that theoretical develop-
ment is a precondition to professionalisation. It would
seem that PRs role is less to do with legislation and
established practice and more to do with social capi-
tal of the individual. Having extended personalised
23/03/2017 13:00

networks of influence is an asset for a career conscious
PR practitioner (Valentini 2010: 160).
The 2012 ECM survey (Zerfass et al. 2012) focused
on the issue of professionalism and ethics in practice.
A large majority of the respondents stated that a lack
of understanding of communication practice within
the top management (84 per cent) and difficulties of
the profession itself to prove the impact of communi-
cation activities on organisational goals (75 per cent)
are the main barriers for further professionalisation of
the practice. So the key challenges for European com-
munication professionals were reported as the need to
explain the communication function to top manage-
ment and to prove the value of communication for
organisations. Other barriers are, in decreasing order, a
shortage of up-to-date communication training (54per
cent), a poor reputation of professional communica-
tion and public relations in society (52 per cent), the
phenomenon that experience is valued more highly than
formal qualifications in communication or public rela-
tions (52 per cent), the status of PR and communication
associations and professional bodies (40 per cent).
Although a lack of formal accreditation systems
for the profession is only seen as a barrier by every
fourth respondent, most practitioners did see advan-
tages of such systems, which are already in place in the
United Kingdom, Brazil and other countries. Seventy
per cent of the respondents responded that national or
international accreditation could help to improve the
recognition and the reputation of the field. But only
58 per cent thought that a global accreditation system
will help to standardise the practice of public relations
and 54 per cent agreed that accreditation ensures that
practitioners will have proper knowledge of recent
communication tools and trends.
The skills and attributes that Chief Executive
Officers (CEOs) are looking for in their top commu-
nications executives have expanded. Experience in
communications is taken for granted, and not consid-
ered enough anymore.
CEOs want communications executives who are
business savvy, with a deep understanding of their
companies from top to bottom. CEOs also want
communications chiefs to be proficient in three key
modes of operation reactive, proactive and inter-
active. CEOs see their communications chief as a
critical part of their team, and across the board.
There are categories of decision-making in which
CEOs would consider it grossly negligent not to
have that individual at the table.
(Arthur Page Society, Authentic Enterprise
White Paper 2008)
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 137
Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 137
The European Communications Monitor (ECM)
2011 reports that 59.9 per cent of senior communica-
tors in Europe report to the CEO and 17.8 per cent
have a seat on the board, compared to 45 per cent of
communications practitioners reporting to the CEO
in the US (Arthur Page Society 2008) and close to 80
per cent of practitioners being a member of the senior
management group in Sweden in 2009 (Johansson and
Ottestig 2011: 143).
From these four different research projects, span-
ning nearly ten years, it is clear that European PR prac-
titioners are better represented in the boardroom than
their US colleagues and more of them report directly
to the CEO. The ECM 2011 also shows a better repre-
sentation at board level by PR practitioners in north-
ern Europe than their colleagues working in southern
Europe. Often the degree of influence and power held
by PR practitioners are leading factors in determining
CEOs decisions of granting a role within the dominant
coalition (Berger 2005 cited in Valentini 2010: 158).
It could therefore be argued that the legitimacy of the
PR industry has been granted by this influential group
of publics.
Research into CEOs views on PR in the UK indi-
cated that a valued practitioner understands the
organisational context, stakeholder requirements, the
business model and organisational drivers and has
the confidence to challenge. However, CEOs recog-
nise they under-invest in PR and that if there were
the right measures to evaluate its contribution, they
would spend more (Gregory 2011: 99). Although the
profession has come a long way in ten years, it is still
considered a soft discipline, rather than a core disci-
pline for many organisations.
Representative bodies
Another requirement for a profession is the existence
of a body that represents and, in some cases although
not for PR licenses its members to practise. The UKs
professional body is the Chartered Institute of Public
Relations (CIPR). The industry also has a trade body
called the Public Relations Consultants Association
(PRCA).
Key facts about the UKs Chartered Institute
of Public Relations (CIPR):
The CIPR was founded in 1948 and awarded char-
ter status in 2005.
The Institute has over 10,000 members, with a
turnover of 3m.
23/03/2017 13:00
 138 Part 1The context of public relations
The CIPR is the largest professional body for PR
practitioners in Europe.
The CIPR is a founding member of the Global
Alliance for Public Relations and Communication
Management.
CIPR membership has more than doubled in the
last 10 years.
Approximately 60 per cent of its members are
female this has grown from only 20 per cent in
1987.
45 per cent of its members work in PR consultancy
and 55 per cent work in-house.
Two-thirds of CIPR members are based outside
London.
The CIPR has a strict code of conduct that all mem-
bers must abide by.
Box 7.4
European public
relations associations
PRVA Public Relations Verband (Austria)
BPRCA Belgian Public Relations Consultants
Association
APRA Czech Association of Public Relations
Agencies
DKF Dansk Kommunikationsfrening (Denmark)
STiL Finnish Association of Communicators
Information, Presse & Communication (France)
DPRG Deutsche Public Relations Gesellschaft EV
(Germany)
HPRCA Hellenic Public Relations Consultancies
Association (Greece)
PRII Public Relations Institute of Ireland
FERPI Federazione Relazioni Pubbliche Italiana
Beroepsvereniging voor Communicatie (Netherlands)
Kommunikasjonsfreningen (Norway)
NIR Norwegian Public Relations Consultants
Association
APECOM Association of Public Relations Consultan-
cies in Portugal
PACO Russian Public Relations Association
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 138
The following statements and comments are from
the press release (February 2005) from the CIPR to
announce the Charter status approval for the Institute:
This marks the coming of age of the PR profes-
sion and is official recognition of the important and
influential role that public relations plays in busi-
ness, government and democratic society.
The award of a Charter by the Privy Council is
affirmation of the role the Institute plays in the
public relations industry providing leadership,
developing policy, raising standards through train-
ing and education, and making members account-
able through the Code of Conduct.
(www.cipr.co.uk (CIPR))
Box 7.4 details other European associations. All
their websites contain much relevant information for
further investigation (see Explore 7.4).
APRSR Public Relations Association of the Slovak
Republic
PRSS Public Relations Society of Slovenia
ADECEC Assoc de Empresas Consultoras en Rela-
ciones Publicas (Spain)
SPRA Swedish Public Relations Association
BPRA Bund der Public Relations Agenturen der
S chweiz (Switzerland)
PRCI Public Relations Consultancies Inc. of Turkey
PRCA Public Relations Consultants Association (UK)
Source: www.cipr.co.uk (CIPR)
The aims of the CIPR are:
to provide a professional structure for the practice of
public relations;
to enhance the ability and status of our members as
professional practitioners;
to represent and serve the professional interests of
our members;
to provide opportunities for members to meet and
exchange views and ideas;
to raise standards within the profession through the
promotion of best practice including the produc-
tion of best practice guides, case studies, training
events and a continuous professional development
scheme, Developing Excellence.
Source: www.cipr.co.uk (CIPR)
23/03/2017 13:00

Explore 7.4
Join an institute
Find the web address of the national institute where
you are studying or working. Search the website for
details about the national association. How many
people are members? What benefits does member-
ship bring? Could you be an associate or student
member? Talk to a friend or colleague about the ben-
efits of membership. If it is possible for you to be a
member, why not think about joining?
Education and research
The first UK undergraduate degree in PR was launched
at Bournemouth in 1989, followed by Leeds Beckett
(Metropolitan) University and the College of St Mark
and St John, Plymouth in 1990 (see also Chapter1).
The pioneer postgraduate courses were launched at
Stirling University in 1989 and Manchester Metro-
politan University shortly after. Research conducted in
2003 found 22 PR or similar undergraduate degrees in
Britain, of which 13 were then approved by the CIPR.
With the addition of non- or recently approved CIPR
courses, it is estimated that approximately 500 PR
undergraduates enrolled on UK PR courses in 2004
(Tench and Fawkes 2005).
PR education continues to evolve (Fawkes and
Tench 2004a) and, although most PR educators have
practitioner backgrounds, many in Britain now have
over two decades of teaching and research experience.
Teaching academics in the UK institutions are also
increasingly acquiring doctorates and other research
qualifications. New ideas, drawing on critical theory
and other cultural and political approaches (see below)
are being developed and taught as academics seek to
expand the theoretical frameworks with which to cri-
tique PR and its role in society.
There has been a worldwide growth in courses at
higher education (HE) level that aim to feed the profes-
sion, including general degrees covering PR as one part
of a wider remit and the specialist CIPR approved PR
degrees that focus on PR and its related context, with
a commensurate growth in academics and academic
publishing. According to Fawkes and Tench (2004b)
even here the emphases in the programmes differ, from
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 139
Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 139
PR as a management discipline with an emphasis on
strategy (in the business schools) to PR as an aspect
of media activity with an emphasis on communication
(media schools) and PR as a social science.
For many years the United States was the main
repository of PR research; now Britain and Europe
have developed an impressive research base. The term
public relations may not be familiar in other Euro-
pean countries, but the roles are similar. Van Ruler and
Veri (2004) highlight both the common underlying
themes, such as professionalisation and the influence
of communication technologies, set against the simi-
lar yet idiosyncratic national backdrops, where dif-
ferences are more obvious, from a study of PR within
national contexts.
In addition, there are many other academic and
functional disciplines, such as the social sciences, busi-
ness and management, cultural studies, linguistics,
media studies and psychology that also input into the
research underpinning for the sector. This interdisci-
plinary approach is a strength; it provides a wide range
of methodological options, such as a cultural studies
approach to deconstruct PR case studies (Mickey 2003)
rather than sticking to the traditional PR methodolo-
gies. This is known as theoretical pluralism (Cobley
1996). A number of academics discount the term inter-
disciplinary now, preferring post-disciplinary, and the
implication that outdated structures have given way to
more fluid fields of study.
Drawing on a wide range of references such as those
outlined in Chapter8 should increase the credibility in
terms of knowledge and expertise of the practitioner
who is pursuing a PR qualification.
Another backdrop to the role are the national ini-
tiatives within Britain at secondary and HE levels
to encourage more vocational and skills-based pro-
grammes as a complement to the traditional academic
route. This trend, which also attracts funding, means
that a discipline such as PR, which successfully links
academic skills and employability, is well positioned
for growth. So PR can be taught as a new-style foun-
dation degree in the way that other subjects might
not, given the inherent employer input prerequisite.
Again, this may prove to be both a strength and a
weakness: a strength because this offers a way for-
ward where funding in more traditional programmes
has been curtailed; a weakness because PR may lose
academic credibility and become just another voca-
tional training ground.
23/03/2017 13:00
 140 Part 1The context of public relations
Summary
This chapter has demonstrated the range of skills
demanded of PR practitioners and, it is hoped, dispelled
the false images of celebrity or spin presented in the
introduction. It has shown the different ways in which
PR is organised and delivered in various countries and
examined the issue of professionalism, as well as high-
lighting information about professional bodies in Britain
and elsewhere. Finally, it addressed the evolving role of
education in shaping the future of PR by providing the PR
practitioner of the future.
This ideal practitioner will be able to manage the com-
plex, dynamic context and functions of their organisation
as they will possess the cognitive, technical, social and
Bibliography
Ahles, C.B. (2004). PR skills vs. personal skills: what mat-
ters most to the boss? PR Tactics, April 2004: 1213.
Allan, S. (2000). News Culture. Milton Keynes: Open
University Press.
Arthur Page Society (2008) http://www.awpagesociety.
com/insights/authentic-enterprise-report/accessed 31
May 2016.
Bartram, D. (2005). The great eight competencies: A
criterion-centric approach to validation. Journal of
Applied Psychology 90(6): 11851203.
Boyatzis, R.E. and R. Royatzis (1982). The Competent
Manager: A model for effective performance. New
York, USA: Wiley.
Brown, A. and L.T. Fall (2005). Using the port of entry
report as a benchmark: survey results of on-the-job
training among public relations internship site manag-
ers. Public Relations Review 31(2): 3014.
BVC, Dutch Professional Association for Communica-
tion (2002). Job profile descriptions in communica-
tion management, third revised edition. The Hague:
BVC & VVO.
Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) (2015).
www.cipr.co.uk.
Cheney, G. and L.T. Christensen (2001). Public relations
as contested terrain in Handbook of Public Relations.
R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Cobley, P. (ed.) (1996). The Communication Theory
Reader. London: Routledge.
Culbertson, H.M. and N. Chen (1996). International
Public Relations: A comparative analysis. Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 140
communication skills to gain the confidence of colleagues
from other sectors and functions. They will facilitate
communication within their organisation, as well as with
external publics; they will be able to advise senior man-
agement using their higher level skills as well as oversee
more detailed hands-on activity (not least because they
will have a clear understanding of relevant theories and
their value to practice); they will be committed to lifelong
learning and continual professional development, as well
as being active in the professional body; and they will also
educate others about the value of PR and in this way help
reinforce the position of PR as a profession.
Is this too much to ask? Perhaps, but it is not impossible
that practitioners of the future, who will achieve these
kinds of standard are, even now, reading this chapter.
Cutlip, S.M., A.H. Center and G.M. Broom (2000). Effec-
tive Public Relations, 8th edition. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
Cutlip, S.M., A.H. Center and G.M. Broom (2008). Effec-
tive Public Relations, 9th edition. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
Dearing Report (1997). Higher education in the learn-
ing society: Report of the National Committee. The
National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Educa-
tion. London: HMSO.
Deflagbe D. (2004). How The Internet Is Modifying
The Day-To-Day Practice of Public Relations (PR) In
Ghana. Unpublished MA dissertation.
Deutsche Public Relations Gesellschaft (DPRG) (ed.)
(2005). ffentlichkeitsarbeit, PR-Arbeit Berufsfeld,
Qualifikationsprofil, Zugangswege [public relations
field of occupation, qualification, access in the occu-
pational field]. Bonn, Germany: DPRG. URL: http://
www.pzok.de/_files/pruefung/Oeffentlichkeitsarbeit.
pdf accessed 16 January 2012.
Fawkes, J. (2008). What is public relations? in Hand-
book of Public Relations, 3rd edition, A. Theaker
(ed.). London: Routledge.
Fawkes, J. and R. Tench (2004a). Does practitioner resist-
ance to theory jeopardise the future of public relations in
the UK? Paper presented at the 11th International Pub-
lic Relations Research Symposium, Lake Bled, Slovenia.
Fawkes, J. and R. Tench (2004b). Public relations educa-
tion in the UK. A research report for the Chartered
Institute of Public Relations.
Ferreira, E.M. (2003). Vocationally-oriented public rela-
tions education in globalised contexts: an analysis of
technikon-level public relations education. Johannes-
burg: RAU. (Dissertation - D.Litt. et Phil.)
23/03/2017 13:00

Gilmore, S. and S. Williams (2007). Conceptualising
the Personnel Profession. Personnel Review 36(3):
398414.
Goodman, M.B. (2006). Corporate communication prac-
tice and pedagogy at the dawn of the new millennium.
Corporate Communications: An International Journal
11(3): 196213.
Gregory, A. (2008). Competencies of senior communica-
tion practitioners in the UK: an initial study. Public
Relations Review 34(3): 21523.
Gregory, A. (2011). The state of the public relations pro-
fession in the UK: A review of the first decade of the
twenty-first century. Corporate Communications: An
International Journal 16(2): 89104.
Grunig, J.E. and L.A. Grunig, (2000). Implications of the
IABC excellence study for PR education. Journal of
Communication Management 7(1): 3442.
Grunig, J.E. and L.A. Grunig (2002). Implications of the
IABC Excellence Study for PR Education. Journal of
Communication Management 7(1): 3442.
Hargie, O. (2000). The Handbook of Communication
Skills, 2nd edition. London: Routledge.
Hutton, J.G. (2001). Defining the relationship between
public relations and marketing in Handbook of Public
Relations. R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Hutton, J.G., Goodman, M.B., Alexander, J.B. and Gen-
est, C.M. (2001). Reputation management: the new
face of corporate public relations? Public Relations
Review 27(3): 24761.
Institute of Public Relations (2004). Profile 42, April: 7.
IPA Bellwether Report (2012). http://www.ipa.co.uk/page/
IPA-Bellwether-Report?menu=open accessed 14 June
2012.
Jeffrey, L.M. and M.A. Brunton (2011). Developing a
framework for communication management compe-
tencies. Journal of Vocational Education and Training
63(1): 5775.
Johansson, C. and A. Ottestig (2011). Communication
executives in a changing world: Legitimacy beyond
organizational borders. Journal of Communications
Management 15(2): 14464.
Katz, R.L. (1974). Skills of an effective administrator.
Harvard Business Review 52(5): 90102.
Katz, D. and R.L. Kahn (1978). The Social Psychology of
Organizations, 2nd edition. New York: John Wiley&
Sons.
Kerr, C. (1995). The Use of the University, 4th edition.
Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press.
LEtang, J. (2002). Public relations education in Britain:
A review at the outset of the millennium and thoughts
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 141
Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 141
for a different research agenda. Journal of Communi-
cation Management 7(1): 4353.
LEtang, J. and M. Pieczka (eds) (2006). Public Relations:
Critical debates and contemporary problems. Hills-
dale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
McCleneghan, J.S. (2006). PR executives rank 11 com-
munication skills. Public Relations Quarterly 51(4):
426.
Merkelson, H. (2011). The double-edged sword of legiti-
macy in Public Relations. Journal of Communications
Management 15(2): 12543.
Mickey, T. (2003). Deconstructing Public Relations.
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Moreno, A., C. Navarro, A. Zerfass and R. Tench (2015).
Does social media usage matter? An analysis of online
practices and digital media perceptions of communica-
tion practitioners in Europe. Public Relations Review
41(2): 24253.
Moreno, A., P. Verhoeven, R. Tench and A. Zerfass
(2014). Increasing power and taking a lead What
are practitioners really doing? Empirical evidence
from European communications managers. Interna-
tional Public Relations Journal 4(7): 7394.
Moss, D., A. Newman and B. DeSanto (2004). Defin-
ing and redefining the core elements of management
in public relations/corporate communications con-
text: What do communication managers do? Paper
presented at the 11th International Public Relations
Research Symposium, Lake Bled, Slovenia.
Oughton, L. (2004). Do we need core competences for
local government communications? in Local Gov-
ernment Communication Leaders Development
Programme, Ideas in Communication Leadership.
London: Improvement and Development Agency,
pp. 6572.
Phillips, R. (2015). Trust Me, PR is Dead. Random House.
Pieczka, M. (2002). Public relations expertise decon-
structed, Media, Culture and Society 24(3): 30123.
Pieczka, M. and J. LEtang (2001). Public relations and
the question of professionalism in Handbook of Pub-
lic Relations. R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Proctor, R.W. and A. Duttan (1995). Skill Acquisition and
Human Performance. London: Sage.
PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) (1999).
(National Commission on Public Relations Education)
A Port of Entry public relations education for the
21st century. New York: PRSA.
PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) (2006). The
Professional Bond: Public Relations Education in
the 21st Century. PRSA (2006). www.compred.org/
23/03/2017 13:00
 142 Part 1The context of public relations
report/2006. Report of the Commission edited by J.
VanSlyke Turk, November 2006.
Schick, E. and T. Mickeleit (2010). Ein Pldoyer fr
das PR-Volontariat. In: Bundesverband deutscher
Pressesprecher (BdP) & Deutsche Public Relations
Gesellschaft (DPRG) (Hrsg.): Das PR-Volontariat
PR-Qualifizierung in deutschen Agenturen und
Unternehmen. Berlin, Germany: Helios Media.
Schumann, U. (2007). Interner Manager oder Betrieb-
sjournalist? Welche Anforderungen werden an das
Arbeitsfeld der internen Kommunikation gestellt?
[internal manager or journalist within the corpora-
tion?] In: Drfel, L. (Hrsg.): Interne Kommunika-
tion Die Kraft entsteht im Maschinenraum. Berlin:
scm c/o prismus GmbH http://www.schuhmann-pb.de/
fileadmin/Downloads/News/PRThemen/01_Interner
Manager.pdf.
Sha, B-L. (2011a). 2010 practice analysis: professional
competencies and work categories in public relations
today. Public Relations Review 37(3): 18796.
Sha, B-L. (2011b). Does accreditation really matter in
public relations practice? How age and experience
compare to accreditation. Public Relations Review
37(1): 111.
Sha, B-L. (2011c). Accredited vs. non-accredited: the
polarization of practitioners in the public relations
profession. Public Relations Review 37(2): 1218.
Singh, R. and R. Smyth (2001). Australian public rela-
tions: Status at the turn of the 21st century. Public
Relations Review 26(4): 387401.
Sriramesh, K. (1996). Power distance and public rela-
tions: an ethnographic study of Southern Indian
organizations in International Public Relations: A
comparative analysis (pp. 17190). H.M. Culberton
and N. Chen (eds). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Szyszka, P. (1995). ffentlichkeitsarbeit und Kompetenz:
Probleme und Perspektiven knftiger Bildungsarbeit.
In PR-Ausbildung in Deutschland (pp. 317342). VS
Verlag fr Sozialwissenschaften.
Tench, R. (2003). Stakeholder influences on the writing
skills debate: A reflective evaluation in the context of
vocational business education. Journal of Further and
Higher Education 27(4).
Tench, R. and J. Fawkes (2005). Mind the gap
exploring attitudes to PR education between aca-
demics and employers. Paper presented at the Alan
Rawel CIPR Academic Conference, University of
Lincoln, March.
Tench, R. and D. Deflagbe (2008). Towards a Global
Curriculum: A summary of literature concerning
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 142
public relations education, professionalism and glo-
balisation. Report for the Global Alliance of Public
Relations and Communication Management, Leeds
Metropolitan University, UK
Tench, R., A. Zerfass, A.M. Moreno, D. Veri, P. Verho-
even and A. Okay (2012). European Public Relations
Skills and Innovation Programme, see www.leedsmet
.ac.uk/ecopsi.
Tench, R., A. Zerfass, A.M. Moreno, D. Veri, P. Ver-
hoevenand A. Okay (2013b) European Public Rela-
tions Skills and Innovation Programme, see http://
www.ecopsi.org.uk/files/ECOPSI_Research_Report_
May_2013.pdf
Tench, R., P. Verhoeven and H. Juma (2015). Turn
around when possible: mapping european communi-
cation competences. Studies in Media and Commu-
nication 3(2): ISSN 2325-8071, E-ISSN 2325-808X.
Tench, R. and M. Konczos (2015). Mapping European
communication practitioners competencies A
review of the European Communication Professional
Skills and Innovation Programme: ECOPSI. Pannon
Management Review 4(2-3).
Tench, R. and A. Moreno (2015). Mapping commu-
nication management competencies for European
practitioners: ECOPSI an EU study. Journal of Com-
munication Management, 19(1): 3961.
Tench, R., D. Veri, A. Tkalac and H. Juma, (2013a)
Contemporary issues impacting European Commu-
nication Competencies. Media Studies 4(7): 11123.
ISSN 1847-9758 e-ISSN1848-503.
Valentini, C. (2010). Personalised networks of influence
in public relations. Journal of Communications Man-
agement 14(2): 153166.
van Ruler, B. and D. Veri (eds) (2004). Public Relations
and Communication Management in Europe. Berlin:
de Gruter.
van Ruler, B., D. Veri, G. Btschi and B. Flodin (2000).
The European Body of Knowledge on Public Rela-
tions/Communication Management: The Report of
the Delphi Research Project 2000. Ghent/Ljubljana:
European Association for Public Relations Education
and Research.
Veri, D., B. van Ruler, G. Butzchi and B. Flodin (2001).
On the definition of public relations: A European
view. Public Relations Review 27(4): 37387.
Verwey, S. (2000). Public relations: a new professionalism
for a new millennium? Communicare 19(2): 5168.
von Bertalanffy, L. (1969). General Systems Theory:
Foundations, development, applications, 2nd edition.
New York: Braziller.
23/03/2017 13:00

Wilkin, P. (2001). The Political Economy of Global Com-
munication: An introduction. London: Pluto Press.
Windahl, S., B. Signitzer and J. Olson (1992). Using Com-
munication Theory. London: Sage.
Winterton, J., F. Delamare-Le Deist and E. Stringfellow
(2005) Typology of Knowledge, Skills and Compe-
tences: Clarification of the Concept and Prototype.
Thessaloniki: CEDEFOP.
Zerfass, A. (1998). Management-Knowhow fr Public
Relations [Management Know-how in Public Rela-
tions]. Medien Journal 3/1998 Public Relations:
Qualifikation & Kompetenzen, pp. 315.
Zerfass, A., A. Moreno, R. Tench, D. Veri and P. Ver-
hoeven (2008). European Communication Monitor
2008. Trends in Communication Management and
Public Relations Results and Implications. Brus-
sels, Leipzig: Euprera/University of Leipzig, Novem-
ber 2008. Available as a free PDF document at www
.communicationmonitor.eu
Zerfass, A., A. Moreno, R. Tench, D. Veri and P. Ver-
hoeven (2010). European Communication Monitor
2010. Status Quo and Challenges for Communication
Management in Europe. Results of an empirical study
in 46 countries. Brussels, Leipzig: Euprera/University
of Leipzig Available at: www.communicationmonitor
.eu. ISBN978-3-942263-05-04.
Zerfass, A., A. Moreno, R. Tench, D. Veri and P.
Verhoeven (2009). European Communication
Monitor 2009. Trends in Communication Manage-
ment and Public Relations Results of a survey in
34countries. Brussels, Leipzig: Euprera/University of
Leipzig Available at: www.communicationmonitor.eu.
ISBN978-3-9811316-2-8.
Webpage
www.awpagesociety.com The Authentic Enterprise White Paper 2008.
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 143
Chapter 7Role of the public relations practitioner 143
Zerfass, A., P. Verhoeven, R. Tench, A. Moreno, and D.
Veri (2011). European Communication Monitor
2011. Empirical Insights into Strategic Communi-
cation in Europe. Results of an Empirical Survey in
43 Countries. Brussels: EACD, EUPRERA. ISBN
978-3-942263-12-2.
Zerfass, A., D. Veri, P. Verhoeven, A. Moreno and R.
Tench (2012). European Communication Monitor
2012. Challenges and Competencies for Strategic
Communication. Results of an Empirical Survey in
42 Countries. Brussels: EACD, EUPRERA.
Zerfass, A., D. Veri, P. Verhoeven, A. Moreno and R.
Tench (2015). European Communication Monitor
2015. Creating communication value through listen-
ing, messaging and measurement. Results of a Survey
in 41 Countries. Brussels: EACD/EUPRERA, Helios
Media.
Zerfass, A., R.Tench, D. Veri, P.Verhoeven and M.
Moreno (2014). European Communication Moni-
tor 2014. Excellence in Strategic Communication
Key Issues, Leadership, Gender and Mobile Media.
Results of a Survey in 42 Countries. Brussels: EACD/
EUPRERA, Helios Media.
Zerfass, A., A. Moreno, R. Tench, D. Veri and
P. Verhoeven (2013). European Communication
Monitor 2013. A Changing Landscape Managing
Crises, Digital Communication and CEO Positioning
in Europe. Results of a Survey in 43 Countries. Brus-
sels: EACD/EUPRERA, Helios Media.
Zerfass, A., D. Veri, P. Verhoeven, A. Moreno and R.
Tench (2012). European Communication Monitor
2012. Challenges and Competencies for Strategic Com-
munication. Results of an Empirical Survey in 42Coun-
tries. Brussels: EACD/EUPRERA, Helios Media.
23/03/2017 13:00
M07 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 144 23/03/2017 13:00
 Pa rt 2
Public relations theories and
concepts
There is no one unifying public relations
theory . This section will demonstrate
that public relations is multifaceted and
can be interpreted through a number
of relevant theoretical perspectives. The
key theoretical discussions in Chapter 8
take us from theories that describe how
a profession ought to behave (normative
theories) through to alternative theoreti-
cal approaches drawn from rhetorical and
feminist perspectives, and postmodern
and socio-cultural theories. Chapter 9
introduces our first concept: public rela-
tions as planned communication, in which
public relations is presented as a strategic
management process for achieving organ-
isational objectives. Continuing the plan-
ning theme, Chapter 10 discusses the role
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 145
of programme research and evaluation in
the public relations process. There is some-
times confusion around the concepts of
image, reputation and identity. Chapter
11 attempts to unpack this confusion as
well as firmly identify these concepts as
important to understanding public relat
ions within a corporate context. Drawing
mainly on theories of social psychology,
Chapter 12 aims to demonstrate that the
concepts of persuasion and propaganda
must be defined and applied in helping us
to recognise when public relations is used
responsibly and when it is not. Finally, the
ethical issues raised by public relations and
its role in society inevitably leads to a dis-
cussion of public relations professionalism
and ethics, which is found in Chapter 13.
23/03/2017 13:01
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 146 23/03/2017 13:01
 Chapter 8Public relations theories: an overview 147

Ch a p t er 8 Martina Topi

Public relations theories

An overview

Learning outcomes

By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

understand the role and nature of public relations
understand the role of communication and its link with public relations
understand how people communicate, and why communication theories are relevant to PR practitioners
understand the importance of public relations theories for PR practitioners
apply public relations theories to practical cases.

Structure
Communication theories in public relations Rhetoric and engagement in public relations
Relationship theories of public relations Feminism and public relations
Social influence theories Postmodernism and socio-cultural theories of
Mass communication theories public relations

M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 147 23/03/2017 13:01

 148 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts

Introduction
This chapter offers an overview of
public relations theories. Since public
relations (PR) is ultimately about com-
municating with publics, we will firstly
start with communication theories in
PR, which describe how the commu-
nication process works. We will then
continue with a group of theories also
considered to form part of commu-
nication theories in PR, i.e. relation-
ship theories that discuss what are the
relations between PR practitioners and
the public. After that, we will discuss
the social influence theories that place
emphasis on human relations and the
process of interactions that can have
an influence on the negotiation of
position, the decision-making process
and communication in general. We
will then discuss mass communica-
tion theories, namely agenda setting
theories and media framing, as these
theories explain how media can make
an impact both on PR as a profession
and organisations that PR practitioners
are working for. In addition, we will
also discuss rhetoric and engagement in
PR, and feminism and PR given the fact
PR is predominantly a female industry.
Finally, we will discuss postmodern and
socio-cultural theories in PR, which
present new theoretical directions in
European PR research.

Communication theories in communication theories and approaches that help in

public relations
Debating communication theories in public relations
means seeing public relations as a form of communica-
tion. Nevertheless, PR practitioners are seen as part of
the communications industry, because they plan com-
munication campaigns. Although PR practitioners do
not explicitly refer to communication theories when
planning their work, concepts from communication
theories can be found in many PR campaigns, con-
temporary and past (Windahl et al. 1992; Austin and
Pinkleton 2006; Butterick 2011). PR practitioners do
not refer to communication theories or explicitly turn
to the academic research because PR practitioners still
maintain a rather technical approach to working on
PR campaigns, rather shifting towards the use of PR
theories (van Ruler, 2005), which could help them in
conveying the right message to the right segment of
the public, as well as build good relations with publics
as a whole.
In addition, the work of PR practitioners is funda-
mentally dependent on understanding not only how
people behave and form attitudes, but also how they
communicate and which messages they will under-
stand, which is where communication theories can
help in campaign design and planning. For example,
language and culture have an impact on perception
and understanding of the message; consequentially
some messages have an impact and result with posi-
tive campaign outcomes, whereas some campaigns
simply fail.
There is no single theory that can claim to pro-
vide all knowledge about the communication pro-
cess and its effects; however, there are many different
explaining how communication works. Nevertheless, it
will be up to each PR practitioner to put these theories
into practice and decide on the spot which one to apply
when designing communication campaigns.
Communication is the most important aspect of
human life because we communicate both verbally
and non-verbally. Both aspects of communication
are important for PR practitioners because we have
to make sense not only of what people say but also
what they do not say (Littlejohn 2002). For example,
according to psychological research 96 per cent of face-
to-face communication falls to non-verbal communica-
tion such as body language (Stainton Rogers 2011).
The ground-breaking development in the commu-
nication field was the development of the mass media
communication and the growth of communications
technology, and these developments were followed
with developments in marketing communications and
advertising (Littlejohn 2002; Butterick 2011), and then
also PR. However, it is important to note that both
communications and PR are understood differently in
different academic and cultural contexts. For example,
whereas in the United States scholars mostly look at
communication processes using quantitative methods,
the European tradition is more culturally orientated,
and thus looks at communication as part of a socio-
cultural context in which the communication process
is happening. The common method for socio-cultural
research is then discourse analysis, and other qualita-
tive methods.
Because of the overall strength of the United States
in the communications field, and due to the fact the
USA has the most developed communications industry,
the most influential communications models have been
developed in the United States as well.

M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 148 23/03/2017 13:01


Who Says what
Communicator Message
Figure 8.1 Laswells model of communication (source: Adapted from Laswell 1948: 37)
American scholar Harold Laswell analysed commu-
nication from the point of behavioural psychological
theory and with the case study from Nazi Germany,
famous for its propagandistic techniques in mass com-
munication that ensured large support from the Ger-
man population at the time towards Hitlers notorious
regime. Laswells well-known communication model
centred on asking the following questions, Who? Says
what? In which channel? To whom? With what effect?
(Laswell 1948: 37). This way of analysing the commu-
nication message enables understanding of the effects
of communication (Figure8.1).
Laswells research was largely influenced by the
growth of mass media and influence of the media on
the population. However, Laswells core questions
remain fundamental for the analysis of every commu-
nication process regardless of the method we are using
for an analysis.
Shannon and Weaver (1949) added to Laswells the-
ory and developed the so-called Linear Model of Com-
munication based on the Information Theory that also
takes into consideration effects of the communication
process and not just its description. In other words,
Shannon and Weaver (1949) thought of communica-
tion as a process that involves a source that selects the
message, which is then transmitted via transmitter to
the receiver over a certain channel.
Explore 8.1
Using Laswells famous formula for behavioural com-
munication analysis (Who? Says what? In which
channel? To whom? With what effect?) in Figure 8.1,
analyse the document The Science of Engagement
by international public relations agency Weber Shand-
wick and answer Laswells questions. The document
is centred on discussing how people purchase prod-
ucts, how companies should communicate to achieve
engagement with their consumers, and the ways to
engage with consumers and sell the product (Yeomans
and Topi 2015). The document is available to down-
load from: http://webershandwick.co.uk/wp-content/
uploads/2014/03/SofE_Report.pdf
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 149
Chapter 8Public relations theories: an overview 149
In which To whom With what
Medium Receiver Effect
However, both of these models are based on a one-
way communication model, while there are scholars
who are calling for two-way communication as a way
of achieving excellence in public relations.
The two-way communication model is based on
Lazarsfelds and Katzs (1955) research on media effects
during election campaigns. They developed a Two-step
Communication Model to explain how the mass media
communicate with publics by emphasising the role of
influencers that spread the information from the mass
media to the wider public (Katz and Lazarsfeld 1955).
In more recent times, the growth of social media
has also changed public relations because practitioners
now have to communicate with their publics via social
media too. Because of the growing importance of social
media and intensified communication via social media
communication channels, the UK Chartered Institute
of Public Relations (2013) issued its Social Media
Best Practice Guide, which advised on how PR prac-
titioners should use social media and what constitutes
appropriate practice for PR practitioners in the online
sphere. Social media has become an essential compo-
nent of reputation management for organisations. For
example, if a company has bad consumer reviews on
social media this can have an impact on the reputa-
tion and then also sales. On the other hand, unsuccess-
ful PR campaigns can expose organisations to online
mockery, which can then have a long-lasting impact on
their image and reputation as well as business goals.
For example, the British retailer Waitrose is per-
ceived as a premium supermarket, and in order to
soften this perception and increase its market share,
Think about 8.1
Identify several PR campaigns, and think of the fol-
lowing questions: What type of PR does this campaign
belong to? What is the communication process like in
this campaign? Can we consider this campaign ethi-
cal? Was there any criticism of the campaign, or what
would critiques possibly complain about? How could
this campaign be designed using some other model
of PR discussed in the chapter?
23/03/2017 13:01
 150 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
it implemented a brand price match with the market
leader Tesco (Wood 2012; Waitrose 2015). Neverthe-
less, people still perceive Waitrose as a premium and
expensive store, and a campaign in 2012 exposed
Waitrose to public critique and media mockery. To
exemplify what happened, Waitrose launched a Twit-
ter campaign called #Waitrose reasons asking people
to complete the following sentence, I love shopping
in Waitrose because. Waitrose has a very high con-
sumer satisfaction (see e.g. Victor 2015) and the PR
department apparently expected positive reviews on
the quality of their food and kindness of the staff (both
extensively advertised as well). Instead, they faced a
backlash with people tweeting, for example, I shop
at Waitrose because it makes me feel important and
I absolutely detest being surrounded by poor people
(Ledwith et al. 2012), or watching Daily Mail read-
ers support a neo-socialist institution (The Telegraph
2012). The latter comment reflects the research of the
British Government that showed Daily Mail read-
ers shop in Waitrose (YouGov 2015). This finding
came as a surprise because Waitrose is part of the
John Lewis partnership, praised for many years for
the most ethical way of running a business (Ethical
Consumer 2013a, 2013b), which is often attributed to
a liberal-minded orientation, whereas the Daily Mail
newspaper in the UK is perceived as conservative and
placed to the right wing of the political spectrum.
However, the fact this debate occurred and ended up
in the media because of a social media campaign that
failed, caused negative attention to Waitrose and a
reinforcing of the premium image, i.e. everything that
the company was trying to avoid.
Whether communication via social media or com-
munication between PR and publics is one-way or
Explore 8.2
Analyse the series of PR campaigns by British super-
market chain Morrisons Lets grow (https://your.mor-
risons.com/) launched in 2009 and continuing. What
were the central messages of these campaigns? What
model of communication can you recognise in Mor-
risons campaign? In which PR theory would you fit
Morrisons campaign? Was there an impact on publics,
and which one(s)? Was there a media coverage and
reputation issue because of this campaign (positive or
negative)? Would you say that this was a good cam-
paign with a positive impact on society? Is this the
right way to do PR?
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 150
Explore 8.3
Analyse the American brand Always and its PR cam-
paigns entitled Like a Girl (http://always.com/en-us/
about-us/our-epic-battle-like-a-girl). What were the
central messages of the campaigns? What model of
communication did Always use in their campaign?
Which PR theory best describes this model of commu-
nicating in these PR campaigns? Was there an impact
on publics, and which one? Was there a media cov-
erage and reputation issue because of this campaign
(positive or negative)? (See also Mini case study 8.3).
two-way, and whether the PR is perceived as a sincere
and transparent industry, or rather a manipulative spin
machine, is a subject of discussion, however, different
theories see the position and role of PR in different
ways (see also Chapters9 and 13). What is fundamen-
tal to PR is the necessity to understand who we are
communicating with and to understand communicat-
ing with groups, i.e. when we develop PR campaigns
we are always targeting one specific group of people.
Groups in PR are usually called publics while in mass
communication and media studies the term used for
groups is audience. Audience thus presents a group of
people who will receive the communication that might
have an effect, whereas publics represent a group that
will receive the communication as well as be affected
by that communication.
In other words, views on how PR practitioners
should communicate with the public differ. In that, we
can divide communication theories in PR as:
relationship theories (encompassing systems theory
and situational theory);
social influence theories (encompassing social
exchange theory and social learning theory); and
mass communication theories (encompassing
agenda setting theories and framing theory).
Relationship theories of public
relations
When it comes to relationship theories in public rela-
tions, the two main theories are systems theory of
public relations, and the situational theory of public
relations.
23/03/2017 13:01

Systems theory of public relations
Systems theory of PR emerged in the second half of
the twentieth century, and this theory starts from the
view of PR practitioners working for an organisation
that has PR activities, which are meant to achieve/
increase benefits for the organisation (Edwards
2014a). The first advocates of this approach were
James E. Grunig and Todd Hunt (1984) who devel-
oped a typology of PR.
Systems theory, when looking from the point of
view of the organisation, is about communicating
in a way to create relationships in order to achieve
organisational goals (Lattimore et al. 2009). Accord-
ing to Grunig, Grunig, and Dozier (2002), organ-
isations are interdependent with their environment
that includes customers, potential employees, and
suppliers. In this, there are two types of organisa-
tion: open systems organisations and closed systems
organisations. In the first case, PR brings the infor-
mation collected among publics and, based on the
feedback, looks at how to enhance this relationship.
On the other hand, closed system organisations do
not seek feedback from publics but operate based on
previous experiences and personal preferences (Lat-
timore etal. 2009).
Grunig and Hunt (1984) also developed a typol-
ogy of publics by explaining that publics are groups of
people sharing the same view on an issue, regardless of
their origin. The four types of publics are:
non-public (where there is no impact between an
organisation and the public);
latent (where a group is endangered by the organ-
isation, however, there is no awareness or collective
action against it);
aware (where a certain group recognises there is a
problem); and
active (where a certain group recognises the prob-
lem and then organises collective action to solve the
problem).
Grunig and Hunt (1984) believed that a common
mistake PR practitioners make is by starting the com-
munication with groups only when an action is organ-
ised, instead of developing the communication earlier
and during the decision-making process. Instead, they
proposed a typology of four models of PR, arguing
there are four types of practices in the industry, and
emphasising that not all four models give equal impor-
tance to publics. Clearly, Grunig and Hunt considered
publics as the core of everything that PR does.
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 151
Chapter 8Public relations theories: an overview 151
In terms of the four models of PR, they proposed the:
press agentry/publicity model
public information model
two-way asymmetric model and
two-way symmetric model (Grunig and Hunt
1984).
In the first case, the foundation for identifying the
model is based on the history of PR and as such it
derives from the analysis of nineteenth-century PR
practitioners in the US such as press agents and publi-
cists, who are considered as some sort of precursor to
present-day public relations. The goal of these practi-
tioners was to get as much publicity as possible, and
they used selective information to persuade people to
act in certain ways and to get as much media coverage
as possible. Grunig and Hunt (1984: 21) linked this
type of activity directly to propaganda by saying Pub-
lic Relations serves a propaganda function in the press
agentry/publicity model. Practitioners spread the faith
of the organisation involved, often through incomplete,
distorted or half-true information.
On the other hand, the second model is also based
on the historical example of PR practice in the US,
such as the work of big companies that dominated the
US economy, particularly in the last century. These
companies were involved in sending information to
the public and following the rule that the public must
be informed. The focus on the necessity of informing
the public is founded in the work of Ivy Lee, often con-
sidered as the first PR practitioner (IPR 2012). Even
though the public is informed about activities of the
organisation, this model is considered as unsatisfactory
because it is a one-way communication with an inten-
tion to inform. The only difference between the first
and the second model is there is no attempt to deceive
the public because the information is not selected in a
way that can cause misinterpretation, since the model is
based on honesty in communication. Grunig and Hunt
proposed this model in 1984 when this approach to PR
was the most commonly used model, and of course the
internet and communication via websites and social
media was not available as it is now.
The third model is the two-way asymmetric model
that is associated with the work of Edward Bernays
(1923, 1927, 1945), who approached communica-
tion by trying to build its foundation in a scientific
approach. This model is similar to the first model of
press agentry, except that this model is not making an
attempt to solely persuade the publics by manipulating
them as press agents did in the past. Instead this model
23/03/2017 13:01
 152 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
uses persuasion in a different way, and it does not rely
on manipulation and deceiving, but on behavioural
change supposed to be achieved for the purpose of the
client. The only intention is to improve the message
to achieve either sales of a product or to foster behav-
ioural change, and the persuasive element is found in
feedback the company gets from the public. This feed-
back is then used to persuade the public to support
the organisation, or to buy the product. In this sense,
this is a two-way communication because publics are
communicating with companies, and this model is the
most commonly used model among PR practitioners
who work for a client.
Finally, the two-way symmetric model is a model
where PR listens to the public and changes according to
the publics needs and desires. This is then considered
as a real dialogue with the stakeholders, and this model
is clearly linked with corporate social responsibility
(CSR), where the stakeholder theory has taken over in
public debates on the expectations of businesses (Tench
et al. 2014). However, because it is the PR department
that engages in dialogue with the publics and launches
social initiatives, there is a lot of scepticism about CSR
as part of PR and the promotional mix to promote
products and services. Speaking of the two-way sym-
metric model, the communication process is considered
as symmetric because in a sense both parties are equal in
the communication and there is no attempt to persuade
the publics from the side of corporations. This approach
is mostly found in campaigns from non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) or charities in their communica-
tion with publics, albeit other models of communica-
tion can be found in charity campaigns as well.
Following this initial research, Grunig and Hunt
(1992) then conducted extensive research on the
PR practice in the US and developed an excellence
approach in PR arguing that excellent PR encom-
passes four different levels in organisations. However,
excellence in PR was still seen through meeting the
organisations goals, and thus the excellence approach
still forms part of the systems theory. This is visible in
Grunigs (1992) definition of the effectiveness of PR,
which is clearly linked to excellence:
Public relations contributes to organizational effec-
tiveness when it helps reconcile the organizations
goals with the expectations of its strategic constitu-
encies. This contribution has monetary value to the
organization. Public relations contributes to effec-
tiveness by building quality, long-term relationships
with strategic constituencies. Public Relations is
most likely to contribute to effectiveness when the
senior PR manager is a member of the dominant
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 152
coalition (that is the ruling group who actually run
a company) where he or she is able to shape the
organizations goals and help determine which
external publics are most strategic.
(Grunig 1992: 156)
This approach clearly takes into consideration expec-
tations of what later, with the rise of the influence of
CSR, became known as stakeholders or stakeholder
orientation (Freeman, 1984, 2010; Tench et al. 2014).
However, the difference between CSR orientation and
this orientation is in the view of stakeholders as strate-
gic constituencies where stakeholders are seen to have a
strategic importance for the benefit of the organisation,
and not in themselves. The crucial aspect of this strategic
relationship is on communication that can be one-way
and two-way, as well as symmetric and asymmetric.
In Grunigs (1992) view, a two-way symmetric com-
munication is of crucial importance for excellent PR.
Nowadays, symmetric communication is linked with
ethical communication and understood as good for
PR as a profession (Cutlip et al. 2000; Brown 2010;
Edwards 2014a). However, the theory has faced criti-
cism because of the idealistic nature of symmetric
communication, whereas PR is seen as a profession
primarily dictated by the organisations self-interest
and not a genuine will to do good for the wider society
(LEtang and Piezcka 1996). The criticism of symmetric
communication as unachieved ideal can be linked to
the general criticism of PR as an industry based on spin
and deceiving the publics to achieve the clients goals.
This criticism, and the fact many attempts to do good
by companies are labelled as just PR, prompted some
scholars to defend PR as a discipline and to emphasise
its good sides (Coombs and Holladay 2007).
In addition, the theory has been challenged from
the cultural side because it only focuses on American
organisational culture, which does not apply to all
other cultures: this theory presents one general the-
ory of PR and excellence in PR. The main criticism
of PR scholars advocating the cultural approach is
that PR practice will be shaped by cultural and social
expectations of each country, political system, eco-
nomic system, political economy, the media system
and the forms of activism (Sriramesh and Veri 1995;
Sriramesh 2010).
Situational theory of public relations
Grunig and Repper (1992) argued that organisations
should communicate with their stakeholders; however,
they also recognised this is not always possible because
23/03/2017 13:01

not all stakeholders are interested in having a dialogue
with the organisation. On the other hand, it is not even
possible to communicate with absolutely all stakehold-
ers and, therefore, a new approach was needed if dia-
logue was to become a part of the organisational goals.
Therefore, Grunig and Repper (1992) identified
publics as members of subgroups that need to be
monitored purposely. For example, when it comes to
elections only active voters among all voters who regis-
tered should be given attention (Lattimore et al. 2009).
Grunig and Hunt (1984) then called this approach a
situational theory arguing that organisations need to
assess publics communication needs by dividing pub-
lics into those who actively seek information and those
who only passively receive the information.
According to Grunig and Hunt (1984) three vari-
ables will predict when publics seek information, i.e.
problem recognition (publics must be aware of an issue
at stake), constraint recognition (perceived obstacles
towards resolving the issue among publics), and level
of involvement (how much individual members of pub-
lics care for the issue) (Lattimore et al. 2009).
The theory is clearly related to segmentation, as PR
practitioners must learn how to identify the appro-
priate stakeholders and then develop an approach to
reach them and achieve an effective support (Grunig
and Hunt 1984; Grunig 1989; Grunig and Repper
1992; Kim and Grunig 2011; McKeever et al. 2015).
According to the situational theory, segmentation of
publics must be done before and after public relations
action in order to ensure that the population is broken
down into strategic subgroups such as active/activist
public, aware public, latent public, and non-public
(Kim 2011: 2), and an often used method is summation
that categorises the population in an additional way
by taking the population categories discussed above
and then categorising them into groups based on the
issue at stake (Kim 2011). In order to ensure that the
categorisation process does not fail, PR practitioners
must monitor issues and organisational responses as
well as activism to be able to segment the publics in
an efficient way.
This theory is particularly useful for campaigns
tackling sensitive issues, and where there is a threat of
activism of critical NGOs (see also Chapter25). NGOs
are often able to initiate protests and consumer boy-
cotts, and being able to assess to what extent publics
are aware of the problem, as well as doing research to
find out to what extent people care about the problem,
can help organisations in communicating their poli-
cies to the public. For example, if we know there are
many people in the local community who care about a
certain issue and who find organisational involvement
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 153
Chapter 8Public relations theories: an overview 153
in the local community negative, it is necessary to
approach the public and communicate the position of
the organisation straight away.
A good example can be found in changes to school
meals in the UK, which initiated protests in Rother-
ham, where parents were seen passing burgers to their
children through the school fence, arguing the schools
were not giving them what they needed (Wainwright,
2006). Jamie Olivers Ministry of Food opened in
Rotherham and he, as a celebrity chef, went there to
use his popularity to argue for changes and acceptance
among members of the public. However, he faced
opposition from parents led by Julie Critchlow, who
he eventually hired to cook with him, first to gain sup-
port among the local population (Renton, 2008). This
example shows why the Government failed in com-
municating changes in health policy and why they
needed help from Jamie Oliver, i.e. by not identifying
the problem and assuming that people would immedi-
ately accept a new policy, they ended up with protests
and even worse dietary habits. Appropriate segmenta-
tion of the British public would have helped in preven-
tion had there been a segmented communication of the
reasons why the policy on school meals had changed.
Nevertheless, research conducted in the United
States showed that the situational theory can also
explain fundraising and charity campaigning, as well
as help charities in increasing donations if adopting an
appropriate approach. For example, McKeever etal.
(2015) explored fundraising events and found that
charities need to develop messages aimed at creating
positive attitudes amongst the members of public in
fundraising events to initiate situational support, i.e. a
donation at the event will occur if people perceive the
aim positively and if the aim is communicated in a way
that enables changing attitudes and behaviours.
In other words, the situational theory of publics has
the ability to explain when and why people seek infor-
mation, and the decision making process following
communication (Grunig 1989, 2003; Kim and Grunig
2011). The theory uses three variables to explain and
predict the communication behaviour: problem recog-
nition, level of involvement, and constraint recognition.
Or, a person who perceives a problem, a connection
to it, and few obstacles to doing something about it
is likely to seek and attend to information about the
problem (Kim and Grunig 2011: 121). On the other
hand, when it comes to problem solving, the publics
will go through three processes: information selection,
information transmission, and information acquisition
(ibid).
Figure8.2 presents these models in that it shows
how a person goes through the process of problem
23/03/2017 13:01
 154 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts

Situational antecedents:
Situational theory of problem solving

in problem solving
cognltive frame
perceptual &
Problem Constraint Involvement Referent
recognition recognition recognition criterion

:+

H1:
H1
:+ H3
Situational theory of publics

:+
Situational

in problem
Situational
motivation
H4

solvimg
Problem Constraint Level of motivation
recognition recognition involvement in problem
solving

H5: +

Information Information
seeking processing Communicative

Communlcative behavior
action in problem

in problem solving
solving
Information acquisition
+ +
+ +

Information Information Information Information Information Information

forefending permitting forwarding sharing seeking Attending

Information selection Information transmission Information acquisition

Figure 8.2 Situational theory of problem-solving and situational theory of publics (source: Kim and Grunig 2011: 21).

solving in general (situational theory of problem solv-
ing in the chart) and how publics are solving problems
(situational theory of publics in the chart).
In other words, the big picture in the chart shows
a situational theory of problem solving, where the
process of problem solving is developed and can
encompass all elements of problem solving, such as
situational motivation of problem solving that can
then lead to communicative action. This communica-
tive action then encompasses elements of information
selection, information transmission and information
acquisition. The extent to which each element will
be explored depends on personal involvement with
the issue. This personal involvement is explained in
the mini picture in the chart on situational theory
of publics where the problem solving also depends
on the level of involvement that influences the ways
and extent to which the person will seek information
about an issue, i.e. the extent the person cares and
feels personally involved.
Social influence theories
Social influence theories encompass social exchange
theory and social learning theory. As their name
states, both theories are centred on social relations
and interactions as crucial in the way people speak
as well as perceive themselves and others. The social
relations are then believed to have an influence on
PR as a profession and the way PR practitioners do
their daily work.
Social exchange theory
Social exchange theory argues that people make deci-
sions based on costs and rewards, which means we can
predict human behaviour by taking these characteris-
tics into consideration. The theory has been developed
by John Thibaut and Harold Kelley, and so far it has
been used in numerous fields such as interpersonal
communication, public relations, and organisational
theories (Lattimore et al. 2009). In addition, certain
scholars argue the theory is trying to serve as a sort
of integrative theoretical paradigm for social science,
social psychology in particular, which derives from the
corresponding claim of the rational choice model and
behaviorism, as its key bases and sources (Zafirovski
2005: 2).
The theory firstly emerged within research on fam-
ily life, and scholars focused on the rational assess-
ment of human relationships and the self-interest
that usually drives these relationships. For example,
Nomaguchi and Milkie (2003) criticised research on
family studies using the social exchange theory. In
that, they argued that the existing studies are wrong
in assuming it is costly to have a child and that hav-
ing a child brings disadvantages. According to this

M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 154 23/03/2017 13:01


research, being a parent brings costs but also ben-
efits and parents cannot be a category for research
since there are significant differences in experiences
between men and women (ibid). In addition, in rela-
tionships between a parent and a child, a child will try
to negotiate his/her position against a parent bearing
in mind a parents position of power. While in the
process of growing up, benefits of the social relation-
ship are more on the side of a child than a parent. On
the other hand, when a child grows up the benefits of
good social relations become fairly balanced and the
interaction changes as cost versus benefit becomes less
obvious (ibid).
On the other hand, research by Sprecher (2001)
investigated romantic relationships and the level of sat-
isfaction and commitment in relationships using social
exchange theory. She investigated whether equity is an
important factor in predicting relationship satisfac-
tion, commitment and stability, and she also analysed
variables such as rewards and investments in the rela-
tionship. In this research, equity was understood as a
balance between what each person contributes and the
outcome of the relationship, as self-perceived by cou-
ples. However, the results did not confirm that equity is
the only issue that affects satisfaction and commitment
in relationships even though it does have an effect to a
certain extent, and especially for the under-benefiting
side (ibid).
If we apply this theory to public relations, then we
start from the belief that people will act according to
perceived benefits. For example, if we want people to
participate in a survey we must make the survey inter-
esting, offer at least to give them the results of the sur-
vey, make the survey worth the effort by emphasising
benefits of participation, etc. (Lattimore et al. 2009).
This can then encourage participants to dedicate time
to fill in a survey, because they perceive they are giving
valuable information that can help in tackling a certain
issue such as improving a service/product, etc.
In summary, the social exchange theory relies on
a few key assumptions, i.e. individuals are seen as
rational creatures acting according to the system of
cost and benefit in their social relations and social
exchanges. Secondly, these social interactions are
centred on maximising profits from social relation-
ships and ensuring maximum personal gain to sat-
isfy basic needs. Thirdly, social interactions are, as a
consequence, patterned because individuals will both
seek to satisfy their needs and look at what others
seek to satisfy their needs (Chibucos et al. 2005). In
addition, this also means that social exchange theory
is centred on power, as in the example with children
above, because those who have power will be able
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 155
Chapter 8Public relations theories: an overview 155
to achieve advantage and a privilege, and the others
will have to negotiate their position to be able to meet
their own needs.
Social learning theory
Unlike social exchange theory that looks at human
behaviour through the system of costs and rewards,
social learning theory tries to predict behaviour by
looking at ways people process information and the
mass media content, as well as personal contacts and
information and knowledge shared from their peers.
Bandura (1977) argued that people learn behaviours
by looking at what other people do, and this means
that we will repeat behaviours that either appear cool
or rewarding.
According to Bingham and Conner (2010), social
learning has a significant impact on knowledge build-
ing, and this process is now also conditioned with the
impact of social media. In the same way, social media
can help companies improve in talent recruitment,
employee engagement and managing the workforce
and their abilities to perform and meet employers
expectations.
In addition, social learning is also conditioned by
social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, blogs and similar tools because they are
all user-friendly, and offer information and enter-
tainment in one package. Nevertheless, owing to
the popularity of social media, companies now have
social media accounts meant to promote their prod-
ucts, as well as initiating creation of engagement with
consumers. The fact that liking on Facebook is not
really engagement is a subject of discussion later in
this chapter (see the section on rhetoric and engage-
ment in PR); however, many companies believe lik-
ing and sharing constitute engagement. Because of
that, companies have accounts on all social media and
an attempt for engagement includes not only consum-
ers but also employees and talent recruitment (Bing-
ham and Conner 2010).
Mass communication theories
Theories of mass communication help in understand-
ing how media work, the role of the mass media in
setting the public agenda, as well as media framing.
There are two main theories in the field of mass com-
munication relevant for PR: agenda setting theories
and media framing.
23/03/2017 13:01
 156 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
Agenda setting theories
Agenda setting theory is a media theory studying to
what extent media set the public agenda, and how
this process works. This theory was first authored by
McCombs and Shaw (1972) who have been developing
the theory for decades.
According to the definition, the agenda setting func-
tion of the mass media is the phenomenon of the mass
media selecting certain issues and portraying them fre-
quently and prominently, which leads people to per-
ceive those issues as more important than others (Wu
and Coleman, 2009: 777; see also McCombs 2014). In
other words, agenda setting is little more than the cre-
ation of public awareness and concern about an issue
(Freeland, 2012: 3).
So far, hundreds of studies have been conducted
and data systematically shows that media are set-
ting the agenda (Shaw 1979; McCombs 1992, 2003,
2004, 2005, 2014; Shaw and Martin 1992; Scheufele
2000; Carroll and McCombs 2003; Wanta et al. 2004;
McCombs et al. 2011; Neuman and Guggenheim
2011; Muddiman et al. 2014).
Even though this theory is centred on media stud-
ies, it has major importance for PR because it helps us
understand the role and position of the media, as well
as what issues/topics media are pushing on the public
agenda. (See also Chapter 2 PR and the media.)
In line with this, PR practitioners can then design
policies to address social concerns and present their
clients in a better way, enhance corporate reputation
and engage in dialogue with publics. For example,
media studies research systematically shows there is
a hostility towards business in the mainstream media
(Buhr and Grafstrm 2006; Grayson 2009; Grafstrm
and Windell 2011; Zyglidopoulos et al. 2011), and
understanding how media report on business helps
businesses design promotional and public relations
policies accordingly.
This does not mean that PR will only look to pro-
mote the client. Whereas previously one-way commu-
nication has been preferred, the growth of corporate
social responsibility has brought increased importance
of a two-way communication and PR campaigns that
will address social concerns. This was possible based
on the media research and monitoring of social media
concerns expressed by publics. Because of recognition
of media influence and the agenda setting theory that
provides us with the framework on how to research the
media, nowadays we have a variety of PR campaigns
that both benefit clients and help society at large. For
example, British retailer Morrisons launched a cam-
paign Lets grow in 2009, which has continued (see
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 156
Explore 8.2). The campaign clearly addressed social
concerns about unhealthy living and obesity, while at
the same time enhancing Morrisons reputation and
generating profit. In the campaign, schools, children
and parents were encouraged to grow their own veg-
etables and fruit, to learn where the food is coming
from, and with this, Morrisons contributed towards
educating children on healthy living, while generating
profit at the same time (Fill 2013).
Media framing
Framing theory is considered by some scholars as a
theoretical framework in itself, whereas others believe
framing presents a natural extension of the agenda set-
ting theory and, thus, call it second-level agenda set-
ting (Scheufele 2000; McCombs 2001, 2005; Freeland
2012). While the premise of agenda setting theory (or
first-level agenda setting) is to establish what media are
telling us to think about an issue, the premise of the
framing analysis is to establish how media are telling
us to think about an issue.
The most famous definition of framing is offered
by Entman who defined framing as a process, which
essentially involves selection and salience. To frame is
to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make
them more salient in a communicating text, in such
a way as to promote a particular problem definition,
causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treat-
ment recommendation for the item described (Entman
1993: 52, emphasis in the original).
Framing clearly has importance for PR practitioners
because we must monitor media to know how they
write about the client or an industry in which PR prac-
titioners work. As agenda setting and framing research
has demonstrated (no matter where we place framing),
media have a significant influence over peoples atten-
tion on issues, and PR practitioners must be wary of
the media.
The fact PR practitioners are aware of the impor-
tance of the media, and that they are systematically
trying to develop good relations with the media, has
been a subject of criticism of PR from critical schol-
ars and activists for PRs influence over the media.
PR does have an influence over the media, and some
scholars criticise the profession for excluding cer-
tain voices from public debates (LEtang and Pieczka
2006).
This criticism came also because of major organisa-
tions and influential speakers that criticise PR, such as
Corporate Watch, Spin Watch and the prominent social
critic, Noam Chomsky, who propose that every bad
23/03/2017 13:01

Think about 8.2
Why do you think PR has such a bad reputation?
What can PR practitioners do to change that?
Do you think that codes of conduct by national
associations such as the UK CIPR will help in com-
batting the image of PR as a spin machine?
Do you think that PR is unethical? If so, why?
Feedback
Critics of PR would argue that PR is an inherently
unethical discipline determined to spin the public for
their own interest, or the interest of their employer
(for discussion see Coombs and Holladay 2007).
or allegedly bad move of a certain business organisa-
tion is labelled as just PR. This criticism prompted a
response from some scholars who defended the pro-
fession by emphasising the positive aspects of PR in
societies (Coombs and Holladay 2007).
Nevertheless, as acknowledged by scholars, there
are so many different definitions of PR that it is almost
impossible to define it properly (Edwards 2014b).
When defined as media relations then we must exam-
ine the PRmedia process.
Rhetoric and engagement in
public relations
Other than communication theories presented through-
out this chapter, there are other theories relevant for
PR. One of them is the rhetorical theory established
by Robert L. Heath, and this theory discusses quality,
ethics and effectiveness of discourse in PR. Since the
theory is linked with ethics, it also discusses the link
between PR and persuasion.
Explore 8.4
Look at the Ice Bucket Challenge campaign. Collect
information on the campaign, the cause and the
media coverage. Think what was the main message of
the campaign? What was the aim of the campaign, and
which model of communication has been used? How
did the media frame the campaign in their articles?
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 157
Chapter 8Public relations theories: an overview 157
Heath (2006) argued that rhetorical theory applied
to PR has a goal to create a fully functional society
that will respect and listen to all voices. In addition,
PR is seen as a key force in initiating debates but these
debates must be based on a variety of perspectives and
voices in order to ensure that PR takes everyones inter-
ests into consideration and not only the ones from the
organisation. Any other approach will be considered
as unethical.
Because of such a broad view of the role of PR in
society, rhetorical analyses of PR focus on the research
of ethics, power, influence and access to communica-
tion by various parties, as well as analyses of verbal
and non-verbal communication of organisations in
their persuasive attempts (Edwards 2014a).
The first publication that endorsed the view of
rhetoric in PR was a handbook of PR edited by Heath
(2001: 31) where the editor positioned rhetoric in
PR by saying that rhetorical practice shapes PR and
the so-called humans commitment to rhetorical
dialogue as the process of forging conclusions and
influencing action.
However, the fact that Heath links PR with rhetoric
and that he sees rhetoric as a form of persuasive com-
munication does not mean Heath has a negative or
one-way view of PR communication. On the contrary,
Heath sees PR rhetoric as founded on persuasive dia-
logue designed to enable strategic response and plan-
ning in response to a problem he sees as rhetorical
(Heath 2001: 49). Heaths application of rhetoric to
PR comes from his studies of rhetoric, and if we look at
the definition of rhetoric as the transmission of ideas,
then we can say that communication relates to rheto-
ric in various small and large ways...In larger ways,
communication as a whole can be nearly synonymous
with rhetoric, subsume or be subsumed by rhetoric
(Collins 2001: 1257).
Nevertheless, Heath has received criticism for
his rhetorical theory. For example, Mackey (2005)
stated that the whole world can be seen as constituted
through rhetoric and, thus, it is entirely wrong to state
it is PR as one particular profession that practises this
form of communication.
Engagement in public relations
On the other hand, engagement has become a popular
term in both marketing and PR, as both practitioners
and scholars use this term to describe the stakeholder
orientation of corporations, and a two-way communi-
cation flow between corporations and publics. In the
same way CSR became a buzz word in the business
23/03/2017 13:01
 158 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
world (Tench et al. 2014), engagement seems to be
on the road to achieving the same status in the fields
of marketing and PR.
Nevertheless, engagement is seen as positive orga-
nizational or marketing outcomes such as increased
employee voluntary behaviours, consumer advocacy,
financial support, and loyalty (Kang 2014: 399). In
addition, engagement is also seen as a measure of what
constitutes good PR (Johnston 2014). Heath (2014)
argued that engagement is both a two-way communi-
cation and an appreciation for, and commitment to
dialogue with and among stakeholders and organi-
zations as community-building discourse and power
resource co-management (Heath 2014, cited inJohn-
ston 2014: 382). According to some authors, engage-
ment has actually replaced the excellence theory in PR
(Taylor and Kent 2014). Engagement is usually used
in five contexts:
social media engagement
employee engagement
CSR and engagement
civic engagement and social capital, and
dialogic engagement
(Taylor and Kent, 2014: 385).
Many companies nowadays speak of engagement,
even though it is not always clear whether they under-
stand engagement as a dialogue. Nevertheless, some
companies see engagement only through the behav-
ioural aspect of consumer behaviour and believe that
engagement is also liking or sharing through social
media and then making a purchase decision (Yeo-
mans and Topi 2015), while others see engagement
through employee engagement and internal marketing.
The popularity of employee engagement in the West is
so high that many organisations run internal award
programmes in an attempt to motivate employees for
work and emotional engagement with the organisa-
tion. Owing to the popularity of the concept, Forbes
developed a list explaining what engagement is and
what is it not by emphasising that
Employee engagement does not mean employee hap-
piness. Someone might be happy at work, but that
doesnt necessarily mean they are working hard,
productively on behalf of the organization. While
company game rooms, free massages and Friday keg
parties are fun and may be beneficial for other
reasons making employees happy is different from
making them engaged. Employee engagement doesnt
mean employee satisfaction. Many companies have
employee satisfaction surveys and executives talk
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 158
about employee satisfaction, but the bar is set too
low. A satisfied employee might show up for her
daily 9-to-5 without complaint. But that same satis-
fied employee might not go the extra effort on her
own, and shell probably take the headhunters call
luring her away with a 10% bump in pay. Satisfied
isnt enough. This emotional commitment means
engaged employees actually care about their work
and their company. They dont work just for a pay-
check, or just for the next promotion, but work on
behalf of the organizations goals.
(Kruse 2012)
Feminism and public relations
The term often used to analyse the position of women
in public relations is feminisation, a term that emerged
during the 1980s when women outnumbered men in
the PR industry (Aldoory and Toth 2002; Yeomans
2007; Fitch and Third 2010; Wyatt 2013; Zerfass
etal. 2014). The feminisation theory in public relations
looks at predictions between gender and work out-
comes due to the unequal position of men and women
in the PR industry despite numbers clearly going in
favour of women.
Feminisation theory is part of liberal feminist doc-
trine which strives to reduce inequalities between men
and women, often focusing on the efforts of the indi-
vidual to promote change (Rakow and Nastasia 2009).
The focus of much liberal feminist research is the wage
gap, mentoring, life-work balance and the glass ceil-
ing problem (Vardeman-Winter 2013; Zerfass et al.
2014). Other studies have focused on ways women
conduct PR and the way campaigns are structured and
narrated, which brings disadvantages to women in the
industry (Aldoory 2009).
Some researchers, however, pointed out that char-
acteristics usually ascribed to women such as caring,
respect, cooperation and interconnection enhance eth-
ics in PR (Grunig et al 2000), whereas others responded
that these views are a disadvantage to women because
it makes progress to managerial functions more dif-
ficult (Frhlich 2004). Nevertheless, newer research
shows that the glass ceiling remains a persistent prob-
lem that female PR practitioners face in in the industry,
but also that inequality transforms to new issues once
one inequality gets tackled (Tench and Topi 2016).
From a liberal feminist perspective, among the new
issues that women in PR are facing is a lack of mentor-
ship, where women are mentored less, and then conse-
quentially cannot progress to become mentors, which
23/03/2017 13:01

then has an impact on their leadership and managerial
career prospects in the future (ibid).
Even though PR is predominantly a female indus-
try with the majority of employees being women, it is
not women that occupy senior positions (Grunig et al.
2001; Rush et al. 2004; Zerfass et al. 2014). On the
contrary, because PR is predominantly a female indus-
try, a negative stereotype has emerged so we can hear
comments such as PR bunny or PR girl (Frhlich as this serves only governments and businesses rather
and Peters 2007), which have negative connotations,
making it look as if PR is only about subtle manipula-
tion and good looks (see, for example, The Daily Kick/
PR Bunny Kicker 2013).
Other research in PR has focused on under-represen-
tation of black and other minorities within the indus-
try, i.e. PR is a predominantly female industry, with
men occupying senior positions while women occupy
minor positions, but black and other minorities are
not represented on any level (Pompper 2007; Edwards
2010). This might be due to somewhat discriminatory
views on what constitutes the so-called PR appearance,
which does not only relate to the issue of PR bunny for
women (Frhlich and Peters 2007) but also for men who
are expected to look a particular way (Elmer 2010).
Postmodern and socio-
cultural theories of public
relations
As already emphasised, communication theories are
still influential in the US, while other theories are pre-
dominantly present in Europe. This is because Euro-
pean scholars moved on from communication and
social theories to explore postmodern and socio-cul-
tural approaches to public relations.
Postmodern approaches to PR argue that existing
theories of PR offer a metanarrative grounded in the
modern paradigm, and that there is no reason why
any metanarrative should be accepted by publics.
Instead, postmodernists argue that PR must listen to
the variety of voices and perspectives and shape the
field accordingly because each society is shaped by dif-
ferent meanings and narratives that all form social real-
ity (Mickey 1997; Boyd and Vanslette 2009; Edwards
2014a). For example, the metanarrative that the UK
should remain a member of the European Union (EU)
a view assumed to be widely held among the UK
population was sharply disrupted in 2016 when the
majority of British citizens voted to leave the EU. As a
consequence, politicians had to reappraise the variety
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 159
Chapter 8Public relations theories: an overview 159
of beliefs and opinions held by anti-EU (or Brexit)
voters, forcing a crisis in British politics.
Some PR scholars therefore argue that PR practi-
tioners cannot present metanarratives to diversified
populations because they will face failures, as not all
needs will be met (Holtzhausen 2002). This under-
standing brings in research on ethics in PR and the
argument that PR cannot keep using metanarratives
than publics. Thus, the postmodern view contributes
debates on the fragmentation of publics and how to
ensure that the voices of different publics are heard, as
well as debates on the challenges of uncontrolled media
and media that are becoming more aggressive in their
views (Edwards 2014a).
The socio-cultural approach to PR is close to post-
modernism because in a sense it acknowledges diver-
sity. According to the socio-cultural approach, every
culture is considered to have a significant influence
over shaping society and, in turn, PR as a profession.
For example, Ihlen and Verhoeven (2012: 160) argue
that there is a need for public relations to come to
terms with itself as a multi-paradigmatic discipline
that can demonstrate its academic value, alongside the
traditional emphasis on making recommendations for
practitioners. In addition, public relations research
needs to determine how public relations functions, and
what it does in, to and for organizations, publics, or
the public arena, in other words, society as a whole
(Ihlen and Van Ruler 2009: 2).
Curtin and Gaither (2007) see PR as a discursive for-
mation set to produce meaning, and that these mean-
ings vary from culture to culture. The socio-cultural
view considers that PR and consumption are inextri-
cably linked together and this relationship is embed-
ded in culture where PR practitioners serve as cultural
intermediaries (Curtin and Gaither 2007: 107). Cul-
tural intermediaries are, in this view, understood as an
occupational group which mediates between organisa-
tions and groups within wider society, seeking to com-
municate meanings through influential communicative
practice (Hodges 2006: 88).
In addition, PR is seen as constructing realities
through the promotion of particular discourses (for
example, consumerism), particularly in the media
(Merten 2004 cited in Edwards 2014a: 139). For
example, Topi and Tench (2016) explored the com-
munication campaigns of the supermarket chain Lidl
in Croatia and the UK. Their findings have shown that
Lidl communicates differently in two countries due to
different consumer cultures and different social prob-
lems. For example, in the UK Lidl is trying to promote
itself as a supermarket chain that offers equally good
23/03/2017 13:01
 160 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
quality products as British competitors, whereas in
Croatia Lidl promotes the company as an outstand-
ing employer. In the UKs case, Lidl is clearly address-
ing the social problem where shopping in Lidl is met
with disapproval among some social groups, whereas
their communication in Croatia bears in mind there is a
social problem in the industry where companies are not
seen as good employers, there are issues with bullying,
lack of care, not paying on time, etc. These messages
are then communicated to publics through the creation
of discourses on Lidl that are meant to be communi-
cated in a comprehensible way in both countries and
appeal to consumers. Lidl, it would seem, has therefore
mastered understanding of the social context, as well as
cultural context of different views on products, i.e. in
Croatia consumers are not sensitive to ethically sourced
produce, while the British consumers are (ibid).
However, Ihlen and Verhoeven (2012) argue that
PR should not be only analysed from the point of
organisations and how organisations communicate
Mini case study 8.1
The Coca Cola Happiness
campaigns
Coca-Cola is a world-leading company in the production
of beverages. After the millennium, the company started
to promote itself with a new motto, Open happiness, and
campaigns on Sharing happiness have been launched.
The company was founded in 1886 in Atlanta, and its
products can be bought across the world except in Cuba
and North Korea, two countries that have or are still fac-
ing US trade embargoes (Hebblethwaite 2012). The com-
pany has been a subject of criticism for causing obesity,
in line with new concerns on the amount of sugar people
consume, where consumption of soft drinks is often
seen as the main causes of obesity. These concerns led
some companies to ban certain products such as fizzy/
soda drinks in the US, or the Ribena soft drink which was
banned by Tesco in the UK (Ax 2013; Williamson 2015).
In its promotional activities, Coca Cola extensively relies on
PR, and this particularly applies to the period after 2000
when the company started its happiness campaign. For
example, a campaign in Denmark (A Happy Flag) empha-
sised the Danish national custom of greeting people with
Danish flags and Denmarks number one score on the UNs
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 160
with publics, but also from the point of looking into
what PR can do to support public causes. Therefore,
according to this view, public relations should be stud-
ied like any other social activity (Ihlen and Verhoeven
2012: 162), and this is also the case because PR, by its
nature, is neither good nor bad. What matters is how
PR is used. In other words, public relations research
should move from administrative approaches to soci-
etal approaches that expose what public relations is in
society today, rather than only what it should be at the
organizational level (Ihlen and Van Ruler 2009: 5).
In sum, socio-cultural theory of PR looks at the
socially constructed nature of the practice and what
is produced (Hodges 2013: 856), and the debates are
centred on four key areas, i.e. (1) the impact of cul-
ture and society upon public relations, (2) its influ-
ence upon society and culture, (3) public relations
itself as a culture, and (4) the engagement of practi-
tioners with the contexts within which they perform
their work (ibid).
world list of happiness. Coca Cola launched a campaign
after discovering that Coca Colas iconic logo matches with
the Danish flag and emphasised that Coca Cola and Den-
mark can share happiness together. They went to airports
and placed outdoor ads with Danish flags on Coca Cola
machines (with a line reading Welcome to the worlds hap-
piest country) to help people who had forgotten to bring
Danish flags with them to greet arrivals, as is the national
Danish tradition. According to Coca Colas advert, in one
day, people took 2400 flags and greeted 25,000 arrivals
from more than 30 countries (Coca Cola A Happy Flag
advert).
In other countries, Coca Cola has also launched cam-
paigns giving free drinks and gifts in vending machines
(Coca Cola Happiness machine advert), as well as some
human rights orientated campaigns such as the creation
of friendships between India and Pakistan using Coca
Cola vending machines in shopping centres in New Delhi
(India) and Lahore (Pakistan) together with a live cam-
era between them. The screen had the message Make a
friend in India and Make a friend in Pakistan, and people
were invited to wave to someone in the other country,
put their hand on a picture of a hand to greet each other,
as well as draw on the screen, where they were invited to
illustrate peace and heart signs, or dance with each other,
etc. (Coca Cola: Bringing India and Pakistan together
advert). The motto of the campaign was sharing happi-
ness, and showing that what unites us is stronger than
what divides us (ibid).
23/03/2017 13:01
 Chapter 8Public relations theories: an overview 161

Explore 8.5 List of adverts for research/reflection

Look at the list of adverts promoting the happiness cam-
paign around the world and think about which theory
applies to Coca Colas campaigns. What kind of emotions
did the adverts elicit in you? Has Coca Cola done any-
thing similar in your country? If so, how did the public
react? Was there any media coverage, and what did the
media report? If something like this has not happened in
your country, how do you think the public would react?
A Happy Flag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_
BVfneC6dXY
Bringing India and Pakistan together: https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImE
Coca Cola Happiness machine: https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=lqT_dPApj9U

Mini case study 8.2

In response to a major migration crisis that started in 2014 directed to the Australian public showing that the gov-
as a result of the war in Syria, the Australian Government ernment was protecting its borders, but the campaign
started a campaign aimed at both international and local was also a message to smugglers and potential migrants.
audiences entitled: No way! You will not make Australia Therefore, PR can be used for simultaneous purposes and
home! (Counter People Smuggling Communication 2014). directed to different publics, each decoding the commu-
nicated message differently and with different effect.
The campaigns original purpose was to enforce tougher
border controls to combat people smuggling. Neverthe-
less, the government also opened the programme Think-
ing of Home? for those asylum seekers who would like to
go home, and who are now eligible to apply for funding
(Counter People Smuggling Communication 2014).

The campaign caused international coverage with the

media largely condemning the way the campaign was
communicated albeit not the purpose as such, with
some calling the slogan You will not make Australia
home distasteful and embarrassing (Whyte 2014). Apart
from the general campaign slogan, the Australian Gov-
ernment also issued a series of graphics showing the
feelings of migrants in detention centres, suffering from
stress and bad treatment, in an apparent attempt to dis-
courage mass migration to Australia (Laughland 2014).

The campaign, therefore, aimed to communicate

with the Australian public, reflecting concerns about
immigration, as well as sending a clear message both
to smugglers and potential migrants that they will not
be allowed entry and settlement in Australia based on Picture 8.1 Australias efforts to enforce tougher border
illegal practice. This presents a PR attempt primarily controls in 2014 led to international condemnation.

Explore 8.6
Next, take a look at the international media coverage,
Review the website of the Australian Government, and
and discuss media framing of the issue. What was the
discuss the immigration campaign. What was the central
framing of the Australian media? What was the fram-
message of the campaign? What was the Australian Gov-
ing of the international media? What were the cen-
ernment trying to communicate and why? Use Laswells
tral arguments in the media coverage in Australia and
model of communication to think what was communi-
abroad?
cated, to whom and with what potential effect.

M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 161 23/03/2017 13:01

 162 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts

Mini case study 8.3: This campaign is not just about these adverts but a holis-
tic campaign entitled Our Epic Battle #Like a Girl, and the
company also runs community programmes as well as
Always #Like a Girl educational programmes in schools (Always 2016). This
campaign also initiated large media interest in the US
and abroad. For example, in the UK, the Daily Telegraph
Always is a brand owned by Procter & Gamble. In 2014 reported on the campaign, acknowledging that there is
Always launched the first part of their campaign #Like a a pressure on girls even in the UK and that this problem
Girl where they asked boys and girls to show what it looks should be addressed (Cohen 2015).
like to do certain things like a girl, e.g. running, fight-
ing and throwing. They asked both older and younger
girls and boys, and the answers younger girls gave were
self-confident, while older girls gave less self-confident
and stereotypical answers. Then the Always team asked
boys and girls to explain what they mean when they say
someone is doing something like a girl. After that, they
talked to girls about their identities and how they feel
about being a girl: older girls confirmed saying like a girl
puts them down and affects their self-confidence during
growing up. They said that the term like a girl sounds
offensive.
In 2015, Always launched a sequel to the first campaign
entitled #Like a Girl unstoppable where the Always
team asked girls if society limits them. Girls replied that
they are often not asked to do things because they are
girls. The Always team asked girls to take white boxes
and write on them the things that limit them. Then
the team asked the girls what they want to do with
those boxes. For example, one girl wrote girls cant res-
cue and answered that she wanted to break the box.
Another one wrote unworthy , girls cant play basket-
ball, weak, slow, and said she wanted to kick those
boxes.

The main communication message of the first campaign

was Lets make #Like a Girl mean amazing things while
the motto read Rewrite the rules (#Like a Girl advert
2014). The second campaigns main communication
message was Share how you are unstoppable and the
main motto of the campaign was again Rewrite the rules Picture 8.2 A campaign showing images of girls doing
and Join us to champion girls confidence (Like a Girl well at sport set out to challenge common stereotypes
Unstoppable advert 2015). of what girls could and could not achieve

Explore 8.7

Explore the media coverage of the Always campaigns.
Make a distinction between news media and specialist
magazines (marketing and advertising). What has news
media reported about? What was the central message
of media articles?
Next, select two articles from different media outlets with
lots of user comments. How did the society respond to
the campaign and the media article about it? What are
the main arguments about the campaign among mem-
bers of the general public?
What type of public relations is this? Has Always achieved
excellence in PR with this campaign?

M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 162 23/03/2017 13:01


Think about 8.3
Think about whether you ever heard anyone using the expression like a girl. What did you think about it at the time?
What do you think about the issue after reading about it? Do you think that PR can change the perception of girls not
being suitable for certain roles, and empower them?
Summary
This chapter gives an overview of PR theories, especially
in regard to communication theories. In this context, the
chapter explains initial communication theories such
as Laswells communication model, as well as relation-
ship theories that are increasingly being debated at the
present time. In addition, the chapter explores social
influence theories that can be useful for contemporary
public relations owing to its emphasis on social interac-
tions and social processes that affect the decision mak-
ing processes among the public(s). Through the wealth of
Bibliography
A Happy Flag advert. https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=_BVfneC6dXY accessed 21 January 2016.
Aldoory, L. (2009). Feminist criticism in public relations:
how gender can impact public relations texts and con-
texts in Rhetorical and Critical Approaches to Public
relations II. R.L. Heath, E. Toth and D. Waymer (eds).
New York: Routledge.
Aldoory, L. and E. Toth (2002). Gender discrepancies in
a gendered profession: a developing theory for public
relations. Journal of Public Relations Research 14(2):
10326.
Always (2016). Our Epic Battle #Like a Girl. http://
always.com/en-us/about-us/our-epic-battle-like-a-girl
accessed 21 January 2016.
Austin, E.W. and B.E. Pinkleton (2006). Strategic Public
Relations Management: Planning and managing effec-
tive communication programs, 2nd edition. London:
Taylor & Francis.
Ax, J.I. (2013). Bloombergs ban on big sodas is uncon-
stitutional: Appeals court. Reuters. http://www.
reuters.com/article/2013/07/30/us-sodabanlawsuit-
idUSBRE96T0UT20130730 accessed 10 December
2015.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 163
Chapter 8Public relations theories: an overview 163
explore boxes and case studies the reader can investigate
and build understanding of what public relations is as
a profession (see also Chapter 7) and how we can use
communication theories to plan PR campaigns. While
PR practitioners and practical PR literature do not always
explicitly reference communication and social theories
in their work, it is apparent that these theories do have
a value for consideration and campaign design. As such,
this chapter helps the reader to engage and better under-
stand the next chapter in the book on communication
planning and management, as well as helping in increas-
ing the ability to apply theory to practice.
Bernays, E. (1923). Crystallizing Public Opinion. New
York: Boni and Liveright.
Bernays, E. (1927). An Outline of Careers: A practical
guide to achievement by thirty-eight eminent Ameri-
cans. New York: George H. Doran Company.
Bernays, E. (1945). Public Relations. Boston: Bellman
Publishing Company, Inc.
Bingham, T. and M. Conner (2010). The New Social
Learning: A guide to transforming organizations
through social media. Alexandria, VA: American Soci-
ety for Training and Development.
Boyd, J. and S.H. Vanslette (2009). Outlaw discourse
as postmodern public relations in Rhetorical
and Critical Approaches to Public Relations. R.L.
Heath, E. Toth and D. Waymer (eds). New York, NY:
Routledge.
Bringing India and Pakistan together advert. https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImE accessed 21
January 2016.
Brown, R. (2010). Symmetry and its critics: antecedents,
prospects and implications for symmetry in a postsym-
metry era in The Sage Handbook of Public Relations,
R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Buhr, H. and M. Grafstrm (2006). The Making of
Meaning in the Media: The Case of Corporate Social
Responsibility in the Financial Times, 19882003.
http://www.fek.uu.se/gems/publications/Buhr_
Grafstrom_CSR_2006.pdf accessed 26 March 2015.
23/03/2017 13:01
 164 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
Butterick, K. (2011). Introducing Public Relations: The-
ory and Practice. London: SAGE.
Carroll, C.E. and M. McCombs (2003). Agenda-setting
effects of business news on the publics images and
opinions about major corporations. Corporate Repu-
tation Review 6(1): 3646.
Chartered Institute of Public Relations (2013). Social
Media Best Practice Guide. London: CIPR.
Chibucos, T.R., R.W. Leite, and D.L. Weis (2005). Read-
ings in Family Theory. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Coca Cola Happiness machine advert. https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=lqT_dPApj9U accessed 21
January 2016.
Cohen, C. (2015). #LikeAGirl Unstoppable new video:
Most young British women feel pressure to behave
like a girl. The Telegraph, 7 July. http://www.
telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11716710/
LikeAGirl-Unstoppable-Always-video-Girls-feel-
pressure-to-be-girly.html accessed 21 January 2015.
Collins, C. (2001). Encyclopaedia of Rhetoric. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Coombs, W.T. and S.J. Holladay (2007). Its Not Just
PR: Public relations in society. Malden: Blackwell
Publishing.
Counter People Smuggling Communication (2014).
https://www.border.gov.au/about/operation-sovereign-
borders/counter-people-smuggling-communication
accessed 10 December 2015.
Curtin, P.A., and T.K. Gaither (2007). International Pub-
lic Relations: Negotiating culture, identity and power.
London: Sage.
Cutlip, S.M., A.H. Center and G.M. Broom (2000). Effec-
tive Public Relations, 8th edition. Upper Saddle River:
Prentice Hall.
Edwards, L. (2010). An exploratory study of the experi-
ences of BAME PR practitioners in the UK industry:
industry report. Manchester: Manchester Business
School, University of Manchester.
Edwards, L. (2014a). Public relations theories: an over-
view in Exploring Public Relations, 3rd edition.
R.Tench and L. Yeomans (eds). Harlow: Pearson.
Edwards, L. (2014b). Public relations origins: definitions
and history in Exploring Public Relations, 3rd edi-
tion. R. Tench and L. Yeomans (eds). Harlow: Pearson.
Elmer, P. (2010). Re-encountering the PR man. PRism
7(4): 15. http://www.prismjournal.org accessed 4
December
Entman, R.M. (1993). Framing: toward clarification of
a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication
43(4): 518.
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 164
Ethical Consumer (2013a). Ethical Consumer Markets
Report. http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/portals/0/
downloads/ethical_consumer_markets_report_2013.
pdf accessed 5 March 2015.
Ethical Consumer (2013b). Sector Report on the Food
Industry: Food, Justice and Corporate Power. http://
www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalreports/foodindustry
sectorreport.aspx accessed 5 March 2015.
Fill, C. (2013). Marketing Communications. Harlow:
Pearson.
Freeland, A.M. (2012). Second Level Agenda Setting: An
Overview of Second-Level Agenda Setting and Fram-
ing. https://www.academia.edu/3355247/Second_
Level_Agenda_Setting_Theory accessed 1 July 2015.
Freeman, R.E. (1984). Strategic Management: A stake-
holder approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. Reprint from Freeman, R.E., J.S. Harrison, A.C.
Wicks, B.L. Parmar and S. De Colle, (2010). Stake-
holder Theory: The state of the art. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Fitch, K. and A. Third (2010). Working girls: Revisiting
the gendering of public relations. PRism 7(4). http://
www.prismjournal.org/fileadmin/Praxis/Files/Gender/
Fitch_Third.pdf accessed 23 July 2015.
Frhlich, R. and S.B. Peters (2007). PR bunnies caught in
the agency ghetto? Gender stereotypes, organizational
factors, and womens careers in PR agencies. Journal
of Public Relations Research 19(3): 22954.
Frhlich, R. (2004). Feminine and feminist values in com-
munication professions: exceptional skills and exper-
tise or friendliness trap? in Gender and Newsroom
Cultures: Identities at work. M. de Bruin and K. Ross,
(eds). Cresskill: Hampton.
Grafstrm, M. and K. Windell (2011). The Role of Info-
mediaries: CSR in the Business Press During 2000-
2009. Journal of Business Ethics 103: 22137.
Grayson, D. (2009). Corporate responsibility and the
media. Doughty Centre Corporate Responsibility.
http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/dinamic-content/
research/doughty/crandthemediafinal.pdf accessed 26
March 2015.
Grunig, J.E. (2003). Constructing public relations the-
ory and practice in Communication: another kind
of horse race: Essays honouring Richard F. Carter. B.
Dervin and S. Chaffee (eds). Cresskilll, NJ: Hampton
Press, pp. 85115.
Grunig, L.A., J.E. Grunig and D.M. Dozier (2002). Excel-
lent Public Relations and Effective Organizations.
Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Grunig, L.A., E.L. Toth and L.C. Hon (2001). Women
in Public Relations: How gender influences practice.
New York: The Guilford Press.
23/03/2017 13:01

Grunig, L.A., E.L. Toth and L.C. Hon (2000). Feminist
values in public relations. Journal of Public Relations
Research 12(1): 4968.
Grunig, J.E. (1992). Excellence in Public Relations and
Communication Management. Hillsdale: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
Grunig, J.E. and F. Repper (1992). Strategic management,
publics, and issues in Excellence in Public Relations
and Communication Management. J.E. Grunig (ed.)
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 117158.
Grunig, J.E. (1989). Publics, audiences and market seg-
ments: models of receivers of campaign messages in
Information Campaigns: Managing the process of
social change. C.T. Salmon (ed.). Newbury Park, CA:
Sage, pp. 197226.
Grunig, J.E. and T. Hunt (1984). Managing Public Rela-
tions. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Heath, R. (2006). A rhetorical theory approach to issues
management in Public Relations Theory II. C.H.
Botan and V. Hazelton (eds). Mahwah: Lawrence Erl-
baum Associates.
Heath, R. (2001). A rhetorical enactment rationale for
public relations: The good organisation communicat-
ing well in Handbook of Public Relations. R.L. Heath
(ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Hebblethwaite, C. (2012). Who, What, Why: In which
countries is Coca-Cola not sold? http://www.bbc.
co.uk/news/magazine-19550067 accessed 10 Decem-
ber 2015.
Hodges, C. (2006). PRP culture: A framework for explor-
ing public relations practitioners as cultural intermedi-
aries. Journal of Communication Management 10(1):
8093.
Hodges, C.E.M. (2013). Socioculture and public rela-
tions in Encyclopedia of Public Relations, 2nd edi-
tion. R.L. Heath (ed.). London: SAGE.
Holtzhausen, D.R. (2002). Towards a postmodern
research agenda for public relations. Public Relations
Review 28: 25164.
Ihlen, O. and P. Verhoeven (2012). A public relations
identity for 2010s. Public Relations Inquiry 1(2):
15976.
Ihlen, O. and van Ruler, B. (2009). Introduction: Apply-
ing social theory to public relations in Public Rela-
tions and Social Theory: Key figures and concepts
O. Ihlen, B. van Ruler, and M. Fredriksson (eds). New
York: Routledge.
IPR (2012). IPR.org.uk Public Relations Public Rela-
tions through Time. http://www.ipr.org.uk/public-
relations-through-time.html accessed 21 January 2016.
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 165
Chapter 8Public relations theories: an overview 165
Johnston, K.A. (2014). Public relations and engagement:
Theoretical imperatives of a multidimensional concept.
Journal of Public Relations Research 26(5), 381383.
Littlejohn, S.W. (2002). Theories of Human Communica-
tion. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Kang, M. (2014). Understanding public engagement:
conceptualizing and measuring its influence on sup-
portive behavioural intentions. Journal of Public
Relations Research 26(5): 399416.
Katz, R. and P.F. Lazarsfeld (1955). Personal Influence.
New York: Free Press.
Kim, J-N. (2011). Public segmentation using situational
theory of problem solving: Illustrating summation
method and testing segmented public profiles. PRism
8(2). http://www.prismjournal.org/homepage.html
accessed 9 December 20150.
Kim, J-N, and J.E. Grunig (2011). Problem solving and
communicative action: a situational theory of prob-
lem solving. Journal of Communication 61: 120149.
Kruse, K. (2012). What Is Employee Engagement?
Forbes, 22 June 2012. http://www.forbes.com/sites/
kevinkruse/2012/06/22/employee-engagement-what-
and-why/ accessed 4 December 2015.
Laswell, D., O. Baskin, S.T. Heineman and E.L. Toth
(2009). Public Relations: The profession and the prac-
tice, 3rd edition. New York, McGraw-Hill.
Lattimore, D. O. Baskin, S.T. Heiman and E.L. Toth
(2009). Public Relations: The Profession and the Prac-
tice, 3rd edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Laughland, O. (2014). Australian government tar-
gets asylum seekers with graphic campaign. The
Guardian, 11 February. http://www.theguardian.
com/world/2014/feb/11/government-launches-new-
graphic-campaign-to-deter-asylum-seekers accessed
10 December 2015.
Ledwith, M., Brown, J. and Robinson, M. (2012). I
shop at Waitrose because... I dont like being sur-
rounded by poor people: Internet jokers hijack posh
peoples supermarket Twitter stunt. The Daily Mail,
20 September. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/
article-2205975/Waitrose-Twitter-backlash-I-shop-
Waitrose--I-dont-like-surrounded-poor-people.html
accessed 11 December 2015.
LEtang, J. and M. Pieczka (2006). Public Relations: Criti-
cal debates and contemporary practice. Mahwah:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
LEtang, J. and M. Pieczka (1996). Critical perspectives
in public relations in Critical Perspectives in Public
Relations. J. LEtang and M. Pieczka (eds) London:
International Thompson Business Press.
23/03/2017 13:01
 166 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
#Like a Girl advert (2014). https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs accessed 21 January 2016.
#Like a Girl Unstoppable advert (2015). https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=VhB3l1gCz2E accessed 21
January 2016.
Lionberger, H.F. (1960). Adoption of New Ideas and
Practices. Ames: Iowa State University Press.
Mackey, S. (2005). Rhetorical theory of public rela-
tions: opening the door to semiotic and pragmatism
approaches. The Annual Meeting of the Australian and
New Zealand Communication Association Christch-
urch, New Zealand 47 July 200. http://citeseerx.ist.
psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.134.2304and
rep=rep1andtype=pdf accessed 4 December 2015.
McCombs, M. (2014). Setting the Agenda: The mass media
and public opinion, 2nd edition. Cambridge: Polity.
McCombs, M., R.L. Holbert, S. Kiousis and W. Wanta
(2011). The News and Public Opinion: Media effects
on civic life. Cambridge: Polity.
McCombs, M. (2005). A look at agenda-setting:
past, present and future. Journalism Studies 6(4):
54357.
McCombs, M. (2004). Setting the Agenda: The mass
media and public opinion. Cambridge: Polity Press.
McCombs, M. (2003). The Agenda-Setting Role of the
Mass Media in the Shaping of Public Opinion. http://
www.infoamerica.org/documentos_pdf/mccombs01.
pdf accessed 1 July 2015.
McCombs, M. and S. Ghanem (2001). The convergence
of agenda setting and framing in Framing Public Life:
Perspectives on media and our understanding of the
social world. S. Reese, O. Gandy Jr. and A. Grant
(eds). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
McCombs, M. (1992). Explorers and survivors: expand-
ing strategies for agenda-setting research. Journalism
Quarterly 69(4): 81324.
McCombs, M. and D.L. Shaw (1972). The agenda setting
function of mass media. The Public Opinion Quar-
terly 36(2): 17687.
McKeever, B.W., G. Pressgrove, R. McKeever and Y.
Zheng (2015). Toward a theory of situational sup-
port: A model for exploring fundraising, advocacy and
organizational support. Public Relations Review, arti-
cle in press, doi: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2015.09.009
Merten, K. (2004). A constructivist approach to public
relations in Public Relations and Communication
Management in Europe. B. van Ruler and D. Veri
(eds). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Mickey, T.J. (1997). A postmodern view of public rela-
tions: sign and reality. Public Relations Review 23:
271285.
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 166
Muddiman, A., N.J. Stroud and M. McCombs (2014).
Media fragmentation, attribute agenda setting, and
political opinions about Iraq. Journal of Broadcasting
and Electronic Media 58(2): 215233.
Neuman, W.R. and Guggenheim, L. (2011). The evolution
of media effects theory: a six-stage model of cumula-
tive research. Communication Theory 21: 16996.
Nomaguchi, K.M. and M.A. Milkie (2003). Costs and
rewards of children: the effects of becoming a par-
ent on adults lives. Journal of Marriage and Family
65(2): 35674.
Pompper, D. (2007). The gender-ethnicity construct in
public relations organizations: using feminist stand-
point theory to discover Latinas realities. The How-
ard Journal of Communications 18: 291311.
Rakow, L.F. and D.I. Nastasia (2009). Feminist theory of
public relations: An example from Dorothy E. Smith
in Public Relations and Social Theory. O. Ihlen, B. van
Ruler, and M. Fredriksson(eds). London: Routledge.
Renton, A. (2008). Jamie Olivers Ministry of Food goes
to Rotherham. The Guardian, 1 October. http://www.
theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2008/oct/01/
jamie.oliver.ministry.food accessed 8 December 2015.
Rush, R., C. Oukrop and P. Creedon (2004). Seeking
Equity for Women in Journalism and Mass Commu-
nication Education: a 30-year update. New Jersey:
Laurence Erlbaum Stanford.
Scheufele, D.A. (2000). Agenda-setting, priming, and
framing revisited: another look at cognitive effects of
political communication. Mass Communication and
Society 3(273): 297316.
Shanon, C.E. and W. Weaver (1949). The Mathematical
Theory of Communication. Urbana: University of Illi-
nois Press.
Shaw, D.L. and S.E. Martin (1992). The function of mass
media agenda setting. Journalism Quarterly 69(4):
90220.
Shaw, E.F. (1979). Agenda-setting and mass communica-
tion theory. International Communication Gazette
25: 96105.
Sprecher, S. (2001). Equity and social exchange in dating
couples: associations with satisfaction, commitment
and stability. Journal of Marriage and Family 63(3):
599613.
Sriramesh, K. and D. Veri (1995). International public
relations: a framework for future research. Journal of
Communication Management 6(2): 10317.
Sriramesh, K. (2010). Globalization and public relations:
opportunities for growth and reformulation in The
SAGE Handbook of Public Relations. R.L. Heath
(ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
23/03/2017 13:01

Stainton Rogers, W. (2011). Social Psychology, 2nd edi-
tion. New York: Open University Press and McGraw-
Hill Education.
Taylor, M. and M.L. Kent (2014). Dialogic engagement:
clarifying foundational concepts. Journal of Public
Relations Research 26(5): 38498.
Tench, R. and M. Topi (2016). How far have we got? A
longitudinal analysis of views of public relations prac-
titioners on the position of women in the PR industry.
Presented at IHPRC 2016, 67 July 2016, Bourne-
mouth, England, United Kingdom.
Tench, R., W. Sun and B. Jones (2014). Introduction:
CSR Communication as an emerging field of study in
Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility: Per-
spectives and practice. R. Tench, W. Sun and B.Jones
(eds.). Bradford: Emerald.
Topi, M., and R. Tench (2016). The corporate social
responsibility in Lidls communication campaigns in
Croatia and the UK. The Qualitative Report 21(2):
35176.
The Daily Kick/PR Bunny Kicker (2013). http://thedaily-
think.com/2013/04/23/p-r-bunny-kicker/ accessed 10
December 2015.
The Telegraph (2012). Twitter jokers ruin Why I shop
at Waitrose... promotion. The Telegraph, 19 Sep-
tember. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/
twitter/9553232/Twitter-jokers-ruin-Why-I-shop-at-
Waitrose...-promotion.html accessed 11 December 2015.
van Ruler, B. (2005). Commentary: Professionals are
from Venus, scholars are from Mars. Public Relations
Review 31: 159173.
Victor, A. (2015). Waitrose narrowly beats Aldi to be
crowned the best UK supermarket... while Co-op is
voted the WORST and shockingly behind every-
one else for value for money. The Daily Mail, 19
February. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/
article-2959990/Waitrose-narrowly-beats-Aldi-voted-
best-UK-supermarket-survey.html accessed 11 Decem-
ber 2015.
Wainwright, M. (2006). The battle of Rawmarsh. The
Guardian, 20 September. http://www.theguardian.
com/education/2006/sep/20/schoolmeals.schools
accessed 8 December 2015.
Waitrose (2015). Brand price match. http://www.wait-
rose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/groceries/wait-
rose_brand_pricematch.html accessed 11 December
2015.
Wanta, W., G. Golan and L. Cheolhan (2004). Agenda
setting and international news: media influence on
public perceptions of foreign nations. Journalism and
Mass Communication Quarterly 81(2): 36477.
M08 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 167
Chapter 8Public relations theories: an overview 167
Whyte, S. (2014). New asylum seeker campaign dis-
tasteful and embarrassing. http://www.smh.com.au/
federal-politics/political-news/new-asylum-seeker-
campaign-distasteful-and-embarrassing-20140212
-32h04.html accessed 10 December 2015.
Williamson, O. (2015). Tesco to ban childrens sugary
drinks from its stores. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
foodanddrink/11765353/Tesco-to-ban-childrens-
sugary-drinks-from-its-stores.html accessed
10December 2015.
Windahl, S., B. Signitzer and J.T. Olson (1992). Using
Communication Theory: An introduction to planned
communication. London: Sage.
Wood, Z. (2012). Waitrose matches Tesco prices with
never knowingly undersold pledge. The Guardian,
2 May. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/
may/02/waitrose-johnlewis accessed 11 December
2015.
Wu, H.D. and R. Coleman (2009). Advancing agenda-
setting theory: The comparative strength and new con-
tingent conditions of the two levels of agenda setting
effect. Journalism and Mass Communication Quar-
terly 86(4): 775789.
Wyatt, R. (2013). The PR Census 2013. PR Week.
[online]. http://www.prweek.com/article/1225129/pr-
census-2013 accessed 2 April 2015.
Yeomans, L. and M. Topi (2015). Engagement and
empathy discourses in corporate communication: the
case of The Science of Engagement. Romanian Jour-
nal of Communication and Public Relations 17(3):
2739.
Yeomans, L. (2007). Emotion in public relations: a
neglected phenomenon. Journal of Communication
Management 11(3): 21221.
YouGov (2015). YouGov Profiles. https://yougov.co.uk/
profileslite#/ accessed 21 January 2016.
Zafirovski, M. (2005). Social exchange theory under
scrutiny: a positive critique of its economic-behaviorist
formulations. Electronic Journal of Sociology. http://
www.sociology.org/content/2005/tier2/SETheory.pdf
accessed 9 December 2015.
Zerfass, A., R. Tench, D. Veri, P. Verhoeven and A.
Moreno (2014). European Communication Moni-
tor 2014. Excellence in Strategic Communication
Key Issues, Leadership, Gender and Mobile Media.
Results of a Survey in 42 Countries. Brussels: EACD/
EUPRERA, Helios Media.
Zyglidopoulos, S.C., A.P. Georgiadism, C.E. Carroll
and D.S. Siegel (2011). Does media attention drive
corporate social responsibility? Journal of Business
Research 65(11): 16227.
23/03/2017 13:01
 C h ap t er 9 Anne Gregory

Strategic public relations planning and

management

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
describe and discuss the principal external influences and the organisational context in which public
relations planning and management is undertaken
use strategic tools to analyse the external and organisational context
determine the implications of context for public relations practitioner responsibilities
plan a research-based strategic campaign or programme
critique and apply relevant underlying theories
effectively manage and evaluate the impact of campaigns and programmes.

Structure
The importance of context Why planning is important
External environment Underpinning theories: the systems context of
Internal environment planning
Implications of context Approaches to planning: the planning template
Strategic public relations programmes and
campaigns

M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 168 23/03/2017 13:03

 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management 169

Introduction
Every organisation manages and
undertakes its public relations cam-
paigns and programmes in different
ways. That is because there are signifi-
cant differences in the context in which
they operate, the way the organisation
is structured and managed and their
specific public relations needs. A single
issue pressure group will have a very
focused purpose and its publics and
stakeholders are often very specific.
A large government department
for example, the UKs Department of
Health will touch the lives of every
citizen in a variety of ways, from prena-
tal care to childhood and adult illnesses
through to end-of-life care. Some busi-
ness enterprises operate in tiny niche
markets in one country, whereas others
operate in several markets on a global
scale. However, because of the ubiquity
of the web, every organisation has the
potential to be seen and known about
globally and potentially anyone who
takes an interest can take a stake in
it, that is, exert some kind of influence
that might affect it in some way.
The first part of this chapter exam-
ines a range of factors that influence
the way public relations campaigns
programmes are planned within
organisations. It will be seen that
understanding and analysing organi-
sational context is vitally important.
Public relations campaigns and pro-
grammes do not stand in isolation: they
are both buffers and bridges (Meznar
and Nigh 1995: 976) to the world exter-
nal to the organisation and therefore a
profound understanding of this world
is imperative. Furthermore, public
relations campaigns and programmes
are often directed at or involve staff
within the organisation, and they too
have lives outside work, thus any for-
mal communication with them has to
make sense within the broader context
of their lives.

The importance of context

Business history is littered with companies that have
not been able to adapt to changing industry trends,
or have struggled to do so. High-street retailers have
had to adapt to online shopping and radically change
their business model Borders, the book retailer, were
unable to do so and disappeared in 2011. Polaroid
makes cameras that develop instant photographs; how-
ever, with the advent of digital cameras the industry
has been transformed and Polaroid has had to adjust
to a reduced market and extreme competition from
mobile phone and tablet manufacturers.
Although it is true that everyone in an organisa-
tion communicates both between themselves and
with external groups too, public relations is the
formal management function that organisations use
to handle the relationships they have with numer-
ous publics and stakeholder groups, both internally
and externally. Of course they are not the only ones
with this formal responsibility because marketing
and legal departments are also tasked with develop-
ing relationships with key groups of stakeholders
and human resources (HR) usually has a major role
in employee communications. However, even where
it does not have direct formal responsibility for key
relationships, public relations often has a role in
assisting these other departments with their commu-
nication tasks.
These stakeholder groups comprise people who
are, in turn, affected by developments, trends, and
issues in society. The environment in which modern
Box 9.1
Stakeholders and
publics
The words stakeholders and publics are often used
interchangeably. In this chapter stakeholders are
those groups that have a stake in an organisation, i.e.
those who are affected by or can affect it (Freeman
1984). Stakeholders can have very loose or intermit-
tent relationships with an organisation and can be
passive. Publics on the other hand are active: they
have an issue, a problem, or see opportunities and
are supportive of the organisation. They have much
closer engagement with it (Grunig and Hunt 1984).
Any stakeholder has the potential to become a public.
organisations operate is dynamic, rapidly changing
and complex. The forces at play are difficult to under-
stand and their consequences hard to predict. Society
is changing: new issues and trends arise, some of them
very rapidly. For example, the issues created by the
instability of the Euro, the predominant currency in
the European Union, arose quickly after the global
financial crisis in 2009 and continue in 2016, with the
economic problems of Greece and the British referen-
dum result to leave the European Union exacerbating
the issue. This has had far-reaching effects not only

M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 169 23/03/2017 13:03

 170 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts

on organisations in the Euro zone, but on all organ-

isations that trade with Europe. Investors are anxious
about those organisations that have substantial hold-
ings in Europe. The rise of Islamic State has been rapid
and as a result of the political instabilities in Iraq and
Syria, 2015 and 2016 saw a huge flow of refugees and
immigrants into Europe. The impact of this in the lon-
ger term is still to be played out, but issues around
social and economic integration and the implications
for the mainstream political parties are likely to be
considerable.
Organisations themselves are changing. For example
there are more women and part-time workers and in
many countries in the world, more migrant employees.
Furthermore, attitudes are changing. Certainly in the
Western world, because people feel empowered in their
lives outside work and have more choices about where
they live, their lifestyles and what they will spend their
income on, they are no longer willing to be disempow-
ered at work (Smythe 2007). In addition, organisations
now find themselves much more accountable to exter-
nal groups who want to know what they stand for and
how they conduct themselves.
This endlessly dynamic, more complex and ever-
changing context has an impact on planning. The
traditional strategic planning models were developed
in the twentieth century when business life could be
said to be more predictable and slow and where the
dominant business philosophy was that an organisa-
tion could, given the right analysis and plan, impose
itself on the market (see academics such as Igor
Ansoff (1988) and Michael Porter (1980)). Therefore,
although planning is important, plans themselves have
to be agile and flexible in order to react to and at
times lead the ongoing and changing conversations
that organisations have with their stakeholders (van
Ruler 2015). A good analogy for a flexible way of
working is jazz as espoused by Falkheimer and Heide
(2010) building on the work of Weick (1998). There
needs to be a basic structure and form that keeps the
whole piece together, but the ability to extemporise is
vital. This extemporisation is not only to adjust plans
for instrumental reasons, i.e. to make them more effec-
tive so that the organisation can meet its objectives,
but so that genuine listening can take place and the
concerns, aspirations and good ideas of stakeholders
are properly accommodated. Thus, joint ownership of
plans is secured and ongoing fruitful relationships and
future success made more likely.
Context is of course different for each organisation
and depends critically on, for example, what sector the
organisation operates in, where it is based geographi-
cally, its size, areas of operation and culture.
External environment
The external context is vitally important for organisa-
tions because they have limited influence over it. Smart
organisations constantly scan the external environment
to identify emerging trends and issues. Having spot-
ted these issues early, precious time is bought for the
organisation to adjust itself to them, to engage with
them and, sometimes, to influence their development.
The public relations function is a natural organisa-
tional boundary spanner (White and Dozier 1992),
because building relationships requires it to have one
foot inside and one foot outside. It is perfectly placed
to do this environmental scanning.
The external environment can be divided into two
categories: the macro and the task environment
(Grant 2013).
Macro environment
The macro environment can be described as the big
picture over which the organisation has no control,
but could well impact on it. These are the issues that
emerge from the actions of governments, economic
and social trends and from scientific and technological
developments. Sometimes called the remote or soci-
etal environment, the macro environment develops
beyond and independent of any organisations operat-
ing situation (de Wit and Meyer 2010).
To make sense of the macro environment, analysts
use frameworks that help them systematically examine
environmental influences. The most well-known ana-
lytical tool is PEST, which divides the overall environ-
ment into four categories: Political, Economic, Social
Think about 9.1
Macro trends
What macro or global trends do you think are impor-
tant? What are their possible implications for public
relations professionals? How might you communicate
with rural communities in developing countries that do
not have access to the internet or mobile technology?
Feedback
For further information about global trends look at
http://www.pwc.co.uk/issues/megatrends.html and
http://www.pwc.co.uk/issues/megatrends.html watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im5SwtapHl8

M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 170 23/03/2017 13:03

 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management
Political
Change of government
New political alliances within and between
nations
Employment legislation
Industry regulation
Environmental legislation
Social
Social attitudes
Demographic changes
Lifestyle developments
Purchasing habits
Levels of education
Figure 9.1 Example of PEST analysis
and Technological. Figure9.1 provides some examples
of topics that fall under each of these headings. What
is important is the impact they may have on an exist-
ing relationship or what they reveal about the need to
develop a relationship. For example, a potential change
in trade legislation may indicate the need to deepen
relationships with the trade organisation and develop
contact with government departments for lobbying pur-
poses. In addition, the identification of certain topics
could present potential issues for the organisation (see
Chapter17 Issues management for further discussion).
Given the increasing complexity of the macro envi-
ronment, PEST is beginning to be regarded as a rather
limited tool. A development of PEST is EPISTLE,
which includes the four elements of PEST, but also
forces consideration of Information, Legal and the
green Environment. The information heading invites
special consideration of the fact that empowerment
Box 9.2
Millennium development
goals
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the
eight international development goals that were estab-
lished following the Millennium Summit of the United
Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United
Nations Millennium Declaration. All 189 United Nations
member states at the time (there are 193 currently), and
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 171
171
Economic
Fluctuation in currency values
International trade agreements
Interest rates
Skills level in workforce
Levels of employment
Inflation
Technological
Impact of technology on work practices
Developments in IT
Access to technology
Cost of research and development
Speed of change
comes to groups and individuals through new tech-
nologies, although it must be remembered that people
who are deprived of relevant technology will become
increasingly disenfranchised and unable to engage in
debate effectively. The legal environment is becom-
ing more complex. Organisations not only have to be
aware of national regulations, but also of transnational
legislation such as trading laws and other legal agree-
ments such as those reached at the climate summit held
in Paris, December 2015. There are also non-binding
but moral undertakings agreed to by nations such as
the Millennium Goals adopted by the United Nations
in 2000 where all member states committed to their
achievement in 2015.
Clearly, different organisations will be affected in
different ways by these macro issues. A car manu-
facturer will be very susceptible to political, techno-
logical, environmental and social pressures to design
at least 23 international organisations, committed to
help achieve the following Millennium Development
Goals by 2015:
1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. To achieve universal primary education.
3. To promote gender equality and empower women.
4. To reduce child mortality.
5. To improve maternal health.
6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
7. To ensure environmental sustainability.
8. To develop a global partnership for development.
23/03/2017 13:03
 172 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
engines that are carbon efficient. A fashion manufac-
turer needs to be acutely aware of social trends and
how consumer preferences and changing lifestyles
will impact on their business. A careful eye needs to
be kept on all these macro trends because issues aris-
ing from them are often interrelated technological
developments can drive social change and vice versa.
Also, some issues could be placed in more than one
category, for example, educational achievement not
only has social consequences, but economic and politi-
cal relevance too. While there are dozens of issues and
trends in the wider environment, is worth picking out
a few for special mention.
Globalisation
Public relations people working for global organisa-
tions will understand the need to communicate across
time zones, cultures, languages and different commu-
nication delivery systems. But, even if the organisation
is local, what it does may have global implications and
attract global attention. A local delicatessen may buy
meat products from an intermediary who is supplied
by a global grower who damages the environment in
developing countries. Organisations also need to be
sensitive about what they put on their websites and
social media platforms for local audiences as these may
be accessed by people from other cultures who may
take exception. For example, encouragement to drink
alcohol may be offensive in cultures where alcohol is
frowned on.
Information technology
When linked to the theme of globalisation, this is a
very powerful force. The fact that information can be
sent and accessed immediately across time and geo-
graphical boundaries brings great opportunities, but
can also introduce threats for the public relations pro-
fessional. Activists can organise quickly and globally
Explore 9.1
Globalisation issues
Go to the World Economic Forum website at http://
www.weforum.org/ and look at the latest Outlook on
the Global Agenda report. What other issues can you
identify that are specifically related to globalisation?
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 172
and spread news of malpractice or disseminate misin-
formation worldwide instantly. Contrariwise, organ-
isations can connect and converse with stakeholders
in new, enriching and innovative ways. This capabil-
ity brings opportunities and pressures for organisa-
tions and public relations practitioners who need to be
geared for action 24 hours a day, seven days a week,
365 days a year.
Pluralism and activism
In an era of mass migration, easy travel and acces-
sible information, society is becoming more plural.
The merging of values and ideals, together with an
understanding and acceptance of different cultures
and alternative views, is taken as a sign of advancing
civilisation. But at the same time it increases uncer-
tainty and insecurity and Ritzer (2015) says that in
an attempt to replace the old certainties people in
developed societies are seeking out like-minded oth-
ers who share their tastes and values: the number
of pressure groups, non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) and special interest groups is burgeoning.
Furthermore, in an attempt to introduce meaning
and simplicity to complex lives with few certainties,
the rise of nationalism, fundamentalism and activ-
ism poses a threat to liberalising forces (Herriot and
Scott-Jackson 2002). Stepping around the tensions
involved is a great challenge for public relations pro-
fessionals. They find themselves having to assert or
defend a particular position while knowing they are
likely to offend someone.
News media
The traditional news media, comprising newspapers
and broadcast channels, have been revolutionised
over the last few years (see also Chapter2 Public rela-
tions and the media). Global news businesses owned
by powerful groups and individuals, often with their
own political agendas, were, up until the mid-2000s
setting the political backdrop and leading public opin-
ion. However, they then found themselves threatened
as online sources of information became more ubiqui-
tous. Between 2005 and 2011, 242 local newspapers
closed in the UK alone (Ponsford 2012). However,
since then many newspapers have changed their mode
of operating with online coming to the fore. Accord-
ing to the American Pew Research Centers State of
the News Media 2015 (Pew Center 2015), online
news consumption via mobile devices has become
the most popular way of accessing digital sites, but
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management
they also report a stabilisation of news viewing via
TV channels. Newspaper circulation is still declining
(by 3 per cent in 2014), but that too now seems to
have gone through the worst, with this figure match-
ing the posts lost to journalism according to Pew.
However, the impact of these losses is apparent with
the traditional media (who still act as original sources
of news in many instances), rather than researching
their own stories, becoming increasingly dependent
on other sources including citizen-generated material
and content which cannot be guaranteed to be free
of bias for example, that provided by public rela-
tions professionals. Although this provides openings
and opportunities to public relations, there are dan-
gers in the PRisation of the media (Moloney 2006).
A free press requires resources to operate indepen-
dently and challenge vested interests. In a democracy
it is argued that there should be a distance between
public relations practitioners and journalists because
they have very different jobs to do (see Chapter2 for
more about the role of the media). The reality is that,
although this may be desirable, many practitioners
are employed across the communication specialisms
to produce content that is then used by journalists
who struggle to generate material with the resources
at their disposal and who welcome the variety of
sources that they can draw from.
Figure 9.2 De Wit and Meyers web of relational actors (source : de Wit and Meyer 2010: 367)
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 173
173
Task environment
The task environment consists of those forces and
organisations that the organisation interacts with
regularly and which can affect its performance. The
task environment is normally categorised into groups
of influential stakeholders with identifiable character-
istics such as customers, suppliers, regulators, com-
petitors and pressure groups. A useful categorisation
of stakeholders is that provided by de Wit and Meyer
(2010) who identify the web of relational actors that
an organisation interacts with (see Figure9.2).
Upstream vertical (supplier) relations are rela-
tively self-explanatory. Suppliers include provid-
ers of raw materials and business services, but also
include labour and information that is external to
the organisation and upon which it draws.
Downstream vertical (buyer) relations. These can
be clients, customers or intermediaries who sell the
products of the organisation.
Direct horizontal (industry insider) relations. This
includes relationships between the organisation and
others in their industry they are at the same level.
Indirect (industry outsider) relations. This is where
an organisation has relationships with others
outside its industry, for example those who will
23/03/2017 13:03
 174 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
provide complementary goods or services such as a
bedroom furniture manufacturer working with an
interior design organisation.
Socio-cultural actors. Those individuals or organ-
isations that have an impact on societal values,
beliefs and behaviours. These may include com-
munity groups, the media, religious organisations,
NGOs and opinion leaders.
Economic actors. Those organisations who influ-
ence the general economic context such as central
banks, stock exchanges, taxation authorities, trade
organisations.
Political/legal actors. These are organisations that
set or influence the regulatory regime and include
government, regulatory bodies, international insti-
tutions and special interest groups.
Technological actors. Given the importance of
technology to modern life, those who influence the
pace and direction of technological developments
and the development of new knowledge are criti-
cal. Organisations such as universities, research
bodies, government agencies and patent offices
play a role here.
The notion of organisations as stakeholding com-
munities is important because it is stakeholder groups
who ultimately give an organisation permission to
exist (or not) by supporting its licence to operate or
removing it.
Analysis of the macro and task environment may
seem more appropriate to the identification of stra-
tegic business issues rather than public relations.
However, practitioners need to be alert to the wider
Explore 9.2
Stakeholding
Who are the stakeholders of a university? How would
you describe the relationship linkages between the
university and its
students
lecturers
governors
local residents
local business community
central government education departments
other universities?
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 174
contextual issues because they will force some sort of
action from their organisation and action always has
communication dimensions. Early warning of issues
allows organisations to manage future and potential
risks and this is a strategic input that public relations
can make at senior management level. Given the speed
at which activists can galvanise action, even the most
astute practitioner may get only the briefest or even
no warning of an issue that could develop into a cri-
sis. However, most issues gestate more slowly and
forward-thinking and diligent intelligence gathering
can help predict many of them.
The main questions to be asked when undertaking
this kind of environmental analysis are:
what are the long-term external factors that are
developing now?
which ones affect this organisation?
which ones are of most importance now?
which ones will become the most important in the
next four years?
From this it will be possible to derive a prioritised
list of the main issues that will affect the organisation
over a reasonable time horizon. However, it is impor-
tant not to totally dismiss those that appear not to
affect the organisation because there are often subtle
linkages between issues, which mean that those appar-
ently unconnected to the organisation at one stage will
become more relevant at another. For example, the
mass migration into Europe in 2015 and 2016 may
appear to be a political and social issue remote from
many organisations, but in time it will affect employ-
ment policies and practices as migrants are assimilated
into the workforce.
Internal environment
Having identified the broader external issues that
affect the organisation, it is now appropriate to look
at the organisation itself and those things over which
it has greater control. A classic way to undertake this
internal analysis is to use a technique called SWOT.
The first two elements, strengths and weaknesses, are
particular to the organisation and are usually within
the organisations power to address. The third and
fourth, opportunities and threats, are generally exter-
nal to the organisation and can be determined from
the wider analysis of the macro and task environment
and the selection of those issues most relevant to it.
An example of SWOT analysis is given in Figure9.3.
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management
Strengths
Financially strong
Leading edge products
Innovative
Good leadership
Loyal workforce
Opportunities
Cheap supplies from Asia
New market opportunities in China
Potential to acquire competitors
Favourable tax breaks if offices relocated
Figure 9.3 Example of SWOT analysis
There are a number of other issues that affect the
internal environment of an organisation and its public
relations activities. For example:
1. The sector in which the organisation is located. If
this is well established and stable, this will allow for
significant pre-planning. Fast-growing and turbu-
lent sectors such as IT will require quick, reactive
public relations as well as proactive programmes.
2. Size and stage of organisational development.
Small organisations usually have small, multifunc-
tional public relations departments or are serviced
by a consultancy. Large ones may well have sub-
stantial public relations departments with a num-
ber of specialisms, also complemented by
consultancy support. When the organisation is at
start-up stage, most suppliers and employees will
be well-known as will some customers. Thus public
relations effort is often face-to-face and online and
focused on growing the business that is, market-
ing public relations. When companies reach matu-
rity, it is probable that they will undertake the full
range of public relations activity including investor
relations, public affairs, CSR programmes, and
sophisticated internal communication programmes.
3. Culture. This topic is covered in Chapter15, but
briefly culture can defined as the way people think
and behave within an organisation, and the tone of
the organisation is set by its leaders. A hierarchi-
cal, non-involving culture will often see public
relations as a way of enforcing the management
will. More open and involving cultures will see
public relations and communication as integral to
the fabric of the organisation, both being shaped
by and shaping the way things are done.
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 175
175
Weaknesses
Risk averse investment
Limited product line
Lack of investment in R&D
Traditional and hierarchical
Limited skills base
Threats
Reputational issues re. labour exploitation
Slowdown in Chinese economy
Danger of being taken over by larger
conglomerate
Loss of loyal workforce
An analysis of external and internal influences is crit-
ical to understanding the context in which public rela-
tions programmes will be undertaken. However, equally
important is the fact that strategic public relations pro-
grammes address the issues that organisations face the
most impactful programmes are issues-based. They can
be seen to contribute directly to solving organisational
problems and that is why they are of strategic impor-
tance. Furthermore, the ability to undertake that vital
systematic internal and external environmental moni-
toring (Lerbinger 1972) and analysis again positions
public relations as a strategic management function.
Implications of context
Monitoring and reporting of the external and internal
environment on their own are, however, not enough.
The question has to be answered why is this impor-
tant?. A simple answer to this is because an organisa-
tion has choices in the way it makes decisions, what
decisions it makes and how it behaves as a result.
Stakeholders hold organisations to account for those
choices, especially if they impact on their lives. Thus
organisations, in a world of increased accountability,
have to constantly renew and maintain their mandate,
or licence to operate that is given to them by stake-
holders, because this is fragile and at risk at all times.
The opportunities for public relations practitioners to
be part of decision-making at a senior level has never
been greater because stakeholder support is vital if an
organisation is going to survive and thrive.
To realise this opportunity, understanding the
way organisations work and are structured and the
23/03/2017 13:03
 176 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
contribution that public relations can make is vital.
The work of South African public relations scholar
Dr Benita Steyn (Steyn 2007) is important here. She
points out that there are different strategic levels within
organisations and understanding these helps to define
a matching role for public relations. Building on her
work, Gregory and Willis (2013) argue that the dif-
ferent levels of strategy can also help to define the dif-
ferent types of stakeholders by which an organisation
is held to account. They outline four levels: societal,
corporate, value chain and functional.
Societal level
At the societal level, organisations seek a licence
to operate from society as a whole. An organisa-
tions place, perceived purpose and actions determine
whether it is supported by public opinion and hence
by society. Public relations role in helping organisa-
tions to clarify their purpose and intended actions are
discussed in Chapter5 Community and society. department in support of financial relations initiatives
Corporate level
Managerial decisions at corporate level are usually
about marshalling resources to deliver the organisa-
tions mission. The temptation here is to allow finan-
cial considerations to dominate in order to provide a
good return to shareholders in the private sector and
value for money in public sector and NGO organisa-
tions. The public relations function can make a vital
contribution by helping managers take decisions that
have proper regard for the legitimate interests of all
stakeholders, including non-human ones such as the
environment, which thereby maintains public support.
Value chain
At the value-chain level, the focus will be on those stake-
holders and publics directly involved with the organisa-
tion on a regular basis. Their closeness distinguishes
them from societal-level stakeholders, often called the
general public, who may have no direct link with it.
Typically, value-chain stakeholders include customers,
service users, delivery partners, suppliers, distributors,
regulators, employees, etc. The public relations func-
tion will be engaged with these close stakeholders and
publics and understand the accountabilities they may
exert. They do this by listening and involving them,
although the evidence that this actually happens is
thin. Organisations build architectures of telling, not
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 176
of listening (Macnamara 2016). Furthermore, the pub-
lic relations function can help in identifying what may
be the conflicting demands of stakeholder groups and
navigating the complex relationships between those
groups, as well as those relationships between stake-
holder groups and the organisation.
Functional level
At this level, the role of public relations is to work with
the other areas of the organisation on communication
tasks. They will also coach and mentor colleagues
throughout the organisation to be communicatively
competent so that they can undertake public relations
tasks themselves, or be alert to when they need to enlist
the help of the specialists. For public relations this may
mean planning specific programmes and campaigns, or
providing ongoing advice. For example, they may work
with the human resources department on communi-
cating changes in employee contracts or the finance
aimed at key investors.
Against this backcloth, strategic public relations
programmes and campaigns are planned. The second
half of this chapter provides an overview of the plan-
ning process.
Strategic public relations
programmes and campaigns
According to Thompson et al. (2014: 5) strategy is
about how organisations cope with the world, which
is dynamic and emergent and in their glossary of terms
they define it as the means by which organisations
achieve (and seek to achieve) their objectives and pur-
pose (p. 607). Strategic management is the process by
which an organisation establishes its objectives, formu-
lates actions (strategies) designed to meet these objec-
tives in the desired timescale, implements the actions,
and assesses progress and results (p. 607). Strategic
public relations programmes and campaigns are those,
therefore, that are designed to help their organisation
cope with the world: they are proactive, planned and
have a purpose. They therefore have an impact and
contribute to meeting organisational objectives; they
are not just activities for the sake of it. Those objectives
may change. Certainly the way the organisation moves
towards them will vary from the plan because, as Don-
ald Rumsfeld (former American President George W.
Bushs first Defense Secretary) famously said stuff
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management
Box 9.3
Campaigns and
programmes
A campaign: a planned set of public relations activities,
normally over a limited period of time and with specific
objectives addressing a particular issue and involving an
happens and, increasingly, plans sensibly embrace
the input of those they are designed for, whether that
be employees, customers or the local community. Co-
creation is not just for content, but for planning pro-
grammes themselves. Planning will not make a poorly
conceived programme successful, but careful planning
means that a programme is likely to be well conceived
in the first place.
Box 9.3 explains the difference between programmes
and campaigns, but in the rest of this chapter the word
programme is used to embrace both types of activity.
Why planning is important
There are a number of practical reasons for planning a
public relations programme. It:
focuses effort by eliminating unnecessary and low
priority work;
improves effectiveness by ensuring the plan works
to achieve agreed objectives from the outset;
encourages forward-thinking by requiring the plan-
ner to look to the organisations future needs, pre-
paring it for change and helping it manage future
risks. It also helps to identify any potential dif-
ficulties and conflicts which can then be thought
through at an early stage;
minimises mishaps: thinking through potential sce-
narios means that most eventualities can be covered
and contingency plans put in place;
demonstrates value for money: planners can show
they have achieved programme objectives within
budget.
Most importantly, planning is about a mindset one
that constantly asks a series of important, systematic
questions instead of working in a random fashion and/
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 177
177
identified group. For example, a local pharmacy may wish
to inform customers in its neighbourhood of extended
opening hours or the tax authorities may run a campaign
to increase the number of tax returns from people over 65.
A programme: ongoing, planned activities over an
extended period of time that call for continuing rela-
tionships with groups of publics and stakeholders, often
including complex and interlinked objectives. For exam-
ple, corporate social responsibility programmes and rela-
tionships with regulatory authorities.
or to a set of unchallenged assumptions. As indicated
earlier, although strategic planning takes the practitio-
ner through a systematic process, they must be mind-
ful that a level of flexibility and pragmatic adjustment
is required along the way. Indeed unseen events, such
as a takeover or major natural disaster, may require a
radical departure from the best-laid plans. Counter-
intuitively, the more turbulent and unpredictable the
context becomes, the greater the need to plan and con-
sider carefully what the options are and the possible
scenarios that might unfold. Of course this must be
combined with a willingness to constantly re-group
and adapt.
Underpinning theories: the
systems context of planning
Public relations planning is traditionally located within
the positivist framework and maps across well to the
systems view of organisations (see Chapter8 for more
discussion of systems theory). The open system is
an important concept for public relations planning
because it assumes that an organisation is an organ-
ism or living entity with boundaries, inputs, outputs,
throughputs, and enough feedback from both the
internal and external environments so that it can make
appropriate adjustments in time to keep on living
(McElreath 1997: 13).
Broom and Sha (2012) provide an open systems
model of public relations that identifies how these sys-
tems characteristics map onto the planning process (see
Figure9.4).
So, for example, input refers to actions taken by,
or information about, publics. These inputs in turn are
transformed into goals (aims) and objectives which
underpin the desired relationships with publics. By
contrast, a closed approach might neglect to take into
23/03/2017 13:03
 178 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
Figure 9.4 Open systems model of public relations (source: Cutlip and Centers Effective Public Relations, 11th edition.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall (Broom and Sha, 2012: 187))
account information about publics and thus the plan-
ner might formulate aims and objectives in isolation.
Scope of public relations planning
Systematic planning can be applied to long-term activ-
ity such as the ongoing work by governments to pre-
vent drivers from drinking or taking drugs. It can also
be applied to short-term campaigns such as the launch
of a new service or even to single projects such as
funding-raising for a celebration event.
When discussing the role of the communication
planner, Windahl et al. (2009) embrace a wider inter-
pretation for planning. Informal communication can
be intended to begin a dialogue for its own sake and it
may not have a specific purpose initially. For example,
the local community may be invited to a hospital open
day, which may not have a specific planned outcome
other than interaction, and dialogue helps build rela-
tionships and sense of community around the hospital,
which will generate ongoing support.
Windahl et al. (2009) also point out that commu-
nication initiatives can start at any point within an
organisation, not only the top. For example, a small
department may begin raising money for a local char-
ity to build goodwill in the community, which eventu-
ally widens out to the whole company supporting it
and, by popular demand, it being adopted as a formal
charitable partner.
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 178
Approaches to planning:
the planning template
The planning process is ordered and takes the practi-
tioner through a number of key steps. It is helpful to
see it as answering six basic questions:
1. What is the problem? (Researching the issue.)
2. What does the plan seek to achieve? (What are the
aims and objectives?)
3. Who should be communicated with? (With whom
should a relationship be developed?)
4. What should be said? (What is the content?)
5. How should the content be communicated? (What
tactics should be used?)
6. How can success be measured? (How will the
work be evaluated against the objectives?)
All planning processes follow a basic sequence
whether they are for the strategic management of the
organisation or for public relations, and this is pro-
vided in Figure9.5.
Marston (1979) provided one of the earliest and
best-known planning sequences for public rela-
tions which is encapsulated in the mnemonic RACE:
Research, Action, Communication and Evaluation.
American academics Broom and Sha (2012) articulate
the planning process as in Figure9.6.
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management
Figure 9.5 Basic business planning model
Gregorys planning model in Figure9.7 provides a
sequence of activities and captures the essence of all the
planning approaches. It will be used to examine the steps
of the planning process in detail. Although apparently
linear, Gregory views planning as iterative and circular,
with a constant process of review and preview being
undertaken. Thus, for example, as stakeholders are
researched and detailed information discovered, objec-
tives may need to be revised and proposed resources
adjusted. Two points need to be made at this stage.
First, although the planning template is not meant to
be applied rigidly because practitioners have to move
Figure 9.6 Strategic planning model (source: Adapted from Cutlip and Centers Effective Public Relations, 11th edition.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall (Broom and Sha 2012: 264))
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 179
179
rapidly in response to unpredictable events, even in these
circumstances, the template can be used as a mental
checklist to ensure that all the essential elements have
been covered. Second, the degree to which any element
of planning process is applied will vary according to the
task in hand. For example, a detailed analysis of the
organisations external macro environment will not be
required to run an effective fun day for families.
It is important to understand the structure of the
first part of the diagram. Ideally, the public relations
practitioner would undertake analysis of the situation
before determining aims and objectives. In practice,
they are often given aims and objectives by their man-
agers. In these circumstances it is still vital that the
objectives themselves are scrutinised to see if they are
appropriate. For example, an organisation may wish to
resist the introduction of a piece of legislation because
it will be expensive to implement. However, on inves-
tigation the public relations practitioner may discover
that a lobbying campaign against it is futile because
stakeholders are very much in favour and there is no
realistic chance that lobbying will prevail.
The aim element can on occasion be omitted because
sometimes a project or campaign has a single, simple
objective that does not need an overarching aim. If the
programme is particularly large, it may be necessary to
break down the whole into a series of projects that fol-
low the same basic steps. Each project will have its own
specific objectives, publics and content. This then needs
to be incorporated into a larger plan, which provides a
23/03/2017 13:03
 180 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts

Analysis Aim(s) Objectives

Stakeholder/
publics

Content

Strategy

Tactics

Timescales

Resources

Monitoring

Evaluation

Review

Figure 9.7 Gregorys planning model (source: Gregory 2015: 48)

coordinating framework with overall aims, objectives
and consistent content guidance to ensure that the indi-
vidual projects do not conflict. See Figure9.8.
Analysis
Analysis is the first step in the process and this will
identify the issues or specific problems on which to
base the programme.
Analysis can include a thorough investigation of
both the external and internal environments that have
already been mentioned in this chapter. However, a key
component of analysis entails a careful examination of
publics and stakeholders to discover what their atti-
tudes are towards the organisation itself, to the wider
issue identified by the EPISTLE and SWOT processes
or to the particular issue that management have asked
the public relations department to address.
Chapter10 Public relations programme research
and evaluation goes into detail about how to conduct
research with stakeholders and publics, including the
range of social scientific methods that can be employed.
It is important to mention here that the analysis
stage makes use of all the available information and
intelligence in order to ensure the programme is well
founded. This preparation work is critical to answering
the first basic question, What is the problem?.
Having identified the issue or problem, the planner
then has to decide whether it can be remedied purely
through communication. Windahl et al. (2009) define
a communication-based problem in two ways: first, a
problem may arise from the lack of or wrong sort of
communication. For example, a new child vaccination
is not being requested by parents because it has only
been publicised to doctors (lack of information) and
because it has been described by its technical name,
not its popular name (wrong sort of information)
this problem can easily be solved by communication.
Second, the problem is a communication problem if it
can be solved by communication alone. For example, if
the uptake of child vaccinations has also been affected
by suspicions about side-effects, or if there are a limited
number of clinics where it is available, then this is more
than a communication problem. Some other measures,
such as independent opinion to confirm the vaccine is
safe or wider distribution, may be needed to stimulate
use. In this case the public relations professional needs
to bring these problems to management attention and
once they are addressed, communication can step in.

M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 180 23/03/2017 13:03

 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management
Figure 9.8 Framework for multi-project relations plan (source: adapted from Gregory 2015: 49)
Thus it can be seen that analysis not only identifies the
issues, but also what needs to be done and the precise
contribution that public relations can make. Part of
this analysis stage will also identify exactly what pur-
pose or impact the communication activity is meant
to achieve and the nature of the intervention required.
Box 9.4 shows the types of assistance that communica-
tion can provide when governments and public sector
organisations are attempting to engage populations
Box 9.4
Types of aims for
communication
According to guidance provided by the European Com-
mission (European Commission 2015) for government
and public sector organisations, there are five types of
aims for communication:
Persuade get someone or a group to do something
that they otherwise would not have done.
Inform give basic information about a new policy,
stance, service, regulation or requirement, without
necessarily prompting action.
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 181
181
with policy initiatives. These types of interventions are
also applicable in the private sector.
Setting aims and objectives
Setting realistic aims and objectives is complicated, but
through analysis public relations planners can scope
the size and nature of the communication task. The
Normalise give people the sense that everyone
else is doing the same as the activity you suggest
(such as taking flu precautions), that there is a
societal expectation for people to do a certain
thing or not do something (such as smoking near
children). Or, that by not doing it, they are miss-
ing out.
Inspire motivate someone to want to do some-
thing new, to continue doing something or to stop
doing something. It tends to prompt an emotional
response.
Engage to engage people around an issue and
encourage participation in a debate or activity (e.g.
encourage contribution to a consultation); a two-way
dialogue.
23/03/2017 13:03
 182 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
Box 9.5
The GREAT Britain
campaign
The aim of the campaign is to increase the levels of
trade, investment and tourism, and high-quality stu-
dents coming to the UK, leading to a measurable eco-
nomic impact of at least 1 billion over three to five
years and the creation of over 10,000 direct jobs for
the UK economy. (See https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/
guidance/campaigns/case-studies/
aim or aims will state what the programme seeks to
achieve in overall terms. Aims must be agreed before
implementation and must be linked to organisational
aims. If the corporate aim is to become the employer
of choice for skilled games technology graduates, then
public relations activity must be focused on that. A
good aim should be able to be evaluated at the end
of the programme by turning it into a question. Thus,
the aim to become the employer of choice for skilled
games technology graduates within five years becomes
the evaluative question are we the employer of choice
for skilled games technology graduates within our set
timescale?.
Box 9.5 shows the aim of the UK Governments
GREAT campaign, the purpose of which is to grow
the UK economy.
Objectives are the specific, measurable steps that
break the aims into what are effectively milestones for
the programme. Research on publics will have uncov-
ered their position on any particular topic that pro-
vides a starting point, or benchmark. The planner then
needs to decide what movement if any is required: a
legitimate objective may be to confirm existing atti-
tudes or actions. Smith (2013) provides a hierarchy of
three levels of objectives.
Awareness objectives deal with information and
knowledge. This focuses on providing the cogni-
tive, or thinking element of the content and on
what information publics should be exposed to,
know, understand and remember.
Acceptance objectives deal with how people react
to information. This focuses on the affective, or
feeling, elements of the content and on what emo-
tional response is generated and how this affects
interests and attitudes
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 182
Cognitive Encouraging the target public
to think about something or to
(means related to create awareness.
thoughts, reflection,
awareness) For example, local government
might want the local community
to be aware that it is holding a
housing information day. The
whole community will not need
the service, but part of local
governments reason for making
them aware is so that they know
what a proactive and interested
local council they have
Affective Encouraging the target public to
form a particular attitude, opinion
(means related to or feeling about a subject. For
feelings, emotional example, a pressure group may
reaction) want moral support for or against
gun ownership
Conative Encouraging the target public
to behave in a certain way. For
(means related to example, the local hospital
behaviour, actions or may use social media to ask
change) for emergency blood donors
following a major incident
Table 9.1Objectives set at one of three levels
Action objectives deal with the hoped-for response.
This focuses on the conative, or behavioural, out-
comes that might be generated when people are
exposed to the content of the programme.
Table9.1 shows how objectives can be set at these
levels.
Generally speaking it is much more difficult to get
someone to behave in a certain way than it is to prompt
them to think about something, the notable exception
being over hot issues (see Chapter 8). According to
Grunig and Hunt (1984) three things should be borne in
mind that will make the achievement of objectives easier.
1. The level of effect (or outcome) should be chosen
with care. If the public relations planner wants to
induce radical change, it will be sensible to set
cognitive objectives first, rather than hoping for
conative effects from the start.
2. Choose target publics with advocacy in mind.
Research should have identified those who already
support the position of the organisation; they can
then act as advocates on its behalf.
3. Organisations can change too. Sometimes minor
adjustments in the organisations stance can elicit
a major, positive response from publics.
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management 183

In the authors experience of judging awards, public Issue Aim Objective

relations programme objectives all too often describe the
tactic, that is, what the planner will do, instead of the Company Demonstrate Increase
desired outcome for a particular public. In the employee viewed as environmental community
environmentally credentials awareness
public example below, a tactical objective would be to
irresponsible of company
issue the corporate plan to every employee. However, recycling scheme
the objective that focuses on the desired outcome for by 40% in two
employees is to ensure every employee is aware of the years
four key objectives in the new corporate plan.
After-sales Change Ensure 100% of
All objectives should be SMART: specific, measur-
service perceived customer all new product
able, achievable (within the planners ability to deliver) as slow and perceptions purchasers are
resourced and time bound. Examples of SMART objec- unresponsive by of service by aware of after-
tives are given below, with the desired outcome high- purchasers alerting them to sales service and
lighted in italics. improvements track perceptions
of after-sales
Employees: Ensure every employee is aware of the users from the
four key objectives in the new corporate plan by 10 benchmark
November. position over a
two-year period.
Community: Use sponsorship of 20 local junior
football teams to promote more positive opinion Proposed Ensure Persuade
about the company among parents. new housing environmentally decision-makers
development sensitive areas on planning
Corporate: Change legislation on taxation of char- will damage are preserved authority of case
ity giving within two years by influencing voting environmentally while supporting for planning
behaviour of government ministers via a lobbying sensitive area housing restrictions.
campaign. development in
principle.
Trade: Double amount of coverage in trade media
in one year to overcome lack of awareness among Table 9.2 Examples of the link between issue, aim and
key suppliers. objective
Consumer: Increase face-to-face contact with con-
sumers by 20 per cent in 18 months to counter per- apparent. If the programme is to support a product
ception of company being remote. launch, then existing and potential customers will be
To show how issues flow through to the framing of a priority. However, groups that can be easily defined
aims and one exemplar objective, Table9.2 provides a often are not homogenous. It is incorrect to assume that
number of examples. Note how the objectives do not all-embracing categorisations such as the local com-
go into the detail of the tactics. munity comprise individuals who are similar or who
Setting sound aims and objectives is fundamental will act in the same way. They will have very different
to public relations planning. They define what the interests and concerns. It is likely that many individu-
outcomes of the programme will be, they provide the als will belong to more than one stakeholding group.
rationale for the strategy, set the agenda for tactical Employees of an organisation may well be volunteers
actions and are the benchmark against which the pro- in an organisation who are partners in a community
gramme will be evaluated. Their importance cannot be relations campaign, or consume their organisations
overstated. This section on objectives has answered the products or services; they may be shareholders.
second basic question in planning programmes, What There are many ways in which stakeholders and
does the plan seek to achieve? publics can be segmented (placed into groups with a
defined range of characteristics) and the type of cam-
paign will determine the best way to do that. Popular,
but relatively unsophisticated, segmentation includes
Identifying publics the use of demographics: that is, statistical data about
This next section answers the third question, Who populations or groups within them. This typically uses
should we talk to?. Research for the proposed pro- data on for example, age, gender, income, ethnicity
gramme will have identified the significant stakehold- and education. For example, if a government wants
ers and publics. Sometimes the key publics are fairly to introduce a new benefit targeted at lower-income

M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 183 23/03/2017 13:03

 184 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
Box 9.6
Ways to segment
publics
geographics where they live, work
demographics age, gender, income
psychographics attitudes, opinions
group membership e.g. clubs, societies, parents
media consumption - e.g. newspapers, TV, web-
sites, bloggers
overt and covert power e.g. religious leader,
information gatekeeper, level of connectedness
role in decision process e.g. financial manager,
CEO, parent
families, it makes sense to segment stakeholders by
income and where they live. A charity wanting to start
up a counselling service for refugees may wish to seg-
ment by ethnicity and political affiliation; a leisure
company wanting to set up Saturday morning clubs for
children will segment by age and locality. (See Box9.6
for popular ways of segmenting publics.)
Again, there are many theoretical models which can
be used to categorise and priorities stakeholders. One
such is the power, urgency, legitimacy, salience model
of Mitchell et al. (1995), which identifies which stake-
holders will be most prominent or front of mind.
Another regularly used technique is to create a matrix
using the two most important variables for the situation
being addressed. For example, toy manufacturer Lego
have used a matrix with impact and urgency as the axes
to segment their key stakeholders. The power/interest
matrix (see Figure9.9) is another popular combination
Figure 9.9 Power/interest matrix (source: adapted from
Mendelow 1991, cited in Johnson et al. 2013: 124)
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 184
drawn from strategic planning (Johnson et al. 2013)
and can be readily transferred to the communication
context. It categorises stakeholders depending on the
amount of power they have to influence others and the
level of interest they may have in a particular issue.
Clearly the more power and interest they have, the
more likely their actions are to impact on the organisa-
tion, so the support of this group is crucial.
It is possible, even desirable at times, that stake-
holders in one segment should move to another. For
example, powerful, institutional investors often reside
in segment C. It may be in times of crisis that the com-
municator will want to move them to segment D by
stimulating their interest so that they can use their
power and influence with others to support the organ-
isation. Similarly, just because a stakeholding group
appears not to have much interest or power does not
mean that it is not important. For public-sector organ-
isations these groups often contain the neediest and are
very important for them to reach.
It is informative to map stakeholders in a number
of ways. For example, not only can current position
and desired position be mapped, but a useful exer-
cise is to map how stakeholders might move in rela-
tion to a developing issue and whether or not this is
desirable, preventable or inevitable. Communication
strategies can then be devised that accommodate these
movements.
The segmentation method outlined above is based
on the organisation itself determining which charac-
teristics are important. Recent developments in market
research use internet search tools to find out where
the crowds and influencers are on specific topics
and to engage with them on their own terms and on
issues that concern them. Thus, the segmentation pro-
cess is turned on its head. Rather than organisations
determining key characteristics and placing groups into
particular categories, they go to those places where
stakeholders have categorised themselves by choosing
to congregate around certain topics and issues. There
are several proprietary tools that do this that can be
found through an online search.
There are other powerful techniques that are espe-
cially suitable for issues-based publics. Using an online
search it is perfectly possible to discover where com-
munities of interest congregate. For example, those
interested in food safety will visit influential websites
and engage in social media around the topic. It is rela-
tively easy for those planning campaigns to identify the
relevant hot spots for information and discussion and
engage with the target audience directly. In this way,
audiences segment themselves by clustering around the
topic. By the same process, further segmentation is also
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management
possible around issues such as manufacturers of certain
types of food, supply chains, animal welfare and sales.
Once categorised according to a suitable method,
the groups need to be prioritised and the amount of
communication effort devoted to them apportioned.
The number of publics that are communicated with
and the depth of that communication are likely to be
limited by either a financial or time budget. However,
it is important that all the key gatekeepers or leaders
of active groups are identified. They may well interpret
information for others, act as advocates on the organ-
isations behalf and catalyse action.
As mentioned earlier, and in the next section of this
chapter, the relationship with stakeholders is changing.
This is partly driven by technological advances that are
equalising the power balance between large corpora-
tions and some of their stakeholders. Cooperation, col-
laboration and co-production is the new approach for
organisations to work effectively with stakeholders. So,
although techniques such as those outlined above are
useful, their limitations need to be remembered. Stake-
holders need to be treated with respect and be regarded
as actual and potential partners rather than being there
to be instrumentally manipulated and managed.
Cornelissen (2014) identifies the characteristics of
stakeholder engagement (as opposed to stakeholder
management) as being integrated, focused on building
relationships, having an emphasis on bridging and cre-
ating mutual opportunities and benefits, being linked
to the long-term business goals of the organisation and
being driven by a clear sense of mission and values.
This approach can be seen as being quite different
from the sometimes short-term goals and customer-
specific segmentation that lies behind publicity cam-
paigns aimed at generating immediate awareness
and sales and which many agencies are employed to
achieve. However, even here there has to be an eye
on the longer term if such activity is to be sustained
and sustainable. Customers are potential partners too,
as the Harley Davidson motor cycle manufacturer is
acutely aware. Their Harley Owners Groups (HOGs)
with whom they engage on a regular and structured
basis, help them with product design and customer
service development as well as being loyal customers.
Messages or dialogue
The fourth basic question is, What should be said?
Traditionally, public relations people have focused on
messages. There are many kinds of campaign where
messages are critically important, especially in pub-
lic information campaigns. Road safety messages are
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 185
185
encapsulated in easy to remember and often repeated
slogans such as Dont drink and drive.
Messages are important for four main reasons, they:
1. Assist the awareness and attitude-forming process.
Publics who can repeat a message are demonstrat-
ing that it has been received.
2. Demonstrate that the communication channels have
been appropriate: the message reached the recipient.
3. Are essential in the evaluation process. Messages
received and then recalled show that the commu-
nication has been, at least in part, effective.
Message recall is a classic outtake evaluation
measure. If it can be demonstrated that the mes-
sage has not only been received but acted on, then
this is an example of an outcome measure. (See
more on this in Chapter10.)
4. Help focus management minds: summarising an
argument down to its essentials encapsulated in a
message imposes discipline on woolly thinking.
However, messages have limitations. They indicate
one-way communication: the originator simply checks
to see if their communication has been received. If an
organisation genuinely wants to enter into a dialogue
with publics where the result will be by definition
mutually determined, messaging is not appropriate
apart from as a mechanism to begin a conversation.
For example, if a new organisation wants to discuss
with its employees what its values and goals should be,
dialogue is required. (For more on the different models
of communication and their purpose, see Chapter8.)
As indicated earlier, organisations are now seen
more as communities of stakeholders and there is
growing acceptance that collaboration with stakehold-
ers to solve problems and to gain their input and sup-
port is a better way of working (Agerwal and Helfat
2009; de Wit and Meyer 2010). Collaboration and
cooperation requires consultation and involvement;
Explore 9.3
Message design
Devise an overarching message or slogan for a grass
roots or community-led campaign aimed at stopping
children dropping litter outside the school premises.
The local community have been complaining about
litter being thrown in their gardens. What would be
a suitable sub-message for children? For parents? For
teachers? For the local community?
23/03/2017 13:03
 186 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts

in other words, dialogue. Furthermore, the develop-

ments in social media and mobile technologies are forc-
ing even the most reluctant organisations into having
conversations. As a result, the most forward looking
are transforming their communication processes away
from an emphasis on telling and messaging to design-
ing architectures of listening too (Macnamara, 2016).
Australian academic Jim Macnamaras (2016) research
is enlightening about how much needs to be done in
this regard. He found that up to 95 per cent of so-called
communications in organisations is actually speak-
ing or one-way, in the form of press releases, tweets,
speeches, websites, etc. According to Macnamara these
architectures of listening would require organisations
to review their communication practices to address the
politics of who they listen to and ensure: that there is a
culture for listening, that they have policies for listen-
ing, that their structures and processes include listening
mechanisms and opportunities and that technology is
used to help. They also need to ensure that there are
resources devoted to listening and that employees have
the skills for listening.
In the public sector there is a growing move
towards co-production of solutions to problems and
consensus-building, where conflict is avoided and the
public own the solutions that are arrived at because
they have contributed to them directly through dia-
logue based-activities. Techniques such as deliberative
engagement (see Box 9.7), which requires time, effort
Box 9.7
Deliberative engagement
Deliberative engagement brings together a repre-
sentative cross-section of the stakeholding group to
deliberate on an issue. The process provides the time
for participants to truly understand the issues. By
being involved, participants take part in the decision-
making process. They are given access to informa-
tion and experts, can ask questions, seek clarification,
learn about and consider complex issues, make com-
promises and gradually move towards a consensus.
Unilever has used deliberative techniques to engage
with employees, suppliers and customers in an ongo-
ing conversation about how its business can be more
sustainable, tackling issues such as reducing the use
of water in agricultural products such as tea, fruit and
vegetables.
and resources, are becoming increasingly prevalent.
There is also evidence that the private sector is doing
similar things with their supply chain partners (De Wit
and Meyer 2010; Johnson et al. 2013; Thompson et al.
2014). An example of this dialogic way of working is
given in Mini case study 9.1.

Mini case study 9.1

Home Truths
communicating the risk
of landslides to Port
Hills residents.
On 22 February 2011 the city of Christchurch on the
South Island of New Zealand was devastated in the
most destructive in a series of earthquakes known as
the Canterbury Earthquakes: 185 people were killed
and parts of the centre of the city destroyed. In 2014,
with the population still vulnerable and recovering
from the main earthquake, the local council decided to
act on research that showed that several homes were
at risk in an area where landslides could be expected.
The public relations team were involved in a commu-
nication programme that had to be sensitive, but hon- Picture 9.1 The Canterbury Earthquakes damaged
est and where the residents had to be informed before land and increased the risk of landslides on parts of
the press gained any information. Christchurchs Port Hills

M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 186 23/03/2017 13:03

 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management
Prior to a press announcement, each of the 37 high-risk
households received a personal phone call from the project
manager and a tailored information pack; they were invited
to evening neighbourhood meetings where they could talk
with the councils chief planner, geotechnical engineers and
geologists, the project team and welfare support, followed
by ongoing one-to-one access to the project team and
engineers. The whole programme therefore started with
personal contact and meetings, where listening to the con-
cerns and questions of residents was a key priority.
Those less at risk were provided with a tailored infor-
mation pack, supported by drop-in sessions with the
project team. The wider community were supported
with e-newsletter updates and drop-in sessions, and
information was provided to community and resi-
dents groups.
How then can programmes that involve dialogue
be evaluated if messages are one of the ways to mea-
sure communication effectiveness? The answer is: by
examining whether there have been improvements in
the quality of the relationships that result from the dia-
logue and the level of mutual cooperation, support and
advocacy (see Chapter10).
An important concept and growing area of scholar-
ship in the area of content is framing. Framing has been
imported from the fields of anthropology and linguis-
tics and essentially proposes that interactions between
human beings are framed by the cultural context and
heritage that individuals have experienced. Further-
more, academics Kahneman and Tversky (1979) found
that the choice of words and visual context are critical
to the response that is evoked. Cornelissen (2014: 121)
states that models of framing propose that messages
consist of three elements:
activation of an overall frame by use of certain key
words or formulations of forms;
manifest or latent reasoning or arguments as part
of the frame;
connections with deeper and culturally shared cat-
egories of understanding that supports and legiti-
mises the framing as a whole.
He uses climate change as an example of how that
debate has been framed differently by various groups.
So, for example, some politicians and corporate lead-
ers have stated that the science is uncertain, therefore
immediate policy action and draconian legislation is
not required. Other groups have framed action on cli-
mate change as conflicting with economic growth and
progress. Environmental groups have placed discussion
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 187
187
This detailed, dialogic and very personalised approach
resulted in no negative media comments from residents,
no negative media news stories, editorials or letters and
no residents left their homes in panic one of the great-
est fears. One resident was quoted in The Press as saying
that council staff had been the first people in three years
who talked to us and communicated well.
This case study was a Winner in the Public Relations Insti-
tute of New Zealand (PRINZ) Awards 2015. See page 16
of the PRINZ Awards Case Studies best of 2015 accessi-
ble at https://www.prinz.org.nz/Folder?Action=View%20
File&Folder_id=80&File=PRINZ%20Awards%20case%20
study%20booklet%202015.pdf
in a moral frame there is a moral obligation, even if
there are uncertainties about the science, to ensure that
the world is not left in a worse condition for future
generations. These different framing approaches will
generate quite different reactions depending on the
background, belief systems and life-experiences of the
people to whom they are directed. Framing theory is
discussed further in Chapter 2 Public relations and the
media and also in Chapter 8.
Strategy
The fifth basic question, How should the message be
communicated? falls into two parts: strategy and tac-
tics. The temptation for the public relations planner is
to move immediately to tactics because in many ways
it is easier and more exciting to think of a raft of ideas
that will deliver the objectives than to think about
the rationale behind them. An underpinning strategy
provides coherence and focus, and is a driving force.
Strategy is the guiding principle (sometimes called
the big idea) that determines the overall approach,
and hence the menu of activities, and that gives pur-
pose. Strategy is the how of the programme, not
the detailed what. Strategy is the bridge between
the aim(s) of the programme (what is to be achieved)
and the tactics (what is going to be done). Tactics are
the methods used to deliver the strategy. In the three
examples in Figure9.10, the first shows how strategy
can describe the nature of, and summarise the tacti-
cal campaign for, a simple, single objective campaign.
The second example is for a conceptual proposition,
the third for a slogan-driven campaign encapsulating
a key theme. All are equally valid.
23/03/2017 13:03
 188 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts

Example 1 Example 2 Example 3

Aim Publicise new product Establish organisation as Encourage people to eat

thought-leader healthily

Strategy Mount trade media campaign Position as industry think-tank Drive health awareness
through memorable message

Tactic Exclusive interviews, photos, Research reports, speaker Traditional and social media
videos, competition, special platforms, online information campaign, apps, games,
offers resource, sponsorship of website, school curriculum
university research, etc. initiative, etc.

Figure 9.10 Strategy as a bridge between aims and tactics

Tactics and influential? Does it suit the content in terms

of creative treatment and compatibility with other
It is obvious that tactics should be linked to, and flow techniques used?
from, strategy. Strategy should guide brainstorming
Is the tactic deliverable? Can it be implemented suc-
and be used to reject activities that do not support the
cessfully? Is there sufficient budget? Are the times-
strategic thrust or the programme objectives. There
cales correct? Are there the right people with the
should be a clear link between aim, objectives, strat-
right level of expertise to implement it?
egy and tactics.
A level of caution is required when planning the tac- Figure9.11 shows the power/interest matrix again,
tics of a programme. The aim is to build a programme this time showing the former Central Office of Infor-
that reaches the right people in sufficient numbers and mation (COI)s strategic approach towards those
that has the right level of impact to do the job required, groups in each quadrant, along with some tactics.
all within acceptable costs and timescales. Sometimes
that can be focused around a single activity for exam-
ple, as part of the Apple Watch and iPhone 6 launch in Time
2014, Apple gave a free download of the latest U2 album
Time is a finite commodity and the life of a public
Songs of Innocence gaining unprecedented publicity for
relations practitioner is notoriously busy. Further-
themselves and U2, not all of which was favourable.
more, public relations often involves the coopera-
More usually a raft of complementary tactics over
tion of others, and getting them to observe deadlines
a period of time is required. These will vary depending
requires firmness and tact. Deadlines can be externally
on the nature of the programme, so the practitioner
imposed or internally driven by the organisation. Inter-
will need to draw from a palette of tactics as appropri-
nal events may include the announcement of annual
ate. For example, if a company wants to launch new
results, launching a new service or the appointment
and highly visual products such as a range of expensive
of a senior executive. External events may be major
household accessories, it is important that tactics are
calendar dates, such as the Olympic Games, Chinese
selected that will show how these products look and
New Year or Thanksgiving.
feel. In this case tactics might include displays at exhi-
To ensure deadlines are met, all the key elements of
bitions and in-store, product samples, YouTube clips
a project must be broken down into their individual
showing the products in use, a Twitter campaign led by
parts and a timeline put against them. Box 9.8 contains
satisfied customers and high-quality bill-board posters.
a list of the main elements of a VIP facility visit.
In a different situation, for example, if the campaign
Each of these elements will need its own action
involves lobbying over some aspect of financial legisla-
plan and timescale. Thus, preparing the visit areas
tion, quite different tactics, such as research reports,
may include commissioning display boards with pho-
seminars, opinion-former briefings and one-to-one
tographs and text and a video. That in turn will mean
meetings with politicians would be more appropriate.
briefing photographers, and printers, video produc-
When designing the tactical elements of a campaign,
ers, getting content approved by senior management
two questions should be asked:
and so on. It may also involve liaising with security,
Is the tactic appropriate? Will it reach the target organising cleaners and arranging for porters to move
publics? Will it have the right impact? Is it credible furniture and erect the displays.

M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 188 23/03/2017 13:03

 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management 189

HIGH

INVOLVE (strategy) PARTNER (strategy)

Focus groups Problem solving teams
Team meetings Joint working groups
P
Seminars Co-funded ventures
O
W Social media Social networks
E
R
INFORM (strategy) CONSULT (strategy)
Newsletters Interviews
Website Consultation with fixed questions
Bill boards Surveys
Presentations Website
Email

LOW INTEREST HIGH

Figure 9.11 The COIs strategic approach (source: adapted from Gregory 2015: 138)

Having split the project down into its individual

Box 9.8 tasks, it is then useful to use techniques such as criti-
cal path analysis (CPA) and other project management
tools to ensure the project is managed and delivered on
Checklist for main time (see http://www.mindtools.com/critpath.html for
elements of a VIP more information). There are also numerous project
management software packages designed specifically
facility visit for public relations programmes and campaigns and
these incorporate evaluation elements as well as report-
ing capabilities. The use of dashboards to report on
1. Draw up invitation list and evaluate social media activity, for example, are
2. Alert relevant departments quite common. Any online search will show an array
3. Select visit hosts of suppliers and examples. If tasks have to be done to
4. Book catering
a short timescale, time-saving measures will have to be
implemented, such as employing a specialist agency to
5. Book photography help or using existing display material.
6. Issue invitations An annual activity plan which collates everything
7. Choose gifts for VIP into one accessible and visible place allows the peaks
8. Prepare display materials
and troughs of activity to be identified so that they can
be resourced accordingly. The times when activity is
9. Write speeches less intense can be used for reviewing or implementing
10. Prepare information packs other proactive plans.
11. Briefly visit hosts
12. Follow up invitations
13. Prepare visit areas
Resources
14. Collate final attendance list There are three areas of resourcing that underpin pub-
lic relations work: human resources, implementation
15. Rehearse with visit hosts
costs and equipment (Gregory 2015). Having the right
16. Facilitate visit staff, skills and competencies as well as an adequate
17. Follow up budget are critical to success. Skilled investor relations
personnel, for example, are rarer and more expensive

M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 189 23/03/2017 13:03

 190 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
than public relations generalists. Usually, a single
practitioner with a few years experience can handle a
broad-ranging programme of limited depth or a focused
in-depth specialism, such as internal communication.
Ideally, the organisation decides its optimum com-
munication programme and resources it accordingly.
The reality is usually a compromise between the ideal
and the actual budget allocated. However, it has to be
borne in mind that public relations is relationship-driven
and therefore people are more valuable than materials.
Investor relations work may survive without expensive
information packs, but it cannot survive without people.
When considering the implementation costs of a pro-
gramme, public relations practitioners have a duty to
be effective and efficient. So, for example, for an inves-
tor relations campaign it may be decided that a regular
monthly update is appropriate. Should that be online or
hard copy? If hard copy is best, choices have to be made
on the number of colours, quality of paper, frequency of
publication, and so on. A full-colour, glossy, monthly
update may be desirable, but would it be effective and
efficient? On the other hand, a single-colour publication
on cheap paper may fail to make investors feel important
or may not attract attention. If budgets are restricted, it is
important to think creatively about how a similar result
can be obtained at a fraction of the cost. Joint ventures
with complementary organisations, sponsorship and pig-
gyback mailings (i.e. when one mailing such as an annual
statement is used to include other information) should be
considered. Online may be seen to be a cheap option and
often is longer-term, but set-up and maintenance costs
and the cost of the human support needed to make it a
success have to be done realistically.
Sometimes it can be more effective and efficient to
spend slightly more money. Holding an employee con-
ference off-site may cost more, but may guarantee their
attention. Sending an analysts briefing to other key
shareholders may cost a little extra, but it may retain
their support.
Although not requiring excessive amounts of
equipment, it is important that practitioners have the
right technology to ensure quick and easy access to
key stakeholders in a manner that is appropriate. Up-
to-date mobile technology is a must these days.
Evaluation
Chapter10 goes into detail about evaluation, but it is
important to cover some basic principles here. Moni-
toring and evaluation answers the sixth key question:
How can success be measured? Public relations is like
any other business function. It is vital to know whether
the planned programme has done what it set out to do
and, if not, why not.
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 190
All the planning approaches emphasise the impor-
tance of ongoing monitoring. Throughout its duration,
practitioners will be regularly checking to see if the pro-
gramme is on track. So, for example, media coverage
will be monitored monthly to see if the selected media
are using the material and to judge how they are using it.
Sometimes evaluation is relatively easy, for example,
if the aim was to achieve a change in legislation and
that has happened, then clearly it was successful. Often
the situation is rather more complicated. If the plan is
to change societal attitudes towards people who have
mental health problems it will take a long time. Differ-
ent publics will require different amounts and types of
communicative effort and as a result the evaluation pro-
gramme will need to be much more sophisticated and
long term, and will need to employ formal social scien-
tific research methods (see Chapter10 for more detail).
Building in evaluation focuses effort, demonstrates
effectiveness and efficiency and encourages good man-
agement and accountability. However, research shows
that there is still a limited amount of evaluation done
in the public relations industry and it is fraught with
debate and difference.
There are a number of principles that can help to
make evaluation easier.
Building in evaluation from the start: if aims and
objectives are set with evaluation in mind, the task
is simpler.
Setting smart objectives: if objectives are clear and
measurable, then judging whether they have been
achieved is relatively easy.
Agreeing measurement criteria with whoever will
be judging success.
Monitoring as the programme progresses: using
ongoing monitoring as a management informa-
tion tool.
Taking an objective and a scientific approach: the
requirement to provide facts and figures about the
programme means that the planner may need training
in research methods or to employ specialists who are.
Evaluating processes: the planner needs to make
sure they are managing the programme well, within
budget and to timescales.
Establishing open and transparent monitoring pro-
cesses, through, for example, monthly review reports.
Evaluation is a contentious issue among public rela-
tions practitioners. Few believe that public relations
should not be evaluated, but there is significant debate
about how and what metrics should be used. The Bar-
celona Principles launched in 2010 and updated as
Barcelona Principle 2.0 (Amec 2015) have helped to
set an international base point for evaluation. The UK
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management 191

Organisation/Policy
GCS Model objectives

Communication Campaign evaluation & further insight

objectives to inform future planning
Ongoing insight to inform delivery and future planning

Organisational
Stages: Inputs Outputs Outtakes Outcomes
Impact

What you do before and What is delivered/target What the target audience The result of your activity The quantifiable impact
during the activity (e.g.): audience reached (i.e.): think, feel or do to make on the target audience on the organisation
Things you a decision (i.e.): (e.g.): goals/KPls (e.g.):
need to do Planning Distribution
Preparation Exposure Awareness Impact Revenue
track and/
Pre-testing Reach Understanding Influence Costs reduction
or achieve
Production Interest Effects: Complying actions
Engagement - Attitude (attitude/behaviour
Preference - Behaviour change)
Support Retention
Reputation

Metrics & Select the right metrics from the framework to help you measure and evalute the performance of your Select the right business
Milestones integrated communication activities. KPls to track performance
of your Integrated
communication activities
Use a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods (e.g. surveys, interview feedback, against your
Methods organisations goals.
focus groups, social media analytics, tracking).

