Research Conversations The Institute for Public Relations (IPR) is an independent nonprofit foundation dedicated to the science beneath the art of public relations™ focusing on research that matters to the practice.
Public Relations in the Age of Dialogue: From the Arab Street to Wall Street, A New Conversation Begins
I write this post from Dubai, where the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) has invited me to speak at a conference called ‘Public Relations in the Age of Dialogue.’ There’s much symbolism here: a great global city, in a region at an extraordinary crossroads between tradition and modernity, hosting a dialogue about a profession undergoing a similarly profound transition.
This change is not limited to the public relations or communication profession. It pervades almost every organization and society – autocratic or democratic — as we adapt to an age in which both internal and external publics have unprecedented access ...
Numbers Add Up For PR History Conference
Twenty countries represented by 36 papers on the history of public relations shows that this “niche” area of study is becoming an important field of research. That’s the basic math of the abstracts for this year’s International History of Public Relations Conference to be held at Bournemouth University in England on July 11-12.
The submissions were the highest so far in the three years the conference has been running. This year, we have a rich range of subjects but the one that has caught my interest is a cluster from the US on ...
Merck Chief Communications Officer Joins IPR Board
I’m very pleased to welcome the latest addition to the IPR Trustee Class of 2014. Adele Ambrose, Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, Merck, becomes our 44th Trustee.
At Merck, Adele leads the Global Communications organization, responsible for the company’s internal and external communications with key audiences including the news media, employees, the financial community, other specialized stakeholders and the general public. Prior to joining Merck in 2007, Adele was a corporate officer and executive vice president, public relations and investor communications, for AT&T Wireless, a newly public company with 21 million customers. Before that, she was vice president of ...
The Case for Standards in PR Measurement
I’ve been on the front lines of PR measurement for over 10 years in my role at General Motors. In that time, I’ve sat through more vendor pitches than I care to remember and watched many squirm uncomfortably as I poked at the black box that is their particular proprietary methodology.
To make matters worse, everyone has their own definitions for what you would think would be common terms so you truly have to poke and prod to make certain that you know what each vendor’s system is actually measuring . As an example of the lack of clarity in definition, ...
Congress Investigates PR: Will It Like What It Sees?
As the public relations industry grows in size and stature, it is coming under increasing scrutiny by the public, media and government. But not all scrutiny is bad, especially if it helps broaden the understanding of a profession and advances its role and value.
Twice in the past year there have been investigations into public relations spending by the federal government. The most recent was launched in late February by Senator Claire McCaskill (D–Mo.) and Senator Rob Portman (R–Ohio), who have triggered a wide-ranging investigation of the federal government’s use of public relations and advertising services. At the initial stages of ...
Brain Research, Creativity and Public Relations
IPR Trustee Rob Flaherty turned my attention to Jonah Lehrer about a year ago. Lehrer, the author of “How We Decide” and “Imagine: How Creativity Works” (due out next week), writes about neuroscience. Last weekend, his essay in The Wall Street Journal hinted at what’s to come in the new book.
Creativity is a skill, says Lehrer, and one that anyone can learn. Some creative challenges require a burst of insight, some a slog. Fortunately, numerous studies show that the human brain is remarkably good at figuring out what kind of creativity is needed.
If you suspect you can find the ...
Crisis Communications Research: Assumptions vs. Proof
If you follow the work of crisis communications scholars such as Tim Coombs, perhaps you too have wondered about assumptions versus proof. How much of what we take for granted about effective crisis response is supported by empirical evidence? Is there more to go on than the war stories of crisis veterans, as important as stories can be to professional learning in public relations? Thus, I was drawn to a title in the latest issue of PR Journal : “Tell It All? Challenging Crisis Communications’ Rules” by Jo Robertson, D.Sc.
A very readable literature review establishes that the prevailing body ...
Putting the Global Policy Journal on Your Reading List
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 ...
So, Where Did AVEs Come From Anyway?
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
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It is quite astounding that AVE has persisted for so ...
Should Public Relations Professionals be Allowed to Edit Wikipedia Articles?
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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