Tag Archives: public relations

Facebook Use by Organizations During Crises Helps Public Image, MU Study Finds

PR professionals can improve public attitudes by communicating through Facebook during times of crisis

COLUMBIA, Mo. ­— Social networking sites have become incredibly popular in recent years, with Facebook now ranking as the third most popular website in the U.S. With so many people spending so much time on Facebook, public relations professionals are using the site more and more to communicate to the public. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri School of Journalism have found that posting public relations information on Facebook during a time of crisis can improve the overall image of the organization that is experiencing the crisis.

Seoyeon Hong, a doctoral candidate in the MU School of Journalism, along with co-author Bokyung Kim, a professor at Rowan University and former doctoral student at MU, created two fictional universities and gave participants news stories about organizational crises each university was experiencing. After the participants read the news stories, she measured their attitudes about each university and how severe they thought the crisis was. She then showed the participants Facebook posts from the universities’ main Facebook accounts which gave additional information and messages directly from the universities. Hong then measured the participants’ attitudes a second time and found that following the Facebook posts, attitudes toward the universities were significantly more positive than before participants read the posts. She also found that participants felt the crises were less severe following the Facebook posts.  Hong believes these findings show the positive impact Facebook can make in crisis management efforts. (more…)

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Keep Your Public Relations Fresh as a Daisy

Is your organisation’s public relations practice stale? Or maybe it’s dead? If you are not taking advantage of good PR, then you are missing out on big opportunities for growth. Not only that, but you are probably failing the responsibility you owe to your stakeholders. Good PR means taking your organisation’s presence in the community seriously. Do a good job and keep it fresh.

Do you have a plan?

What is your public relations plan? Is it organised? Is it written down? Do you have a coherent strategy? If you can’t answer these questions, then you have work to do. This work will translate into better opportunities for your organisation. Good PR software is a great place to start because it gives you a platform to work upon instead of starting from scratch. Also, it prompts you to think about areas you might have overlooked. (more…)

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Emotional News Framing Affects Public Response to Crises, MU Study Finds

COLUMBIA, Mo. – When organizational crises occur, such as plane crashes or automobile recalls, public relations practitioners develop strategies for substantive action and effective communication. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that the way in which news coverage of a crisis is framed affects the public’s emotional response toward the company involved.

Glen Cameron, the Maxine Wilson Gregory Chair in Journalism Research and professor of strategic communication at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, along with Hyo Kim of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, studied the reactions of news readers when exposed to a story about a crisis. One group read an “anger-frame” story that blamed the organization for the crisis. Another group read a “sadness-frame” story that focused on the victims and how they were hurt by the crisis. Cameron and Kim found that those who read the “anger-frame” story read the news less closely and had more negative attitudes toward the company than those exposed to the “sadness-frame” story. (more…)

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Going to War: The Relationship Among the Media, the Public and the President

*In a new study, journalism associate professor Shahira Fahmy found the media and presidential agenda had only a limited influence on public concern for the war with Iraq. Public concern influenced how much space former President Bush devoted to issues on his Iraq war agenda, and the press also had some limited influence on the issues stressed by the president.*

Only four months after Sept. 11, 2001, former President Bush identified Iraq as a member of the “axis of evil,” a problem, which if gone unchecked, would endanger the nation’s freedom and security.

As part of the public relations buildup before going to war with Iraq, the former president explained that the Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for more than a decade. He said this is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world. (more…)

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