Figure 9.12 The GCS evaluation model (source: taken from the GCS Evaluation Framework User Guide, used with
permission from Government Communication Service (GCS), UK)

Government Communication Service (GCS) has made
evaluation of government campaigns compulsory
and in 2015 produced an updated set of evaluation
standards (GCS 2015). The GCS model for evalua-
tion clearly links communication objectives to organ-
isational and policy objectives and shows how they
can be evaluated at various stages. This is shown in
Figure9.12. The GCS work is regarded as innovative
and leading edge and is currently being considered by
other governments around the world and in other sec-
tors, for example by the Australian Government and
by private-sector organisations based in Singapore.
Review
While monitoring and evaluation are both an ongo-
ing and end-of-programme process, a thorough
review of all public relations activity should be
undertaken regularly, but on a less frequent basis:
every 12 months or so. As part of this, the external
and internal environment should be surveyed system-
atically to ensure that all issues have been captured
and any new ones accommodated. Campaign strate-
gies should be tested to see if they are still entirely
appropriate. Certainly, tactics should be reviewed
to see if they need refreshing with any new creative
input and to ensure that they are addressing the needs
of the target publics.
Where a major review is required, it is impor-
tant to take a holistic approach. Programmes always
need to be dynamic and flexible enough to embrace
stakeholder input, opportunities and challenges, but
sometimes a fundamental reappraisal has to take
place. If that is the case, all the steps in the plan-
ning process outlined in this chapter need to be taken
again.

Summary view of the organisation in context and within a frame-

This chapter has sought to show that strategic public rela-
tions is critical to organisational success. Public relations
has a crucial role in organisations, not only in implement-
ing impactful programmes, but in understanding the
external and internal context. Without this wider under-
standing the full contribution of public relations at all
levels within the organisation will not be understood or
realised. Successful public relations programmes do not
just happen: professionals plan. They plan taking a wide
work that recognises a much broader contribution. While
it is not the only contribution to organisational success
that public relations professionals can make, delivering
programmes that make a difference is a most tangible
one. Seeing a planned public relations programme come
to life is exciting and rewarding. It also clearly demon-
strates to organisational peers and employers that public
relations can make a real, measurable difference. To bring
together all the principles given in the second half of this
chapter, a longer case study is now presented.

M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 191 23/03/2017 13:03

 192 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
Case study 9.1
Dundee Beach Charity
Golf Day
Picture 9.2 Bringing the community together at the
Dundee Beach Charity Golf Day
This case study illustrates that even a small-scale commu-
nity campaign with minimal budget can be well researched,
have clear objectives, a strategy and tactics that are linked
and can deliver results. The Dundee Beach Charity Golf Day
was devised by Creative Territory for their local commu-
nity. They started with one big problem: how do you hold a
charity golf event when you dont have a golf course thats
where creativity and ingenuity comes in.
Introduction
Dundee Beach is a small community 140 km southwest of
Darwin, the most northerly state capital city of Australia.
600 residents call Dundee Beach home, living on blocks
ranging from 1 to 100,000 acres. Another 300 weekend-
ers spend their weekends at Dundee, but are forced to
live in Darwin during the week to work. Dundee can be
isolated by floodwaters for days at a time in the wet sea-
son and has limited facilities no water, sewerage, gar-
bage or health centre. Emergency health care is provided
by a small team of volunteer first aiders. The idea for a
charity golf day was born when a group of locals lamented
the loss of friends and family to cancer. They wanted to do
something to support them. They also wanted to support
the local Volunteer First Aid Post who give so much to
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 192
the community. There was, however, one slight problem:
Dundee Beach doesnt have a golf course.
Analysis
Research revealed a number of facts and requirements.
After researching other golf days, a unique selling propo-
sition was identified: the opportunity to play nine holes
along a pristine beach in remote Australia. However, there
were some challenges. A golf course would need to be
created along a beach that completely disappears at high
tide. The team would have to convince golfers that playing
nine holes along one big sand trap sounds like fun. Spon-
sors were needed to ensure the funding target was met.
Aim
Raise $19,000 to support the health of residents and visi-
tors to the Dundee region.
Objectives
Raise $9000 to pay off the First Aid Post ambulance.
Raise $10,000 to allow the Cancer Council to run
two programmes:
1. A skin cancer awareness programme at the Dundee
School
2. A cancer support group at Dundee.
Strategy
The strategy was two-pronged: first making a unique event
fun and second involving local people as much as possible
so that they owned the event. These were the key ele-
ments and they were important because they would:
Make it memorable: provide a unique golf experi-
ence that players couldnt get elsewhere
Make it great: create an event that could compete
with corporate charity golf days.
Make it pay: concentrate on sponsorship as the
main fund-raising strategy, but incorporate as many
ways to raise money as possible.
Make charities work: make partner charities com-
mit to programmes that would benefit the Dundee
Beach community.
Make it local: involve as many people and busi-
nesses from the local community as possible.
Make it regional: target sponsorships and teams
from Darwin and beyond.
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management 193

Sponsorship: Sponsorship packages attractive to

large and small businesses were organised. They
included hole sponsorships at $1500, shirt sponsor-
ships at $500 and banner sponsorships at $100. Also
accepted were donations of time, money, auction
items and barbecue food.

Sponsor targeting:
Personal approaches were made to local busi-
Picture 9.3 A new golf experience that players couldnt nesses and weekenders by their friends on the
get elsewhere committee
Target audiences Personal approaches to other businesses based on
existing personal relationships
Who Why
Specific targeting of corporates clients of Creative
Dundee residents As volunteers and Territory.
supporters

Dundee-based More likely to sponsor
businesses an event that will
benefit their local
community
Dundee weekenders Provide a connection to
who own or run larger businesses in
businesses Darwin
Key corporates Two or three corporate
sponsors would give the
event more credibility
Potential golfers Players were needed,
whether they could play
golf or not
Media To help attract players
and to provide
additional value to
sponsors
Charity partners: outcomes were negotiated with charity
partners beforehand. The organisers wanted the money to
be used for something that would benefit the community,
not just be absorbed into consolidated revenue.
Promotions: free media were used wherever possible
including community service announcements, media
releases, flyers, website, Facebook and word of mouth.
The only paid promotion was a small Facebook adver-
tising campaign to attract teams. The craziness of the
idea was the hook to get media coverage.
Player Packs: Big corporate golf days have player packs
and golf shirts for all participants.
Giant auction: An auction included 30 items donated by
businesses. A Darwin auctioneer donated his services.
Auction catalogues were distributed before the event.

The 10th hole: A 10th hole was created so that anyone

Event management and tactics
Planning: A planning committee was established to
coordinate the event.
Timing: Dundee experiences up to 8 m tidal move-
ments. The event needed to be at a weekend with neap
tides to allow the golf course to stay dry all day. There
also needed to be no clashes with other major events,
so this was checked thoroughly.
Course design: A couple of local people who had
played golf before designed the course.
could play, to involve more people in the game. Players
had to tee off from the beach and get the golf ball into
a boat moored 100m out to sea. This hole raised almost
$1000.
Environment: All balls used on the day were floating
and biodegradable. Children were treated to a free iced
Slushie for collecting balls from the beach.
Other events: Events were held throughout the day at
the registration desk for families including a colour-in
competition, jumping castle and barbecue.

M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 193 23/03/2017 13:03

 194 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
Case study 9.1 (continued)
Results and evaluation
Targets Results
Raise $19,000 to support $21,446 raised
health programmes
Raise $9000 to pay off $9000 raised and the
community ambulance ambulance paid off
Raise $10,000 for the $10,000 banked and
Cancer Council to run negotiations underway
two local cancer with the Cancer Council
programmes to determine how the
programmes will run
Apart from the main financial objectives, many more
positive outcomes were achieved:
Teams: 17 out of 18 team positions were filled. The
other one broke down en route to the event, but
paid for the day anyway.
Bibliography
Agerwal, R. and C. Helfat (2009). Strategic renewal of
organizations. Organization Science 20(2): 281293.
AMEC (2015). Barcelona Principles 2.0. Retrieved
13 January, 2016, from http://amecorg.com/
barcelona-principles-2-0-infographic/
Ansoff, I. (1988). Corporate Strategy. Revised edition.
London: Penguin Books.
Broom, G.M. and B.L. Sha (2012). Cutlip and Centers
Effective Public Relations, 11th edition. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Cornelissen, J. (2014). Corporate Communication: A
guide to theory and practice, 4th edition. London:
Sage.
De Wit, R. and R. Meyer (2010). Strategy: process, con-
tent, context. London: Thomson.
European Commission (2015). Toolkit for the evalu-
ation of the communication activities. Brus-
sels, Directorate General for Communication.
Retrieved 11 January, 2016 from http://ec.europa.
eu/dgs/communication/about/evaluation/documents/
communication-evaluation-toolkit_en.pdf
Falkheimer, J. and M. Heide (2010). On dropping the
tools: from planning to improvisation in Handbook
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 194
Players: 100 per cent of players rated the event as
either fantastic or xxxxxx fantastic; 88 per cent said
theyd play again in 2016. The rest were overseas
tourists who had joined in anyway.
Sponsors: 8 out of 9 hole sponsors have signed up for
2016. A total of 30 auction items were donated, raising
almost $8500. Shirt sponsorships were fully subscribed.
Volunteers: 37 volunteers helped out on the day.
Community: Anecdotal feedback is that this event
has brought the community together.
Media: Pre-and post-event coverage was achieved
on radio, television and in newspapers.
For further information about the Dundee Beech Charity
Golf Day see:
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rwwmv_fukE
Dundee Beach Charity Golf Day website: www.dundee
beachcharitygolfday.com
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/dundeebeach
charitygolfday
Source: by kind permission of Creative Territory
of Crisis Communication. W. T. Coombs (ed.). Mal-
den, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 51126.
Freeman, R.E. (1984). Strategic Management: A stake-
holder approach. Boston, MA: Pitman.
GCS (2015). GCS Evaluation Framework User Guide.
Retrieved 8 January, 2016 from https://gcs.civilser-
vice.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/6.1395_
CO_LL_GCS-User-Guide-AW.pdf
Grant, R.M. (2013). Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 8th
edition. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Gregory, A. (2015). Planning and Managing Public Rela-
tions Campaigns, 4th edition. London: Kogan Page.
Gregory, A. and P. Willis (2013). Strategic Public Rela-
tions Leadership. London: Routledge.
Grunig, J.E. and T.E. Hunt (1984). Managing Public Rela-
tions. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Herriot, P. and W. Scott-Jackson (2002). Globalisation,
social identities and employment. British Journal of
Management 13(2): 24957.
Johnson, G., R. Whittington, K. Scholes, D. Angwin and
P. Regner (2013). Exploring Corporate Strategy, 10th
edition. London: Pearson Education.
Kahneman, D. and A. Tversky (1979). Prospect theory:
an analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica 47:
26391.
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 9Strategic public relations planning and management
Lerbinger, O. (1972). Designs for Persuasive Communica-
tion. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Macnamara, J. (2016). Organizational Listening. New
York: Peter Lang.
Marston, J.E. (1997). Modern Public Relations. New
York: McGraw Hill
McElreath, M.P. (1997). Managing Systematic and Ethical
Public Relations Campaigns, 2nd edition. Madison,
WI: Brown and Benchmark.
Meznar, M.B. and D. Nigh (1995). Buffer or bridge: envi-
ronmental determinants of public affairs activities in
American firms. Academy of Management Journal 38
(4): 97596.
Mitchell, R.K., B.R. Agle and D.J. Wood (1997).
Towards a theory of stakeholder identification and
salience: defining the principle of who and what
really counts. Academy of Management Review
22(4): 85386.
Moloney, K. (2006). Rethinking Public Relations, 2nd
edition. Abingdon: Routledge.
Pew Center (2011). The State of the Media 2015.
Retrieved 8 January 2016, http://www.journalism.
org/2015/04/29/state-of-the-news-media-2015/
Ponsford, D. (2012). PG research reveals 242 local press
closures in 7 years. Press Gazette. 30 April. Retrieved
8 January 2016, from http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/
node/49215
Porter, M.E. (1980). Competitive Strategy. New York:
Free Press.
M09 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 195
195
Ritzer, G.F. (2015). The McDonaldization of Society.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Smith, R.D. (2013). Strategic Planning for Public Rela-
tions, 4th edition. New York: Routledge.
Smythe, J. (2007). The Chief Engagement Officer. Alder-
shot: Gower.
Steyn, B. (2007). Contribution of public relations to
organisational strategy formulation in The Future of
Excellence in Public Relations and Communication
Management. E.L.Toth (ed.). Mahwah, NJ. Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
Thompson, J., J.M. Scott and F. Martin (2014). Strate-
gic Management: Awareness and change, 7th edition.
Andover: Cengage Learning EMEA.
van Ruler, B. (2015). Agile public relations planning: the
reflective communication scrum. Public Relations
Review 41(2): 18794.
Weick, K.E (1998). Improvisation as a mindset for
organizational analysis. Organization Science: A
Journal of the Institute of Management Sciences
9(5): 54356.
White, J. and D.M. Dozier (1992). Public relations
and management decision making in Excellence in
Public Relations and Communication Management.
J.E. Grunig (ed.). Hillsdown, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Windahl, S. and B. Signitzer (with J.E. Olson) (2009).
Using Communication Theory: An introduction to
planned communication, 2nd edition. London: Sage.
23/03/2017 13:03
 c h ap t er 10 Paul Noble

Public relations programme research and

evaluation

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
understand the thinking behind the Barcelona Principles 2.0
appreciate the role of quantification and objective setting in the evaluation of public relations
define and distinguish output and outcome evaluation
define qualitative and quantitative research and their application to outcome evaluation
understand content analysis and its role in output evaluation
recognise the challenge that social media offers to evaluation.

Structure
Barcelona Principles
Valid metrics guidelines
Quantification of public relations
Objective setting
Research
Outcome evaluation
Output evaluation
Content analysis
Social media

M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 196 23/03/2017 13:03

 Chapter 10Public relations programme research and evaluation 197

Introduction
For many years, public relations (PR) has
been under pressure to prove its worth.
As PR has sought to gain management
approval to be taken more seriously,
this pressure has increased. The need to
compete for budgets and demonstrate a
business case to justify corporate survival
has only served to further ratchet up this
pressure.
We have now reached a point where
the rhetoric surrounding the need for
public relations to justify itself is now
backed up by some practical steps to put
that rhetoric into practice. The first step to
evaluation wisdom is clear thinking about
the pivotal role that objective setting plays
in planning in general, and in evaluation
in particular. Objectives are the specific
end points that a PR programme seeks
to achieve. Consequently, at its simplest,
evaluation is checking that the objectives
set have been met. So, effective objective
setting is key to effective evaluation, as well
as being one of the first things to consider
when putting together a PR programme or
campaign evaluation starts at the begin-
ning not the end of the process.
The second step to evaluation wis-
dom is clarity of thinking around inputs,
outputs and outcomes (and even out-
takes for added granularity). The UKs
Government Communication Service
(GCS) defines these concepts as follows
(GCS 2015):
Inputs the work you do before
and during the activity, e.g. planning,
preparation, pre-testing and pro-
duction of content, messaging and
materials.
Outputs communications deliv-
ered and target audience reached.
This includes distribution of con-
tent, exposure of the audience
to that content, its reach and
reception.
Outtakes what the target audience
think, feel or do to make a decision,
measured by awareness, under-
standing, interest, engagement, pref-
erence and support.
Outcomes the effect of your
activity on the target audience
related to change of attitude or
behaviour.
Outputs concern the process of pub-
lic relations and outcomes the impact.
We need to evaluate both because
outcomes relate to the programme
objectives, the end result; but the bet-
ter the outputs, the more likely we are to
achieve the outcomes we seek.
The third step to evaluation wis-
dom is the realisation that evaluation is
a research-based activity. This implies
rigour, underpins credible practice and
generates confidence among practi-
tioners. So, PR practitioners need to be
research aware: to have the background
knowledge to commission and man-
age researchers, as well as use and ana-
lyse the data they generate. Stacks and
Michaelson (2010: 3) suggest that: A cen-
tral reason for this change [PR an integral
part of the mix] in the perceptions of and
stature of public relations in the com-
munications world is the inclusion of
research, measurement, and evaluation
as an integral part of the practice...

Barcelona Principles
These challenges, and others, are addressed by the Bar-
celona Principles. These seven principles were origi-
nally adopted in June 2010 at the second European
Summit on Measurement. This summit was organised
by the international Association for the Measurement
and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) and the
Institute for Public Relations (IPR), as well as being
supported by most of the leading PR bodies across the
globe. These principles represented the first interna-
tionally agreed set of standards on the measurement of
PR campaigns. And rather than their launch creating
a lot of initial noise before gently fading away into
the mists of history, they soon became the backbone
that stiffened the resolve of those determined to apply
best practice to the measurement and evaluation of
communications.
By 2015, the time had come to revisit the Barcelona
Principles and September that year saw the launch of
Barcelona 2.0. While the original principles focused
on what not to do, the updated principles were more
about what to do (AMEC 2015a).
The key points of Barcelona 2.0 include a global
perspective and applicability across all types of organ-
isations. There is also a recognition that marketing
and communication are increasingly integrated. This
includes using different channels and different tech-
niques in concert. Concepts such as the valid met-
rics framework backed up by reliable and replicable
research can help measure the specific contribution
that PR makes to the achievement of organisational
objectives.
A distinction is made between measurement and
evaluation to stress the importance of using evaluation
to generate insight; in particular, the use of formative
evaluation to feed forward into future communica-
tion campaigns and activities. Barcelona 2.0 has an
added focus on complementing quantitative data with
qualitative data to appreciate the why behind the what
(AMEC 2015a).

M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 197 23/03/2017 13:03

 198 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
The revised Barcelona 2.0 Principles are as follows
(AMEC 2015b):
Goal setting and measurement are fundamental to
communication and public relations.
Measuring communication outcomes is recom-
mended versus only measuring outputs.
The effect on organisational performance can and
should be measured where possible.
Measurement and evaluation require both qualita-
tive and quantitative methods.
AVEs (advertising value equivalents) are not the
value of communications.
Social media can and should be measured consis-
tently with other media channels.
Measurement and evaluation should be transpar-
ent, consistent and valid.
Note that goals are frequently a broader and higher
level term than objectives and without measures. How-
ever, the Barcelona Principles use goals and objectives as
synonyms so this chapter does the same, reserving the
term aims for what others may refer to as goals.
These principles will be referred to throughout this
chapter. For the moment, the thinking behind the second
principle deserves some exploration. It resonates with
Broom and Shas (2013: 339) exhortation that prac-
titioners Understand the difference between outputs
(effort and process) and outcomes (impact and effects).
They talk about practitioners using circulation data or
the numbers attending events as indicators of success
when they are only a means towards an end, not the end
itself. This habit of using output statistics to claim the
achievement of outcomes has long been referred to as a
substitution game see Think about10.1. Alongside
a lack of linkage between objectives set and evaluation
evidence presented, this substitution game comprises the
two most common errors in programme evaluation.
While the substitution game is to be avoided, out-
come and output evaluation are not alternatives in the
sense that one is better, or worse, than the other is. It is
not a question of either/or but rather both: the more
efficient the process, the more likely the impact sought
will be achieved.
Valid metrics guidelines
To support the Barcelona Principles, guidelines for a
set of valid metrics to underpin them have been estab-
lished (AMEC 2013). The aim is to relate the five
M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 198
Think about 10.1
The substitution game
Look at public relations case studies (search for public
relations awards, for example). Can you find examples
of the substitution game? That is, process (output) eval-
uation most often press coverage masquerading as
impact (outcome) evaluation. Have you any ideas how
the evaluation could be more impact-orientated?
Feedback
Why do people play the substitution game? Reasons
could include using data that are easily available
rather than useful, and lack of confidence that the
programme will achieve the outcomes predicted by
the objectives set.
communications stages from awareness through to
action, to a simplified model of how the public relations
process operates. The template is the basis for a series
of grids according to types of PR programmes involved:
from product marketing, through investor relations, to
community engagement. The focus of these grids is the
bottom-right-hand corner, where the action taken by
the target audience demonstrates the organisational
results achieved by the public relations effort.
It is possible to criticise this template/matrix for
repetition and the use of marketing terminology. But
much more important is the effort to develop a stan-
dard approach, which suits the diversity of public rela-
tions practice and makes progress towards balancing
completeness and simplicity. (Explore10.1 asks you to
look at PR metrics in more detail.)
Explore 10.1
Studying the metrics in more detail
Go to this link and look at slide numbers 14 and
15 (How to use the matrix): http://amecorg.com/
downloads/resource/ValidMetricsFramework7June-
2011PrintVersion.pdf
Identify the grids and activities (pp. 412) that are rel-
evant to the type of public relations you are involved
in. There are plenty of examples of the types of met-
rics you might use to populate any matrices relevant
to your context. Are there any activities/metrics you
can add?
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 10Public relations programme research and evaluation
Quantification of public
relations
There is a lot of interest in the quantification of the
effects of public relations programmes. This has some
benefit because it translates what public relations peo-
ple do into terms and language that others inside and
outside the organisations and clients they serve can
easily relate to. Mini case study10.1 gives examples of
using financial indicators to evaluate public relations
campaigns.
The use of quantification is also important to enable
both baselines and benchmarks that underpin the prin-
ciple of comparativeness in public relations evaluation:
comparing programmes and campaigns against them-
selves (or rather previous iterations) and other, similar,
organisations or campaigns.
So establishing a baseline is an essential first step
to effective evaluation. That means knowing what the
current position is before you apply the public rela-
tions input. This will do two things: first, establish a
basis on which objectives can be developed and, sec-
ond, provide a reference point for calculating whether
any effect has been achieved. For example, Portsmouth
FC uses a baseline to judge the success of a community
affairs initiative that is measured by the take up of a
voucher scheme (see Mini case study10.2).
In contrast to the internal focus of baselines, bench-
marking looks externally to compare a particular
programme with similar programmes undertaken in
similar circumstances by similar organisations, to pro-
vide some sort of external reference point. Mini case
study10.1 has an example of establishing a benchmark
for future campaigns.
There has always been a desire to quantify media
coverage. One controversial example is Advertising
Value Equivalency (AVE) that evaluates media cover-
age as if it is advertising. ... , AVE tries to measure the
supposed value of news coverage, equating the amount
of publication space or broadcast time to the cost of
purchasing that same amount as advertising (Smith
2013: 342). Some users of AVEs move on to multiply
this advertising cost by a random multiplier, claim-
ing this reflects higher credibility of media coverage
over advertising (research to support this assertion is
mixed).
AVE is not an appropriate approach to evaluating
public relations because PR and advertising are not
the same thing. Advertising is a tool that PR might
occasionally employ. But even if we restrict PR to its
narrowest tactical incarnation of media relations, the
M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 199
199
Mini case study 10.1
Calculating the financial
impact of public sector
campaigns
Her Majestys Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is the
body responsible for collecting taxes in the UK. A
2008 campaign encouraged submission of tax returns
online and on time. The numbers responding could be
tracked, and HMRC knew the administrative savings
that resulted. The cost of the campaign was 6.1m; the
number of people filing returns online due to the cam-
paign was 183,000, and on time was 328,749.
The Government Communication Network (GCN)
evaluates the financial impact of campaigns through
two respects: return on investment and cost per result.
Return on marketing investment (ROMI) is calculated
by dividing net payback (admin savings achieved less
cost of campaign) by campaign cost. For the HMRC
campaign, the return after the campaign had paid
for itself was 2.04 for every 1 spent.
For the HMRC, a result is one person filing online or
on time. The cost per result (dividing campaign cost
by number of results) is 11.92. This figure has limited
meaning in isolation but could act as a benchmark for
other and/or future campaigns.
When it is not possible to calculate the exact finan-
cial value of a campaigns outcomes, an alternative is
a financial proxy. For example, in 2010, if the number
of smokers in the UK is divided into the treatment cost
of smoking to the health service, the cost per smoker
was 342 pa. This approach could be used to calculate
the savings resulting from a stop smoking campaign.
Source: This mini case study has been developed from
Evaluating the financial impact of public sector marketing
communication, GCN/COI, January 2011 and IPA
Effectiveness papers, with additional input from Kevin
Traverse-Healy and Matthew Taylor.
comparison does not work: advertising is normally
employed as a persuasive tool in a marketing context,
whereas media relations is an educational/informa-
tional channel directed at virtually all an organisations
stakeholders. They might act in concert, but they are
not clones.
23/03/2017 13:03
 200 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS

Mini case study 10.2

Community relations at
Portsmouth FC
In early 2010, financial pressures forced the English
Premier League football club, Portsmouth FC (known
as Pompey), into administration. This contributed to
the clubs relegation at the end of the 2009/10 football
season.

These straitened circumstances forced the club to

review how it operated. Focus shifted to local support-
ers and the local community in Portsmouth. There was
an opportunity to help the local community engage
in the citys rich heritage. Heritage was in tune with
Pompeys long history the club was formed at the
end of the nineteenth century.

So the community relations programme included

Get on Board, linking the club with a local icon: the
Mary Rose, Tudor King Henry VIIIs flagship and the
centrepiece of Portsmouths historic naval dockyard.
It drew parallels between the club and the ship. For
example, nutrition was important to both (human
bones found on board indicated the sailors had suf-
fered from rickets). Similarly, participants were intro-
duced to Futsal, a form of five-a-side football with a
heavy leather ball similar to that used in Tudor times.
Successful participants were eligible for vouchers for
free family visits to the four museums linked with Get
on Board. Of the children participating in the scheme,
32 per cent took up the offer, compared with a base-
line of 3 per cent visiting local museums before the
scheme started.
Source: By kind permission of Clare Martin, Pompey in the
Community
In addition, media coverage is not free advertising:
the cost of something does not necessarily relate to its
value, no self-respecting advertiser pays book rate for
advertising, not all media accept advertising (e.g. the
BBC), and AVEs ignore the content of the media cover-
age achieved.
An alternative concept that has been introduced
to quantify editorial coverage is opportunities to
see (OTS) referred to as impressions (or media
impressions) in North America. OTS/impressions are
used to illustrate the reach and frequency of media
Picture 10.1 Portsmouth FC player Hermann Hreidarsson
dressed as Henry VIII on Southsea Castle where Henry
stood and watched the Mary Rose sink (source: Pompey in
the Community)
coverage. Particularly when public relations operates
in a marketing context, the concept can be seduc-
tive because all marketing communications channels
(both print and poster sites, for example) have an
OTS figure, although the methodologies behind their
calculation vary.
Smith (2013: 479) defines media impressions as
potential total audience of people who could have been
exposed to a message presented in a particular medium.
According to this definition, the OTS of a print publi-
cation is its readership. Other authorities suggest the
lower figure of circulation probably preferable as OTS
figures can frequently appear inflated. With broadcast
media, the concept becomes slightly more complex as
reach varies according to time of day and programme,
and with online media an equivalent figure for readers
is challenging (see Think about10.2).
The main concern with OTS lies in the words oppor-
tunity to see, reinforced by Smiths use of the word
potential. The fact that an individual has spent a few
minutes reading a newspaper or website does not mean

M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 200 23/03/2017 13:03

 Chapter 10Public relations programme research and evaluation
Think about 10.2
Opportunities to see/
Impressions
The following table comes from the Coalition for
Public Relations Research Standards (see: http://
www.instituteforpr.org/wp-content/uploads/SMM-
Standards-Impressions-6-2-14.pdf). It gives examples
of social media impressions measurements with tra-
ditional media included for comparison.
Print newspapers and Audited circulation plus
magazines pass-on readership
Broadcast Viewers or listeners
Online news Unique daily visitors
Blogs
Discussion groups
Forums
Twitter Followers plus retweets
Facebook Friends
YouTube Views
The Barcelona Principles support the idea of measur-
ing social media consistently with other media chan-
nels. Do these measures succeed in providing valid
equivalent metrics to measure impressions/OTS?
Feedback
Integrated measurement is a laudable aim but we
might question whether it is appropriate to suggest
equivalence between a viewing of a video on
YouTube and a passing mention in a newspaper.
they have read every item, let alone attended to, remem-
bered, absorbed and digested that items content.
Another commonplace piece of management jargon
that has been imported to at least imply that the effect
of public relations efforts can be quantified in a mon-
etary fashion is ROI (return on investment). Moyer
(2013) defines it in these terms: ROI is a financial
measure that should only be used in cases where both
money invested (the I of ROI) and money earned or
saved (the R of ROI) can both be measured in finan-
cial terms. ROI should not be used when referring to
results of non-financial measures.
M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 201
201
So, strictly speaking, ROI is an inappropriate
term as it is rare that it can be applied to PR in its
generally accepted financial definition. However, in
spite of efforts over the years to resist its use in PR
measurement and evaluation, it has now become an
established, if ill-defined, phrase, meaning something
along the lines of results of public relations activities
based on some evidence (ideally quantified) gathered
with some degree of rigour. This is criticised by Shel-
drake (2011: 117) who states: I dislike any attempt
to hijack the term ROI. Accountants know what ROI
means, and they can only view the softening or redi-
rection or substitution of its meaning as smoke
and mirrors.
There are approaches that combine ROI and OTS,
such as the Media Relations Rating Points (MR2P)
approach developed by the Canadian Public Relations
Society (Watson and Noble 2014: 83). This approach
arrives at a score for a media relations campaign before
suggesting a metric called cost per contact, which is
derived by dividing the number of impressions into
the campaign budget. Given the previous concerns
about OTS/impressions, the use of the word contact
is optimistic.
Objective setting
The Barcelona Principles 2.0 state that Goal setting
and measurement are fundamental to communication
and public relations (AMEC 2015b). Smith (2013:
101) is more specific, adding that objectives give the
planner a reference point for evaluation. Probably
the most common term associated with objectives
is SMART (see Chapter 9) specific, measurable,
achievable, resourced and time-bound.
However, objective setting is not simple in public
relations, and this contributes significantly to the com-
plexity of evaluating public relations programmes. The
reasons can vary. For example, in an integrated or mar-
keting communications context there may be a range
of communications tools deployed (PR, sales promo-
tion and advertising, for instance) and the effect sought
may be achieved, but it might be difficult to isolate the
contribution each tool made.
In another context, there might be significant envi-
ronmental factors at play, such as a country with a
strong currency trying to attract inbound tourists. An
efficient PR programme might well be cancelled out by
the high costs for visitors.
SMART objectives should therefore be regarded as
an ideal to aspire to. Frequently, when public relations
23/03/2017 13:03
 202 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
is the only or lead communications discipline and there
is not an unfavourable environment to operate in then
PR can commit to ensuring that specific outcomes can
be achieved. When there is a range of communica-
tions activities in play, PRs role might be to create a
change in attitudes as a necessary precursor to other
effects such as changing behaviour. Finally, when PR
is operating in an unfavourable environment, informed
assumptions might have to be made. An example could
be that in the scenario of promoting tourism in a coun-
try with a strong currency, an assumption is made that
without any PR input, tourist numbers would fall by
10 per cent, so the PR objective (and therefore success)
might be to maintain tourism at current levels.
Another key concept associated with public rela-
tions objective setting is the concept of a hierarchy of
objectives: cognitive, affective and conative (see Chap-
ter9). Importantly, these levels are hierarchical: the
second cannot be achieved without achieving the first,
and the third cannot be achieved without first achiev-
ing the second. So the role of PR might be to change
attitudes in pursuance of a broader communications or
organisational objective to change behaviour.
Stacks and Bowen (2011: 3) make the same point
but with slightly different terminology: there are three
PR objectives found in any campaign informational,
motivational and behavioural. They occur in a logical
order. First, communication must occur: the informa-
tion must be sent, received and understood. Second,
the public, stakeholders or audience must be moti-
vated by that communication toward the intended
action. And, third, the target should adopt the desired
behaviour.
The final point about objective setting is the crucial
connection between outcome/impact evaluation and
objectives set. Evaluation falls at the first fence if it
is not taken into account at the beginning of the pro-
gramme when objectives are set. Quite simply, outcome
evaluation links directly back to the objectives set at the
beginning of the programme. (See Think about10.3.)
Research
Watson and Noble (2014: 35) stress the intimacy of
research and evaluation: Evaluation is a research-
based activity, so any progress in evaluation practice
has to be underpinned by an understanding of research
methods. A research orientation is in tune with the
Barcelona Principles 2.0 (2015b), which stress that
Measurement and evaluation should be transparent,
consistent and valid.
M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 202
Think about 10.3
Objective setting
Look at some public relations plans/programmes or
published case studies. Study the objectives. Are they
SMART? If not, are there any ways you think you can
make them more SMART? Can you decide where on
the hierarchy each objective sits? Any thoughts on
how you could evaluate these objectives?
Feedback
As we go down the hierarchy, from awareness down
to action, objectives become easier to evaluate but
more difficult to achieve. For example, behaviour is
difficult to change, but is normally easy to observe.
All types of research, however informal and anec-
dotal, can be useful. All too often, practitioners ignore
the free research available within many (particu-
larly large) organisations. Two related topics are the
use of piggyback research (e.g. adding questions to
an existing survey), or an omnibus survey where
questions and therefore costs are shared with others.
So, a basic understanding of research methods is
part of the professional practitioners toolkit (Wat-
son and Noble 2014: 35). Anyone managing pub-
lic relations campaigns and activities needs to be an
effective commissioner and user of research. Even
though it cannot answer all the questions or sway
all decisions, methodical, systematic research is the
foundation of effective public relations (Broom and
Sha 2013: 265).
Research has five roles in public relations practice:
1. Research to plan programmes, analysing the PR
problem.
2. Research to monitor the effectiveness of PR pro-
grammes.
3. Research to assess the impact of the PR pro-
gramme.
4. Research as a tool: the survey or visibility study.
5. Research and professionalism.
The first role is the province of situational analy-
sis, whereas the next two are the process/output and
impact/outcome guises of programme evaluation. The
fourth role is pseudo-research, where research acts
as a tactical activity generating newsworthy stories
sometimes referred to as a visibility study. Finally, a
reminder that a body of knowledge obtained through
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 10Public relations programme research and evaluation
academic research is an essential prerequisite of being
regarded as a profession.
Research begins with informal and often simple meth-
ods of gathering relevant information (Smith 2013: 20).
This is an important point: at any stage of a public rela-
tions programme, casual information, however unsystem-
atically gathered, can be useful provided no more weight
is placed on the data than they deserve. A couple of ran-
dom anecdotes prove nothing, but may suggest more
careful investigation or even start to validate input from
other sources (see discussion of triangulation below).
More formal research is divided into primary and
secondary. Secondary research (also known as desk
research) refers to information that has already been
published in some form, ranging from information on
the internet to internal reports. Secondary research
is frequently quick to obtain and is usually but not
always free. However, frequently it is not specific
enough to meet planners needs. In contrast, primary
research (also known as field research) is undertaken
to meet a specific need. Primary research can be time-
consuming, technical and resource intensive.
Primary research strategies are frequently described
as either quantitative or qualitative. The former is asso-
ciated with statistics/numbers and tends to answer the
question what is happening?. Associated with ques-
tionnaires and surveys, quantitative research normally
involves relatively large numbers and is regarded as
relatively objective. Sampling and piloting are issues
that quantitative research needs to address. Surveys
are usually based on questionnaires and involve rela-
tively large numbers so have a quantitative feel.
You should use a survey when you can easily define
your questions (perhaps after some initial semi-structured
Case study 10.1
The Honest Truth
campaign
Brief and objectives
The Honest Truth is a charity based in the south west of
England, but operating throughout the UK and beyond.
Its aim is to encourage people to commit to a small
change, thereby making roads safer and reducing the
number of people killed and injured. The Honest Truth
unites the fire service, police, county and district councils,
community safety partnerships and driving instructors
M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 203
203
interviews or focus groups), and the range of answers are
limited. They are helpful when you want to collect infor-
mation from a large number of people. Consider whether
to administer a survey using a self-completion question-
naire (web surveys, postal surveys and feedback forms)
or a structured interview (face to face or via telephone).
One slight variant is known as a tracking survey.
It is applicable to PR evaluation because it is used at
intervals to track changes in the views of a particular
group of people over a period of time. Importantly, the
survey needs to be designed and applied in the same
way on each occasion, although it does not have to be
applied to the same people, provided sampling is con-
sistent. If some changes are made, then it is important
to keep at least a core set of questions unchanged.
In contrast to quantitative, qualitative research is
usually associated with words as the unit of analysis
and answers the question why is it happening?. Inter-
views and focus groups are the main methods associ-
ated with qualitative research, the numbers involved
are relatively small, and it is regarded as subjective
owing to researcher involvement.
These two strategies are not mutually exclusive
and can be combined: undertaking a wide-ranging,
questionnaire-based survey, followed by a limited
number of qualitative interviews to understand and
interpret the results of the survey in more detail,
for example. Indeed the fourth Barcelona Principle
(AMEC 2015b) states: Measurement and evaluation
require both qualitative and quantitative methods.
Case study10.1 demonstrates the role of research and
benchmarking in PR planning and evaluation.
Denscombe (2014) talks about a mixed methods
approach in some detail. He states that it has three
in Devon and Cornwall. For the first time, public sector
organisations work alongside driving instructors to reach
learners and parents with safer driving messages. Instruc-
tors have free resources and a seat at board level.
Its vision is clear: to reduce anti-social driving, and the num-
ber of 17 to 24-year-olds killed or seriously injured, by work-
ing with driving instructors to deliver The Honest Truth
about driving to young learner drivers and their parents.
SMART objectives are reviewed monthly in line with
feedback. In January 2012 they were:
To achieve a sign-up goal of 300 driving instructors
across Devon and Cornwall by April 2012 and 100 in
Somerset by April 2013.
23/03/2017 13:03
 204 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
case study 10.1 (continued)
For 70% of signed-up instructors to deliver five or
more Honest Truth interventions with each of their
students within the target demographic.
To achieve 75% recollection rate of The Honest Truth
and its key messages by young drivers taught by
signed-up instructors six months after concluding
lessons.
To obtain national sponsorship by November 2012
to enable the scheme to be delivered in other UK
areas.
Strategy and tactics
A series of nine face-to-face presentations to instruc-
tors sought pioneer members who would help inform
the campaign: 312 signed up. They were given supplies
of a pilot leaflet, providing hard facts and key messages.
Instructors and young people were asked to comment
and contribute ideas to new resources.
The final campaign features animalhuman hybrids rep-
resenting eight topics proven to be the highest contribu-
tors to crashes and negative consequences: speed, drink,
drugs, mobile phones, distractions, seatbelts, showing off,
and improper insurance.
Each topic has key messages for instructors to share, and
a resource booklet includes useful information and real-
life stories. Instructors are supplied with a free booklet,
leaflet and in-car teaching cards, and driving schools are
provided with supporting posters.
Other outputs include:
quarterly email newsletter, with in-depth metrics
introductory video (http://youtu.be/lAd4RgLXstg)
website and Facebook.
The most important aspect to developing the project was
creating a fully integrated partnership, working to remove
barriers between organisations. The partners agreed to
put aside issues of ownership and organisational iden-
tity in order to deliver a single brand which would be
applied across multiple platforms, fully transferable to
other regions, original and memorable.
Development work included:
a brainstorming session, sharing examples of good prac-
tice, along with personal and professional experiences;
concept testing with instructors and young people
through focus groups and email surveys.
M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 204
Implementation
The second phase of The Honest Truth launched in June
2012 with roll-out to all member instructors through live
events.
While the campaign is primarily aimed at one-to-one
engagement between instructors and pupils, wider out-
puts such as posters were distributed to driving schools,
leisure centres, libraries and other authority-owned
assets, helping improve reach.
The campaign is ongoing, with strategy reviewed regu-
larly and board members each responsible for specific
issues.
Stakeholder engagement
Live presentations, telephone surveys, focus groups, social
media and regular email newsletters have kept internal
and external stakeholders engaged. Feedback has been
consistently sought and acted upon. For example, in-car
teaching cards were the idea of a driving instructor at a
live presentation.
The target audience of driving instructors is represented
at board level, ensuring that the campaign is suited to
instructors rather than just being what authorities think
they might need.
Other professional networks have been developed,
including:
Driving Standards Agency carrying leaflets at all
regional test centres
Zurich Insurance offering advice on sponsorship
The AA considering roll-out
Approaches from other regions, including full
roll-out in Hertfordshire.
Research, planning, measurement and
evaluation
Official statistics, member feedback, focus groups and
brainstorming sessions all contributed to researching and
planning the campaign, which also drew on the exten-
sive professional experience of board members, many of
whom are blue-light first responders.
The Board partnered with the University of Plymouth to
produce an independent 85-page peer-reviewed analysis.
Surveys included over 50 young drivers and parents who
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 10Public relations programme research and evaluation
had been exposed to the campaign and a control group
which had not. Responses were measured on a Likert scale
of 1 to 5, with 5 indicating a high evaluation. Technical pro-
cesses such as a Shapiro-Wilk test of normality were applied.
Key results:
312 driving instructors signed up by April 2012 (now
nearly 600).
100% sign-up from presentation attendees.
A 73% usage rate by instructors, reaching 7500
pupils throughout at least half of their courses,
totalling over 150,000 instances of key message
delivery.
4.19 (out of 5) average Likert score among young
drivers and 4.16 among parents for resources across
categories of: Informative; Understandable; Will use
in future; Started discussion; Led to further investi-
gation of topics; Made changes to habits; Now drive
safely; Know where to go for more information.
Those exposed were over three times more likely to
know about key risk factors, their consequences, the
Pass Plus scheme and Black Box insurance scheme.
Scores averaged 3.9 for those taking part versus 1.18
for those not.
Of eight behaviour changes such as not speeding
or not using a mobile phone while driving young
drivers exposed had a total average score for chang-
ing behaviours of 5.63 out of 8, while those not
exposed scored 2.04.
An 80+% recall rate of key messages among pupils.
A 95% approval rating for brand and resources.
Budget and cost-effectiveness
The budget for the work in 2012 was:
100 photography
30 draft prints
50 administrative costs
3350 print
Total: 3530
Staff time was contributed by member organisations,
with board members also volunteering time.
Given the proven link to behaviour change it is con-
sidered that the campaign is extremely cost-effective,
especially when measured against the cost of a major
road traffic collision, which averages approximately
1.7 million, not to mention the huge emotional cost.
M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 205
205
Picture 10.2 The Honest Truth campaign features animal
human hybrids, which represent certain behaviours that
commonly contribute to crashes. For example, the rhino
represents the massive potential impact forces that exist
when people choose not to wear a seat belt. (source: Used
with permission of Honest Truth)
Current position
The Honest Truth is being delivered in 15 counties of the
UK, with a further two preparing to launch.
Working in partnership with Pertemps (the UKs largest
independent recruitment agency), to produce package
for those who drive for work.
National roll out with the Royal Air Force due to take
place in March 2016.
National launch in November 2015 with Nationwide
Building Society was very positive with distribution to
every branch in the UK and reach of 19,000 staff.
Development of educational packages and launch of
road safety animation on YouTube (www.youtube.com/
watch?v=8Jrd7jp31SQ).
Work with National Volunteer Police Cadets to include
European Conference in February 2016 to start roll out
in five European countries.
Continued delivery in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset
through events and engagement.
Automobile Association and British School of Motoring
have launched The Honest Truth e-learning package to
their 3000+ franchisees.
Very positive national conference with 50 delegates from
both public and private sector held in 2015.
Source: By kind permission of Rebecca Hewitt,
Trustee, Honest Truth.
23/03/2017 13:03
 206 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
characteristics: in addition to using both qualitative
and quantitative approaches, it is a pragmatic approach
and is associated with triangulation a preference for
viewing research problems from a variety of perspec-
tives (Denscombe 2014: 146).
Triangulation is a useful concept for public rela-
tions research and evaluation, where we may rely on
a number of sources of data at least some of which
are, at best, based on informal or casual research. It
involves the practice of viewing things from more than
one perspective. This can mean the use of different
methods, different sources of data or even different
researchers within the study. The principle behind
this is the premise that a research topic can be better
understood if it is viewed from more than one perspec-
tive. (Denscombe 2014: 154).
Outcome evaluation
Stacks and Michaelson (2010: 197/8) define outcomes
as: quantifiable changes in awareness, knowledge,
attitude, opinion, and behavior levels that occur as a
result of a public relations program or campaign; an
effect, consequence, or impact of a set of communi-
cation activities or products, and may be either short
term (immediate) or long term. Outcomes are gener-
ally evaluated through direct measurement the type
of research that has already been discussed. However,
there are parallel issues to consider.
There is something close to a holy grail or magic
bullet for the evaluation of public relations campaigns.
This is econometrics: a statistical technique that can
separate out the different influences on an outcome
Box 10.1
The effect on business
results can and should
be measured, where
possible
To measure business results from consumer or brand
marketing, models that determine the effects of the
quantity and quality of PR outputs on sales or other
M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 206
(e.g. sales) and quantify the effects of each. In PR, it
is most associated with marketing communications.
With the right data, econometrics can measure the
impact your communications have on sales and profit.
It can even forecast the effects of future campaigns
(Cook and Holmes 2004: 2).
In essence, what econometrics can do is to tell
you what would have happened without your PR/
communications input. However, it does require
large budgets, technical expertise and historical
data. Consequently, it tends to be restricted to large
consumer campaigns where significant resources
and details of past campaigns are available. But we
can use the spirit of econometrics. For example, the
evaluation of a teacher recruitment campaign in the
UK was based on extrapolating recruitment levels
from historical trends, and making informed guesses
about environmental influences, such as the state of
the economy.
The Barcelona Principles argue that there are
occasions where it is possible to measure the effect
of public relations activity on business results; see
Box 10.1, which is based on the third principle
(AMEC 2015b) and discusses market mix model-
ling (MMM) and survey research. Survey research
is a form of direct measurement. MMM is a form of
statistical analysis that establishes the effect of dif-
ferent marketing and communications tactics, as well
as forecasting the likely impact of a particular mix of
tactics in the future.
Rockland (2011: 2) explains that the role of MMM is
to show the degree to which PR outputs, such as media
coverage, drive business results, such as sales. It is much
more than noticing a correlation between improving
media coverage and increasing sales, and assuming that
business metrics (while accounting for other variables)
are a preferred choice. Related points are:
Clients are creating demand for market mix models
to evaluate the effect on consumer marketing.
The PR industry needs to understand the value and
implications of market mix models for accurate
evaluation of consumer marketing PR, in contrast to
other measurement approaches.
The PR industry needs to develop PR measures that
can provide reliable input into market mix models.
Survey research can also be used to isolate the change
in purchasing, purchase preference or attitude shift
resulting from exposure to PR initiatives.
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 10Public relations programme research and evaluation
there is a connection between the two. The reality is
that most PR practitioners are not going to be doing
MMM any time soon. This truly is the domain of sta-
tistical professional [sic], and an econometrician with a
doctorate is the person who does the actual modelling.
So, market mix modelling and econometrics are not
techniques that public relations practitioners are likely
to employ themselves. However, they do need to have
enough of a basic understanding to commission and
manage relevant experts, as well as to collect data in
the format that research suppliers need.
Output evaluation
Stacks and Michaelson (2010) define outputs as what
is generated by PR activities or campaigns. In contrast
to outcomes, the nature of outputs (and therefore their
evaluation) varies according to the tactics employed.
The evaluation of media coverage will employ dif-
ferent techniques to the evaluation of an event, for
example.
Mini case study 10.3
The Best Job in the
World
In January 2009, Queensland Tourism announced that
applications had opened for the Best Job in the World:
to be the caretaker of the islands of Australias Great Bar-
rier Reef. The job was real but it also involved promoting
the islands, as did the process of applying for the role. The
successful applicant was to receive a six-month contract
paying 150,000 Australian dollars and free accommoda-
tion, with duties ranging from feeding fish to producing
a weekly video blog.
Online recruitment listings and display advertising directed
traffic to a website, islandreefjob.com. The website
encouraged users to generate their own content through
one-minute video job applications. The campaign was
supported by a YouTube channel, branded presence on
Facebook and Twitter, as well as viral videos, online banner
advertising and worldwide media relations.
With a brief to create international awareness of the
islands of the Great Barrier Reef , the coverage and reach
achieved were impressive:
M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 207
207
The Barcelona Principles (AMEC 2015b: 3) stress
that Measurement and evaluation require both quali-
tative and quantitative methods. In the case of media
evaluation, probably the most common form of output
evaluation, this is exemplified by combining quantita-
tive measures such as reach with qualitative measures
such as tone.
The establishment of media evaluation was indeed
prompted by a desire for media coverage to be anal-
ysed in a rather more sophisticated manner than the
thickness of a clippings book. While a wide range of
criteria can be employed, the most common are prob-
ably some indication of the following:
success in delivering key messages (this starts to
link forward to organisational objectives),
the relevance of the media where coverage has been
obtained (one common approach is to divide media
into tiers one, two and three).
the reach of the coverage (frequently opportunity
to see, known in North America as impressions, is
used)
More than 6000 news stories in broadcast and print
media worldwide, reaching a global audience of
approximately three billion.
Web statistics of nearly 8.7 million unique visits,
more than 58 million page views and an average of
8.25 minutes spent on-site.
34,684 one-minute video applications from 197
countries.
Two major US travel companies launched campaigns
promoting the islands of the Great Barrier Reef as
stand-alone destinations; they were the first US travel
sellers to do this and their decision to do so related
to the Best Job in the World. The true value of this
campaign is more likely to be seen in years to come as
opposed to the immediate sales return. Queenslands
Whitsundays received great growth in international
visitors, particularly from Asian countries following
the Best Job in the World campaign. As Queensland
emerges from the global financial crisis, many of the
states core international markets are returning, some
are even booming and the outlook for the future is
extremely positive.
Sources (with additional input from Queensland Tourism):
http://www.ourawardentry.com.au/bestjob/
http://www.tq.com.auhttp://youtu.be/SI-rsong4xs
23/03/2017 13:03
 208 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
tonality whether the tone of coverage is positive,
negative or neutral.
At its simplest, media evaluation can be undertaken
manually or with the deployment of some basic spread-
sheet expertise. At this level, media evaluation prob-
ably does not tell the PR practitioner anything they
are not aware of from reading press clippings. How-
ever, presenting it in a systematic and graphical manner
makes it more credible to clients and colleagues.
It is important to recognise that media coverage is a
means towards an end, not an end in itself. It remains
the prime candidate for the previously discussed sub-
stitution game. Finally, the term media evaluation is a
misnomer. We are not evaluating media but looking at
our media coverage. Media content analysis is a more
accurate term.
Mini case study 10.3 illustrates a combination
output and outcome evaluation. One point the case
makes is that outputs are frequently available quickly,
whereas outcomes can take longer to become apparent.
Content analysis
Denscombe (2014) explains that content analysis
quantifies the qualitative content of textual material,
and that it does so in a fashion that is clear and repeat-
able. Stacks (2002) confirms that it is not a research
method but rather a means of analysing research data,
and Smith (2013: 401) adds that: ...content analysis
has been used for years to study mass media.
Content analysis involves identifying the content to
be analysed (e.g. key messages), what is to be analysed
(e.g. media coverage), the approach to categorisation
(e.g. positive, negative and neutral), and then the cod-
ing, counting and recording. In some circumstances,
sampling may be employed so that not every clipping
needs to be examined.
Broom and Sha (2013) confirm the definition of
content analysis, reinforce its role in analysing media
coverage and outline its limitations:
Content analysis is the application of systematic
procedures for objectively determining what is
being reported in the media. Press clippings and
broadcast monitor reports, all available from com-
mercial services, have long been used as the bases
for content analysis. They indicate only what is
being printed or broadcast, not what is read or
heard. And they do not measure whether or not the
audiences learned or believed message content.
(Broom and Shah 2013: 282)
M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 208
Content analysis is a widely recognised research
methodology, accepted well beyond the public rela-
tions community. So, content analysis can both under-
pin more effective process evaluation and provide
much-needed enhancement to the credibility of public
relations evaluation in general.
Social media
One aspect of evaluation that fed into Barcelona 2.0
was the thinking that the evaluation of social media
should be integrated with the evaluation of traditional
media rather than the two being consigned to sepa-
rate silos. This is a welcome intervention into a debate
that was already in progress. There were already two
schools of thought, both from respected authorities on
the subject.
On the one hand, Angela Jeffrey detailed the fol-
lowing eight-step process when outlining her approach
social media measurement (Jeffrey 2013: 4):
identify organisational and departmental goals
research stakeholders for each and prioritise
set specific objectives for each prioritised stake-
holder group
set social media key performance indicators (KPIs)
against each stakeholder objective
choose tools and benchmark (using the AMEC
matrix)
public relations activity; intermediary and target
audience effects
analyse the results and compare to costs
present to management
measure continuously and improve performance.
What is notable is that this framework retains the
valid metrics framework without amendment, as orig-
inally conceived. Also, leaving aside one mention of
social media KPIs, it would be an equally appropriate
framework for a programme with a traditional media
orientation.
A different approach was taken by Don Bartholomew.
He restricted the intermediary effect in the original valid
metrics framework to the impact of traditional media and
argues that this is inappropriate to social media, which
is characterised by direct interaction. He also suggests
that the marketing sales funnel was of minority interest
in social media cases (Bartholomew 2013). Many would
argue that PR uses intermediaries in a wider sense than
23/03/2017 13:03
 Chapter 10Public relations programme research and evaluation
the media, and while the marketing funnel is quite often
the horizontal axis on examples of the original valid met-
rics framework, there are plenty of variants that range
from relationship building to internal communications.
Bartholomew (2013) developed an alternative set
of descriptors for social media variants of valid met-
rics frameworks. The horizontal axis keeps a multistep
approach along established lines, but adopts the social
media technology of exposure, engagement, influence,
impact and advocacy with the latter adding post-
purchase activity to the established framework concept.
Two alternatives were developed for the phases (ver-
tical axis) of the framework. One approach was to spec-
ify channel, programme and business impact metrics:
channel specific metrics are unique to specific social
channels;
programme metrics are tied into the communica-
tions objectives of the campaign/programme;
business objectives demonstrate the business impact
of the campaign or initiative.
The second approach uses paid, owned and earned
metrics as the elements of the vertical axis and is
designed for programmes that employ these types of
channels in an integrated manner. It is recognised that
some people add shared channels (such as a retweet)
in a social media context.
This thinking has informed an AMEC user guide
(AMEC 2014) to Social Media Measurement where
the relevant frameworks can be downloaded. Along-
side these frameworks is some advice on what should
be measured at different stages of the exposure through
to advocacy continuum (Bagnall 2015: 30):
Exposure
organisation/brand mentions
share of conversation
search rank
click-throughs
web analytics etc.
Engagement
comments/post ratios
number of links
@ mentions/retweets/retweets as a percentage
number of bookmarks/likes/votes/pins
shares and likes
subscriber numbers
URL visits
M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 209
209
Box 10.2
Social media
measurement top tips
1. In advance of your campaign, for each step, ask
what success looks like.
2. Agree social media objectives and KPIs with your
team and your boss/client.
3. Make sure your objectives are SMART.
4. For each metric, ask (at least three times) why it
matters and what it proves.
5. Decide how frequently you need to report.
6. Gather the right data through the process.
7. In addition to measurement, what insights and
opportunities are revealed?
8. Whats working and what isnt. What can you
change to improve results?
9. Embrace measurement, dont fear it.
10. Review, adjust, improve.
Source: Adapted with thanks from http://www.social-
media-measurement-framework.org/portfolio/top-tips/
Action
footfall
purchase/donations
website visits and downloads
coupon redemption, endorsement.
This final category (action) encompasses impact
and advocacy and the best-known tool in this area is
Google Analytics (GA). Its probably the most widely
used tool for analysing traffic to and from websites,
although its a lot more than a tool to measure web
traffic. Smith (n.d.) explains that GA can be used to
generate engagement metrics (e.g. time on site), track
which elements of your campaign are delivering your
audience and even which elements of the communi-
cations mix contributed to the achievement of your
objectives. Smith adds that real-time analysis is one
of the most under-utilised aspects of Google Analytics
(p.12). Mini case study 10.4 demonstrates how real-
time analysis was employed to gauge the immediate
impact of national radio coverage.
23/03/2017 13:03
 210 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS

Mini case study 10.4 represent. In doing so, they obviously mention the
company name.

Using real-time analysis Almost immediately, the PR team can see visits to the
website rocket. They can also see how people are finding
to show immediate the site. And where they are physically located.

impact of radio coverage
A PR team secures an interview for a company CEO on
BBC Radio 4s flagship morning news programme, Today.
The interview is highlighted in advance as taking place
at 7.25am.
Using Google Analytics real-time analysis feature, the
companys PR people are able to watch for any change
in activity on the site in real time. At 7.24am, there is
no one on the site.
In this case, they can see that every visit is being gener-
ated by UK-based surfers visiting Googles search engine
and typing in the company name which in turn delivers
the company home page as the top result, which in turn
sends them to the company site.
In terms of visitor numbers, these go from zero to around
200 per minute (for the duration of the interview).
In real time, the PR team can see which pages these visi-
tors are viewing. As it turns out, the vast majority are
looking at the corporate and press backgrounder pages.

At 7.25am, the interview begins with the BBC pre- Source: http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/policy-resources/
senter introducing the guest and the company they toolkits-and-best-practice-guides/google-analytics

Summary contribution that PR makes to meeting organisational

goals or objectives. There are good reasons to quantify
public relations results but this needs to be comple-
Effective evaluation starts with objective setting.
mented with some qualitative analysis and placed in the
Objectives need to be specific and measurable and as
context of wider thinking about metrics. The Barcelona
impact-orientated as possible. Evaluation then looks at
Principles 2.0 was discussed as an internationally agreed
the process of public relations (outputs) and its impact
framework for measuring public relations, including
(outcomes). The former provides feedback to improve
social media measurement.
effectiveness, whereas the latter demonstrates the

Bibliography Broom, G. and B. Sha (2013). Cutlip and Centers Effec-

tive Public Relations, 11th edition. Harlow: Pearson
Education.
AMEC (2015a). http://amecorg.com/new-look-
communications-measurement-benchmark-launched/ Cook, L. and M. Holmes (2004). Econometrics Explained.
London: Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.
AMEC (2015b). http://amecorg.com/wp-content/
uploads/2015/09/Barcelona-Principles-2.0-development- Denscombe, M. (2014). The Good Research Guide for
and-detailed-changes.-7-September-2015.pdf Small-Scale Social Research Projects, 5th edition.
Maidenhead: Open University Press.
AMEC (2014) http://amecorg.com/social-media-
GCS (2015). https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/wp-content/
measurement/framework/
uploads/2015/11/GCS_GCS-Evaluation-framework_
AMEC (2013). http://amecorg.com/wp-content/uploads/ A4-_191115.pdf
2012/11/How-to-use-the-AMEC-Valid-Metrics.- Jeffrey, A. (2013). http://www.instituteforpr.org/wp-
December-2013.pdf content/uploads/Social-Media-Measurement-Paper-
Bagnall, R. (2015). http://prguidetomeasurement.org/ Jeffrey-6-4-13.pdf
portfolio/chapter-7/ Moyer, J. (2013). http://www.instituteforpr.org/return-
Bartholomew, D. (2013). http://amecorg.com/wp- on-investment-roi/
content/uploads/2013/06/Social-Media-Valid- Rockland, D. (2011). Market Mix Modelling. London: CIPR.
Framework2013.pdf http://www.cipr.co.uk/sites/default/files/MMM.pdf

M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 210 23/03/2017 13:03

 Chapter 10Public relations programme research and evaluation
Sheldrake, P. (2011). The Business of Influence. Chiches-
ter: John Wiley & Sons.
Smith, A. (n.d.). Google Analytics for Public Rela-
tions Measurement and Evaluation. Available from
http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/policy-resources/
toolkits-and-best-practice-guides/google-analytics
Smith, R. (2013). Strategic Planning for Public Relations,
4th edition. Abingdon: Routledge.
Stacks, D. (2002). Primer of Public Relations Research.
New York, NY: Guilford Press.
M10 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 211
211
Stacks, D. and D. Michaelson (2010). A Practitioners
Guide to Public Relations Research, Measurement
and Evaluation. New York, NY: Business Expert
Press.
Stacks, D. and S. Bowen (2011). The strategic approach:
writing measurable objectives in Charting Your PR
Measurement Strategy. www.instituteforpr.org
Watson, T. and P. Noble (2014). Evaluating Public Rela-
tions, 3rd edition. London: Kogan Page.
23/03/2017 13:03
 C h ap t er 11 Finn Frandsen and Winni Johansen

Corporate image, reputation and identity

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
understand the importance and implications of living in a brand society
define the key concepts of corporate image, reputation and identity
explain how new concepts, such as status, stigma and reputation commons, can contribute to our under-
standing of corporate reputation
describe and understand the process of reputation management (corporate branding).

Structure
The controversy of image in public relations
Corporate image and reputation
New concepts
Corporate identity
Reputation management and corporate branding
Measuring corporate image and reputation
A critical point of view

M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 212 23/03/2017 13:04

 Chapter 11Corporate image, reputation and identity 213

Introduction
According to many scholars, we are liv-
ing in a brand society where product
brands as well as corporate brands trans-
form the way we manage organisations
and live our lives (Kornberger 2010).
Since the early 1990s, the idea that per-
sons and organisations operate in a sym-
bolic marketplace, where they are forced
to build up a symbolic capital, that is, to
create a favourable image or reputation
(Schultz et al. 2000), has spread to more
and more areas of society.
Private companies not only brand
their products and services (product
branding), but also the organisation
behind these products and services
(corporate branding). The driving force
behind is a search for strategic differ-
entiation. As the corporatisation of among their stakeholders.
public organisations has become more
evident, public authorities, regions and
municipalities have also started brand-
ing themselves in front of their citizens.
City branding and nation branding have
established themselves as new disci-
plines and practices in an attempt to
attract more inhabitants, tourists and
firms. Personal branding has also seen
the light of day.
In all the cases mentioned above,
three concepts are pivotal: image, repu-
tation and identity. Persons and organi-
sations must communicate who they
are, and what they stand for, in order to
create a favourable image or reputation
To possess a strong symbolic capital
seems to be an advantage for organisa-
tions in many ways. A good product or
corporate brand is instrumental to dif-
ferentiating a company and its products
from its competitors and their products.
A good corporate brand makes it easier
for the company to attract new inves-
tors (investor branding) and facilitates
the process of attracting and main-
taining valuable employees (employer
branding). Finally, a good corporate
brand also makes it easier for the com-
pany to recover from a severe organi-
sational crisis.

The controversy of image in Think about 11.1

public relations
Lets start out by emphasising that the concept of image
has been subject to a major controversy within the field
of public relations. Already Edward Bernays declared:
Down with image, up with reality (Bernays 1977). At
the beginning of the 1990s, James E. Grunig introduced
an important distinction between two types of relation-
ships between an organisation and its publics: sym-
bolic relationships versus behavioural relationships;
a distinction that Grunig at that moment considered
part of perhaps the most important paradigm strug-
gle in the field today (Grunig 1993). Grunig defined
the symbolic relationships as based on superficial and
short-term activities (communication), whereas he saw
the behavioural relationships as based on substan-
tive and long-term activities (actions). However, he
also admitted that the two types of relationships are
closely related: Although I consider long-term behav-
ioral relationships to be the essence of public relations,
Ido not dismiss symbolic relationships. Symbolic and
behavioral relationships are intertwined like strands of
a rope (Grunig 1993: 123).
Grunig (2006) replaced this relationship distinction
with an alternative demarcation between two paradigms
of public relations approaches: a symbolic, interpretive
paradigm and a behavioural, strategic management
paradigm. According to the first paradigm, the role of
public relations is to influence how publics interpret the
Image, communication and
behaviour
Think of a private company that you know reason-
ably well. It may be a production company such as
the Coca Cola Company, an airline such as Ryanair,
a chain of supermarkets such as Carrefour, or a retail
bank such as Barclays. How has the actual image that
you have created of the company and its products
or services, come to existence? Is it because of the
behaviour of the company (product, service encoun-
ter, etc.)? Is it because of the words and pictures
used by the company in its external communication
(advertising campaigns, corporate website, etc.)? Or is
it because of a completely different source of informa-
tion (family, friends, the media)?
What is communication, and what is not communi-
cation? Is it only words and pictures (what we say)
that communicate a message? Or can behaviour
(what we do) also communicate? Is it possible to
distinguish between communication and actions?
organisation. The focus is on tactical activities, public-
ity, media relations and media effects. According to the
second paradigm, the role of public relations executives
is to participate in strategic decision-making to help
manage the behaviour of the organisation.

M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 213 23/03/2017 13:04

 214 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
Today, 25 years later, Grunigs distinction between
communication and behaviour appears a little too nar-
row, if not misleading. Instead of defining image as the
production of organisationally controlled messages for
the purpose of manipulating media images, academics
and practitioners have started defining and working
with image as the dynamic result of interactions or
negotiations between an organisation and its publics.
Words, pictures and actions form part of this process.
Instead of viewing image as a sender-determined con-
struct, academics and practitioners now understand
image as a receiver-determined construct (Wan and
Schell 2007).
During the last two decades, corporate communica-
tion and strategic communication, two disciplines that
are closely related to public relations in many aspects,
have been institutionalised as professional practices
and academic disciplines.
They build on two basic assumptions, between
which there is a certain tension, and which are sum-
marised in the concepts of integration and relation
(Frandsen and Johansen 2014).
Integration, because the proponents of corporate
communication and strategic communication assume
that the communication activities of an organisation
will be most effective and efficient, if both its external
communication activities (public relations and market-
ing communication) and its internal communication
activities (organisational communication) are coordi-
nated to a certain extent. This mindset has given birth
to the idea of integrated corporate branding focusing
on coherence, not only between the external and inter-
nal dimensions of the communication activities, but
also between what an organisation says (brand prom-
ise) and what it does (brand experience).
Relation, because the proponents of corporate com-
munication and strategic communication assume that
the complex and dynamic relationships between an
organisation and its stakeholders is of vital impor-
tance, and that an organisation in many cases will
benefit from differentiating its corporate branding
depending on which stakeholder group(s) it is inter-
acting with. Investors expect something different from
the organisation than employees, although they can
of course be the same individual wearing different
hats. Both integration and relation are expected to
contribute to the creation of a favourable image or
reputation.
With the rise of corporate communication and
strategic communication there is a new focus on the
ideational dimensions of organisations, including the
crucial role played by corporate image, reputation
and identity (Alvesson 1990). In accordance with this
M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 214
mindset and practice, Cornelissen (2014) defines cor-
porate communication in the following way:
Corporate communication is a management func-
tion that offers a framework for the effective coor-
dination of all internal and external communication
with the overall purpose of establishing and main-
taining favourable reputations with stakeholder
groups upon which the organization is dependent.
(Cornelissen 2014: 5)
Corporate image and
reputation
The first key concept is the concept of image, that
is, how a person or an organisation is perceived by
people (stakeholders). Corporate image studies were
conducted already in the 1950s, and it is not until the
1990s that the concept of corporate image is joined by
its close relative, the concept of corporate reputation.
Referring to Aaker and Meyers (1982), Australian
professor of marketing, Grahame Dowling defines
image as:
An image is the set of meanings by which an object
is known and through which people describe,
remember and relate to it. That is the result of the
interaction of a persons beliefs, ideas, feelings and
impressions about an object.
(Dowling 1986: 110)
Dowling adds that the word object can be replaced
with either brand, product or company, etc. to gain
a definition of the image one is interested in studying.
Organisations are concerned about how they are per-
ceived by others, that is, the image that various types of
key stakeholders produce of the organisations. An image
is not something that belongs to the o rganisation
stakeholders hold an image of the organisation. Very
often organisations mirror themselves in the global eval-
uation made by their stakeholders, creating a more or
less realistic self-image (Christensen and Cheney 2000).
However, an image is not a unitary, monolithic phe-
nomenon. Each group of stakeholders perceives the
company, its employees and/or its products depend-
ing on their stakes, the context, and their relationship
with the organisation over a shorter or longer period
of time. If you are a consumer of products and services,
you will most probably be interested in the quality and
price of products and services, sustainability, animal
welfare, or the brand promise made by the company.
But even consumers form a very heterogeneous group
23/03/2017 13:04

of stakeholders producing many different images of the
same company. If you are an investor, you will prob-
ably first of all be interested in the profitability and
overall economic performance of the company, but
also in its overall reputation and legitimacy. If you are
a citizen, and lets say the neighbour of a large com-
pany, you are probably interested in how the organisa-
tion in question contributes to the local community.
Does it create new jobs for the members of the local
community? Are the products or the production pro-
cesses harming the environment or the climate?
Another important question: where do the stake-
holders get the information from? Are they in direct
contact with a company that is, they work for the
company or they buy and consume its products? Or
are they only indirectly in contact with the company
that is, they get the information from members of their
social and professional networks (family, friends, col-
leagues), or they get the information from the press
(stakeholder by proxy)?
But if corporate image is the global evaluation
(comprised of a set of beliefs and feelings) a person
has about an organization (Dowling 2001: 19), what
is then corporate reputation? In the early days of cor-
porate communication, people did not highlight the
difference. The two concepts were considered syn-
onyms and accordingly used at random. Today, most
researchers and practitioners make a clear distinction,
based on a variety of dimensions, between the concept
of image and the concept of reputation.
A first dimension concerns time, that is, reputation
as a time-based construct. A corporate image can be
viewed as a momentary snapshot based on a short-
term, emotional evaluation of the company, whereas a
corporate reputation can be viewed as a kind of back-
ground set based on a long-term and more rational
evaluation of the company. Schultz (2005) defines
corporate reputation as the longitudinal judgement
of who the company is and what it stands for among
multiple stakeholders (Schultz 2005: 43).
According to crisis communication researcher
W.Timothy Coombs and his situational crisis com-
munication theory, the reputation of an organisation
builds upon the relationship between the organisation
and its stakeholders, which has developed over time
(Coombs 2015; see also Ledinghams (2005) relation-
ship management theory). Thus, an organisational cri-
sis can be defined as a relational damage.
A second dimension concerns reputation as a value-
based construct. In his book entitled Reputation Real-
izing Value from the Corporate Image (1996), Charles
J. Fombrun from the Reputation Institute defines cor-
porate reputation as the overall estimation in which a
M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 215
Chapter 11Corporate image, reputation and identity 215
company is held by its constituents (Fombrun 1996:
37). This estimation is based on the perceptions of a
series of values such as reliability, credibility, social
responsibility and trustworthiness. Dowling also sees
corporate reputation as a value-based construct. He
defines the notion in the following way: Corporate
reputation: the attributed values (such as authenticity,
honesty, responsibility, and integrity) evoked from the
persons corporate image (Dowling 2001: 19).
Values are about beliefs and ideals, used by human
beings to give preference of something over something
else. They reflect a persons sense of what is important,
desirable, good, right, etc. Thus, whether an organisa-
tion has a good or bad reputation, is connected to the
degree of accordance between the way an organisation
acts and the values that a stakeholder or stakeholder
group considers to be personally or socially prefer-
able for an appropriate behaviour of an organisation.
Basic assumptions of human beings are thought to be
relatively stable, whereas values, whether societal or
personal, develop faster and in a more dynamic way
over time, influenced by internal as well as external
circumstances. A good example of this is the debate
about climate change and the possibilities of citizens
and organisations to influence the evolution in the right
way. This development of society has clearly influenced
the attitude of consumers to sustainability and the use
of climate and environmentally friendly products.
Today, organisations are very engaged in the cre-
ation of a strong and good reputation because this is
a way to make them stand out from their competitors,
whether it is about growth and turnover, attracting the
best workforce, or gaining political influence. For the
very same reason, the symbolic capital plays a central
role, on a par with financial capital, human capital and
social capital.
New concepts
The past decade has seen a considerable growth in the
literature on corporate reputation. New concepts have
been introduced in an attempt to improve our under-
standing of the symbolic capital of private and public
organisations. Many of these concepts, including the
concepts of status, stigma and reputation commons,
are presented in The Oxford Handbook of Corporate
Reputation (Barnett and Pollock 2012).
Status is a concept that is related to but distinct
from reputation. While reputation is economically
determined, status is socially and culturally deter-
mined. It represents an organisations position in a
23/03/2017 13:04
 216 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts

hierarchical order and is generated by relations and

affiliations to other actors. What is important is not
what you do, but who you do it with (Barron and
Rolfe 2012). Organisations that are viewed as high
status will have an advantage over organisations
that are viewed as low status. However, high-status
organisations are also more conspicuous in the eyes
of the stakeholders, and the stakeholders have higher
expectations of these organisations. This often means
that deviations from the core market identity will be
punished more severely (cf. the Volkswagen Dieselgate
scandal in 2015).
Stigma is another concept that is related to but
distinct from (bad) reputation. While reputation will
always be multi-dimensional (cf. the multiple stake-
holders who try to make sense of the communication
and behaviour of the organisation in which they have
a stake), stigma is one-dimensional, as it reflects that
an organisation possesses a fundamental, deep-seated
Picture 11.1 Lance Armstrong racing Marco Pantani in the
flaw (Devers et al. 2009: 157). The concept of stigma
Tour de France. Many things make up a corporate identity,
is derived from the sociology of deviance and can help
just like a personal identity. Think about famous people as
us explain why certain companies and industries have well as brands and what makes up their identity: how they
difficulties in creating a favourable reputation (cf. the look, how they perform and how they behave.
tobacco industry).
The concept of reputation commons is an attempt to
understand the interdependent dimension of corporate Corporate identity
reputation (King et al. 2002). This can be a situation
in which the reputation of a number of different com- The third key concept is the concept of identity (from
panies, typically in an industry, is tarnished as a whole Latin idem, same) referring to what an organisation
due to the actions of a single firm within the group. It is, and what it stands for. It is a complex concept a
therefore refers to the fact that a companys reputa- so-called macro-concept covering different under-
tion is tied to the reputation of other companies and standings and developments of what the identity of an
that reputation may be a common resource shared by organisation is.
all members of an industry. The company you keep According to Hatch and Schultz (2000), the concept
affects the company you keep (Barnett and Hoffman of identity within management, organisation and com-
2008). Like natural resources, the reputation commons munication studies has emerged simultaneously, but
of an industry can be over-exploited along different paths.
First, the concept of corporate identity was coined
within a research tradition, which is rooted in market-
ing management (brand management). The concept
Think about 11.2 refers to how an organisation expresses and differenti-
ates itself in relation to its external stakeholders. Cees
Favourable and not so van Riel defines corporate identity in the following way:

favourable reputations Corporate identity is the self-presentation of an

Think of persons and organisations that have either a
very good or a very bad reputation. It may be a pri-
vate company or a public organisation. It may be a
political party or an NGO. It may be a football player
or a golfer. Try to explain why. What kind of factors
have an impact on the reputation of persons and
organisations?
ferent approaches to corporate identity (Balmer 1995).
organisation; it consists in the cues which an organ-
isation offers about itself via the behaviour, com-
munication, and symbolism which are its forms of
expression.
(van Riel 1995: 36).
Scholars often make a distinction between two dif-

M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 216 23/03/2017 13:04


The first approach is the visual school of identity,
emphasising the visual or tangible manifestations of
what an organisation is, and what it stands for (such as
the name, logo, architecture or design of the organisa-
tion, e.g. Apple and Coca Cola). Today, many organ-
isations also include, for example, sound (sound logo,
jingle, brand music and brand theme e.g. Nokia and
Intel) as an integrated part of their corporate identity
mix. The second approach is the strategic school of
identity, focusing on the ideas behind the organisation
including its mission and vision statements, philosophy
and values. From this perspective, corporate identity is
viewed as part of a planned process linking the strategy
of the organisation with its image or reputation (see
the Reputation management and corporate branding
section of this chapter).
Second, the concept of organisational identity was
established within a research tradition, which is rooted
in organisation studies. The concept refers to how the
members of an organisation perceive and understand
who we are and what we stand for. Many interpre-
tations of organisational identity are based on a ver-
sion of social identity theory examining how people
Box 11.1
Managing the multiple
identities of an
organisation
An organisation has not only one, but multiple identities.
Balmer and Greyser (2003) have established a model or
framework, the AC3ID test, allowing us to identify and to
manage the various identities of an organisation. Accord-
ing to this model, it is possible to identify no less than six
different types of identities:
A: Actual identity = What we really are (ownership,
organisational structure, type of product, markets,
business performance, etc.)
C: Communicated identity = Who we say we are
(part of corporate branding)
C: Conceived identity = Who people think we are
(corporate image and reputation))
C: Covenanted identity = What we promise to be
I: Ideal identity = Who we should be (the optimum
positioning of the organisation in its market in a given
frame time
M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 217
Chapter 11Corporate image, reputation and identity 217
identify themselves by referring to the social group to
which they (do not) belong (Jenkins 2008). Contrary
to the concept of corporate identity, which applies an
organisation-external perspective, the concept of organ-
isational identity applies an organisation-internal per-
spective (all the members of the organisation). In this
sense, there is affinity to the concept of organisational
culture. Albert and Whetten (1985) define organisa-
tional identity as a particular kind of question.
The question, What kind of organization is this?
refers to the features that are arguably core, distinc-
tive and enduring and reveal the identity of the
organization.
(Albert and Whetten 1985: 292)
Also, here, scholars often make a distinction
between two different approaches to organisational
identity (Whetten 1997). The first approach highlights
the employees identification with the organisation.
To what extent do employees define themselves by
the same attributes that they believe define the organ-
isation? To what extent is there congruence between
Figure 11.1 The AC3ID test (source: J.M.T. Balmer The
three virtues and seven deadly sins of corporate brand
management, Journal of General Management Autumn
2001 27(1):117)
D: Desired identity = Who we want to be (the vision
for the organisation as defined by the CEO or top
management)
23/03/2017 13:04
 218 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
the goals and values of the employees and the goals
and values of the organisation? To what extent do
they demonstrate a sense of belonging? The second
approach focuses on the identity of the organisation.
How do the employees of an organisation see them-
selves as an organisation? Where the aforementioned
approach is interested in the personal level, the latter
conducts analyses at the organisational level.
Some scholars, such as Hatch and Schultz (2000),
have suggested that we combine the concepts of
corporate identity and organisational identity turn-
ing them into a single concept of identity, whereas
other scholars, such as Cornelissen (2014), insist on
maintaining the difference between the two concepts.
In the concept of corporate identity, the focus is on
creating identity with the explicit purpose of differ-
entiating the organisation in relation to its external
stakeholders, whereas in the concept of organisa-
tional identity, the focus is on patterns of mean-
ing and sense-making leading to common values,
identification and belonging among members of an
organisation.
The debate on postmodernity, which started in the
1980s and which took place across many academic dis-
ciplines, has also had an impact on research conducted
within identity studies. In the modern society, some
sociologists claim, the individual saw it as an important
existential task to construct an identity and to maintain
it as a stable core throughout his or her life. However,
in the postmodern society, nobody any longer believes
that identity has such an essence. An identity is and
will always remain a social construction, that is, a pre-
liminary product of the social and cultural contexts in
which we live and interact with other people over time.
In such a society, the task of the individual is to avoid
fixation and to keep the options open (Bauman 1996).
This debate has recently been revitalised by the concept
of the authentic company, that is, an organisation that
is true to itself (Gilmore and Pine 2007).
Corporations, places, and offerings have actual
identities (the selves to which they must be true to
be perceived as authentic), not just articulations of
those identities (the representations that must accu-
rately reflect those selves to be perceived as authen-
tic). Theres an old saw in advertising circles:
nothing makes a bad product fail faster than good
advertising. There should be a new one in branding
circles: nothing makes a real branding effort fail
faster than a phony product. Such phoniness results
from representations detached from the reality of a
companys actual identity.
(Gilmore and Pine 2007: 129)
M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 218
Reputation management and
corporate branding
To work strategically with reputation management
involves a number of disciplines or fields of practice
such as corporate strategy, stakeholder management,
issues management and crisis management. However,
corporate branding constitutes one of the cornerstones
if an organisation wants to strengthen its reputation
among its internal and/or external stakeholders.
Branding is a universal phenomenon. All human
beings are able to create mental pictures of themselves
and the phenomena that they meet in the outside world.
What we call branding today is the strategic and goal-
oriented exploitation of this human ability, in order to
build up relationships between people and the products
of a company or the company itself. Corporate brand-
ing can be defined as: The process of creating, nurtur-
ing, and sustaining a mutually rewarding relationship
between a company, its employees and external stake-
holders (Schultz in Schultz et al. 2005: 48).
As it appears from Box11.2, corporate branding has
undergone a rapid development since its appearance in the
1990s. It has moved from the first wave, where the empha-
sis was on a short-term, marketing-oriented and campaign-
driven approach with a main focus on visual identity, to
the second wave and very recently even to a third wave.
Today, corporate branding is viewed as a strategic asset
of increasing importance for the entire organisation, and
the brand is viewed as something that is constantly being
co-created in dynamic interaction between stakeholders,
their networks and the organisation.
According to Hatch and Schultz (2008), the second
wave of corporate branding emerges in the first decade of
2000. At this moment corporate branding has developed
into a discipline with a more strategic and long-term way
of thinking about the corporate brand. It is no longer
just anchored in the department of marketing or public
relations, but is embedded in a long series of functions
and disciplines across the organisation with a focus on
the interaction between the vision of management, the
organisational culture and the images of the stakeholders.
However, in 2008 Hatch and Schultz start talking
about the rise of a third wave of corporate branding.
Even though there is a certain accordance between
the understanding of the second and the third wave
of corporate branding, they want to emphasise that
a paradigm shift has occurred when it comes to the
new stakeholder focus. There has been a shift from
primarily thinking separately and with a few stake-
holder groups, such as customers or employees, to
having a broader stakeholder perspective and thinking
23/03/2017 13:04

Case study 11.1
Re-branding Carlsberg
Perched on Valby hill in Copenhagen, the Carlsberg
brewery was founded in 1847 by J.C. Jacobsen, a young
man interested in natural science, industrial innovation
and high-quality yeast. In 1882, J.C. Jacobsen carved his
now famous golden words into the stonework of the
original Carlsberg Brewery: In working the brewery it
should be a constant purpose, regardless of immediate
gain, to develop the art of making beer to the greatest
possible degree of perfection so that this brewery as
well as its products may ever stand out as a model, and
through their example, assist in keeping beer brewing in
this country at a high and honourable level.
J.C. Jacobsens golden words were brought to live
again 134 years later in 2016 when Carlsberg s new
CEO started implementing an ambitious and aggressive
growth strategy. In 1999, Carlsberg was still primarily a
regional brewer in Scandinavia and the UK. However,
only a few years later Carlsberg saw itself as the market
leader in Northern Europe and parts of Eastern Europe
and Asia. In 2008, Carlsberg acquired Scottish & New-
castle, the biggest acquisition ever made in Denmark.
Today, Carlsberg has become the Carlsberg Group the
fourth largest brewery in the world. The Group has more
than 42.000 employees, it is present in more than 140
countries, and it represents more than 500 different
product brands.
As the Carlsberg Group grew bigger new strategies were
required to manage the group and its growth. Thus, in
May 2016, Carlsbergs CEO announced a revised long-term
strategy assigned the name, SAIL22. As the name suggests,
with this strategy the group is embarking on a journey, a
Picture 11.2 How Carlsberg, a major brewing
company, is communicating its brand through
sponsorship
M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 219
Chapter 11Corporate image, reputation and identity 219
journey that will see Carlsberg transform into a business
that aims to deliver long-term, sustainable value creation.
During the second half of 2015, the top 60 leadership
team of Carlsberg worked together and identified, eval-
uated and concluded on a range of strategic options.
The engagement of the top leadership team in this pro-
cess was very important to ensure tapping into the vast
knowledge base in the company, as the new CEO did
not have a brewery background.
To guide Carlsberg on the journey, Carlsbergs top 60 man-
agement team set a compelling new ambition and funda-
mentally changed how to prioritise and operate. Carlsberg
is now focusing its efforts against a narrower and more
precisely-defined set of priorities. More importantly, the
Carlsberg Group aim to foster a greater sense of owner-
ship; rigorously follow up on the delivery of results and
drive a high-performance, team-based culture. To develop
a winning team and performance-based culture, the group
rolled out the triple A concept. This was designed to deliver
cultural transformation and in 2016, 4,500 members of the
company have been trained. The remaining 37,000 Group
employees will be trained during 2017/18
While SAIL22 strategy recognised the changes within the
global market, one important element of SAIL22 was that
it clearly said that Carlsberg would continue to operate in
its current three regions. Following the significant growth
in Carlsberg Groups Asian business 2011-2016, the
decline of the Russian beer market, and the stagnat
Western Europe, its portfolio of markets is better balanced
than earlier. The dependency of the Russian market is
declining and the Group has robust local businesses, with
strong market positions and promising portfolios of local
and international brands, in all three regions.
SAIL22 says that the Groups current markets still offer many
opportunities and that these can be realised by building on
the strong assets that the Group already has. This means
growing organically. It also recognises that the Group has a
strong portfolio of 140 brands, consisting of both local and
international brands, as well as speciality brands like Grim-
bergen, Jacobsen and Brooklyn and together this portfolio
of brands meets a broad range of consumer needs.
An important part of SAIL22 is the so-called Golden Tri-
angle, continuously aiming to strike the optimal balance
between market share, gross profit after logistics-margin
(or GPaL) and operating profit. For 2016, achieving the
balance in the Golden Triangle meant that volumes
declined organically by 2%, partly due to some deliber-
ate decisions to go out of some product areas. On the
other hand, the Group delivered a very solid GPaL mar-
gin improvement of 140 basis points, which was mainly
driven by favorable price/mix. On organic operating
profit growth, Carlsberg Group also saw a solid delivery
23/03/2017 13:04
 220 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts

case study 11.1 (continued)

of 5%. This was actually higher than anticipated at the
beginning of the year for which reason the Carlsberg
Group upgraded its guidance in November 2016. The
first upgrade for the Group since 2010.
Finally, SAIL22 recognised not only Carlsberg s many
strengths but coupled that with the rich heritage and
highlighted Carlsberg s founders mentality. Illustrat-
ing the Groups history and contribution to society, the
launch of SAIL22 coincided with the re-brew project,
commemorating the Carlsberg Research Laboratory
and Carlsberg Foundations 140 Jubilee: www.rebrew-
project.com/
The Carlsberg Research Laboratory, with its 150 employees
has excellent R&D capabilities and a strong track record.
The focus areas of the research are grains, mainly barley,
yeast, fermentation and brewing technology. The laboratory
has been crucial in the development of improved barley
strains, technology breakthroughs like proprietary
DraughtMaster one-way keg system and the successful
Somersby innovation. The in-depth local knowledge and
consumer insights in the markets where Carlsberg Group
operates provide insightful guidance for its R&D work, as
well as for our commercial priorities and will, according to
SAIL22, be used much more going forward.

Box 11.2
Corporate branding: towards the third wave
First wave (mid-1990s) Second wave (2005present) Towards the third wave
Marketing mindset Corporate mindset Enterprise mindset

Grounded in a marketing and Grounded in a strategic cross- Grounded in a strategic holistic

campaign approach (uni-functional functional approach (multi- approach (inter-functional and
and myopic) functional and fragmented) integrated)

Product-oriented, short-sighted,
tactical and narrow focus on visual
identity and aesthetics
Internally anchored understanding
of who we are and what we
standfor
Branding as a part of the continuous
adaptation and development of the
company
Long-term oriented development of
culture, vision and image based on
who we are.
Integration across disciplines.
Involvement of employees and
customers (employer brands)
The brand as the voice, not just of
the company, but of the entire
enterprise encompassing the
interests and expectations of the full
range of a companys stakeholders
To gain the perspective of the whole
enterprise and develop the
awareness of the symbolism
involved
Stakeholder capitalism: thinking in
terms of network relations

Communication: sender-oriented Communication: receiver-oriented, Communication: many voices will

transmission interaction, co-creation of brand participate in the shaping and
meaning informing of the corporate brand

The corporate brand as a sense giver The corporate brand as a facilitator The corporate brand as conversant
of relations between sense giving (as initiator of conversations)
and sense making

A linear process A dynamic process A co-creational process

Five principles: Five principles:
Know thyself Corporate branding is dynamic
Be facilitator Anticipate the future by celebrating
Lead through interaction the past
Embrace paradoxes Listen and you will speak volumes
Think dynamic Serve your customers by delighting
your employees
Think like an enterprise

Sources: Schultz et al. (2005) and Hatch and Schultz (2008)

M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 220 23/03/2017 13:04

 Chapter 11Corporate image, reputation and identity 221

in stakeholder networks. Local communities, NGOs
and politicians all contribute to the co-creation and
brand meaning of the corporate brand. For that rea-
son, reputation management is not only the duty of one
or two departments but must penetrate all functions of
an organisation in an integrated, holistic way. Thus,
reputation management is demonstrated in practice by
the tension between an organisation and its promises
and relations to its (networks of) stakeholders.
Corporate branding is a strategic management dis-
cipline with the scope to make the organisation attrac-
tive to current and potential stakeholders in order to
strengthen its image and reputation and to make its
vision come through.
Typically a corporate branding process is initiated
by doing a situational analysis to find out about the
identity, beliefs, positions, core competencies and per-
formances of an organisation. Thus, it is important
to carry out analyses of possible gaps between what
you are, what you want to be, and the way you are
perceived by your key stakeholders. If the gaps have
grown too big, you often as an organisation want to
strengthen or to change the image and reputation of
the company in relation to various key stakeholders.
The next step is to make strategic decisions. It has
to be decided what should be the branding platform
and how to live up to the new visions and goals. It
includes questions about key values, common start-
ing points (CSPs), and stories the organisation lives,
that have to be taken into account in an integrated,
holistic communications perspective. It also deals with
the choice of branding architecture. Should you go for
a monolithic structure (single all-embracing identity,
e.g. Virgin and Heinz), an endorsed structure (identity
badged with parent company name, e.g. Sony (Sony
Electronics, Sony PlayStation, etc.) or a branded iden-
tity structure (each business, unit or product has its
own name, e.g. Proctor and Gamble (Always, Ariel,
Duracell, etc.), Inditex (Zara, Massimo Dutti, etc.),
and Unilever (Becel, Lipton, etc.)?
The third step is to develop and implement the
strategic decisions. The decisions must be put into
action. Plans must be elaborated and implemented, for
instance about the brand architecture, the role of com-
munication, and the communication tactics.
However, it is not just about implementing new
strategies. It is also about a dynamic, ongoing process
during which the corporate brand is constantly negoti-
ated between an organisation and its stakeholders. This
is the reason why it is important as the fourth step to
continuously make evaluations of the development of
the brand and of the achievements of the strategic goals.

Box 11.3
The corporate branding process
Situational analysis Who are we? What are our main challenges? How are we perceived by our key
stakeholders? Any gaps?
T
Stakeholder analysis, gap analysis, market analysis, etc.
H
=> adaptation or development of new position
E
Strategic decisions Who do we want to be, and how will we become what we want to be? What are the S
C vision, the goals, and the new strategies? How do we differentiate ourselves from T
O others? A
R Branding platform (brand-architecture, CSPs, organisational stories, behaviour, K
P symbols, visual and verbal communication) E
O Organisational changes (structure, culture, etc.) H
R
Implementation How to put the decisions into action? Execution of plans (how to communicate O
A
internally and to the outside world) L
T
Planning and execution of communication strategies: goals, stakeholder groups, D
E
content, tactical organising of CSPs and key stories, choice of media, budget and E
resources R
B
S
R
Evaluation What images and what reputation do we have at the moment? What kind of
A
dynamics? New gaps? How far have we come?
N
Alignment between vision/strategy, culture/identity and images/reputation
D
Measuring our corporate/organisational identity, images and reputation as viewed
by our key stakeholders

M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 221 23/03/2017 13:04

 222 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
Box 11.4
The corporate branding
toolkit (Hatch and
Schulz 2001)
Diagnostic questions for analysing gaps
between:
Vision and culture
Does the organisation practise the values it promotes?
Does the organisations vision inspire all its
subcultures?
According to Hatch and Schultz (2001) and Schultz
et al. (2005), the ideal branding process takes its point
of departure in the corporate brand identity. It consti-
tutes the core aligning of the three strategic stars: (1)
the strategic vision, i.e. the central idea that expresses
top managements aspiration for the achievements
of the company in the future; (2) the organisational
culture, i.e. values, beliefs and basic assumptions that
reflect the heritage of the company as well as the (emo-
tional) relations of the employees to the company; and
(3) stakeholder images, i.e. views of the organisation
developed by its external stakeholders.
To be able to evaluate to what extent the three
strategic stars are aligned, Hatch and Schultz have
developed the corporate branding tool kit. By means
of three sets of diagnostic questions the organisation
can find out whether gaps have opened between the
three interfaces of: (1) vision and culture (a gap opens
when employees do not understand or support the
strategy), (2) culture and image (a gap opens when
the organisation does not live up to its promises),
and (3) vision and image (a gap opens when there
is a conflict between the vision and the views of the
stakeholders).
Measuring corporate image
and reputation
The image and reputation of private companies are
measured and evaluated on a regular basis by various
organisations. These evaluations are followed closely
by the companies themselves and by many of their
key stakeholders (first of all competitors, investors,
M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 222
Are the organisations vision and culture sufficiently
differentiated from those of its competitors?
Culture and image
What images do stakeholders associate with the
organisation?
In what ways do its employees and stakeholders
interact?
Do employees care what stakeholders think of the
organisation?
Image and vision
Who are the organisations stakeholders?
What do the stakeholders want from the organisation?
Is the organisation effectively communicating its
vision to its stakeholders?
employees and the media). It is one of the characteris-
tics of the new audit society (Power 1997) or evalu-
ation society (Dahler-Larsen 2011).
Rankings in business magazines and newspapers
such as Fortune magazines Most Admired Compa-
nies survey or the Financial Times Worlds Most
Respected Companies are among the most well-
known and respected rankings. Fortune magazine
evaluates the image and reputation of a company
based on criteria such as quality of management,
quality of products and services, innovativeness,
long-term investment value, financial soundness,
ability to attract, develop, and retain talent, and com-
munity and environmental responsibility. The Finan-
cial Times also includes criteria such as successful
change management, business leadership, and robust
and human corporate culture.
An organisation of particular interest when it
comes to measuring the images and reputations of
companies, cities and nations, is the Reputation Insti-
tute in New York. It is a private consultancy and
research firm with a global network of local offices,
which has specialised in corporate reputation manage-
ment. The work of the Reputation Institute is based
on a reputation quotient model launched as the Global
RepTrack Pulse in 2006. Not only the images and
reputations of large companies are assessed. Also the
symbolic capital of public authorities such as munici-
palities and taxation authorities, cities such as Sydney,
Melbourne, Stockholm, and Vienna (the top four of
the City Reptrak in 2015), and countries such as
Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland (the top
four of the Country RepTrak in 2015) are being
evaluated (see Explore 11.2).
23/03/2017 13:04
 Chapter 11Corporate image, reputation and identity 223

Explore 11.1 A critical point of view

The reputation of universities
Is your university or business school represented on
one or more academic ranking lists such as Times
Higher Education? If yes, on which list(s) is it repre-
sented? What are the criteria applied by the ranking
list(s) in question? How good or bad are the selected
criteria? Is it the university or business school as
a whole that is ranked, or is it a specific faculty or
department? What is the position of your university
or business school?
Who will be affected by such rankings (if anybody)?
And how?
What made you choose your university or business
school? Geographical location, recommendations made
by your parents or friends (including students who
already studied at the university or business school), or
an official university or business school ranking?
Go to the Times Higher Educations website and see
how this ranking list has been made.
Brands are pervasive and ubiquitous. We take them
for granted from pop art to McDonalds, from
Starbucks to Greenpeace, brands are the mecha-
nism that connects organizations and people.
(Kornberger 2010: 263264)
During the last two decades, the concepts of image, repu-
tation and identity have conquered the mind and soul of
many a communication executive or manager, not only
in the business world, but also in many public organ-
isations (see the introduction of this chapter). However,
the popularity of corporate communication is counter-
balanced by a growing number of critical voices com-
ing from within the academic community. One of these
voices belongs to two Danish communication research-
ers, Lars Thger Christensen and Mette Morsing, joined
by their American colleague, Georges Cheney.
Christensen et al. (2008) define corporate communi-
cation as a management ideal with wide-ranging orga-
nizational implications (Christensen et al. 2008: 168).
At the heart of their critique lies the concept of integra-
tion that is, the idea that in order for an organisation
to be effective and efficient there must be a high degree

Explore 11.2 Reputation Institute and the Global RepTrak Pulse

The Reputation Institute (RI) was founded in 1997 by

Charles J. Fombrun, Professor of Management at Stern
School of Business, New York university, and Cees B.M.
van Riel, Professor of Corporate Communication at the
Business School at erasmus university. The Reputation
Institute first of all evaluates the reputation of large
private companies based on a measuring tool for-
merly known as the Reputation Quotient model, and
which was relaunched in 2006 as the Global RepTrak
Pulse. The model is based on the assumption that the
reputation of a company is based on the emotional
attachment between a company and its stakeholders
(admiration, trust, good feeling, and general esteem).
Seven key dimensions are the drivers behind the repu-
tation of a company: products/services, innovation,
workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership and
performance. each of these key dimensions comprises
a series of attributes.

The Reputation Institute also evaluates city and country
reputations. Go to the website of the Reputation Institute
and examine how both the Global RepTrak Pulse, the
City RepTrak and the Country RepTrak are structured
and how these measurement tools are applied.
Figure 11.2 The RepTrak Pulse measures the degree
of admiration, trust, good feeling and overall esteem
that stakeholders hold about organisations (see http://
www.reputationinstitute.com/thought-leadership.
the-reptrak-system)

M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 223 23/03/2017 13:04

 224 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
of coherence between the strategic vision of the organ-
isation, its culture, its internal and external communi-
cation activities, and its image and reputation among
external stakeholders.
One of the organisational implications of applying
an integrated perspective in practice, according to the
three scholars, is that this approach easily transforms
the organisation into a tightly coupled system, that
is, a system where input and output are closely con-
nected, and where even the slightest change in principle
will prompt a response (action) in all parts of the sys-
tem. To put it differently, in such a system integrated
corporate branding will be enforced as a global solu-
tion turning all the members of the organisation (top
management, employees) into the same type of brand
evangelists (Ind 2001).
The idea may seem very promising, especially if you
adopt a traditional leadership style based on control
and predictability. However, Christensen et al. (2008)
claim an integrated perspective will also make the
Summary
This chapter has sought to show how the field of cor-
porate communication and the concepts of corporate
image, reputation and identity have become important in
a society obsessed by brands and the idea of a symbolic
capital. Image is the global evaluation (comprising a set
of beliefs, ideas, feelings and impressions) that a person
has about a product and/or an organisation. Compared
Bibliography
Aaker, D. and J.C. Meyers (1982). Advertising Manage-
ment. New Dehli: Prentice Hall.
Albert, S. and D.A. Whetten (1985). Organiza-
tional identity, in L.L. Cummings and M.M. Staw
(eds). Research in Organizational Behavior Vol. 7
(pp. 26395). Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press.
Alvesson, M. (1990). Organization: from substance to
image?, Organization Studies 11(3): 37394.
Balmer, J.M.T. (1995). Corporate branding and con-
noisseurship, Journal of Grand Management 21(1):
2246.
Balmer, J.M.T. and S.A. Greyser (eds) (2003). Revealing
the Corporation: Perspectives on identity, image,
reputation, corporate branding, and corporate-level
marketing. London: Routledge.
M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 224
organisation vulnerable. Today, both private and pub-
lic organisations are faced with many expectations and
demands from their stakeholders. At the same time,
organisations are operating in socio-cultural contexts,
which have become much more complex and dynamic
due to globalisation and new information and commu-
nication technologies. They have to demonstrate stra-
tegic readiness, they have to prepare for change.
Flexibility is the solution to this new situation. But
how flexible is an organisation whose communication
activities are based on the idea of integration? If we
return to the Carlsberg case: how, on the one hand,
can the Carlsberg Group integrate the local (national)
brand heritage of the Danish brewery with all the new
brands and, on the other, be flexible enough to be able
to meet the expectations and demands from both inter-
nal and external stakeholders working and living in
more than 150 different markets, cultures and societies
all over the world? See also Frandsen and Johansen
(2014) for a criticism of the criticism.
to image, reputation is a time-based and value-based
construct. It is built up over time and based on the rela-
tionship between the organisation and its multiple stake-
holders. Identity refers to who an organisation is, and
what it stands for. An organisation very often has multiple
identities and images. In a complex, dynamic, and ever
changing society, organisations have to balance the need
for both integration (global control) and flexibility (local
responsiveness).
Barnett, M.L. and A. Hoffman (2008). Beyond corporate
reputation: Managing reputational interdependence,
Corporate Reputation Review 11(1): 19.
Barnett, M.L. and T.G. Pollock (eds) (2012). The Oxford
Handbook of Corporate Reputation. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Barron, D.N. and M. Rolfe (2012). It aint what you
do. Its who you do it with: Distinguishing reputa-
tion and status, in M.L. Barnett and T.G. Pollock
(eds). The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Repu-
tation (pp. 16078). Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Bauman, Z. (1996). From pilgrim to tourist or a short
history of identity, in S. Hall and P. du Gay (eds).
Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage.
Bernays, E.L. (1977). Down with image, up with reality,
Public Relations Quarterly 22(1): 1214.
23/03/2017 13:04

Christensen, L.T. and G. Cheney (2000). Self-absorption
and self-seduction in the corporate identity game, in
M. Schultz, M.J. Hatch and M. Holten Larsen (eds).
The Expressive Organization: Linking Identity, Rep-
utation, and the Corporate Brand. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Christensen, L.T., M. Morsing and G. Cheney (2008).
Corporate Communications: Convention, complex-
ity, and critique. Los Angeles: Sage.
Coombs, W.T. (2015). Ongoing Crisis Communication:
Planning, managing, and responding, 4th edition. Los
Angeles: Sage.
Cornelissen, J. (2014). Corporate Communication: A
guide to theory and practice, 4th edition. London:
Sage.
Dahler-Larsen, P. (2011). The Evaluation Society. Stan-
ford: Stanford University Press.
Devers, C.E., T. Dewett, Y. Mishina and C.A. Belsito
(2009). A general theory of organizational stigma,
Organization Science 20(1): 15471.
Dowling, G. (1986). Managing your corporate image,
Industrial Marketing Management 15: 10915.
Dowling, G. (2001). Creating Corporate Reputations:
Identity, image and performance. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Fombrun, C.J. (1996). Reputation: Realizing value from
the corporate image. Boston, MA: Harvard Business
School Press.
Frandsen, F. and W. Johansen (2014). Corporate com-
munication, in V. Bhatia and S. Bremmer (eds). The
Routledge Handbook of Language and Professional
Communication. London: Routledge.
Gilmore, J.H. and B.J. Pine II (2007). Authenticity: What
consumers really want. Boston: Harvard Business
School Press.
Grunig, J.E. (1993). Image and substance: From symbolic
to behavioral relationships, Public Relations Review
19(2): 12139.
Grunig, J.E. (2006). After 50 years: The value and values
of public relations. The Institute for Public Relations
45th Annual Distinguished Lecture. The Yale Club,
New York. 9 November 2006.
Hatch, M.J. and M. Schultz (2000). Scaling the Tower
of Babel: Relational differences between identity,
image, and culture in organizations, in M. Schultz,
M.J. Hatch and M. Holten Larsen (eds). The Expres-
sive Organization: Linking Identity, Reputation,
and the Corporate Brand. Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press.
M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 225
Chapter 11Corporate image, reputation and identity 225
Hatch, M.J. and M. Schultz (2001). Are the strategic stars
aligned for your corporate brand? Harvard Business
Review. February 2001.
Hatch, M.J. and M. Schultz (2008). Taking Brand Initia-
tive. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ind, N. (2001). Living the Brand: How to transform every
member of your organization into a brand champion.
London: Kogan Page.
Jenkins, R. (2008). Social Identity. Oxon: Routledge.
King, A.A., M.J. Lenox, and M.L. Barnet (2002). Strate-
gic responses to the reputation commons problem, in
A. Hoffman and M.J. Ventresca (eds). Organizations,
Policy, and the Natural Environment: Institutional
and Strategic Perspectives (pp. 393406). Palo Alto:
Stanford University Press.
Kornberger, M. (2010). Brand Society: How brands trans-
form management and lifestyle. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Larkin, J. (2003). Strategic Reputation Risk Management.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ledingham, J.A. (2005). Relationship management the-
ory, in R.L. Heath (ed.). Encyclopedia of Public Rela-
tions Vol. 2. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Power, M. (1997). The Audit Society: Rituals of verifica-
tion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Schultz, M., M.J. Hatch and M. Holten Larsen (2000).
Introduction: Why the expressive organization?, in
M. Schultz, M.J. Hatch and M. Holten Larsen (eds).
The Expressive Organization: Linking identity, rep-
utation, and the corporate brand. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Schultz, M. (2005). A cross-disciplinary perspective on
corporate branding, in M. Schultz, Y.M. Antorini
and F.F. Csaba (eds) Corporate Branding: Purpose,
People, Process. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business
School Press.
Schultz, M., Y.M. Antorini and F.F. Csaba (eds) (2005).
Corporate Branding: Purpose, people, process. Copen-
hagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.
van Riel, C.B.M. (1995). Principles of Corporate Com-
munication. London: Prentice Hall.
Wan, H.-H. and R. Schell (2007). Reassessing corporate
image: An examination of how image bridges sym-
bolic relationships with behavioral relationships.
Journal of Public Relations Research 19(1): 2545.
Whetten, D.A. (1997). Theory development and the
study of corporate reputation. Corporate Reputation
Review 1(1): 2634.
23/03/2017 13:04
 226 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts

Websites
Carlsberg Breweries: www.carlsberg.com
Financial Times: www.ft.com
Fortune: www.money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune
Reputation Institute: www.reputationinstitute.com
Times Higher Education: www.timeshighereducation.co.uk

M11 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 226 23/03/2017 13:04

 Chapter 12Public relations, propaganda and the psychology of persuasion 227

ch ap t er 12 Johanna Fawkes

Public relations, propaganda and the

psychology of persuasion

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
describe and evaluate the components of propaganda and persuasive communication
describe and distinguish between attitudes and their effect on behaviour
describe and evaluate theories of attitude learning and change
apply these concepts to a communication campaign.

Structure
Public relations and propaganda
Public relations and persuasion
Who says: the question of credibility
Says what: the nature of the message
To whom: the audience perspective
To what effect: forming and changing attitudes and beliefs

M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 227 23/03/2017 13:07

 228 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS

Introduction
In November 2011 YouGov research
suggested that over 60 per cent thought
public relations (PR) agencies were not
to be trusted (prmoment.com/809).
In May 2016, two Guardian newspa-
per reports illustrated the propaganda
we do and do not usually recog-
nise.The first (Shearlaw 2016) reported
on theNorth Korean Party Congress and
the state management of visiting jour-
nalists: she points out that as all report-
ers are accompanied by minders, their
interviews can only be with approved
Koreans. This is a classic case of state
controlled information, from which only
positive news may emerge. It is what
most people associate with the word
propaganda, especially coming from a
communist regime. The second (Cobain
et al. 2016) is harder to recognise
because (a) it was kept secret and (b) it
was done by a modern Western govern-
ment. This report describes how a 2012
film was financed by the UK government
counter-terrorism unit with the aim of
establishing that, because many Muslim
athletes were participating in the 2012
London Olympics, the games should not
be seen as a legitimate target. The film
which does not declare this funding
source was broadcast to an estimated
1 million Muslims in the UK and 30 mil-
lion worldwide. The journalists compil-
ing the documentary were also unaware
of government involvement, according
to the article.
So both stories show how media
reporting can be influenced by govern-
ment behaviours, whether from commu-
nist or capitalist authorities.
Examples like this help explain
why journalists are often suspicious
of attempts to persuade them to one
point of view or another. As this chap-
ter illustrates, there are many instances
where organisations have hidden their
involvement in persuasive campaigns.
This contributes to the climate in which
journalists often see public relations as
just propaganda, an accusation that PR
practitioners and some academics
treat as outrageous. Students and those
wishing to practise responsible public
relations may prefer a more rigorous
response, based on examination of the
issues rather than simple rejection of all
charges. This chapter examines the con-
nections between propaganda and pub-
lic relations, particularly in their shared
history. This is then linked to persuasion
and the processes involved in trying to
persuade others. It uses a simple com-
munication model to describe the stages
of persuasion in some detail, drawing
on theories from social psychology to
understand concepts such as attitudes
and their effect on behaviour. The per-
spective is largely that of the public rela-
tions practitioner seeking to influence
others. Examples are given from the his-
tory of public relations and from recent
world events.

Public relations and
propaganda
See Think about12.1. Critics of public relations say
that much of PR is propaganda; its practitioners insist
public relations is only practised for the public good.
Both agree that propaganda is harmful; the latter deny
it has anything to do with them. These views are very
simplistic and have a strong either/or, good/bad
approach to the subject. One group assumes all public
relations is propaganda, the other that none is. It is
also much easier to accuse others of propaganda than
to examine ones own practices you do propaganda,

Think about 12.1 Are these examples of propaganda or public

relations?
In September 2011, a US PR company set up a fake
news website and posted positive articles about cli-
ents, written by fake journalists (prdaily/10021).
The British Medical Journal reported (September 2011)
that the majority of UK schools were receiving free
teaching aids to help children understand and think
critically about advertising. This material is produced
by an organisation, Media Smart, set up by leading
advertisers of childrens products (Cookson 2011).
The UK the Guardian newspaper reported that the
Taliban in Afghanistan had started using Twitter to
keep in touch with their followers (Boone 2011).
The Afghani Taliban has launched an app to provide
media content to followers (Samadi 2016).
Campaign group Breast Cancer Action has com-
plained about pinkwashing, where companies asso-
ciate themselves with such health campaigns for
PR purposes but actually contribute very little. For
example: BMW and Ford both ran car promotions
with fight cancer themes; and Rimmel sold a lipstick
with the strapline Pucker up and kiss breast cancer
goodbye (Landman 2008).

M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 228 23/03/2017 13:07

 Chapter 12Public relations, propaganda and the psychology of persuasion
I do public relations. The realities are more complex
and take some unravelling. Lets start with trying to
explain the differences.
The word propaganda has its origins in the
seventeenth-century Catholic Church, where it meant
to propagate the faith. It played a major part in recruit-
ing support for the First World War, when the key Com-
mittee on Public Information (CPI) was established in
the USA. (See Box12.1 for the impact this committee
had on the development of public relations in the UK
and USA.) LEtang (2004) notes that propaganda was
Box 12.1
Public relations a little
history
Edward Bernays (18911995) is widely described as the
father of public relations, and his life and career sheds
some interesting light on current dilemmas regarding
public relations, persuasion and propaganda.
Born in Vienna, Bernays was the nephew of the pio-
neering psychologist Sigmund Freud. He developed the
notion of applying his uncles theories of mass psychology
to the practice of corporate and political persuasion. He
started the first educational course in the subject at New
York University in the 1920s and introduced the term
public relations counsel in his 1923 book, Crystallizing
Public Opinion, which was the first text on the subject.
His next book was called Propaganda (1928) because
he believed that public relations was about engineering
social responses to organisational needs (he also wrote
The Engineering of Consent, 1955). His influence on the
twentieth century is described in a fascinating BBC docu-
mentary, The Century of the Self (Curtis 2002), which looks
at the impact of persuasion techniques and psychology
on commercial and political communication throughout
the twentieth century.
In the 1920s, when the American Tobacco Company
asked for his help in promoting cigarette smoking among
women, Bernays persuaded a group of young womens
rights campaigners to light cigarettes on the New York
Easter Parade as Torches of Freedom (a slogan that he
ensured was the caption to all the media photographs
of the event), thus combining the image of the cigarette
with womens independence a powerful image that
affected consumer behaviour for the rest of the twen-
tieth century (Wilcox et al. 2003). He had learned some
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 229
229
a neutral term at the start of the twentieth century,
when theorists such as Bernays (1923), Lippman (1925)
and Lasswell (1934) saw no problem with trying to
organise the responses of mass audiences. Indeed, they
saw it as democratic leadership in Lippmans phrase,
and Bernays, sometimes called the father of public
relations, called his second book Propaganda (1928).
Bernays opens Propaganda (1928/2005: 38) with the
sentence: The conscious and intelligent manipulation
of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an
important element in democratic society. According to
of these techniques during the First World War when he
served on the US Committee on Public Information (CPI).
The CPI included many of the leading public relations
practitioners in the post-war period. As Bernays said in
Propaganda (1928): It was, of course, the astounding
success of propaganda during the war that opened the
eyes of the intelligent few in all departments of life to
the possibilities of regimenting the public mind. It was
only natural, after the war ended, that intelligent per-
sons should ask themselves whether it was not possible
to apply a similar technique to the problems of peace.
(Cited in Delwiche 2002).
More information about Bernays and his contemporaries
can be found at www.prmuseum.com/bernays. There is
an interesting account of Stuart Ewens interview with the
90-year-old Bernays (Ewen 1996), which also has a web-
site at www.bway.net/~drstu/chapter.
The history of UK public relations also demonstrates its
origins in propaganda. Unlike the growth of the field in
the USA, European public relations is rooted in public
service information traditions, with the emphasis on local
and central government supply of information (LEtang
2004). This was also the source of persuasion campaigns,
such as the 1924 campaign (including films and posters)
to promote the British Empire to the rest of the world, led
by Sir Stephen Tallents who went on to found the Insti-
tute of Public Relations (IPR) in 1948. He also wrote The
Projection of England (1932), which was influential in per-
suading British policy makers of the benefits of a cultural
propaganda policy (LEtang 2004). Tallents was active in
producing propaganda for both world wars, as were the
founders of several major public relations companies in
the interwar period, many of which survive to this day. A
more negative response came from George Orwell, who
resigned from the BBC sickened by the propaganda he
had had to do (Ewen 1996) and proceeded to write Nine-
teen Eighty-Four (published in 1949) as a response to the
experience (LEtang 2004).
23/03/2017 13:07
 230 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
Weaver et al. (2006: 9), the real value of propaganda
lies not in its dissemination and promotion of ideas, but
in its ability to orchestrate public opinion and social
action that supported the ruling elite.
Grunig and Hunt (1984: 21) locate propaganda in
the press agentry model, the first of their four m
odels:
Public relations serves a propaganda function in the
press agentry/publicity model. Practitioners spread
the faith of the organisation involved, often through
incomplete, distorted, or half-true information. This
links (some) PR activity to propaganda, but later
makes clear this is often unethical in content and tends
to associate it with historical examples.
Propaganda was not seen as a pejorative (negative or
disparaging) concept until after the Second World War.
When everyone saw the power of Nazi propaganda,
especially their use of film, to promote anti-Semitism
and the horrific consequences of that message, it is
hardly surprising that communicators distanced them-
selves from the concept of propaganda. Nevertheless,
propaganda is part of our everyday lives, not just
something from history. As Pratkanis and Aronson
(2001: 7) point out: Every day we are bombarded
with one persuasive communication after another.
These appeals persuade not through the give-and-take
of argument and debate, but through the manipulation
of symbols and of our most basic human emotions. For
better or worse, ours is an age of propaganda.
Many scholars who study propaganda concentrate
on its wartime application. However, there are increas-
ing numbers of academics, journalists and campaign-
ers who are examining the role of public relations in
civil and corporate propaganda. There are websites
dedicated to monitoring public relations activity,
such as the US-based Center for Media and Democ-
racy (www.prwatch.org), which contains extremely
interesting and disturbing examples of unethical
corporate public relations, and the UK-based www.
ethicalconsumer.org/, which is particularly concerned
with environmental aspects of corporate behaviour.
The most interesting and sometimes challenging
site for public relations students is probably the UK-
based Spinwatch (www.spinwatch.org.uk), which
describes itself as: An independent organisation set
up to monitor the PR and lobbying industry in the
UK and Europe and the spin and lobbying activities
of corporations. Some of its contributors have also
written books, such as Miller and Dinans A Century
of Spin: How public relations became the cutting edge
of corporate power (2008), which outlines the histori-
cal and contemporary involvement of public relations
companies in both wartime and current corporate
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 230
Explore 12.1
Defining different forms of practice
Look at the definitions in Table 12.1. How easy is it to
put them in the right column? Try and come up with a
definition for propaganda, persuasion and public rela-
tions that makes the differences clear.
messages and activities, which they describe as pro-
paganda. See Explore12.1.
Defining propaganda
Much academic attention has focused on the role of
propaganda during wartime. Jowett and ODonnell
(1992), with backgrounds in communications and rhet-
oric, categorise propaganda as either black (use of false
information and sources), white (selected to advance
the communicators interests) or grey (distorting rather
than inventing situations). They use wartime examples
to illustrate their points and do not discuss the role of
public relations then or now, although, as Table12.1
demonstrates, their definition encompasses a great deal
of modern practice. In contrast, Taylor (2001, 2003),
a historian and communications academic, suggests
that propaganda is a practical process of persuasion,
neither good nor bad, and that the issue of intent is
important not just who says what to whom, but why.
The removal of value judgements from the communica-
tion act is useful and allows a much cooler appraisal of
the place of propaganda in the post 9/11 world. This
seems a useful insight to bring to the debate between
those who claim PR is propagandist and those who
seek to create a more ethical practice.
The political economy approach developed by Her-
man and Chomsky (1988) and Chomsky (2002) pro-
poses a model in which propaganda is not neutral but
designed to give the appearance of a free press while
actually producing messages that favour the views of
government and business above other voices. The role
of public relations in shaping political, military and
corporate communications, not just publicity, is seen as
propagandist, an argument repeatedly made by public
relations greatest critics, Stauber and Rampton (2004)
in the US and Miller and Dinan (2008) in the UK. They
particularly highlight the distortions to the democratic
process caused by PR firms fake grass roots campaigns
(astroturfing), or planting questions in press conferences
23/03/2017 13:07
 Chapter 12Public relations, propaganda and the psychology of persuasion 231

Propaganda Persuasion Public relations

The deliberate and systematic attempt
to shape perceptions, manipulate
cognitions and direct behaviour to
achieve a response that furthers the
desired intent of the propagandist
Jowett and ODonnell 1992: 4
A successful intentional effort
at influencing anothers mental
state through communication in a
circumstance in which the persuadee
has some measure of freedom OKeefe
2002: 5
The planned and sustained effort
to establish and maintain goodwill
and understanding between an
organisation and its publics UK Institute
of Public Relations (IPR) 1987; Fawkes
2006

A propaganda model...traces the
routes by which money and power
are able to filter out the news fit to
print, marginalise dissent and allow
the government and dominant private
interests to get their messages across to
the public Herman and Chomsky 1988: 2
A symbolic process in which
communicators try to convince other
people to change their attitudes or
behavior regarding an issue through
the transmission of a message, in an
atmosphere of free choice Perloff
2012: 8
The art and social science of analysing
trends, predicting their consequences,
counselling organisation leaders and
implementing planned programmes
of action which will serve both the
organisations and the public interest
Mexican statement, Wilcox et al. 2003: 6

Public relations serves a propaganda
function in the press agent/publicity
model. Practitioners spread the faith of
the organisation involved, often through
incomplete, distorted or half-true
information Grunig and Hunt 1984: 21
Ethos (the credibility or charisma of
the speaker) + logos (the nature of the
message) + pathos (the response of
the audience) Aristotle
...the planned persuasion to change
adverse public opinion or reinforce
public opinion and the evaluation of
results for future use Peake 1980, cited
in Grunig and Hunt 1984: 7

A practical process of persuasion . . . it is Because both persuader and The discipline concerned with the
an inherently neutral concept . . . We persuadee stand to have their needs reputation of organisations (or
should discard any notions of fulfilled, persuasion is regarded products, services or individuals) with
propaganda being good or bad, and as more mutually satisfying than the aim of earning understanding and
use those terms merely to describe propaganda Jowett and ODonnell support CIPR 2004; Fawkes 2006
effective or ineffective propaganda 1992: 21
Taylor 2003: 8-11

Situations where attempts are made to ...the process of attempting to exert

modify [attitudes and/or] behavior by
symbolic transactions (messages) that are
sometimes, but not always, linked with
coercive force (indirectly coercive) and
that appeal to the reason and emotions
of the intended persuadee(s) Miller 1989
symbolic control over the evaluative
predispositions (attitudes, images
etc.) and subsequent behaviours of
relevant publics or clienteles Miller,
1989: 47

Table 12.1 Comparison of definitions (source : Fawkes 2006)

by PR people masquerading as journalists. However,

they provide little insight into what might constitute
legitimate public relations, and they tend to conflate
corporate business interests with communication with-
out considering the promotional activities of voluntary,
charity or trade union groups, for example.
More useful discussions of the relationship between
public relations and propaganda can be found in the
work of PR scholars such as Moloney (2006), Fawkes
and Moloney (2008) Senne and Moore (2014), R diger
(2014) and Weaver et al. (2006), who explore the con-
nections between these topics in the past and present
practice of the field. Most find the issue of persuasion
lies at the heart of this debate.
Public relations and
persuasion
As already stated, early public relations theorists had
no problem with acknowledging the centrality of per-
suasion to public relations; indeed, Bernays considered
public relations to be about engineering public con-
sent. However, more recent public relations theory
has tended to move away from this aspect of com-
munication and concentrate on the more acceptable
images of negotiation and adaptation. Very few public
relations textbooks really explore persuasion. This is
largely because the Grunig and Hunt (1984) models

M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 231 23/03/2017 13:07

 232 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
Picture 12.1 James Montgomery Flaggs memorable
recruiting poster (produced under the direction of the
Division of Pictorial Publicity of the Committee on Public
Information) was successful in stimulating American public
opinion in favour of US involvement in the European
conflict during the Second World War (source: LLC/Corbis)
stress the positive aspects of excellent public relations
and relegate persuasion to second best, the two-way
asymmetric model (see Chapter8 for details of systems
theory and Grunigs approach). Moloney (2006) notes
that they treat persuasion as an inferior or less ethical
activity than negotiation or compromise, but argues
that one often involves the other.
Grunig (2001) has accepted that the two-way asym-
metric model describes the majority of PR communica-
tion. He also recognises that persuasion is relevant to
symmetrical public relations as long as it includes
the public persuading the organisation to change its
attitudes and behaviour and not just vice versa. The
emphasis in his approach is still on encouraging excel-
lence and symmetry rather than exploring persuasion
in more depth. But, as Jaksa and Pritchard (1994: 128)
argue, it cannot be seriously maintained that all per-
suasion is bad or undesirable.
Pfau and Wan (2006) suggest that public relations
has problems with the concept of persuasion because
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 232
it confuses means and ends: the Grunig approach men-
tioned earlier concentrates on means, or processes
whether they are symmetrical or not and deems
persuasion unethical because it is asymmetrical (aview
shared by Porter 2010, see below). But, if we look at
the ends or outcomes of communication then it is clear
how prevalent persuasion is in PR activity.
Public relations is best viewed as a form of strategic
communication, in which persuasion plays an inte-
gral role...Many of the core functions of public
relations, such as community relations, media rela-
tions, crisis communication and others, manifest an
implicit if not explicit goal of cultivating or main-
taining a positive organizational image.
(Pfau and Wan 2006:102)
Rhetorical approaches to public relations (e.g. Toth
and Heath 1992; Heath 2001; Porter 2010) address
the role of persuasion in communication, drawing on
the work of Aristotle and strong links to concepts of
democracy. In this view, the communicator uses words
and symbols to influence the perceptions of others,
with varying outcomes. The roles of speaker, audience,
the choice of message and the dynamics and character-
istics of each provides the focus of study.
Curtin and Gaither (2005) look at persuasion as part
of a circuit of culture, which sees communication as
a dynamic process of constructing meaning in a social
and cultural context: The dominant normative para-
digm has removed propaganda and persuasion from the
ranks of legitimate public relations practices, but the
circuit demonstrates the need to recognize them as part
of the repertoire of legitimate practices... (p.109).
More recently, Porter (2010) has revisited the issue
of persuasion in public relations, arguing that the domi-
nance of the Grunig models and their distaste for persua-
sion has vilified one of the key aspects of modern PR
strategy: ... the ultimate outcome of public relations
efforts will always remain influencing attitudes and, ulti-
mately, behavior. Public relations professionals are paid
to advocate ideas and to influence behaviour (p. 132).
The ambiguity about persuasion is explored by
Charles Marsh (2015) through classical Greek mythol-
ogy, finding issues of contradiction and ambivalence
that date from ancient times to modern public rela-
tions, suggesting there is nothing new in these debates.
Pfau and Wan (2006) think one of the reasons PR
texts dont engage with persuasion is because they
dont have a good enough understanding of the com-
plex and challenging theories of persuasive commu-
nication that have emerged from social psychology.
So, instead of trying to convince ourselves and others
23/03/2017 13:07
 Chapter 12Public relations, propaganda and the psychology of persuasion
that public relations doesnt get involved with the dirty
business of persuasion, lets agree with those scholars
who say its central to PR and look more closely at the
psychology of persuasion.
Persuasion and psychology
Promotional campaigns, including advertising and pub-
lic relations, have made use of psychological insights
since the 1950s consumer boom. A recent example
of a psychological theory that has influenced political
and economic leaders is nudge theory, developed by
Thaler in 2008; it suggests that people are more easily
influenced by statements about what other people are
doing than by direct messages about changing their
behaviour. The most effective campaign on cutting
fuel bills, for example, simply mentioned what most
of the neighbours paid. Not surprisingly, this idea has
been embraced first by Obamas White House, then in
2010 by the policy unit at Downing Street. Govern-
ments spend millions on persuading citizens to drive
safely, eat wisely, claim benefits and so on, so a strat-
egy for improving the effectiveness of these campaigns
was bound to be welcome. Messages on issues from
hygiene in urinals to pension rights have all shown to
be more powerful using nudge theory (McSmith 2010).
Another example of how psychology can be used in
promotion is called neuromarketing, where scientists
identify which parts of the brain are stimulated by dif-
ferent tastes, sounds and images, and help manufactur-
ers test the response to their products. For example,
research (reported in The Guardian on 29 July 2004)
showed that while people liked the taste of Pepsi bet-
ter than Coca-Cola in blind tests, they preferred Coke
when they knew which brand they were drinking. Brain
scans showed that while one (rewards) section of the
brain was activated by the tasting, a different (thinking)
centre responded to the brand names, suggesting that
we call on memories and impressions associated with
a name, rather than just the direct experience.
This chapter will not be probing anyones brains,
but draws on more theoretical models of how people
make decisions and what influences them.
Propaganda, persuasion and public relations all
involve communication, although they have other
aspects, and it is worth examining the communica-
tion process to understand what is involved. Rogers
(2007: 12) offers a detailed and thorough communica-
tion model that describes the various stages of inten-
tion, selection, preparation, presentation of messages by
senders and selection, comprehension and response (or
not) of attitude and behaviour in receivers. This chap-
ter will use a much simpler, but rather old-fashioned
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 233
233
transmission model of communication, summarised
by Harold Lasswell (1948) as Who (1) says What (2)
in Which channel (3) to Whom (4), with What effect
(5). While this view of the powerful sender and the
passive receiver is rightly discredited, these elements
provide useful hooks for looking at the communi-
cation process as long as it is remembered that the
receiver is usually the key player in making sense of
the message. The second half of this chapter analyses
persuasive communication and the role of the sender
(1), the message (2) and the receiver (4) in achieving (or
failing to achieve) an effect (5). It does not analyse the
use of different media in constructing persuasive mes-
sages, as the chapter focuses more on psychology than
media relations. It draws on social psychology theo-
ries to illustrate the personality variables of sender and
receiver, the effectiveness of different message strategies
and, finally, how the elements all fit into a persuasive
campaign.
Who says: the question of
credibility
This element concerns the nature of the sender or
sender variables. Aristotle said that communication
consisted of: Ethos the character of the speaker;
Logos the nature of the message; and Pathos the
attitude of the audience. He placed most emphasis on
the speakers (orators tended to be male, then) charac-
ter: We believe good men more fully and more readily
than others...his character may almost be called the
most effective means of persuasion he possesses (cited
in Perloff 1993: 138).
Credibility has been an important but hard to define
element of persuasive communication ever since. Look
at todays newspapers and concerns about the credibil-
ity of politicians to see how relevant it is today. A great
deal of public relations activity is designed to enhance
the credibility of the organisation or individual. Many
politicians and business leaders today make credibility
their central platform for election or boardroom sup-
port trust me is their key message. However, surveys
in recent years (Arthur W.Page Society 2007, 2009;
Edelman Trust Barometer 2009) have identified the loss
of public trust in institutions as a major priority. The
2012 Edelman Trust Barometer reports The 2012 Edel-
man Trust Barometer sees an unprecedented nine-point
global decline in trust in government. In twelve coun-
tries, it trails business, media, and non-governmental
organizations as the least trusted institution. This has
pushed more countries into the distruster category
23/03/2017 13:07
 234 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
(Edelman 2012). More recently (Burne 2016) the Trust
Barometer showed a rise in confidence in business and
media but only from the wealthier sections of society,
suggesting a glowing polarity in attitudes between those
with and without money.
Many scholars in the USA in the 1950s, especially
at Yale and Harvard, concentrated on attributes of
speakers how attractive are they, how expert, how
similar/dissimilar to audiences to try and measure
credibility. But later scholars, such as McCroskey
(1966), said that credibility is the attitude toward a
speaker held by a listener. In other words, it is some-
thing that is given by the audience and cannot be
demanded by the speaker. Another fascinating discovery
from the Yale school was the sleeper effect (Hovland et
al. 1953), which showed that however much effort was
put into providing a credible source, when audiences
were tested several weeks after exposure to the message,
they remembered the message but forgot the source!
Perloff (1993) summarises the four key elements by
which audiences evaluate speakers as:
1. expertise how competent the speaker is on this
issue;
2. trustworthiness this includes confidence and like-
ability;
3. similarity credible speakers should be like the
receiver (homophily), unless the subject concerns
different experiences or expertise, in which case
they should be dissimilar (heterophily);
4. physical attractiveness people tend to trust
attractive speakers which may reflect the social
value attached to appearance, as in celebrity public
relations, unless the speaker is so attractive that
their looks distract from the message (adapted
from Perloff 1993).
Other theorists (Raven 1983) added power to the
list, saying that the kind of authority the speaker has
over the listener can influence the persuasion process.
Bettinghaus and Cody (1994: 123145) summarise
Ravens types of power as:
informational influence access to restricted infor-
mation gives authority to a speaker;
referent influence membership of key social
groups can confer power;
expert influence knowledge of the field;
legitimate influence authorised by law or other
agreement (e.g. traffic warden, safety officer);
reward/coercive influence are there rewards for
being persuaded, or punishments for resisting?
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 234
The role of power in persuasion is also important
to critical approaches to public relations theory (see
Chapter8 for details). Explore12.2 illustrates the sorts
of decision public relations practitioners need to make
that require knowledge or insight into credibility.
Says what: the nature of the
message
This element of persuasion looks at which kinds of
messages are most convincing, and the ways in which
messages are absorbed and used by people. Message
research includes investigating whether messages using
fear or humour are more persuasive and whether its
more effective to appeal to the audiences reason or
emotion. At first it was thought that fear made a mes-
sage more powerful, but a later theory, fear protection
motivation schema (Rogers 1983), suggested that if a
message is too frightening, receivers tend to block the
message to protect themselves from being alarmed. This
is borne out by experience of early AIDS campaigns
in the 1980s, when ads showing tombstones with the
Explore 12.2
Speaker credibility
Which speaker or presenter would you choose for the
following events:
1. Launch of new bio-fuel engine to audience of
motoring journalists: (a) TV motoring corre-
spondent; (b) lead engineer from motor com-
pany; (c) learner driver?
2. Promotional posters for new phone app aimed at
youth market should feature: (a) app designer; (b)
presenter of popular music site; (c) CEO of phone
company?
3. Short film about safe sex for showing in schools:
(a) minister for education; (b) doctor working in
genito-urinary health unit; (c) young person?
Feedback
These choices involve considerations about expertise
and trustworthiness, and illustrate that there are times
when you want a speaker who resembles the audi-
ence (homophily) and other occasions when the dif-
ferences will increase credibility (heterophily).
23/03/2017 13:07
 Chapter 12Public relations, propaganda and the psychology of persuasion
message Dont Die of Ignorance were subsequently
seen as counterproductive (Miller et al. 1998). Scholars
do not agree on this issue what do you think?
One of the most interesting theories concerning how
messages are processed is the elaboration likelihood
model (Petty and Cacioppo 1986), which suggested
that there are two routes to persuasion: the central and
peripheral routes (see Figure12.1). The central route
involves processing (or elaborating) the arguments
contained in a message, using reason and evaluation.
The peripheral route involves reacting emotionally to
a message that appeals to a range of responses such
as humour, or feelings towards the person giving the
message (such as a celebrity) without having to weigh
up the arguments for and against the message. The cen-
tral route is more likely to lead to long-lasting attitude
Figure 12.1 Elaboration likelihood model (source: adapted from Petty and Cacioppo 1986)
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 235
235
change; the peripheral route, often used by advertisers,
works for short-term messages.
Use of arguments to persuade
If the message aims to involve the receiver in internal
reasoning or elaboration, then it has to ensure that
there is a good range of arguments to support the mes-
sage. The communicator also has to decide whether
to present all the arguments in favour of their posi-
tion or whether to deal with the counterarguments
as well. Research suggested that more educated or
hostile audiences often prefer to be given both points
of view, even if the message concludes with the pre-
ferred position of the communicator. People who
23/03/2017 13:07
 236 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
already support the point of view fans of a band,
members of a political party, for example are more
receptive to messages reinforcing just that one point
of view. Petty and Cacioppo also suggest that some
people have a need for cognition that is, a motive
to find out things and a preference for making choices
based on thought and reflection rather than impulse.
Of course, if the messages are unclear, or irrelevant to
the receiver, then they will not be motivated to elabo-
rate further.
Toulmin (1958) suggested that effective messages
use evidence (data, opinions, case studies, etc.) to
make a claim (the message the communicator wants
the receiver to agree with), which is then backed by a
warrant (reason to agree). An example might be the
anti-smoking adverts shown regularly on television.
These tend to show a terminally ill person (evidence)
talking about their life expectancy (claim) and close
with statements about the effectiveness of support lines
(warrant). There is an excellent website explaining cur-
rent UK campaigns, key messages and target groups,
with examples of TV, press and poster ads, at http://
smokefree.nhs.uk/ (see Picture 12.2).
In the increasingly visual environment of modern
communication, messages are more likely to appeal to
Picture 12.2 Giving up smoking. With many countries
now banning smoking in public places, such as offices, bars
and restaurants, determined smokers are forced to find
some unusual places to smoke their tobacco or use their
e-cigarette
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 236
the emotions of the receiver than their reason. There
is some evidence that making people feel good is more
effective than making them feel bad. Pratt (2008)
analyses health communication campaigns (in the US)
specifically concerning obesity and suggests six key
phrases for crafting such communication: (1) Be atten-
tive; (2) Be personal; (3) Be selective; (4) Be casual; (5)
Be active; (6) Be sparing.
However, research into the use of fear in US presi-
dential elections campaigns has revealed that suggesting
to voters that they will be less safe with an opponent in
charge can be very effective. (See Explore12.3.)
Approaches to persuasion
Another angle to studying persuasive messages is
the rhetorical approach, which looks in detail at the
language used by communicators and the exchange
of information, or discourse, between parties seek-
ing to influence each other through the use of words
and symbols. This viewpoint does not see persuasion
as inherently good or bad, but as the stuff of human
interaction: Through statement and counterstate-
ment, people test each others views of reality, value
and choices relevant to products, services and public
policies (Heath 2001: 31). Public relations is seen as
the search for shared meaning, and emphasis is placed
on the importance of relationship in achieving such
understanding. (See Chapter8 for more about rhetoric
and public relations.)
Content or discourse analysis examines the words
and images in messages, whether from corporations,
politicians or mass media, looking below surface
Explore 12.3
Message appeals
Look at the messages around you can you find
examples of appeals to your feelings? What about
engaging your reason? Can you see feel good mes-
sages? What about fear campaigns? Do you prefer a
message that makes you laugh?
Feedback
Look at the posters produced by candidates in
elections whether for local, general, EU or student
elections. Are they creating positive images of them-
selves or negative images of their opponents? Which
campaigns do you think are more effective?
23/03/2017 13:07
 Chapter 12Public relations, propaganda and the psychology of persuasion
meanings for deeper associations. Political speeches are
increasingly analysed by commentators to decode their
underlying meanings. For example, leaders speeches
are run through computer programs to reveal how often
they use the word freedom or democracy, or notice
when the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, name
checks all her predecessors except the one trying to get
his old job back (Coorey 2011). This subtext is then
examined for possible meaning (Charteris-Black 2014).
These approaches offer useful insights to the pub-
lic relations practitioner because they remind us that
messages received are often very different from those
sent. Failure to understand the different values and
attitudes that people might bring to understanding a
communication can destroy an organisations reputa-
tion. Senders who use their own terms of reference or
value systems will not create understanding or shared
meaning, as rhetoric puts it. Sometimes this involves
literal mistranslations, as when a leading pen manufac-
turer translated the line our pen will not leak in your
pocket and embarrass you for its Mexican launch,
but used the word embrazar . . . meaning to make
pregnant. Many websites list PR gaffes; for examples
of PR blunders from the US not-for-profit sector, see
Kennedy (2011).
As social media facilitate detailed analysis of user
patterns and preferences, communicators have access
to vast data about audiences. For example, see the
composite findings of Research Matters and Mas-
tersDegreeOnline.org (prdaily/10212). But facts dont
always improve understanding: the next section looks
at the to whom part of Lasswells saying and, in par-
ticular, the role of the receivers psychology in creating
successful communication.
To whom: the audience
perspective
Receivers can be grouped in many ways. There is a
range of media theories showing how publics come
together to use a particular medium to gain informa-
tion or entertainment, for example. They can be cate-
gorised by age, geography, occupation, gender, marital
status, etc. This is called demographics. Then there are
the theories that look at psychographics, or differences
in personality.
Psychologists have investigated a number of theo-
ries that might explain why some people are easier to
persuade than others and the internal process by which
persuasion takes place. Aspects of personality, such as
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 237
237
self-esteem, are examined, as are the internal structures
of personality, such as attitudes and behaviour. This
section looks at the psychology of persuasion from the
individual receivers perspective.
Self-esteem was felt to be an important component
of persuasion, and research showed that people with
lower self-esteem were much easier to persuade. How-
ever, it was not entirely simple, as people with low
self-esteem were more easily influenced by superficial
aspects of the message, whereas people with higher self-
esteem tended to engage with relevant thinking on the
issue before deciding whether to agree or disagree with
the message. As a result, those who were most easily
persuaded by peripheral cues (colour, music, celebrity)
tended not to internalise the message and were there-
fore equally easily persuaded by the next message to
use the same tactics. There was also evidence (Cohen
1959) that people with high self-esteem avoided or
deflected unwelcome or challenging messages a bit
like smokers leaving the room when anti-smoking ads
come on. This is called ego-defensive behaviour, as it
allows the person to maintain self-belief by avoiding
contradictory evidence. These findings suggest that dif-
ferent tactics are needed for different audiences with
reasons to agree provided to those who prefer to pro-
cess messages, and simple, non-threatening messages to
those who do not. There are echoes here of the elabora-
tion likelihood model outlined above.
Another personality variable that affected how eas-
ily an individual could be persuaded was discovered
by Snyder and DeBono (1985), who showed that some
people are more likely to look outside themselves for
clues about how to respond (high self-monitors), while
others look inwards (low self-monitors). The former
are influenced by the reactions of those around them,
especially people they would like to be accepted by
(sometimes called the referent group). The latter con-
sult their own values and beliefs before responding to
messages. (See Explore12.4 and Think about12.2.)
This theory also raises the issue of the influence of
groups on the persuasiveness of the individual. There
are a number of theories that look at how individuals
behave in group situations, of which the most relevant
here is social comparison theory (Festinger 1954). This
applies when individuals have to evaluate an opinion
or ability and cannot test it directly. (See Box12.2.)
This, and similar theories, show how important it is
to understand the group dynamics when communicat-
ing important messages. Just think about how hard it
is to persuade people to stop drink-driving if all their
friends think it is a brilliant thing to do. Messages that
conflict with group beliefs, or norms, are most likely
to be rejected by the group.
23/03/2017 13:07
 238 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
Explore 12.4
Are you a high self-monitor (HSM)?
Bettinghaus and Cody (1994: 165) provide the follow-
ing statements as tests for self-monitoring:
I have considered being an entertainer.
Im not always the person I appear to be.
I may deceive people by being friendly when I
really dislike them.
I guess I put on a show to impress or entertain
others.
I can make impromptu speeches even on topics
about which I have almost no information.
The authors suggest that people who agree with most
of these statements are likely to be high self-monitors.
They go on to identify key areas of difference that are
important to understand if one wishes to construct
relevant messages. (To work out which group you
belong to, see Table 12.2.)
So, is it even possible to persuade people to stop drink-
driving? Why not just use legal powers and stop trying
to persuade these hard-to-reach groups? But what if the
message is to encourage people to take more exercise,
use less energy, join this organisation, visit that country?
The law cannot help here. Threats will not work.
Persuasion is the only tool. After all, it is said that the
objective of most public relations campaigns is either
High self-monitors (HSM)
Concentrate on the actual and potential reactions of others
in social situations
Adaptable and flexible, presenting aspects of themselves
most suitable for each occasion
Actively contribute to the smooth flow of conversation and
bind participants together by using we, our words, humour
and exchanging self-disclosures, as appropriate
More likely to have different friends for different activities
Have other HSMs as friends
Males are more concerned with the physical appearance of
a potential date, have more and briefer relationships
More responsive to messages that emphasise image, status,
public approval, glamour or sex appeal
Table 12.2 Personality types (source: based on Bettinghaus and Cody 1994)
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 238
Think about 12.2
Personality and public relations
practitioners
It is interesting to note that the HSM attributes are
quite common among public relations practitioners
are they all high self-monitors? If so, is this good
because they are sensitive to people around them,
or bad because they fit in with others expectations
rather than develop values of their own?
to change or neutralise hostile opinion, crystallize
unformed or latent opinion or conserve favourable
opinions by reinforcing them (Cutlip et al. 1985: 152).
These are all acts of persuasion. The question for prac-
titioners is what works?
In order to understand whether or not persuasion
has any effect, we need to understand what attitudes
consist of, how they are acquired and then how they
can be changed.
To what effect: forming and
changing attitudes and beliefs
Before examining attitudes, let us look at some related
aspects of thoughts and feelings that affect the way we
see the world, such as beliefs and values. Belief is seen
Low self-monitors (LSM)
Refer to their core values
More consistent in any given situation
Less able to facilitate conversation
Are more likely to do different things with the same people
Have other LSMs as friends
Males are more concerned with dates personality, more
likely to make a commitment
More interested in the quality and good value of a product
23/03/2017 13:07
 Chapter 12Public relations, propaganda and the psychology of persuasion
Box 12.2
Theory in practice
social comparison theory
Student X might be asked whether they think disserta-
tions are a valuable element in a degree programme. As
X has not yet done one, they have no direct experience.
In these circumstances, individuals are likely to compare
their responses to those around them by waiting, per-
haps, to see what others have to say first. The individual
as a function of mind, assembling thoughts to create a
system of reference for understanding.
We can all make many thousands of belief state-
ments (sentences beginning I believe that...) (Rokeach
1960), which can be sorted into descriptive, evalua-
tive and prescriptive: descriptive beliefs describe the
world around us (I believe the sky is blue, this is a
good university, etc.); evaluative beliefs weigh up the
consequences of actions (I believe this course is right
for me); and prescriptive beliefs suggest how things
ought to be (I believe men and women should share
housework).
Another approach is to divide beliefs into central
and peripheral beliefs, where central beliefs are close
to values and describe what we hold most important (I
believe in equality, justice, etc.). These may then under-
pin peripheral beliefs (I believe in the secret ballot, jury
trials, etc.). It is also possible to have peripheral-only
beliefs (I believe this shampoo will clean my hair).
Rokeach (1960) suggests there are two types of central
beliefs those that are agreed by everyone, such as
rocks fall when dropped, and those that are personal,
such as I believe in horoscopes. Bettinghaus and
Cody (1994) also talk about authority-derived beliefs,
where we adopt ideas proposed by those in authority,
although recent social developments suggest reduced
trust in traditional authority figures such as politicians
or even doctors.
Persuasion attempts often target peripheral beliefs
because they are most easily changed (I believe this
shampoo is even better), whereas authority-based
beliefs, such as family values or childhood religion,
change more slowly, and central beliefs hardly at all.
Central beliefs are very close to values, as are prescrip-
tive beliefs. Values are the core ideals that we use as
guides and that express ourselves they concern issues
such as justice or the environment or freedom. How we
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 239
239
is more likely to agree with someone with whom they
already have things in common than someone with very
different attitudes. To continue the example, if X enjoys
working hard and has friends who share this approach,
they are likely to agree about the value of dissertations.
X is less likely to be influenced by someone who has said
they dont care what kind of a degree they get. This pro-
cess explains how groups often come to hold strong com-
mon beliefs, but also how there is a pressure to conform
within groups. If X was really unsure, but their friends all
strongly supported dissertations, X is more likely to say
nothing than risk the disapproval of the group. This the-
ory is similar in some ways to nudge theory, mentioned
at the start of this chapter.
treat each other reflects our central values whether
youve got to look out for yourself first or we have to
sink or swim together. (See Figure12.2 for examples
of how values affect beliefs, attitudes and opinions.)
This is a blurred area: many of the definitions for
beliefs overlap with opinions and values. The simplest
way to note the difference is that beliefs and opinions
usually involve thoughts, while values and attitudes
also involve feelings. It is also worth remembering
that, while psychology scholars need to divide us into
smaller and smaller boxes to examine the contents, we
actually use all of these aspects in combination to nego-
tiate our way through the world.
Now, lets turn to attitudes, where our beliefs about
what is right and wrong meet our feelings about right
and wrong.
Attitudes
Allport (1935), an early researcher in this field, said
that attitudes underpin our reactions to people and
events, creating a filter or system against which we
measure our responses to messages and events. We
said, above, that values affect our attitudes. These
attitudes may, in turn, affect our behaviour by causing
the GM protester to buy organic goods, for example
(although, being human, they may drive to the health
food shop). Attitudes do not predict behaviour but
they do provide a reasonable guide and so are well
worth further investigation by communicators wishing
to understand their audiences. (See Explore12.5 and
Think about12.3.)
When we talk about attitudes, we are talking
about what a person has learned in the process of
becoming a member of a family, a member of a
group, and of society that makes him react to his
23/03/2017 13:07
 240 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
Figure 12.2 Opinions, attitudes and values
social world in a consistent and characteristic
way, instead of a transitory and haphazard way.
We are talking about the fact that he is no longer
neutral in sizing up the world around him: he is
attracted or repelled, for or against, favourable or
unfavourable.
(Sherif 1967: 2)
Explore 12.5
Attitudes towards television
1. Reality TV (where ordinary people are followed
by camera crews) is a fascinating experiment.
2. Reality TV is cheap entertainment at others
expense.
3. TV is dumbing down.
4. TV has always been a mix of good and bad.
5. Programme makers only produce what audi-
ences want to watch.
6. I dont care about TV.
Which of these statements reflects your own views?
How far does the selected statement connect with
other attitudes to television, to entertainment, to
society at large?
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 240
Attitudes are also more likely to affect behaviour
if you are in a position to act on them (individuated).
You are less likely to act out your attitudes if you are in
a group (de-individuated) whose members hold differ-
ent views, or if you are in a formal situation such as a
lecture theatre where the range of available behaviours
is restricted (scripted). These are called situational
factors.
So where do attitudes come from? How are they
acquired? Social psychology suggests a number of
paths to explain how we learn attitudes.
1. Classic conditioning, which was made famous by
Pavlov (18491936), who showed the difference
between unconditioned and conditioned responses.
The former refers to physiological reactions to
Think about 12.3
Your attitudes
Have you ever boycotted a product or service, signed
a petition, voted for or against something or someone
or got into an argument with friends or family? Do you
have strong attitudes on a range of subjects? If so, can
you identify the core values that underpin them? Or
do you feel fairly neutral about most things and avoid
disagreement on such subjects?
23/03/2017 13:07
 Chapter 12Public relations, propaganda and the psychology of persuasion
certain stimuli to blink at bright lights, flinch
from pain, or in the case of Pavlovs dogs (and
humans) salivate at the smell and sight of food.
2. Instrumental or operant conditioning, which
means using rewards and/or punishment to encour-
age/discourage behaviours and attitudes. Most
parents will use these techniques to instil attitudes
towards road safety, table manners, etc.
3. Social learning theory, which says that we acquire
our attitudes either by direct experience, by play-
ing out roles that mimic experience and/or by
modelling, that is watching how others behave in
a range of situations. For example, we might learn
how to react by watching characters in soap ope-
ras deal with betrayal, disappointment, bereave-
ment or crisis.
4. Genetic determinism disputes all these explana-
tions and looks for the roots of our motives in our
genes. There has always been a conflict between
scientists who believe human psychology is deter-
mined by biology and social psychologists who
believe how we are raised and life experiences
contribute more to our personality. The new dis-
coveries in gene science have given strength to the
former group, but the dispute is certainly not over.
(See Think about12.4.)
Social psychologists have a number of theories
about how to change attitudes, and these are all inter-
esting and relevant to the public relations practitioner.
Two particularly interesting theories are the theory of
reasoned action and the theory of cognitive dissonance.
The theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Azjen
1980) looks at the links between attitude and behav-
iour and the points where change might be possible. It
Think about 12.4
Changing attitudes
Geneticists suggest much of our behaviour is hard-
wired in our bodies, so it should be impossible to
change someones attitude. And yet, attitudes can be
changed think of changing social attitudes to drink-
driving over the past 20 years, for example.
Have you ever changed an attitude to education,
religion or even career choices? What made you
change your mind? Was it a long, slow process or a
sudden flash?
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 241
241
draws on expectancy value theory (Fishbein and Azjen
1975), which describes how attitudes are the results of
having expectations met or disappointed. The theory
of reasoned action suggests that individuals conduct
complicated evaluations of different influences, such
as the opinions of family, friends or teachers, giving
them different weightings depending on how impor-
tant their views are to the individual, who then com-
pares these opinions to their own views and forms
attitudes based on the results. It also suggests attitudes
can be changed by altering one of the key components
in the equation.
Understanding this process can be helpful if you
are a communicator seeking to influence behaviour.
It suggests that you can address the attitude towards
the behaviour, for example by introducing new beliefs
about the risks of smoking or by persuading audi-
ences to re-evaluate the outcome of smoking by
convincing them that their own health is in danger.
Alternatively, a campaign might seek to change the
subjective norm by suggesting that key groups of peo-
ple think that smoking is uncool, anti-social, etc. It is
also relevant for any persuasion campaign where the
subjective norm plays a part in the behaviour, such
as football hooligans where violence is approved by
the groups leaders.
However, this theory is somewhat mechanistic
and suggests a rather linear approach to persuasion
and attitude change. An alternative, more intuitive
approach was developed by Leon Festinger in 1957
the theory of cognitive dissonance. This proposes
that thoughts generate emotional responses and
that people prefer to have harmony (consonance)
between their thoughts and feelings, rather than
disharmony (dissonance): The existence of disso-
nance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will
motivate the person to try to reduce the dissonance
and achieve consonance (Festinger 1957). Aronson
(1968) later stressed that the dissonance needed to
be psychological, not merely logically inconsistent.
(See Box12.3.)
Cognitive dissonance describes how we rationalise
internal conflicts to ourselves. We are usually most
reluctant to change our behaviour, and prefer to alter
our thinking to make our behaviour fit our ideas rather
than vice versa. Sound familiar?
So how does this relate to persuasion? Because
the theory not only describes how we avoid chang-
ing our behaviour but also suggests pressure points
for undermining our rationalisations. Creating cogni-
tive dissonance in an audience can be a powerful tool
for disrupting habits of thought and consequently
23/03/2017 13:07
 242 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
Box 12.3
Cognitive dissonance in
action making choices
when what you think and
what you do clash
We suggested earlier that someone who values the envi-
ronment is more likely to have negative attitudes towards
genetically modified (GM) foods and positive attitudes
towards organic produce. If these attitudes are weakly
held, the person may not find any problems with driv-
ing to the health food store for their goods. If they are
increasing the chances of altering their behaviour.
Campaigns that use shock tactics, such as the anti-
fur ads, can jolt an audience out of a complacent
attitude.
Another essential element of a persuasion cam-
paign is that people must believe that they are capa-
ble of making the change required by the campaign,
such as giving up smoking, exercising more or what-
ever the objective is. This is called self-efficacy. Cam-
paigns that expect more of the audience than people
are able to achieve will fail. For example, many peo-
ple who have positive attitudes towards recycling are
not sure how to divide their materials or what to do
with them and may be overwhelmed by the sense
that saving the planet is down to them. So they give
up and do nothing. Recent campaigns concentrate
on encouraging people to do small, achievable acts
of recycling. This is more likely to be successful. (See
Think about12.5.)
Whatever tactics a campaign uses, there are a num-
ber of barriers it has to overcome in order for per-
suasion to occur. Research is continually undertaken
to measure the effectiveness of persuasion campaigns,
and while commercial campaigns tend to keep their
research findings to themselves, public health cam-
paigns are often analysed and the findings published
widely. For example, Schiavo (2007) combines several
marketing and communication models to produce an
analytical tool (similar to a PEST analysis) for health
communication, with four interlocking variables:
Audience (beliefs, attitudes, cultural factors, literacy,
risk, socioeconomic factors, etc.); Political environ-
ment (legal, political support and priority); Social
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 242
held strongly, the person may feel some distress that
they are burning fossil fuel and contributing to global
warming. How can cognitive dissonance predict their
responses? The theory suggests that if they do hold the
views strongly and experience dissonance they will have
three choices:
1. They can change their behaviour for example, cycle
to the shop or give up buying organic foods.
2. They can alter their cognitions (thoughts) perhaps
tell themselves that there is no point worrying about
one car journey when so much damage is being done
by others.
3. They can alter the importance of their cognitions
that is, downgrade the importance they place on the
whole set of ideas and convince themselves that they
had been taking it all too seriously.
Think about 12.5
Health campaigns
Take a look at current health campaigns, such as
an anti-obesity drive in your area/country. They
usually try and persuade people to change their
behaviour eat less, do more. What else are they
saying? Do they target the guilt of parents, for exam-
ple, or stress the health dangers? Are they trying to
shock? Do they suggest that people have the skills
and ability required to diet? Do you think the cam-
paigns succeed?
environment (stakeholder beliefs, social norms, struc-
tures and existing programmes); and Recommended
health behaviour, service or product (e.g. benefits,
risks, costs and access).
Whatever the desired effects, the key audience
must actually see or hear the message, or the effort
is obviously wasted. They must also understand it,
and remember it and undertake more actions before
their behaviour is likely to be altered. McGuire (1989)
created a matrix to illustrate the barriers that a mes-
sage must overcome to persuade any individual (see
Box12.4). The input section describes all the commu-
nications decisions the persuader must take; the output
section describes the processes involved in having an
effect on any individual, and the stages in the persua-
sion process where messages may need to be reinforced
or repeated. (See Explore12.6.)
23/03/2017 13:07
 Chapter 12Public relations, propaganda and the psychology of persuasion
Box 12.4
McGuires input/output
matrix
Input variables
These are the choices the communicator makes when
designing a persuasion campaign:
Sources: who is the speaker; how credible/expert/
attractive are they?
Messages: what kind of appeal is made; how is infor-
mation presented?
Channels: mass media or mail shots; TV ads or text
messages; context in which channel is consumed?
Receivers: who is the message aimed at; what is the
age group/education level/personality structure?
Intent: what is the desired aim; does it require a
behaviour or attitude change?
Output variables
These describe the stages through which a message must
pass to achieve a persuasive outcome:
Exposure: did the intended receiver even get the mes-
sage; do they watch or read the chosen channels?
Attention: if they were exposed, were they paying
attention or were they doing something else as well?
Liking: did they like the message not in the sense of
finding it nice but in appreciating the design, appear-
ance, music, etc.?
Explore 12.6
Case study
Apply the McGuire input/output matrix to one of the
campaigns you can find at the following websites:
http://smokefree.nhs.uk/ways-to-quit/motivational-
messages-at-home/ www.farenet.org http://www.
influenceatwork.com/
http://www.more-life.co.uk/
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 243
243
Comprehension: did they understand the message or
was the stuff about polyunsaturated fats, for example,
too confusing?
Acquiring skills: do they need to change a behaviour/
learn how to cook/put on a seatbelt and do any of
these changes require new skills?
Changing attitudes: did they like the campaign but
vote for the other party; have they decided that
they do want to change their approach to a topic or
product?
Remembering: did they remember the key message
at the point where it was most likely to influence
their response, such as the supermarket or voting
booth?
Deciding to act: having seen, liked, understood and
remembered the messages, having changed attitudes
towards the intent of the campaign, did the audience
make the next step and actually decide to do some-
thing about it whether thats stopping smoking, eat-
ing more fruit or going to Thailand?
Behaviour change: having decided to act, did they
actually make the effort and alter their behaviour in
line with the desired intent, or, perhaps, in a different
way?
Reinforcing the decision: having behaved as sug-
gested once, will they repeat the action or forget the
message?
Consolidating the results: does the campaign make the
most of its own successes by telling the audience how
theyd responded, perhaps through individual case
studies or release of relevant statistics?
Source: based on McGuire 1989
Think about 12.6
Dissertation/research ideas
1. Compare the views of Bernays to those of current
public relations practitioners.
2. Contrast the Hovland and McCroskey approaches
to credibility, using current public relations cam-
paigns.
3. Apply the theory of reasoned action to a public
health campaign.
23/03/2017 13:07
 244 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
Think about 12.7 Resisting persuasion
This chapter has looked at how communicators can
more effectively persuade others regarding the mer-
its of a particular point of view or action. This knowl-
edge can also be used to improve ones own defences
against being persuaded. The following suggests how
you could use the theories outlined in this chapter to
increase your awareness when others are trying to per-
suade you:
Know yourself are you a high or low self-monitor?
Are you strongly influenced by the views of those
around you? Do you fit in or stand out?
Know your own ethics what are your core values,
your moral boundaries?
Summary
This chapter has shown that propaganda is not always
easy to distinguish from persuasion or public relations,
possibly due to the fact that public relations has its origins
in propaganda, with many pioneers of public relations
learning the craft in wartime. However, it concluded that
this should not condemn all persuasive communication
and that persuasion deserves further study as an aspect
of public relations.
Clearly, communicators can learn from a range of social
psychology theories about the means by which people
process messages and the different emphasis they place on
the source of the message and its content, depending on
their personality types. The section also described the links
between attitudes and behaviour and the theories that
suggest ways of influencing attitudes and, possibly, behav-
iour in public relations and communication campaigns.
It has also talked about the personality of the commu-
nicator and the importance of reaching beyond ones
Bibliography
Allport, G.W. (1935). Attitudes in A Handbook of Social
Psychology Vol. 2. C. Murchison (ed.). Worcester,
MA: Clark University Press.
Aronson, E. (1968). Dissonance theory: progress and
problems in Theories of Cognitive Consistency: A
sourcebook. R.P. Abelson, E. Aronson, W.J. McGuire,
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 244
Know the source who are they? What are their
interests? Is the Sugar Information Bureau actually
the sugar industry in a white coat? Does the celebrity
really use/wear/believe it?
Know the intentions of the message what do they
want you to do? Is this what you want? Is it consistent
with your core values?
Know the methods of the message are they appeal-
ing to your reason or emotion? Are they trying to
catch you in a hurry? Are they suggesting if you dont
do it right now, the chance is gone?
Take your time, check the facts, make up your own
mind.
own assumptions and experience to create an effective
communication between sender and receiver. Having
demonstrated how persuasion can work, it emphasised
the importance of applying the highest ethical standards
to such work.
It can be concluded that persuasion is, actually, a difficult
thing to achieve there are so many different person-
ality types and so many barriers to messages actually
reaching the desired audience at the correct level, let
alone the difficulties of translating altered attitudes into
altered behaviour. And yet, public relations and adver-
tising and, increasingly, political and commercial life are
all dedicated to making us rethink prior assumptions,
to change our minds about butter, or political parties,
or recycling. Wernick (1991) called this a promotional
culture, and evidence since then confirms his descrip-
tion. We are bombarded with persuasive messages every
day as consumers, and public relations campaigns are
part of that assault. PR practitioners play a key role in
shaping the persuasive messages that pervade society;
whether that is always an ethical role is explored in the
next chapter.
T.M. Newcomb, M.J. Rosenberg and P.H. Tannen-
baum (eds). Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.
Arthur W. Page Society (2007). The authentic enterprise:
relationships, values and corporate communications.
Arthur W. Page Society.
Arthur W. Page Society (2009). The dynamics of public
trust in business emerging opportunities for leaders.
Arthur W. Page Society.
23/03/2017 13:07
 Chapter 12Public relations, propaganda and the psychology of persuasion
Bernays, E. (1923). Crystallizing Public Opinion. New
York, NY: Boni and Liveright.
Bernays, E. (1928). Propaganda. New York, NY: Liv-
eright (2005 edition New York, NY: Ig Publishing).
Bernays, E. (1955). The Engineering of Consent. Norman,
OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
Bettinghaus, E.P. and M.J. Cody (1994). Persuasive Com-
munication, 5th edition. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace.
Boone, J. (2011). Taliban join the Twitter revolution.
The Guardian, 12 May.
Burne J.S. (2016). Trust in media and government ris- Fawkes, J. (2006). Can ethics save public relations from
ing, but less so among lower demographics, finds
Edelman Trust Barometer. PR Week, 18 January
2016, http://www.prweek.com/article/1379781/ Fawkes, J. and K. Moloney (2008). Does the European
trust-media-government-rising-less-so-among-lower-
demographics-finds-edelman-trust-barometer,
accessed 10 May 2016.
Charteris-Black, J. (2014). Analysing Political Speeches:
Rhetoric, discourse and metaphor. Basingstoke: Pal-
grave Macmillan.
Chomsky, N. (2002). Media Control. New York, NY:
Seven Stories Press.
Cobain, I., A. Ross, R. Evans and M. Mahmoud (2016).
Government hid fact it paid for 2012 Olympics film
aimed at Muslims http://www.theguardian.com/uk-
news/2016/may/03/government-hid-fact-it-paid-for-
2012-olympics-film-aimed-at-muslims; accessed 06 Fishbein, M. and I. Azjen (1980). Predicting and under-
May 2016.
Cohen, A.R. (1959). Some implications of self-esteem
for social influence in Personality and Persuasability.
C.I. Hovland and I.L. Janis (eds). Yale: Yale University
Press.
Columbia (2003). The Columbia Electronic Encyclope-
dia, 6th edition. New York, NY: Columbia University
Press.
Cookson, R. (2011). Media smart. British Medical Jour-
nal, www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d5415 accessed Heath, R.L. (2001). A rhetorical enactment rationale for
13 December 2011.
Coorey, P. (2011). http://www.smh.com.au/national/
titfortat-draws-plea-for-rudd-and-gillard-to-cool-it-
20111205-1ofjy.html accessed 13 December 2011.
Curtin, P.A. and T.K. Gaither (2005). Privileging identity,
difference and power: the circuit of culture as a basis
for public relations theory. Journal of Public Rela- Hovland, C.I., I.L. Janis and H. Kelley (1953). Commu-
tions Research 17: 91115.
Curtis, A. (2002). The Century of the Self. BBC, clips
available on YouTube.
Cutlip, S.M., A.H. Center and G.M. Broom (1985). Effec-
tive Public Relations, 6th edition. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 245
245
Delwiche, A. (2002). Post-war propaganda. www.
propagandacritic.com/articles/ww1.postwar.html
Edelman Trust Barometer (2009). The Global State of
Trust. New York: Edelman.
Edelman, R. (2012). Edelman Trust Barometer, Execu-
tive Summary. www.scribd.com/doc/79026497/2012-
Edelman-Trust-Barometer-Executive-Summary 3 July
2012.
Ewen, S. (1996). PR! A Social History of Spin. New York,
NY: Basic Books.
the charge of propaganda? Ethical Space. Journal of
the Institute of Communication Ethics 3(1): 3242.
Union (EU) need a propaganda watchdog like the
US Institute of Propaganda Analysis to strengthen
its democratic civil society and free markets? Public
Relations Review 34: 20714.
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison pro-
cesses. Human Relations 7.
Festinger, L. (1957). The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.
New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Fishbein, M. and I. Azjen (1975). Belief, Attitude, Inten-
tion, and Behavior: An introduction to theory and
research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
standing consumer behavior: attitude-behavior corre-
spondence in Understanding Attitudes and Predicting
Social Behavior. I. Azjen and M. Fishbein (eds). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Grunig, J. (2001). Two-way symmetrical public relations:
past, present and future in Handbook of Public Rela-
tions. R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Grunig, J. and T. Hunt (1984). Managing Public Rela-
tions. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
public relations: the good organisation communicat-
ing well in Handbook of Public Relations. R.L. Heath
(ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Herman, E.S. and N. Chomsky (1988). Manufacturing
Consent: The political economy of the mass media.
New York, NY: Pantheon Books.
nication and Persuasion. Yale: Yale University Press.
Jaksa, J.A. and M.S. Pritchard (1994). Communicator
Ethics: Methods of analysis, 2nd edition. Belmont,
CA: Wadsworth.
Jowett, G.S. and V.ODonnell (1992). Propaganda and
Persuasion, 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
23/03/2017 13:07
 246 Part 2PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
Kennedy, M. (2011). www.ereleases.com/prfuel/
top-5-non-profit-pr-blunders/
Landman, A. (2008). Pinkwashing: can shopping cure
breast cancer? www.prwatch.org/node/7436 accessed
22 September 2008.
Lasswell, H.D. (1934). Propaganda in Propaganda. R.A.
Jackall (ed.). New York, NY: New York University Press.
Lasswell, H.D. (1948). The structure and function of
communication in society in The Communication of
Ideas. L. Bryson (ed.). New York, NY: Harper.
LEtang, J. (2004). Public Relations in Britain: A his-
tory of professional practice in the twentieth century.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
LEtang, J. and M. Pieczka (eds) (2006). Public Rela-
tions, Critical Debates and Contemporary Practice.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lippman, W. (1925). The phantom public in Propa-
ganda. R.A. Jackall (ed.). New York, NY: New York
University Press.
Marsh, C. (2015). The strange case of the goddess Pei-
tho: classical antecedents of public relations ambiva-
lence toward persuasion. Journal of Public Relations
Research 27(3):2015.
McCroskey, J.C. (1966). Scales for the measurement of
ethos. Speech Monographs 33: 6572.
McGuire, W.J. (1989). Theoretical foundations of cam-
paigns in Public Communication Campaigns, 2nd
edition. R.E. Rice and C.E. Atkin (eds). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
McSmith, A. (2010). www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/
politics/first-obama-now-cameron-embraces-nudge-
theory-2050127.html accessed 28 November 2011.
Miller, D. (2004). The propaganda machine in Tell Me
No Lies. London: Pluto Press.
Miller D. and W. Dinan (2008). A Century of Spin: How
public relations became the cutting edge of corporate
power. London: Pluto Press.
Miller, D., J. Kitzinger, K. Williams and P. Beharrell
(1998). The Circuit of Mass Communication. Lon-
don: Sage.
Miller, G. (1989). Persuasion and public relations:
2 Ps in a pod? in Public Relations Theory. C.H. Botan
and V. Hazleton (eds) (2006). Public Relations Theory
II. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Moloney, K. (2006). Rethinking Public Relations: PR,
propaganda and democracy, 2nd edition. London:
Routledge.
OKeefe, D.J. (2002). Persuasion: Theory and research,
2nd edition. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 246
Peake, J. (1980). Public Relations in Business. New York,
NY: Harper & Row.
Perloff, R.M. (1993). The Dynamics of Persuasion. Hills-
dale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Perloff, R.M. (2012). The Dynamics of Persuasion: Com-
munication and attitudes in the twenty-first century.
Abingdon: Routledge.
Petty, R.E. and J.T. Cacioppo (1986). Communication
and Persuasion: Control and peripheral routes to atti-
tude change. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.
Pfau, M. and H. Wan (2006). Persuasion: an intrinsic
function of public relations in Public Relations The-
ory II. C.H. Botan and V. Hazleton (eds). Mahwah,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Porter, L. (2010). Communicating for the good of the state:
a post-symmetrical polemic on persuasion in ethical
public relations. Public Relations Review 36: 12733.
Pratkanis, A. and E. Aronson (2001). Age of Propaganda.
New York, NY: Freeman/Owl Books.
Pratt, C.B. (2008). Crafting campaign themes (and slo-
gans) for preventing overweight and obesity. Public
Relations Quarterly 52(2): 2.
Prdaily/10021. www.prdaily.com/Main/articles/10021.
aspx accessed 28 November 2011.
Prdaily/100212. www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/10212.
aspx accessed 13 December 2011.
Prmoment. www.prmoment.com/809/over-60-per-cent-
of-journalists-think-pragencies-cannot-be-trusted.
aspx accessed 28 November 2011.
Raven, B.H. (1983). Interpersonal influence and social
power in Social Psychology. B.H. Raven and J.Z.
Rubin (eds). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Rogers, R. (1983). Cognitive and physiological processes
in fear appeals and attitude change: a revised theory
of protection motivation in Social Psychophysiology.
J.T. Cacioppo and R.E. Petty (eds). New York, NY:
Guilford Press.
Rogers, W. (2007). Persuasion Messages, receivers and
contexts. Lanham, ML: Rowman and Littlefield Pub-
lishers Inc.
Rokeach, M. (1960). The Open and Closed Mind. New
York, NY: Basic Books.
Rdiger, F. (2014). Public relations and the debate
about propaganda in the period between wars.
Intercom: Revista Brasileira de Cincias da Comu-
nicao 37(1): 4570. https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/
S1809-58442014000100003
Samadi, F. (2016). Afghan Taliban releases mobile app
as new PR tool. PR Week 05/04/2016 http://www.
23/03/2017 13:07
 Chapter 12Public relations, propaganda and the psychology of persuasion
prweek.com/article/1389969/afghan-taliban-releases-
mobile-app-new-pr-tool accessed 4 May 2016
Schiavo, R. (2007). Health Communication: From theory
to practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Senne, L. and S. Moore (2015). Bismarck, propaganda
and public relations. Public Relations Review
41(3): 326334, ISSN 03638111, http://dx.doi.
org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2015.04.001.
Shearlaw, M. (2016). Propaganda and the party
c ongress how to report from North Korea,
http://www.t heguardian.com/world/2016/may/05/
propaganda-and-the-party-congress-how-to-report-
from-north-korea, accessed 6 May 2016.
Sherif, M. (1967). Introduction in Attitude, Ego- Weaver, C.K., J. Motion and J. Roper (2006). From prop-
involvement, and Change. C.W. Sherif and M. Sherif
(eds). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Snyder, M. and K.G. DeBono (1985). Appeals to image
and claims about quality: understanding the psychol-
ogy of advertising. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology 49.
Stauber, J.C. and S. Rampton (2004). Toxic Sludge is
Good for You: Lies, damn lies and the public rela-
tions industry. London: Robinson.
Websites
Centre for Media Democracy: www.prwatch.org/spin
Influence at Work: www.influenceatwork.com
Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds: http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/
NHS Giving up Smoking: http://smokefree.nhs.uk/
Propaganda: www.propagandacritic.com
Spin Watch: www.spinwatch.org.uk
M12 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 247
247
Tallents, S. (1932). The Projection of England. London:
Olen Press.
Taylor, P. (2001). What is propaganda? www.ics.leeds.
ac.uk/pmt-terrorism/what-propaganda.pdf
Taylor, P.M. (2003). Munitions of the Mind: A history of
propaganda from the ancient world to the present day.
Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Toth, E.L. and R.L. Heath (1992). Rhetorical and Critical
Approaches to Public Relations. Hillsdale, NJ: Law-
rence Erlbaum Associates.
Toulmin, S. (1958). The Uses of Argument. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
aganda to discourse (and back again): truth, power,
the public interest and public relations in Public Rela-
tions, Critical Debates and Contemporary Practice. J.
LEtang and M. Pieczka (eds). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
Wernick, A. (1991). Promotional Culture. London: Sage.
Wilcox, D.L., G.T. Cameron, P.H. Ault and W.K. Agee
(2003). Public Relations, Strategies and Tactics, 7th
edition. London: Allyn & Bacon.
23/03/2017 13:07
 C h ap t er 13 Johanna Fawkes

Public relations professionalism

and ethics

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
discuss whether or not public relations is a profession
describe a variety of approaches to professional ethics
compare and critique views of public relations ethics
identify different ways of imagining public relations
evaluate the effect of PR images on PR ethics
reflect on the way you make ethical decisions.

