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329 Is the Action Suited to the Word? How Public Relations and Other Related Terms are Portrayed in International Newspapers Tina Carroll McCorkindale Cal Poly Pomona [email protected] Lynn Gregory University of Vermont [email protected] Shakespeare’s Hamlet (2003) in Scene II said, “Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.” Prior research has found that public relations, defined by Hickson as the management of credibility, may have a credibility issue itself (cited in Stacks, 2002). Pincus, Rimmer, Rayfield, and Cropp (1993) found journalists indeed have negative perceptions of public relations professionals. One of the influences of this negative perception may be the media. Jo (2003) found a close relationship between the negative connotations of the term public relations in network news and newspapers to the organization type. However, studies have not addressed other euphemisms of public relations, such as corporate communication, and have not looked at the use of the term public relations beyond a national scope. This study will utilize a content analysis to explore the use of the terms public relations and its counterpart, corporate communication, to determine differences in its contexts and usage in three international English-speaking newspapers: The New York Times, The Financial Times (London), and The Daily Yomiuri (Japan). Perceptions of Public Relations According to Morley (1998), many organizations believe “anyone can do PR,” which has slowed the acceptance of public relations as “an important business discipline within countless companies and in the business community at large.” Pincus, Rayfield, and Ohl (1994) point out that understanding the current perceptions of public relations in certain influential areas such as business schools is a starting point to examine the future shape of public relations. Moreover, Morley (1998) suggests an important barrier in public relations may be people use the term to be synonymous with “publicity” or “propaganda.” Prior research has investigated the negative perception of public relations in business schools (Pincus, 1994; Carroll 2000; Williams, 1996). However, little research exists that has investigated the causes of these perceptions. Relating to business schools, Pincus (personal communication, 1999) said when references are made to public relations, they are generally inaccurate, misleading and/or derogatory in nature. Therefore, Pincus said the term public relations is relatively missing from the bigger discussion of “communications” as popularly defined in business schools. Instead of using the term public relations, Pincus suggested a title or label should be used that attracts business schools and that recasts public relations into a context that truly fits into the business mentality. Edelman Worldwide (1993) provided nine suggestions for improving the understanding of public relations in business schools; however, changing media perceptions was notably absent. Few research studies have analyzed the use of the term public relations in the media. Henderson (1998) analyzed articles published between January 1995 and December 1996 in the New York Times and other periodicals to determine negative connotations of the term public relations in the print media. She found the majority of references were negative and inaccurate while only a small portion, less than 10 percent, were positive. 330 Jo (2003) investigated the connotations of the term public relations in both newspapers, such as the New York Times, and on major television networks. Using Hutton’s six frameworks (persuasion, advocacy, public information, cause related, image-reputation management, and relationship management), Jo found similar results to Henderson’s 1995 study. Twelve percent of the mentions were positive, more than 40 percent were negative, while the remaining mentions were neutral. However, some aspects of public relations may be described by other terms or euphemisms. Many other titles are used, especially referring to an organizational department, such as corporate communications, public affairs, corporate relations, reputation management, public information, and media relations, just to name a few. Derogatory terms include flack and spin (Wilcox, Cameron, Ault, & Agee, 2003). While the term public relations may have perception issues, other terms such as corporate communication may be different and its use more appealing. Theoretical Basis Grunig’s four models of public relations help to explain the behavior of public relations organizations and individuals, and also offer guidance for best practices (L. Grunig, J. Grunig, & Dozier, 2002). The four models of public relations are: publicity/press agentry, public information, two-way asymmetrical communication, and two-way symmetrical communication. The first two models, publicity/press agentry and public information, are traditional one-way practices whose purpose is to support activities of other departments, such as marketing. Public relations practitioners who perform the publicity/press agentry model generate favorable publicity for the organization, while keeping unfavorable publicity out (Dozier, Grunig, & Grunig, 1995). According to Grunig and Hunt (1984), practitioners in this model “spread the faith of the organization involved, often through incomplete, distorted, or half-true information” (p. 21). Evaluating a program’s success in the publicity/press agentry model includes focusing on outputs, such as counting the number of people who attended an event. The public information model views communicators as “journalists in residence” who neutrally disseminate information, without acting as advocates or mediators (Dozier, L. Grunig, & J. Grunig, 1995, p. 208). Accurate information is disseminated but unfavorable information is not volunteered. In