Those affected by catastrophic events like hurricanes are burdened with the task of preparing for and responding to the threats of harm in addition to dealing with the emotionally taxing process of ...consuming and sharing disaster-related information. However, little is known about how threats and emotions during natural disasters impact media usage for information seeking and sharing. This study examined the relationship between the perceived threat of disasters (including disaster severity and involvement recognition), negative emotions, and information seeking and forwarding/sharing via different types of media. We surveyed over 600 adults in U.S. counties impacted by Hurricane Florence in 2018. Our findings show that negative crisis emotions mediated the relationship between threat appraisals and information seeking and sharing behaviors. In our discussion, we suggest how disaster/emergency communication professionals can prepare and respond to disasters by knowing how emotions influence individuals' communicative behaviors.
► This study tested if levels of Twitter interactivity affected the quality of organization–public relationships. ► Findings of this exploratory study suggest that an organization's level of Twitter ...interactivity influences relationship quality. ► Organizations should modify their Twitter accounts based on followers’ interaction needs.
Social media sites such as Twitter provide organizations with the ability to interact directly with publics. Previous research has suggested that web-based relationship building is dependent on the level of organizational interactivity with web technology, or how the organization uses the technology to engage with its publics. This study tested if levels of organizational Twitter interactivity affected the quality of organization–public relationships. Findings suggest that an organization's level of Twitter interactivity influences relationship quality.
Audiences for messages divide attention among a variety of media outlets, sources, and venues. Such segmentation creates a challenge for message creators to (re)engage audiences’ attentional ...capacities. This research investigates how domain elites may curate emergent attentive publics for public affairs content by engaging in processes of domain crossing to potentially redirect audience attention. Conceptually, we contribute to historic and contemporary understandings of how societal leaders attempt to build engaged and attentive publics for their messages. Methodologically, we employ large data and network analytic methods to study the creation of emergent publics online around a pseudo-event. We illustrate how leader-directed domain crossing could overcome audience challenges in a fragmented media ecology.
•Uses the multi-stakeholder issue network perspective to consider challenges international civil society networks may face.•Examines social capital within an international network using primary ...data.•Finds that social capital is significantly influenced by partners’ core-periphery positions.
Scholars have theorized that public relations contributes to societies and communities by bringing attention to pressing public issues and fostering social capital in civil society networks. However, the extant research has studied civil society networks of NGOs, donors, and the media in transitional countries. This study extends the public relations model of civil society in two ways. First, it broadens the scope to an international context. Second, it draws from the multi-stakeholder issue network perspective to conceptualize a civil society network as a space where stakeholders of an issue mix their interests as they collectively address a pressing public issue. The literature on international and multi-stakeholder networks suggest that the international scope and the mixing of interests across sectors may restrict the production of social capital. The results from the social network analysis suggests that the mixing of interests across sectoral and geopolitical boundaries did not restrict the production of social capital. Rather, the patterns of the relationships among those on the core and those on the periphery of the network restricted the production of social capital. Such finding demonstrates how public relations’ functions like relationship building can have profound influences on social capital and civil society networks. The implications for public relations theorizing and research are discussed.
The pervasive of COVID-19 information has driven some to escape daily conversations or media coverage. A rich set of theoretical discussions and empirical studies help explain why individuals avoid ...health risk information, but few studies have explored social network antecedents to information avoidance. This study investigates how personal discussion networks about COVID-19 shape individuals' information avoidance behaviors. Using a nationally representative sample (N = 1,304), we examined the effects of network size, heterogeneity, ego-alter dissimilarity, and social norms. Our results suggest that the four network variables had varying effects on different forms of information avoidance. Notably, social norms significantly predicted individuals' information avoidance. The theoretical and methodological implications of our findings are discussed.
