Conversations The Institute for Public Relations is an independent nonprofit that bridges the academy and the profession, supporting PR research and mainstreaming this knowledge into practice through PR education.

Archive for February, 2012

Putting the Global Policy Journal on Your Reading List

By: Toni Muzi Falconi on Tuesday, February 21st, 2012 at 7:53 am

As members of the global public relations community, we sometimes ruminate amongst ourselves.  But out of shyness, arrogance or distraction, we fail to circulate thoughts outside our own, more comfortable, friendly and ‘politically correct’ intellectual environment. We also tend to resist the explicit inclusion in our work of arguments, concepts or methods that come from other intellectual environments.  This overall approach is clearly at odds with the core sense of our field of study or practice. The Global Policy Journal is a sophisticated interdisciplinary publishing venture based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and linked to the ...

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So, Where Did AVEs Come From Anyway?

By: Tom Watson on Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 at 8:37 am

In a Five Minutes With … discussion a year ago, Professor Tom Watson of Bournemouth University in England mentioned that he was researching the history of public relations measurement and evaluation, with a particular interest in the source of AVE – Added Value Equivalence – which he called a “persistent weed”. Next month, Tom will be presenting a paper on his AVE research at the International Public Relations Research Conference at the University of Miami (March 8-10). In this Conversations contribution, Tom investigates where AVE came from, and finds some surprising answers. David Geddes — It is quite astounding that AVE has persisted for so ...

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Should Public Relations Professionals be Allowed to Edit Wikipedia Articles?

By: Marcia W. DiStaso on Monday, February 13th, 2012 at 7:45 am

To explore current public relations/communications practices with Wikipedia, I’m conducting a survey sponsored by the Arthur W. Page Center. My goal is to explore current engagement with Wikipedia and identify what changes are necessary. I started researching Wikipedia in 2006 with Marcus Messner, Virginia Commonwealth University, and we have been arguing for years that public relations professionals should monitor their Wikipedia articles. Our 2010 study found that the negative content in corporate Wikipedia articles increased from 2006 to 2008 to 2010 and articles were becoming less focused on historical information and more on legal issues and controversies. Given our findings and the ...

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Three Things Research Teaches About Crisis Response

By: Frank Ovaitt on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 at 10:01 am

There is quite a lot of science in crisis response to go with the art. I was interviewed a few weeks ago (along with PRSA Chair Gerry Corbett and Council of Public Relations Firms’ Senior Vice President Matt Shaw) by The Business Journals for an article on “How to respond to bad publicity.” The three tips at the bottom of the article come right from what research teaches us about crisis response: “If you act fast, you have a better chance of controlling the story and the outcome. “Treat employees, community leaders and officials as key contributors to helping you solve the ...

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Resources for Public Relations Educators for Teaching Research, Measurement, and Evaluation

By: Julie O'Neil on Monday, February 6th, 2012 at 9:22 am

As a public relations professor who teaches a research and evaluation course, I know firsthand the challenge of keeping up with research, measurement, and evaluation developments in public relations.  New and improved digital metrics keep emerging.  Clients and organizations are demanding greater accountability from communication initiatives. Public relations professionals and clients are advocating for the adoption of standardization in measurement and evaluation. Research approaches must be cost-effective, aligned with organizational goals and strategy, and actionable. Frankly, I consider the research and evaluation course to be one of the most rigorous and important courses in the public relations curriculum. To ensure that ...

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