Structure
Defining professions
Is PR a profession?
Professional ethics: an overview
The ethics of codes
Approaches to public relations ethics
The practitioner perspective

M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 248 23/03/2017 13:08

 Chapter 13Public relations professionalism and ethics 249

Introduction
This chapter deals with two key
concepts in public relations (PR)
p rofessionalism and ethics. The first
idea is usually taken for granted, as
everyone assumes PR is a profes-
sion, but the second is often avoided
because it leads to serious confusion
and discomfort. Most writers will try
and solve this unease by giving you
a box for decision-making or a list of
Dos and Donts. This text takes a dif-
ferent approach and encourages the
reader to understand not avoid
their own confusion on ethical issues.
But first, it explores ideas about profes-
sions and professionalism, and whether
or not they contribute to society. Most
professions base their claims for mak-
ing such a contribution at least partially
on their ethical stance, so this is a cru-
cial aspect of being professional. The text
looks at different kinds of professional
ethics, and discusses some of the philo-
sophical issues behind codes and ethi-
cal policies. It also asks whether ethical
claims are truer in theory than in practice.
Having looked at various ethical
approaches, the chapter then considers
which of these are found in discussions
of public relations ethics. It suggests that
each view of PR has its own take on PR
ethics, and the strengths and weakness
of these approaches are assessed. Finally,
there is a discussion about the gap
between the ethical ideals of academics
and untrained views of practitioners, and
suggestions for PR practitioners to reflect
inwardly for guidance.
Lets start with some examples of the
kind of ethical conflict that can confront
PR practitioners and students (see Think
about 13.1).

Think about 13.1 Ethical communication dilemmas

There are problems with a new detergent youre launch-
ing next week with nationwide TV ads n othing
dangerous, but it might be less effective than tests first
showed. Do you pull the ads and delay the launch?
Membership of the sports club you represent has
fallen drastically in the past year. The client asks you
to come up with a press release that minimises the
impact and blames a new computer system.
Youre on work placement and the public rela-
tions agency asks you to say youre doing student
research for the university/college rather than for
the agency.
Youre pitching for a new account that will save the
agency. You see that the previous team left their
pitch details in the waiting room. Do you use this
information?
A tobacco company asks you to launch a fitness cam-
paign for schools with free footballs covered in its
logo.
A major US coffee chain thats been getting protests
over its treatment of staff and suppliers asks you to
do an ethical makeover in its image, not its employ-
ment or trade activities.
You organise meetings between the local authority and
community groups to explain new council policies.
Do you make it clear that the authority is interested in
their views but unlikely to make major changes?
Feedback
Well come back to these examples at the end of the
chapter, so you can compare how you think about them
now and later.

Mini case study 13.1 Yorkshire Police Authority in the most favourable light,
throughout the hearings, despite having apologised for

Spin or advocacy?
In May 2016, the long-running inquest into the deaths
of 96 people at a UK football match in 1989 concluded
that the actions of police and other authorities contrib-
uted to the death toll. Following this verdict, Hayley
Court an experienced press officer reported that she
felt pressured into presenting the past decisions of South
their part in the disaster: The police should not have
been seeking to spread the blame on to others...at
the inquests, and seeking to influence the media to take
that line, she told The Guardian newspaper (Conn 2016).
Her statements were widely reported in the UK and led
to discussion among PR practitioners in social media.
Many supported her position, arguing that she was

M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 249 23/03/2017 13:08

 250 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
mini case study 13.1 (continued)
being pushed to take unethical actions in spinning court
hearings to put the police in a more favourable light. For
example, the CIPR President, Rob Brown, said, A public
relations professional who feels they are being put under
pressure to act in a way that could break our code of con-
duct is right to speak out about it and push back against
unreasonable and unethical expectations (CIPR 2016a).
However, other commentators stated that it is the job
of the PR person to put the best possible light on the
organisations actions, as long as they are not actually
lying (blog posts on closed LinkedIn page).
This is a debate about ethics and the limits of advocacy.
The rest of the chapter explores the issues raised in this
case study.
Professions and a crisis of trust
The story described in this Mini case study made
mainstream coverage. But every day, websites such as
spinwatch.com and corporatewatch.com provide
examples of PR ethical lapses, from creating false front
organisations to PR people masquerading as journal-
ists, which fail to attract such attention, either inside
Defining professions
The history of professions in the UK is usefully sum-
marised as:
pre-industrial (1500): divinity, medicine, law;
industrial (1800) (agricultural to industrial revolu-
tions): engineers, chemists, accountants;
welfare state (19001948): teachers, social workers;
enterprise (1980s): business and management
specialists;
knowledge workers (1990s): information, commu-
nications and media specialists.
(Watkins et al. 1992, cited by
Broadbent et al. 1997: 51).
Similar developments can be found in European
countries, with differences beyond the region. It is
interesting to note that the older professions, particu-
larly medicine and law, continue to earn respect and
have not lost professional status, despite being joined
by so many new occupations. Freidson (1994) distin-
guishes between the older professions that have legally
protected licences to practice and those less prestigious
occupations that are protected by professional bodies.
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 250
or outside public relations circles. Of course, public
relations is not alone in its scandals: professions that
have been exposed in recent years as falling below
their own self-proclaimed standards include banking,
accounting, the clergy, the medical and caring profes-
sions, athletes, sports institutions (look at the mess at
FIFA)...the list goes on. During 201112, the UK
Leveson Inquiry received detailed testimonials from
those who have been abused by the unethical behav-
iour of journalists (with similar accusations and
responsibility targeted towards their employers, such
as Rupert Murdochs News International). The Edelman
public relations agency conducts an annual survey
measuring the trust that the public holds in different
institutions, such as government, media, educators,
charities and so on. In recent years, public trust plum-
meted, though it is regaining some ground in 2016
(Edelman 2012). Look at their website for past and
present reports: http://www.edelman.co.uk/magazine/
posts/trust-barometer-2016/.
It is not surprising, then, that many groups are having
to think again about what makes them professional and
how to regain lost trust. So, what is a profession?
Some of the issues of professionalism and professional
ethics are particularly relevant to the newer disciplines,
which of course includes public relations.
Whatever their origins, most professions possess the
following qualities:
esoteric knowledge theoretical or technical not
available to the general population;
commitment to social values, such as health or
justice;
national organisation to set standards, control
membership, liaise with wider society;
extra-strong moral commitment to support profes-
sional values (Cooper 2004: 613).
Dent and Whitehead (2002) also stress the impor-
tance of ethics, suggesting professions must have
(among other attributes), independence and discre-
tion within the working context showing allegiance to
an ethical framework and often to specific codes of
practice which govern relationships between the pro-
fession, the professional, his/her clients and the wider
society (2002: 51). So, a professions role in society is
expressed in its codes of practice.
The role of professions in society is an area of sharp
disagreement between scholars a dispute that has
23/03/2017 13:08

repercussions for professional ethics. Some scholars
(such as Durkheim 1933 and Parsons 1951) argue that
professions play a supportive role in maintaining social
order; others (such as Weber et al. 1964 and Larson
1977) see the label as an empty claim to social standing,
won as the result of conflicts with competing occupa-
tions. Sciulli (2005) terms these groups functionalists
and revisionists in his overview of professionalism
studies. Most professional associations and groups who
write and observe codes belong to the first group; most
critics of professions and their ethics belong in the sec-
ond camp. Well come back to e thics the next question based on Durkheim and using concepts abandoned by
is: does public relations count as a profession?
Is PR a profession?
Public relations meets some but not all of the criteria
of a profession outlined earlier: some scholars (Bivins
1992; Pieczka and LEtang 2001) have questioned
whether public relations can be considered a profes-
sion, given the open entry to this work and the dif-
ficulty of imposing ethical and other standards on the
membership. Unlike medicine or law, anyone can prac-
tise PR and it is impossible to guess what percentage
of PR practitioners belongs to professional bodies. But,
as Sriramesh and Hornaman (2006: 156) point out:
all agree that it is important for public relations to
gain professional status because that would give
credibility and reputation to the industry, increase
the accountability and credibility of practitioners,
enhance the quality of work produced by practitio-
ners, and give practitioners greater opportunities to
contribute organizational decision making.
They summarise the literature as indicating that for
public relations to be accepted as a profession (which
the majority of their sources say has not yet happened)
it must satisfy the following criteria:
1. Maintaining a code of ethics and professional val-
ues and norms.
2. Commitment to serve in the public interest and be
socially responsible.
3. Having a body of esoteric, scholarly knowledge.
4. Having specialised and standardised education,
including graduate study.
5. Having technical and research skills.
6. Providing a unique service to an organisation and
the community.
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 251
Chapter 13Public relations professionalism and ethics 251
7. Membership in professional organisations.
8. Having autonomy in organisations to make
communication-related decisions (Sriramesh and
Hornaman 2006: 157).
Its not clear which of these hurdles PR fails to
leap, although Pieczka and LEtang (2001) believe
open access to practice and unenforceable ethics pro-
vide obstacles to professional status. They think most
approaches to professionalism in public relations rely
on a very optimistic view of the profession in society,
the sociology of professionalism in the 1970s. They
note a tendency to describe what PR professionals do
(the trait approach), rather than reflect on their wider
role, which, they say, results from professionalisation
efforts that necessarily rely on an idealistic understand-
ing of the profession (Pieczka and LEtang 2001: 229).
Breit and Demetrious (2010) investigate claims made
by public relations bodies in New Zealand and Aus-
tralia against a trait approach to professions and find
PR fails to meet the criteria for a profession. For exam-
ple, they find thin evidence of a body of knowledge
underpinning public relations practice in New Zealand
and Australia, a view supported by research into UK
practitioner attitudes (Tench and Fawkes 2005), which
revealed a resistance to theory. Heath (2001) argues
that practitioners and academics need to establish an
international body of knowledge, standards for entry
into the field, shared ethical values, professional com-
petencies and a foundation of knowledge to provide
practitioners with a reason to depend on universities
for education, as in traditional professions such as law
and medicine. This debate is contextualised by van
Ruler (2005: 161), who outlines models of professions
applicable to public relations:
knowledge model, in which professionalisation
develops from expertise, with a commitment to
both the client and society;
status model, whereby an organised elite secure
power and autonomy;
competition model, which focuses on the clients
demands and evaluation in competition with other
professionals; and
personality model, which is suggested as the devel-
opment of experts who build a reputation with cli-
ents by virtue of expertise and personal charisma.
She finds that the knowledge model is strongly rep-
resented in US literature, with the competition model
endorsed by others, although she points out that the
first is over-reliant on the body of knowledge, while
23/03/2017 13:08
 252 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
the second leads to confused identity she argues that
public relations needs a professional brand. None
of this discussion has prevented PR practitioners and
some academics referring throughout to the profes-
sion, whether it technically qualifies or not. It might
be suggested, then, that the term doesnt really matter
much, if everyone uses it anyway. On the one hand,
Hutton (1999, 2001) considers that public relations fail-
ure to identify its core concept threatens its very survival,
especially as its closest rival, marketing, is much clearer
about what it is as a discipline. On the other hand, pub-
lic relations continues to flourish, according to industry
statistics (CIPR 2016b) with only 20 per cent of practi-
tioners surveyed expressing concern about redundancy
and indications of growth, particularly in agencies and
consultancies. What do you think?
The argument for exploring the term professional
more deeply, not just using it as shorthand, is that the
older meaning emphasises ethics. There is a danger that
this gets lost when professional merely comes to mean
well-dressed, or carrying a briefcase. So, what are pro-
fessional ethics?
Professional ethics: an
overview
For the first half of the twentieth century, profes-
sional ethics focused on the specific conflicts facing
particular professions, such as patient confidential-
ity or accounting procedures following the trait
approach discussed earlier (Cooper 2004). Then wider
reading of classical philosophy introduced ethics that
focus on the consequences of actions or the duty of
professionals to clients, patients or society generally
or, more often, an ad-hoc combination of both. Most
discussion of professional ethics concentrates on the
relative merits of consequentialist and deontologi-
cal approaches, as developed by Bentham and Kant,
respectively (Lefkowitz 2003), which are discussed
below. Cooper (2004) distinguishes between justifica-
tion discourse, the reasons offered to support ethical
principles at a philosophical level, and application
discourse, the attempt to implement ethical principles
in action. The next section is about the first of these,
digging a bit deeper than is common in PR ethics to
find where the ethical ideas we use (or ignore) spring
from. It is also worth pointing out that some commen-
tators dismiss the whole concept of professional ethics,
stating that they exist simply to promote professional
membership organisations, not to improve standards.
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 252
Utilitarianism/consequentialism
This approach was developed by Bentham and Mill
in the nineteenth century and concerns making ethical
choices that will maximise the good for the majority.
Bentham (17481832) stated that happiness was the
highest human goal and that decisions that enhanced
general, rather than individual, human happiness must
be ethical. This approach underpins many modern
business practices but can be used to justify deception
(if the truth were known, wed go out of business and
then everyone would be unhappy) or the victimisation
of smaller or less powerful groups (the customers pre-
fer being served by men, so we dont employ women).
And, on an individual basis, how often have you told
a friend he/she has a great figure/haircut/partner just
to keep them happy?
It concentrates on the effects or outcomes of ethical
decisions should you abandon a sick member of a
group when escaping danger if that improves the sur-
vival chances for the rest? Should you immunise all
babies against measles because the chances of a reac-
tion to the jab are tiny compared to the health risks of
measles? There are dangers that minority interests will
get squashed by the needs of the majority, and also that
ethical decisions will be reduced to mathematical cal-
culus. Lucas (2005: 41) suggests that utilitarian think-
ing has infiltrated all levels of public decision making,
through the widespread use of economic methods such
as cost benefit analysis.
Deontology
The eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant
(17241804) argued that members of society have a
range of duties (deontology) that we are all obliged
Picture 13.1 Ethical dilemmas for public relations
practitioners include deciding whether to represent
controversial companies, brands or sectors, such as the
tobacco industry (source: Robert Landau/Alamy Images)
23/03/2017 13:08

to carry out, regardless of consequences. He also sug-
gested we should behave as if our actions were subject
to a universal law, and not make rules that apply only
to us. He called this duty the categorical imperative,
so that if its OK for you to copy something from
a friends assignment, then its OK for everyone.
He also says that we should treat others as ends in
themselves that is, not as a means of getting some-
thing we want. This approach places a high value on
honesty and respect and resembles the fundamental
laws of many faiths, including the Golden Rule to
Do Unto Others as You would be Done By (Cooper
2004: 221). The difficulty with this approach is that
it assumes high ideals beat in the breasts of all and
offers no help when confronted with two conflicting
duties. For example, a friend tells you, in absolute
confidence, that she/he is cheating on their partner,
who later asks you to tell him/her the truth. Do you
break a promise or tell a lie?
Situationist ethics
This approach combines consequentialist and deon-
tological approaches by starting from the specifics of
the ethical dilemma, before evaluating both principle
and likely outcomes. This is sometimes called contin-
gency ethics (Curtin and Boynton 2001), and a series
of social psychological experiments have demonstrated
the degree to which individual ethical behaviour is
influenced by circumstances, such as a pleasant aroma
(Appiah 2008). However, as Day et al. (2001) point
out, it is often confused with situational ethics, which
is a kind of anything goes approach, suggesting a
reluctance to engage with underlying ethical principles.
Discourse ethics
Discourse ethics is based in the idea of equal access to
ethical debate and decision-making, founded in Haber-
mas (1989) theory of dialogic communication. These
principles have been summarised as:
participants must have an equal chance to initiate
and maintain discourse;
participants must have an equal chance to make
challenges, explanations or interpretations;
interaction among participants must be free of
manipulations, domination or control; and
participants must be equal with respect to power.
(Burleson and Kline 1979, cited in
Day et al. 2001: 408.)
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 253
Chapter 13Public relations professionalism and ethics 253
Like the earlier descriptions, discourse ethics
requires a process of reasoning and argument to ensure
equality of access for all parties a requirement not
often found in contemporary professional practice
(Curtin and Boynton 2001).
Virtue ethics
In recent years, virtue ethics, as described by MacIntyre
(1984) and others, has had a considerable impact on
the field of professional ethics. The virtue approach is
particularly useful in its lack of reliance on external
rules or codes to prescribe acceptable ethical behav-
iour, relying instead on character and reflection and
making it an agent-based ethics. The main ideas are
summarised as:
an action is right if, and only if, it is what an agent
with a virtuous character would do in the circum-
stances (this is sometimes turned into a game of
what would Madonna/Ghandi/Jesus/Obama/
Jay-Z do?);
goodness is prior to rightness (trying to be good
is a better moral guide than trying to do the right
thing);
the virtues are irreducibly plural intrinsic goods
(there isnt a best virtue);
the virtues are objectively good (that is, honesty and
justice are not subjective);
some intrinsic goods are agent-relative (but some
people will value some virtues more highly than
others); and
acting rightly does not require that we maximise
the good (we aim to do the best possible in the
circumstances, not to be perfect).
(Based on Oakley and Cocking 2001)
Aristotle uses the term phronesis to describe prac-
tical wisdom, which results not from being right but
from finding a midpoint between extremes, so that
courage lies somewhere between cowardice and reck-
lessness, for example. The influence of virtue ethics
on professional ethics has led to much examination of
concepts such as integrity, transparency and authen-
ticity in contemporary professional practice, with dif-
ferent authors championing particular virtues. For
example, Kultgen (1988: 352) decides that care and
justice are the most salient virtues to professions and
he describes the ideal professional as a moral person
[who] refuses to be an agent in an immoral enterprise
or to use immoral means in a legitimate one.
23/03/2017 13:08
 254 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
Explore 13.1
For a fascinating and lively introduction to ethics, see
Michael Sandels videos at http://www.justiceharvard.
org/. He is Professor of Ethics at Harvard University,
and these films show him engaging with students on
ethical dilemmas.
Other approaches
There are other approaches to professional eth-
ics, drawing on Confucianism, social identity the-
ory, postmodern and feminist approaches. Many
of these seek to move away from Anglo-American
approaches and find some universal, globally appli-
cable approach. For example, Benhabib (1992) takes
a postmodern approach and rejects universal claims
to truth, arguing that concepts of reality are socially
constructed. Feminist scholars particularly challenge
the reliance on rationality as the ground for ethical
decision making and the absence of emotional bases
for moral judgement. Cooper (2004: 34) outlines six
possible principles of universal morality, which he
summarises as:
1. Ethical egoism: Everyone ought to act to promote
his or her own best interest.
2. Utilitarianism: Everyone ought to act to promote
the greatest amount of happiness for everyone.
3. Natural Rights Theory: Everyone ought to act in
accordance with everyones inalienable, indefeasi-
ble natural rights.
4. Social Contract Theory: Everyone ought to act
in accordance with the principles that would be
chosen if free and equal rational people were to
enter a social contract to establish a moral com-
munity.
5. Kantian Duty Ethics: Everyone ought to always
treat people as ends unto themselves and never use
them as a means only.
6. Discourse Ethics: Just those action norms are
valid to which all possible affected persons could
agree as participants in rational discourses.
Increasingly, new voices in professional ethics are
challenging the traditional reliance still present in
Coopers list on rational decision-making and proce-
dural systems for ethics, calling for greater reliance on
internal values rather than external codes.
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 254
Explore 13.2
Codes of ethics
Compare the codes of ethics that you can find at the
following locations:
CIPR (www.cipr.org)
Global PR (www.globalalliancepr.org)
PRIA (www.pria.com.au)
PRSA (www.prsa.org)
Feedback
Now compare the codes under the following head-
ings:
Language do the same terms keep cropping up?
Dos and Donts what differences are there
between what they advise against? For example,
do some codes mention refusing bribes?
Best practice do they describe ideal behaviour?
Culture/nationality are there differences that
stem from the culture of the code-writers? If so,
how does that affect global codes?
Moral claims do the codes claim the profession
makes a moral contribution to society?
The ethics of codes
The primary tool upholding and enhancing social mores
for most professional bodies is their code of conduct
as Abbott (1983: 856) says, ethics codes are the most
concrete cultural form in which professions acknowl-
edge their societal obligations, but it is questionable
whether they also play a part in determining the ethical
behaviour of those they govern. Freidson (2001) sug-
gests that professional codes fall into three types of
obligation: (a) obey law/regulations; (b) practice com-
petently; and (c) reflect values in behaviour, such as
care and trust. Generally, codes involve seeking to do
good, reducing harm, being fair to individuals, respect-
ing their autonomy and behaving with integrity in line
with the professions aims and values (Rowson 2006).
However, despite these laudable claims, some say that
the main function of codes of practice is to improve the
reputation of the professional organisation rather than
change the behaviour of members. Kultgen (1988: 120)
suggests that this may be because the Urmythos from
which all of the myths in the professional mythology
23/03/2017 13:08

Explore 13.3
Philosophical approaches to ethical
dilemmas
How do you think a consequentialist and a deontolo-
gist would respond to the following scenario?
You work for a large pharmaceutical company that has
been developing a new male contraceptive. But the
latest laboratory results suggest some cases of cancer
in rats. Do you:
Deny the results, because the companys bound to
get it right eventually
Deny the results, because the company could go
bust if word gets out
Prepare to answer questions from the media, but
only for use if word leaks out
Prepare a press release announcing the setback
Resign
Leak the information to the media.
Feedback
How do you make ethical decisions? By thinking or
feeling? Who do you discuss them with, if anyone?
What influences your decisions?
spring is that professions are oriented to the service of
humanity. Many codes reflect this sense of duty but,
as Rowson (2006: 52) comments:
Portraying ethics in the professions as obedience to
rules can have undesirable effects...As regulatory this school, overall the project tends to focus on codes
codes have proliferated in recent years, and as
examples of unethical behaviour in professions
have increasingly made the headlines, the cry has
gone up that what is needed is fewer rules and a
greater sense of individual moral responsibility
among professionals.
Approaches to public relations
ethics
In previous writing (Fawkes 2007, 2010), public rela-
tions theory has been summarised as falling into the
following loose groupings: (a) Excellence; (b) advo-
cacy; (c) relationship management; and (d) critical
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 255
Chapter 13Public relations professionalism and ethics 255
theory. This is not a perfect way of organising the
field (Macnamara (2012) points out that it omits the
information role), but it allows us to see how differ-
ent approaches to public relations ethics are based in
competing ways of looking at PR.
Excellence
The Excellence project, based in systems theory and
developed in quantitative longitudinal studies (Grunig
et al. 1992, 2007), seeks to measure the dimensions of
best practice both in its country of origin (USA) and
worldwide. Here the practitioner is mainly described as
a boundary spanner, linking external publics to organ-
isational strategic communications. This role achieves
its highest level in two-way symmetric communication
when the full range of negotiating and diplomatic skills
is used to secure positive outcomes for all parties: In
the two-way symmetric model... practitioners serve
as mediators between organisations and their publics.
Their goal is mutual understanding between practitio-
ners and their publics. (Grunig and Hunt 1984: 22).
This level is the only one that is seen as inherently ethi-
cal, meaning that the Excellence approach to ethics
relies on structural issues. It is difficult, if not impos-
sible, to practice public relations in a way that is ethical
and socially responsible using an asymmetrical model
(Grunig et al. 1992: 175). Other scholars disagree; for
example, Porter (2010: 127) suggests the Grunigian
approach limits discussion of public relations to output
rather than outcome, and that a post-symmetrical the-
ory requires a reorientation towards audiences rather
than organisations.
Although there are writers who tackle ethics within
and idealised or excellent behaviour, particularly
regarding duty to client and society. For example,
Bowen (2007: 275) writes about Kant and the Excel-
lence approach, finding that ethics is a single excel-
lent factor and the common underpinning of all factors
that predict excellent public relations. She concludes
that public relations is serving a larger and more ethi-
cally responsible role by communicating for the good
of society, both for the benefit of specific groups and
for the maintenance of society itself (p. 279). The tone
throughout promotes the ethical contribution of public
relations without addressing issues of propaganda and
persuasion discussed earlier in the text. This view is
explicitly founded in the Durkheim view of professions
as maintaining social order.
Parkinson (2001) notes that the Public Relations
Society of America (PRSA) code of ethics is based
23/03/2017 13:08
 256 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
on the Excellence model and has influenced codes
around the world. However, he concludes that such
codes are designed more to improve the reputation of
the profession than to control its standards of behav-
iour, echoing other critics of professional claims to
ethical standards. Breit and Demetrious (2010) also
report that practitioners in New Zealand support the
existence of a code of conduct but rarely consult it for
guidance in ethical issues.
Advocacy
This model recognises that public relations often plays
a more asymmetrical or persuasive role than is cov-
ered by the boundary spanner. Here the PR person is
seen as similar to a lawyer (known as advocate in the
US). Some writers, such as Fitzpatrick and Bronstein
(2006), argue that all organisations are entitled to have
a voice.
Marketplace theory is predicated, first on the exis-
tence of an objective truth that will emerge from a
cacophony of voices promoting various interests, sec-
ond on a marketplace in which all citizens have the
right, and perhaps the means, to be both heard and
informed, and third, on the rational ability of people
to discern truth (Fitzpatrick 2006: 4). It is strongly
USA-based, claiming the First Amendment (Freedom
of Speech) as inspiration. The question of whether
debate always leads to truth is not addressed. Indeed,
this approach is fairly uncritical of the free market,
but does recognise the need for awareness of factors
such as access, process, truth and disclosure. This is
where debates about the ethics of withholding damag-
ing information from the media are often located.
A deeper approach to advocacy is based on rhetori-
cal theory (Toth and Heath 1992; Heath 2001; Porter
2010), which addresses the role of persuasion in com-
munication, dating back to Aristotle and strongly
linked to concepts of democracy. Here the image is of
the speechmaker seeking to persuade fellow citizens
to a point of view. The communicator uses words and
symbols to influence the perceptions of others, with
varying outcomes. The roles of speaker, audience,
the choice of message and the dynamics and charac-
teristics of each provides the focus of study. These
writers have examined the ethics of public relations
at depth; for example, Heath (2007) compares ethics
in the Excellence and advocacy approaches, noting
Grunigs (2001) acceptance that not all ethical dialogue
can be symmetrical or there would be no room for
debate. Rather, argues Heath, ethical advocacy requires
equal access to the structures and platforms of debate.
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 256
Porter (2010: 128129) goes further, suggesting that
public relations is rhetoric and that rhetoric provides
a framework for ethical public relations, illustrating
the earlier point that each theory of PR has its own
ethical approach.
Virtue ethics has made a considerable impact on
rhetorical public relations, which is not surprising
as they both stem from the work of Aristotle. For
example, Harrison and Galloways (2005: 14) analy-
sis of the public relations practitioners roles found
that virtue ethics can explain, in a way that codes-
based approaches do not, how good people can be
led into acting badly because they care for the wrong
person or organisation. Edgett (2002) proposes ten
principles for ethical advocacy, whereas Baker and
Martinson (2002) suggest five principles, which
they call the TARES test (Truthfulness, Authentic-
ity, Respect, Equity and Social Responsibility), both
drawing on virtue ethics (see Think about13.1). As
outlined earlier, this approach addresses the personal-
ity of the communicator and asks them to reflect on
their own motives and behaviours, shifting the focus
from action to agent.
Relationship management
Audiences move to centre-stage in relationship the-
ory, which conceptualises public relations profes-
sionals as negotiating a complex set of relationships
inside and outside client or employer organisa-
tions (Ledingham and Bruning 2001). It identifies
the elements that make up a positive relationship,
such as control mutuality, trust, satisfaction, com-
mitment, exchange relationship and communal
relationship (Hon and Grunig 1999). Unlike the
Think about 13.2
Lobbying
The views of Haley Court in Mini case study 13.1 and
Craig Pearce in Box 13.2 later in this chapter illustrate
how debates on advocacy affect PR practitioners.
There is a real ethical tension between representing
your client or employer and distorting the facts. In
2016, US PR organisations campaigned to prevent
New Yorks top ethics committee describing the
attempt to influence journalists to write favourably
about a client or product as lobbying (Renfree 2016).
23/03/2017 13:08

organisation-centred perspective of systems theory
approaches to public relations, it takes the stand-
point of the publics (Leitch and Neilson 2001), which
may be due partially to cultural and technological
shifts that have empowered publics and facilitated
international dialogue and/or coalitions (Jahansoozi
2006). The ethics of relationship management seem
underexplored, particularly in the lack of a devel-
oped theory of relationship dialogue. An emerg-
ing theme in PR ethics is ethical dialogue (Day et
al. 2001; Kent and Taylor 2002), although Pieczka
(2010) suggests that, although many public relations
scholars have stressed the centrality of dialogue to
the field, there has only been superficial engagement
with dialogic theory unlike related disciplines such
as political science and organisational communica-
tion, which have developed a range of techniques
and applications that have changed their practice. In
contrast, she says, there is very little in public rela-
tions scholarship to help the discipline think about
how dialogue can become an expert communication
skill (p. 117).
Interestingly, while discourse ethics is applied to
public relations (Day et al. 2001), this is not located in
the context of relationship management, which might
appear a natural home. Discourse ethics rests on the
notion of equal access to ethical debate and decision-
making, as discussed earlier in this chapter. Curtin and
Boynton (2001) explore how Habermas discourse
ethics has been applied to public relations by Pearson
(1989) and Leeper (1996), particularly in attempts to
construct procedures that will allow everyone taking
part to communicate equally. However, as they point
out, this rules out advocacy approaches and requires
rational application of procedural rules, which are
more likely to be observed in theory than practice.
Critical theory
Critical approaches, including postmodernism, politi-
cal economy and, at the outer reaches, propaganda
studies, are sceptical of the PR role. LEtang sum-
marises this grouping as an interdisciplinary approach
that seeks to define assumptions that are taken-for-
granted with a view to challenging their source and
legitimacy (2005: 521). Critical writers scrutinise the
power dynamics of organisations and their publics and
often reveal persistent involvement of PR practitio-
ners in propaganda and deception, past and present.
While the previously covered models share an opti-
mistic view of public relations contribution to democ-
racy and tend to minimise the role of propaganda in
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 257
Chapter 13Public relations professionalism and ethics 257
the formation of the field (Moloney 2000; Fawkes
2006), critical scholars are more sceptical (LEtang
2004; Moloney 2006; Weaver et al. 2006; Fawkes
and Moloney 2008). Public relations greatest critics,
Stauber and Rampton (2004) in the US and Miller
and Dinan (2008) in the UK, highlight how PR firms
distort the democratic process, by fake grass-roots
campaigns (astroturfing) or planting questions in press
conferences masquerading as journalists. However,
they provide little insight into what might constitute
legitimate public relations, and they tend to conflate
bad corporate business interests with communica-
tion, without considering the PR activities of good
voluntary, charity or trade union groups.
Critical scholars have written about ethics from
a broad perspective, looking at how PR functions
in society: for example, Curtin and Boynton (2001)
provide a critical overview of PR ethics and LEtang
(2003) raises serious reservations about the public
relations function as the ethical conscience of the
organisation, given the lack of moral philosophy
in the educational or training backgrounds of most
practitioners. Many others have written about PRs
origins in propaganda and the challenges this presents
for ethics, especially those who see corporate PR as a
kind of abuse of power. Yet, overall, critical scholars
tend to talk more about social, political or economic
theory than ethical issues, which may be explained
by Kerstens (1994) comment that a critical perspec-
tive on the ethics of PR maintains that the question
of ethics cannot be examined without exploring
the social context in which PR practice takes place
(cited in Bowen et al. 2006: 126). Curtin and Gaither
(2005) do, however, move from critique to construc-
tion, with a proposal for the circuit of culture as a
new framework for public relations scholarship. This
borrows concepts from cultural and sociological writ-
ers and shows how a circuit of moments (made up
of representation, identity, production, consumption
and regulation) offers a powerful model of interre-
lated, continuing, process-based communication with
strong foundations in and implications for public
relations. This model places ethics under the regula-
tory heading, encouraging PR ethics to move away
from focusing on codes and reflect on what meanings
codes have as cultural artefacts... for example, ethics
codes may play quite different roles in different cul-
tures...[and] in constructing the identities of public
relations practitioners and the profession (Curtin and
Gaither 2005: 104).
This comment highlights the impact different ways
of looking at PR might have on PR ethics, as this
chapter has illustrated. Bowen and Erzikova (2013)
23/03/2017 13:08
 258 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts

Picture 13.2 Some writers challenge public relations for distorting the democratic process. This accusation has been
levelled at PR firms, who have been accused of developing fake grass-roots campaigns (astroturfing), or planting
questions in press conferences by PR people masquerading as journalists

found that US and European public relations educa-

tors in ethics took very different approaches to teach-
ing ethics. The former stressed professional codes and
working with practitioners; the latter explored the
philosophical underpinnings of ethical theories. The
circuit of culture helps situate these different responses
and their implications for practice. Also considered is
how ethical identities are formed in public relations,
contrasting the idealised version of PR promoted by
some academics with the demonic view suggested by
critics, and concluding that we are both saints and
sinners (Fawkes 2012).
Interestingly, Tilley (2005: 31315) combines the
above approaches to ethical PR as follows:
Ethical intent (input) concerns the planning stages
and draws on virtue ethics in its intention to do good;
Ethical means in the enactment/outputs of the
communication takes place within a deontological
frame (as legal, obeying codes etc.); and
Ethical outcomes can be viewed in their
consequences.
This is appealingly neat but suggests that ethical
approaches are partial and can be swapped for other
Think about 13.3
Practitioners ethical roles
How do you see PR people as bridge builders, nego-
tiating between groups, or like lawyers, arguing for
their clients?
Do you think these images imply different ethical
approaches?
What if practitioners play both (and other) roles?
Does it matter if their ethical approach changes in
different situations?
Feedback
Many core textbooks portray PR people as ethical
guardians with strong commitment to social values;
practitioners often describe themselves as hacks for
hire, with primary loyalty to the client. The next sec-
tion (The practitioner perspective) explores this ten-
sion further.

M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 258 23/03/2017 13:08


frameworks mid-activity, as if ethics are a set of inter-
changeable decision-making tools, rather than spring-
ing from philosophical questions such as how to be in
the world. In contrast, Holtzhausen (2012: 33) takes
a postmodern approach to ethics, whereby there can
never be a justification for moral codes or sets of ethi-
cal rules because they are all socially constructed and
therefore serve some hidden purpose in society. This
new book is an important contribution to PR ethics
and brings overdue ideas from philosophy and culture
into PR scholarship.
The practitioner perspective
Most of the ideas described so far have come from
philosophers and public relations academics. So
what do PR people think about ethics? These com-
ments are taken from a debate in the UK in 2007 (see
Box13.1), worldwide research in 2006 and a 2011
blog post from a UK PR practitioner. (For an even
more recent blog post from an Australian practitio-
ner, see Box13.2.)
Box 13.1
PR does NOT have a
duty to tell the truth
In 2007, the University of Westminster organised a
debate on PR ethics. The motion PR has a duty to
tell the truth was defeated by 138 to 124 votes, and,
according to commentators, the winning arguments
(put forward by PR academic Goldsworthy and lead-
ing publicist Max Clifford) were that public relations
professionals have a primary duty to clients not the
truth, and that media hostility made it impossible for
clients to tell the truth. The debate was covered in the
UK PR trade magazine, PRWeek, the Chartered Institute
of Public Relations (CIPR) newsletter and various other
blogs from the UK and USA (kindly supplied by Simon
Goldsworthy). Their comments illustrate the tension
referred to earlier between the advocate and Excel-
lence roles:
Are you telling the truth by creating a campaign
that highlights the amazing focus of customer care
and philanthropic nature of a client...and leav-
ing out pending lawsuits by upset clients, former
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 259
Chapter 13Public relations professionalism and ethics 259
The IABC report, The Business of Truth: A guide
to ethical communication (Bowen et al. 2006), sur-
veyed just under 2000 mostly senior practitioners in
North America, New Zealand, Israel and Australia, as
well as qualitative interviews and focus groups. The
research found a sizeable proportion of respondents
rejected the ethical counsellor role, feeling that was
the province of the legal department or the board
itself particularly where communications were not
represented at board level. The research also found
that, although many wished to be considered as ethi-
cal counsellors, there was very little training in ethical
theory or practice. One respondent is quoted as say-
ing: Its simple stuff. Fundamentally youre either a
good person or youre not (p. 8). On the other hand,
another respondent commented, My job is filled with
ethical issues. Who we are, what weve done, what
wed like to do, and what do we want to do in the
future, which is echoed by another, I do ethics stuff
all the time they just dont call it that (p. 9). The
report stresses that ethics matters because of its rela-
tionship to communication credibility, organisational
reputation and relationships to publics (p. 13), but
that practitioners are ill-equipped to participate fully
employees and product defects? (Comment on
blog, Jarvis, n.d. 2007.)
I was dismayed. Truth and integrity have to be the
cornerstones of our profession if we are to have any
credibility with the media and the wider world. (Peter
Crumpler, Director of Communication, Church of
England, PRWeek, 21 February 2007.)
The victorious Clifford insisted that lying was
sometimes necessary to achieve the greater good.
(PRWeek, 21 February 2007.)
I hope any CIPR members in the audience were
aware of the requirements of the Code and that they
had voted accordingly. (CIPR President, Lionel Zetter,
from his blog, cited in Goldsworthy 2007: 5.)
To survive as a useful marketing tool, it is a necessity
that PR should be seen as a truthful medium: if we
cannot rescue our reputation for honesty, we have
no commercial future. ( John Mounsey, Director, Trail
Communications, Letter, PRWeek, 9 March 2007.)
The fact that PR people admit they need to lie occa-
sionally is a sign of growing honesty and confidence
in what they do. (Daniel Rogers, Opinion, PRWeek,
21 February 2007.)
Industry maxim: ethical PR consultancy = small PR
consultancy (Goldsworthy 2007: 5.)
23/03/2017 13:08
 260 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
Box 13.2
A practitioners view
ofPR ethics
The following blog entry was posted on 11 January 2012
by Australian Strategic PR Practitioner Craig Pearce and
is reproduced with permission. It is worth comparing this
practitioners point of view with that expressed by Hayley
Court in Mini case study 13.1.
The primary code of ethics I refer to is my own moral
compass. In most cases there is a clear right or wrong
way to go about business activity. But, of course, that
is subjective and dependant on each individuals own
moral perspectives, which will of course (and thank-
fully) vary.
PR as an industry is not legally bound to a code of ethics,
though industry associations such as the Public Relations
Institute of Australia (of which I am both a member and
supporter) has one and requires its members to apply its
principles. The PRIA cant do much about practitioners
that dont apply it, however, except boot them out of the
association.
The ethics of balancing organisational
and stakeholder interests
In regard to balancing the interests of all organisational
stakeholders, in the real world of business and PR, some-
times there are times when it is appropriate (and there
is an opportunity) to look at stakeholders interests and
sometimes there isnt.
I always, however, consider if there is, or is likely to be,
a need to consider stakeholder needs and wants. And
if there is, I definitely counsel an organisation on what
these perspectives might be, potentially recommend pro-
active engagement or market research and, dependent
on the results, design appropriate communication and
engagement strategies.
This includes prompting the organisation to change
the way it goes about its business and/or operations, as
well as the way it communicates and engages with its
stakeholders.
But getting organisations to consider the interests of others
is a long-term game. It doesnt happen overnight and
it almost always involves short-term pain. Motivating
organisations to embrace multiple perspectives is one
of our professions greatest challenges and, as a result,
one of our greatest rewards.
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 260
PR has a responsibility, and the ability, to incorporate
the views of all relevant stakeholders into the way an
organisation operates. And as corporations run the
world, not governments, it is imperative they take on
the broadest possible modes of operating that benefit
society as a whole, not just narrowly segmented ele-
ments of it.
Where does PRs loyalty lie?
Because a communicator is employed by an organisa-
tion, he or she has first and, arguably, overriding respon-
sibility to them. However, we all live in society and have
a broader responsibility, as well. So its not a simplistic
equation.
Truth and honesty are values I hold in high esteem.
I dont support the transmission of false messages,
though often it is not black and white. If you focus on
the positives and not the negatives, to a large degree that
is acceptable. But approach life-threatening areas such
as cigarette smoking and speeding cars with a gung-ho
focus on positive messaging and the woods get very
murky indeed.
I once worked for an organisation that, whilst it didnt
support cigarettes per se, supported the sale of them
because they are a legal product. Now, in many ways
this is fair enough. If they are legal, why shouldnt you be
allowed to sell them (bearing in mind the issue of under-
age smokers etc.)?
But, as someone with strong anti-smoking industry views,
I never felt comfortable about this specific moral posi-
tioning, so I was relieved to stop working for the client.
Ive also refused to work for a gambling organisation and
have knocked back opportunities to work directly for a
cigarette manufacturer.
Ive not been asked by an employer to work on an
account I considered to be ethically dubious, thank good-
ness. I have found my personal stances on issues such as
gambling to be respected.
On the other hand, I have proudly worked for a nuclear
science and technology organisation that, yes, produced
nuclear waste that is a danger to the environment.
And Ive worked with organisations that produce coal-
fired electricity and have found that morally justifiable
as well.
Like I said, we each have our own moral compass and
perspectives.
23/03/2017 13:08

Whether its PR or any other industry, if you are asked to
work in a field you are not ethically comfortable with,
then you really need to get out of there ASAP, financial
considerations notwithstanding. If it comes to a choice
of earning money whilst detesting yourself for the choice
you have made, or the opposite, to me the correct
choice is clear.
I have actually left an organisation where I felt the culture
was wrong and the reason I felt the culture was wrong
was based on ethical issues. I just didnt like the way
the owner of the company treated people and as that
in such roles due to inadequate training and lack of
discussion on such issues by employers. Paul Seaman is
an experienced practitioner who writes regular articles
on issues of practice and theory; in his essay A new
moral agenda for PR (Seaman 2011) he attacks the
concept of ethical guardian, suggesting that the idea
of PRs as moral keepers of their organisation (p .6) is
rather grand. Indeed, he says that Grunig, in common
with many PR thinkers, mistakenly believes that PR
is about establishing mutual understanding between
publics and clients. Actually, PR is about advocacy
on behalf of clients. (p. 8). He also notes the export
of Grunigian views of the world to the development
of stakeholder doctrine, CSR, sustainability and as
embedded in the Stockholm Accords all of which
he sees as falsely claiming to serve social rather than
corporate or shareholder interests. These views echo
Milton Friedmans approach to corporate responsibil-
ity, but also raise interesting questions about the role
and image of the practitioner.
Final thoughts
Based on experience of writing a thesis, a book and
many articles on this subject, it is suggested that stu-
dents and practitioners can ask themselves some simple
everyday questions when considering the ethics of a
situation.
Am I comfortable with this decision? If not, why
not? Is it because my pride/self-image/security is
threatened or do I fear harm will come from it?
Am I prepared to raise this discomfort? If not,
why not? Am I in a position of power or power-
lessness? Am I abusing that position/abdicating
responsibility?
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 261
Chapter 13Public relations professionalism and ethics 261
person wasnt going to change, I felt I had no choice
but to move on as, by staying there, I would have been
implicitly supporting a way of dealing with people I
found unacceptable.
What have been your ethical challenges as a public rela-
tions professional? Have you been in situations similar
to the ones I recount above? Do you consider the eth-
ics of an organisation before and whilst you work for it?
Have you had any successes or frustrations in influencing
what you consider the ethical dimensions for organisa-
tions you have worked for?
Think about 13.4
Feedback solving ethical
dilemmas
To help the practitioner facing dilemmas such as those
in Explore 13.1, Baker and Martinson (2002) have put
together five principles to act as guiding principles for
ethical persuasive public relations, which they call the
TARES test:
1. Truthfulness the commitment to honesty in
communication
2. Authenticity relates to personal and profes-
sional integrity
3. Respect for the rights of your audience
4. Equity relates to fairness, not manipulation
5. Social responsibility awareness of the effects of
communication on the wider society.
Feedback
Are these still rather idealistic ways of describing PR
practice? How do they relate to what Craig Pearce
says in Box 13.2?
Who do I blame for ethical failures? What does this
say about me?
Is there a safe forum for expressing doubts? If not
why not?
And if that is too hard, then somewhere in the hurly
burly of every day practice, to draw breath, check their
own inner responses and have the courage to pause and
ask: are we sure about this? (Fawkes 2015).
23/03/2017 13:08
 262 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
Summary
This chapter has explored some of the confusion sur-
rounding professional ethics in general, and public rela-
tions ethics in particular. It suggests that the confusion
is made worse because different ways of looking at PR
imply different ethics, but that these differences are hid-
den rather than explored. The chapter has shown that
the gap between the idealistic ethical guardian image
contained in some Excellence writing and the views of
practitioners is very wide. It has also demonstrated that
there are ways of considering professional ethics, such as
postmodernist approaches, which are only just coming
into PR debates (Holtzhausen 2012). Most PR ethics is still
reliant on procedural, structural and rational approaches,
Bibliography
Abbott, A. (1983). Professional ethics. The American
Journal of Sociology 88(5): 85585.
Appiah, A. (2008). Experiments in Ethics. Cambridge,
London: Harvard University Press.
Baker, S. and D.L. Martinson (2002). Out of the red-light
district: five principles for ethically proactive public
relations. Public Relations Quarterly 47(3): 1519.
Benhabib, S. (1992). Situating the Self: Gender, commu-
nity, and postmodernism in contemporary ethics. New
York, NY: Routledge.
Bivins, T.H. (1992). Public relations, professionalism,
and the public interest. Journal of Business Ethics
12(2): 117126.
Bowen, S.A. (2007). The extent of ethics in The Future
of Excellence in Public Relations and Communication
Management. E.L. Toth (ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
Bowen, S.A. and Erzikova, E. (2013). The international
divide in public relations ethics education: advocacy
versus autonomy. Public Relations Journal 7(1).
Bowen, S.A., R.L. Heath, J. Lee, G. Painter, F.J. Agraz, D.
McKie and M. Toledano (2006). The Business of Truth:
A guide to ethical communication. San Francisco, CA:
International Association of Business Communicators.
Breit, R. and K. Demetrious (2010). Professionalisation
and public relations: an ethical mismatch. Ethical
Space 7(4): 209.
Broadbent, J., M. Dietrich and J. Roberts (1997). The End
of the Professions? The restructuring of professional
work. London: Routledge.
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 262
with little discussion of where an individual might look
for internal guidance, rather than more rules. Virtue eth-
ics does open this debate to a certain extent, but can still
end up as a competition for best practice. Codes have
been shown to be empty not only in PR, but in pro-
fessions generally. There is an argument in the field for
encouraging greater reflection in individual profession-
als and in professional associations. Instead of looking
for rules or accepting situations that feel wrong but are
legal, perhaps practitioners need to learn to trust their
discomfort. It takes courage to listen to ones own unease,
to say are we sure about this action/policy?. Without
such reflection, it is hard to see how PR can earn back lost
trust. It is new practitioners, graduates from educational
and professional qualifications, who will shape this future.
CIPR (2016a) CIPR applauds condemnation of spin,
news release, 6 May 2016. http://newsroom.cipr.
co.uk/cipr-applauds-condemnation-of-spin/ accessed
May 12 2016.
CIPR (2016b). State of PR, http://www.cipr.co.uk/sites/
default/files/CIPR_StateofPR_16.pdf accessed 12 May
2016
Conn, D. (2016). South Yorkshire police tried to spin
evidence at Hillsborough inquests, The Guard-
ian, 5 May 2016, https://www.theguardian.
com/football/2016/may/05/south-yorkshire-police-
tried-to-spin-evidence-at-hillsborough-inquests,
accessed 7 May 2016.
Cooper, D.E. (2004). Ethics for Professionals in a Mul-
ticultural World. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice
Hall.
Curtin, P.A. and L.A. Boynton (2001). Ethics in public
relations: theory and practice in The Handbook of
Public Relations. R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Curtin, P.A. and T.K. Gaither (2005). Privileging identity,
difference and power: The circuit of culture as a basis
for public relations theory. Journal of Public Rela-
tions Research 17(2): 91115.
Day, K.D., Q. Dong and C. Robins (2001). Public rela-
tions ethics: an overview and discussion of issues for
the 21st century in The Handbook of Public Rela-
tions. R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Dent, M. and S. Whitehead (2002). Managing Profes-
sional Identities: Knowledge, performativity and the
new professional. London: Routledge.
Durkheim, E. (1933). The Division of Labour in Society.
Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
23/03/2017 13:08

Edelman, R. (2012). Edelman Trust Barometer, Execu-
tive Summary. www.scribd.com/doc/79026497/2012-
Edelman-Trust-Barometer-Executive-Summary 3 July
2012.
Edgett, R. (2002). Toward an ethical framework for
advocacy. Journal of Public Relations Research
14(1): 126.
Fawkes, J. (2006). Can ethics save public relations
from the charge of propaganda? Ethical Space 3(1):
3842.
Fawkes, J. (2007). Public relations models and persuasion
ethics: a new approach. Journal of Communication
Management 11(4): 31331.
Fawkes, J. (2010). The shadow of excellence: a Jungian
approach to public relations ethics. Review of Com-
munication 10(3): 21127.
Fawkes, J. and K. Moloney (2008). Does the European
Union (EU) need a propaganda watchdog like the
US Institute of Propaganda Analysis to strengthen
its democratic civil society and free markets? Public
Relations Review 34: 20714.
Fawkes, J. (2012). Saints and sinners: Competing
identities in public relations ethics. Public Rela-
tions Review 38(5): 86572. doi:DOI 10.1016/
j.pubrev.2012.07.004
Fawkes, J. (2015). A Jungian conscience: Self-awareness
for public relations practice. Public Relations Review
(3). doi:doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2015.06.005
Fitzpatrick, K. (2006). Baselines for ethical advocacy
in the marketplace of ideas in Ethics in Public
Relations: Responsible advocacy. K. Fitzpatrick and
C. Bronstein (eds). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Fitzpatrick, K. and C. Bronstein (2006). Ethics in Public
Relations: Responsible advocacy. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Freidson, E. (1994). Professionalism Reborn: Theory,
prophecy, and policy. Cambridge: Polity.
Freidson, E. (2001). Professionalism: The third logic.
Cambridge: Polity.
Grunig, J.E. (2001). Two-way symmetrical public rela-
tions: past, present and future in The Handbook of
Public Relations. R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Grunig, J.E. and T. Hunt (1984). Managing Public Rela-
tions. New York, NY; London: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston.
Grunig, J.E., D.M. Dozier, W.P. Ehling, L.A. Grunig, F.C.
Repper and J. White (1992). Excellence in Public
Relations and Communication Management. Hills-
dale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 263
Chapter 13Public relations professionalism and ethics 263
Grunig, J.E., L.A. Grunig and E.L. Toth (2007). The
Future of Excellence in Public Relations and Com-
munication Management: Challenges for the next gen-
eration. London: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Habermas, J. (1989). The Structural Transformation of
the Public Sphere: An inquiry into a category of bour-
geois society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Harrison, K. and C. Galloway (2005). Public relations
ethics: a simpler (but not simplistic) approach to the
complexities. Prism 3.
Heath, R.L. (2001). A rhetorical enactment rationale
for public relations: the good organisation commu-
nicating well in The Handbook of Public Relations.
R.L. Heath and G. Vasquez (eds). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Heath, R.L. (2007). Management through advocacy:
reflection rather than domination in The Future
of Excellence in Public Relations and Communica-
tions Management. J.E. Grunig, E.L. Toth and L.A.
Grunig (eds). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Holtzhausen, D. (2012). Public Relations as Activisim:
Postmodern approaches to theory and practice. New
York, NY: Routledge.
Hon, L.C. and J.E. Grunig (1999). Guidelines for meas-
uring relationships in public relations http://www
.instituteforpr.com
Hutton, J.G. (1999). The definition, dimensions and
domain of public relations. Public Relations Review
25(2): 199214.
Hutton, J.G. (2001). Defining the relationship between
public relations and marketing in The Handbook of
Public Relations. R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Jahansoozi, J. (2006). Relationships, transparency and
evaluation: the implications for public relations in
Public Relations, Critical Debates and Contemporary
Practice. J. LEtang and M. Pieczka (eds). Mahwah,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Kent, M.L. and M. Taylor (2002). Toward a dialogic
theory of public relations. Public Relations Review
14(28): 2137.
Kersten, A. (1994). The ethics and ideology of public
relations: a critical examination of A
merican theory
and practice in Normative aspekte der public rela-
tions. W. Armbrecht and U. Zabel (eds). Opladen,
Germany: Westdeucher Verlag.
Kultgen, J. (1988). Ethics and Professionalism. Philadel-
phia, PA: University of Philadelphia Press.
23/03/2017 13:08
 264 Part 2Public relations theories and concepts
Larson, M.S. (1977). The Rise of Professionalism: A
sociological analysis. Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press.
Ledingham, J.A. and S.D. Bruning (2001). Public Rela-
tions as Relationship Management: A relational
approach to the study and practice of public rela-
tions, 2nd edition. Mahwah, NJ; London: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
Leeper, K.A. (1996). Public relations ethics and commu-
nitarianism, a preliminary investigation. Public Rela-
tions Review 22: 16379.
Lefkowitz, J. (2003). Ethics and Values in Industrial-
organisational Psychology. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
Leitch, S. and D. Neilson (2001). Bringing pub-
lics into public relations: new theoretical frame-
works for practice in The Handbook of Public
Relations. R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
LEtang, J. (2003). The myth of the ethical guard-
ian: an examination of its origins, potency and
illusions. Journal of Communication Management
8(1): 5367.
LEtang, J. (2004). Public Relations in Britain: A h
istory
of professional practice in the twentieth century.
Mahwah, NJ; London: Lawrence Erlbaum.
LEtang, J. (2005). Critical public relations: some reflec-
tions. Public Relations Review 31(4): 52126.
Lucas, P. (2005). Humanising professional ethics in
The Teaching and Practice of Professional Eth-
ics. J. Strain and S. Robinson (eds). Leicester:
Troubador.
MacIntyre, A. (1984). After Virtue: A study in moral
theory, 2nd edition. Notre Dame, IN: University of
Notre Dame Press.
Macnamara, J. (2012). Public Relations, Theories,
Practices, Critiques. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson
Australia.
Miller, D. and W. Dinan (2008). A Century of Spin: How
public relations became the cutting edge of corporate
power. London: Pluto.
Moloney, K. (2000). Rethinking Public Relations: The
spin and the substance. London: Routledge.
Moloney, K. (2006). Rethinking Public Relations: PR
propaganda and democracy, 2nd edition. London:
Routledge.
Oakley, J. and D. Cocking (2001). Virtue Ethics and Pro-
fessional Roles. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 264
Parkinson, M. (2001). The PRSA Code of Professional
Standards and Member Code of Ethics: why they are
neither professional nor ethical. Public Relations
Quarterly 46(3): 2731.
Parsons, T. (1951). The Social System. London: Routledge
and Kegan Paul.
Pearson, R. (1989). Beyond ethical relativism in public
relations: co-orientation, rules and the ideal of com-
munication symmetry in Public Relations Research
Annual, Vol. 1. J.E. Grunig and L.A. Grunig (eds).
Hillside, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Pieczka, M. (2010). Public relations as dialogic exper-
tise? Journal of Communication Management 15(2):
10824.
Pieczka, M. and J. LEtang (2001). Public relations and
the question of professionalism in The Handbook of
Public Relations. R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Porter, L. (2010). Communicating for the good of the
state: a post-symmetrical polemic on persuasion in
ethical public relations. Public Relations Review 36:
12733.
Renfree, M. (2016). PR firms sue to prevent classify-
ing editorial efforts as lobbying, PR News, 17
March 2016. http://www.prnewsonline.com/topics/
media-relations/2016/03/17/pr-firms-sue-to-prevent-
classifying-editorial-efforts-as-lobbying/ accessed 25
March 2016.
Rowson, R. (2006). Working Ethics: How to be fair in a
culturally complex world. London: Jessica Kingsley
Publishers.
Sciulli, D. (2005). Continental sociology of professions
today: conceptual contributions. Current Sociology
53(6): 91542.
Seaman, P. (2011). A new moral agenda for PR. 21st
Century PR Issues, http://paulseaman.eu/wp-content/
uploads/2011/04/a-new-moral-agenda-for-PR1.pdf
accessed July 2012.
Sriramesh, K. and L. Hornaman (2006). Public relations
as a profession: an analysis of curricular content in the
United States. Journal of Creative Communications
1(2): 15572.
Stauber, J.C. and S. Rampton (2004). Toxic Sludge is
Good for You: Lies, damn lies and the public rela-
tions industry. London: Robinson.
Tench, R. and J. Fawkes (2005). Mind the gap, explor-
ing different attitudes to public relations education
from employers, academics and alumni. Paper
p resented at the Alan Rawel/CIPR conference,
Lincoln, UK.
23/03/2017 13:08

Tilley, E. (2005). The ethics pyramid: making ethics una-
voidable in the public relations process. Mass Media
Ethics 20(4): 30520.
Toth, E.L. and R.L. Heath (1992). Rhetorical and Critical
Approaches to Public Relations. Hillsdale, NJ: Law-
rence Erlbaum Associates.
Trivitt, K. (2011). PRSA official: smear campaigns have
no part in PR. Ragans Daily, www.prdaily.com/
Main/Articles/8288.aspx accessed 4 July 2012.
van Ruler, B. (2005). Professionals are from Venus, scholars
are from Mars. Public Relations Review 31: 15973.
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 265
Chapter 13Public relations professionalism and ethics 265
Weaver, C.K., J. Motion and J. Roper (2006). From prop-
aganda to discourse (and back again): truth, power,
the public interest and public relations in Public Rela-
tions, Critical Debates and Contemporary Practice. J.
LEtang and M. Pieczka (eds). Mahwah NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
Weber, M., A.M. Henderson and T. Parsons (1964).
The Theory of Social and Economic Organization
(Translated by A.M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons.
Edited with an introduction by Talcott Parsons).
New York, NY: Free Press of Glencoe; London:
Collier-Macmillan.
23/03/2017 13:08
M13 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 266 23/03/2017 13:08
 Pa rt 3
Public relations
specialisms
This part of the book focuses on the prac-
tice of public relations. We have divided
it into 11 distinct chapters in recognition
of the increasingly specialist knowledge,
experience and skills required to achieve an
effective programme or campaign on behalf
of an organisation or client. Each chapter
therefore: examines the broad context of
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 267
the specialism; discusses the main theories
and principles of building effective rela-
tionships with key publics; and identifies
some of the methods of achieving success-
ful results. Extensive use is made of Mini
case studies and long Case studies to illus-
trate the theories, principles and methods
described.
23/03/2017 13:11
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 268 23/03/2017 13:11
 Chapter 14Media relations 269

Ch a p t er 14 Richard Bailey

Media relations

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
discuss media relations from historical and professional perspectives
discuss and explain the distinction between editorial and advertising approaches to media placement
understand the workflow and tactics in media relations
understand key concepts in the debate around evaluation
evaluate your learning about media relations and pursue further sources for investigation.

Structure
Media relations, publicity and public relations
Advertising or editorial
Origins and development
Hacks versus flacks updated
Practical media relations
Evaluating media coverage
Influencer relations, content marketing and brand journalism

M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 269 23/03/2017 13:11

 270 Part 3Public relations specialisms

Introduction
In 2014, former journalist turned public
relations (PR) practitioner Alex Singleton
published The PR Masterclass: How to
Develop a Public Relations Strategy That
Works! Different chapters tell How to
develop a story idea that is newsworthy;
How to build and maintain an effec-
tive list of journalists; How to write an
attention-grabbing press release; Deal-
ing with incoming media enquiries; and
The secrets of effective television and
radio appearances.
In other words, the public relations of
the books title turns to an exclusive focus
on media relations between its covers.
The author defends this decision in his
preface: Some people especially, Im
afraid to say, those who are unskilled at
securing press coverage assert that the
conventional media no longer matters.
Whats important, they claim, is social
media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
And, for sure, engaging with social media
is an important part of public relations.
But these people are wrong if they
believe that the conventional media is
dead (Singleton 2014: xiiixiv).
Media relations remains a useful tac-
tic for PR practitioners, and its a distinc-
tive public relations activity that is rarely
claimed by marketing or digital/SEO spe-
cialists. Yet, as the media has expanded
beyond the realm of journalists into a
mix of amateur and commercial blog-
gers and vloggers, so are those offering
media relations services broadening
their offering into digital storytelling and
content creation.
This chapter reviews media rela-
tions from practical, ethical/professional
perspectives and argues that there is a
distinction between media publicity and
media relations. Media relations is a part
of public relations but media coverage
is not the purpose of public relations, but
rather a means to an end.

Media relations, publicity and masters of manipulation such as circus impresario

public relations
Media relations is the most visible and still one of
the most widely practised public relations activities.
According to the 2016 State of the Profession report
from the UKs Chartered Institute of Public Relations
(CIPR), media relations has been replaced by content
creation as the activity practitioners spend most time
on (72 per cent for media relations against 81 per cent
for content creation). Yet media relations remains the
area that commands the largest budget.
In the public imagination, media relations is public
relations. Yet it is very hard to find an academic defini-
tion of public relations that even mentions media rela-
tions. We know of only one:
PR is the planned persuasion of people to behave in
ways that further its sponsors objectives. It works
primarily through the use of media relations and
other forms of third party endorsement.
(Morris and Goldsworthy 2008: 102)
This definition is a challenge to much academic
thinking that has tried to distance publicity and media
relations from professional public relations practice.
Most famously, the four models of public relations
(Grunig and Hunt 1984) can be seen as a conscious
attempt to assert the difference between professional,
two-way symmetric public relations and one-
way press agentry/publicity, as practised by early
P.T. Barnum.
Publicity may have been developed in the nineteenth
century by P.T. Barnum, but it certainly did not die
with him. Media publicity and media relations contin-
ued growing throughout the twentieth century, even
as editorial jobs in the media began to decline. As The
Economist newspaper reported: For each American
journalist there are now, on average, six flacks has-
sling him [sic] to run crummy stories (The Economist,
21May 2011: 76).
This article in The Economist identified the trend
away from traditional media relations towards the tar-
geting of social media influencers in certain industries.
Some in PR see new opportunities in the cacophony
of voices in online social media. Bombarded with all
that blogging, tweeting and Facebooking, consum-
ers will surely, more than ever, be looking to a few
trusted influencers to tell them what to think, an
idea foreshadowed in Propaganda, a 1928 spinners
bible by Edward Bernays, PRs founding father (op cit.
pp.767). (See Think about 14.1.)
This raises two questions. Can media relations be
reconciled with professional public relations, and is a
new approach needed for social media?
Media relations can be viewed as a key part of an
organisations stakeholder relationship management.
The media (reporters, editors and producers of print,
broadcast and online channels and publications) are
both a trusted channel to other stakeholder groups
(internal and external) and a stakeholder group in their

M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 270 23/03/2017 13:11


Think about 14.1 The dark side, spin and flacks
What do journalists mean when they describe PR as
the dark side and when they call public relations spin
and PR practitioners flacks? What does The Economist
mean when describing flacks hassling [reporters] to run
crummy stories?
What defence can be made for media relations as a
legitimate, professional activity?
Heres Stefan Stern, a former management writer on the
Financial Times, describing his then new role at Edelman,
a public relations consultancy, for the Public Relations
Society of America (PRSA) in May 2011:
As far as I can see, this famous dark side really isnt
quite as dark as all that. Sure: clients sometimes
make difficult and demanding requests. PR pros are
asked to put the best possible gloss or, if you must,
spin on the facts. But that, I think, is not really
verydifferent from what a good lawyer (or advocate)
own right with a legitimate right to question those in
power and authority.
The US consultant and author Shel Holtz describes
this well: Contrary to the apparent belief of many
observers, the role of an organizational media rela-
tions department is not to make the company look
good in the press, nor is it to keep the company out of
the newspapers...Ideally, the job of the media rela-
tions department is to help reporters and editors do
their jobs. That objective is entirely consistent with the
broader goal of public relations, which is to manage
the relationship between the organization and its vari-
ous constituent audiences (Holtz 2002: 157).
Media relations is a tactic of public relations a
means to an end, rather than the end in itself. So posi-
tive media coverage should be viewed as an output of
public relations, not an outcome (see also Chapter10
for definitions of outputs and outcomes). Organisa-
tions seek to maintain good relationships with the
media and hope to gain favourable coverage because
the media is an influential channel to reach groups
on whom its success or failure depends (Cutlip et al.
2006: 5). So public relations should ideally be mea-
sured on those relationships rather than on media
coverage alone.
Public relations scholars Coombs and Holladay
make the logical argument that media relations has a
narrower focus than public relations since it is con-
cerned with just one public, the news media. Media
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 271
Chapter 14Media relations 271
would do. Are lawyers all working on the dark side
too? I dont think so.
And then there is the world of journalism as it is
currently practiced. Is that a shining beacon of light?
The shocking behaviour of the UKs News of the
World, exposed by The New York Times and the
Guardian, is hardly a picture of moral rectitude.
Tapping celebrities phone calls to produce scandalous
headlines now that really is dark.
Source: http://prsay.prsa.org/index.php/2011/03/16/
life-on-the-dark-side-stefan-stern/
Feedback
There are legitimate questions and concerns about
media relations practice, and you need to be aware of
these questions before contacting the media with your
stories. Have you thought this through, as Ivy Lee did in
1906 (see Chapter 1)?
relations is the relationship between the organization
and members of the media (Coombs and Holladay
2010: 108).
The author and publicist Mark Borkowski dis-
tinguishes publicity from public relations: Public-
ity is about noise and the excitement of the moment,
whereas public relations is more about planning and
carefully structuring a series of events that build to a
bigger picture (Borkowski 2008: 309). So publicity
(often achieved through media relations) has a short-
term focus, whereas public relations involves a longer-
term orientation.
Advertising or editorial
Students often begin their public relations courses
convinced that the only technique available to make
people aware of something is advertising (paid-for mes-
sages in the media). Yet, in practice, media relations is
often deployed as a means of generating free publicity
and so is often used as an alternative to advertising.
Advertising and public relations share similar
goals. Lord Bell, who has worked at senior levels in
both the advertising and public relations industries,
distinguishes them in this way: Advertising is the use
of paid-for media space to inform and persuade. Pub-
lic relations is the use of third-party endorsement to
23/03/2017 13:11
 272 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Think about 14.2 Publicity stunts and the truth
Bring back Wispa was reported as a newsworthy exam-
ple of a grass-roots campaign on Facebook that caused a
large business (Cadbury) to change its mind over its plans
for a confectionery product (Web campaign prompts
Wispa return, BBC News, 18 August 2007), yet it later
won Borkowski PR a PRWeek award for digital innovation.
This was less an example of genuine groundswell than Feedback
another example of a spectacular PR stunt. (Mark Journalists will sometimes make a distinction between a
Borkowskis blog: http://www.markborkowski.com/ PR practitioners duty to be accurate and a journalists
winning-with-wispa/)
This example raises questions about media publicity and the news media can, and should, report a range of per-
the truth. Is hiding the full truth the same thing as lying? spectives on a story (Davies 2008).
inform and persuade (cited in White and Mazur 1995:
259). In other words, the distinction is the medium
(paid or unpaid), not the message.
The US brand-marketing consultants Al Ries and
Laura Ries called their 2002 book The Fall of Adver-
tising and the Rise of PR. The provocative title can
easily be misinterpreted: they were not proclaiming the
death of advertising but were making the case that in
certain industries, and in certain sectors, publicity is a
more credible tool for raising brand awareness than
advertising:
You cant launch new brands with advertising
because advertising has no credibility. Its the self-
serving voice of a company anxious to make a sale.
You can launch new brands only with publicity or
public relations (PR). PR allows you to tell your
story indirectly through third-party outlets, primar-
ily the media.
(Ries and Ries 2002: xi)
The key point here is credibility, not money. We
mistrust advertising because we know the advertiser
is trying to persuade us, whereas public relations mes-
sages gain credibility because they are carried by inde-
pendent sources (media and other influencers) and are
not labelled as PR messages. This is what is meant by
third-party endorsement, a phrase used by Morris and
Goldsworthy (2008) and by Lord Bell, above. Public
relations scholars are sceptical about the Ries and Ries
argument: while it heralds the arrival of public rela-
tions as a major force within the marketing mix, it
also limits public relations by confusing it with public-
ity (Coombs and Holladay 2007).
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 272
Do public relations practitioners have a duty to tell the
truth in all circumstances, or can a defence be made of
publicity-as-entertainment? Is this an acceptable deceit
as long as the media understand where the story has
come from?
duty to tell the whole truth. The distinction is that PR
promotes the view of an organisation or client, whereas
Origins and development
Press agentry developed in the nineteenth century, but
the professional public relations business emerged in
the last century. Ivy Lee, a former newspaper reporter
turned public relations practitioner, is credited with a
more truthful approach to media relations in the US.
His Declaration of Principles from 1906 sought to
make a distinction between news, publicity and adver-
tising: This is not a secret press bureau. All our work
is done in the open. We aim to supply news. This is not
an advertising agency (Ewen 1996).
In the UK, Basil Clarke, a former war reporter, set
up Editorial Services in 1924. Clarkes earlier belief
in propaganda by news has less resonance today as
propaganda has subsequently gained negative connota-
tions, but he is making the same point as Ivy Lee which
is that public relations outputs should be factual and
trustworthy.
Clarke explained the value of public relations in this
way: While our Press work will sell nothing and does
not aim to sell, it nevertheless creates an atmosphere
of greater and more enlightened public interest in a
commodity, or idea, or service, generically in other
words, creates an atmosphere in which sales are much
more easily effected. (Evans 2013: 204).
Here, Clarke is making a similar point to Ries and
Ries (2002), that public relations should come before
marketing and advertising. Public relations is a valuable
tool for making people aware of and gain an understand-
ing of a product, an idea or a service. This may not neces-
sarily lead to action (a sale, or a commitment of support),
but it does facilitate the sales process.
23/03/2017 13:11

In 1930, Clarke set out a code of practice for pub-
lic relations practitioners, calling for an end to ano-
nymity in public relations (he was grappling with the
issue we call transparency today). Other aspects of the
code related to receiving a professional fee rather than
accepting payment by results; respecting the indepen-
dence of journalists; and calling for the inclusion of
footnotes in press releases giving the sources for the
claims made. It was not until decades later that the
professional bodies published their own codes of prac-
tice (Evans 2013).
Media relations is a creation of the mass media age.
Mass-circulation newspapers did not arrive until the
late nineteenth century as they could only exist once
there was mass adult literacy, some disposable income,
leisure time and a means of distributing the newspapers
quickly. The mass media age was born from education,
industrialisation and the railways.
The mid-twentieth century was the high point of the
mass media age. Broadcast media (radio then televi-
sion) were added to mass-circulation newspapers, and
limited spectrum and government control meant that
a few broadcasters could reach large sections of the
population.
By the end of the twentieth century, the move to
a digital spectrum and liberalisation from govern-
ment control led to a proliferation of TV and radio
channels. Rather than mass media, we had entered an
era of masses of media. As John Naughton explains
(2012: 13839): One of the laws of communications
technology is that new media are generally additive
rather than substitutive, which is a fancy way of saying
that new technologies generally dont wipe out older
ones...New media dont wipe out old media. But
their arrival does change the ecosystem.
In the twenty-first century, the internet had begun
to challenge the broadcasters. Young people now turn
to YouTube for entertainment, and when watching
popular television programmes such as The X Factor
are likely to be sharing their thoughts on Twitter. We
still have the mass media, but its now commonplace
to say that every organisation (even every individual) is
now a media channel, with our lives streamed on social
media. Mass media has become masses of media and
now me media.
Hacks versus flacks updated
There is a well-documented tension in the relation-
ship between journalists (hacks) and public rela-
tions practitioners (flacks). Journalists aim to present
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 273
Chapter 14Media relations 273
well-sourced stories or reports based on facts, whereas
public relations practitioners inevitably present a par-
tial (or biased) perspective on news events. So success
for the PR practitioner in gaining a positive mention
for their client or company may compromise the jour-
nalists objectivity.
Add to this the imbalance in resources: there are
more PR practitioners chasing fewer reporters, and
the PR team will have devoted time to researching the
story and creating images.
It is easy to find examples of journalists complaining
about poor public relations practitioners (its a good
relationship building exercise to ask for examples).
Two classic volleys were fired against press releases
and against email bombardment in the last decade:
In a famous blog post the former Financial Times
reporter Tom Foremski (2006) proclaimed: Die! Press
release! Die! Die! Die! and Chris Anderson (2007),
editor of Wired, retaliated with Sorry PR people,
youre blocked.
Then there is the inevitable tension between those
in positions of authority and those who hold them
to account. The former BBC executive Roger Mosey
describes in his memoirs the challenges of managing
an aggressive party political PR operation when he was
editor of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.
If Labour thought we were doing a story they
didnt like, they would phone and try to get us to
change it...I would like to think that we never
changed anything at their insistence, but it was
unpleasant and wearing: the attempt to control,
and the inclination to bully, was greater than any-
thing I had experienced before or since.
(Mosey 2015: 122)
Despite the two-way tension in the relationship
between PR practitioners and journalists, theres a
largely one-way street along which many journalists
have travelled towards public relations. Pay and pros-
pects are a primary motivation, although many must
feel that with their skills and knowledge they could
make more competent practitioners than those they
have previously encountered.
A study from the Reuters Institute for the Study of
Journalism at the University of Oxford takes a more
considered view of the changing relationship between
journalism and public relations. Avoiding the stan-
dard hacks versus flacks discussion, this book looks
instead at the business models of both industries and
how theyre adapting in the digital age. PR still needs
journalism, which has always acted as a third party
endorsement of its claims. But now it has other, often
23/03/2017 13:11
 274 Part 3PuBLIC rELATIOnS SPECIALISMS
more powerful allies (Lloyd and Toogood 2015:
vii). In other words, the independent media remains
important to public relations, but is no longer the only
or even necessarily the primary channel for public
communication.
The greater reliance of corporations on public
relations will continue to increase the importance
of the practitioners; they will develop further the
trend of bringing the production of content into
more and more corporate activities, using jour-
nalistic techniques and tropes to do so. More
and more journalists will be employed in the
growing world which exists between PR and
journalism.
(Lloyd and Toogood 2015: 12930)
This growing world between PR and journalism
covers practices variously described as content mar-
keting, brand journalism and native advertising.
Practical media relations
The practitioner and author Stephen Waddington
(2015a, 2015b) has led an initiative to share digital
tools for improving the public relations workflow in
two My PR Stack publications. But whats involved in
a media relations workflow and how much of it could
be automated?
Six steps in media relations
There are six distinct steps in media relations (this
particular workflow is based on the PR practitioner
proactively seeking media coverage; a slightly different
workflow will apply when reacting to media enquiries).
These six steps are:
1. Research target media (publications and individual
reporters and editors) to understand their interests,
emphasis, readers/viewers, frequency, etc.
2. Research and identify potential issues, stories and
media spokespeople from within your client or
organisation.
3. Develop relationships with key journalists and editors
based on a shared news agenda (see Figure 14.1).
4. Offer specic news packages to priority journalists,
using media relations techniques as appropriate
(e.g. news release or brieng, embargo or exclusive).
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 274
Shared news agenda
Media agenda Organisations
agenda
Figure 14.1 A shared news agenda
5. Follow up with journalists to facilitate publication
or broadcast, or to understand the reasons why the
offered package was not used.
6. Monitor media coverage; include in coverage
reports and in media evaluation.
Media databases and distribution services can facili-
tate all except step two by providing information about
individuals and publications, although there are risks
in contracting out key relationships and there are few
short-cuts beyond the counter-productive one of bom-
barding inboxes with unwanted messages.
Morris and Goldsworthy (2016: 223) propose four
key elements to PR news:
1. Story: Recognising or creating news and telling the
story.
2. Structure: Structuring media releases so the story
emerges in the most compelling way.
3. Style: Writing good, clear copy.
4. Selling: Knowing when and how most effectively
to call a journalist.
Despite the dark side taunts of some journal-
ists, the problem with media relations is that it is too
focused on the sunny side. The instinct is to tell good
news and to try to bury bad news. This leads to the
use of soft language in news releases: We are pleased
to announce and We are delighted .... This soft lan-
guage is a clue to a journalist that the announcement is
puffery rather than hard news. Here are some tips for
avoiding puffery and focusing on hard news:
Does the announcement pass the so what? test. If
its only of interest to the organisation itself, then it
should not be made public.
News should be written objectively (except for the
quotations). X has today announced Y is better
than We are pleased to announce Y.
23/03/2017 13:11

A news release is rarely sufficient, and its too late
to do anything with it once it has already been
issued. You should develop your media relations
skills and pre-brief key contacts before the news
has been issued (although you should limit the use
of formal embargoes, see below).
In a blog post, communications professional Gillian
Neild (2016) provides some tips for beginners on how
to be media friendly. She advises that at first journalists
can seem a bit scary, especially when youre under
pressure from bosses to deliver results. Her first tip
is to develop relationships with key media by being
open and friendly, and not just treat the connection as
purely transactional. The second is to be trustworthy
and deliver what you promise. The third is to help the
journalists do their job by providing suitable access
(voices for radio, pictures for TV). Suits in offices add
nothing to a story whatsoever.
Finally, her advice is to be well connected. When
working in hospital PR she had developed good rela-
tionships with hospital security and car park atten-
dants and so was able to book a prime space for a
BBC TV satellite truck. The BBC loved this special
treatment.
Lets review some well-established media relations
tools and techniques:
Press releases: These are still necessary and impor-
tant as a formal document of record, particularly for
stock-market listed companies. But they have become
overused and discredited as a marketing and pro-
motional tool. Earl and Waddington summarise the
problem:
Heres the reality; the majority of news releases do
not contain news content. The press release has
become a general purpose document that an organ-
isation publishes on its website and issues via a
wire service, not to inform the media of a news
event, but typically to reach broader audiences and
to satisfy an internal audience . . . We call them
wire fodder or public relations spam.
(Earl and Waddington 2012: 100)
Practitioners should be aware of the problem of
public relations spam (unsolicited email). The best
ways to do this are to ensure that each news release
contains news (as distinct from promotional messages)
and is narrowly targeted at those who are most likely
to value this news. Another approach is to drop the
archaic term press release in favour of news release.
This should help you make the case to bosses or clients
that no news should mean no release.
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 275
Chapter 14Media relations 275
There has been much talk about the press release/
news release becoming the social media news release
targeted not just at news journalists but also at bloggers
and designed for social media sharing (Bruce 2012).
The goal of traditional media coverage now becomes
searchable content, resulting in higher organic place-
ment in searches, reflecting the primacy of Google
among media companies.
Press conferences: Outside crisis management situ-
ations, large set-piece press conferences are now
much less common than the public might imagine
from watching television news. The key question
with press conferences is who benefits from holding
one? If its being arranged to satisfy the vanity of a
boss or client, this may lead to problems. If its being
arranged to suit the demands of the media, then this
is the right approach. There are (rare) times when
the media demand for timely information is so over-
whelming that a press conference is the best way to
make this access possible. With a few notable excep-
tions (such as Apples new product launches), the cir-
cumstances of a well-attended press conference will
usually involve a crisis situation (i.e. bad news rather
than good news).
Media briefings: A good alternative to set-piece press
conferences is to arrange briefing meetings with indi-
vidual reporters. If these can be detached from spe-
cific news announcements, then they are a good means
of developing relationships with key members of the
media and developing your media relations beyond a
tool for one-way publicity.
Embargoes: Public relations news is often worked on
for weeks or months before the agreed launch date. An
embargo is a media relations technique for giving jour-
nalists the story in advance, to help them prepare and
schedule their reports or packages, on the understand-
ing that publication or broadcast will be held until the
agreed launch date. This approach requires a high level
of trust on both sides and should be used sparingly.
You need to think through your response when some-
one breaks your embargo (in the competitive news
industry, this is highly likely): will you sue the jour-
nalist or the publication or programme? Unlikely, and
not good media relations. Will you withhold future
embargoes from this individual, or this publication/
programme? Again, this could be self-defeating. The
best approach to embargoes is to use them sparingly,
and preferably only when they are offered as a way of
helping journalists to do their job.
23/03/2017 13:11
 276 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Picture 14.1 The circumstances of a well-attended press
conference will usually involve a crisis situation
Exclusives: This is when a story is offered first to
one media outlet, while others are excluded from
access to the story. They are popular and effective
with the tabloid press, which especially values stories
that it gets ahead of its competitors. An exclusive
does not usually require a news blackout but is usu-
ally a question of timing. One outlet could be offered
the story early with all others being offered the
story a day later. An exclusive is a useful tool for add-
ing value to a PR-led story, but there are problems
with using them. While one publication might wel-
come being offered your exclusive, you risk annoy-
ing or alienating the others. And all publications will
be irritated if they find theyve all been offered the
same exclusive on the same story (in other words, it
wasnt an exclusive at all, but a dishonest attempt at
PR manipulation).
Non-attributable: Most often used in political com-
munication, a non-attributable briefing is given on
the understanding that the sources name will be kept
out of the story. This enables a journalist to write an
informed piece of speculation using phrases such as
sources close to the prime minister confirmed . It
benefits the public relations practitioner by enabling
them to preserve their good relationship with key
members of the media while keeping their job and
avoiding becoming the story. That said, there would be
few credible sources close to the prime minister who
could have discussed the story with that reporter, and
suspicion will inevitably fall on the chief press secretary
or equivalent. So non-attributable briefing has a place
in public relations practice, but should only be used
by senior practitioners with good relationships with
equally senior reporters.
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 276
Off-the-record: It is possible to mount a defence of off-
the-record briefing as ethical and professional, but the
simple rule should be to avoid using this technique.
Only discuss those things with a journalist that you
would be prepared to see made public. Never use a
phrase like strictly off the record merely to gain a
journalists attention on the Pandoras Box principle
that things that are concealed are more interesting than
those that are revealed.
The exceptions usually involve matters of national
security, when editors have sometimes been asked to
withhold publishing details of military operations or
terrorist atrocities to protect lives, to withhold the
oxygen of publicity or to preserve public morale.
Surveys: Commissioning research and identify-
ing newsworthy findings is a well-established tech-
nique for achieving media coverage. PR surveys are
often criticised on methodological grounds, but the
approach is consistently effective, especially in the
tabloid press. As Simon Oxenham (2015) wrote in
Management Today:
Only last week, Management Today received an
email from a PR firm claiming: Women really can
concentrate for longer than men . . . . How did
the PR firm, commissioned by a serviced office
provider of all companies, come to this conclu-
sion? Did they run a controlled test of men and
womens concentration levels? No, of course not.
The pollsters simply ran a survey asking men and
women how long they thought they could concen-
trate for.
News agencies: As the research for Flat Earth News
showed, most news in the UK national quality news-
papers comes from sources outside the newsroom
(Davies 2008). Smaller editorial teams mean ever more
reliance on wire stories, so news agencies such as
Press Association, Reuters and SWNS.com should be
included in your media lists and you should seek to
develop relationships with the appropriate reporters
and photo editors.
Evaluating media coverage
How successful is public relations in terms of getting
its messages in the media? Research conducted by the
journalism department at Cardiff University for Nick
23/03/2017 13:11

Daviess Flat Earth News (2008) found that 60 per cent
of home news stories in the quality UK daily newspa-
pers (Daily Mail, The Times, The Guardian, The Inde-
pendent and the Daily Telegraph) consisted wholly or
mainly of wire copy and/or PR material and a further
20 per cent contained clear elements of wire copy and/
or PR (Davies 2008: 52).
By wire copy Davies is referring to stories from
news agencies such as Reuters and the Press Associ-
ation, so the 60 per cent figure does not necessarily
reflect the true power of PR over the news media. Yet
the news agencies, which pride themselves on the speed
and accuracy of their reporting, have to rely on sources
for their stories and public relations is clearly one
such source.
The imbalance between the numbers of people
working in public relations and the numbers work-
ing in media newsrooms suggests an increasing reli-
ance by the media on public relations sources. Davies
describes this as churnalism: Journalists who are
no longer out gathering news but who are reduced
instead to passive processors of whatever material
comes their way, churning out stories, whether real
event or PR artifice, important or trivial, true or false
(Davies 2008: 59).
Half a century earlier, US historian Daniel Boorstin
revealed the power of the then much smaller pub-
lic relations industry to dominate the news agenda
through creating what he called pseudo-events. These
are fake events designed solely to gain media attention
(Boorstin 1961).
Today, almost every press release leads with the
language of a pseudo-event (Today, X announced
Y or A launched B), in the sense that there was no
announcement other than the press release itself and it
is ships, not products, that are literally launched. This
is the language of the pseudo-event, made legitimate
by the usefulness of many of these press releases to the
news media.
The Cluetrain Manifesto (Levine et al. 1999/2009)
also attacked bad practice from the PR industry:
Everyone including many PR people senses that
something is deeply phony about the profession. And
its not hard to see what it is. Take the standard com-
puter industry press release. With few exceptions, it
describes an announcement that was not made, for
a product that was not available, quoting people who
never said anything, for distribution to a list of people
who mostly consider it trash.
Dishonesty in PR is pro forma. A press release is
written as a plainly fake news story, with headline,
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 277
Chapter 14Media relations 277
dateline, quotes and all the dramatic tension of a phone
number. The idea, of course, is to make the story easy
for editors to insert in their publications. (Searls and
Weinberger in Levine et al. 2009: 160)
So PR practitioners can be criticised for creat-
ing fake news and pseudo events, but these tactics
remain an effective way of achieving editorial coverage.
So how is the coverage evaluated?
Historically, practitioners have favoured a measure
known as Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE). This
approach takes the size of the article generated by PR
activity and calculates how much it would have cost to
buy as an advertisement (using the publications rate
card). Then, since editorial mentions are considered
more persuasive than advertisements, a multiplier is
applied (four times is standard, although some even
multiply the value by five).
In this way, practitioners can produce very favour-
able calculations to justify the return on investment in
PR. So AVEs are an attractive measure: theyre easy to
calculate, the results are usually favourable to the PR
team and impressive to clients and bosses. So whats
wrong with AVEs?
Academics and industry associations condemn
them as a false measure: they focus on outputs, not
outcomes; they dont compare like with like; they
assume that all media coverage is positive when
many mentions are clearly neutral or negative.
They are also a spurious measure, since mentions
on the BBC would have no value (as the BBC does
not accept advertising on its domestic channels or
website).
In 2010, AMEC (the International Association
for Measurement and Evaluation of Communica-
tion) proclaimed seven principles for public relations
measurement, known as the Barcelona Principles
(see also Chapter10 for a full explanation). Among
these, principle 2 stated that Measuring the effect
on outcomes is preferable to measuring outputs and
principle 5 asserted AVEs are not the true value
of public relations. AMEC revised the Barcelona
Principles in 2015, but the condemnation of AVEs
remained.
The important point is that media relations is not
the end purpose of PR, but rather a means to an end.
So its the end purpose that should be measured, not
the intermediate stage. Case study 14.1 explores and
explains this distinction: while the Royal College of
Physicians gained spectacular media coverage in 1962
for their Smoking and Health report, it was not until
years later that the number of those smoking began to
23/03/2017 13:11
 278 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Think about 14.3 PR versus the media
Former BBC Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman has
outlined the role of journalism as follows: Essentially
journalism is a matter of instinct, the expression of
primitive curiosity and an instinctive urge to cause
trouble, to be difficult, coupled with an atavistic dis-
trust of anyone in authority (Media Guardian, 8 May
2000: 11).
Now consider how public relations practitioners can
develop good working relationships with the media.
decline. Media coverage may lead to awareness of an
issue; but awareness does not inevitably lead to atti-
tude change or behaviour change.
You can and should measure media coverage, just
as you can and should measure social media, but you
shouldnt use these output measures as a basis for eval-
uating the outcome of a campaign.
Influencer relations, content
marketing and brand
journalism
It is now possible to see, in retrospect, that media rela-
tions played such an important role within public rela-
tions during the twentieth century because this was the
mass media age. But what is the role of media rela-
tions in the more complex media ecosystem (Naughton
2012) of the twenty-first century?
Daryl Willcox, an expert in digital public relations,
observes a two-paced industry. Those who are not
offering a wide, digitally-inclusive consultancy service
are making less money because they are trapped in
a fiercely competitive and shrinking world of tradi-
tional PR.
Put simply, and this really is a simplification, a fast
lane PR professional will understand the funda-
mental concepts behind search, be good at using
lots of different online tools to identify audiences
and influencers, identify relevant social media
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 278
Feedback
At a professional level, you should always respect that
journalists have a different job to do, and you should
avoid seeing them merely as a channel for your messages.
One of the first jobs of the PR practitioner embarking on
a media relations programme is to give key spokespeo-
ple media training. You should expose them to difficult
questions and awkward journalists. It is better for the
training to be difficult and for the reality to be a much
easier relationship than the other way around.
channels and focus on doing them well and be able
to adjust their tone when speaking to social media
authors rather than just treating [them] in the same
way as journalists.
(Willcox 2011)
In this argument, media relations is no longer the
primary PR tactic. Practitioners need to broaden their
skills into the digital realm and learn to develop rela-
tionships with influencers other than journalists. (Some
practitioners will argue that they have always focused
on the end, not the means to the end; most academ-
ics will point out that public relations has never been
conceptualised as only media relations.)
While media relations practitioners are broaden-
ing their role into managing influencer relations (or
reverting to the original concept of public relations),
the value of media relations is being challenged by
the emergence of content marketing and brand
journalism.
Content marketing is similar in principle to media
relations, but in practice it puts owned and social media
before earned media and is often adopted by digital
marketing teams with little media relations expertise. It
can be seen as an acknowledgement of PRs power, but
as with many attempts to reinvent marketing in PRs
mould e.g. permission marketing, inbound market-
ing, relationship marketing the role is claimed for
marketing rather than PR.
This definition of content marketing suggests that
content serves a marketing purpose. But what if mar-
keting was subordinate to content? In a world where
every company is a media company (a process known
23/03/2017 13:11

as mediatisation, see Chapter2), journalists, editors
and film makers are being hired to produce profes-
sional content that resembles a news channel more
than a promotional marketing channel. The Red Bull
website exemplifies this with its focus on adventurous
sports (with no mention of a caffeinated drink any-
where to be seen). This process is known as brand
journalism.
Gini Dietrich, a digital marketing communications
specialist, sees no competition or contradiction here,
but rather an integration of once discrete functions
driven by digital media: Customer experience, real-
time marketing, more tangible results, and evolving
content represent the future of communications. And
that future is now (Dietrich 2014: 146).
In the last century, the decision on media was in
effect a choice between paid media (advertising) and
earned media (via media relations/media publicity).
Now consultants embrace the PESO model involving
four media types: paid, earned, shared and owned
media (Dietrich 2014: 38) (see Figure14.2).
Philip Sheldrake (2011), a digital consultant, has
reconceptualised public relations as being the business
of influence a concept echoed by Realwire CEO and
Lissted founder Adam Parker.
Media relations are [sic] also likely to remain a
major element of a PR practitioners responsibili-
ties for some time yet. Given the blurring of media
boundaries and the importance of key bloggers
and other online content producers, perhaps influ-
encer relations may be a more appropriate term
these days.
(Parker 2012: 130)
Figure 14.2 Diagram of PESO model integrating paid, earned, shared and owned media in communication planning.
Source: PESO model created by Gini Dietrich
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 279
Chapter 14Media relations 279
Consultants Steve Earl and Stephen Wadding-
ton (2012) argue the need to move beyond media
relations:
Shedding the shackle of media relations will be
critical to the future success of the public relations
industry. It is inevitable that as traditional media
continues to fragment because of technological
change, and consumer behaviour becomes increas-
ingly participatory, organisations must change how
they communicate.
(Earl and Waddington 2012: 202)
These authors suggest a list of eight key skills
and qualities required of practitioners in the new
environment:
1. Branded media: Creativity and editorial skills are
required to develop compelling content that
engages the target audience.
2. Engagement and conversation: Good interper-
sonal and social skills are essential to represent a
brand and be its voice online.
3. Speed: Interaction and communication on the
web requires a level-headed attitude. Individuals
must be calm and considered.
4. Planning: Rudimentary mathematics and a famili-
arity with analytics are increasingly important for
practitioners in the development, implementation
and measurement of campaigns.
5. Monitoring: The internet doesnt have an off
button. Business online is relentless. Attention to
detail and quick-wittedness are required.
23/03/2017 13:11
 280 Part 3Public relations specialisms
6. Integration: Practitioners must be familiar with all
aspects of the business and be able to work across
functional departments within an organisation.
7. Measurement: As with planning, rudimentary
mathematics and a familiarity with analytics is
increasingly important in the measurement of
campaigns.
8. Technology: Fearless [sic] and a willingness to test
new products and applications are critical to any-
one wanting to stay ahead. (Earl and Waddington
2012: 22730)
Is this not a case of back to the future? With a few
technical exceptions, an experienced practitioner of
a century ago (an Ivy Lee or a Basil Clarke) would
Box 14.1
From media relations to
influencer relations: a
practitioner perspective
Laura Crimmons, Communications Director, Branded3
When I joined this SEO and digital marketing agency,
they didnt have a PR team. They had a content team
and a search engine optimisation (SEO) team. They would
try to get links from blogs and websites for a client that
would boost their SEO rankings, but they were not really
using PR tactics. In those days people could get away with
paying bloggers for mentions but recent Google updates
to its algorithms (known as Penguin and Panda) started
punishing these SEO tactics and this was when Branded3
recruited me (a PR graduate) in 2012.
My approach was to get a journalist, blogger or other
influencer to write about a client or their product for
free. At one point, we had a PR team focusing on journal-
ists and an outreach team focusing on bloggers both
using similar approaches. Now weve merged these two
teams and theyre all part of my team. This was the PR
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 280
recognise these demands. Public relations has always
been this broad activity, at least in theory. In practice,
for much of the twentieth century it became a far nar-
rower media relations function, only to broaden out
again at the start of the twenty-first century in response
to the changing media landscape.
Yet there are reasons to argue for a continued mix
of traditional and digital techniques. In the crowded
online space, in which anyone can be a publisher, it is
becoming more important than ever to filter out whats
important from whats of passing interest. The major
media still provide a valuable filter and guarantee of
accuracy. And in an age of instant electronic commu-
nication, there is still a place for relationships built on
face-to-face interaction.
and social team, but its now just a ten-strong comms
team. SEO tactics cant succeed without PR any more.
For me, the biggest change is PR integrating with other
services. In the past, we felt superior to advertising, say,
because we didnt have to pay to get coverage. But what
were seeing is a coming together. Media agencies and
ad agencies are also learning about PR approaches and
this may pose a threat to PR if were not as creative.
The future is integration, because thats what clients
want. Nor do consumers differentiate: its one brand.
SEO has always been strong at measurement, but PR has
traditionally been poor at proving return on investment
(ROI). If you talk to anyone in advertising or in SEO, they
will find a way to get data to prove their worth, whereas
PRs never done that.
The future involves working more with these other dis-
ciplines. The lines are blurring between what is PR and
what is advertising.
Traditional PR has emphasised reach by focusing on
established media, but should pay more attention to
influence. For example, YouTube vloggers can encourage
product sales much faster than traditional media.
Source: Crimmons interview with R. Bailey. Used with
permission of Laura Crimmons and Branded3.
23/03/2017 13:11

Box 14.2
Industry change and
convergence
Is the public relations consultancy business model, in
which a team of external consultants works for a cli-
ent on a monthly retainer fee, fit for purpose in the
digital age?
This was one of the questions considered by the authors
of a new #FuturePRoof report (Hall 2016).
Alison Clarke wrote: As in-house practitioners and
departments become ever more sophisticated their
demands and needs are changing. They want sector
expertise, in-depth knowledge and understanding and
Case study 14.1
The UK anti-smoking
campaign: media
relations, public opinion
and public health
Media relations often focuses on short-term objectives,
whereas public relations can be seen as having longer-
term goals. The relationship between the two can be
explored by taking a long view of a public relations
campaign arguably the campaign of the last century.
Smoking was popular in the middle of the twentieth
century with nearly 75 per cent of men and 50 per cent
of women developing the habit during their lifetimes
(Royal College of Physicians 1962). Yet medical studies
had proven the link between smoking, lung cancer and
other diseases (e.g. Austin and Doll 1950). How should
doctors many of whom smoked respond?
In 1956 the then president of the Royal College of Physi-
cians had rejected a request to make a public statement
on smoking, explaining that the facts were already in the
public domain and that going beyond the facts (i.e. ini-
tiating a campaign) was not the business of the profes-
sional body. Indeed, the last time the Royal College of
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 281
Chapter 14Media relations 281
increasingly they want to buy this on a project and ad
hoc basis.
Jim Hawker described how his PR consultancy business
has changed by merging with a digital marketing team.
They now offer paid media alongside earned media, and
have a much greater emphasis on data analytics. Paid
media allows us to extend the reach and improve the tar-
geting of the content we are creating. This combined with
the data and analytical skills allows us to demonstrate
impact and value of the client work in a much clearer way.
Julius Duncan told how his business had evolved from
focusing primarily on media relations to being a full ser-
vice agency with storytelling, creative and content at its
core. This storytelling core has been strengthened by the
integration of a creative director, digital strategists, social
media managers, content marketing strategists, design-
ers, coders, videographers, copywriters, animators and
sound engineers.
Physicians had engaged in a public campaign was in 1725
when it had lobbied for an increase in the price of gin.
The next year, a new president was elected with a modernis-
ing agenda. Professor Robert Platt established a committee
on smoking tasked with assessing the medical evidence and
presenting it in an accessible report suitable for the public
and for members of parliament. The secretary of the com-
mittee and editor of the report was Dr Charles Fletcher,
a chest physician with a flair for communication (he had
presented two television series in the 1950s and has some
claim to be seen as the UKs first television doctor).
Minutes of the smoking committee show that the College
intended to gain widespread publicity for the report and
that the goal was to achieve a change in the law: It was
agreed that the Committees report should have more pub-
licity and wider circulation than the usual College reports.
It could not advise government on any course of action,
but it could suggest lines of action (17March 1960). In
other words, publicity was a part of a lobbying campaign
designed to persuade politicians to change the law.
This report, Smoking and Health, was launched when the
Royal College of Physicians held its first ever press confer-
ence. This was on 7 March 1962 (Ash Wednesday). The
report had already been issued to the media under an
embargo. Despite this, and despite some breaches of the
embargo, the press conference was well attended and the
report achieved prominent and widespread coverage in
23/03/2017 13:11
 282 Part 3Public relations specialisms
case study 14.1 (continued)
the local, national and international media and the issue
was reported on the two television channels available at
the time (with Robert Platt interviewed on the BBC and
Charles Fletcher on ITV).
Here are two of the many news headlines from the next
days national newspapers.
Doctors Urge Government to Curb Smoking (The
Times, 8 March 1962)
Official Anti-smoking Campaign Urged, Convincing
Evidence of Danger, say Doctors (Daily Telegraph, 8
March 1962).
Robert Platt said in his 1962 presidential address that The
Reporthas received an unexpectedly good press and
very good support in the Lords and the Commons and
very little criticism. He defended his decision to turn this
into a public campaign: A few of you may wonder whether
it is right for the College to expose itself to this degree of
publicity, but it seemed to me that that was inevitable as
soon as it was decided to write the report at all, for it is no
use trying to influence public opinion without making use
of all those means of mass information which are so freely
used by the manufacturers of cigarettes.
Veteran reporter Harry Chapman Pincher, who died aged
100 in 2014 and who had written many scoops about
the secret services, was one of those who attended the
press conference at the Royal College of Physicians
in 1962. Late in his life he described how this was one
of the most challenging stories he had worked on as
a Daily Express reporter. He told his son that his most
difficult story was announcing that there was a connec-
tion between smoking and lung cancer. He went into
an editorial meeting, which in those days was a fog of
smoke and booze, and everyone turned on him as if it
was the worst story in the world (The Guardian, 6 August
2014 http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/06/
harry-chapman-pincher-spy-catcher-dies)
The report, priced at 5s (GBP 0.25), sold many more cop-
ies on both sides of the Atlantic than its publishers Pitman
Medical had anticipated. The report made seven recom-
mendations for government action:
1. more education of the public, and especially school-
children, concerning the hazards of smoking;
2. more effective restrictions on the sale of tobacco to
children;
3. restriction of tobacco advertising;
4. wider restriction of smoking in public places;
5. an increase of tax on cigarettes;
6. informing purchasers of the tar and nicotine content
of the smoke of cigarettes;
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 282
7. investigating the value of anti-smoking clinics to help
those who find difficulty in giving up smoking.
The press release from the day of the launch contains an
early example of risk communication. It reports Robert Platt
arguing: Those who smoke 25 or 30 cigarettes a day have
about thirty times the chance of dying of [lung cancer] than a
non-smoker does. Of course you might say it is still only the
minority, about one in eight of heavy smokers, who died of
the disease, and this is true. But supposing you were offered
a flight on an airline and you were told that usually only
about one in eight of their airlines crashed, you might think
again. (Press release dated 7 March 1962, RCP archives.)
The then health secretary, non-smoking Enoch Powell MP,
had some sympathy with the campaign but did not accept
that it was any business of a government to impose restric-
tions on an activity that was within the law. The Financial
Times had reported a dip in cigarette sales following the
publication of the report, but this was to prove short-lived.
While the numbers of men smoking did begin to fall in the
1960s, smoking among women continued to rise.
Despite the media coverage, the campaign had not
achieved its aims. The media publicity had helped
achieve awareness of the link between smoking and lung
cancer but awareness is only one step in a process lead-
ing to behaviour change.
What was needed was a change in the law and a change
in public attitudes to smoking.
So the College repeated the tried and tested formula
and published follow-up reports in 1971, 1977 and 1983.
Government action that had been slow to follow in the
1960s now gathered momentum. Restrictions of tobacco
advertising on television had been agreed in 1965 and in
the 1970s advertising bans were extended to print pub-
lications and radio.
Health warnings on cigarette packets were introduced in
1971 (Warning by HM Government: Smoking can dam-
age your health). This became the much starker SMOK-
ING KILLS in 1991.
By the 1980s, concern had turned to the issue of passive
smoking and this led to the introduction of smoking bans
in workplaces (2006 in Scotland and 2007 in England, Wales
and Northern Ireland). Smoking had become a minority
activity by the 1980s (in 1982, 38 per cent of men and
32 per cent of women were smokers) and by the time of
the fiftieth anniversary of the Smoking and Health report,
only one in five adults (21 per cent) were regular smokers.
Robert Platt reflected on the anti-smoking campaign
in his memoirs. He argued that the goal had been to
23/03/2017 13:11

Gradually work towards a society which regards smoking
as something abnormal. Above all, never encourage, by
word, deed or example, the development of the addic-
tion in young people. (Platt 1972: 116).
Source: Bailey 2015
Case study questions:
1. What techniques did the Royal College of Physicians
use in order to gain news coverage in 1962?
2. Why are journalists hard to impress?
3. Do you have to have something new to say or show
to generate news?
4. Was media coverage more important in 1962 than
now?
5. What is the connection between media coverage
and campaign success?
6. How can you responsibly communicate risk when
outcomes are never certain?
7. How can you argue that this campaign has been a
success when one in five adults still smokes?
Case study answers:
1. They published an authoritative report suitable for
non-medical audiences and launched it by holding a
press conference and issuing a press release, having
earlier offered the report to the media under an
embargo. They also made spokespeople available
for television interviews.
2. Journalists are trained to be sceptical, and to doubt
information provided by experts, by politicians and,
above all, by public relations practitioners. They also
receive a lot of invitations and have access to many
important people, so the availability of your VIP spokes-
person may not impress them. In the case of smoking
and lung cancer, we can see from the Harry Chapman
Pincher anecdote that there would be reluctance to
Explore 14.1
Publicity: The launch of a new book, film or record is
often accompanied by multiple media appearances by
the author, leading actor or musician.
Gather recent examples of these appearances from a
recent launch and draw your conclusions about the
effectiveness of the media strategy. Why would the media
channel agree to be a vehicle for this promotional cam-
paign? Is this exposure only available to A-list celebrities?
Social media: Companies and brands monitor their
mentions on social media, and you can watch this in
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 283
Chapter 14Media relations 283
accept the evidence in the hard drinking, chain-smok-
ing environment of a 1960s newsroom. Yet this evi-
dence was stronger as it came from medical experts.
3. In short, yes. News requires something new. But the
evidence connecting smoking to lung cancer was
12years old in 1962. What was new was the way the
Royal College of Physicians presented the evidence in
an authoritative report written in plain English. The
College repeated this approach three more times
over the next two decades, showing that persistence
is as important as novelty in a long campaign.
4. In the absence of websites and social media, and lack-
ing infinite resources of time and money, it was essen-
tial for the College to promote the campaign through
the news media in 1962. But with the profusion of
digital and social media channels today, major media
coverage is still a vital means of cutting through the
noise and focusing attention on a campaign.
5. The press conference was a success and the press
coverage was positive, but this was not sufficient to
persuade the government to change the law or to
persuade most people to change their behaviour.
Press coverage helps achieve awareness, but this
does not automatically lead to attitude change,
behaviour change or action by politicians. These
outcomes take longer to achieve.
6. Public health campaigns must be evidence based.
The evidence showed an increased risk of mortality
associated with heavy smoking but this does not
mean that all heavy smokers will die as a result of the
habit. To illustrate the risk, you need to show com-
parable examples as Robert Platt did in 1962.
7. The goal of the campaign was not to ban smoking
but to make smoking abnormal and to achieve a
generational change by focusing on young people.
Nor would an outright ban necessarily mean no
smoking as we can see from the continued use of
illegal Class A drugs.
action on channels such as Twitter by the use of key-
word searches and by following appropriate hashtags (#).
Next time you are delighted with a product or a service,
why not send a tweet describing your experience. Is the
company listening? How do they respond?
Media relations: Journalists are people, and its never
been easier to learn about their social and professional
interests. Follow on Twitter some journalists writing
about a sector youre interested in. What can you learn
about them? Can you find a way to engage them in con-
versation, and perhaps help them to do their job?
23/03/2017 13:11
 284 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Picture 14.2 How can you find ways to help journalists do their job?
Summary
The media has an important role in a democratic society
holding the rich and powerful to account. Bloggers cant
and dont do this. Yet, without a formal media relations
function, who within an organisation would respond in
a timely fashion to legitimate media enquiries? And who
would make the case that the media should be given pri-
ority access to the diaries of busy chief executives?
Media relations will remain important as long as the media
retains its significance in society. But media relations
Bibliography
Anderson, C. (2007) Sorry PR people, youre blocked.
The Long Tail http://www.longtail.com/the_long_
tail/2007/10/sorry-pr-people.html
Anon (2011). Slime slinging: Flacks vastly outnum-
ber hacks these days. Caveat lector. London: The
Economist.
Bailey, R. (2015). Smoking and Health 1962: The Royal
College of Physicians and the start of the campaign
against smoking. Paper presented at the International
History of Public Relations Conference, Bourne-
mouth, 8 July 2015.
Bernays, E. (1928). Propaganda. New York, NY:
Liveright.
Boorstin, D. (1961). The Image: Or what happened to the
American dream? London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Borkowski, M. (2008). The Fame Formula: How Hol-
lywoods fakers, fixers and star makers created
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 284
(two-way) should be seen as distinct from media public-
ity (one-way), and those practitioners whose roles and job
titles reflect the primacy of print media (e.g. press officer)
should be looking to develop their skills in broadcast and
online media to reflect the twenty-first century media
ecosystem.
The good news for public relations practitioners is
that the skills needed for media relations and media
publicity should be adaptable to the demand for
digital storytelling suitable for the online and mobile
environments.
the celebrity industry. Basingstoke: Sidgwick &
Jackson.
Bruce, S. (2012). Modern media relations and social
media newsrooms in Share This: The social media
handbook for PR professionals. S. Waddington (ed.).
Chichester: Wiley.
Chartered Institute of Public Relations State of the Profession
2016 Research Report http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/
policy-resources/research/cipr-state-profession-2016
Coombs, W.T. and S. Holladay (2007). Its Not
Just PR: Public relations in society. Oxford:
Wiley-Blackwell.
Coombs, W.T. and S. Holladay (2010). PR: Strategy and
application. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Cutlip, S., A. Center and G. Broom (2006). Effective
Public Relations, 9th edition. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
Davies, N. (2008). Flat Earth News. London: Chatto &
Windus.
23/03/2017 13:11

Dietrich, G. (2014). Spin Sucks: Communication and Rep-
utation Management in the Digital Age. Indianapolis:
Que Publishing.
Earl, S. and S. Waddington (2012). Brand Anarchy: Man-
aging corporate reputation. London: Bloomsbury.
Evans, R (2013) From The Frontline: The extraordinary
life of Sir Basil Clarke, Stroud: Spellmount.
Ewen, S. (1996). PR! A social history of spin. New York,
NY: Basic Books.
Foremski, T. (2006) Die! Press Release! Die! Die! Die!, Sil-
icon Valley Watcher http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.
com/mt/archives/2006/02/die_press_relea.php
Grunig, J. and T. Hunt (1984). Managing Public Rela-
tions. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Hall, S. (ed.) (2016). Exploring the Public Relations
Agency Business. PRCA/ICCO.
Holtz, S. (2002). Public Relations on the Net, 2nd edition.
New York, NY: Amacom.
Levine, R., C. Locke, D. Searls and D. Weinberger (2009).
The Cluetrain Manifesto, 10th anniversary edition.
New York, NY: Basic Books.
Lloyd, J. and L. Toogood (2015). Journalism and PR:
News media and public relations in the digital age,
London: I. B. Tauris.
Morris, T. and S. Goldsworthy (2016). PR Today: The
authoritative guide to public relations, 2nd edition.
London: Palgrave.
Morris, T. and S. Goldsworthy (2008). PR A Persua-
sive Industry? Spin, public relations and the shap-
ing of the modern media. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Mosey, R. (2015). Getting Out Alive: News, sport & Willcox, D. (2011). PR a two-speed industry. www.
politics at the BBC. London: Biteback Publishing. behindthespin.com/features/two-speed-industry
Websites
www.amecorg.com
www.churnalism.com
prstack.com
spinsucks.com
M14 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 285
Chapter 14Media relations 285
Naughton, J. (2012). From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg:
What you really need to know about the internet.
London: Quercus.
Neild, G (2016). Tips for being media friendly, gil-
lianneild.co.uk http://gillianneild.co.uk/pr/
tips-for-being-media-friendly/
Oxenham, S. (2015) The research that isnt actually
research: its time for the PR industry to clean up
its act. Management Today, 25 March 2015 http://
www.managementtoday.co.uk/opinion/1340215/
the-research-isnt-actually-research/
Parker, A. (2012). Media relations modernised in Share
This: The social media handbook for PR profession-
als. S. Waddington (ed.). Chichester: Wiley.
Ries, A. and L. Ries (2002). The Fall of Advertising and
the Rise of PR. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Sheldrake, P. (2011). The Business of Influence: Refram-
ing marketing and PR for the digital age. Chichester:
Wiley.
Singleton, A. (2014). The PR Masterclass: How to
develop a public relations strategy that works. Chich-
ester: Wiley
Waddington, S. (ed.) (2015a) My PR Stack: A practical
guide to modern public relations tools and workflow
https://prstack.co/pdf/my_prstack_ebook.pdf
Waddington, S. (ed.) (2015b) #2 My PR Stack: A practical
guide to modern public relations tools and workflow
https://prstack.co/pdf/prstack2_tackling_pr_work-
flow_ebook.pdf
White, J. and L. Mazur, L. (1995). Strategic Communi-
cations Management: Making public relations work.
Harlow: Addison-Wesley.
23/03/2017 13:11
 c h ap t er 15 Liz Yeomans and Liam FitzPatrick

Internal communication

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
define internal communication and recognise its development as a discipline
identify the roles of the professional practitioner
identify the communication options available to the internal communication (IC) practitioner in helping
an organisation achieve its objectives
evaluate and segment internal publics within an organisation
assess the channels that are available to internal communicators
explain how data gathering and research insights help practitioners to develop and evaluate internal com-
munication strategies.

Structure
What is internal communication? Perspectives and definitions
What does an internal communication function do?
What matters to employees: motivation in the workplace
Planning internal communication
Outcomes rather than outputs: choosing effective channels
The importance of evidence in IC planning and evaluation
Approaches to information gathering
Professionalisation: attributes, competencies and skills in internal communication

M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 286 23/03/2017 13:13

 Chapter 15Internal communication 287

Introduction
Organisations communicate: in many
ways communication is the defining
factor that determines whether a collec-
tion of humans exist in an organisation
or are just a random group of people.
It is the process of communication that
helps us find a common purpose, agree
on objectives and work together. The
tone or culture of an organisation is
expressed through communication.
And that communication happens
inside organisations, whether it is man-
aged or not. While daily interactions
between colleagues are a necessary part
of getting the job done, organisations
also need to ensure that staff under-
stand the overall goals and priorities.
Also, as organisations grow larger and
more complex, so does the challenge of
engaging staff in the bigger picture the
many challenges, threats and opportuni-
ties faced by the organisation as a whole.
Internal communication (IC) has devel-
oped as a growing specialism inside the
broader fields of strategic public relations,
strategic communication and corporate
communication. Just as the concerns of
public relations have developed beyond
one-way broadcast of messaging, so has
internal communication developed an
interest in maintaining internal conversa-
tions; encouraging employees to discuss
and debate issues among themselves and
with upper management. In the same way
that PR is not just about media relations,
IC is about much more than company
newsletters or parties.
IC is not just a concern for multina-
tional or large organisations that need
to communicate with thousands of
employees. While it is essential for an
international company such as Sony or
BT to have a sophisticated communica-
tion system in order to engage with their
employees worldwide, a small, family-
owned printing firm also benefits from
information sharing and feedback to
help the business perform better.
Further, IC is also vital when an organ-
isation of any size or sector is undergoing
some form of change or transformation.
Internal publics will have to have a clear
understanding of what is needed of
them. Businesses need to explain cus-
tomer needs, public sector organisa-
tions need to promote understanding
of service priorities and every organisa-
tion needs staff who are committed and
enthused about the task in hand.
This chapter, which combines aca-
demic and practitioner perspectives,
discusses the role that IC has come to
play in contemporary workplaces. It
discusses, in particular, the importance
of the concept of employee engage-
ment, how IC is managed and planned
in practice and the tools and approaches
that are used. We also examine the role
that communication professionals play
in supporting an organisations leader-
ship, as well local managers, in holding
conversations with their teams.

What is internal Among the early leading PR theorists advocating

communication? Perspectives
and definitions
Internal communication is the term used to describe an
organisations managed communication system, where
employees are regarded as an internal public or stake-
holder group (Veri et al. 2012). Other terms used are
employee communication, organisational commu-
nication and internal marketing. An organisations
managed communication system may include a variety
of channels and activities, including newsletters, notice-
boards, staff briefings and intranets, to name just a few.
But how can IC be defined and why is it important?
Until relatively recently, internal communication
received little attention from public relations theorists
since their focus of attention was on external commu-
nication. However, internal communication is now of
great importance for many organisations, and theorists
are re-examining internal communication in the light
of developments such as employee engagement (Welch
2011; Karanges et al. 2014; Zerfass et al. 2015).
the excellence theory, Grunig asserted that if a system
of two-way symmetrical communications is adopted
then open, trusting, and credible relationships with
strategic employee constituencies [groups] will follow
(Grunig 1992: 559). Kennan and Hazleton (2006) take
a relational perspective that places emphasis on trust
(between management and employees) and identifica-
tion or connectedness among employees as the key fea-
tures of internal relationship building. The corporate
communication school of thought, on the other hand,
regards employees as important stakeholders whose
behaviour and communication contribute to corporate
identity and project it to external stakeholders (Welch
and Jackson 2007).
The development of a strategic communication
perspective in public relations over the past decade
(Hallahan et al. 2007) has led some theorists to con-
sider internal communication differently, thus plac-
ing emphasis on helping employees to make sense of
organisational change and complexity. Furthermore,
all employees, not just managers and communica-
tion specialists, are understood to have a communi-
cation role within organisations and contribute to

M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 287 23/03/2017 13:13

 288 Part 3Public relations specialisms
sense-making (Yeomans 2008; Heide and Simonsson
2011; Mazzei 2014).
Definitions of internal communication vary. For
example, a Europe-wide study of practitioners found
that internal communication is commonly defined as
a tactical, one-way function that is responsible for
producing and disseminating internal media (Veri
et al. 2012). This contradicts definitions of internal
communication as a function that enables two-way
communication, including the definition that has been
presented in earlier editions of this chapter. Neverthe-
less, the management concept of employee engage-
ment, which we discuss later, suggests that building
two-way, trusting relationships with internal publics,
with the goal of improving organisational effective-
ness, is a strategic concern for leaders (Yeomans and
Box 15.1
A brief history of internal
communication
Very little has been documented on the history of inter-
nal communication, although it seems to be closely inter-
twined with changing attitudes to management practice
and the need to motivate employees (FitzPatrick 2008).
A recent account of the history of IC from a UK perspec-
tive by Yaxley and Ruck (2015) draws on a mix of archi-
val, academic, practitioner and anecdotal sources to
trace its development. The authors note that the roots
of formal internal communication lie in the production
of the employee publication. The employee publication
emerged from nineteenth- and twentieth-century indus-
trialisation in Europe and the United States. As companies
grew larger, so grew the need for a means of communica-
tion between employers and employees.
From these early days, a tension existed between giv-
ing the employees control of their own publication and
producing a house organ under the companys edito-
rial control. For example, Lever Brothers, the British soap
manufacturer, established an employee-run publication
Port Sunlight Monthly Journal in 1895, but this was super-
seded by a company-run journal, Progress, in 1899, which
was a means of intercommunication between the com-
panys head office and its Port Sunlight works, branch
offices in the UK, offices and other concerns overseas, as
well as customers and friends (Yaxley and Ruck 2015: 5).
This tension between giving employees a voice, and an
internal communication system controlled by managers,
continues to the present day in terms of debates on who
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 288
Carthew 2014) and practitioners (FitzPatrick and Val-
skov 2014). Furthermore, while listening to employ-
ees and other stakeholders (e.g. through research and
other techniques) is often neglected in communication
strategies, excellent communication departments
claim to use a variety of techniques in organisational
listening, which suggests a two-way orientation (Zer-
fass et al. 2015).
Internal communication is inextricably linked to
supporting an organisations need to effectively com-
municate information about important changes for
example, a merger with another company, a rebranding
or the introduction of a new product. In theory, at
least, internal publics should be among the first to
know about these changes so that they are able to see
their own role in the bigger picture.
has ownership of internal social media. Yaxley and Ruck
(2015) present four historic strategies in internal com-
munication, reflecting a telling and selling approach
through to an engage and consult approach as follows.
1. Paternalism. Nineteenth century the establish-
ment of the employee publication. Companies at
the forefront of this practice were concerned with
the welfare of their employees. Such welfarism can
also be seen as a strategy to combat organised labour
and industrial unrest.
2. Presentation. 1940s the era of the in-house jour-
nalist or industrial editor who was paid to write
stories that employees would find interesting. The
struggle for a credible, professional editorial role,
independent of management interference, charac-
terised the role of the industrial editor.
3. Persuasion. 1980s emphasis on internal commu-
nication presenting a case for change to employees
during a period of economic upheaval. A whats in
it for you message reflected a period of persuad-
ing employees. Internal communication as a system
of planned communication became more closely
aligned with management.
4. Participation. Twenty-first century a period which
reflects an interest in the concepts of engagement
and consultation with employees against the back-
drop of factors including a lack of trust in manage-
ment and an engagement deficit, changing labour
practices and transformational communication
technologies.
Yaxley and Ruck (2015) argue that while these four strate-
gies are linked to four historic periods, they do not belong
exclusively to these periods. They shift back and forth and
overlap, thus, Rather than seeing the history of internal
23/03/2017 13:13

19th century 1940s
Paternalism Presentation
Propaganda
House organs
written by employees Employee voice
for employees
Industrial editors
seek management
endorsement
Figure 15.1 Voice, professionalism and propaganda (source: Yaxley and Ruck 2015: 11)
communications simply as one of progression, a model
is proposed that sees trends or themes continuing or
replicating over time (Yaxley and Ruck 2015: 11) (see
Figure 15.1). The three recurring trends or themes are:
1. Propaganda: within the context of internal com-
munication, management propaganda refers to
one-way, information-giving, which prioritises
management-controlled messages over other con-
tent and presents the organisation in a favourable
light at the expense of more credible content and
two-way exchange of ideas. This is a continuing
theme for internal communication.
2. Employee voice: refers to the opportunity for
employees to have their voice heard. While
voice was evident in the very early days of
What does an internal
communication function do?
Internal communication teams tend to be involved in a
range of activities. Priorities will, of course, vary from
organisation to organisation and will depend on the
challenges they face and how IC can help the organisa-
tion be successful. Broadly speaking, most of the com-
munication activities fall under six general headings
that relate to organisations and their employee-related
objectives (FitzPatrick 2016):
ensuring the organisation meets its legal obligations
to talk to employees
supporting major change
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 289
Chapter 15Internal communication 289
1980s 21st century
Persuasion Participation
Social media
facilitating employee
engagement
Internal communication
Professionalism qualifications underpin
strategic practice
internal communication practice when employees
were found to run their own publications, the voice
of the employee has been subject to ebbs and flows
in perceived importance in organisations. While staff
surveys are one way of capturing the employee voice,
social media potentially empowers employees to
write their own blogs and tweet ideas within the
framework of company policy on using these tools.
3. Professionalism: refers to the increasing profession-
alism of internal communication from industrial
editors in the 1980s seeking management support,
through to internal communication as a strategic
practice underpinned by a qualification. The down-
side of seeking strategic management status, how-
ever, is a potential move away from considering the
employee voice.
promoting collaboration and a sense of community
in the workplace
promoting external advocacy getting employees
to tell the outside world about their organisation
encouraging good employees to stay
ensuring employees know what is expected of them
and know how to achieve it.
A communications team will tend to focus on the
activities that most closely relate to organisational
objectives. For example in some industries, such as oil
and gas, shortages of highly skilled technicians make it
a business imperative to retain staff. A hospital might
need to explain hygiene and hand-washing policies to
staff or an airport might need workers to explain to
23/03/2017 13:13
 290 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Picture 15.1 Cover of Port Sunlight monthly journal: an
early example of employee communication.
Think about 15.1
Learning about the organisation
Think about an organisation you have worked for
perhaps as a part-time employee. How were you
made aware of the business, its products or services
and other activities? Was it through your line manager,
colleagues or other methods? List the methods of
communication that helped you to understand your
employers business.
Now list the methods of communication that you
have used to communicate with a line manager and
colleagues. Why did you choose these methods?
Consider which methods were likely to be the most
effective.
Feedback
It is likely that you will have learned about the organ-
isation from your line manager, more formally, and
from your colleagues on an informal basis. Other
methods, such as e-newsletters, provide the bigger
picture on what the business is about. However, you
may prefer to communicate with people, including
your line manager, face to face.
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 290
friends and neighbours the argument for developing
new runways and terminals. In all of these cases, good
internal communication will make a real contribution
to the success of the organisation at retaining valued
staff, getting employees to follow essential rules or pro-
moting external understanding of a major issue.
The objectives of encouraging employees to act as
advocates, getting them to stay and to work harder are
often grouped together under the heading of employee
engagement, a subject that is of increasing interest in
academic and practitioner discussions over the past
two decades (e.g. Fawkes 2007; MacLeod and Clarke
2009; Welch 2011; Schaufeli 2014; Johansson 2015).
Employee engagement: helping
people stay, work harder and
speak up
Employee engagement can be defined in a variety of
ways, but there are consistent themes that focus on
an attitude, a psychological or motivational state, or
a personality trait (Welch 2011: 335). Writers talk
about outcomes such as engaged employees saying
positive things about their organisation internally and
externally; staying or committing to being a member
of the team, even though there are other opportunities
elsewhere; and working harder, putting in extra time,
energy and effort (Schaufeli 2014).
Organisations are interested in achieving high lev-
els of employee engagement because there seem to be
clear links with business profitability, customer service
levels, productivity and innovation in the workplace.
Engagement is also specifically linked with low levels
of people leaving their jobs voluntarily (often called
employee turnover), lower absence or sickness levels
and lower accident rates (Bridger 2015).
Communicators are interested in this area because
engagement is a mix of attitudes (feeling positive or
proud), behaviours (recommending the company as a
place to work or working harder) and outcomes (bet-
ter organisational performance), all of which can be
strongly influenced by communications (Bridger 2015).
It is communication that enables employees to
make judgements, for example about fairness, and
communication is the route by which people are rec-
ognised in the workplace. People will decide if there
are opportunities for personal growth based on the sto-
ries they hear about their peers or information about
the availability for training. And, as discussed later in
this chapter, material benefits are often not as power-
ful motivators as some of the psychological and social
elements of a job.
23/03/2017 13:13

Think about 15.2
What motivates you in your job?
Do you have a job? If so, what motivates you in your
job? Is it the chance to earn money or perhaps you
like the people you work with, think the work is enjoy-
able or feel you are helping people somehow?
Feedback
What makes people feel engaged will vary from per-
son to person, and organisation to organisation.
People working in a bank might base their engage-
ment on the size of their bonus, whereas a doctors
commitment might be mainly shaped by the inter-
esting nature of the work. An engineer might want to
work with a strong community of colleagues who
share a fascination with the chance to solve technical
problems. Smythe (2007) contends that organisations
should identify the drivers of engagement that are
peculiar to them and trust their instincts by shaping
the experience of work around them.
What matters to employees:
motivation in the workplace
In most workplaces employees are there voluntarily.
Most of the time we choose where we work and we
feel entitled to be treated well and with respect. Even
if we feel trapped in a job because of high unemploy-
ment or limited opportunities elsewhere, we make a
choice about how much effort we make at work. For
some time writers have talked about discretionary
effort, arguing that money only makes us show up to
work; doing a good job depends on our motivation
(Yankelovich and Immerwahr 1983; Schaufeli 2014).
Historically, communicators were influenced by the
work of Maslow and his theory of the hierarchy of
human needs (Maslow 1943). Maslow argued that peo-
ple need to satisfy some basic physiological needs such
as finding security, food and shelter before turning their
minds to more psychologically fulfilling factors such as
personal achievement (see Mullins 2013). In the work-
place, Maslows ideas would suggest that people fearful
of losing their jobs or struggling to survive on their
wages will probably not be too receptive to messages
about innovation or the CEOs (chief executive officer)
vision for the future. However, the concept might be of
less use at explaining positive motivations: what makes
people choose to work harder or more effectively?
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 291
Chapter 15Internal communication 291
Later work by Herzberg et al. (1959) suggested
that we have two types of motivation factors at work
(see Mullins 2013). These he described as Hygiene
(or Maintenance) factors and Motivator (or Growth)
factors. Hygiene factors, such as being paid prop-
erly, being treated fairly or being safe, only matter
when they are absent they are a source of discontent
rather than a basis for positive satisfaction. Extrinsic
(or external) motivating factors such as the oppor-
tunity for advancement or recognition, by contrast,
add to the desire to work harder and better. The
main contribution of Herzbergs two-factor theory is
that it enables jobs to be designed with quality of
work life in mind (Mullins 2013: 258). A commu-
nicator will understand that talking endlessly about
pay and fairness will not automatically excite people.
Rather, celebrating achievements or highlighting per-
sonal opportunities may make more compelling mes-
sages when trying to create positive expectations and
engagement.
Recent popular writing draws on the theory of
intrinsic motivation theory to highlight the three
essential components that are needed to get workers
enthused (Pink 2009). These motivations come from
an individuals desires for self-determination:
Autonomy: the urge to be in charge of our own
lives.
Mastery: the desire to keep improving the way we
do something we care about.
Purpose: the drive to have a greater reason for
doing what we do.
Essentially, in order to get people to stay, to work
harder and better, to say positive things about their
employer and to support change, an organisation
has to give them some sense of control, a chance to
develop and something to believe in. Understanding
human motivation and how it manifests itself in dif-
ferent organisations is key to the role of the internal
communicator. At its most basic the IC professional
has to produce content that people are going to want
to read or view, but perhaps more significantly, the
role involves advising leaders on how to interest and
enthuse their people.
Employer brands and employee
value propositions
When we begin to talk about motivation it quickly
becomes clear that large parts of the deal between
an employer and a worker will rarely be formally
23/03/2017 13:13
 292 Part 3Public relations specialisms
defined. An employment contract may cover issues
such as pay, bonuses and expected behaviour but
may leave unsaid fundamental things like what it
takes to be promoted, the culture of the organisation
and the things that really matter inside the organ-
isation. This unwritten or psychological contract
is increasingly addressed using the conventions of
marketing or brand management and communica-
tors are often called upon to help define or support
an Employer Brand (Ambler and Barrow 1996) or
Employee Value Proposition, tasks that would not
be possible without a firm grasp of workplace moti-
vation. Importantly, they hinge on the idea of trust:
employees have to trust employers to keep their
unwritten end of the bargain (Middlemiss 2011).
When trust breaks down in a workplace, people are
less willing to be flexible or change ways of working
when necessary.
Communicators have an important role in main-
taining trust in the workplace. Trust includes cog-
nitive elements actual delivery of the practical
components such as pay or promotions and affective
components the emotional attachments (Atkinson
2007). It seems that until the practical or cognitive ele-
ments are satisfied, the emotional trust cannot develop.
But, it is exactly this emotional trust that is linked to
employees enhancing their contribution to an organisa-
tion (Atkinson 2006).
Organisations now devote considerable time to
defining their Employee Value Proposition, thinking
through its tangible (e.g. pay rates) and intangible (e.g.
workplace culture, corporate values or impact on the
future employability of staff) elements. And they call
on communicators to help articulate all of these com-
ponents in a way that makes workers and potential
employees feel able to speak positively, work harder
and remain loyal.
Box 15.2
Defining employee
engagement: the UK
context
A report to the UK government by MacLeod and Clarke
(2009) is widely cited in discussions of employee engage-
ment. The report defined employee engagement and the
characteristics of an engaged organisation as follows:
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 292
Planning internal
communication
As with most branches of communication, practitio-
ners are increasingly concerned with the impact that
they have. Just as an advertising campaign is intended
to make consumers buy a product and a health PR
campaign might be designed to encourage a healthy
lifestyle, internal communication is expected to pro-
mote specific actions. In the past, internal communi-
cators may have been valued simply for their skill at
producing good internal stories and great project man-
agement. Organisations now expect to see results and
communicators are exhorted to think about Outcomes
(the beneficial impact they should be having) rather
than Outputs (the content that they produce). (See
also Chapter9 Strategic public relations planning and
Chapter10 Public relations programme evaluation.)
Setting objectives
An opening question in any communication planning
is, therefore, what steps do we want people to take as
a result of our communication?. As we said before,
employee-related objectives might be to remain loyal to
an organisation, to follow specific work instructions,
to be external advocates or ambassadors, to collabo-
rate more or to embrace some form of fundamental
change (FitzPatrick 2016).
As a shorthand, many practitioners approach objec-
tive setting by laying out three essential outcomes
that they would like to achieve. This is illustrated in
Table15.1 three planning questions reflecting the com-
munication practitioners interest in messages that elicit
conative (doing), affective (emotional) and cognitive
We believe it is most helpful to see employee engage-
ment as a workplace approach designed to ensure that
employees are committed to their organisations goals
and values, motivated to contribute to organisational
success and are able at the same time to enhance their
own sense of well-being.
Engaged organisations have strong authentic val-
ues, with clear evidence of trust and fairness based
on mutual respect, where two-way promises and
commitments between employers and staff are
understood, and are fulfilled.
Source: MacLeod and Clarke 2009: 9
23/03/2017 13:13
 Chapter 15Internal communication 293

Think about 15.3 Your next job

Think about your next job and what you would hope Investment in your training
to gain from it. If you could choose from a selection of The prospect of promotion
employment offers which of the following features would
matter and in what order? Long-term job security
Something else
Good pay
Additional material benefits like a pension or Once you had landed your dream job, what role would
healthcare communication play in helping you feel that you were
A friendly team getting what you signed up for? Would you need to
A supportive manager hear stories confirming that loyal employees had been
promoted or given additional training? Would you
A chance to learn want to see evidence that your work was changing
A good name to have on your CV lives for the better? Would it be useful to meet co-
workers socially or informally to confirm that you have
A chance to make a difference to the world
joined a supportive and collaborative organisation?
A nice place to work How could internal communications influence your
Being allowed to get on with the job satisfaction?

(thinking/knowing) responses (Gregory 2014). The
approach suggests that we do things because we feel that
they are a good idea because of what we know. Although
human actions can have more subtle drivers, many com-
municators find this approach a useful general starting
point for planning (FitzPatrick and Valskov 2014: 46).
Two-way communication and impact
There is a widely held belief that people, in Western
economies with strong notions of democracy, indi-
vidualism, and having a voice, are less likely to adopt
desired behaviours if they are communicated in the
form of an order or through one-way broadcast mes-
sages. Popular writers and researchers on leadership
communication stress the value of meaningful con-
versations, and dialogue rather than the delivery of
speeches or monologues with no scope for feedback
(Men 2014; Murray 2014; llles and Mathews 2015).
There are two main reasons why this is likely to be true.
First, even if communication were simply a process
with a transmitter and a receiver, few pieces of informa-
tion are understood on the first time of telling since many
complex factors are likely to affect message comprehen-
sion, including a good deal of filtering according to effort,
motivation and interest (Frh 1980 cited in Windahl and
Signitzer 2008: 181). Commonly, as participants in a
social network, we need to check we have understood
something and we may want to see if other people have
received the same message, as well as what they think
about it, in order to develop a shared understanding of the
message (Rogers and Kincaid 1981). Impactful internal
communication processes therefore allow people to ask
questions and perhaps discuss a piece of news. When a
message is sent just by email, there may be no opportunity

What should people do as a result of What should people feel or believe as What should people know as a result
our communication? a result of our communication? of our communication?

Conative Affective Cognitive

Are there specific behaviours that our
organisation needs to promote, such as
good customer service, safe working or
selling new products?
What do people need to believe
in order to prompt the desired
behaviours, e.g. that good customer
service matters, that safety is a
personal responsibility or that selling
a new product will generate better
commission?
What information do people need in
order to shape their beliefs? This could
be data about customer satisfaction,
case studies about safety incidents
or details of a new sales commission
structure.

Table 15.1 Three planning questions

M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 293 23/03/2017 13:13

 294 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Think about 15.4
Getting employees to follow
procedures
How might the IT department of an organisation
persuade employees to follow security procedures?
While most people, including students, normally
have to sign a user agreement before they can use
a workplace or college network, bad practices such
as password sharing or downloading suspect pro-
grammes are rife.
Clearly, people are given information about what is
acceptable use and by signing a user agreement they
could be said to know the risks and rules. But bad
practice in many workplaces suggests that knowledge
of the rules alone is not enough to get people to do
the right thing. What communication steps could an
IT department take to increase concern for observing
rules and encouraging the right behaviours?
Feedback
Communication might focus on the consequences to
individuals and the organisation of breaches of digital
security. Messages about the likelihood of cyber
crime, for example, could make people take their
responsibilities seriously.
Case study 15.1
Pharma giant Novo
Nordisk focuses on
making leaders better
communicators
Together with a willingness to use a variety of modern and
sophisticated tools, the communication team at Novo Nord-
isk places a heavy emphasis on supporting leaders to tell the
company story. Copenhagen-based Novo Nordisk is one of
the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world, focus-
ing on the treatment of diabetes and haemophilia. Its prod-
ucts play a major role in the long-term health of millions
of people around the world. The firm is known for its lead-
ership style which is driven by very clear corporate values.
High expectations are placed on the 40,000 or so people it
employs in 79 countries; its a footprint that has expanded
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 294
to ask questions. A team meeting would, by contrast, be a
great place to test if a message is understood.
However, a second reason to promote conversa-
tions is that people are more likely to do something
if they are part of a genuine dialogue from the out-
set and have had a hand in deciding what actions are
necessary (Quirke 1995; Smythe 2007). Essentially, if
employees have been consulted and their views taken
into account, there is a powerful emotional motivation
to execute the plan (Kotter 2014).
In practice, few organisations have the resource,
capacity or patience to involve all employees in devel-
oping their overall strategy. However, there is often
considerable scope for teams to decide how a strategy
will be implemented in their local area. Much effort
is commonly invested in employee communications
in supporting managers to hold such conversations as
illustrated by Case study 15.1.
Social media inside organisations
There is much interest in exploring the role that
social media inside organisations can play in collect-
ing ideas and promoting conversations and involve-
ment. Recent years have seen the growth of many tools
designed to mimic inside organisations the widely
available social networking tools that exist outside
(Lombardi 2015: 156). Lombardi highlights that
rapidly in recent decades. Its staff include people working in
factories, highly qualified scientists and a strong sales force.
How internal communication is organised
The name of the department gives a strong clue to the
focus of the internal communications team. The central
Organisational Communication team is part of the wider
corporate communications function. The group head of
communication is a member of the companys overall
Executive Management Team; reflecting the importance
the company places on getting its message across inter-
nally and externally. The ten-person Organisational Com-
munication team runs the internal channels that would
be expected in a modern organisation. They have a well-
developed intranet which has a central news role and the
facility for local business units and functions to add their
own updates and information. There is also a high quality
print magazine, a mobile platform for news sharing and
the capability to produce events and video. Additionally,
around the company there is an extensive and organised
23/03/2017 13:13

network of communication specialists partnering with
local business and central functions like IT, manufactur-
ing, HR, Quality and R&D. Much effort is put into keep-
ing these specialists connected to developments at head
office so that they can create local programmes that
reflect core messages and the company values. Although
the central head office team does not control these locally
employed specialists, they offer support and guidelines to
ensure a consistent quality for communication.
Further, within the central team, there is a particular
focus on developing the communication effectiveness of
managers across the company. Mats Bark, Senior Advi-
sor Organisational Communication says, Our most senior
leaders are very much engaged in explaining the strategy;
and it is part of our core company philosophy that people
feel involved and engaged. Real engagement is not some-
thing that you can run from Head Office our challenge
is to make sure that middle managers are equipped to
take the high-level messages and turn them into some-
thing that is relevant locally.
So at the centre we use our channels to spread informa-
tion widely, he explains, but it is when the local leaders
stop and take time to discuss the strategy that we see real
understanding and enthusiasm; we provide the aware-
ness, but its your leader who ensures you understand
and that you know what you are meant to do.
Tools for managers
The corporate team has developed a wide-ranging tool-
kit to support managers in their communications role.
Online, leaders can find toolkits around specific topics
such as the company performance and strategy, competi-
tive intelligence, business ethics and products in devel-
opment. There is also advice on issues such as managing
change or holding more effective team meetings and
examples of good practice from around the company.
Most of the things that we promote are not radical really,
says Mats, We just want to promote local conversations
and help leaders make the time to communicate.
Additionally, the company has a series of training courses
to offer leaders who want to develop their communica-
tion skills. Four times a year there is a centrally organised
training programme but many business units prefer to
have it delivered locally. Simpler training is also available
through the communications network; there has been an
investment in ensuring that local communications man-
agers are able to run training when it is needed.
The communication effectiveness review
A key tool in the teams armoury is the Communi-
cations Effectiveness Review (CER), a standardised
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 295
Chapter 15Internal communication 295
internal listening and consulting process to help local
leaders understand how communication can support
local business priorities. A CER is focused on an indi-
vidual business area or subsidiary and follows a set of
common steps in close collaboration with the local
general manager, HR Director and communication
colleagues.
Were a science-based company, so data matters
around here, explains Bark, which is why the CER begins
with an online survey of everyone working in the busi-
ness. The study does not look at the impact of general
channels but rather explores communication outcomes
such as awareness of the business strategy and how well
people see the link between their own jobs and com-
pany goals.
The review also involves a series of interviews with the
local management team. These conversations look at
how communication fits into their business plans and
how satisfied they are with the processes. A series of
focus group discussions are also included. Typically, office
staff, field-based employees and middle managers will
have sessions that allow the review team to get a deeper
understanding of the issues that are emerging from the
survey and the research with leaders.
Finally, the review team run an extended workshop
meeting with the whole management team to discuss
findings and to make plans. Were not there to impose
things, explains Bark. Our aim is to help the local leaders
develop communications solutions to business problems;
solutions that they can own and which work for them. He
also stresses the importance of reporting back findings to
employees At the next available opportunity, there is an
all-employee meeting in the business when the leaders
reflect back what they have heard and what they plan to
do next. Its a question of credibility and trust. About a
year later there is the opportunity to run a follow-up sur-
vey when the business gets to see if there have been real
improvements. Says Mats, We normally see real change
in the quality of communication; which is why leaders are
normally pleased to have us visit them for a CER.
Conclusion
Novo Nordisk has always looked at managers as a key
part of the communication operation and over 20 years
or so has been able to see the benefits of effective local
leaders. Says Bark, Its part of our company philosophy to
have high expectations of managers at every level; they
are expected to deliver results but in line with our very
strong values. Having engaged employees is part of the
formula that has made us so successful.
Used with permission from Novo Nordisk
23/03/2017 13:13
 296 Part 3Public relations specialisms
internal (or enterprise) social networks are typically
being considered as vehicles for:
Co-creation bringing together people to solve a
particular problem or challenge
Collaboration enabling people with a similar
problem or as members of a work or project group
to support each other with advice and information
Community helping people with work or rec-
reational interests to connect with each other for
predominantly social purposes.
In her writing Lombardi also points out that manag-
ing these social networks inside organisations requires
specific skills and clarity of roles. Without care, organ-
isations can invest considerable sums in technologies
only to find limited usage or involvement.
Understanding the diversity
of internal publics
As with any branch of communication, practitioners
need to have a good understanding of the stakehold-
ers or publics (Veri et al. 2012) with whom they are
working. Internal communication is no different and in
fact has to cope with a number of special dimensions.
It may be argued that employees are naturally a more
Box 15.3
Social media inside
organisations
Social media has generated discussion in recent years among
employee communicators and several tools have been
developed specifically to promote conversations among
colleagues at work. Many of these mirror externally avail-
able tools for example Yammer has strong similarities to
Twitter. And Facebook has developed a secure version that
can be used inside the closed IT networks of organisations.
Most of the literature on the subject is very recent so it
may be too early to evaluate the lasting impact of such
tools on issues like performance, collaboration, retaining
valued team members or generating external advocacy.
A critically minded observer may therefore want to ask
questions about impact and participation rates; is a par-
ticular tool helping the performance of an organisation
and what proportion of employees are using it?
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 296
knowledgeable stakeholder group than most others
(see Box15.3). They know what works and what does
not work in the organisation and they know its history.
They will know that management have been trying to
close a particular site for years and they will remember
promises made decades ago. As a result, they are often
more demanding consumers of internal information
and potentially more critical or sceptical of corporate
spin (Theofilou and Watson 2014).
Official communication is also not the only reli-
able source of information in the organisation. Peo-
ple may like to receive information from their trade
unions, and rumours from colleagues very often travel
faster than the official version of events. Sociologi-
cal studies of organisational culture and resistance
to it provide interesting insights into the dark side of
employee behaviours. For example, negative word-
of-mouth communication among frontline workers
could be damaging to company performance (Harris
and Ogbonna 2012). Staff also draw inferences from
their experiences and what they see: an organisation
might claim to value diversity, for example, but staff
will reach their own conclusions when the bullying of
gay colleagues is ignored or if the board is dominated
by white middle-aged men.
Although they may work for the same organisation,
a workforce may not perceive things in a uniform way.
Marketeers may view the world differently from finance
Research from external communication may also be
instructive as well. For example, there is a suggestion
that people remember information better if they get it
from a magazine or a newspaper rather than reading it
online (Santana et al. 2013). Many organisations are also
nervous about the risks of providing a general platform
for employees to talk to each other. Although staff are
quite free to express themselves in personal conversa-
tions, the thought of having candid opinions on screen
for everyone to see may be a significant obstacle for
some leaders. There is also a limit to the impact that
social media can have in generating some of the ben-
efits that exist in the external work because of the size
of most workforces. The sheer number of people using
Facebook, Twitter or Instagram brings a dynamic that
is hard to replicate in a workplace of a few hundred
colleagues.
Nonetheless, advocates of internal social media point to
the potential and significant benefits which new commu-
nications tools can bring. If the exact impacts are as yet
unknown, the proliferation of tools and the widespread
use of social media outside the workplace would suggest
that it is likely to have some influence.
23/03/2017 13:13

Mini case study 15.1
Social media making a
difference internally at
Pearson
Pearson is a large and complicated company supplying
services to education. Over 40,000 staff, working for dif-
ferent brands within the group, are involved in publishing
textbooks (like this one), providing tests and examinations
and the technologies used by teachers and students
around the world. The group realised in 2011 that it
needed its people, regardless of business area or location,
to be able to collaborate and have access to common
information about where Pearson was going and its plans.
Staff now use a social network called Neo which uses
a commercially available platform called Jive (www.
jivesoftware.com). Neo offers a chance to track down
colleagues with useful experience and know-how, spaces
for sharing files and videos as well as areas for announce-
ments and discussions. Staff use it to hear the latest news
from the organisation, to make their own comments on
developments and to hold conversations online about
work and non-work matters.
Kim England, Pearsons Global Community Director, aims
to keep discussion and debate flowing but stresses the
importance of getting regular staff enthused about the
possibilities of the platform. When we launched, we
worked with enthusiasts and champions. We wanted
them to discover how to make Neo work for them, rather
than being told what it was for and not for. She explains
that the value of a social tool inside an organisation lies
people; factory workers may not share similar interests to
maintenance engineers visiting customers. This is because
different occupational groups will share their own norms
and values, possibly due to the specific professional train-
ing that they have received, or simply because they are
located in a part of the organisation that is remote from
central services (Hofstede and Hofstede 2010).
A communicator needs to understand the diversity that
exists in their organisation and be ready to help leaders
tailor messages and reflect the needs of individual internal
publics (Edmondson et al. 2009). As discussed earlier in
this chapter, internal communicators need to be aware
of what motivates their colleagues. When communica-
tors know why their colleagues come to work and what
enthuses them, they can begin to shape communications
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 297
Chapter 15Internal communication 297
in getting people to actively seek each other out and
have discussions about business challenges and possible
solutions. Importantly, it enables people to make con-
nections outside their day-to-day network; people form
communities that connect with each other across coun-
tries, brands and businesses.
Initially, England reports, there was some concern among
managers about a social platform in the workplace. There
were fears about staff wasting time, saying inappropriate
things or, more simply, there being no real value to the
organisation from a significant investment in technology.
We spent a lot of energy, she explains, briefing man-
agers about how the platform works and we came up
with some clear guidelines about what Neo should and
shouldnt be used for. It also helped that the CEO was a
big fan from the very beginning.
Showing results is important for any investment and social
media is no different. We were able to share usage rate
and progressively we have been able to replace around
150 different intranets which were costly to maintain,
says Kim. But we also had an impact by running regular
campaigns to find successes; for example we run annual
awards for things like the best Cost Savings and Best
Innovation results that matter to our leaders.
Importantly, Neos openness means that leaders are
engaging with staff as never before; talking and sharing
are seen to make the difference in a complex, multina-
tional business. When people are not ready to engage
in debate it really sticks out now, England explains. In
the past people may have thought that knowledge was
power; now we say collaboration is influence.
Source: by kind permission of Pearson UK.
With thanks to Kim England, Pearson.
that appeal to them and encourage the relevant actions
that support the organisational culture (see Box15.4).
Leadership communication
It is not difficult to find examples where poor lead-
ership communication has undermined trust inside
organisations: the business pages of newspapers fre-
quently report disastrous comments by senior execu-
tives and their impact on their workforce. Equally,
leaders who model a personal commitment to good
communication are often mentioned and celebrated.
Communicators are often involved in helping senior
leaders to lead. Usually, this will mean ensuring that
23/03/2017 13:13
 298 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Box 15.4
Organisations and
cultures
Organisations and their cultures have been defined and
interpreted in many different ways and continue to fas-
cinate researchers. Yet they are essential for internal
communicators to understand. Among the most widely
cited analyses is the work of Edgar Schein who argued
that, while first encounters of an organisation might
reveal some aspects of culture for example , open plan
offices, informal dress and enthusiastic staff, it is the
underlying cultural assumptions that should be under-
stood to explain an organisations culture and possible
source of conflict or misunderstanding (Schein 2010).
Underlying assumptions, or norms, are learned and tac-
itly understood between groups of workers and may be
based on past experience or the ideas of a group leader.
For example, Schein (2010: 12) found that engineers at
Amoco held the assumption that they did not have to
go out and sell themselves because good work should
senior managers visions and plans are understood.
However, as we have argued earlier in this chapter,
effective communication involves more than top-down
communication, ensuring that messages are received
and understood by employees. Therefore it is worth
examining two key concepts of leadership which are
relevant to internal communication.
The first, and perhaps most popular form of leader-
ship, is transformational leadership whereby leaders
provide compelling visions and plans to their followers
and ensure that listening and dialogue on these plans
takes place in order to achieve their objectives. However,
transformational leadership has been criticised for its
over-emphasis on leaders and for not listening to and
involving employees in making decisions (Tourish 2013).
A second approach to leadership is communicative
leadership. Here, a leader consciously places empha-
sis on communication and empowerment. This type
of leader engages employees in dialogue, actively
shares and seeks feedback, practices participative deci-
sion making, and is perceived as open and involved
(Johansson et al. 2014: 155).
The key difference between the two approaches to
leadership is the distribution of power. Empowerment is
when there is greater opportunity for workers to influence
decision-making. Examples of empowerment and com-
municative leadership are commonly found in Scandina-
vian countries, as demonstrated in Case study 15.1.
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 298
speak for itself . The engineers assumptions may have run
parallel to very different assumptions held by Amocos
senior executives.
Researchers note that while organisations espouse a
common corporate culture through values statements,
it is groups of people, known as subcultures, who hold a
shared interpretation of their organisation which differ-
entiates them from other groups of employees (Conrad
and Poole 1998: 117). Organisational subcultures might
include professional, administrative and customer interface
groups (Hofstede and Hofstede 2010).
The challenge for communicators arises when there are
cultural rifts: large gaps that open up when a group of
workers (e.g. doctors) has significantly different perspec-
tives and concerns about an issue from another group
(e.g. senior executives). Organisational cultures and
subcultures are also likely to be influenced by a range of
intercultural norms or assumptions arising from national
cultures, gender, religion, class, and generational differ-
ences (Hofstede and Hofstede 2010). In an increasingly
globalised business environment, it is therefore vital for
communicators to be sensitive to cultural diversity and
dissimilarity (Banks 2000; Kent and Taylor 2011).
The challenge for the internal communicator is to
know when and how to support their senior lead-
ers. Naturally, there are times when it is appropri-
ate for a CEO to lead communications and others
when it is less appropriate, such as when the subject
is trivial or needs detailed local or team-level expla-
nation. Any communication programme will need to
include careful analysis of the role for the CEO and
the channels through which they communicate. For
example, a major organisational change will demand
that leaders are visible to the workforce and are able
to discuss the changes with honesty in terms of how
they affect employees. In this case, a communicator
is likely to advise on the importance of face-to-face
communication, and a good leader will recognise
the value of this advice if communication is their
priority.
The importance of local managers
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the role of line
managers or supervisors in effective employee com-
munication processes has been a preoccupation of
practitioners and researchers for some time. Writers
on management processes have, for a long time advo-
cated making communication a clear responsibility
for people with leadership roles (Buckingham and
23/03/2017 13:13

Coffman 1999). Processes, often based on military
models of hierarchical information and order giving
were widely recommended (McGeough 1995). This
has been referred to as treating managers like animated
noticeboards (FitzPatrick and Valskov 2014:122).
Over time, thinking has evolved. Managers are more
commonly expected to be flexible in how they man-
age conversations with their teams, with an increasing
emphasis on problem solving and discussion, rather than
the delivery of instructions (DAprix 2011; Illes and
Mathews 2015). Managers matter in the communication
process because of their ability to explain things in terms
that are relevant to the team around them. A corporate
announcement about a new company strategy, for
example, will need to be translated into practical terms
for the people who need to implement it. A local man-
ager is able to explain how the announcement changes
the work that people do and can be available to provide
clarification in terms that their team will understand.
However, managers are not always the best chan-
nel of internal communication; there are limits to their
usefulness. A manager might be the ideal person to talk
about changes to shift patterns or efficiency, but per-
haps will be ill-equipped to explain the technicalities of
a pension scheme. Sinickas (2004) suggests that no one
expects a manager to be an expert in every single topic
that might come up and that employees generally prefer
to hear from the person who is the most knowledgeable
on a particular subject. In many, but crucially not
all cases, that could be the local manager or supervisor.
An IC team will therefore be involved in making sure
managers and supervisors are ready to communicate.
FitzPatrick (2008) argues that line manager commu-
nication works best when effort has been invested in:
explaining to managers that communication is one
of their responsibilities;
briefing or educating managers about the issues
which need discussion;
providing training in communication skills;
providing materials that managers can use in team
meetings;
gathering feedback and making sure senior leaders
hear it.
Outcomes rather than outputs:
choosing effective channels
Every organisation needs to have ways to deliver mes-
sages. A communications manager will commonly want
several different channels at their disposal so that they
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 299
Chapter 15Internal communication 299
Think about 15.5
Why are line managers trusted
more than organisations?
In a workplace, who would you expect to be trusted
more by regular employees? The chief executive
officer (CEO) or a local supervisor/team leader?
Feedback
On the one hand the CEO will know about the direc-
tion of an organisation, how well it is performing
overall and what plans exist for the future. Yet a local
manager will have a personal relationship with the
team. They will know about their likes and their con-
cerns. There will be a shared history; team members
will know when a manager can be depended upon to
keep their promises and they will know how to read
them. The CEO can seem remote; perhaps being
based far away. A local manager is local and present.
can ensure that information and feedback touches every
corner of the workforce in ways that are appropriate
and accessible. For example, an online forum may be
popular with office workers but have little uptake in
the factory where no one has access to computers. A
poster series may be an exciting or powerful way to
remind people about workplace safety, but ineffective
at explaining detailed changes to company rules and
procedures. Additionally, channels themselves may
have several different purposes. The company maga-
zine may not be much use for sharing urgent news but
could be fantastic for building a sense of community or
providing deep background on current issues. Broadly
speaking, an organisation will want to have channels to:
push out information such as news, company
results or changes to policies and procedure;
allow staff to pull out information as they need it;
aid understanding because we often want to check
what we think we heard or get help to see the
personal implications of an announcement from
head office;
promote community; helping people feel that they
are part of something and perhaps able to seek sup-
port or ideas from their colleagues;
generate debate about issues and give employees a
place to ask questions.
A communication manager might also be
responsible for promoting collaboration across the
23/03/2017 13:13
 300 Part 3Public relations specialisms

Think about 15.6 Communicating bad and good news:

Is the medium the message?
In internal communication, as with other branches of Feedback
communication and PR, how you say something is often
From an IC communicators perspective, there are prac-
as important as what you say.
tical constraints which have to be observed. You might
Imagine you work for an organisation that announces want to ensure everyone hears a piece of news at the
job losses to the media before staff or that you hear same time or you might have to observe financial regu-
news of your sacking via a text message. How would you lations about telling the local stock exchange before
feel and how might that influence how you feel about anyone else.
your employer?
However, putting yourself in the shoes of the employee
Or perhaps, you work for a very big company but the
will help you to think through possible emotional reac-
chief executive comes and finds you in person to thank
tions to how a message is perceived using different
you for a recent project. What impact might that have
channels.
on your commitment to your job?

organisation. Not every IC team has this role but,
if they do, it is likely that specific channels will be
dedicated to helping people share ideas of work
problems.
Previously we mentioned that employees are more
likely to support change if they are involved in its
planning and development. But it is not always practi-
cal to involve everyone, so an organisation will want
to identify those groups who need to be more deeply
involved than others, perhaps because of their skills,
expertise or authority. Accordingly, different groups
will need different approaches to communication.
For colleagues who only need to be informed about
something, a memo or intranet post could be enough.
Figure15.2 illustrates the idea that if you need people
to support an idea you will need a mechanism for
engaging them in a conversation or perhaps even help-
ing to design the solution.

