1,720,966 research outputs found
Radical research as research at the roots: Practitioner self-image, public relations and ethics
No full textSemantically, radical derives from ‘radix’, the Latin for root. This paper argues that little public relations research goes back to the roots of actual practice and addresses this neglect through a project focusing on practitioner accounts of their work. When considering public relations ethics, practitioner self-images and cultural values become an essential research component. In addressing this neglected area of research, this paper examines the subjective perceptions of public relations practitioners regarding their role, commitments, and responsibilities within the framework of their specific culture and national history. In considering practitioner testimonials about professional integrity, briefs, and goals, especially as members of the society and nation to which they belong, the paper engages with ethical aspects of the practice from a cultural perspective that assumes different cultures can have different ethical expectations. In revealing the impact of features that are often ‘taken for granted’ in one country, the paper uses the example of four generations of practitioners who served one major institution in Israel to suggest how similar research at the professional roots in other nations might enable knowledge of international similarities and difference in relation to ethics in action
The adoption of communication technologies by the Aotearoa New Zealand public relations industry: Social media and artificial intelligence
No full textPurpose of research
This research aims to explore the factors that challenge or enable the adoption of new communication technologies by Aotearoa New Zealand's public relations industry. More specifically, it investigates the adoption of social media and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, identifying associated ethical issues. The research will use past experiences of adopting social media to provide important lessons for today’s adoption of AI and highlight the importance of proactive learning, responsible experimentation, strong ethical frameworks and securing a place for public relations voices in technology policy discussions.
Design and methodology
Semi-structured interviews were conducted to detect senior professionals’ experiences and insights regarding the adoption of both social media and AI. Interviewees were selected based on their years of experience, allowing the researcher to ensure a comparison between the adoption of social media and the current adoption of AI. This meant participants had to have at least 14-15 years of experience. Based on the interviews’ content, the researcher created a questionnaire, which was distributed to 3,010 Aotearoa New Zealand public relations professionals through the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand’s newsletter. In addition, the researcher directly contacted 16 public relations professionals known to the researcher in Aotearoa New Zealand and posted the survey through the researcher’s LinkedIn page which reached 418 other LinkedIn members.
The survey questionnaire and interviews guideline were designed to gather data on public relations professionals’ initial understanding of social media, as well as their organisations’ initial attitude, how their social media policy was created and how they currently used social media in their work. It also sought to understand the current adoption trends of AI by gathering information and attitudinal perceptions from the respondents’ organisation, their opinions on AI, if their organisation had an AI policy, their involvement and if they had used AI in their work, as well as any future opportunities they see if adopting AI.
The major question the guide this study was:
What are the factors that challenge or enable the adoption of new communication technologies by the public relations industry?
Findings
Social media blurred the boundaries between personal and professional identities, creating new ethical and reputational considerations for public relations professionals. Social media expanded public relations responsibilities to include real-time engagement, content creation and analytics. AI has the power to enhance productivity, however the need for upskilling and training as AI becomes more prominent in communication workflows is crucial. There are explicit knowledge and skills gaps related to AI, particularly in areas such as ethical use, content verification and integration into strategic communication. Public relations pracitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand feel underprepared for AI’s rapid evolution, and there is limited access to formal training tailored specifically to public relations applications, due to organisational barriers, unclear policies and resistance to change.
Originality/value
This research is original in its dual focus on the adoption of both social media and AI in the public relations industry, using the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory as a unifying analytical framework. While previous studies have examined these technologies separately, this research is among the first to compare their adoption patterns side by side, offering a longitudinal perspective on how public relations professionals in Aotearoa New Zealand, respond to digital transformation over time. The study uniquely highlights the parallels between past and present adoption behaviours, revealing recurring organisational hesitations, generational divides and evolving role expectations. It also contributes new insight into current AI knowledge and skills gaps, which have yet to be comprehensively addressed in existing public relations scholarship. By drawing on real-world practitioner narratives, this research adds depth to theoretical understanding and offers practical implications for how the profession can better prepare for emerging technologies
Expanding financial communication: Investor relations, crowdfunding, and democracy in the time of fintech
Get PDFThis thesis studied financial communication in the context of a globalised, technologized, and financialised world. It arose from two seemingly opposite trends in practice and in academia. In practice, not only are technology and finance becoming more pervasive on their own, they are also merging as fintech, which is further disrupting financial and social practices. In academia, financial communication, more commonly, if incorrectly, known as investor relations, does not connect with these realities. While the trends in practice hold the promise of making profound impacts in democratising finance and promoting egalitarianism, their neglect in academia not only does a disservice to the practice but also threatens to further segregate and lower the poor reputation of public relations, which is the umbrella discipline that contains financial communication.