The 21 st century has been named “the age of networks” (Van Dijk, 2012, p. 2). Globalization, connected communication infrastructures, and the existence of global networks wired with a capitalist ...logic are pillars of our networked society (Castells, 2004, 2007). Indeed, networks have existed throughout human history but our awareness of networks and their importance is especially piqued with recent advance in communication technologies. Today, communication processes are less dominated by traditional media systems, instead they are shaped by porous informational networks among social and legacy media, and publics (Bennett, Segerberg, & Yang, 2018). For organizations of all sizes, a large portion of their communication now occurs in complex networks, and the communication outcomes, to a varying degree, also depend upon networks (Doerfel & Taylor, 2017; Doerfel, 2018; Monge & Contractor, 2003). The same is true among individuals. For individual publics and stakeholders, their communication with each other and with organizations occurs through networks (Rowley, 1997; Sommerfeldt & Yang, 2017). Scholars across strategic communication subfields have increasingly recognized the interconnectedness of organizations, messages, stakeholders, and publics.With this backdrop, this introduction to the special section provides a context for the following papers and develops an organizing framework for future network research in public relations. We first provide a brief introduction of the social network perspective. We then identify key areas in which a network perspective can expand and potentially revolutionize public relations theory and research. We further call for public relations scholars to embrace the network paradigm. Finally, we briefly introduce the papers included in this special section.
Social media can offer strategic communicators cost-effective opportunities to reach millions of individuals. However, in practice it can be difficult to be heard in these crowded digital spaces. ...This study takes a strategic network perspective and draws from recent research in network science to propose the network contingency model of public attention. This model argues that in the networked social-mediated environment, an organization’s ability to attract public attention on social media is contingent on its ability to fit its network position with the network structure of the communication context. To test the model, we combine data mining, social network analysis, and machine-learning techniques to analyze a large-scale Twitter discussion network. The results of our analysis of Twitter discussion around the refugee crisis in 2016 suggest that in high core-periphery network contexts, “star” positions were most influential whereas in low core-periphery network contexts, a “community” strategy is crucial to attracting public attention.
•Foundational publications in engagement research do not mention engagement.•Prominent publications focus on a specific type of engagement.•“Communities” reveal distinct patterns in the study of ...engagement.•Engagement research is tied to ethical communication and relationships.
Researchers and practitioners assert that engagement is a fundamental element of public relations with some claiming the field is in an era of engagement. Yet, many have lamented that engagement is disorganized and conceptually murky. To address this, this study examines how researchers have stood on the shoulders of “giants”. Results from the bibliometric network analyses of 91 journal articles and over 3000 citations reveals the structure of the invisible college of engagement research and identifies foundational and prominent publications. A close reading and analysis documents how these publications are influencing the theoretical development of engagement research in public relations.
Megachurches have a reputation for savvy use of digital media; however, little is known about their advertising strategy or which strategies elicit engagement. By assessing megachurches' promotional ...content on social media, this study draws on the devotional campaign framework to examine audience-centric engagement strategies: God-Congregant, Church-Congregant, and Intra-Congregational. The quantitative content analysis of Facebook and Instagram posts from 15 megachurches in five countries revealed that megachurches used the combination God-Congregant & Church-Congregant engagement strategies, as well as the singular Church-Congregant engagement strategy, the most often. Yet, audiences engaged significantly more with posts using the God-Congregant engagement strategy when compared to all other strategies. The use of engagement strategies and engagement received on posts varied according to geographical location and cultural differences, suggesting there may be a cultural aspect to what earns engagement from followers. Advertisers looking to increase online engagement should focus their efforts on persuasive messages that include the object-audience engagement strategy. This study advances advertising theory on engagement by suggesting that engagement is contingent upon the engagement strategy utilized as well as the specific region's norms around the brand and community.
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) increasingly utilize social media for strategic stakeholder engagement. This study proposes a network-oriented theoretical framework to understand how NGOs’ ...engagement with complex networks of stakeholders on the global refugee issue varies as the issue moves from low to high public attention stages. We draw from research on multistakeholder issue networks and issue niche theory and analyze a large-scale Twitter data set containing tweets from hundreds of organizations from more than 30 countries. This cross-national, longitudinal study tracks issue evolution and NGOs’ tie formation patterns among themselves and with complex stakeholders (i.e., government and media) as public attention to the refugee issue increases. The results of our exponential random graph models (ERGMs) show how cross-sector stakeholders interact dynamically and how different issue identities position NGOs uniquely in issue niches as the issue evolves. We also find that organizations’ country-level homophily influences tie formation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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