Commitment
Joint problem
solving

Involvement
Team
Scale meetings
of Support Feedback fora
change Training

Understanding
Roadshows
Awareness Video
conferencing
Newsletters
Discussion
Intranet
with
Emaill
managers

Level of involvement

Figure 15.2 The greater the level of personal change, the greater the need to involve people in the decision (source:
Quirke 1995: 128)

M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 300 23/03/2017 13:13


Purpose Common channels or media
Push Staff emails
News pages on intranet
Newsletters or magazines
Internal TV
Noticeboards or digital displays
Memos left on desks
SMS or text messaging
Pull Intranet
Video content on intranet
Change Champions well-briefed
colleagues who have a deep
understanding of issues or events
Table 15.2 Common internal communication channels
and their uses
Mini case study 15.2
Face to face still matters
at UK financial regulator
Three and half thousand people work for the Financial
Conduct Authority, the UKs regulator for financial mat-
ters. With the remit to protect consumers, ensure the UK
financial system is run with integrity and promote com-
petition, there is a diverse workforce based in London
and Edinburgh which includes highly skilled financial
experts as well as people in operational roles.
Communicating with the FCAs employees is the job of a
specialist IC team who have a range of channels at their
disposal.
A well-established intranet is the principal medium for
sending out general messages as well as providing a refer-
ence point for colleagues to catch up on news and other
information. Tools such as posters, leaflets and desk drops
are used, but sparingly because of a commitment to sus-
tainability and value for money.
Explaining the FCAs strategy, and how well the organisa-
tion is performing, has increasingly involved giving the
CEO and the most senior leaders platforms to talk directly
to people. The CEO has an internal blog which is more
effective at reaching staff than general email which can
get lost alongside all the other messages competing for
attention. In addition, short videos are valued by the IC
team for putting a human face on potentially complex
announcements. Overall, this preference for face-to-face
communication is a central plank in the IC strategy.
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 301
Chapter 15Internal communication 301
Purpose Common channels or media
Understanding Team meetings
Training
Face-to-face events (e.g. lunch with the
CEO, internal roadshows)
Community Intranet news
Events
Collective activity, e.g. CSR
Instagram
Yammer (or similar)
Debate Yammer (or similar)
Online forums including webinars
Face-to-face events (conferences or
focus groups)
Senior leaders meet weekly to discuss current priorities
with the CEO. The meeting agenda is managed by the
IC team who also draft a briefing note for leaders to use
for consistent communication after the meeting. When
major announcements are needed, much effort goes into
preparing the FCAs 350 managers so that they can answer
questions from staff and ensure that the wider context is
fully understood.
These briefings either happen as specific events or at the
Manager Conference, which provides an opportunity to
network. Managers also receive Manager Essentials a
monthly email digest of people-related issues that help
them to be effective. The IC team know that over 80 per
cent of managers normally open the email.
For the wider workforce, a series of events called Exco
Unplugged has been developed to help people at all levels
to raise and discuss current concerns in an informal and
candid environment. And every year, all staff are invited to
attend the Annual Strategy Meeting when plans for the com-
ing year are shared and discussed in a conference format.
So far [2016], internal social media isnt used widely at
the FCA. There is some experimentation with a micro-
blogging tool to promote collaboration but the focus of
communications is still heavily on providing opportuni-
ties for people to talk in person to each other.
IC manager Ben Firth emphasises that his role involves
ensuring that communication goes up to the leadership
and is not simply one way. Weve developed channels to
promote a conversation and our measurement activity
enables us to report on what is getting through and how
people are reacting; it provides us with the intelligence
we need to tell leaders things which they might not know
through other channels.
23/03/2017 13:13
 302 Part 3Public relations specialisms
The importance of
evidence in IC planning
and evaluation
As with every branch of communication, evidence mat-
ters when planning and evaluating internal communi-
cation (see Chapter 10 Public relations programme
research and evaluation). Although personal judge-
ment and experience helps the communication man-
ager to develop the right instincts about messages and
tone of voice, facts and figures are needed for securing
budgets, defining the best approaches and understand-
ing what is working (and what is not). Later on we
talk about the importance of deep understanding and
empathy as one of the core competencies for successful
practitioners.
Internal communications managers will approach
the tasks of developing understanding and gathering
evidence in a number of ways. These include using a
range of informal and formal research methods listed
in Table15.3. Some of the most common methods for
evidence-gathering in internal communication are dis-
cussed below.
Many organisations conduct an annual survey of
their employees (Bridger 2015). These surveys will
commonly address issues such as overall morale and
commitment. Routinely they will ask a few questions
about communication and will give a limited insight
into whether staff are receiving the information that
they need to do their jobs. However, many staff surveys
Picture 15.2 Team meetings help people to raise and
discuss concerns with their line manager, thus enabling
two-way conversations that are important to the
organisation.
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 302
Purpose Common approaches
Understanding
internal
Reviewing HR data about employee
numbers, grades and locations
demographics Tracking HR information such as
sickness rates or resignations
Understanding Getting out and about
employee Work shadowing
attitudes and
Temperature checks (mini-surveys
knowledge
run at specific points in the year)
Focus groups
Monitoring internal forums for
comments
Annual staff surveys and attitude
surveys
Reviewing feedback from line
managers
Deep statistical analysis of other
surveys
Communications Communications audits
processes Monitoring channel usage (e.g.
webstats, email opening rates,
attendance at staff meetings)
Surveying users of individual channels
User focus groups
Qualitative content analysis of
upward feedback
Table 15.3 General approaches to information gathering
are limited in their usefulness for internal communi-
cators, mainly because employees dont take them
seriously, because the survey only touches on a few
aspects of the internal communication mix or because
the study only happens once a year (Walker 2012).
Further, many of these studies are disconnected from
the actual effectiveness of the organisation (Coco et
al. 2011). Just because the survey results are positive,
it does not mean that everything is running smoothly.
Additionally, measuring an issue through a survey
does not mean that action has been taken to improve
it (Bridger 2015).
Communicators therefore tend to look for a mix
of evidence that tells them what people are thinking,
what channels are working and what people are hear-
ing from their communication. Since communication
is just one of the factors that influence attitudes and
behaviours in the workplace, it is helpful to understand
what else matters to employees.
23/03/2017 13:13

Approaches to information
gathering
Building informal knowledge of the
workforce
Communicators are routinely advised to spend time
away from their desks talking to colleagues (FitzPatrick
and Valskov 2014). If the value of a specialist advisor
lies in knowing stakeholders better than anyone else,
meeting and listening to colleagues has to be a priority
for any internal communication practitioner. From this
experience, the practitioner will become well aware of
the size and shape of the workforce. Desk research into
information about location, numbers, ages, gender and
languages spoken is essential. Additionally, it is pos-
sible to draw conclusions about morale and commit-
ment from data about things such as staff sickness rates,
customer complaints or labour disputes (Walker 2012).
Monitoring channel usage
A communicator will be interested in knowing what
tools or channels are working and how to manage
them to maximise their usefulness to the organisation
and to its internal publics. There is much to be learnt
from information acquired through desk-research, such
as monitoring the number of people who are reading
particular types of article on an intranet. Modern email
programmes can tell you how many (i.e. quantitative
information) people are bothering to read the latest
message from the CEO and which of the links interest
them enough to open. As well as tracking actual usage,
the communicator can learn a lot from the reactions
that staff have to communication (i.e. qualitative infor-
mation). What comments are they leaving in online
forums or what are the questions that they ask at open
staff meetings? Leaders will often ask for immediate
feedback on specific communication activity and the
internal communication team is best placed to explain
what is working and where more effort is needed.
Managing formal internal
communication research
Using informal research methods such as getting out and
spending time work shadowing are essential approaches
that help build an awareness of the perspectives of col-
leagues. Additionally, a communicator will want to
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 303
Chapter 15Internal communication 303
Explore 15.1
Outsourcing research
Go on to the internet and look for firms that conduct
internal communication research. What do these
firms offer to the IC specialist? What information do
they require from their clients in order to undertake
a research project?
formalise continuing information gathering. Broadly
speaking, communicators have the choice of qualita-
tive research, such as focus groups and interviews, or
quantitative tools, such as surveys (Walker 2009). The
practices are not so very different from those used in
external communication research. (See also Chapter10
Public relations research and evaluation.)
In general, designing research requires some essen-
tial skills in order to ensure that the findings are useful
and credible. Commissioning, or outsourcing, research
from an external agency might be the best choice to
ensure that the research is carried out professionally,
particularly if in-house research skills are limited. There
are a range of commercial organisations who can help
an internal communicator manage the process and they
bring the benefit of experience and objectivity. If bud-
gets are tight, however, the only option available to
a communication manager will be to utilise in-house
research skills. A communication manager will need to
define the purpose of the study and prepare a proper
brief to ensure that the results are of value regardless
of whether the work is done internally or outsourced
(Walker 2012).
Preparing a research brief
As well as clearly defining the aim and purpose of the
research study for example, is to gain insight into
employees opinions of a new website to evaluate its
usefulness? Or is the research more comprehensive,
covering all the channels of communication? In addi-
tion, it is important to consider ethical and cultural
issues which will help limit bias in the results.
Confidentiality and anonymity
Often employees are asked to express opinions which
they might fear could damage their workplace rela-
tionships and or even long-term job prospects. Even
when such a fear is unfounded, the researcher should
23/03/2017 13:13
 304 Part 3Public relations specialisms
be aware that responses could be unreliable. There-
fore significant steps to assure anonymity should
be taken. This might include employing an external
contractor, limiting the detail with which groups
are reported on or simply asking fewer questions
about the participant which could allow them to be
identified.
Action
Employees expect something to happen as a result
of their contribution. Declining response rates in
employee surveys are often due to staff knowing that
the whole exercise is a waste of time, so it is important
to report back to them on what happened as a result
of their comments.
Culture
While organisations tend to develop their own corpo-
rate cultures, they may also be shaped by the social
and cultural norms of organisational subcultures,
occupational cultures and national cultures (Hofstede
and Hofstede 2010). For example, workers in China
may approach a questionnaire very differently to their
Dutch colleagues; engineers might behave very differ-
ently in a focus group to HR professionals; and older
staff may have a different approach to digital media to
younger team members (see Box15.4). A researcher
has to recognise the potential for cultural bias inside
a workplace.
Telling the story: reporting on
data-gathering
Employees can often be cynical about data gathering
because they believe that nothing ever happens to the
information they have shared (Walker 2012). When
people doubt the value of answering questions or tak-
ing part in discussion groups, participation rates suffer,
as does the reliability of the insights being collected.
A communicator therefore needs to generate demon-
strable action from any data gathered. This involves
producing a summary of the results in a format that
enables senior leaders and colleagues to take decisions.
A report might therefore cover a list of actions from
the research undertaken: what products, materials or
events have been produced and for whom (FitzPatrick
and Valskov 2014). Additionally, it would be help-
ful to report on upcoming issues and potential risks
(reflecting a deep knowledge of the audiences). When
decisions have been taken and actions implemented, it
is wise to tell study participants what happened and
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 304
how their feedback helped shape policy. This might
be no more complicated than a reference here or there
in intranet articles or a thank you note from a senior
manager.
Professionalisation: attributes,
competencies and skills in
internal communication
In recent years internal communication has developed
a body of specialist professional practitioners who
enjoy a growing status among their peers in other
branches of PR. The UK Chartered Institute of Public
Relations IC section is one of its largest and most pop-
ular groups: 931 CIPR members out of a total institute
membership of 11,000 professionals subscribed to the
CIPR Inside Group (CIPR 2015). This reflects in part
the importance placed on the specialism by directors of
communication. Furthermore, research across Europe
routinely identifies internal communication as a prior-
ity for leading communication managers (Zerfass et
al. 2010).
Within the specialism of internal communication
there are a broad variety of skills practised, ranging
from technical tasks such as writing and project man-
agement through to more strategic roles providing
sensitive advice to the most senior leaders in organ-
isations. Therefore the attributes, competencies and
skills that a practitioner needs can be very varied.
Research undertaken in 2007 (Dewhurst and Fitz-
Patrick 2007) found that practitioners emphasised
the importance of advisory and managerial skills.
Although being able to produce high-quality materi-
als and write well were deemed valuable, these repre-
sented only one set of competencies from a list of 12
core areas that included the ability to develop rela-
tionships, understand the overall business, conduct
research and manage projects. In terms of the ability
to develop relationships, recent studies highlight the
personal attribute of empathy, or being able to step
into anothers shoes, for internal communication
managers (Jin 2010; Tench and Moreno 2015). An
aspiring internal communicator can therefore expect
that professional development will involve recognis-
ing the importance of personal attributes alongside
gaining wider competencies and management skills,
such as data-gathering, that might be applicable in
other disciplines outside the world of PR.
23/03/2017 13:13

Summary
This chapter has examined the growing specialism of
internal communication in organisations. It has discussed
the key considerations and skills for internal commu-
nicators in helping organisations achieve better rela-
tionships with their employees. We argue that a sound
Bibliography
Ambler, T. and S. Barrow (1996). The employer brand.
Journal of Brand Management 4(3): 185206.
Atkinson, C. (2007). Trust and the psychological con-
tract. Employee Relations 29(3): 22746.
Banks, S.P. (2000). Multicultural Public Relations: A
social-interpretive approach, 2nd edition. Ames, IA:
Iowa State University Press.
Bridger, E. (2015). Employee Engagement. London:
Kogan Page.
Buckingham, M. and C. Coffman (1999). First, Break all
the Rules: What the worlds greatest managers do dif-
ferently. NY: Simon and Schuster.
CIPR (2015) CIPR Inside http://www.ciprinside.co.uk/
Coco, C.T., F. Jamison and H. Black (2011). Connecting
people investments and business outcomes at Lowes:
Using value linkage analytics to link employee engage-
ment to business performance. People & Strategy
34(2): 2833.
Conrad, C. and M.S. Poole (1998). Strategic Organiza-
tional Communication: Into the twenty-first century,
4th edition. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.
DAprix, R. (2011). The challenges of employee engage-
ment: Throwing rocks at the corporate rhinoceros in
The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communica-
tion: A guide to internal communication, public rela-
tions, marketing, and leadership 2nd edition. T. Gillis
(ed.). NY: Jossey Bass.
Dewhurst, S. and L. FitzPatrick (2007). How to Develop
Internal Communicators. London: Melcrum
Publishing.
Edmondson, V.C., G. Gupte, R.H. Draman and N. Oli-
ver (2009). Focusing on communication strategy to
enhance diversity climates. Journal of Communica-
tion Management 13 (1): 620.
Fawkes, J. (2007). Employee engagement: a review of
the literature in The CEO Chief Engagement Officer:
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 305
Chapter 15Internal communication 305
understanding of the diversity of internal publics, as well
as their motivations and concerns based on evidence
is the starting point for carefully planned communication.
We also argue that good communication programmes
involve listening as well as informing, and have discussed
the role of the communicator in helping managers and
leaders to create work cultures that enable employees to
have a voice.
Turning hierarchy upside down to drive performance.
J. Smythe (ed.). Aldershot: Gower.
FitzPatrick, L. (2008). Internal communication in The
Public Relations Handbook. A. Theaker (ed). London:
Routledge.
FitzPatrick, L. (2016). Internal communication in The
Public Relations Handbook. A. Theaker (ed). 5th edi-
tion. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
FitzPatrick, L. and K. Valskov (2014). Internal Communica-
tion: A manual for practitioners. London: Kogan Page.
Gregory, A. (2014). Strategic public relations planning
and management in Exploring Public Relations, 3rd
edition. R. Tench and L. Yeomans (eds). Harlow: Pear-
son Education.
Grunig, J.E. (1992). Symmetrical systems of internal
communication in Excellence in Public Relations
and Communication Management. J.E. Grunig (ed.).
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Hallahan, K., D. Holtzhausen, B. van Ruler, D. Veri and
K. Sriramesh (2007). Defining strategic communica-
tion. International Journal of Strategic Communica-
tion 1(1): 335.
Harris, L. and S. Ogbonna (2012). Forms of employee
negative word-of-mouth: a study of frontline work-
ers. Employee Relations 35(1): 3960.
Heide, M. and C. Simonsson (2011). Putting coworkers
in the limelight: New challenges for communication
professionals. International Journal of Strategic Com-
munication 5(4): 20120.
Herzberg, F., B. Mausner and B.B. Snyderman (1959).
Motivation to Work. New York, NY: John Wiley and
Sons, Inc.
Hofstede, G.H. and G.J. Hofstede (2010). Cultures and
Organizations: Software of the Mind, 3rd edition.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Illes, K. and M. Mathews (2015). Leadership, Trust
and Communication: Building trust in companies
through effective leadership communication. London:
University of Westminster/Top Banana Ltd.
23/03/2017 13:13
 306 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Jin, Y. (2010). Emotional leadership as a key dimension
of public relations leadership: a national survey of
public relations leaders. Journal of Public Relations
Research 22(2): 159181.
Johansson, C., V.D. Miller and S. Hamrin (2014). Con-
ceptualizing communicative leadership A framework
for analysing and developing leaders communica-
tion competence. Corporate Communication: An
International Journal 19(2): 147-165. doi: 10.1108/
CCIJ-02-2013-0007
Johansson, C. (2015). Empowering employees through
communicative leadership in A.D. Melo, I. Somerville
and G. Goncalves (eds) Organisational and Strategic
Communication Research: European Perspectives II.
Braga, Portugal: CECS.
Karanges, E., A. Beatson, K. Johnston and I. Lings (2014).
Optimizing employee engagement with internal com-
munication: a social exchange perspective. Journal of
Business Marketing Management 7(2): 32953.
Kennan, W.R. and V. Hazleton (2006). Internal public
relations, social capital, and the role of effective organ-
izational communication in Public Relations Theory
II. C.H. Botan and V. Hazleton (eds). Mahwah, NJ
and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Kent, M. and M. Taylor (2011). How intercultural com-
munication theory informs public relations practice in
global settings in Public Relations in Global Cultural
Contexts. N. Bardhan and C.K. Weaver (eds). New
York and Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Kotter, J. (2014). Accelerate. Boston: Harvard Business
Review Press.
Lombardi, G. (2015). Social media inside a large
organisation in Exploring Internal Communica-
tion: Towards informed employee voice, 3rd edition.
K. Ruck (ed.). London: Gower.
MacLeod, D. and N. Clarke (2009). Engaging for Success:
Enhancing performance through employee engagement.
London: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Maslow, A.H. (1943). A theory of human motivation.
Psychological Review 50(4).
Mazzei, A. (2014). Internal communication for employee
enablement. Corporate Communications: An Interna-
tional Journal 19(1): 8295.
McGeough, P. (1995). Team Briefing: a practical hand-
book, London: The Industrial Society.
Men, L.R. (2014). Why leadership matters to internal
communication: Linking transformational leadership,
symmetrical communication, and employee outcomes.
Journal of Public Relations Research 26(3): 25679.
Middlemiss, S. (2011). The psychological contract
and implied contractual terms: synchronous or
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 306
asynchronous models? International Journal of Law
and Management 53(1): 3250.
Mullins, L.J. (2013). Management and Organisational
Behaviour, 10th edition. London: FT Publishing
International.
Murray, K. (2014). Communicate to Inspire. London:
Kogan Page.
Pink. D. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what
motivates us. Edinburgh: Canongate Books.
Quirke, B. (1995). Communicating change. Maidenhead:
McGraw-Hill Companies.
Rogers, E.M. and D.L. Kincaid (1981). Communica-
tion Networks: Toward a paradigm for research.
New York: Free Press.
Santana, A.D., R.M. Livingstone and Y.C. Yoon (2013).
Print readers recall more than do online readers.
Newspaper Research Journal 34 (2): 7892.
Schaufeli, W. (2014). What is engagement? in Employee
Engagement in Theory and Practice. C. Truss, A.
Kerstin, R. Delbridge, A. Shantz and E. Soane (eds).
Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Schein, E. (2010). Organizational Culture and Leader-
ship, 4th edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Sinickas, A. (2004). Making Managers Better Communi-
cators. Melcrum Publishing.
Smythe, J. (2007). The CEO Chief Engagement Officer.
Aldershot: Gower Publishing Ltd.
Tench, R. and A. Moreno (2015). Mapping communication
management competencies for European practitioners.
Journal of Communication Management 19 (1): 3961.
Theofilou, A. and T. Watson (2014). Sceptical employees
as CSR ambassadors in times of financial uncertainty
in Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility:
Perspectives and practice. R. Tench, W. Sun and B.
Jones (eds) (pp. 355382). Bingley, UK: Emerald
Group Publishing.
Tourish, D. (2013). The Dark Side of Transformational
Leadership: A critical perspective. Hove: Routledge.
Veri, A., D. Veri and K. Sriramesh (2012). Inter-
nal communication: definition, parameters and the
future. Public Relations Review 38(2): 22330.
Walker, S. (2009). Measurement, in The Gower Hand-
book of Internal Communication, 2nd edition.
M. Wright (ed.). London: Gower Publishing Ltd.
Walker, S. (2012). Employee Engagement and Communi-
cation Research. London: Kogan Page.
Welch, M. (2011). The evolution of the employee
engagement concept: Communication implications.
23/03/2017 13:13

orporate Communications: An International Journal
C organizational learning an interpretive approach.
16(4): 32846.
Welch, M. and P.R. Jackson (2007). Rethinking internal
communication: a stakeholder approach. Corporate
Communications: An International Journal 12(2):
17798.
Windahl, S. and B. Signitzer (2008). Using C
ommunication
Theory: An introduction to planned communication,
2nd edition. London: Sage.
Yankelovich, D. and J. Immerwahr (1983). Putting the
work ethic to work. Society 21(2): 5876.
Yaxley, H. and K. Ruck (2015). Tracking the rise and
rise of internal communication in Exploring Internal
Communication: Towards informed employee voice,
3rd edition. K. Ruck (ed.). London: Gower.
Yeomans, L. (2008). . . . Its a general meeting: its
not for us . . .. Internal communication and
M15 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 307
Chapter 15Internal communication 307
Corporate Communications: An International Jour-
nal 13(3): 27186.
Yeomans, L. and W. Carthew (2014). Internal commu-
nication in Exploring Public Relations. 3rd edition.
R. Tench and L. Yeomans (eds). Harlow: Pearson
Education.
Zerfass, A., R. Tench, P. Verhoeven, D. Veri and
A. Moreno (2010). European Communication
Monitor 2010. Status quo and challenges for public
relations in Europe. Results of an Empirical Survey
in 46 Countries (chart version). Brussels: EACD,
EUPRERA. www.communicationmonitor.eu
Zerfass, A., D. Veri, P. Verhoeven, A. Moreno and
R. Tench (2015). European Communication Monitor
2015. Creating communication value through listening,
messaging and measurement. Results of a Survey in 41
Countries Brussels: EACD/EUPRERA, Helios Media.
23/03/2017 13:13
 C H AP T ER 16 Ralph Tench and Mavis Amo-Mensah

Managing community involvement

programmes

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
define, describe and compare the concepts of community involvement, corporate social responsibility and
cause-related marketing.
identify the key principles of community relationship building and apply this understanding to simple,
meaningful scenarios
evaluate the issues arising from an organisations community involvement
critically evaluate corporate strategies for integrating corporate social responsibility and community pro-
grammes into the business plan from a stakeholder perspective.

Structure
Corporate community involvement (CCI) programmes
Employees and community programmes
Cause-related marketing (CRM)
Developing community programmes
Evaluating community programmes

M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 308 23/03/2017 13:14

 Chapter 16Managing community involvement programmes 309

Introduction
If you saw a child helping an elderly
citizen cross the road or giving up a
seat for them on the train, you would
probably think it was a mature and
generous act by someone with a con-
sidered view of their place in society. If
the child then went home and wrote
about it in their private diary it may still
be viewed as a positive action being
considered and reflected on to inform
the childs future behaviour in similar
situations. The child could then share
the experience over dinner with fam-
ily members to elicit praise, credit or
a reward of a coveted sweet or drink.
What if they then went to their school
headteacher (principal) soliciting
further praise, even a headteacher s
award, which may attract interest from
outside the school through a parental
contact with the local paper? And the
accolades pour in.
A little far-fetched perhaps, but is this
analogous with organisations and their
involvement in society through corpo-
rate social responsibility? It may be for
some. Certainly criticisms have been
levelled at some companies for over-
promoting their acts of corporate giv-
ing, particularly around major incidents
such as 11 September in the USA and
the Asian tsunami in December 2004.
We have also been forced to reflect
on major corporations responsibilities
and responsible behaviour in the after-
math of the 2008 economic crises. Sig-
nificantly, companies involvement with
communities has transformed over the
years. What are organisations motiva-
tions and interests in their communities?
How much are they interested in doing
something good and how much in
being acknowledged, recognised and
rewarded for this act? Earlier in the text
we discussed the role of organisations
in their communities and in this chap-
ter we will explore the different ways in
which organisations apply their indi-
vidual interpretations of community
involvement and how this can have
various outcomes, outputs, benefits and
rewards for them and the communities
they are involved with.
The chapter will therefore evaluate
community involvement programmes
that can range from the philanthropic
(donations) through to campaigns that
have much more tangible returns for
the organisation, such as initiatives like
cause-related marketing (CRM).

Corporate community
involvement (CCI)
programmes
In recent times, companies have sought to incorpo-
rate their CCI programmes into the broader concept
of corporate social responsibility. These programmes
demonstrate the tactical approaches organisations
plan in order to discharge their CSR policy. CCI
may be viewed as the organisational recognition that
businesses cannot survive unless there is a prosper-
ous community or wider society from which to draw
both employees and trade. Building relationships with
stakeholders and community groups is important for
many organisations when there are changing patterns
of employment and recruitment, with increasing use
of short-term contracts and part-time work, partic-
ularly in the retail and service sectors. Other influ-
ences include the continuing increase in the number of
women in full- and part-time work and the worldwide
issue of downsizing. It is important to recognise that
not all organisations take an enlightened view of their
role in society and, in fact, many are content to work
at the basic level of responsibility to s ociety i.e. to
pay taxes and obey corporate and societal laws (see
Chapter 5). Some also, as Jones et al. (2009) have dis-
cussed, find themselves behaving irresponsibly while
not necessarily breaking societys rules or laws. So
how do organisations obtain guidance on the best
ways to proceed in the modern business world? There
are many groups and non-governmental organisations
giving advice on the issue globally and nationally. One
of the principal drivers in this is the United Nations
through the UN Global Compact (www.unglobal
compact.org). The Global Compact is a framework
for businesses that are committed to aligning their
operations and strategies, with ten principles that fall
within the areas of human rights, labour, the environ-
ment and anti-corruption. The ten principles are out-
lined in Table 16.1.
All these factors are influential in the increasing
drive by organisations to build links with communi-
ties and stakeholders in order to enhance public under-
standing of the organisations function and its business
objectives and, subsequently, its impact on the envi-
ronment in which it operates. In recognition of many
of these changes, businesses are attempting to forge
direct links with communities, either individually or
collectively, through organisations such as Business in
the Community (BITC) in the UK.
BITC is a non-political UK organisation founded
in 1995 whose aim is to work in partnership with

M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 309 23/03/2017 13:14

 310 Part 3Public relations specialisms

Human rights Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human
rights; and
Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

Labour standards Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the
right to collective bargaining;
Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;
Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and
Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Environment Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;

Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and
Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

Anti-corruption Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

Table 16.1The Global Compacts ten principles (source: www.unglobalcompact.org)

businesses to build their relationships and involvement
with the communities in which they operate. BITC
defines its aims as supporting the social and economic
regeneration of communities by raising the quality
and extent of business involvement and by making
that involvement a natural part of successful business
practice.
The organisation represents over 400 member
companies in the UK and this includes 48 of the
current UKs top-performing stock-exchange listed
companies, the FTSE 100. Member companies are
encouraged to provide their skills, expertise, influ-
ence, products and profits to assist in building a pros-
perous society that is attractive to investors, in which
businesses can thrive and where all stakeholders in
the community can have access to opportunities.
The organisation is run through 12 regional offices
throughout the UK. BITC claims the benefits to the
members are as follows:
increased staff morale
enhanced relations with local decision makers
motivated, high-quality recruits
improved corporate image.
BITC is a member of CSR Europe, a network of
national affiliation organisations interested in CSR.
CSR Europe describes itself as a business-to-business
network that aims to help companies achieve profit-
ability by placing CSR in the mainstream of business
practice (CSR Europe 2016). In the USA, Business for
Social Responsibility (BSR) is the coordinating organ-
isation (www.bsr.org). (See Case study 16.1.)
Sponsorship and the community
Today, sponsorship is an important area of business
policy and a large proportion of it is highly visible to an
organisations stakeholders. Examples include sponsor-
ship of major sporting events, such as FIFAs football
World Cup or the summer and winter Olympic Games
(see Chapter 24 for more on sponsorship). A further
area of popular sponsorship is of specific, high-profile
television programmes, such as soap operas and drama
series. It is therefore clear that not all sponsorship fits
into the CCI category for example, tobacco sponsor-
ship of Formula 1 motor racing came in for ethical
and political debate for many years. During 2004, the
Breakthrough breast cancer charity rejected 1m of
sponsorship from Nestl because of the companys past
policy of promoting formula milk products for new-
born babies in developing countries. Similar issues have
arisen for companies accused of greenwashing when
they support major sporting events such as the 2012
London Olympics (Gibson 2012). Corporate sponsor-
ship can be planned, well managed and fit into corpo-
rate strategies within ethical guidelines, but it can also
challenge ethical rules if the organisation is not clear
about its aims, objectives and criteria for sponsoring.
It is important, therefore, for the organisation to
clarify its aims and objectives when embarking on a
sponsorship programme. For commercial sponsorship,
the organisation may have one of the following reasons
for sponsoring:
to raise awareness of the organisation or its products;
to build organisational image by association with
worthwhile causes, e.g. charities or the arts, or to

M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 310 23/03/2017 13:14

 Chapter 16Managing community involvement programmes
Case study 16.1
BT Community
Partnership Programme
BT is a founder member of BITCs Per Cent Standard (for-
merly the Per Cent Club) a group of top companies in
the UK that donate a percentage of their annual profits to
community-based projects and organisations.
BT has a long history of working in the community.
In the 1990s the guiding principle of BTs Community
Partnership Programme was access and communica-
tion. The aim was to help people to communicate bet-
ter by providing organisations with resources, expertise
and the technology to improve the quality of life and
well-being of the community. BTs mission statement
pledged the company to make a fitting contribution
to the community in which it conducts its business.
The recipients of BTs membership of the Per Cent Club
have been charitable causes such as the Samaritans,
enhance image in particular geographical locations
by sponsoring regional or national sports teams;
to overcome legislation, such as gaining exposure
on television for products banned from advertising
(e.g. contraceptives and tobacco in the UK);
to provide corporate hospitality opportunities for
stakeholders, such as customers and investors, to
attend.
However, there are other forms of sponsorship
that fit into the CCI category more closely, such as
charitable donations given to an activity that is not
commercial but helps the community or members of
that community and from which no commercial return
is sought. This form of sponsorship does frequently
provide significant public relations benefits but this
is not always of importance to organisations, nor is
it always exploited. There are significant differences
between corporate sponsorship and charitable dona-
tions, not least in the classification of tax. Sponsorship
is liable to value added tax (VAT) in the UK, whereas
charitable donations are not. This situation is similar in
many other countries. Having looked at the definitions
of sponsorship, it is therefore wrong and potentially
illegal for organisations to redefine their sponsorship
activity as charitable donations to avoid paying tax.
It is possible for CCI initiatives to be either sponsor-
ship that benefits both parties or to be clearly examples of
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 311
311
which has received over 1m in five years. The com-
pany has also supported the Royal National Institute for
the Deaf s Communications Support Unit. This enabled
15 people to be trained to professional sign language
interpreter standard and provided support during their
first year of employment. BT has also supported people
with disabilities: BT Swimming, for example, together
with the disabled swimming organisation, BSAD, organ-
ised national competitions. BT Swimathon, a nationwide
charity swim, raised millions for a number of different
charities including ChildLine (see Case study 16.6).
This demonstrates the long-term commitment BT has
had to the community in which it conducts its busi-
ness, and allows the company to see the links into its
corporate strategy and goals and particularly the con-
nections with the companys industry, communications.
This is a common theme with many corporate com-
munity initiatives and it is clearly one way that makes
the technique acceptable to directors in the boardroom
(see also Case study 16.6).
Source: used with kind permission of BT and BITC
charitable donation by the organisation. Lately, charita-
ble acts in response to disasters like floods, earthquakes,
hurricanes and communicable diseases are becoming
more and more common. Changes in climate patterns,
among other factors, are endangering many countries
in diverse ways. The Asian Tsunami as discussed earlier,
the Haiti and Nepal earthquakes, and the Ebola out-
break in West Africa are some of the major disasters that
have occurred in recent years. Support to individuals and
communities during such disasters may range from cash
donations to other essential supplies to help recovery
efforts. In addition to fundraising campaigns that can
help gather contributions for such victims, companies
may also establish partnerships with aid organisations
such as the Red Cross in humanitarian relief efforts (See
Mini case study 16.1 and Think about 16.2 and 16.3).
Sponsorship can, therefore, be seen as part of the
armoury used in corporate community relations. Com-
munity relations programmes are often defined as mutu-
ally beneficial partnerships with one or more stakeholders
to enhance the organisations reputation as a good corpo-
rate citizen. The stakeholders are, therefore, usually the
target audiences for the company and include customers,
suppliers, media, employers, trade unions, politicians,
local government representatives, community organisa-
tions, key opinion formers, shareholders, educational-
ists, environmentalists, etc. Community relations can
have an influence on the corporate reputation and this
23/03/2017 13:14
 312 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Mini case study 16.1
British Airways
Supporting humanitarian
efforts
The UK flagship airline British Airways (BA) supports
humanitarian relief partners including Oxfam, UNI-
CEF and Save the Children to transport emergency
aid and supplies to countries devastated by disaster.
Along with relief flights, BA assists with donations and
fundraising events for victims. Since 2005 it has made
available more than 1000 disaster response special-
ists who ensure that the right aid is given to those in
need. During the Asian Tsunami, BA supported UNI-
CEFs emergency response by transporting 190 tonnes
of vital supplies. Similarly, it dispatched vehicles and
other equipment for the Red Cross during the Haiti
earthquake. Other significant contributions include
donation of 40 relief aircrafts to Oxfam personnel dur-
ing the Kenyan food crisis.
Impact
BAs emergency response is claimed to have:
supported experts and charities to provide both
physical and psychological aid to several disaster-
ravaged countries;
deployed BA flights even to countries the airline
doesnt serve, thereby providing immediate
response to victims.
Think about 16.1 Why companies get involved in
community relations
Company stock valuation is one reason for being involved
in community relations. What others can you think of
that might benefit the organisation?
Feedback
Some businesses are increasingly concerned with edu-
cational development of the community, in what is
termed cradle to grave. Community relations can influ-
ence this process by education-based sponsorship. This
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 312
Picture 16.1 British Airways supports international
charities to transport emergency aid and supplies
worldwide.
British Airways Chief Executive, Keith Williams, said:
One of our guiding principles as a business is to support
humanitarian efforts and we are committed to helping
people and communities devastated by disaster. As an
airline we are in a fortunate position where we can get
vital people and emergency supplies to critical locations
in the immediate aftermath of an international disaster.
Tragedies such as the Haiti earthquake, the Philippines
typhoon and the Ebola epidemic highlight the need for
businesses to take fast and direct action to help those
in need.
Source: Adapted from http://www.bitc.org.uk
creates awareness in local schools and establishes the
company as a desirable employer. This may, in turn,
influence future recruitment or create a positive
image around products/services/outputs. Also, the
community initiatives can provide employees with
opportunities to develop further skills by working
with local schools and organisations. The benefits of
such education are a properly trained and developed
workforce, which is crucial to the company s future
success.
23/03/2017 13:14
 Chapter 16Managing community involvement programmes
is increasingly an important measure for individual and
institutional investors for the quality of an organisation.
As such, the link between good corporate citizenship,
good reputation and share value/price can be identified
(see Figure 16.1, Think about 16.1 and Explore 16.1).
The bigger picture
Community initiatives can have benefits beyond links
with specific community-based stakeholders (such
as schools or community-based groups). Through
involvement in community relations, an organisation
is often complementing other objectives (such as its
corporate strategy). This can have an impact on share
value, as discussed, but also on media relations, inves-
tor relations, shareholder communications strategies
and even, in the event of crisis, communication. For
example, establishing a relationship with specialist or
local journalists during positive news stories connected
Explore 16.1 Finding examples of community relations
Think about an organisation you know well or are inter-
ested in and research its website and external activities.
Make a list of those activities you believe might be regarded
as community relations. Note down what you believe the
organisation and the recipient got out of the relationship.
Feedback
Community relations are diverse and the involvement
need not be significant. Typically, community relations
programmes involve one or more of the following tech-
niques or tactics:
sponsorships
targeted donations
awards
Think about 16.2 Sponsoring
What do you think are the implications for a sponsee of
a high-profile event (for example, sponsoring a world-
famous horse race or established annual charity walk and
collection fund) if the sponsor withdraws their support?
Feedback
The event may be put into jeopardy. Think about con-
tracts and the following:
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 313
313
Figure 16.1 Link between community relations, financial
performance and reputation
to community initiatives may help during a crisis. A
well-disposed journalist is more likely to give the
organisation the opportunity to respond or give the
organisational view of the negative situation. This can
prevent more damaging news stories escalating into a
crisis (see Mini case study 16.1 and Think about 16.2
and 16.3).
hospitality
employee volunteering
use of facilities (loan of equipment)
training/seminars
secondments (staff)
partnerships.
Links between organisations and community groups are
normally made with organisations in areas such as sports,
arts, education, the environment, occupational health
and safety, charities, youth/young peoples groups, senior
citizens, the disadvantaged, disability, heritage and many
other groupings.
1. What if no suitable sponsor comes to take their
place?
2. What about negative publicity if the event is no
longer able to run?
(See also Chapter 24.)
23/03/2017 13:14
 314 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Think about 16.3 Sponsoring and corporate giving
The concept of corporate philanthropy was discussed
earlier in the book (Chapter 5). This relates to the pro-
cess of providing money or gifts in kind to organisations
on behalf of a company or organisation. Here are some
issues for you to think about related to the process of giv-
ing and sponsoring on behalf of an organisation:
Does sponsorship and corporate giving discourage
the state and government agencies from fulfilling
their duties to society?
Consider a company that sponsors local schools
and supplies them with computers. Does this dis-
courage state provision of information technology
to schools? What happens when the hardware
dates and the software become obsolete and the
organisation moves on to other causes or stops
giving?
Employees and community
programmes
Increasingly, employers are encouraging their employ-
ees to become involved in the local communities in
which they and often their families live. This is true of
public as well as private organisations. For example,
Leeds Beckett University supports the Leeds Cares ini-
tiative, which includes employees working on volun-
tary projects in and around Leeds (see Case study 16.2
and Explore 16.2).
To achieve practically the increased involvement
of employees, the following techniques should be
considered:
preferential treatment given to requests supported
by employees of the organisation (the Leeds Cares
Case study 16.2 is an example);
launching a reward and recognition programme
that highlights and supports the achievements of
employees in out-of-hours activities (e.g. sporting
honours); leadership initiatives; commitment to an
organisation (e.g. school governor); academic sup-
port (e.g. encourage employees to give lectures at
local schools and colleges);
awards presentations where employees volunteer to
represent the organisation as an ambassador at
presentation events;
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 314
Will giving to one group in society disadvantage oth-
ers if the state withdraws or reduces support?
Might some groups be more attractive to sponsors
and donors than others? Is it easier to support babies
orphaned in a disaster than disturbed teenagers?
Feedback
Think about the impact of initiatives such as national lot-
teries (which exist in many countries) on charity dona-
tions. Do they provide much-needed support while at the
same time take away the responsibility of individuals or
the state to support parts of society? Some charities in the
UK claim to have lost out because of the National Lottery.
They believe that because people are buying lottery tick-
ets they feel they are doing their bit and no longer need
to make the kinds of contribution they used to.
Explore 16.2
Employee involvement
List the benefits you think involving employees with
the local community might bring to:
the individual
the organisation
the community.
Feedback
Individual benefits might include:
personal development
learning new skills
developing communication skills.
Organisational benefits might include learning from
working in partnership with your employees and shar-
ing their professional skills, time and experience. For
the communities in need, EVPs can stimulate change
to enhance development.
employee volunteering that actively encourages
employees to gain personal development experience
by volunteering their time and skills to a willing
community organisation;
23/03/2017 13:14
 Chapter 16Managing community involvement programmes
Case study 16.2
Leeds Cares
collaborative action
Leeds Cares is the leading programme for engaging busi-
ness support in the northern UK city of Leeds. Through
the collaboration of its 33 supporting businesses work-
ing closely with public sector and community partners,
it has a real social impact in the most deprived areas
of Leeds.
Leeds Cares began in 1999, with 11 founder companies
providing action days for teams and calendar opportuni-
ties for individuals. It has grown to include 33 companies
and offers a range of employee involvement activities,
including team challenges, brokering business men-
tors who support prisoners due for release and seeking
work, and helping homeless people into permanent
employment.
The social impact of the programme is achieved through
planning and consultation with stakeholders. Leeds
Cares vision is based on the Vision for Leeds a commu-
nity strategy for the city prepared through consultation
with the people of Leeds by the Leeds Initiative, the citys
local strategic partnership, bringing together the public,
private and voluntary sectors.
Leeds Cares recognises that education is the primary
social issue of concern to business. Its programmes
provide: one-to-one literacy support to primary
committee membership that develops employees by
encouraging involvement with external committees;
this will help their networking and understanding
of how other organisations work.
Involving employees in community programmes
can offer numerous benefits to all the parties
involved. For employees, it improves motivation
and pride in the organisation, which can improve
productivity, reduce sickness absence, increase
innovation, develop communication skills, improve
understanding of corporate strategy/policy objec-
tives and offer a measure/comparison against com-
petitor organisations. If it is so good, however, why
are so few organisations doing it? Perhaps some
individuals and companies are, but they do not make
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 315
315
schoolchildren; individual mentors to work with
selected secondary schoolchildren; and manage-
ment support to headteachers through Partners in
Leadership.
Leeds Cares states its aim is to continue helping busi-
nesses to engage in wider corporate social responsibility
issues through community involvement. By addressing
hard social issues, such as ex-offender re-offending rates,
getting homeless people into jobs and developing read-
ing and numeracy in schools, the programme has the
potential to be at the heart of the citys regeneration
movement.
According to Leeds Cares, the impact of the programme
has been:
over 8000 volunteers giving over 100,000 hours of
time; of these, 90 per cent were volunteering for the
first time;
support for over 350 community partners and 50
companies;
human resources benefits for supporting companies,
through employee development, communications,
project management, teambuilding and motivation,
as well as reputation building through public rela-
tions around action days;
development of new training packages based around
the staff development benefits of Leeds Cares, while
others used it to support their business objectives
around social diversity.
Source: adapted from http://www.bitc.org.uk/
a big deal out of it. Alternatively, it may be just too
costly and not worth the effort. This may be influ-
enced by the business area, range of employee pro-
files (age, gender, education), corporate interest in
the region or local society or, more importantly, the
organisations size or profitability it just might not
be able to afford the time or the money. Recent ini-
tiatives are helping to promote more active engage-
ments in Employee Volunteer Programmes (EVPs).
The UK has, for instance, instituted a national day
of employee volunteering during which employees
from different organisational sectors rally together
offering various forms of community initiatives.
Launched by BITC in 2008, this annual activity
Give and Gain day is now recognised and cele-
brated in 36 countries around the world.
23/03/2017 13:14
 316 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Cause-related marketing
(CRM)
Cause-related marketing (CRM) is when companies
invest in social causes that complement their brands
(Blowfield and Murray 2008: 26), or where a company
associates a marketing promotion with a charitable
cause (Hart 1995: 219), or a strategy designed to pro-
mote the achievement of marketing objectives (e.g. brand
sales) via company support of social causes (Barone et
al. 2000).
BITC defines CRM as a commercial activity by
which a company with an image, product or ser-
vice to market, builds a relationship with a cause
or a number of causes for mutual benefit (BITC
2012).
CRM has become a popular practice for Anglo-
American organisations in recent years and a
number of leading UK companies have forged par-
ticularly close partnerships with charities and good
causes. For example, Tesco, one of the UKs larg-
est supermarket retailers, runs a well-known CRM
programme in conjunction with local schools called
Tesco Computers for Schools. The scheme involves
consumers collecting tokens with their shopping
that can be exchanged by schools for computer
equipment.
BITC in the UK carries out regular research into
CRM and its use. For example, in October 2008, Busi-
ness in the Community published research showing
that FTSE 350 companies that consistently managed
and measured their corporate responsibility outper-
formed their FTSE 350 peers on total shareholder
return 20022007 by between 3.3 per cent and 7.7
per cent per year. Also, earlier studies such as BITCs
Profitable Partnerships research (2000) revealed that
the vast majority of the population (88 per cent) are
aware of cause-related marketing; that 76 per cent of
consumers who had heard of CRM associations have
participated in these programmes; and 80 per cent
of consumers who had participated in a CRM pro-
gramme said that it would positively impact on their
future behaviour and attitudes.
BITC has been researching company and consumer
attitudes in the UK since the 1990s. For example,
Research International (1995) surveyed over 450
major companies operating in the UK, including 81
of the top 100 FTSE companies. The results demon-
strated that CRM was already established and 93 per
cent indicated some level of CRM spend. The sur-
vey also found that marketing directors, community
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 316
affairs directors and chief executives all believed
CRM held obvious benefits for businesses and
causes, including:
enhancing corporate reputation
achieving press coverage and public relations
raising brand awareness
increasing customer loyalty
building and increasing sales (Research Interna-
tional 1995).
The Winning Game was a large-scale consumer sur-
vey carried out among 1053 UK consumers (Research
International 1997). The purpose of the study was to
understand consumer attitudes towards CRM. It found
that consumers had a high expectation that large busi-
nesses and corporations should demonstrate an active
social responsibility. It also found that consumers felt
CRM is a means by which businesses can become
involved in the community. The most significant find-
ing of the research was that when price and quality
are equal, consumers will discriminate in favour of the
company that espouses a good cause. Furthermore,
consumers believe that companies should support a
good cause (Research International 1997). Accord-
ing to the IEG Sponsorship Report (Chipps 2011), US
spending on cause marketing was up 3.1 per cent to
$1.68 billion in 2011. IEG claims this reflects signifi-
cant growth in the US, where in 1990 cause sponsor-
ship spending was only $120 million. The 2012 report
breaks down cause spending over the previous four
years as follows:
2011 $1.68 billion, 3.1 per cent growth
2010 $1.62 billion, 6.7 per cent growth
2009 $1.51 billion, 0.3 per cent decline
2008 $1.52 million, 5.5 per cent growth.
The attraction of CRM for organisations is that
these programmes generate direct, measurable bene-
fits for the company. Further benefits of this approach
include:
those needing help receive it
the public feels good about buying/supporting the
product
the donor organisation gains reputation and some-
times sales
it is a winwin situation for both parties.
Talking about CRM in the mid-1990s, Cadbury
Schweppes chairman, Dominic Cadbury (1996: 25),
one of the biggest proponents in the UK, enthused
23/03/2017 13:14
 Chapter 16Managing community involvement programmes 317

about CRMs ability to enhance corporate image, to winwin situation. (See Mini case studies 16.416.6,
differentiate products, and to increase sales and loy- then look at the examples provided in Boxes 16.1 and
alty. It is enlightened self-interest [see Chapter 5], a 16.2 and Case study 16.3.)

Mini case study 16.2
The Marks & Spencer and
Oxfam Clothes Exchange
The UK clothes retailer Marks and Spencer plc and
Oxfam Clothes Exchange aim to encourage cus-
tomers to recycle more and to help to reduce the
amount of clothing going to landfill. The campaign
attracted a lot of interest and comment and was sup-
ported with national television adverts in April and
May 2012. The campaign used the actress Joanna
Lumley, with the aim of changing clothes shopping
habits towards greater recycling. During the campaign,
Marks & Spencer completely covered a street includ-
ing trees and a dog with clothes in East Londons Brick
Lane fashion district to highlight the amount thrown
into UK landfill every five minutes. In the initiative cus-
tomers are encouraged to return their used Marks &
Spencer clothes to Oxfam and receive a 5 voucher,
which can be redeemed when they spend 35 or more
in a Marks & Spencer store.
In 2013, Shwop at work was introduced in partnership
with BITC to extend the clothes exchange campaign to
UK businesses. Clothes recycling boxes or shwop drop

Picture 16.2 The UK clothes retailer Marks & Spencer and Oxfam Clothes Exchange aim to encourage customers
to recycle more and to help to reduce the amount of clothing going to landfill. The Plan A campaign attracted a lot
of interest and comment and was supported with national television adverts
(source: Marks and Spencer plc)

M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 317 23/03/2017 13:14

 318 Part 3Public relations specialisms

mini case study 16.2 (continued)

boxes are placed within offices and employees similarly Impact

receive vouchers for clothing gifted.
The campaign is claimed to have:
Reported in the Huffington Post in April 2012, Marks
and Spencer plc chief executive MarcBolland said: Were
leading a change in the way we all shop for clothing, for-
ever. This is the right, responsible move for the UKs big-
gest clothing retailer and the ultimate goal is simple to
put a complete stop to clothes ending up in landfill. We
want to get back one garment for every one we sell. For
us thats 350 million a year. It is a big number, but with our
customers help, we will do it.
Received more than 4.6 million clothes since its
launch in 2012;
Raised over 9.5 million for Oxfam projects through
re-selling the clothes that customers return;
Saved millions of pounds for Marks & Spencer cus-
tomers through the redemption of the 5 vouchers;
Destroyed only 1% of donated garments.

Consumers and CRM
Research from the USA in the early days of CRM dem-
onstrated a significant return and reflected the impor-
tance of CRM with consumers as follows:
CRM increasingly becoming the tiebreaker in a
purchase decision;
76 per cent of Americans say that when price and
quality are equal they are more likely to switch to
brands associated with a good cause;
consumers are less cynical about CRM (than about
standard marketing campaigns);
CRM has long-term strategic benefits rather than
being a short-term promotional device;

Box 16.1 Box 16.2

Other CRM examples Other examples from
from the UK around the world

Norwich Union St John Ambulance Toyota: Leukaemia Society of

(financial services): America

Nivea (cosmetics): Fashion Targets Breast American Express: Elizabeth Taylor AIDS
Cancer Foundation

Lloyds TSB (financial Visible Women (ethnic Magic Johnson Foundation

services): minority women one-off
magazine) Florida Citrus: American Cancer Society

Nike (sports goods): Kick Racism out of Kelloggs: Race For The Cure (breast
Football cancer)

Andrex (toiletries): Guide Dogs for the Blind Zachodni WBK Puppet Clown Action
(see Case study 16.3) Bank (Polish bank): (Akcja Pajack)

HP Foods Daddies NSPCC (see Mini case Pampers: UNICEF 1 pack=1vaccine

Sauce (food): study 16.6)
Facebook: Fights Ebola
Marks & Spencer: The Royal British Legion
Dove: Real beauty
poppy partnership
Uber: No Kid Hungry

M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 318 23/03/2017 13:14

 Chapter 16Managing community involvement programmes
Mini case study 16.3
Unilever brightFuture
The globally recognised consumer goods giant, Uni-
lever, launched brightFuture originally under the
name Project Sunlight on November 20, 2013, Uni-
versal Childrens day in the UK, US, Brazil, India and
Indonesia. The long-term initiative supports the com-
pany s sustainable living plan and aims at encourag-
ing people to make sustainable living a major priority
to inspire positive change. In particular, communities
are encouraged to join Unilevers effort to make the
world a better place for children and future genera-
tions, as captured in an online promotional video that
explains the rationale behind the campaign, What is
Mini case study 16.4
Always #LikeAGirl:
Turning an insult into a
confidence movement
Proctor and Gambles (P&G) feminine care brand Always
like a girl campaign is a female empowerment initiative.
A survey conducted by P&G for the campaign showed
that over 70 per cent of girls, particularly those around
puberty, lose self-confidence due to unfavourable social
conditions. The research also found that the negative
connotations associated with the expression like a girl
had an adverse effect on girls, with just 19 per cent of
them recognising the expression as a compliment.
The long-term campaign aims to redefine perceptions
about the phrase like a girl, which often depicts feminity
as belittling. The campaign is supported by an empowering
video which puts forward the rhetorical question, When
did doing something like a girl become an insult?, In the
Mini case study 16.5
American Express
An often-cited example of early CRM dates back to 1983
when American Express was invited to make a donation to
restore one of the USAs most famous symbols, the Statue
of Liberty. The companys response was not just to write
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 319
319
Unilever brightFuture? (https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=2LRun7CVB6U).
Through brightFuture, Unilever claims to have sup-
ported over two million children around the world
with school meals, clean drinking water and improved
hygiene by means of the companys partnerships with
the World Food Programme, Save the Children, UNICEF
and other NGO partners.
The brightFuture project aims to galvanise and build
momentum behind a movement that is already happen-
ing. We know people all over the world want to adopt
more sustainable behaviours, but need these to be easy
and to fit the way they live their lives Keith Weed, Chief
Marketing and Communications Officer, Unilever
Source: Adapted from http://www.unilever.com
video, which was considered a social experiment, different
groups of girls, men and young women are asked to throw,
run and fight like a girl. While prepubescent girls carried
out the task in a much more confident manner with strong
connections, the older women and men acted in a stereo-
typical way demonstrating how the expression is errone-
ously perceived by society. The campaign, therefore, is a
prominent example of breaking-up such gender stereo-
types to empower females to improve their self-esteem.
The like a girl campaign went viral after its launch in June
2014, and even became more popular after its video was
aired during the 2015 Super Bowl. It was adjudged the
best cause-marketing campaign in 2015 at the PRWeek
awards and also claimed the coveted Grand Prix award
at the Cannes Lions in the same year.
Post-campaign research showed that 76 per cent of
women between the ages of 16 and 24 no longer per-
ceive the phrase as negative. Two out of three men who
also watched the video indicated they would be more
careful about using like a girl in a way that is demeaning.
Source: Adapted from http://www.pg.com
a cheque but to propose a more imaginative solution,
which was that every time one of its cardholders used
their card they would help towards the appeal. Within
a few months American Express had contributed $1.5m.
Most importantly for the company, however, was that the
use of its card had increased by 27 per cent. Today many
companies have adopted CRM tactics to merge corporate
social responsibility and commercial aims.
Source: BITC
23/03/2017 13:14
 320 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Mini case study 16.6
HP sauce
In the mid-1990s, food producer HPs packaging high-
lighted the company s involvement with the child
Think about 16.4 HP sauce
In the HP example, are both parties equal in the
relationship?
Is it acceptable for one partner to have the balance
of power and potentially benefit more from the
arrangement?
What are the corporate communication dangers of
this type of contract?
Could HP not simply give a sum of money to the
NSPCC?
Explore 16.3 CRM
CRM in the Mini case study examples is obvi-
ously very successful. Why would an organisation
involve itself in any other type of corporate sup-
port if it were not going to bring direct commercial
benefits?
Think about an organisation you know well, research
it and consider whether it involves itself in any CRM. If
Case study 16.3
The ALS Association ice
bucket challenge
The ALS Association ice bucket challenge was over-
whelmingly a hit cause marketing campaign in August
2014. Social media was particularly flooded with videos
of many people, including celebrities, sports icons and
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 320
protection charity, NSPCC. One penny from every
purchase of Daddies Brown Sauce was donated to
the NSPCC, which resulted in a minimum donation
of 80,000. (See Think about 16.4 and Explore 16.3.)
Source: BITC
Feedback
Both parties may not always be equal. In the HP example,
they may both benefit financially but the reputational
benefits are clearer for HP. Power is not always equal due
to the financial influence of the sponsoring organisation.
Some of the dangers of the relationship include: crisis
management for both parties (something goes wrong that
is unrelated to the contract); and contract length and with-
drawal from it. HP stood to gain more ongoing publicity
from the special packaging than from the short-term
effects of announcing a corporate donation to the NSPCC.
not, how might it build a relationship with a charity or
cause, and which one(s) should it choose?
Feedback
Reasons for more straightforward sponsorship might
include goodwill, community involvement, stakeholder
interest and good citizenship.
global leaders, pouring a bucket filled with iced water
over their heads, and nominating others to similarly fol-
low suit within 24 hours. A small donation of $10 was also
expected or larger sums of money, $100 or above, for
those who failed to undertake the challenge.
The campaign aimed at raising awareness about the
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig s
disease, as well as funds to support people living with
23/03/2017 13:14
 Chapter 16Managing community involvement programmes 321

Picture 16.3 The Ice Bucket Challenge raised $115 million. See also Explore 16.4.

the condition. According to the ALS Association, ALS
is a neurological disease that breaks down the cells of
the nervous system, leading to paralysis and death. ALS
affects 6400 people in the US annually and two people
in every hundred thousand. There is no known cure for
ALS, also known as Motor Neurone Disease in the UK.
However, through funding from donations received
from the ice bucket challenge to the ALS association,
scientists are carrying out extensive research to find a
treatment or cure for the disease.
Pete Frates, a former baseball player diagnosed with
ALS in 2012, is said to have started the challenge, with
Pat Quinn as a co-founder. The popularity of the chal-
lenge stemmed from its ripple effect, how participants
challenged friends and families to take part in the social
media craze which is now being established as an annual
global phenomenon.
In total, the campaign raised over $115 million for
the ALS Association as against $23.5 million donations

M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 321 23/03/2017 13:14

 322 Part 3Public relations specialisms
case study 16.3 (continued)
received during the same period in 2013. Millions of
donations were also received in other parts of the
world including the Motor Neurone Disease Asso-
ciation in the UK which raised 7 million. A total of
159 countries participated in the ice bucket chal-
lenge, which produced 17 million videos. These
videos were watched by 440 million people about
70 billion times. The campaign won a total of eleven
Gold Cannes Lions awards, including the Grand Prix
for Good Prize, held in France in June 2015. It also
Mini case study 16.7
Uber No Kid Hungry
The app-based transportation service provider Uber
launched its very first in-app giving campaign with No
Kid Hungry in December 2014, with the aim of driv-
ing out childhood hunger in America. One out of five
children in the US struggles with hunger, according to
the campaign.
Uber customers in over one hundred cities across the US
had the choice to make a $5 donation through its app to
raise funds to support the cause of providing three hun-
dred meals for needy children. Every $5 donated goes
to No Kid Hungry to provide 50 meals for hungry kids.
The campaign was successful and in just four days,
the campaign far exceeded its goal, with Uber riders
raising enough cash to provide more than five million
meals, setting a No Kid Hungry record in partnership.
To reach the campaign target:
Uber lunch and UberCHEF organised in the cities
raised 300,000 meals.
Uber gave a direct contribution of 1.5 million meals.
The in-app donations by Uber riders raised 3.25
million meals.
Source: Adapted from http://www.uber.com
being socially responsible can create good word of
mouth (Cone Roper 1997; Cone Inc. 2011).
Cone Inc.s (2011) Cause Evolution Survey claims
more than two-thirds of Americans say they consider
a companys business practices when deciding what
to buy. A recent Cone/Echo global study (2013) also
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 322
won the Face for Good prize in the 2015 Facebook
awards.
The mission of the ALS Association is to lead the fight to
treat and cure ALS through global research and nation-
wide advocacy, while also empowering people with Lou
Gehrigs Disease and their families to live fuller lives by
providing them with compassionate care and support
ALS Association.
Adapted from http://www.alsa.org
finds that consumers (94 per cent) are more likely to
be associated with those companies that provide sup-
port for different causes, given similarities in price and
quality. Sixty eight per cent mention they have already
rewarded such companies by buying their products.
Developing community
programmes
Planning and implementing
corporate social responsibility
Having defined techniques for determining to whom
an organisation is responsible, what responsibilities
there are and a framework for identifying stakeholder
responsibilities, we need to consider how this process
works in practice. Endorsement of the CSR concept
by senior management is important if it is to be suc-
cessful and Carroll (1991) recommends seven key
questions to ask management when planning CSR
strategies:
1. Who are our stakeholders?
2. What are their stakes?
3. What do we need from each of our stakeholders?
4. What corporate social responsibilities (economic,
legal, ethical and philanthropic) do we have to our
stakeholders?
5. What opportunities and challenges do our stake-
holders present?
6. How important and/or influential are different
stakeholders?
7. What strategies, actions or decisions should we
take to best deal with these responsibilities?
(See also Box 16.3.)
23/03/2017 13:14
 Chapter 16Managing community involvement programmes
The fourth of the strategies outlined in Box 16.3 is
the ideal. The strategy should forecast the anticipated
benefits for the business as a result of the organisation
changing its approach to CSR. The strategy should also
indicate:
necessary levels of investment
how to monitor the strategy
evaluation of the strategy
benefits communicated to management, employees
and stakeholders.
Some companies claim to meet the ideal interactive
strategy, such as the UK-based Co-operative Bank,
which has ethical policies dating back to the organisa-
tions foundation in 1872 as part of the cooperative
movement. The bank publishes its ethical policy annu-
ally, detailing its performance and track record.
Box 16.3
Four strategies of CSR
response
Four strategies of response to stakeholder perspectives
on CSR have been identified, as follows:
1. An inactive strategy: resisting societal expectations
and sometimes government regulation.
2. A reactive strategy: responding to unanticipated
change after the significant change has occurred.
Explore 16.4 The ALS Association ice bucket challenge
Reflect on the ALS association ice bucket challenge (Case
study 16.3) and note all the key elements that might
have contributed to its success. What lessons have you
learnt? Do you think the campaign can be sustained in
the long-term?
Feedback
Did you note its strong viral effect and call to action
within a specific timeframe? The campaign further high-
lights the significance of a very simple collaborative grass-
roots effort for social good. Consider also the principles
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 323
323
How to develop community
relations programmes
Community relations is not just about being good or
nice to people, although this may be one of its results.
Instead, the concept is based on sound commercial prin-
ciples of:
research
vision (corporate need for one)
strategic objectives
tactical programme
measurement and evaluation
dissemination (how the results will be communi-
cated to key audience/stakeholders, particularly
employees).
3. A proactive strategy: attempting to get ahead
of a societal expectation or government regula-
tion (often coupled with efforts to influence the
outcome).
4. An interactive strategy: anticipating change and
blending corporate goals with those of stakeholders
and societal expectations. An organisation employ-
ing an interactive strategy consciously reduces the
gap between its performance and societys expecta-
tions. An interactive strategy is often accomplished
by managements commitment to a serious dialogue
with stakeholders.
of good timing, leveraging the power of celebrities,
incorporation of fun, tracking its reach and how the ALS
Association quickly took advantage of the opportunity
to a great extent.
Butlers Choice Limited is another example of a com-
pany meeting these commitments in a transparent
way. Mini case study 16.6 demonstrates how a small
company promotes CSR and sustainable development
through long-term partnerships with its suppliers (See
also Case study 16.6.)
23/03/2017 13:14
 324 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Mini case study 16.8
Butlers Choice Limited
Butlers Choice, based in Denmark, is a small food trad-
ing company recognised for dealing in high-quality fish
products, distributing over 2000 tons of fish annually.
Established in 1997, the company has 24 employees with
offices in India and Vietnam, where it imports its fish and
sea food.
Guided by the slogan We care to be fair, the company
integrates CSR and environmental management stan-
dards into its day-to-day operations and is certified to
ISO 14001 and SA 8000 to manage these responsibilities.
In 2007, the company joined the UN Global compact for
best practices. It also set up an independent CSR arm,
Choice Foundation, in 2011, where a percentage of profit
after tax is dedicated to further entrench community
interventions.
Research
The company needs to be aware of its reputation in the
community and this can be measured through research,
mainly with employees, their families and the local
community. Additional stakeholder views are impor-
tant from investors, suppliers, competitors, etc. Further
understanding is required of the local environment and
the needs of the community(ies). These attitudes and
opinions can be collected through internal and exter-
nal communications audits using both qualitative and
quantitative techniques. Research should also include
an investigation into competitors involvement in
community activities and desk research into best com-
munity relations theory and practice. Demetrius and
Case study 16.4
Barclays Spaces for
Sports
The UK multinational financial services provider Barclays has
an established record of investing in grass-roots sports. Its
largest community sports initiative Spaces for Sports har-
nesses the potential of sports to address social issues. Under
the programme, Barclays works with partners and experts
such as Groundwork and the Football Foundation to create
sports facilities and opportunities that help disadvantaged
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 324
Butlers Choice works towards ensuring food safety by
training its main suppliers in health, sanitation and sus-
tainable production. It seeks to reduce operational impact
by using less medicine and feed. Its success is partly attrib-
utable to improved working conditions that have safe-
guarded trusting relationships in the supply chain.
In 2015, the company was nominated for the CSR Abroad
prize for incorporating responsible supply chain manage-
ment and for adhering to environmental management
systems. Butlers Choice was also acknowledged in a
DANIDA publication in 2009 as one of the ten best prac-
tice companies that effectively adopted the principles of
the UN Global Compact.
In the eyes of Butlers Choice A/S, only the social respon-
sible and environmental friendly product is a quality
product. This has been our philosophy right from the
beginning. It is the most important of our company and
we maintain it without compromising Butlers Choice.
Source: Adapted from http://www.butlers-choice.com
Hughes (2004) argue for the inclusion of stakeholder
analysis software (planning, implementing and evalu-
ating campaigns) to save time and support students
and practitioners in developing CSR strategies and pro-
grammes. Their argument is that equivalent software
is used by accountants and other professional groups
to provide information and support the administration
process so that practitioners can provide creativity in
the non-routine aspects of the planning process to
develop strategic solutions to problems.
Vision
The programme needs a vision that links into the corpo-
rate philosophy and strategy. BT in the UK, for example,
people to improve their employability and life skills. Bar-
clays Spaces for Sports was launched in the UK in 2004.
Following its success, the initiative was extended in 2008 to
other countries where Barclays has operations. Globally, a
range of community sports facilities and programmes have
been established in the US, Spain, Zambia, China, Hong
Kong, Zimbabwe and South Africa benefiting more than
80,000 young people. Over 200 sustainable sports sites and
projects have been created in the UK with about 53,000
people using these facilities every week. Barclays claims to
have invested over 40 million to the scheme both in the
UK and internationally, while an additional 30 million has
been raised by the Football Foundation.
Source: Adapted from http://www.barclays.co.uk
23/03/2017 13:14
 Chapter 16Managing community involvement programmes
has used the title and strapline Community Partner-
ship Programme, which links its corporate strategy for
improving company communication with customers on
the ground in order to increase its customer base. BTs
expertise lies in the communications industries (ini-
tially telecommunications and increasingly mobile and
electronic communications) and it utilises its corporate
skills in communications and technology to underpin its
community programmes. The company clearly links its
corporate objectives with its community vision.
Tactics
Some of these have already been discussed in the ear-
lier section on corporate community involvement
programmes and are listed as follows: sponsorships;
targeted donations; awards; hospitality; employee
volunteering; use of facilities (loan of equipment);
Box 16.4
Strategic objectives for a
community programme
Typical objectives for a community programme are:
to create and develop a positive view of the com-
pany as a socially responsible, good corporate citizen
among its key stakeholders;
to capitalise on this positive perception in terms of
employee motivation, recruitment of new personnel,
supplier development and community goodwill;
to support other initiatives aimed at creating an
understanding of the companys aims and policies
Case study 16.5
M&S Plan A
In January 2007, M&S introduced a comprehensive
CSR programme, Plan A, which details the companys
approach to reduce its operational impact on society. This
case study demonstrates how a business uses community
initiatives to promote a more sustainable world. Plan A,
launched by then CEO Sir Stuart Rose, sets out 100 com-
mitments with a 200m investment over a period of five
years. These commitments were later extended to 180 to
achieve by 2015.
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 325
325
training/seminars; secondments (staff) and partner-
ships. (See Case study 16.5.)
Evaluating community
programmes
Community involvement programmes can be dif-
ficult to measure in terms of quantifiable data,
however this does not mean that the activities are
unmeasurable (Amo-Mensah and Tench 2015). The
following performance indicators can be used as
means of measuring the programmes achievements:
publicity achieved
employee feedback
(an example might be the use of community displays
at the companys annual general meeting);
to develop opportunities that encourage employee
participation in the community, through increased
communication initiatives;
to support the needs of the local community with
innovative, role-model initiatives, which position the
company as a centre of excellence for community
involvement;
to brand the programme clearly so that it is easily
recognised and remembered.
It is not always necessary to make such clear links
between the corporate strategy and the community,
but it is vital that the programme has a vision and
therefore a purpose for all those involved with it.
M&S research revealed that green issues are key con-
cerns for customers and other stakeholders. As a com-
pany that makes 661.2m profit after tax, with about
83,000 employees working in over 1300 stores around
the world and more than 2000 suppliers in 70 countries,
M&S acknowledges that its potential effects resulting
from business functions and processes are enormous.
The Plan A sustainability strategy therefore incorporates
issues such as climate change, responsible sourcing in
the supply chain, waste reduction, product sustainabil-
ity and community development. Over the years, M&S
23/03/2017 13:14
 326 Part 3Public relations specialisms
case study 16.5 (continued)
has successfully worked with partners including Oxfam,
Macmillan, UNICEF, Newlife, Prostate Cancer UK and the
Royal British Legion through employee fundraising and
other sustainable events.
Plan A has had such a huge impact. It has won over 220
sustainability awards including the responsible retailer of
the year 2013 at the worlds retail awards. The company
reports that, out of the 180 commitments set out, 138
have been achieved with a further 30 on plan. Six actions
are behind plan, while efforts are being made to pursue
the other six goals that have not yet been realised. With
such positive progress, M&S in its bid to become the
worlds most sustainable retailer, took a step further by
introducing its new Plan A 2020 goals in 2014, building
on the earlier 100 commitments. This move underlies
the companys dedication to push its agenda forward.
Aims and objectives
M&S aim
The company believes that leading the effort to inspire
sustainable business practices would make the world a
better place.
Objectives include:
To raise awareness about responsible business con-
duct and its value-creating opportunities.
To achieve high sustainability standards in the UK
retail sector.
To bring on board other stakeholders in its journey
towards sustainability.
Implementation
In place of the companys CSR committee, a how to do
business committee was set up to monitor the successful
implementation of the initiative, which has been inte-
grated into every phase of the business. M&S Plan A is
also guided by the companys four brand values of inspi-
ration, innovation, integrity and in touch.
Evaluation and measurement
Notable achievements since the launch of the M&S Plan
A include:
value for money
creativity
comparable external benchmark
thank you letters and appreciation
measured opinion-former perceptions
internal and external communications audit results
social media engagement, response and comment.
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 326
generated 625m in net business profit;
raised 50m for a various charities;
64 per cent of M&S products now have Plan A sus-
tainability quality standard;
100 per cent of fisheries and 32 per cent of cotton
used for clothing are derived from sustainable
sources;
improved energy efficiency by 36 per cent across
M&S stores, offices and warehouses in the UK and
the Republic of Ireland;
100 per cent of waste recycled through sustainable
waste management processes (0% operational waste
to landfill since 2012);
the worlds only major retailer with zero carbon
emissions (through new technologies and green
supplies);
increasing gender diversity with 38 per cent of
women representation at the board level;
trained 652,000 workers in its supply chain;
provided 3800 young unemployed people with
placements;
1m customers engaged in Plan A activities online;
79 per cent of employees are proud of their
contributions to the Plan A initiative.
Plan A is designed to equip us for a future in which our
success in staying relevant for customers will depend
on our ability to deliver exceptional products and ser-
vices in a world thats increasingly resource constrained
and experiencing profound social change. Mike Barry
Director of plan A.
Marc Bolland, the Chief Executive of M&S said: It is impor-
tant that we regularly remind ourselves that Plan A matters,
because it maps out our route to sustainable success as
a truly multi-channel international retailer, enabling us to
fulfil our core purpose by Enhancing lines, Every day.
Source: Adapted from http://www.marksandspencer.com
The M&S Plan A initiative (Case study 16.5) shows
some practical areas to consider in evaluation and
measurement.
Measuring community involvement
Social reporting is a relatively new practice and dif-
fers from the financial reporting that is the established,
legal requirement for all companies and organisations.
23/03/2017 13:14
 Chapter 16Managing community involvement programmes
Social reporting has been around since the mid-1980s
and Blowfield and Murray (2008) cite Gray et al.
(1987) who provide an early definition:
the process of communicating the social and envi-
ronmental effects of the organisations economic
actions to particular interest groups within society,
and society at large...Such an extension is predi-
cated upon the assumption that companies do have
wider responsibilities than simply to make money
for their shareholders.
(Gray et al. 1987)
David Davies, Chairman of Johnson Matthey plc,
said in that companys 1995 annual statement:
Good corporate citizenship provides tangible ben-
efits in many ways. It provides links with the com-
munity in which we operate and community
projects can provide important training and experi-
ence to employees. The application of management
skills to community projects and wider environ-
mental initiatives is beneficial to the business and
community alike.
Since the 1990s there has been significant growth
in the interest and activity of social reporting. Figures
produced by KPMG (2008) show an increase from 13
per cent in 1993 for the top 100 companies to 64 per
cent in 2005.
In the USA it is estimated that 10 per cent of stock
market investments are graded on ethical grounds and
as such a positive ethical image is important to man-
agers. A study by Alperson (1996) for the Conference
Board of America into 463 US companies identified
four new trends in corporate-giving strategies that
demonstrate their integration into mainstream busi-
ness policy:
1. programmes narrowly focused and aligned to
business goals;
2. giving is moving towards investment yielding a
measurable return;
3. image enhancement and employee loyalty are emerg-
ing as the value added elements of programmes;
4. link between corporate-giving strategies and cus-
tomer concerns is strengthening.
An increasingly popular method of measur-
ing ethical performance is through social audits,
which assess business policy on issues ranging from
whether suppliers worked in a manner consistent
with the firms ethical policy to employee and cus-
tomer attitudes. Allied Dunbar and the Body Shop
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 327
327
in the UK have both recently gone through the audit
process using outside auditors and published the
results. Other companies interested in this approach
are Ben and Jerrys, the US ice-cream firm, and BT
in the UK.
There is so much flexibility with regard to how
each company disseminates its socially responsible
activities. Some companies now adopt the new inte-
grated reporting approach which combines both
social and financial issues. This framework, piloted
in 2011, was formally introduced in 2013 by the
International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).
In as much as reports offer companies the opportu-
nity to share or discuss their CSR issues, transpar-
ent communication is essential if companies want
to build trusting relationships and deliver successful
outcomes. Breaking stakeholders trust by mislead-
ing them with false information could have many
negative consequences (See Chapter5).
Key factors to success of community
involvement programmes
There are a number of key factors that determine
the success of a programme, the key one of which
is the acceptance of the strategy by board directors
and senior management. Without their endorsement
the programme and individual initiatives will suffer
from unnecessary scrutiny beyond the stated mea-
surement criteria that should be put in place. Factors
that may influence the success of such a programme
include:
top management support
line management understanding and support
successful internal and external communication
central coordinator of activities
resources to meet necessary costs
employee-owned
recognition
partnership with community organisations
modest beginnings
monitoring and evaluation.
Figure16.2 highlights the interlinking of three key
areas for a successful community involvement pro-
gramme. The three areas are the company, the com-
munity and the employees. (See Case study 16.6 and
Explore 16.5.)
23/03/2017 13:14
 328 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Summary
This chapter has attempted to bring to life some of the
principles about the role organisations play in their
society(ies) introduced earlier in the text by interpreting
and applying them through current or recent case stud-
ies. A range of different examples has demonstrated that
organisations worldwide are questioning and addressing
their role in the societies in which they operate. This is
being done in a variety of different ways sometimes
through actions that have clear links to corporate phi-
losophies and strategies (the Co-operative Bank) and in
other examples where the action has a clear business
Bibliography
Alperson, M. (1996). Conference Board of America.
In Business in the Community Annual Report: 5.
London: Business in the Community.
Amo-Mensah, M. and R. Tench (2015) In the club but
out of the game: Evaluation of Ghana Club 100 CSR
communication, Tripodos, 37, pp. 1334.
Barone, M.J., A.D. Miyazaki and K.A. Taylor (2000).
The influence of cause related marketing on con-
sumer choice: does one good turn deserve another?
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 28(2):
24862.
BITC (Business in the Community) (1996). Annual
Report. London: Business in the Community.
BITC (Business in the Community) (2015). Annual
Report. London: Business in the Community.
BITC (Business in the Community) (2000). Profit-
able Partnership Report. London: Business in the
Community.
BITC (Business in the Community) (2012). Annual
Report. www.bitc.org.uk accessed 1 May 2012.
Blowfield, M. and A. Murray (2008). Corporate Respon-
sibility: A critical introduction. Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press.
BT (1996). Community Partnership Programme: Annual
review. London: BT.
Cadbury, D. (1996). cited in Business in the Commu-
nity Annual Report: 25. London: Business in the
Community.
Carroll, A. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social
responsibility. Business Horizons JulyAugust.
M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 328
benefit and provides rewards for both parties. Com-
munity involvement is today a key component of many
organisations strategic thinking. Corporate social respon-
sibility and the other terms used to describe this type
of activity are boardroom buzzwords. Yet debate still
rages (Crook 2005) on its role and purpose. Your role as
students and practitioners is to understand why organi-
sations get involved with their stakeholder communi-
ties and to continue to develop the debate. This topic
does generate some controversy and debate and is as a
consequence a valuable topic for personal research and
investigation in assignments and dissertations. For some
contemporary discussions see Tench et al. (2014), Tench
and Jones (2015) and Topi and Tench (2016).
Chipps, W. (2011). Sponsorship spending: 2010 proves
better than expected: Bigger gains set for 2011. IEG
Sponsorship Report, 2011.
Cone Inc. (2011). Cause Evolution Survey Cone Inc.
www.coneinc.com accessed 10 May 2012.
Cone Inc. (2013). Cone Communications/Echo Global
Study. www.coneinc.com accessed 22 December
2015.
Cone Roper (1997). Cause-Related Marketing Trends
Report. London: Cone Roper.
Crook, C. (2005). The good company: a survey of corpo-
rate social responsibility. The Economist: 22 January.
CSR Europe (Corporate Social Responsibility Europe)
(2016). About us. www.csreurope.org accessed
17 October 2016.
Davies, D. (1995). First Forum. 59. London: First Maga-
zine Ltd.
Demetrius, K. and P. Hughes (2004). Publics or stake-
holders? Performing social responsibility through
stakeholder software. Asia Pacific Public Relations
Journal 5(2).
Gibson, O. (2012). Protest groups target Olympics spon-
sors with new campaign. The Guardian: 15 April.
Gray, R.H., D. Owen and K.T. Maunders (1987). Corpo-
rate Social Reporting: Accounting and accountability.
Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.
Hart, N. (1995). Effective Corporate Relations. Maiden-
head: McGraw-Hill.
Jones, B., R. Bowd and R. Tench (2009). Corporate irre-
sponsibility and corporate social responsibility: com-
peting realities. Social Responsibility Journal 5(3):
300310.
23/03/2017 13:14
 Chapter 16Managing community involvement programmes 329

KPMG (2008). KPMG International Survey of Corporate
Responsibility Reporting 2005 cited in M. Blowfield
and A. Murray. Corporate Responsibility: A critical
introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Research International (1995). Business in the Commu-
nity. www.bitc.org.uk accessed 14 October 2016.
Research International (1997). Consumer Survey:
The Winning Game. London: Business in the
Community.
Smith, A. (1997). BT seeks to reassure caring consumers.
Financial Times: 13 January.
Tench, R. and B. Jones (2015). Social media: the Wild
West of CSR communications. Social Responsibility
Journal 11(2), 290305.
Tench, R., W. Sun and B. Jones (eds) (2014). Communi-
cating Corporate Social Responsibility: Perspectives
and practice (Vol. 6). Emerald Group Publishing.
Topi, M. and R. Tench (2016). The Corporate Social
Responsibility in Lidls Communication Campaigns in
Croatia and the UK. The Qualitative Report 21(2): 352.
UN Global Compact. www.unglobalcompact.org accessed
2 May 2012.

Websites
ALS Association: www.alsa.org
Barclays: www.barclays.co.uk
Business in the Community: www.bitc.org.uk
Business for Social Responsibility: www.bsr.org
Butlers Choice: www.butlers-choice.com
Cause-Related Business Campaign: www.crm.org.uk
CSR Europe: www.csreurope.org
CSR Watch: www.csrwatch.com
Marks and Spencer: www.marksandspencer.com
Procter & Gamble: www.pg.com
The Guardian: www.theguardian.com
The Football Foundation: www.footballfoundation.org.uk

M16 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 329 23/03/2017 13:14

 c h ap t er 17 Tim Coombs

Issues management

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
define and describe the concept and models of issues management
recognise the value of communication to issues management
understand why there has been a shift in issues management from public to private politics
apply the models of issues management to actual issues management cases
understand the effects of digital channels and reputation management on issues management.

Structure
Origins and essence of issues management
Models of issues management
Expanding issues management beyond public policy
The big picture of issues management

M17 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 330 27/03/2017 15:51

 Chapter 17Issues management 331

Introduction
Prior to the turn of the second millen-
nium, the world was generally unaware
that child slave labour played a promi-
nent role in the production of choco-
late. The problem lay in how coca
producers, especially those in the Ivory
Coast, were using child slave labour
and trafficking in children. The Interna-
tional Labour Organization had begun
to talk about the issue, but little action
or attention was drawn to the matter. In
the autumn of 2000, Channel 4 in the
UK aired a segment in its slavery series
on the subject of child slave labour in
the cocoa industry. Suddenly news
media outlets around the world began
to report on the issue and politicians in
Europe and the US were talking about
the issue. The US government event
passed the Harkin-Engel Protocol in
2001 that set a target of 2005 for those
in the cocoa industry to develop stand-
ards for certifying whether or not cocoa
was grown using child slave labour. As of
late 2016, those standards had yet to be
developed or applied.
The child slave labour situation is
an example of issues management.
Attention was drawn to the prob-
lem and action was taken that was
intended to reduce the negative effects
of the issue on society. Issues manage-
ment is primarily a strategic communi-
cation function. This chapter explains
the origins of issues management, the
two dominant models of issues man-
agement and the evolution of issues
management to move beyond policy
decisions.

Origins and essence of issues
management
The 1950s was a great time to be in the corporate world
because back then people loved businesses. From this
golden age there has been a steady decline in how peo-
ple perceive corporations corporate reputations have
fallen precipitously. The Edelman Trust Barometer has
documented more recent concerns about corporate rep-
utations, but the slide in stakeholder perceptions was
very noticeable even in the 1960s and 1970s. These
two decades were interesting times for corporations.
It was during this time period that environmentalists
realised significant gains in advancing policy changes
related to corporate pollution. Activists effectively
argued that corporations were the source of pollution.
The vilification of corporations as polluters allowed
activists to win a number of regulatory and legisla-
tive efforts designed to reduce pollution. These policy
changes proved very expensive for the corporations
(Conely 2006). Although no name was attached to it
at the time, the environmental activists were creating
issues management. In 2015, the global study of trust
in corporations in the Edelman Trust Barometer found
trust in business had declined in 16 of the 27 countries
they surveyed. The average level of trust in business was
below 50 per cent. In 2015, trust in the UK dropped
to 51 per cent, whereas it dropped to 45 per cent in
Germany, 46 per cent in Argentina, 48 per cent in Japan
and 48 per cent in Sweden (Trust 2015).
Howard Chase is the name most closely associated
with the emergence of issues management. Chase was a
corporate public relations person who coined the term
issue management in 1976 and developed the first
issue management model in 1977. (Although it began
life as issue management the concept is more com-
monly referred to as issues management, hence, this
chapter adopts the latter terminology.) Chase (1984)
conceptualised issues management as a reaction to the
corporate failures to prevent environmental and other
regulatory changes in the 1960s and 1970s it was
a response to activist success. What Chase does not
acknowledge is that issues management co-opted many
of the strategies and tactics the environmental activ-
ists used to win those regulatory battles (Conely 2006;
Coombs and Holladay 2010).
The origins of issues management are inextricably
linked to policy making. For Chase, the essence of issues
management was participation in the policy-making
process (Chase 1984). By participating in the public
policy-making process, corporations could influence the
outcomes of policy decisions, such as the creation of regu-
lations that could affect corporate practices and profit-
ability. Chase (1984) viewed issues management as an
important shift away from the defensive skill of portray-
ing a company in the best possible light to a more proac-
tive stance through involvement in policy making (p. 8).
There is a similar emphasis on issues management
and policy-making from the academic side as well.
Robert Heath (1988), an academic pioneer in issues
management, observed, As a countermeasure to unwar-
ranted regulation, the growth of issues management is
recognition that the private sector does not have to be
held hostage by dramatic public policy changes that can
harm the bottom line (p. 3). Heaths comments reflect
what he felt was a need for corporations to adapt to
their new and more demanding policy environment.
In short, issues management arises because corpora-
tions are repeatedly losing policy making battles with

M17 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 331 27/03/2017 15:51

 332 Part 3Public relations specialisms
activists. Issues management provides a framework to
allow corporations to become more proactively and
hopefully more successfully engaged in policy decisions
such as environmental regulatory decisions. Heath
(1997) defined issues management as the management
of organizational and community resources through the
public policy process to advance organizational interest
and rights by striking a mutual balance with those of
stakeholders (p. 9). Originally, issues management can
be conceptualised as communicative efforts intended
to influence policy decisions. Issues management was
intended to be a communicative means of trying to cre-
ate a more favourable operating environment for an
organisation by anticipating and attempting to system-
atically influence policy decisions.
It is important to realise that there were forces in
business and academia that resisted the idea of issues
management. A key point was whether or not issues
management was unique or simply old public relations
ideas given a new label. Much of the early published arti-
cles about issues management involved justifications for
its practice. Researchers argued that issues management
was not a fad and that it did constitute a unique perspec-
tive for strategic communication. These arguments were
Think about 17.1
Communicating risk and science
Many high-profile issues revolve around risk, sci-
ence and technology. Competing parties involved
in the issue may interpret risk in very different ways
and may disagree completely about what is presented
as an indisputable fact. A good example would be
whether mobile phone towers affect the health of the
nearby community. Think about the factors that make
science-based issues more difficult to manage. Why do
scientists and experts sometimes find it hard to com-
municate and persuade? Why do experts and non-
experts often reach different conclusions about risk?
Feedback
Scientists and other experts are usually trained to
focus on facts and data that can be proven. Their
training encourages them to find the right answer.
But many issues also involve emotions and opinions,
and many risks are judged by concepts such as
degree of control, trust, dread, fairness, familiarity
and whether it is voluntary or enforced. Organisations
should never ignore or misrepresent the facts, but
they must recognise that many issues cannot be
resolved by facts alone.
M17 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 332
successful in helping to establish issues management as
a unique sub-field within public relations and strategic
communication (Botan and Taylor 2004).
As this chapter will demonstrate, issues management
has shifted away from its narrow focus on policy mak-
ing. However, it retains its proactive nature and influ-
ence on decisions that shape corporate behaviour. The
shift away from just the policy-making arena reflects
a larger society shift in how activists seek to influence
corporate behaviour. Activists are increasingly seeking
to have a direct influence on corporate decisions rather
than an indirect influence through policy decisions.
Models of issues management
It is very abstract to say issues management is about
employing communication to systematically influ-
ence public policy decisions. Lobbying and advocacy
Think about 17.2
Confrontation or negotiation?
Think about the issues or situations where a confron-
tational strategy might be appropriate. How do those
issues or situations differ from when negotiation may
be best?
Imagine yourself as a senior executive of a target
organisation facing a significant issue. Would you
prefer to face a high-profile assault, which you might
be able to dismiss as a one-off stunt, or would you
rather commit time and resources to prolonged
negotiation that might require you to compromise
your position on the issue?
Feedback
In dealing with an issue, choosing confrontation or
negotiation is not necessarily right or wrong, but just
different. Activists who prefer confrontation some-
times claim that negotiators are getting into bed with
the enemy, whereas groups who prefer to negotiate
may say the direct action people are only interested
in headlines, and that stunts trivialise the issue.
These are two very different roles, and they enable
big corporates and big government to divide and
conquer, or pick and choose who they deal with.
Either course of action could lead to a quick or easy
resolution to the issue but it may not always be the
best outcome.
27/03/2017 15:51

advertising could all fall under this rubric. We can
clarify the conceptualisation of issues management by
examining the two dominant models in the field: (1)
Chase and Jones and (2) issue catalyst. Exploring each
model will give a greater sense of what issues manage-
ment is and how it is practiced.
The Chase and Jones model
When Howard Chase created the field of issues man-
agement, he offered a model for its practice. That
model has been a significant influence on the field
ever since its articulation. Though a focal piece in his
book Issue Management: Origins of the Future, the
model was first published as Chase and Jones in a 1979
journal article in Public Relations Review co-authored
by Jones and Chase. The journal article became the
seminal work for public relations scholars, hence, the
model is predominantly known as the Chase and Jones
model. Chase (1984) refers to it as a process model of
issue management. The Chase and Jones model unfolds
in five steps: (1) issue identification, (2) issue analysis,
(3) issue change strategy options, (4) issue action pro-
gramming and (5) evaluation of results. You will note
that the model reflects the general strategic communi-
cation model of research, action, communication and
evaluation. Any process model of strategic communica-
tion will contain those elements. The Chase and Jones
model adapts the ideas of strategic communication to
policy making.
For Chase (1984), an issue is an unsettled matter
which is ready for decision (p. 38). Issue identifica-
tion is about finding issues before they emerge. Quali-
tative and quantitative research methods are used to
identify trends, the visible changes that emerge prior to
the arrival of an issue. Chase refers to these as futurist
methodologies ways of trying to predict or project
the future. The goal of the issue identification stage
is to locate emerging issues and create an initial pri-
oritisation of those issues. Managers do not have the
time or resources to manage every issue. Therefore,
emerging issues must be prioritised. The most promis-
ing issues are moved to the issue analysis step.
The issue analysis stage involves thoroughly
researching the emerging issues. Existing data about
the issue are collected and evaluated. This past infor-
mation provides important contextual information
about the issue by locating the origins of the issue. By
tracking the issue since its origin, managers can under-
stand how it has developed and how it might progress
in the future. For instance, it is helpful to know who is
involved with the issue and why they are interested in
M17 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 333
Chapter 17Issues management 333
the issue. Next, the managers assess the current situa-
tion for the emerging issue. Two important resources
are the views of opinion leaders and media coverage of
the issue. Both of these data sources can indicate if an
issue is rising or falling in importance. For example, if
opinion leaders and the media are talking about the
issue, it is rising in importance. The goal of the issue
analysis phase is thorough research of the issue that
allows managers to create a final prioritisation of the
issues. Based upon that research, managers decide how
to respond to the issues.
The issue change strategy option stage is when man-
agers decide what course of action to take on each
issue. Managers determine if the issue is a threat or an
opportunity and how much time and effort to devote
to the issue. Chase identifies three change strategies:
(1) reactive, (2) adaptive and (3) dynamic. The change
strategies are not mutually exclusive and which is the
best option will vary by the nature of the issue. In other
Mini case study 17.1
When social media
helped win the bra war
British woman Beckie Williams was no hardened
activist. But she got really angry in mid-2008 when the
clothing chain Marks and Spencer introduced a 2 sur-
charge for larger womens bras. She wrote to complain
but got an unsatisfactory reply, and received no reply
at all when she wrote again. So Ms Williams launched
a Facebook page, Busts4Justice, to raise awareness of
what she portrayed as discriminatory pricing. Within
weeks the Facebook page had over 5000 followers,
while the company argued publicly that larger bras
needed more material and additional engineering.
The Facebook followers increased to over 18,000 and
the issue gained massive internet support and main-
stream media coverage around the world. Ms Williams
then purchased one M&S share and vowed to take the
issue to the company AGM in July 2009. The com-
pany still persisted it was impossible for us to reduce
price without cutting quality. But they had completely
misjudged the situation and misread their customers.
Two days later M&S Chairman Stuart Rose said they
had got it wrong and he announced an immediate
withdrawal of the surcharge. The so-called bra war
ended in victory for the protesters and failure by M&S
to manage what should have been a straightforward
issue.
27/03/2017 15:51
 334 Part 3Public relations specialisms
words, no one change strategy is always superior or
preferable to the others. It is during this step that the
term policy option becomes relevant. A policy option
is one potential solution or means of resolving an issue.
The reactive change strategy is the choice to do
nothing. Managers decide not to make any changes or
attempt to influence the issue. Although passive, the
reactive change strategy recognises the importance of
the issue and that the issue might affect the organisa-
tion in the future. Chase refers to this as stonewalling
an issue and he warns that the reactive change strategy
can make an organisation a victim of the change. Still,
there may be times when the organisation either lacks
the resources to take action or realise no matter what the
organisation does, the issue will progress along a prede-
termined path the existing policy option will become
the actual policy. At least the organisation is aware of
coming challenges.
The adaptive change strategy does take action and
reflects efforts to change. While the policy options have
already begun to take shape, alternatives are offered
before a policy decision is made. Managers provide and
promote an alternative policy option that is friendly to
the organisation. Chase uses the example of a proposed
bottle bill in the US state of Virginia to address litter
concerns. A bottle bill requires a deposit on all bever-
age bottles and reduces litter by providing people with
an incentive for returning the bottles for the deposit.
Beverage wholesalers dislike bottle bills because
themeasure complicates their operations. In one case,
the beverage wholesalers proposed an alternative in the
form of a roadside litter campaign that included more
rubbish or trash cans. By promoting the roadside litter
option, the beverage wholesalers prevented the passage
of the less attractive (to them) bottle bill in Virginia.
The dynamic change strategy is truly proactive
because it seeks to shape the policy options from the
very start. The managers find the emerging issue then
create the first policy option to be considered. The
managers take control of the issue by being the ones
to define what the issue is and the best way to resolve
it their policy option. In the US state of California,
beverage wholesalers recognised that bottle bills were
appearing in other states. They introduced a policy
proposal involving litter education and anti-litter laws
thereby avoiding any discussion of bottle bills. The
managers used the dynamic strategy to set the param-
eters for the debate over the issue.
Chase felt that the decision on the change strategy
option was dependent on five factors: (1) the risk cre-
ated by the emerging issue, (2) the confidence manag-
ers had in their information, (3) perceived accuracy of
the managers projections, (4) the likelihood the issue
M17 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 334
would go away on its own and (5) general direction
of elements related to the issue. Two of the factors are
related to managers confidence in their own research
and data collection (points 2 and 3). The other three
factors are based on indicators of how likely the issue
is to develop further points (4 and 5) and the effect the
issue could have on the organisation (point 1). Issues
management is not a precise science as each of the five
factors involves subjective assessments made by man-
agers. The goal of the issue change strategy step is a
decision on how to address the issues identified in the
issue analysis step.
The issue action program step is essentially a stra-
tegic communication campaign. The managers pursue
the issue change option by creating a goal, determining
an objective, developing the communication strategy,
assigning the necessary resources, and then developing
and executing the actual messages for the communica-
tive effort. Chase does not provide much detail about
each of the elements of the issue action program, a
point we will return to shortly. The managers then
move to the final step, evaluation of the results. Man-
agers compare the desired outcome of the policy deci-
sion to the actually policy decision.
As a process model, the Chase and Jones Model
(Jones and Chase 1979) is more about what to do and
not as much about how to do it. The model shows
a strong influence from systems theory. This is not a
criticism of the model but simply a recognition of its
limits in terms of strategic communication. There is
little detail about how communication is actually used
to manage an issue. The issue catalyst model seeks to
fill the limited discussion of strategic communications
role in issues management.
Explore 17.1
Critics of issues management
The modern development of issues management
has seen the emergence of some outspoken critics,
including some who believe it is a cloak for corpo-
rate spin and gives an unfair or improper advantage
to big business. These critics, from academia or jour-
nalism, include Dinan and Miller (2007), Miller and
Dinan (2008), Lubbers (2002), Beder (2002, 2006) and
the classic book by Stauber and Rampton (1995), Toxic
Sludge is Good For You: Lies, damn lies and the public
relations industry. What are their main criticisms? Are
they mainly concerned about issues management
itself or about the way it is used or misused?
27/03/2017 15:51

Box 17.1
Where do issues come
from?
One of the commonest questions in issues management
is: Where do issues come from and how do you recognise
them? Simply maintaining a very close watch on news and
current affairs is the obvious answer. As the American issues
expert George McGrath (1998: 74) said: For most organiza-
tions, key issues will be found from reading headlines rather
than tea leaves. But there are many other sources that are
obvious but are often overlooked, including:
Issue catalyst model
In 1985, Crable and Vibbert argued that the Chase and
Jones model was limited in being proactive because the
model waited for an issue to begin to emerge. They pos-
ited that issues managers could be even more proactive
by being the ones to create the issue rather than simply
waiting for a trend to appear. They argued that issues
arise when people attach significance to a situation.
Issues can be created and do not have to emerge from
trends. When the Corn Refiners Association sought
to rebrand high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as corn
sugar to escape the stigma of being linked to obesity,
the Sugar Association created an issue by demanding
the new name be dropped. Eventually the US govern-
ment agreed with the Sugar Association when the Food
and Drug Administration ruled against the term corn
sugar. Moreover, their model emphasised the role com-
munication played throughout the issues management
process.
Originally called the catalytic model, one of the
original authors has since posited that the name issue
catalyst better captures the fundamental idea behind
the model. Managers can become issue catalysts by
being the ones pushing for the creation and redress of
the issue. The issue catalyst model has five stages: (1)
potential, (2) imminent, (3) current, (4) critical and
(5) dormant (Crable and Vibbert 1985). The stages
denote different saliences of issues. The issues increase
in salience from the potential to the critical stage that
then drops with the dormant stage. A close look at
each stage will help to illustrate the way salience, stake-
holder support, and communication function within the
model. A running example of the Alar case in the US
will be used to illustrate the various stages in the issue
catalyst model.
M17 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 335
Chapter 17Issues management 335
industry and political conferences
trade publications
industry association meetings and newsletters
client and customer surveys
industry and business allies
websites and information from organisations that
oppose you
analysis by experts
feedback from your own staff who deal with external
people.
Most of these sources are inexpensive, yet can yield
priceless intelligence
The potential stage is when someone or some group
creates an issue by identifying a situation as important/a
problem. The key communicative aspect of the poten-
tial stage is definition. Defining the issue gives issue
managers some element of control (Crable and Vib-
bert 1985). The definition sets the parameters for the
issue and helps to attract others to the issue (Dioniso-
polous and Crable 1988). The issue definition should
be carefully constructed to help provide a successful
foundation for the issues management effort. In 1989,
a group called the National Resource Defense Council
(NRDC) defined daminozide as a carcinogen and cre-
ated the Alar issue. Alar is the brand name of a product
produced by Uniroyal to allow fruit to ripen longer and
was heavily used in the apple industry. Alar was the
primary source of exposure to daminozide for children.
Researchers found that when heated, daminozide could
become a carcinogen. Alar became defined as a cancer
threat to children because of the possibility daminozide
could make apple sauce a cancer risk for children.
The imminent stage is when more stakeholders begin
to accept the issues potential. The number of people
connected to the issue begins to expand. Endorsements
from prominent people can help to promote an issue to
the imminent stage. The key communicative aspect of
the imminent stage is legitimacy (Crable and Vibbert
1985). Issue managers must convince other stakehold-
ers that the issue is an appropriate public concern is
legitimate. Legitimacy helps to attract people to the
issue and to build interest in the issue. The NRDC used
a number of scientists and their research data to cre-
ate legitimacy for the Alar issue. People were willing
to accept that a potential cancer risk for children was
something worth their attention and the issue began
to spread.
27/03/2017 15:51
 336 Part 3Public relations specialisms

growers countered that the studies were not conclusive

about the link between Alar and cancer. People were
being forced to choose a side: either ban Alar or allow
its continued use. By defining Alar as a cancer threat to
children, the NRDC had a powerful reason to support
the Alar ban.
The critical stage indicates the time is right for a
decision. People feel the need for a decision at this
point, thus the issue has its greatest salience. The key
communicative resource at the critical stage is iden-
tification. Issue managers need to win active support
for their preferred policy option. To build support,
issue managers build a sense of identification with the
preferred policy option people feel that option best
Picture 17.1 Global warming is the emblematic issue of
captures their interests and values. Issue managers cre-
the twenty-first century, with organisations at every level,
from global to local, relying on issues management to ate messages that indicate how their preferred policy
stake out the position (source: Shutterstock.com/Vadim option reflects the identities of potential supporters.
Petrakov) The critical stage ends with a policy decision. Keep in
mind that the decision might be to not take any action
on the issue. Once a decision is made, an issue is con-
sidered to be in the dormant step. People will have lost
The current stage occurs when a wide range of peo- interest once the decision is made. However, issue man-
ple are interested in the issue. The number of people agers can try to restart the issue management process
interested in the issue has expanded rapidly. The cur- at any point through attempts to revive the salience of
rent stage typically demands that the traditional and/ the issue (Crable and Vibbert 1985).
or social media discuss the issue. The media cover- The NRDC kept pushing people on the cancer risk
age raises the salience of the issue due to the agenda of Alar to win support for their ban on Alar. Public
setting effect. The issue mangers engage in agenda- opinion polls and the letters to the Food and Drug
stimulation by trying to set the agenda for other stake- Administration (FDA), the US agency responsible for
holders (Crable and Vibbert 1985: 10). Along with food safety, overwhelmingly supported an Alar ban.
a wide audience, the current stage is marked by the Apple sales were falling as people feared for the safety
emergence of policy options for addressing the issue. If of the fruit. There was pressure for the government
an issue is a problem, the policy option is the answer. to act even though the scientific evidence was unclear.
The key communicative aspect of the current stage is In June of 1989, Uniroyal agreed to stop producing
polarisation. Issue managers need to build support for Alar. In November of 1989, the EPA banned Alar, even
their preferred policy option/resolution to the issue. though the ban announcement acknowledged the sci-
Polarisation forces people to take sides (Crable and entific evidence was vague while recognising the public
Vibbert 1985). Ideally issue managers prompt people concern about the product. The FDA decision moved
to support their side by accepting their preferred pol- the Alar issue to the dormant stage. There was no
icy option. Of course not everyone will support your longer a need to discuss the Alar issue because it was
position so polarisation can create opposition as well. removed from the market.
Moreover, issue managers will find others trying to The issue catalyst model is about the salience of an
influence the issue as well. The competition between issue and the number of people interested in the issue,
the various sides in issues management becomes mani- two closely interrelated concepts. The movement from
fest in the current stage. potential to current stages is a progression in both
The NRDC launched a communication campaign salience and the number of stakeholders involved with
to increase awareness of the Alar issue in February of the issue. The critical step is when the issue is most
1989. A key element of the campaign was a segment salient. Issues do not automatically move from one
about Alar on 60 Minutes, a highly rated evening inves- stage to the next. An issue can fail by stagnating at any
tigative news show in the US. The 60 Minutes story stage. The communicative skill of the issue manager is
quickly pushed Alar to the current stage. At that point, a key driver in moving an issue through the stages of
the NRDC argued that Alar should be banned from the issue catalyst model toward a policy decision. See
public use the policy option was advanced. Apple also the lifecycle in Figure 17.1.

M17 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 336 27/03/2017 15:51


Figure 17.1 Lifecycle of a strategic issue
Expanding issues management
beyond public policy
Although issues management is still applicable to policy
decisions, there has been an expansion of the concept
to include organisational decision making (e.g. Grunig
and Repper 1992; Botan and Taylor 2004; Heath 2005;
Jaques 2006). The basic elements of issues manage-
ment found in the models of issues management have
been applied by stakeholders in attempts to influence
directly the policies and practices of o
rganisations to
influence organisational decision-making. This shift
from the public to the private policy-making domains
has been termed private politics (Baron 2003).
Private politics is a fundamental shift in the locus for
influencing organisational behaviour. As noted in the
opening section, issues management originated with
activists seeking to shape organisational behaviours
through laws and regulations policy decisions. Cor-
porations then adopted and adapted those practices
to become more influential players in policy decisions
(Chase 1984). Private politics seek to shape organisa-
tional behaviours by directly confronting the prob-
lematic organisational behaviour. For instance, Green
America was concerned that Hersheys, one of the top
chocolate users in the world, was not disclosing what
percentage of its cocoa supply came from countries
known to allow child slave labour on cocoa planta-
tions. Green America has used a variety of commu-
nicative efforts to force Hersheys to address the issue
publicly. Green America was utilising the issue catalyst
M17 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 337
Chapter 17Issues management 337
model in its private politics effort. The non-disclosure
of cocoa suppliers was defined as unacceptable and the
issue was legitimised by the general global disdain for
child slave labour. Green America used various inter-
net channels and direct actions to gain wider atten-
tion for the issue (current stage) and force people to
choose sides on the issue (critical stage). After three
years of pushing the issue, Hersheys finally began to
address the role of child slave labour in its supply chain
(Coombs 2014).
Private politics is a reversal of the business case
for issues management and returns the concept to its
activist roots. Managers do not apply pressure on
their own or other organisations to change behav-
iours/influence decisions. External stakeholders are
the actors most likely to initiate private politics and
seek to influence organisational decisions from the
outside. Greenpeace is an excellent example of how
external stakeholders engage in private politics. This
organisation locates a problematic corporate behav-
iour, conducts research, and then engages in an issues
management campaign that uses communication to
increase issue salience and awareness. The Detox
Case study 17.1 illustrates Greenpeaces use of the
issue catalyst model.
An important point to consider is why the shift to
private politics. Some experts feel the shift is a result
of resources. It is less expensive to engage in pri-
vate politics than in traditional issues management.
Low-cost internet (digital) channels can be com-
bined with select direct actions, such as those in the
Detox case study, to create pressure for corporations
27/03/2017 15:51
 338 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Case study 17.1
Greenpeace, H&M and
Detox
July of 2011 marked the beginning of Greenpeaces efforts
to remove a select group of highly toxic chemicals from
the fashion and garment industries. The campaign is
known as Detox because Greenpeace wants corporations
to detox their supply chains. The toxic chemicals are a
danger to workers, people living near where the chemi-
cals are used and even the people wearing the clothes,
especially children. Greenpeace worked with scientists to
document the existence of these chemical in the textile
and garment industries and began the campaign by ask-
ing the top 13 firms in the garment industry to replace the
specified toxic chemicals in the supply chain. The non-
toxic alternatives are similar in price and sometimes even
less expensive than the toxic chemicals. All of the 13 firms
declined to detox, hence Greenpeace launched the public
version of the Detox campaign which can be defined as a
form of issues management. The crux of Detox is sham-
ing firms by revealing how irresponsible the firms are by
allowing harmful, toxic chemicals in their supply chains.
Detox attempts to leverage organisational change by
threatening reputations via perceptions of CSR.
Within the first year, Puma, Nike, adidas, Li Ning, Lacoste
and H&M (six of the original 13 firms) all agreed to detox.
The H&M case illustrates the way Greenpeace uses com-
munication to create power to raise the salience of the
detox issue for managers. H&M is a global brand that is
proud of its CSR efforts. Detox posed a threat to the CSR
component of H&M identity and reputation. Here is a
sample Detox statement about H&M: Theres a skeleton
to change and are less expensive and time consum-
ing than efforts requiring traditional media atten-
tion and the public pressure necessary to influence
policy decisions (Diermeier 2007). The various
social media channels such as blogs, microblogs
and social networking are necessary but not sufficient
to account for the popularity of private politics. We
need to look more broadly at the two factors that are
necessary and sufficient for private politics to succeed:
(1) a leverage point and (2) a means of leverage.
For private politics to work, stakeholders need some
leverage point a way to make the issue salient to the
corporation. If there is no salience or pressure on the
corporation, managers can simply ignore the external
M17 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 338
in H&Ms closet. The fast-fashion retailer sells clothes
made with chemicals which cause hazardous water pol-
lution around the world, and the only way to stop this
water pollution is to come clean and stop using such
chemicals for good. As one of the largest clothing groups
in the world, an H&M committed to a toxic-free future
would set the trend for the rest of the fashion industry to
follow (H&M 2011, para 1). H&M was acting irresponsi-
bly in terms of toxins in the supply chain.
To increase the pressure on H&M management, Green-
peace used a mix or direct action (in-person) and social
media messages. For direct action, Greenpeace repre-
sentatives placed static stickers on the windows of H&M
stores in 12 countries. The stickers had slogans such as
Detox our Future and Detox our Water. The direct
action sought to raise awareness of the issue among
H&M consumers by placing the message in the stores
and generating both traditional and digital media cover-
age of the actions. H&M has an active Facebook and Twit-
ter account the firm uses to engage customers. As part
of the Detox campaign, Greenpeace initiated a petition
on Twitter about H&M and Detox. The petition collected
635,000 Twitter users and was retweeted over 1200 times.
Greenpeace also began posting questions to the H&M
Facebook page and placing comments about Detox on
the page. According to Greenpeace, the messages were
designed to have people question H&Ms reputation as
a sustainability leader (Clickers 2011, para 7).
Shortly after the Greenpeace emphasis on H&M, the firm
agreed to Detox. Here is part of H&Ms announcement:
Greenpeace International is calling for zero discharge
of all hazardous chemicals in the global textile supply
chain. H&M shares this goal with Greenpeace; since 1995
H&M has been working practically to reduce the use and
impact of hazardous chemicals using an approach based
on the Precautionary Principle (H&M 2011, para 1).
efforts to influence internal decisions. Reputation has
provided the leverage point for private politics. Man-
agers are keenly aware of the benefits a favourable
reputation can generate for a corporation (Davies etal.
2003; Alsop 2004; Fombrun and van Riel 2004). Man-
agers spend millions of dollars cultivating and pro-
tecting favourable reputations. In short, reputation is
a highly valued corporate asset. Moreover, corporate
social responsibility (CSR) increasingly is a significant
component of corporate reputation, accounting for over
40 per cent of a corporations reputation (Fombrun
2005). Reputation and CSR are the leverage points that
make private politics a viable option for external stake-
holders. If external stakeholders can threaten to damage
27/03/2017 15:51

perceptions of CSR or reputation, a leverage point exists
to give salience to their issue. Essentially, making other
stakeholders aware of the issue can damage the corpo-
rate reputation and/or make the corporation appear
irresponsible (Jones et al. 2009; Tench et al. 2012, see
Chapter5). The Detox example illustrates this point. If
other stakeholders become aware of the societal dam-
age inflicted by the harmful chemicals in textile produc-
tion, the CSR and reputation of the corporations using
those chemicals in their supply chains is damaged. For
the issue to be a threat, it must have legitimacy. If other
stakeholders are unlikely to see the issue as relevant to
themselves and society as a whole, managers can easily
ignore the issue (Coombs and Holladay 2012b).
External stakeholders have long depended on the
threat of reputational damage as a source of power for
influencing corporate decision making. Boycotts, for
instance, work by generating negative publicity more
so than through the loss of financial resources (King
2011; McDonnell and King 2013). Internet channels,
including social media, are recognised as reputational
concerns by corporate managers (McCorkindale and
DiStaso 2015). The digital channels provide a means
of leveraging corporate reputations and perceptions of
CSR, thereby creating power for the external stake-
holders (Tench and Jones 2015). It is too simplistic to
equate the digital channels power with the effect on
corporate decision-making. The various digital chan-
nels provide an opportunity to cultivate stakeholder
power (Coombs and Holladay 2012a). The external
stakeholders must skilfully combine the channels
with their communication strategies to put pressure
on corporations. Again, note how in the Detox case
Greenpeace used online channels and direct action to
pressure H&M to detox.
Picture 17.2 High-profile demonstrations or media stunts
to generate awareness are a standard element of many
issue management strategies.
M17 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 339
Chapter 17Issues management 339
Think about 17.3
Visit the timeline for the Detox page for Greenpeace,
the link is provided below. Review the timeline for the
Detox effort. What do the past victories and length
of time of the Detox issues management mean for
fashion organisations that have yet to be part of this
issues management effort? Can you explain the order
in which Greenpeace has targeted the various fashion
organisations and why? (http://www.greenpeace.org/
international/en/campaigns/detox/timeline/)
Feedback
An argument can be made that an organisation that
makes the first change in an industry can become a
leader on that issue in the industry. In turn, that lead-
ership can become a reputational asset. What does
that mean for an organisation that is an initial target
in a private politics issues management effort like
Detox?
The value of digital channels as leverage is enhanced
by the growth of digital naturals. Young and kerstrm
(2015) coined the phrase digital naturals to denote
how people of any age can be comfortable, to varying
degrees, working within the digital environment. The
digital naturals possess the skills to use digital chan-
nels and are comfortable using those channels. Con-
sider how omnipresent mobile phones have become
and how so many people use them to connect with the
internet, making the phones an extension of their own
Explore 17.2
Issues management in the
Digital Age
Stakeholders frequently seek to engage organisations
in change through internet channels. Organisations
can learn about recent or possible issues manage-
ment directed against them by visiting activist web
sites. Visit the Green American website (https://www
.greenamerica.org/) and look under the Our Work
tab. Select one of the topics and read to see what
organisations have been targeted by the current cam-
paign. Given that issues are often extended to other
organisations in an industry, create a list of additional
organisations that might become a part of the issue
management effort.
27/03/2017 15:51
 340 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Explore 17.3
Issues management, especially when targeting organ-
isational decisions, is frequently transnational. Visit
the Greenpeace website (http://www.greenpeace.org/
international/en/). Select the What we do tab and
review one of the issues listed there. How has Green-
peace (1) defined the issue and (2) sought to build
legitimacy for the issue? See if you can find a connec-
tion between the definition of the issue and the policy
option being advocated by Greenpeace.
bodies. Digital naturals add value to digital channels.
Issue managers now have the skill and desire to use the
digital channels to leverage corporations and there is
an ever increasing number of digital naturals who can
serve as a receptive audience for these digital issues
management efforts (Coombs and Holladay 2016).
In combination, the value of corporate reputations
(aleverage point) and the potential of digital channels
(means of leverage) are necessary and sufficient for the
growing reliance on private politics. However, simply
engaging in private politics is no guarantee of success.
Managers still can choose to ignore or to combat pri-
vate politics efforts. We can explore the dynamic of
corporate resistance by examining how the issue cata-
lyst and Chase and Jones models can intersect in pri-
vate politics.
The issue catalyst approach in private politics is pre-
dominantly a tool for external stakeholders. As noted
earlier, corporations are unlikely to seek to influence
Case study 17.2
UK Uncut and Starbucks
In 2010, a network of activist groups formed around the
issue of corporate tax avoidance in the UK. UK Uncut
relies heavily on direct action designed to stimulate news
media coverage of the tax avoidance issue that embar-
rasses the corporate target. UK Uncut is using corporate
reputation as a way to convince managers to pay more
taxes. At the end of 2012, UK Uncut targeted Starbucks
for its limited payment of taxes. On 8 December 2012,
UK Uncut protested in and around a number of Starbucks
locations in the UK. The protests did draw a significant
amount of media attention allowing UK Uncut to explain
M17 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 340
directly the decisions of other corporations via pub-
lic politics. Once external stakeholders have initiated
a private politics effort to create change, corporate
managers must decide how to respond to the potential
threat. The Chase and Jones model is ideal for guiding
the response to the private politics action (see Case
study 17.2). Corporate managers research the situa-
tion to determine the extent of the threat posed by the
private politics effort. This research should include
an evaluation of what the proposed changes would
mean for the organisation. Managers must consider
at least four points: (1) determine if the corporation
could benefit from the changes, (2) project how signifi-
cantly the corporation could be harmed if no change
is made, (3) determine the cost of the change and
(4) assess if the changes are consistent with core cor-
porate strategy (Coombs and Holladay 2015). The
managers can then decide which issue change strategy
option to select. Managers may decide to do nothing
(reactive), counter-argue that current practices are
acceptable (reactive), or make the desired changes
(dynamic). Issues always have competing sides, hence,
managers will have options for how they choose to
respond to any issue management effort.
The big picture of issues
management
A long-time concern in issues management has been the
undue influence of money. Groups with more money, it
has been argued, can create greater influence on policy
how little tax Starbucks has been paying on its rather large
UK sales and profits. On 15 December 2012, UK Uncut
moved to the digital arena. Starbucks was sponsoring the
holiday ice rink at the Natural History Museum in Lon-
don. As part of the sponsorship, there was a large video
screen behind the ice rink. Starbucks asked people to
post holiday messages on its Twitter feedback and broad-
cast the Tweets live on the screen. As you might guess,
the Tweets were dominated by complaints by UK Uncut.
To make matters worse, a filter to prevent inappropriate
language from appearing on the screen failed, letting a
few less-than family friendly words appear. In response
to the negative coverage in traditional and digital media,
Starbucks stated it would pay more taxes in 2013 and
2014. In fact, Starbucks argued it would pay more taxes
in the UK than it was legally obligated to pay.
27/03/2017 15:51

decisions. That is why experts such as Robert Heath
(2005) have argued for responsible issues management
by corporations with vast financial reserves. Generally,
there is limited evidence to support that issues manage-
ment has been abused by corporations. Private politics
seeks to level out the playing the field by allowing issue
managers with fewer resources to enter into effective
issues management efforts.
Even as financial costs become less of a factor, there
are concerns about issues management that must be
recognised. Even in private politics, there is a need for
resources such as communicative skills and internet
access. Many marginalised groups lack these resources
Summary
Systems theory tells us that organisations are influenced
by their environments. Issues management represents a
concerted effort by management to influence the envi-
ronment. Issues management began as efforts to influ-
ence policy decisions but has expanded to include efforts
intended to directly shape organisational decisions.
Either way, stakeholders and managers are attempting
to influence the organisations operating environment
to some degree. Some efforts try to improve the oper-
ating environment while seeking to make the operating
environment less negative. Strategic communication is
one of the driving forces in the efforts to influence public
and organisational decision making. Issues management
Bibliography
Alsop, R.J. (2004). The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate
Reputation. Dow Jones & Company.
Baron, D.P. (2003). Private politics. Journal of Econom-
ics & Management Strategy 12(1): 3166.
Beder, S. (2002). Global Spin: The corporate assault on
environmentalism. Totnes, Devon: Green Books.
Beder, S. (2006). Suiting Themselves: How corporations
drive the global agenda. London: Earthscan.
Botan, C.H. and M. Taylor (2004). Public relations: State
of the field. Journal of communication 54(4): 64561.
Chase, W.H. (1984). Issue Management. Stamford, CT:
Issue Action Publications.
Clickers and stickers make H&M detox (2011). http://
www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/
Clickers-and-Stickers-Make-HM-Detox/ accessed
20 May 2013.
M17 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 341
Chapter 17Issues management 341
and remain on the fringes of issue debates. Private poli-
tics created change one organisation at a time rather
than creating change for an entire industry as is pos-
sible with policy decision such as regulation. Finally,
private politics contributes to the neoliberal agenda of
preferring self-regulation to government regulation.
The external stakeholders can agitate for change but
have no means of enforcing the changes. Ultimately,
corporations are self-regulating when agreeing to
changes such as detox. Though not perfect, issues
management provides a framework whereby various
groups can seek to influence corporate behaviours and
to improve society.
must seek to balance the interests of all parties or risk
creating a backlash if it becomes the exclusive domain
of the powerful.
Issues management is intricately connected to the next
chapter of crisis public relations management. Tony Jaques
(2006, 2007) is the strongest advocate for the close con-
nection between issues and crises. An issue has the poten-
tial to create a crisis for an organisation, hence, issues
management can be a form of crisis prevention. In addi-
tion, a crisis can bring intense public attention to an issue
and precipitate an issues management effort and create
pressure for change (Coombs 2015). The interconnected
nature of issues management and crisis communication
management will become more evident as you read the
chapter on crisis public relations management.
Conley II, J.G. (2006). Environmentalism Contained: A
history of corporate responses to the new environmen-
talism. Ann Arbor.
Coombs, W.T. (2014). Applied Crisis Communication and
Crisis Management. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Coombs, W.T. (2015). Ongoing Crisis Communication:
Planning, managing, and responding 4th edition.
Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Coombs, W.T. and S.J. Holladay (2010). PR Strategy
and Application: Managing influence. Malden, MA:
Wiley-Blackwell.
Coombs W.T. and S.J. Holladay (2012a). Internet conta-
gion theory 2.0: How internet communication chan-
nels empower stakeholders in New Media and Public
Relations, 2nd edition (pp. 2130). S. Duhe (ed.). New
York: Peter Lang.
Coombs, W.T. and S.J. Holladay (2012b). The paracrisis:
The challenges created by publicity managing crisis
prevention. Public Relations Review 38(3): 40815.
27/03/2017 15:51
 342 Part 3Public relations specialisms

Coombs, W.T. and S.J. Holladay (2015). CSR as crisis Jaques, T. (2006). Activist rules and the convergence
risk: Expanding how we conceptualize the relation- with issue management. Journal of Communication
ship. Corporate Communications: An International Management 10(4): 407420.
Journal 20(2): 14462
Jaques, T. (2007). Issue management and crisis manage-
Coombs, W.T. and S.J. Holladay (2016). Digital natu- ment: An integrated, non-linear, relational construct,
rals and crisis communication: Significant shifts of Public Relations Review 33(2): 147157.
focus, in Strategic Communication, Social Media
Jones, B., R. Bowd and R. Tench (2009). Corporate irre-
and Democracy: The challenge of the digital naturals
sponsibility and corporate social responsibility: com-
(pp. 5462). W.T. Coombs, J. Falkheimer, M. Heide,
peting realities. Social Responsibility Journal 5(3):
M. and P. Young (eds). Routledge: London.
300310.
Crable, R.E. and S.L. Vibbert (1985). Managing issues
Jones, B.L. and W.H. Chase (1979). Managing public
and influencing public policy. Public Relations
policy issues. Public Relations Review, 5(2): 323.
Review 11: 316.
King, B.G. (2011). The tactical disruptiveness of social
Davies, G., R. Chun, R.V. Da Silva and S. Roper (2003).
movements: Sources of market and mediated disruption
Corporate reputation and competitiveness, Corporate
in corporate boycotts. Social Problems 58(4): 491517.
Communications: An International Journal 8(2): 1489.
Lubbers, E. (ed.) (2002). Battling Big Business: Counter-
Detox Campaign (2011). http://www.greenpeace.org/
ing greenwash, infiltration and other forms of corpo-
international/en/campaigns/toxics/water/detox/intro/
rate bullying. Totnes, Devon: Green Books.
accessed 20 May 2013.
McCorkindale, T. and M.W. DiStaso (2015). The Power
Diermeier, D. (2007). Private Politics - A Research
of social media and its influence on corporation repu-
Agenda. Available at SSRN 1081937.
tation in The Handbook of Communication and Cor-
Dinan, W. and D. Miller (eds) (2007). Thinker, Faker, porate Reputation, C.E. Carroll (ed.). Malden, MA:
Spinner, Spy: Corporate PR and the assault on democ- Wiley-Blackwell.
racy. London: Pluto Press.
McDonnell, M.H. and B. King (2013). Keeping up
Dionisopoulos, G.N. and R.E. Crable (1988). Definitional appearances: reputational threat and impression man-
hegemony as a public relations strategy: The rhetoric agement after social movement boycotts. Administra-
of the nuclear power industry after Three Mile Island. tive Science Quarterly 58(3): 387419.
Communication Studies 39(2): 13445.
McGrath, G.B. (1998). Issues Management: Anticipation
Fombrun, C.J. (2005). A world of reputation research, and influence. London: IABC.
analysis and thinking building corporate reputation
Miller, D. and W. Dinan (2008). A Century of Spin: How
through CSR initiatives: evolving standards. Corpo-
public relations became the cutting edge of corporate
rate Reputation Review 8(1): 712.
power. London: Pluto.
Fombrun, C.J. and C.B. van Riel (2004). Fame & Fortune:
Stauber, J. and S. Rampton (1995). Toxic Sludge is Good
How successful companies build winning reputations.
for You: Lies, damn lies and the public relations indus-
New York: Prentice Hall/FT Press.
try. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press.
Grunig, J.E. and F.C. Repper (1992). Strategic manage-
Tench, R. and B. Jones (2015). Social media: the Wild
ment, publics, and issues. Excellence in public rela-
West of CSR communications. Social Responsibility
tions and communication management (pp. 117157).
Journal 11(2): 290305.
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Tench, R., W. Sun, and B. Jones (2012). Corporate social
H&M engages with Greenpeace (2011). http://activacorp
irresponsibility: A challenging concept. Critical Stud-
.net/nano/new/ accessed 20 May 2013.
ies on Corporate Responsibility, Governance and Sus-
Heath, R.L. (1988) Strategic Issues Management: How tainability, Vol. 4: 320.
organizations influence and respond to public interests
Trust (2015). http://www.edelman.com/insights/
and policies. Jossey-Bass.
intellectual-property/2012-edelman-trust-barometer/
Heath, R.L. (1997). Strategic Issues Management: Organ- the-state-of-trust/key-findings/ accessed Dec. 22, 2015.
izations and public policy challenges. Thousand Oaks,
Young, P. and M. kerstrm (2015). Meet the digital
CA: Sage.
naturals in Strategic Communication, Social Media
Heath, R.L. (2005). Issues management, in Encyclopedia and Democracy: The challenge of the digital naturals
of Public Relations Vol. 1 (pp. 460463). R.L. Heath (pp. 110). W.T. Coombs, J. Falkheimer, M. Heide
(ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. and P. Young (eds). Routledge: London.

M17 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 342 27/03/2017 15:51

 Chapter 18Crisis public relations management 343

CH AP T ER 18 Tim Coombs

Crisis public relations management

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
define and describe the concepts of crisis and crisis management
recognise the value of communication to crisis public relations management
understand the different crisis types and how the crisis type affects crisis communication
identify the key principles in crisis public relations management
apply principles of crisis public relations management to actual crisis cases
understand the effects of the internet on crisis public relations management.

Structure
Crisis public relations management: the context
Where do crises come from?
How to prepare for a crisis
Communicating during a crisis
The internet and crisis public relations management

M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 343 23/03/2017 13:16

 344 Part 3Public relations specialisms

Introduction
In 2005, a political cartoon in a Danish
newspaper sparked international protests
and a boycott of Danish goods in the
Middle East. Arla Foods, a company with
strong ties to Denmark, lost millions of
dollars in sales as a result of the boycott.
Crisis public relations management was
one of the tools Arla management relied
upon to repair the damage inflicted by
the cartoon affair (Frandsen and Johansen
2010). In July of 2013, 63 cars carrying
petroleum on a cargo train derailed in the
Canadian town of Lac-Mgantic. A mas-
sive fire erupted, destroying 30 buildings,
requiring the evacuation of one-third
of the town, and ultimately killing 47
people. The CEO of Rail World, Edward
Burkhardt, became the face of the crisis
response. Burkhardt failed by repeatedly
communicating the wrong message and
intensifying rather than reducing the harm
the crisis was inflicting on his organisa-
tion. An extended example will help to
illustrate the value of crisis public relations
management.
On 4 July 2011, media giant News
Corp began to dominate international
news coverage because of their phone
hacking scandal, highlighted by the
Milly Dowler case. News of the World,
a News Corp publication, was collect-
ing information for stories by hiring
people to hack into mobile phones.
On 14 July, Rupert Murdoch, head of
News Corp, said the crisis was being
handled extremely well (Estes 2011).
Mr Murdoch was one of the few to
take that position. News Corp was in a
crisis and handling it badly. As media
attention intensified, News Corps stock
price began to drop and the company
had to abandon its bid to buy BSkyB.
The day Mr Murdochs crisis appraisal
was published, News Corp hired pub-
lic relations titan Edelman to guide the
crisis management effort. On 16 and
17 July an apology from News Corp,
signed by Rupert Murdoch, appeared in
major UK newspapers with the headline
We are sorry (Timeline, 2011). The apol-
ogy marked a new and improved direc-
tion in News Corps crisis public relations
management. News Corp became more
cooperative with government officials
and news coverage began to soften. The
News Corp example reflects the dangers
of ineffective crisis public relations man-
agement and the benefits it can provide
when it is effective.
Effective crisis public relations man-
agement protects stakeholders from
harm, helps stakeholders recover from
the crisis, and works to repair the finan-
cial and reputational damage a crisis
can inflict on an organisation. The key
difference between effective and inef-
fective crisis public relations manage-
ment is strategic thinking. Effective crisis
public relations management is built
on a foundation of preparation that is
informed by research. When a crisis
hits, managers have practiced handling
similar situations and understand what
actions should help and which could
hurt in their crisis situation. Moreover,
effective crisis management should take
full advantage of digital communication.
Crisis public relations management
is a rapidly developing field with new
knowledge being added regularly. This
chapter presents the key points of crisis
public relations management that can
help guide managers toward an effec-
tive crisis management effort.

Crisis public relations

Box 18.1
management: the context
Crisis public relations management is an applied field.
Early crisis
Like most applied fields, understanding the field began communication
by analysing what managers were already doing then
trying to develop ways to improve on the practice. The recommendations
early literature on crisis public relations management
was simply lists of what to do and what not to do
What to do
in a crisis. Box 18.1 presents a list of the common
recommendations found in the early crisis writings. Speak with one voice/consistent message (Carney
These lists were based upon case studies of what crisis and Jorden 1993)
managers had done in the past. The lists are a type of Respond quickly (Caruba 1994)
accepted wisdom. Some accepted wisdom really is Be open and disclose information about the crisis
wisdom and some is simply urban myth. As the field (Twardy 1994)
matures, researchers have begun exploring crisis pub-
What not to do
lic relations management in a more systematic fash-
ion to separate the wisdom from the urban myths and Speculate on the cause of the crisis
to begin building crisis public relations management Say no comment (In a crisis 1993)
theory. Theory improves the practice by developing

M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 344 23/03/2017 13:16


and testing reasons why certain actions are effective
and others are ineffective. The accepted wisdom is
replaced with evidence based on theory and empiri-
cal tests. Crisis public relations management is in a
transitional phase from accepted wisdom to evidence-
based approaches. Researchers in contingency theory
(e.g. Jin et al. 2007) and situational crisis communi-
cation theory (e.g. Coombs and Holladay 2001) are
at the forefront of evidence-based crisis communica-
tion. The evidence-based approaches use experiments
to test how people react to crises and to the crisis
response strategies used in a crisis. The experiments
test speculation about how people will react to a crisis
or react to a crisis response strategy. Speculation is
then replaced with evidence. The value of experimen-
tal research is that it can establish a cause-and-effect
relationship between the crisis response strategies and
their effects on stakeholders. Managers will know the
likely effects their communicative choices will have on
their stakeholders.
Defining key concepts
We should begin the exploration of crisis public rela-
tions management by defining the key terms crisis and
crisis public relations management. A crisis can be
defined as the perception of an unpredictable event
that threatens important expectancies of stakeholders
related to health, safety, environmental, and economic
issues, and can seriously impact an organisations per-
formance and generate negative outcomes (Coombs
2015: 3). Crises are perceptual. If an organisations
stakeholders believe it is in a crisis, the organisation is
in a crisis unless it can prove otherwise to its stakehold-
ers. Crises violate stakeholder expectations for how an
organisation should behave. Products should not harm
customers and aeroplanes should not lose their engine
power during a flight. By violating expectations an
organisation risks damage to its performance through
loss of sales or a drop in share price. A crisis can cre-
ate a range of negative outcomes beyond diminished
performance including physical damage to facilities,
turnover of employees, a decrease in share price, and
organisational reputation, while stakeholders can suf-
fer physical, psychological, and/or economic harm. The
actual damage inflicted by a crisis is determined, in
part, by the effectiveness of the crisis public relations
management.
To be more precise, this chapter is about organisa-
tional crises. The term crisis is very broad and often
includes natural disasters and public health crises.
Organisational crises have a narrower focus as indicated
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 345
Chapter 18Crisis public relations management 345
by the preceding definition. It is important to note that
organisational crises can be subdivided into operational
and reputational crises. Operational crises represent the
origins of crisis management and crisis communica-
tion. An operational crisis is a threat that can disrupt
the operation of an organisation thereby creating the
risk of financial loss. Reputational crises are threats to
the way stakeholders perceive the organisation. Sohn
and Lariscy (2014) defined a reputational crisis as a
major event that has the potential to threaten collective
perceptions and estimations held by all relevant stake-
holders of an organization and its relevant attributions
(p. 24). Essentially, a reputational crisis is a threat that
can result in loss of reputational assets. Most reputa-
tional crises today involve social media to some degree
and are often referred to as social media crises, a very
imprecise term (Coombs 2015). Obviously an opera-
tional crisis has implications for reputations and a repu-
tational crisis could escalate to the point of disrupting
operations. However, the distinction does help guide
crisis communication efforts because of the differing
nature and demands of the crisis subcategories.
Crisis public relations management is a collection of
factors that are used to address the crisis and to lessen
the damage a crisis might inflict on the organisation
and its stakeholders. Crisis public relations manage-
ment involves interventions that occur throughout the
lifecycle of a crisis. Box18.2 outlines the commonly
used three-stage crisis lifecycle.
The value of strategic
communication
From a public relations perspective, it is important to
realise a crisis creates an information vacuum. Some-
thing negative has occurred and potentially threatens
an organisation and its stakeholders. People immedi-
ately want to know more about the crisis event. Who
was involved? What happened? Why did it happen?
What risks will it create? A key to effective crisis public
relations management is locating the desired informa-
tion and relaying it to the interested stakeholders. The
need to address the information vacuum created by
a crisis places a premium on effective communication
(Barton 2001). Public relations people do not simply
throw information at stakeholders during a crisis. To
be effective, crisis communication must be strategic.
Those engaged in crisis public relations management
must determine what information particular stakehold-
ers need and the best way to deliver that information.
When hazardous chemicals are released, for example,
crisis communicators must determine who is at risk, if
23/03/2017 13:16
 346 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Box 18.2
Three-stage crisis life
cycle
1. Pre-crisis: actions taken prior to occurrence of the
crisis
Signal detection: search for warning signs that a
crisis may occur
Prevention: take steps to lessen the likelihood
that a crisis risk becomes a crisis
Preparation: take steps to prepare for handling a
crisis
2. Crisis event: a trigger event indicates a crisis has
begun
Crisis recognition: define the situation as a crisis
Crisis containment: words and actions used to
address the crisis
3. Post-crisis: actions taken after a crisis is considered to
be over
Learning: discover lessons from the crisis man-
agement effort
Follow-up: provide any information or actions
promised during the crisis
Healing: address lingering psychological issues
created by the crisis
Odwallas 1996 recall: an illustration of
the three-stage crisis life cycle
In 1996, US juice manufacturer Odwalla had an E. coli out-
break that sickened over 70 people and killed 16-month-
old Anna Gimmestad. A review of the Odwalla case
demonstrates the stages of the crisis life cycle. Odwalla
those at risk should evacuate or shelter where they are,
and how best to deliver the public safety message to the
targeted stakeholders.
Where do crises come from?
There is no one type of crisis that crisis public relations
managers will face. There are a variety of crises and
each presents its own unique demands on the public
relations people attempting to manage it. Situational
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 346
sold unpasteurised juice. The idea was that the juice
retained more vitamins and better taste when it was not
pasteurised. However, pasteurisation is used to kill bacte-
ria so unpasteurised juice must be carefully controlled or
you have a food-borne illness outbreak, as Odwalla did.
There was a belief in the unpasteurised juice industry that
the high acid content of juice helped to kill bacteria. To
add extra protection, Odwalla used an acid wash on its
fruit. A previous bacteria outbreak at another juice maker
raised questions about the acid wash prior to 1996. Dave
Stevenson, head of Odwallas quality assurance, had rec-
ommended a shift to a chlorine wash. Acid wash was
rated as only 8 per cent effective and the chlorine wash
would have improved bacteria control. Signal detection
was working. Stevenson had seen the problems in the
industry and that Odwalla had had 300 reports of bacte-
ria in juice prior to 1996. Other executives rejected Ste-
vensons proposal and the acid wash remained in place.
Prevention was a failure because Odwalla did nothing to
reduce the threat identified in signal detection. Little is
known about Odwallas state of preparation prior to the
1996 crisis (Entine 1998, 1999).
When the crisis hit, Odwalla was quick to recognise and
to contain a crisis. Odwalla quickly issued a recall of its
product and was among the first companies to utilise the
internet as part of the crisis response. The quick action
reflected crisis recognition, while the recall demonstrated
containment efforts (Evan 1999). In fact, Odwalla is fre-
quently praised in crisis case studies for its response.
Unfortunately, those who praise Odwalla fail to exam-
ine how its own prevention failure helped to create the
deadly recall (Coombs 2015). Odwalla did learn, as it
began pasteurising its juices to kill bacteria. The internet
helped provided follow-up information to stakeholders
thereby keeping them informed. As part of the healing,
Odwalla paid for the medical expenses of anyone who
became ill from their juice (Baker n.d.).
Source: adapted from Coombs 2015
crisis communication theory (SCCT) has used empiri-
cal research to create three general categories of crises
based upon evaluations of crisis responsibility (Coombs
2007). The crises in each category create similar attri-
butions of organisational responsibility for a crisis. Cri-
sis responsibility, stakeholder perceptions of how much
an organisation is responsible for the crisis, is critical
in assessing the threat posed by a crisis. Research (e.g.
Mowen 1980; Jorgensen 1996; Coombs and Holladay
2001) has consistently shown that the greater the attri-
bution of crisis responsibility, the greater the threat
posed by the crisis to the organisation. Increases in
23/03/2017 13:16

crisis responsibility lead to greater reputational loss,
decreases in purchase intention, decreases in support-
ive behaviours and increases in likelihood to engage
in negative word-of-mouth (Coombs 2007; Coombs
and Holladay 2007b). Box18.3 presents the crisis cat-
egories of crisis types developed by SCCT and distin-
guishes between operational and reputational crises.
What should become clear by looking at the list of
crises is that crises come from a variety of sources. In
other words, organisations have a wide array of poten-
tial crisis risks including key stakeholders and the oper-
ation of facilities. For instance, employees can cause
crises by not performing tasks properly (accidentally
Box 18.3
Crisis types and
categories from SCCT
Operational crises: potential to disrupt
operations
Victim: minimal attributions of crisis responsibility. The
organisation is considered a victim of the crisis along with
the stakeholders.
Natural disasters: damage from weather or acts of God.
An example is the 2011 tsunami and earthquakes in Japan
Workplace violence: damage from employee or former
employee attacking current employees. An example is
the 2001 shootings at a furniture manufacturing facility
in Goshen, IN, USA.
Malevolence: damage from outside actors attacking the
organisation. An example would be the 1986 tampering
of Tylenol capsules in the US.
Accidental: moderate attributions of crisis responsibility.
The organisation is involved in the crisis but had limited
control over the events that precipitated the crisis.
Technical-error accidents: damage when technology fails,
thereby creating an accident. An example would be the
2003 explosion of the West Pharmaceutical facility in
Kinston, NC, USA from rubber dust particles.
Technical-error product harm: damage when technology
fails, resulting in a defective product. An example would be
the 2010 HP recall of laptop batteries due to potential fire
hazard from dendrite fibre build-up in the lithium batteries.
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 347
Chapter 18Crisis public relations management 347
or purposefully), by violating laws, by misusing social
media, or by engaging in violence against co-workers.
Customers can cause crises by misusing products or
by protesting about how an organisation behaves.
Assailants can attack an organisation through prod-
uct tampering, physical attacks or computer hack-
ing. Geography can cause crises through the acts of
nature that can occur at that locale such as tornadoes
or floods. Products can cause crises by being manufac-
tured improperly and harming customers. The manu-
facturing process can cause crises through technical
failure, poor quality raw materials or the release of
toxic chemicals. Potential crises can develop within the
Intentional: very strong attributions of crisis responsibil-
ity. The organisation knowingly placed stakeholders at
risk and/or wilfully violated laws or regulations.
Human-error accident: damage when human error causes
an accident. An example is the 1999 Tosco Refinery fire
in Martinez, CA, USA that was a result of poor supervi-
sion of safety.
Human-error product harm: damage when human error
causes a defective product. An example is the 1990 Per-
rier water recall because of high benzene levels caused by
an employee not changing a filter at the spring designed
to trap the benzene.
Organisational misdeed: damage when managers
knowingly place stakeholders at risk or knowingly vio-
late laws or regulations. An example is in 2007, where
melamine, which is poisonous to dogs and cats, was
purposefully added to pet food so it would test with a
higher protein level.
Reputational crises: potential to erode reputation.
Victim
Rumours: damage from false information being circu-
lated about the organisation. An example is the 2010
report that Pamper disposal nappies (diapers) would
burn babies.
Accidental
Challenges: threat of damage from stakeholder claims
that the organisation is acting in a manner that is inap-
propriate or irresponsible. An example would be the
2005 charge by the American Family Association that
Ford Motor Company was harming families by offering
same-sex partner benefits and advertising in gay and les-
bian publications.
Source: adapted from Coombs 2015
23/03/2017 13:16
 348 Part 3Public relations specialisms
organisation and from its environment. Organisations
are swimming in a sea of crisis risks. So where do crises
come from? The answer is, almost anywhere.
How to prepare for a crisis
Managers need to recognise that no matter how well
they run the organisation a crisis can still occur. Mar-
conis (1992) book title sums it up best: When Bad
Things Happen to Good Companies. Unfortunately
for managers, crises are a matter of when, not if. All
organisations should prepare for the eventuality of a
crisis. Preparing for a crisis is part prevention and part
preparation.
Preventative actions
Steven Fink (1986), an influential crisis expert,
argued that all crises have warning signs or what he
calls prodomes. The skilful crisis manager discovers
the warning and takes actions to prevent the crisis
from occurring. The best way to manage a crisis is
to prevent one. Prevention means no stakeholders are
harmed and the organisation suffers no damage. Crisis
managers find warning signs by monitoring sources
related to specific types of crisis risks. Typical sources
to monitor for warning signs would be safety data,
consumer complaints, insurance audits, environmental
audits, employee complaints, social media posts and
activist activities.
Each organisation needs to design its own early
warning system for crises. That involves identifying the
most likely crises the organisation will have and work-
ing backwards to determine what sources of informa-
tion would provide the most reliable warning signs for
each crisis. The best starting point is to assemble top
management from the various divisions in the organ-
isation. This group should brainstorm all the possible
crises that might befall the organisation. Once the list is
created, the managers go back and assign each crisis a
crisis risk score. The crisis risk score is an assessment
of likelihood of the crisis occurring and the impact
such a crisis would have on both stakeholders and
the organisation. The managers would generate three
scores: (1) crisis likelihood (L), (2) impact on stake-
holders (IS) and (3) impact on the organisation (IO).
The scores would be based on a scale, with 1 being
unlikely or little impact and 10 being very likely and
serious impact. Admittedly, the scores will be rather
subjective but it is a fairly effective system. The scores
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 348
are then placed in the following formula: crisis risk
score = L IS OI. Box18.4 presents examples of
calculating a crisis risk score.
Once all the crises have scores, the managers review
the data to create a list of the most prominent crises.
The list of the most prominent crises would serve as
the foundation for creating the crisis early warning sys-
tem. Managers need to determine what would be the
early warning signs for each crisis and what informa-
tion sources could be monitored to find those warn-
ing signs. For instance, an organisation that is at risk
from industrial accidents would monitor safety data.
Lapses in safety practices could indicate the potential
for an industrial accident. Or an organisation that sells
consumer goods would monitor consumer complaints.
The consumer complaints could indicate a potential for
product harm. Once a warning sign is located, actions
would be taken to reduce the likelihood of the crisis
occurring.
Preventative action reflects the operational crisis
focus of crisis communication. Reputational risks are
harder to quantify in terms of likelihood and impact
than their operational counterparts. For instance, an air-
line can quantify the likelihood and impact of a crash,
but finds it more difficult to quantify the likelihood and
impact of a reputational threat such as activists posting
negative comments on social media about the airlines
treatment of employees. Still, managers must attempt to
quantify the risks associated with reputations. One start-
ing point is to consider the salience of the stakeholders
Box 18.4
Sample crisis risk
score calculations
1. Airline crash
1 10 10 = 100
Likelihood is very low
Impact on stakeholders and the organisation is
very high
2. Product recall for E. coli in beef
5 10 10 = 500
Likelihood is moderate as E. coli in beef does
happen on a regular basis.
Impact of stakeholders and the organisation is
high because E. coli can cause death.
23/03/2017 13:16

associated with the threat and their communicative
skill. Higher ratings of salience and communication
skills would increase the likelihood and impact from
the reputational threat (Coombs 2015; Coombs and
Holladay 2015).
Value of preparation
While prevention is ideal, the reality is crises will still
occur. Managers cannot locate all warning signs and
preventative actions are not guaranteed to be effec-
tive. Note how the paragraph before last stated reduce
the likelihood of a crisis happening, not eliminate
it. There are limits to crisis prevention. That is why
organisations need to develop an insurance policy in
the form of crisis preparation. Crisis preparation is
built around three points: (1) a crisis management plan
(CMP), (2) a crisis team and (3) training.
The CMP is a rough guide for managing a crisis, not
a step-by-step formula. Each crisis is a little different so
the crisis team needs to adapt the CMP to the current sit-
uation. CMPs should be short and easy to use. The basic
elements of a CMP are contact information (people you
might need to reach during a crisis) and key reminders
such as the need to document what the crisis team has
done and record requests for information the crisis team
received but could not answer immediately. Most CMPs
are now digital and the crisis team can access them from
mobile devices during a crisis. It is essential that CMPs
are updated regularly, at least every six months. Person-
nel and procedures change in organisations. If the CMP
is inaccurate, it is of little value. Box18.5 provides an
example of the need to test CMPs.
CMPs provide an organised approach to crisis man-
agement that helps to save time during a crisis. One
way a CMP saves time is by making some decisions
before the crisis hits. Team members will have pre-
assigned tasks so they know what to do when they
receive word that a crisis has occurred. The Crisis
Appendix is a separate set of materials that is linked
to the CMP. The Crisis Appendix stores information
that might be needed during a crisis, such as past safety
data and templates for messages. The templates are
drafts of sample messages the organisation might use
in the crisis. Essentially a template is a message with
key points left blank such as the date, time and people
involved. The legal department should approve the
templates before the crisis. Time is saved because the
complete message does not have to be written from
scratch during a crisis and it has already been approved
by the legal department. The templates can include
news releases, Tweets, Facebook posts or blog posts.
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 349
Chapter 18Crisis public relations management 349
Box 18.5
The need to test crisis
management plans
The value of testing the CMP was proven by an airport
in the US. The airport was running a crisis simulation
of a plane crash. The simulation involved airport per-
sonnel and emergency personnel from the commu-
nity including fire, police and ambulance. When the
simulation began, the emergency personnel tuned
their radios to the frequency recommended in the
CMP. The emergency responders found they could
not talk with the airport personnel, resulting is chaos
rather than coordination. The problem was that the
wrong radio frequency was listed in the CMP for
emergency responders. Testing the CMP revealed a
serious flaw in the CMP that could have been disas-
trous in a real crisis.
The crisis management team are those people in
the organisation that have been selected to adminis-
ter the crisis response. The crisis management team is
composed of personnel from a variety of departments
in the organisation. The exact composition will vary
according to the nature of the crisis. For instance, IT
is involved when the crisis involves computer systems
or the internet, or human resources is included when
the crisis involves personnel issues. The core of the cri-
sis team includes: public relations, legal, operations,
security, safety and quality assurance (Barton, 2001).
Ideally, the crisis team begins its work by developing
the CMP. However, not all crisis teams are used to cre-
ate CMPs. The primary task of the crisis team is man-
aging the crisis. The crisis team must be able to apply
the CMP to a crisis they must know how to use the
CMP. If the crisis team cannot use the CMP, the CMP
has no value and has failed to save time. More impor-
tant than using the CMP is the ability of the crisis team
to cope with factors not covered in the CMP. Remem-
ber, a CMP is a rough guide so there are many details
and specifics about a crisis that the crisis team must
address on their own. The CMP provides extra time
by addressing the routine aspects of a crisis. Everything
else must be handled by the crisis team (Regester 1989;
Barton 2001; Regester and Larkin 2008).
Training is the last of the three elements of prepara-
tion, but is the most critical. Without training, any CMP
or crisis team is of unknown value. Crisis management
23/03/2017 13:16
 350 Part 3Public relations specialisms
training involves practice with handling a crisis. The cri-
sis management team, armed with its CMP, confronts a
simulated crisis. Training assesses the value of the CMP
and the abilities of the crisis management team. Was the
CMP useful during the training or does it require exten-
sive revision? It is better to discover flaws in the CMP
during training rather than during an actual crisis. Can
the crisis team members perform their tasks effectively?
Weak team members will either need additional training
or may need to be replaced. Crises are time-sensitive and
ambiguous. Not everyone responds well to ambiguity
and to time pressure. Some people should not be on cri-
sis teams and training will indicate if the person is right
for a crisis team (Coombs 2015). Again, better to learn a
person is not suited for a crisis team during a simulated
rather than an actual crisis.
Without training, an organisation has no idea if its
CMP or crisis team is any good. Both the CMP and
crisis team should be tested on a regular basis, at least
once per year. Training does not have to be a complete
simulation of a crisis, but can be as simple simulated
interactive exercises that test a part of the crisis man-
agement effort. To be effective in a crisis, organisations
must use training to establish the value of their CMPs
and crisis management teams.
Communicating during a crisis
Effective crisis communication is vital to a successful
crisis management effort. Crisis public relations man-
agement research brings important insights to under-
standing what makes crisis communication effective
and ineffective (Coombs 2010). Crisis communica-
tion involves managing information and managing
meaning. Managing information reflects the informa-
tion processing aspect of crisis communication. Crisis
managers need to collect information, process it into
knowledge and share it with their stakeholders. Man-
aging meaning emphasises the strategic aspect of crisis
communication. Crisis managers use crisis messages to
influence how stakeholders perceive the crisis and the
organisation in crisis. Managing meaning recognises
that stakeholders have emotional reactions to crises
(e.g. Jin and Pang 2010). The type and strength of
emotions created by a crisis depend upon how people
perceive the crisis. If an organisation is a victim, stake-
holders are likely to feel sympathy. If the organisation
is responsible for the crisis, stakeholders are likely to
feel anger. Those different emotions affect how those
stakeholders then perceive the organisation and behave
toward that organisation (Jorgensen 1996).
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 350
The focus of crisis public relations management
research has been on effective communication during
the crisis event. The crisis communication research can
be divided by its focus: (1) tactical and (2) strategic.
The tactical focus crisis communication research exam-
ines how messages are sent during the crisis and the
general characteristics of those messages. The emphasis
is crisis communication as information management.
The strategic focus crisis communication research
examines the content of the messages sent during a
crisis and the effects of those messages. The strategic
focus considers the goals crisis managers are pursuing
through their crisis communication.
Crisis communication: tactical focus
Early writings about crisis communication focused on
the tactical aspects. Experts advise that an initial crisis
response should be quick, accurate and consistent. A
crisis response needs to be quick so that the organisa-
tion is part of the information used to fill the vacuum
created by the crisis. Many writers note the need for the
organisation to tell its side of the story (e.g. H
olladay
2009). If an organisation is slow in responding, it
allows other actors to define and to control the crisis
(Coombs 2015). Research has confirmed the value of
responding quickly. Arpan and Pompper (2003) found
that an organisation suffers less reputational damage
when it announces that a crisis has occurred than when
someone other than the organisation makes the same
announcement. They called this effect stealing thun-
der. Additional research has further established the
value stealing thunder offers as a means of protect-
ing reputational assets during a crisis (e.g. Claeys and
Cauberghe 2012). Using various digital media channels
to convey crisis messages is one means of enhancing the
speed of the crisis response.
Speed does not always fit with accuracy but crisis
managers need both. If crisis messages are shown to
be inaccurate, the organisation loses credibility and
risks suffering additional reputational damage. We
must remember that ineffective crisis communication
does hurt an organisation. Part of accuracy is avoiding
speculation. It is common for the news media to ask
crisis managers to speculate on the cause of the crisis. A
common piece of advice for crisis managers is to never
speculate. If your speculation is wrong, your messages
are judged as inaccurate. Inaccuracy implies that the
organisation is either incompetent or hiding something
from its stakeholders.
Finally, crisis messages need to be consistent. Many
crisis experts talk about speaking with one voice but
23/03/2017 13:16

Picture 18.1 Protest against Union Carbide following the Bhopal chemical plant disaster.
that phrase is often misinterpreted. It does not mean
only one person speaks for the organisation during a
crisis. Multiple experts may be needed to explain a cri-
sis, or a crisis can go on for days. In either situation
would it be effective to have just one person speak for
the organisation? Consistency is a better term. Con-
sistency does not mean everyone using the same exact
talking points. Instead, consistency means sharing
information with all spokespersons so they work from
a common knowledge base. You want consistency in
the information your spokespersons are providing
about the crisis, not consistency in phrasing of the mes-
sage (Coombs 2015).
Crisis communication: strategic
focus
Researchers have examined the strategic aspect of crisis
communication by attempting to determine how crisis
communication can be used most effectively to pro-
tect the organisations reputation. The strategic crisis
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 351
Chapter 18Crisis public relations management 351
communication research began by trying to understand
why people react favourably or unfavourably to a cri-
sis spokesperson. Box18.6 provides a summary of the
proven advice for crisis spokespersons.
More advanced strategic crisis communication
research has explored the various crisis response strat-
egies (what an organisation says and does after a crisis
hits) and how strategy choices affect the way stake-
holders react to the crisis and the organisation in crisis
(Coombs 2010). William Benoit (1995) was instru-
mental in identifying a wide range of crisis response
strategies. Benoits list of crisis response strategies was
combined with works of other experts to form the cri-
sis response strategies presented in Box18.7. While
having a list is useful, crisis managers still needed to
understand when certain strategies would be more
effective than others and why. Let us explore the stra-
tegic use of crisis response strategies further.
Crisis managers should start any crisis response
with instructing and adjusting information. Instruct-
ing information tells stakeholders how to protect
themselves physically from a crisis. Examples would
23/03/2017 13:16
 352 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Box 18.6
Advice for crisis
spokespersons
Never say no comment people hear I am guilty or
I am hiding something when a crisis manager says
no comment.
Make eye contact, avoid vocal fillers (urhs
and uhms) and avoid nervous gestures they
be product recalls and evacuation warnings. Adjust-
ing information helps people to cope psychologically
with a crisis. This would include expressions of regret,
steps taken to prevent a repeat of the crisis and expla-
nations of what happened during the crisis (Sturges
1994). Anxiety is the most common emotion generated
by a crisis (Jin et al. 2012) and adjusting information
seeks to reduce the anxiety of stakeholders during a cri-
sis. Public safety should be the top priority in a crisis.
Failure to address public safety first is an ethical as well
as a strategic failure in crisis communication.
Perceptions of crisis responsibility are critical to
crisis communication. Crisis response strategies can
be used to shape those perceptions. Denial strate-
gies argue that there is no crisis (crucial in the case
Box 18.7
Challenge response
strategies
Refusal: Managers ignore the challenge. Hershey ignored
challenges from Green America about its cocoa sourcing
for over two years.
Refutation: Managers argue that the challenge is fac-
tually wrong or argue the standards they are said to
have violated are invalid because most of their stake-
holders do not hold the violated expectations. Honey
Maid Graham Crackers argued its commercial using a
same-sex couple was consistent with how most stake-
holders view families and refuse to stop running the
advertisement.
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 352
create the impression the spokesperson is being
deceptive.
Provide answers to the question that was asked, not
the question you want to answer.
If you do not know the answer, say so and prom-
ise to deliver the necessary information when you
receive it.
Avoid using jargon because it is confusing and the
spokesperson appears to be hiding something.
Sources: Carney and Jorden 1993; Feeley and de Turck 1995;
Levick 2005; Mackinnon 1996; Nicholas 1995; Pines 1985
of a rumour) or that the organisation is uninvolved
in a crisis. If there is no crisis or the organisation
is not responsible for the crisis, there should be no
threat to the organisation. As Benoit (1995) noted,
crisis communication is only needed when there has
been a crisis and the organisation is held responsible
for the event. Denial should only be used when an
organisation has no involvement in the crisis and can
support that claim. If the organisation is later shown
to be involved in the crisis, much greater damage is
inflicted on the organisation than if they had not
denied involvement (Ferrin et al. 2007). The dangers
in using denial are evidence to support effective com-
munication helping and ineffective communication
hurting during a crisis.
Repression: Managers seek to silence the voice of the
challengers. Nestl tried to have Greenpeaces video chal-
lenging its palm oil sourcing removed from YouTube.
Recognition/Reception: Managers acknowledge the
problem noted in the challenge but make no commit-
ment to change the behaviour. Apple recognised the
problem with conflict minerals but took no actions to
address the issue.
Revision: Managers make changes to their challenged
behaviour but not the exact changes requested by the
challengers. Nestl chose its own method for addressing
palm oil sourcing after challenges from Greenpeace.
Reform: Managers make the exact changes requested
by the challengers. Nike and Adidas both engaged in
reform when challenged by Greenpeace to stop using
toxic chemicals in their apparel supply chain.
Source: adapted from Coombs and Holladay 2015
23/03/2017 13:16

Picture 18.2 Public safety should be the top priority in
acrisis.
Diminish strategies seek to reduce the perceptions of
crisis responsibility. The organisation recognises that
a crisis has occurred and they are involved to some
degree with the crisis. However, communication is
used in an attempt to reduce the organisations per-
ceived responsibility for the crisis. If the organisation
had moderate responsibility for the crisis, the potential
damage from the crisis is reduced. As with denial, there
are limits to when diminish strategies can be used. An
organisation must have a legitimate claim of limited
responsibility or the diminish strategies can cause more
harm than good.
As noted in the discussion of crisis types, there are
times when an organisation is perceived as highly
responsible for the crisis and that perception is accu-
rate. Denial and diminish strategies would be ineffec-
tive, so crisis managers must use the rebuild strategies.
The rebuild strategies are compensation and apology.
Organisations are perceived as clearly taking respon-
sibility for a crisis when they use either of these two
strategies. Rebuild strategies are the most appropriate
response for a crisis in the preventable cluster from
Box18.3. A general piece of strategic crisis communi-
cation advice is that as perceptions of crisis responsi-
bility increase, crisis managers should utilise strategies
that are perceived to take responsibility for the crisis.
There should be a match between perceived acceptance
of responsibility for the crisis by the organisation and
stakeholder attributions of crisis responsibility. It
should be noted that crises in the accidental cluster
can generate strong attributions of crisis responsibil-
ity if the organisation has a history of similar crises
and/or a negative prior reputation (are known to treat
stakeholders badly for example) (Coombs 2007). Cri-
sis managers should consider these two intensifying
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 353
Chapter 18Crisis public relations management 353
factors (crisis history and prior reputation) when
selecting their crisis response strategies. These recom-
mendations focus on operational crises but we need to
consider the reputational crises as well.
Rumours and challenges are the dominant reputa-
tional crises. Rumours involve misinformation that
indicates an organisation is involved in a crisis when
there really is no connection to a crisis. Management
must explain why the organisation is not involved in
a crisis. During a major peanut product recall in the
US, consumers mistakenly thought the name-brand
peanut butters were part of the recall. Jif, Peter Pan
and Skippy (the three main producers of name-brand
peanut butter in the US) all created special home
pages to explain that their products were not part
of the recall a type of denial. In a rumour, manage-
ment use denial to separate the organisation from the
potential damage associated with a crisis by showing
the organisation has no responsibility for the crisis or
that no crisis exists.
Challenges are more complicated than rumours
because a challenge involves perceptions rather than
facts. A challenge occurs when stakeholders claim that
current organisational practices should be defined
as irresponsible. Consider how in the 1990s the gar-
ment industry had its supply chain activities redefined
as sweat shops. If stakeholders accept the redefini-
tion, the organisation suffers reputational damage. A
challenge crisis is a reputational threat because being
socially irresponsible harms an organisations reputa-
tion. When the challenge transpires in the digital envi-
ronment, such as social media, managers are forced to
publicly manage the crisis risk, making the situation a
para-crisis (Coombs and Holladay 2012). Managers
have a slightly different set of crisis response strate-
gies to choose from when responding to a challenge/
reputational threat compared to an operational crisis
(Coombs and Holladay 2015). For instance, managers
might use refusal or recognition/reception strategies in
a reputational crisis, but these are not viable responses
in an operational crisis. Managers cannot ignore an
operational event or just note that it exists; manag-
ers must provide a substantive response to operational
crises to be effective. Hence, the lists of crisis response
strategies for reputational and operational crises have
some differences. Box18.7 details the crisis response
during a challenge/reputational crisis.
Finally, the bolster strategies are a secondary strat-
egy that can be used in combination with denial,
diminish, rebuild or any of the challenge response
strategies. Bolster strategies seek to create positive
23/03/2017 13:16
 354 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Case study 18.1
Cadbury chocolate recall
Cadbury is consistently the most trusted brand of choco-
late in the UK. In 2006, Cadbury recalled eight of its prod-
ucts (over 1 million items) for salmonella contamination
that caused sickness in about 40 people. This is proof that
crises happen even to the best of companies. Cadbury
estimates the recall cost it 20 million and resulted in a
14 per cent drop in sales for 2006 (Walsh 2011). A Brand-
Index poll taken after the recall showed a sharp drop in
Cadburys reputation (Salmonellablog 2006). The lost rev-
enue, lost sales and reputation damage reflect the nega-
tive effects a crisis can have on an organisation.
The British Government determined that Cadbury s
standards for assessing the risk of salmonella was unre-
liable and needed to be changed (Booth 2006). Cad-
bury was not properly executing part of its food safety
tasks. The crisis was caused by poor job performance
making this, at best, a human-error product harm cri-
sis. Cadbury s management admitted (pleaded guilty)
to breaching food and hygiene regulations. Cadbury
was fined one million pounds for its violations (Reuters
2007). The crisis could be considered management
pieces of information to associate with an organisation
in the hope of countering some of the negative infor-
mation generated by the crisis. The Cadbury Choco-
late case (Case study18.1) is used to illustrate various
crisis communication responses and the importance of
matching the response to the level of crisis responsibil-
ity. Box18.8 includes examples of how organisations
have actually used each of the crisis response strategies.
Box 18.8
Crisis response
strategies
Denial strategies
Attacking the accuser: crisis manager challenges the
person or group that says a crisis exists
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 354
misconduct because there was violation of regulations.
Either categorisation places the Cadbury chocolate
recall in the preventable crisis cluster.
Cadbury did recall the product and informed custom-
ers about the recall (instructing information). Here is a
sample of Cadburys statement following its government
fine: Quality has always been at the heart of our business,
but the process we followed in the UK in this instance has
been shown to be unacceptable. We have apologised for
this and do so again today. In particular, we offer our sin-
cere regrets and apologies to anyone who was made ill as
a result of this failure. We have spent over 20 million in
changing our procedures to prevent this ever happening
again (Reuters 2007). The crisis response notes the cor-
rective action taken and offers regret (adjusting informa-
tion). More importantly, Cadburys apology indicates that
it accepts responsibility for the crisis. The response fits
nicely with recommendations for a preventable cluster
crisis. Instructing and adjusting information were pro-
vided coupled with an apology (acceptance of respon-
sibility). In 2007, Cadbury was again named the most
trusted chocolate brand in Britain. Marketing analysis
argued the poll results showed Cadbury had rebounded
from the salmonella crisis (Rano 2008). We can argue that
the crisis communication utilised by Cadbury is part of
the reason its reputation was able to rebound so quickly
from the crisis.
It should be noted that the discussion of crisis com-
munication reflects an emphasis placed on external
stakeholders. Researchers have begun to emphasise
the need to include employees in the discussion of
crisis communication. Crisis communication plans
must include the need to target employees with mes-
sages (Johansen et al. 2012). Informed employees can
become ambassadors for the organisation in crisis by
Denial: crisis manager claims there is no crisis
Scapegoating: crisis manager blames the crisis on
some person or group outside of the organisation
Diminish strategies
Excusing: crisis manager argues the organisation has
minimal responsibility for the crisis
Justification: crisis manager attempts to reduce per-
ceptions of the seriousness of the crisis
23/03/2017 13:16

Rebuild strategies
Compensation: crisis manager offers money and/or
gifts to people affected by the crisis
Apology: crisis manager acknowledges responsibility
of the crisis and requests forgiveness
Bolstering strategies
Ingratiation: crisis manager praises the stakeholders
Reminding: crisis manager informs people about the
organisations past good works
Victim: crisis manager notes it is a victim of the crisis too
Examples of crisis response strategies
used in crises
Attacking the accuser
The crisis: The news show Dateline NBC accused Gen-
eral Motors (GM) of selling unsafe pick-up trucks.
The response: GM provided evidence that the news
show was deceptive with its report of how the gas
tanks on GM pick-up trucks would explode: Harry
Pearce of GM said: The 11 million households that
viewed the program were never told that NBC used
remotely controlled incendiary devices to try to
ensure that a fire would erupt, seemingly due to the
collision. We cannot allow the men and women of
GM, the thousands of independent businesses that
sell GM products, and the owners of these pick-up
trucks, to suffer the consequences of NBCs irresponsi-
ble conduct and deliberate deception (Pelfrey 1993).
Denial
The crisis: Firestone tyres were associated with blow-
outs that caused a number of Ford Explores (an SUV)
to roll over.
The response: Firestone denied their tyres were
unsafe. Johan Lampe of Firestone said: Let me state
categorically: tires supplied to Ford Motor Company
and other customers, are safe, and the tires are not
defective (Bradseht 2001: C2).
Scapegoating
The crisis: The Union Carbide Bhopal explosion in
India that killed thousands of people.
The response: Jackson Browning, a former safety
employee at Union Carbide wrote, Late in 1986,
Union Carbide filed a lengthy court document in
India detailing the findings of its scientific and legal
investigations: the cause of the disaster was undenia-
bly sabotage. The evidence showed that an employee
at the Bhopal plant had deliberately introduced water
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 355
Chapter 18Crisis public relations management 355
into a methyl isocyanate storage tank. Union Carbide
claimed it had witnesses, evidence, and documents
to prove it and that the explosion was sabotage by
a group of workers (Weisman and Hazarika 1987).
Excusing
The crisis: People were protesting Abercromie &
Fitchs use of semi-nude photographs in its catalogues
because children under 18 were bringing the cata-
logues to schools.
The response: Abercerombie & Fitch denies any
intention to do wrong and stated that they could not
control the misuse of their catalogues. Hampton Car-
ney from Abercrombie & Fitch said: Its never been
intended for anyone under 18. Were very sensitive to
that matter (Pickler 1999).
Justification
The crisis: In 2007 a number of toys made in China
had been recalled in the US due to lead in their paint.
The response: Carter Keithley, president of the US Toy
Industry Association noted that recalls of toys due to
hazardous material involved only 0.03 per cent of the
three billion toys the US imported from China in 2007
(Greenless 2008).
Compensation
The crisis: Seven people died from cyanide in John-
son & Johnsons Tylenol crisis.
The response: In addition to a recall, Johnson &
Johnson pays for psychological counselling for the
families of the victims and provides other assistance
(Berg and Robb 1992).
Apology
The crisis: The News of the World, owned by News
Corp, had private investigators hack into mobile
phones to get information for stories.
The response: News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch placed
advertisements in major newspapers with an apology
that included the statement: The News of the World
was in the business of holding others to account. It
failed when it came to itself. We are sorry for the seri-
ous wrongdoing that occurred. We are deeply sorry for
the hurt suffered by the individuals affected. We regret
not acting faster to sort things out. I realize that simply
apologizing is not enough (Ambrogi 2011).
Ingratiation
The crisis: In 2009 and 2010, Toyota recalled vehicles over
problems with the accelerator (gas) pedal and braking.
23/03/2017 13:16
 356 Part 3Public relations specialisms
box 18.8 (continued)
The response: Chief executive Akio Toyoda said: I am
sincerely grateful to our dealers and suppliers who
remained fully committed to providing as many cars
as possible to customers, and to our employees as well
as our overseas business operations for their efforts in
working together so that the company will return to
its normal state as soon as possible. And finally, above
all, I am sincerely grateful to our customers of more
than 7 million people around the world who newly
purchased Toyota vehicles (Ruddick 2010).
Reminding
The crisis: Nestl 2010 accused of irresponsible palm
oil sourcing.
The response: In a news release Nestl stated: As a
part of this commitment, we have accelerated the
investigation of our palm oil supply chain to identify
helping to explain what has happened and how the
organisation is responding to the situation (Frandsen
and Johansen 2011). Employees can be a vital resource
that should not be ignored by managers during a crisis
(Mazzei and Ravazzani 2014).
The internet and crisis public
relations management
If you believe the hype, the internet has revolution-
ised crisis public relations management, rendering all
previous knowledge on the subject obsolete. A word
of advice do not believe the hype. Yes, the internet
has changed crisis public relations management, just
as it has changed all other aspects of public rela-
tions. But we are witnessing evolution rather than
a revolution. The key points are reviewed thus far
and the research evidence is still valid. The question
is what new challenges and opportunities does the
internet bring to crisis public relations management?
We shall explore the challenges and opportunities in
this section.
Challenges
The internet is fast and has the potential to increase the
transparency of an organisation by exposing previously
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 356
any palm oil source which does not meet our high
standards for sustainability. Given our uncompro-
mising food safety standards, we have done this in
a deliberate manner as we use palm oil for food
products rather than for soap or other personal care
products (Anderson 2010).
Victim
The crisis: In 1986, one person died from potassium
cyanide in Johnson & Johnsons Tylenol.
The response: Johnson & Johnson noted how it was a
victim of the attack as well. Johnson & Johnson CEO
James Burke said: But we cannot control random
tampering with capsules after they leave our plant
(McFadden 1986).
Source: adapted from Benoit 1995 and Coombs 2015
private practices/information. The internet has changed
peoples perceptions of time. More specifically, people
expect organisations to act much more quickly than
they did in the past. As discussed earlier, organisations
need to respond fast in a crisis, ideally being the first
one to release information about the crisis. The inter-
net makes it more difficult for organisations to be the
ones to release information about a crisis first because
anyone with access to a smartphone or keyboard can
post information about a crisis. Moreover, when the
crisis appears online, people expect the organisation
to respond in internet time very fast. A common
criticism of crisis communication in the internet age
is that the organisation acted too slowly. The internet
has resulted in less time to formulate a crisis response
and less opportunity for the organisation to be the one
breaking the news about a crisis.
The pre-crisis phase of crisis management typically
was not seen by most stakeholders. Even today, many
internal crisis prevention activities are unseen, but not
for challenge and rumour crises. When stakeholders
challenge the responsibility of an organisations actions
or a rumour appears, the warning signs are now pub-
lic as are the organisations efforts to prevent the
crisis from developing. Lets use a challenge crisis to
illustrate this point. Prior to the internet, stakehold-
ers would challenge an organisation in private. They
would contact management and explain why they
were upset with how the organisation was operating.
Occasionally these activist stakeholders could attract
23/03/2017 13:16

media attention, but most challenges were unknown to
other stakeholders (Ryan 1991). The recent develop-
ment of managing crisis risks publicly has been called
para-crises. As referenced earlier, a para-crisis involved
managing a crisis risk publicly. In the past, most risk
management was done privately, but social media has
made some risk management, such as challenges, open
for public consumption (Coombs and Holladay 2012).
It is the public nature of a challenge that makes it a
reputational threat that could escalate into a reputa-
tional crisis (Coombs and Holladay 2015). Para-crises
draw from the proactive nature of issues management.
Issues management seeks to locate threats and oppor-
tunities that exist in an organisations environment.
Typically, issues are related to public policy concerns
(Heath 2005). Para-crises broaden the scope of crisis
risks by expanding beyond issues to social concerns
and reputational threats (Coombs 2015).
Today, activist stakeholders take their messages to the
internet. Other stakeholders may still miss the challenge
but the challenge is public people have the potential
to see it. In fact, the internet is an important tool when
activist stakeholders are trying to change an organisa-
tions behaviour (Coombs and Holladay 2009). How
the organisation responds publicly to the challenge mat-
ters as well. Other stakeholders have the opportunity
to watch and to evaluate both the challenge and the
response. Ineffective challenge responses can change how
stakeholders feel about and interact with an organisation
(Coombs 2015). The once private crisis prevention activ-
ities are becoming more public. With this transparency
comes greater scrutiny of crisis public relations manage-
ment and increased pressure to respond effectively.
An example of the increased scrutiny of crisis public
relations management is concern over worker safety in
Bangladesh. On 24 April 2013, the Rana Plaza manu-
facturing facility in Bangladesh collapsed, killing over
1100 apparel workers and focusing world attention
on the safety of apparel workers in Bangladesh. The
International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) lead efforts
to push apparel firms to sign the Accord on Fire and
Building Safety in Bangladesh, sometimes referred to
as the Accord. The accord committed the firms to
help improve the safety of the working environment
for apparel workers in Bangladesh. Clothing retailer
H&M was quick to sign the pledge, even though it
did not source from Rana Plaza. H&M reinforced its
commitment to CSR by committing to a responsible
course of action.
We move ahead two years in our story and find
the ILRF unhappy with the pace of the reform in
Bangladesh the safety improvements are being
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 357
Chapter 18Crisis public relations management 357
implemented far too slowly. The ILRF specifically
begins to target H&M for the slow institution of the
reforms. Together with a few other NGOs, the ILRF
released a report that documents the failure of facili-
ties in Bangladesh to implement fully the new safety
features. Email messages and social media posts by
the ILRF note how facilities in the H&M supply chain
failed to meet the required changes in the agreed time-
frame. The ILRF claim that a majority of the deadlines
for making safety renovations have not been met. The
statements directly challenged H&Ms commitment
to the safety of its supply chain workers and accuse
H&M of allowing these workers to toil in unsafe con-
ditions the ILRF is redefining H&Ms current prac-
tices as irresponsible. Given H&Ms strategic use of
CSR communication to build its reputation, manage-
ment had to address the charges because of the high-
profile nature of the Rana Plaza tragedy. H&M argued
that the report was inaccurate and that progress had
been made by its suppliers in Bangladesh. H&M pre-
sented the majority of their response on the internet via
the companys website.
Opportunities
Speed is an opportunity as well as a threat. The
internet provides a number of channels a crisis com-
municator can use to send information rapidly to
stakeholders. Many organisations prepare dark sites
prior to a crisis: a site that has content but no active
links to it. Each dark site is designed for a specific
type of crisis and includes information stakeholders
will want to know about the crisis along with tem-
plates for crisis messages. Once a crisis hits, the dark
site becomes active and information is quickly sent to
stakeholders. Various social media channels (internet
content created by users) including blogs, microblogs
and social networking sites can be used to deliver
crisis messages too. In 2011, Southwest Airlines in
the US used its popular blog to explain a crisis that
involved grounding a large number of planes for gov-
ernment inspections. The inspections were necessary
because one of their planes had its roof tear open
during a flight.
The internet is invaluable for detecting potential
crises. Social media is a rich source of warning signs.
For instance, customers might post complaints and
concerns online that suggest a product defect and
potential product harm crisis. When Greenpeace chal-
lenged Nestl over unethical sourcing of palm oil in
2010, YouTube and the popular social networking site
23/03/2017 13:16
 358 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Facebook were the first places the challenge (a form
of warning sign) emerged. Of course the challenge is
to determine which of the messages really matter and
which are just background noise most stakeholders
will ignore (Coombs and Holladay 2007b).
The internet also provides a gauge of how people
are reacting to the organisations crisis management
efforts. Crisis managers evaluate news media coverage
of crises in part to determine how their crisis manage-
ment efforts are being reported. The internet provides
a natural environment for people to comment on the
organisations crisis management efforts.
The internet is frequently used to create online
memorials for people who have passed away. The
online memorials help facilitate grieving and recover-
ing from a loss. Some crises tragically do result in the
loss of life. The sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil
rig in the Gulf of Mexico claimed the lives of 11 people.
An online memorial quickly emerged to remember the
fallen. The site allowed people to post pictures, mes-
sages and videos of those who were lost. Transocean,
the company that staffed the oil rig, chose to support
this online memorial by linking to it and placing its
own comments on the site. Crisis managers need to
Think about 18.1
Pick two organisations from two different industries.
For instance, use a retail store and a university or a
restaurant and a coal mining company. Now cre-
ate a list of potential crises each organisation might
encounter. From that list, select what you feel are the
top five crises an organisation in that industry should
be prepared to manage. How are the lists similar and
different?
Feedback
There should be some overlap in the lists because
organisations share some basic crisis risks. There is
a problem if the lists are exactly the same. Different
industries have slightly different crisis risks. However,
these slight differences can be very important when
trying to identify what crises should be the most
important to a particular organisation.
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 358
decide how their organisation will relate to any online
memorials and whether or not they should create their
own online memorial.
Explore 18.1
Universities and crisis public
relations management
Universities face crises, just like any other organisa-
tion. Look around your universitys website to see
what information you can find about its preparation
for crises. Do you know what you should do if par-
ticular crises occurred at your university? How did
you learn about that information? What channels will
your university use to inform you about a crisis? What
can you do to be better prepared for a crisis at your
university?
Explore 18.2
Online memorials
Online memorials are becoming fairly common. Most
are created by individuals to remember a lost family
member or friend and have nothing to do with crises.
If you do a search online for memorials, you are likely
to find one of these individual memorials. Again, these
are like plaques or memorials you find in the physical
world. An example of a physical memorial would be
the London Bombing Memorial in Hyde Park. The 52
pillars represent each of the individuals who lost their
lives in the 7 July 2005 bombings. A quick overview of
the memorial can be found at http://www.viewlondon.
co.uk/whatson/london-bombing-memorial-
feature-3100.html. An online memorial for the 7 July
bombings can be found at http://londonbombvictims.
gonetoosoon.org/. For an example of how an organi-
sation handles an online memorial, visit http://www.
cantorfamilies.com/cantor/jsp/index.jsp. The site
was created by Cantor Fitzgerald to commemorate
the people the organisation lost in the 11 September
attacks on the World Trade Center. By visiting these
memorial sites you will gain a better appreciation of
the role memorials can play in a crisis.
23/03/2017 13:16

Summary
Unfortunately, crises are a natural part of society. Organi-
sations must accept the fact that they are not immune
to crises. Effective crisis public relations management
involves factors such as preventing, preparing, react-
ing, learning and healing. The key is preparation. If
Bibliography
Ambrogi, S. (2011). Full text of Rupert Murdoch apology
in UK newspapers (15 July 2011): http://www.reuters.
com/article/2011/07/15/us-text-murdoch-apology-
idUSTRE76E48320110715 accessed 13 August 2011.
Anderson, A. (2010). Nestl ditches palm oil supplier (18
March 2010): http://www.supplymanagement.com/
news/2010/nestl-ditches-palm-oil-supplier/ accessed
13 August 2011.
Arpan, L.M. and D. Pompper (2003). Stormy weather:
Testing stealing thunder as a crisis communication
strategy to improve communication flow between
organizations and journalists. Public Relations
Review 29: 291308.
Baker, M. (n.d.). Odwalla and the E. coli outbreak
http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/CSRfiles/crisis05.html
accessed 6 September 2006.
Barton, L. (2001). Crisis in Organizations II, 2nd edition.
Cincinnati, OH: College Divisions South-Western.
Benoit, W.L. (1995). Accounts, Excuses, and Apologies: A
theory of image restoration. Albany: State University
of New York Press.
Berg, D. and S. Robb (1992). Crisis management and the
paradigm case in Rhetorical and Critical Approaches
to Public Relations (pp. 97105). E.L. Toth and
R.L. Heath (eds). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Booth, J. (4 July 2006). Cadburys salmonella testing pro-
cedures inadequate: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
tol/news/uk/article682877.ece accessed 9 April 2011.
Carney, A. and A. Jorden (1993, August). Prepare for
business-related crises. Public Relations Journal 49:
345.
Caruba, A. (1994). Crisis PR: Most are unprepared.
Occupational Hazards 56(9): 85.
Claeys, A.S. and V. Cauberghe (2012). Crisis response
and crisis timing strategies, two sides of the same
coin. Public Relations Review 38(1): 838.
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 359
Chapter 18Crisis public relations management 359
organisations think about crises and how they will
respond to crises before a crisis hits, crisis public rela-
tions management will be much more effective. Being
ready for a crisis improves reaction time, can save lives
and allows crisis communication to be more strategic and
effective. Effective crisis public relations management is
good because it benefits anyone touched by a crisis.
Coombs, W.T. (2007). Attribution theory as a guide for
post-crisis communication research. Public Relations
Review 33: 135139.
Coombs, W.T. (2010). Parameters for crisis communi-
cation in Handbook of Crisis Communication. W.T.
Coombs and S.J. Holladay (eds). Malden, MA: Black-
well Publishing.
Coombs, W.T. (2015). Ongoing Crisis Communication:
Planning, managing, and responding, 4th edition. Los
Angeles: Sage.
Coombs, W.T. and S.J. Holladay (2001). An extended
examination of the crisis situation: A fusion of the
relational management and symbolic approaches.
Journal of Public Relations Research 13: 32140.
Coombs, W.T. and S.J. Holladay (2007a). Consumer
empowerment through the web: How internet conta-
gions can increase stakeholder power in New Media
and Public Relations. S.C. Duhe (ed.). New York:
Peter Lang Publishing.
Coombs, W.T. and S.J. Holladay (2007b). The negative
communication dynamic: Exploring the impact of
stakeholder affect on behavioural intentions. Journal
of Communication Management 11: 30012.
Coombs, W.T. and S.J. Holladay (2009). Coopera-
tion, co-optation or capitulation: Factors shaping
activist-corporate partnerships. Ethical Space: The
International Journal of Communication Ethics
6(2): 239.
Coombs, W.T. and J.S. Holladay (2012). The parac-
risis: The challenges created by publicly managing
crisis prevention. Public Relations Review 38(3):
408415.
Coombs, T. and S. Holladay (2015). CSR as crisis risk:
expanding how we conceptualize the relationship.
Corporate Communications: An International Jour-
nal 20(2): 14462.
Entine, J. (1998). Intoxicated by success: How to protect
your company from inevitable corporate screw-ups
(1998): http://www.jonentine.com/ethical_edge/corp_
screwups.htm accessed 7 October 2010).
23/03/2017 13:16
 360 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Entine, J. (1999). The Odwalla affair: Reassess-
ing corporate social responsibility (1999): http://
www.jonentine.com/articles/odwalla.htm accessed
13 September 2006.
Estes, A.C. (2011). Rupert Murdoch admits to minor
mistakes (14 July 2011): http://www.theatlanticwire.
com/global/2011/07/rupert-murdoch-admits-minor-
mistakes/39999/ accessed 4 August 2011.
Evan, T.J. (1999). Odwalla. Public Relations Quarterly
44(2): 15.
Feeley, T.H. and M.A. de Turck, (1995). Global cue usage
in behavioral lie detection. Communication Quarterly
43(4): 42030.
Ferrin, D.L., P.H. Kim, C.D. Cooper and K.T. Dirks (2007).
Silence speaks volumes: The effectiveness of reticence
in comparison to apology and denial for responding
to integrity- and competence-based trust violations.
Journal of Applied Psychology 92(4): 893908.
Frandsen, F. and W. Johansen (2010). Crisis communi-
cation, complexity, and the cartoon affairs: A case
study in The Handbok of Crisis Communication.
W.T. Coombs and S.J. Holladay (eds). Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishing.
Frandsen, F. and W. Johansen (2011). The study of inter-
nal crisis communication: Towards an integrative
framework. Corporate Communications: An Inter-
national Journal 16(4): 34761.
Greenless, D. (2008). Toy makers mount drive to sal-
vage Chinas safety reputation (10 January 2008):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/business/
worldbusiness/10toys.html accessed 13 August 2011.
Heath, R.L. (2005). Issues management in Encyclopedia
of Public Relations Vol. 1 (pp. 460463). R.L. Heath
(ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Holladay, S.J. (2009). Crisis communication strategies in
the media coverage of chemical accidents. Journal of
Public Relations Research 21: 208217.
In a crisis. (1993, September). Public Relations Journal
49(9): 1011.
Jin, Y., A. Pang and G.T. Cameron (2007). Integrated cri-
sis mapping: Towards a public-based, emotion-driven
conceptualization in crisis communication. Sphera
Publica 7: 8196.
Jin, Y. and A. Pang (2010). Future directions of crisis
communication research: Emotions in crisis the
next frontier in Handbook of Crisis Communication.
W.T.Coombs and S.J. Holladay (eds). Malden, MA:
Blackwell.
Jin, Y., A. Pang and G.T. Cameron (2012). Toward a
publics-driven, emotion-based conceptualization in
M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 360
crisis communication: Unearthing dominant emo-
tions in multi-staged testing of the Integrated Crisis
Mapping (ICM) Model. Journal of Public Relations
Research 24(3): 26698.
Johansen, W., H.K. Aggerholm and F. Frandsen (2012).
Entering new territory: A study of internal crisis man-
agement and crisis communication in organizations.
Public Relations Review 38(2): 2709.
Jorgensen, B.K. (1996). Components of consumer
reaction to company-related mishaps: a structural
equation model approach. Advances in Consumer
Research 23: 346351.
Levick, R. (17 August 2005). In staging responses
to crises, complacency plays a big role. PR News
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe accessed 20
April 2006.
Mackinnon, P. (1996, July/August). When silence isnt
golden. Financial Executive 12(4): 458.
Marconi, J. (1992). Crisis Marketing: When bad things
happen to good companies. Chicago: Probus Publish-
ing Company.
Mazzei, A. and S. Ravazzani (2014). Internal crisis com-
munication strategies to protect trust relationships: a
study of Italian companies. International Journal of
Business Communication 2329488414525447.
McFadden, R. (1986). Maker of Tylenol discontinuing all
over-counter capsules. New York Times, 18 February
1986, A-1.
Mowen, J.C. (1980). Further information on consumer
perceptions of product recalls. Advances in Consumer
Research 8: 51923.
Nicholas, R. (23 November 1995). Know comment.
Marketing 413.
Pelfery, W. (1993). GM vs NBC, a new wave of employee
pride http://history.gmheritagecenter.com/wiki/index
.php/GM_vs._NBC,_a_New_Wave_of_Employee_
Pride accessed 13 August 2001.
Pickler, N. (1999). Abercrombie & Fitch agree to card
young catalogue buyers (18 November 1999).
Retrieved from Lexis/Nexis database 13 August 2011.
Pines, W.L. (1985, Summer). How to handle a PR crisis:
Five dos and five donts. Public Relations Quarterly
30(2): 1619.
Rano, L. (12 June 2008). Cadburys sweet brand success
despite apology http://www.foodanddrinkeurope.
com/Consumer-Trends/Cadbury-s-sweet-brand-
success-despite-apology accessed 9 April 2011.
Regester, M. (1989). Crisis Management: How to turn a
crisis into an opportunity. London: Hutchinson.
23/03/2017 13:16
 Chapter 18Crisis public relations management 361

Regester, M. and J. Larkin (2008). Risk Issues and Crisis Sturges, D.L. (1994). Communicating through crisis: A
Management: A casebook of best practice, 4th edition. strategy for organizational survival. Management
London: Kogan Page. Communication Quarterly 7(3): 297316.
Reuters (2007). Cadbury fined in salmonella case (16 Timeline (2011). Phone hacking scandal hits News Corp.
July 2007): http://uk.reuters.com/article/2007/07/16/ (2 August 2011): http://news.yahoo.com/timeline-
cadbury-salmonella-idUKL1619895820070716 phone-hacking-scandal-hits-news-corp-152313299
accessed 9 April 2011. .html accessed 4 August 2011.
Ruddick, G. (2010). Toyota sincerely grateful as it returns to Tsouderos, T. (2008). Company caves to moms Motrin
profit despite crisis (11 May 2010): http://www.telegraph. as backlash (18 November 2008): http://articles.
co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/7710225/Toyota- chicagotribune.com/keyword/cave-in/recent/3
Akio-Toyoda-sincerely-grateful-profit-recall-crisis.html accessed 13 August 2011.
accessed 13 August 2011.
Twardy, S.A. (1994, Summer). Attorneys and public rela-
Ryan, C. (1991). Prime Time Activism: Media strategies tions professionals must work hand-in-hand when
for grassroots organizing. Boston: South End Press. responding to an environmental investigation. Public
Relations Quarterly 39(2): 1516.
Salomonellablog (2006). Cadbury Schweppes reputa-
tion suffers following salmonella scare (2006): http:// Walsh, F. (3 August 2011). Salmonella outbreak
www.salmonellablog.com/salmonella-watch/cadbury- costs C
adbury 20m http://www.guardian.co.uk/
schweppes-reputation-suffers-following-salmonella- business/2006/aug/03/food.foodanddrink accessed
scare/ accessed 9 April 2011. 9April 2011.
Sohn, Y.J. and R.W. Lariscy (2014). Understanding Weisman, S.R. and S. Hazarika (1987). Theory of B
hopal
reputational crisis: Definition, properties, and conse- sabotage is offered (23 June 1987). http://www
quences. Journal of Public Relations Research 26(1): .nytimes.com/1987/06/23/world/theory-of-bhopal-
2343. sabotage-is-offered.html accessed 13 August 2011.