these one-way models the practitioners give information, but do not seek information from the organization’s publics through research (Grunig, 1989). Evaluation in the public information model includes keeping a clipping file to determine the success of a program (Dozier et al., 1995). The next two models are two-way communication models, which use formal or informal research to gather information about publics and to share that information with management. The two-way asymmetrical model uses information to manipulate or persuade publics to behave as organizations want them to behave (Dozier et al., 1995). This is why the model is asymmetric because the effects of the model are imbalanced in favor of the organization (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). The asymmetrical model also utilizes attitude theory, in which the public relations practitioners analyze research to tailor the information in ways the publics would most likely accept, generally through an attitude change (Dozier et al., 1995). Evaluation in the two-way asymmetrical model includes performing research before and after the program to detect attitude changes. The two-way symmetrical model emphasizes a change in the attitudes and behaviors of both the organization and its publics (Dozier et al., 1995). The public relations practitioner acts as a mediator to develop a mutual understanding between the organization and its publics. 331 Practitioners use tactics such as bargaining, negotiation, and strategies of conflict resolution to change ideas, attitudes, and behaviors of both groups (Grunig, 1989). Before starting a public relations campaign, surveys or informal research are generally conducted to determine the attitudes or behaviors of the organization and its publics. Research also should be performed to determine how much the organization and its publics understand each another, in which case the co-orientational model is useful. According to Dozier et al. (1995), even though symmetrical practices build the best long-term relationships with publics, practicing these models regularly can be very expensive. Grunig and Grunig (1992) stated each of his four Grunig’s models could be a normative theory for public relations, and Grunig’s two-way symmetrical model “should be the normative model for public relations” (p. 291). Grunig (1989) said the four models of public relations “are representations of the values, goals and behaviors held or used by organizations when they practice public relations” (p. 29). Method This study investigated the use and context of term public relations and expanded Jo’s (2003) study to include the term corporate communication in three international newspapers: The New York Times, the Financial Times (London), and The Daily Yomiuri (Japan). Jo’s (2003) study used Hutton’s (1999) six frameworks, but there may be some degree of overlap of the terms. Therefore, this study will use Grunig’s four models of public relations in place of Hutton’s frameworks. A search of Lexis-Nexis from January 2005 to December 2006 found significantly more mentions of public relations (n = 3752) in articles than corporate communication (n = 216). The Daily Yomiuri had only three mentions of the term corporate communication in the two-year sample. Using a systematic random sample, 311 articles were selected for analysis from a population of 3968 articles. If a study mentioned a term more than once, the first three uses of the term were coded. Jo’s (1993) study removed the use of the terms public relations agency, public relations firm, and public relations manager. However, mere mentions may impact the perception of the terms especially dealing with executive or upper management promotions in major newspapers. Therefore, this study will include all mentions of public relations and corporate communication. Latent content coded included the type of article, the connotation of the term, context in which the word was used, model of public relations used, whether the article was image control, and type of story. Type of article related to the desk where the article was published, such as business/financial, world, sports, etc. Connotation of the term was coded as positive (accurate meaning of public relations such as good PR or PR success), neutral, and negative (dilemma or failure of reputation management such as PR fiasco, spin, PR nightmare). Context in which the word was used included whether mention related to politicians, nonprofits, business organizations (which include corporations), and so on. Grunig’s four models of public relations (press agentry model, public information model, two-way asymmetrical, and two-way symmetrical) were also coded. However, it should be noted if the mention was simply identification or information, it was coded as part of the public information model. The coders also determined whether or not an article tried to reactively improve the image of a person or organization. Finally, whether the article was hard news, soft news, or an opinion/editorial was determined. 