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Chapter 7 Technological Development and Online Public Relations Key Terms Applications of Online Media Relations Dialogic Communication Discursive Resistance Technology and PR • Online environment as focus. • New tools for listening and communicating to publics. • Potential for two-way communication. Key Terms: Basics • • • • • • • • • Internet World Wide Web Web site E-mail Instant messaging Blogs Wikis Really simple syndication (RSS) Listserv Key Terms: Commerical • • • • Flickr Twitter (micro blogs) Facebook YouTube Online Technology and PR • Two categories. – Sender-oriented: deliver content – Receiver-oriented: listening Sender-oriented • Focus on creating information for others (pushing your content). – Web sites – Wikis – RSS Receiver-oriented • Ideal for listening to others (follow content others have created). – blogs – listservs – chat rooms – discussion groups – social media Unique Aspects of Online Tools • Interactivity • Linked potential Interactivity • Asynchronous interaction • Real-time interaction Active Nature of the Internet • People actively search for information. • Links facilitate searches. • Links permit jumping from one document/location to another. • Easy to find related information. Example of Linked Potential • Early 2009 had an extensive peanut butter recall. • News stories would provide links to groups involved including: – Food and Drug Administration – American Peanut Council (a trade group) – Manufacturers of jarred peanut butter – Peanut Corporation of America (company responsible for the recall) Applications of Online PR • • • • Online media relations. Buzz marketing. Potential for dialogic communication. Potential for power acquisition. Online Media Relations • Driving forces: – Journalists visit web site to collect information – People use search engines to find information – Bloggers are form of online journalism Social Media News Release • • • • Online version of traditional news release. Maximize search engine hits with text. Provide links to additional information in text. Make it easy to link the news release to other sites. • Offer RSS for news releases. Online Newsroom • Archive of news releases and other information journalists might want. • Make it searchable. • Make it easy to navigate. • Fits with how journalists now gather information. Bloggers • Some bloggers are influential. • Organizations now pitch bloggers with stories. • Many sources of advice for “how to” and “how not to” pitch bloggers. • Oddly, paying for blog coverage is an option. Buzz Marketing • Online venue for word-of-mouth (WOM). • Now easier to spread WOM with online tools. • WOM is powerful. – Positive helps – Negative hurts Basic Dynamics of Buzz • • • • • Also called viral marketing. Allow your publics to spread the messages. Publics share it with one another. Like a virus it spreads from person to person. PR person lacks control over if it will spread and how it will spread. Buzz Can Be Bad • Negative messages can appear online and spread: – Post on discussion boards – Attack web sites – Blogger comments – Unflattering video on YouTube Misapplications of Online PR • Intimidate people into closing critical (attack) web sites. • Offer to edit Wikipedia entries for money. • Must allow free flow of information, a cornerstone of PR. Potential for Dialogic Communication • Dialogue, people interact with an eye toward reaching a mutually satisfying resolution (Kent & Taylor, 1998; 2002). To Maximize Interactive Potential Online communication should: • utilize dialogic principles • provide useful information to visitors • encourage return visits • provide an intuitive interface • keep visitors on the site by not providing links to other web sites (Kent & Taylor, 1998) Five Tenets of Dialogism • Mutuality: collaboration between the parties involved. • Propinquity or engagement: an immediacy and willingness to communicate. • Empathy: supportiveness and recognition of the other. • Risk: vulnerability created by shared information. • Commitment: willing to keep engaged in the process (Kent & Taylor, 2002). Potential for Power • Internet provides potential for powerless constituencies to build their power. • Other constituencies, including corporations, begin to listen when the once marginalized and powerless constituencies have power (Coombs, 1998; Coombs & Holladay, 2007; Heath, 1998) Internet Contagion Theory • Organizational leaders prioritize constituents. • Only have time and resources to deal with high priority constituents. • Power is critical to prioritization along with legitimacy and urgency. • Powerless become marginalized (ignored). • Internet can be used to build power and raise priority of constituents. How Internet Creates Power • • • • Internet is low cost communication tool. Offers multiple channels for reaching others. These connections are a power resource. Online communication can be used to: – Disseminate information – Recruit supporters – Mobilize supporters for action Internet as Site of Resistance • Multiple unfiltered news sources offer new perspectives and information. • Marginalized have a place to speak and potentially be heard by others. Discursive Resistance • Discursive resistance “is a process through which text, oral, nonverbal communication, and other forms of meaning-making are employed to imagine alternatives to dominant power structures” (Wood & Smith, 2001, p. 169). Discursive Resistance and PR • Traditional channels marginalize some voices, even when they engage in PR. • Online PR can be discursive resistance for the marginalized. • Such discursive space must be preserved. Constituency Churn • Constituency churn is when members of a constituency actively oppose an organization and seek to attract others to support their cause. • Churn occurs when there is a gap in what constituencies expect from an organization and how an organization behaves. Constituency Churn • Typically viewed as threat. • Can help organizations adapt and improve. Reflection Points • • • • What dangers do bloggers present? Does it matter that bloggers are untrained? What should be in a blogger code of ethics? Is PR simply recreating media relations, including claims of corruption, online? • What is flogging and how does it hurt those who use it? Reflection Points • What does it mean that dialogic communication is more potential than reality online? • Does the online failure of dialogic communication mean it will never really be widespread in PR? • How does the Co-Operative Bank use dialogic communication? Reflection Points • Why are some efforts of the marginalized to build power viewed as threats? • How does the digital divide impact online PR? • Is the online environment better for listening to others or presenting one’s own message?