M18 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 361 23/03/2017 13:16

 C H AP T ER 19 Paul Willis

Public relations and the consumer

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
understand the term consumer public relations
describe different types of consumer public relations activity
appreciate the factors which drive successful consumer public relations campaigns
appreciate the benefits that can be generated by a successful consumer public relations campaign
understand some of the issues and challenges facing practice
be aware of how the practice of consumer PR is changing.

Structure
Public relations and marketing Branded content
Targeting and tailoring Virtual influence
Putting lipstick on a pig Its going to be a bumpy ride
Core activities Land-grab and reinvention
The media landscape: continuity and change New activities and practices
A shift to owned media

M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 362 23/03/2017 13:17

 Chapter 19Public relations and the consumer 363

Introduction
Consumers are people who buy some-
thing for personal use. In the developed
world we all consume incessantly, whether
online, in stores, exhibitions, bars, restau-
rants, amusement parks and as theatre
goers, music or sports fans. This chapter
is intended to help people who are new
to the industry understand the role public
relations (PR) plays in assisting compa-
nies to promote an ever-expanding array
of products and services to consumers.
For a discussion of PRs role in the sale of
goods and services between businesses, as
opposed to selling direct to the consumer,
see Chapter 20. At the outset it is helpful
to note that, when taken together, both of
these chapters share a common preoccu-
pation. As with the overview of business-
to-business public relations, this chapter is
concerned with how practitioners work in
a marketing context to win customers and
generate profits for a firm.
Considering the role of public rela-
tions in a consumer context, is important
given that marketing communication
plays a big part in the working lives of
most of todays PR practitioners (Zerfass
et al. 2008). Consumer PR is carried out
in the communication departments of
companies and in agencies working for
private sector clients, as well as by self-
employed freelancers. Some practition-
ers will focus exclusively on this type of
work, whereas others will juggle market-
ing-driven campaigns alongside a host of
activities involving a range of stakehold-
ers who stretch beyond the companys
customers.
To set the scene, the chapter begins
by discussing PRs place in the market-
ing mix and its role in brand building.
It then considers what consumer PR
involves and the core activities it incor-
porates. The chapter next explores how
a fast-moving media landscape chal-
lenges the ways in which organisations
have traditionally sought to engage with
consumers. Given PR is an applied com-
munication discipline it is hardly surpris-
ing that its practice has been affected by
the media transformation witnessed in
the twenty-first century. The discussion
teases out some of the issues this con-
text generates for PR practitioners, such
as a greater focus on owned media and
branded content, as well as the emer-
gence of a new generation of consumer
influencers to be targeted in campaigns.
It is noted how these and other develop-
ments have generated a period of con-
siderable flux in the world of marketing.
This has led to a situation in which PR
practitioners and marketing profession-
als are claiming expertise in areas which
were once regarded as the domain of
other disciplines.
Given the nature of its subject, this
chapter has a strong commercial focus.
As one PR agency argues, the starting
point for a consumer campaign can usu-
ally be summed up in a single word. The
word highlighted is more: more sales,
more enquiries, more visitors, more
traffic, more listings, more customers
and more money (wpragency.co.uk).
This commercial reality generates both
enthusiasts and critics for consumer
PR. For example, some commentators
argue that the increasing consumption
of goods and services is economically
advantageous, whereas others warn of
the dangers such a focus poses to soci-
ety. These and other ethical problems,
including some of the specific issues
generated by emerging methods of
engagement, will also be investigated as
the chapter unfolds.

Public relations and marketing
The world we are concerned with in this chapter is
where PR interfaces with marketing activities, such as
advertising, to stimulate the sale of products and ser-
vices in the free market economy. Organisations have
a vested interest in attracting and maintaining the sup-
port of the people who buy (or might buy) what they
provide to the market. They also often have a legal
and/or regulatory obligation to listen and respond to
their customers (Macnamara 2015). These imperatives
help to explain why the activities associated with con-
sumer PR loom large in the working lives of so many
practitioners. Although the endgame of PR activities in
this context is to drive sales, its role is often more sub-
tle than other forms of communication. By looking to
change consumer attitudes towards a particular prod-
uct or company, PR seeks to create a more favourable
commercial environment for the company rather than
generating outcomes that can be linked directly to an
immediate increase in sales. However, it can also be a
powerful sales generator in its own right.
Public relations has become a valuable part of what
is known as the marketing mix, an often quoted term
that refers to the set of tools that a company has at
its disposal to influence sales. The traditional formula-
tion is popularly known as the 4Ps: product, price,
place and promotion (Kotler 2003). Promotion is the
area that encompasses public relations, as it is this part
of the marketing equation that focuses on the content
that is designed to stimulate awareness, interest and
purchase. To attract interest and awareness in their
products and services, companies use a combination
of disciplines including advertising, sales promotion,
direct mail and public relations to reach their desired
audiences. When used in this way, public relations
should become a planned and sustained element of the

M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 363 23/03/2017 13:17

 364 Part 3Public relations specialisms
wider promotional mix, working in tandem with other
marketing activities to achieve maximum impact and
with the potential to meet a range of objectives, such as:
raising a companys profile
redefining its image
helping to promote its credibility in a new or exist-
ing market
demonstrating empathy with a target audience
launching a new product or service
reinvigorating an existing product or service
stimulating trial and purchase.
Its personal
PR campaigns are often driven by the need to com-
municate a companys personality and set of values
to consumers. If a company can communicate these
qualities it may succeed in differentiating itself from
the competition. (See Think about 19.1.)
By helping to project particular qualities on to a
company, product or service, public relations can play
an active role in the world of brand development. It is
necessary to understand the role and power of effec-
tive branding more fully to appreciate the benefits that
public relations can generate within the context of a
successfully executed consumer strategy.
Our societies appear to be overflowing with brands.
In popular culture everything and everybody seems to
be referred to as a brand: pop and film stars, sports-
men, royalty, airlines, places, politicians never mind the
products that we can buy online or which fill the shops
on the high street. In one sense, everything can be legiti-
mately called a brand because the term applies to any
label that carries some meaning or association. However,
for the purposes of this chapter, it is necessary to apply a
more structured definition in order to fully appreciate the
role that public relations can play in brand development.
Morgan (1999) defines a brand as an entity that
satisfies all the following four conditions:
1. Something that has a buyer and a seller (e.g. Lady
GaGa but not the Queen). Morgan also makes the
distinction that buying and selling does not have to
be a financial transaction to be of value to both sides.
2. Something that has a differentiating name, symbol
or trademark (e.g. EasyJet but not aeroplanes).
Moreover, it is differentiated from other similar
products around it for reasons other than its name
or trademark, (e.g. an iPhone rather than a smart-
phone).
M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 364
3. Something that has positive or negative associa-
tions in consumers minds for reasons other than
its literal product characteristics (e.g. Coca-Cola
but not tap-water).
4. Something that has been created, rather than is
naturally occurring (e.g. the Eiffel Tower, Taj
Mahal or Nou Camp, Barcelona), but not Niagara
Falls or the Amazon River.
(See also Think about 19.2)
By studying different brand definitions, such as
the one put forward by Morgan, it begins to become
apparent how brands can add resonance to a product
or service. Successful brands offer consumers tangible
and emotional benefits over other products, which
consumers not only recognise but also desire, at both
a conscious and subconscious level. Furthermore,
great brands usually take this appeal a stage further by
focusing more on emotional than rational benefits and
this ultimately manifests itself in a distinct and consis-
tent personality running through all of their marketing
activities. (See Think about 19.1.)
Think about 19.1
Brands and their personalities
Think of five brands and the personalities they try to
project.
Do you admire these brands?
What attracts or repels you about each brand?
Think about different brands of the same product
e.g. mobile phones or cars.
Do they carry different personalities?
How is that personality conveyed?
Think about 19.2
Brands
Can you think of any other examples that fit each
of Morgans four criteria?
How do these brands communicate with
consumers?
23/03/2017 13:17

Heart versus head
It is not surprising that brand owners are increasingly
turning to image and emotional marketing to win over
consumers. In todays fast-paced marketplace, compa-
nies tend to copy any competitors advantage until it is
nullified, which is why emotional appeal assumes such
importance and why companies such as Nike try to sell
an attitude: Just Do It.
The power of brands is also linked to an increas-
ingly strong desire to express individuality through the
ownership of goods and services that are perceived to
be innovative, different and original. Indeed, Lewis and
Bridger (2003: 12) go as far as to say that:
For many New Consumers the purchase of prod-
ucts and services has largely replaced religious faith
as a source of inspiration and solace. For an even
larger group, their buying decisions are driven by a
deep rooted psychological desire to enhance and
develop their sense of self.
Given the emotional capital that is invested in some,
if not all, purchasing decisions, public relations can be
used to demonstrate that a brand empathises with the
worries, needs and aspirations of particular groups of
people. This allows it to connect and align itself with
consumers in an indirect but powerful association.
From an implementation perspective, this is one of the
reasons why many public relations campaigns hook
into lifestyle issues and popular culture, using celeb-
rity association, the services of psychologists, anthro-
pologists, fashion gurus, chefs, interior designers and
a range of other experts to add bite and relevance to
the campaigns.
Think about 19.3
I shop, therefore I am?
Is the level of consumption we see in the devel-
oped world appropriate?
If you were a PR practitioner are there any goods
and services you would not wish to promote to
consumers? For example, what are your views
about the promotion of cigarettes? How about
fast food, alcohol, betting or high interest pay day
loans?
What considerations shape your thinking about
what you would and would not promote as a PR
practitioner?
M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 365
Chapter 19Public relations and the consumer 365
Targeting and tailoring
Before discussing the various elements that can make up
a consumer public relations programme, it is important
to stress that the key characteristics of the target audience
play a big part in defining and shaping the strategy and
tactics that are deployed in a campaign. Who do we need
to talk to? How can we reach them? What are they inter-
ested in? What do we want them to do? By posing a series
of simple questions it is possible to refine and sharpen the
scope of the planned activity, ensuring a clinical rather
than a wasteful, scattergun approach to the tools and
techniques that are at the practitioners disposal.
If the purpose of the campaign is to get young mothers
to visit their local supermarket, a national media rela-
tions campaign might not have the same impact as activ-
ity targeted at a local newspaper. Or, if research shows
that the same audience is concerned about their children
walking to school, then a road safety sponsorship exe-
cuted at local level and promoted through relevant social
media networks may strike a chord, helping to establish
a positive relationship with the store. One of public rela-
tions great attributes is its flexibility, as campaigns can
be tailored to appeal to many audiences and modified
to accommodate the requirements of different delivery
channels, such as the media, events or sponsorship.
Putting lipstick on a pig
It is necessary to balance this picture of strategic oppor-
tunity with a cautionary tale linked to the role of PR in
a consumer context. Putting lipstick on a pig is a col-
loquial phrase used in the UK, which is linked to the idea
that making a cosmetic change to a product or service
cannot obscure its real character and nature. In short,
it is related to the notion of prioritising style over sub-
stance. In the consumer context we are concerned with,
the phrase refers to the practice of using PR tools and
techniques to obscure the fact that a product or service
is flawed or problematic in some way. For example, it
might be that the offer the company is providing to con-
sumers is inferior to the competition in terms of price,
range, availability or ease of use. A spectacular celebrity
launch does not make such issues disappear and it is dan-
gerous to underestimate the ability of stakeholders, such
as consumers and journalists, to see through such hype.
Given this situation it is important for PR practitio-
ners to understand the fine detail of the products they are
promoting and to provide appropriate advice. The exces-
sive promotion of a lacklustre product can be counter-
productive as it might antagonise consumers and bring
23/03/2017 13:17
 366 Part 3Public relations specialisms
the organisations credibility into question. This is also
the case if the communication campaign downgrades
key issues such as excessive charges and penalty clauses.
Examples of this sort of practice can be found in the
United Kingdom financial sector, particularly among
companies providing cheque cashing services, short-term
loans and prepaid credit cards. (See Think about 19.4.)
PR bullshit
The requirement to promote products and services in
highly competitive markets can also lead to other prac-
tices which can tarnish public relations reputation. An
example of this is when organisations promote stories in
the media which have no foundation in fact or research.
Ethical reflections on public relations practice usually
consider issues such as propaganda, which is defined
as lying as opposed to telling the truth (LEtang 2008).
What we are talking about here is not lying but a more
subtle phenomenon which should also trouble those con-
cerned with PRs reputation. Harry Frankfurt, Emeritus
Professor of Philosophy at Princeton and an influential
moral commentator, labels the phenomenon under dis-
cussion here as bullshit. Frankfurt (2005) argues that
the increase in communication in society is contributing
to what he calls a culture of bullshit, which has become
one of the most salient features of modern culture. He
notes that bullshit is a form of representation that does
not necessarily involve lying. While the liar and truth
teller each knows what the truth is, the bullshitter is indif-
ferent to it. The liar must remember the truth if only to
ensure that it does not come out. In contrast, the bullshit-
ter is involved in a kind of bluff (Frankfurt 2005) and
does not care whether the things he says describe reality
correctly (he) just picks them up, or makes them up, to
suit his purpose. (See Think about 19.5.)
Think about 19.4
Can you think of any brands that fail consistently to
live up to their promise? For example, think about
products you have brought recently (such as a mobile
phone) and compare your experience of using it with
how it was promoted.
Can you identify any examples where public relations
has failed to change your mind about a brand and its
products/services?
What about when public relations has positively
helped to change your mind about a brand?
M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 366
Core activities
Consumer PR campaigns have traditionally been made
up of three types of activity: media relations, event
management and sponsorship.
Media relations
Getting a journalist to write or talk on air about a com-
pany, product or service is still the primary objective of
many consumer public relations campaigns. The persua-
sive power of editorial (news) is much greater than paid-
for advertising. The stories and features that appear in
newspapers and magazines, both in print and online, as
well as on radio and television, tend to be viewed by con-
sumers as unbiased and objective. In contrast, advertising
in the same media channels relies on paid-for space and
therefore lacks the same credibility as coverage that has
been created by an independent third party, such as a
journalist. Influencing this editorial process is a key task
for the public relations practitioner. No advertisement
or sales person can convince you about the virtues of a
product as effectively as an independent commentator,
such as a journalist, and if this opinion is then repeated
to you by a friend, family member or colleague it has an
even greater resonance. Indeed, most of us got to hear
about Apple, Amazon and Google not through advertis-
ing but from news stories in the press, radio, TV and
online, or through personal recommendation.
While the benefits of a successful media relations
campaign are obvious, achieving the desired result is
not so easy. As editorial coverage, by definition, can-
not be bought and because someone else produces the
Think about 19.5
PR bullshit
Can you identify any consumer PR campaigns using
news hooks that contain unsubstantiated views
and opinions? Do you have a problem with this?
How does it make you feel about the brand being
promoted? How does it make you feel about PR
practice?
Feedback
Bullshit is prevalent whenever circumstances require
someone to communicate without knowing what
they are communicating about. Good consumer PR
should be based upon solid research.
23/03/2017 13:17

finished article, the public relations practitioner has
no direct control over it (unlike an advertisement).
In addition, although there are opportunities to write
straightforward product press releases that achieve
positive coverage (a glance at the best buy features in
lifestyle magazines or an examination of the motoring
press will highlight good examples of product-focused
editorial), most journalists tend to shy away from com-
mercially driven stories and are certainly not receptive
to what they see as company propaganda.
Furthermore, to reach many consumers a company
needs to be featured in the general news sections of the
media rather than in specialist editorial. In this envi-
ronment, media relations campaigns have to incorpo-
rate an additional news hook to motivate a journalist
to cover a story and this might involve independent
research, a celebrity association, an anniversary, a
great photograph or a new and surprising angle on a
traditional theme. (See Explore 19.1.)
Events
It is a common misconception that public relations
is only concerned with the generation of positive
media coverage. Open days, webinars, fashion shows,
Mini case study 19.1
Stimulating word-of-
mouth promotion through
events
Diageo GB, part of the worlds second largest drinks
company, used social media to help seed its Venezeu-
lan golden rum, Pampero. The campaign was targeted at
independently-minded young males in the city of Leeds
the drinks first test market in the United Kingdom.
In the planning and research phase, Diageos public rela-
tions consultancy researched the independent bar and life-
style culture within the city and concluded that the target
audience adopted brands quickest if they were also recom-
mended by friends and opinion formers. The agency also
discovered that the target group were internet savvy and
enjoyed new entertainment experiences. Consequently, a
key element of the communications strategy was that the
brand should be promoted to consumers through what
would appear to be a series of independent events. With
M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 367
Chapter 19Public relations and the consumer 367
Explore 19.1
Media stories
Take two daily newspapers one quality paper and
one popular or tabloid paper. Identify stories that you
believe have been generated by an in-house public
relations department or agency to promote a product
or service.
Feedback
Clues to stories with a public relations source include:
staged photographs accompanying the news item;
results of research published on the date of the news
item; anniversary of an event; book/film/CD pub-
lished on the date of the news item.
exhibitions, workshops, roadshows, conferences and
AGMs are all events that can provide a company with
the opportunity to interact directly with consumers,
either on its home turf or out and about in the com-
munity, generating enhanced presence for the business
and a forum for face-to-face, two-way communication
(see Mini case study 19.1 and Think about 19.6).
this in mind, the public relations consultancy created an
event company called Rumba Caracas, which became the
public vehicle for the delivery of specific campaign activity.
Its website (www.rumbacaracas.co.uk) included a forward
events calendar, a community exchange and blog space,
as well as an interactive picture galley.
As part of a wider word-of-mouth campaign, and to help
bring Venezuelas vibrant and colourful art scene to life,
a free graffiti jam was organised in Leeds, showcasing
the skills of 25 artists. Working closely with some of the
citys key lifestyle influencers, the event was promoted
by Rumba Caracas through its own website and social
media. It was held in a series of disused dark arches
under Leeds railway station, and local film students were
hired to document the graffiti jam and their productions
were set to Venezeulan music and seeded onto YouTube,
under the auspices of Rumba Caracas and as part of an
online viral campaign.
As a result of the campaign, Pamperos outlet listings in
the city increased from 10 to 80, while its rate of sale
rose by 160 per cent in six months and, after a year, it
had exceeded its target rate of sale in each outlet by an
average of 25 per cent (see Think about 19.6.)
23/03/2017 13:17
 368 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Think about 19.6
Do you think it is appropriate for a brand such as Pam-
pero to obscure its involvement in a campaign?
Think about 19.7
Events
Can you think of a public relations event, like one
of those listed, that you have attended in the past
year?
What about the open day you may have attended
at your current or other colleges or university?
What were the factors that made it a success or
failure?
Sponsorship
Whether in sport, the arts or in support of a worthy
cause, sponsorship is fundamentally about third-party
endorsement and as such sits neatly under the public
relations umbrella. If successfully managed to maximise
opportunities and this is where advertising and direct
mail also play a role sponsorship can provide a power-
ful platform from which to increase the relevance of a
company and its products among key target audiences.
By harnessing the emotions, qualities and values associ-
ated with the sponsorship property and perhaps provid-
ing some form of added-value experience, a business can
successfully stand out in a cluttered consumer market.
(See Think about 19.8 and Mini Case study 19.2.)
By discussing the different communication vehicles
a practitioner has at their disposal, it is clear that a
consumer public relations campaign can have many
dimensions, with media relations, event or sponsor-
ship initiatives supporting one another in an integrated
programme of activity.
The media landscape:
continuity and change
Having set out the holy trinity of consumer PR media
relations, event management and sponsorship it is
now necessary to consider the impact of contemporary
developments on this area of practice. A good place
M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 368
Think about 19.8
Sponsorship
For a sponsorship to be truly effective, does the spon-
soring company need to have an obvious link with the
property (for example, Adidas and football)?
Can you think of an example of a successful sponsor-
ship where there is no obvious connection between
the core activities of the business and the sponsored
property, such as Mastercard and football?
If you were public relations director of Coca-Cola,
how would you justify its sponsorship of the
Olympics? Is it about sporting performance, a par-
ticular lifestyle statement, credibility by association,
or none of these?
to start is with the evolution of the media landscape.
With this in mind, it will also be helpful to take a look
at Chapters2 and 14, both of which explore different
aspects of the modern media environment.
As discussed in the last section, media relations is
the primary activity in most consumer PR campaigns.
When writing the consumer PR chapter for the first
edition of this book more than ten years ago, the focus
of this activity was on campaigns which targeted the
mass media. In other words, those media outlets oper-
ating at international, national and local level (such as
newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations)
which have the capability to communicate to large
numbers of people. This sector of the media includes
brands which are recognised globally, such as the BBC,
Vogue, CNN, Le Figaro and El Pais, as well as regional
newspapers, radio stations and TV companies, which
are little known beyond their own territories.
The mass media is still hugely important to PR
practitioners in a marketing context. For example, a
survey of practitioners revealed that seven out of ten
respondents still disseminate information about an
organisation, its products and services through the
mass media (Zerfass et al. 2015). For many PR practi-
tioners a well-crafted press release remains a favoured
and effective form of communication in this context.
When used appropriately press releases can provide a
way of communicating concisely the news elements of
a story (which is what the journalist is interested in)
and then using this content as a platform to support a
particular marketing objective (which is what the com-
pany is concerned with). Even those practitioners who
no longer formally use a press release format will still
23/03/2017 13:17

Mini case study 19.2
Maximising a
sponsorship: Thomas
Cook Sport
Thomas Cook Sport (TCS) is the UKs leading sports tour
operator, selling consumer and corporate packages to
sporting events globally. One of the companys sponsorship
assets is its status as Official Travel Partner to eight Premier
League clubs: Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Leicester, Liverpool,
Manchester United, Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur.
TCS tasked PR agency Hatch Communications with the
job of managing its contractual rights with football clubs,
maximising the sponsorship and coordinating the overall
marketing strategy to promote its sport packages to fans.
This included the management of the companys social
media platforms to ensure a consistent and integrated
approach to the campaign.
The agencys strategy and tactics were framed by a num-
ber of key objectives:
to increase sales by 10 per cent;
to develop campaigns that engage directly with a
minimum of 10,000 fans in a single year;
to deliver 15 favourable national media outcomes
during the same time;
to use this and other media coverage to drive traffic
to www.thomascooksport.com;
to use the sponsorship assets to support the
Thomas Cook Childrens Charity.
The agency developed a campaign that featured four key
initiatives:
1. Celebrate with TCS: January and February is a key
sales period for Thomas Cook. This is when many
apply its principles to frame the emails and other com-
munication they send to journalists. This process can
help to ensure an announcement passes the so what
test as far as the journalist is concerned.
A shift to owned media
Although the mass media is still important to consumer
PR professionals the communication landscape over
the last ten years has changed considerably. While
M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 369
Chapter 19Public relations and the consumer 369
consumers book their summer holiday. To capitalise
on this interest, Hatch created events at six partner
football club stadiums. These sought to inject the
vibrancy, colour and celebration of exotic holiday
destinations into the football stadiums at a peak
booking time.
2. What would you do?: To integrate TCS social
media channels with some of the more lucrative
contractual rights, Hatch created the What would
you do? concept, whereby fans sent in entries via
social media to win the chance to play on their
teams home pitch. The competition received over
1500 entries in total and included ideas such as
cleaning Anfield with a toothbrush and dressing up
like Michael Jackson at Old Trafford.
3. Charity pitch days: This provided an opportunity for
the Thomas Cook Childrens Charity to give under-
privileged children from local schools the chance to
play on the same pitch as their heroes.
4. Player appearances: This element of the campaign
used the contractual player appearances to create
branded media coverage, engage with fans via store
appearances and integrate with social media and
sales incentives.
Campaign results
An annual sales increase of 30 per cent
85 national media hits
28,455 fans directly engaged through the four main
campaign themes
Traffic to the TCS website increased by 65 per cent
and led to a situation in which online bookings
accounted for 80 per cent of sales
An increase in followers to TCS Twitter feed from
1538 to 10,284
An increase in the companys Facebook friends
from 927 to 5713
targeting the journalists who worked for these out-
lets would once have been the raison detre for most
media relations activity, additional communication
priorities have now emerged that generate a range of
strategic issues for practitioners. For example, over
the next three years more than half of PR profes-
sionals predict a significant shift in emphasis away
from the mass media to owned media (Zerfass et al.
2015). Owned media refers to the media channels the
organisation controls, such as its own website, blogs,
podcasts and apps. Companies now have the capacity
23/03/2017 13:17
 370 Part 3Public relations specialisms
to cost-effectively create content that can be instanta-
neously communicated to a wide range of external and
internal stakeholders. This development highlights the
transformation of all organisations into media organ-
isations (Ihlen and Pallas 2014).
Organisations have long engaged in their own
promotional publishing and broadcasting produc-
tion in the form of corporate brochures and videos.
However,the sort of distribution capacity which was
once only the province of mass media outlets is now
available to in-house practitioners and their agen-
cies thanks to the development of the internet and
the devices we use to download the content found
online. Increasing numbers of people have access to
superfast broadband and 4G mobile network ser-
vices, while the smartphone has now overtaken the
laptop as the device internet users say is the most
important for connecting to the internet. These tech-
nological advances have particularly increased the
use of film as a method of consumer engagement.
Instead of relying on the printed word or the lar-
gesse of mass media broadcast outlets, organisations
can now deliver video content direct to the consumer
via their website or through their own promotional
social media accounts, such as YouTube, Twitter and
Facebook.
This new owned broadcasting capability can be
used by brands to:
launch new products and services
demonstrate how products work and can best be
used
record what happened at a sponsored event
provide a behind-the-scenes look at a products
research and development phase
highlight celebrity endorsements
promote testimonials by experts and consumers.
From an issues management perspective video also
provides a channel through which companies can
quickly respond to customer service issues. Indeed,
this last point reminds us that this technology can
also be used by consumers to broadcast their own
views about a products strengths and weaknesses.
Disgruntled customers increasingly use online videos
to criticise companies they believe have failed to live
up to their brand promise. One famous illustration
of this is by Dave Carroll, a Canadian country and
western singer. Dave could not get compensation for
a broken guitar until he sung about the airline respon-
sible for the damage in a YouTube video (see http://
www.davecarrollmusic.com/story/united-breaks-gui-
tars). His song became one of YouTubes biggest hits
M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 370
of the time and generated a wealth of coverage in the
mass media, including CNN, the LA Times, Rolling
Stone magazine and the BBC.
Branded content
The growing appetite for shared video content amongst
both companies and consumers was highlighted by two
events in 2016. First, Facebooks introduction of its
own live broadcasting service to compete against the
host of streaming apps which are now available for
everyone to download. Second, the launch of the first
Brand Film Festival in North America by PR Week
and Campaign magazine. This industry awards event is
designed to showcase the best videos, vines and docu-
mentaries produced by brands and agencies in support
of marketing objectives. The focus here is on what is
called branded content and entertainment, terms which
punctuate the conversations between consumer PR spe-
cialists, other marketing communication professionals,
industry analysts and the media.
Significant investment has also been made by PR
agencies seeking to position themselves as experts in
branded content. For example, in 2013 Weber Shand-
wick launched Mediaco, its own content creation and
distribution unit. Its team is now made up of 700 peo-
ple and was established to meet the opportunities gen-
erated by the shift from mass to owned media. Burson
Marsteller has similarly introduced its Creative Council
to help coordinate and integrate content creation across
the firm. The aim of both agencies is to help their clients
operate more effectively as media companies in both the
publishing and broadcast arenas.
One of the attributes good PR practitioners have
always brought to the marketing arena is an ability
to create content which people want to read, listen or
watch. This is why journalism has and remains a
popular recruiting ground for PR professionals. PR
people understand that consumers want to be enter-
tained and/or informed about the things that matter
to them, rather than bludgeoned with seemingly ran-
dom messages and images. They also have the skills to
develop this content. This contemporary focus on con-
tent does, however, promise something more for PR.
Firms such as Weber Shandwick and Burson Marsteller
are seeking to exploit a wider business opportunity.
While PR would traditionally lead on content devel-
opment when it came to media relations, other forms
of communication such as videos and brochures
tended to be owned by advertising agencies. Now PR
professionals are trying to work in these areas as well,
especially as the content required increasingly seems to
23/03/2017 13:17

Mini case study 19.3
Video killed the media
star
To promote Nokias Lumia smartphone, PR agency
Cohn & Wolfe helped the company to develop an
integrated marketing approach that focused on what
they called content marketing and video storytelling.
Instead of telling people how good the phone was they
wanted to show them through a broadcast medium.
C&W created the strategy, the concept and the scripts
for the video. Nokia then used the video to influence
consumers in social media and at point-of-sale. The
material was also used for sales training and internal
communication. The campaign did include a media
relations element delivered by the team. However,
rather than being the centre piece of C&Ws involve-
ment, its purpose was to promote and support the
video produced by the agency.
suit their editorial skills. They are doing the creative
work, developing concepts and then executing them
(see Mini case study 19.3).
In this section on the changes to the media environ-
ment, there has yet to be an explicit focus on the impact
of social media in a consumer PR context. However,
the brands which forged and now dominate the social
media landscape (Facebook, YouTube and Twitter)
have already made an appearance. The way in which
this discussion has unfolded supports a prediction Ste-
phen Waddington (2012) made that people will even-
tually stop using the term social media as a catch-all
phrase to describe the creation and sharing of content.
It will instead become the norm, a taken-for-granted
feature of the communication landscape. Indeed, his
subsequent argument that all media should be sociable
and shareable underpins the PR industrys reconfigured
preoccupation with content, as well as being a touch-
stone for effective practice in a consumer context.
Virtual influence
Another accepted feature of the social media world
that impacts specifically on consumer PR is the
emergence of a new set of influencers. Journalists
M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 371
Chapter 19Public relations and the consumer 371
have now been joined by bloggers as people whose
endorsement is prized and sought by brands. While
most bloggers will only receive a handful of visitors
to their site, a growing number have become popular
commentators on lifestyle issues, business, sport, pol-
itics and entertainment. This generates opportunities
for PR professionals seeking to showcase products
such as clothing, make-up, gadgets and food. For
example, those working in fashion PR work hard to
target influential bloggers in their sector (see songof-
style.com) given that most mention the brands they
feature at the bottom of each post. However, as is
the case when working with fashion journalists in the
mainstream media, PR practitioners have to ensure
the clothes and accessories they are promoting are
compatible with what is usually featured in the blog.
A sure-fire way to alienate a journalist or blogger
(in any sector) is failing to understand their edito-
rial focus and style. The media may be evolving but
similar rules of engagement still apply.
The innovation in broadcast technology highlighted
in the previous section also explains why an increasing
number of blogs are no longer written journals, diaries
and travelogues but are instead video broadcasts we
can watch on our smartphones, tablets and laptops.
These are more widely known as video blogs, video
logs or vlogs. While this form of communication is
enabled by a variety of open source content manage-
ment systems, the most popular is the video-sharing
site YouTube. From this spectacularly successful inter-
net phenomenon has risen another new form of influ-
encer, the YouTube Star.
This new class of internet celebrity can command
large audiences through their videos. In 2015 Tubu-
lar Labs, a firm that specialises in gathering data
about online trends, reported there were more than
17,000 YouTube channels with more than 100,000
subscribers and nearly 1500 with more than 1 mil-
lion (The Guardian 2016). In addition to comedy
and general entertainment, the interests of You-
Tube Stars cover a wide range of lifestyle issues,
from video games (KSI), to cooking (Ann Reardon),
beauty (Michelle Phan), fashion (Jenn Im) and music
(Anthony Fantano). For example, Bunny Meyer (gra-
v3yardgirl) uses her YouTube channel to talk about
fashion, beauty, other lifestyle products and, more
randomly, paranormal phenomena. In a popular
web series called Does This Thing Really Work she
tests out as seen on TV products before reviewing
them for her audience.
In 2015 Forbes magazine produced its first ever list
of the top-paid YouTubers. The publication estimated
that just the leading 13 earned a combined annual
23/03/2017 13:17
 372 Part 3Public relations specialisms
income of $54.5 million. This income is largely gen-
erated by brands paying to advertise on their sites
as well as paid endorsements. Rhett McLaughlin
and Charles Lincoln Neal (Rhett and Link) produce
Good Mythical Morning, a spoof television news
programme. Forbes estimates that nearly half of their
earnings come from sponsored deals with brands
such as Gillette, Toyota and the restaurant chain
Wendys. This investment by brands is underpinned
by the belief that YouTubers are not only popular but
influential. In 2014 Jeetender Sehdev of the University
of Southern California conducted a survey of 1318
year olds in the United States for Variety magazine
(Variety 2014). This asked them to rate the 10 most
popular English-language YouTubers and 10 of the
most popular traditional celebrities across a range of
qualities that were designed to represent influence.
YouTubers took the top five places in the resulting
analysis, with Smosh, the Fine Bros, PewDiePie, KSI
and Ryan Higa deemed more influential than Jennifer
Lawrence, Katy Perry, Paul Walker (who had recently
died in a motoring accident) and other celebrities.
When the survey was run again in 2015, YouTubers
took the top six slots, ahead of stars including Bruno
Mars and Taylor Swift (Variety 2015).
One of the conclusions drawn from this research
is that YouTube Stars are perceived to be more
engaging and authentic than mainstream celebrities.
Mini case study 19.4
YouTube and a shadowy
promotion
Warner Brothers paid a marketing agency, Plaid Social
Labs, to coordinate a YouTube influencer campaign to
promote the 2014 launch of its new video game Mid-
dle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. YouTube stars, including
PewDiePie, were given free access to a pre-launch ver-
sion of the game, as well cash payments. The Federal Trade
Commission in the United States accused Warner Brothers
of deceptive practice given its failure to inform consumers
that the videos produced by the YouTube stars were part
of its advertising campaign (The Times 14 July 2016).
The YouTube stars were instructed by the company to
include a strong call to action in their videos to encour-
age their audience to visit the official Shadow of Mordor
website. They were also asked to be positive about the
M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 372
Although the latter are perceived to be the products
of orchestrated image strategies, YouTubers are more
likely to be viewed as people like me. The author
of the survey also suggests there is a technological
aspect to this connection between broadcaster and
audience. This form of communication started life as
a format in which people would speak directly to a
webcam, usually from their own home. This created
a feeling of intimacy and ordinariness which many
YouTube celebrities strive to maintain. An irony is
that the qualities which make them so valuable to
brands may be eroded by the lucrative fees they can
now negotiate to promote products. While many
YouTubers are transparent about their commercial
endorsements, they still run the risk of producing
contrived branded content which ceases to be enter-
taining and/or authentic. Furthermore, the Federal
Trade Commission in the United States has identi-
fied several YouTubers, including PewDiePie, who
received thousands of dollars to covertly promote
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, a video game pro-
duced by Warner Brothers (see Mini case study 19.4
and Think about 19.9). Finally, YouTubers status as
people like me could be eroded as the distinction
between them and other celebrities becomes blurred,
not least because the most prominent online players
are no longer flying below the radar of the mass
media.
game and to make one Facebook post or one tweet in
support of the new product. All of the footage supplied
by the YouTubers had to be approved in advance by
either Warner Brothers or Plaid Social Labs. While the
YouTube stars were asked to include a sponsorship dis-
closure in a text box below their videos, the disclosure
was often hidden from view. In addition, the YouTube
stars were asked not to include disclosures within their
own videos.
PewDiePie posted a seven-minute video in which he
plays Shadow of Mordor and talks positively about the
game. PewDiePies channel on YouTube has more than
46 million subscribers and he has in excess of 8 million
Twitter followers. PewDiePie does not say he was paid
by Warner Brothers to play the game, or that the video
had been pre-approved by the company as part of an
orchestrated marketing campaign. Although text below
the video said the video was sponsored by Warner Broth-
ers this could only be accessed by clicking on a show
more tab. Forbes magazine calculated that PewDiePie
earned 9 million in 2015.
23/03/2017 13:17

Think about 19.9
In its investigation the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) concluded the videos featuring Shadow of Mor-
dar produced by the YouTube Stars did not reflect the
independent opinions or experiences of impartial
video game enthusiasts. The FTC likened the videos
to a paid sales pitch.
Do you agree?
Are developments in social media blurring the
boundaries between paid promotion and independ-
ent analysis?
What do you think is the best source of independent
advice about products and services?
Its going to be a bumpy ride
The media context in which consumer PR takes place
will remain dynamic and uncertain for the next genera-
tion of professionals. Being able to cope with change
and ambiguity will be a prerequisite of the job as the
communication landscape continues to evolve. Gilpin
and Murphy (2010) note that todays media landscape
is best viewed as a single complex system that encom-
passes a vast range of digital, non-digital, mass and
personal communication. They highlight how it is
increasingly difficult to draw neat boundaries between
traditional media and digital channels, citing Qvor-
trups (2006) observation that digital media integrate
all known media into one converged multimedia sys-
tem (with) an unlimited system of features. Even tra-
ditional media, from print to broadcast, is morphing
and migrating to digital formats.
These changes to the media environment not only
influence the work of PR professionals. They also have
a profound impact on practitioners working across
the marketing mix. For example, the decline of people
interacting with the traditional media has undermined
the effectiveness of mass media advertising. The sort of
media fragmentation discussed in this chapter means it
is now difficult for marketers to harness a single com-
munications medium to create and sustain a brand as
television once did. At one time companies could reach
a large slice of the public by advertising in one of a
limited number of channels (for example, in the UK
M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 373
Chapter 19Public relations and the consumer 373
by advertising on the only independent channel, ITV);
now they have to spread their budgets over a plethora
of outlets in traditional, owned and social media. Fur-
thermore, the process of cramming more advertising
into traditional media, or placing ads in new locations,
both online and off-line, often does nothing more than
irritate consumers who are increasingly resisting mass
marketing messaging, either because they are now
immune to its effects, disillusioned with its intent or
have simply tuned it out. A key challenge for market-
ers is how to reach and influence the growing number
of people who have become disconnected from the
marketing process.
Land-grab and reinvention
This situation generates threats as well as opportuni-
ties for the PR industry. Hutton (2010: 509) notes that
the marketing field is reinventing itself to include or
subsume much or all of public relations and market-
ing thought is evolving towards a public relations per-
spective to such an extent that marketing is essentially
redefining itself as public relations (2010: 515). Smith
(2012) complements this analysis by highlighting how
emerging digital communication technology challenges
the functional boundaries between public relations and
marketing.
Given the blurring of boundaries between differ-
ent communication disciplines and the convergence
of media channels and platforms, this development
looks set to continue. McKie and Willis (2012) note
the same trend emerging in award entries to the
Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Cannes positions itself (www.canneslions.com) as
the worlds largest and most prestigious advertis-
ing awards event. Their examination of particular
winning campaigns confirms Huttons thesis that
traditional PR skills are now so mainstream across
marketing that the distinct nature of the discipline,
and the ownership of many of its core activities, are
under threat.
This is illustrated by the Grand Prix Winner for Cre-
ative Effectiveness in 2011 from Abbot Mead Vickers
BBDO (AMVBBDO) for its client PepsiCo the inter-
national food and drinks company whose portfolio of
brands includes Walkers Crisps. To promote the snacks
benefits when eaten in conjunction with a sandwich
the agency planned a day of surprise events to make
the village of Sandwich national news (Cannes Lions
2012). Media coverage was generated through the use
23/03/2017 13:17
 374 Part 3Public relations specialisms

Picture 19.1 The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity positions itself as the worlds largest and most prestigious
advertising awards event, and yet some of the prize-winning entries are using traditional public relations techniques. In
2011 the Grand Prix Winner for Creative Effectiveness was from Abbot Mead Vickers BBDO (AMVBBDO) for its client
PepsiCo, the international food and drinks company whose portfolio of brands includes Walkers Crisps. To promote the
snacks benefits traditional PR skills were used, for example, to make the village of Sandwich national news. (source: Cannes
Lions 2012, http://www.canneslions.com/inspiration/past_grands_prix_advert.cfm?sub_channel_id=301&award_year=2011)

of celebrities and famous sporting figures engaging in

a range of community activities. This was supported
by online media activity, such as films that showcased
the celebrity appearances.
The campaign illustrates how tools and tech-
niques that have traditionally been associated with
public relations have been subsumed seamlessly
into a wider commercial offer provided by agencies
strongly associated with the advertising industry.
Indeed, the Cannes Lions Festival, despite showcas-
ing the hybrid beast of modern marketing commu-
nication, cannot entirely shake off its historic label
as an advertising awards event. In the AMVBBDO
award entry PepsiCo is even referred to as an adver-
tiser, despite a campaign with all the hallmarks of
classic PR execution. To muddy the water still fur-
ther, Cannes Lions also introduced a separate PR
Award category but the winner of this in 2011 was
an advertising agency rather than a PR outfit (Foster
Picture 19.2 Sports sponsorship in action (source: AFP/
2011). (see Think about 19.10.)
Getty images)

M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 374 23/03/2017 13:17


Think about 19.10
Who does consumer PR?
Take a look at the campaigns shortlisted for other
marketing communication awards.
Can you neatly categorise the campaign activity
that is being described? For example, is it advertis-
ing, public relations, digital marketing or a combi-
nation of several different elements?
What sort of agencies are behind the campaigns?
Take a look at their websites how do they posi-
tion themselves to potential clients?
New activities and practices
At the same time as grappling with the challenge of
others encroaching on its territory, the PR industry is
itself working in areas which were once seen as the
domain of other disciplines from across the marketing
spectrum. At the same time, it is also claiming expertise
in emerging communication practices. A result of these
developments is that the services offered by PR agen-
cies, in particular, have increased dramatically in recent
years. Alongside more traditional expertise like media
relations and event planning, sit new product offers
designed to attract clients, such as web design, building
apps, search engine optimisation, data analysis, as well
as the sort of branded content activities highlighted
earlier in this chapter.
In the consumer space it is therefore becoming
increasingly difficult to disentangle PR from other
marketing activities. Todays consumer PR practi-
tioners find themselves shuttling between a variety
Summary
This chapter has discussed the role of public rela-
tions in a consumer marketing context. The world we
have explored is undergoing significant and continuing
change. Although the media transformation we have wit-
nessed in the twenty-first century has affected all aspects
of PR practice, the revolution in personal communica-
tion capacity has placed consumer PR on the front line
of these technological advances. The aim of the chapter
has been to focus on the core tenets of consumer PR,
M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 375
Chapter 19Public relations and the consumer 375
of roles and tasks which are driven by the needs of
their employers and/or clients. These needs, which
are shaped in turn by the demands of the market
place and media environment, do not correspond
neatly with traditional academic theories which are
concerned with what PR practitioners should and
should not do (Grunig et al. 2002). Researchers
can also be slow in considering the impact of new
developments and ways of working, often dismiss-
ing emerging trends as the industrys latest fads and
fancies.
This climate of flux also requires PR practitio-
ners to become integrated communicators who are
comfortable coordinating and using different types
of communication from across the marketing mix.
However, while there is a lot of discussion about the
need for greater integration in a marketing context,
the European Communication Monitor (Zerfass et al.
2015) reveals that since 2011 there has been hardly
any progress in this area. This represents a missed
opportunity on two levels. Firstly, greater collabo-
ration across functions and teams can enhance the
efficiency and effectiveness of consumer communica-
tion campaigns. Secondly, a PR perspective can more
generally enhance consumer engagement activities.
For example, Macnamara (2015) warns of the colo-
nization of social media by marketing departments
and a resulting focus on one-way transmission of
promotional messages designed to sell products and
services (p. 43). He goes on to note that most other
marketing communication remains one-way, and true
engagement with customers or other stakeholders is
minimal, despite widespread claims of customer
engagement (p. 43). PRs foundational interest in
encouraging dialogue between an organisation and
is stakeholders has the potential to be an antidote to
these tendencies.
while at the same time highlighting some of the recent
developments which are shaping the work carried out by
practitioners in this area.
Amidst the fog and uncertainty generated by a dynamic
media landscape some things remain constant. First, the
mass media is still an important channel for many prac-
titioners. While social media can dominate the working
lives of consumer PR professionals, others in the sector
have not abandoned more traditional channels. What
23/03/2017 13:17
 376 Part 3Public relations specialisms
summary (continued)
we can observe, therefore, is a mixed picture of change
and innovation. Second, the ability of PR practition-
ers to generate third party endorsement for products
and services whether in the mass, social and owned
media, or amongst established and emerging groups
of influencers is still prized highly by brand owners.
Indeed, in a world where advertising is not as effective as
it once was, this capability is more important than ever.
Although the generation of compelling content which
can inform and entertain across multiple channels is a
skill claimed by others across the marketing mix, the
established editorial sensibilities of PR practitioners gives
them an edge. A key challenge going forward though is
the requirement to think more in pictures than words,
given that the ubiquity of superfast broadband and 4G
mobile network services allows video content to be
broadcast direct to the consumer.
Just as it is helpful to view the media environment as a
complex adaptive system we should also do the same
Bibliography
Cannes Lions (2012). Walkers, Sandwich. www.canneslions
.com/inspiration/past_grands_prix_advert.cfm?sub
.channel_id=301 accessed 12 January 2012.
Forbes (2015). The Worlds Highest-Paid YouTube Stars
2015. 2 November, 2015.
Foster, S. (2011). Aussie ad agency Clemenger BBDO
Melbourne wins Cannes PR Grand Prix. www
.moreaboutadvertising.com/2011/06/aussie-ad-agency-
clemenger-bbdo-melbourne-wins-cannes-pr-grand-prix
accessed 15 July 2016.
Frankfurt, H. (2005). On Bullshit. Princeton, NJ: Prince-
ton University Press.
Gilpin, D.R. and P.J. Murphy (2010). Implications of
complexity theory for public relations: beyond cri-
sis in The Sage Handbook of Public Relations.
R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Grunig, L., J. Grunig and D. Dozier (2002). Excellent
Public Relations and Effective Organisations: A study
of communication in three countries. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Hutton, J. (2010). Defining the relationship between
public relations and marketing: public relations most
important challenge in The Sage Handbook of Pub-
lic Relations. R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 376
when thinking of PR as a profession. Rather than a static
entity, PR is a discipline which continuously responds
to and changes in the context in which it operates. In
a consumer context this impacts on the ways in which
practitioners communicate on behalf of organisations,
who they seek to target, work with and so on. It is a
fluid picture as the forces which shape this context
such as the media environment are by nature difficult
to predict. Who would have thought a student (Mark
Zuckerburg) working in his bedroom would quickly
and dramatically change the way we communicate
with each other (when the first edition of this book was
published in 2006 Facebook was just two years old)?
Those working as PR practitioners must continue to be
agile and adaptive, as should those of us who study the
discipline. Furthermore, as this chapter shows, the con-
temporary consumer communication landscape, while
offering a wealth of opportunities for PR, also generates
a range of issues relating to operational effectiveness,
as well as the reputation and future identity of the PR
profession.
Ihlen, O. and J. Pallas (2014). Mediatization of corpora-
tions, in Handbook on mediatization of communica-
tion. K. Lundby (ed.) (pp. 42341). Berlin: De Gruyter
Mouton.
Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing Insights from A to Z: 80 con-
cepts every manager needs to know. New York, NY:
John Wiley.
LEtang, J. (2008). Public Relations: Concepts, practice
and critique. London: Sage.
Lewis, D. and D. Bridger (2003). The Soul of the New
Consumer. London: Nicholas Brealey.
Macnamara, J. (2015). Creating an architecture of listening
in organisations: The basis of engagement, trust, healthy
democracy, social equity and business accountability.
Report. Sydney, NSW: University of Technology.
McKie, D. and P. Willis (2012). Renegotiating the terms
of engagement: Public relations, marketing and con-
temporary challenges. Public Relations Review 38(5):
84652. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2012.03.008.
Morgan, A. (1999). Eating the Big Fish: How challenger
brands can compete against brand leaders. New York,
NY: John Wiley.
Qvortrup, L. (2006). Understanding new digital media.
European Journal of Communication 21(3): 34556.
Smith, B.G. (2012). Communication integration: An
analysis of context and conditions. Public Relations
Review 38(4): 6008.
23/03/2017 13:17

The Guardian (2016). Why are YouTube stars so popu-
lar? 3 February, 2016.
The Times (2016). YouTube star was paid to promote
game. 14 July, 2016.
Variety (2014). Survey: YouTube stars more popular than
mainstream celebs amongst US teens. 5 August, 2014.
Variety (2015). Digital star popularity grows versus
mainstream celebrities. 22 July, 2015.
Waddington, S. (2012). Introduction, in Share This:
The social media handbook for PR professionals.
S. Waddington (ed.), Chichester, West Sussex: John
Wiley & Sons.
M19 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 377
Chapter 19Public relations and the consumer 377
Zerfass, A., A. Moreno, R. Tench, D. Veri and P.
Verhoeven (2008). European Communication Moni-
tor 2008. Trends in Communication Management and
Public Relations Results and Implications. Brussels,
Leipzig: Euprera/University of Leipzig. Available at:
www.communicationmonitor.eu.
Zerfass, A., D. Veri, P. Verhoven, A. Moreno, A. and
R. Tench (2015). European Communication Moni-
tor 2015. Creating communication value through
listening, messaging and measurement. Results of a
survey in 41 countries. Brussels: EACD/EUPRERA,
Helios Media.
23/03/2017 13:17
 C h ap t er 20 Helen Gill (ne Standing)

Business-to-business public relations

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
define and describe business-to-business public relations
distinguish business-to-business public relations from consumer PR
recognise the key role of the business and trade media in shaping perceptions
understand the evolving role of digital and social media in business-to-business reputation and relationship
building
identify the key principles of business-to-business public relations
apply this understanding to simple, relevant scenarios
recognise business-to-business activity through case examples
apply the principles to real-life scenarios.

Structure
Core principles of business-to-business (B2B) Coordinating the communications disciplines
public relations Building corporate reputation
B2B media relations
B2B social media

M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 378 23/03/2017 13:18

 Chapter 20Business-to-business public relations 379

Introduction
The concept of business-to-business
(B2B) public relations (PR) is based on
the recognition that most organisations,
businesses and individual profession-
als sell to other businesses rather than
directly to the consumer. The scope of
such business transactions is enormous
and incorporates products and services
as diverse as aircraft and microchips,
law and web design. Each sector of the
marketplace has its own operating envi-
ronment, but the fundamental need for
PR and communications activity that is
aligned with business goals is a key part
of the selling process.
The traditional focus of B2B PR
has been the use of editorial in trade
magazines as a direct method of build-
ing awareness and reputation and
generating new business leads with a
niche regional, national or international
audience. However, recent research by
Steyna et al. (2010: 88) has shown that
organisations now find that their best
avenues to get their messages to tar-
get audiences in a credible way are no
longer through traditional media, but by
way of blogs and the bloggers who con-
struct them. It is therefore vital that B2B
PR media relations encompasses edito-
rial on all publishing platforms.
Contemporary B2B PR uses the
full spectrum of PR techniques as the
b usiness-to-business marketplace
becomes increasingly sophisticated.
An examination of entries into B2B cat-
egories in the UK Chartered Institute of
Public Relations Excellence Awards and
the PRCA Frontline Awards shows how
PR is being successfully used to man-
age corporate reputations and build
relationships, as well as providing vital
support for sales and marketing pro-
grammes. Social media blogging,
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook (to a lesser
extent) and other platforms are also
increasingly being used by B2B profes-
sionals and organisations to commu-
nicate directly with target customers,
clients and stakeholders.

Core principles of business-to- Explore 20.1

business (B2B) public relations
The starting point for business-to-business (B2B) PR is
a detailed understanding of the business goals, specific
marketplace, the application of the products or services
in question and an appreciation of the dynamics of
the buying process. This reflects the traditional empha-
sis on supporting sales and the very real need for PR
activity to present the benefits of particular products,
services or experts.
Advocates of B2B PR as a specialism say that the
depth of marketplace understanding is a point of
differentiation with consumer PR (see Chapter19),
where practitioner knowledge of consumer behav-
iour outweighs the need for product and marketplace
familiarity. Simply put, B2B PR is usually about com-
plex messages to a niche set of publics, while con-
sumer PR is usually about simple messages to a mass
audience. This is why the most effective B2B PR tech-
niques, such as expert comment and case studies, are
based around demonstrating expertise and outcomes,
rather than directly promoting products and services.
(See Explore20.1.)
The characteristics of a business-to-business mar-
ketplace include:
a relatively small number of buying publics it
may even be that potential customers can be named
as individuals (e.g. manufacturers in the building
Finding B2B case study examples
Go into a large newsagent or magazine shop and see
how many magazine/journal titles you can see that
are non-consumer and are targeting the trade/spe-
cialist business-to-business marketplace. Also do a
Google search for influential business websites and
blogs for specific sectors. Cisions Social Media Index
has a library of top 10 UK blogs in different specialist
areas, including architecture and law. Find examples
of articles that feature case study examples of a busi-
ness helping another business succeed through their
expertise, products and services.
Feedback
Examples might include PRWeek, Accountancy Age,
Architecture Today, The Stage, People Management or
a regional business website such as Yorkshire Business
Insider. Case studies will usually appear after the main
news headlines.
trade will know of the specific builders merchants
who could stock their products: there may only be
three or four);
a specific application/end user for products and ser-
vices (e.g. a producer of thermal insulation boards
for house building);

M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 379 23/03/2017 13:18

 380 Part 3Public relations specialisms

defined product and service terms of technical
specifications and any legal/trading restrictions
(e.g. controls on building products such as insula-
tion requirements of windows or insulation boards,
as in the previous example);
purchasing decision often negotiated individually
and subject to finite contract periods.
B2B media relations
The business and trade media (including print, web-
sites and blogs) is an important and integral part of
the B2B marketplace. The traditional use of media rela-
tions techniques in trade and specialist publications also
requires a detailed understanding of the workings and
requirements of these titles and their editors. Table20.1
provides a select list of trade publications in the UK.
Managers and professionals tend to read the print
and online titles and blogs specific to their trade or
industry as part of their working lives. And it is this
special linkage that attributes particular influence to
trade and specialist magazines, websites and blogs.
Readership relates to the size of the sector and the
existence or otherwise of competitive titles. Trade pub-
lications large and small are read by decision-makers
in their sector. The loyalty of trade press readerships
creates a strong role for their titles in the B2B cycle of
influence and persuasion.
This accounts for the traditional B2B PR focus
on gaining editorial coverage in trade magazines.
However, due to declining advertising revenues and
increasing competition from digital and social media,
the print versions of many long-established trade pub-
lications in the UK (such as Accountancy Age) have
been discontinued and those that are still in existence
have fewer editorial staff on tighter deadlines, with
greater pressures to contribute to selling advertising
space (Dowell 2011).
Those trade publications that remain in print ver-
sion tend to be the one or two key opinion-forming
titles in each sector (building, health, retail, finance,
etc.). These are the journals/periodicals that influence
the business/sector and they are the ones organisa-
tions will look to for editorial coverage and discussion
about their organisation. Its important when working
in the B2B sector that you research and understand

Publication Purpose

The Architects Journal The voice of architecture in Britain brings you news, comment, analysis, building projects,
design guidance and reviews.

The Architectural Review A colourful global subscription magazine offering forums, jobs, competitions and reader
enquiries, with a useful professional directory.

The Builder Here you will find The Builder and Building News, two free trade journals, as well as a
product locator service.

The English Home The English Home showcases the best in homes, fabrics, furniture, accessories and design. It
also advises you about property news and places to stay.

The Glazine A weekly email site, giving you all the latest from the glazing and fenestration industries,
covering issues such as energy efficiency.

The Global Cement Report This is a subscriber site for the magazine Cement Review, with all the latest issues to do with
cement and related industries.

The Installer This is the link to The Installer and The Fabricator, both available to read online. There is also
a product finder service.

The Landscaper The Landscaper is an online magazine keeping you up-to-date with current news in
landscaping, jobs, advertising and features.

Marketing Magazine The UKs leading title for marketers providing marketing news, insight and marketing jobs.

The Structural Engineer This is the international journal of The Institute of Structural Engineers, providing you with
the latest news, advertising and recruitment in the industry.

Table 20.1 Select list under T of trade publications in the UK construction industry (source: www.theconstructioncentre
.co.uk/trade-periodicals-and-news/t.html)

M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 380 23/03/2017 13:18


Case study 20.1
How trade publications
are used
Picture 20.1 The Architects Journal is one of 64 titles in
the UK covering the construction industry.
The following case study shows how a practising archi-
tect uses B2B titles such as The Architects Journal in his
everyday working life. Nigel Jacques is an award-winning
commercial architect who discusses the role of specialist
media for his profession:
As an architectural practice we use The Architects Journal
and other similar trade magazines at varying levels and
for different reasons. The Architects Journal is used in our
practice as an important technical and visual resource. It
keeps us up-to-date with new design concepts, regula-
tions and innovative materials and also with the legal and
professional aspects of architecture.
The more senior you are within the practice the more in-
depth you tend to read The Architects Journal. At direc-
tor level it is used as a resource for keeping up-to-date
on a weekly basis with the market as it evolves and with
new materials and design concepts. To a young design
architect, The Architects Journal is used more as a visual
resource. When you read through an architectural trade
M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 381
Chapter 20Business-to-business public relations 381
magazine it is a media experience in which you are con-
stantly absorbing knowledge and picking up ideas and
inspiration on an often subliminal level. Architecture is
an art, which means that we are constantly looking at
visual stimuli first and foremost and then looking in more
detail and noticing aspects of design, such as products or
innovative use of materials.
The Architects Journal can influence buying and design
decisions in as much as an architect might notice a
particular material and/or form used in a building in
an image and start thinking how it may influence one
of our schemes. Technical articles within The Architects
Journal, for instance, indicate in detail how the mate-
rialis used effectively in the design and who the sup-
plier is.
The journal also contributes to sector understanding
as it provides an up-to-date and informative source
of current trends, regulations and changes in legis-
lation that could impact on the practice. As well as
an architectural resource, it is therefore also a useful
trend predictor. In growing and developing your busi-
ness you are constantly monitoring the performance
of other practices (The Architects Journal top 100
architects, for instance), watching the political envi-
ronment and organisations with whom you may wish
to collaborate or who may directly impact upon your
business. The Architects Journal can be used as a tool
for all these things.
In terms of alternative thinking and inspiring creativity,
The Architects Journal contributes in as much that it fea-
tures the commercial conformists, the individuals and the
mavericks of the trade. The visual illustrations can inspire
architects with ideas for their own work and often pro-
mote healthy debate.
Our PR consultants also target The Architects Journal
as a means of raising our profile as a national prac-
tice and we are frequently approached by journal-
ists for comment on national and project-specific
issues. However, publications of this nature can also
be responsible for negative comment and it can be
somewhat frustrating when publications are predict-
able and frequently o ne-sided. A good relationship
with journalists, though, can help to offset this and
allow you the opportunity to respond to potential
negative coverage. Regular p ositive editorial coverage
within national trade publications adds equity to the
architect and their practices brand, acts as an efficient
business development tool when read by key decision
makers, contributes to the feel good factor within the
23/03/2017 13:18
 382 Part 3Public relations specialisms
case study 20.1 (continued)
practice as an excellent motivator and attracts high
calibre staff to our practice.
The Architects Journal is a key resource for our practice,
without which we would be working within a vacuum
with regard to current trends. Every design practice needs
which publications, websites and blogs are key to
your organisation/clients organisation. It is important
to note, therefore, that some publications have high
news value and others very low. You need to be able
to discern and make use of the difference.
Business or trade media and
journalists
As a PR practitioner, you will routinely find that trade
press journalists have a thorough understanding of
their subject area. This fact creates both an oppor-
tunity and a challenge for the practitioner. You will
have an informed and potentially responsive audi-
ence. But you will need to be knowledgeable and show
your competence when dealing with trade journalists.
However, also remember that we all have to start our
careers somewhere, so you may be dealing with a
cub reporter or a journalist who has moved recently
to a particular title. The big media groups (such as
Haymarket which owns titles as diverse as PRWeek,
Oncology Nurse Advisor and Asian Investor) have a
raft of trade titles, and journalists move frequently
between titles and specialist areas. They may still be
learning about their new subject area, perhaps at the
same time as you.
As a rule of thumb, when dealing with trade press
journalists or bloggers, assume expertise. This is
usually the case and it is common for editors of
relatively small circulation magazines or blogs to be
frequent commentators on television news pro-
grammes and in the national dailies. This is simply
because such individuals do become genuine
experts through their professional concentration on
a subject area. For example, the editor of The
Grocer is often used on national business broad-
casts on radio and television as an expert commen-
tator on supermarket trends and prices.
Since most trade media and journalists will also
now use digital and social media to extend the reach
of their content, it is necessary to adapt press releases
M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 382
to monitor the macro environment within which it oper-
ates, and without national trade publications such as The
Architects Journal this would prove extremely difficult.
Source: Interview with commercial architect Nigel Jacques BA
(Hons) BArch (Hons) RIBA
to include elements a reporter would want to see
before they create their own content to broadcast or
transmit further known as a Social Media Release.
(Steyna et al. 2010: 87)
Story ideas
The news values of trade publications obviously have
a sector-specific focus, and regular reading of key mag-
azines will readily identify the news angles adopted.
Practitioners working in a B2B marketplace should be
avid readers of the sectors periodicals and know which
ones are most influential and credible (see Box20.1).
Do also be aware of the prevalence of advertising-style
editorial, which is driven by revenue from charging
companies to include a picture/image of the product
(a colour separation fee/charge is made for this).
Box20.2 provides some examples of typical B2B news
angles for gaining editorial coverage.
News will usually be presented to the media through
a press release, but other techniques of regular use to
B2B PR practitioners include:
one-to-one briefings and interviews
full feature articles
comment to be included in wider features
case studies
press conferences
conferences, workshops, roundtable discussions
and other events.
Some of these techniques are covered in Chapter14,
but here are some other techniques that are available
to the PR practitioner.
Advertorials
The advertorial is also used frequently in B2B pro-
motional campaigns. Advertorials are paid-for adver-
tisements designed to look like editorial. However,
23/03/2017 13:18

Box 20.1
B2B media relations
in practice
Securing coverage in specialist trade
media for a regional law firm
The legal sector is highly competitive and getting a
voice on topical issues for legal clients can be difficult.
A small regional law firm I used to work with tasked us
with raising their profile both on a regional level but
also in specific sectors to promote their expertise in
specialist areas.
For example, the firms insurance division was highly
specialist and had a national reputation, working on
behalf of organisations on disputes related to insurance
claims, including public sector bodies and contractors.
There was little mileage for the team to get coverage in
regional media and, besides, their work was rarely rel-
evant to a general regional audience. They were there-
fore only interested in appearing in key insurance trade
titles, such as Post Magazine and Insurance Times.
These titles are esteemed industry publications and it
is a great challenge securing a voice for a regional law
firm. They are not interested in news items about the
firms work and rarely take proactively pitched viewpoint
comment. Targeting their forward features is also a chal-
lenge because any that are relevant are targeted by every
insurance law specialist in the UK, and often the bigger,
more high-profile firms and lawyers are chosen to pro-
vide comment. Our strategy was to find out how to make
the features editors lives easier and thus have a better
chance of getting coverage.
Box 20.2
Typical news angles for
B2B editorial
Typical news angles for B2B editorial would include:
comment on latest industry developments, innova-
tions, trends and legislation
M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 383
Chapter 20Business-to-business public relations 383
We made the time to talk to them about how they
put features together and discovered that they usually
took comment from whoever put an expert forward
first, and preferred to set up telephone interviews
rather than receiving written comment so that they
didnt have to go back and forth through PR contacts
for more information. We therefore asked to be added
to their mailing lists to receive features synopses as
soon as they were available and, instead of targeting
every remotely relevant feature, we selected very spe-
cific features that we knew we could source a specialist
expert on. This also made things easier for the client
and demonstrated that we understood their expertise
in this complex area.
For example, when we received a synopsis on a fea-
ture about noise-induced hearing loss, we got straight
in contact with a partner at the firm who specialised in
these cases and asked if he would be prepared to do an
interview should the journalist be interested. We then
went straight back to the features editor and offered a
telephone interview with the partner at specific times at
which he was available. As a result, our client was quoted
heavily throughout a double-page feature in Post Maga-
zine, the leading insurance industry publication. Follow-
ing that, we managed to secure face-to-face meetings for
the head of the firms insurance division with the features
editor at both Post Magazine and Insurance Times and
secured increasing amounts of coverage in the insurance
trade media.
In order to be able to achieve this, we had to immerse
ourselves in the firms complex areas of expertise and
keep on top of what individual partners were working
on so that we could proactively spot relevant features
and confidently pitch comment to sector journalists.
Source: Helen Standing, Founding Director, Engage Comms
insights from major industry conferences and events
new senior technical and managerial appointments
new technology and new processes
new contracts
unusual or problem-solving contracts and applications
market diversification or convergence
partnerships, associations, mergers, takeovers
high impact case studies.
23/03/2017 13:18
 384 Part 3Public relations specialisms
journals will always indicate clearly the sponsoring
company in order to differentiate from editorial. So,
although advertorials may look like editorial, they do
not have the credibility of news or features material
written and/or edited by journalists. As advertising rev-
enues and circulation figures decline, advertorials are
becoming a key source of revenue for trade publica-
tions and journalists will often try and sell them as an
alternative to substandard editorial content pitched by
PR practitioners.
From the practitioners perspective, an advertorial
is often regarded as promotional material and treated
much like a newsletter or a company publication.
Websites and blogs
Particular note must also be taken of the specialist
websites gaining common currency in most industry
sectors. Many specialist and trade publications main-
tain their own websites to complement their printed
publications. Equally, the trade associations operat-
ing in each sector often have websites. Major industry
events such as conferences, seminars and exhibi-
tions are also frequently supported by websites. Such
websites are both a vital source of information for
practitioners and offer an additional source of target
outlets for placing product and corporate news and
information.
Beyond the specific product or company-related
news items, trade magazines offer a particularly good
opportunity to place commentary on marketplace,
technology and product developments. In-depth mate-
rial available through your client company may be
highly valued by the editor of trade magazines. In
practice, this creates the opportunity for a client or
company to be seen as a source of authoritative indus-
try information. (See Think about 20.1 and Think
about20.2.)
B2B social media
In his book Engage! The complete guide for brands
and businesses to build, cultivate and measure suc-
cess in the new web, Brian Solis describes social
media as a matter of digital Darwinism that affects
all forms of marketing and service (Solis 2010: xvii).
By this he means that communications are evolv-
ing with technology and that social media is more
than just a fad its use has become fundamental
M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 384
Think about 20.1
Becoming an expert
How would you, as a PR practitioner, become an
expert on your company/client, its products, experts
and unique selling points?
Feedback
To build understanding, we often need to spend a
lot of time researching the company and its prod-
ucts, services and people. For PR practitioners, this
can mean taking time to work with the company,
spending time in different departments and perhaps
learning to use the products and services they offer.
It also involves closely monitoring what competitors
are doing and what the latest developments in the
wider marketplace are. Regularly reading the trade
media is important and you can also use social media
for research (see the B2B social media section in this
chapter).
Think about 20.2
Creating business-to-business
conversations online
How could you help an organisation or client get into
dialogue with potential clients and customers?
Feedback
B2B sales are often relationship based. B2B organi-
sations, such as law firms, often have to sell the
expertise of individuals within the business. Using
social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn, it is pos-
sible to give these individual experts a voice and
the ability to engage directly with target custom-
ers. However, their complex messages need to
be translated into accessible content that acts as
a talking point and can be distilled into concise
statements (e.g. tweets that are no longer than 140
characters, or 500-word blogs broken down into
useful points).
This is often where B2B PR practitioners can use their
expertise to advise, train and create content that ena-
bles organisations and individuals to communicate
and engage more effectively and strategically using
social media.
23/03/2017 13:18

to business. The use of social media in B2B pub-
lic relations is now well established with corporate
blogging being a key technique for building expertise
and reputation.
While the B2B market has been much slower than
the B2C (business-to-consumer) market to embrace
social media, in The B2B Social Media Book (2012),
Bodner and Cohen argue that there are five reasons
why B2B companies are actually better suited to using
social media to generate business:
1. Clear understanding of customers
2. Depth of subject matter expertise
3. Need for generating higher revenue with lower
marketing budgets
4. Relationship-based sales
5. Already have practice using social media principles
of telling business-focused stories and educating
customers with content.
All five of these reasons relate to key elements
of B2B PR and communications and demonstrate
why B2B social media belongs within the PR disci-
pline as opposed to marketing, advertising or web
development.
The use of social media as part of B2B PR can
work in conjunction with trade media relations.
Many trade and business journalists now use Twitter
(a popular microblogging platform) for most of their
news and feature leads, and most trade journals use
social media platforms to share their content with a
wider specialist audience.
Social media tools used by B2B PR practitioners
include blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Peri-
scope, to a lesser extent, Google+, Facebook, Pinter-
est and Instagram. Other platforms are emerging and
Case study 20.2
B2B social media as part
of a wider marketing
communications strategy
The following interview with Davina Rapaport, Pulse
and Social Media Manager of international shipping
company Maersk Line, was published by David Moth on
econsultancy.com in September 2015. It illustrates how
M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 385
Chapter 20Business-to-business public relations 385
Picture 20.2 An international shipping company makes
extensive use of social media for its business-to-business
communication.
evolving all the time. These platforms give B2B com-
panies and professionals the opportunity to engage
directly with potential and existing customers and
clients to demonstrate expertise, raise awareness,
build reputation and indirectly sell their products and
services.
The etiquette of social media informality, sharing,
collaboration, freedom of speech (Solis 2010) is often
at odds with the way B2B professionals are used to
working. As such, there is an important role for B2B
PR practitioners to advise and train colleagues and cli-
ents in adapting their communications style and tech-
niques. In many cases, PR practitioners are responsible
for managing and monitoring social media channels
on behalf of B2B organisations and creating tailored
content that makes their specialist areas of expertise
more accessible and engaging to a wider audience.
Case study20.2 provides a practitioners account of
using social media in B2B PR.
Rapaport has delivered bottom-line benefits for the busi-
ness by using B2B social media as part of a wider market-
ing communications strategy.
How is your global social media team
structured?
I am based at Maersk HQ in Copenhagen and drive our
commercial focus from there. I have a Community Man-
ager based in Mumbai and we have a Creative Team split
between Copenhagen, Mumbai, Manila.
23/03/2017 13:18
 386 Part 3Public relations specialisms
case study 20.2 (continued)
Which social channels are most
important for Maersk Line? Do people
really buy shipping via Facebook?
Our social media strategy relies on the fact that our social
media channels work together as an ecosystem, as well
as working in tandem with other marketing channels, like
events and emails.
As a B2B brand, LinkedIn is an important platform for us
to reach key decision makers when theyre in the right
mindset.
Facebook is too big to ignore and an important channel
for us to reinforce our message in a more subtle way.
And finally, our audience on Twitter has several spe-
cific demographics and therefore plays an important
role.
Maersk Line has more than 30 social
accounts. How much autonomy do local
teams have in the content strategy?
Alignment, both in terms of communicating the brand
proposition and look and feel, is important to Maersk
Line.
To ensure that our local markets are communicating a
consistent message we have devised a number of guide-
lines, training sessions and support functions. Provided
our local marketing managers adhere to a few guidelines,
we respect that local audiences may have different needs
and we like to give our marketing managers a bit of cre-
ative freedom.
Which departments are involved in the
global content strategy? How do you
come up with ideas?
Our industry has traditionally been very inside out,
assuming that what we want to talk about is also what
our audience wants to hear.
Of course this is not the right approach.
We have devised a number of processes through which
we can tap into what is relevant for our customers uti-
lizing our Business Intelligence Team and our Customer
Insights Team as well as our Social Media Team.
A very simple example is what we call Special Cargo. Spe-
cial Cargo is cargo that is too large to fit into a standard con-
tainer, such as a railway carriage, a yacht or even a giraffe.
M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 386
While we call this Special Cargo, the industry calls it Out
of Gauge or Break Bulk.
How do you track the success of social
activity? What tools do you use?
Im a firm believer that social media work towards the
strategic goals of the organisation.
Any social media marketer who fails to do this will face
massive internal credibility issues and subsequently will
face an uphill battle for resources.
At Maersk Line social media sits within the Commercial
Division so our focus is generating leads.
That is not to say that secondary metrics (such as impres-
sions, CTRs [click through rates], engagement and fol-
lowers acquired) arent important, but these metrics
are more illustrative of how well our content is per-
forming, rather than how well the social media team is
performing.
Oracle is our provider for our social suite, Oracle Eloqua is
our marketing automation system and is integrated with
our CRM system, Salesforce.
Have you cracked the post to purchase
loop? How do you track it?
We have successfully tested the relationship between our
various systems and have cracked the post to purchase
loop.
As with many other areas of marketing we are continu-
ally optimising and testing to increase volume and qual-
ity of leads.
Another aspect that were exploring is the value of
social medias influence on a purchasing decision.
From our research, we have found that the average
customer consumes 10.4 pieces of online content
before even picking up the phone and calling a ship-
ping company. During this time 67 per cent of the
decision making process is made.
As marketers, our job is to ensure that Maersk Line
content is as much of that 10.4 as possible.
It is important that we can measure the value of social
media if it accounts for the lions share of consumed con-
tent, but converts after a call from a sales rep.
23/03/2017 13:18
 Chapter 20Business-to-business public relations 387

Finally, to what extent do senior
management still need to be convinced of
social impact on the business? Is that an
ongoing battle, or has there already been a
cultural shift within the business?
Maersk Lines senior management is very supporting of
our social media efforts. This is because I understand that
Maersk Line is very metric driven and I never walk into a
meeting without finite data in a language that they can
understand.
If I went into a meeting and only spoke about engage-
ment rates and impressions, they would probably ask me
ok great, 100,000 impressions, whats that in dollars?
Leads, opportunities and containers sold are all metrics
that Maersk Line understands.
I find that the more I speak the same language as the
organisation, the less internal selling I need to do they
get it.
Source: David Moth, www.econsultancy.com, 9 September 2015

Coordinating the Role of advertising

communications disciplines Advertising has the very particular job of placing
a proposition in front of the target audience. The
strength of advertising is in the control of message
The use of PR techniques to support the marketing and
delivery. Your message is placed in front of a known
sales environment is well understood and is often the
audience at an agreed point in time. This precise con-
motivation for appointing a PR manager or using a PR
trol of the message, audience and timing can make
consultancy. Practitioners can demonstrate that insight-
advertising very effective. And in the B2B arena, results
ful and creative PR can both indirectly and directly gen-
can usually be measured and analysed.
erate business leads, opportunities and sales. However, as
The very best advertisements offer a single proposi-
corporate reputation management grows in importance,
tion in a highly creative way. In the B2B marketplace,
B2B PR is gaining credibility and being seen as an over-
there should always be a call to action, making it clear
arching discipline within which other marketing commu-
nication disciplines sit. Many PR practitioners argue that
Price Product
they should be responsible for the communications strat-
egy at board level and marketers should carry out tactical Cost Product management
activities to support the strategy. In reality, though, most
Profitability New development
in-house teams are still led by marketing directors.
In B2B PR, an understanding of the role of other Value for money Product features and benefits
marketing communication disciplines is essential, as
Competitiveness Branding
is the timing and coordinated application of the right
techniques. PR practitioners working in B2B often dis- Incentives Packaging
play an in-depth understanding of advertising, email
After-sales service
marketing, direct mail and sales promotion and of
how PR can act as a unifying mechanism as part of the Place Promotion
wider business strategy.
Access to target market Promotional mix
The marketing mix, originally defined by Borden
(1964), is the combination of the major tools of mar- Channels to market Public relations
keting, otherwise known as the 4Ps product, price,
Retailers and distributors Advertising
promotion and place (see Table20.2).
Figure20.1 shows some of the promotional disci- Logistics Sales promotion
plines typically employed in B2B marketing. All are
Sales management
aimed at supporting the sales effort, and their applica-
tion reflects views on the best way to reach decision Direct marketing
makers. It is often not enough to rely on one channel, Social media
hence most promotional campaigns use a combination
of techniques to make up the promotion aspect of the Table 20.2The marketing mix: price, product, place and
4Ps in the marketing mix. promotion

M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 387 23/03/2017 13:18

 388 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Figure 20.1 Promotional disciplines used in business-to-business (B2B) marketing
what we are asking interested readers to do phone
this number, send in this coupon, visit this website.
Some sales and marketing managers may believe
that the importance of advertising revenue to trade
magazines means that big advertisers can expect an
editorial quid pro quo (obtain editorial coverage if
they have paid for advertising space). This is not the
case. Editorial staff cherish their independence and this
should be respected. The promise of advertising spend
should not be used in an attempt to influence edito-
rial decisions. Editorial decisions should be based on
the news value of copy submitted in the form of press
releases and news features.
Advertising has a defined role in placing repetitive
messages in front of buying audiences, hence its value
in B2B marketing. PR can be used in a complementary
way to expand on a necessarily simple advertising mes-
sage and to broaden audience reach. It is also worth
noting that news value is usually enhanced if edito-
rial is offered before an advertising campaign. Some-
thing that is already being advertised cannot really be
regarded as news.
Role of direct marketing
Direct marketing is appropriately named as a promo-
tional technique. The proposition is put directly to
the prospective buyer, for example in an email, leaflet
M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 388
or brochure, without an intermediary such as a dis-
tributor, agent or salesperson. This creates its major
advantage in many B2B marketplaces where there are
an identifiable and discrete number of buyers and/or
influencers. Direct marketers work from target lists
(databases) that they either buy from a list brokerage
or compile themselves. Responses are tracked and mea-
sured with precision.
Direct marketing is becoming increasingly sophis-
ticated as a promotional technique as communication
channels, message content and response rates can be
tracked and refined. PR supports direct marketing by
building the credibility and reputation of the organisa-
tion. It is able to do this by placing key messages in
front of target audiences.
Role of sales promotion
Sales promotion techniques, such as special offers,
bogofs (buy one, get one free), vouchers, redeemable
gifts, competitions, etc. are well established in con-
sumer marketing and are being used increasingly in
B2B. This is simply because a well-thought-through
sales promotion can work and has a single objective
to increase sales. Sales promotions can also be popular
with sales teams as they give them something specific
to offer their customers.
23/03/2017 13:18

Sales promotion is very distinct from PR but the
disciplines do have much in common. When they run
in tandem their effectiveness in creating sales oppor-
tunities can be enhanced. The linkage between sales
promotion and PR is strong because sales promotions
can offer benefits that supplement the basic product,
price, place and offer.
Role of public relations
PR can support the other promotional disciplines and be
a promotional technique in its own right. Undoubtedly,
the most effective use of the promotional disciplines is
shown when there is clear coordination in the planning
stage. Common themes can be developed that work in
all channels, albeit with content and messages presented
in different ways to different audiences at different times.
Creative routes can be developed jointly through
brainstorming, and practitioners in all the disciplines
can work to a shared timetable. Cost savings will be
demonstrated through minimising the time input of
contributing professionals and through shared creative
work (branding, design, photography, etc.).
The special role of PR is in taking the proposition to
a broader range of influencers through the use of media
Box 20.3
Activities used in
B2B public relations
campaigns
Most frequently, editorial will be the lead PR tool.
Other activities used in B2B PR campaigns include:
newsletters/e-newsletters
literature
seminars
briefings
conferences
roadshows
awards and competitions
presentations
sponsorship and endorsements
blogging
social media platforms, e.g. LinkedIn and Twitter.
M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 389
Chapter 20Business-to-business public relations 389
relations and other PR techniques. Of course, PR as
defined in marketing terms, as one element of the mar-
keting mix (see Table20.2), is a more limited concept
than you will find elsewhere in this book. For a fuller
discussion of PR and marketing see Chapter23. PR in
its larger sense is also of value to B2B communications,
as discussed in the next section. (See Box20.3.)
The best B2B campaigns invariably use the appro-
priate promotional techniques in a parallel and sup-
portive way. (See Think about20.3, Think about20.4
and Mini case study 20.1.)
Building corporate reputation
The use of editorial and social media to support the
sales environment is an essential element of most
B2B PR campaigns. However, there is a fundamental
Think about 20.3
Business-to-business as a public
relations specialism
PR practitioners regard B2B as a specialism. This is
primarily because of the special emphasis placed on
supporting the business goals and sales effort and
understanding the marketplace and specialist area of
expertise. Think again about how B2B PR has been
defined and how this differs from consumer PR (see
also Chapter19).
Think about 20.4
B2B in action
Can you think of an exhibition/sponsorship campaign
in your country or internationally that is targeted at
B2B audiences?
Feedback
Think about big trade shows for example, London
Fashion Week where new fashion lines are launched
to the trade, i.e. the people who then go on to sell
them to us, the consumers. There are many other big
specialist trade shows/exhibitions, such as for the
automotive industry, building and even the confer-
ence/exhibition industry! To see the range of interna-
tional trade exhibitions held at one site, look at the
Birmingham NEC at www.thenec.co.uk.
23/03/2017 13:18
 390 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Mini case study 20.1
B2B Snapshot building
reputation for Harry
Fairclough Construction
Harry Fairclough Construction (HFC) had always relied
on their technical expertise and competitiveness on cost
when it came to winning new tenders but were increas-
ingly being put under pressure to demonstrate the qual-
ity of service to prospective tenderers. An innovative
new approach was required. Communications consul-
tancy Engage Comms was brought on board to act as
an extension of the Harry Fairclough business develop-
ment team to help increase the tender success rate by
building a strong reputation for excellence in the mar-
ketplace. After spending time immersing themselves in
difference between media relations and online engage-
ment as a promotional technique and the comprehen-
sive application of PR methodology to analyse trends,
counsel organisational leaders and to plan and deliver
reputation-building communications programmes.
Media relations and social media can be used as part
of the marketing mix alongside the other promotional
disciplines, such as advertising and email marketing,
to great effect. But the true impact of PR is seen when
applied as a strategic planning tool in support of top-
line corporate objectives.
An examination of award-winning B2B public rela-
tions campaigns shows a clear trend towards integrated
support for sales and marketing efforts beyond media
relations. Senior practitioners are imposing their pro-
fessionalism on client organisations to use PR meth-
odology to plan strategically, to integrate and unify
communications around wider business goals and to
build reputation with key stakeholders before the sales
process is engaged. Good examples can be found on
the websites of national PR organisations such as the
UKs CIPR and PRCA.
The most effective use of PR from an organisational
perspective is to build a favourable reputation with key
stakeholders as a thought leader. And this process is
critical to B2B communications, where reputation is
the essential element in the buying process. No one
wants to do business with an organisation or indi-
vidual without a reputation, and certainly not those
with a poor reputation. Thus the PR function in a
M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 390
the business and visiting live sites and talking to the
site teams, the Engage Comms team identified that the
firm was failing to get across how they went above and
beyond to deliver the best quality service on time and
on budget in comparison to larger competitors who had
much less of a personal touch. Written and video case
study content was created to bring to life the expertise
and personalities within the site teams and the out-
comes delivered for clients. A community engagement
blog was created for a live school build project which
was highly commended by the local authority for its role
in ensuring that objections to the project were mini-
mised. A combination of social media, trade press and
local business media was used to share the case stud-
ies and they were also used directly in tenders, which
resulted in HFC being contracted on to programmes of
work exceeding 100 million.
Source: www.cipr.co.uk, Yorkshire & Lincolnshire PRide
Awards 2014, winner of Best Use of Digital
B2B organisation has the same remit as that applied
in a consumer or public sector organisation to estab-
lish and maintain mutual understanding between the
organisation and its publics (see Explore20.2).
This reputation-building role will become increas-
ingly important as external stakeholders, including
customers and activist groups, start to look at the organ-
isation behind the brand (which they can now do much
more easily using social media) and make purchasing
decisions based on wider judgements including social
responsibility considerations and corporate ethics.
Organisational leaders with an understanding of PR
are using PR in two interconnected ways, regardless of
the size of the operation. PR works as a promotional
tool with the other marketing disciplines such as adver-
tising and sales promotion. But PR is also being used
to manage the organisational reputation at board level,
with audiences beyond the marketing remit, such as
shareholders, the local community, staff, suppliers and
government at all levels. (See Mini case study 20.1.)
Explore 20.2
Managing reputation
Do an internet search to find an example of a B2B
company that actively uses a wide range of commu-
nications techniques to manage its reputation.
23/03/2017 13:18
 Chapter 20Business-to-business public relations 391

Summary marketing mix: Brassington and Pettitt 2013) but also on

B2B PR will always concentrate on supporting the com-
mercial performance and business goals of an organisa-
tion. The mainstay of this support has been well-placed
thought leadership content, via the trade media and
blogs, which is read by influencers and decision makers
in the buying process (the buying chain). This works, and
there are good examples showing just how the craft skills
of PR can be applied with outstanding results. This core
activity is fundamental to B2B PR, and B2B practitioners
are able to demonstrate in-depth knowledge of their cli-
ent organisations, of products, services and applications,
and of the mechanisms of the marketplace. The trade
media landscape is developing and online/social media
is becoming an increasingly important B2B PR tool for
demonstrating expertise and engaging with and selling
directly to clients and customers.
The understanding that buying decisions are not solely
based on promotion, price, place and product (the
reputation offers scope for PR practitioners to adopt a
holistic approach to B2B communications. The concept
of the influence of the brand is established in consumer
PR. We are now recognising that the brand and all it
stands for is also relevant to B2B. This is an evolving area
of B2B practice, with increased opportunity for creativity
in supporting communications in the field.
It is also the case that buying decisions are no longer
left to individuals in an organisation; their decisions may
have to withstand the scrutiny of a range of internal and
external stakeholders. Thus an integrated communica-
tions strategy is essential, with consistent messages being
communicated to diverse audiences.
B2B campaigns will always focus on the bottom line to
support sales and marketing targets. The very best work is
planned strategically to help enhance corporate reputa-
tion and show clear and consistent linkage through to all
internal and external communications.

Bibliography media/2011/apr/25/trade-magazines-online-only
accessed 28 August 2012.

Bodner, K. and J.L. Cohen (2012). The B2B Social Media
Book. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Borden, N. (1964). The concept of the marketing mix.
Journal of Advertising Research June: 27.
Brassington, F. and S. Pettitt (2013). Essentials of Market-
ing. London: Pearson.
Dowell, B. (2011). Have trade magazines got a shelf
life? The Guardian. 25 April. www.guardian.co.uk/
Solis, B. (2010). Engage! The complete guide for brands
and businesses to build, cultivate, and measure suc-
cess in the new web. New Jersey: John Wiley &
Sons.
Steyna, P., E. Salehi-Sangari, L. Pitt, M. Parent and P. Ber-
thond (2010). The Social Media Release as a public
relations tool: Intentions to use among B2B bloggers.
Public Relations Review 36: 879

Websites and social media

Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR): www.cipr.co.uk
Cision: www.uk.cision.com
Econsultancy: www.econsultancy.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com
Google+: www.plus.google.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com
Periscope: www.periscope.tv
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com
Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA): www.prca.org.uk
Twitter: www.twitter.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com

M20 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 391 23/03/2017 13:18

 C H AP T ER 21 Danny Moss

Public affairs

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
identify and critically discuss the nature, role and scope of the public affairs function and its relationship
with public relations
identify and critically review key theories, principles and their development and application in contempo-
rary public affairs
appreciate the potential contribution that public affairs can make to organisational strategies and goal
attainment
identify and critically review the knowledge, skills and competencies required of todays public affairs
professionals
analyse and apply public affairs theories/principles to practice
evaluate your learning about public affairs and pursue further sources for investigation.

Structure
Locating the role of public affairs within the Lobbying
organisation International perspectives on public affairs and
Defining public affairs: a confused professional lobbying
identity Public affairs management
The scope of public affairs

M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 392 23/03/2017 13:20

 Chapter 21Public affairs 393

Introduction: why public affairs?

As business and particularly larger cor-
porations have become increasingly
conscious of the changing expecta-
tions held of them not only by their
customers, but also by a wide array
of stakeholders including govern-
ments, regulators, community groups
and employees, they have come to
recognise the value of having a well-
organised and professional commu-
nications and public affairs function
capable of handling any contingencies
that may arise that might threaten the
stability and reputation of the organi-
sation (van Riel 1995; Argenti 2009).
Indeed in many societies including the
UK and many EU countries, regulations
and legislative intervention has become
a significant potential constraint on
the operations and expansion plans of
many businesses. For example, one of
the more controversial issues in recent
years that well illustrates the potential
importance of the public affairs func-
tion is the controversy that has sur-
rounded attempts by the exploration
company Cuadrilla Ltd (a subsidiary of
Cuadrilla Resource Holdings Ltd (CRH))
to secure licences to explore for shale
gas at a number of sites in the UK,
using a process termed fracking. This
involves shattering hard shale rocks
underground to release gas using either
hydraulic pressure or tiny explosions.
Although fracking originated in the USA
in the 1970s, interest in the use of this
gas extraction technique has spread to
many other countries in recent years,
despite some quite intense opposition
and protest almost wherever licences
have been sought. The opposition to
fracking has centred on fears of dam-
age to the environment and pollution
of underground water courses caused
by the fracking process as well as the
potential to trigger minor earthquakes
arguments that environmentalist
groups such as Friends of the Earth
have repeatedly emphasised in oppos-
ing fracking licences. Cuadrillas public
affairs staff fought back, challenging
some of the more alarmist stories circu-
lated by opposition groups and submit-
ting evidence of the economic benefits
of energy extraction through fracking
to both local authority planning com-
mittees and to the key UK Government
officials in Defra (Department for Envi-
ronment Food & Rural Affairs) and the
Treasury. Cuadrilla suffered a serious
setback to its planned expansion in the
UK in 2011, when minor earthquakes
in the Fylde coast/Blackpool area in
Lancashire were claimed to be caused
by local fracking activity, and as a result
all fracking in the UK was suspended
pending detailed investigation on
behalf of Defra. The fact that some four
years later Cuardrilla were in a position
to submit a credible proposal for two
new test fracking sites in Lancashire at
Little Plumpton and Roseacre Wood,
arguably can be attributed in part at
least to the success of its public affairs
work in laying the ground for the com-
pany to submit these proposals to local
planning authorities. A similar sort of
regulatory and planning problem has
been faced by companies seeking to
expand the development of offshore
and on-land wind farms around the UK
where planning applications have con-
tinued to come up against strong local
and pressure group opposition, which
has often hampered their progress.
What these examples illustrate is that
in todays society where the actions of
businesses and industries are increasingly
subject to public and/or official scrutiny
and even regulation, public affairs can be
an essential tool in enabling industries
and individual organisations to ensure
their voice is heard and that they obtain
a fair hearing in the court of public
opinion or perhaps more important,
that key decision-makers in government
or other key regulatory bodies are fully
aware of all sides of a case when impor-
tant decisions are taken.

Locating the role of public
affairs within the organisation
The above examples are just two cases of situations
where businesses face the challenge of managing their
interface with regulators, planners, pressure groups
and others with a vested interest in a particular issue or
situation that requires careful management to advance
the businesss interests in the face of what may be quite
vociferous opposition (whether legitimate or not). It is
in such situations that senior management may turn
to the corporate public affairs function to act both as
the corporate voice and advocate of the businesss
interests (Heath 1994; Hutton et al. 2001; Cornelissen
2008), while also seeking to assuage the concerns of
opposing parties. This potentially difficult balancing
act of representing business and stakeholder interests
is likely to become all the more complicated and chal-
lenging when corporations are operating across many
international or global markets, and hence across a
range of governmental and regulatory regimes. Thus
an understanding of the role and scope of contempo-
rary public affairs needs to be set against the particu-
lar environmental context or background in which the
organisation(s) in question operates.
Clearly where organisations face an increasingly
politicised business environment, as is increasingly
the case in most Western economies, the need for an
effectively resourced public affairs function is more

M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 393 23/03/2017 13:20

 394 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Picture 21.1 Fracking is one issue on which a corporate
public affairs department represents the business interests
to government and other stakeholders
likely to be evident. Yet even here there may be quite
wide variations found both in the extent to which
public affairs is recognised and supported across
sectors of industry or even within particular sectors,
which may reflect management attitudes and preju-
dices towards public affairs rather than any inher-
ent differences in the need for public affairs support
between organisations or across sectors. This ten-
dency will often be exacerbated when looking at the
management of public affairs within organisations
operating on an international or global scale. Here
a degree of confusion about what precisely public
affairs is and what expertise it requires has resulted
in quite wide variations in not only who has respon-
sibility for public affairs work within organisations,
but also how it is resourced and what expectations
senior management have of what the function can
realistically achieve.
Defining public affairs: a
confused professional identity
Despite the significant growth of professional inter-
est in (corporate) public affairs over the past decade
or more, and a growing body of academic and
professional literature about public affairs (Hill-
man 2002; Griffin and Dunn 2004; Showalter and
Fleisher 2005), there is still considerable confusion
about what public affairs is, or how it contributes
to organisational success. This confusion is per-
haps hardly surprising given there is still a lack of
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 394
consensus among public affairs scholars and profes-
sionals themselves about the meaning of the term
public affairs (Fleisher and Blair 1999; McGrath
et al. 2010). Indeed Harris and Moss (2001) sug-
gested that, despite the growth in numbers of public
affairs professionals and in resources invested in pub-
lic affairs activities, the term public affairs remains
one that is surrounded by ambiguity and misunder-
standing. In short, public affairs remains a function
in search of a clear identity (p. 102).
The scope of public affairs
Although traditionally public affairs tends to be seen
as the organisational function that focuses particularly
on managing organisational relationships with govern-
ment, government bodies and other political stakehold-
ers, it is also increasingly seen to have a broader remit
that encompasses communication and other relational
activities directed towards a broad cross-section of
organisational stakeholders. From this latter perspec-
tive, public affairs can be seen to embrace a number of
outward-facing communications functions including
media relations, issues management and community
relations (see later discussion of Figure21.1). Here, for
example, writing from a European perspective, Pedler
(2002: 4) has suggested that: Public affairs may be
defined as the management skill that internalises the
effects of the environment in which an organisation
operates and externalises actions to influence that
environment.
In what is still one of the more widely acknowl-
edged explanations of public affairs, Post (1982: 30)
suggests that: the critical role of the public affairs
unit is to serve as a window out of the corporation,
enabling management to act in the external environ-
ment, and a window in through which society influ-
ences corporate policy and practice. This two-way
perspective of public affairs can be seen to mirror in
many ways the two way symmetrical model of pub-
lic relations that Grunig and his co-researchers (1992,
2002) have argued strongly represents the most effec-
tive and excellent model of public relations practice.
In the case of public affairs, the emphasis is ideally
about balancing the organisation and external stake-
holders interests, particularly where these respective
interests coalesce around issues that have some pub-
lic policy dimension.
This notion of public affairs serving as an inter-
mediary and interpretive function between business
and governments is reflected in the underlying mission
23/03/2017 13:20

Figure 21.1 Broad and narrow definitions of public affairs
of perhaps the most prominent industry association in
the field of public affairs, the Washington-based Public
Affairs Council whose mission is: to help the business
community have a more effective voice in dealing with
government. However, as its mission statement sug-
gests, public affairs is seen to embrace a broader remit
than simply government relations.
Thus in reviewing academic and professional defini-
tions of the (corporate) public affairs function, what
emerges is a broad continuum of views polarised
between two dominant positions (see Figure 21.1).
At one extreme lie relatively narrow politically orien-
tated perspectives of public affairs, which treat pub-
lic affairs as synonymous with political lobbying. At
the other extreme, are interpretations of public affairs
that position it as fulfilling a broader communications
role, albeit focused around the nexus of politics, public
policy and organisational/business concerns and issues.
This perspective recognises the intermediary role of
public affairs, often sitting alongside and inextricably
linked to other communications activities that serve
Box 21.1
Public policy
The preferred definition of public policy for our pur-
pose is:
Public policy is a purposive and consistent course of
action produced as a response to a perceived problem
of a constituency, formulated by a specific political
process, and adopted, implemented, and enforced by
a public agency.
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 395
Chapter 21Public affairs 395
to connect business and not-for-profit organisations to
government in all its various forms or guises (further
discussion of the management of the public affairs pro-
cess can found later in this chapter).
From this perspective, the public affairs functions
responsibility among these communications functions
focuses on enabling organisations to deal with those
external public policy and regulatory challenges that
might impact favourably or unfavourably on the
realisation of their goals. Thus it may involve handling
a broad array of corporate stakeholder relationships
and the issues associated with them. One more or less
common central element of both perspectives of the
corporate public affairs function is the recognition of
the central importance for what is generally termed
the issues management function (Hainsworth and
Box 21.2
The Public Affairs
Council (PAC)
The PAC was established in 1954 at the urging of
the then President Dwight D. Eisenhower to provide
unique information, training and other resources to
its members to support their effective participation in
government, community and public relations activi-
ties at all levels. The Council has more than 600 mem-
ber companies and associations that work together
towards the goal of enhancing the value and profes-
sionalism of the public affairs practice, and provid-
ing thoughtful leadership as corporate citizens. (See
http://pac.org/)
23/03/2017 13:20
 396 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Explore 21.1
Political /regulatory influence
Consider the number of laws and bye-laws that any
business, charity or voluntary organisation may have
to comply with or take into account when setting up
operations. Think about the consequences of ignoring
such legislation.
Meng 1988; Heath 2002) as providing the underlying
analysis for determining the public affairs agenda and
focus for all strategic public affairs planning. We will
examine the central importance of the issues manage-
ment function and process in relation to public affairs
later in the chapter, and a fuller discussion of issues
management can be found in Chapter17 of this book.
The existence of what appears to be the two princi-
pal arms of public affairs the government relations/
lobbying perspective and a broader community rela-
tions/corporate reputation/responsibility perspective
essentially frame what can be seen to constitute the
lingua franca of public affairs a dialogue at both a
societal and government level. By implication, those
working in the public affairs field increasingly are
required not only to be proficient communicators, but
to have a sound appreciation of how the political par-
ties work, how policies are developed and how par-
ties may be influenced, run campaigns and are funded.
Moreover, the type of issues and challenges that nor-
mally fall within the public affairs domain generally
require far more complex and sophisticated solutions
than those required when tackling market-related com-
munications campaigns (Harris and Moss 2001: 108).
Think about 21.1
Government business
interaction
Taking any one industry in your country or region such
as automobile manufacturing or construction, try put-
ting together a list of all the key government depart-
ments whose work might affect that industry and try
to build a contact list of the most important ministers,
senators, MPs, or MEPs, etc. whose support would be
needed or helpful in campaigning for changes in any
regulation affecting that industry
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 396
Thus perhaps the simplest way to describe the field
of public affairs is as an intermediary function focused
around political and social environmental intelligence
gathering, linked to advising and supporting organisa-
tions in building and maintaining their relationships
with key stakeholder groups in their business envi-
ronment, specifically in terms of handling the type
of socio-political issues that might affect the realisa-
tion of the organisations strategic goals. Here pub-
lic affairs acts both reactively as well as proactively,
scanning the external environment, analysing the issues
arising within the environment and helping manage-
ment determine the most appropriate strategies for the
organisation to pursue with respect to specific issues.
In short, the public affairs role can be likened to that
of a ships pilot enabling organisations to navigate
successfully through the potentially tricky environmen-
tal waters that may stand between it and its strategic
goals. In terms of operationalising this role, perhaps
the most well-known and equally most controversial
tool employed by public affairs is that of lobbying in
all its various guises, whether this takes place at the
state, national, or local levels, or even working on
international basis.
Lobbying
Put simply, lobbying is any action designed to influ-
ence the actions of the institutions of government.
That means it covers all parts of central and local gov-
ernment and other public bodies both in the UK and
internationally (Miller 2000: 4). In terms of its scope
therefore, lobbying can include attempts to influence
legislation, regulatory and policy decisions, and nego-
tiations on public sector contracts or grants. However,
despite the increasing attention paid to, and critical
scrutiny of lobbying in recent years, notably as a result
of the considerable scandal surrounding the clandestine
payment of MPs for their support and influence within
Parliament in the UK, the process of lobbying remains
an obscure practice and no definitive definition can be
said to exist (Zetter 2008).
Here it is important to distinguish between the
essential purpose of lobbying, which does appear to
be broadly understood, and the methods or processes
used by lobbyists to achieve the desired outcome,
which are generally less well understood. The former is
about, on one hand, monitoring and analysing govern-
ment thinking and strategies, and on the other hand,
representing and championing a particular company,
industry or organisations views to government or
23/03/2017 13:20

Mini case study 21.1
British Gurkha Welfare
Society
The British Gurkha Welfare Society (BGWS) is the largest
welfare organisation supporting Gurkhas in the UK and
Nepal. Founded in 2004, the BGWS has been one of the
leading campaigners on issues of Gurkha welfare includ-
ing settlement and pension rights.
The Gurkhas were brought fully into the public con-
sciousness in 2009, when a high-profile media-led
campaign headed by the actress Joanna Lumley over-
turned the policy of the then-government and secured
government bodies, and securing a favourable political
outcome (whether in terms of legislative action, regu-
lation or other public policy change). Thus, in short,
lobbying is essentially a form of two-way asymmetri-
cal or persuasive communication activity. Much of
the concern that continues to surround the practice of
lobbying stems from the mystique and rather cloak
and dagger image of the various lobbying tactics that
are seen to be used to gain access to, and influence
with sections of government. Indeed such tactics are
often portrayed as offering those with the greatest
power and wealth an undue influence within govern-
ment circles an accusation that has led to increasing
calls for the regulation of political lobbyists. A further
examination of lobbying tactics is provided below.
Here, of course, it should be stressed that lobbying
is essentially a legitimate activity a means by which
various stakeholder groups can attempt to ensure that
their voices are heard within the public policy arena,
and hence it is important to the democratic process
per se.
Think about 21.2
What may have been the chief success factors in the
Gurkhas campaign? How important was it to have a
high profile celebrity championing the cause?
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 397
Chapter 21Public affairs 397
settlement rights for Gurkhas who had retired before
1997 opening the door for these veterans to relocate
to the UK. In addition to the high-profile programme
of media relations, the campaign also comprised a
massive grass-roots programme involving hundreds of
thousands of people who signed Gurkha Justice peti-
tions, lobbied their MPs, campaigned and attended
rallies and marches.
At midday on 21 May, the then Home Secretary Jacqui
Smith made the announcement to the House of Com-
mons that the Government had recognised the case
advanced by the Gurkha Justice Campaign and that all
ex-Gurkhas who have served more than 4 years in the
British Army will have the right to settle in the UK if they
wish. After such a long fight, with huge ups and downs,
this was a superb result.
Lobbying practices
Traditionally, lobbying has been associated with mass
protest and representations to government by disaf-
fected groups for example, Trade Union rallies
against public sector pay cuts, or the 2016 junior doc-
tors protest and threatened strike in the UK about new
contracts that the Government was proposing to bring
in that would impact on junior doctors contracts and
working hours. Similarly, the British Gurkha lobbying
campaign outlined above contained an element of mass
rally and protest to challenge government policy.
However, although such protests and rallies do
undoubtedly capture public and hence government
attention, their immediate effectiveness is frequently
questionable, and their main purpose is often to gener-
ate media coverage and trigger public debate about an
issue that might otherwise be lost among the numer-
ous news items that circulate within the media. The
traditional media coverage has increasingly been sup-
plemented or in some cases largely superseded by an
increasingly ubiquitous set of social media channels.
While it is perhaps important not to overestimate the
power of social media, there is little denying the perva-
sive nature of social media nowadays, and its ability to
quickly disseminate information at a grass-roots level
and thereby help mobilise public opinion on specific
issues of potential widespread concern.
In recent years there have been many examples of
the power of social media to quickly disseminate infor-
mation and to build popular support for particular
ideas or movements, albeit to differing degrees. For
example, Barack Obamas 2008 Presidential election
23/03/2017 13:20
 398 Part 3Public relations specialisms
campaign was widely credited with having made very
effective use of social media tactics (microblogging
and Twitter) to mobilise voters in many difficult-to-
reach communities. Social media was also recognised
to have played a significant part in facilitating the so-
called Arab Spring, revolutions in 2011, helping to
build and sustain popular opposition to the incum-
bent regimes. Here the growing importance attached
to social media as a communications tool has been
enhanced by the rapid take-up of smartphone technol-
ogy and tablet computers.
Indeed, such has been the growth in the use of social
media that a well-orchestrated media relations and
social media campaign has been, and continues to be,
a crucial element of virtually all lobbying and broader
public affairs strategies.
In essence, however, lobbying is about persuasive
argument the presentation of cogent and compelling
arguments to appropriate decision-makers and their
key advisors, whether this be in the form of one-to-
one meetings, presentations to appropriate committees
or in written reports/documentation or a combina-
tion of all of these different methods. These forms of
direct communications with appropriate, influential
decision-makers and advisors are often where much of
the hard work is done in shaping or reshaping govern-
ment thinking and proposals on issues or on legisla-
tion. Here the release of what might be quite sensitive
information to the media relating to the issues in hand
needs to be carefully handled in order not to upset
what might be quite delicate negotiations over the
matter in hand. In essence, governments do not like to
be seen to be backing down or caving in under exter-
nal pressure, and hence often the lobbying strategy
may involve giving government the opportunity to be
seen to be engaging and responding positively to repre-
sentations from industry or other bodies a win-win
scenario.
This discussion leads to two further key principles
of successful public affairs/lobbying, or for that matter
any other communications campaigns, namely:
1. Timing is nearly always crucial: there is a natural
life cycle with all decision-making processes and
especially government decision-making that will be
partly determined by the particular cycle of govern-
ment (when do the particular chambers of govern-
ment sit, where is the incumbent government in its
planned cycle of legislation, etc.). One of the keys
to any successful lobbying campaign is to get the
issue in question onto the governments agenda.
Thus for some major issues which require a signifi-
cant change in legislation or social change, there
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 398
may need to be an ongoing medium- to longer-term
strategy that may extend over a number of years in
order to reach a position that is acceptable to all
interested parties, e.g. changing the laws on the sale
of tobacco products and alcohol in the UK, or ani-
mal welfare legislation relating to dog ownership
and registration.
2. Targeting is absolutely vital: here it is essential to
understand the structure and operation of the gov-
ernment or government bodies you are trying to
influence where does the influence lie, who are the
power brokers (formal and informal), who arethe
gatekeepers and who know their way around the
system? Here authors such as Miller (2000) and
Nugent (2010) offer valuable insights into the
working of government in the UK and European
Union. There are also a number of official and unof-
ficial websites offering quite comprehensive infor-
mation about the structure and working of
government (e.g. in the UK Government websites
such as www.direct.gov.uk; www.parliament.uk).
Similar information sources can be found that cover
government structures and government processes in
countries around the world e.g. the University of
Keeles Politics Department maintains a comprehen-
sive database of information about governments in
Latin America http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/por/
labase.htm#lawide and information about the
US Government can be found from its official
website, www.usa.gov/
A legitimate activity?
Clearly a central concern with lobbying wherever it
is practiced is the underlying concern that it may lead
to undue and inappropriate influence on government
decisions and legislation that favours the interests of
one party or organisation at the expense of others
and/or the public good. Such concerns have been
Think about 21.3
Try to construct a detailed structural map of the
government structures and departments that would
oversee a major infrastructure project such as a new
regional airport or new train line in your region of
your country. Consider who would be involved in such
a decision and what timescales might be involved in
bringing it to fruition.
23/03/2017 13:20

Box 21.3
Nolan Committee on
standards in public life
Nolan principles that should govern the behaviours of
all holders of public office:
Selflessness
Integrity
Objectivity
Openness
Honesty
Leadership
heightened in recent years as a result of a number of
scandals and media exposs of corruption and illegal
payment to politicians or influential officials to secure
favourable decisions or contracts. The so-called cash
for questions scandal in the UK led to the establish-
ment of the Nolan Committee in 1994 to investigate
and set out basic standards for the behaviour of MPs,
civil servants and others holding public office (see
Boxes 21.3 and 21.4)
The Governments approach, reflecting the approach
of the Nolan Committee, is not to ban contacts
between civil servants and lobbyists but to insist that
wherever and whenever they take place they should be
conducted in accordance with the Civil Service. Code,
Box 21.4
Implications for
lobbyists in the UK
political system
The Nolan Committee said in their first report, it is
the right of everyone to lobby Parliament and Minis-
ters, and it is for public institutions to develop ways of
controlling the reaction to approaches from profes-
sional lobbyists in such a way as to give due weight
to their case while always taking care to consider the
public interest.
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 399
Chapter 21Public affairs 399
and the principles of public life set out by the Nolan
Committee. This means that civil servants can meet
lobbyists, formally and informally, where this is justi-
fied by the needs of government.
Building on these concerns about the conduct of
civil servants and politicians when faced with per-
haps a well-prepared and well-resourced lobbying
strategy, guidelines have been drawn up that are
intended to remind those engaged in the work of
government about their primary duty to serve the
state and citizens, rather than the vested interests
of particular businesses or industry sectors (see
Boxes 21.5 and 21.6).
Regulation of lobbying
In June 2007, the Public Administration Select Com-
mittee (PASC) announced its inquiry into the lobbying
industry in the UK. As part of the Committees ongoing
investigations, the three founding industry members
of what was to become the UK Public Affairs Coun-
cil provided oral evidence to the Committees later
inquiry in July of that year. The Committee published
its report: Lobbying: Access and influence in White-
hall, in December 2008, in which it recommended that
a public register of lobbyists be created.
Under the stewardship of Sir Philip Mawer, former
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and inde-
pendent advisor to the then Prime Minister Gordon
Brown, a body comprising the APPC, CIPR and PRCA
was formed to begin implementing the Committees
recommendation for a public register.
The first meeting of the UK Public Affairs Coun-
cil took place in July 2010, with the three industry
bodies being joined by three independent members,
including the Chairman Elizabeth France CBE. That
month, then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg
announced that the Government intended to legislate
for a statutory register of lobbyists. Subsequent prog-
ress has been relatively patchy in terms of establish-
ing any universally accepted policy and procedures
for the registration of consultants and other bodies
engaged in the business of lobbying. In 2014 the
Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning
and Trade Union Administration Act was passed into
law and a new Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists was
appointed. However, according to a number of com-
mentators, the way the bill has been drafted has ren-
dered it largely ineffective, with many claiming it was
not fit for purpose. For example, the Act specifically
excludes all lobbyists working in an in-house capac-
ity for companies. Because of these exclusions and
23/03/2017 13:20
 400 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Box 21.5
Guidance for Civil
Servants: contact with
lobbyists
3. The principles of public life set down by the Nolan
All civil servants, including special advisers, are employed
by the Crown and paid by the taxpayer to serve the gov-
ernment of the day in a manner, which upholds the high-
est standards of propriety in public life.
Basic principles
1. The basic principles are set out in the Civil Service
Code. They are demanding, but it is worth remem-
bering that they are reflected in every departments
Management Code and that any breach may give rise
to disciplinary proceedings.
2. Civil servants should conduct themselves with
integrity and honesty. They should not deceive or
knowingly mislead Parliament or the public. They
should not misuse their official position or informa-
tion acquired in the course of their official duties to
Box 21.6
Guidance for civil
servants: practical
considerations
These basic principles apply to all contacts between civil
servants and people outside government, be they busi-
nessmen, trades unionists, journalists or campaigners of
any kind. What the principles mean in practice will depend
on the circumstances of each case. It is not possible exhaus-
tively to cover every situation that may arise, but the main
points to have in mind in dealings with professional lob-
byists, given the nature of their work, is as follows. Some
things are completely unacceptable. For instance:
DO NOT leak confidential or sensitive material, espe-
cially market-sensitive material, to a lobbyist.
DO NOT deliberately help a lobbyist to attract busi-
ness by arranging for clients to have privileged access
to ministers or undue influence over policy. These
would be serious disciplinary offences and trigger
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 400
further their private interests or the private interests
of others. They should not receive benefits of any
kind, which others might reasonably see as compro-
mising their personal judgement or integrity. They
should not without authority disclose official infor-
mation that has been communicated in confidence in
Government or received in confidence from others.
Committee in its first report in 1995 are also relevant
in particular:
Selflessness: holders of public office should take
decisions solely in terms of the public interest.
They should not do so in order to gain financial
or other material benefits for themselves, their
family, or their friends.
Integrity: holders of public office should not
place themselves under any financial or other
obligation to outside individuals or organisations
that might influence them in the performance of
their official duties.
Honesty: holders of public office have a duty to
declare any private interests relating to their pub-
lic duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts
arising in a way that protects the public interest.
procedures under which you would be liable to dis-
missal. Much more common are situations where
dealings with a lobbyist are acceptable provided that
they are handled with care. These are grey areas where
common sense has to be used. Here again, breaking
the basic rules may lead to disciplinary action.
DO NOT say or do anything that could be represented
as granting a lobbyist preferential or premature
access to information, parliamentary or governmen-
tal, which you have received because of your official
position.
DO CONSIDER whether meeting one group making
representations on a particular issue should be bal-
anced by offering other groups a similar opportunity
to make representations.
DO NOT accept gifts or other benefits from a lob-
byist, which are offered to you because of your
official position and could place you, or reasonably
be considered to place you, under an obligation to
the donor.
DO NOT give the impression to a lobbyist that any
particular advice, idea or information from their
23/03/2017 13:20

clients could or will be decisive in the decision-mak-
ing process. Decisions are for ministers who will want
to weigh up all the evidence and all the advice they
receive before they judge the public interest.
DO NOT do anything, which might breach Parliamen-
tary privilege or offend against the conventions of
Parliament. Remember that the papers and reports of
Select Committees are the property of the Commit-
tees and subject to Parliamentary privilege. If in doubt
whether particular papers are in the public domain,
seek guidance from the Clerk of the Select Committee.
DO NOT use your knowledge about what is going on
inside Government to impress your contacts in the
lobbyist world. What may seem simple gossip to you
may make money for someone else, or amount to
improper help.
DO NOT use your position to help a lobbyist get a
benefit to which he or she is not entitled.
DO NOT offer, or give the impression of offering, a
lobbyist preferential access to ministers or their offi-
cials. Where you think someone can contribute some
various loopholes in the legislation, many commen-
tators have suggested that the Act has been rendered
largely toothless. Thus it remains unclear as to how
the Government might act if the level of registrations
remains persistently low.
International perspectives on
public affairs and lobbying
Reviewing the treatment of public affairs and its sub-
discipline, lobbying, within a broad cross-section of
academic and specialist professional literature, it is evi-
dent that until comparatively recently the vast majority
of the work has focused largely on examining public
affairs in either the UK or US context (see McGrath et
al. 2010), as well as more recently in a wider European
context (e.g. Pedler and Van Schendelen 1994; Pedler
2002). This predominantly Western perspective of
public affairs has been disseminated and embraced
on an international scale, at least in terms of the basic
understanding of what the public affairs role should be
and how it is organised and practiced. In addition to
dissemination of Western ideas via a range of literature,
the Western perspective of public affairs has been spread
through the expansion of Western-owned public affairs
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 401
Chapter 21Public affairs 401
interesting ideas, you should tell those concerned
and let them decide for themselves.
DO always declare to your department any personal
or family business interests, which may at some time
create an actual or potential conflict of interest with
the work of your department, and comply with any
instructions from the department designed to elimi-
nate the conflict.
BE CAREFUL about accepting hospitality from a
lobbyist.
These guidelines must of course be interpreted with
common sense. If, for instance, you have a friend who is
a lobbyist, you do not have to sever your friendship and
stop meeting them socially. If you are married to one,
you do not have to get divorced! But do make sure that
the ground rules are understood, that you make proper
arrangements to deal with any conflict of interest and
that you do not get tempted into doing something which
would lay you open to criticism or be misunderstood.
Source: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk
consultancies and corporate networks into other parts
of the world. However, despite this apparent Western
hegemony of ideas in the field of public affairs, it would
be wrong to suggest that public affairs takes the same
form in organisations across the world irrespective of
the local economic, social and political environment.
Indeed research in the field of international corporate
public affairs has revealed significant variations in how
public affairs is understood, organised and practiced,
even across the different offices of the same global oper-
ating companies.
It is almost certainly the case nowadays that most
major international corporations have recognised the
need for some form of public affairs function whether
provided via an in-house team, by means of external
consultants or a combination of the two. However,
there does not appear to be any uniform structure or
formula for how the public affairs function should be
best organised, let alone managed. Drawing parallels
with research into international/global public relations
practice (e.g. see Sriramesh and Veri 2009), it is per-
haps only to be expected that there might be differ-
ences, perhaps some quite marked, in the way in which
public affairs is understood, organised and practiced in
different parts of the world (see also Wakefield 2011).
Here Sriramesh and Veris analytical framework for
examining international/global variations in public
relations can, arguably, also provide a useful starting
23/03/2017 13:20
 402 Part 3Public relations specialisms
point in analysing and perhaps predicting the likely
variations in public affairs practice. This framework
focuses on the importance of the environmental con-
text in determining how public relations (or, for our
purposes, public affairs) is understood and practiced.
In particular they highlighted the significance of the
socioeconomic, political and media environments as
constraining and influencing factors on both the his-
torical development of public relations, as well as on
contemporary practice.
Arguably these same contextual variables are likely
to have an equally formative influence on how pub-
lic affairs has developed and is understood and prac-
ticed today. Perhaps most importantly, the political
system and structures in any country/society will very
much frame and shape how far it is possible for public
affairs practitioners to function in the type of conven-
tional role that they have typically played in Western
democracies. To take a somewhat extreme example, it
is very difficult to see public affairs functioning in its
conventional role and manner in autocratic command-
and-control regimes such as have prevailed in North
Korea or Burma. Yet public affairs practitioners have
adapted and found ways to work effectively with the
newly emerged states that formed after the break up
of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, e.g. in Russia,
Ukraine, etc., albeit that the nature of the political
systems and climate in these newly formed countries
dictated that the approaches taken to corporate public
affairs may be very different to those that might be
adopted in most Western regimes.
Focusing on the issue of globalisation and its impli-
cations for communications/public relations practice,
Wakefield (2011) suggests that the most effective
approach for globally based organisations may lie in
applying the principles of glocalisation to all func-
tional strategies including global communications and
public affairs management. Essentially the glocalisa-
tion approach attempts to apply centrally determined
core strategies while also enabling locally based prac-
titioners the freedom to adapt and tailor their public
affairs approach to the local prevailing setting and
priorities. This approach recognises where compro-
mise and a softly-softly approach may yield better
longer term results than an unbending, standardised
approach. Indeed in some of the more difficult political
climates around the world it is generally acknowledged
that the work of the public affairs function is often
critical to gaining access for companies to trade and
do business in what might be quite heavily regulated or
government controlled markets. In such cases, public
affairs expertise is needed to help steer the organisa-
tion through what can be very difficult and politically
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 402
sensitive market channels. Further insights into work-
ing in an international context both in terms of public
relations and public affairs are provided earlier in this
book (see Chapter6).
Public affairs management
There has been a growing base of academic and pro-
fessional literature focused on the area of public affairs
over the past decade or more (see for example the Jour-
nal of Public Affairs), yet despite growing interest in
defining public affairs, examining the role and scope
of public affairs and examining the elements of pub-
lic affairs practice, relatively little attention has been
paid to the question of determining how the public
affairs function is or should be managed, and equally
what best practice looks like and how it should be
achieved. In a study of global public affairs, one of the
underlying initial interests of organisations engaged
in the research was to explore the characteristics of
best practice in global public affairs. It soon became
apparent, however, that such a quest for any universal
principles of best practice in public affairs was likely
to prove something of a futile quest (Journal of Pub-
lic Affairs, 2012 12: 1). In effect, what emerged was
that the most effective forms of practice were likely
to prove very situational and reflect very much the
systems, values, culture and prevailing management
worldviews characterising each organisation, and
thereby shaping priorities and the approach taken to
public affairs.
MACIE: A functional management
framework
It is somewhat ironic that while most definitions of
public relations and corporate communications or for
that matter, public affairs, position these functions as
essentially managerial in character, talking, for exam-
ple, about the management of communication between
an organisation and its publics, or managing the
interface between organisations and government, few
actually define the managerial processes and respon-
sibilities involved in any detail. Indeed, there is a lack
of any clear framework for analysing the component
elements of the management process, or management
stages involved in managing the various forms of inter-
nal and external communication on behalf of an organ-
isation. Indeed, as Moss (Moss et al. 2005, 2007; Moss
and DeSanto 2011) has pointed out, communications
23/03/2017 13:20

Think about 21.3 Best practice concept in public affairs
A study of international public affairs illustrated the prob-
lems of attempting to identify the characteristics of best
practice in any functional area (Journal of Public Affairs,
2012: 1.) One of the organisations participating in the study
had been through a major restructuring exercise, along-
side a change of senior management, which had led to
significant reductions in staffing across all functions includ-
ing public affairs. This restructuring inevitably impacted
on how the function operated both on an international
global basis, as well as at each regional level as reduc-
tions in headcount impacted to differing degrees across
the organisations offices. This one lesson that emerged
from this study was that any attempt to achieve best
Explore 21.2
Conduct a search of the literature in a number of pro-
fessional areas such as accountancy, medicine, engi-
neering, etc. to identify whether and how the concept
of best practice is understood and what criteria, if
any, have been identified to measure best practice.
and public relations scholars have generally failed to
acknowledge and draw on the extensive body of man-
agement literature when discussing the management
role within the function. Thus, for example, in defining
the managers role in public relations there is little rec-
ognition of the evolving debate between the classical
models of management as advanced by scholars such
as Gulick and Urwick (1937) and Fayol (1949), which
defined management in terms of a set of basic tasks or
elements of management responsibility (see Box21.7),
and the subsequent behavioural critique of this clas-
sical school, which recognises the need to distinguish
between management tasks and responsibilities, and
managerial behaviours (Mintzberg, 1973, 1990; Hales
1986). In short, distinguishing between what tasks or
roles managers are responsible for carrying out, and
how they go about performing them.
In attempting to explore the managerial dimension
of public relations in more detail, Moss et al. (2000,
2005, 2007) sought to define a number of core dimen-
sions of communication management as well as offer-
ing a strong critique of the existing definitions of the
public relations manager role. Building on this work
more recently, Moss (2011) has suggested a simple yet
powerful framework for examining and analysing the
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 403
Chapter 21Public affairs 403
practice or the most effective practice clearly depends
on the adequacy and quality of the personnel working in
the function. Where there is significant pressure on head-
count and cost reduction, it may be incompatible, at least
in the short term, with efforts to focus attention on defin-
ing and achieving what might constitute functional best
practice. Of course, in principle, staffing and cost reduc-
tion are not inconsistent with efficiencies and hence more
effective practice they may, in fact, lie at the heart of
improved performance but developing such a recogni-
tion and ingraining it into the way that the organisation
and its functions operate is inevitably a challenging, and
for some organisations, painful process.
Box 21.7
The classical models
of management
The classical perspective of management treats man-
agement as a logical, rational activity that can be bro-
ken down into a number of discrete but related tasks.
One of the best known such models is that advanced
by Gulick and Urwick (1937), which defined seven
core elements of management planning, organising,
staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budget-
ing which became known in management circles by
the acronym POSDCORB.
key elements of the management process that arguably
can be applied to all communication functions includ-
ing public affairs. The four stages, or elements, in this
management process arguably encompass what can
Think about 21.4
What managers do
Think about what any people you know who work in
a managerial-type job do on a day-to-day basis. What
sort of responsibilities do they have, what skills do
they seem to need to demonstrate, and if you com-
pare a number of managers do they all have the same
type of responsibilities?
23/03/2017 13:20
 404 Part 3Public relations specialisms
be seen as the key tasks and responsibilities that com-
munication/public affairs managers perform in most
organisational settings namely analysing the situation
they face, making choices about how best to respond,
implementing the chosen set of actions and evaluat-
ing the outcomes. Moreover, this four-stage process
can be seen to apply to both strategically important
decisions and actions as well as to dealing with more
routine operational matters. What this framework
does not identify explicitly, however, are the specific
managerial behaviours associated with performance of
key tasks at each of these stages. However, managerial
behaviour and managerial work are not always so eas-
ily separated and, in fact, can be seen as two-sides of
the same coin representing the what and the how stand and, where possible, anticipate the forces shap-
of managerial work. This four-stage communications
management framework which includes public rela-
tions and public affairs is designated by the acronym
[C]-MACIE:
[Communications] management analysis
[Communications] management choice
[Communications] management implementation
[Communications] management evaluation
This framework, adapted for public affairs pur-
poses, is illustrated in Figure21.2 below, and each ele-
ment or stage of the process as they relate to the area
Figure 21.2 MACIE framework: a model for public affairs management (source: adapted from Moss and Dessanto 2011)
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 404
of public affairs is explained briefly in the next section
of this chapter.
Public affairs: management analysis
The first element in this framework, communication/
public affairs management analysis, represents the
essential first step in the communication management
process namely analysing the particular situation
facing the organisation and determining the issues
and challenges that need to be tackled. At the more
strategic level, such analysis is concerned with the
essential work of continually scanning, analysing and
interpreting data from the organisations external and
internal environments in order to identify and under-
ing the current (and future) situation the organisation
faces, particularly in terms of its relationship with
key stakeholder groups, the issues that affect these
relationships and the implications for the organisa-
tions communication/public affairs strategies. At the
day-to-day operational level, such analysis involves
examining the more immediate challenges that might
be faced, identifying how best to husband and utilise
resources, how to deploy people and manage avail-
able budgets, etc.
In terms of analysis tools, many of the techniques
that both public affairs and broader based commu-
nications professionals can use to help scan, assess
23/03/2017 13:20
 Chapter 21Public affairs 405

and interpret the nature of the environments in which

their organisations operate, and identify the commu-
nications issues and challenges they face, are com-
mon across a range of functional disciplines such as
PESTLE, SWOT and stakeholder and issues analy-
sis. The way these analysis tools can be employed to
help make sense of situations and identify priorities
for action was discussed earlier, in Chapter 9, and
you might find it useful to revisit this section of the
book to remind yourself about these techniques at
this stage. A summary of the purpose and methods
associated with each of these key analysis techniques
is provided in Figure21.3.
Of all the analysis techniques, issue analysis is a par-
ticularly critical element of the public affairs analysis
and planning process and is examined further below.
Here, Mini case study 21.2 illustrates the importance of
understanding how changes, in this case in government
Picture 21.2 Solar energy is an important government
policy, might create serious issues and challenges for
policy agenda issue for many countries. What are the
an organisation or whole industrys operations. This
key issues on which to build a campaign and which
initial context analysis should not only look outward, stakeholder groups should the campaign engage with?
assessing the external environment and external issues, Source: Shutterstock.com/Elena Eliseeva
but should also review past communications activ-
ity and internal resources and capabilities to enable and tactics. Here the use of a communications audit
the subsequent identification and choice of the most can provide the necessary data to conduct this type of
appropriate communications/public affairs strategies internal capability review.

Figure 21.3 The intermediary role of public affairs and communcations in the business/government relationship

M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 405 23/03/2017 13:20

 406 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Mini case study 21.2
Turning the lights out on
solar power installations
As part of its climate change strategy, the UK Govern-
ments Department of Energy and Climate Change
(DECC) launched a Feed-in Tariff subsidy scheme
whereby households installing solar panels to help meet
their electricity consumption were able to receive a spe-
cially enhanced subsidy payment for surplus electricity
generated from the solar panels that they would sell
back into the local grid. The scheme generated wide-
spread interest across the UK on the back of an extensive
advertising and public relations campaign. The number
of solar energy installers also expanded rapidly to meet
the demand and exploit the market opportunity. Then in
December 2011 the DECC announced a cut to Feed-in
Tariff subsidies that would apply to any installation after
12 December that year.
Environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth (FoE)
and two solar companies Solarcentury and HomeSun
challenged this announcement because the change was
made before the end of a consultation period for the
solar scheme.
Think about 21.5
Taking an organisation with which you are familiar,
conduct a thorough external environment analysis
using the techniques discussed and identify what you
see as the key communications/public affairs chal-
lenges that the organisation needs to address.
As suggested above, as well as earlier in the chap-
ter, of the various environmental analysis techniques
available, it is issue analysis that generally has the
greatest relevance and importance for public affairs,
in terms of teasing out those problematic consequences
of stakeholderorganisational relationships, which in
turn may be shaped by environment trends and events.
Indeed, issues management is normally recognised
as an integral part of the public affairs management
framework and is crucial to its success (Hainsworth
and Meng 1988; Heath 2002). Here, in particular,
public affairs takes the classical view of issue manage-
ment that focuses on defining the key public policy
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 406
The High Court then ruled in December 2011 that the
change was legally flawed, but the DECC launched an
appeal to have this ruling overturned.
The appeal leaves households who have installed solar
panels after this date with no guarantee of the rate they
will receive for generating energy. The change in the
scheme means that the amount paid for solar-panel
generated electricity was reduced from 43.3p per kWh
to 21p slashing the revenue that can be earned on
average by households from 1100 to 500.
The uncertainty over the proposed change of policy with
respect to the level of feed-in subsidy effectively torpe-
doed any further growth in the household solar panel
market, and threatened to bring about the demise of a
number of firms that had expanded rapidly into what had
promised to be a very attractive new market.
Put yourself in the position of the public affairs advisor
appointed to advise the solar energy industry, and specifi-
cally solar panel installers about how they should respond
to the DECCs proposed cut in feed-in tariff. What are the
key issues on which to build a campaign and which stake-
holder groups should the campaign engage with?
Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/
bills/article-2082270/Government-launches-appeal-
High-Court-ruling-deemed-cut-solar-panel-feed-tariff-
subsidies-legally-flawed.html#ixzz1inkqMfKo
issues that may impact on the organisations current
operations and future strategy public policy issues
being those that arise out of the nexus and interaction
of business, government and citizens see (Figure21.3).
Here the issues life cycle concept is often used to help
track the momentum of issues and identify their esca-
lation towards what can be a crisis point. Further dis-
cussion of issues management process as a means of
mapping and analysing issues that are relevant to any
specific organisation can be found earlier in the text.
Public affairs management choice
The work of communication/public affairs analysis
prepares the way for what is often seen as the core
task of management, namely exercising management
choice with respect to the appraisal and selection of
alternative strategy options, or decisions about what
operational actions should be undertaken. For com-
munications/public affairs managers, these choices
centre around decisions about which challenges or
issues they should focus attention on, which stake-
holders will need to be targeted, what communication/
public affairs strategies should be adopted and what
23/03/2017 13:20

specific tactics should be used. Equally, at the commu-
nications department level, management choice may
involve decisions about how to allocate responsibili-
ties amongst staff, how resources should be utilised
and what tasks should be prioritised, to name but a
few of numerous choice decisions that managers face
every week if not every day.
Decisions particularly about the choice of alterna-
tive communications/public affairs strategies invariably
involve consultation and approval of senior manage-
ment. Indeed, as essentially a support function, the role
of the public affairs function is to support and facilitate
the achievement of the organisations broader corpo-
rate goals and strategies, and hence communications/
public affairs management decisions will normally take
a lead from these higher level decisions.
Choice tools
Choice tools or techniques are the methods that man-
agers can draw upon to help determine the best options
for the organisation to pursue. Although it is beyond
the scope of this chapter to explore in detail some of
the more sophisticated choice or decision-making tools
available, it is worth highlighting some of the more
commonly used techniques that can be used in this
context. Of course, ultimately, choice decisions usually
come down to a judgement call by the senior profes-
sionals charged with decision-making responsibility.
However, many larger organisations nowadays have
access to relatively sophisticated computer systems that
are capable of collecting, sifting and analysing large
quantities of data, and conducting probability and risk
analysis on the likely outcome of different future sce-
narios. Clearly, such analysis can perhaps take some of
the guess work out of decisions about future courses
of action. However, such systems are only mathemati-
cal modelling processes, and predicting the vagaries of
human behaviour and accounting for the often bound-
edly rational behaviour of individuals and/or groups
can make any such systematic reductionist approaches
problematic, particularly when it comes to predicting
future scenarios that depend on human actions and
behaviour. Some of the more commonly used choice
decision tools include:
Ranking methods: alternative options are assessed
against an agreed set of predetermined criteria that
are identified as important to the organisation
such as cost or investment considerations, fit with
resource capabilities, or even ethical considerations.
Scenario building: the idea is to match alternative
options against a range of possible future scenar-
ios in order to assess the best fit, given alternative
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 407
Chapter 21Public affairs 407
future situations. Of course the challenge here is to
second guess future developments whether they be
at an industry level or, perhaps more problemati-
cally, at a societal level and how such developments
might manifest themselves in terms of stakeholder
behaviour.
Decision tree analysis: another method of assess-
ing alternative courses of action, but here pre-
ferred options emerge progressively by introducing
requirements of preferred conditions which need
to be met, such as for example, levels of accept-
able risk. Here the construction of a decision
tree diagram is often a useful visual aid to such
decision-making.
Risk analysis: an approach that often works along-
side choice techniques in terms of attempts to assess
the degree of hazard or adverse consequence asso-
ciated with alternative courses of action, weighed
against the potential rewards. Statistical proba-
bilistic risk assessment methods have been devel-
oped to try to assess the level of risk associated
with specific projects, but the value and accuracy of
such measures depends very much on the adequacy
and accuracy of the input data the magnitude or
severity of the adverse consequences of each event,
and the likelihood of occurrence of that event. Of
course, the application of such probabilistic analy-
sis is most suited to physical engineering and pro-
cess projects than to predicting the consequences
of alternative patterns of human behaviours. In the
latter case, however, risk assessment can be under-
taken but is often based on collective judgements
made by panels of experts and experienced manag-
ers from the field in question.
Public affairs management implementation
Much of the discussion of the communication/pub-
lic affairs management process tends to focus on the
analysis and strategic and operational decision-making
(choice) stages of the process, rather than on implemen-
tation. However, how communications/public affairs
departments manage the implementation of their poli-
cies or strategies and programmes is arguably no less
important to achieving their intended outcome, since
even the most well-designed strategies and programmes
can fail through poorly managed implementation. It is
generally recognised that the key to successful imple-
mentation of communications/public affairs policies
and programmes lies in the effective management of
people and resources involved in their delivery.
Arguably, communications/public affairs functions
and professionals have historically had a relatively
23/03/2017 13:20
 408 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Think about 21.6 Public affairs accountability
Perhaps one of the most controversial aspects of pub-
lic affairs work relates to the expenditure on activities
designed to help build and sustain key relationships with
politicians, civil servants, etc. How such expenditure on
corporate hospitality and other relationship building
activities is budgeted and accounted may be very dif-
ficult to assess. Moreover, the professional standards
and mores of doing business in the USA or UK may be
very different from what is the acceptable norm in other
poor track record in terms of many aspects of effec-
tive people management and more particularly bud-
getary management. However, such criticisms have
perhaps been much more relevant to the consultancy
sector than to in-house communications/public affairs
departments. Both areas of people management and
budgetary or financial management are ones that have
not necessarily been recognised as core areas of pro-
fessional competence associated with communications/
public affairs. However, with increasing investment in
communications/public affairs activity, notably on the
part of large corporate and multinational corporations
in particular, communications/public affairs functions
are expected to demonstrate the same level of profes-
sionalism and accountability for the use of resources
and management of people that is expected of all other
corporate functions.
Public affairs evaluation
The final element of this public affairs management
framework focuses on evaluation of the outcomes of
the communications/public affairs functions strategies
Box 21.8
Balanced scorecard
According to the Balanced Score Card Institute (BSCI), a
balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and manage-
ment system that is used extensively in business, industry
and government, as well as in non-profit organisations
worldwide to align business activities to the vision and
strategy of the organisation. Here the purpose is to
improve internal and external communications, and
monitor organisational performance against strategic
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 408
parts of the world. Consider the challenge for public
affairs when confronted with doing business in a country
where effectively bribes and under the counter pay-
ment is treated as an acceptable part of doing business.
Essentially such issues, while perhaps more relevant to a
discussion of professional ethics, equally impinge on the
questions of effective implementation of programmes.
How would you advise your senior public affairs man-
agement team to behave faced with such a situation?
and programmes. The issue of effective evaluation has
long been something of an Achilles heel for all areas
of communications, including public affairs. However,
at least in principle, evaluation should not prove an
overly complicated task, but the difficulty has always
been in identifying, isolating and measuring the impact
of communications/public affairs programmes. Here
the aim is to establish, firstly, the extent to which
the immediate programme and longer-term policy
objectives have been achieved, and secondly, the sig-
nificance of external and internal factors affecting the
programme outcomes. As suggested above, organisa-
tional objectives and targets have increasingly become
more diverse, reflecting the need to balance different
stakeholder expectations of organisations recognising
that financial performance may have to be set against
other environmental, social and even political consid-
erations affecting an organisations longer-term posi-
tion and success. Where organisations have accepted
the need for this type of balanced scorecard approach
(see Box21.8 below) to objective and target setting
(e.g. Kaplan and Norton 1992), it follows that any
goals. The BSCI framework adds strategic non-financial
performance measures to traditional financial metrics to
give managers and executives a more balanced view of
organisational performance. While the phrase balanced
scorecard was coined in the early 1990s, the origins of
this type of approach can be traced back to the early and
mid-twentieth century including the pioneering work of
General Electric on performance measurement reporting
in the 1950s and the work of French process engineers in
the early part of the twentieth century.
For further insight into the nature and use of the B
alanced
Score Card approach see The Balanced Score Card Insti-
tute: www. balancedscorecard.org
23/03/2017 13:20

Think about 21.7
Review the public affairs campaigns that you have
come across or read about over the past few months
in PR Week, Public Affairs News or the Journal of Pub-
lic Affairs, etc., and identify what forms of evaluation
are being used to evaluate the success of the reported
campaigns.
evaluation of performance and outcomes will need to
use an appropriate set of quantitative and qualitative
performance measures. While this discussion of bal-
anced scorecards and more pluralistic organisational
objectives and performance measures has focused
mainly on the areas of broader corporate and busi-
ness policy and strategy making, the arguments can be
applied equally to the area of communications/public
affairs policies and programmes. Indeed, communica-
tions/public affairs practitioners are generally seen as
advocates and champions of a broader stakeholder
perspective of organisational and business strategy
and policy-making. Thus it is perhaps only logical to
expect them to be advocates of a balanced scorecard
approach to the evaluation of their work, reflecting the
potentially varied range of ways in which activities can
contribute to organisational success.
Thus while in principle there would appear to be
broad agreement about what is required in terms of
Summary
Public affairs has become an increasingly important cor-
porate and organisational function in many of todays
more turbulent, increasingly globalised and politicised
business environments. In this chapter we have explored
how public affairs is understood and defined, highlight-
ing the polarised nature of how public affairs tends to
be viewed and understood. Traditional views of public
affairs position it as essentially a specialised government
relations or lobbying function, whereas public affairs has,
in many cases, assumed the mantle of overseeing a broad
cross-section of c ommunications-related subfunctions
such as issues management, community relations and
CSR (see also Chapters 5 and 16).
However, lobbying activity in its various forms,
directed at government and government departments
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 409
Chapter 21Public affairs 409
communications/public affairs evaluation, in prac-
tice, identifying appropriate measures and carrying
out the evaluation of the outcomes of designated pro-
grammes has proved highly problematic, particularly
in terms of isolating and measuring the specific com-
munications/public affairs effects. Here the debates
about communications evaluation have tended to
crystallise around the distinction between process
and impact measurement (Dozier 1984; Grunig and
Hunt 1984; Broom and Dozier 1990; Macnamara
1992). Although this debate has focused on the eval-
uation of public relations programmes rather than
public affairs, arguably many of the measurement
techniques both process and impact measures can
be seen to be more or less applicable to public affairs.
There are, of course, some more obviously relevant
impact measures for public affairs, particularly where
the functions goal relates to the change or modifica-
tion or passing of a specific piece of legislation or reg-
ulation. In such cases, any measurement of the media
coverage generated can only reveal part of the story
of activity directed at bringing about legislative modi-
fication or change. It is only the achievement of the
legislative change itself that can be said to represent a
full measure of the public affairs programmes impact
or success. A fuller examination of the debates about
approaches to communications/public relations evalu-
ation was provided earlier in this book ( Chapter10)
and it may be worth revisiting this chapter to refresh
your memory about the theme of what constitutes
effective evaluation.
at all levels, remains the day-to-day bread and butter
work of the public affairs function. With the interna-
tionalisation of most markets and the opening up of
a number of previously closed trading areas, public
affairs is playing an increasingly important role in liais-
ing with relevant government and regulatory bodies
in some of the new countries keen to develop trade
with the UK. Finally, it is perhaps also worth recog-
nising that because public affairs normally focuses
on the legislative and regulatory dimensions of an
organisations operating environment, arguably pub-
lic affairs often may have the potential, particularly
in highly regulated industries, to have a far more sig-
nificant and profound impact on the realisation of an
organisations strategic goals than a more commercial
consumer or business-to-businessrelated communi-
cations campaign.
23/03/2017 13:20
 410 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Bibliography
Argenti, P (2009). Corporate communication: Interna-
tional Edition. New York: Irwin McGraw-Hill
Broom, G.M. and D.M. Dozier (1990). Using Research
in Public Relations: Applications to program manag-
ment. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Cornelissen, J. (2008). Corporate Communications: A
guide to theory and practice, 2nd edition. London:
Sage.
Dozier, D.M. (1984). Program evaluation and roles of
practitioners. Public Relations Review 10(2): 1321.
Fayol, H. (1949). General and Industrial Management.
London: Pitman.
Fleisher, C.S. and N.M. Blair (1999). Tracing the par-
allel evolution of public affairs and public relations:
An examination of practice, scholarship and teach-
ing. Journal of Communication Management 3(3):
27692.
Griffin, J.J. and P. Dunn (2004). Corporate public affairs:
Commitment, resources, and structure. Business &
Society, 43(2): 196220.
Grunig, J.E. and T. Hunt (1984). Managing Pub-
lic Relations. Orlando, Florida, Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.
Grunig, J.E. and L.A. Grunig (1992). Models of public
relations and communication in Excellence in pub-
lic relations and communication management (pp.
285325). J.E. Grunig (ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
Grunig, L.A., et al. (2002). Excellent Public Relations and
Effective Organisations. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erl-
baum Associates.
Gulick, L. and L. Urwick (1937). (eds) Papers on the Sci-
ence of Administration. New York: Institute of Public
Administration.
Hainsworth, B. and M. Meng (1988). How corporations
define issue management. Public Relations Review
14(4): 1830.
Hales, C. (1986). What do managers do? A critical review
of the evidence. Journal of Management Studies
23(1): 88115.
Harris, P. and D. Moss (2001). Editorial: In search of
public affairs: A function in search of an identity.
Journal of Public Affairs 1(2): 10210.
Heath, R.L. (1994). Management of Corporate Com-
munication: From interpersonal contacts to external
affairs. Abingdon: Routledge.
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 410
Heath, R.L. (2002). Issues management: Its past, pre-
sent and future. Journal of Public Affairs 2(4):
209214.
Hillman, A.J. (2002). Public affairs, issue management
and political strategy: Methodological issues that
count a different view. Journal of Public Affairs
1(4) & 2(1), 356361.
Hutton, J.G., M.B. Goodman, J.B. Alexander and C.M.
Genest (2001). Reputation management: the new
face of corporate public relations? Public Relations
Review 27(3): 24761.
Kaplan, R. and D. Norton (1992). The balanced score-
card: Measures that drive performance. Harvard
Business Review 70(1): 719.
Macnamara, J. (1992). Evaluation of public relations;
the Achilles heel of the PR profession. International
Public Relations Review 15(4): 1731.
McGrath, C., D. Moss and P. Harris (2010). The evolving
discipline of public affairs. Journal of Public Affairs
10(4): 33552.
Miller, C. (2000). Politicos Guide to Political Lobbying.
London: Politicos Publishing.
Mintzberg, H. (1973). The Nature of Managerial Work.
New York: Harper & Row.
Mintzberg, H. (2009). Managing. Harlow: FT, Prentice
Hall.
Moss, D.A. and G. Warnaby (2000). Public relations
practitioner role enactment at the senior management
level within UK companies. Journal of Public Rela-
tions Research 12(4): 227308.
Moss, D.A, A.J. Newman and B. Desanto (2005).
What do communication managers do? Defining
and refining the core elements of management in
the public relations/communications context. Jour-
nalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 82(4):
87390.
Moss, D.A,. B. DeSanto and A.J. Newman (2007).
Building an understanding of the main elements of
management in the communication/public relations
context: A study of U.S. practitioner practices.
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
84(3): 439454
Moss, D.A and B. Desanto (eds) (2011). Public Relations:
A managerial perspective. London: Sage
Nugent, N. (2010). The Government and Politics of the
European Union. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Pedler, R.H. (eds) (2002). European Union Lobbying:
changes in the arena. Houndmills: Palgrave.
23/03/2017 13:20

Pedler, R.H. and M.P.C.M. Van Schendelen (eds)
(1994). Lobbying the European Union: Compa-
nies, trade associations and issue groups. Aldershot:
Dartmouth.
Post, J. (1982). Public affairs: its role in The Public
Affairs Handbook (pp. 2330). J.S. Nagelschmidt
(ed.). New York: Amacom.
Showalter, A. and C.S. Fleisher (2005). The tools and
techniques of public affairs in The Handbook of Pub-
lic Affairs (pp. 10922). P. Harris and C.S. Fleisher
(eds). London: Sage.
Websites
The Daily Telegraph: www.dailytelegraph.co.uk
The Guardian: www.guardianunlimited
Parliament www.Parliament.uk
www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2005 accessed 26 September 2008
M21 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 411
Chapter 21Public affairs 411
Sriramesh, K. and D. Veri (eds). (2009). The Global
Public Relations Handbook: Theory, research
and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
van Riel, C.B.M. (1995). Principles of Corporate Com-
munication. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.
Wakefield, R. (2011). Managing global public relations in
Public Relations: A managerial perspective (pp. 467
85). D.A. Moss and B. Desanto (eds). London: Sage.
Zetter, L. (2008) Lobbying: The art of political persua-
sion. Petersfield: Harriman House.
23/03/2017 13:20
 C H AP T ER 22 Clea Bourne

Public relations in the world of finance

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
identify some of the different PR activities in global financial centres
distinguish the range of interests represented by PR in financial markets
understand some of the challenges of communicating finance to different stakeholders
appreciate the skills and training that are beneficial to PR practitioners in this sector.