332 Manifest content included the date of the article, column, page, and word count. An openended analysis of the term such as the phrasing or use of the term (e.g., head of corporate communications, public relations exercise) was also conducted. Intercoder Reliability To test for intercoder reliability during the pretest, two coders coded the same 20 articles. Differences were discussed and clarifications were made. Results This study examined differences of the terms corporate communication and public relations found in three international newspapers: The New York Times, The Financial Times (London), The Daily Yomiuri (Japan). Concerning the type of article, soft news/feature was the most frequent (65%), followed by straight/hard news (28%) and editorials (7%). The two terms were used most often in relation to individuals (51%) followed by business organizations (26%). Of the three newspapers, the term public relations in news stories had more negative connotations (24%) than corporate communication (1%). Term comparisons Table 1 demonstrates differences between the connotation of the term (positive, neutral, or negative) and the term itself (corporate communication or public relations). A chi-square analysis found significant differences amongst the terms and connotation. While there were no differences between the two terms and their positive connotations, there were significantly more negative occurrences with public relations (n = 42) compared to corporate communication (n = 1). Significant differences were also found between the terms and Grunig’s four models as indicated by a chi-square analysis (see Table 2). Most uses of corporate communication were present in the context of the public information model (88%). However, corporate communication (2.2%) had significantly fewer occurrences of the press agentry model than public relations (35%). Twenty-five percent of public relations occurrences were negative compared to less than one percent of corporate communication. When the relationship between the term and whether the subject of the article was reactively trying to improve its image was analyzed, significant differences were found (Table 3). Again, corporate communication (7.3%) was mentioned significantly less in articles that tried to improve an image compared to public relations (27%). Newspaper comparisons Differences among the three types of newspapers (The New York Times, The Financial Times (London), and the Daily Yomiuri) were analyzed using chi-squares (see Table 4). While the use of either term was similar between the New York Times and The Financial Times, The Daily Yomiuri had only three mentions of corporate communication in 2005 and 2007. There were not significant differences between the connotation of the term and the newspaper. TABLE 1 Term and Connotation of the Term Positive Term Public Relations Corporate Communication Total Note. Χ2(2) = 35.68, p < .01 n 18 15 33 Neutral % 10.3 10.9 10.6 n 114 121 235 % 65.5 88.3 75.6 Negative n % 42 24.1 1 .7 43 13.8 Total n % 174 100 137 100 311 100 333 TABLE 2 Term and Grunig’s Four Models Press Agentry Term Public Relations Corporate Communication Total n 53 3 56 Public Information % 30.5 2.2 18.0 n 104 117 221 % 59.8 85.4 71.1 Two-way asymmetrical n % 6 3.4 17 12.4 23 7.4 Two-way symmetrical n % 7 4.0 0 0 7 2.3 Note. Χ2(4) = 58.08, p < .01 TABLE 3 Term and Presence in article to reactively improve image Yes Term Public Relations Corporate Communication Total n 47 10 57 No % 27.0 7.3 18.3 n 127 127 254 % 73.0 92.7 81.7 Total n % 174 100 17 100 311 100 Note. Χ2(1) = 19.89, p < .01 TABLE 4 Term, Connotation of the Term, and Newspaper Positive Term The New York Times Public Relations Corporate Communication Note. Χ2(2) = 22.8, p < .01 The London Times Public Relations Corporate Communication Note. Χ2(2) = 29.8, p < .01 The Daily Yomiuri Public Relations Corporate Communication Note. Χ2(2) = .617, p = .74 Neutral Negative n % Total n n % n % % 6 2 10.7 3.8 33 51 58.9 96.2 17 0 30.4 0 56 53 100 100 7 13 13.0 16.0 28 67 51.9 82.7 19 1 35.2 1.2 54 81 100 100 5 0 7.8 0 53 3 82.8 100 6 0 9.4 0 64 3 100 100 Discussion and Conclusion This study examined the use of the terms, public relations and corporate communication, in three international newspapers: The New York Times, The Financial Times (London), and the Daily Yomiuri (Japan). This content analysis expanded Jo’s (1993) content analysis which only analyzed the term public relations in national newspapers and broadcast stations. Findings indicate the term public relations was more likely to have negative connotations and be used in a press-agentry sense compared to corporate communication. In addition, articles were more likely to use the term public relations when trying to improve their image than corporate communication. Corporate communication was more than likely used in a positive sense and used to describe company positions compared to public relations. This supports 334 O’Dwyer PR Services Report’s finding that the most common term that described the public relations function in Fortune 500 companies was corporate communication (cited in Wilcox et. al, 2003). Examples of some terms of how public relations was used include public relations hangover, public relations firestorm, public relations disaster, public relations campaigns, etc. Corporate communication was more likely to identify a position such as head of corporate communications. Other uses of corporate communication include phrases such as corporate communications world and corporate communications market lead. There were also several mentions of corporate communications as a descriptor of a telecommunications company. Based on the above findings, negative views of the term public relations were overwhelmingly prevalent in the three newspapers compared to corporate communication. Future research should investigate other terms such as public information or reputation management, to name a few. Therefore, users of the term public relations should further analyze its use in case they may have to engage in a corporate communication campaign themselves. References Carroll, T. (2000). How public relations is perceived and taught in MBA programs: A survey of business school professors. Master’s thesis. Dozier, D. M., Grunig, L. A., & Grunig, J. E. (1995). Manager’s guide to excellence in public relations and communication management. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Edelman Worldwide. The importance of public relations in graduate business programs. May 1993, 6. Grunig, J.E., & Hunt, T. (1984). Managing public relations. New York: CBS College Publishing. Grunig, J. E. (1989). 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