Accordingly, the thesis attempted to bring financial communication closer to practice and to make an original contribution to knowledge by examining financial communication in the context of fintech. Specifically, it sought answers to the following two research questions: (1) What is the current state of academic research on investor relations and financial communication? and (2) In what ways could investor relations and financial communication integrate crowdfunding to their practice and research to further democratise finance and contribute to a fully functioning society?
The thesis with publication includes four publications – three published journal articles and one book chapter (in press) – and each arose from a research project relevant to the overall theme. These projects identified how financial communication continues to be academically insular and disconnected from technology. Their findings also suggested how individually and in concert, by incorporating fintech and crowdfunding, financial communication can open up ways that benefit both practice and research.
The thesis also found evidence that crowdfunding has the potential to improve financial democracy across the globe. For it to harness that potential, however, the thesis proposes that financial communicators become advocates for increasing financial literacy and inclusiveness for individuals and for the greater good of the society. The function should not only provide tangible results for businesses but also expand and re-focus on building communities and on re-balancing power. The thesis argues that the online environment of crowdfunding and fintech with new players and rules needs researchers to change.
The change means researchers need to re-examine the nature, characteristics, scope and impact of communication, to look outside of their own discipline to add resources, to diversify their approaches, and to go beyond the traditional organisation-centric orientation of investor relations and public relations. In so doing so, financial communication will also be advancing the movement for improving the academic and social reputation of public relations. The thesis concludes that what financial communication has not been able to accomplish today can also serve as a fertile ground for future research directions
Social marketing in Aotearoa New Zealand: Analysing its evolution to inform, improve, and justify its future
Get PDFPlotting the evolution and experience of social marketing in Aotearoa New Zealand, this thesis charts a creative landscape of productive future research directions in the field.
Starting with the question, “What can the social marketing discipline learn from the unique experience of social marketers in Aotearoa New Zealand?”, the research draws from appreciative inquiry interviews with 20 experienced social marketers and reviews of relevant government documents and published commentaries. Analysis of the findings sparked three substantive papers included in this thesis by publication: two of these have already been published, and one is currently being revised for resubmission. Presented in chapters four to six, the three papers analyse the growth and decline of social marketing in Aotearoa New Zealand; the overlapping functions of social marketing and public relations; and the incorporation of indigenous communities’ values into social marketing.
1. The growth and decline of social marketing
In an original developmental framework for social marketing in Aotearoa New Zealand, the first of the three papers tracks four phases through four different governments as follows: (1) Foundation (1984-1990); (2) Establishment (1990-1999); (3) Growth (1999-2008); and (4) Decline (2008-2017). The research found that political support is key to enabling ongoing social marketing contributions to social change and argues for the development of an evidence base for effective communication to political decision-makers to attract such support.
2. Public relations, reputation and social marketing
In identifying the strong interdisciplinary nature of social marketing in Aotearoa New Zealand, the second paper focuses on the intersections of public relations, marketing, advertising and health promotion. It illustrates how local definitions of, and practices within, social marketing draw from different disciplines.
Social marketing has also been shaped by the nation’s founding document, Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi). The Crown’s revised principles of Te Tiriti offer further opportunity to improve social marketing through indigenous autonomy, partnership, active protection, equity and options.
3. Decolonising social marketing through an indigenous lens
The third paper tackles the question: can social marketing address health inequity between Māori and non-Maori? It deals with this question in the context of the international shift in social marketing away from a focus on individual change to a focus on societal and social change. The paper’s findings support an ongoing critical analysis of social marketing from an indigenous worldview.