Structure
PR for global financial centres: the context
Public relations in wholesale financial markets
Public relations in retail financial markets
Media in financial centres
The global financial crisis

M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 412 23/03/2017 13:20


Introduction
So much of daily life depends on the
wheels of finance to keep things going.
We are used to withdrawing money from
a cash machine whenever we need it,
without thinking about how that service
is organised. It is increasingly normal to
have student debt, credit card debt or
a mortgage on our homes. Many of us
are investors in company shares, bonds,
property or other assets without even
knowing it, because we do so through a
life insurance policy or pension scheme.
Our daily lives have become increasingly
financialised as we seek to get ahead in a
globalised world (Martin 2002).
The wheels of finance are also cru-
cial in helping businesses to invest in
infrastructure, to expand and enter new
Picture 22.1 Frankfurt home of the German stock exchange and the European Central Bank is one of the worlds
leading financial centres (source: Siegfried Layda/Getty Images)
M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 413
Chapter 22Public relations in the world of finance
markets. Finance has enabled major
commercial developments in green
energy such as solar panels, wind farms
and hybrid cars; together with one-
of-a-kind projects on a grand scale
constructing major oil rigs or launching
the worlds largest telescope. Govern-
ments need finance too to manage the
flow of money in the economy, to bor-
row money to facilitate trade, to invest
in social housing, schools, hospitals and
major infrastructure such as highways,
or the expansion of the Panama and
Suez Canals. These multifaceted areas
make public relations (PR) in the world
of finance a fascinating activity.
Much of the arranging and issuing
of finance takes place across scores of
413
international financial centres, particu-
larly the four leading centres London,
New York, Hong Kong and Singapore
(Z/Yen 2015). Major European centres
include Zurich, Geneva and Frankfurt.
Tokyo and Seoul are significant play-
ers in Asia/Pacific; together with Dubai
in the Middle East; Toronto, San Fran-
cisco and Washington DC in North
America; Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro
in South America and Johannesburg in
Africa (Z/Yen 2015). It is in the larg-
est, most global financial centres and
their satellites that PR has evolved into
a range of activities representing finan-
cial markets.
23/03/2017 13:20
 414 Part 3Public relations specialisms
PR for global financial centres:
the context
Public relations as a specialist activity in major finan-
cial centres came into its own after many Western
economies deregulated and liberalised in the 1980s,
releasing money to move more freely around the globe.
In these locations, financial markets expanded rapidly
in size, complexity and distribution channels as more
companies turned to capital markets for finance, issu-
ing bonds and shares, merging with or acquiring other
companies. For more than 20 years, many developed
and developing countries experienced faster growth in
their financial sectors than in their actual economies.
In this fast-changing environment, public relations
became an important means of building credibility in
and shaping attitudes toward financial markets. PR
enabled various groups of financial experts to compete
by promoting their differentiation. PR was also enlisted
to build compelling narratives about all sorts of finan-
cial products and services offering safety and protection
from risk, while meeting the needs of the future. Above
all, PR helped position investment as the discovery of
hidden financial opportunities, thus supporting the value
of financial instruments and the growth of financial
markets. Such PR activity is not without controversy,
as will be discussed later on in the chapter. For now, it is
worth acknowledging that in many countries, financial
services contributes to a substantial portion of domestic
productivity, while the world of finance is responsible
for a significant share of the money spent on PR.
Today, there are many different roles for PR within
financial centres. Some PR practitioners represent pub-
licly quoted companies, as part of their overall com-
munications role. Others are the sole PR representative
within a financial institution or professional services
firm. Still others belong to small in-house PR teams, or
are part of large teams where each PR practitioner rep-
resents a single financial product line or business area.
Some practitioners work for PR agencies representing
both listed companies and financial institutions.
In addition to the range of PR roles, there are a
number of different specialisms within financial sector
communication from individuals focused on pub-
lic affairs and lobbying on behalf of financial services
to those engaged in business-to-business (B2B) activity
or in consumer finance, and finally, those focused on
investor relations and financial PR. Of the various spe-
cialisms, financial PR is arguably the best-known, com-
ing into its own when financial markets opened up in
the1980s. Financial PR addresses the communication
M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 414
needs of companies accessing finance from capital mar-
kets through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), initial
public offerings (IPOs) and the marketing of shares and
bond issues (see Explore22.1). Of all the PR activity in
financial markets, financial PR is seen as the most quan-
tifiable, because of the immediate impact it can have on
a companys share price.
As more and more financial institutions opened their
doors, PR practitioners began to represent all sorts of
financial providers including investment banks, asset
managers, private equity firms, retail banks, credit
card companies, supermarket banks, insurance com-
panies, building societies, wealth managers, stockbro-
kers, mortgage specialists and financial advisers. As the
rules of marketing professional services were modified,
practitioners also represented the professional services
firms offering financial services expertise, including
law firms, accountancy firms, actuarial firms, manage-
ment consultants and other intermediaries.
Although there are no precise data available on the
number of PR professionals representing financial mar-
kets, in the UK home to the worlds largest financial
centre (Z/Yen 2015) some 20 per cent of in-house
PR practitioners in the private sector work in finan-
cial services/corporate PR. Of those working for PR
Explore 22.1
Financial public relations
Financial PR practitioners help to promote the many
ways money can be used to help businesses start up,
grow and enter new markets; below are some of the
activities they advise on. What can you discover about
these terms?
Bond issues
Company results
Initial public offering
Proxy battle
M&A
Feedback
Once you have learned a bit about M&A, look for busi-
ness stories about Pfizers acquisition of Allergan in 2015,
the second biggest M&A deal on record. Which PR firms
were involved? What were the messages communicated
by the two companies and their stakeholders? What
familiar products do the two companies make? Why
did US politicians speak out against this deal?
23/03/2017 13:20

Box 22.1
In the spotlight
A financial services PR practitioner in
Zurich, Kilian Borter
As one of the worlds most important financial centres,
Switzerland is the subject of constant media attention,
both nationally and internationally. Against the backdrop
of fiscal transparency initiatives worldwide and European
countries trying to recover assets held by their nation-
als offshore as they seek to tackle their sovereign debt
problems, this focus is even keener today than in the past.
Being a small country, Switzerland has always been very
internationally oriented. It is broadly accepted that the
impact of economic, financial and political aspects are not
limited by its national borders, and neither are the fac-
tors influencing them. There is a strong interdependence
with neighbouring countries, the European Union and
the other important financial centres worldwide. Hence
everything a PR professional in the financial industry
does is international in nature. There is also an important
political dimension, as the international pressure on Swiss
bankclient confidentiality has prompted political discus-
sions of this issue and how to deal with international tax
issues. High bonuses for board members and manage-
ment are also the subject of heated public debate.
This creates an extremely interesting and challenging
environment for PR professionals. More than ever, all
firms, some 26 per cent rank financial services/corpo-
rate among the clients they are most likely to represent
(CIPR 2015). Some of these PR practitioners focus
more on wholesale financial markets (the factory floor
of financial services), whereas others spend more time
working in retail financial markets (the shop window).
Public relations in wholesale
financial markets
Wholesale financial markets are rather like the factory
floor of global finance, where everything takes place
on a large scale: mathematicians and physicists devise
complex models to forecast future financial perfor-
mance; bankers conceive large transactions, or engineer
new and innovative financial products; central banks
M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 415
Chapter 22Public relations in the world of finance 415
communication activities have to take into account the
potential political reaction, while at the same time keep-
ing constant tabs on moves and comments by politicians
that could trigger new disputes or debate on the national
or international level.
The Swiss financial centre is therefore firmly in the spot-
light of both national and international media alike. What
does this mean for Financial Services PR professionals in
Switzerland?
On the one hand, daily working life has become more
challenging. With the advent of online media, everything
has become faster and internal information has more
than ever become intertwined with external communi-
cation. The range of expertise required to deal with these
challenges has changed, and PR specialists now need to
have greater knowledge of other markets, legal and com-
pliance risks, political aspects and regulatory changes.
Last but not least, banks are having to contend with high
pressure on their margins, necessitating more efficient
organisation and changes to business models. These are
all aspects which have to be communicated internally
and externally. While integrated communication was for
a long time merely an expression used to impress, it has
now become a real need. PR professionals now have to
take a broader view, and address a wider range of stake-
holders than just the media and internal audiences.
That said, all these aspects make for a much more
interesting working environment, one where the need
for well-qualified PR expertise is beyond dispute. Be it
internally within companies or as external consultants,
the standing of PR professionals has never been higher.
issue bank notes, monitor currency, manage inflation
and act as lender-of-last-resort to other banks. Here,
too, is where companies make a market for and trade
in large blocks of company shares, in government and
company loans, in commodities such as wheat, corn or
soya, gold, oil or diamonds, together with derivatives
of all these investments. Institutional investors manage
billions in pensions and investment funds, and compa-
nies seek out insurance and reinsurance policies against
potential risks and disasters. In wholesale financial
markets, arrangements are also made to assist compa-
nies with export or trade financing or help countries
borrow large amounts of money.
PR represents a host of established and emerging
players in wholesale financial markets (see F igure22.1),
where communications needs vary. The most high-
profile activity is financial PR those PR practitioners
who promote company results, prepare for share issues,
23/03/2017 13:20
 416 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Figure 22.1 Established and emerging players in wholesale financial markets (source: World Economic Forum 2009)
mergers and acquisitions, and garner investor percep-
tions of company and market activity. Financial PR is
high-profile because it is often well-compensated, par-
ticularly when offering strategic and crisis communi-
cations support for large multinationals and blue chip
companies, as well as for billion dollar cross-border
transactions. While financial PR practitioners often
focus on wholesale markets, aspects of their work
require them to communicate directly with consumers ment policy or industry issues. In various scenarios, a
when representing a new company share issue, for
example, or when promoting company results.
By contrast, there are many PR practitioners work-
ing in wholesale financial markets who are not engaged
in financial PR. They may, instead, represent financial
institutions providing specialist, outsourced services to
other financial institutions, or serving companies in the
wider economy. These PR practitioners may specialise
in corporate communications and/or B2B communica-
tions, in wholesale market roles which include repre-
senting investment bankers targeting corporate clients,
money market funds targeting treasury departments or
asset managers targeting pension schemes.
One of the most important tools for PR practitio-
ners working in wholesale financial markets is thought
leadership, a term used rather loosely to describe the
intellectual firepower (Brocklebank-Fowler 2008: 8)
assembled and published in communications material.
Thought leadership is an important means by which
firms in wholesale markets assert their certainty, skill
and expertise in a way that sets them apart from the
M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 416
competition. In its simplest form, thought leadership
can describe technical articles contributed to specialist
trade publications explaining how a product, service
or legislation works. It can also include the speeches
and presentations made by industry experts at confer-
ences and events. More accurately, thought leadership
describes lengthier, thoughtful documents or white
papers promoting an organisations views on govern-
PR practitioner may be commissioned to write thought
leadership material, assist in editing it, and/or package
completed thought leadership to promote with stake-
holders and the media (Bourne 2015). By promoting
thought leadership, PR can help an accountancy firm,
an investment bank, a management consultant or other
financial expert to establish greater authority and dif-
ferentiation in wholesale financial markets.
Public relations in retail
financial markets
Connecting with savers and
investors
Retail financial markets are the shop window of
the financial world. The shop window connects
ordinary people with finance in many different
23/03/2017 13:20

Mini case study 22.1
Thought leadership:
creating the BRICs
The term BRICs the acronym referring to Brazil, Russia,
India and China is now part of the lexicon due, in some
measure, to PR activity in financial markets. BRICs was
originally coined as an investment term by the asset man-
agement business of Goldman Sachs, the global invest-
ment bank. In 2001, Goldman Sachs published the first
in a series of reports to demonstrate its thought leader-
ship on new global growth opportunities to be found in
emerging markets. However, the initial research introduc-
ing the BRICs concept was scoffed at by many economists
and investment experts. In order to convince Goldman
ways as consumers and taxpayers, savers and inves-
tors, employees and holidaymakers, and as homeown-
ers and pensioners. In highly competitive financial
markets, financial institutions have to work hard
to communicate with customers to keep existing
Think about 22.1
First aid for financial jargon?
Could you be the PR super hero who one day trans-
lates the arcane terms used in everyday finance into
straightforward, compelling language? One veteran
PR practitioner describes the ongoing challenge of
communicating the difference between pensions
and annuities:
What I was not prepared for, on entering the UK life
sector . . . was the sheer lack of interest anyone has in
the pension industry . . . those who would benefit from
understanding annuities, dont; while those who do,
do not need them in the first place . . . I began to real-
ise that the problem may be semantics. Everyone I
know thinks they understand pensions . . . long-term
savings for the time you no longer earn money from
employment. The problem is that they also think that
the money they receive each month in retirement is
also called a pension. As one friend recently put it, it
was a car when I drove it into the garage, why is it a
tractor when I take it out again?
Source: Fulton 2010
M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 417
Chapter 22Public relations in the world of finance 417
Sachs clients and prospects, the BRICs concept would
need to build credibility with global financial experts.
Goldman Sachs asset management arm launched a sus-
tained communications campaign to defend its BRICs
thought leadership in the marketplace of ideas. This was
achieved, in part, through a series of opinion editorials or
op-eds in the Financial Times (FT), targeting the business
and financial elites who form the FTs readership. By using
the FT as a thought leadership channel, Goldman Sachs
could reach chief executives of well-known companies
around the world, some of whom would later cite the
firms thought leadership as the most influential research
they had ever read. In addition to its FT op-eds, Goldman
Sachs also promoted its BRICs concept through annual
reports, corporate videos, client meetings, speeches,
investor presentations and its annual BRICs summits.
Source: Bourne 2015
business, and to cross-sell new products and services
to existing customers. The size of a countrys retail
financial market correlates with levels of affluence,
so it is not surprising that many of the narratives PR
produces for retail finance link to aspirations such as
buying a home, planning a family, saving for a uni-
versity education, taking a dream holiday, insuring
against emergencies and saving for retirement. It is
these narratives which drive PR activity in retail finan-
cial markets, more so than the products enabling these
aspirations, such as bank accounts, general insurance,
personal loans, mortgage loans, credit cards and more
sophisticated, long-term financial products such as
pensions and investments.
PR for retail financial markets is influenced by
technological, geographic and cultural realities as well
as individual attitudes to finance. In some countries,
increased connectivity, transaction speed and efficiency
of e-commerce has enabled new market players to set
up online-only businesses. In these countries, internet
penetration is very high, enabling many people to do
their banking online or on their mobile phones, and
to shop for financial products on the internet. Other
people have very restricted physical access to finance
because they live in isolated rural areas with poor trans-
port and technology links. In certain countries, tradi-
tional financial institutions such as community banks,
credit unions and friendly societies continue to thrive
as mass market providers. Elsewhere, non-traditional
providers such as supermarkets, department stores and
websites are now successfully retailing loans, insurance
and other financial services.
23/03/2017 13:20
 418 Part 3Public relations specialisms
PR practitioners in retail financial markets also need
to be aware that customers have different attitudes to
financial products and services. These attitudes can be
shaped by many factors including personality, family
background and socioeconomic status. Certain indi-
viduals and groups of people also have strong ethical
and religious beliefs about finance, which has led to
the development of special products tailored to these
beliefs (see Think about22.2).
One of the most important considerations for a PR
practitioner in retail financial markets is that finan-
cial products and services are intangible. It can be
hard to compare complicated products, which are
structured and priced in different ways. It can also
be hard to assess risk and uncertainty when buy-
ing long-term savings products as it may be years
before customers know if their purchase will deliver
on its promises. For this reason, much of the PR in
retail financial markets focuses on three es choice
Think about 22.2
Its a good day for gold
Early one April morning, Indian television anchor-
man, Udayan Mukherjee opened his live market show
Bazaar Morning Call on CNBC-TV 18 with this cheery
announcement: Its a good day for gold! Mukherjee
was acknowledging the annual festival of Akshaya
Tritiya, considered an auspicious day in Hindu mythol-
ogy for buying precious metals and making invest-
ments. By the end of the day, the gold price in India
had reached record highs driven by heavy buying to
mark the festival.
Akshaya Tritiya is widely celebrated in Indian com-
munities irrespective of religious faith and social
groupings any ventures initiated on the day are
expected to grow and bring prosperity. The effect
which this festival can have on gold prices is a
reminder to PR practitioners working in financial
markets that it is important to understand cultural
realities and belief systems as well as financial rules
and regulations, for both can affect behaviour in
financial markets.
Feedback
How many other countries or cultures can you think
of which have specific beliefs, special days or festivals
which might influence the way people invest? How
would you take this into account when planning an
annual PR programme for an investment firm?
M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 418
editing, third-party endorsement and financial
education.
The first e choice editing is a necessary service
in highly competitive retail financial markets where
there is overwhelming choice. In these markets, sav-
ers and investors often turn to choice editors (FSA &
Henley Centre 2005) to help them decide what to buy.
PR practitioners often develop campaigns that help to
differentiate financial brands. This way, potential cus-
tomers can discern the different names when leafing
through personal finance pages or when watching and
listening to money programmes on TV or radio, or
surfing the internet. For many consumers, preferred
choice editors are family, friends and peers. Social
media has dramatically changed the power of choice
editing: for example, when Spanish bank, Santander,
raised fees on its popular 123 bank account in the UK,
users on sites such as NetMums announced they would
be ditching the product, urging others to do the same.
In this environment, financial communicators often
generate positive case studies reflecting real customers
genuine experiences with a financial product or service.
These case studies may appear on websites, via social
media, in magazine features, company brochures, on
money programmes or in the personal finance press. In
certain markets, PR practitioners also liaise with price
comparison websites that have established themselves
as professional choice editors one-stop shops where
consumers access powerful databases to learn all they
need to know about available products and services,
at a glance.
Third-party endorsement obtaining credibility
for a financial brand from an outside source (Ehrlich
and Fanelli 2004) is a second activity supported
by PR in retail financial markets (and is equally
important in wholesale markets too). Third-party
endorsement goes a step further than choice edit-
ing as it is effectively a recommendation or seal of
approval from authoritative experts or well-known,
trusted individuals. PR practitioners may aim to get
third-party endorsement from respected journalists,
commentators or independent experts who are in a
position to make positive remarks about a financial
product or service or a companys shares. Third-party
endorsement can also be achieved when a financial
brand, product or service receives commendations in
respected industry surveys, awards and league tables.
PR practitioners sometimes get involved in writing
and submitting award entries and applications for
organisations wishing to be considered among the
best brands in surveys and rankings.
Financial education is the third e of PR activity
in retail financial markets; it involves explaining how
23/03/2017 13:20

financial products and services work, clarifying asso-
ciated risks and simplifying complex terms. Although
financial institutions have a vested interest in educating
consumers, much of the financial education in financial
centres is carried out by government departments, reg-
ulators and non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
which have a broader remit to improve financial capa-
bility. Through international forums such as the Global
Partnership for Financial Inclusion (gpfi.org) launched
by the G20 countries in 2010, many countries now
have a national strategy for financial education and
capability. Agencies associated with such initiatives
use PR to promote financial education via websites,
radio and television, workshops, school and workplace
programmes.
Box 22.2
What skills and
education do you need
for PR in financial
markets?
While some practitioners move into PR after working
in banking, financial journalism or other parts of finan-
cial services, many do not. Whatever your background,
you will be required to understand aspects of financial
markets well in order to explain them to your relevant
stakeholders.
Read avidly
The business and financial media are a useful place
to start learning how finance works. For any PR prac-
titioner just starting out in financial markets, global
newspapers such as The Economist, The Financial Times
and The Wall Street Journal are useful sources, as are
television channels such as Bloomberg, CNBC and spe-
cialist financial programmes on other channels. There
are also a plethora of useful websites, including the
business section of HuffingtonPost, and TheFinanser.
com, a daily blog.
Study broadly
For those still at university, courses in economics and
economics history are worthwhile foundations for under-
standing how finance works. If you havent studied for
years, there are many easy-to-read books on economics
and globalisation including Niall Fergusons The Ascent of
Money, more campaigning titles such as Anne Pettifors
M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 419
Chapter 22Public relations in the world of finance 419
Media in financial centres
The explosion in financial services which took place
across many Western economies in the 1980s helped
drive the growth of specialist financial media in the
larger financial centres. Some of these media organisa-
tions have very recognisable names and global reach,
others are national media houses with strong business
and finance coverage, while a third group consists of
specialist financial titles. In the first category are the
global business and financial media organisations cater-
ing to more financially educated publics from CNBC
to Bloomberg, Reuters and Dow Jones, to the Finan-
cial Times and Wall Street Journal and their associated
Just Money, or the global south perspective of Supriya
Singhs Globalization and Money.
Attend training courses
Once you are on the job, in-house PR roles often provide
training opportunities in your companys specialist field.
PR agency practitioners may also have access to train-
ing budgets. In some countries, PR professional bodies
have specialist financial divisions which occasionally
provide training and seminars. However, it can be more
productive to find specialist training providers offering
financial courses tailored to the needs of non-financial
professionals.
Become financially literate
Financial literacy will be important in establishing your
credibility and will help you to do your job well. Some
practitioners must understand balance sheets and com-
pany accounts thoroughly. Others need to understand
the basic formulae used to calculate pension products,
together with bond yields and interest rates. Some PR
practitioners gain further credibility by earning specialist
qualifications, opting to become qualified financial advis-
ers, studying for the Investment Management Certificate
(IMC), becoming Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) or
even Chartered Management Accountants (CMA).
Know the relevant rules of your market
Whether you represent a life insurer, a general insurer,
a bank, building society, hedge fund, investment man-
ager, a stock broker or a listed company, you must know
the appropriate rules and regulations of the market in
which you operate. In addition, if you are employed in
an in-house role you may be required to pass tests on
anti-money laundering and anti-fraud measures, and/or
to understand rules on staff share dealing before you are
allowed to represent your organisation.
23/03/2017 13:20
 420 Part 3Public relations specialisms
websites. These media houses have their headquarters
in the US and Europe, but they disseminate news to
even the smallest financial markets. They also wield
substantial influence over market players, for example,
helping to drive share prices up and down, or giving
greater visibility to bond market trading, which is not
well-covered in the general business media.
The second category of financial media organ-
isations tend to be regional or national in focus. In
Europe, news outlets such as LAgefi, Borsen Zeitung,
Diario Economico, Les Echos, Expansion, Het Finan-
cieele Dagblad, Finanz und Wirtschaft and Il Sole 24
Ore are among the important contacts for PR prac-
titioners operating in continental financial centres; in
the Asia-Pacific, important outlets include the Austra-
lian Financial Review, The Financial Express (India),
Khaleej Times and the South China Morning Post,
to name just a few. Asia-Pacific is a rapidly evolving
area for financial media: China, for example, has now
admitted certain global media organisations such as
Reuters (which translated its name into the Chinese
characters for penetrating, thorough and transpar-
ent), together with Chinese outlets such as Xinhua.
Some regional and national titles have journalists
covering finance as part of a broader remit to cover
business news. Consequently, they may avoid forensic
coverage of finance so as to avoid boring their audi-
ence (Doyle 2006; Hilton 2008). Editors may encour-
age storylines centred around personalities, events and
intrigues, for example bankers bonuses. National
media may also make business and financial news
accessible by using expert commentators to explain
and interpret financial news in an interesting manner,
sometimes stirring up public controversy as a conse-
quence (Doyle 2006). Dedicated money programmes
on TV and radio, and supplementary sections in news-
papers act as choice editors (FSA & Henley Centre
2005), helping consumers to navigate the range of
personal finance opportunities on offer. Some media
houses and individual journalists and columnists are
quite influential, able to sway customers to surrender
insurance policies or funds or to avoid financial prod-
ucts or company shares altogether. Other journalists
adopt a campaigning stance, helping mum and dad
shareholders the least powerful players in financial
markets to avoid taking precarious risks in order to
make money with their life savings (Pixley 2005).
A third and final media segment in financial mar-
kets is the specialist financial trade press. These
specialist media titles include scores of weekly and
monthly magazines targeting financial profession-
als. Specialist magazines are generally funded by
M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 420
Mini case study 22.2
Survey research in
personal finance
Personal finance brands increasingly use social media
to maintain direct contact with their marketplace. Yet
traditional media remains a crucial form of third-party
endorsement.
However, maintaining visibility in traditional media is
challenging. Newsrooms in many traditional media
houses are shrinking. Yet countless financial brands
compete for attention with me too stories about new
products and services. Journalists who understand
finance often avoid press offices, preferring interme-
diaries or pundits able to paint a broader picture of
the market, and to name-and-shame providers who
rip-off customers.
Meanwhile, mainstream news editors can find finan-
cial stories dull and boring, preferring stories that
entertain. Editors also favour stories that align with
orries
audiences (typically middle class) interests w
over pensions, high taxes, lack of job security, fear of
crime and holding on by a thread the idea that the
middle class is in peril, argues Kendall (2005) is a key
framing device for news.
So how does a retail financial institution find traction
in the media? The survey remains a tried-and-tested
communications tool. Some finance brands commis-
sion a mammoth annual survey. Others spread their
budget over a series of surveys linked to seasonal
stories. The most-cited surveys provide news hooks
appealing to various audience segments by lifestyle
or demographics. Journalists may scoff at their pro-
liferation, but surveys continue to provide fodder for
traditional and digital media alike.
Look at the surveys listed in Table22.1. What mar-
ket segments are represented? How does each survey
relate to the sponsors product or service range?
advertising employment and career ads seeking to
attract the worlds best financial talent, ads for prod-
ucts and services and ads showcasing firms perfor-
mance and achievements. Specialist titles cover every
financial topic imaginable from investment, life insur-
ance and pensions to banking, mortgage products and
23/03/2017 13:20
 Chapter 22Public relations in the world of finance 421

Personal finance brand Region Survey name Press release headline

Banamex/IBBY Mexico Mexico First national survey on digital Banamex and Ibby Mxico present the first
media consumption and reading national survey on digital media

BNP Paribas France Annual BVA/Cetelem Survey Marseille: First stage of Cetelem Tour de
France (Consumers living in the PACA region
are resourceful when tackling projects)

Credit Suisse Switzerland Annual Worry Barometer Unemployment, immigration, and

pensions are the key concerns of the Swiss
public...

HSBC Bank United The Value of Education UK parents struggle to send children to
Kingdom university abroad

Manulife Investment Canada Manulife Bank of Canada Debt More than a third of Canadian
Management Survey homeowners find housing in their area
unaffordable

Old Mutual South Africa Old Mutual Savings and Kick-off a foolproof new savings plan this
Investment Monitor festive season

Rabobank Netherlands Dutch Housing Market Quarterly More than 300,000 households to move
out of negative equity in 2015 and 2016 as
house prices rise

Scotiabank Canada Global Auto Report Driving in Luxury: upscale vehicles lead
sales gains in Canada and across the globe

Scottish Widows United 200 Years of Women and Margaret Thatcher voted most influential
Kingdom Finance woman of the past 200 years

Sun Life Insurance United Annual Cost of Dying Report SunLifes 9th annual Cost of Dying report
Kingdom reveals the cost of a basic funeral has risen
for the 12th year in a row...

TD Ameritrade USA 2015 Self-Employed Survey Millennial entrepreneurs have an

independent streak...and the financial
support of their families

Travelex United New Years Eve Around the Price of Partying: New Years Eve in London
Kingdom World proves most expensive

UBank Australia UBank/Galaxy Survey Most Australians dont know their

mortgage interest rate

Wells Fargo USA Annual How America Buys and Diverse consumers overwhelmingly
Borrows optimistic about financial future

Table 22.1 Surveys promoted in the media by personal finance brands

credit cards; from private equity and corporate finance
to commodities and real estate; and from financial
technology to debt and equity capital markets. Special-
ist titles take a more in-depth and informed approach
to financial stories than the generalist media, and will
often champion a particular set of industry interests:
hedge-fund publications, for example, often tackle the
prospect of increased hedge-fund regulation across
international jurisdictions.
While financial markets and the financial media
may have expanded, media cost-cutting has forced
journalists to produce more copy with fewer resources.
Financial journalists have therefore built a symbiotic
relationship with PR practitioners to fill the resource
gap. As a result, the financial media often has higher
levels of PR content than in other sectors (Davis 2007).
Journalists and PR practitioners build relationships
with each other through face-to-face meetings and

M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 421 23/03/2017 13:20

 422 Part 3Public relations specialisms
telephone discussions, with PR practitioners provid-
ing story ideas and access to spokespeople. Prominent
PR tools include press releases and announcements,
along with backgrounders, fact sheets, research, com-
mentary, financial graphs, case studies, biographies,
infographics and images. PR practitioners also organ-
ise events with journalists in mind, including company
results presentations, product launches, briefings,
press trips and site visits as well as off-site corporate
entertaining.
However, changes in media ownership mergers
and downsizing have influenced the way PR practi-
tioners interact with the financial media. Increasingly,
journalists have less time to meet face-to-face, while
changing technology means that journalists and PR
practitioners interact more and more through websites
and social media. In the UK, home to several finan-
cial centres, websites such as Headlinemoney or Gor-
kana bring journalists and PR practitioners together
to post news items or request case studies and con-
tacts. Headlinemoney is an online information resource
used extensively by the UKs money media, including
financial journalists, in-house PR practitioners and PR
firms. PR practitioners post company stories and other
information on the site for journalists to access. Jour-
nalists, meanwhile, post requests for personal finance
case studies seeking, for example, homeowners who
have locked into a fixed rate mortgage or pension-
ers whose retirement products are performing below
expectation.
The global financial crisis
Since Western financial markets were deregulated
in the 1980s, reducing government authority, there
have been many high-profile financial crises, result-
ing in a loss of public trust in financial services. The
implications of these successive crises for public
relations are two-fold. Firstly, there is the question
of whether PR played a role in helping these crises
to evolve this question is still to be meaningfully
debated. One author describes this glaring oversight
as the elephant in the room (Callaghan 2003). Vet-
eran PR practitioner, George Pitcher goes further,
M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 422
placing blame squarely at the feet of the public rela-
tions industry as the silver-tongued mountebank
that has sold a perceived value as a fundamental
value for a generation (2008: 69). Pitcher singles
out financial PR as complicit in contributing to a
message that was only ever about boom and to hell
with the bust (2008: 69). Instead of debating its
potential role in triggering crises, the PR profession
has generally responded to crises by moving forward
and setting things to rights (Bourne 2013). Typi-
cally, this takes the form of PR campaigns mounted
to rebuild trust in respective areas of finance. Such
approaches raise a second question: is it either ratio-
nal or ethical to rebuild trust in the financial sector
if its weaknesses are not corrected? In the years since
the global financial crisis, this question remains as
salient than ever (see also Chapter13 for discussion
on PR ethics).
In 2007, a global credit crunch a freeze of lending
in capital markets helped trigger a global financial
crisis the following year. The crisis progressed in dif-
ferent phases, exposing endemic weaknesses within
the global financial system, with attendant implica-
tions for PR in financial markets. Debt and deriva-
tives products had been relatively hidden from public
view what financial editor, Gillian Tett (2009: 6)
refers to as the iceberg problem, whereby main-
stream media refrained from covering debt capital
markets because they were too technical and dull.
PR practitioners struggled to find journalists will-
ing to talk about debt capital markets, and debt
market players were content to avoid the limelight.
During the crisis, communicators operating on the
factory floor, or wholesale financial markets, had
to defend the growing complexity of innovative but
risky financial products with daunting names such
as Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDOs). Yet the
post-crisis era yielded no noteworthy PR campaigns
to simplify the language of wholesale finance or to
increase transparency. Instead, trade bodies in vari-
ous financial centres mounted public education cam-
paigns to promote financial services economic role
and contribution.
For PR practitioners in retail financial markets,
negative public perception of banks and other
financial institutions topped the list of post-crisis
23/03/2017 13:20

challenges faced by PR practitioners in affected
markets (Makovsky & Company 2012). Banks
helped to trigger the financial crisis through an
inappropriate appetite for high-risk products.
Despite this, many large banks received hefty tax-
payer bailouts in affected countries. Banks were
then further implicated in fresh scandals includ-
ing money laundering and manipulating the Libor
price-setting mechanism. Yet banks and their PR
departments appear to have been let off the hook.
In the UK, for example, the financial regulator
dropped a major inquiry into banking culture, opt-
ing instead to deal with individual cases arising. At
the global level, international institutions promised
to reform the international financial architecture
architecture, although little changed. However,
some international institutions such as the Inter-
national Monetary Fund (IMF) were themselves
forced to increase transparency, engaging in PR
activity to inform stakeholders of their progress
(Shafik 2013). (See Explore22.2.)
Perhaps the most crucial issue for PR in financial
markets, arising from the global financial crisis, is
the issue of global inequality. Globalisation was once
heralded at the new knight to fight poverty (Koku
and Acquaye 2011: 354), yet after decades of market
freedom, an astounding volume of wealth is now con-
trolled by a small proportion of the worlds citizens,
many of whom are successful bankers, hedge-fund
managers and other financial professionals. A complex
Explore 22.2
Official voices of global finance?
Visit the websites of the following institutions and explore
their media centres. Can you determine what their key
messages are? Are those messages easy to discern, simple
to understand? Who are their primary stakeholders? How
do their various missions overlap?
Bank for International Settlements - http://www.bis.org/
list/press_releases/index.htm
M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 423
Chapter 22Public relations in the world of finance 423
global debate persists, with PR playing a visible role in
promoting different viewpoints.
In one corner of this debate are groups promoting
greater equality by enabling more people to access
financial services. Ninety per cent of people in devel-
oping countries lack access to financial services from
institutions, either for credit or savings, further fuel-
ling a vicious cycle of poverty (Hinson 2011: 320).
NGOs such as Accion (accion.org) actively employ
PR to promote financial inclusion. Interestingly,
financial institutions have adopted this same agenda
to promote their products and services in developing
markets.
In another corner of the debate over global inequal-
ity are activist groups campaigning against financial
capitalism, and the damage wrought on many lives.
In the summer of 2011, the Occupy movement staged
sit-ins, teach-ins and other street-based activity, using
PR techniques to crystallise support around the world.
The Robin Hood tax campaign is an example of single-
issue financial activism, which has used PR in cam-
paigning for a tax on transactions by big banks to be
rerouted to fight poverty. The Jubilee movement has
campaigned for the cancellation of unjust or unpayable
debts since the 1990s. After the global financial crisis,
the group launched the Rolling Jubilee, eliminating
almost US$15 million worth of debt in a year (Ross
2013). Jubilees latest campaign raises awareness of the
next looming financial crisis one of household debt
(see Figure22.2).
Financial Stability Board http://www.financialstabilityboard.
org/list/fsb_press_releases/index.htm
International Monetary Fund - http://www.imf.org/
external/news/default.aspx?pr
Global Financial Markets Association - http://www.gfma.
org/news/?newsType=Press+Releases
World Federation of Exchanges - http://www.world-
exchanges.org/news-views/press-releases
23/03/2017 13:20
 424 Part 3Public relations specialisms

Picture 22.2 Ninety per cent of people in developing countries lack access to financial services from institutions: will PR
help to perpetuate this inequality . . . or change it?

Summary studies deconstruct the work done by PR practitioners in

less visible parts of financial markets; the geographies
of PR in emerging financial centres might be one such
This chapter has provided a broad view of the different
area. Aspiring researchers might uncover more hidden
ways public relations is conducted in financial markets,
forms of PR activity such as financial lobbying. It is equally
on behalf of many special interests some opposing,
important to explore the use of PR by less well-resourced
some overlapping. PR in the world of finance will con-
organisations such as consumer groups and community
tinue to evolve and change as new financial centres
finance. Meanwhile, financial markets offer varied career
emerge, and as technology and increased regulation
opportunities and PR specialisms for those keen to enter
transform financial communication. For students and
the world of finance. The ever-changing nature of finan-
researchers in the field of PR, this opens up many inter-
cial markets is undoubtedly part of its appeal for those
esting avenues for research. There is potential to analyse
who take up the challenge of communicating about
the changing narratives of pilloried institutions such as
finance and its role in shaping the way we live.
banks in the era since the global financial crisis. Too few

Bibliography Brocklebank-Fowler, S. (2008). Differentiation wins the

Bourne, C. (2013). Reframing trust, power and public
relations in global financial discourses: Experts and
the production of mistrust in life insurance. Public
Relations Inquiry 2(1): 5177.
Bourne, C. (2015). Thought leadership as a trust strategy
in global markets: Goldman Sachs promotion of the
BRICs in the marketplace of ideas. Journal of Public
Relations Research 27(4): 32236.
day. PR Week Thought Leadership Series. London:
Haymarket.
Callaghan, T. (2003). Repent professional sins: letter to
the editor. Public Relations Strategist. 1 April, p. 2.
CIPR (2015). State of the PR Profession Research Report.
London: Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Davis, A. (2007). The economic inefficiencies of market
liberalisation: The case of financial information in the

M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 424 23/03/2017 13:20


London Stock Exchange. Global Media and Com-
munication 3(2): 15778.
Doyle, G. (2006). Financial news journalism: A post-
Enron analysis of approaches towards economic and
financial news production in the UK. Journalism
7(4): 43352.
Ehrlich, E. and D. Fanelli (2004). The Financial Services
Marketing Handbook: Tactics and techniques that pro-
duce results. Princeton: Bloomberg Press.
FSA & Henley Centre. (2005). Consumer Paper 35:
Towards understanding consumers needs. London:
Financial Services Authority.
Fulton, S. (2010). Personal View: One Candle. Corp-
Comms: The Magazine for the Corporate communica-
tor (February), 467.
Hilton, A. (12 December 2008). Business news not taken
seriously. PR Week, 12 December: 9.
Hinson, R.E. (2011). Banking the poor: The role of
mobiles. Journal of Financial Services Marketing
15(4): 32033.
Kendall, D. (2005). Framing Class: Media Representa-
tions of wealth and poverty in America, Plymouth:
Rowland and Littlefield.
Koku, P.S. and H.E. Acquaye (2011). Who is responsible
for rehabilitating the poor? The case for church-based
M22 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 425
Chapter 22Public relations in the world of finance 425
financial services for the poor. Journal of Financial
Services Marketing, 15(4): 34656.
Makovsky & Company (2012). Makovsky Wall Street
Reputation Study. New York: Makovsky PR.
Martin, R. (2002). Financialization of Daily Life. Phila-
delphia: Temple University Press.
Pitcher, G. (2008). Financial PR is no scapegoat. Pro-
file. London: Chartered Institute of Public Relations
(December/January), 69.
Pixley, J. (2005). Emotions in Finance: Distrust and uncer-
tainty in global markets. Cambridge University Press.
Ross, A. (2013). Creditocracy and the Case for Debt
Refusal. New York: O/R Books.
Shafik, N. (2013). Communication, engagement and
effective economic reform: The IMF experience.
CIPR Annual Maggie Nally Lecture, Houses of Par-
liament, 30 July.
Tett, G. (2009). Icebergs and Ideologies: How informa-
tion flows fuelled the financial crisis. Anthropology
News (October), 6.
World Economic Forum (2009). The future of the Global
Finance System: A near-term outlook and long-term sce-
narios. Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum.
Z/Yen Group. (2015). The Global Financial Centres
Index 18. London.
23/03/2017 13:20
 C H AP T ER 23 Neil Kelley

Integrated marketing communications

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
understand the concept of integrated marketing communications
evaluate the importance of integrated marketing communications
consider a variety of different communications channels and tools in order to develop integrated marketing
communications
identify and discuss the key principles and methods used to integrate marketing communications
review integrated marketing communications activities through case examples
apply key principles of integrated marketing communications to real-life scenarios.

Structure
Defining integrated marketing communications (IMC)
The planning process
Audiences
Marketing communications tactics
Touch points

M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 426 23/03/2017 13:24

 Chapter 23Integrated marketing communications 427

Introduction
Just how many marketing messages is
the average person exposed to on a daily
basis? How many marketing messages
do you remember from the last day the
last week? If you sat and thought about
it, youd agree that it was an awful lot.
Being aware of the volume of market-
ing messages that people are exposed
to every day is important for anyone
involved in professional communica-
tions, especially as we want to be heard
and not lost in the clutter and noise.
In 2005, the Guardian (Gibson 2005)
found that in one 45-minute journey, the
average London commuter was exposed
to more than 130 adverts featuring over
80 different brands. This research was
conducted over 10 years ago, so surely
the promotional landscape has become
even more cluttered: with more adver-
tising and more messages. For example,
Facebook was not accessible to a mass
audience until September 2006 yet, think
about the volume of marketing messages
that we are exposed to through this chan-
nel now. Yankelovich, an American futures
and consulting organisation, published
the results of its research into US advertis-
ing exposure in 2006 and estimated that
the average American living in a large city
would be exposed to approximately 5000
marketing messages a day (Petrecca 2006).
Since then, communication channels have
significantly proliferated following the
advent of social media such as Facebook,
Twitter, blogs, Instagram, Pinterest, adverts
on websites and sponsored online content
(sometimes referred to as native advertis-
ing). Research undertaken by Scott Brinker
(2016) estimates that there are over 3500
marketing technology platforms. While a
number of these relate to e-commerce,
analytics and data management, over
2000 of these are communication tools.
So, this selection of research shows
that there can be much variation in
the number of marketing messages it
is thought that consumers are exposed
to. What communications professionals
cant afford to ignore though is that there
is an increasing, and rather phenomenal,
number of marketing communications
and messages out there: not just adverts,
but brand logos, packaging, labels, web-
sites, social media posts and more.
In order to cut through this volume of
noise and clutter, communications pro-
fessionals need to ensure that their mes-
sage stands out, that there is something
in the message that reaches the audience
at the right time, in the right place, with
the right balance of informational and
emotional content content that has
resonance, that quality of importance
and meaning.
From a marketing communications
perspective public relations (PR) is, more
often than not, classed as one of the
available promotional tactics of market-
ing communications. This means that PR
has a tactical role within integrated mar-
keting communications (IMC), one of
five communications tools that need to
be integrated within a campaign. Smith
and Zook (2011) refer to this particular
use of PR as product PR or marketing
PR and distinguish this from corporate
PR, which has a more strategic focus on
the company image and visibility. For the
purposes of this chapter, PR will be con-
sidered as marketing PR, a tactic used for
delivering product and brand visibility.
As a consumer, and as a communica-
tions student, youll be familiar with lots
of the other marketing communications
messages you see advertising on the
television or video on demand, in maga-
zines and on bus stops; you may be sent
text messages or emails from brands you
use; youll attend events that are spon-
sored by brands; youll receive discounts
to use when shopping; and much, much
more. All of these things will have been
planned as part of a broad IMC strategy.
This chapter will provide clear con-
sideration of the concept of integrated
marketing communications referred
to by its acronym IMC giving a more
detailed definition; considering the stra-
tegic planning process that underpins
the integration of communications;
identifying the many different channels
of communication that can be utilised
within IMC; considering the importance
of understanding audiences and discuss-
ing how communication agencies can
support the process of integration.

Mini case study 23.1 response to an enquiry from a three-and-a-half-year-old

The part-time marketer
giraffe bread
Evert Gummesson introduced the concept of part-time
marketers in 1991, not as those employed part-time in
marketing, but those employed in roles that are customer-
facing, or have an impact on the customers experience.
Gummesson (1991) defined them as those employees
who influence customer relations, customer satisfac-
tion, customer-perceived quality, and revenue. A written
girl called Lily Robinson enquiring why tiger bread was
called tiger bread, especially when it looked more like
the patterns of a giraffe, is a nice example of part-time
marketing in action. The response was a letter and a small
gift-card, personalised in response to Lily, which was writ-
ten by a customer manager (BBC Business 2012). It was
written in such a way that it went above and beyond what
would have been considered a standard approach, and
helped build relations not just with the little girl and her
family, but with a much wider audience as the story went
viral and was reported on by UK news media. Sainsburys
then took this further by permanently renaming the tiger
bread as giraffe bread.

M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 427 23/03/2017 13:24

 428 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Defining integrated marketing
communications (IMC)
There are many definitions of IMC, each with their
own subtle nuances and areas of focus. This section
aims to shed some light on what IMC is, as both a
concept and a process. Marketing communications
are defined by Dahlen et al. (2010) as being concerned
with engagement. Fill (2009) considers engagement to
be the use of communications tools to capture atten-
tion. So, when a piece of communication captures the
audiences attention, they engage with it; this may be
for a fleeting moment, or a more substantial amount
of time, perhaps days, weeks or months. Marketing
communications need to engage they need to capture
attention and be actively consumed by the audience.
The most effective and engaging communications are
two-way, in that there is some form of interaction
between the sender of the message and the receiver.
This may be simple feedback, such as a nod of agree-
ment during a sales pitch, to a conversation, perhaps
face-to-face or via social media.
IMC as a process is supported by Fill (2009), who
proposes that marketing communications are a manage-
ment process through which to engage with the target
audience. Fill (2009) also raises an interesting point that
the most effective marketing communications are not
always two-way. In an era of digitally enhanced market-
ing communications, with a variety of conversational
tools that offer varying degrees of immediacy, not all
audiences are looking for a two-way conversation or
a relationship. One of the key factors to consider in
developing effective marketing communications is that
of knowing and understanding the audience.
What is IMC?
Integrated marketing communications, or IMC, is a
planning process; a series of stages that any market-
ing or public relations professional would need to
work through in order to create communications for
a defined audience across a variety of relevant chan-
nels. Shimp (2010: 10) provides a detailed definition
of IMC, stating that it is:
...(the) process that entails the planning, creation,
integration and implementation of diverse forms of
marketing communications that are delivered over
time to a brands targeted customers and prospects.
The goal of IMC is ultimately to influence or directly
affect the behaviour of the targeted audience. IMC
considers all touch points, or courses of contact, that
M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 428
a customer/prospect has with the brand as potential
delivery channels for messages and makes use of all
communications methods that are relevant to cus-
tomers/prospects.
There are a number of important points we can
take from this quotation. To begin with, IMC is a
planning process that involves a series of important
stages. Although not included in Shimps definition,
there will be some form of analysis, before moving on
to develop a plan for the marketing communications
tools to be brought together or integrated and finally
implementing this plan in order to influence the target
audiences behaviour.
Therefore, IMC is not just one communications
tool, type or channel it is the optimum mix of a huge
variety of different communications designed to elicit
desired responses from the target audience. IMC is much
more than just communicating: it is a focused strategic
approach. Dahlen et al. (2010) propose that IMC requires
a holistic approach, with a focus on five key areas:
brand narrative having one big idea throughout
the campaign;
a single voice all communications used need to be
coordinated;
consistency in voice and appearance;
value-adding each communications tool used
works together for a cumulative effect;
cross-media presence delivered via media con-
sumed and preferred by the audience.
A planned approach to IMC requires some work: it
isnt as simple as coming up with an idea and running
with it (later in the chapter we consider key planning
frameworks). Successful IMC needs to be built around
a big idea, a brand narrative, a story that engages and
resonates with the target audience. It requires a message
that is consistently delivered across all customer touch
points and needs to be accessible, via the audiences
preferred medium at a time that is most convenient to
them. An example of a campaign driven by a big idea
is in Mini case study 23.2.
IMC in the marketing mix
It is also important to note, from a holistic IMC per-
spective, that it is not just the promotional p of the
marketing mix that communicates with a target audi-
ence, but all elements of the marketing mix product,
price and place, as well as promotion, in addition to
people, process and physical evidence have the poten-
tial to communicate, and often do.
23/03/2017 13:24

The marketing mix of product, price, promotion and
place was proposed by Jerome McCarthy in 1960, and
it was further developed by Bernard Booms and Mary
Bitner in 1981 to add a further 3Ps that had more rele-
vance for services: people, process and physical evidence
(Jackson 2013). As a theoretical framework it is a useful
starting-point for considering all the areas within which
marketing, and in this context marketing communica-
tions, decisions may need to be made.
The quality and design of a product communicates,
the price can communicate quality and value, the place
of consumption can communicate in similar terms,
whether its a website or a physical retail environment,
even the logistics and delivery communicate in terms
of efficiency and customer care.
The elements added to the extended marketing
mix people, process and physical evidence all com-
municate during the delivery and consumption of a ser-
vice: the person, or people, delivering the service, how
customer focused the delivery is and the ambience and
comfort of the environment within which its delivered.
This may seem an oversimplification, but the key
point here is that all of the actions of the marketer, all
of the actions of a business, all of the decisions made,
communicate with a wide variety of audiences and
there is a need for all activities within this communica-
tions mix to be integrated. The integration of the ele-
ments of the marketing mix works in the same way as
the integration of the marketing communications mix
(advertising, PR, sales promotion, personal selling and
direct marketing), adding value and offering a consis-
tent and understandable message to all audiences.
IMC is targeted
Communications are nothing without an audience.
Take a moment to think about it. What might people
think if they saw you talking to yourself? It is vital that
the audience is considered in our approach to market-
ing communications; it is imperative that all the effort
expended in communicating is with an audience,
rather than at an audience (or at no one!). Therefore,
an understanding of the target audience is essential to
good decision-making in IMC.
There are many ways to define who the target audi-
ence is, based on a variety of criteria, both subjective
and objective. Percy and Rosenbaum-Elliot (2012)
list the subjective criteria as lifestyle, personality and
values: these are the psychographic bases for segmen-
tation. The objective criteria are listed as location,
age, gender, education and income: these are the geo-
demographic bases for segmentation. One further area
M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 429
Chapter 23Integrated marketing communications 429
Explore 23.1
Targeting you
Use your experience as a consumer of one of your
favourite brands, and therefore a receiver of market-
ing communications messages aimed at you, to inves-
tigate how many different ways that brand is creating
touch points for you to experience. (For more infor-
mation about touch points read the section later in
this chapter.)
Do they advertise on television, in magazines, on the
internet, via outdoor posters? Do they have a web
page, and are they on Facebook, Twitter or any other
social media channels? Do they ever send anything to
you by text, email or post? Do they sponsor anything?
Do they get media coverage that might have resulted
from sending out a press release? What else might
they be doing? Then study what you find and see
how well you think it works together and is integrated:
does it all seem to be part of an IMC campaign?
of consideration when working to understand the target
audience is behaviour. The behaviour of the target audi-
ence requires us to consider patterns of consumption
in areas such as usage of the product, preference for
brands and features as well as the benefits required.
Without research into the target audience, consider-
ing areas such as who they are, their needs, their com-
munication preferences, their media consumption,
their decision-making processes and their influences,
valuable resources will be wasted. So, a key component
of successful IMC campaigns is the identification of
relevant, similar, target audiences that would have sim-
ilar, positive reactions to the marketing communica-
tions stimuli used by the communications professional.
Why adopt an IMC approach?
There are many benefits to be gained from adopting an
IMC approach within marketing communications. De
Pelsmacker et al. (2013: 7) state that the major benefit
of IMC is that a consistent set of messages is conveyed
to all target audiences by means of all available forms
of contact and message channels. So, there are two
key benefits to IMC. First, achieving consistency in
the marketing communications in turn improves the
effectiveness of the message; it is more meaningful and
memorable and supports the desired action or reaction
from the target audience. Second, it reaches all target
23/03/2017 13:24
 430 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Mini case study 23.2
Share a Coke
In 2013 Coca-Cola ran a highly effective IMC campaign
that was part of a wider, global success story. The cam-
paign originated in Australia in 2011 and delivered some
impressive results on social media, including more than
18 million media impressions (how many times the indi-
vidual pieces of communications across all of the media
channels were seen by the audience) and an 870 per
cent increase in Facebook traffic (Grimes 2013). The big
idea was built around personalised content, in total over
1000 of the UKs most popular names were printed on to
Coca-Cola labels and made available for sale (Hepburn
(no date) [accessed 2016]).
audiences, so there is little wastage of resources such
as time and money, making the communications more
efficient. This links back to the work of Dahlen et al.
(2010) who stated IMC needs to have consistency in its
messages across all relevant touch points.
However, the consideration of all available forms of
contact and message channels may not be ideal. First
of all, it is incredibly time-consuming to consider every
single communications channel. Ubiquity, which is hav-
ing a presence in all available communications chan-
nels, is as problematic as it is costly. How can all of the
messages communicated via the thousands of different
media channels available in the UK alone be managed so
that they achieve the desired result? How can the perfor-
mance and contribution of these channels be assessed?
The simple answer is that they cannot. The per-
formance and contribution of every communications
channel that exists cannot possibly be measured due
to the constraints of time, money and skills within an
organisation. Therefore a further key aspect of success-
ful IMC is not through achieving ubiquity or omni-
channel presence (that is having a message delivered via
every possible communications channel), but a focused
multi-channel approach, identifying the most effective,
most relevant, media channels that are consumed and/
or favoured by the target audience. Identifying the
right channels to use within an IMC campaign can be
achieved in one of two ways. The first option is to
undertake what is referred to as demographic match-
ing. This is identifying the key media channels to use
via secondary research into the media consumption of
the target audience. The other option is to undertake
what is referred to as direct matching identifying the process framework (Kotler et al. 2008).
M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 430
This was one big idea, enabled by technology and effi-
ciencies in printing, that was communicated via paid-for
media such as TV, out of home (outdoor) and point of
sale; owned media including packaging, social and web;
and earned media, as their audience shared images of the
product across social media, with a key focus on Face-
book and Twitter (WARC 2014). (For more information on
the different types of communications tools and media
considered in IMC read the section Marketing commu-
nications tactics later in this chapter.) This was one big
global, yet localised, idea delivered through successful
IMC that, according to Coca-Cola (2016), was developed
from just a 151-word creative brief. The creative brief is a
document often developed in conjunction between a cli-
ent organisation and a communications agency, although
sometimes the creative brief is developed internally, with-
out an agencys input, often referred to as in-house.
key media channels to utilise via primary research into
the media consumption of the target audience (Percy
and Rosenbaum-Elliott 2013).
So, one of the main benefits of IMC is that there
is consistency of message, making the same message
accessible to the target audience via all the media chan-
nels used. Each marketing communications tool and
medium used to deliver a consistent message supports
and adds value to the others in the campaign, deliver-
ing a synergistic result. Each time the same message,
or elements of the same message, is consumed by the
audience, it adds weight and credibility to what has
already been communicated, which helps to improve
credibility and trust, and therefore add value. This is
highly beneficial as the audience doesnt identify the
differences in these tools and media, but they are able
to better understand the message, and therefore process
it better, to better inform their decision-making.
The planning process
In order to deliver a successful IMC campaign, it is
essential that those individuals involved in its creation,
delivery and measurement follow a logical, structured
planning process. Many marketing communications
scholars are advocates of this structured planning
approach. Table 23.1 identifies the similarities and
differences of four IMC planning frameworks in rela-
tion to the steps they propose in relation to a standard
analyse, plan, implement and control (APIC) planning
23/03/2017 13:24
 Chapter 23Integrated marketing communications 431

Author of IMC De Pelsmacker et al.

planning framework Dahlen et al. (2010) Fill (2011) Hackley (2010) (2010)

Analysis Current brand Context analysis Brand research Situation analysis and
evaluation marketing objectives

Analysis Target audience Target audience

Planning Marketing Communications Communications Communications

communications goals and positioning objectives objectives
objectives

Planning 3Ps of Strategy, creative

communications approach and media
strategy plan

Application Coordination of Tools, techniques,

communications mix channels and media

Implementation Implementation Implementation Action plan and Budgets

tactics

Control Evaluation Control and Budget estimates Measurement

evaluation

Table 23.1 Comparison of IMC planning frameworks

It can be observed from the above comparison that
there are many significant similarities in the IMC plan-
ning processes proposed by different marketing com-
munications scholars, as well as some subtle differences.
What can be determined is that there is a clear four-
stage process that is aligned to effective IMC planning.
Analysis
The first stage requires analysis; it answers the question
where are we now? Fill (2009) refers to it as a con-
text analysis: the analysis of factors that are relevant to
the context of marketing communications. Fill (2009)
proposes that there are four key contexts that require
analysis: market (including customer), business, inter-
nal and external (see Table23.2). Through analysis of
factors present within these contexts the communica-
tions professional can identify key audiences and how
they behave, communications activities of key competi-
tors and their impact, the strengths and weaknesses
of the organisation in relation to communications and
branding, and finally the impact and influence of the
external factors, such as political, economic, social and
technological, on marketing communications.
Planning
Following the analysis stage is the planning stage.
Within this stage the IMC campaigns objectives are
determined, along with the strategy, creative approach,
message and finally the selection of the relevant mar-
keting communications tactics and the tools and media
(an overview of these different tools can be found later
in the chapter, in the Touch points section). This is a
significant stage and requires information and insight
drawn from the previous analysis to inform decision
making. This information and insight can be drawn
from a variety of sources, such as consumer surveys
and research reports from organisations such as Min-
tel, Keynote and Ofcom.
First are the communications objectives, devel-
oped in order to provide focus and direction as well
as delivering on the broader corporate and marketing
objectives that will have been set prior to the develop-
ment of a communications plan. The objectives help to
answer the question where do we want to be and can
be determined using a framework such as SMART in
order to offer clarity, direction and a way of measuring
performance. The objectives set can be seen as specific
goals as to what the IMC plan wishes to achieve, and
the SMART framework supports this. SMART is a
mnemonic for:
Specific to an audience, a brand or product;
Measurable to ensure that there is a metric in place
to allow for control and monitoring of performance;
Achievable within the resources of the organisation;
Relevant (or Realistic) based on the findings from
an analysis of the marketing environment;

M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 431 23/03/2017 13:24

 432 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Context Factors to consider
Market Competitors focused on their
communications activities
Stakeholders focused on relationships and
their needs and wants
Customer Geographic their location
Demographic age, gender, income,
education
Psychographic motivations, lifestyle,
aspirations
Behavioural their use of the product, brand
preference and patterns of consumption
Internal Resources human, financial, material
Current communication campaigns
strengths and weaknesses
Corporate objectives to be achieved
Marketing objectives to be achieved
Culture impact on decision-making and
implementation
Brand values and desired position
External Political the impact of the ruling political
party on legislation, regulations and
initiatives on marketing communications
Economic the impact of the current and
future economic climate on marketing
communications
Socio-cultural the impact of changes in
social and cultural behaviour on marketing
communications
Technological the impact of developments
in technology on marketing communications
Table 23.2 Key factors within the marketing
communications environment
Time-bound what is to be achieved needs to
have a determined timeframe in order to support
measurement.
For example, a SMART objective for a university
may be To deliver an increase in online enquiries of
15% from all UK A-Level students (receiving results in
2018) via a four-week sponsored tweet campaign for
the new undergraduate PR course at the university by
the 31 December 2017.
This then leads to the determination of the com-
munications strategy and there are a number of stra-
tegic models and frameworks that can be considered
here. One key model is referred to as segmentation,
M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 432
targeting and positioning (STP) and it aids the com-
munications professional in determining exactly who
the target audience(s) will be, how they will be targeted
via the tactics and tools, and how the organisation,
brand, product and/or message will be positioned in
the market place. This will be covered in more detail
later in the chapter.
Fill (2009) also proposes that the direction of com-
munications need strategic consideration. He identifies
three key directions that marketing communications
can travel in to support positioning: pull, push and
profile (see Figure 23.1). The pull strategy consid-
ers the communications tools, message and creative
approach used to reach the end-user of the product
or brand. The push strategy focuses on intermediaries
involved within marketing and distribution channels.
Finally, the profile strategy focuses on the communica-
tions with all stakeholder groups outside of consumer
and intermediary.
With a profile strategy the focus of communications
is not on the flow of products and demand but to sat-
isfy the needs of the differing stakeholders an organisa-
tion has.
It is this communication strategy that is tradition-
ally considered as having a corporate communica-
tions focus (Fill 2009). These three strategies are not
mutually exclusive and should, in fact, be considered
together, in order to maximise the effectiveness of com-
munications, bringing in consistency and ensuring that
the different media consumed by the different audi-
ences identified across push, pull and profile strategies
are identified and used.
Having determined the objectives and strategy, the
next stage is to decide on the marketing communi-
cations mix. As mentioned in the introduction, it is
important that as a communications professional you
are aware that all activities within the broader 7P mar-
keting mix have the potential to communicate. How-
ever, within this stage of the planning process the focus
is on determining an effective combination of paid,
owned and earned media (Pessin and Weaver 2014):
communications activities from the mix of advertising,
PR, sales promotion, direct marketing and personal
selling. See Table23.3 for examples.
The mix of tools and media selected need to be able
to successfully convey the message to the identified
audience, so that the desired effect(s) within the com-
munications objective(s) is(are) achieved. There is no
magic formula when it comes to developing the right
marketing communications mix, but it is important to
remember the need for consistency of the message and
the brand throughout.
23/03/2017 13:24
 Chapter 23Integrated marketing communications 433

Organisation Retailer Customer

With a pull strategy the flow of communications goes direct from organisation to customer to create
a pull demand for the product.

Organisation Retailer Customer

With a push strategy the flow of communications is direct to an intermediary, such as a retailer, to
encourage them to push the product to the customer.

Distributors

Customers Media

Organisation

Community Financers

Employees

A Profile strategy considers communications with all stakeholder groups.

Figure 23.1 Push, pull and profile strategies (Source: Adapted from Fill, 2009: 295)

Implementation a reality. Project plans, or Gantt charts, are drawn up

Once the planning stage has been completed, all of the
resources necessary to effectively implement the plan can
be determined: human, financial, material, time. These
will have been considered during the development of
the plan to some extent, especially when determining
the communications mix, but at this stage they become
providing a schedule to support implementation and
resource management. The timing of the activities is set
out so that all involved in the delivery of the plan are
aware of what happens, when and who is responsible.
Project planning is also a vital tool when it comes to
determining and managing the budget, as IMC cam-
paigns can, at times, be quite expensive. For example,

Media Examples

Paid any medium that has to be paid for by the TV advertisement, print advertisement, outdoor
organisation in order to communicate, often advertising advertisement, online advertisement, flyer, letter

Owned any medium possessed and controlled by the Website corporate social media channels, vehicles, uniforms,
organisation signage

Earned any medium that communicates about the Word of mouth, customer reviews, consumer-generated
organisation but is not paid for or owned by it content

Table 23.3 Paid, owned and earned media

M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 433 23/03/2017 13:24

 434 Part 3Public relations specialisms
the Coca-Cola Share a Coke global advertising budget
was $3 billion in 2013 alone (McQuilken 2014).
Control
The final stage of the planning process is control. From
previous stages we know where we are, we know
where we want to be and our strategy and tactics set
out how will we get there, but how do we know if
we arrived at the desired outcome? Measurement and
control is vital within integrated marketing communi-
cations campaign planning: without it, there can be no
learning, no feedback and no improvement. One of the
key areas to focus on when it comes to measurement
is the objectives set earlier in the planning process. If
they were truly SMART then they have to have key
criteria for control, a measurable outcome and a time-
frame to achieve it within. Taking these criteria and
relating them to the performance of the mix is vital in
terms of measuring performance, recognising success
and also learning from any mistakes. There are many
well-documented examples of social media campaigns
that have been unsuccessful. Some have even backfired
and had a negative impact on the organisations reputa-
tion and even stock market value (such as the #AskSea-
World campaign in 2015 that sought to restore their
reputation). What is important is that successes as well
as failures within IMC campaigns are considered in
order to improve future decision-making with IMC.
Benefits of following the planning
process
There are many benefits proposed by authors, academ-
ics and practitioners in relation to working through a
structured planning process for IMC, as well as identi-
fying the many barriers to successfully integrating mar-
keting communications. De Pelsmacker et al. (2013:
29) states that several key drivers of IMC can be iden-
tified, such as a loss of faith in mass-media advertis-
ing, the need for enhanced cost-effectiveness, media
and target fragmentation and overlap, more complex
decision-making, the need to build customer loyalty,
relationship marketing and...the evolution of tech-
nology. It is through following this planning process
that IMC can overcome these issues; it is a strategic
process that is driven by a variety of changes, both
internal and external. Following the planning process
can offer many benefits: that resources are better uti-
lised, relationships better managed, technology better
understood and utilised and, ultimately, the delivery of
M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 434
a consistent and relevant series of ongoing communica-
tions to the appropriate target audience(s).
Audiences
For IMC to be successful, it has to be considered as
a wholly strategic process. As Fill (2011) states, key
elements of successful strategy are that key decisions
(concern) the overall direction of the programme and
target audiences, the fit with marketing and corporate
strategy, the key message and desired positioning the
brand is to occupy in the market, and the resources
necessary to deliver the position and satisfy the overall
goals. So, as discussed above, all of the elements of the
IMC planning process are part of this strategic process,
and one of the key decisions is concerned with the iden-
tification of the target audience(s).
It is suggested by a number of scholars (see Kotler
et al. 2008; Fill, 2011; Richardson et al. 2015) that
there are three key decisions that need to be made
during the strategy stage in relation to the audience.
These are: how best to segment the market, which of
those identified segments to target in a particular cam-
paign and, finally, how the organisation, brand and/or
product is to be positioned within the communications
that will form the campaign to influence the position
held in the mind of the audience. These key decisions
are made within what is known as the STP process
segmentation, targeting and positioning.
Think about 23.1
Rejecting the planning process
An organisation that chooses not to follow a struc-
tured planning process for its marketing communica-
tions may face a number of issues. What do you think
they might be?
Feedback
Some of the issues an organisation that doesnt plan
may face include:
lack of direction for all employees involved.
a lack of consistency in the brand communications
which can lead to confusion.
resources time, financial and material are wasted.
no measurement of results which leads to limited
learning from experience.
23/03/2017 13:24

Segmentation
No campaign can ever be all things to all people. Even
the largest mass-market campaigns will still have spe-
cific audiences, or segments, that theyre designed for.
Segmentation requires the target market to be broken
down into groups that are discernible, accessible, mea-
sureable and profitable (Kotler et al. 2008). Details of
which segment(s) a campaign needs to target are a vital
part of the IMC plan as they aid decision-making in
relation to the creative approach, the big idea and
messages, as well as ensuring that the right marketing
communications tools and media are used to deliver
the campaign.
The key ways for communications professionals to
segment their market are through the following bases:
Demographic: objective characteristics of the audi-
ence such as age, gender, occupation, income, edu-
cation and socioeconomic status (class).
Geographic: where the audience is located: local,
regional, national or international.
Geodemographic: synthesises information from
both of the above bases to offer a more insightful set
of objectives characteristics. ACORN and Mosaic
are commercially available consumer classifications
that use data from demographics, social factors,
population and, increasingly, behavioural research.
Psychographic: a more subjective classification of
the audience considering their preferences with
regard to their lifestyle, interests, opinions and atti-
tudes, personality and behaviour.
Behavioural: categorises the audience based on
behaviour such as usage patterns, buying habits,
the benefit(s) they seek and spending priorities.
Segmenting the audience by brand usage and loyalty
can also be considered. Rossiter and Bellman (2005)
devised a way to categorise consumers by their rela-
tionship with a brand, dividing consumers into:
Loyal brand users: loyalty may come through a
love of the brand or they may be loyal out of habit
and inertia, but they are a highly important market
segment.
Favourable brand switchers: consumers who are
willing to switch to, or trial, new brands (perhaps
driven by sales promotions) but on the whole tend
to have a favourable attitude towards the organisa-
tions brand.
Other brand switchers: another segment willing to
trial new brands but who have a more favourable
M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 435
Chapter 23Integrated marketing communications 435
attitude towards a competing brand rather than the
organisations brand.
Other brand loyals: are loyal to a competing brand
from another organisation and are less likely to
switch. It can be difficult to persuade them to
switch, even on a trial basis.
(Potential) new category users: consumers who have
just entered the market for the product category to
which our brand is part. They are open to trialling a
variety of brands and can respond well to offers.
There are many other methods of segmentation: those
discussed above offer some insight into some of the
key approaches that can be taken. Determining which
segment(s) the IMC campaign needs to be targeted
towards depends on the objectives of the campaign, as
well as the broader marketing and corporate objectives.
It is an important stage within a set of strategic decisions
drawn from both secondary and primary data.
Targeting
Once the process of segmentation has been undertaken,
the relevant target audience(s) can be identified in the
next stage of this strategic process. It is important to
Explore 23.2
Segments and you
Due to the volume of marketing communications we
are all exposed to it is safe to assume that there are
organisations out there who place you into a variety
of different segments for the purpose of developing
and delivering effective IMC.
What segments are you placed into by different
organisations for different products? For health and
beauty products you may fall into one specific mar-
ket segment, but for leisure activities another. Think
about a special interest you might have, a hobby, sport
or activity youre passionate about. What are the key
themes and factors that can be identified that enable
an organisation to place you into a segment? Which
are subjective and which are objective?
Visit http://acorn.caci.co.uk/ and explore ACORN, a
consumer classification tool, via the try ACORN link.
What segmentation bases do they use? Which seg-
ment do you fit within now? How might this change
in the future?
23/03/2017 13:24
 436 Part 3Public relations specialisms
select target audience(s) who can be reached through
communications. Fill (2011) provides a summary of
what to take into account when making targeting deci-
sions. The target(s) chosen must be:
Measurable: easy to identify and measure the
response with
Substantial: provide an audience of a suitable size
with which to achieve objectives
Accessible: must consume the communications
tools and media we can access
Differentiable: must have a significantly different
set of characteristics to justify their targeting
Actionable: the IMC campaign must be capable of
actually reaching them.
Hackley (2010) states, get it wrong, and all the
effort is wasted. If the defined audience is too nar-
row then opportunities for consumer engagement will
be lost...If the target group definition is too wide,
then the impact may be lost or the campaign might be
scheduled on a medium which the real targets dont
use. So, this part of the targeting strategy ensures that
the audiences we choose to focus on are relevant.
A further area of consideration within targeting strat-
egy, as set out by Jobber (2010), is to consider the direc-
tion of targeting. There are four proposed directions:
Undifferentiated: one communications, and mar-
keting, mix is used for the range of relevant seg-
ments identified. This is a mass-market approach.
Differentiated: the communications mix is adapted
for each of the different segments identified.
Focused: sometimes referred to as niche marketing.
One relevant segment is identified and their needs
are met better than that of the competition.
Customised: the marketing, and the communica-
tions, mix are customised for a variety of diverse
market segments.
This means that as well as ensuring the segments we
plan to target are relevant, we also need to consider how
we communicate with them and the degree to which we
standardise, or customise, our message and mix.
Positioning
Positioning, ultimately, is how the consumer (or any
stakeholder) positions the organisation, brand and/or
product in their mind in comparison with key competi-
tors. From an IMC perspective, it is how we, as com-
munications professionals, utilise our message, tactics
M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 436
and media to support the position that the organisation
desires in the mind of the target audience.
Kapferer (2008) recommends four questions that
should be answered in order to support effective
positioning:
A brand for what benefit? What is the brand prom-
ise, the element that makes the offering unique?
A brand for whom? Who is this a brand for? This
doesnt necessarily have to be built around geo-
demographics, those objective criteria. Brands can
also position based on subjective criteria: a brand
for the stylish, a brand for those at the cutting edge.
Reason? What evidence can be offered to support
the benefit?
A brand against whom? Who are we positioning
against? Within what product category are we
competing?
Keller et al. (2002) propose something similar, based
around frames of reference in relation to determining
the product category the organisation, brand and/or
product will compete within, the points of differentia-
tion, what is unique about the offering, and finally,
points of parity, which reassure the audience that the
offering is relevant to the category and build trust. The
organisation may benefit from the development of a
positioning statement built around the questions posed
by Kapferer and Keller, especially if what is being
offered is new to market.
Successful brands will have built and maintained a
successful position within their market over a substan-
tial period of time, and consumers readily associate
those brands with the communicated position. For
example, Apple for innovation, design and simplicity;
Virgin Atlantic for fun and glamour; Disney for family
entertainment. Ouwersloot and Duncan (2008) devel-
oped a number of different criteria for consideration
in order to support the development of a successful
positioning strategy.
Category positioning: where a brand defines, cre-
ates or owns a category. Think of Heinz and baked
beans, McDonalds and American fast food, Google
and search engines.
Unique product feature positioning: based on a
quality of feature that is genuinely unique about
the brand. This could be price, quality, innovation,
a particular feature or benefit.
Image positioning: the position is developed
through a created (or symbolic) association. This
is often based on a purposefully created strong
association that cannot be applied, or adopted, by
23/03/2017 13:24
 Chapter 23Integrated marketing communications 437

competitors think of Carlsberg and being prob-

ably the best lager in the world. Think about 23.2
Benefit positioning: based on fulfilling a consumer
need or desire. This can be a tangible need, brought Positioning
about by the design of the product, such as Post-
Coca-Cola and Pepsi are two very similar products,
It Notes, or intangible such as perfumes and fra-
in the same product category. However, many peo-
grances and their links to desirability and sexual ple have a clear preference for one of these over the
attraction. other. What do you think are the reasons for this, with
Some communications professionals have taken the consideration of positioning theory?
positioning concept further in recent years and consider
the impact of everything the organisation does, how
Feedback
it acts and behaves, as being influential in their posi- The reasons for a preference of one cola brand over
tioning in the minds of their audience. Graham Hales another may include:
(2011), Managing Director of Interbrand UK, argues the brand being positioned specifically for their
that organisations need to align their brand (position) age group.
with all aspects of their operations, stretching across the brand being positioned by an image which is
products and services, human resources practices, cor- desirable to the audience.
porate behaviour, environments and communications.
the brand being positioned via a specific benefit,
This is representative of truly IMC. such as taste.
the brand being positioned as the leader in the
category and thus being more recognisable.
Marketing communications
tactics
When considering marketing communications tactics,
the main area of attention in relation to theory is the
marketing communications mix. This mix primarily
comprises advertising, public relations, sales promo-
tion, direct marketing and personal selling (Kotler et
al. 2008; Fill 2011). These five tactical elements within
the promotional, or communications, mix include
many different channels and media, or tools. When
it comes to defining media there are three key types:
paid, owned and earned (see Table23.3). The increas-
ing volume of, and accessibility to, digital media chan-
nels has meant that the focus within integration has
begun to shift from a predominantly paid approach,
to a more integrated effort across paid, owned and
Picture 23.1 Why do some people prefer one cola
earned media channels.
brand over another? How a brand is positioned will
play a key role in influencing preferences

Advertising
Advertising is largely thought of as the tactic that deliv-
ers mass communications via paid, or rented, media.
This includes media channels such as television, radio,
print, cinema, out of home (or outdoor) and online
advertising. Advertising is one of the key marketing
communications tactics that can be used to achieve
mass awareness, reaching large audiences through
the delivery of a message through paid-for broadcast
spots and printed spaces on, or in, relevant commercial
media channels. Advertising can be used not only to
raise awareness of a product around its launch, but
also to keep reminding the public of its existence dur-
ing the year. It can also help to balance the effects of
negative publicity.

M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 437 23/03/2017 13:24

 438 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Mini case study 23.3
Interactivity in
advertising Shazam
Shazam began life as an application to identify, or tag,
a song that was playing in the real world. It still is an
app that can identify songs, but in order to grow the
business, Shazam developed another use of the appli-
cation. Shazam has partnered with TV media compa-
nies and agencies to add interactivity to broadcast,
predominantly TV, adverts.
The idea is that when the audio content of an advert
is tagged the user is taken to more engaging, inter-
active content via their second screen a tablet or
smartphone. Brands such as Sony, Pepsi, Cadbury, Bar-
claycard and Microsoft have all used Shazam and have
significantly increased engagement with their brand
and online content (www.itvmedia.co.uk 2015).
Public relations
Many of the communications activities an organisation
engages in can be considered to be public relations.
Quite often public relations uses owned or earned
media, whereas advertising, and in association sales
promotion, is predominantly through paid media.
Public relations, in the form of media publicity,
can be used to reinforce paid media in creating short-
term awareness. A longer-term, planned approach
to public relations, can be used to develop stronger
links with the press, and other key stakeholders, so
that any potential negative coverage can be minimised.
Hosting events, charity associations and building and
maintaining community relations are some examples of
activities that can be used to promote a positive image
to a target audience. Other key public relations tools
used to develop and maintain positive relations include
activities such as press conferences, press releases and
social media communications (see Chapter 14 on
media relations).
Ultimately, within the context of the marketing com-
munications mix, public relations is considered primar-
ily a tactical approach used to develop and maintain a
positive perception of the organisation, brand and/or
product in the minds of the various publics, or stake-
holders, that the organisation has.
M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 438
Sales promotion
Sales promotion involves offering incentives to custom-
ers in order to stimulate a desired behaviour. In the case
of visiting a tourist attraction for example, reduced
price tickets might be offered on a group basis, made
possible by an increase in the volume of sales. Similar
offers might be made at quieter times to increase visitor
numbers. Families would be less likely to visit during
school time, so incentives could be offered to other
groups to encourage them to visit during this period.
A sales promotion is primarily designed to increase
sales at the time of the promotion, and is not aimed at
achieving long-term customer loyalty. However, sales
promotions can be used more strategically in order to
develop more long-term relationships. Reward systems
for existing customers such as the Tesco Clubcard,
Nectar Card or even O2 Priority Moments are essen-
tially sales promotions, but designed to add value over
the longer term.
Organisations can use loyalty cards, or similar
reward systems, to build databases of information
about their customers and their preferences, in order
to target promotions more effectively in future. Infor-
mation can be gathered in a number of other ways,
such as through customer satisfaction surveys follow-
ing purchases and via customer records of individual
purchases. For example, car dealerships may store
information for each customer on the date and nature
of their last purchase, their age, social grouping and
family status, in order to target those customers most
likely to buy when they launch a new model, or take a
new vehicle when a lease is about to expire.
Direct marketing
Direct marketing is a communications tactic that can
offer a highly personalised form of communication.
Direct marketing is a term used to describe any form of
personalised, direct communications with a customer
or stakeholder.
There are a number of different channels and media
that can be used to directly target the recipient of the
message including email, SMS, mail, telephone, direct
response TV and direct selling. Ultimately, any chan-
nel through which a message and call to action can be
delivered directly to the end user can be thought of as
a direct marketing tool.
As technology develops, direct marketing can be
used to reach target consumers based on their digital
behaviour, as and when they browse, when they search,
at any time and, via mobile devices, in any place. It is
23/03/2017 13:24

Explore 23.3 Rewarding your loyalty
Do you hold any loyalty or reward cards? Have you
ever used any? In the UK there are a variety of systems
in place to reward the loyalty of the returning cus-
tomer. O2 provide an exclusive reward system called
Priority Moments for their network customers. This
is what is known as a value-adding sales promotion,
with value being added to the transaction and rela-
tionship via some extra benefits. These include prior-
ity access to some TV shows and event tickets, as well
also a beneficial tool in relation to maintaining rela-
tionships with customers and stakeholders due to the
ability to personalise the message. Because of this, direct
marketing is a very common supporting tactic used
alongside personal selling in B2B communications and
campaigns. (See Chapter 20.)
Personal selling
Personal selling involves the use of a sales force to pro-
mote products and services, usually on a one-to-one
basis. This is more appropriate for selling in a business-
to-business environment, or in the sale of services such
as financial products, due to the high cost per contact.
Here the product/service is complex in nature, of a high
value and needs careful explanation. The message com-
municated can then be personalised immediately to the
buyers need.
Touch points
Advertising, PR, sales promotion, direct marketing and
personal selling are the five key tactics of marketing
communications, those which theory tells us are five
core activities through which marketers c ommunicate
but they dont clearly identify the channels, tools or
media that we can use. Building on the work under-
taken by Strachan and Kelley (2013), Table 23.4
identifies a variety of key communications tools that
marketers can integrate in order to create multiple
touch points between organisation and audience. So,
tactics are the broader tools that we can use within IMC
(such as advertising and PR) but tools refer to the media
and channels that are present within each of the tactics.
M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 439
Chapter 23Integrated marketing communications 439
as food-based deals and the chance to win unique
experiences.
But why would an organisation offer so much for free? As
well as the repeat, or continued, custom that has obvious
financial value, for what other reasons do organisations
offer rewards for continued custom?
What are the benefits an organisation can derive from
this relationship?
Identified in the table are the tools and/or media
that communications professionals can utilise to pro-
vide touch points: brand encounters, conversations or
moments of truth.
As mentioned already in this chapter, the emphasis
when determining what tools and media to select is
audience preference. Which of the above media does
your target audience consume, which do they trust, and
which do they turn to for entertainment or informa-
tion? Understanding this can help create touch points
that have significance and relevance. These tools and
media would very rarely be used in isolation because
the choice of tools and media need to work together
to add value to each other, so that a synergistic effect
is reached, and the resulting communications effort
becomes seamless and homogenous (De Pelsmacker
et al. 67: 2010). Whats important about IMC, how-
ever, is that tools are chosen because they will work
best for the organisation, the brand, the message, the
target market and within the budget.
However, its also not about using as many tactics as
you possibly can. Doing this can have a negative impact
on the quality of message, and overstretch resources,
especially the budget. As Nick Emmel of advertising
agency Dare (Campaign 2010) says, It is tempting to
do all these things because they are there when a
press ad would have worked just as well...Consum-
ers dont always want to interact with your brand on
multiple levels and sometimes a single idea communi-
cation in one channel is enough.
The impact of technology must not be underesti-
mated in the development and acceptance of an IMC
approach. New ways of reaching and communicating
with audiences have had a significant impact on the
approach communications professionals take to select-
ing tools and media. Jonathan Mildenhall CMO at
Airbnb and previously Senior VP Integrated Marketing
23/03/2017 13:24
 440 Part 3Public relations specialisms

Broadcast advertising Place (out of home) advertising Direct response advertising

Television Posters Direct mail
Radio Billboard/banner Telephone
Magazine Transportation SMS/MMS
Newspaper Ambient DRTV
Cinema Digital screen Email
Product placement Guerrilla
Online (i.e. YouTube)

In-store and point-of-sale advertising Sponsorship and events Personal selling

Store signage Sport sponsorship Sales team
In-store signage and display Art and festival sponsorship Customer service
Shopping trolley Charity sponsorship Demonstration
In-store radio/TV Event Presentation
Packaging Stunt Exhibition
Merchandising

Sales promotions Online/digital PR and journalism

Special price offer Social media Press release
Coupon/discount Website Media/Trade event
Samples Communities Advertorial
Competition Viral and Buzz In-house magazine
Gift Blogging Newsletter
Limited edition Gaming
Display

Table 23.4 Touch points: key IMC activities (source: Adapted from Keller (2001), Shimp (2010), Dahlen et al. (2010),
Strachan and Kelley (2013))

Communications at Coca-Cola, refers to the more
technologically savvy audiences as being consum-
ers in a hyper-connected world, or hyper-connected
consumers (Microsoft Advertising 2011). There are
an ever-increasing number of communications tools
and, more specifically, media available, all facilitated
by technological developments. These hyper-connected
consumers are more in control of what media they
access, where they access it, when they access it and the
reason for accessing. This further facilitates the need
for an IMC focus within all that the organisation does.
Developments in technology associated with com-
munications, such as mobile platforms and improved
connectivity, have facilitated a shift in emphasis from
promoting to consumers to communicating with con-
sumers. It has also facilitated the increased creation and
consumption of consumer-generated media. Nielsens
Global Trust in Advertising Survey (2015) found con-
sumer opinion posted online (earned medium) was
trusted by 66 per cent of global consumers, and drove
69 per cent to act (this could be an action such as click-
ing to find out more information or making a purchase).
Google refers to these consumer opinions posted online
and then read by potential customers as the Zero
Moment of Truth (Lecinski 2014). Consumer-generated
media has revolutionised consumer decision-making
and behaviour when online. The perceived value of the
(online) opinion or review; the rise of the influential
celebrity blogger; the fact that the internet has changed
customers notions as to what constitutes an expert
option and who customers trust (Bernhoff and Li 2011)
requires more attention to be paid to how to use IMC
in order to develop and maintain a two-way flow of
communication with consumers. C onsumers can now be
active participants within marketing communications,
rather than the now obsolete view of consumers who
are passive and easily influenced by marketing com-
munications messages. Bernhoff and Li (2011) propose
that this shift in emphasis requires the communications
professional to at first be able to listen, before moving

M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 440 23/03/2017 13:24


Think about 23.3 Which works best?
Select a well-known brand and consider an IMC cam-
paign they have run recently. Take the time to consider
the different tools and media used to deliver the mes-
sage. Now consider the IMC of a smaller or lesser-known
brand, perhaps for a company local to you or a small
business that you know of (if youre struggling to find
examples then you could head to marketing industry
websites such as The Drum or Campaign to find one).
Note the variation of the IMC mix, in relation to tools
and media. Which do you think works best big, bold
and many or small, subtle and few? Why have you come
to this conclusion, how were you influenced by what
you found considering the different campaigns? Was
on to talking with their audiences, in order to deliver
successful IMC.
IMC, when planned, executed and managed, is a
highly effective and efficient way to reach the right
Case study 23.1
John Lewis and Monty
the Penguin
John Lewis has become renowned for its Christmas
marketing campaigns over the last five years. From The
Rocking Horse in 2009, to The Long Wait in 2011, to
the Man on the Moon in 2015, these campaigns have
become, to some, synonymous with the Christmas
holidays, in the same way that Coca-Colas Holidays
are Coming and bright red trucks are. John Lewis are
a successful department store, with 46 shops in the UK
carrying more than 350,000 products, and having a suc-
cessful online e-commerce presence at johnlewis.com
( JohnLewisPartnership.com 2016).
Whatever your opinion of these campaigns may be, there
is no denying that they are incredibly effective and very
successful. If you havent come across the campaigns
before then you can head to the John Lewis channel on
YouTube and view the advert for each campaign there.
These marketing communications campaigns are part
of an abundance of Christmas advertising, and broader
communications, but one of the reasons the John Lewis
campaign is so effective is due to the focus on integration.
For the purposes of this case study, lets consider 2014s Monty
the Penguin. This integrated marketing communications
M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 441
Chapter 23Integrated marketing communications 441
this because of personal preference? Are there elements
within both campaigns that work well? What are they?
What was the underlying message of each campaign?
What did they want the receiver of the message to do?
Feedback
There is no right or wrong answer here. Different types of
campaigns, and their communications mixes, can be both
successful and unsuccessful. Big, bold and many tend to
be used for FMCG products, with a more mass-market
appeal, whereas small and subtle campaigns are used for
niche products and smaller, more specialist markets.
audiences at the right time and in a way that encour-
ages engagement and participation with brand com-
munications in a way that ultimately benefits both
consumers and brand owners.
campaign won a number of prestigious awards, such as the
Cannes Lion Film Crafty Grand Prix, Institute of Practitioners
in Advertising (IPA) Effectiveness Award, and even the People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETAs) compassionate
marketing award. Over the last seven iterations the campaign
has been handled by the creative agency Adam & Eve DBB,
who took the John Lewis account over from the agency Lowe
London (now called MullenLowe).
Winning Christmas
The campaign behind Monty the Penugin was built
around the idea of friendship, giving and the magic of
make believe (marketingmagazine.co.uk, 2014). The cre-
ative execution of the TV campaign for Monty was all
about telling an emotional story following a young boy
and his relationship with a pet penguin over a year.
The campaign was delivered at a time of immense com-
munications activity: Christmas in the UK, a time when
department stores, supermarkets, high street stores and
online retailers are all looking to achieve a share of the
Christmas spend. As well as the Christmas spend, the
majority of the large retailers are all looking to achieve
a large share of voice in a noisy and busy communica-
tions environment. Who can be seen and, more impor-
tantly, who can be talked about and remembered? This
is referred to as media hype (Hollis 2014), or more com-
monly buzz, and John Lewis have become very success-
ful in building this hype.
23/03/2017 13:24
 442 Part 3Public relations specialisms

case study 23.1 (continued)

How? Well, its all part of a very focused IMC plan, where
the overall strategy is to make a big PR splash via (expen-
sive) TV placements (Clift 2015: 3). The PR activity was
planned to take place via social media, as part of the
campaigns anticipation phase. This involved a one-
week teaser campaign, with brief snippets of the char-
acters being shown on Channel 4 idents and via digital
out of home (billboards and posters). Then, the advert
was launched online, via YouTube, with supporting Face-
book and Twitter accounts (for both Monty and Mabel
the Penguin!) a day and a half prior to the TV launch.

This facilitated substantial buzz online, social media being

a great tool for building the media hype that John Lewis
desired, using the hashtag #montythepenguin to direct
online conversations and shared content. It was reported
in The Telegraph (Davidson, 6 November 2014) that the
online advert was shared over 200,000 times in the 24
hours following the online launch, and that over 14,500
people had shared a status that the advert had moved
them to tears. The John Lewis Christmas advert, along
with the adverts of a number of other key UK retailers, are
looked forward to by both the public and the news media,
and this often escalates into a competition as to who can
win Christmas through their advertising campaign. John
Lewis came up against some particularly strong competi-
tion in 2014 from the Sainsburys campaign.
The John Lewis advert then premiered on the Channel 4
show GoggleBox on the Friday of the same week, taking
over the whole two-minute ad break. It was supported by
further communications and touch points in the build up
to Christmas with an app, branded clothing and a childrens
book, innovative in-store point of sale using Augmented
Reality, Shazam integration, influential blogger targeting
and, of course, PR coverage online and in the news.
Integration at work
Its important to note that this campaign isnt just about
the advert, and isnt just about advertising. Although
Picture 23.2 Integrated marketing communications
plays a key role in making a retailers Christmas advert
popular viewing for consumers over successive years
the two-minute long broadcast advert, which used
both social media and TV channels for delivery, was
undoubtedly an important part of the campaign, it was
the IMC that made the campaign special. The integra-
tion of digital, TV, in-store, outdoor, public relations and
sales promotion were key, the intelligent integration of
paid, owned and earned media, over a period of time,
are what led to an increased share of voice, and Mill-
wardBrowns (2015) AdNow research platform identi-
fied the campaign as the most enjoyed and having the
most passive positive engagement of Christmas 2014.
Passive positive engagement considers the feelings or
emotions that the campaign elicits in the consumer,
with passive positive linking to pleasing, soothing,
relaxing responses (as opposed to active positive which
links to responses such as involvement and interest).
This was one big idea, within an integrated marketing
communications campaign, carefully planned to maxi-
mise the response over a specific period of time, and it
delivered success.

Summary to them, and also through the media that the consumer
can now create and publish online, such as reviews and
blog posts. The key components of the IMC plan are
In this chapter we have identified and discussed the fact
analysis, objectives, strategy, tactics, action planning and
that IMC is a planning process. We considered that when
control. It is within the tactical section that the five key
undertaken correctly, IMC can help support the success-
areas of marketing communication are considered
ful achievement of an organisations corporate and mar-
advertising, PR, sales promotion, personal selling and
keting objectives through a coordinated and synergistic
direct marketing and decisions made as to which of
marketing communication campaign. IMC should pri-
these tactics, and their related tools and media, are used
marily be led by the audience, the media they consume,
in order to achieve the desired results.
the language they respond to, content that has meaning

M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 442 23/03/2017 13:24


Bibliography
BBC Business (2012). Tiger bread renamed giraffe bread
by Sainsburys. BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/
news/business-16812545 accessed 15 December 2015.
Bernhoff, J. and C. Li (2011). Groundswell: Winning in
a world transformed by social technologies. Boston:
Harvard Business School Press.
Brinker, S. (2016). Marketing Technology Land-
scape Supergraphic 2016. Chiefmartec http://
chiefmartec.com/2016/03/marketing-technology-
supergraphic-2016/ accessed 3 May 2016.
Campaign (2010). What Next in Integration? 3 Decem-
ber 2010.
Clift, J. (2015). John Lewis and Monty the Penguin: The
media strategy behind the UKs favourite Christmas
campaign. Mediatel Connected Consumer Confer-
ence, June 2015.
Dahlen, M., F. Lange and T. Smith (2010). Marketing
Communications: A brand narrative approach. Chich-
ester: John Wiley & Sons.
Davidson, L. (2014). John Lewis made 14,500 people
cry. The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/11214534/
Is-this-the-best-John-Lewis-Christmas-advert-yet.html
accessed 15 January 2016.
Fill, C. (2009). Marketing Communications: Interactivity,
communities and content. Essex: Pearson Education.
Fill, C. (2011). Essentials of Marketing Communications.
Harlow: Pearson Education.
Gibson, O. (2005). Shoppers eye view of ads that pass
us by. The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/
media/2005/nov/19/advertising.marketingandpr
accessed 11 January 2016.
Grimes, T. (2013). What the Share a Coke campaign
can teach other brands. The Guardian, http://www
.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-
blog/2013/jul/24/share-coke-teach-brands accessed
15 January 2016.
Gummesson, E. (1991) Marketing orientation revisited:
The crucial role of the part-time marketer. European
Journal of Marketing 25(2): 6075.
Hackley, C. (2010). Advertising and Promotion: An inte-
grated marketing communications approach. London:
Sage.
Hales, G. (2011). Branding in The Marketing Century
(pp. 13968). J. Kourdi (ed.) Chichester: John Wiley
& Sons.
M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 443
Chapter 23Integrated marketing communications 443
Hepburn, M. (no date) The Share a Coke Story. http://
www.coca-cola.co.uk/stories/history/advertising/
share-a-coke/ accessed 11 January 2016.
Hollis, N. (2014). Monty the Penguin Wins Battle
of the UK Christmas Ads After All. http://www
.millwardbrown.com/global-navigation/blogs/post/
mb-blog/2014/12/10/monty-the-penguin-wins-battle-
of-the-uk-christmas-ads-after-all#sthash.ZhPoUzqX.
dpuf accessed 14 January 2016.
ITV (no date). Second Screen. http://www
.itvmedia.co.uk/advertising-opportunities/online-
advertising/second-screen accessed 15 December 2015.
Jackson, N. (2013). Promoting and Marketing Events.
London: Routledge.
Jobber, D. (2010). Principles and Practice of Marketing.
Berkshire: McGraw Hill Education.
John Lewis Partnership (no date) http://www.john
lewispartnership.co.uk accessed 20 May 2016.
Kapferer, J. (2008). The New Strategic Brand Manage-
ment, 4th edition. London: Kogan Page.
Keller, K. (2001). Building strong brands in a modern
marketing communication environment. Journal of
Marketing Communications 15(2-3): 139155.
Keller, K., B. Sternthal and A. Tybout (2002). Three
Questions You Need to Ask about Your Brand.
[online] https://hbr.org/2002/09/three-questions-
you-need-to-ask-about-your-brand accessed 12
January 2016.
Kotler, P., G. Armstrong, V. Wong and J. Saunders (2008).
Principles of Marketing, 5th European Edition.
Harlow: Prentice Hall.
Lecinski, J. (2011). Winning the Zero Moment of Truth.
Google https://ssl.gstatic.com/think/docs/2011-
winning-zmot-ebook_research-studies.pdf accessed
20 May 2016.
McQuilken, T. (2014). Share a Coke Campaign Grows
Sales for First Time in 10 years, WSJ Reports.
AdWeek http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-
branding/coca-colas-share-coke-c ampaign-grows-
sales-first-time-10-years-160433 accessed 5 May
2016.
Microsoft Advertising (2011). Jonathan Milden-
hall from the Coca Cola Company interviewed
at AdWeek 2011. [video] https://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=Wx4trKSBpvs accessed 15 January
2016.
Nielsen (2015). Global Trust in Advertising: W inning
Strategies for an Evolving Media Landscape.September
23/03/2017 13:24
 444 Part 3Public relations specialisms

2015. http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsen- money/advertising/2006-10-10-ad-nauseum-usat_x.

global/apac/docs/reports/2015/nielsen-global-trust- htm accessed 12 December 2015.
in-advertising-report-september-2015.pdf accessed 4
Richardson, N., J. James and N. Kelley (2015). Customer-
May. 2015]
Centric Marketing. London: Kogan Page.
Ouwersloot, H. and T. Duncan (2008). Integrated Mar-
Rossiter, J. and S. Bellman (2005). Marketing Communica-
keting Communications. Berkshire: McGraw Hill
tions: Theory and applications. London, Prentice Hall.
Education.
Shimp, T. (2010). Integrated Marketing Communica-
De Pelsmacker, P., M. Geuens and J. Van den Bergh
tions in Advertising and Promotion. USA: Cengage
(2007). Marketing Communications: A European
Learning.
perspective. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Smith, P.R. and Z. Zook (2011). Marketing Communica-
De Pelsmacker, P., M. Geuens, and J. Van den Bergh (2010).
tions: Integrating offline and online with social media.
Marketing Communications: A European perspective.
London: Kogan Page.
4th edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Strachan, J. and N. Kelley (2013). Integrated marketing
Percy, L. and R. Rosenbaum-Elliott (2013) Strategic Adver-
communications in Exploring Public Relations, 3rd
tising Management. Oxford: University Press, Oxford.
edition. R. Tench and L. Yeomans (eds). Harlow: Pear-
Pessin, I. and K. Weaver (2014). Paid, Owned, Earned: son Education Limited.
Measuring POE complexity. Admap.
WARC (2014). Cola: Share a Coke, share your summer.
Petrecca, L. (2016). Product placementyou cant escape European Association of Communications Agencies
it. USA Today http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/ Silver, Euro Effies.

M23 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 444 23/03/2017 13:24

 Chapter 24Sponsorship 445

CH AP T ER 24 Ryan Bowd, Ioannis Kostopoulos and Ralph Tench

Sponsorship

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
define what sponsorship means
recognise different types of sponsorship activity
understand what these different types of sponsorship can do and how they work
understand the types of the sponsorship and the role different audiences and parties play in the process
of leveraging a sponsorship
understand the ways by which sponsorship can be enacted and developed
critically evaluate sponsorship as an effective communication tool.

Structure
Sponsorship: an overview (facts and figures)
Definitions of sponsorship
Benefits from a successful sponsorship
Activation strategies: in-depth case studies
Drivers of success
Developing a sponsorship strategy
Communicating a sponsorship
Evaluating sponsorship
The future of sponsorship

M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 445 23/03/2017 13:25

 446 Part 3Public relations specialisms

Introduction
Sponsorship is ever-present in our
society it underpins and enables key
sporting, art, societal, industrial and polit-
ical events. Key shared global experiences
such as the Olympics, football (soccer),
rugby, cricket world cups, moments such
as Austrian Felix Baumgartners world-
record parachute jump (in 2012 he
broke the speed of sound at an estimated
1342.8 km/h jumping from the strato-
sphere) down to the smallest art gallery
show or local childrens football team trip
to a tournament are made possible by
sponsorship of various forms.
The word is ubiquitously linked to
financial assistance; however, more
appropriately, it can be simply described
as an exchange relationship whereby one
entity (company, individual, government,
etc.) supports another entity (company,
team, individual, league, venue, event,
etc.) which controls a sponsorship prop-
erty via financial or value in kind (VIK)
support in return for a series of sponsor-
ship rights and sponsorship category.
This might be GEs sponsorship of the
Olympic Games, O2s sponsorship of the
England Rugby Football Team, Emirates,
sponsorship of the cable car in London,
England or Canaccord Genuity Wealth
Managements sponsorship of the Natu-
ral History Museum and BBCs Wildlife
Photographer of the Year awards.
Like other specialist areas of commu-
nication, sponsorship has some key terms
that are important in order to understand
when talking about the practice. Box24.1
describes some of the key terms that will
enable you to understand and engage in
the language of sponsorship.
There are a variety of reasons why
an organisation may get involved with
sponsoring, and this chapter will explore
many of these possibilities. Figure24.1
identifies eight grouped reasons for an
organisation to get involved in sponsor-
ship and also identifies where some of
the discussions on these topics lie out-
side this chapter. These reasons are:
1. To support products and services
(MTV awards as a sponsor of an
annual music awards that directly
supports the promotion of the
music television channel). This
support sometimes is through
brand linkage or can be direct sales
delivery. Many Olympic sponsors
are able to track the direct sales
increase from their involvement.

Box 24.1 Organisations/groups (such as museums, art gal-

Key terms for
sponsorship
Sponsorship property
A term historically used to describe the entity that can be
sponsored. Typically, sponsorship properties have been:
Awards (Man Booker prize for literature in the UK or
MTV music awards globally)
Content/programming (such as books, magazines,
newspapers, television shows, programme slots,
movies, music videos, YouTube, Facebook or other
digital content)
Events (political party conferences, awards, celebra-
tions, launches, sporting games or tournaments, arts
or cultural events, expeditions or record attempts and
other firsts)
Individuals (from adventurers, explorers, musicians,
writers, artists, chefs and athletes, from local emerg-
ing talent to global superstars)
Objects (buildings, planes, trains, boats, statues, objets
dart)
leries, schools, universities, bands and professional
associations)
Sporting leagues (such as National Basketball League,
National Football League, Premiership Football,
Major League Baseball and more)
Systems (transport [train, metro or light rail], water-
ways, roads, etc.)
Teams (from mainstream to niche sports, from the
grass-roots of sports (local youth team) to the biggest
teams on the planet (such as Manchester United and
Real Madrid football (soccer) clubs, and the New York
Yankees in baseball and La Lakers basketball team).
Venues (such as stadiums and arenas)
But any rights that are for sale or can be agreed could be
classified as such. The entity that controls a sponsorship
property is described as the rights holder.
Value in kind (VIK)
The use of goods or services in exchange for sponsorship
rights. These goods and services can take the form of pro-
vision of physical products such as clothing, equipment,
or food and drink products. (IEG Sponsorship Report

M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 446 23/03/2017 13:25


2008) An example of this could be a sports nutritions
company sponsorship of a sports team, such as Gato-
rades sponsorship of NFL American football teams in the
United States.
Service value-in-kind sponsorships can range from tradi-
tional consumer service sectors such as accommodation,
catering or travel through to corporate services such as
cleaning, accounting and legal services and consulting
services such as PR itself. As an example, most Olympic
supplier or provider sponsorships are based around a
required service for the Games; these include Holiday
Inns (Intercontinental Hotel Group) running the Olympic
Athlete Village at the London 2012 Olympic Games or
Embratels sponsorship of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
(see website links for details).
Additionally, value-in-kind could simply be the provision
of staff time to carry out roles required by an organisation
such as marshalling at a sporting event like a marathon
or triathlon.
Sponsorship category
Sponsorship category is a term used to describe the
area of exclusivity a sponsor has with respect to spon-
sorship property. Categories are designed to protect the
sponsor and also enable the sponsorship property rights
holder to sell multiple sponsorships without them being
a perceived clash. A sponsor will expect to be the only
company within its product or service category associ-
ated with the sponsored property to protect its ability
to derive value from the sponsorship (IEG Sponsorship
Report 2009). There are no hard or fixed categories for a
sponsorship property; they tend to develop logically to
match the available rights. Title sponsors of a property,
i.e. those with what is referred to as naming rights, tend to
get both that category and their own product and service
category. It is also not uncommon for a sponsor to secure
multiple categories.
As an example, the AJ Bell London Triathlon, the worlds
largest with 13,000 participants and 30,000 spectators, in
2016 had the following partners with the following cat-
egories (authors interpretation):
Title sponsor and health club: AJ Bell
Audio: Bose
Sports hydration: Lucozade Sport
Sports nutrition (foods): TRIBE
Wetsuit and clothing: Zone 3
Recovery drink: Erdinger Alkoholfrei
Retailer: TRI UK
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 447
Chapter 24Sponsorship 447
Official Photography: Marathon Photos
Official charities: Bloodwise and Macmillian Cancer
Support
Fundraising: Just Giving
Media partners: 220 Triathlon, Tri247.com, Mens Fit-
ness and Womens Fitness.
From this we see that the rights holders have managed
to create a diverse list of categories, which in some case
have allowed them to work with two competitive brands
in Lucozade and TRIBE (which for one reason or the other
have decided to co-exist) and in some cases even sees
multiple organisations sharing one category.
Rights holder
This is the individual, organisation or business that owns
or has licensed the sponsorship property and its rights.
Sponsorship rights
Sponsorship rights or the rights is a term used to
describe what a sponsor gets in return for their financial
or value-in-kind support of a sponsorship property. These
rights are usually assigned in a legally binding contract,
along with the sponsors category or categories being
defined. These may include, but are not limited to;
Naming rights: often called title sponsorship rights
where a sponsor has the right for the sponsorship
property to be named after them. Examples include
the O2 (North Greenwich Arena) in London, England
or the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York.
Branding rights: the rights for a sponsor to have brand-
ing on, at or around the sponsorship property, such as
branding on the pitch sides of sporting events.
Hospitality rights: the rights for a sponsor to conduct
hospitality around, at or on a sponsorship property.
Image and name rights: the rights for a sponsor to
use the sponsorship propertys name or image(s) in
their own communications: for example, the rights
of a company such as Nike to use the images of the
famous athletes they work with in their advertising,
PR and marketing.
Staff, customer and stakeholder engagement rights:
These are the rights that allow the stakeholders of a
sponsor to engage with the property. These could be
an athlete or team providing access, coaching, insight
or unique experiences for a sponsors audiences. An
example of this might be an F1 team doing a driving
experience for customers and staff of its sponsor or
a Tour De France cycling team taking someone such
as a key business influencer of an organisation in the
team car during a stage.
23/03/2017 13:25
 448 Part 3Public relations specialisms

Figure 24.1 Reasons for sponsoring (source: Bowd et al. 2013)

2. To build on media interest (some
events make news on their own,
such as individual challenges like
Felix Baumgartners high-altitude
parachute world record, spon-
sored by Red Bull).
3. To reinforce, articulate or reposi-
tion the corporate identity and
the brand. Sometimes it is use-
ful to reaffirm the brand iden-
tity by sponsoring something
that has positive associations for
customers and other stakeholders
(the Shell Guides, see Mini case
study 24.1). Other times some-
thing is required that will project
an existing or new attribute to
stakeholders, and in order to do
this the best way is to borrow or
leverage a clearly visible attribute
from a third party.
4. To build goodwill. This can be done
through cause-related marketing
initiatives and community activity.
5. As part of an integrated campaign
(to raise awareness in specific
stakeholder groups ranging from
customers and the media to key
retailers (see Asics Rugby, Case
study 24.1).
6. In place of advertising. This is very
crucial in industries where adver-
tising is partially or fully forbidden.
Tobacco company Philip Morris
International (currently with Fer-
rari) and contraceptives company

Mini case study 24.1 The idea of a comprehensive country guide series exclu-
sively associated with the corporate name and logo

Shell Guides proved to be a success story for the oil company. The
guidebooks were not only to become a distinct compen-
dium of the English countryside, they also were hugely
successful with its audiences and thus prestigious com-
The first Shell Guide to the English countryside, aimed
munication for its sponsor. The financial liaison con-
at weekend motorists, was published in June 1934 and
tinued until the mid-1980s and the guides still create
offers an excellent example of how sponsorship can work.
goodwill among nostalgic readers and collectors. Today
the Shell brand name is an integral part of all major
Legend has it that the editor, John Betjeman (later Poet
motor sport events. With the help of the sponsorship
Laureate), worked next door to the publicity manager of
of social, ecological, scientific, and cultural events, the
Shell-Mex Ltd., Jack Beddington, and shared a love of the
motor oil company continues to develop its image as a
English countryside. They produced a trial guide, for a
good corporate citizen.
mere 20, and presented it to Shell, which then agreed
to support the project financially.

M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 448 23/03/2017 13:25

 Chapter 24Sponsorship 449

Durex (previously with Hispania
Racing) both sponsor(ed) For-
mula 1 to get around advertising/
marketing regulations in various
markets.
7. Staff engagement using spon-
sorships as a vehicle to build staff
engagement with an organisation
and brand affinity and understand-
ing (see Intercontinental Hotel
Group, Case study 24.2)
8. Lobbying sponsorship can be
used as a lobbying tool, either
through hospitality moments that
enable engagement (though as
an example in some countries
such as the UK, laws have been
enacted to try to minimise this) or
affinity through showing a mutual
interest or an investment in some-
thing the organisation being lob-
bied is interested in or passionate
about.
In this chapter we will discuss spon-
sorship in its broadest sense but with
a focus on the commercial applica-
tion of the practice, with a heavy but
non-exclusive case discussion of sport
sponsorship. Discussions continue into
the role of organisations in their com-
munities and their impact on society
in Chapters5 and 16 where sponsor-
ship of and investment in more
community-based initiatives is further
explored.

modest $6 million in the early 1970s into an expected

Picture 24.1 Austrian Felix Baumgartner and his 2012
altitude parachute jump (source: Pearson)
Sponsorship: an overview
(facts and figures)
With the multitude of reasons for organisations to
engage in sponsorship, its growth as a diverse com-
munication tool has been exponential over the past
decades. The sponsorship industry has grown from a
$60 billion business today, with North America,
Europe and Asia being the lead markets, and India
and Brazil among the emerging key markets (IEG
Sponsorship Report 2016). Figure 24.2 illustrates
overall growth of sport sponsorship globally by
region; an examination of the figures illustrates that
sport accounts for the lions share of global spend
(Statista 2016).
In the future, it is expected that sponsorship
growth will continue globally, but that this growth
will be around 4 to 5 per cent per annum, with
emerging markets such as China, Asia and South
America (driven by the Rio 2016 Olympics) driving
the growth at a greater rate than the more established
European and North American markets (IEG Spon-
sorship Report 2016).
Globally, by far the biggest sponsorship market is
North America (USA). The IEG (2003) sponsorship
report estimated the market size to be about $8 bil-
lion and in 2016 this is expected to be about $22.4
billion (IEG Sponsorship Report 2016). This grow-
ing industry is fuelled not only by moderate bud-
get increases from established sponsors, but also by
first-time investors. In the light of increased competi-
tion and new technologies that allow an advert-free
media environment, US companies are looking into
alternative promotion possibilities. As such, there
has been an increasing fragmentation in the North
American sponsorship market with a larger number
of minor deals by small firms replacing major spon-
sor deals. That said, it is still the same multinationals
that dominated the industry at the time of the last
publication of the book (Exploring Public Relations
3rd edition, 2014), who were dominating at the turn
of the decade and who are still dominating it, as is
shown in Table 24.1.
Even more impressively, all this growth takes
place in an environment of increased sponsorship
literacy.

M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 449 23/03/2017 13:25

 450 Part 3Public relations specialisms

70
North Amercia Europe Asia Pacific
Sponsorship spending in billion US dollars

60 Central/South America All other countries

50 22.4
21.4
20.6
19.8
18.9
40 18.1
17.2
16.5

30 15.9
14.8 15.3
14.1 14.5
12.9 13.5
12.1
20

13.3 14 14.8
11.2 12 12.6
10 10 10.6

3.5 3.6 3.7 3.9 4 4.2 4.3 4.5

0 1.9 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016**

Figure 24.2 Global sponsorship spending by region 20092016 (in billion US dollars)

Definitions of sponsorship definitions have been given for what exactly is a spon-
sorship and a sponsor.
With its huge growth and wide reasons for sponsorship From all of this, if you were asked to explain what
engagement, it would be prudent (before continuing) to sponsorship is, you would probably say that it refers to
examine the different definitions and perspectives on any form of financial or in-kind support for a specific
sponsorship itself. Previously, some of the key spon- person, event or institution with or without a service
sorship lexicon has included terms such as sponsor- in return. You may also describe the term using your
ship property, sponsorship right, sponsorship category own experience of observing a major sporting event as
and kinds of sponsorship, among others. However, no an example.

2014 rank Amount Company 2011 rank 2003 top 10 ranking

1 $355m$360m PepsiCo, Inc. 1 1

2 $300m$305m Anheuser-Busch InBev 3 2

3 $290m$295m The Coca-Cola Co. 2 4

4 $260m$265m Nike, Inc. 4 5

5 $190m$195m General Motors Co. 6 3

6 $185m$980m AT&T, Inc. 5 6

7 $175m$180m Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc. 7 Outside top 10

8 $155m$160m Ford Motor Co. 9 8

9 $135m$140m Adidas North America, Inc. 10 Outside top 10

10 $120m$125m Verizon Communications, Inc. Outside top 10 Outside top 10

Outside top 10 $135m$140m MillerCoors LLC 8 6

Table 24.1 Consistency at the top sponsorships Big 10 in North American (source: IEG 2015b; IEG Sponsorship Report
2012; IEG Sponsorship Report 2015)

M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 450 23/03/2017 13:25


Maecenatism
As a starting point for reflection, a historical perspec-
tive helps to shed light on the origins of the concept
of sponsorship. Corporate contributions to culture,
sport or social events have a long tradition, which can
be traced back to Gaius C. Maecenas (70bce8bce).
As a material supporter of contemporary poets such
as Horace and Virgil, his name is remembered as a
generous patron of fine arts. Despite the noble image
still associated with his name, the Roman diplomat
and counsellor to Octavian (later Emperor Augustus)
exercised patronage as a political means-end strategy.
If applied to Figure24.1, this could be interpreted as
sponsorship as lobbying. That is, Maecenas used the
communication channel of his times publicly to praise
the reign of his friend Octavian.
Nevertheless, Maecenatism today stands for the
altruistically motivated support of culture and com-
munities, where the support idea and not the associa-
tion with a specific patron/organisation is to the fore;
in other words, where the receiver not the donor is the
main purpose or focus.
Charitable donations
Closely connected to the concept of Maecenatism
is the act of charitable donations. As an expression
of charity it is again the altruistic (concern for other
people) motive that dominates the support process.
Social considerations play an important role and in
its original meaning no immediate advantages such as
image promotion or the representation of the donor
as a good citizen are being sought. Another signifi-
cant aspect of charitable donations is that control is
not assumed over the beneficiary or over the use of
the funds. Despite this blueprint, charitable donations
do present the opportunity for raising an organisa-
tions public profile. Think, for example, about the
naming of donors in TV charity shows such as Comic
Relief and Sport Relief in the United Kingdom or the
American TV channel PBS and its various Telethons
or the financial support of political parties. (See Think
about 24.1 and Explore 24.1.)
Corporate philanthropy
The dual purpose of corporate social responsibility
(see Chapters 5 and 16) and market orientation is
reflected in the term corporate philanthropy. More
than the no-profit, no-win paradigm of charity
donations, corporate philanthropy embraces more
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 451
Chapter 24Sponsorship 451
Think about 24.1
Sponsorship of events you know
Think about the main sponsor of your favourite sports
personality or team and the way this sponsorship is
promoted. You recognise sponsorship when you see
it, dont you? On second thoughts, however, you may
have come across its broader colloquial use: students
might refer to their parental financial help as spon-
soring; interest groups donate money for political
campaigns in Germany, for example (political parties
around the world usually have to disclose any dona-
tion of more than a certain threshold amount, in the
United Kingdom this is a figure of 7500 ($12,000));
and trusts support social projects (Electoral Commis-
sion 2016).
Feedback
Although these are all examples of sponsorship, they
do not adequately reflect its full scope, nor do they
distinguish between related concepts such as
Maecenatism, charitable donations or corporate phi-
lanthropy. These ideas are now explored.
directly the idea of competitive advantages (see
Porter and Kramer 2002). By linking corporate giv-
ing to business-related objectives, focused charitable
investments can be more strategic than unplanned,
one-off donations. It allows donations to become
Think about 24.2
Making donations
The next time you come across a charity appeal, ask
yourself what motivates you to make or refuse a
donation.
Feedback
In the corporate world, the art of giving is not only
benevolent in nature: in many cases, more tangible
reasons, such as taxation laws, may drive corporate
donations. Regardless of the intentions, charitable
donations can be seen as a development of
Maecenatism and in general describe a unidirec-
tional, or one-way, relationship. Commercial advan-
tages or expectations such as corporate visibility or
goodwill here play a minor role as, unlike a sponsor-
ship, they are not leveraged beyond what the receiver
of the donation promotes.
23/03/2017 13:25
 452 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Explore 24.1
Partnership benefits
With a plethora of sponsorship potential in the mar-
ket, it is crucial for public relations (PR) practitioners
to recognise and answer these questions. You can also
think about how you would answer them for a given
sponsorship you know about or are interested in:
1. Why should we sponsor?
2. What are our (corporate/organisation) goals and
objectives?
3. How do potential sponsorships fit with corporate
objectives?
4. What are the opportunities and what are the
threats in working with the sponsorship prop-
erty?
5. How will we measure our investment and its
return?
6. How will we decide if we are to do it again?
part of a proactive communication approach aimed at
commercial capitalisation. Contrary to the concepts
described earlier, the spender sees to it that philan-
thropic activities are closely connected to the corpo-
ration (or its objectives). In return for the financial
or in-kind support, the corporation may publicise
its efforts. A historical example of this was the Shell
Guides to the English Countryside, discussed in Mini
case study 24.1. A modern example of corporate phi-
lanthropy at work in the United States is the work
of the bank JP Morgan Chase & Co in celebrating
Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and preserving his legacy
by carrying out a vast amount of company philan-
thropic initiatives in a cohesive programme (JP Mor-
gan Chase & Co Sponsorships).
Explore 24.2
The bi-annual Comic Relief appeal, broadcast by BBC
television (in the United Kingdom), is a major tele-
vised event, which reaches out to the public for dona-
tions. The appeals corporate partners include major
UK brands such as Sainsbury and British Airways. Find
out how companies can benefit from being associated
with the charity by going to http://www.comicrelief.
com/support-us/partners
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 452
Cause-related marketing (CRM)
In contrast to the concepts previously described,
cause-related marketing solely relates to profit
objectives. Companies financially contribute to
good cause events, movements or organisations in
return for exposure and association. The main focus
of support is image exploitation and the hope for
enhanced corporate reputation. Unlike the concept
of corporate philanthropy, cause-related marketing
is transaction based and clearly not driven by altruis-
tic motives (cause-related marketing, with examples,
is discussed further in Chapters 5 and 16). Target
groups for cause-related marketing include not only
present and potential customers, but CRM can also
prove effective in reactivating employee motivation
as well as attracting future candidates. Building on
a reciprocal partnership, the integration of commu-
nication and promotion are of vital importance. One
very unique CRM programme is outlined in Mini
case study 24.2.
Sponsoring
Sponsoring is derived from the Latin word spon-
dere or promise solemnly, hence its use as formula
for prayer (sponderis) in a Christian context. The
Mini case study 24.2
Red Products (RED)
(RED) Products is a unique, cause-related marketing
initiative. In this case, one that was initiated not by
a corporate organisation, but by the supporters of a
cause specifically the joint desire of U2 rock star and
activist Bono and philanthropist Robert Shriver to fight
the Aids disease in Africa. The (RED) is licensed to
companies who create red products where a portion of
the profits of each sales go to a charitable partner (www
.theglobalfund.org), who then carries out the brand
mission.
Brands benefit by tapping into the consumers desire
to do good and create an additional reason for their
product to be chosen over a competitor [MSNBC.com
2006]. This unique model has seen engagement from
brands including Apple, American Express, Beats by Dr.
Dre, Nike and Starbucks. For more information visit:
https://red.org/about/
23/03/2017 13:25

derivative word sponsor was used for godparent,
which is also the original English meaning. A sponsor
is defined by the Collins English Dictionary (2012) in
the following ways:
1. a person or group that provides funds for an
activity, especially
a. a commercial organisation that pays all or part
of the cost of putting on a concert, sporting
event, etc.
b. a person who donates money to a charity when
the person requesting the donation has per-
formed a specified activity as part of an organ-
ized fund-raising effort.
2. a person or business firm that pays the costs of a
radio or television programme in return for adver-
tising time
3. a legislator who presents and supports a bill,
motion, etc.
4. also called: godparent
a. an authorised witness who makes the required
promises on behalf of a person to be baptised
and thereafter assumes responsibility for his
Christian upbringing
b. a person who presents a candidate for confir-
mation
5. a person who undertakes responsibility for the
actions, statements, obligations, etc. of another, as
during a period of apprenticeship; a guarantor.
Alternatively, the business knowledge site Investo-
pedia defines corporate sponsorship more specifically
as: A form of marketing in which a corporation pays
for all or some of the costs associated with a project
or program in exchange for recognition. Corpora-
tions may have their logos and brand names displayed
Think about 24.3
Definitions of sponsorship
Which of the Collins definitions of sponsoring do
you think is closest to the concept discussed in this
chapter?
Feedback
The first and second definitions are closest to the
concept we are discussing. However, broadcasting is
not the only media space that is paid for by a sponsor.
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 453
Chapter 24Sponsorship 453
alongside that of the organisation undertaking the
project or program, with specific mention that the
corporation has provided funding. Corporate sponsor-
ships are commonly associated with non-profit groups,
who generally would not be able to fund operations
and activities without outside financial assistance. It is
not the same as philanthropy.
These definitions reveal three broad characteristics
of sponsorship as a marketing and PR construct:
1. it entails motives for the support by the sponsor
and the rights holder;
2. there is a relationship formed between spender
(sponsor) and receiver (rights holder);
3. it generates publicity for the sponsor and poten-
tially the sponsorship property or its rights holder.
A fourth characteristic
However, the authors would contend that these defi-
nitions are lacking one key aspect for marketers and
PR practitioners in order to derive maximum success:
that a sponsorship is everything described above
but, more importantly, through the sponsorships
rights, it is the opportunity to derive value for the
organisation with varied stakeholders (most likely
well beyond the traditional consumer approach to
sponsorship). Sponsorship should be thought of as
similar to a membership of a club. The sponsor is
buying a series of rights, just like a consumer buys a
gym membership. The success of this membership is
down to their focused commitment to make use of
the facilities or rights.
Figure 24.3 shows graphically the important ele-
ments of sponsorship, some of which have been cov-
ered, others at which we will take a more detailed look.
The figure compares the scope of sponsorship with
related sponsorship-support techniques.
In this instance, sponsorship brings with it a more
process-orientated view that includes planning, imple-
menting and control mechanisms. So definitions that
see sponsorship as merely an investment in cash or
kind in an activity in return for access to the exploit-
able commercial potential associated with this activity
do not go far enough, as aforementioned (De Pels-
macker et al. 2004). Although the study of support
in return for services is of interest to PR practitioners,
sponsoring involves quite a bit more.
As such, one could propose a definition of organ-
isational/corporate sponsorship that is: A planned
organisational/corporate focused activity, aimed at
facilitating the achievement of a goal or objective, that
23/03/2017 13:25
 454 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Figure 24.3 What is sponsorship? (source: Bowd et al. 2013)
sees the provision of financial or in-kind support via a
sponsorship rights holder for a sponsorship property
from within a certain sector, through the utilisation
and leveraging of the ensuing sponsorship rights by the
sponsor through marketing, PR and communications
activities.
Benefits from a successful
sponsorship
With this holistic viewpoint as to what sponsorship
is and a clear understanding that it has grown expo-
nentially, let us now discuss why it is so popular and
what sponsorship can achieve for an organisation with
respect to their goals in terms of commercial, psycho-
logical or organisational benefits.
Though increasingly professional and strategic
in orientation, sponsorship remains multifaceted. It
reaches from high-profile media presence to the sup-
port of a local youth football club. Sponsorship can
manifest in diverse societal arenas such as sport, educa-
tion or arts and deliver divergent communication goals
such as contact with audience (psychological benefit)
or a specified market share increase (commercial ben-
efit). Depending on the scope and importance of the
investment made in the sponsorship, sponsorship can
affect multiple things to achieve goals, including the
following:
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 454
passion marketing
image transfer
multiple stakeholders communication
direct sales
strategic partnerships.
Passion marketing
Sponsorship is widely regarded as an inexpensive alter-
native to advertising. This often goes hand in hand with
the common misconception that sponsorship activity is
merely logo exposure. If sponsorship involved no more
than brand presence, it would very likely be useless as
a communication tool. After all, multimillion invest-
ments, such as Gatorades US nine-figure investment
in the American NFL league or significant investment
with Arsenal Football Club in the UK or FC Barcelona
in Spain have to be commercially justified. This raises
the question about the capabilities and efficiency of
sponsorship. Todays experiential economies call for
passionate brand communication and this is exactly
the added value sponsorship can provide (Pine and
Gilmore 1998). Depending on the perceived relevance
to the audience, sponsorship can convey memorable
emotions and experiences more effectively than any
other communication channel. With this power of
association, sponsorship has become a communication
tool in its own right.
23/03/2017 13:25

Image transfer
One of the main purposes of sponsorship is to affect
consumers attitudes towards, and beliefs about, a
brand or corporation favourably. As attitudes can be
good predictors of (consumer) behaviour and repre-
sent an overall evaluation of associations linked to
an object, the formation and change of attitudes is of
interest to the marketer (see also Chapter19). What
makes sponsorship a unique persuasive tool is its asso-
ciation potential. Sponsorship generally has positive
connotations among audiences. It also does not rely on
elaborate cognitive information (thought) processing.
Its emotional appeal makes it easy for the consumer
to understand. The sponsorship entity sets the stage
for inducing emotions such as joy, hope, excitement,
fear, anger, etc. Marketing messages are presented in
this context in the hope that consumers will experi-
ence these emotions. Research evidence suggests that
it is not only the situational experience that influences
behaviour, but also the overall attitude towards an
event (Cooper 2003). A positive evaluation of some-
thing (event, person, team, etc.) will create positive
feelings, which may then be transferred to the brand.
This means that it is important to monitor opportu-
nities carefully to ensure a good match between the
sponsorship and the attitudes of the target audience.
Multiple stakeholders
communication
Beyond the function of communication with potential
customers, sponsorship can aim to create additional
results with other stakeholders. At the organisational
level, employee motivation and identification can be
supported by sponsorship activities. Research also
suggests that there is a correlation between image and
employment attractiveness, so that personnel market-
ing/recruiting might also benefit from these activities.
Establishing goodwill with external groups, such as
financial institutions, shareholders or investors, is an
additional target variable of sponsorship. This is also
true for the relationship with distributors, sales per-
sonnel and business partners (see also Chapter20). In
some cases, sponsorship activities may also be used to
develop relationships with decision makers in govern-
mental institutions. Such stakeholder relationships are
often enhanced through sponsorship activities such as
VIP events and corporate hospitality. The Asics case
(see Case study 24.1), along with the Intercontinental
Hotel Group case (see Case study 24.2) included such
activity.
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 455
Chapter 24Sponsorship 455
Direct sales
Beyond the ability to facilitate passion marketing,
image transfer, integrated communications and stake-
holder communications, sponsorship can also be a
conduit to enabling direct sales. That is, sales not gener-
ated through the effects of a brand built through image
transfer or as a result of association with ones pas-
sion, but through the direct network of the sponsorship
property/rights holders or its inherent power to open
doors. Sponsors are usually unwilling to specifically
divulge the direct results of these relationships, as it
may affect their renegotiations for sponsorship renew-
als in a manner that may raise the cost going forward.
Taking Olympic sponsorships as an example, many
of the worldwide sponsors of the Olympics, known as
The Olympic Partners (TOP), and partners and sup-
pliers of individual Organising Committees for the
Olympic Games (OCOG) engage in the sponsorship
for, among other reasons, its ability to help deliver
sales sales derived through either selling products and
services into the organisations tasked with delivering
the games, other partners or via the sporting and civil
infrastructure of the individual host nations as they
scale up and down for each games. Additionally, sales
are derived by using Olympic-themed incentive pro-
grammes to generate increased sales via the sales forces
or resellers who hope to win tickets through excelling
in their performance beyond normal targets. For some
Olympic sponsors this can create return on investment
many times the value of their sponsorship in each cycle
before they even start to market their relationship in
traditional ways.
Direct sales are not limited to large sponsorships.
As an example, the hotel industry has used partner-
ship sponsorship deals with sports bodies or events to
deliver guaranteed or incremental business for decades.
Mass participation sporting events (from major global
marathons to regional or local runs or triathlons) often
have a hotel sponsor whose motivation to sponsor is
down to the direct sales they can achieve. These sales
are achieved as they are able to communicate directly
to participants at the time of their registration to
inform them of preferential rates or incentives in order
to secure booking before the athlete consumers shop
around. Additionally, hotel deals in sport often occur
with the major leagues or governing bodies, not neces-
sarily for the consumer sales, but the sales that can be
achieved via those organisations business-to-business
networks, which tend to include extensive networks of
small clubs, suppliers, businesses and other sponsors.
This model can also be seen to apply in the areas of arts
and tourism, amongst other sectors.
23/03/2017 13:25
 456 Part 3Public relations specialisms

Activation strategies: in-depth case studies

Case study 24.1 British Lions coach, to create unique and insightful train-
ing videos:

Asics Smarter Rugby: YouTube channel with regular Geech training content
Retail POS and exclusive video content for major
driving the trade online retailers
relationship, and Trade engagement programme with meet Geech
launch event and tiered support programme
ultimately sales, through Value in Kind (VIK) partnerships with key media,
a sponsorship campaign supported by a broader PR campaign (e.g. Times,
Rugby World, rugbydump.com).

For many consumer retail brands, the trade opportunity This holistic approach of PR, advertising, experience
that sponsorship delivers is a vital element, providing and content, coupled with in-store activity, helped
them with unique materials to help them establish, retain ASICS to make huge steps forward in their business
or improve their in-store fixture. between 2010 and 2011 with the key trade. Key high-
lights included:
At the start of this decade, Asics in the UK had a great
rugby product and a great reputation for excellence Rugby retailer sell-in increased 188 per cent YOY
from their running shoes, but needed an effective (year on year)
means to transfer that into a retail offering to drive Rugby gross margin increased 4.3 per cent
uptake of their rugby boots in the highly competitive
Digital traffic (Asics website) increased 88 per cent
specialist rugby trade.
170,000+ YouTube views.
Strategic idea: smarter rugby
Traditionally, sports shoes marketing focuses on hero-
ing the stars of the game, with the leading manufactur-
ers vying for the signature of the leading players to wear
their boots, which they then utilise in both advertising
and point of sale.

Asics decided out of both brand position and a stark

economic reality that in rugby they didnt have the sales
to justify the cost of signing the games biggest stars to
take a different approach, creating a strategy to deliver a
point of difference to retailers, as well as talking directly
to their consumers.

They recognised that inherent trust in the product (many

players wear Asics running shoes in training), aligned with
amateur players natural thirst for knowledge of how to
improve their game. The output was Smarter Rugby, led
by advocacy and core content rather than relying on tra-
ditional player ambassador deals.
Picture 24.2 Sir Ian McGeechan (Geech), the legendary
Asics UK signed an exclusive deal with a core trusted British Lions coach, supported the Asics sponsorship
advocate, Sir Ian McGeechan (Geech), the legendary campaign

M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 456 23/03/2017 13:25


Think about 24.4
In the Asics rugby case, the performance shoe manu-
facturers sponsorship approach utilised a legend of UK
rugby, Sir Ian McGeechan, to help them build their retail
sales, rather than a superstar of the sport or an upcom-
ing young player. Why was this so effective at this stage
in their brands development in the sport when of the 1
million plus rugby players in the UK only around 160,000
are adults, for whom Geech would be personally relevant?
Feedback
This approach was effective, as initially the audience
that Asics needed to win over was not the consumer,
Case study 24.2
Intercontinental Hotel
Group: driving employee
engagement through
London 2012
Sponsorship is entered into for many reasons and
increasingly companies are looking internally for the
impact of their sponsorship programmes, sometimes to
the exclusion of any outward facing benefits. The 2012
London Olympics was potentially a watershed for this
type of sponsorship activation certainly for IHG (Inter-
Continental Hotel Group), who were a provider to the
games through their Holiday Inn brand. IHG increased
employee engagement and subsequent pride in the
company (and increased productivity) all key drivers
for their sponsorship programme.
Creating unforgettable experiences for
employees
Some sponsorships (in this case Olympic) deliver few
opportunities for large companies to offer direct inter-
action for staff: ticket numbers (and similar benefits) are
relatively minimal especially, in this case, as IHG were
only a Tier 3 partner (supplier/provider) to the 2012
Olympics.
The answer for IHG was to bring the Olympic Games to
life for staff through athlete-led experiences: creating a
team of 50 potential Team GB athletes (33 of which were
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 457
Chapter 24Sponsorship 457
but the retailers who control the consumers access to
products. For this audience, Geech was not only a hero
(as most are past players and current fans) but also
credible, as he had never worked with a brand in this
way and, due to his level of integrity, the retailers knew
he would only work with a brand whose product qual-
ity matched all its claims. In addition, when it came to
retail, the campaign may not have had pulling power
with youngsters in the way an icon of the sport would
have, but it did resonate highly with fathers, many of
whom fund the boot purchase.
selected for the games) through an innovative negotia-
tion approach delivering free hotel rooms for athletes
and their coaches/family in return for their time for staff
and customer engagement and PR, with top-ups for
advertising and wider marketing rights.
This programme delivered:
37 Olympic masterclasses covering ...
20 Olympic sports involving ...
62 Olympians and coaches who met ...
2500+ staff from ...
77 hotels.
Delivering...in more ways than one
Within 6 months, employees awareness of the sponsor-
ship increased from 49 per cent to 73 per cent, matched
by engagement levels.
The programme delivered an average Net Promotor
Score (Bain and Company) of 97...and, unexpectedly,
created part-time jobs for 15 athletes within IHG. IHG
were able to maximise the activity by creating parallel
pop up Olympic experiences for IHG loyalty programme
& Facebook followers and driving strong PR coverage: a
lesson in sweating your assets.
Definition: Net Promoter Score
The Net Promoter Score (or NPS) Net Promoter Score,
Net Promoter, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix
Systems, Inc., Bain and Company, Inc., and Fred Reich-
held. is based on the fundamental perspective that
every companys customers can be divided into three
23/03/2017 13:25
 458 Part 3Public relations specialisms
case study 24.2 (continued)
categories: Promoters, Passives and Detractors. By asking
one simple question How likely is it that you would
recommend [your company] to a friend or colleague?
organisations can track these stakeholder groups and
get a clear measure of their company s performance
through the customers eyes. Customers respond on a
010 point rating scale and are categorised as follows:
Promoters (score 910) are loyal enthusiasts who will
keep buying and refer others, fuelling growth.
Passives (score 78) are satisfied but unenthusiastic
A further example of when sponsorship can lead
to direct sales is occurring in the UK cycling industry
with respect to sponsors of the Sky Pro Cycling Team,
whose riders Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome won
the Tour De France in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016.
Cycling equipment brands linked to the team are in
the most part enjoying much greater success at secur-
ing listings with retailers in what has been termed
by industry experts the Team Sky effect, where the
brand-pull of the team means that consumers want to
use whatever the team is using through an innate belief
Picture 24.3 British Olympians such as former World Champion and record Tour de France stage winner, Mark
Cavendish, took part in staff masterclasses as part of IHG s sponsorship to drive employee engagement
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 458
customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.
Detractors (score 06) are unhappy customers who
can damage your brand and impede growth through
negative word-of-mouth.
To calculate a companys NPS, they take the percentage
of customers who are Promoters and subtract the per-
centage who are Detractors.
Source: Modified from www.netpromoter.com/know/
that it is the best, due to the strength of the teams
attributes.
Strategic partnerships
Another important benefit from sponsorships for both
sponsors and rights holders refers to the opportunity
for the development of a long-term strategic part-
nership between the two parties. Specifically, when
a sponsorship is successful in its initial stages, the
23/03/2017 13:25

Think about 24.5
No-money deals
In the IHG case study the 50 Olympic/Paralympic athletes
were remunerated for their time through free hotel rooms
for their personal use, or use by their friends, family and
coaches, in exchange for a reasonable amount of rights.
The amount of room nights varied by athlete and was
dependent on the athletes profile (i.e. payment was
commensurate with status).
This value in kind (VIK) approach to sponsorship
worked as the athletes received something of real use to
them, something that they would normally have to pay
commercial rates for, so they valued the nights at face
value in exchange for their time. For IHG it meant that
they were able to work with more athletes than they
two partners can expand the terms of their deal and
develop a strategic alliance that is beneficial for both
parties. Therefore, a sponsorship partnership may start
as a simple sponsorship categories dealership, but it
may end up being a much deeper, more strategic col-
laboration between the two partners. This can include
joint communication campaigns, co-branding (e.g.
MotorolaFerrari, SamsoniteMcLaren), the exchange
of databases and joint ventures in large infrastructure
projects. In that way, both partners can achieve syner-
gies and fully exploit sponsorships positive outcomes.
Social implications
As explained in Box24.2, sponsorship is by definition
associated with socially beneficial activities such as
sports, charities, arts, education and many others. The
main aim of sponsors is to affiliate their name with
what all stakeholders perceive as the healthiest parts of
society. They can then capitalise on this and improve
their reputation and credibility, using various com-
munication techniques, such as asking the sponsored
entity to publicly support their brands, use their logo in
advertising, promote products in a sponsored event, etc.
Nevertheless, sponsorships can be valuable not only
for sponsors and sponsored entities, but also for vari-
ous other stakeholders, as well as society in general. In
fact, sponsorships positive social impact is substantially
stronger than that of other promotional techniques. In
some cases, this impact is long-standing and multifac-
eted. For instance, the Bank of America has developed a
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 459
Chapter 24Sponsorship 459
would have if paying cash, as they were able to benefit
from the internal rate on rooms between the parent
company and hotels (i.e. X dollars of room nights for
IHG meant X times, say, 2 or 3 dollars worth of athletes).
From this case example how do you think IHG managed
to convince the agents who take cash commissions on
deals to allow these relationships to happen?
Feedback
Agents and their companies have a similar need to the
athletes, i.e. accommodation for business reasons. As
such, IHG remunerated the agents, who normally receive
a commission from athletes, with hotel room nights to a
value roughly equivalent of 20 per cent of the room
nights the athletes received. In order to make this attrac-
tive, IHG worked with a limited amount of agents in
order to maximise the benefit and incentive to allow
their athletes to engage in the programme.
long-standing partnership with Special Olympics, which
for the 2015 Special Olympics World Games in Los
Angeles was reflected in a $5 million sponsorship. This
deal was also supported by hundreds of the companys
employees who participated in the event as volunteers.
Sports and charities are not the only fields where
sponsorships have a positive societal impact. From
arts to education and from ecology to health research,
sponsors are spending money in order to associate
their corporate brand with positive societal activi-
ties. In arts, for example, on several occasions spon-
sorships constitute an imperative stream of income
for artists, producers and arts events organisers. For
instance, it is the money coming through sponsorships
from several French corporations, such as Air France,
Renault and LOreal, that has allowed the Festival de
Cannes to sustain and grow every year (www.festival-
cannes.com). Its not an overstatement to say that if
it had not been for sponsorship money, many art gal-
leries, orchestras and festivals wouldnt have grown
or even existed.
Drivers of success
Determinants of sponsorship
effectiveness
Sponsorship is a very promising communication prac-
tice, which, however, poses high risk levels. The results
of a successful sponsorship can be very positive for
23/03/2017 13:25
 460 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Box 24.2
What can be sponsored?
Arts (film festivals, music festivals, orchestras, gal-
leries and exhibitions such as those sponsored by
various organisations at the Guggenheim in New
York).
Broadcasting (television programmes, series of pro-
grammes, films and content, such as (in the UK)
Sainsburys and BTs sponsorship of the 2012 Para-
lympic Broadcasts).
Charity (events, appeals and work for social issues;
such as the previously mentioned Comic Relief
appeal and Red Products initiative).
Culture (local initiatives and events, such as celebra-
tions or festivals, e.g. New Years Eve in Times Square
in New York, which in 2015 was sponsored by Planet
Fitness and multiple other sponsors, or winter ice
rinks in the UK with major outdoor rinks in London
sponsored by Fortnum and Mason (Somerset House)
and Swarovski (Natural History Museum)).
sponsorship partners, consumers and society in gen-
eral (Becker-Olsen and Hill 2006). At the same time,
though, an unsuccessful sponsorship can cause finan-
cial loss for the sponsor or/and negative brand effects
for both partners. The success of a sponsorship is
reflected in the effectiveness of a sponsorship, i.e. the
degree to which it successfully fulfils its communica-
tions, marketing and sales objectives.
The factors that determine the effectiveness of a
sponsorship vary according to the sector, the type of
sponsorship and the objectives that have been set from
both parties before the beginning of the sponsorship
campaign. In general, though, the drivers of a spon-
sorships success belong to one the following four cat-
egories (Gwinner and Swanson 2003; Mazodier and
Merunka 2012; Kim et al. 2015):
sponsor-related factors
sponsee-related factors
combinational factors
target audience-related factors
The first category includes factors related to spon-
sors prior status such as reputation and brand image,
as well as their strategic plan for the particular sponsor-
ship, such as the target audience identification, the size
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 460
Ecology/environment (recycling and conservation
programmes, such as Skys (UK and European satellite
television provider) Rain Forest Rescue Programme
with the World Wildlife Fund).
Education (for example, book series, individual
academic posts, chairs, or full faculties, such as in
the US where corporate foundation sponsorship of
business schools is commonplace, for example the
Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young
University).
Industries/business/trades (sponsorship of research
initiatives, industry events, associations and awards,
such as the PR Week Awards in the UK, whose spon-
sors include major polling and services suppliers to
the public relations industry).
Sport (from athletes to teams, and major tourna-
ments, and big sporting events such as the Olympics,
with multiple sponsorship opportunities, see Case
studies 24.1 and 24.2 for in-depth examples).
Venues and infrastructure (from libraries and are-
nas, to transport infrastructure in cities, such as the
Santander Bank-sponsored cycle (bike) hire scheme
in London or the Emirates (Airline) cable car in
London).
of the budget, the cohesiveness of their messages and
the media exposure they will manage to get. The sec-
ond category encompasses sponsee-related factors such
as the sponsees prior reputation, their current financial
performance, their commitment to the sponsorship and
their audiences loyalty to them. Apart from these two
categories, the effectiveness of a sponsorship is also
determined by variables that are linked to both par-
ties, such as the quality of their cooperation and the fit
between their profiles (see Box24.3 for details).
Finally, the success of a sponsorship is also influ-
enced by the target audiences psychographic and
behavioural characteristics, such as their general
perceptions and attitude towards sponsorship i.e.
the degree to which their exposure to a sponsorship
can even influence them in the first pace and their
involvement with the product category, the event and
the context in general (e.g. sports, arts, charity).
Audience-related factors are of paramount importance
and sponsors must integrate them into their sponsorship
plans. For that reason, they must collect information
through market research and analyse this information in
order to adjust their practices. For example, if the results
of the sponsors research show that the target audience
has a negative attitude towards sponsors and the concept
of sponsorship in general a phenomenon very common
23/03/2017 13:25

Box 24.3
Sponsorship fit
One of the major determinants of a sponsorships suc-
cess is the fit between the sponsoring organisation and
the sponsored body (Becker-Olsen and Hill 2006). Spon-
sorship fit can be defined as the match, or congruence,
of attributes between sponsoring firms and sponsored
objects, as perceived by the major stakeholders (e.g.
customers, participants in an event, fans, internal audi-
ences). A sponsorship with a high degree of congruence
between the two parties profiles will be significantly more
effective in terms of stakeholders engagement with the
sponsorship, brand results (brand image, brand equity)
and financial results (Woisetschlger et al. 2010). Moreo-
ver, in such sponsorships a long-term, mutual beneficial
relationship between the sponsoring and the sponsored
body is more likely to be established, in which both par-
ties will be building on the previous success and settled fit.
The fit between a sponsor and a sponsored entity may
emerge from a pre-existing juxtaposition of their names
(natural fit), or it may be developed through market-
ing communications activities (created fit). The first
type results in more cost-effective sponsorships, as the
amount of investment needed from the sponsor is lower.
On the other hand, if no natural congruence exists, the
sponsor must spend a significant budget on marketing
communications in order to create it. This is crucial, espe-
cially in the initial stages of a sponsorship campaign.
Sources of fit
The benefits from a congruent sponsorship may originate
from one or more of the following factors (Woisetschlger
in the arts the sponsor must either invest heavily in
the early stages of the sponsorship in order to change
this attitude or choose a different activity to sponsor
or even a different communication practice to pass their
messages to the target audience.
Developing a sponsorship
strategy
So how does an organisation arrive at its sponsorship
strategy? Sponsorship involves more than the sup-
port of an event such as the FIFA World Cup, the
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 461
Chapter 24Sponsorship 461
et al. 2010; Mazodier and Merunka 2012; Mazodier and
Quester 2014):
1. Functional similarity: this occurs when the two
parties operate in the same, or related, industries: for
example, sports fashion brands have a natural func-
tional fit with athletes and other sportspeople.
2. Regional/national association: this is a source of
fit that evolves from the fact that the sponsor and the
sponsored object operate or originate from the same
country, region or city (e.g. Coca Cola and the 1996
Olympic Games in Atlanta).
3. Experience similarity: this type of similarity arises
when the sponsoring and the sponsored object
offer a combined experience to consumers and
other stakeholders: for instance, when the fans of a
football club consume the sponsors products in the
stadium.
4. Symbolic resemblance: this derives from the
p erceived similarity in symbolic characteristics,
such as the shape and the colour of the logo, the
brand name and other aesthetic attributes: for
example, for the period 20102015, the two main
sponsors for Ferraris F1 cars are Santander and
Marlboro all three brands main colours are white
and red.
5. Created concept similarity: this is a non-natural
source of fit which relates to a specific concept
created from the sponsor in order to promote the
sponsorship. A very indicative example is EDFs
Energy for the Nations campaign, which involved a
substantial sponsorship in the 2012 Olympic Games
in London. During the campaign, EDF emphasised
the role in powering the Olympics a concept that
increased the match between EDFs profile and the
Olympics.
PGA (golf) Masters series or the local volleyball club
in return for logo exposure. The activities covered in
our definition highlight much of the approach, scale
and scope of todays sponsorship environment. They
also indicate the necessary professionalism that comes
with the understanding of sponsorship as part of an
integrated communication and relationship strategy. In
the spirit of Maecenatism, not long ago gut decisions
on who and what to sponsor were commonplace (this
was sometimes known as the chairmans discretion
or chairmans wife syndrome, as sponsorship of ones
favourite team or of the opera or society events secured
grace and favour with these organisations). Despite its
strategic importance and the increased professionalism
of sponsorship, many decisions follow management
23/03/2017 13:25
 462 Part 3Public relations specialisms
preferences rather than calculated communication
objectives. In contrast to gut decisions leading to hit
and miss activities, modern sponsorship thinking is
planned and decisive.
Opportunity analysis, scenario planning, alternative
target generation, strategy selection, budget and time
horizon decisions, implementation, integration in the
marketing mix, communication channel coordination,
evaluation and control mechanisms are all examples
of a systematic and process-based view of sponsoring.
These terms also explain how sponsorship can be sys-
tematically integrated into a marketing strategy. Here
the word systematic means that sponsorship should
not be a question of trial and error, but should follow
a management process with specified communication
goals. This implies accountability and controllability,
because otherwise any financial or in-kind commit-
ment would be highly risky. As we will see later, the
development of evaluation tools is, due to the nature
Figure 24.4 Sponsorship management as a planning process (source: modified from Tench and Yeomans 2009)
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 462
of sponsoring, a major challenge to PR and corporate
communication departments.
An organisation or corporation that takes into con-
sideration sponsoring as a communication tool faces
a range of challenges in planning, implementing and
controlling the activities. This is the area of responsi-
bility of sponsorship management. Figure24.4 shows
phases of the planning process of sponsoring. There
are numerous models, both academic and professional,
in existence, most of which share three commonali-
ties: international sponsorship consultancy IMG refer
to these as the Discover, Design and Delivery phases.
Strategic planning phase (Discover)
Starting with the phase of analysis and prognosis, spon-
sorship management deals first of all with the collection
and evaluation of information. It is this phase where,
23/03/2017 13:25

Box 24.4
The importance for
rights holders to think
about potential sponsor
objectives and goals
In the world of sponsorship, it is important for the
rights holder to think both about the needs of exist-
ing or potential sponsors, and their individual situa-
tions in order to maximise their revenue. Often the
importance of this thought process is more impor-
tant the less traditionally high-profile or mainstream
the entity to sponsor; thus the likes of the Formula 1,
NBA, NFL, MLB, Premier League Football, Olympics,
etc., though hugely expensive to sponsors, may find
it significantly easier to sell in their sponsorships than
a smaller rights holder.
While working in practice, the authors of this chap-
ter are often approached by organisations and indi-
viduals selling sponsorships with little thought of the
needs and wants of the organisations they would like
to sponsor or truly what is their value and their reach.
in coordination with other communication activities,
sponsorship scenarios are developed. On the basis of
target audience/stakeholder (who is key to achieving
the goals and objectives?), sponsoring objectives are
specified (what are the short-, medium- and long-term
objectives necessary to achieve the organisational/cor-
porate goals?), the key message is determined (what will
be communicated?) and possible sponsorship activities
are evaluated and pre-selected (see Meenaghan 1998;
Bruhn and Homburg 2001). It is very important to note
that sponsorship deals are planned and agreed a long
way in advance. Ideally, organisations are constantly
monitoring the sponsorship environment to take advan-
tage of upcoming opportunities.
Sponsorship programme creation
phase (design)
This strategic framework with its longer-term time-
frame and broad definition of the organisations spon-
soring activities ideally leads to a concrete action plan.
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 463
Chapter 24Sponsorship 463
The programme creation phase of sponsoring reflects
a shorter-term timeframe, usually a financial year or
cycle of a sponsorship, such as a four-year Olympic
cycle. Here the strategy formulation is translated
into operational and day-to-day sponsoring activi-
ties. These individual components include decisions
on budget and time horizon, the fine-tuning of spon-
sorship programmes (e.g. selection of specific events),
contractual matters and the coordination with other
ongoing communication activities. In this context, spe-
cial attention should be given to this organisational
dimension of sponsoring. As Cornwell and Maignan
(2001) argue, sponsorship activities may not, in them-
selves, be sufficient to achieve specific objectives for
all target audiences. This is why it is important that
sponsorship activities are reinforced through comple-
mentary communication activities. As these cross-
marketing operations may include sales promotion,
advertising or special product offers (among others),
total expenditure may easily exceed the sponsorship
budget. It is also important to note that the coordina-
tion of communication activities towards a common
goal increasingly takes an integrative sponsorship
perspective.
Implementation phase (deliver)
The process-orientated view also highlights the dual
nature of sponsorship: not only does the selection of
a strategic programme and its coordination need to
be addressed, but also how to put this strategy into
practice. It is easy to underestimate the complexity
and importance of implementing sponsorship plans.
Activities are as good as the weakest link in the spon-
soring process and a good plan does not necessarily
translate into a successful campaign. Sponsoring is
sensitive to trends and sudden changes. Football teams
can be relegated, events can be mismanaged, celebri-
ties can be arrested any of these may lead to negative
publicity or an inability to exercise the rights to their
maximum for the sponsor.
Furthermore, a sponsorship campaign calls for
the cooperation between several internal and exter-
nal departments. Therefore, a manager should be
involved in all phases of sponsoring and responsible
for the planning as well as the implementation. Since
implementation is a key determinant of success, many
specialised agencies have evolved such as IMG; addi-
tionally, major corporations such as BMW or Micro-
soft have their own departments that coordinate all
sponsorship activities.
23/03/2017 13:25
 464 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Communicating a sponsorship
Sponsorship: an interdisciplinary
practice
Decision-making on sponsorship deals is a very com-
plicated process for contemporary organisations,
which involves teams from several departments. This
is mainly because sponsorship is an interdisciplinary
practice, which borrows theories and best practices
from various scientific fields.
There is no doubt that sponsorship is primarily a
communication process. Most academics and practitio-
ners view sponsorship as a marketing and PR activity,
and these are the two scientific fields that formulate
the basic principles, strategic directions and practi-
cal stages for the implementation of a sponsorship
plan. Most definitions of sponsorship, as previously
presented in this chapter, put it conceptually closer
to PR both in terms of its communication outcomes
and in terms of the nature of collaboration between
partners. At the same time though, most practitioners
consider sponsorship a marketing activity. Given that
the line between PR and marketing is very thin and the
relationship between the two depends on the concep-
tualisation that one follows, it is safe to say that spon-
sorship as a communication practice, borrows theories
and best practices from both.
Marketing and PR are not the only disciplines that
study sponsorship. As described in Box 24.1, spon-
sorship deals involve the management of agreements,
sponsorship rights and categories. This means that the
legal aspects of sponsorship are vital more vital than
in other communication practices such as sales pro-
motion or advertising. Thats why the involvement of
the sponsorship partners legal team before and during
an agreement is extended. Furthermore, most types of
sponsorships have several fiscal implications such as
tax deductions and exemptions. The tax implications
vary depending on the country, the type of the sponsor
and the rights holder and the nature of the sponsor-
ship. For that reason, disciplines such as accounting
and international finance substantially influence the
sponsorship decision-making process (Delaney 2010).
Achieving the value out of a
sponsorship
As described in previous sections, in order for a
sponsor to generate value from a sponsorship, the
latter must be effectively communicated to the right
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 464
audiences. By communicating their key messages to
their target audiences, sponsors can capitalise on the
sponsorships success and transform it into positive
brand, reputation and financial outcomes. Apart from
all the determinants of sponsorships effectiveness
(analysed in the previous section), there are several
other factors that enable sponsorship promotion to
the right stakeholders:
Integrated communication
Depending on the objectives and the type of the spon-
sorship, both above the line and below the line tech-
niques are used. For example, Manchester United have
historically provided their sponsors (e.g. Vodafone,
E-ON) with the rights to use their brand in TV adver-
tisements (above the line). At the same time, many
music concerts sponsors use several sales promotion
activities (below the line) such us free tickets to the
events and branded T-shirts to raise awareness of their
sponsorship. As most practitioners suggest, if these two
types of communication practices are integrated into a
through the line campaign, the value derived from the
sponsorship will be maximised.
Understanding the stakeholders
Using traditional or digital vehicles, companies should
collect data on their customers and all other stakehold-
ers and understand how they can translate sponsorship
related information into specific messages that reflect
what their stakeholders want and need (IEG 2015).
Among others, sponsors should collect information
about the following:
stakeholders demographic and psychographic
profile;
their needs and preferences;
their attitude towards the sponsorship partners;
their attitude towards sponsorship in general;
their preferred channels of communication.
Involve audiences
It is common knowledge that two-way communica-
tion between businesses and their stakeholders is
more effective than one-way communication (Dozier
et al. 2013). When sponsors engage in a dialogue with
their audiences regarding a sponsorship, not only do
they collect valuable feedback, but also they increase
23/03/2017 13:25

their stakeholders involvement with the sponsorship
and consequently their brand. Therefore, sponsors
should allow their audiences to express their opinion
on the sponsorship and share their experience with
their peers or on social media, and even ask them to
be influencers (IEG 2015). In that way, they will be
actively engaged, and hence their experience will be
significantly enhanced.
The role of PR
As can be deduced from the preceding case studies,
public relations role in sponsorship is clearly present
in value generation through media relations. How-
ever, its role is ever more prevalent, as the public rela-
tions or communications teams are often running the
whole or significant parts of the strategic sponsorship
management process. As sponsorships have moved
away from basic branding or badging exercises to in-
depth programmes of value generation with multiple
objectives in relation to varied stakeholder groups,
the PR or corporate/organisation communications
function of stakeholder communications role has
evolved and come to the fore. This evolution of more
actively engaging stakeholders is an emergent trend
Explore 24.3
Activating athletes at their level
In the IHG case study the athletes involved in the pro-
gramme existed at three predominant levels of profile;
existing Olympic legends (with medals from previous
games), likely medallists for 2012 (athletes who had
medalled at recent world or European champion-
ships) and up and coming athletes. In most cases ath-
letes masterclass days involved a mix of employee,
customer and media engagement.
Try planning an activity schedule for each level of ath-
lete above and think about how you might structure it.
Feedback
The higher profile the athlete, the more likely their
appeal reaches beyond their sport and into the main-
stream world and media. The less profiled the athlete,
the more important their sport is over themselves and
the more focused the media needs to be on the sport
(sport-specific media) or the athletes microcosms (i.e.
their local paper, etc.)
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 465
Chapter 24Sponsorship 465
in sponsorship, especially in sport, and one that will
continue to change and shape the scope and function
of PR (Sport Business 2008).
Sponsorship in the digital age
All aspects of communication have been massively
influenced by the evolution of digital media. Sponsor-
ship, as a form of business communication, couldnt
be an exception. The analysis of current sponsorship
trends indicates that most marketing and communi-
cations practitioners focus their sponsorship-related
activities in digital marketing. The reason for this per-
tains to the extensive use of digital technologies from
consumers, which has added another dimension to
the way organisations implement sponsorship strate-
gies and derive business value from them. Specifically,
nowadays consumers use social media to augment
the experience they receive from attending a sports
event, watching a TV show or visiting an arts gallery.
For example, they upload photos on Instagram and
start a conversation with their friends, use hashtags
to comment on something that happened in an event,
or watch and comment on it again on YouTube, long
after it is over.
This new world has created a number of opportuni-
ties for sponsorship partners, such as (Millan and Ball
2012; McDonnell and Moir 2013):
Interactivity capabilities utilising the new digital
technologies, sponsors can offer an enhanced expe-
rience to their audiences, providing them with the
opportunity to interact with them and with each
other. This can be implemented not only through
social media, but also through several other digital
platforms such as interactive TV, virtual guides in
museums, galleries and exhibitions, and interactive
billboards.
Viral effects potentiality when a video or photo
from an event goes viral, so will the brand of the
sponsor. This increases dramatically the sponsor-
ships visibility and therefore peoples exposure
to the sponsoring brand. On the other hand, this
poses the danger of the sponsoring brand being
associated with a negative or even offensive
incident.
Extended period of sponsors visibility video
exchange platforms such as YouTube and Dai-
lymotion allow viewers to watch advertisements
and celebrities interviews long after their origi-
nal showing. In that way, the corresponding
23/03/2017 13:25
 466 Part 3Public relations specialisms
sponsoring brands gain exposure for an extended
period of time, much longer than the one they
have paid for.
Market research and feedback digital technolo-
gies offer an excellent platform for the collection
of information on the target audiences. Through
social media research, CRM data mining, virtual
fingerprints and many other methods, organisa-
tions can generate knowledge on their target audi-
ences awareness of the sponsorship, their attitude
towards it, as well as their buying behaviour in
general.
Although digital platforms offer great opportuni-
ties for sponsors, they also pose several dangers. For
instance, if a reputation crisis occurs for a sponsee,
the negative effect on the sponsor will be amplified
due to the diffusion of the news online. Moreover, the
use of social media and other digital platforms may
make it easier for brands to carry out ambush activi-
ties. Ambush marketing is very common in sponsor-
ships and it becomes easier in the online environment.
Sponsorship partners can derive value from a spon-
sorship by fully exploiting the opportunities offered
by the digital platforms and overcoming the threats
posed by them (Millan and Ball 2012). In order to
do that, they must understand who their target audi-
ences in the digital media are and how they should
interact with them. The ultimate aim should be to
enrich their audiences experience, associating even-
tually this enrichment with the sponsoring brand. In
doing so, sponsors should fully integrate their digital
media activities into their sponsorship communica-
tion campaign. In fact, the most successful campaigns
are the ones that not only achieve synergies among the
various communication practices they use, but also
manage to consolidate the stakeholders online and
offline engagement, offering them an omni-channel
experience.
An example of a brand that managed to leverage
their sponsorship through successful integration, was
EDF and its sponsorship to the 2012 London Olympics.
Specifically, throughout the event, EDF monitored all
comments made in social media by the UK public and
reported the general mood (i.e. how positive or nega-
tive) via an illuminated pie-chart on the London Eye
(http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/20/
london-eye-twitter-sentiment).
Case studies 24.1 and 24.2 highlight various
approaches to planning, programme creation and
implementation along with highlighting their evalua-
tion with respect to passion marketing, image transfer,
integrated communications and direct sales.
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 466
Evaluating sponsorship
Evaluation models
Evaluating the effectiveness of a sponsorship is cru-
cial. From a business perspective, the accurate evalu-
ation of sponsorship activities provides the necessary
intelligence for performance measurement, future
budget and communication objectives determination
and the overall communication strategys assessment.
Although imperative, the evaluation of a sponsor-
ships success is a very challenging process. Signifi-
cant constraints during the process may derive from:
the inability to separate sponsorships contribution
from the one other marketing and communications
activities have, undetermined communication objec-
tives before the sponsorship is launched, undefined
competition, carry-over effects from previous mar-
keting activities, uncontrollable media coverage (the
medium is the message) and the chaotic nature of
brand exposure in social media (Anderson 2003;
Walliser 2003).
Although different procedures are used in the
industry, there is a consensus among managers and
researchers that the basis of sponsorship evaluation
should be the degree to which the pre-defined objec-
tives and KPIs have been met. For that reason, the
first step for effective evaluation is the determination
of specific, accurate and measurable communications
and business objectives (McAlister and Ferrell 2002).
After the implementation of a sponsorship campaign,
different approaches are followed. From a manage-
ment point of view, the main evaluation criterion
for sponsorships is the return on investment (ROI)
or other relevant financial metrics. This is because,
in most cases, financial and sales outcomes such as
market share and sales increase will determine future
strategies and budgets.
This view is, however, rather myopic and can lead
to inaccurate results. As sponsorship is a communi-
cation practice, its influence on financial results isnt
direct, but comes through the exposure that it gets in
the media and the impact this exposure has on brand
and reputation outcomes. For that reason, according
to most contemporary evaluation models, sponsorship
should be audited based on three types of measures
(Olkkonen 2001; Anderson 2003; Walliser 2003;
Crompton 2004):
media exposure
brand and reputation outcomes
financial impact
23/03/2017 13:25

Box 24.5
Brand and reputation
outcomes
Part of the evaluation of a sponsorships success involves
the measurement of its impact on brand and reputation
outcomes, including:
brand awareness
brand image
brand attitude
purchase intention
corporate reputation.
In order to measure the impact of a sponsorship on
the aforementioned outcomes two different research
In order to gather the information for the measure-
ment of a sponsorships media exposure, managers use
adapted advertising measurement tools such as contact
points (verbal and visual mentions on TV), duration of
radio mentions, press coverage (single column inches)
and the number of mentions and linked impressions
in social media. Other evaluation models suggest that
managers should use recall and recognition tests with
consumers, in order to identify the impact of exposure.
Summary: The future of
sponsorship
As highlighted throughout, sponsorship has experienced
unprecedented growth as a communications and mar-
keting tool over the past decades and the practice has
evolved and changed significantly. When properly car-
ried out it can deliver significant results for an organisa-
tion, both for intangibles such as brand and reputation
and for tangibles such as stakeholder reach and direct
financial returns. These changes have not gone by unno-
ticed by major players in global communications. Spon-
sorship agencies, advertising agencies, media planning
companies and research institutes have a communication
expertise that they now need to extend to the sponsor-
ship field. Under the roof of communications services
groups, there is a trend towards establishing sponsorship
departments. Many media planning agencies, for exam-
ple, link up with niche sponsorship, sport, art or cultural
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 467
Chapter 24Sponsorship 467
designs can be used. The first one is through quantitative
research with the use of two samples: one that has been
exposed to the sponsorship and a second one (control)
that hasnt. The second one involves a longitudinal study
where participants are asked the same questions before
and after they are exposed to the sponsorship. In both
cases comparisons are made and the impact of the spon-
sorship is determined.
In general, although some of these outcomes can be
measured with a single, closed type question (brand
awareness, purchase intention), most of the outcomes
are more complicated and require the use of psycho-
metric scales that consist of several questions. Finally,
in addition to these methodologies, qualitative meth-
ods (e.g. in-depth interviews, focus groups) should be
used to develop a deeper insight into how the spon-
sorship has influenced consumers perceptions of the
brand.
To assess the financial return of a sponsorship several
indicators exist, such as the change in the market share,
sales increase (or not), sales retention and advertising
cost equivalent.
The measurement of brand and reputation out-
comes is a more complicated process that requires
the use of contemporary marketing research tech-
niques and sophisticated research tools as described
in Box24.3.
agencies to expand their service portfolio. Sponsorship
has grown up and, as a modern communication tool,
faces new challenges.
What does the future hold for sponsorship? With its
exponential growth it could go anywhere. SportBusiness
in 2008 stated that the trends for sports sponsorship
were going to be greater active engagement in lever-
aging sponsorships, greater focus on reaching the next
generation, sustainability, the convergence of media and
sport itself and a threat of regulation preventing some
of the biggest players from soft drinks (such as PepsiCo
and Coca-Cola), fast food and other sectors viewed to be
involved in contributing to societys ills such as obesity
or pollution from being able to use sponsorship. These
are still key issues for the future of sponsorship for all
practitioners to consider. Only time will tell where this
area of the communications mix, that was only a short
time ago in its relative modern-day infancy, will go as it
becomes a key elder statesman.
23/03/2017 13:25
 468 Part 3Public relations specialisms
Bibliography
Anderson, L. (2003). The sponsorship scorecard. B&T,
12 December: 1314.
Becker-Olsen, K.L. and R.P. Hill (2006). The impact of
sponsor fit on brand equity: the case of nonprofit ser-
vice providers. Journal of Service Research 9(1): 7383.
Bruhn, M. and C. Homburg (2001). Gabler Marketing
Lexikon. Wiesbaden: Gabler Verlag.
Collins English Dictionary (2012). Definition of Sponsor-
ship. www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/
sponsorship accessed 12 October 2012.
Cooper, A. (2003). The changing sponsorship scene.
Admap (144), November.
Cornwell, B. and I. Maignan (2001). An international
review of sponsorship research. Journal of Advertis-
ing 27(1): 121.
Crompton, J.L. (2004). Conceptualization and alternate
operationalizations of the measurement of sponsorship
effectiveness in sport. Leisure studies 23(3): 26781.
Delaney, D. (2010). Sponsorship Decision-making and
Management: An accounting perspective. Griffith
University.
De Pelsmacker, P., M. Geuens and J. Van den Berg (2004).
Sponsorship in Marketing Communications. Har-
low: Prentice Hall.
Dozier, D.M., L.A. Grunig and J.E. Grunig (2013). Man-
agers Guide to Excellence in Public Relations and
Communication Management. Mahwah, NJ: Law-
rence Erlbaum.
Electoral Commission (2016) Overview of Donations to
Political Parties. http://www.electoralcommission.org
.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/102263/to-donations-
rp.pdf accessed 20 July 2016.
Gwinner, K. and S.R. Swanson (2003). A model of fan
identification: Antecedents and sponsorship out-
comes. Journal of Services Marketing 17(3): 275294.
IEG Sponsorship Report (3 November 2008) Negotiating
In-kind Value And Category Exclusivity. http://www
.sponsorship.com/IEGSR/2008/11/03/Negotiating-In-
kind-Value-And-Category-Exclusivity.aspx accessed
20 July 2016.
IEG Sponsorship Report (10 July 2009) Fun with
Category Exclusivity. http://www.sponsorship.
com/About-IEG/Sponsorship-Blogs/Carrie-Urban-
Kapraun/July-2009/Fun-with-Category-Exclusivity.
aspx accessed 20 July 2016.
IEG Sponsorship Report (11 January 2012) Economic
Uncertainty to Slow Sponsorship Growth In 2012.
M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 468
http://www.sponsorship.com/About-IEG/Press-Room/
Economic-Uncertainty-To-Slow-Sponsorship-Growth-
In.aspx accessed 20 July 2016.
IEG Sponsorship Report (29 May 2012). Following The
Money: Sponsorships Top Spenders of 2011. http://
www.sponsorship.com/IEGSR/2012/05/28/Following-
The-Money--Sponsorship-s-Top-Spenders-of.aspx
accessed 20 July 2016.
IEG Sponsorship Spending Report (2015). Where the
Dollars are Going and Trends for 2015. http://www
.sponsorship.com/IEG/files/4e/4e525456-b2b1-4049-
bd51-03d9c35ac507.pdf accessed 20 July 2016.
IEG Sponsorship Spending Report (2015b). The Deepest
Sponsorship Pockets Of 2014: Iegs Top Spenders List.
http://www.sponsorship.com/IEGSR/2015/08/03/The-
Deepest-Sponsorship-Pockets-of-2014--IEG-s-Top
.aspx accessed 20 July 2016.
IEG Sponsorship Spending Report (2016). As Sponsorship
Borders Fall, Spending Rises. http://www.sponsorship.
com/IEGSR/2016/01/05/As-Sponsorship-Borders-Fall,-
Spending-Rises.aspx accessed 20 July 2016.
Investopedia.com (2012). Corporate Sponsorship. www
.investopedia.com/terms/c/corporate-sponsorship.
asp
Kim, Y., H.W. Lee, M.J. Magnusen and M. Kim (2015).
Factors influencing sponsorship effectiveness: a meta-
analytic review and research synthesis. Journal of
Sport Management 29(4).
marketingmagazine.co.uk (13 June 2012). Marketing Soci-
ety Awards for Excellence 2012: Cause-related mar-
keting. www.brandrepublic.com/features/1135807/
accessed 20 July 2016.
Mazodier, M. and P. Quester (2014). The role of spon-
sorship fit for changing brand affect: A latent growth
modeling approach. International Journal of Research
in Marketing 31(1): 1629.
Mazodier, M. and D. Merunka (2012). Achieving brand
loyalty through sponsorship: the role of fit and self-
congruity. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sci-
ence 40(6): 80720.
McAlister, D. and L. Ferrell (2002). The role of strategic
philanthropy in marketing strategy. European Jour-
nal of Marketing 36(5): 689705.
McDonnell, I. and M. Moir (2013). Event Sponsorship.
Routledge.
Measurement Matters Blog (17 July 2012). Crisis and
Social Media A Match Made In Heaven? http://www
.gorkana.com/measurement-matters/measurement-
matters/brand-reputation/crisis-and-social-media-a-
match-made-in-heaven/ accessed 24 October 2012.
23/03/2017 13:25
 Chapter 24Sponsorship 469

Meenaghan, T. (1998). Current developments and future sportbusiness-international/search?search_api_views_

directions in sponsorship. International Journal of
Advertising 17(1): 328.
Millan, A. and M. Ball (2012). The use of social media as
a tool for consumer brands to leverage sponsorship of
sporting events: a qualitative analysis. International
Journal of Sales, Retailing and Marketing 1(4): 2739.
MSNBC.com (2 December 2006). Retailers tap into shoppers
do-gooder spirit. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15973282/#
.UIf5MlH3B-U accessed 20 October 2012.
Olkkonen, R. (2001). Case study: The network approach
to international sport sponsorship arrangement. Jour-
nal of Business & Industrial Marketing 16(4): 30929.
Pine, J. and J. Gilmore (1998). Welcome to the experience
economy. Harvard Business Review 76(4): 97105.
Porter, M. and M. Kramer (2002). The competitive
advantage of corporate philanthropy. Harvard Busi-
ness Review 80(12): 5669.
SportBusiness (2008). The Future of Sports Mar-
keting. London. http://www.sportbusiness.com/
fulltext=Sport+Business+%282008%29.+The+Future+
of+Sports+Marketing.+%E2%80%8BLondon ccessed
10 October 2016.
SportBusiness International (2010). Sport Business in
Numbers Volume 4. London.
Statista.com (2016). Global sponsorship spending
by region from 2009 to 2016 (in billion U.S. dol-
lars). http://www.statista.com/statistics/196898/
global-sponsorship-spending-by-region-since-2009/
[Accessed 20 July 2016]
Tench, R. and L. Yeomans (2009). Exploring Public Rela-
tions. FT Prentice Hall: London.
Walliser, B. (2003). An international review of sponsor-
ship research. International Journal of Advertising
22(1): 540.
Woisetschlger, D., A. Eiting, V. Haselhoff and M.
Michaelis (2010). Determinants and consequences of
sponsorship fit: a study of fan perceptions. Journal of
Sponsorship 3(2): 16980.

