Institute for Public Relations

The Institute for Public Relations (IPR) Board wants to redouble our focus on research, tracking even more toward topics that matter to the practice:  providing timely insights and applied intelligence that leaders in our field can put to immediate use. In this post and another to follow, I want to share our research direction broadly with IPR’s supporters and followers.  Please consider this your invitation to join the conversation and help set our course. THREE KINDS OF RESEARCH Dr. Jim Grunig has praised the Institute for supporting three kinds of research:  in public relations, on public relations and for public relations.  Jim’s ...

This is David Geddes, chair of the Institute for Public Relations Commission on Measurement and Evaluation. Today I am talking with Seth Duncan, Research Director at WCG, a global communications company providing integrated marketing, public relations, creative and interactive services. Seth, to begin, why should web analytics be part of the toolkit of PR professionals today? Web analytics are important for PR professionals because of two quickly accelerating trends. First, people are starting to rely heavily on their mobile devices for accessing news and information. This means that readers leave a traceable digital footprint every time they read a ...

While some companies in crisis suffer horrendous consequences, others skate by with a bad quarter or two.  Why? In Japan, it may depend on the type of crisis, according to new research by Koichi Kitami of Hokkaido University.  In a paper presented at the 14th Annual International Public Relations Research Conference (see page 481 of the proceedings), the author explored the relationship between corporate scandal as reported in the media and market evaluation compared to expected stock values in Japan from 1992 to 2007. The author sorted 70 scandals into four quadrants.  The horizontal axis reflected whether the transgression ...