Conclusions
Overall, the thesis looks at the impact of political ideologies on the function of social marketing and makes novel suggestions on how social marketing academics and practitioners can attract political support. It calls for increasing interdisciplinarity to engage effectively with contemporary issues and encourages social marketers to search for “soul” in organisations.
The thesis also identifies indigenous Māori culture as a potential inspiration for social marketers to improve their interactions with indigenous people in Aotearoa New Zealand as well as across the globe. It recommends that future social marketing interventions not only be informed by indigenous worldviews but also be led by indigenous communities involved from the planning stages
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Deliberative democracy and government public relations in a deeply divided society: Exploring the perspectives of Government Information Officers in Northern Ireland
Get PDFNorthern Ireland since its establishment after the partition of Ireland in 1921 has been a deeply divided society and a region riven by periods of violent conflict, most notably the ‘Troubles’ (1968-1998). In recent years a peace process attempted to reconcile the societal divisions and, in respect to formal politics, the Good Friday Agreement (1998) produced a new constitutional settlement based on consociational governance in Northern Ireland. In Western European states some sort of majoritarian democratic system is the norm and thus most studies of government public relations (PR) and political communication by Western scholars focuses on majoritarian parliamentary or presidential government systems. The role of government communication specialists within mandatory coalitions has received little attention from scholars, despite the fact that consociationalism is increasingly prescribed as a solution to deeply divided conflict ridden societies across the world. Drawing on data from elite interviews this chapter analyses perspectives on government PR from Government Information Officers' (GIO) alongside that of the other key actors with whom they regularly interact in Northern Ireland’s government-media communicative sphere - ministerial Special Advisers (SpAds) and political journalists. The communicative interactions between these groups are discussed within broader debates about government public relations in democratic societies and in particular in relation to theoretical work on communication and deliberative democracy. We also assess how the comparatively unique consociational political system, designed to produce a functioning democratic government in a deeply divided society, impacts on government public relations in Northern Ireland’s public sphere. Finally, we conclude with some reflections on the role government PR could play in deploying ‘bridging rhetoric’ to help Northern Ireland move toward a more authentic deliberative democracy
Professional competition and cooperation in the digital age: A pilot study of New Zealand practitioners
No full textFrom early on, competition between professions has been identified as a major factor in the process of developing public relations as a profession. This paper updates consideration of the influence of inter-profession disputes by examining the interplay between public relations and advertising in the digital age. It attempts to assess how new technologies, especially social media, affect the relationships between them, with particular reference to two aspects: whether social media increases, or decreases, professional cooperation (or competition); and who takes charge in the new communication environment. In researching these issues, which form an important part of the professionalization process of public relations, the paper examined documents and online publications, and undertook interviews and a survey of public relations practitioners in New Zealand. The findings suggest that the responding public relations practitioners were not able to take advantage of the social technology in order to leverage their professional status and improve their position within the organization. In addition, it seems that while advertising and public relations are still looking for ways to benefit from social media, both are still in a process of adaptation
1Malaysia: 'People first, performance now'. a critical perspective on the nation building approach in Malaysia's government public relations.
No full textSince independence in 1957, government public relations in Malaysia has strived to accommodate needs and expectations of multiple ethnic groups to avoid discontentment and prejudices that would put social stability at stake. In Malaysia all ethnic groups have equal rights to practice their cultural values rather than being absorbed into the mainstream (dominant group). Malaysia framework of pluralistic society resembles Berry’s (2011) multiculturalism view that holds pluralism as a resource rather than a problem. This perspective also emphasises that supportive policies and programmes are crucial to uphold inclusivity. Strategic government public relations has been employed since the British colonial rule in Malaysia in 1876 (at that time known as Malaya) to maintain the status quo. Similarly, the Malaysian leaders used government public relations extensively during the pre and post-independence to unite ethnic groups and to win public support. A major challenge for government public relations in Malaysia is the need to meet the expectations of multiple constituents that at times compete which one another. This study argues that government public relations in a pluralistic society should focus beyond two-way symmetrical communication between government and rakyat (citizen). The readiness to negotiate and compromise among the multiple constituents that make up the social landscape in the country is also imperative for the prevention of racial divide
Book review: Social marketing in the 21st Century
No full textThis article reviews the book: “Social marketing in the 21st Century”, by A.R. Andeasen
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