Websites
Asics Smarter Rugby: www.rugbydump.com/2010/03/1321/smarter-rugby-with-ian-mcgeechan-line-speed
[Accessed 20 July 2016] and www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4ED70B5FA2985319 [Accessed 20 July 2016]
Santander Cycle Hire Scheme: https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/cycling/santander-cycles
Comic Relief: www.comicrelief.com
Daily Motion: http://www.dailymotion.com
Deloitte: http://www.deloitte.co.uk/impact/2012/our-role-in-london-2012/ [Accessed 20 July 2016]
Embratel Rio 2016 Summer Olympics Sponsorship: https://www.rio2016.com/en/sponsors/embratel [Accessed 20
July 2016]
Emirates: www.emiratesairline.co.uk
Festival Cannes: www.festival-cannes.com
Guggenheim: www.guggenheim.org
Gurgaon Metro: http://rapidmetrogurgaon.com/home/gallery-advertise.html [Accessed 20 July 2016]
Holiday Inn: www.holidayinn.com/hotels/gb/en/global/offers/olympics_welcome [Accessed 20 July 2016]
inov-8 www.inov-8.com
Intercontinental Hotel Group: www.ihg.com
JP Morgan Chase & Co sponsorships: https://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/Corporate-Responsibility/
sponsorships.htm accessed 20 July 2016
London Triathlon: www.thelondontriathlon.co.uk
MLB: www.mlb.com
Natural History Museum Ice Rink: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/exhibitions/ice-rink.html
NBA: www.nba.com
NFL: www.nfl.com
O2: www.o2.co.uk
PBS|: www.pbs.org

M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 469 23/03/2017 13:25

 470 Part 3Public relations specialisms

websites (continued)

PR Week Awards: www.prweekawards.com

Red: www.red.org/about
Rugby Football Union (England Rugby Team): www.rfu.com
Special Olympics 2015:.la2015.org
Sky Rainforest Rescue: https://rainforestrescue.sky.com
Somerset House Ice Rink: www.somersethouse.org.uk/ice-rink
Sports Aid: www.sportsaid.org.uk
Sports Industry Awards: www.sportindustry.biz/awards
Sports Relief: www.sportrelief.com
Team Sky: www.teamsky.com
The O2 Arena: www.theo2.co.uk
Times Square New Years Eve: http://www.newyearseve.nyc

M24 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 470 23/03/2017 13:25

 PA RT 4
Sectoral considerations
This part of the text comprises chapters
that are not conventionally included within
a public relations (PR) text yet their link to
PR seems too important for them to be left
out. The discussions and debates contained
within each section highlight the link to PR,
but also point out differences in worldview
or approach.
The first chapter demonstrates that cam-
paigning on behalf of NGOs or pressure
groups is also PR when viewed as a process,
yet there are special characteristics that
make campaigning different from conven-
tional PR. The second chapter argues that
corporate communication is often PR with a
different label, but at the same time there is
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 471
a conscious effort to define corporate com-
munication as reputation management a
term rarely found in the PR literature but
more often found in management and mar-
keting. The next chapter is an extension of
some of the issues highlighted in the previ-
ous section but focuses on a highly visible
part of communications the role of PR in
the support and promotion of celebrity cul-
tures and individuals. The third chapter con-
siders the challenging environment for and
different facets of health communication.
Finally, the last chapter looks to the future,
addressing key issues emerging from recent
research among practitioners that will be of
major importance to the profession.
23/03/2017 13:27
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 472 23/03/2017 13:27
 Chapter 25Non-government organisations and pressure groups 473

CH AP T ER 25 Nilam Ashra-McGrath

Non-government organisations and

pressure groups

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
contextualise the work of NGOs within a broader international development arena
recognise the importance of donor relations
recognise the communication issues for smaller NGOs
critically assess some NGO websites and images used for fundraising.

Structure
What is an NGO? Communication in small NGOs
Fishes and ponds: the international development PR and its link to fundraising
context The power of the website
What has changed for communicators in NGOs? Advocacy and campaigning
The importance of knowledge networks for NGO Getting donations
communication
Brand, reputation and identity
Common communication issues facing NGOs
NGOs as corporations and superbrands
Relationships with donors

M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 473 23/03/2017 13:27

 474 Part 4Sectoral considerations

Introduction
Non-government organisations (NGOs)
and pressure groups are set up to oper-
ate independently from governments.
Their aim is to change socioeconomic
and environmental circumstances for
communities of people. These com-
munities are bound together either by
a single issue or cause (for example,
increasing the working rights of those
with disabilities), or by geographical
boundaries (for example, disaster
response programmes), or by sections
of society and cultures to which people
feel they belong (for example, women
or minority groups). This sense of
belonging is an important emotion that
NGOs seek to tap into to gain support
and funding for their work, and it lays
the foundation for much communica-
tion work within the NGO sector. This
chapter explores the common commu-
nication issues faced by NGOs, large and
small, and how aspects such as public
relations (PR), marketing and fundrais-
ing can be linked to relationships with
donors and large funding agencies.
Finally, Casestudy25.1 examines the
PR work of an NGO.

What is an NGO? organisation which flourishes in and emerges from

Non-government organisations (NGOs) come in
many shapes and sizes and exist across many sectors:
education, health, community cohesion, social wel-
fare, sports, arts, human rights and justice, disaster
response, environment, religion, politics, research,
gender, disability, governance the list is endless. They
contribute to civil society, and the World Bank defines
civil society as the wide array of non-governmental
and not-for-profit organizations that have a presence
in public life, expressing the interests and values of
their members or others, based on ethical, cultural,
political, scientific, religious or philanthropic consid-
erations (The World Bank Group 2011). Civil soci-
ety can therefore be viewed as the arena in which
people come together to pursue the interests they hold
in common (Edwards 1998: 2). Civil society has a
strong relationship with the state: as state services
decline, become diluted or are withdrawn, civil soci-
ety organisations begin to fill the void, and one such
this [void] is the non-governmental organisation the
NGO (Gray et al. 2006: 324).
The definitions in Box 25.1 suggest that NGOs
cover a lot of ground. They can be large or small, local
or global, and focus on single or multiple issues. They
can also work in many sectors. (See Think about 25.1.)
NGOs are sometimes known as pressure groups and
are given this label because of the pressure they place
on governments and corporations to change aspects
of their behaviours, policies or laws. The pressure
aspect of the group is actually the aim of the NGO
(Stoker and Wilson 1991) and relates to a specific part
of its vision or mission for example, to campaign for
policy changes on behalf of vulnerable or marginalised
groups. Pressure groups aim to either defend the sec-
tional interests of their members (e.g. trade unions) or
act as promotional groups concerned with the inter-
ests of others (e.g. a childrens charity) (Stoker and
Wilson 1991: 22), and can fall into one of four types
(see Box25.2). (See Think about 25.2.)

Box 25.1 help fund development projects...others attempt

Definitions of an NGO
Also referred to as voluntary agencies. These are pri-
vate organizations of a charitable, research or educa-
tional nature that are concerned with a range of social,
economic and environmental issues...They may
act on an international, national or local scale. Some
raise money from the public and from government to
to educate the public and campaign on major issues
or to lobby governments and international agencies to
change public policies.
Source: Crump and Ellwood (1998: 186)
[NGOs] can represent the interests of the weak and mar-
ginalized groups as intermediaries, or build social capi-
tal among these groups to enable them to command
more responsiveness from government agencies directly.
Source: Brinkerhoff and Brinkerhoff (2002: 6)

M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 474 23/03/2017 13:27

 Chapter 25Non-government organisations and pressure groups
Think about 25.1 NGOs and sectors
Like corporations, the work of NGOs can be confined to
one sector or can overlap many sectors. Below is a list of
sectors in which NGOs work. Can you think of examples
of a local, national or international NGO that works in
each of these sectors?
Education: for example, a local reading skills group
aimed at adults
Health: for example, Mdecins Sans Frontires, which
works in more than one country
Social policy and social cohesion: for example, local
youth work projects
Sports: for example, the UK-based Sport Relief
Arts: for example, local and national museums and
galleries
Box 25.2
Types of pressure
groups
Sectional or interest groups: these groups are moti-
vated by the particular economic interests of their
members, e.g. trade unions, professional bodies (e.g.
British Medical Association) and employers organi-
sations (e.g. those representing the manufacturing
sector).
Cause or promotional groups: these groups pro-
mote an idea not directly related to the personal
interests of its members, e.g. Friends of the Earth.
Source: Adapted from Jones 2014: 180
Additionally, pressure groups can be defined by their
relationship with the government as either insider or
outsider groups. Insider groups will have very close
links with the government. They will be in a position
to advise the government and will also be consulted
before any change to legislation, e.g. medical associa-
tions. Outsider groups will have less access to gov-
ernment officials and are therefore more likely to rely
on a range of tactics to influence government.
Source: Adapted from www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/
modern/uk_gov_politics/central_gov/revision/4/
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 475
475
Human rights: for example, Amnesty International,
which works in more than one country
Environment: for example, local allotment or recy-
cling groups
Disaster response: for example, Merlin, which works
in more than one country
Religion: for example, Tearfund, which works in more
than one country
Gender equality: for example, ActionAid, which
works in more than one country
Business and micro-enterprise: for example, Grameen
Bank, which works in Bangladesh.
Think about 25.2
Pressure groups
Can you think of an NGO that is known solely as a
pressure group? What are they campaigning for? Is
there a particular law or corporate policy that they
are trying to change? Do you think they are likely to
be an insider or outsider group? What type of direct
and indirect influencing strategies do you think they
are likely to use?
While it is useful to categorise types of pressure
groups, a Danish study of national pressure groups
(Binderkrantz 2005) found that there is value in also
looking at the types of strategies that pressure groups
use to influence debate and change policy. The Dan-
ish study found that these strategies extend across all
types of pressure groups. Table25.1 gives a compre-
hensive outline of the direct and indirect strategies
used by Danish pressure groups, which could equally
be applied to other countries.
High-profile pressure groups, such as Greenpeace,
that aim to change aspects of corporate behaviour
or government law often use techniques that are
dramatic, innovative or disruptive to corporations
and governments, gaining maximum media expo-
sure in the process. This requires a particular type of
23/03/2017 13:27
 476 Part 4Sectoral considerations

Direct strategies Indirect strategies

Administrative strategy Parliamentary strategy Media strategy Mobilisation strategy

Contacting the relevant Contacting parliamentary Contacting reporters Arranging public meetings
minister committees and conferences

Contacting national public Contacting party Writing letters to the editor Organising letter writing
servants spokespersons and columns campaigns

Actively using public Contacting other members Issuing press releases and Arranging strikes, civil
committees, etc. of parliament holding press conferences disobedience, direct action
and public demonstrations

Responding to requests for Contacting party Publicising analyses and Conducting petitions
comments organisations research reports

Table 25.1 Categorisation of influence strategies and examples of activities (source: Binderkrantz 2005: 696)

communication expertise, namely the ability to cam-
paign effectively. Pressure groups are known for their
activism and micro-activism (Lombard 2011), which
can even become a lifestyle choice for example,
when individuals move from one demonstration to
another (Blood 2004).
In addition to NGOs and pressure groups cover-
ing many sectors at any one time, they can also be
known by different acronyms that help to categorise
an NGO even further. Box25.3 lists some of the many
acronyms that categorise different types of non-profit
organisations.

Box 25.3 QUANGO: quasi-autonomous non-government

organisation

An NGO by any other Semi-public body financed by government

name
Acronyms for non-profit organisations, along with their
defining characteristics, include:
CBO: community-based organisation
Formally represent sectoral interests of the community
Self-administered groups that generate some income
Management team, often appointed by government.
NGO: non-government organisation
Independent national bodies
Deal with issues of that country or within a particular
sector
Concentrate on service delivery, training and advocacy.
VO: voluntary organisation

Can be unions, associations, cooperatives or small- Pursue a social mission

scale enterprises Driven by shared values.
Important part of civil society.
INGO: international non-government organisation
GRO: grass-roots organisation Overseas organisations working in developing
Work to improve and develop their own communities. countries
Some are privately run.
PO: peoples organisation
Overlaps with CBO Other names for the NGO sector include the voluntary
Represents member interests sector or the third sector. NGOs are also known as charities.
Leaders are accountable to members Source: adapted from Bennett and Gibbs 1996
Substantially self-reliant. and Sukuki 1998

M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 476 23/03/2017 13:27

 Chapter 25Non-government organisations and pressure groups
Fishes and ponds: the
international development
context
NGOs are broadly viewed as being part of the (inter-
national) development sector. The function of NGOs
has shifted since the 1980s from providing direct
services to incorporating more sophisticated welfare
support programmes, advocacy and political lobby-
ing (Blood 2004: 128). The nature of the sector is
such that NGOs can represent almost every possible
policy position, even those that are mutually con-
tradictory (Blood 2004: 126). For example, NGOs
exist to campaign for and against climate change,
or for and against the rights of smokers in public
spaces. Given that NGOs can represent almost any-
thing and anyone, this makes for a crowded market,
with some NGOs feeling like small fish in a big pond
while other NGOs monopolise the space. In com-
munication terms, this has led to a dramatic change
in the role of communication within the NGO sec-
tor, as they have to be sophisticated in making their
voice heard. Additionally, the wider NGO sector is
now under just as much scrutiny as their corporate
counterparts, with financial transparency being par-
ticularly important to an NGOs legitimacy and its
reputation among stakeholders (Burger and Owens
2010). (See Explore 25.1.)
Explore 25.1
Issues of transparency
Lets think about how transparency is viewed by
NGOs and by corporations. Visit the following two
websites:
1. Corporate Watch www.corporatewatch.org
What reason does Corporate Watch give for
monitoring corporations? What opinion do they
have of the use of PR in the corporate world? Can
you find examples from your wider reading to
counter their opinion?
2. NGO Watch www.globalgovernancewatch.org/
ngo_watch/
What reason does NGO Watch give for monitor-
ing the transparency of NGOs? Can you find
examples from your wider reading that illustrate
transparency issues in NGOs?
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 477
477
What has changed for
communicators in NGOs?
According to Maxwell (2009), the development sector
faces three challenges: (1) coverage, (2) capacity and
(3) communications. Coverage refers to the scope of
work being undertaken within the sector, and capacity
refers to the resources within developing and devel-
oped countries that are needed to increase the coverage
and impact of development programmes. Communica-
tions refers specifically to the use of new technology.
The internet has markedly changed how development
issues are communicated, and the use of new technol-
ogy is seen as an essential vehicle for policy influence
(Maxwell 2009: 789). Activism, in particular, has been
given a new lease of life, with websites such as Avaaz
(www.avaaz.org) [allowing] thousands of individual
efforts, however small, to be rapidly combined into
a powerful collective force. (www.avaaz.org 2015).
The increased use of social media has also helped to
increase the momentum of campaigns at a rate previ-
ously never reached.
The importance of
knowledge networks for NGO
communicators
An online search of NGOs in different countries
shows that knowledge networks (Maxwell 2009) are
crucial if NGOs are to maintain a voice in a crowded
market. Knowledge networks are particularly impor-
tant in forming collective action campaigns and it is
easy for an NGO communicator to become part of a
knowledge network to leverage support for their cam-
paigning. Part of the role of an NGO communicator
is therefore to share resources, research and stories
of change that showcase the work of their NGO and
any prior and potential future impact of their activi-
ties. Indeed, it is now rare to find an NGO website
that does not share links, resources based on its own
research, policy papers, responses to government ini-
tiatives, views from beneficiaries, case studies, and the
like. The internet has made it easier for NGOs to show
their impact by placing outputs and evidence of their
work online, and in doing so, they ensure that they
are part of a wider development discourse. A recent
development has seen NGOs harnessing the power of
techniques such as data journalism and infographics.
These popular techniques have also encouraged a new
23/03/2017 13:27
 478 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Explore 25.2
Oxfams web presence
Lets look at how a website and social media tools
can help an NGO communicate with its stakeholders.
Begin by taking a look at the website for Oxfam Inter-
national at www.oxfam.org and answer the following
questions:
What type of information can you access that
will, first, help you learn about development
issues, and, second, help you get involved in their
campaigns?
What social media tools do they use on their inter-
national website? How many Twitter handles does
Oxfam have and what are the pros and cons of
multiple accounts?
Now see if Oxfam have a website for your country
or global region. What additional information can
you get from these country/region-specific pages?
Feedback
The type of sophisticated web and social media pres-
ence we see with Oxfam helps them maintain a strong
voice within the development sector. Ultimately, it
makes them accessible and transparent. They are able
to promote key messages across multiple platforms,
which means they are likely to reach a wider audience
and therefore gain more support for their work.
level of transparency and engagement among NGOs.
(See Explore 25.2.)
Common communication
issues facing NGOs
Communication performs similar functions in NGOs
as it does in corporations, and the technical compe-
tencies of communication practitioners in both sec-
tors are identical. On the face of it, the issues within
the NGO and corporate sectors appear to be the
same: financial sustainability, leadership and man-
agement, change in focus, organisational growth and
decline, reputation and media coverage, engagement
with stakeholders, quality of service and accountabil-
ity. However, the treatment of some of these issues
differs. For example, financial sustainability is largely
determined by an NGOs ability to secure grants and
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 478
donations, and generate income from additional
brand merchandise and trading. (Oxfam now gen-
erates income through specialist second-hand book-
stores that it has established in towns throughout the
UK.) Reputation and media coverage for corpora-
tions is about creating brand awareness and gaining
a competitive advantage, whereas with NGOs it is
primarily the cause or issue that is promoted, along
with the suggestion that we can make a difference
to the cause by giving a small amount of money.
However, branding is still important for NGOs, and
larger NGOs can become powerful brands in their
own right (see section on NGOs as superbrands).
For example, Amnesty International is a powerful
brand and its involvement on a campaign carries with
it a level of associated power. In such cases, the brand
of the NGO embodies the cause or issue and com-
munication practitioners will capitalise on this brand
where necessary.
Where corporations have shareholders to whom
they are accountable, NGOs are accountable to stake-
holders, and these include (at any one time) volunteers,
board members, paid staff, beneficiaries of their work,
donors (individuals and grant-giving bodies) and gov-
ernment agencies. Finally, where corporations value
the bottom-line and profits, NGOs place value on the
change that they can bring about change that aims to
raise living standards, increase sustainable livelihoods
and increase access to health, utilities, education and
social services for their beneficiaries. The communica-
tion function of an NGO therefore has a very different
focus to a communication function in a corporation,
with social welfare, justice and empowerment (Kilby
2006) and impact underpinning many of the messages
that they craft.
Relationships with donors
NGOs relationships with donors and grant-giving
bodies are complex, and it doesnt help the commu-
nication process that at any one time NGOs can have
reporting requirements to trusts, corporations, venture
capitalists, government agencies, larger NGOs and
individual donors. Donors have their own agenda for
giving money, and some have enough power to sway
the NGO into working in a particular way, or to take
on a project that does not necessarily tally with their
organisational mission (Juma 2004). This clash of
interests and norms (2004: 236) can lead to the work
of the NGO becoming diluted, to potential conflicts of
interest (Drucker 1990), or to the NGO compromising
23/03/2017 13:27
 Chapter 25Non-government organisations and pressure groups
their values (Juma 2004). In the longer term, this may
lead to a loss of financial and other support, as well as
damage to their reputation.
One of the most important communication roles
within the NGO is therefore dealing with donor needs,
establishing a long-term relationship and maintaining
a high level of trust in that relationship (Morgan and
Hunt 1994). A high level of trust in successful donor
relationships can secure financial and emotional com-
mitment to the NGOs cause. MacMillan et al. (2005)
state that communication is the easiest factor to
change when trying to improve trust in a relationship.
[NGOs] cannot easily change their values, but they
can use strategies to improve their communication with
funders (MacMillan et al. 2005: 815). The four strate-
gies NGOs can adopt are:
1. informing funders about the groups with which
they work;
2. keeping funders informed about forthcoming
events, and their use of funds, through networking
events that allow them to experience the NGOs
services first hand;
3. seeking information about funders needs and
motivations; and
4. approaching staff in the funding organisation who
are responsive, knowledgeable and passionate
about the NGOs and their services.
Source: adapted from MacMillan et al. 2005: 815
Donors may give funds because they get material
and non-material benefits from their relationship
with NGOs (MacMillan et al. 2005: 809). Material
benefits come by learning from the NGO and by any
positive publicity they might receive from being in
that relationship (2005: 809). Non-material benefits
include trusting that the NGO is making best use of
the funding and that it is having a clear and positive
impact (2005: 809). The role of the communication
practitioner (or donor relations officer) is therefore
to broadly emphasise both the material and non-
material benefits of that relationship to the donor.
In practical terms, this means ensuring internal and
external reporting requirements are met, and help-
ing to disseminate the results of the NGOs work to
all stakeholders. Ultimately, donor relations amounts
to a form of external relations, which have always
been important for non-profit organisations, since
[non-profit organisations] rely on external sources for
resources (funding, volunteers, members and board
members) and legitimacy (Balser and McClusky
2005: 311). (See Think about25.3.)
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 479
479
Think about 25.3
Communicating with donors
Managing the expectations of your donors is an impor-
tant role. Think about how you would keep donors
informed about the work of an NGO. How would you
do this if one of your donors was overseas? How would
your strategy change if one of your donors was local?
How would you treat individual donors?
Is the two-way symmetrical model
useful in this context?
Yes, and no, is the answer. Yes, it is useful in that
the two-way symmetrical model of communica-
tion allows for compromise between stakeholders
(Balser and McClusky 2005: 297) and this type of
communication can be seen more often with inves-
tor relations activities in profit making organisations
(Kelly et al. 2010) than in NGOs. The symmetrical
models principal theory is that compromise and
cooperation is entirely possible between two parties,
and presents a central negotiating area for a win-
win scenario to be reached (Dozier etal. 1995). Fun-
damental to the success of the symmetrical model is
the idea that stakeholders are motivated to cooper-
ate to attain at least some resolution of the conflict.
They may be on opposite sides of an issue, but it is
in their best interests to cooperate with each other
(Plowman 2007: 87). However, for the communica-
tions practitioner situated within the NGO, the push
for cooperation can present a dilemma, ethical or
otherwise, as they may be compelled to find a com-
promise around an issue in which true differences
exist between parties (Dozier et al. 1995: 48), and
this is where we see the weaknesses of the symmetri-
cal model in the NGO context, particularly in rela-
tion to who the model leaves out (Stokes and Rubin
2010; Coombs and Holladay 2012). Recent research
by Stokes and Rubin (2010) on the battle between
Philip Morris and an antismoking advocacy group
highlights clearly how groups with opposing agendas
are not accommodated by the symmetrical model.
NGOs can, and do, successfully [remain] outside of
the zone of compromise (2010: 27). Additionally,
NGOs deal with multiple stakeholders at any given
time, but this model presents a static version of a
single relationship. It also fails to account for (a) the
varying agendas of stakeholders where not all dif-
ferences are subject to what we might call traditional
23/03/2017 13:27
 480 Part 4Sectoral considerations
collaboration or compromise (Spicer 2000: 120 cited
in Stokes and Rubin 2010: 27); and (b)the associated
conditions and contractual obligations placed on the
NGO in return for funding (Villanger 2004).
Communication in small
NGOs
While larger NGOs have marketing, public affairs,
donor relations and fundraising teams to help mobil-
ise resources, smaller NGOs and community-based
organisations (CBOs) arent as fortunate, and donors
play a role in this. The lack of internal communica-
tion, PR and publicity activity within smaller NGOs
relates directly to the nature of funding. The focus on
field work or projects means that staff activity remains
centred on ensuring specific social, environmental and
economic outcomes in the field. Publicity and raising
awareness is therefore seen as a secondary activity by
both donors and smaller NGOs and CBOs in favour of
project-related activities (Ashra 2002). This is particu-
larly detrimental to those organisations that have rais-
ing awareness as part of their mission. The low priority
given to campaigning or communicating organisational
mission can lead to negative public perceptions, as
NGOs and CBOs are not seen to be actively campaign-
ing for anything. Internally, the aim to raise awareness
may be viewed as too grand due to the lack of staff
training or capacity, and lack of time (Ashra 2002).
Continual exposure to the organisations key mes-
sages is more likely to increase brand recognition
of an NGO (Pope et al. 2009), which in turn is more
Box 25.4
Five principles of two-
way communication for
websites
There are five principles of two-way symmetrical com-
munication for NGO websites:
1. The digital/dialogue feedback loop include
real-time discussions, places to post comments,
contact information and staff, volunteer and member
biographies.
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 480
likely to attract donations by the public. Examples of
this include the fundraising campaigns of the Disas-
ters Emergency Committee, or Christian Aid Week.
However, such work requires specialist skills in online
communication (Pope et al. 2009), PR and campaign-
ing, which rarely exist within small organisations, as it
requires a dedicated person for which core funding is
seldom available. Where there are few technical skills
to write a press release, lobby effectively, publicise
specialist events and gain media coverage, the result is
sometimes muddled, leading to some commonly held
myths about communication, such as all you need is
a leaflet or its all about external publicity (Ashra
2005), which leaves out important internal communi-
cation issues. The lack of capacity in small NGOs and
CBOs, combined with the lack of funding available
for dedicated publicity and awareness-raising roles,
means that either the vital communication role does
not exist in many smaller organisations (Ashra 2002)
or that communications and PR remains a periph-
eral activity (Ashra 2008). (See Think about25.4 and
Box25.4.)
Think about 25.4
Communications on a small
budget
Look around your local community and identify a
small charity. What methods do they use to publicise
themselves? List three new methods that would help
them communicate on a small budget.
2. Usefulness of information make sure the con-
tent is of general use and can be used in press packs
and news briefings; allow people to sign up for
information.
3. Generation of return visits make the site attrac-
tive, update the information regularly and include
easily downloadable specialist information.
4. Intuitiveness/ease of the interface make sure
its well organised and structured, and cut out all the
unnecessary bells and whistles.
5. Conservation of visitors do not distract from the
message by using sponsors or advertising.
Source: Kent and Taylor 1998 and Kent et al. 2003
23/03/2017 13:27
 Chapter 25Non-government organisations and pressure groups 481

PR and its link to fundraising when a business promotes or assists [an NGO] by
publicising that a proportion of its profits or sales
will be devoted to that cause (Bennett and Sargeant
The fundraising teams in NGOs are sophisticated
2005: 798). By entering into this type of agreement,
machines. They work closely with marketing to target
the NGO brand and the business brand are clearly
carefully selected groups into donating time, money
and visibly linked on packaging, advertising and any
and other resources (for example, pro bono training
online presence (Bennett and Sargeant 2005). They
or legal services). Research shows that in a corporate
also become linked in the publics mind, leading to
environment, marketing departments often encroach
brand and reputation enhancement for both parties.
on the remit of PR departments, and may end up tak-
(Now read Mini case study 25.1.)
ing over (Lauzen 1991). A similar relationship has been
shown to exist in non-profit organisations, where the
fundraising department encroaches on the PR function
(Kelly 1993). A recent study by Swanger and Rodg-
ers (2013) found that the level of encroachment by
The power of the website
fundraising departments has not changed in the last
NGOs with limited resources can use the internet to
two decades. One of the factors of encroachment
their advantage (Naude et al. 2004). By using a web-
appears to be fundraisings ability to secure bottom-
site to engage with potential and existing donors, their
line contributions to the NGO, versus PRs storytell-
beneficiaries and sections of the public, they can save
ing contribution (Kelly 1993: 356), suggesting that
an extraordinary amount of money (Long and Chia-
the link to the economic contribution of a department
gouris 2006) while giving voice to their purpose and
determines their status within the organisation. This
the issues they are aiming to tackle. They can take part
is exacerbated when an NGO undergoes a period of
in broader debates with governments and their benefi-
change or turbulence, as it relies on fundraising to
ciaries (Long and Chiagouris 2006) and use tools that
ensure its financial sustainability, which in turn rede-
were previously not available to them for example,
fines PR as a secondary function (1993: 356). For
conducting surveys (Naude et al. 2004) and sending
larger NGOs, their fundraising teams (as opposed to
out email alerts and bulletins, as well as responding
the one or two people fundraising in smaller NGOs)
to government proposals in a professional manner. As
are able to tap into diverse income streams, ranging
stated earlier, the NGO market is a crowded one and
from private memberships, donations, legacies, com-
websites are now the first port of call for anyone look-
mercial activities, commercial sponsorship...grants
ing to learn more about an NGO and its work. For
from private foundations [and] governments (Blood
this reason, its important that they are accessible and
2004: 122). Smaller NGOs, by comparison, have the
interactive (Kent et al. 2003). However, there are fac-
issue of resource deficit i.e. a limited skill set to carry
tors that impede the design and use of a good website,
out sophisticated fundraising activities beyond asking
namely the lack of technical knowledge, a lack of time,
for donations from the public. There is hope, however,
money and manpower (Naude et al. 2004: 90), and
through the clever use of technology, but technology
these factors exist in smaller NGOs and CBOs.
(for example, an interactive website or social media
Two-way symmetrical communication features
presence) has to be used as part of a strategic plan, and
heavily on the more interactive websites, and Naude et
implemented by a communications professional (rather
al. (2004) suggest that older NGOs are more likely to
than by development workers, as sometimes happens).
rely on the traditional, one-way mass communication
A sophisticated and carefully thought out web presence
model that imparts information to the masses. This
therefore offers much hope to smaller NGOs.
suggests that newer, smaller or more technology-savvy
NGOs are in a good position to lead by example. (See
Explore 25.3 and Box25.5.)
What about the role of marketing?
Traditional marketing techniques can still play a
role in fundraising. Cause-related marketing, or
CRM (Bennett and Sargeant 2005: 798), is one tech- Advocacy and campaigning
nique that appears to offer a win-win scenario for
the NGO and for businesses, and could be cited as As stated earlier, applying pressure to corporations and
an excellent example of the two-way symmetrical governments can be an aim of the NGO and, if it is
model in practice (Dozier et al. 1995). CRM happens their sole function, then campaigning and advocacy is

M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 481 23/03/2017 13:27

 482 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Mini case study 25.1
A snapshot of corporate
fundraising and cause-
related marketing
Back Up plans to grow its corporate income in order to
deliver its life-changing services to more people. Support
from companies has doubled in recent years and in 2016
the corporate fundraising team increased from one to
two staff.
Back Ups corporate partners fall into two main categories:
affinity and non-affinity companies. Non-affinity compa-
nies are often introduced to Back Up by an employee
with a connection to the cause. Their focus is motivating
staff to fundraise through different events, which helps
to build teams and strengthen morale. Back Up offers a
training session on using a wheelchair, which broadens
understanding of disability.
Explore 25.3
Looking at two-way communication
on NGO websites
Pick one local, one national and one international
NGO website to explore. Do they meet the principles
described in Box 25.4? Which websites meet most of
the criteria? Is there another technique that NGOs
could use on their websites that is not included in the
five principles?
at the core of their work. Campaigners use facts to
research and substantiate their position. Accuracy is
paramount, as inaccurate or skewed arguments can
damage campaigns. Mark Lattimer (2000) suggests
that campaigners source their facts rigorously and
do not ignore anything that contradicts the argument
they are trying to put forward, but instead use it to
contextualise their position. Campaigners work in a
volatile environment that is ever changing and sub-
ject to continual opposition (Lattimer 2000: 360). For
this reason, campaigners have to remain alert to the
media ploys used by those trying to discredit them, for
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 482
Affinity companies are those with an interest in spinal cord
injury. These companies gain brand awareness amongst
key audiences and the charity receives financial and other
support. An example is Coloplast, which is a long-term
supporter of the charity and was the headline sponsor
for Back Ups wheelchair skills training programme in the
UKs 11 spinal centres from 200816. Coloplast provide
products to make life easier for peoples intimate health-
care needs, such as bladder and bowel management. Staff
volunteered to help run each training session where they
also distributed product information. This gave an invalu-
able insight into the challenges that their customers face.
Sean McCallion, Corporate Partnership Manager at
Back Up says: One-to-one communication is vital for
building relationships. He keeps in touch, with regu-
lar telephone calls, twice-yearly face-to-face meetings,
and a monthly tailored newsletter, which offers partners
opportunities to support and attend major events, and
to engage employees in volunteering on Back Ups resi-
dential courses.
Source: with thanks to Back Up, UK
Box 25.5
How to encourage
donations
Emphasise the ordinary persons ability to con-
tribute (for example, suggesting small amounts
such as 1 or $2)
Position yourself as accessible and welcome to
any public donation, regardless of the amount
Show the process you have used to support your
targeted groups and the impact of your work
Let your target groups speak about how they have
benefited from the NGOs support
Show how all your programmes fit together to
improve the quality of life for your target groups
Encourage authority figures (not necessarily
celebrities) to highlight the importance of the
issues you are trying to tackle
Continually evaluate your programmes and make
this information accessible to any of your donors.
Source: adapted from Cheung and Chan 2000: 251
23/03/2017 13:27
 Chapter 25Non-government organisations and pressure groups
Explore 25.4
Campaigning and advocacy
The Howard League for Penal Reform is the oldest
penal reform charity in the UK. Its services include
legal work for children and young people in custody,
parliamentary work (lobbying, responding to con-
sultations, briefing government), international work,
campaigning, research and events. It was shortlisted
for the 2015 UK Charity Awards for its Books for
Prisoners campaign. The awards judge said that the
project had every aspect you could want from a cam-
paign . . . They identified an issue, approached
it in lots of innovative ways and were really success-
ful. (Hawkes 2015). Have a look at its website (www.
howardleague.org) and think about:
What campaigns is it leading and what direct and
indirect strategies does it use?
How do these strategies differ, if at all, from the
campaigns of organisations, such as Oxfam?
Feedback
Their techniques and approaches differ from the
larger NGOs because they are a single-issue charity.
This means that, although their services range from
legal work through to campaigning, they are all aimed
at protecting the rights of people in custody. Can you
think of any other single-issue charities that are effec-
tive campaigners in their field?
example using dirt briefings, where the quality of the
NGOs research is questioned, or a hidden agenda is
implied (Lattimer 2000: 151).
Lattimer (2000) claims that techniques such as peti-
tions and rallies have little effect unless you have influ-
ence over the small group of people who actually write
the policies and who are in a position to change the
law. This is why establishing good relationships with
policy makers is crucial to a successful campaign. (See
Explore 25.4.)
Getting donations
In the US, an 11-year study of 2359 non-profit organ-
isations concluded that aggressive communication of
mission is a more potent driver of contribution than
maintaining efficient operations (Frumkin and Kim
2001: 272), suggesting that communicating purpose is
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 483
483
Explore 25.5
Looking at ways to donate on NGO
websites
Revisit some of the NGO websites you have viewed
throughout this chapter so far. Do they meet the prin-
ciples outlined in Box25.5?
essential if an NGO is to remain financially sustainable
via donations. However, there is a danger that if an NGO
spends most of its time fundraising, then this could lead
to goal deflection (Brinkerhoff and Brinkerhoff 2002),
which is a failure that is characteristic of the NGO sector
and the funding regimes upon which it relies.
Donations are therefore key to the survival of
NGOs, and fundraising is a role that is embedded
within the broader communication remit. In Box25.5
Cheung and Chan (2000) offer a useful blueprint for
how NGOs can engage with publics meaningfully to
attract donations without damaging the livelihoods
and dignity of the people they are there to help. In
particular, they cite the need to promote peoples self-
efficacy programmes, such as skills training, or activi-
ties that increase confidence in ones ability and skill
to perform a certain act (2000: 243). Promoting the
positive impact of an NGOs self-efficacy programmes
encourages trust and ongoing financial commitment.
Brand, reputation and identity
Large or small, all NGOs will encounter branding
issues as they move through the organisational lifecy-
cle. Research shows that appearing to spend too much
money on glossy fundraising brochures is a common
branding issue for NGOs (Bennett and Gabriel 2003;
Griffiths 2005), as is competing for a limited amount
of financial support from governments and founda-
tions. This ultimately places pressure on good brand-
ing to help distinguish an NGO from the others in a
competitive market (Griffiths 2005).
NGOs, like corporations, need good reputations if
they are to survive any negative publicity and maintain
trust with their donors (Bennett and Sargeant 2005),
but they need both a salient image and a sound repu-
tation (Bennett and Sargeant 2005: 800). The issue
with crafting a reputation is that reputations are based
on value judgements that evolve over time, whereas
23/03/2017 13:27
 484 Part 4Sectoral considerations

images have immediate connotations attached to them,
which may be old-fashioned or . . . inappropriate
(Bennett and Sargeant 2005: 800). The advantages
of a good reputation are that it positions the NGO
in a preferred status over other organizations...[it]
can justify support for the organization...[and] it
enhances their value in the sector (Padanyi and Gainer
2003: 252). Reputation is linked to identity, and for an
NGO identities navigate its course of action and shape
strategy for the future (Young 2001: 155). This means
that identities, of which the vision and mission are
part, often define communications plans, and the plan
is instrumental in conveying the impact of NGO activi-
ties. However, smaller NGOs lacking the necessary
communication skill set are at a disadvantage because
they are in danger of not planning their use of different
media in a strategic way (Naude et al. 2004). Consider
NGOs and reputation in Mini case study 25.2.
NGOs as corporations and
superbrands
It would appear that NGOs have managed to harness
the advantages of capitalism resource and managerial
efficiency, focus and competitive diversity without
(so far) creating organisations so large and powerful
that the public begins instinctively to fear them (Blood
2004: 124).
Larger NGOs now operate like superbrands
(Wootliff and Deri 2001) or political corporations
(Blood 2004). This means that they have resources at
their disposal to implement sophisticated communica-
tion plans. Robert Blood of the NGO tracking web-
site SIGWatch (www.sigwatch.com) argues that they
are the political equivalent of private corporations
(2004: 130) in the way they adapt the traditional cor-
porate structure to suit their needs. In PR terms, they
are able to operate like brands, building issues and
capturing new ones just as corporations build con-
sumer brands and leverage them to open new markets
(2004: 122). They can also allocate their resources
across the globe as and when needed for example,
dispatching healthcare workers, shelter and medicines
in the wake of natural disasters often making them
more flexible than governments and corporations.
This quick response is a unique feature of how they
have subverted the corporate model to suit their need,
and in the process have established a political status
that is influential (The Economist 2003). As such,
these superbrands, with their bank of resources, are
adept at developing relationships and maintaining
the trust of donors and the public by using imagery

Mini case study 25.2
International NGOs come
under the spotlight
The reputation of international NGOs was put under
the spotlight in 2001, in the aftermath of a devastating
earthquake in Gujarat State, Western India. The earth-
quake claimed approximately 20,000 lives and injured
1.6 million people (Rawat 2002: 58). There was a rush by
international NGOs to be on the scene with support, but
a number of reports were critical of NGOs for [pursu-
ing] their own interests (Disasters Emergency Commit-
tee 2001a: 11). The use of imagery during fundraising
in the UK came under particular scrutiny. With regards
to transparency and being accountable to beneficia-
ries and people who donated, the Disasters Emergency
Committee (DEC) evaluation detected a tendency
amongst some aid agency staff in the UK to regard pub-
lic sympathy as a commodity to be exploited rather than
a perception to be developed (Disasters Emergency
Committee 2001a: 13). This leaves a question mark
over the tone used in prior and subsequent emergency
appeals, particularly in how the dignity of those affected
by natural disasters is portrayed. The evaluation went
on to state that the image of an old man with hands
raised in supplication used in the original appeal and
the Thank-you parade in the Nick Ross follow-up film
were not examples of best practice (Disasters Emer-
gency Committee 2001a: 14). The core issue was the
use of some images that did not portray communities
as dignified, but instead as victims and dependent on
Western aid entirely. However, HelpAge Indias booklet
was singled out as an example of how the communities
affected were portrayed in a dignified manner, show-
ing a pair of happy-looking (and only moderately old)
musicians on its front cover, and (has) as its main (and
spectacular) illustration a very dignified shoemaker
with the caption in very small letters providing
livelihoods (Disasters Emergency Committee 2001b:
44). The broader issues here were about how interna-
tional NGOs did not display sensitivity when choosing
images, which later damaged their reputation. As Dogra
(2007) states, there is still a choice which is deliberately
exercised by the NGO when it selects one image over
another and uses it publicly (2007: 170).

M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 484 23/03/2017 13:27

 Chapter 25Non-government organisations and pressure groups 485

and clear messaging to appeal to others on an emo- who encourage transparency. In the past, international
tional level (Wootliff and Deri 2001). However, they NGOs responding to disasters across the globe have
are not exempt from criticism and can come under come under fire for their portrayal of people suffering
heavy scrutiny by corporations and NGO watchers in the aftermath. (See Explore 25.6.)

Explore 25.6 Choosing images for NGO campaigns

Look at these four pictures and assess which of these would be appropriate to use as part of a campaign to raise funds
for an environmental charity. What are the pros and cons of using each picture? What do your decisions and choices
suggest about climate change issues? Would you crop these images for any reason? Would you use other types of
images not shown here? Discuss your choices with others.

Picture 25.1 Tree hugger Picture 25.2 Woman and smoke stacks, Datong, China

Picture 25.3 Melting icebergs in Greenland Picture 25.4 Devastating flooding in the Shire Valley,
Malawi

M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 485 23/03/2017 13:27

 486 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Case study 25.1
Communications at
Back Up
Back Up is a medium-sized UK charity that helps people
affected by spinal cord injury to transform their lives. Its
mission is to challenge perceptions of disability, deliver
services that build confidence and independence, and
offer support networks. Back Up was founded in 1986 by
Mike Nemesvary, a professional skier and stuntman, who
at 24 became paralysed from the neck down. In 1986, he
set up Back Up to offer disabled people the opportunity to
ski. Thirty years on, the charitys services have expanded
to meet the needs of everyone who is affected by spinal
cord injury, including family members and young people
aged under 18. Back Up and its team of almost 400 volun-
teers now help over 800 people a year, offering:
training in wheelchair skills to build the confidence
of people with a spinal cord injury before they leave
hospital;
activity and other residential courses to increase
independence;
peer mentoring for individuals and family members
struggling to adjust to their new life; and
support in returning to work or school.
In 2011 Back Up received an Impact Award from the
Kings Fund and GlaxoSmithKline for its outstanding con-
tribution to healthcare and a Guardian Award in 2014 for
excellence in small charities.
Communications remit and changes
Back Ups core audiences are people with spinal cord injury
and their families, Back Ups supporters, its volunteers and
the health, social care and voluntary sector professionals
Picture 25.5 Back Up is the only charity with dedicated
services for children and young people.
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 486
working with people affected by spinal cord injury. The age
range has broadened, reflecting the ageing demographic
of people sustaining a spinal cord injury. Many of its vol-
unteers and donors are people directly affected by spinal
cord injury, and who once themselves benefited from Back
Ups support, or are their friends and family. Back Ups ser-
vices receive referrals from health and medical profession-
als across the UK and it is now starting to influence relevant
national and local health and education policy bringing a
new set of individuals and organisations to engage.
Communication channels
Back Up has almost doubled its social media presence on
Twitter (5900 followers) and Facebook (5100 likes) in the
last two years (2014-16) and is developing a new website
which is mobile responsive. Leaflets explaining its services
are distributed by staff and volunteers visiting hospitals
to deliver wheelchair skills training and at meetings and
events. Copies are always available to patients as they
are stored on a permanent noticeboard in each centre
displaying information about the charity.
Regular corporate communication includes a bi-annual
print magazine, Transform, mailed to volunteers, profession-
als, supporters and service users and a monthly e-newsletter
sent to 8000 people. This is supported by other tailored
email newsletters, mailings and updates for specific audi-
ences, or on themes, such as its work with under 18s.
Natasha Theobald, Back Ups Head of Communications
says: Back Up understands the value of social media
platforms, and digital channels for reaching our different
audiences. But personal and one-to-one communication
by telephone, letter, email or face-to-face is the corner-
stone of our work. We understand that different people
have different needs and its only by building one-to-one
relationships that we can offer the appropriate level of
support and see what impact this has on their levels of
confidence and independence. We take a similar individu-
alised approach to communicating with our volunteers
and supporters. We want people to feel recognised and
appreciated for the contribution they make. One corporate
sponsor summed up our appeal: Back Up is small enough
to feel personal but big enough to make a change. It feels
like a community.
23/03/2017 13:27
 Chapter 25Non-government organisations and pressure groups
External issues: dealing with the media
Back Ups earliest media coverage in the 1980s focused
on interviews with its founder, Mike Nemesvary. The
range of coverage is now more varied but principally
local, reflecting its increased range of services and sup-
porters. Back Up has a team of volunteer ambassadors
whose role is to raise funds for and awareness of spinal
cord injury, including through local media. The Guardian
Award in 2014 gave Back Up exposure in the national
media and in 2015, they were selected for a BBC Lifeline
Appeal, fronted by actress Olivia Colman.
Natasha Theobald says: Increasing media presence is a key
aspect of our development plans, so that when an accident
or illness leaves someone paralysed, they know that Back
Up can help them rebuild their life. Enhancing our coverage
would ensure that no matter where people live, they know
how we can help. We also want to challenge stereotypes
by spotlighting the achievements of people living with spi-
nal cord injuries. National media interest in medical break-
throughs regarding paralysis has given us some great reactive
opportunities to talk about the need for investment in sup-
porting people today as well as tomorrow. However, gain-
ing proactive regular specialist or national media coverage is
more of a challenge. This is partly down to lack of resources
to develop the content required to create news hooks such
as research reports or comments on government policy. We
are planning to address this through a new media strategy.
Internal communication
Back Ups staff are based in one London office, but are
often on the road. Everyone is expected to attend a
weekly meeting, where teams update each other on
priorities and share human stories about the impact of
services. Monthly breakfast workshops offer interactive
sessions on topics such as volunteer management. Staff
are involved in developing the business plan for the char-
ity and individual objectives are set at appraisals based on
its plan and its mission, vision and values.
Back Ups Chief Executive, Louise Wright, says: Back Up
aims to be a fun, challenging and rewarding place to work
with an open, inclusive and supportive culture. Staff morale
is generally very high at Back Up and above the indus-
try standard. A range of factors contribute to this: a clear
shared vision of where we want to go, a feedback culture
(360 degree appraisals, and annual morale survey) and
shared values which inform our behaviours (fun being an
important one!).
Responsibilities for strategic issues
Back Ups investment in a specific communications func-
tion has varied according to its income and its needs.
Reflecting the priority given to communications in its
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 487
487
strategy for 20152020, it has increased its resources from
one to two staff, with the Head of Communications being
a member of the Senior Management Team. This ensures
that communications has a voice in strategic decisions
made by the organisation and that staff receive support
with day-to-day communication needs. The charity has
made good use of pro bono support from communica-
tions professionals and organisations through the Media
Trust and training offered by Charity Comms.
Natasha Theobald says: The challenge as you grow as an
organisation is to decide how much to invest in a specific
communications/PR resource. But getting communications
right is essential for our services. Feedback from stakeholders
has shown that in the past misperceptions of Back Up have
prevented people from accessing support. In 2010, only 4
per cent of people surveyed saw Back Ups services as vital
for the recovery and rehabilitation of people affected by
spinal cord injury, and some groups felt the charity was not
for them. By 2013, this had shifted significantly following.
We still need to improve our profile with key groups, such
as older people. In 2016, we are updating our branding and
key messages to ensure they reflect our strategy and provide
the right framework for staff and volunteers to communi-
cate effectively.
Strategic issues: donors and fundraising
The charitys key sources of income are trusts/Big Lottery
(31 per cent), corporate partnerships (22 per cent), major
events (22 per cent), and individuals (25 per cent through
community fundraising, regular giving, one-off cash
donations and major donors). The charity currently mails
its supporters with two-three appeals a year and with its
bi-annual magazine. Its approach is to match communi-
cation styles and channels (email, printed reports, etc) to
a donors preference. Protocols are in place to ensure that
no one who is newly injured receives an appeal within a
certain timeframe from their registration with Back Up.
Natasha Theobald says: Our supporters say they trust us
because we clearly demonstrate the difference our services
make. Back Up has a clear theory of change and has mea-
sures in place to capture information about the impact of its
services. Personal stories bring this to life, so we have a system
for capturing and sharing these case studies. One of our goals
is to reach more friends and families of people with spinal
cord injury, to better meet their needs, whilst also increasing
our awareness and income through recruiting a wider pool of
passionate advocates and fundraisers. Our refreshed brand,
focus on improving our supporter journey and our new web-
site will allow us to attract more individual and corporate
support and help ensure Back Up is known as a professional
charity which organisations want to work with.
Source: with thanks to Back Up, UK
23/03/2017 13:27
 488 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Box 25.6
Life as a communications
assistant
Spinal cord injury is not a well-known disability. This
makes my job as a Communications Assistant very chal-
lenging, yet interesting and rewarding. The general public
often struggles to support charities that work on issues
they know nothing about. Thats why strong and clear
communications channels are so important for small
charities like Back Up.
I started as an intern for Back Up and I am now the Com-
munications Assistant. Im lucky to play an important role
on helping the organisation grow its platforms thats
why I think everyone who wants to work in communica-
tions should try to intern at a small charity before moving
on to bigger things.
Currently, my daily tasks involve managing and develop-
ing our social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram, and producing shareable content. I often
write articles for the website and blog, interview service-
users and volunteers, photograph and film events and
respond to media enquiries.
My working day starts before I get to the office. When I
wake up, I check Twitter to see if something relevant hap-
pened during the night. When I get to the office, I open
Tweetdeck a social media management system and
start searching for content that might be relevant to our
Summary
NGOs work in many sectors. Some have more sophisti-
cated communication plans than others, and some lack
the capacity or understanding of communication tech-
niques to do anything other than react to events hap-
pening around them. In this chapter, we have defined
NGOs and outlined the international development con-
text within which they broadly work. We have also out-
lined the common communication issues experienced by
NGO communication practitioners, with an emphasis on
donor relations, fundraising and advocacy.
NGOs work in a competitive market and they have to
distinguish themselves from others in their sector and
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 488
audience. I use key words such as disability, spinal cord
injury and paralysed to find what Im looking for.
As were a small communications team, I get to work on
a variety of projects. So far, Ive dealt with media requests
from Sky News, developed a social media campaign
to promote a BBC Lifeline Appeal and photographed
numerous events across the country. Even though I enjoy
quiet time when writing content, my favourite kind of day
is when the office is busy and full of energy.
One of my favourite things to do is to respond to last min-
ute media enquiries. When we receive enquiries, I quickly
have to find what journalists are looking for. If I dont get
information on time, we risk not getting the valuable
media coverage we need to raise awareness of our work.
My working day depends on what my colleagues need
from me. If they need a new footer for their emails, Ill
design it. If they need a poster, Ill make it. If they need
me to update the website, Ill update it. As part of my role,
I also put together an e-newsletter to be sent to 8000
people every month. This is a challenging (and often time
consuming) task, but its all worth it when you see the
final product being sent to thousands of people.
The best part of this job is talking to different people. I
get to meet people from all backgrounds and ages, who
all have one thing in common Back Up. As a Com-
munications Assistant, its great knowing that the charity
you work for has a great impact on the lives of thousands
of people.
Source: with thanks to Catarina Demony,
Communications Assistant, Back Up, UK
work hard to carve out a niche for themselves. They
do, in fact, face the same issues as corporations, and
are increasingly being scrutinised for their transpar-
ency, how they undertake projects and how they spend
donated money and resources. They face the same
internal issues about income generation and power
and politics, but their work is fundamentally differ-
ent because they are not working towards a profit; yet
some, such as Oxfam, have trading companies to gener-
ate income for their project work. What is clear is that
NGOs need sophisticated and focused communication
plans, yet the sector still suffers from thinking that com-
munications is a technical skill that does not sit as one
of the core functions of an organisation; this is more
apparent in smaller NGOs.
23/03/2017 13:27
 Chapter 25Non-government organisations and pressure groups
Bibliography
Ashra, N. (2002). An Evaluation of the Participatory
Organisational Appraisal Process (POAP) using Two
Voluntary Organisations in Bradford District. Unpub-
lished MSc thesis, University of Bradford.
Ashra, N. (2005). All you need is a leaflet: 5 myths of
communication for community based organisations.
Third Sector Magazine: 14 September.
Ashra, N. (2008). Inside stories: Making sense of the
daily lives of communication practitioners. PhD the-
sis, University of Leeds.
Avaaz (2015). About us. www.avaaz.org/en/about.php
accessed 26 November 2015]
Balser, D. and J. McClusky (2005). Managing stake-
holder relationships and nonprofit organization
effectiveness. Nonprofit Management and Leadership
15(3): 295316.
Bennett, J. and S. Gibbs (1996). NGO Funding Strategies:
An introduction for Southern and Eastern NGOs.
Oxford: INTRAC.
Bennett, R. and H. Gabriel (2003). Image and reputa-
tional characteristics of UK charitable organizations:
an empirical study. Corporate Reputation Review
6(3): 27689.
Bennett, R. and A. Sargeant (2005). The non-profit mar-
keting landscape: guest editors introduction to a special
section. Journal of Business Research 58(6): 797805.
Binderkrantz, A. (2005). Interest group strategies: navi-
gating between privileged access and strategies of pres-
sure. Political Studies 53: 694715.
Blood, R. (2004). Should NGOs be viewed as political
corporations? Journal of Communication Manage-
ment 9(2): 120133.
Brinkerhoff, J.M. and D.W. Brinkerhoff (2002).
Government-nonprofit relations in comparative per-
spective: evolution, themes and new directions. Public
Administration and Development 22: 318.
British Broadcasting Corporation (2015). Modern Stud-
ies. Decision making in central government pres-
sure groups. www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/modern/
uk_gov_politics/central_gov/revision/4/ accessed 28
November 2015.
Burger, R. and T. Owens. (2010). Promoting transpar-
ency in the NGO sector: Examining the availability
and reliability of self-reported data. World Develop-
ment 38(9): 126377.
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 489
489
Cheung, C.-K. and C.-M. Chan. (2000). Social-cognitive
factors of donating money to charity, with special
attention to an international relief organization. Eval-
uation and Program Planning 23(2): 24153.
Coombs, W.T. and Holladay, S.J. (2012). Fringe
public relations: How activism moves critical PR
toward the mainstream. Public Relations Review
38: 8807.
Crump, A. and W. Ellwood. (1998). The A to Z of World
Development. Oxford: New Internationalist.
Disasters Emergency Committee, Humanitarian Initia-
tives UK, Disaster Mitigation Institute and MANGO
(2001a). Independent Evaluation: The DEC Response
to the Earthquake in Gujarat. JanuaryOctober 2001.
Volume One. Executive Summary. London: Disasters
Emergency Committee.
Disasters Emergency Committee, Humanitarian Initia-
tives UK, Disaster Mitigation Institute and MANGO
(2001b). Independent Evaluation of Expenditure
of DEC India Earthquake Appeal Funds. January
October 2001. Volume Two. Full Evaluation Report.
London: Disasters Emergency Committee.
Dogra, N. (2007). Reading NGOs visually
implications of visual images for NGO management.
Journal of International Development 19: 16171.
Dozier, D.M., L.A. Grunig and J.E. Grunig. (1995). Man-
agers Guide to Excellence in Public Relations and
Communication Management. Mahwah, NJ: Law-
rence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Drucker, P. (1990). Managing the Non-profit Organiza-
tion. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Edwards, M. (1998). Nailing the jelly to the wall:
civil society and international development. www
.futurepositive.org/edwards.php accessed 29 May
2012.
Frumkin, P. and M.T. Kim. (2001). Strategic position-
ing and the financing of nonprofit organizations: is
efficiency rewarded in the contributions marketplace?
Public Administration Review 61(3): 26625.
Gray, R., J. Bebbington and D. Collison. (2006). NGOs,
civil society and accountability: making the people
accountable to capital. Accounting, Auditing and
Accountability Journal 19(3): 31948.
Griffiths, M. (2005). Building and rebuilding charity
brands: the role of creative agencies. International
Journal of Nonprofit Voluntary Sector Marketing
10(2): 12132.
23/03/2017 13:27
 490 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Hawkes, R. (2015). Shortlist 2015: Howard League
for Penal Reform. www.charityawards.co.uk/short-
list-2015-howard-league-for-penal-reform/#.Vlnm_
axFB2U accessed 28 November 2015.
Jones, B (2014). Pressure groups, in Politics UK, 8th edi-
tion. B. Jones and P. Norton (eds). Routledge: Oxon
Juma, M.K. (2004). The compromised brokers: NGOs
and displaced populations in East Africa in Human
Rights, The Rule of Law, and Development in Africa.
T. Zeleza and P.J. McConnaughay (eds). Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
Kelly, K.S. (1993). Public relations and fund-raising
encroachment: losing control in the non-profit sector.
Public Relations Review 19(4): 32134.
Kelly, K.S., A.V. Laskin and G.A. Rosenstein (2010).
Investor relations: Two-way symmetrical prac-
tice. Journal of Public Relations Research 22(2):
182208.
Kent, M.L. and M. Taylor (1998). Building dialogic rela-
tionships through the World Wide Web. Public Rela-
tions Review 24(3).
Kent, M.L., M. Taylor and W.J. White (2003). The rela-
tionship between web site design, and organizational
responsiveness to stakeholders. Public Relations
Review 29(1): 6377.
Kilby, P. (2006). Accountability for empowerment:
Dilemmas facing non-government organizations.
World Development 34(6): 951963.
Lattimer, M. (2000). The Campaigning Handbook, 2nd
edition. London: Directory of Social Change.
Lauzen, M.M. (1991). Imperialism and encroachment
in public relations. Public Relations Review 17(3):
24555.
Lombard, D. (2011). Case study: occupy the L
ondon
Stock Exchange. Third Sector Magazine: 15
November.
Long, M.M. and L. Chiagouris (2006). The role of cred-
ibility in shaping attitudes toward nonprofit websites.
International Journal of Nonprofit Voluntary Sector
Marketing 11(3): 23949.
MacMillan, K., K. Money, A. Money and S. Downing
(2005). Relationship marketing in the not-for-
profit sector: an extension and application of the
c ommitment-trust theory. Journal of Business
Research 58(6): 80618.
Maxwell, S. (2009). Where next for development studies?
Coverage, capacity and communications. Journal of
International Development 21(6): 78791.
M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 490
Morgan, R.M. and S.D. Hunt (1994). The commitment-
trust theory of relationship marketing. Journal of
Marketing 58(3).
Naude, A.M.E., J.D. Froneman and R.A. Atwood (2004).
The use of the internet by ten South African non-
governmental organizations a public relations per-
spective. Public Relations Review 30.
Padyani, P. and B. Gainer (2003). Peer reputation in
the nonprofit sector: its role in nonprofit sector
management. Corporate Reputation Review 6(3):
25265.
Plowman, K.P. (2007). Public relations, conflict resolu-
tion, and mediation in The Future of Excellence in
Public Relations and Communication Management:
Challenges for the Next Generation. E. Toth (ed.).
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Pope, J.A., E. Sterrett Isely and F. Asamoa-Tutu (2009).
Developing a marketing strategy for nonprofit
organizations: An exploratory study. Journal of
Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing 21(2):
184201.
Rawat, A. (2002). Part three: older persons in emergen-
cies: a case study of HelpAge India in Ageing in Asia
and the Pacific: Emerging Issues and Successful Prac-
tices. Social Policy Paper No.10. Bangkok: United
Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacific.
Sargeant. A. (2005). Marketing Management for Non-
profit Organizations, 2nd edition. New York, NY:
Oxford University Press.
Stoker, G. and D. Wilson (1991). The lost world of Brit-
ish local pressure groups. Public Policy and Adminis-
tration 6(2): 2034.
Stokes, A.Q. and D. Rubin (2010). Activism and the lim-
its of symmetry: The public relations battle between
colorado GASP and Philip Morris. Journal of Public
Relations Research 22(1): 2648.
Suzuki, N. (1998). Inside NGOs: Learning to manage
conflicts between headquarters and field offices.
London: Intermediate Technology Publications.
Swanger, W. and S. Rodgers (2013). Revisiting fundrais-
ing encroachment of public relations in light of the
theory of donor relations. Public Relations Review
39: 5668.
The Economist (2003). Non-government organizations
and business: living with the enemy. 9 August.
The Guardian (2010). Guardian Charity Awards honour
remarkable winners. URL: http://www.guardian
23/03/2017 13:27
 Chapter 25Non-government organisations and pressure groups 491

.co.uk/society/2010/dec/02/guardian-charity-award- Villanger, E. (2004). Company influence on foreign aid

winners?intcmp=239 accessed 22 December 2011.
The Sun (1985). Id shoot my son if he had AIDS, says
vicar. 14 October.
The World Bank Group (2011). http://web.worldbank.
org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/CSO/0,,content
MDK:20101499menuPK:244752pagePK:220503p
iPK:220476theSitePK:228717,00.html accessed 29
May 2012.
disbursement: Is conditionality credible when donors
have mixed motives? Southern Economic Journal
71(2): 33451.
Wootliff, J. and C. Deri (2001). NGOs: the new super
brands. Corporate Reputation Review 4(2).
Young, D.R. (2001). Organizational identity in nonprofit
organizations: strategic and structural implications.
Nonprofit Management and Leadership 12(2): 13957.

Websites
Avaaz: www.avaaz.org
Back Up Trust: www.backuptrust.org
Corporate Watch: www.corporatewatch.org
Disasters Emergency Committee: www.dec.org.uk
NGO Watch: www.globalgovernancewatch.org/ngo_watch
Howard League for Penal Reform: www.howardleague.org
Oxfam International: www.oxfam.org
SIGWatch: www.sigwatch.com

M25 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 491 23/03/2017 13:27

 C H AP T ER 26 Emma Wood

Corporate communication

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
recognise that the meaning of the term corporate communication is not static and describe the different
ways in which it is conceptualised
identify the influence of different ways of conceptualising corporate communication (from a marketing as
opposed to a PR or organisational communication mindset, for example) when reviewing public relations
literature or practice, and understand the implications of this
select effective frameworks for analysing the purpose and practice of corporate communication (using
concepts of legitimacy and social capital) to identify key objectives and principles
understand that the ability to practice corporate communication in particular ways is affected by how the
function is placed within (or integrated into) organisational structures.

Structure
Defining the term corporate communication
The purpose of corporate communication (or frameworks for practice)
Corporate communication in practice
The organisational context: how corporate communication fits into organisational structures

M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 492 23/03/2017 13:28

 Chapter 26Corporate communication 493

Introduction
The news media often refer to large cor-
porates, corporate environments and
worldwide corporations. So what do we
mean by the term corporate and, more
importantly, how do we define corpo-
rate communication?
Just as the term public relations
is used to signify anything from the
antics of publicists to the maxim of
mutual understanding, so a debate
rages about the definition of corporate
communication.
It is a contested term and the con-
test here is between functionalist schol-
ars (often writing from a marketing or
management perspective), who claim
that corporate communication is about
integrating all communication to ensure
the consistency of messages (referred to
as managing and orchestrating all inter-
nal and external communications by
van Riel and Fombrun 2007, for exam-
ple), and critical scholars (often writing
from an organisational communication
perspective), who argue that communi-
cation cannot be controlled in this way
and should be about facilitating diver-
sity and listening to the multiple voices of
individuals (Christensen and Cornelissen
2011: 405).
These perspectives dominate polar
ends of a broad spectrum, so this chap-
ter will take whats valuable from both
functionalist (or managerial) as well as
critical perspectives and aim to: define
the term; help the reader understand
the aims or purpose of corporate com-
munication (the frameworks which
underpin practice); explore how to
practise corporate communication and
consider the organisational context
how organisations can be structured to
facilitate effective corporate communi-
cation practice.

Defining the term corporate
communication
On the whole, definitions of corporate communica-
tion are often unclear, vague, or even missing in the
conventional literature. Many textbooks, thus, take
the notion of corporate communications for
granted and define it only indirectly by listing the
different types of activities it encompasses.
(Christensen and Cornelissen 2011: 385)
Perhaps authors prefer to avoid penning definitive
definitions of corporate communication because the
conceptual terrain is contested and diverse. There are
Picture 26.1 The City of London, home to numerous
corporate head offices and corporate communications
departments
no real boundaries around what functions corporate
communicators are responsible for, or, indeed, what
they judge to be their goal or role in an organisation,
as can be seen in Tables 26.1 and 26.2, which report
results from the 2013 CCI Corporate Communication
Practices and Trends Study benchmarking key elements
of public relations practice in the USA among the For-
tune 1000 (Americas 1000 largest corporations ranked
by Fortune magazine).
Any definition needs to reflect the philosophical
underpinning of the concept but also what, in practi-
cal terms, practitioners aim to achieve on behalf of the
organisations they work for. To avoid the accusation of
being vague or of avoiding the difficult task of defining
the concept and practice, the following is presented as
a definition that hopefully embraces the philosophical
ambitions of organisational communication and the
practical outcomes engendered by a managerial per-
spective. The key terms are in italics.
Corporate communication means engaging trans-
parently with stakeholders to establish and communi-
cate meaningful or authentic values to encourage the
organisation (and organisational members) to behave
in a way that is consistent (but not homogeneous)
with these values in order to build social capital and
establish legitimacy. The aim is to secure stakeholder
support (measurable as outcomes such as local commu-
nities being open to corporate plans, employees feeling
highly motivated, top performers seeking employment

M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 493 23/03/2017 13:28

 494 Part 4Sectoral considerations

Percentage of respondents who agree that they perform 1. Counsel to the CEO and the corporation
the following functions
2. Manager of companys reputation
Communication strategy 94.6%*
3. Manager of employee relations (internal
Employee (internal) communication 94.6%* communication)

Media relations 94.6%* 4. Manager of the companys image

Executive communication 92.9%* 5. Source of public information about the company

Crisis communication 92.9%* 6. Advocate or engineer of public opinion

Communication policy 91.1%* 7. Driver of company publicity

Intranet communication 91.1%* 8. Branding and brand perception steward

Public relations 89.3%* 9. Corporate citizenship champion

Reputation management 80.4%* 10. Manager of relationships (ALL key constituencies)

Social media 76.8% 11. Manager of relationships (NON-customer

constituencies)
Issues management 73.2%
12. Member of the strategic planning leadership team
Internet communication 69.6%
13. Support for marketing and sales
Annual report 67.9%

Community relations 62.5% Table 26.2 Role that best describes corporate
communication function (ranked) (source: Corporate
Corporate culture 60.7% Communication International 2013)
Mission statement 55.4%

Corporate citizenship 55.4%

The purpose of corporate
Corporate identity 53.6%
communication (or
Brand strategy 46.4%

Advertising 42.9%
frameworks for practice)
Marketing communications 37.5% Corporate communication as
Government relations 19.6% establishing and maintaining
Investor relations 17.9% legitimacy
Technical communication 12.5% Legitimacy is a generalized perception or assumption
that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or
Ethics 7.1%
appropriate within some socially constructed system
Training and development 5.4% of norms, values, beliefs and definitions (Suchman
1992: 574). Weber is widely credited as defining
Labour relations 5.4%
legitimacy as an important sociological concept,
Table 26.1 Key corporate communication functions and
predominantly focusing on the legitimacy of politi-
budget responsibilities (source: Corporate Communication cal and social institutions but Suchmans definition
International 2013) has informed much of the organisational literature on
legitimacy where it is a central concept within organ-
isational theory (Meyer and Rowan 1977; Scott 1998
with an organisation, investors wanting to invest and in Waeraas 2009). Increasingly, however, the concept
legislators not jumping to introduce punitive legisla- is also being used to analyse public relations activity
tion as well as potential consumers being more open and, in some cases, to define the practice itself (Mett-
to promotional messages aimed at persuading them to zler 2001; Waeraas 2009). Waeraas states that: We
purchase goods or use services). may assert that public relations is involved not only in

M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 494 23/03/2017 13:28


acquiring legitimacy and making sure that the organi-
zation has the voluntary support of its stakeholders,
but also in protecting the organizations legitimacy
itself...then we may easily argue that public rela-
tions is all about obtaining and preserving legitimacy
(p. 309).
Chief communication officers characterise the suc-
cess factors for reputation management as: Integrity,
transparency, performance, board/leadership buy-in.
The forces of transparency, corporate culture, and
social media reward corporations whose actions are
aligned with the expressed social values of the enter-
prise. Leading practice empowers employees, execu-
tives, and customers to build a strong corporate culture.
They identify several actions necessary to manage the
corporations reputation successfully: Consistency
in communication and corporate strategy, strong
alignment with all stakeholder communications, and
authenticity.
It could be argued that this definition does not
embrace the aim of much public relations practice,
which goes beyond establishing legitimacy and aims
to provoke or encourage specific behaviours in par-
ticular to persuade consumers to buy products or ser-
vices or to support causes. Establishing and sustaining
legitimacy does, however, seem to perfectly describe the
aim of corporate communication, which isnt imme-
diately focused on consumer activity but is focused
on establishing the levels of trust and respect that will
result in stakeholders granting a license to operate
in other words building and maintaining legitimacy for
organisations.
As we exist in an increasingly unstable and chang-
ing society, it becomes more difficult and also more
important for organisations to establish legitimacy.
Habermas (1973/1976) has famously pointed to a
crisis in legitimation an erosion in trust of, and sup-
port for, political institutions and even nation states.
Bearing in mind that we are currently living through
what some would call unprecedented levels of uncer-
tainty in the corporate sector (in the midst of a global
financial crisis), it is not far fetched to claim that not
only do political and state institutions face a legitima-
tion crisis but corporate bodies do too. Whereas a
few decades ago professionals such as bank managers
and doctors and the organisations that employed them
were viewed as sacrosanct, more recent corporate and
other crises have eroded that taken for granted trust,
resulting in a death of deference. This means that
organisations now have to earn legitimacy rather than
expect or assume it. Surely then, earning legitimacy
is the primary job of the corporate communication
specialist?
M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 495
Chapter 26Corporate communication 495
Explore 26.1
How corporate communicators
establish and maintain the
legitimacy of their organisations
Apple routinely tops the Fortune list of the worlds
most admired companies. This can clearly be seen as
an indication of its legitimacy think of four reasons
why Apple is a legitimate organisation with a good
reputation.
Feedback
Is it because:
It is perceived as always obeying law and hasnt
been involved in any scandals?
It is a huge company and one of the very first pro-
ducers of home computers and therefore is seen
as an authority based on tradition?
Its a cool company and associated with the late
Steve Jobs, a very charismatic leader?
Each of these reasons relates to the principles on
which Weber (1922/1968 in Waeraas 2009: 304)
claims legitimacy may be based. Readers interested
in following these principles to guide corporate
communication practice aimed at legitimating the
organisations they represent would do well to read
Waeraas (2009).
It is always in the media with its executives rou-
tinely used as sources of expert opinions?
Routine media exposure can result in an accumulation
of institutional legitimacy and media capital (Davis
2003; Davis and Seymour 2010) or cultural capital
(Bourdieu 1986).
Corporate communication as
developing social capital
Its interesting to consider the accumulation of media
or cultural capital (discussed above) as a way of estab-
lishing and maintaining legitimacy for an organisation
or individual. And this leads on to a consideration of
what other resources corporate communicators can
draw on in order to do their jobs effectively.
Ihlen (2009) analyses the forms of resources (or
capital) conceptualised by Bourdieu and presents a
reworked typology interpreted in relation to the pub-
lic relations practitioner. Out of these, social capital
23/03/2017 13:28
 496 Part 4Sectoral considerations
and symbolic capital are particularly important to the
corporate communicator. Symbolic capital resonates
very much with the concept of legitimation already
discussed, and social capital is a valuable resource in
building trust, relationships and reputation all of
which are key outcomes of corporate communication
practice. Its significance to corporate communica-
tion is aptly signified in the definition of the term as
values and understandings that facilitate cooperation
within or among groups (Scrivens and Smith, 2013:
41). As the concept is emerging as an influence on
policy making internationally, its clearly important
for corporate communicators to understand it and
be able to demonstrate how their organisations con-
tribute to building social capital within the communi-
ties in which they operate. Consequently its useful
to consider the definition adopted by the Office for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),
which states: Social capital is defined as the norms
and social relations embedded in the social structures
of societies that enable people to co-ordinate action to
achieve desired goals.
Theres no consensus on how to measure social capi-
tal, but the OECDs approach is useful as it encapsu-
lates four main ways in which the concept has been
conceptualised and measured as:
i) personal relationships;
ii) social network support;
iii) civic engagement; and
iv) trust and cooperative norms,
reflecting different views of what social capital is and
implying different research agendas (OECD 2013).
Putnams (2000: 19) conceptualisation of social cap-
ital as connections among individuals social networks
and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that
arise from them is possibly the most familiar. He
writes about the disintegration of this type of commu-
nity cohesion in contemporary America (Putnam 1996,
2000, 2002). So, for corporate bodies, social capital
can refer to the impact that organisations may have
on sustaining cohesive societies (through employment
creation, community relations and corporate social
responsibility activities and so on) but, as the OECD
quote above signifies, the concept can be defined
in different ways. An alternative interpretation
propounded by Bourdieu (1986) is also useful to
corporate communicators. This definition is nuanced
in a way that is more pragmatic in highlighting the
strategic benefits to be accrued for people and organ-
isations with high levels of social capital. Bourdieus
M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 496
view is that such benefits can be accrued by building
relationships as a member of a network, which Ilhen
(2009: 74) translates for public relations as investment
in strengthening connections with politicians, journal-
ists, activist groups bureaucrats, researchers and other
organisations.
Effective corporate communicators then must be
able to demonstrate how their organisations contrib-
ute to building social capital (perhaps through CSR,
community engagement and establishing dialogue with
a variety of stakeholder groups as part of organisa-
tional decision making, see also Chapter 5) in order to
demonstrate value to society. But also, they must be
able to develop relationships within broad networks of
appropriate actors to accrue social capital as defined
by Bourdieu (1986) and Ilhen (2009). Both activities
are aimed at enhancing visibility, developing relation-
ships and a trustworthy reputation in order to establish
and maintain legitimacy and an organisations license
to operate.
So how do you build social capital and establish
legitimacy?
Corporate communication
in practice
Defining corporate communication as the communica-
tion of corporate values, as opposed to the promotion
of consumer products or services, means marketing
communication is aimed at consumers, and corporate
communication is communication aimed at engaging
with other publics and stakeholders. This approach
(and, in particular, notions of establishing legitimacy
and building social capital) links corporate communi-
cation in practice to concepts of managing corporate
reputation, corporate image and relationship manage-
ment. For example, in the case of the Fairtrade Foun-
dation, its corporate communication strategy may be
aimed at developing strong relationships with partners
and employees and building its reputation as an organ-
isation that contributes to sustainable development
by offering better trading conditions to, and securing
the rights of, marginalised producers and workers.
In contrast, its consumer or marketing communica-
tion would focus on promoting the benefits of various
Fairtrade certified products to customers and potential
customers.
So, consumer communication is focused on sell-
ing a service or product, and contrasts with corporate
23/03/2017 13:28

communication, which is focused on a broader range
of stakeholders and is aimed at building positive rela-
tionships and reputation. In the case of the Fairtrade
Foundation, it is clear how its reputation and relation-
ships facilitate more effective selling of its products. But
effective corporate communication is not just linked to
creating a favourable sales environment; it can contrib-
ute to business strategy in many other ways, as shown
in Box26.1.
Typically, then, corporate communication concep-
tualised in this way refers to communication (or rela-
tionship building) with political, community, financial,
media, competitor, supplier and internal publics (but
not consumers).
Box 26.1
How corporate
communication, which
is conceptualised as
managing corporate
reputation (establishing
legitimacy)*
or relationship
management(building
and maintaining social
capital), contributes to
business strategy
Anyco is a toy manufacturer with a strategic aim of
expanding its factory (located in a suburb of a large city,
adjoining an area of natural beauty). Its reputation as a
good employer and conscientious neighbour, coupled
with strong relationships with a range of stakeholders,
may have the following results:
stop the local community from objecting to planning
permission
make politicians more confident in granting planning
permission
engage environmental groups in measures to protect
local wildlife
M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 497
Chapter 26Corporate communication 497
Defining corporate values
A key issue for public relations is to ensure that com-
munication doesnt just focus on packaging the organ-
isation in a way that appeals to consumers but involves
two-way communication (hopefully dialogue) with a
diverse range of stakeholders, many of whom may have
conflicting needs, or interests: which is why some com-
mentators feel that the function should be organised
separately from marketing, as discussed later in the
chapter. Difficulties can emerge, then, in determining
clear, consistent communication for an organisation,
which is important in relation to reputation and creat-
ing a clear identity, without excluding or alienating
involve the media in communicating a positive case
for the expansion
encourage suppliers to supply increased orders effi-
ciently and with care for the local community (using
the roads at times that do not coincide with local chil-
dren going to school, for example)
ensure employees feel involved in the expansion and
remain committed to Anyco
attract the best prospective employees to apply for
jobs
persuade shareholders and others to invest in the
project.
Although the expansion will eventually help Anyco
produce and sell more products, it can clearly be seen
that communication designed to build a strong repu-
tation and relationships in this context is not aimed at
persuading consumers to buy products or services. So,
when commentators talk about corporate communica-
tion being aimed at a broader spectrum of stakeholders
than marketing or promotional communications, this
is the type of approach they mean. This example also
illustrates a range of corporate communication objectives
(which again differ from those associated with marketing
or consumer communication).
*The concepts of legitimacy and social capital are rarely explicated
in most functionalist public relations writing, whereas the concepts
of reputation and relationship management often are. These ideas
are certainly not interchangeable but there are interesting
relationships between them. For further discussion of this see
Deephouse and Suchman (2008) and Deephouse and Carter (2005),
who explain that legitimacy emphasizes the social acceptance
resulting from adherence to social norms and expectations whereas
reputation emphasizes comparisons among organizations.
23/03/2017 13:28
 498 Part 4Sectoral considerations
some stakeholder groups. This cant be achieved by a
branding exercise, which involves imposing corporate
key messages and ensuring organisational members
adhere to them. It can be helped, though, by involving
a whole range of stakeholder groups in the process of
identifying key values and demonstrating how these
can help focus communications emanating from dif-
ferent parts of an organisation.
This has usefully been conceptualised as identify-
ing common starting points (CSPs) (van Riel 1995),
which are central values developed by communications
staff from research into an organisations desired cor-
porate identity and image. Examples of CSPs include
reliability, innovation, quality, profit making and syn-
ergy (ibid.). CSPs function as wavelengths or param- budget decisions.
eters to guide communication activity. The concept of
CSPs fosters a notion of an organic process of develop-
ing and communicating organisational images rather
than a top-down approach, which limits staff to static,
agreed perceptions. As Leitch and Motion (1999: 195)
explain: An organisation may present multiple images
to its various publics provided that these images are
consistent, not with each other, but with the organ-
isations CSPs. They have developed the concept
to include the identification of common end points
(CEPs), or communication goals, and the idea is that
by understanding or internalising both of these, organ-
isational members can be free to communicate in a way
that suits them in all the various and unpredictable
interactions with stakeholders (multiple identity enact-
ments or MIEs) (Motion and Leitch 2002) because they
will always be guided by their knowledge of the CSPs
and CEPs. However, Christensen et al. (2008a, 2008b)
warn that approaches such as these, while seeming to
be about facilitating multiplicity or diversity, can actu-
ally be controlling. The key to their criticism of ways of
identifying and establishing central values is that these
processes can be top-down and tend to reinforce a
vertical and thus hierarchical communication structure
and ignore or downplay the importance of horizontal
communication exchanges (Christensen et al. 2008a:
439). To avoid this they advocate common process
rules, or CPR.
The key to all this is the understanding that organ-
isations are not homogeneous, but multifaceted and
populated by lots of individuals in different work
groups. The modern organisation also looks to build
partnerships with external stakeholder groups and
integrate them into the organisation too. So the process
of identifying shared values must engage and involve
the diverse range of stakeholders, and not just senior
management views. A key corporate communication
task is to engage to identify the values and then ensure
M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 498
everyone knows how these can be embedded into all
aspects of organisational communication (including
use of symbols and behaviour).
Many organisations involve teams of people engag-
ing with stakeholders in different ways. For example,
investment management companies may need to
demonstrate their ability to take risks and embrace
cutting-edge developments to growing companies
seeking their venture capital, while simultaneously
demonstrating to their rich private clients that their
money is in safe, stable hands. Or a city council may
have to demonstrate that it will listen to and engage
with its local communities and service providers while
also having to demonstrate that it can make tough
The first job for any corporate communicator, then,
is to identify these key shared values, which resonate
with diverse stakeholders and encapsulate what an
organisation stands for.
Identifying shared values
This process should first involve research to identify
values currently emerging through organisational com-
munication and then research to determine if these are
coherent (tell a corporate story about what type of
organisation it is) and are consistent with what a range
of stakeholders believe to be the values of the organisa-
tion they are involved with.
The most obvious way to identify values currently
being communicated is to conduct a content and dis-
course analysis of things like mission statements, web-
sites, promotional brochures, annual reports and social
media, and so on. But only focusing on these con-
trolled communications doesnt take account of many
of the ways in which an organisation c ommunicates
Leitch and Motions (2002) multiple identity enact-
ments. In particular, it could exclude communication
that happens at the subtle (but very important) level
of culture. So an interesting way to audit or identify
organisational values in an inclusive (rather than top-
down) way is to use Johnson et al.s (2011) tool to
audit the culture of organisations. Culture is seen to
influence the way we do things round here the
taken for granted assumptions, or paradigm, of an
organisation (Johnson et al. 2011: 176).
The values that inform the way we do things around
here can be identified from a careful analysis of aspects
of the culture web. See Johnson et al. (2014: 155) for
an application of the cultural web to a law firm in the
UK and a whole range of appropriate research ques-
tions investigating areas such as: the type of behaviour
23/03/2017 13:28

Case study 26.1
Illustrating CSPS and
CEPS
Queen Margaret University (QMU) in Edinburgh teaches
a whole range of degree courses, and its academics are
involved in many different types of research ranging from
research by health professionals into how to manage pain to
research in the drama school into the role of the pantomime
dame. Clearly, then, the way in which such disparate areas
will communicate with both internal and external stake-
holders will be very different and it would be inappro-
priate to impose a homogeneous approach on everyone.
At the same time, though, its important that people have
a clear image or idea of what QMU is and does so how
should the corporate communication team guide commu-
nication to achieve a consistent image or reputation?
The answer is to identify shared values and common
starting points (CSPs), which in this case focus every-
ones activities on relevance, addressing society s
needs and developing knowledge which touches peo-
ples everyday lives.
So at QMU the institution details that its shared values
are:
encouraged by particular routines; core beliefs reflected
by stories; ways in which power is distributed in the
organisation; and the status symbols favoured.
Once values currently being communicated via
stories told, corporate materials produced, symbols
highlighted and so on are identified, its then time to
engage a diverse range of external as well as internal
stakeholders to focus on identifying what shared val-
ues, common starting points and common end points
should be communicated. Its important to avoid this
being a top-down approach, or an empty consulta-
tion exercise where values identified by senior manag-
ers are presented to stakeholders to agree so that an
engagement box can be ticked in a tool-kit approach
to corporate communication. And a significant body
of knowledge points to dialogue theory and dialogic
and deliberative approaches (see Kapein and van
Tulder 2003; Anderson et al. 2004; Deetz and Simp-
son 2004; Heath 2007; de Bussy 2010) as being the
best way to achieve engagement with stakeholders.
(Indeed, views are emerging that point to the impor-
tance of this approach to public relations: (Kent and
Taylor 2002; Heath et al. 2006; Bruning et al. 2008;
M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 499
Chapter 26Corporate communication 499
development of academic excellence in service to
the community;
social responsibility towards all of the communities
we serve, demonstrating respect, care, social justice,
equality and fairness;
concern for the environment and sustainable use of
natural resources; and
commitment to continuous improvement in all we do.
And the common end points (CEPs) include:
We will be known for delivering inter-professional
education and research that has the well-being of
the person in mind at all times; this will be achieved
through inter-disciplinary working and research.
Our inter-professional education and research will
allow us to work within and across academic and
practice areas, cross-fertilising thinking and facilitat-
ing the development of joined-up solutions. Our
inter-disciplinary approach will help encourage pro-
fessional groups to work better together for the
benefit of others.
The education and research that we provide will be
industry-relevant, guided by the needs of society for
high quality and socially responsible industry, the
professions we serve, the local community and soci-
ety as a whole.
Pieczka 2011). In this approach, very specific facili-
tation techniques need to be employed in order to
achieve real dialogue which depends on participants
being empowered, working towards social justice,
suspending assumptions, not being judgmental and
creating a safe space for discussions to take place.
For more information about dialogic techniques see
the QMU Centre for Dialogue.
Communicating corporate values
Having engaged a range of stakeholders in identifying
shared values, common starting points and common
end points, its important to ensure that everyone under-
stands them and that they influence the way everyone
communicates with stakeholders (see Figure26.1 for
ways in which corporate communicators communi-
cate). An important part of this is to practice two-way
communication and make sure corporate values influ-
ence corporate strategies.
Corporate strategy gurus Johnson et al. explain that:
Strategy is the long-term direction of an organisation
23/03/2017 13:28
 500 Part 4Sectoral considerations

Figure 26.1 The balance between centralisation and decentralisation in organisational integration
(source: Christensen et al. 2008: 440)

(2014: 4), although an earlier definition may be

more helpful: strategy is the direction and scope of
an organisation over the long term, which achieves
advantage for the organisation through its configura-
tion of resources within a changing environment, to
meet the needs of markets and to fulfill stakeholder
expectations. (Johnson and Scholes 2002: 10). (See
Figure26.2.)
In simplistic terms, organisations are usually run by
a chief executive and a board of directors or executive
committee, depending on the type of organisation it is
(whether it is in the public or private sector, etc.). This
dominant coalition (Grunig 1992; Grunig et al. 2002)
formulates the corporate strategic plan, which sets out
what the organisation aims to achieve (often over a
five-year period) as well as the values and philosophy
to which it will adhere. This could be considered to be
stage one of the planning process. (See Figure26.3.)
However, as well as being a member of the executive
board, each director is also responsible for directing Figure 26.2 A cultural web (source: Johnson et al. 2014: 176)

M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 500 23/03/2017 13:28


Figure 26.3 Three stages of strategic planning
the management of a specific division/department/busi-
ness unit (the use of alternative labels in the literature
is seemingly endless, so for the purposes of this text the
term division will be used). The names of some typical
divisions are included in the various structure diagrams
elsewhere in this chapter.
Case study 26.2
Anytown University
College (AUC)
An example of how communication aims
and objectives relate to overall strategic
aims
Stage 1
One of AUCs overall strategic aims is to achieve full uni-
versity status.
Stage 2
One of the criteria for achieving university status is having
4000 students (AUC currently has 3000 students).
M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 501
Chapter 26Corporate communication 501
The director and the management team of the
division will then analyse the overall corporate stra-
tegic plan and identify ways in which their divisions
activities can contribute to achieving these overarch-
ing aims. This takes us to stage two of the planning
process, when each division sets its own five-year plan.
For example, the corporate communication senior
management team identifies how communication can
help achieve specific organisational strategic aims and
objectives and sets a communication plan to direct and
focus future communication effort.
Finally, stage three in the planning process occurs
at an operational level when the management team
works with the technicians, or communication team
responsible for implementing the plans, to identify
and schedule the activities that, it is to be hoped, will
achieve the divisional and, eventually, the corporate
objectives.
Clearly, this is a vastly simplified model of an
approach to strategic planning. Its purpose is to dem-
onstrate the way in which corporate communication
can be tied to overall corporate strategy but in no
way attempts to represent the literature in this field. It
should also be noted that although this appears to be
a hierarchical, top-down and linear process, in reality
it could be much more inclusive and organic. For an
effective guide to corporate strategy, see Johnson et al.
(2014). See also Case study 26.2.
The UK Government caps the number of European Union
(EU) undergraduate students AUC can recruit, so the vice-
principals recognise that one of the things AUC needs to
do to become a university is to recruit more postgradu-
ate and overseas students. So the communication director
considers how communication can help achieve this and
sets a communication aim of increasing enquiries from
suitable overseas and postgraduate students (note that
the aim here is not to recruit more students that is not
achievable by public relations alone, as enrolling a stu-
dent depends on many factors outside the control of the
public relations department, so the aim is focused only
on what communication can achieve).
Stage 3
The public relations team recognises that the website is
an important communication channel and sets an objec-
tive geared towards ensuring that at least 90 per cent of
postgraduate and overseas students considering applying
to AUC are able easily to access information that is useful
and pertinent to them via the website.
23/03/2017 13:28
 502 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Linking communication activities to the overall
organisational plan is often deemed vital in ensuring
communication is taken seriously at the highest levels
(i.e. viewed as strategic and central to organisational
success). It could also be argued that really strategic
communication would have already been involved
in setting the senior management agenda in the first
place.
How corporate communication
influences corporate
decision-making
One of the key characteristics of Grunig and colleagues
(2002) Excellent public relations programmes is the
public relations director holding a powerful role in or
with the dominant coalition.
Correspondingly, then, one of the key aspects
of the corporate communication role would be the
extent to which the communication czar (Grunig
et al. 2002) is involved in influencing and shaping
the overall business strategy, rather than just being
involved in the second layer of decision-making
(about how communication can help achieve prede-
termined company goals).
So, if corporate communication is the area that
oversees communication, it would seem that this is
the area that can balance the needs of stakeholders with
those of the organisation. It is the corporate communi-
cators role, then, to determine whether most resources
are shared among a broad range of stakeholders or
only channelled towards the powerful (the customer,
Figure 26.4 How corporate communication and marketing can fit into an organisational structure
M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 502
shareholder or politician). For further debates on this
see discussions about stakeholder mapping and CSR
earlier in the text.
All this sounds fine in theory but in practice its
often not easy to achieve. And one of the key things
that affects the extent to which its possible for cor-
porate communicators to influence top-level decisions
and strategies often depends on how the function fits
into the organisational hierarchy or structure.
The organisational
context: how corporate
communication fits into
organisational structures
The way the function could fit into an organisational
structure is represented in Figure26.4.
In this way the director of corporate communica-
tion will be part of the dominant coalition and be
able to influence organisational decision making from
a corporate communication perspective (i.e. thinking
through impacts on a wide range of stakeholders and
in relation to building legitimacy and social capital).
However, the corporate communication function can
be incorporated differently not as a separate corpo-
rate communication division but as an integrated com-
munications division (integrated with marketing), and
not reporting through a specialist director of corporate
communication but through a director of integrated
communications, as represented in Figure 26.5.
23/03/2017 13:28

Figure 26.5 How integrated communication fits in an organisation
Both the structures outlined in Figures 26.4 and
26.5 represent a centralised approach to communica-
tion, where all communication is channelled through
a single department, which delivers clear benefits here
in terms of facilitating consistency.
Clearly, geography and knowledge of local culture
is also a significant variable related to the ideal posi-
tioning of the communication department within the
organisational structure. For example, can a central-
ised communication department really effectively rep-
resent geographically disparate locations?
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), for
example, has a press office at its London headquarters
where other corporate public relations functions, such
as lobbying and public affairs, take place. However,
it also has people with responsibility for local pub-
lic relations in its regional (and other national) offices
(see Picture 26.2). And, of course, understanding the
culture and complexity of specific areas becomes even
more important when practising internationally. (See
Explore 26.2.)
Defining corporate communication
as integrated communication
Much has been made in the literature of the ideas of
integrated communication, where all communication
functions are integrated into the same department and
guided by the same strategic communication plan led
M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 503
Chapter 26Corporate communication 503
by what Grunig et al. (2002: 302) refer to as a com-
munication czar, pope or chief reputation officer.
Although this approach to corporate communica-
tion is often referred to as integrated communication,
true integration is rare (Grunig 2002; Hutton 2010).
It is far more likely that one area (corporate or con-
sumer) has been subsumed into the other and therefore
exists in a department dominated by a particular (and
possibly restrictive) worldview. And so, as Christensen
et al. (2009: 212) argue, the push for integrated com-
munication isnt just about ensuring consistency but
is also about power: the power to define the limits
of integration and by extension select the signs that
represent the organization and reject the ones that do
not. As has already been explored, corporate com-
munication can be practiced in different ways with
different objectives; at one end of the spectrum its
about two-way communication and engaging with
stakeholders, at the other its about communicating
nicely packaged coherent branding messages at audi-
ences. Of these two different approaches, the first
is usually associated with public relations/organisa-
tional communication literature and the latter with
a marketing approach. This is significant then if,
when communication is integrated, those in control
or directing activities are from marketing rather than
a public relations or organisational communication
background. This process (the takeover of corporate
as well as marketing communication) is often referred
to as encroachment.
23/03/2017 13:28
 504 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Picture 26.2 CBI location map (source: adapted from
CBI, offices location map http://news.cbi.org.uk/about/
cbi-around-the-uk/)
The key issue is: which paradigm (consumer or cor-
porate) dominates the communication approach? If all
communication activity is represented at board level by
a single individual, like Grunigs (2002) communication
M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 504
Explore 26.2
How corporate communication
departments work
Whether integrated within the organisational struc-
ture or not, corporate public relations supports or
works in conjunction with other departments. List
ways in which a corporate communication depart-
ment could work with:
1. marketing
2. human resources/personnel
3. finance
4. management.
Feedback
Did you suggest the following?
1. Media relations before or during a new product
launch.
2. Employee engagement activities.
3. Investor relations, annual report preparation and
results announcements.
4. Issue management, lobbying, community rela-
tions and crisis management.
czar (otherwise known as the communication director,
or chief communication officer), it is likely that they
are either from a marketing background or from a cor-
porate communication/public relations background,
but not both. It could be argued, therefore, that their
mindset will frame their approach to communication.
The crucial question is this: is it a marketing mindset,
in which case a consumer paradigm may dominate and
public relations will be confined to the rather narrow
focus of consumer PR? Or is it a public relations mind-
set, in which case communications will encroach on
marketing and a broader stakeholder perspective will
direct communication activity meaning a full range of
stakeholders including employees, community, politi-
cal publics and suppliers will be prioritised alongside
consumers? (See Box26.2 and Explore 26.3.)
23/03/2017 13:28

Explore 26.3 Structuring corporate communication
List all the advantages of having a single communica-
tion department that directs communication with all
stakeholders.
What are the advantages of a decentralised approach,
where instead of a single department, communication
specialists are employed in different divisions or units
throughout the organisation, or stakeholders can contact
anyone in the organisation for comment?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using pub-
lic relations and/or specialist communications consultan-
cies instead of in-house employees?
Box 26.2
Controversy and debate
Marketing encroachment of public
relations does mindset matter?
Kitchen and Schultz (2001) seem to epitomise the
marketing-centred way of conceptualising corporate
communication: their perspective is informed by the idea
that the corporation, in our view, has become a brand
that also needs to be marketed, or, put another way,
communicated for in our view, most marketing is commu-
nication and most communication is essentially market-
ing (Kitchen and Schultz 2001: 5). This approach informs
their conceptualisation of corporate communication as
an umbrella raised as a protective nurturing device held
over the strategic business units and individual brands
within its portfolio (Kitchen and Schultz 2001: 11). (See
Figure 26.6.)
What we mean by raising the corporate umbrella is
that senior executives, led by the CEO, need to conceive
and present the organisation in such a way that it not
only protects and nurtures all the individual brands and
customer relationships within its portfolio, but that the
organisation stands for something other than an anony-
mous faceless profit-taking corporate entity. (Kitchen
and Schultz 2001: 5)
There is a clear resonance here with a public relations-
centric conceptualisation of corporate communication
(particularly in the aim of communicating a more than
profit-taking identity), but it is interesting to note the
M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 505
Chapter 26Corporate communication 505
Feedback
In thinking about centralisation, have you considered
issues such as: having more control over information
released about the organisation; being able to direct
media requests to appropriate (and trained) spokespeo-
ple; being able to ensure all information is newsworthy
or of value; and checking consistency of corporate mes-
sages? The disadvantage of a centralised approach may
well be that too much control could appear to be suspi-
cious (trying to block free access to information), slow
down the process by which stakeholders (particularly the
media) can get information and negate the value of local
knowledge or relationships.
gaps and differences. In particular, Kitchen and Schultz
specify an organisation protecting and nurturing indi-
vidual brands and customer relationships. No mention
of the broader range of stakeholders deemed essen-
tial by public relations. Looking at the spokes of the
Kitchen and Schultz umbrella employees and part-
ners are represented, but the local community, gov-
ernment, suppliers and activist groups (or NGOs) are
significantly absent.
Contrast this with a public relations-centred conceptu-
alisation, as represented by Grunig and Hunts (1984)
application of the Esman model of external linkages of
organisations (Figure 26.7).
In what can be termed a marketing-centred approach to
corporate communication, which is evident throughout
much of the literature, significant stakeholders, such as
politicians and local communities, are routinely absent
and corporate communication (and public relations) is
represented as promotion of a product or service.
This is one of the strongest reasons for public relations
scholars to reject the notion of integrated communica-
tion: The organization is best served by the inherent
diversity of perspectives provided by marketing and
public relations when those functions remain distinct,
co-ordinated yet not integrated (Grunig et al. 2002: 264).
From the other side of the divide (or perhaps on the
fence), some marketing academics consider the basis of
public relations rejection of the marketing paradigm as
being flawed. Hutton (2010: 516), for example, believes
that some PR scholars fail to understand what marketing
23/03/2017 13:28
 506 Part 4Sectoral considerations

box 26.2 (continued)

Figure 26.6 Esmans organisational relationship linkages (source: Grunig and Hunt 1984: 141)

Figure 26.7 Raising the corporate umbrella (source: Kitchen and Schultz 2001: 11)

M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 506 23/03/2017 13:28

 Chapter 26Corporate communication 507

Marketing Public relations

Traditional differences

Target group Markets/customers/consumers Politics/stakeholders

Principal goal Attracting and satisfying customers Establishing and maintaining positive
through the exchange of goods and and beneficial relations between various
values groups

Shared perspectives

General image of organisation An open and externally influenced system

Communication ideal Communication as an ongoing dialogue with the external world

Prescription for management Organisational flexibility and responsiveness vis--vis external wishes and demands

Table 26.3 Differences and similarities between marketing and public relations (source: Cheney and Christensen
2001: 238)

involves and thus when describing the relationship
between marketing and public relations make a number
of claims that would be considered nonsense by sophis-
ticated marketing practitioners.
So, there are some clear distinctions to be made between
marketing and public relations but there are also areas of
shared ground within the separate paradigms. Cheney
and Christensen note these as being primarily linked to
the conception of communication as a two-way pro-
cess by both disciplines: public relations and marketing
have come to conceive of their communication with the
external world as an on-going dialogue (Cheney and
Christensen 2001: 237). (See Table 26.3.)
Clearly, then, just as approaches to public relations differ
across sectors and according to practitioners expertise and
background, so do approaches to marketing. Thus Hutton
attacks public relations theorists for being inflexible in pre-
scribing a best structural relationship between marketing
and public relations, regardless of context an approach he
deems to be false and not in keeping with a true manage-
ment orientation, which would argue that form should vary
according to situation and objectives (Hutton 2010: 513).

Summary shared values); and how the organisational context can

affect practice. This should help practitioners to make
clear and informed choices about how they do their
This chapter has considered the frameworks that help
jobs and everyone else to evaluate the impact of their
us understand the purpose of corporate communi-
practice both in terms of success in setting and meet-
cation (establishing and maintaining legitimacy and
ing organisational goals and in relation to the broader
social capital); how corporate communicators can
society in which it takes place.
approach practice (identifying and communicating

Bibliography J.C. Richards (ed.). New York, NY: Greenwood

Press.

Anderson, R., L.A. Baxter and K.N. Cissna (2004). Texts
and contexts of dialogue in Dialogue. Theorizing
Difference in Communication Studies. R. Anderson,
L.A. Baxter and K.N. Cissna (eds). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage Publications.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). Forms of capital in Handbook of
Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education.
Bruning, S.D., M. Dials and A. Shirka (2008). Using
dialogue to build organization-public relationships,
engage publics, and positively affect organizational
outcomes. Public Relations Review 34(1): 2531.
Cheney, C.G. and L.T. Christensen (2001). Organiza-
tional identity: linkages between internal and exter-
nal organizational communication in The New

M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 507 23/03/2017 13:28

 508 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Handbook of Organizational Communication.
F.M. Jablin and L.L. Putnam (eds). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Christensen, L.T. and J.P. Cornelissen (2011). Bridging
corporate and organizational communication: review,
development and a look to the future. Management
Communication Quarterly 25(3): 383414.
Christensen, L.T., M. Morsing and G. Cheney (2008).
Corporate Communications: Convention, complexity
and critique. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Christensen, L.T., J.P. Cornelissen and A.F. Firat (2009).
New tensions and challenges in integrated communi-
cations. Corporate Communication: An International
Journal 14(2): 20719.
Corporate Communication International (CCI) at Fair-
leigh Dickinson University (2013). CCI corporate
communication practices and trends study 2013: Final
report. http://www.corporatecomm.org/wp-content/
uploads/2013/06/CCI-2013-Practices-Trends-Study-
Final-Report-October-2013.pdf accessed 1 January
2015.
Davis, A. (2003). Public relations and news sources in
News, Public Relations and Power. S. Cottle (ed.).
London: Sage.
Davis, A. and E. Seymour (2010). Generating forms of
media capital inside and outside the political field: the
strange case of David Cameron in Media, Culture and
Society 32(5): 120.
De Bussy, N. (2010). Dialogue as a basis for stakeholder
engagement: defining and measuring core compe-
tencies in The Sage Handbook of Public Relations.
R.L.Heath (ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.
Deephouse, D.L. and S.M. Carter (2005). An examina-
tion of differences between organizational legitimacy
and organizational reputation. Journal of Manage-
ment Studies 42: 32960.
Deephouse, D.L. and M.C. Suchman (2008). Legitimacy
in organizational institutionalism in The Sage Hand-
book of Organizational Institutionalism. R. Green-
wood, C. Oliver, K. Sahlin and R. Suddaby (eds).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Deetz, S. and J. Simpson (2004). Critical organizational
dialogue: open formation and the demand of other-
ness in Dialogue: Theorizing difference in commu-
nication studies. R. Anderson, L. Baxter and K. Cissna
(eds). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Ehling, W.P., J. White and J.E. Grunig (1992). Public
relations and marketing practices in Excellence in
Public Relations and Communications Management.
J.E. Grunig (ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Inc.
M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 508
Fombrun, C.J. and C.B.M. Van Riel (2004). Fame and
Fortune: How successful companies build win-
ning reputations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Education.
Frankental, P. (2001). Corporate social responsibility a
PR invention? Corporate Communications: An Inter-
national Journal 6(1): 1823.
Friedman, A.L. and S. Miles (2002). Developing stake-
holder theory. Journal of Management Studies 39(1):
122.
Grunig, J.E. (ed.) (1992). Excellence in Public Relations
and Communication Management. Hillsdale, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Grunig, J.E. and T.E. Hunt (1984). Managing Public Rela-
tions. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Grunig, L., J.E. Grunig and D.M. Dozier (2002). Excel-
lent Public Relations and Effective Organizations: A
study of communication management in three coun-
tries. Abingdon: Routledge.
Habermas, J. (1973/1976). Legitimation Crisis. London:
Heinemann.
Heath, R.G. (2007). Rethinking community collabora-
tion through a dialogic lens: creativity, democracy,
and diversity in community organizing. Management
Communication Quarterly 21: 145.
Heath, R.L. (ed.) (2001). Handbook of Public Relations.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Heath, R., B. Pearce, J. Shotter, J. Taylor, A. Kersten,
T.Zorn, J. Roper and J. Motion (2006). The process
of dialogue: participation and legitimation. Manage-
ment Communication Quarterly 19(3): 34173.
Hutton, J.G., (2010). Defining the relationship
between public relations and marketing: public rela-
tions most important challenge in Handbook of
Public Relations. R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Hutton, J. G., M.B. Goodman, J.B. Alexander and C.M.
Genest (2001). Reputation management: the new
face of corporate public relations? Public Relations
Review 27: 24761.
Ihlen, O. (2009). On Bourdieu, public relations in field
struggles in Public Relations and Social Theory.
O.Ihlen, B. van Ruler and M. Fredriksson (eds). New
York, NY: Routledge.
Jablin, F.M. and L.L. Putnam (eds) (2001). The New
Handbook of Organizational Communication. Thou-
sand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Johnson, G. and K. Scholes (2002). Exploring Corporate
Strategy, 6th edition. Harlow: Prentice Hall.
23/03/2017 13:28

Johnson, G., R. Whittington and K. Scholes (2014). Explor-
ing Strategy, 10th edition. Harlow: Prentice Hall.
Kapein, M. and R. van Tulder (2003). Toward effective
stakeholder dialogue. Business and Society Review
108(2): 20324.
Kent, M.L. and M. Taylor (2002). Toward a dialogic
theory of public relations. Public Relations Review
28: 2137.
Kitchen, P. and D. Schultz, (eds) (2001). Raising the Cor-
porate Umbrella: Corporate communication in the
21st century. London: Macmillan.
Ledingham, J.A. and S.D. Bruning (eds) (2000). Public
Relations as Relationship Management: A relational
approach to the study and practice of public relations.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Leitch, S. and J. Motion (1999). Multiplicity in corpo-
rate identity strategy. Corporate Communications:
An International Journal 4(4): 192200.
Leitch, S. and D. Neilson (2001). Bringing publics into
public relations in Handbook of Public Relations.
R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA, London and
New Delhi: Sage.
Mettzler, M.S. (2001). The centrality of organizational
legitimacy to public relations practice in Handbook
of Public Relations. R.L. Heath (ed.). London: Sage.
Motion, J. and S. Leitch (2002). The technologies of cor-
porate identity. International Studies of Management
and Organization 32(3): 4564.
OECD (2011). A definition of social capital measures.
http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=3560
accessed 10 September 2011.
M26 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 509
Chapter 26Corporate communication 509
Pieczka, M. (2011). Public relations as dialogic exper-
tise? Journal of Communication Management 15(2):
10824.
Putnam, R.D. (1996). Tuning in, tuning out: the strange
disappearance of social capital in America. PS: Politi-
cal Science and Politics 28: 66583.
Putnam, R.D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The collapse and
revival of American community. New York, NY, Lon-
don: Simon & Schuster.
Putnam, R.D. (2002). Democracies in Flux: The evolution
of social capital in contemporary society. New York,
NY: Oxford University Press.
Riel, C.V. (1995). Principles of Corporate Communica-
tion. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.
Steyn, B. (2003). From strategy to corporate communica-
tion strategy: a conceptualisation. Journal of Com-
munication Management 8(2): 16883.
Suchman, M.C. (1992). Managing legitimacy: strategic
and institutional approaches. Academy of Manage-
ment Review 20(3): 571610.
Van Riel, C.B.M. (2003). Defining corporate commu-
nication in Corporate Communication: A strate-
gic approach to building reputation. P.S. Bronn and
R.Wiig (eds). Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk.
Van Riel, C.B.M. and C. Fombrun (2007). Essentials of
Corporate Communication. Abingdon: Routledge.
Waeraas, A. (2009). On Weber. Legitimacy and legiti-
mation in public relations in Public Relations and
Social Theory: Key figures and concepts. O. Ihlen,
B. van Ruler and M. Fredriksson (eds). London:
Routledge.
23/03/2017 13:28
 C H AP T ER 27 Kate Fitch

Celebrity public relations

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
define celebrity and celebrity PR
discuss celebrity culture and its relevance for public relations
analyse the role of public relations in the production of celebrity
identify the role of the audience in celebrity culture
evaluate celebrity PR and its significance for a broader understanding of public relations.

Structure
What is celebrity?
Celebrity PR
Celebrity and society
Celebrity and the internet
Celebrity PR in practice
Celebrity in different contexts

M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 510 23/03/2017 13:29

 Chapter 27Celebrity public relations 511

Introduction
The focus of this chapter is celebrity
public relations (celebrity PR). Although
celebrity culture has been studied pri-
marily by media and cultural studies
scholars, it has not attracted much inter-
est among public relations scholars and
there is limited literature on the role of
public relations in the production of
celebrity. This lack of interest may be
due to the influence of the dominant
paradigm on theorising about public
relations, which distances contempo-
rary public relations practice from press
agentry, publicity and other promotional
activity. Yet, the public relations industry
is an integral part of celebrity culture and
its cultural intermediary role deserves
further investigation.
Celebrity status depends on high vis-
ibility in the public arena and is gener-
ally linked with the rise of individualism,
mass media and modern democracy.
Celebrity offers a story of social mobility;
it extends across diverse sectors includ-
ing sport, entertainment, politics and
business and is linked to both growing
individualism and the commodification
of everyday life. Celebrities are often
characterised by their ordinariness, col-
lapsing boundaries between their public
and private personas and offering occa-
sional insights into their everyday lives.
Celebrities are commodities and
both the media and public relations
industries play a pivotal role in the
construction and maintenance of
celebrity status. While some celebrity
publicists gain a prominent public pro-
file, the work of many others remains
hidden. This chapter therefore explores
celebrity PR in order to more fully
understand public relations and its
societal impact. Although celebrity PR
is often marginalised from mainstream
understandings of public relations, it
plays a significant role in the growth
and pervasiveness of celebrity in con-
temporary society.

What is celebrity? Celebrity matters because it exists so centrally to

Celebrities are often characterised as shallow, frivo-
lous, superficial and manufactured yet, given their per-
vasiveness in everyday life and the real achievements of
some individuals who are also well-known celebrities,
a better understanding of what we mean by celebrity is
needed. Daniel Boorstin defines celebrity as someone
known for his well-knownness (1962: 67); in other
words, a celebrity was famous for being famous. John
Hartley argues that celebrities are individuals who are
noted for their identity in the media...whereby the
hyper-production of images leads to some faces and
bodies being more recognisable than others (2002:
26). Graeme Turner also links celebrity to media pro-
files: celebrity is an extensive and intrusive form of
public visibility...[and] a form of fame that is gen-
erated directly by media exposure: it is a product of
the promotions and publicity industries rather than an
outcome of public recognition (2014: 86). The celeb-
rity, then, exists primarily through their media profile
and as the result of promotional activity. However, the
celebrity is more than simply a media profile or the
locus of fame. The celebrity maintains considerable
cultural capital and is potentially a lucrative brand.
Celebrity defines a person whose name, image, life-
style, and opinions carry cultural and economic worth,
and who are first and foremost idealised popular
media constructions (Redmond 2014: 5) and repre-
sents status on speed (Kurzman et al. 2007: 363).
According to Redmond:
the way we communicate and are understood to
communicate with one another in the modern
world. Celebrity culture involves the transmission
of power relations, is connected to identity forma-
tion and notions of shared belonging; and it circu-
lates in commercial revenue streams and in an
international context where celebrated people are
seen not to be bound by national borders or geo-
graphical prisms. (2014: 3)
Much of the scholarly interest in celebrity has
focused on celebrity as text, rather than on the ways
in which celebrity is constructed, produced, traded and
maintained. Yet celebrity culture is an important part
of promotional culture that shapes cultural formation
in society (Wernick 1991). This chapter investigates the
role of public relations in the production, maintenance
and consumption of celebrity.
Celebrity PR
What is the role of public relations and other promo-
tional industries in the production and maintenance
of celebrity? Celebrity is concerned with the creation
of cultural status and, in turn, economic value (Turner
2004). The public profile of the celebrity is developed
and maintained by various industries and occupa-
tions. Turner calls industries involved in the produc-
tion of celebrity and these include entertainment,

M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 511 23/03/2017 13:29

 512 Part 4Sectoral considerations
image management, communication (including the
media), publicity (including public relations), coaching,
endorsement and legal and investment industries the
celebrity industries (2004: 41). Hartley (1992) refers
specifically to the media, publicity and promotional
industries as the smiling professions and argues they
play a significant role in shaping contemporary pub-
lic culture. The celebrity status of a Hollywood actor
might be the result of the promotional activities of dif-
ferent organisational and occupational roles, including
the celebrity manager, the film studio or television pro-
duction company, event organisers and event publicist,
magazine and newspaper editors, and sponsorship and
marketing campaigns (Turner 2004). Indeed, the kinds
of public relations activity involved in the promotion
of celebrity status include:
brand planning and integrated marketing strate-
gies; maintain[ing] brand identity and awareness;
market research and evaluation; promotions; prod-
uct tie-ins and endorsement opportunities; the writ-
ing and editing of press releases, articles, speeches,
scripts, and publications; special event planning
and organisation; issue and crisis management;
press agentry; and counselling those they represent
on how to handle the media, and best represent
themselves in the public eye.
(Redmond 2014: 72)
However, there is little public relations literature on
its role in producing and maintaining celebrity other
than in relation to image repair strategies (Waymer
et al. 2015). Ames, for example, has researched the
representation of the image consultant in popular cul-
ture, particularly in relation to the celebrity in crisis
(2011: 90; see Explore 27.1 in this chapter). Yet, it is
not as if celebrity exists outside of promotional activ-
ity; marketing and promotional work has always been
integral to the production of celebrity (Hackley and
Hackley 2015). Audiences are also willing participants
in the consumption of celebrity. Hutchins and Tindall,
drawing on Jenkins, define fans as the most passion-
ately engaged consumers of mass media properties
and call for more interdisciplinary research into public
relations and fandom (2015, n.p.). Thinking of pub-
lic relations in terms of its cultural intermediary role
allows an understanding of the ways in which public
relations contributes to meaning-making and identity
construction (LEtang 2006). And, as discussed later in
this chapter, the internet has dramatically transformed
celebrity management in that it offers new opportuni-
ties for the performance of celebrity, in terms of self-
promotion and the development of microcelebrities,
M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 512
and increases in user-generated content and interac-
tions with fans (Marwick and Boyd 2011). We there-
fore need a stronger understanding of the role of public
relations in the production, maintenance and consump-
tion of celebrity.
Celebrity and society
Globalisation and celebrity
Globalisation is significant as it is the convergence
between media, entertainment and information indus-
tries, together with the expansion of media and enter-
tainment empires that demands celebrities. Hollywood
cinema, to offer one example, has always operated
globally in terms of both audience development and
within transnational corporations, and is a global com-
modity that markets and commodifies Western culture
(Turner 2004). The Disney Corporation operates in
five integrated markets: media networks, parks and
resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products and
interactive media, and each of these divisions sells the
idea of celebrity (Redmond 2014: 75). Globalisation
therefore enables the cultural and economic power of
celebrity (Turner 2004).
Celebrities are pivotal to what Rojek calls the PR
media complex, where global public relations corpora-
tions work closely with media giants, dominating the
market in information, opinion formation and taste
and seeking to shape public opinion and boost prod-
uct awareness through public opinion research, press
releases, press kits, photo ops, publicity stunts, talk
shows, advertising and other media outlets (2012:
22). They use it not only to increase their own eco-
nomic and cultural status, but celebrity endorsement is
institutionalised in the PRmedia complex in creating
associations and building brands (Rojek 2012). Tech-
nological changes have transformed celebrity culture,
with changing practices and new spaces for producing
and creating celebrity (Marwick and Boyd 2011). In
addition to mainstream and tabloid media, the inter-
net, and in particular social media, offers new oppor-
tunities for celebrities to interact with fans. For more
information about the significance for celebrity culture,
see the section, Celebrity and the internet below.
Celebrity and the media
The media and publicity industries have always
played a pivotal role in the construction and main-
tenance of celebrity. Particular sectors, such as the
23/03/2017 13:29

Celebrity Hero
Illusory Real
Synthetic Authentic
Pseudo events Real achievements
Image Accomplishment or talent
Table 27.1 Celebrity vs hero (source: adapted from
Boorstin 1962)
tabloid and mass-market magazines and television
talk format and reality shows, as well as celebrity
magazines, have played increasingly significant roles
in developing interest in celebrity lifestyles since
the 1980s and early 1990s (Turner 2004). Boorstin
(1962) characterised celebrities as a kind of anti-hero,
contrasting the real achievements of heroes with
the manufactured ones of celebrities (see Table27.1
Celebrity vs hero). He was highly critical of what he
called pseudo-events, such as press conferences and
photo opportunities that exist purely to gain media
coverage. For Boorstin, the lack of authenticity asso-
ciated with celebrity was part of the Hollywood fac-
tory that created and promoted stars (1962).
More recent scholars argue that Boorstins argument
contrasting celebrities and real heroes is problematic.
Turner (2004) points out that Boorstin was broadly
critiquing American popular culture which he identi-
fied as increasingly inauthentic and image-driven. Yet,
Boorstin fails to recognise that many heroes were
either experts at self-promotion or had promotional
support to help them achieve hero status. Van Krieken
(2012), to offer one example, argues Boorstins dis-
tinction between heroes, such as Abraham Lincoln
and Benjamin Franklin, and celebrities is unsustain-
able, given that he ignores the role of public relations
in developing heroic status. For van Krieken, every
celebrity lies somewhere on a spectrum of combining
achievement and talent...and the marketing end that, whereas fandom has traditionally been under-
(2012: 7). Similarly, Hackley and Hackley (2015)
point out that marketing and promotion has always
been integral to celebrity and indeed a necessary part
of the showmanship to create it.
Celebrity as commodity
Celebrities are commodities, produced, traded, and
marketed by the media and publicity industries
(Turner 2004: 9). They play an important branding
role, in terms of a consistent identity, across media
M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 513
Chapter 27Celebrity public relations 513
formats and diverse markets (Turner 2004), and are
themselves lucrative brands:
Celebrities are brand names as well as cultural
icons or identities: they operate as marketing tools
as well as sites where the agency of the audience is
clearly evident: and they represent the achievement
of individualism the triumph of the human and
the familiar as well as its commodification and
commercialisation.
(Turner et al. 2000: 13)
According to Redmond, the celebrity exists in an
orgy of promotions (2014: 9), promoting and creating
a culture of consumption and individualism. Celebrity
embraces neoliberalism, and effectively models identity
construction in a free market in order to seek profit
(Hearn 2008).
Consuming celebrity
Writing on the television reality show, Big Brother,
Annette Hill discussed audience engagement as a game
where the audience attempts to decipher the truth in
the spectacle/performance (2002, cited in Turner 2004:
112). Turner suggests the audience engages in a sophis-
ticated interpretative activity that demonstrates the
playfulness of celebrity consumption akin to the plea-
sure found in reading celebrity gossip magazines (Turner
2004: 112). That is, the audience is often aware of the
manufacturedness in the construction of celebrity yet
at the same time is a willing and even knowing partici-
pant in the consumption of celebrity. In particular, with
the advent of the internet, consumers and audiences are
increasingly conceived of often in terms bordering on
euphoric as active, creative, empowered and socially
connected in contrast to the earlier perceived passiv-
ity of mass media consumers (Jenkins 2007: 358). The
active consumer is in fact a fan (Jenkins 2007). In recent
scholarship on public relations, participatory communi-
cation and fandom, Hutchins and Tindall (2015) argue
stood in terms of passionate consumers of entertain-
ment, including film, sport, TV and celebrity, there are
broader implications for brands and organisations in
terms of understanding engaged audiences.
Celebrity and the internet
The internet has transformed celebrity culture, offer-
ing new spaces for producing, creating and perform-
ing celebrity and for interacting with fans (Marwick
23/03/2017 13:29
 514 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Mini case study 27.1
Celetoids, vocaloids
and celeactors:
manufactured pop stars
One of the worlds biggest pop stars specialises in J-pop
and dance pop; she is 16 years old, 5 feet 2 in (1.57 m),
and her star sign is Virgo. Her voice has featured in over
100,000 songs. Her concerts regularly sell out in her
native Japan. Hatsune Miku toured the US and performed
on The Late Show with David Letterman in 2014. She has
supported Lady Gaga in concert and collaborated with
Pharrell Williams. She has more than 2.5 million Face-
book fans and a cult following on YouTube. And she
doesnt actually exist, except as a computer-generated
hologram. Miku is a voice-synthesizer program first
released in 2007, and a human image was developed by
Crypton Future Media as part of an extensive marketing
strategy initially aimed at professional musicians and pro-
ducers. The Vocaloid voice-synthesizing software allows
users to create open-sourced songs using vocal samples
with Japanese or English pronunciation. Zoladz (2014)
argues that Mikus launch was perfect timing in terms
of the democratisation of music production and distri-
bution and opportunities for fans to share their Miku-
compositions. In 2009, Miku began to give concerts. From
and Boyd 2011). In particular, social media offers
the illusion of backstage, giving the impression of
uncensored glimpses into the lives of the very famous
(Marwick and Boyd 2011: 14). The ordinary appeal
Think about 27.1
Manufactured pop stars
Successful, manufactured pop bands think The
Monkees in the US, Spice Girls and One Direction in
the UK, and AKB48 in Japan are not new and many
experienced commercial and enduring success. But
does Hatsune Miku, as a digital avatar, a synthesised
voice and a hologram meet the criteria for celebrity
status? If celebrities exist primarily as the result of pro-
motional activity, then she might. However, thinking
of Miku as a celebrity only highlights the constructed-
ness or manufacturing of celebrity status and argu-
ably the inauthenticity of celebrity. Would you classify
Miku as a celebrity? Why?
M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 514
2011, Miku was marketed in the US and in 2013 a version
with English pronunciation was released. The cyberce-
lebritys commercial endorsements include partnerships
with Dominos Pizza, Google, Sega, Sapporo, Toyota and
Yamaha; her merchandising ranges from dolls, noodles
and video games to lamps, clothing, comics (to name just
a small selection) and she has her own shop in Tokyo.
Miku is an internet idol with a cult following.
In his classification of different kinds of celebrity, Rojek
coined the term celetoid to describe what he argued
were short-lived celebrities who are organized around
mass communication and staged authenticity and
celetoids as lottery winners, one-hit wonders, stalk-
ers, whistle-blowers, sports arena streakers, have-a-
go heroes, mistresses of public figures and the various
other social types who command media attention one
day, and are forgotten the next (2001: 2021). Rojek also
coined the term celeactor to describe a subcategory of
celetoids that encompass fictional characters, such as
Mickey Mouse, Ali G or Lara Croft, who demand high
levels of fantasy in the audience and become institution-
alized features of popular culture (2001: 23, 26). It is hard
to argue that Mikus celebrity, or indeed that of Mickey
Mouse, is short-lived, however, and Rojeks assertion
does not recognise the ongoing and longstanding cul-
tural, and indeed, economic impact of such celebrities.
Sources: Crypton Future Media. n.d., Hanson, B. (4 August
2013), Zoladz, L. (14 November 2014).
of celebrities they are both just like us and not like
us and the intimate glimpses into their everyday
lives is significant in the development of audiences
and the engagement of fans. According to Littler
(2004: 13), there are three markers of authenticity
for celebrities:
presentation of emotional intimacy with the
audience;
reflexivity about being in the position of celebrity;
and
ability to reference the time before they became
famous.
So the success of the celebrity brand depends on audi-
ence engagement, a self-awareness of their fame and a
narrative trajectory of the before/after of celebrity status.
Celebrity is precisely about social mobility. Alice
Marwick, in her ethnographic study of the tech indus-
try, Status Update: Celebrity, publicity and branding
in the social media age, points out that Web 2.0 is a
kind of imagined community (drawing on Benedict
23/03/2017 13:29

Explore 27.1 Instafamous: the famous five
The top Instagrammers in the world are female celebrities
in the music and entertainment industries with more than
40 million followers. In comparison, US president Barack
Obama has 4.7 million Instagram followers, only about
10% of these global celebrities. In October 2015, the num-
ber one Instagrammer in the world was Grammy award-
winning, 28-year-old American pop star Taylor Swift, who
had nearly 50 million followers. Other members of the top
five included reality TV star Kim Kardashian (48.1 million
followers); R&B singer Beyonce (47.2 million); pop stars
Selena Gomez (45.9 million); and Ariane Grande (44.6
million) (Sinha-Roy, 2015). The audiences for celebrities
on Instagram are global. Of the top five Instagrammers,
their second biggest group of followers were in Indonesia
(Swift); Britain (Kardashian); Mexico (Beyonce and Gomez)
and Brazil (Grande) (Sinha-Roy 2015). Almost 90 per cent
of their fan bases are under 34, meaning that Instagram
is incredibly valuable from a marketing perspective. It is
worth noting that Facebook now owns Instagram, which
Andersons concept of the nation as a social construc-
tion) that appears to offer a more democratic world
where anybody potentially can get rich. This com-
munity encompasses expectations of greater participa-
tion and user engagement, and the assumption that
creativity and control are disseminated throughout
the population rather than concentrated in the hands
of a few large corporations (2013: 7).
The branded self
Alison Hearn (2008) identified promotional culture
and celebrities as significant in terms of informing how
individuals present themselves online. Hearn argues par-
ticipants in reality television shows function as image-
entrepreneurs in terms of the strategic choices they
make, albeit within the confines of the shows format,
to generate their own rhetorically persuasive meanings
(2008: 201, 208). Individuals construct branded selves
on platforms such as Facebook, recognising that their
public persona is a saleable commodity, both in terms
of gaining popularity and followers but also in terms
of the potential for monetising such connections. Of
course, the information provided also allows the media
platform to sell data to advertisers and marketers. The
impact of celebrity culture is evident in the construction
of a branded self-identity as an explicitly narrativized,
image-based and cynical form of labour (Hearn 2008:
214). The celebration of individualism engendered by
M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 515
Chapter 27Celebrity public relations 515
was recently valued at US$37 billion (approximately
GBP24.5 billion) (Kosoff 2015).
Feedback
Analyse the content on Instagram accounts for any of
the top five celebrities: Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian,
Beyonce, Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande. What are
they posting about? Do you have the impression these
accounts are managed by professional communicators
or are the posts as authentic as they appear in terms of
being posted by the celebrity themselves and offering
insights into their everyday life? Is there much engage-
ment with fans? Can you draw conclusions about what
is meant by performing celebrity ? To what extent do
these celebrities conform to Jo Littlers (2004) mark-
ers of authenticity: intimacy, reflexivity, and keeping it
real? (For more information, see the Celebrity and the
internet section.)
social media provides a blueprint of how to prosper in
a society where status is predicated on the cultural logic
of celebrity (Marwick, 2013: 7, 14).
Microcelebrities
People who become famous through social media
primarily because of their ability to attract attention,
rather than for any other achievements, are known
as microcelebrities. A microcelebrity is: a mind set
and a collection of self-presentation practices endemic
in social media, in which users strategically formulate
a profile, reach out to followers, and reveal personal
information to increase attention and thus improve
their online status (Senft 2013) (Marwick 2015: 138).
Although the term originally signified the ability to
attract and develop a relationship with an audience,
Instagram enables a particular kind of attention-seeking
performance that contributes to what Alice Marwick
(2015) refers to as instafamous. Marwick argues that
the Instagram microcelebrity differs from other social
media microcelebrities precisely because it is visual and
image-driven; rather than demonstrating the demo-
cratic potential of the internet, the Instafamous tend
to be conventionally good-looking, work in cool
industries...and emulate the tropes and symbols of
traditional celebrity culture, such as glamorous self-
portraits, designer goods, or luxury cars (2015: 139).
For examples, see the case study featured in Box27.1.
23/03/2017 13:29
 516 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Box 27.1
Sweaty Betty and the
Princess of Instagram
The PR Queen
Roxy Jacenko, the founder and CEO of Sweaty Betty PR
(see http://www.sweatybettypr.com/), a fashion, beauty
and lifestyle public relations agency in Sydney, Australia,
is variously referred to as a PR queen, celebrity publicist
(Lewis 2014), PR powerhouse, PR guru and PR dynamo
(Melocco 2014). But Jacenko is no stay-behind-the-scenes
publicist. She appeared on the Australian version of the
TV show Celebrity Apprentice, and has written three novels
(so far) about a fictional Sydney-based fashion PR practi-
tioner, Jazzy Malone. Although works of fiction, Jacenko
claims the novels are inspired by her seven-year career in
the fashion PR industry and the perfect research for any-
one looking to break in to the cut-throat world of fashion
PR (see http://www.sweatybettypr.com/read-us/).
Through media interviews, Jacenko tells a consistent story
of her self-made success: from establishing Sweaty Betty
at 24, to her success in developing a property portfo-
lio: I have invested in property since the age of 21 and
based on this have seen the benefits of buying, making
over and then selling, then doing it all over again (cited
in Melocco, 2014). We know a lot about Jacenko, or at
least about a story that she has herself constructed that
reveals both the ordinary along with the glamour. For
example, we know about: her real estate (she bought
her first property at 21); her interior design as her homes
are featured in various luxury magazines; her plastic sur-
gery (weve seen pictures of her nose job); whats in her
handbag; her favourite jeans (Levis); where she gets her
fake tan; and even when she is holding a garage sale to
sell the designer clothes her children have grown out of
(see, for example, Melocco, 2014; Whos your? (n.d.)). We
also know through news stories that her banker husband
was found guilty in 2016 of insider trading Jacenko Ins-
tagrammed her outfits every day of the trial and that
she is estranged from her father and her sister. Jacenko
also writes about these family relationships in her books,
barely changing the names of the characters.
The Princess of Instagram
Jacenko has established a remarkable business model
based on the online persona she has developed for her
four-year-old daughter, Pixie Curtis. Pixie, frequently
referred to in media stories and in promotional material as
The Princess of Instagram, charges A$500 (approximately
GBP250) for a product-placement post on Instagram
M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 516
(Parnell 2015). According to Pixies management agency,
Ministry of Talent (n.d.), which is also run by Jacenko, Pixie
has over 100,000 Instagram followers and an uncanny
ability to elevate a brand simply by association, drawing
mass interaction from luxury and budget-friendly p roducts
who else wears Gucci sandals one day and CROCS the
next? The constant feed on Pixies Instagram account
ranges from an extraordinary, jetsetting lifestyle wearing
designer clothes, having her hair and make-up done, fly-
ing first class, boating on the French Riviera, and launching
her own accessories line (Pixies Bows see www.pixiespix.
com.au), and staying in luxury hotels in Dubai, Paris, Tokyo
and London, to the mundane such as supermarket shop-
ping, eating ice cream and playing with her brother. In fact
the Instagram posts which frequently become main-
stream news stories specifically contrast the extremes of
trying on a couture dress and the ordinariness of super-
market shopping (albeit in pyjamas and dressing gown).
Instakids
One news article begins: Clad in a red Dolce & G abbana
dress, with her trademark bows in her hair, Pixie swings
her mini-Birkin in the air and shrieks with laughter,
instantly linking the small child with high-end luxury
brands that are not generally associated with childrens
ranges (Parnell 2015). If celebrity, as van Krieken (2012)
proposes, exists on a continuum of talent and media
attention, then where does a four-year-old child sit? It
is hard to argue that Pixie Curtis has become a success-
ful commodity through her own achievements. Rather,
Pixies commercial success foregrounds the efforts of her
mother, who just happens to be the successful head of
a fashion and lifestyle public relations agency. Jacenko
defends herself against critics, by arguing that Pixie is
simply developing like her mother a strong work
ethic: Pixie is like me. I worked from a young age! [It] is
all a bit of fun and cultures her to know that, if you want
something in life, you need to work for it (cited in Lewis
2014). Pixie is not the only Instakid. Breanna Youn, who
is originally from South Korea but is very popular in the
Middle East (Daily Mail, n.d.), is famous precisely because
of her social media profile rather than through her own
achievements or cultural status as the child of celebrity
parents. (Brooklyn Beckham, the eldest son of David and
Victoria Beckham, gained 1.8 million Instagram follow-
ers within 5 months.) In contrast to Pixies 100,000-plus
followers, Breanna has more than 1.2 million followers
on Instagram, but her success started with her mothers
Facebook account and through Vine. As with Pixie, the
parents play a significant role in maintaining the childs
celebrity status through their social media accounts.
Sources: Daily Mail. (n.d.), Lewis, M. (14 March 2014),
Melocco, J. (13 November 2014), Ministry of Talent. (n.d.).,
Parnell, K. (14 June 2015), Whos your? (n.d.).
23/03/2017 13:29
 Chapter 27Celebrity public relations 517

Think about 27. 2 Instakids and Instafamous

Instagram enables a particular kind of attention-seeking

and image-driven performance that contributes to what
Alice Marwick (2015) refers to as instafamous. Marwick
argues that in the attention economy, people construct
online identities that are underpinned by deregulated
capitalism and entrepreneurship and model both social
mobility and aspirational consumption (2015: 10). To what
extent do you think the online identities of Instakids the
children who are famous online due to the promotional
efforts of their parents and/or professional communicators
and marketers conform to Marwicks notion that Insta-
gram users model a neoliberal subjectivity that applies
market principles to how they think about themselves,
interact with others, and display their identity (2015: 7)?

Feedback
Analyse the Instagram accounts of either Pixie Curtis
(instagram.com/pixiecurtis), Breanna Youn (instagram.
com/officialbreannayoun) or any Instakid with a signifi-
cant following. If social media is a celebration of indi-
vidualism and online identities apply market principles,
as Marwick argues, then to what extent is the identity of Picture 27.1 Roxy Jacenko and her daughter, Pixie
the child constructed around promotion and conspicu- Curtis
ous consumption? That is, how is celebrity performed
and constructed through the various posts? And how do
followers engage with this celebrity?

Celebrity PR in practice (2016) in Sydney, Australia, describe themselves as a a

Celebrity PR practitioners
Many practitioners who work in the celebrity sector
are coy about their work. Anecdotally, some prefer
not to identify themselves in relation to ghostwriting
social media posts on behalf of celebrity clients. Others,
approached regarding a profile for this chapter, cited
being too busy and the fact that they sign non-disclosure
agreements with their clients as reasons for not partici-
pating in an interview. Reluctance to discuss the tech-
niques of their work is perhaps not surprising after all,
it is their perceived skill or expertise that is the unique
service they are able to offer celebrity clients. However,
it means that the day-to-day activities and practitioner
understandings of celebrity PR work are not always
well documented even though some activities are highly
visible across different media platforms and many
practitioners outline their services on their company
websites. For example, Tailor Maid Communications
full-service fashion and beauty public relations agency
(see http://tailormaid.com.au/) and offer public rela-
tions services, which include: celebrity management,
charity alignment; management and implementation
of ambassador programmes; marketing and publicity
strategy; celebrity affiliation and endorsement; copy-
writing; social media implementation and management;
and using established relationships with key media for
brand promotion and awareness. In a video on their
website, Tailor Made Communications state We know
media, we know bloggers, celebrities and influencers
and we have the capability to connect them with our
brands. Similarly, Freuds, a London-based communi-
cations and public relations agency founded in 1985
(see Freuds.com), list self-described public relations
services such as Talent and endorsements, which
they describe as bespoke matchmaking of talent with
brands and causes and deliver[ing] voices to cam-
paigns and celebrity to key media moments. Although
their services do not specify celebrity management, their
promotional work includes film publicity, media and

M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 517 23/03/2017 13:29

 518 Part 4Sectoral considerations
entertainment, cause-related marketing, sport, food and
drink, crisis and reputation management and luxury
and lifestyle brands. SF Celebrity Management (see
sfcelebritymanagement.com.au), another Australian
agency, describes itself as a leader in the representa-
tion of Australias hottest media personalities across
fashion, sporting, media and entertainment industries.
Their clients include major brands, and celebrities
are listed as talent: our talent are available to work
Box 27.2
Max Markson:
Australias agent
to the stars
I can make anyone famous claims Max Markson, Aus-
tralias best-known celebrity publicist. Its about finding
the angle. Everybodys got a story.
He started Markson Sparks!, a public relations, events
and celebrity management agency, in Sydney, Austra-
lia, in 1982. Even after 35 years in the industry, Markson
remains enthusiastic about his work. When asked about
what he enjoyed most, Markson identified two things.
The first is getting stories in the paper or stories on TV. I
always get a kick out of that. The second is the bartering:
I love the deal. And sometimes the deal takes months. So
I love that, the negotiations and see it coming to fruition.
Aquatic shows, nightclubs and DJs
As a child, Markson used to help out with his fathers
travelling Leon Markson Aquashow: bill posting, spot-
lighting and working the gate. Marksons own promo-
tional career started in 1974 when he was still in high
school in Bournemouth, England. He worked part-time
in a local nightclub, initially as a spotlight operator and
stage manager. He began to promote special nights with
Radio 1 disc jockeys, such as Emperor Rosko and Dave
Lee Travis, at the club. Markson describes leaving school
at lunchtime to go over the road to the phone box to
ring the agents in London to organise the deals. To pro-
mote the shows, Max and a high school friend printed
orange day-glo posters and persuaded shop owners to
put them in windows in exchange for free tickets. They
also plastered a car with the posters and drove round
with a speaker. As Markson says, I was a real spruiker
[tout]. That first summer, they made lots of money from
the holidaymakers in Bournemouth but lost much of it
in the winter. He also began promoting local gigs with
M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 518
with clients on ambassadorial and sponsorship roles,
media work, event appearances, endorsements, MC
and public speaking opportunities and charity work.
They represent high-profile Australian footballers,
cricketers, swimmers, models, beauty queens and as
part of manag[ing] the careers and profiles of some
of Australias well recognised media identities, their
services include contract negotiation, endorsements,
public appearances, event hosting and public speaking.
bands such as Hot Chocolate (famous for You Sexy
Thing, among other hits).
After a couple years of organising and promoting DJ nights,
music concerts and tours across the UK, Markson decided
to take a break and holiday in Australia. He arrived in
1977 and never left. He dabbled in T-shirts and promoted
diverse products, such as negative ion generators, and
snakeheads and spiders encased in glass, before running a
nightclub, The Zoo, in Sydneys Kings Cross. Markson put
on celebrity DJs each week: everyone and anyone from
Kim Wran, Brooke Shields, Evil Knievel, George Hamilton,
Dawn Fraser, Dennis Lillee to Geoff Boycott. Markson
claims it was the local hang-out for World Series cricketers
and that every celebrity in town trying to promote a movie
or record would find themselves at The Zoo (2000: 26).
Marksons publicity-grabbing stunts for the club included
Belinda Green, a former Miss World, walking a tiger on a
leash; she was also a regular club DJ.
Celebrity PR
Markson understands his role as generating revenue for
his clients. Markson himself questions whether his work
really is public relations:
I still dont think I do PR. I am a publicist...I hark
back to the old days of the circus and you sent your
advance man to get publicity and get stories in the
paper, on the TV and now on the internet. Thats what
I think my skill is. If there is any skill I have, its an
angle for a story and then making it happen and get-
ting it the publicity.
Markson has negotiated media coverage, endorse-
ments and appearances for celebrities, ranging from
sports champions, including athletes, cricketers, box-
ers, and footballers, to supermodels, actors and reality
TV stars. He has also promoted visiting celebrities such
as Linda Evangelista, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pele, Kim
Kardashian, and former statesmen such as Bill Clinton
and Nelson Mandela. His clients include local person-
alities, who have gained some short-lived media fame
23/03/2017 13:29
 Chapter 27Celebrity public relations 519

through reality television or newsworthiness that Mark-

son can monetise. One of his clients was infamous party
boy, Corey Worthington, who as a 16-year old threw an
out-of-control party, which he had advertised online, at
his parents house; Markson negotiated a now-legend-
ary interview on commercial television and a number
of lucrative endorsements and appearances. In fact,
Markson is keen on managing (almost) anyone with a
media profile and takes 20 per cent commission on any
commercial sponsorships or deals (for product promo-
tion, he charges a fee). He does not work exclusively for
celebrities, but he often draws on his celebrity contacts
to promote other clients. For example, he promotes
his longstanding client Advanced Hair Studio, a hair-
replacement service, using renowned international crick-
eters Greg Matthews and Shane Warne. Markson is also
well known for his fundraising and charity work.

Columnists are like seagulls

Much of the work Markson describes revolves around
getting publicity for his clients. His work therefore com-
bines product promotion, celebrity management and
event management and all rely on his close relationships
with journalists. In his book, Show Me the Money!, Mark-
son writes: Columnists are like seagulls, they are always
looking for a chip (2000: 63). He describes weekly phone
calls offering the media information and possible stories
on clients, stating its all about getting my clients name in
the paper. He has organised celebrity camel and elephant
races on the beach (to promote an anti-mould product and
ice cream respectively); skated up and down a bus aisle on
a five-day journey from Sydney to Perth; negotiated what
was then the biggest ever chequebook journalism deal for
former Australian prime minister and his now wife, Blanche
DAlpuget, and simultaneously represented Hazel Hawke,
Hawkes then wife. From Marksons perspective, everyone
has a story to tell and the value often hinges on exclusivity.
Markson maintains that to be successful in celebrity PR,
you have to have a hunger to get stories in the paper;
you have to be bold; youve got to pick the phone up
and make the calls; and you have to take every call.
In his book, Markson describes occasions when, in his
own words, he stretched the truth. Early in his career,
he promoted negative ion generators and claimed Mar-
garet Thatcher had one; when the journalist asked how
Picture 27.2 Max Markson (source: Getty Images)
he knew that, Markson replied hed sent it to her. Simi-
larly, promoting a New Years Eve event in a restaurant,
Markson invited celebrities, whom he described as all
the usual suspects, and then planted teasers in all the
columns around town. He suggested to one newspaper
columnist he was not allowed to discuss if one client
would audition for Baywatch on a forthcoming US visit.
He subsequently arranged for a tape of his client to be
sent to the Baywatch producers. According to Mark-
son, things like that I class as fun. Okay, it stretched the
truth a little, but I didnt break it; it all came true and
everybody was happy. My client got a heap of public-
ity and the journo got a story. Thats the way it works.
(2000: 63).
Sources: Markson, M. (2000, 2016), interview
with K. Fitch. Used with permission.

Celebrity in different contexts
Advocates and ambassadors
Aside from commercial endorsements, which in them-
selves comprise a significant and lucrative source of
revenue for celebrities seeking to gain from, and indeed
enhance, their cultural status, celebrities also lend their
status to charitable and development causes. Indeed,
celebritycharity partnerships are an important niche
sector within celebrity industries. The association
of the celebrity brings not only national and inter-
national media attention but helps attract political
and corporate interest and financial support for the

M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 519 23/03/2017 13:29

 520 Part 4Sectoral considerations
development agency or charity; it also humanises the
celebrity (Redmond 2014: 63). According to Brock-
ington (2014), who has researched celebrity advocacy
in relation to development studies, Hollywood talent
agencies, including William Morris, Creative Artists
Agency and United Talent Agency, have established
foundations with the specific aim of linking their cli-
ents with major international NGOs. For a detailed
list of celebrities and associated charities by sector, see
https://www.looktothestars.org/cause.
Celebrity CEOs
A study of celebrity entrepreneur Richard Branson
likened the image-making association with Branson
and the Virgin brand to a secular religion (McCarthy
and Hatcher 2005). The narrative of Bransons life is
a modern day success story: from high school drop-
out to corporate rock star and a British knighthood.
Knowing he could not compete with British Air-
ways advertising budget when he launched Virgin,
Branson became the image-driven, publicity-seeking,
walking-talking billboard for the airline, a risk-
taking and philanthropic entrepreneur (McCarthy
and Hatcher 2005: 48). Forbes (2015b) estimates
Bransons net worth as $5.1 billion (approximately
3.37billion). In contrast to Branson, Facebook co-
founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was depicted
in the film The Social Network as introverted with
poor social skills. Yet Zuckerberg, whose net worth
is an estimated $46.5 billion (approximately 30.9
billion), is the seventh wealthiest person and the most
powerful media person in the world (Forbes, 2015c;
Guardian, 2015).
Celebrity chefs
Celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Nigella Law-
son illustrate both global celebrity and what Redmond
refers to as commercial intertexts in that the celebrity
plays a cross-promotional role with every public or
media appearance (2014: 50). With chefs, the trans-
media and commercial potential is enormous, ranging
from television shows, cookbooks, kitchenware, and
restaurant franchises to gourmet food. The celebrity
status of the chefs is reinforced through celebrity
magazines, news media and their social media activ-
ity. Scholes (2011) identifies a gendered dimension to
the career trajectories of such chefs beyond lifestyle
television: Oliver has developed as a social activist with
campaigns to improve school dinners and reduce sugar
intake, whereas Lawson remains primarily confined to
the domestic sphere.
M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 520
Celebrity publicists
Although Turner (2004) maintains that much promo-
tional work in the production of celebrity remains hid-
den, there are some publicists who become well-known
celebrities in their own right. In the UK, Max Clifford
is perhaps the most (in)famous of celebrity publicists,
following his conviction in 2014 for sex offences. In his
longstanding career, Clifford had impeccable connec-
tions with the tabloid press and his client list included
reality TV star Jade Goody, for whom he negotiated
700,000 for picture rights to her wedding (BBC 2009).
He managed publicity for entertainment and sporting
stars and also represented less famous clients who were
involved in scandals and other media-attracting events.
He pitched often made-up tabloid-friendly stories,
one of which resulted in the Suns infamous Freddie
Starr ate my hamster headline and another that Con-
servative minister and family man David Mellor made
love to Antonia de Sancha who was Cliffords client
wearing a Chelsea football club kit.
Hollywood star system
Some scholars (see Hartley 2002) disagree as to whether
stars as the product of the Hollywood entertainment
industry are in fact celebrities. However, film celeb-
rity is central to understanding the development of the
modern celebrity, in part due to cinematic develop-
ments across the twentieth century and the close links
to consumer capitalism and the public relations indus-
try (Marshall 1997; Dyer 2004). Certainly, celebrity
PR is understood to play a pivotal role in managing the
image of film stars. Angelina Jolie, for example, trans-
formed from the bloodvial-wearing Goth who was the
wife of Billy Bob Thornton, to the other woman who
broke the heart of Americas Sweetheart Jennifer Anis-
ton by stealing Brad Pitt to the Goodwill Ambassa-
dor for the United Nations (Ames 2011: 96). Petersen
(2014) claims that Jolie has the best publicity game in
Hollywood, pointing to both how image management
has led to the perception of Jolie as a cosmopolitan,
global citizen and the active editorial control Jolie and
her team demand in association with interviews and
the sale of photo rights. In addition to her role as Hol-
lywood star and film director, Jolie has become well
known as an advocate for human rights and for health
with the announcement of her double mastectomy.
Reality stars
The rise in reality television shows, such as Big Brother,
Survivor, American Idol, X Factor and The Voice,
which began in the 1990s, has led to an increase in
23/03/2017 13:29

ordinary people achieving celebrity status although at
times this fame is fleeting. Even publicists star in their
own reality shows: Lizzie Grubman in PoweR Girls
(2005) and Kelly Cutrone in Kell on Earth (2010),
although each show lasted only one season. At the
other end of the continuum, Kim Kardashian, along
with her extended family, initially starred in the reality
television series, Keeping up with the Kardashians, in
2007. According to Forbes (2015a), Kardashian, who
in 2015 earned US$53 million, has monetized fame
better than any other. Although the reality show con-
tinues to be panned by critics, it attracts a significant
audience among under 35s and has led to many spin-off
shows starring various family members. Sisters Khloe
Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Kendall Jenner and Kim
Kardashian regularly feature in lists of ten Instagram-
mers globally and together with their other siblings and
family members have diverse business interests includ-
ing fashion shops, fashion clothing, baby clothes and
books, and various commercial endorsements including
for sports shoes, weight loss pills and make-up.
Sport celebrities
The economic drivers of sport in a globalised world
are huge: think of international mega-events such as
the FIFA world cup, the Olympics, and the Common-
wealth Games, and the individual achievements of
winning gold and world championships and shattering
world records. LEtang (2006) identifies a significant
role for public relations in sport promotion, including
media relations, marketing support, media rights, pro-
motional and publicity work, sponsorship, event bid-
ding and management, website management and fan
relationships (2006: 386). Further, the sporting hero
Mini case study 27.2
Celebrity and crisis:
Belle Gibson, fake
cancer survivor
In 2015, the life and lies of celebrity Australian food
and alternative health blogger, Belle Gibson, began
to unravel. Gibson had created a successful and lucra-
tive brand, which promoted healthy eating founded
on claims that Gibson had cured her terminal brain
cancer through a wholesome diet and the rejection of
conventional medical treatment. In addition, Gibson,
M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 521
Chapter 27Celebrity public relations 521
can be characterised as a mega-celebrity due in large
part to public relations activity (LEtang 2006). Sports
celebrities may become famous less for their sporting
achievements and more for their fashion, commercial
endorsements, off-field behaviour or even notoriety
(Summers and Morgan 2008). David Beckham, for
example, earned US$5.2 million (GBP3.44 million)
from his football career and US$42 million (GBP27.8
million) for endorsements in 2014 (Forbes 2016).
YouTubers
The most successful YouTuber is Felix Kjellberg aka
PewDiePie who plays and reviews through an online
commentary video games; he earns an estimated
US$4 million a year in advertising sales and is asso-
ciated with an online content provider that is now
owned by Disney (Grundeberg and Hansegard 2014).
He has more than 47 million subscribers, yet Kjell-
berg attributes his success to his relationship with them
(his bros), as in contrast to more professional video
productions: I think Ive established a much closer
contact with my viewers, breaking the wall between
the viewer and whats behind the screen. Fashion
and beauty vloggers such as Bethany Mota and Zoe
Sugg, aka Zoella, have similarly attracted subscribers
and monetised their online fame, developing a fashion
line (Mota) and publishing a novel, Girl Online (Sugg)
(Boyd 2015). Zoella has almost ten million subscrib-
ers but, like many YouTubers, works across multiple
platforms including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook;
she engages with her fan base, collaborates with other
creators and brands (such as Unilever), and works with
traditional media (she was the first YouTube cover girl
on Company magazine) (Google 2014).
who earned more than A$1 million (approximately
GBP500,000), maintained that a significant propor-
tion of profits was donated to charity. Gibson, active
on several social media platforms, was also lauded in
mainstream media, declared most inspiring woman by
one magazine and awarded the Fun, Fearless Female
social media award by another. It emerged that Gibson
had never been diagnosed with cancer and that the five
charities Gibson allegedly donated 25 per cent of prof-
its to, and had fundraised for, had received only small
amounts, if any, money. Even Gibsons reported age
proved to be a fiction. Gibsons book, The Whole Pantry,
which had already sold well in Australia and was about
to be published in the US and the UK was withdrawn by
23/03/2017 13:29
 522 Part 4Sectoral considerations
mini case study 27.2 (continued)
Penguin. Gibsons The Whole Pantry food and health
app, which had already been purchased by 300,000
consumers, was also withdrawn from sale. In response
to the media exposure, Gibson initially remained elu-
sive. She was briefly represented pro bono by Bespoke
Approach, described as an influential political lobbyist
and PR firm, who arranged for Gibson to be interviewed
by the iconic womens magazine Australian Womens
Weekly. In that interview, Gibson stated that its all
lies...none of it is true. Gibsons estranged mother
was subsequently interviewed by the same magazine
and, although she disputed her daughters account of
her upbringing, stated that her daughter was only guilty
Think about 27.3 Celebrity and crisis
If Belle Gibson was your public relations agencys client,
how would you advise her as her life unravelled? In small
groups, discuss the following points:
If your client claimed to have cured themselves of
cancer through healthy eating, would you seek evi-
dence to support such claims?
As media reporting increasingly revealed the celebrity
self constructed by Gibson is a fiction, what would
you do?
Explore 27.2 The celebrity image makeover
Carol Ames investigated the representation of celebrity
PR in popular culture, focusing on the role of image
consultant for the celebrity in crisis. Ames found that
typically, following a celebrity transgression, publicists
issue a brief statement on behalf of the client with
an apology; encourage the client to disappear briefly
from private life to address personal issues; manage
a re-entry into public life often in association with
charity work; and then hopefully allow the client
to relaunch their successful career. The trajectory of
Lindsay Lohans career, a downward spiral from suc-
cessful child star to toxic celebrity (Redmond 2014:
63), follows this pattern. As Ames writes: Years of par-
tying, DUIs, probation, and an arrest for shoplifting
M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 522
of telling a white lie. In a later television interview, Gib-
son claimed that she did not lie, but had been lied to
herself. Gibsons social media accounts have now been
deleted. At the time of writing this chapter, Consumer
Affairs Victoria was commencing legal proceedings
against Gibson for misleading and deceptive con-
duct. Further, Penguin Publishing had to pay A$30,000
(approximately GBP15,000) to the Victorian consumer
law fund for their failure to fact check Gibsons claims.
Sources: Donnelly, B. and N. Toscano (15 March 2015),
Donnelly, B. and N. Toscano (25 June 2015),
Davey, M. (29 June 2015), Hunt, E. (6 May 2015).
If Gibson was not your client:
Would you offer to take on Gibson pro bono in the
face of the media storm that erupted? What would
you hope to achieve?
have been punctuated by press statements issued by
a publicist usually saying that Lohan is entering rehab
and requests privacy while she works on her personal
problems (2011: 96).
Analyse the construction of celebrity on the PR agency
and gossip websites listed at the end of this chapter or
in national newspapers, celebrity magazines such as
Who Weekly, OK! and Hello. What are the values which
underpin celebrity news stories and client management?
Do these differ from the apparent self-presentation of
celebrities via social media, especially platforms such as
Twitter and Instagram? And what part does transgression
play as part of the celebrity narrative?
23/03/2017 13:29

Summary
Celebrity is pervasive in contemporary society and
public relations plays a significant cultural intermediary
role in the production and representation of celebrity.
Public relations is only one of the celebrity industries
but its promotional role is often marginalised within
both public relations scholarship and the media, and
cultural scholarship that researches celebrity culture.
Bibliography
Ames, C. (2011). Popular cultures image of the PR
image consultant: The celebrity in crisis. The IJPC
Journal. http://ijpc.uscannenberg.org/journal/index.
php/ijpcjournal/article/viewFile/28/37 accessed 24
April 2015.
BBC News (23 March 2009). Profile: Max Clifford.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7923415.
stm accessed 23 November 2015.
Boorstin, D. J. (1962). The Image: or what happened to
the American dream. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Boyd, K.C. (2015). Democratizing fashion: The effects
of the evolution of fashion journalism from print to
online media. McNair Scholars Research Journal 8(1)
commons.emich.edu accessed 30 November 2015.
Brockington, D. (2014). The production and construc-
tion of celebrity advocacy in international develop-
ment. Third World Quarterly 35(1): 88108.
Crypton Future Media (n.d.) Who is Hatsune Miku? www
.crypton.co.jp/miku-eng accessed 30 November 2015.
Daily Mail (n.d.) Is Breanna the cutest kid on the internet?
Five-year-old girl with more than a MILLION Instagram
followers lives jet-set lifestyle of limos and Louis Vuit-
ton thanks to her fans. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
news/article-2839196/Is-Breanna-cutest-kid-internet-
Five-year-old-girl-MILLION-Instagram-followers-
lives-jet-set-lifestyle-limos-Louis-Vuitton-thanks-fans.
html#ixzz3tEawSZx7 accessed 16 October 2015.
Davey, M. (29 June 2015). Belle Gibson on 60 Minutes:
No remorse and the lies kept coming. The Guard-
ian. http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/
jun/29/belle-gibson-tells-60-minutes-she-was-the-
victim-after-her-lies-were-exposed.
Donnelly, B. and N. Toscano (15 March 2015). Charity
money promised by inspirational health app devel-
oper Belle Gibson not handed over. The Age. http://
www.theage.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/
M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 523
Chapter 27Celebrity public relations 523
However, studying celebrity PR positions day-to-day
industry practices more broadly within promotional
culture and allows a stronger understanding of the
societal impact of public relations activity, particularly
in relation to commodification and capitalism. These
impacts are evident in the promotional discourse and
self-branding used by celebrities and emulated by con-
sumers of celebrity, and more broadly across contem-
porary culture.
charity-money-promised-by-inspirational-health-app-
developer-belle-gibson-not-handed-over-20150308-
13xgqk.html.
Donnelly, B. and N. Toscano (25 June 2015). Belle Gib-
son on 60 Minutes: Dont expect an apology. Sydney
Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/national/
belle-gibson-on-60-minutes-dont-expect-an-apology-
20150625-ghxjwk.html.
Dyer, R. (2004). Heavenly Bodies: Film stars and society,
2nd edition. London, Routledge.
Forbes (2015a). #33 Kim Kardashian. http://www
.forbes.com/profile/kim-kardashian/?list=celebrities
accessed 8 August 2015.
Forbes (2015b). #330 Richard Branson. http://www
.forbes.com/profile/richard-branson/ accessed
24November 2015.
Forbes (2015c). #1 Mark Zuckerberg. http://www
.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/ accessed
2December 2015.
Forbes (2016). David Beckham. http://www.forbes.com/
profile/david-beckham/ accessed 20 October 2016.
Google. (2014). Combining engaging, authentic con-
tent with smart use of the YouTube platform, Zoella
keeps her fans watching and contributing [Case
Study]. https://storage.googleapis.com/think-v2-emea/
docs/case_study/zoella-creator-story.pdf accessed
30November 2015.
Grundeberg, S. and J. Hansegard (16 June 2014). You-
Tubes biggest draw plays games, earns $4 million
a year. Wall Street Journal. http://w3.salemstate.
edu/~pglasser/gamer.pdf accessed 30 November 2015.
Guardian, The (20 November 2015). Media Guardian
100 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/media/ng-
interactive/2015/nov/30/mediaguardian-100-2015-
interactive-guide accessed 30 November 2015.
Hackley, C. and R.A. Hackley (2015). Marketing and
the cultural production of celebrity in the era of media
23/03/2017 13:29
 524 Part 4Sectoral considerations
convergence. Journal of Marketing Management
31(56): 46177.
Hanson, B. (14 August 2013). Ten weird and true facts
about Hatsune Miku. The Robots Voice. http://www.
therobotsvoice.com/ accessed 30 November 2015.
Hartley, J. (1992). The Politics of Pictures: The creation
of the public in the age of popular media. London:
Routledge.
Hartley, J. (2002). Communication, Cultural and Media
Studies: The key concepts. 3rd edition. London:
Routledge.
Hearn, A. (2008). Meat, mask, burden: Probing the
contours of the branded self. Journal of Consumer
Culture 8(2): 19717.
Hunt, E. (6 May 2016). Belle Gibson faces legal action
over deceptive claims lifestyle changes could cure
cancer. The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/
australia-news/2016/may/06/belle-gibson-facing-legal-
action-over-deceptive-claims-lifestyle-changes-could-
cure-cancer accessed 10 May 2016.
Hutchins, A. and N. Tindall (2015). Things that dont go
together?: Considering fandom and re-thinking pub-
lic relations. Prism 12(10). http://www.prismjournal.
org/fandom_ed.html accessed 23 November 2015.
Jenkins, H. (2007). The future of fandom in Fandom:
Identities and communities in a mediated world.
J.Gray, C. Sandvoss and C.L. Harrington (eds). New
York: New York University Press.
Kosoff, M. (17 March 2015). Heres how two analysts
think Instagram could be worth up to $37 billion.
Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com.au/
instagram-valuation-2015-3 accessed 16 October 2015.
Kurzman, C., C. Anderson, C. Key, C. Lee, Y. Ok, M.
Silver and A. van Ryn (2007). Celebrity status. Socio-
logical Theory 25(4), December: 347387.
LEtang, J. (2006). Public relations and sport in promo-
tional culture. Public Relations Review 32(4): 38694.
Lewis, M. (14 March 2014). The two-year-old with a
trust fund: Millionaire mum Roxy Jacenko says she
has set up account for internet superstar daughter
Pixie Curtis who earns $200 a post. Daily Mail. http://
www.d ailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2580701/
Two-year-old-trust-fund-Meet-Roxy-Jacenkos-kid-
Pixie-Curtis.html accessed 29 May 2015.
Littler, J. (2004). Making fame ordinary: Intimacy, reflex-
ivity and keeping it real. Mediactive 2: 8.
Markson, M. (2000). Show Me The Money! A guide to
fame, fortune and business success, by Australias
agent to the stars. Ringwood, Australia: Viking.
Markson, M. (13 May 2016). [Interview].
M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 524
Marshall, P.D. (1997). Celebrity and Power: Fame in
contemporary culture. Minneapolis, University of
Minnesota Press.
Marwick, A. (2013). Status Update: Celebrity, publicity
and branding in the social media age. New Haven,
Yale University Press.
Marwick, A. (2015). Instafame: Luxury selfies in the
attention economy. Public Culture 21(10): 137160.
Marwick, A. and D. Boyd (2011). To see and be seen:
Celebrity practice on Twitter. Convergence: The
International Journal of Research into New Media
Technologies 17(2): 13958.
McCarthy, P. and C. Hatcher (2005). Branding Branson:
A case study of celebrity entrepreneurship. Australian
Journal of Communication 32(3): 4561.
Melocco, J. (13 November 2014). PR dynamo Roxy
Jacenko sells glamorous Woollahra home for more
than $8 million. Wentworth Courier. http://www
.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/realestate/pr-dynamo-
roxy-jacenko-sells-glamorous-woollahra-home-for-
more-than-8million/story-fnq1z43j-1227120830133
accessed 4 June 2015.
Ministry of Talent. (n.d.). Pixie Curtis. Retrieved from
http://theministryoftalent.com/portfolio/pixie-curtis/
accessed 4 June 2015.
Parnell, K. (14 June 2015). Three year old Pixie Curtis is the
voice of her generation. Sunday Style. Retrieved from
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/sunday-style/three-
year-old-pixie-curtis-is-the-voice-of-her-generation/story-
fnrmugv2-1227396868473 accessed 16 October 2015.
Petersen, A. (2014). Angelina Jolies perfect game. Buzz-
feed News. http://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelen-
petersen/angelina-jolies-perfect-game#.faodbLgxr
accessed 8 August 2015.
Redmond, S. (2014). Celebrity and the Media. Hound-
mills, Palgrave Macmillan.
Redmond, S. and S. Holmes (eds). (2007). Stardom and
Celebrity: A reader. London, Sage.
Rojek, C. (2001). Celebrity. London: Reaktion Books.
Rojek, C. (2012). Fame Attack: The inflation of celebrity
and its consequences. London, Bloomsbury.
Scholes, L. (2011). A slave to the stove? The TV celebrity
chef abandons the kitchen: Lifestyle TV, domesticity
and gender. Critical Quarterly 53(3): 4459.
Selinger-Morris, S. (28 November 2015). YouTubes digi-
tal darlings harness the power of print to hijack best-
seller lists. http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/
books/youtubes-digital-darlings-harness-the-power-
of-print-to-hijack-bestseller-lists-20151125-gl6iwg.
html accessed 30 November 2015.
23/03/2017 13:29
 Chapter 27Celebrity public relations 525

Sinha-Roy, P. (6 October 2015). Taylor Swift, Kim
Kardashian lead most-followed Instagram accounts.
Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/06/
us-instagram-taylorswift-idUSKCN0S012L20151006
#jSUmtZWmilSpLDsV.97 accessed 16 October 2015.
Summers, J. and M.J. Morgan (2008). More than just
the media: Considering the role of public relations in
the creation of sporting celebrity and the management
of fan expectations. Public Relations Review 34(2):
17682.
Turner, G. (2004). Understanding Celebrity. London, Sage.
Turner, G. (2014). Celebrity in A Companion to the
Australian Media. B. Griffen-Foley (ed.). North
Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Turner, G., F. Bonner and P.D. Marshall (2000). Fame
Games: The production of celebrity in Australia.
Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Van Krieken, R. (2012). Celebrity Society. Abingdon:
Routledge.
Waymer, D., S. VanSlette and K. Cherry (2015). From
Hannah Montana to naked on a wrecking ball: Miley
Cyrus issues management, and corporate celebrity
debranding/rebranding efforts. PRism 12(1) http://
www.prismjournal.org/homepage.html accessed
23November 2015.
Wernick, A. (1991). Promotional Culture: Advertising,
ideology and symbolic expression. London: Sage.
Whos your? (n.d.). Roxy Jacencko, Director of Sweaty
Betty PR. http://whosyour.com/interview/roxy-
jacenko/ accessed 16 October 2015.
Zoladz, L. (14 November 2014). Hatsune Miku is a piece
of software. She may also be the future of music.
Vulture. www.vulture.com/2014/11/hatsune-miku-
the-future-of-music.html accessed 30 November 2015.

Websites
Celebrity Gossip. http://www.celebrity-gossip.net/
Forbes Celebrity 100. Forbes: www.forbes.com/celebrities/
Look to the Stars: https://www.looktothestars.org/cause
Markson Sparks. http://marksonsparks.com/about-us/
SF Celebrity Management: http://sfcelebritymanagement.com.au
Tailor Maid Communications http://tailormaid.com.au/

M27 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 525 23/03/2017 13:30

 c h ap t er 28 Paul Willis

Strategic communication and social

marketing in healthcare organisations

Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should able to:
consider and explore further the different facets of health communication
appreciate the challenging environment in which healthcare communicators operate
discuss the strategic preoccupations and priorities of communicators in the sector
better understand the practice of social marketing
reflect on the usefulness of concepts such as wicked problems in a communication context.

Structure
A healthy obsession
What do health communicators do?
Health communication and wicked problems
Social marketing to the rescue?

M28 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 526 23/03/2017 13:30

 Chapter 28Strategic communication and social marketing in healthcare organisations 527

Introduction
This chapter considers the role of pro-
fessional communicators working in
healthcare organisations, such as hospi-
tals, doctors surgeries, dental clinics, care
homes, relevant government depart-
ments and their agencies. This focus
provides an opportunity to discuss the
challenges that confront communicators
operating in the sector with the aim of
shining a light on a demanding, multi-
faceted role. The discussion begins
by highlighting the ubiquity of health
issues in contemporary society and the
landscape shaping this area of prac-
tice. The chapter next explores what
healthcare communicators do for their
organisations. The concept of wicked
problems is then introduced to illustrate
the complexity of some of the issues
confronting healthcare communicators.
This discussion leads to a more detailed
examination of social marketing and the
role of communicators in this activity.

A healthy obsession policy, psychology, sociology, organisational theory

Health issues pervade the media we consume and the
conversations we conduct. How to finance the health
of the nation is a dominant public policy narrative
throughout the world. Poor health and lives cut unnec-
essarily short frame many of the inequalities that exist
within and across societies. Debates about medical
research divide opinion. Government campaigns never
tire of telling us what we should eat, drink and do with
our time. Our vanities and insecurities are goaded by
a private sector that exploits a desire to look fit and
healthy. Celebrity culture champions perverted distor-
tions of youth over the natural process of ageing. Clini-
cians are still publicly lauded and admired in a world
where trust in others has eroded dramatically. The hos-
pital remains an iconic setting for much of our popular
entertainment (such as TV dramas), while an inherent
fascination with health and well-being underscores the
language that permeates our everyday interactions with
others. International greetings such as how are you,
como esta usted and ca va initiate the conversations we
have with both close and casual acquaintances.
Given this context, health communicators work for
organisations that play a prominent and vital role in
our lives, whether they are directly providing us with
care, shaping policy or managing resources. Health
communication is therefore a challenging field of
practice concerned with a diverse mix of issues and
stakeholders. For example, how should healthcare
organisations communicate with patients; engage with
communities on questions associated with the prioriti-
sation of some services over others; encourage healthy
behaviours; respond to crises; best use new communi-
cation technology to reach out to people; while also
encouraging greater collaboration within and across
their organisations? These sort of issues take com-
municators beyond the narrow confines of their own
functional discipline and into areas such as public
and international relations. The result is a fascinating
and eclectic world of work.
Thinking about communication in a healthcare
environment is of further interest because of the differ-
ent types of organisation operating in the sector. Some
are financed from tax revenues, whereas other organ-
isations rely on social or private insurance to bankroll
their activities. Healthcare services are additionally
funded and run by charities and other non-govern-
mental organisations (NGOs). Furthermore, rather
than relying on just one funding model most societ-
ies are characterised by a mixed market of financial
and service provision. This creates a diverse range of
healthcare systems and organisational structures across
the world. (see Think about 28.1 and Explore 28.1.)
Contemporary challenges are also requiring health-
care organisations to rethink how they operate. For
example, many countries are grappling with the impli-
cations of an ageing population. This challenge is not
just confined to developed countries. Kinsella and Vel-
koff (2001) estimate that between 2000 and 2030 the
number of people aged 65 or older in developing nations
is expected to rise from 249 million to 690 million. In
addition, figures from the United Nations (2015) are a
reminder of the shocking inequalities that still exist in
the world due to epidemics. In 2015 almost 6 million
children under five died, global deaths from malaria
equalled 472,000 and an estimated 2.1 million people
were newly infected by HIV. At the same time as the list
of health issues confronting societies grows, economic
crises have squeezed the financial resources available to
confront these challenges.
This situation requires healthcare organisations to
consider a range of questions. What services do they
provide in the future? How do they ensure that the
right people receive treatment, at the right time? How
do they reach the most vulnerable in society? How can
they do more for less? How can healthcare manag-
ers and clinicians work together more effectively to

M28 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 527 23/03/2017 13:30

 528 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Think about 28.1 Healthcare in your region
How are the healthcare organisations in your area
funded?
Is the money they spend on communication scru-
tinised by stakeholders such as the media or
politicians?
How do they communicate with you? Do they
develop proactive campaigns? Do you only hear
from them when they are responding to a crisis? Are
they visible in the local community beyond their
own premises?
improve patient care? How do they create a culture
of innovation amongst their own employees to meet
these challenges? These are the types of issues which
confront healthcare organisations in the second decade
of the twenty-first century. (See Mini case study 28.1.)
What do health
communicators do?
Communication is essential to the effective function-
ing of any organisation and healthcare organisations,
whether in the public, private or third sectors, are no
exception. They need to explain to staff, patients and
Explore 28.1 The health issues around you
During the course of a week, make a note of the different
communicative contexts in which health issues emerge.
For example:
Monitor a range of international, national and local
media. What health stories were covered? How
would you categorise these? Were they political, sci-
entific, consumer or celebrity stories? Can you detect
any differences between the types of stories that are
being covered in each media?
What marketing activity did you notice with a health
message? Do not confine your observations to
campaigns that are linked explicitly to health and
well-being. Consider activity that also uses health
connotations to promote a particular product or
service. How was this achieved? Who was behind
M28 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 528
Do you think their communication activity is effective
and appropriate, given how they are funded?
Feedback
In the United Kingdom publicly funded health organisa-
tions are criticised for spending money on communica-
tion. Health communicators have been characterised by
journalists as spin doctors, more concerned with defend-
ing the reputation of the organisation than engaging with
the public. Communicators are seen as a legitimate tar-
get given that the health system is funded by taxpayers.
the public what they do; find out the health care needs
of patients and local communities, while engaging
with them to design services which meet their needs.
These requirements mean the role of communication
professionals cannot be confined to just managing
relationships with the media. While media relations
work (see Chapter14) is still an important activity for
most communication departments, other activities are
required in order to support the organisations strate-
gic objectives. This means communication teams in
the health sector now increasingly offer more to their
colleagues than one-way message delivery, expertise
on what media channel to use, or just contributing
to brand building and reputation management. The
role is instead concerned with analysis, understand-
ing, managing and evaluating key relationships in
this marketing activity? What do you think was the
purpose of the campaign?
Were you part of any conversations that discussed
health issues? Where did these conversations take
place? What prompted the discussion? Was it a news
story, a personal experience or something else?
Feedback
Health issues straddle a range of societal agendas. They
are the province of governments, organisations and indi-
viduals. This diversity of interest is reflected in the way
health is discussed in the media we consume. It is also a
staple of day-to-day conversation. Furthermore, its inter-
esting to note how different cultures respond to health
issues and the impact this has on public discourse.
23/03/2017 13:30
 Chapter 28Strategic communication and social marketing in healthcare organisations
Mini case study 28.1
The NHS: turbulence,
challenge and change
Since its inception more than 60 years ago, the UK
National Health Service (NHS) has become the worlds
largest publicly funded health system. With 1.5 m
illion
staff, this complex system is also the fourth largest
employer in the world.
Through the Health and Social Care Act, the UK Govern-
ment initiated the most profound change in the NHS
since its formation. The change for the NHS is said to be
driven by three key principles:
1. Putting patients at the heart of the NHS. This means
a transformation of the relationship between the
NHS, public and patients, who will be newly empow-
order to achieve results with and through people. If
implemented effectively this sort of work can lead to
improvements in collaboration, service quality, pro-
ductivity and so on.
In practical terms, the sort of communication
activities now undertaken in healthcare organisations
include:
issue monitoring, including the development of rel-
evant management and resolution capability
analysis of key internal and external relationships
based on research expertise
partnership engagement and working
market research and competitor intelligence
public opinion polling
scenario planning
crisis and risk planning, management and
communication
brand building and management
change management and internal communication
analysis and development of organisational culture
messaging, content and presentation
evaluation and managing of reputation
evaluation of outward and inward communication
programmes to pre-defined outcomes, including
social marketing initiatives
M28 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 529
529
ered by the provision of information and able to
exercise choice. The decision of no decision about
me without me is central to this aspiration.
2. Ensuring local organisations and clinical profession-
als lead the health service. This involves making ser-
vices more directly accountable to patients and
communities, but also requires cutting bureaucracy
and encouraging innovation.
3. A focus on clinical outcomes. This means a move
away from targets and processes to high-quality care
outcomes.
To be successful this complex reform programme requires
a change in culture, behaviours, relationships and ways
of working. An ethos of service, customer orientation
and improved clinical outcomes will need to permeate
the whole of the NHS. This has profound implications
for communicators working in the system at the same
time that communicative capacity in the NHS has been
cut by 40 per cent.
development of strategies for organisational listen-
ing, including reliable and valid feedback from ser-
vice users
media relations expertise.
This range of activities highlights that health com-
munication is not only done to facilitate the manage-
ment of the organisation, but is central to the delivery
of core objectives. It also requires the communicator to
move between reactive, proactive and interactive roles,
depending on the relationship with the stakeholders
involved. Communication in the healthcare sector is
now about far more than the deployment of a set of
communication skills and techniques. It instead needs
to be regarded as a core organisational asset concerned
with building the necessary reputational and relational
capital to promote, protect and deliver health services.
Health communication and
wicked problems
To further our understanding of healthcare commu-
nication, it is necessary to shift from a general dis-
cussion of the activities undertaken by professionals
in this context, to a more detailed consideration of
the types of issues they confront at work. To frame
this discussion. the concept of wicked problems is
23/03/2017 13:30
 530 Part 4Sectoral considerations
introduced. Investigating health communication
through the lens of wicked problems is helpful as
it generates common ground between the different
types of organisation operating in the health sector,
while reinforcing the strategic role communication
can play in this context. For a wider ranging dis-
cussion of how the idea of wicked problems can be
applied to the field of public relations and commu-
nication management, see other work by the current
author (Willis 2016).
The term wicked problem is widely used and has
gained in popularity across a range of disciplines and
sectors, including health. Rittel and Webber (1973)
developed the first systematic conceptualisation of
wicked problems and applied this new thinking in a
planning context. They were motivated by the reali-
sation that many public policy challenges cannot be
addressed by adopting a traditional and linear prob-
lem-solving approach due to their intractable nature.
Their insights were applied to other areas of social
planning by scholars such as Roberts (2000, 2002),
while Conklin (2006) built on this work by develop-
ing the idea of wickedness for the private sector. Rittel
and Webber noted originally that ten attributes make a
problem wicked, but Conklin distils this thinking into
six key characteristics (see Box28.1).
Box 28.1
Six key characteristics
of wicked problems
(Conklin 2006)
1. You dont understand the problem until you have
developed a solution.
Another way of looking at this statement is that a pro-
posed solution only serves to expose new aspects of
the problem. To help illustrate this conundrum, imag-
ine that you are a communication professional in a
team commissioned to tackle the problem of obesity
in a local community. You may come to the conclusion
that regular exercise is one solution that will help peo-
ple who are obese to lose weight. This leads, unfortu-
nately, to another problem. How do you persuade a
disparate group of people to change their behaviour
and commit to a regular programme of exercise? This
realisation requires further adjustments to the poten-
tial solution as a new set of challenges emerges. It
requires you to step back and view the problem afresh.
M28 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 530
A chronic challenge
A problem is not required to possess all six character-
istics in order for it to be considered wicked. What is
important about the typology that has been discussed
is it can begin to illuminate the intractable nature of
many of the issues faced by healthcare organisations
and the central role communication should play in tack-
ling them. This underlines the reasons behind Rittel and
Webbers (1973) original frustration with traditional
problem-solving techniques. It also begins to show how
many of the societal and organisational challenges fac-
ing healthcare communicators can be framed as wicked
problems. For example, tackling poor health today is as
much about addressing the lifestyle choices that people
make as providing properly resourced hospitals.
According to the World Health Organisation
(2005), chronic conditions, such as cancer, cardiovas-
cular illness and diabetes, now make up one half of
the worlds burden of disease. These chronic condi-
tions are related to individual behaviours such as diet,
smoking and exercise rather than infectious diseases.
A study by Cancer Research UK (2011) revealed that
tobacco, obesity, alcohol and what people eat are
behind more than 100,000 cancers in the United King-
dom. This is the equivalent of one third of all cancers
This insight also highlights that there can be no defini-
tive articulation of a wicked problem. They are inher-
ently hard to define as they are likely to be caused by a
range of factors and forces. If you return to the previous
scenario, how or why does somebody become obese?
Such a condition could be caused by a range of physi-
ological and socioeconomic factors. Defining the prob-
lem will also be influenced by who you ask. Different
stakeholders will have different views about what the
problem is, as well as what an acceptable solution might
be. This leads to the conclusion that an understanding
of the context that frames a wicked problem is crucial.
2. Wicked problems have a no-stopping rule.
Given there is no definitive definition of a wicked
problem, there can never be a definitive solution.
Conklin (2006) notes that the problem-solving pro-
cess ends when the players in the process run out of
resources, such as time, money, or energy, rather than
when some optimal or final and correct solution
emerges. If we return to a health context, consider
whether it is possible for issues such as obesity or
HIV to ever be solved? Do they not require ongoing
23/03/2017 13:30
 Chapter 28Strategic communication and social marketing in healthcare organisations
action and commitment on the part of healthcare
organisations, governments and individual citizens?
3. Solutions to wicked problems are not right or
wrong.
This is yet another fuzzy area of wicked problems,
given their intricate character. Solutions are relative
(better or worse than what we have already), rather
than simply right or wrong. This means that evaluat-
ing a solution to a wicked problem is not an objec-
tive process. Solutions are instead assessed in a social
context where a range of legitimate stakeholders will
bring a host of different perspectives, values and goals.
It is suggested here that this can be termed a parallax
view of the problem: that is, the same issue can look
different when observed from different viewpoints.
4. Every wicked problem is essentially unique and
novel.
Given a complex context of factors and conditions,
no two wicked problems are the same. Off-the-shelf
solutions are, therefore, not appropriate. Salvation
instead lies in tailored, custom-made solutions. One
communitys successful response to obesity may be
due, for example, to an inspirational local resident
who has galvanised the people around them. The
same initiative might not generate the same posi-
tive results in another area lacking such a charismatic
and determined individual. Furthermore, if that per-
son were to try to replicate their success in another
diagnosed in the country each year. Similar challenges
also beset the developing world. Epidemics remain the
major contributor of poor health in developing coun-
tries, but Kaneda (2006) notes that the challenge here
is to also reorient health sectors towards managing
chronic diseases. In India, the worlds second-largest
producer and consumer of tobacco, cardiovascular dis-
ease mortality was projected to account for one-third
of all deaths by 2015 (Reddy and Yusuf 1998, cited in
Kaneda 2006).
These public health challenges are shaped by a com-
plex cocktail of social, psychological, political and eco-
nomic factors which generate searching questions for
the healthcare organisations seeking to address them.
Tackling these problems often depends on a change of
mindset and behaviour by the stakeholders involved.
In the case of public health challenges this can require
individual citizens, clinicians, managers, politicians
and policy officials to change their own thinking and
practices at local, national or supra-national level. This
emphasis on behaviour change is why many of the
operational challenges facing healthcare organisations
M28 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 531
531
community they might lack the credibility and net-
works that made their original intervention effective.
5. Every solution to a wicked problem is a one-shot
operation.
This characteristic highlights that every attempt at a
solution has consequences. It was discussed earlier
that you cannot learn about the problem without try-
ing solutions. According to Rittel and Webber (1973),
every solution you try is expensive and has lasting
unintended consequences that are likely to spawn
new wicked problems. As a communicator you may
devise a public health campaign that successfully
encourages people to stop smoking. An unintended
consequence of this might be that they begin to eat
more and put on weight. This then creates a new
obesity problem in your community.
6. Wicked problems have no given alternative
solutions.
According to Conklin (2006) this characteristic calls
for both creativity and judgement. The enigmatic
nature of wicked problems suggests a feast or famine
in terms of solutions. A range of remedies may be
possible, or none at all. Alternatively, some solutions
may never be thought of by the team confronting the
wicked problem. This means it is a matter of creativity
to devise potential solutions and a matter of judge-
ment to determine those that should be developed
and implemented.
can be categorised as wicked problems and why com-
municators have the potential to play a central role in
their resolution.
The complexity associated with wicked problems
means they can only be addressed if organisations
engage with and involve stakeholders. In this context
the objective is to generate a shared understanding of
the problem amongst stakeholders and encourage joint
ways of resolving it: those involved should be able to
understand one anothers position well enough to dis-
cuss different interpretations of the problem and work
together to tackle it (Camillus 2008). These consider-
ations require communicators to create environments
in which people can talk, deliberate and plan activities
together. Rather than broadcasting messages to target
audiences through the mass media, the focus of com-
munication activity is on face-to-face communication,
dialogue and joint problem-solving (Willis 2012).
The characteristics of wicked problems illustrate
why top-down solutions are inappropriate. More col-
laborative methods are needed instead. These involve
engaging with all relevant stakeholders to formulate
23/03/2017 13:30
 532 Part 4Sectoral considerations
a common, agreed approach so the people who are
affected (such as service users, patients and members
of the community) become participants in the process
of decision-making. They are not just asked for their
views but are actively involved in shaping the outcome.
This approach recognises that involving patients in
their own health choices is critical to health outcomes
and places communicators at the heart of this activity.
Social marketing to the
rescue?
Social marketing is a particular organisational response
which is promoted as a way of tackling the wicked
problems associated with encouraging healthy lifestyle
choices. It introduces a marketing mindset to the chal-
lenge of combatting the impact of chronic diseases,
which generates both benefits and issues for the health-
care communicators tasked with implementing these
types of campaigns.
The weight of expectation placed on social mar-
keting interventions in healthcare systems can be
enormous. McKie and Toledano (2008), despite their
passionate exposition of social marketings potential,
also note it lacks the necessary academic hinterland to
increase or maintain the recognition it has earned so
far. They credit Kotler and Zaltman (1971) as the orig-
inators of the term social marketing but also note the
additional tides and currents that have influenced its
development from the 1960s onwards as others con-
sidered the application of marketing methods to tackle
social problems. It is necessary, however, to look even
further back in history to the world of practice rather
than academia in order to detect the first stirrings of
what might be termed a social marketing approach.
Government information campaigns in the first half
of the twentieth century, as well as the development
of organisations such as the Central Office of Informa-
tion in the UK, prompted the development of a disci-
pline with progressive social designs (Gregory 2011).
Social marketing generates plenty of interest and
excitement in professional and academic circles because
of its concern with the use of marketing strategies and
techniques to create a social rather than a commercial
dividend. Marketing approaches are used in the pri-
vate sector to generate company profit. In contrast,
social marketing is a discipline that is concerned with
the generation of positive social impacts. These might
include persuading citizens to recycle their rubbish to
reduce the amount of waste being buried in landfill
sites, encouraging people to drive more responsibly to
M28 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 532
cut the number of road deaths, or getting them to eat
more fruit and vegetables so they can live longer.
This orientation does not mean that social mar-
keting can lack a financial motivation. Many social
marketing initiatives in the health sector are driven
by a desire to save money. Chronic conditions linked
to behaviours, such as diet and smoking, are a huge
drain on national health systems. On its website,
the Department of Health (2011) in the UK notes
that weight problems cost the wider economy in the
region of 16 billion and this will rise to 50 billion
per year by 2050 if left unchecked. Similarly, the
social aftermath of crime, teenage pregnancy, traffic
accidents, drug use and other systemic problems have
a collective as well as individual dimension that is
calculated in monetary terms. As an aside, it should
also be noted that social marketing activity is often
executed by private sector communication agencies
rather than in-house, public sector practitioners. For
these agencies, their participation is based upon a
paid commercial contract.
A health warning
Social marketings focus on behaviour can lead to an
individualistic, psychological approach to change.
Viewed from this perspective, problems are addressed
by altering peoples mindset and attitude therefore
prompting a change in behaviour. An emphasis on
insight that can help trigger individual behaviour
change becomes the Holy Grail pursued by organisa-
tions seeking to address a range of social dilemmas.
If it is unchecked, this perspective can overstate an
individuals ability to change his or her behaviour.
Much of what governs human behaviour in a health
context is based upon socialisation, culture and genet-
ics (Wright et al. 2008). Viewing the world in any
other way might be best termed nave and at worst
irresponsible. It places responsibility for a range of
societal issues in the hands of the individual. This
over-exaggerates self-efficacy that is, the belief in
an individuals ability to exert personal control over
a situation.
The battle against tobacco addiction underlines
graphically why certain health issues cannot be left to
the individual. Waxman (2011), a Professor of Oncol-
ogy at Imperial College London, illustrates the point
forcefully:
Twenty-five years ago, about half the population
smoked. Now that figure is 20 per cent. That shift
would not have happened without powerful gov-
ernment intervention that took on the tobacco
23/03/2017 13:30
 Chapter 28Strategic communication and social marketing in healthcare organisations
companies (and ignored the lamentations of the
pension funds). Changing lifestyles not only needed
information campaigns; it required mandatory and
gory warnings on packets, an ever-increasing vice
tax on cigarettes, advertising bans and forcing
smokers out of pubs and offices and on to the
streets with their habit.
This argument also contains its own difficulties.
Viewed from another vantage point, both the call for
government intervention in the form of legislation and
the activation of social marketing campaigns can be
viewed as a contemporary expression of the omnipo-
tent, paternalistic state.
Implicit in this desire to change peoples behaviour
is the notion that government knows whats good for
its citizens. A mixture of legislation and an arsenal of
persuasive techniques are then used to bring the indi-
vidual around to its way of thinking.
Waxman (2011) acknowledges this argument but
turns to the issue of food to counter it. He notes that
some will regard the banning of advertisements for
Picture 28.1 This coughing bus stop led to a controversial
local news story but word of mouth helped raise
awareness of the symptoms of lung cancer (source: Crown
Copyright/Yorks and Humber Strategic Health Authority)
M28 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 533
533
high-fat foods or taxing the use of saturated fats as an
attack on their personal freedom. He contends, how-
ever, that the people with the least ability to make
informed choices are the poor, who happen also to be
more likely to smoke or to be fat. Food is a class issue
and it must be easier for the poorest in our country to
eat well (Waxman 2011).
Anchored in safe water
This debate underlines the need for any social market-
ing activity in the health sector to be embedded within a
wider strategic communication process. This will allow
the organisation to consider this activity in the context
of its broader purpose, values and societal responsibili-
ties. Such a process is inherently stakeholder-orientated
and therefore provides an opportunity for the organisa-
tion to consider the implications of its social marketing
activities from a range of different perspectives. Organ-
isations responsible for delivering healthcare provide a
service that is regarded as an inalienable right held in
common by all citizens. This requires them to demon-
strate an acute level of social sensitivity and highlights
the particular importance of contextual intelligence in
a healthcare environment.
Healthcare organisations therefore need to connect
with their key stakeholders in order to understand their
needs, to appropriately tailor services to those needs
and to maintain broad public support. For communi-
cators this requires the collection and interpretation of
information that helps them to maintain their organ-
isations overall license to operate. According to Steyn
(2003) it is the process that allows the organisation to
consider the qualitative aspects of the business (the
opinions, judgement, even feelings of stakeholders) and
the environment it faces...it is problem solving in
unstructured situations, being able to recognise chang-
ing situations.
An effective and ethical healthcare communication
function provides leaders with evidence-based analy-
sis of the ongoing issues and relationships that may
have an impact. Relevant insights are then fed into
the organisations decision-making process through a
range of formal and informal channels, such as con-
versations with senior managers, presentations to the
board, emails that highlight key insights and suggest
appropriate action, policy papers and the provision
of data as part of the organisations annual corporate
planning process. Social marketing is a discipline that
needs to be governed and regulated by this wider stra-
tegic communication perspective. At its heart is a per-
suasive, transactional model that should be deployed
23/03/2017 13:30
 534 Part 4Sectoral considerations
with caution as it contains both the strengths and
weaknesses of a marketing approach.
Implementation challenges in social
marketing
Marketing is a strategic management discipline. Accord-
ing to Kotler (2000), it is the process of planning and
executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distri-
bution of ideas, goods, services to create exchanges that
satisfy individual and organisational goals. This might
involve a range of activities, including the generation
of customer insight, product or service design, channel
management and logistics, retail strategies, as well as
promotion (Brassington and Pettitt 2003). The role of
communication techniques in this process is usually at
the promotional stage.
Managers implementing social marketing pro-
grammes must also adopt a similarly holistic
approach. It is no use promoting a smoking ces-
sation service to local people unless it has been
designed with their needs in mind. Even the most
targeted and creative promotional campaigns can-
not, on their own, secure the long-term success of a
social marketing initiative if other parts of the jigsaw
Picture 28.2 Obesity is a preventable health challenge in
which communication plays an important role
(source: Shutterstock.com/bikeriderlondon)
M28 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 534
are not in place. A focus on service-users, delivery
partners, suppliers and employees is therefore crucial
to the social marketing process. The communication
team should play a vital role in developing, deliv-
ering and evaluating success in this area. Such an
orientation means that as well as public and patient
insight informing organisational decision-making,
it also influences local priorities, product and ser-
vice design. It can also identify the levers by which
behavioural change may be achieved.
Armed with these data, the communication func-
tion, working with appropriate colleagues, can shape
the agenda for discussion. In addition, communica-
tors can facilitate complex discussions with stake-
holders who may have conflicting and competing
priorities and ensure the perspectives of all stake-
holders are considered. The communication function
can also contribute to the market intelligence that
delineates the size of the market and information on
competitor activity: a vital component of decision-
making. The concept of the competition in social
marketing is particularly important, as Schlosser
(2002) makes clear in Fast Food Nation. At the same
time as an organisation might be trying to persuade
people to eat more healthily, some of the worlds
largest companies are marshalling huge marketing
budgets with the opposite objective in mind. The
competition can also be framed in terms of compet-
ing demands on peoples time. A call for children to
take more exercise will have to be considered against
other attractions such as computer games and televi-
sion. (See Think about 28.2.)
Think about 28.2
Social marketing effectiveness
What do you think of the social marketing programme
described in Case study 28.1? Did it manage to tackle
the challenges it set out to?
23/03/2017 13:30
 Chapter 28Strategic communication and social marketing in healthcare organisations
Case study 28.1
NHS Peterborough:
tackling childhood
obesity and promoting
healthy lifestyles
Background
Obesity is regarded by the UK Government as a signifi-
cant and preventable health challenge. Peterborough,
a city in the east of England, has a rising prevalence of
childhood obesity.
As part of the National Child Measurement Programme
(NCMP), school nurses in the town annually measure
height and weight for all Reception Year children (aged
45 years) and Year 6 pupils (aged 1011 years). Prelimi-
nary results from the study showed that:
One in seven (13.8 per cent) reception-age children
were overweight and almost one in ten (9.2 per cent)
obese.
Of Year 6 pupils, almost one in seven (14.3 per
cent) were overweight, and one in five (19.8 per
cent) were obese.
Peterborough was failing to achieve national and regional
targets to halt the year-on-year rise in obesity and to
meet the goal of reversing the trend and returning to
2000 prevalence levels by 2020.
NHS Peterborough, the organisation responsible for pro-
viding primary healthcare services in the city, decided to
fund a social marketing programme to tackle the prob-
lem. It commissioned three consultancy partners to
develop and implement the programme: Blue Marble,
Purebrand Public Sector and Carnegie Weight Manage-
ment (now More-Life).
Programme aims
To reduce rates of obese/overweight children
(Reception and Year 6).
M28 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 535
535
To increase the measurement rate across the city as
part of the National Child Measurement Programme.
To promote healthy lifestyles and healthy weight
activity and services in the city.
Partners
The programme brought together a range of partners
from across the city. These included representatives
from local services linked to education, the environment,
health, sports and leisure, as well as the media and fami-
lies from within the community.
Strategy
The three consultancies worked with NHS Peterboroughs
Public Health Team to:
engage with key partners and services in the city to
analyse the prevalence of obesity and develop a new
delivery programme (management consultants Blue
Marble);
undertake a local area study to inform service deliv-
ery, planning and to support communication activity
(marketing consultancy Purebrand Public Sector);
deliver child weight management services across
the city (programme delivery partner Carnegie
Weight Management).
Implementation
A ten-week Childhood Obesity Solutions Centre
process was created. This initiative brought together
partners from across the city to work through and
develop appropriate solutions in response to the
challenge of rising childhood obesity. The process of
engaging key stakeholders from partnership
boards, to local practitioners on the front line and
end users from the community was intended to
stimulate collective accountability and responsibil-
ity. The aim was to develop a shared solution to a
shared problem. For the first time, staff from various
agencies across the partnership developed solutions
together through a series of workshops and focus
groups.
23/03/2017 13:30
 536 Part 4Sectoral considerations
case study 28.1 (continued)
The Solutions Centre process generated a require-
ment for a local area study. This was to support the
planning, delivery and communication of new
health services linked to obesity, in particular an
effective weight management programme. It
involved:
Workshops (with community health workers,
community health trainers, community volun-
teers and young families).
Visits to key wards, and interviews and consulta-
tions with key community stakeholders.
Interviews and consultation with both local
authority and NHS staff involved in delivering
initiatives targeting specific health outcomes.
Working with Carnegie Weight Management,
the weight management delivery partner, and
utilising their previous experience and expertise
to inform the research process.
Staging an engagement event to inform organisa-
tions and partner agencies from within the referral
network about the project and to stimulate refer-
rals to future weight management programmes
being delivered by Carnegie Weight Management.
Engaging with key clinical and other stakehold-
ers in promoting and generating referrals for the
Carnegie Weight Management programme.
Delivery of the Carnegie Weight Management
Clubs in the city. Carnegie monitor and report on
weight loss, as well as any behaviour and lifestyle
changes among the programmes participants.
Carnegie Weight Management made its pro-
gramme available to families with very young
children (aged 2+) for the first time. This allowed
NHS Peterborough to work with parents to pro-
mote healthy habits at an early stage of family life.
Summary
The chapter began by noting the ubiquitous nature of
health issues in society. The discussion was then shaped
by two ideas: the first relates to communication being
regarded as an organisational asset rather than just a
technical function; the second suggests that some of the
toughest challenges facing health communicators are
most usefully conceptualised as wicked problems.
Social marketing was then framed as one organisational
response to a set of external wicked problems that
M28 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 536
Results
Outcomes achieved:
Childhood obesity levels in reception-aged children
fell from 12.6 per cent to 9.2 per cent.
More families and children accessed healthy living
services and obesity prevention interventions due to
the stakeholder engagement strategy.
37 families and their children participated in the two
Carnegie programmes. 65 registered for future
autumn programmes.
87 enquiries were received for participation in future
Carnegie Clubs.
100 per cent of the respondents following the brief-
ing event to launch the project and stimulate refer-
rals said they found the event useful; 100 per cent
stated that they would recommend the programme
to other members of staff to promote the service.
When asked how likely they were to refer others on
to the programme, 95 per cent said they were very
likely or likely to.
Positive media coverage generated in local press,
TV and radio. Media activity reached an estimated
643,000 people in the Cambridgeshire area.
Benefits delivered by the programme:
Cross-partnership involvement in developing solu-
tions
New interventions coordinated between partners
Multi-agency solutions created across all age ranges
Cross-agency commissioning and re-focusing of
funds
More effective pooling and targeting of resources
Improved referrals on the programmes.
confront healthcare organisations. This led to a discus-
sion of a range of issues and challenges linked to such an
approach. The importance of anchoring social market-
ing programmes within a wider strategic communication
framework was highlighted as a necessary antidote to
some of the challenges that were identified. The impor-
tance of contextual intelligence was underlined, as was
the role played by the strategic communicator in organi-
sational decision-making by helping to bring social, ethi-
cal and economic concerns into alignment. An in-depth
social marketing case study provided an opportunity to
consider the practical challenges that face communica-
tors in this difficult area.
23/03/2017 13:30
 Chapter 28Strategic communication and social marketing in healthcare organisations
Bibliography
Brassington, F. and S. Pettitt (2003). Principles of Market-
ing. Harlow: Pearson.
Camillus, J.C. (2008). Strategy as a wicked problem.
Harvard Business Review 86(5): 98.
Cancer Research UK (2011). The causes of cancer you
can control. http://scienceblog.cancerresearchUK.
org/2011/12/07/the-cause-of-cancer-you-can-control/
accessed 18 July 2016.
Conklin, J. (2006). Dialogue Mapping: Building shared
understanding of wicked problems. New York, NY:
Wiley.
Department of Health (2011). Obesity general infor-
mation. www.dh.gov.uk/eu/ublichealth/Obesity/
DH_078098 accessed 18 July 2016.
Gregory, A. (2011). Government and the dance with
communications: coming full circle in the 21st cen-
tury. International History of Public Relations Con-
ference, Bournemouth, UK. July 2011.
Kaneda, T. (2006). Healthcare challenges for devel-
oping countries with aging populations. www
.prb.org/Articles/2006/Health-care-challenges-for-
developing-countries-with-aging-populatons.aspx
accessed 18 July 2016.
Kinsella, K. and V.A. Velkoff (2001). An Aging World.
Washington, DC: US Census Bureau.
Kotler, P. (2000). Marketing Management: The millen-
nium edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Kotler, P. and G. Zaltman (1971). Social marketing: an
approach to planned social change. Journal of Mar-
keting 35: 312.
McKie, D. and M. Toledano (2008). Dangerous liaison or
perfect match? Public relations and social marketing.
Public Relations Review 34: 31824.
Reddy, K.S. and S. Yusuf (1998). Emerging epidemic of
cardiovascular disease in developing countries. Circu-
lation 97: 596601.
M28 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 537
537
Rittel, H. and M. Webber (1973). Dilemmas in a general
theory of planning. Policy Sciences 4: 1559.
Roberts, N.C. (2000). Wicked problems and network
approaches to resolution. International Public Man-
agement Review 1(1): 119.
Roberts, N.C. (2002). The Transformative Power of Dia-
logue. Boston, MA: JAI Press.
Schlosser, E. (2002). Fast Food Nation: The dark side
of the all-American meal. New York, NY: Harper
Collins.
Steyn, B. (2003). From strategy to corporate communica-
tion strategy: a conceptualisation. Journal of Com-
munication Management 8(2): 16883.
Tench, R. and J. Fawkes (2014). Barriers to obesity com-
munication: Power, habitus and hidden assumptions.
International Journal of Health Communication, 3.
United Nations (2015). The Millennium Goals Report
2015. http://un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/(2011)
accessed 18 July 2016.
Waxman, J. (2011). To avoid cancer, let the state dictate
your diet. The Times, 9 December: 36.
Willis, P. (2012). Engaging communities: Ostroms eco-
nomic commons, social capital and public relations.
Public Relations Review 38(1): 11622.
Willis, P. (2016). From humble inquiry to humble intel-
ligence: Confronting wicked problems and augment-
ing public relations. Public Relations Review, 42(2):
30613.
World Health Organisation (2005). Preventing Chronic
Disease: A vital investment. Geneva: World Health
Organisation.
Wright, K.B., L. Sparks and H.D. OHair (2008). Health
Communication in the 21st Century. Oxford:
Blackwell.
23/03/2017 13:30
 c h ap t er 29 Ralph Tench and Liz Yeomans

What next? Future issues for

public relations

Learning outcomes
By the end of the chapter you should be able to:
discuss some of the key themes emerging from the book
consider trends in public relations theory and practice
identify possible areas for research and further study.

Structure
Campaigning and pressure groups
Internationalisation of public relations
Publics
Public relations identity
Issues
Technology
Practitioner roles and professionalism in public relations
Specialisation of public relations practice
Media fragmentation
Education
Future trends and issues for public relations

M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 538 23/03/2017 13:32

 Chapter 29What next? Future issues for public relations 539

Introduction
As we write this chapter, we are con-
scious of setting ourselves the most
difficult, if not impossible, brief
(challenge) p redicting the future for
the practice. What next for public rela-
tions? Well one thing is certain how
we look and operate as a community of
practitioners (Tywoniak 2007) today will
not be the same as tomorrow. The sector
and indeed society is transforming at a
rapid rate (Institute for the Future 2011).
As academics, students and practitioners
we can only observe, monitor, measure
and reflect on these changes to endeav-
our to improve the role and function
of public relations in a modern society.
This chapter provides a summary of what
we believe are some of the key themes
and trends for public relations research
and practice that emerge both from the
content of this book and contemporary
research among practitioners in Europe
(European Communication Monitor
200716 (see Zerfass et al. 200716);
Tench 2015a, b, c; Tench et al. 2013).
These themes and trends are by no
means comprehensive, nor are they iso-
lated; they are linked because they reflect
the wider issues in the social, political,
economic and technological environ-
ment. The purpose of identifying these
themes is to pose questions for further
class discussion and initial bases of
investigation for students planning a dis-
sertation or thesis.

Campaigning and pressure can function effectively without knowledge of other

groups
Nearly one-fifth of the worlds 37,000 non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) were formed in the 1990s
(McGann and Johnston 2006). The activities of NGOs
as campaigning and pressure groups are on the increase
in the developed world in response to a wide range of
global issues concerned with the effects of human con-
sumption and resources: the food we eat, the energy we
use, the environment we inhabit and the ways in which
resources are distributed among nations and societies, as
well as the ways in which human rights are dealt with.
Many of these issues are coming to prominence via tech-
nology, notably through the widespread use of social
media by citizens and consumers, global news chan-
nels providing 24/7 news and the interaction between
these elements to galvanise public opinion and present
challenges for governments and corporations alike. The
future is likely to see a further rise in NGOs as their
ability to act swiftly and mobilise public support con-
trasts markedly with the apparent slow-moving forces of
government and corporations. (See Think about 29.1.)
Internationalisation of public
relations
Public relations has become a global phenomenon.
Business is increasingly globalised, markets are more
and more interlinked and so are the communications
issues for companies, organisations and governments.
No organisation operating across international borders
cultures, media systems and communication practices.
While international public relations may be more
readily associated with multinational corporations
(MNCs), such as Microsoft, Philips or Tesco, it is not
just a concern for commercial organisations operat-
ing in global markets. In attempts to encourage posi-
tive worldwide opinion to support favourable trading
conditions, economic investment and tourism, public
relations techniques are adopted by organisations of
all kinds including unpopular political regimes and
previously unknown nations.
Think about 29.1
Campaigning organisations and
pressure groups
1. Why is public relations more often associated
with governments and corporations, whereas
pressure groups campaign? Are there any real
differences in approaches, strategies and tactics
from what you have learned in Chapter 25?
Think about this question from the point of view
of (a) a large corporation that you are familiar
with (b) a large campaigning organisation that
you support.
2. Is it possible to be both passionate about a cause
and a public relations professional?
3. In demonstrating social responsibility, should
agencies be required to work pro bono (literally
for the good involving little or no fee) for a cam-
paigning organisation or pressure group?

M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 539 23/03/2017 13:32

 540 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Public relations has made the first steps towards
professionalisation on a global scale, although it is
likely to take many more years to achieve a glob-
ally recognised status. Evidence of global growth in
public relations is regularly reported, with emerging
economies demonstrating the fastest growth in pub-
lic relations. Recognition and appreciation of cultural
diversity is the next step and this will need to become
part of both practice and theory development. As dis-
cussed in Chapter 6, we live in a multicultural world
and public relations practitioners are in the business
of intercultural mediation. Wherever we live, we are
exposed to other cultures. Public relations, if inter-
preted as the management of communication and rela-
tionships, is directly concerned with the management
of cultural differences. It is in this way that Dejan
Veris chapter argues for the potential for public
relations practitioners to act and perform like inter-
cultural interpreters.
As well as practitioner associations, organisa-
tions, networks and meeting groups have formed
in national and international contexts over the past
few years to support in principle the ongoing devel-
opment of public relations (EUPRERA, the Global
Alliance, the World Public Relations Forum, AMEC,
etc.). These organisations take up the campaigning
cause of issues of relevance and importance for the
practice. For example the Second World Public Rela-
tions Festival in 2005 chose diversity as its main
theme, adopting a manifesto about how organisa-
tions should strive to communicate for diversity,
with diversity and in diversity (World Public Rela-
tions Forum 2005). In the future, the public relations
industry will need to demonstrate its own commit-
ment to diversity in a more dynamic and effective
way. (See Think about 29.2)
Another example of coordinated practitioner
interest is in the work to build shared understand-
ing about evaluating the impact of public relations.
Evaluating the impact and measuring the effect of
communications campaigns is one of the hardest
parts of explaining and justifying what public rela-
tions is and how it can contribute and add value to
organisations and society. The Barcelona Principles
are a set of guidelines intended to help public rela-
tions practitioners to consistently articulate how to
measure the impact of PR campaigns. The Principles
were developed in 2010 when over two hundred
communications and measurement specialists from
more than 30 countries met in the European city. The
Barcelona principles are described as a new declara-
tion of standards and practices to guide measurement
and evaluation of public relations.
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 540
Think about 29.2
Internationalisation of public
relations
1. According to opinion polls, trust in leaders of
organisations and politicians appears to be in
decline in the developed world. Research among
UK communication directors (PR Week 2012)
confirms that maintaining public trust is the big-
gest challenge for corporations. Will the interna-
tionalisation of public relations contribute to
building trust among a global community?
2. What can the public relations profession do to
recognise and appreciate diversity in practice?
What will this mean in practical terms?
3. How can the public relations industry demon-
strate its own social responsibility? To whom is it
responsible?
The Barcelona Principles have been subsequently
debated at follow-up conferences and they have
received mixed responses, with many practitioners
endorsing and supporting them while academics have
been more challenging and questioning of the impact
and effect they have had both on practice and on
moving the discipline forward. In summary, the Bar-
celona Principles are not particularly imaginative or
innovative, but they do provide some simple guide-
lines and rules for engagement on the much-debated
issue of measurement and evaluation. What is posi-
tive is that they provide a clear and transparent set
of basic standards and best practices, including those
for social media measurement (see Chapter 10). As
Paul Noble indicates in his chapter, the Barcelona
Principles have also made an impact in helping the
practice to move away from the use of advertising
value equivalents (AVEs) and also place measure-
ment at the centre of developing a communications
strategy.
Publics
The notion of a public is central to public relations,
yet there is a growing debate in the literature about the
meaning of the term. The term public is commonly
used in many academic disciplines and usually refers
to everyone in the population (e.g. general public),
23/03/2017 13:32

Box 29.1
Do organisational leaders
listen to communication
advisers?
People look to leaders of all kinds politicians, leaders
of business and leaders of public service organisations
to involve them in decision-making, to make the right
decisions and to communicate those decisions effec-
tively. In turbulent times, people expect leaders to take
charge and solve problems. However, not only has there
been a growing cynicism towards leaders politicians
especially in their ability to lead effectively, but also
an expectation that leaders will fail to achieve their goals
(Ketchum 2016). A lack of trustworthiness in leaders is
the main issue, a factor that is strongly linked to the way
in which leaders both demonstrate and communicate
authentic leadership in their actions and words to earn
and maintain public trust (PR Week 2012; Ketchum 2016).
However, while communication professionals lay claim to
the role of advising organisational leaders on their com-
munication with stakeholders and the general public,
but the use of public in public relations often refers
to carefully defined target groups of the organisation
(see Chapter8). Public relations theory is criticised for
defining publics from the organisations point of view:
that publics exist only because the organisation says
so. Critics point out that taking this instrumental view
of publics denies publics their self-identity and agency
in setting their own objectives. Meanwhile, other aca-
demic commentators (e.g. Kruckeberg and Vujnovic
2010) argue that with the rise of unpredictable activ-
ist publics on the internet greater consideration should
be given to the general public when organisations
communicate.
Throughout this book, we have seen evidence in
practice, however, that publics are asserting more
power. Campaigning groups are taking an active inter-
est in organisations and their goals, whereas other
groups such as consumers are consciously turning
away from corporate and consumer messages that are
not tuned in to their particular interests or needs.
Indeed, citizen publics are also asserting their dissatis-
faction and disaffection with political institutions and
politicians by voting in unexpected ways. (See Explore
29.1 and Think about 29.3.)
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 541
Chapter 29What next? Future issues for public relations 541
research suggests that leaders may be under-utilising
professional communications advice. The 2016 study
(Zerfass et al. 2016) revealed that communicators employ
different practices of coaching, advising or enabling when
they support either senior managers or other staff. The
most important activity when working with executives is
delivering insights for decision-making (agreed by 71.9
per cent of the respondents), followed by advice on how
to handle concrete challenges in communication (68.7
per cent). Less than half of the communicators state that
they enable their executives to master communicative
challenges on their own. Co-workers and other staff most
often receive hands-on advice about communication
tasks (65.2 per cent).
Not surprisingly, the needs of executives and traditional
ways of support are shaping the field. However, enabling
others to reflect and communicate themselves is clearly
an important part of the practice today. It reflects the
growing need to deal with multiple voices in strategic
communication (Zerfass and Viertmann 2016).
In summary, most practitioners face a continuous chal-
lenge in proving the value of communication with organ-
isational leaders, while leaders are under increasing
scrutiny from the public to demonstrate their integrity
in difficult times.
Public relations identity
Public relations emerged during the last half of the
twentieth century. It is therefore a relatively new phe-
nomenon as both a management function and as an
academic discipline. The identity problem starts with
the term public relations: this in itself is regarded as an
Explore 29.1
How publics are viewed
Compare three retail organisations annual reports (by
downloading from their websites) and examine the
language that is used to discuss consumers, employ-
ees or other publics such as the local community.
Note the variation in the terms used and their con-
notations. Consider how each organisation views its
publics. Which organisation appears to consider its
publics as powerful and active? What theories can you
use to explain the different approaches?
23/03/2017 13:32
 542 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Think about 29.3
Publics
1. Referring to theoretical discussions in Chapter 8,
what is a public? Is it simply a defined target
group of an organisation? Or does a public have
its own identity?
2. How will the development of the internet influ-
ence the concept of a public?
Anglo-American construct and direct translations into
other languages cannot always be found. Elsewhere, as
in the case of Europe, communication management is
a preferred term. Definitions of public relations its
role and purpose is a further area of debate: there
is no agreed definition, although preferred definitions
abound.
Public relations (as evidenced in the scope of this
book) lays claims to a wide range of activities from
lobbying to sponsorship yet those involved in these
somewhat disparate areas may not describe themselves
as public relations practitioners at all. And when we
consult the international literature, public relations is
a term used to denote other activities, including guest
relations and interpersonal contact (as in China).
A global survey reported in 2016 that, although
31 per cent of in-house and 31 per cent of agency
respondents thought that the respective terms corpo-
rate communications and public relations fairly well
described their practice, only 27 per cent of agency
leaders believed that public relations will adequately
describe what they do by 2020. Reservations about
how the practice is described could well be due to the
major drivers of change already happening and pre-
dicted to accelerate, including (1) the adoption of new
technology, (2) the increasing demand for content and
(3) the expansion of communication channels. Fur-
thermore, the increasing complexity and importance
of public relations work, predicted by 76 per cent of
respondents, means that the discipline is changing and
is likely to continue changing. Although there is still a
high demand for writing (particularly at entry level),
strategic planning and verbal skills in PR, the skills of
data analytics, behavioural/social sciences and content
creation in many forms are predicted to be in greater
demand (Global Communications Report 2016).
Without a clear identity, the practice has been sub-
ject to encroachment from marketing, human resources,
management consultancy and (as in the USA), the legal
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 542
profession. Given the above growth areas for PR skills,
it is easy to see why the industry is now experiencing
many more overlaps with other disciplines than ever;
eventually there may be a set of new terms to describe
public relations work (see also Chapter14 on media
relations for a discussion of new terms such as content
marketing). Having discussed the problems of a lack
of identity for public relations, the growth in the num-
ber of public relations qualifications worldwide means
that academics will continue their attempts to define
the field and professional bodies will continue to pur-
sue their goals of professional recognition. (See Think
about 29.4.)
Issues
As we have already seen in this book, issues arising
from the social, political, technological and economic
environments have increasingly become a concern
for governments and organisations, due to the wider
Think about 29.4
Future identity of public
relations
1. Why does identity matter? Does it matter that
public relations is defined in different ways (e.g.
relationship management or reputation man-
agement), given other labels such as corporate
communication and may denote varying activi-
ties across organisations?
Consider the arguments for and against pub-
lic relations as an academic discipline are
the available theories adequate in defining
the field?
Consider the arguments for and against pub-
lic relations as a discrete management
function can it be differentiated from other
functions?
2. Looking at the arguments in this book concerning
the identity and reputation of the profession, will
public relations be a commonly used term in 10
or even 5 years time?
3. Is the specialisation of public relations practice a
safeguard for professional identity, or merely fur-
ther evidence that public relations cannot easily
be defined?
23/03/2017 13:32

availability of information on the internet and the num-
ber of activist groups which are prepared to protest
about the perceived risks arising from the issue, either
vocally or through direct action. Furthermore, issues
are global, fast-moving and potentially hard-hitting,
as global events have demonstrated. Financial auster-
ity measures adopted by economies in the European
Union to tackle rising government debts have adversely
affected economies both within the EU and outside it, as
well as affecting public opinion towards migration and
immigration. Many of these issues compounded and
intensified debates about the role of state and multistate
alliances and the implications on economic growth after
the UK referendum on EU membership and a narrow
victory for the leave campaign (so-called Brexit).
Issues affect all organisations, not just big govern-
ments and multinational organisations. In a risk-averse
society, the linked issues of obesity and the fat content
of food can affect the stakeholder relationships of a
small business processing food products or a school
catering service unless either organisation takes
action to manage the issue and reduce the perceived
risk to consumers. (See Think about 29.5.)
Technology
For public relations practice, the impact of technol-
ogy focuses on information and communication tech-
nologies (ICT). Technology has transformed the way
we communicate in recent years and this has had
specific effects on the practice of public relations. As
mentioned earlier, the adoption of new technologies is
predicted to be one of the major drivers of change in
Think about 29.5
Issue management
1. What global issues are likely to become promi-
nent over the next five years?
2. As the opportunities for people to access infor-
mation increase (e.g. through freedom of infor-
mation legislation, databases and discussion
forums on the internet), what type of skills should
a public relations practitioner develop?
3. Is it possible to manage a whole range of issues
for a large organisation? Drawing on theory and
practice, how should issue management be
organised in the future?
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 543
Chapter 29What next? Future issues for public relations 543
public relations, particularly in agencies (Global Com-
munications Report 2016).
In 2016, social media was ranked as the third most
important growth area for both in-house and agency
practitioners (Global Communications Report 2016).
As discussed in many of the chapters in the current
edition, social media use by citizens and consumers
not only has implications for the current and future
knowledge and skills of PR but also implications for
the PR-communication model within an interactive,
online environment.
Digital PR firms specialising in online commu-
nication have gained competitive advantage in the
short-term, but mainstream PR firms and in-house
practitioners are incorporating (if somewhat cau-
tiously) the rapidly evolving social media network
tools into their communication strategies. However,
while some digital PR experts encourage practi-
tioners to embrace the challenges of Web 3.0, the
semantic network (e.g. Sheldrake 2012), other com-
mentators worry about online security and risk, and
the lack of industry standards and codes of conduct
(e.g. Morris and Goldsworthy 2012). These areas,
no doubt, will be the subjects of further debate as
much as the opportunities provided by technological
innovation.
Meanwhile, companies such as Microsoft and
Apple permeate nearly every country of the world
through product dissemination. However, there are
common assumptions about technologys spread and
peoples access to it that can lead to what is called the
digital divide. This is the exclusion of certain social
and demographic groupings from technologys reach
in some developing countries this is the majority of
the population. Therefore it is important to recognise
that some publics may not share the somewhat privi-
leged technological perspective of the professional
communicator. This is one of many future issues that
students, academics and practitioners of public rela-
tions should be aware of and manage. (See Think
about 29.6.)
Practitioner roles and
professionalism in public
relations
Public relations practitioners are quite rightly subject
to frequent public scrutiny. As this book has demon-
strated, the role has a wide range of activities and influ-
ences in contemporary society. To demonstrate this,
23/03/2017 13:32
 544 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Think about 29.6
Technologys future impact on
public relations
1. Consider the theoretical and practical implications
of the digital divide on public relations in your own
country. Are some social groups effectively
excluded from important debates affecting their
lives as a result of limited access to technology?
2. Technology is increasingly being used in the
political electoral process around the world.
What effect will these types of intervention have
on the future of political communications?
3. What are some of the ethical considerations
communications specialists should make with
regard to technology and public relations? What
should a social media code of conduct include?
consider just the chapter headings at the front of this
book and the specialist areas such as media relations,
internal communication, financial public relations,
issue management and public affairs.
Discussion within this book has also been about
the social responsibilities of organisations in society
(Chapters5 and 16) as well as the behaviour of the
practitioners themselves. Debates, for example, sur-
round the description of public relations practitioners
as ethical guardians. As with journalism, there is a
major debate evolving about the ethics of the discipline
as well as the behaviour of its practitioners, includ-
ing maintaining good behaviour online, an issue high-
lighted in Neil Washbournes and Jo Fawkes chapters.
Picture 29.1 Technology has transformed the way we
communicate in recent years and this has challenged
practitioners to find new ways to reach publics.
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 544
The book cites examples of good and bad ethical prac-
tice at both corporate and individual level. As students
and academics, we need to maintain these debates and
this focus on what is a complex and challenging area.
(See Think about 29.7.)
Specialisation of public
relations practice
Public relations is big. This book reflects this blunt
statement. The range of subjects covered, the dis-
ciplines that feed into the literature and the named
practices are diverse and include: politics, psychology,
philosophy, management theory, communications, cul-
tural theory, sociology, strategy and, of course, pub-
lic relations itself. If you also review what people do,
whether by looking at job adverts or the activities of
consultants, it is similarly diverse. Part III of this book
provides discussions of the theory and practice of some
of these specialist areas of practice. Within some of
these areas, practitioners are engaged in nothing else
but working in that defined area. In others, the special-
ist skills may form a large but not an exclusive compo-
nent of the practitioners day-to-day life. So where are
these specialisms going? Will they continue to refine,
getting ever more focused in what they do with dedi-
cated knowledge and underpinning that require spe-
cific vocational and academic training?
Think about 29.7
Role of the public relations
practitioner
1. What is a public relations practitioner? This
straightforward question is still not simply
answered. More work is required to explain the
role, its origins and definition.
2. What is a profession? This is an old sociological
debate and one that now includes analysis of
public relations practice. Some work has been
done but more is required.
3. Why is relatively little known about the position
of ethnic minorities within the public relations
profession? An ESRC-funded project in the UK
reported on the experiences of black minority
ethnic practitioners (see Chapter 8) but more
work is needed.
23/03/2017 13:32

Box 29.2
Communication
management current
trends and issues
The ECOPSI EU-funded research project
(Tench et al. 2013; Tench and Moreno 2015; Tench
and Fawkes 2005; Tench and Konczos)
Its a common clich that once learnt you never forget
how to ride a bike. Learning to do so is a combination of
skills and knowledge that enable most of us to safely and
competently navigate the streets from childhood to old
age. Competence is a word we use frequently to describe
our abilities to do a variety of tasks from day-to-day
activities such as driving a car to technical sports pursuits
like sailing or skiing but what does competence mean
when we talk about our professional capabilities? Is it
simply a case of once learnt we never forget and dont
need to work to maintain and develop the competence?
Much is written about competencies for different dis-
ciplines and fields, particularly psychology and human
resource management. But this debate is also highly rel-
evant for the communications industry(ies) as we try to
maintain our grip on what it is we do in an ever-changing
world, but also keep on top of the training and develop-
ment needs and provision to support the practice.
Similar questions have been raised by professional
associations in the USA (PrSA), as well as in the neth-
erlands through Logeion, and have involved recent
published reports. Amongst academics again work-
ing with practitioners - there is some interesting work
in new Zealand by Jeffrey and Brunton from Massey
University into competencies. In addition theres
the ongoing longitudinal European Communication
Monitor, the largest global study of communication
management worldwide, that in 2016 completed its
10th anniversary year (Zerfass et al. 2016, see also
www.communicaitonmonitor.eu ), which each year
ec psi
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This
publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be
help responsible for any use, which may be made of the information contained
therein.
Figure 29.1 The ECoPSI project was a three-year EU-funded programme focused on developing the current
understanding and future skills and competence needs of communication practitioners across Europe
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 545
Chapter 29What next? Future issues for public relations 545
focuses a significant proportion of its data collection
on competency, skills, training and the development
needs of practitioners.
It is in this context that a team of European academics
worked on what was the largest EU-funded public rela-
tions/communications sponsored research project to
date. This is the ECoPSI (European Communication Skills
and Innovation Programme) - a project that is based on
the foundation work of the European Communication
Monitor. Its principal focus is on developing the current
understanding, future skills and competence needs of
communication practitioners across Europe. The aim is
to influence both theory and practice with this project
by building knowledge, understanding and practical
outputs that will support entrants and established prac-
titioners in understanding their skills and competences,
as well as opportunities for development. As such the
focus is clear:
understanding the practice
understanding the skills and competence needs (for
today and the future)
supporting the European community in diagnosing
and providing potential direction for access to train-
ing and development
disseminating and ensuring open access (net-
works and online portals) to skills development
resource(s).
The ECoPSI project (see Figure 29.1) is therefore inter-
ested in the professional skills and competencies of
communication practitioners in Europe. The programme
aims to map and understand these capabilities in order
to support the professional development of the commu-
nity going forward. The initial desk research and data col-
lection from the project reaffirmed that communications
roles are complex and potentially diverse across Europe.
The project also suggests that, unlike learning to ride a
bike, being a competent practitioner does require on-
going training and development to ensure practitioners
dont lose their skills, and that those skills do not lose
their relevance in a modern, changing society.
Lifelong
Learning
23/03/2017 13:32
 546 Part 4Sectoral considerations
box 29.2 (continued)
Figure 29.2 The ECM is the most comprehensive study of communication practice worldwide, with responses
from over 21,000 practitioners in the past 10 years (Source: Zerfass et al. 2016; www.communicationmonitor.eu)
Media fragmentation
The news media have been viewed as a powerful force in
society for over a century. Their role in society, politics,
business and even armed conflict has been acknowl-
edged and frequently subject to in-depth research. The
Box 29.3
Growth of the PR sector
in the UK
The growth of the PR sector in the UK has continued una-
bated since the early 1990s. While some commentators
view the growing PR influence on the media landscape and
public sphere as damaging to democracy (see Chapter 4 in
this book), PR professionals see this growth as affirmation
of their expert contribution to business and societal goals.
In 2016, the UK PR industry was estimated to be worth
12.9bn (compared to 9.62bn in 2013), employing
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 546
academic interest has focused on behavioural influences,
whether these be encouraging us to vote in a particular
way, buy specific products or to internalise the views
and opinions of political leaders and institutions.
In this text we have also explored how the media land-
scape has evolved theoretically, as well as practically,
83,000 personnel (compared to 62,000 in 2013), with the
majority of respondents to an industry survey report-
ing their main duties as general media relations (76 per
cent), media relations strategy planning (75 per cent),
and digital and social media (75 per cent), even though
the role of general media relations had declined in
importance compared to previous years. On the other
hand, in line with global predictions, digital, online and
SEO (search engine optimisation) tasks were expected
to increase in importance (PRCA 2016). For agencies
and freelancers, the two leading sectors demanding PR
services are (1) technology and (2) consumer services,
media and marketing. Predictions for the future growth
of investment in PR services are in the technology and
health sectors (PRCA 2016).
23/03/2017 13:32

Think about 29.8
Future of specialisms in public
relations
Will specialist practice areas evolve to such a degree
that they no longer form the underpinning of the
practice? In other words, will they live as separate or
distinct disciplines with different labels and terms of
reference?
Feedback
Consider the social media manager. Is this a role for
future? Will it exist or will the role, activities and
expectations of the social media manager be sub-
sumed within the job description for PR managers?
creating a plural media environment that involves fewer
traditional media outlets and the continued introduc-
tion of new media formats, technological developments
and changes in audience loyalties linked to this evolu-
tion (such as more choice for the receiver). (See Think
about 29.9.)
Education
It would be surprising in an academic text if education
were not raised as a core future concern. However, for
public relations this is particularly true. As discussed
in Chapter7, by Tench and Laville, education in pub-
lic relations is more established but in the context
of many disciplines still relatively young. Research in
the USA (PRSA Port of Entry 1999; PRSA Profes-
sional Bond 2006) and the UK (Tench and Fawkes
2005) demonstrate that education in the discipline
is still evolving. The body of knowledge is increas-
ingly being defined and clarified but this work is not
yet complete. Tench and Deflagbe (2008) argue that
public relations (PR) education is responding to the
Think about 29.9
The media landscape over the
next few years
As the media outlets change and diversify, can prac-
titioners maintain their commitment to keeping all
stakeholders informed?
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 547
Chapter 29What next? Future issues for public relations 547
challenges of the globalisation of communication and
economies but slowly and unevenly. They identify
that problems defining the field are multiplied when
the different cultural perspectives on public relations
itself come into play.
Even within Europe the term has varying connota-
tions reflecting cultural associations with the public
sphere. Several scholars express concern that the lack
of a central concept for PR is weakening its hold in
the marketplace. These debates in the literature reflect
tensions between academics and between academics
and practitioners, and illustrate some of the problems
facing the project of a global curriculum (see also
Chapters6 and 7 for a discussion on the role of the
practitioner and the intercultural and multicultural
issues for public relations). In 2016, a community
of practice discussion in the UK, facilitated through
Facebook, sought to find mutual understanding and
common ground between academics and practitioners,
resulting in a joint session on practice development at
the BledCom symposium in Slovenia (see www.bled-
com.com).
Consideration should be given to who is coming
into the practice and, specifically, on new entrants
demographics: age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, etc. Do
social and educational backgrounds reflect the diver-
sity of societies, and what skills do new entrants enter
with?
Debates continue about the skills required for
public relations and whether they are or should
be intellectual, practical or personal. Is public rela-
tions education about training technicians or strate-
gic thinkers? These are important and challenging
issues for students to research and explore. (See
Think about 29.10.)
Think about 29.10
Role of education in influencing
the future of public relations
practice
1. Consider the arguments for and against a future
profession that is wholly defined by entry qualifi-
cations.
2. Will a more educated profession (i.e. in terms of
public relations knowledge) ensure more ethical
practice?
3. Should public relations research and education
only focus on improving the practice?
23/03/2017 13:32
 548 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Future trends and issues for
public relations
Lets look at the findings from the largest transnational
study of communication management worldwide, the
European Communication Monitor. This research was
Box 29.4
The European
Communication Monitor
20072016
Background of the survey
The annual European Communication Monitor (Zer-
fass et al. 200716) is the most comprehensive empiri-
cal survey of communication management worldwide
with over 20,000 participating professionals in the past
10 years representing up to 46 countries. The research is
conducted by a core group of professors (Zerfass, Tench,
Moreno, Verhoeven and Veri) within the framework of
the European Public Relations Education and Research
Association (EUPRERA). Partners include the European
Association of Communication Directors (EACD) and
Communication Director magazine, as well as commercial
sponsorship each year (see Figure 29.1).
The ECM team has been expanded in recent years to run
additional worldwide surveys in Latin America (LCM) and
the Asia Pacific region (APCM).
The questionnaire used for the survey each year cov-
ers 19 sections and 30 questions, based on a research
model that has been revised and expanded from the
previous editions. In order to fulfil the highest empirical
standards, only fully completed replies by participants
who were identified as part of the profession were eval-
uated and analysed using SPSS and a variety of statisti-
cal tests such as Pearsons Chi-Square, Spearmans and
Kendalls rank correlation, ANOVE/Scheff post-hoc and
T-tests.
The 10th anniversary edition of the European Commu-
nication Monitor marks a milestone in the endeavour
to generate state-of-the-art knowledge about strategic
communication and public relations. What started as
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 548
initiated in 2007 and has been conducted on an annual
basis since then, and celebrated its 10th anniversary
in 2016. It is intended to be an annual snapshot of
communication management in Europe (see www
.communicationmonitor.eu).
See Box29.4.
a small initiative by a group of colleagues in 2007 has
grown into the largest and only truly global study of the
profession with sound academic standards. Today, more
than 4500 practitioners in over 80 countries are sur-
veyed in each wave of the European, Latin American and
Asia-Pacific Communication Monitor. For the first time
ever, it is possible to track and prove the changing rel-
evance of strategic issues and communication channels
over a decade. Longitudinal data from more than 21,000
respondents across Europe reveal a rise and decline of
digital and social responsibility, as well as the unsolved
challenge of linking business strategy and communica-
tion. Face-to-face and social media communication are
the most important instruments today, while press rela-
tions with print media have steadily lost in importance
since 2011.
As a summation of this longitudinal research project,
the monitor research team has introduced a unique
approach to identify the characteristics of excellence
for communication departments. A comprehensive
overview of these findings for practitioners is discussed
in the book Communication Excellence how to develop,
manage and lead exceptional communications (Tench
et al. 2017).
Research design
The European Communication Monitor (ECM) 2016
explores current practices and future developments of
strategic communication in companies, non-profits and
other organisations, including communication agen-
cies. The ECM 2016 is based on responses from 2710
communication professionals based in 43 European
countries. They have answered a questionnaire which
collects a large number of independent and depend-
ent variables: personal characteristics of communica-
tion professionals (demographics, education, job status,
experience); features of the organisation (structure,
country); attributes of the communication department;
the current situation regarding the professional and his/
23/03/2017 13:32

her organisation, as well as perceptions on develop-
ments in the field.
The study explores four constructs. Firstly, developments
and dynamics in the field of strategic communication
(Hallahan et al. 2007) are identified by longitudinal com-
parisons of strategic issues, communication channels
and personnel development needs or opportunities. To
this end, questions from previous ECM surveys (Zerfass
et al. 20072015) have been repeated. Secondly, regional
and national differences are revealed by breaking down
the results of this study to twenty key countries and by
comparing results from Europe to those from other con-
tinents (Moreno et al. 2015; Macnamara et al. 2015).
Thirdly, a selection of current challenges in the field
are empirically tested. The ECM 2016 explores the rel-
evance, understanding and implementation of big data
(Gandomi and Haider 2015), algorithms in communica-
tions (Collister 2015; Phillips 2015), practices of commu-
nication with a specific focus on coaching and advising
(Van Ruler and Veri 2005; Zerfass and Franke 2013),
stakeholder engagement (Kang 2014), social media
influencers (Freberg et al. 2011), as well as skills, knowl-
edge and competency development for communica-
tion professionals (Tench and Moreno 2015). Fourthly,
statistical methods are used to identify outperforming
communication departments in the sample (Veri and
Zerfass 2015), and therefore define which aspects make
a difference.
Big data in strategic communication
Todays societies are transformed by the massive amount
of data collected by organisations, intermediaries, tech-
nology firms and platform providers: Data is the oil of the
information economy (Mayer-Schnberger and Cukier
2013). However, the discussion about big data how
to acquire and use data from various sources to inform
decision-making and deliver better products or services
has only very recently entered the realm of public rela-
tions and strategic communication (Weiner and Kochar
2016). A literature review shows that academia has not
touched the topic at all. Professionals, on the other hand,
need to be aware of the opportunities and challenges
for their organisations. Big data might change their jobs
dramatically, as digitization and big data analytics (...)
impact employment amongst knowledge workers just
as automation did for manufacturing workers (Loeb-
becke and Picot 2015).
This study reveals that three out of four communica-
tion professionals in Europe (72.3 per cent) indeed
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 549
Chapter 29What next? Future issues for public relations 549
believe that big data will change their profession (see
Figure 29.3). Almost one quarter (23.4 per cent) states
that this is one of the most important issues for com-
munication management in the near future. Neverthe-
less, only 59.3 per cent of the respondents have given
close attention or attention to the debate about big
data. Probably because of this, only a minority showed
a comprehensive understanding when they were asked
to rate various definitions representing different charac-
teristics of big data.
Following this exercise, the questionnaire then offered
a full definition of big data including the scale of data
(volume), its different forms (variety), constant flow
and processing (velocity) and uncertainty (veracity)
(Chen et al. 2012; Schroeck et al. 2012; Gandomi and
Haider 2015). Based on this understanding, only 21.2
per cent of communication departments and agen-
cies have implemented big data activities until now.
Another 16.8 per cent were planning to do so until
the end of 2016.
Of the organisations who have implemented big data activi-
ties in communication, 55.3 per cent use analytics for plan-
ning purposes, e.g. to inform future campaigns. Fewer rely
on big data for communication measurement (45.9 per
cent) or for guiding day-to-day actions, e.g. by automati-
cally generating content for specific publics (36.5 per cent).
What are the reasons for the limited penetration of big
data in the field of strategic communication? On the one
hand, the communication profession lacks analytical skills
to make sense of big data and time to study such data.
These limitations were confirmed by nearly half of the
respondents. Moreover, statistical analyses confirmed
that there is a highly significant correlation between the
knowledge and awareness of big data among communi-
cation professionals and big data activities of their organ-
isations. However, only 54.7 per cent of the practitioners
can be classified as informed, based on a cluster analysis
of all respondents. They give attention to the big data dis-
course and have a lot of knowledge in the field. 17.0 per
cent, on the other hand, are pretenders they pay atten-
tion, but they lack knowledge. The rest (28.2 per cent) are
either bystanders or worse are clueless about big data (see
Figure 29.4).
A typology of practitioner users of big
data (Zerfass et al. 2016)
Ironically, an alarming lack of skills and knowledge hinders
public relations and communication professionals who
tend to define themselves as information experts
23/03/2017 13:32
 550 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Box 29.4 (continued)
A majority of communicators believe that
big data will change their profession
72.3%
20.9%
6.8%
Big data will Neutral Big data will not
(substantially) change (scale 3) change the PR
the PR profession profession (at all)
(scale 45) (scale 12)
Figure 29.3 The impact of big data on the European profession (Source: Zerfass et al. 2016)
from profiting from the massive amount of structured
and unstructured data available for public communica-
tion today.
Automation in PR and communication
management
Digital information and big data can be used for more than
decision-making: it has opened up the doors to real-time,
inexpensive and large-scale testing of the effectiveness of
persuasion (Tufekci 2014: 8) and for generating user-spe-
cific and situation-specific content. Search engines such
as Google and e-commerce platforms such as Amazon
display advertisements and products based on previous
search behaviour. Facebook uses auto-moderation func-
tions to identify improper postings on brand pages, which
has a direct impact on the public discourse in crisis situ-
ations (Collister 2015: 364). Here, content production or
suppression is not based on planning or creative ideas by
communication professionals, but on algorithms.
Empirical insights from the ECM show a large gap
between the perceived importance and todays imple-
mentation of algorithms in strategic communication
and public relations. Moreover, a passive and supportive
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 550
23.4% of practitioners in Europe rate
using big data and/or algorithms for
communication as one of the three
most important issues for
communication management until
2018
use of algorithms is preferred. Three out of four respon-
dents (75.0 per cent) agree that communication activi-
ties should be adapted to external algorithms of search
engines or social media platforms. But only 29.2 per cent
state that their communication department or agency
uses such approaches. Both figures are surprisingly low,
as search engine optimisation (SEO) (Gudivada et al.
2015) and content production aligned to the selection
criteria of multipliers are nothing new at all.
A correlation analysis proves that organisations who have
implemented big data analytics to guide day-to-day
actions use algorithms of all kinds more often than other
organisations. Both trends big data and algorithms are
clearly intertwined. The rising importance claimed for
both might lead to a situation where we see more and
more auto-communication. This might look promising at
first glance, as it helps to be faster and more efficient. But
there are also inevitable risks. Multilateral stakeholder rela-
tions might be succeeded by nontransparent approaches
of engineering publics and consent (Bernays 1923; Tufekci
2014). On a broader scale, professional communication
might lose its relevance if it is restricted to self-referential
23/03/2017 13:32
 Chapter 29What next? Future issues for public relations 551

Cluster analysis identifies different types

of communication professionals

A lot of knowledge about big data

Bystanders Informed
22.1% 54.7%

Little attention A lot of attention

to big data to big data
discourse discourse

Clueless Pretenders
6.1% 17.0%

Little knowledge about big data

Big data Not Less Somehow Moderate Developed Highly

clusters developed developed developed developed knowledge developed
knowledge knowledge knowledge knowledge (6) knowledge
(<3) (3) (4) (5) (>6)

No attention at all (1)

Clueless Bystanders
No attention (2)
More or less (3)

Little attention (4) Pretenders

Informed
Close attention (5)

Figure 29.4 A typology of practitioner users of big data (Zerfass et al. 2016)

practices which create no overall value for organisations
and society. This problem has been noted earlier by Chris-
tensen (1997) for marketing management. His metaphoric
and critical use of the term auto-communication deserves
new attention in todays digital environment.
Social media influencers
Organisations are increasingly challenged by multipliers
and influencers on the social web. Some nobodies of
the past are...the new somebodies demanding
the attention of communication professionals (Booth
and Matic 2011: 184). Professional and part-time blog-
gers, community managers and activists can gain power
over the public perception of brands and issues if they
become opinion leaders in social networks. The role
of opinion leaders has been highlighted by Katz and
Lazarsfeld (1955) in their seminal work on the two-step

M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 551 23/03/2017 13:32

 552 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Box 29.4 (continued)
flow of communication. They extert an unequal amount
of influence on the decision of others (Rogers and
Cartano 1962: 435). Along this line, social media influ-
encers (SMIs) can be characterised as a new type of
third party endorsers who shape audience attitudes
through blogs, tweets, and the use of other social media
(Freberg et al. 2011: 90).
The ECM shows that a majority of organisations across
Europe (58.4 per cent) understands that social media
influencers are important for their communication
activities. But only a minority uses specific strategies
to communicate with those opinion leaders (42.9
per cent) and even less have specific approaches to
identify them (40.1 per cent). This indicates that some
organisations employ a reactive strategy they com-
municate with SMIs if they show up, but they do not
track or approach them proactively. Consultancies and
agencies are clearly ahead in this field, whereas only
one quarter of the governmental organisations is pre-
pared to identify and communicate with SMIs. There
are statistically significant differences between the per-
ceived importance and methods across key countries.
But the overall assessment is quite similar the new
structures of opinion building are indeed a transna-
tional phenomenon.
Which factors are important for identifying SMIs? The
ECM 2016 shows that most communication profession-
als prefer traditional indicators already known from the
offline world: the relevance of topics or issues covered
by an opinion leader (rated important by 84.2 per cent
of the respondents) and his/her personal reputation
(82.1 per cent). These are complemented by two indi-
cators which represent specific features of SMIs. Some
81.2 per cent state that qualitative outreach, e.g. con-
tent shared or forwarded by followers, are important to
identify digital influencers. And 78.7 per cent support
the idea of identifying the strength of their network
position (i.e. characteristics and power of the people
linked to multipliers) to determine relevant influenc-
ers. These measures can be tracked digitally and are
necessary to deal with the topic at hand. Interestingly,
six out of ten communicators believe that the number
of followers (outreach) helps to identify opinion lead-
ers. Some 35.1 per cent argue that the sheer volume of
content published (productivity) points to the relevance
of SMIs.
Therefore, the overall picture emerges that many com-
munication professionals have not fully grasped the
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 552
concept of influence and opinion leadership in social
networks. More knowledge and experience is needed to
leverage the full potential of the digital sphere.
Skills, knowledge and competency
development
Staff competencies have been identified as a key driver
of organisational success in dynamic and complex envi-
ronments. Human resources experts suggest the need
to assess and develop skills and knowledge with com-
petency models (Stevens 2013). Communication lead-
ers have to take care that their teams acquire relevant
competencies to deal with the requirements of commu-
nication across multiple channels, manage programmes
and campaigns, coach and enable other people, and
help organisations to align with various stakeholders.
To this end, previous research has identified three criti-
cal areas. Firstly, competencies in the growing field of
social media are often lacking (Tench et al. 2013; Zerfass
et al. 2013: 3849; Macnamara et al. 2015: 3441). Sec-
ondly, management and business qualifications need
to be developed. Last but not least, only a minority of
development needs for communicators are addressed
through suitable training programmes (Zerfass et al.
2012: 869).
The ECM 2016 tracks the current situation across
Europe based on a thorough understanding of com-
petencies as the mix of skills and knowledge held by
a practitioner, which combine with personal attributes
to produce effective professional behaviours (Tench
and Moreno 2015: 44). A first important finding is the
mediocre level of social media competencies. Only
65.2 per cent of the respondents report high capabili-
ties for delivering messages via social media which
means that one third of the professionals have a low or
average competency base in this area. A small major-
ity believes that they understand social media trends,
know how to avoid risks and are able to develop digi-
tal strategies. All other dimensions are less developed.
This is especially true for approaches which use the full
potential of new media: managing online communities
(38.4 per cent report high capabilities), initiating web-
based dialogues with stakeholders (34.3 per cent) and
understanding the use of algorithms (21.6 per cent).
There are significant differences depending on the age
and gender of practitioners and the type of organisa-
tions. A comparison with previous ECM results (Zerfass
et al. 2013: 40) shows that the average competency
23/03/2017 13:32

level has hardly grown. A stronger advancement was
only reported for social media crisis prevention and
management. The mean capability level here was 2.86
on a five-point scale three years earlier and is 3.49 at
the time of writing.
When asked for their development and training needs,
every second communicator mentions technical knowl-
edge and technical skills. This is followed by business
knowledge or skills, and management knowledge or
skills (marked by approximately one third). More com-
munication knowledge or skills are demanded by
23.6 per cent. Employers tend to offer skills develop-
ment, whereas practitioners rate knowledge support
more important in each area. This should be reflected
and adjusted intelligent people development is indis-
pensable for excellent communication departments and
agencies.
Characteristics of excellent
communication departments
Companies and other organisations are continuously
forced to improve their performance. Well-established
approaches to master this challenge are quality
management, process re-engineering, and business
excellence models. Excellence can be defined as an
outstanding practice in managing the organization and
achieving results (Martin-Castilla and Rodriguez-Ruiz
2008: 136). Organisations try to identify characteristics
of excellence, benchmark their own performance along
these dimensions, and focus on weak points to improve
and outperform.
In public relations scholarship, excellence is often
derived from the static excellence theory by Grunig
and colleagues, which postulates normatively that
communication management is most valuable when
it is managerial, strategic, symmetrical, diverse, inte-
grated, socially responsible, ethical and global (Grunig
et al. 2002; Kim et al. 2013). In management theory
and practice, however, excellence is mostly con-
ceptualised as a dynamic model for self-assessment
against a provided framework. On the level of gen-
eral management, many business excellence models
have been developed and are in use around the globe
(Dahlgaard-Park and Dahlgaard 2007; Dahlgaard et al.
2013). The Communication Monitor research series
has adopted this approach for the functional level of
strategic communication and public relations (Veri
and Zerfass 2015).
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 553
Chapter 29What next? Future issues for public relations 553
In the comparative excellence framework (CEF), theoret-
ical considerations are combined with self-assessments
of communication professionals and statistical analy-
ses to identify the characteristics which make a differ-
ence. Excellence is based on the internal standing of the
communication department within the organisation
(influence) and external results of the communication
departments activities as well as its basic qualifica-
tions (performance). Each of these two components
were calculated on the basis of four dimensions. Only
organisations clearly outperforming in all dimensions
are considered as excellent. The portion of excellent
departments identified was 20.0 per cent in the ECM
2016. This confirms results of previous communication
monitor studies in Europe, Latin America and Asia-
Pacific, where the excellence fraction lies between 19.8
and 24.4 per cent.
The ECM 2016 shows that excellent communication
departments have implemented big data activities sig-
nificantly more often. One third of them also consults
internal clients and colleagues about the topic. Big data
analytics are used for the same purposes as in other
departments, but more intensively. Social media influ-
encers are regarded as more important and specific
measures to deal with them are available to a higher
degree.
Excellent departments are also better aligned to the
top management. Professionals working there spend
less time for operational work. They put more effort on
coaching and consulting other members of the organ-
isation with a highly significant focus on advising and
enabling top executives.
Excellent departments employ communicators with
stronger management skills. They are notably better in
strategic positioning and managing relationships, infor-
mation and human resources. Moreover, the average
self-assessment of their social media competencies is
positive for all dimensions except for understanding the
use of algorithms. These departments are distinguish-
able by their investment in personnel development.
Organisations with excellent communication depart-
ments offer much more training in the technical, busi-
ness, management and communication realm. They
also focus on conveying knowledge and not merely on
training skills.
Source: Zerfass et al 2016, European Communication
Monitor www.communicationmonitor.eu
23/03/2017 13:32
 554 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Case study 29.1
Deutsche Post
DHL Group
Postmodern corporate communications:
communicative paradigms and economic
progress
As outlined in Table 29.1, each phase of industrialisa-
tion has been accompanied by a key medium which
enabled and promoted the provision and distribu-
tion of information relevant to the respective form of
economic activity. Whereas posters and newspapers
printed on rotary presses were the media of the first
industrial revolution of the steam engine and the rail-
way, radio and television created mass-media commu-
nication channels for the second industrial revolution
powered by automobiles, electro-technology and
chemicals. With the advent of the internet, we have
witnessed the increasingly rapid development of
another defining medium in economic history and a
third industrial revolution.
Despite the corporate communications discipline
evolving and maturing over more than a century, a
process which led both to the marked professionali-
sation of work processes and a move away from the
concept of communications as a purely transmissional
tool, it is nonetheless still associated with a working
method which focuses on communication from the
inside out. This traditional, unilateral understanding
of the responsibilities of corporate communications is,
however, no longer in keeping with the requirements
in the first half of the twenty-first century, regardless
of the professionalism with which it is practised. The
fourth industrial revolution, which is accompanied
by social media as the defining mass media, requires
stakeholder engagement as the new corporate com-
munications paradigm.
Postmodern corporate communications:
from passive target groups to active
stakeholders
This crossroads in corporate communications can be
explained by social change which includes but goes far
beyond the impact of digitisation during the third indus-
trial revolution. As the global economy transitioned into
the third phase of globalisation, rising industrialised
nations like China, India, Brazil and Mexico achieved
increasing success in exporting to the markets of the
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 554
Industrial
revolution
Media
paradigm
Communications
paradigm
cycles
1st industrial Print Propaganda
revolution
2nd industrial TV/radio Public relations
revolution
3rd industrial Internet Communications
revolution management
4th industrial Social media Stakeholder
revolution engagement
Table 29.1 Media and communication paradigms
related to the industrial revolution cycles
Western world, with the result that what were previously
locally and regionally active businesses became global
players themselves. Although the world is still not really
flat, global connectedness is steadily increasing. At the
same time, the fundamental excesses of casino capital-
ism in certain investment banking circles and crises such
as Dieselgate over the past decade have ensured that
the issue of environmental protection is no longer the
only aspect of corporate responsibility that is prominent
in the minds of the public (see also Chapter5).
Given that digitisation has resulted in communica-
tion channels no longer being a scarce resource, and
that social media can transform passive target groups
into active stakeholders, and indeed that the demands
placed on companies today go significantly beyond
business success, corporate communications are now
subject to fundamentally new requirements.
Learning from sustainability
management: significance and relevance
Although corporate communications has adjusted to the
challenges of the postmodern economy, it remains firmly
embedded in the accepted paradigm of systematic com-
munications management. At the forefront are still very
often abstract target groups which are established using
social science methodologies and addressed using mass-
media communication tools. However, the new opportuni-
ties afforded by social media merely serve to supplement
this communications approach by enabling dialogue-based
components and specific segmentation of target groups.
This means that, although corporate communications are
performed under postmodern conditions, a postmodern
model has yet to be found. With this in mind, lessons
could be learned from the experience gained through
the integration of the Corporate Communications and
Corporate Responsibility (CR) functions at Deutsche Post
23/03/2017 13:32

Big data
Influencing perception through
empathic communication
Task: Reputation Management
Methods: Campaigns/
mass communication/big numbers
Mode: Talking
REPUTATION
REPUTATION + BONDING = STAKEHOLDER CAPITAL
Figure 29.5 Stakeholder capital is the new currency of modern corporate communications at DPDHL Group
DHL Group. This structure shows that with a corporate
identity based on a willingness and ability to demonstrate
corporate empathy, the two functions can not only learn
a lot from each other but can have a mutually enhancing
impact beyond their functional areas (see Figure29.5).
Where communicators concentrate on building repu-
tation by influencing public perception, sustainability
managers strive to balance the interests of stakeholder
groups through dialogue and interaction. While cor-
porate communications is focused on generating
media attention (significance) and using mass media to
address the many, CR focuses on tackling material issues
(relevance) largely through dialogue and exchange with
the few. In other words, corporate communications is
the better transmitter and CR the better receiver.
Communications and responsibility
management at Deutsche Post DHL Group
At Deutsche Post DHL Group a systematic and holistic
communications and responsibility management process
has been implemented, comprised of five steps: gaining
insights, assessing and prioritising, defining opportuni-
ties, reporting, and calibrating.
As a starting point, an international, anonymous online
stakeholder survey provides feedback of 500 different
stakeholder representatives on all aspects of responsible
business management (see Figure29.6). A materiality
analysis derived from the results of the survey allows
reliable conclusions to be drawn regarding topics and
issues of particular interest to the company.
Together with the long-established practice of issues
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 555
Chapter 29What next? Future issues for public relations 555
Small data
Engaging stakeholders through
empathic interaction
Task: Stakeholder Engagement
Methods: Conversations/
small numbers/1:1s
Mode: Listening
BONDING
monitoring in public opinion research, materiality anal-
ysis is a tool which allows the expectations of internal
and external stakeholders to be used as a compass to
indicate the direction long-term strategic positioning
should take. This measure facilitates a far more accu-
rate alignment of corporate communications strategy,
which in turn also reflects the perceptions of key stake-
holder groups. In addition, it provides a substantiated
benchmark for evaluation which, given the increasing
frequency and amplitude of media hype, helps differ-
entiate between important and less-important occur-
rences and comments in daily media coverage.
The results of the materiality analysis are also evalu-
ated in personal dialogue with expert committees in
order to weigh the abstract expectations of stakeholder
groups against everyday business practices on the one
hand, and the current status of the respective scien-
tific, political and ethical debates on the other. Effec-
tive bodies have been created for this purpose. The first
takes the form of an internal network for responsible
business practice, comprising the operative divisions
and representatives of the Groups Compliance, HR,
Corporate Communications, Responsibility, Procure-
ment and Security departments. The second is an
external Sustainability Advisory Council, made up of
customer representatives and independent experts in
sustainability. The last two steps of the management
process focus on creating transparency via reporting
and gaining further, relevant insights through stake-
holder dialogues and engagement.
23/03/2017 13:32
 556 Part 4Sectoral considerations

case study 29.1 (continued)

Results of the 2015 materiality analysis
Important for Deutsche Post DHL Highly important for Deutsche Post DHL
Group Group

Highly important for external
stakeholders
Innovation and future
technologies
Sustainable business strategy
Respectful treatment of
employees
Elimination of child and forced
labor
Eight material RBP issues for DPDHL
Group
Governance
Compliance
Standards in the value chain
Data protection and security
People
Employee engagement
Learning and development
Occupational health and safety
Environment
Energy efficiency
Air pollution and noise

Important for external Environmental management Human rights due diligence

stakeholders systems
Waste management and recycling
Biodiversity and ecosystems
services
Environmentally and socially
responsible products and services
Transparency and disclosure
Respect and support workers,
rights and labor relations
Diversity and equal opportunities
Health management and
well-being
Security risk management and
business continuity planning
Direct economic impact
Indirect economic impact and tax
Corporate citizenship

Figure 29.6 The Deutsche Post DHL Group materiality analysis provides reliable information regarding topics and
issues of particular interest to the company and its stakeholders

Combining big and small data in
postmodern corporate communications
Focused on stakeholders perceptions, the described
approach is naturally putting a question mark against
significance-orientated communications management.
The Return on Investment (ROI) from a postmodern
communications strategy cannot be limited to unilat-
eral aggregates like trust, media attention and image.
Rather, the interactional aspect of exchange with stake-
holder groups must be taken into account as seen in
the form of expert dialogue, the balancing of interests
and joint projects. This is not about achieving a given
level of reputational status, but about achieving quality
relations (see Figure29.7).
In postmodern communications management, the
original communicative currency of reputation can
only be one component of a broader-based resource.
This resource should reflect the relationship between
the company and its environment, and, ultimately,
generate stakeholder capital, the value of which is con-
firmed in the form of cooperation, reciprocity and trust.

M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 556 23/03/2017 13:32

 Chapter 29What next? Future issues for public relations 557

Environment & Sustainability I Trend Environment & Sustainability I All Topics

Trend analysis Word Cloud
25,000
Reflects media coverage on 20,000 Climate energy Indicates topics most
issues over time 15,000
Change obama discussed
10,000 powermeet white
5,000 frackingindiamodi june
0 renewable global

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27
environmental solarplan

ay

ay

ay

ay

ay

ay

ay

ay
M

M
Climate change & energy efficiency Emission trading record north diseases million
Product responsibility Renewable energy & fuels
Sources I Most active
Share of voice Environmental standards in the value chain
Sources
Sets coverage on sub 9%
10jqka.com.cn
Reveals sources reporting
huanqiu.com
issues in relation 11%
18%
huaxia.com on issues
8% xinmin.cn
chinabidding.com
11%
jiangsu.china.com.cn
43%
nen.com.cn
forex.com.cn
cqnews.net
yesky.com

Environment & Sustainability I sentiment sub-issues ?

Sentiment Climate change & energy efficiency
China Countries
Reflects media tonality of Emission trading USA
Reveals countries reporting
coverage Environmental management on issues
Product responsibility
Australia
Renewable energy & Fuels

Scarcity of resources
Germany
Environmental standards in the value chain

20,000 0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000

United kingdom
Positive Negative Neutral

0 50,000 100,000

Figure 29.7 Real-time monitoring via the Deutsche Post DHL Group Issue Centre (provided by PRIME research) provides
information on media coverage on issues relevant to the company

This approach has an impact on the communications viewing quotas and clicks, e.g. via Deutsche Post DHL
management process which is now based on big and Group Issues Center, a platform for real-time topic
small data sources: monitoring in international online media) and the
small data of materiality analyses (stakeholder feed-
Step 1 Focus on big and small data: monitoring and
back, independent ranking lists and certified quality
stakeholder surveys
assurance labels), which is so important to those who
Step 2 Focus on small data: dialogue in internal manage CR, the ability to define this resource and
and external bodies understand how it is calculated represents an essential
Step 3 Focus on big data: business units analysis prerequisite as corporate communications enters into
its new, postmodern form.
Step 4 Focus on big and small data: analyses for
decision-making
Step 5 Focus on small data: dialogue and
Acknowledgement
engagement. Professor Dr Christof E. Ehrhart, Head of Corporate Com-
munications and Responsibility and Executive Vice Presi-
In combination with the big data that communica- dent, Deutsche Post DHL Group.
tors deal with in media attention analyses (circulation,

Summary technological environments that have been discussed. By

identifying and highlighting these themes our aim is to
pose questions for further class discussion and present
This chapter provides a summary of what we believe are
initial bases of investigation for students planning a dis-
some of the key themes and trends for PR research and
sertation or thesis. You will and should, however, con-
practice. These themes and trends emerge from the con-
tinue to innovate and look for the gaps in this enquiry
tent of this book and the evolving world of communica-
that suit you. Use your interests, insights and enthusiasm
tions and PR practice which it attempts to understand.
to choose topics for research and exploration which you
These themes and trends are by no means compre-
will find exciting and hopefully fulfilling, while also con-
hensive, nor are they isolated: they are linked because
tributing to the growing knowledge and understanding
they reflect the wider issues in the social, political and
of PR and its practice. Good luck.

M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 557 23/03/2017 13:32

 558 Part 4Sectoral considerations
Bibliography
Bernays, E. (1923). Crystallizing Public Opinion. New
York, NY: Boni and Liveright.
Booth, N. and J.A. Matic (2011). Mapping and lever-
aging influencers in social media to shape corporate
brand perceptions. Corporate Communications: An
International Journal 16(3): 18491.
Chen, H., R.H.L. Chiang and V.C. Storey (2012). Busi-
ness intelligence and analytics: from big data to big
impact. MIS Quarterly 36(4): 116588.
Christensen, L.T. (1997). Marketing as auto-
communication. Consumption, Markets & Culture Katz, E. and P.F. Lazarsfeld (1955). Personal Influence:
1(3):197227.
Collister, S. (2015). Algorithmic public relations: Mate-
riality, technology and power in a post-hegemonic
world in The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pub-
lic Relations (pp. 36071). J. LEtang, D. McKie,
N. Snow and J. Xifra (eds). New York, NY: Routledge.
Dahlgaard-Park, S.M. and J.J. Dahlgaard (2007).
Excellence 25 years evolution. Journal of Manage-
ment History 13(4): 37193.
Dahlgaard, J.J., C.K. Chen, L.A. Banegas and S.M.
Dahlgaard-Park (2013). Business excellence mod-
els: limitations, reflections and further development.
Total Quality Management 24(5): 51938.
European Union (2016). About the EU: Countries. http://
europa.eu/about-eu/countries accessed 15 June 2016.
Freberg, K., K. Graham, K. McGaughey and L.A. Freberg
(2011). Who are the social media influencers? A study
of public perceptions of personality. Public Relations
Review 37(1): 902.
Gandomi, A. and M. Haider (2015). Beyond the hype:
Big data concepts, methods, and analytics. Interna-
tional Journal of Information Management 35(2):
13744.
Global Communications Report 2016. New York and Los
Angeles: The Holmes Group/USC Center for Public
Relations, Annenberg.
Grunig, L., J. Grunig and D. Dozier (2002). Excellent
Public Relations and Effective Organizations: A study
of communication management in three countries.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gudivada, V.N., D. Rao and J. Paris (2015). Under-
standing search-engine optimization.Computer
48(10): 4352.
Hallahan, K., D. Holtzhausen, B. van Ruler, D. Veri and
K. Sriramesh (2007). Defining strategic communica-
tion. International Journal of Strategic Communica-
tion 1(1): 335.
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 558
Institute for the Future (2011) Future Works Skills
2020 University of Phoenix Research Institute,
accessed 7th October 2012. http://innovation.itu.
int/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/future-work-skills-
333x440.jpg
Jeffrey, L.M. and M.A. Brunton (2011). Developing a
framework for communication management compe-
tencies. Journal of Vocational Education and Training
63(1): 5775.
Kang, M. (2014). Understanding public engagement:
Conceptualizing and measuring its influence on sup-
portive behavioral intentions. Journal of Public Rela-
tions Research 26(5): 399416.
The part played by people in the flow of mass
communications. New York, NY: The Free Press.
Ketchum (2016). Ketchum Leadership Communication
Monitor. https://www.ketchum.com/special-report/
leadership-communication-monitor-2016 accessed
18 October 2016.
Kim, J.-N., C.F. Hung-Baesecke, S.-U. Yang and J.E.
Grunig (2013). A strategic management approach to
reputation, relationships, and publics: The research
heritage of the Excellence theory in The Hand-
book of Communication and Corporate Reputation
(pp. 197212). C. E. Caroll (ed). Chichester, UK:
Wiley-Blackwell.
Kruckeberg, D. and M. Vujnovic (2010). The death of
the concept of publics (plural) in 21st century public
relations. International Journal of Strategic Commu-
nication 4(2): 11725.
Loebbecke, C. and A. Picot (2015). Reflections on soci-
etal and business model transformation arising from
digitization and big data analytics: A research agenda.
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems 24(3):
14957.
Macnamara, J., M.O. Lwin, A. Adi and A. Zerfass (2015).
Asia-Pacific Communication Monitor 2015/16. The
state of strategic communication and public rela-
tions in a region of rapid growth. Survey results from
23 countries, Hong Kong: APACD.
Markov, A.A. (1954). Theory of algorithms [Translated
by Jacques J. Schorr-Kon and PST staff]. Moscow:
Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Martn-Castilla, J.I., and . Rodrguez-Ruiz (2008).
EFQM model: knowledge governance and competi-
tive advantage. Journal of Intellectual Capital 9(1):
13356.
Mayer-Schnberger, V. and K. Cukier (2013). Big Data:
A revolution that will transform how we live, work
and think. Boston, MA & New York, NY: Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt.
23/03/2017 13:32

Mazzei, A. (2014). Internal communication for employee
enablement. Corporate Communications: An Interna-
tional Journal 19(1): 8295.
McGann, J. and M. Johnston (2006). The power shift
and the NGO credibility crisis. The International
Journal of Not-for-Profit Law 8(2) http://www.icnl.
org/knowledge/ijnl/vol8iss2/art_4.htm accessed 23
October 2008.
Moreno, A., J.C. Molleda, A. Athaydes and A. M. Surez
(2015). Latin American Communication Monitor 2015.
Excelencia en comunicacin estratgica, trabajo en la era
digital, social media y profesionalizacin. Resultados de
una encuesta en 18 pases. Brussels: EUPRERA.
Morris, T. and S. Goldsworthy (2008). PR A Persuasive
Industry? Spin, public relations and the shaping of
the modern media. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Phillips, D. (2015). The Automation of Public Relations:
A perspective on the development of automation
affecting public relations. Woodbridge, UK: BLURB.
Port of Entry (1999). (National Commission on Public
Relations Education). A Port of Entry public rela-
tions education for the 21st century. New York: Public
Relations Society of America.
PRCA (Public Relations Consultants Association) (2016).
PRCA Census 2016. London: PRCA/YouGov.
PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) (2006). Edu-
cation for the 21st Century. The Professional Bond.
Public Relations Education and the Practice, PRSA (2006).
www.compred.org/report/2006. Report of the Com-
mission edited by J. VanSlyke Turk, November 2006.
PR Week (2008) Global growth patterns. PR Week,
25 July 2008 pp. 223. Haymarket.
PR Week (2012) Six trends that define 2012 for the
comms director, PR Week, 7 September 2012
pp. 2831, Haymarket.
Rogers, E.M. and D.G. Cartano (1962). Methods of
measuring opinion leadership. Public Opinion
Quarterly 26(2): 435441.
Schroeck, M., R. Shockley, J. Smart, D. Romero-Morales
and P. Tufano (2012). Analytics: The real-world
use of big data. How innovative enterprises extract Tufekci, Z. (2014). Engineering the public: Big data, sur-
value from uncertain data. https://www.ibm.com/
smarterplanet/global/files/se__sv_se__intelligence__
Analytics_-_The_real-world_use_of_big_data.pdf
accessed 15 June 2016.
Sheldrake, P. (2012). Here comes Web 3.0 and the inter-
net of things in Share This: The social media hand-
book for PR professionals, Waddington, D. (ed.).
Chartered Institute of Public Relations: Wiley.
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 559
Chapter 29What next? Future issues for public relations 559
Stevens, G.W. (2013). A critical review of the science and
practice of competency modelling. Human Resource
Development Review 12(1): 86107.
Tench, R., A. Zerfass, A. Moreno, D. Veri and P. Verhoeven
(2017). Communication Excellence How to Develop,
Manage and Lead Exceptional Communications. Lon-
don: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tench, R. and L. Laville (2014). Role of the public rela-
tions practitioner in Exploring Public Relations, 3rd
edition. (pp. 83120). R. Tench and L. Yeomans (eds).
Harlow: FT Pearson.
Tench, R. and D. Deflagbe (2008). Towards a Global
Curriculum: A summary of literature concerning
public relations education, professionalism and glo-
balisation. Report for the Global Alliance of Public
Relations and Communication Management, Leeds
Metropolitan University, UK.
Tench, R. and J. Fawkes (2005). Mind the gap
exploring attitudes to PR education between academ-
ics and employers. Paper presented at the Alan Rawel
Education Public Relations Conference, University of
Lincoln.
Tench, R. and M. Konczos (2015a). Mapping Euro-
pean communication practitioners competencies A
review of the European Communication Professional
Skills and Innovation Programme: ECOPSI. Pannon
Management Review 4(23).
Tench, R. and A. Moreno (2015b). Mapping commu-
nication management competencies for European
practitioners: ECOPSI an EU study. Journal of Com-
munication Management 19 (1): 3961.
Tench, R., W. Sun and B. Jones (eds) (2014). Communi-
cating Corporate Social Responsibility: Perspectives
and practice. Bingley: Emerald.
Tench, R., P. Verhoeven and H. Juma (2015c). Turn
around when possible: mapping european communi-
cation competences. Studies in Media and Commu-
nication 3(2).
Tench, R., A. Zerfass, P. Verhoeven, D. Veri, A. Moreno
and A. Okay (2013). Communication Management
Competencies for European practitioners. Leeds:
Leeds Metropolitan University.
veillance and computational politics. First Monday
19(7): 116.
Tywoniak, S. (2007). Knowledge in four dimensions.
Organisation 14, 0053-76, cited in Bartlett et al. (2007).
Vachers Quarterly (2005). Dods Parliamentary Commu-
nications March: 216246.
van Ruler, B. and D. Veri (2005). Reflective communi-
cation management: Future ways for public relations
23/03/2017 13:32
 560 Part 4Sectoral considerations
research in Communication Yearbook 29. P.K.
Kalbfleisch (ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Veri, D. and A. Zerfass (2015). The comparative excel-
lence framework for communication management.
Paper presented at the 2015 Annual Conference of the
European Public Relations Education and Research
Association (EUPRERA), Oslo, October 2015.
Weiner, M. and S. Kochhar (2016). Irreversible: The pub-
lic relations big data revolution [IPR Whitepaper].
Gainesville, FL: Institute for Public Relations.
World Public Relations Forum (2005). www.wprf.org,
accessed 22 June 2005.
Zerfass, A. and C. Viertmann (2016). Multiple voices
in corporations and the challenge for strategic com-
munication in Kommunikasjon og ytringsfrihet i
organisasjoner (pp. 4463). K. Alm, M. Brown and S.
Ryseng (eds). Oslo, NO: Cappelen Damm.
Zerfass, A. and N. Franke (2013). Enabling, advising,
supporting, executing: A theoretical framework for
internal communication consulting within organiza-
tions. International Journal of Strategic Communica-
tion 7(2): 11835.
Zerfass, A., A. Moreno, R. Tench, D. Veri and
P. Verhoeven (2008). European Communication
Monitor 2008. Trends in communication manage-
ment and public relations Results and implications.
Leipzig: University of Leipzig/EUPRERA.
Zerfass, A., A. Moreno, R. Tench, D. Veri and
P. Verhoeven (2009). European Communication
Monitor 2009. Trends in communication manage-
ment and public relations. Results of a survey in 34
countries. Brussels: EACD/EUPRERA, Helios Media.
Zerfass, A., A. Moreno, R. Tench, D. Veri and
P. Verhoeven (2013). European Communication
Websites
ECOPSI (European Communication Professional Skills and Innovation) www.ecopsi.org.uk
European Communication Monitor (ECM) www.communicationmonitor.eu
M29 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 560
Monitor 2013. A changing landscape managing cri-
ses, digital communication and CEO positioning in
Europe. Results of a survey in 43 countries. Brussels:
EACD/EUPRERA, Helios Media.
Zerfass, A., R. Tench, D. Veri, P. Verhoeven and
A. Moreno (2014). European Communication Moni-
tor 2014. Excellence in strategic communication Key
issues, leadership, gender and mobile media. Results of
a survey in 42 countries. Brussels: EACD/EUPRERA,
Helios Media.
Zerfass, A., R. Tench, P. Verhoeven, D. Veri and A.
Moreno (2010). European Communication Monitor
2010. Status quo and challenges for public relations
in Europe. Results of an empirical survey in 46 coun-
tries. Brussels: EACD, EUPRERA.
Zerfass, A., B. van Ruler, A. Rogojinaru, D. Veri and
S. Hamrefors (2007). European Communication
Monitor 2007. Trends in communication manage-
ment and public relations Results and implications.
Leipzig: University of Leipzig/EUPRERA.
Zerfass, A., D. Veri, P. Verhoeven, A. Moreno and
R. Tench (2015). European Communication Monitor
2015. Creating communication value through listen-
ing, messaging and measurement. Results of a survey in
41countries. Brussels: EACD/EUPRERA, Helios Media.
Zerfass, P. Verhoeven, A. Moreno, R. Tench and D. Veri
(2016). European Communication Monitor 2016.
Exploring trends in big data, stakeholder engagement
and strategic communication. Results of a survey in
43 countries. Brussels: EACD/EUPRERA, Quadriga
Media Berlin. (Booklet and Chart Version).
Zerfass, A., P. Verhoeven, R. Tench, A. Moreno and D.
Veri (2011). European Communication Monitor
2011. Empirical insights into strategic communica-
tion in Europe. Results of an empirical survey in 43
Countries. Brussels: EACD, EUPRERA.
23/03/2017 13:32
 Glossary
Advertising A form of promotional activity that uses
a totally controllable message to inform and persuade
a large number of people with a single communica-
tion. The message is invariably paid for.
Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) A very crude
measure of media relations performance that is still
cited and relates to a measurement of the column
inches or centimetres devoted to the client or the prod-
uct, and a calculation of the equivalent cost had that
space been paid for as advertising.
Advertorial Bought space in a publication that is
used to print an article written in the editorial style of
the journal to portray a similar feel of objectivity to
the editorial pages.
Agenda setting (by media) Sometimes referred to as
the ability to tell the public what issues are impor-
tant, this is a theory developed by McCombs and
Shaw (McCombs, M. and D. Shaw (1972). The
agenda-setting function of the mass media. Public
Opinion Quarterly 36(2): 176817) that the media
direct public attention to particular issues that fit
news priorities and, in doing so, influence public
opinion.
Alternative target generation Thinking through
alternative target audiences.
Antecedents Something that has preceded, or gone
before, another. Early forms of public relations, or
proto-public relations, are antecedents.
Attitudes When we talk about attitudes, we are talk-
ing about what a person has learned in the process of
becoming a member of a family, a member of a group
and of society that makes him react to his social world
in a consistent and characteristic way, instead of a tran-
sitory and haphazard way. We are talking about the
fact that he is no longer neutral in sizing up the world
around him: he is attracted or repelled, for or against,
favourable or unfavourable (Sherif, M. (1967).
Introduction in Attitude, Ego-involvement, and
Change. C.W. Sherif and M. Sherif (eds). New York,
NY: John Wiley & Sons).
Z01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 561
Belief Commitment to something, resulting from an
intellectual acceptance of its validity.
Benchmark An external or previous reference point
that provides a useful comparison.
Bloggers Individuals who keep a personal weblog
(blog) often reflecting the personality of the author.
(See Influencers.)
Bogof An abbreviated term used in sales promotion
for selling two products for the price of one: buy one,
get one free.
Brainstorming When a group of colleagues get
together to discuss an issue and come up with differ-
ent ideas collectively.
Brand A label that seeks to add perceived value to a
consumer product by generating loyalty or preference.
Brand journalism Journalism produced on behalf of
a brand or any organisation that has contact with the
public. http://www.brand-journalism.co.uk/ (See
Content marketing and Native advertising.)
Business ethics Trevino and Nelson (Trevino, L.K.
and K.A. Nelson (1995). Managing Business Ethics:
Straight talk about how to do it right. New York:
Wiley & Sons) define this as the principles, norms
and standards of conduct governing an individual or
group.
Business-to-business (B2B) The sale of a product to
a manufacturer, a government body, a retailer, a not-
for-profit institution indeed any organisation or
individual for a purpose other than personal con-
sumption.
Capitalism An economic system based on privately
owned businesses producing and distributing goods,
the key features of which are a free, competitive mar-
ket and making a profit from the sale of goods and
services.
Categorical imperative A test that can be applied to
see if it conforms to the moral law. If the action could
be made into a universal law, which would be
23/03/2017 13:33
 562 Glossary
regarded as acceptable if applied to everyone faced
with the same situation, then it would be regarded as
ethical.
Celebrity A person whose name, image, lifestyle,
and opinions carry cultural and economic worth, and
who are first and foremost idealised popular media
constructions (Redmond, S. (2014). Celebrity and the
Media. Houndmills, Palgrave Macmillan). (See
Microcelebrity.)
CEO Chief Executive Officer.
CESR Committee of European Regulators.
Circulation How many copies of a newspaper or
magazine are distributed.
Company propaganda A negative term used by some
journalists to describe positive statements presented by
an organisation about its beliefs and practices.
Complex systems According to Gilpin and Murphy
(Gilpin, D.R. and P.J. Murphy (2010). Implications
of complexity theory for public relations: beyond cri-
sis in The Sage Handbook of Public Relations.
R.L. Heath (ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage), com-
plex systems are made up of multiple interacting
agents. These might be individuals, organisations or
media outlets. It is the interactions between these
agents that bring about fundamental changes to the
system itself. The unpredictable nature of these inter-
actions also creates a dynamic and unstable system.
Content Information and ideas created to interest a
specific target audience.
Content analysis A method of quantifying the con-
tent of textual material.
Content marketing Defined by the Content Marketing
Institute as the practice of creating relevant and com-
pelling content in a consistent fashion to a targeted
buyer, focusing on all stages of the buying process, from
brand awareness through to brand evangelism. (See
Brand journalism and Native advertising.)
Convergence The process of technologies coming
together from different directions. The mobile tele-
phone is the product of the convergence between
telecommunications (sending/receiving messages) and
computers (processing information). Once in exis-
tence, the phone can also be used to combine (con-
verge) further technologies taking photographs
using the mobile phone, for example.
Copy A term used generically by the communica-
tions industries to describe written text for news
Z01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 562
releases, adverts, advertorials, editorials, articles and
in-house newsletter articles, etc.
Corporate culture An organisations values and
practices that underpin its operations; they can be
managed to produce better business outcomes.
Corporate philanthropy An aspect of corporate
citizenship giving something back to the commu-
nity by improving quality of life for local communi-
ties and for employees.
CPD (continuing professional develop-
ment) Acknowledgement in all professions (law,
medicine, accountancy, PR, etc.) of the role of contin-
ued learning and updating throughout the career.
Cub reporter Junior or trainee reporter/journalist.
Cultural norm A pattern of behaviour that is con-
sidered acceptable and legitimate by members of
society.
Culture The property of a group a groups shared
collective meaning system through which its values,
attitudes, beliefs, customs and thoughts are under-
stood. It is a product of the members social interac-
tion while also determining how group members
communicate.
Demographics External differences between p eople
for example, race, age, gender, location, occupational
status, group membership.
Digital divide The lack of access to information and
communication is referred to as the digital divide.
Direct mail Electronic and posted communications
sent to individuals text phone, email, work and home
postal addresses.
Discourse Particular ways of making sense of the
world, communicated, sustained and justified through
language and social institutions.
Dominant coalition The group of powerful individ-
uals within an organisation who control its direction,
determining its mission and goals. It is believed that,
although the decisions they make are good for the
organisations survival, their primary aim is maintain-
ing the status quo, thereby keeping the existing domi-
nant coalition in control. It is not a term most
practitioners would recognise in practice, terms such
as board of directors or senior management would
be used, but the inference is the same.
Downsizing The term used to describe the reduction
in the number of employees working for an organisa-
tion in either full- or part-time positions.
23/03/2017 13:33

Editorial Written text in a journal, magazine or
newspaper that has been written either by a journalist/
reporter or submitted by a public relations practitio-
ner and then reviewed/edited before printing by the
editor or subeditor of the publication. An editorial is
the opposite of advertising, which is bought (paid-
for) space in a publication. An editorial is perceived as
having greater impact because it is endorsed by the
publication.
Employee engagement A workplace approach
designed to ensure that employees are committed to
their organisations goals and values, motivated to
contribute to organisational success and are able at
the same time to enhance their own sense of well-
being (MacLeod, D. and N. Clarke (2009). Engaging
for Success: Enhancing performance through employee
engagement. London: Department for Business,
Innovation and Skills).
Ethics Systematic frameworks that codify moral
principles. The term may also be used to mean the
extension of good management. (See Morals; Values.)
Exclusives Stories that are made available to one
newspaper about issues and people (for example, an
interview with Princess Dianas former butler).
Exclusives are often supplied by public relations con-
sultancies on behalf of their clients.
Financial Regulation of Donations The legal
requirement in the UK that any donation over 200
has to be recorded in a companys end-of-year annual
report and accounts (the financial statement to share-
holders).
FMCG products Products known as FMCG are
typically those we buy from supermarkets and conve-
nience stores branded products from manufacturers
such as Heinz, Kelloggs, Procter & Gamble baked
beans, breakfast cereals, shampoos, etc.
Formative evaluation An evaluation that takes place
during a public relations programme or campaign.
Framing A term which refers to the process of pre-
senting information or arguments to target audiences
in such a way that promotes a particular interpreta-
tion (Entman, R.M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarifi-
cation of a fractured paradigm. Journal of
Communication 43(4): 5158; Entman, R.M. (2007).
Framing bias: Media in the distribution of power.
Journal of Communication 57(1): 16373.). For
example, an extremist group marching through a
town centre can be framed as a right to free speech
or a threat to public safety.
Z01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 563
Glossary 563
FSA Financial Services Authority.
Game theory This theory is based on observa-
tions about negotiation and compromise that dem-
onstrate that many conflicts are based on the
zero-sum principle, whereby for someone to win,
their opponent has to lose. Winwin outcomes are
the result of compromise and mutually satisfactory
negotiation.
Heterophily The difference between speaker and
audience.
Homophily The similarity between speaker and
audience.
Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML) A pro-
gramming language that allows text, graphics, photos,
and even videos to be coded so that they can be
viewed on any computer without the user needing to
have the software in which the content was produced
(unlike most text documents, graphics, spreadsheets,
etc. that require the relevant application to be installed
before they can be opened).
Implementation The phase where a sponsorship
plan, for example, becomes a reality and is put into
action.
Influencers Individuals who communicate infor-
mation and ideas about brands, often through per-
sonal weblogs (blogs) and social media platforms,
and have a large number of followers. (See
Bloggers.)
Interactional see Transformational.
International communication The cultural, eco-
nomic, political, social and technical analysis of com-
munication patterns and effects across and between
nation-states. It focuses on global aspects of media
and communication systems and technologies.
International public relations The planned commu-
nication activity of a (multinational) organisation,
government or international institution to create a
positive and receptive environment through interac-
tions in the target country, which facilitates the organ-
isation (or government) to achieve its business (or
policy) objectives without harming the interests of the
host publics.
Intranets and extranets Special web sites with pass-
word restricted access to provide specialised informa-
tion to internal stakeholders such as employees
(referred to as intranets) and external stakeholders
such as channel partners i.e. distributors and retail-
ers (called extranets).
23/03/2017 13:33
 564 Glossary
Listed A business whose shares are traded on a stock
exchange.
Lobbying The influencing of public policy making
through the private means of meeting MPs, ministers,
civil servants, councillors or local government officials.
Lurkers Internet users who observe and monitor
but do not actively contribute to discussions or con-
tent. Co-founder of the Nielsen Norman research
company, Jakob Nielsen (2006), estimates that up to
90 per cent of internet users are lurkers that is, only
10 per cent are active participants in interactive envi-
ronments. (Nielsen, J. (2006). Participation inequal-
ity: Encouraging more users to contribute. Jakob
Nielsens Alertbox, 9 October. Nielsen Norman Group
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_
inequality.html accessed 28 October 2015.)
Marketing The management process responsible for
identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer
requirements profitably.
Marketing mix The term used to define the four key
elements of an organisations marketing programme:
product, price, place and promotion.
Marketing PR PR as a promotional tool of market-
ing. Content is targeted from business to the consumer
(B2C) or is part of the sales process between busi-
nesses (B2B).
Media Any medium interface or channel that allows
communications messages to flow between senders
and receivers, in both directions.
Media effects The effects that the media has on audi-
ences as a result of the audiences being exposed to the
media and its content.
Mediatisation The process whereby the logic of the
media becomes integrated into social institutions,
including government and business.
Metanarrative An attempt to make sense of the
larger picture, or the wider social environment.
Critical theorists and postmodernists suggest organ-
isations and individuals use metanarratives as over-
arching explanations of the way the world works.
They believe reliance on these stories can prevent
closer examination of reality.
Metric A quantitative measure for evaluating public
relations programmes.
Microcelebrity A mind set and a collection of self-
presentation practices endemic in social media, in
which users strategically formulate a profile, reach out
to followers, and reveal personal information to
Z01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 564
increase attention and thus improve their online status
(Senft 2013) (Marwick, A. (2015). Instafame: Luxury
selfies in the attention economy. Public Culture
21(10): 13760.). (See Celebrity.)
Morals Personal values or principles that guide
behaviour. (See Ethics; Values.)
National Health Service (NHS) The UK National
Health Service (NHS) has become the worlds largest
publicly funded health system. With 1.5 million staff,
this complex system is also the fourth largest employer
in the world.
Native advertising Content which brands directly
pay for on a content distribution platform other
than their own. (See Brand journalism and Content
marketing.)
Neoliberal Neoliberals believe democracy and free-
market capitalism are mutually dependent and that
both are threatened by the growth of state interven-
tion and bureaucracy (the rule of public officials in
their own interests).
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) Groups
without governmental affiliation that have a particu-
lar interest in a subject: for example, charities and
campaign groups.
Objective A clearly defined end-point that the public
relations programme is designed to achieve.
Opportunity analysis The process of identifying
opportunities for sponsorship.
Organisational culture The expression of attitudes
within an individual organisation. This term encapsu-
lates the values and beliefs, and patterns of behaviour
and language, that are the norm for that group of
people, providing a framework of meaning for the
organisation.
Organisational identity The sum total of proactive,
reactive and unintentional activities and messages of
organisations.
OTS (Opportunities to see) The total number of
times, potentially, that a public could be exposed to a
message known in the USA as impressions.
Outcome The ultimate impact of public relations
activity.
Output The immediate product of public relations
activity.
Philanthropy Defined in the Concise Oxford
Dictionary as a love of humankind; practical benevo-
lence, especially charity on a large scale.
23/03/2017 13:33

Piloting Testing a questionnaire among a few people
from the target population to be investigated.
Pressure group Any organised group that seeks to
exert influence on government (at any level) to influ-
ence particular policies or decisions.
Proactive To control a situation, issue or crisis,
rather than responding to something after it happens.
(See Reactive.)
Psychographics Attributes relating to internal differ-
ences between personalities e.g. anxious, approval-
seeking, high self-esteem, etc.
Public diplomacy The process by which a govern-
ment communicates with foreign publics in an attempt
to foster an understanding of its nations ideas and
ideals, its institutions and culture, as well as its
national goals and current policies.
Qualitative research A field of enquiry that aims to
identify, and carry out an in-depth exploration of,
phenomena such as reasons, attitudes, etc. (See
Quantitative research.)
Quantitative research A field of enquiry that aims to
quantify variables such as attitudes or behaviours and
point out correlations between them. Results can be
generalised, which means research that generates find-
ings can be applied to a wider public or situation. (See
Qualitative research.)
Reactive Responding to an issue or crisis rather than
creating or controlling it: for example, a public rela-
tions activity being driven by the demands of others
rather than the plans of the communicators. Sometimes
communicators need to be reactive that is, be able to
respond quickly to situations. (See Proactive.)
Readership The actual numbers reached by written
communications. Note that more people read trade
journals because they are based in an office with one
subscription, which is shared: for example, the
Architects Journal is circulated around the team in an
architects practice, often with comments on relevant
or interesting features/articles.
Representative democracy A system of democracy
whereby people are allowed to vote for somebody to
represent them in government. In the UK, this hap-
pens at local level in council elections and at national
level in the House of Commons.
Return on investment (ROI) The positive value or
contribution that can be achieved by making an invest-
ment in a particular business activity. In marketing
communications terms, this might include the sales
Z01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 565
Glossary 565
resulting from specific, identifiable and measurable
communications activities. For example, 5 million
sales directly attributable to a direct mail campaign
costing 1 million provides a 4 million return on the
communication investment. Although described here
in financial terms, the return might also be assessed
more subjectively by measuring increased brand aware-
ness or improved corporate image resulting from a
range of communications activities.
Rhetoric The study of language and how it is used to
create shared meanings.
Sales promotionShort-term or temporary
inducements for example, price cuts or two-for-one
offers designed to encourage consumers to use a
product or service.
Sampling Deriving a small subgroup of the research
population, frequently designed to be representative.
Scenario planning Involves playing out different
outcomes of a sponsorship, anticipating what could
happen.
Setting the agenda see Agenda setting.
Social marketing The application of commercial
marketing techniques to the analysis, planning, execu-
tion and evaluation of programmes designed to influ-
ence the voluntary behaviour of target audiences in
order to improve their personal welfare and that of
society (Andreasen, A.R. (1995) Marketing Social
Change: Changing behaviour to promote health,
social development and the environment. San
Francisco CA: Jossey Bass).
Sponsorship The provision of money, services, know-
how or in-kind support by corporations or organisa-
tions to individuals, groups or institutions involved in
sports, charities, education or broadcasting, or in cul-
tural and ecological activities. Activities are chosen for
sponsorship based on their ability to project the right
commercial and psychological message that fits in with
the specific corporate goals of a sponsor.
Stakeholder Someone who has an interest (stake) in
the organisation, which may be direct or indirect
interest as well as active or passive, known or
unknown, recognised or unrecognised.
Strategy selection Term used for selecting a sponsor-
ship strategy.
Systems theory The theory that describes how
organisations work in terms of interlocking and inter-
dependent systems of communication, production,
etc. It embraces both the internal and external envi-
ronments.
23/03/2017 13:33
 566 Glossary
Tabloids Small-format newspapers, sometimes referred
to as the popular press, often written in a sensationalist
style and containing a large number of photographs.
Terrestrial Television channels that broadcast from
the UK and not via satellite. Terrestrial channels are
subject to greater regulation than satellite channels.
Triple bottom-line reporting A phrase increasingly
used to describe the economic, environmental and
social aspects that are being defined and considered by
business. These are sometimes called the three Ps
profit, plant and people.
Typology Classifying and dividing things according
to type: for example, in a PR context, working out
the key elements that distinguish one kind of PR prac-
titioner, or activity, from another.
Upward feedback A system of communication that
allows employees to feed back their views to their team
leaders or line managers, and where line managers in
turn feed back these views to senior management.
Vision and values The business practice of identify-
ing an organisations corporate vision where it
wants to go and how it wants to be perceived through
its core values.
Watchdog A term used to describe a body that
monitors behaviour and activities in different sections
of society to protect the consumer or citizen.
Web 2.0 A term which is founded on a radical
reconceptualisation of the user, from consumer of
online products and information produced by compa-
nies to producer of online products and information
that they share with others, including companies.
(Harrison and Barthel Wielding new media in Web
2.0: Exploring the history of engagement with the col-
laborative construction of media products. New
Media and Society 11(1/2): 160.)
Web browsers Desktop applications that enable inter-
net users to view HTML programmed pages hosted on
Z01 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 566
Web servers. The first publicly available Web browser
called WorldWideWeb was written by Berners-Lee and
released in 1991. In 1992, the first widely used Web
browser, Mosaic, was developed at the National Center
for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the
University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)
Weblog A website in the form of a diary, containing
time-stamped articles and frequently linking to sources
and other sites of interest. Weblogs usually reflect the
views of one person or a small group of individuals
and are read generally by a limited number of people
on the internet but are capable of attracting large
readerships through references on other websites.
Webloggers are the individuals who run weblog jour-
nals on the world wide web.
Whistleblower Someone who goes outside the nor-
mal reporting procedures to alert internal senior man-
agers or external sources to wrongdoing, unethical
behaviour or malpractice in the organisation. For
example, employees who tell the public about finan-
cial mismanagement or theft inside an organisation,
or government employees who leak evidence of
wrongdoing such as arms sales to particular regimes,
or government actions that contravene policy or legal
frameworks.
Wicked problems Problems that are unstructured
and difficult to define, cutting across many stakehold-
ers (Weber, E.P. and A.M. Khademian (2008). Wicked
problems, knowledge challenges and collaborative
capacity builders in network settings. Public
Administration Review march/April). These charac-
teristics require fluid problem solving, the application
of many different perspectives, collaboration and
long-term commitment.
Wire service A newsgathering organisation that
distributes syndicated copy (information) electroni-
cally, as by teletype or the internet, usually to sub-
scribers.
23/03/2017 13:33
 Index

Note: Page numbers in bold indicate Glossary entries.

activism 172, 3312 Australia 67, 10, 117, 1612

and public relations 10 authentic company concept 218
and social media 1034 automation of media content generation 312
and the internet 3568 Back Up 482, 4868, 489
see also non-governmental organisations (NGOs) Balanced Score Card approach 408
advertising 4, 3878, 561 banks, loss of trust in 878
Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs) 198, 199200, Barcelona Principles 197210, 540
2778, 561 Barger, John 38
advertorials 382, 561 Barnet & Reef 13
advocacy approach to PR ethics 256 Barnum, P.T. 270
AEG 7, 8 Bartholomew, Don 208
Afghanistan, work of the BBC World Service Trust 76 BASF 7
Africa 6, 9, 15, 116 Baumgartner, Felix 446, 449
agencies Bayer 7
for communication activities 910 BBC 10, 76, 210, 229, 273,275, 277
for public relations 10, 13 Belgium 11
agenda setting (by media) 21, 257, 156, 561 beliefs 2389, 561
Agfa 7 Bell, Lord 2712
AIDS campaign 2345 Bell Pottinger 64, 656, 67, 68, 100
Airbus SAS 122 benchmarking 182, 561
algorithms used to generate media content 312 Bennett, Katherine 122
ALS Association ice bucket challenge 3202 Benoit, William 351, 352
alternative target generation 561 Bentele, Gnter 11
Always #LikeAGirl campaign 1623, 319 Bentham, Jeremy 252
Amazon.com 53, 75 Berlin Wall, fall of (1989) 7, 14
American Express 319 Bernardine of Siena, St 8
American Tobacco Company 229 Bernays, Edward L. 4, 910, 16, 151, 213, 229, 231, 270
Anan, Kofi 75 Berners-Lee, Tim 36, 37, 53
Ancient Greece 5 Big Data 54
Anderson, Chris 273 Bitner, Mary 429
Andreesen, Marc 36 Black, Sam 13
Ansoff, Igor 170 bloggers 22, 389, 44, 155, 371, 561
antecedents of public relations 48, 15, 561 Blood, Robert 484
anti-smoking campaign (UK) 278, 2813 body language 148
Apple 75, 188 bogof (buy one get one free) 388, 561
Arab world, antecedents of public relations 6 Booms, Bernard 429
Argentina 7, 116 Boorstin, Daniel 277, 511, 513
Aristotle 233, 253, 256 Borter, Kilian 415
Ashoka, King 6 bossism in democracy 63
Asia 56, 9 Bouazizi, Mohammed 103
ASICS 456 brainstorming 389, 561
Associated Press (AP) 31 brand 561
Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of brand development 364
Communications (AMEC) 1978, 278 brand journalism 22, 274, 278, 279, 561
attitudes 228, 23944, 561 brand society 213

Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 567 23/03/2017 13:33

 568 Index

branded content 3701 celebrity and society 51213

branded self 515 defining celebrity 511, 562
branding 213, 21822 different celebrity contexts 51921
Branson, Richard 520 practitioners 51719
Brazil 7, 1201 pre-agreed stories or interviews 289
BRICS countries 417 role of PR for celebrities 51112
British Airways (BA) 312 Center for Media and Democracy 230
British colonies 67, 10 Central America 7
British Gurkha Welfare Society 397 CEO 562
British Social Attitudes survey 26 CERN 36
Brokowski, Mark 271, 272 CESR 562
Brown Lloyd James 100 Chakrabarti, Shami 64
Brown, Robert 5 charitable donations 31112, 451, 563
BT 80, 81, 311 charities 15, 24, 152, 153
Buddhism 6 Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) UK 13, 15,
Buell, Katharine 10 667, 113, 1378, 149
Buffett, Warren 80 Chase, Howard 331, 3334
Bulgaria 11415 Cheney, Georges 223
Burke, James 81 Cheong, Cassandra 25
Burson Marsteller 13, 370 China 4, 5, 9, 11, 25, 50, 11617
business Chomsky, Noam 156
adoption of digital and social media 42 Christensen, Lars Thger 223
responses to social and economic change 756 circulation 384, 562
business ethics 8893, 561 citizen journalism 22, 43, 44
Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) USA 310 civil servants, mediatisation 301
Business in the Community (BITC) UK 30911, 315 Clarke, Alison 281
business model of PR consultancy 281 Clarke, Basil 10, 2723
business-to-business (B2B) 561 classic conditioning 2401
business-to-business (B2B) public relations 37891 Clifford, Max 520
building a corporate reputation 38990 Clooney, George 104
coordinating the communications disciplines 3879 closed systems organisations 151
core principles 37980 Coca-Cola 81, 1601, 233, 430, 434
media relations 3804 cocoa industry, child slave labour issue 331, 337
social media 379, 3847 codes of conduct 657
trade publications 379, 3804 codes of practice 2545
Butlers Choice Limited 324 cognitive dissonance 2412
BuzzFeed 45 collaboration and co-production 501
Colombia 100
Cadbury 81, 87, 272, 354 communications
Cadbury Schweppes 31617 colonial communications practices 67
campaign, definition 177 models of 1489
Canada 115 theories in PR 14857
Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 3734 types of aims for 181
Canterbury Earthquakes, communicating landslide risk see also corporate communications
1867 communications technology, mid-twentieth century devel-
capitalism 561 opments 1415
Carlsberg 21920 community groups 24
Carroll, Dave 370 CommunityMark (BITC) 78, 79
Castells, Manuel 103 company propaganda 562 see also propaganda
categorical imperative 91, 253, 5612 complex systems 562
cause-related marketing (CRM) 31621, 452 Confdration Europenne des Relations Publique (CERP)
examples 31620 12
influence on consumers 31821 Confederation of British Industry (CBI) 503, 504
celebrity 511, 562 Confucianism 56, 254
celebrity public relations 51023 consequentialism 91, 252
and the internet 51317 Consultancy Management Standard 14
celebrities as commodities 513 consumer public relations 36276
celebrity and crisis 5212 branded content 3701

Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 568 23/03/2017 13:33

 Index 569

core activities 3668 cost per contact 201

culture of bullshit 366 country profiles, origins and status of PR 11417
danger of prioritising style over substance 3656 CPD (continuing professional development) 123, 562
effects of changes in the marketing field 373 Crimmons, Laura 280
evolution of the media landscape 36872 crisis PR management 34359
future developments in media 3734 and the internet 3568
new PR activities and practices 375 communicating during a crisis 3506
role of PR in the marketing mix 3635 crisis response strategies 3546
shift to owned media 36970 crisis risk score 348
target audience 365 definitions 345
virtual influence 372 development of 3445
content 562 examples 344
content analysis 208, 2367, 562 preparation for a crisis 34850
content marketing 274, 2789, 562 three-stage crisis life cycle 346
content producers 22 value of strategic communications 3456
contingency ethics 253 where crises come from 3468
contra-cultures 98 Critchlow, Julie 153
convergence trend 378, 562 critical approaches to PR ethics 2579
Coombs, W. Timothy 215 critical modernism 901
Co-operative Bank 81 critical path analysis (CPA) 189
copy (for publication) 388, 562 crowdsourcing 50
corporate branding 213, 21822 Crusades 5
corporate communication 492507 CSR Europe 310
and corporate values 496502 Cuadrilla Ltd 393
and image formation 21314 cub reporters 382, 562
and legitimacy of the organisation 4945, 497 cultural context 98
as integrated communications 5027 cultural intelligence (CQ) 100
definitions 4934 cultural norm 562
developing social capital 4957 culturally contextualised PR practice 106
frameworks for practice 4946 cultures 98, 511, 562
in practice 496502 environment for public relations to function 99100
integration and relation between 214 of organisations 287, 298
organisational context 5027 within sovereign states 99
purpose of 4946 Curtis, Pixie 51617
corporate community involvement (CCI) programmes Cutlip, Scott 16
30914 cyberattacks 44
benefits for companies 31014 cyberbole 39, 42
charitable donations 311 cyberbullying 44
developing 3215 cyberoptimism 42
employee involvement 31416 cyberpessimism 42
evaluating 3257
greenwashing criticism 310 Daily Mail 21, 150
key success factors 3278 Davies, David 327
sponsorship 31012 Davies, Nick 277
strategic objectives 325 definitions of public relations 4
corporate culture 98, 100, 298, 562 Defren, Todd 478, 49
corporate identity 21618 degree courses in public relations 13
corporate philanthropy 7980, 4512, 562 deliberative engagement 186
corporate scandals 75, 76 democracy and public relations 6170
corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) 867 future of relationship with PR 70
corporate social responsibility (CSR) 7780, 152, 156 nature of representation 612
business case for 802 potential negative contributions of PR 646
motivations for community involvement 309 potential positive contributions of PR 634
regulatory frameworks 878 PR ethics codes 657
responsibilities to society 837 PRs claim to expertise 6970
responsibilities to stakeholders 826 PRs misuse of Wikipedia 65, 679
see also corporate community involvement programmes relations since the 1980s 62
Corporate Watch 156 roles of media and expertise 612

Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 569 23/03/2017 13:33

 570 Index

democracy and public relations (continued) engagement through social media 41

roles of PR practitioners 612 England, Kim 297
social media 39, 42 Enron 75, 76, 91
demographics 237, 562 environmental activism 3312
Demony, Catarina 488 EPISTLE analysis 171
deontology 91, 2523 equal opportunities 88
Deutsche Post DHL Group 5547 ethical codes 657, 2545
Diageo GB 367 ethical communication 4
dialogue through social media 40 ethical decision-making approaches 8992
Dietrich, Gini 279 ethical dilemmas 90, 24950
digital divide 43, 562 ethical egoism 254
digital media, public relations applications 4653 ethical guidelines 90
digital revolution 36 ethics 563
digitalisation of traditional media 37 and business practice 8893
DiNucci, Darcy 38 approaches to PR ethics 2559
direct mail 363, 562 changing organisational ethics 92
direct marketing 388 conflict between individual and corporate ethics 90
discourse 562 confusion in PR 24950
discourse analysis 148, 2367 PR payments to journalists 25
discourse ethics 253, 254, 257 practitioner perspectives 25961
Disney Corporation 512 professional ethics 251, 2524
Doctorow, Cory 43 PRs misuse of Wikipedia 65, 679
dominant coalition 502, 562 use of social media by PR practitioners 54
Dos Passos, John 10 Europe 78, 1011
dotcom bubble 15 migrant crisis 105
Dougherty, Dale 38 public relations associations 138
Dove 32 European Communication Monitor (ECM) 15, 546,
Dowling, Grahame 214, 215 54853
downsizing 309, 562 European Public Relations Education and Research Asso-
Duncan, Julius 281 ciation (EUPRERA) 12
Dundee Beach Charity Golf Day 1924 Eurozone financial crises 75
Durkheim, mile 251, 255 evaluation of PR programmes 197210
advertising value equivalents (AVEs) 198, 199200
e-democracy 42 Barcelona Principles 197210
e-government 42 basic principles 1901
Earl, Steve 27980 content analysis 208
East India Company 6 cost per contact 201
Eastern Europe 4, 7 formative evaluation 197
eBay 75 objective setting 197, 2012
economic downturns, responses of businesses 756 opportunities to see (OTS) 2001
ECOPSI project 545 outcome evaluation 206, 207
Edelman, Daniel J. 11 output evaluation 2067
Edelman Trust Barometer 88, 2334, 331 quantification of public relations 199201
editorial 2712, 379, 563 real-time analysis 20910
Editorial Services Ltd 10 research methods 2025
education and research in PR 12, 13, 139 return on investment (ROI) 201
ego-defensive behaviour 237 social media analysis 20810
elaboration likelihood model 235 substitution game 198, 199
Ellis, Jim 38 valid metrics guidelines 198
email, development of 37 event management 3678
embargoes on news stories 275 excellence approach to PR ethics 2556
Emmel, Nick 439 exchange theories, role of information subsidies 225
Empire Marketing Board 10 exclusive stories 276, 563
employee engagement 1578, 287, 290, 292, 563 executive pay 76
employee value propositions 2912 expectancy value theory 241
employer brands 2912 expertise, PRs claim to 6970
engagement in public relations 1578 extranets 47, 5634

Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 570 23/03/2017 13:33

 Index 571

Facebook 21, 31, 39, 41, 43, 50, 75, 155, 272, 333, 358, publics 5401
370, 371, 430 specialisation of PR practice 5446
fake news 64 technology 543
Farrow, Mia 104
fax machines 15 Gaddafi, Muammar 100
feminisation theory in PR 1589 game theory 563
feminism and PR 1589 Gandhi, Mahatma 6
feminist approaches to professional ethics 254 Gates, Bill 75, 80
Festinger, Leon 241 genetic determinism 241
filter bubbles 31 geolocation tracking 54
financial centres Germany 4, 78, 9, 10, 1112, 14, 114
importance of activities 413 Gibson, Belle 5212
range of PR roles 41415 Gillard, Julia 237
specialist financial media 41922 Gitelman, Lisa 38, 39
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) 301 glass ceiling problem 1589
financial crises 75, 76 GlaxoSmithKline, Barretstown partnership 89
financial institutions, loss of trust in 878 Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication
financial investor relations skills 129 Management 12, 14, 112
financial public relations global financial crisis 4224
global financial crisis 4224 global principles and specific applications 1013
retail financial markets 41619 global public relations 103, 1046
skills and education required 419 Global Responsible Leadership Initiative 76
wholesale financial markets 41516 global village concept 103
financial regulation of donations 563 global warming 75
financial sector, effects of lack of governance 76 globalisation 104, 172
Fink, Steven 348 GloCal (Global and Local) approach 219
Firefox (Mozilla) 36 Gold Papers (IPRA) 13
First Media Age 37 Goldman Sachs 417
First World War 9 Google 21, 31, 75, 275
Fitzpatrick, George 10 Google Analytics 20910
Fleischman, Doris 9, 15 Google maps, North Korea collaborations 50
Flew, Terry 39 Gore, Al 75, 76
Flynn, Kyla 1302 Government Communication Network (GCN) UK 199
fmcg products 563 Government Communication Service (GCS) UK 197
Fombrun, Charles J. 215, 223 government communications 67
Foremski, Tom 47, 273 governments, influence on media reporting 228
formative evaluation 197, 563 GREAT Britain campaign 182
fourth media revolution 36 Great Depression (1930s) 10
framing 278, 1567, 563 Greece 11
France 114 Greenpeace 10, 3379, 352, 358
Franco regime in Spain 1112 group beliefs, influence on individuals 237
Frankfurt, Harry 366 Grunig, James E. 14, 1512, 21314, 232, 261, 287
Freud, Sigmund 229 guanxi (personal connections) 6
Friedman, Milton 81, 87, 261 Guardian 21
FSA 563 Gummesson, Evert 427
future issues for PR 53857
campaigning and pressure groups 539 H&M 3389, 357
combining big and small data 5567 Habermas, Jrgen 253
education 547 Hales, Graham 437
future trends 54853 Harlow, Rex 4
internationalisation of PR 53940 Harry Fairclough 390
issues of concern 5423 Hartley, John 511
learning from sustainability management 5545 Hatsune Miku 514
media fragmentation 5467 Hawker, Jim 281
postmodern corporate communications 5547 healthcare communication 52636
practitioner roles and professionalism 5434 communication challenges 5278
public relations identity 5412 role of health communicators 5289

Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 571 23/03/2017 13:33

 572 Index

healthcare communication (continued) definitions 2878

social marketing 5326 employee engagement 287, 290, 292
wicked problems 52932 employee motivation 2912
Hearn, Alison 515 evidence-based planning and evaluation 302
Heath, Robert L. 157, 331, 341 functions of 28992
Her Majestys Revenue and Customs (HMRC) 199 history of 2889
Hersheys 337 information gathering approaches 3024
heterophily 234, 563 outcome focus 299301
Hiebert, Ray 14, 16 planning 2929
Hill, John 16 professionalisation 304
Hill & Knowlton 13, 16, 100 social media 2947
historical research into public relations 16 theoretical perspectives 2878
Hoechst 7 international communication 563
Holz, Shel 271 International Communications Consultants Association
homophily 234, 563 (ICCO) 14
The Honest Truth campaign 2035, 208 International History of Public Relations Conference 16
HP Sauce 320 international public relations 1314, 1006, 563
Huffington Post 26 International Public Relations Associations (IPRA)
Hunt, Todd 1512 12, 13, 14
Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML) 36, 563 International Quality in Public Relations 14
international relations, public diplomacy 1068
IBM 42, 81 internet 273
identity 213 and crisis PR management 3568
The Independent 65 creation of 36
image 213 Internet Explorer (Microsoft) 36
and reputation 21415 interpersonal relationships, importance of 56
and the role of public relations 21314 intranets 47, 5634
critical point of view 2234 intrinsic motivation theory 2912
measuring corporate image 2223 Ipsos MORI 26
implementation 563 Iraq 5
impressions (media impressions) 2001 Israel 15
India 6, 116 issues management 33041
influencers 270, 27884, 563 and public policy making 3312
information age 368 Chase and Jones model 3334
information subsidies 225, 63 essence of 3312
information technology, power of 172 expanding beyond public policy 33740
information theory 149 influence of activists 3312
Innis, Harold 38 issue catalyst model 3357
inputs 197 models of 3327
Instagram 51517 origins of 3312
Institute of Public Relations (IPR) 10, 12, 13, 15, 197, 229 undue influence of groups with more
institutional mediatisation 2931 money 3401
instrumental conditioning 241 where issues come from 333, 335
integrated marketing communications (IMC) 42643 Italy 11, 12, 115
benefits from the approach 42930
defining 428 Jacenko, Roxy 51617
identifying target audiences 4347 Japan 6, 11
marketing communication tactics 4379 Jaques, Tony 341
planning process 4304 Jeffrey, Angela 208
role in the marketing mix 4289 John Lewis 4412
targeted approach 429 Johnson & Johnson 81
touch points 43941 Journal of Public Relations Research 16
interactivity of social media 40 journalism and PR
Intercontinental Hotel Group 4578 effects of information subsidies 225
intercultural knowledge 98, 1046 exchange between 225
internal communication 286305 how PR practitioners help journalists 234
choosing effective channels 299301 influence of algorithms 312
competencies and skills required 304 journalistic professionalism 23

Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 572 23/03/2017 13:33

 Index 573

PR paying their journalists expenses 25 McDonalds 81

range of PR information sources 21 MCG 1302
Julius Caesar 5 McGuires input/output matrix 2423
McLuhan, Marshall 36, 38, 103
Kant, Immanuel 91, 2523, 254 media 564
Keen, Andrew 43 agenda setting theories 156
Kelley, Harold 154 how PR practitioners help journalists 234
Kellogg 87 loss of traditional gatekeepers 434
King, Sir Mervyn 76 news management strategies 24
kouhou (widely notify, Japan) 6 range of PR information sources 21
Krinar, Tomo 104 role in human communication 36
Krupp (company) 78 structural relationships with PR 212
Krupp, Alfred 78 media agenda resources 26
media briefings 275
Laswell, Harold, communication analysis model 149, media content, automation of generation 312
23344 media effects 26, 564
Latin America 7, 9, 15 media environments 212
Lee, Ivy L. 9, 10, 16, 151, 272 media framing 1567
Leeds Cares programme 315 media impressions 2001
Lehman Brothers 75, 76 media logic 2931
LEtang, Jacquie 16 media relations 14, 27084
Levers 81 agenda setting 257
Leveson Inquiry 28 evaluating media coverage 2778
liberal feminism 1589 influence of information subsidies 225
Liberty organisation 64 influencers 270
Lidl, in the UK and Croatia 923, 15960 origins and development 2723
Lineal Model of Communication 149 power of PR practitioners 289
listed companies 419, 564 publicity and public relations 2701
lobbying 61, 66, 230, 396401, 564 relations between PR and journalism 2734
and expertise 6970 role in the twenty-first century 27884
influence of information subsidies 245 shift to influencer relations 27884
potentially undemocratic influence 646 the dark side of PR 271
watchdogs 65 use of advertising or editorial methods 2712
lurkers 43, 564 workflow steps for PR practitioners 2747
Media Relations Rating Points (MR2P) 201
M&S 31718, 3256, 333 media spaces, domination by elites 224
MACIE framework 4029 media systems, analysis and comparison 23
MacManus, Richard 38 mediatisation 2931, 279, 564
Macnamara, Jim 186 Melvin, Curtis 50
Maecenatism 451 Merholz, Peter 38
Maersk Line 3857 message co-ordination strategies 24
Maestre, Joaquin 12 metadata 53
Mansell, Robert 43 metanarratives 159, 564
Marconi Company 8 metrics 564
market mix modelling (MMM) 2067 valid metrics guidelines 198
marketing 3635, 564 microcelebrities 51516, 564
marketing mix 363, 564 Middle East 6, 15
marketing PR 4, 14, 427, 564 Miheli, Klemen 104
marketplace theory 256 Mildenhall, Jonathan 43940
Marsh, Charles 232 Mill, John Stuart 252
Marshall Plan 1112 Millennium Development Goals 171
Marwick, Alice 514, 515, 516, 517 misinformation in social media 434
mass communication theories and PR 1557 models of communications 1489
mass media 6, 273 models of public relations 1512
Matrat, Lucien 12 Moody-Stuart, Mark 81
McCarthy, Jerome 429 morals 250, 564
McChesney, Robert 36, 43 Morrisons 156
McCracken, Grant 100 Morsing, Mette 223

Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 573 23/03/2017 13:33

 574 Index

Mosaic web browser 36 O2 80

Mosey, Roger 273 Obama, Barack 46, 3978
motivation in the workplace 2912 Obiang, Teodoro 100
Mubarak, Hosni 100 objective 564
multicultural knowledge 98 objective setting 197, 2012
multicultural public relations, key principles 106 Occupy activist movement 42
Musaveni, Yoweri 100 Odwalla 346
Mysore, Jayanth 50 Oeckl, Albert 13
off-the-record briefing 276
Nally, Margaret 15 Oliver, Jamie 153
NASA, Mars Clickworkers project 50 one-way communication models 149
National Association of Local Government Officers 12 online chat and networks, origins of 389
National Health Service (NHS) 529, 5356, 564 online memorials 358
native advertising 274, 564 online persona management 32
natural rights theory 254 open systems organisations 151
nature/nurture debate 98 operant conditioning 241
Naughton, John 273 opportunities to see (OTS) 2001, 564
NCP (Network Control Protocol) 36 opportunity analysis 564
Neild, Gillian 275 OReilly, Tim 38
neoliberal 517, 564 organisational culture 92, 100, 287, 298, 564
Nessman, Karl 5 organisational identity 564
Nestl 87, 352, 358 organisations
Netherlands 8, 11, 114 approach to using social media 445
neuromarketing 233 as producers of content 22
new media 389 changing ethical practice 92
New Zealand 67, 117, 1867 open and closed systems types 151
news agencies 277 responsibilities to society 837
news management strategies 24 responsibilities to stakeholders 826
news media, relationship with PR 1723 vision and values 75
news releases 275 Orwell, George 229
news reporting, how PR practitioners help journalists 234 OTS (opportunities to see) 2001, 564
newspapers 21 outcome evaluation 2067
Nielsen, Jakob 43 outcomes 197, 564
Nike 87 output evaluation 2078
Nolan Committee 399 outputs 197, 564
non-attributable briefing 276 outtakes 197
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) 24, 64, 152, 172, Oxenham, Simon 2767
47389, 564
activism 153 Page, Arthur W. 16
advocacy and campaigning 4813 Parker, Adam 279
as corporations and superbrands 4845 Parker, George 9
brand, reputation and identity 4834 Parker & Lee 9
communication challenges 477, 478, 481 part-time marketing 427
definitions of 4746 patron saints of public relations 8
getting donations 483 Paul, St 5, 8
importance of knowledge networks 4778 Paxman, Jeremy 278
international development context 477 Pearson 297
nature of the sector 477 peer-to-peer (P2P) communication through social media 42
power of the website 481 Pepsi 233
PR link to fundraising 481, 482 personality and persuasiveness 2378
relationships with donors 47880 persuasion
types and strategies 4746 and PR 2313
non-profit organisations 15, 476 and psychology 23344
non-verbal communication 148 audience perspective 2378
Norway 8, 30 credibility of the source of the message 2334
NovoNordisk 2945 defining 231
Nuba peoples 104 forming and changing attitudes 23944
nudge theory 233 forming and changing beliefs 2389

Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 574 23/03/2017 13:33

 Index 575

nature of the message and its effectiveness 2346 proto-public relations 4, 58

resisting 244 Prussia 7
use of arguments 2356 psychographics 237, 565
various approaches to 2367 psychology, and persuasion 23344
PESO model 279 public affairs 392409
PEST analysis 1701 definitions 394, 395
Peters, Benjamin 38 influence of information subsidies 245
Pew Research Center 26 international perspectives 4012
philanthropy 7880, 564 lobbying 396401
Phillips, Robert 118 MACIE framework 4029
piloting 203, 565 management 4029
Pinhanez, Claudio 38 role within the organisation 3934
Pitcher, George 422 scope of 3946
Plank, Betsy Ann 15 value to organisations 393
pluralism and activism 172 public agenda versus other agendas 267
podcasts 21 public attitudes surveys 26
poetry, importance in the Arab world 6 public diplomacy 1068, 565
policy agenda resources 26 public health campaigns 242
political economy 257 public information campaigns 11
political parallelism in journalism 23 public information model of PR 151
political parties, information resources 26 public opinion, influence of framing and priming 278
politics, mediatisation 301 public policy, definition 395
Porter, Michael 170 public relations (PR)
Portsmouth FC 199, 200 antecedents 48, 15
Portugal 1112 country profiles 11417
postmodern approaches 159, 254, 257, 259 criticism of PR influence on the media 1567
power and influence 108 definitions 4, 113, 11718, 231
power shift towards PR practitioners 289 during the Second World War 11
pre-agreed celebrity stories 289 evolution of 416
press agentry 151, 272 expansion after 1945 1112
press agents 9, 10 expansion in the twentieth century 814
press conferences 275 future of relationship with democracy 70
press market, inclusiveness of 23 models of PR 1512
press releases 275 origin of the term 4, 5
pressure group 4746, 565 restraints on expansion 16
primary research 203 springboards for expansion 1516
priming 27 start of the practice 5
print media 21 study of how it grew 1516
privacy issues in social media 44 worldwide development since mid-twentieth century 1415
proactive 396, 565 Public Relations Consultants Association 14
produsers (producer and user) 38, 401, 501 public relations culture 100
professional bodies 12, 13, 657, 1378 Public Relations Democracy 62
professional ethics 251, 2524 public relations practitioners 11240
professionalisation of public relations 12 as communicators 119, 1214
professionalism 4, 1367 case study (Kyla Flynn, MCG) 1302
professions competencies 1324
codes of practice 2545 continuing professional development (CPD) 123
criteria for PR to be a profession 2512 defining the role of 11819
defining 2501 disciplines that inform public relations 135
history of 250 ethical perspectives 25961
models of 2512 financial investor relations skills 129
programme, definition 177 power shift towards 289
propaganda 4, 6, 10, 11, 14, 151 professionalism 1367
and PR 2289, 231 range of PR jobs 124, 125
and PR ethics 257 role of theory in practice 1346
defining 2301 skills needed 12432
history of 22930 systems theory view of the role 123
prosumers (producer and consumer) 38, 41, 501 who they are 11213

Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 575 23/03/2017 13:33

 576 Index

Public Relations Review (journal) 14, 16 rhetorical theory 157, 256

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) 12, 15, 66, Ries, Al and Laura 272
11718, 2556 Rio Olympics (2016) 75
publicists 9, 10 Roman empire 5
publicity, definition 4 Romania 115
Publicity Bureau of Boston 9 RSS (Really Simple Syndication) 38
publicity stunts 272 Rumsfeld, Donald 1767
publics 4, 169 Russia 25
limitations of PR metanarratives 159
segmentation 1524, 184 Sainsburys 417
typology 151 sales promotions 363, 3889, 565
Puerto Rico 116 sampling 203, 565
Saro-Wiwa, Ken 81, 82
qualitative research 148, 203, 565 scenario planning 565
Quality Assurance (QA) in public relations 14 Scott, D. Travers 39
quan h. (personal network) 6 Seaman, Paul 261
quantitative research 148, 203, 565 search engines 38
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh 499 Second Media Age 37, 39
Queensland Tourism, Best Job in the World campaign 207 Second World War 11
Quorvis Communications 100 secondary research 203
security issues in social media 44
radio 21 segmentation of publics 184
Rama IV, King of Thailand 6 Sehdev, Jeetender 372
ranking lists of organisations 2223 self-efficacy 242
Rapaport, Davina 3857 self-esteem, influence on persuasiveness 237
Rathenau, Werner 8 self-monitoring 237, 238
reactive 396, 565 Semantic Web (Web 3.0) 534
readership 380, 565 setting the agenda see agenda setting
reasoned action, theory of 241 Shandwick 100
recommendation engines 53 Shazam 438
Red Bull 22, 279 Sheldrake, Philip 279
Red Products (RED) 452 Shell 10, 812, 87
regulatory frameworks 878 Shell Guide 448
relational harmony 56 Shiller, Robert 76
relationship management 14, 2567 Siemens, Werner von 8
relationship theories of PR 1504 Siemens AG 7, 8, 102
relationships, use of social media 41 Singleton, Alex 270
relativism in international PR 1001 situational analysis 221
representative bodies 1378 situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) 3467
representative democracy 612, 565 situational theory of PR 1524
reputation 213 situationist ethics 253
and image 21415 SixDegrees 39
building a corporate reputation 38990 SMART goals 2012, 4312, 434
critical point of view 2234 Smith, William Wolf 9
measuring corporate reputation 2223 social business 42
new concepts in corporate reputation 215216 social capital 4957
reputation commons 215, 216 social change, responses of businesses 756
status 21516 social comparison theory 237, 239
stigma 215, 216 social-constructivist mediatisation 29
reputation commons 215, 216 social contract theory 254
Reputation Institute, New York 2223 social exchange theory and PR 1545
reputation management 21822 social identity theory 254
research methods in public relations 139, 2025 social influence theories of PR 1545
Resource Description Framework (RDF) 53 social learning theory 155, 241
return on investment (ROI) 201, 565 social marketing 5326, 565
rhetoric 565 social media 4, 39, 273
rhetorical approach to persuasion 236 and activists in the global village 1034

Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 576 23/03/2017 13:33


and democracy 39, 42
as a research tool 512
bottom-up and side-to-side communication 42
celebrants and sceptics 423
CIPR best practice guide 149
citizen journalism 43, 44
collaboration and co-production 501
colonisation by commercial interests 44
consumers to prosumers to produsers 41
crowdsourcing 50
curating 501
cyberbullying and harassment 44
eight key fundamentals 402
engagement 41
ethical issues for PR practitioners 54
features of social media news releases 478
how PR practitioners are using it 456
influence on production of media content 21
inside organisations 2947
interactivity 40
levels of participation 43
loss of traditional media gatekeepers 43
lurkers 43
many-to-many communication 42
measurement of PR effects 20810
monitoring and analysis 47, 523
monologue to dialogue 40
ownership in organisations 445
peer-to-peer (P2P) communication 42
potential risks and dangers 424, 45
privacy issues 44
public relations applications 4653
range of uses by companies 155
relationships 41
rich media content 50
security issues 44
self-correcting adhocracy 43
social learning effects 155
spread of misinformation 434
the digital divide 43
two-way communication 40
unexpected results of Waitrose campaign 150
use by organisations 29
use in B2B public relations 379, 3847
use of video 50, 51
writing for and in 4850
social media newsroom 48, 49
social networks 39
social organisations 15, 42
social trends, influence on PR 212
social web (Web 2.0) 38
society, organisational responsibilities to 837
socio-cultural theory of PR 15960
soft power concept 108
solar power feed-in tariff cuts 406
Solis, Brian 384
Southwest Airlines 357
Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 577
Index 577
sovereign states 99
Soviet bloc of Eastern Europe 4, 7, 14
Soviet Union 11
Spain 1112
spin, public relations as 271
Spin Watch 156, 230
sponsorship 368, 44567, 565
activation strategies (case studies) 4568
and the community 31012
communicating a sponsorship 4646
definitions 4504
developing a sponsorship strategy 4613
drivers of success 45961
evaluation 4667
future of 467
historical perspective 451
key terms 4467
motivations for 446, 4489
nature and extent of the market 44950
potential benefits for sponsors 45455, 4589
Squire, Irving 10
stakeholders 4, 77, 169, 565
influence of 802
organisational responsibilities to 826
Starbucks 340
state influence on the media 23
status and reputation 21516
stereotyping in PR 159
Steyn, Dr Benita 176
stigma and reputation 215, 216
strategic PR planning and management 16894
changes in news media 1723
effects of pluralism and activism 172
external environment 1704
globalisation issues 172
implications of context 1756
importance of context 16970
internal environment 1745
macro environment 1702
PEST analysis 1701
power of information technology 172
publics 169
stakeholders 169
strategic planning models 170
SWOT analysis 1745
task environment 1734
strategic PR programmes and campaigns 17694
definition of campaign 177
definition of programme 177
importance of planning 177
planning template 17891
scope of PR planning 178
stages in the planning process 17891
systems context of planning 1778
underpinning theories 1778
strategy selection 565
subcultures 98
23/03/2017 13:33
 578 Index

substitution game 198, 199 government propaganda in wartime 11

Sumeria 5 government public diplomacy 107
surveys 2767 influence after 1945 1112
sustainable business, corporate social responsibility (CSR) international public relations 1314
7780 models of public relations practices 910
SWOT analysis 1745 professional associations 12
systematic modernism 901 public relations research and theorisation 14
systems theory 1512, 255, 566 universalism in international PR 1001
upward feedback 566
tabloid press 276, 566 utilitarianism 91, 252, 254
Taiwan 5
Tallents, Sir Stephen 10, 13, 229 value chain 176
TARES test 256 values (corporate) 292, 566
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol and Internet van Riel, Cees 216, 223
Protocol) 36 Vietnam 5, 6
technological determinism 39 VIP facility visit, checklist for main elements 1889
technological trends, influence on PR 212 virtue ethics 92, 253, 256
technology, influence of Web 1.0 15 vision and values of organisations 75, 566
television, changing patterns of viewing 21, 22
terrestrial channels 566 Waddington, Stephen 274, 27980
Tett, Gillian 422 Waitrose 14950
Thailand 6, 9, 11, 14 Washington, George 9
theories of PR 14763 watchdog 566
Thibaut, John 154 function of the media 30
Thomas Cook Sport (TCS) 369 of lobbying 65
The Times Red Box 26 Waugh, Paul 26
Toffler, Alvin 38, 41 Web 1.0, the information age 368
Tosh, John 16 Web 2.0, the social web 38, 566
trade publications 379, 3804 Web 3.0, the Semantic Web 534
Transocean 358 Web browsers 36, 566
triangulation technique 206 Weber, Max 8
triple bottom-line reporting 88, 566 Weber Shandwick 370
Trucott, Tom 38 Weblogs 38, 566
trust website content planning and creation 47
and PR agencies 228 Weiss, Maja 104
loss of public trust in institutions 878, 2334 whistleblowers 88, 92, 566
Turner, Graeme 51112, 513 White, Dr Jon 113
Twitter 39, 41, 155, 273, 430 wicked problems 52932, 566
Two-step Communication Model 149 WikiLeaks 44
two-way asymmetric communication model 151 Wikipedia 41, 434
two-way communication models 14950 misuse by PR 65, 679
two-way symmetric communication model 151, 152, 255 Wilder, Robert 10
typology of PR 1512, 566 Willcox, Daryl 278
Williams, Beckie 333
U2 188 Wilson, Kirtland 10
Uber No Kid Hungry campaign 322 wire service 566
UK Uncut 340 women in public relations 15
Unilever 90, 319 glass ceiling problem 1589
Union Carbide 351 negative stereotype 159
United Kingdom 4, 8, 9, 10, 114 world wide web, creation of 36
after 1945 1112 WorldCom 75, 76
GCS evaluation programme 523 writing for and in social media 4850
government propaganda in wartime 11
key facts about public relations in 113 YouGov 26
professional associations 12 Youn, Breanna 516
United Nations Global Compact 76, 102, 30910 YouTube 39, 50,155, 273, 358, 370, 3712
United States 4, 11516
Department of Defense public affairs function 105 Zuckerberg, Mark 520

Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 578 23/03/2017 13:33

Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 579 23/03/2017 13:33
Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 580 23/03/2017 13:33
Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 581 23/03/2017 13:33
Z02 Exploring Public Relations 12183.indd 582 23/03/2017 13:33