Journal of Public Relations Research

Berger, Bruce K.

2001 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1302_1

This research examines attempts by the Business Roundtable (BRT) to influence federal policy agendas regarding four private issues (i.e., policy issues not salient on media and public agendas). BRT's information subsidies are studied along with media coverage, public opinion, and policy agenda developments. Results suggest that BRT uses information subsidies to control the scope of issue conflict and that these subsidies influenced the policy agenda for study issues. Corporate influence on private issues may alter the traditional agenda-setting process, and an alternative, elitist model is proposed.

Chay-Nemeth, Constance

2001 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1302_2

This essay revisits the concept of publics. It explores the notion of a public as a political site in which an economy of power plays out. More specifically, a public is conceived as a locus in which material resources and discourses are appropriated and exchanged among participants to effect social and political transformation or to maintain the status quo. Foucault's archaeology and Strauss and Corbin's grounded theory were used to analyze 3 data sets: 136 news articles, 20 United Nations AIDS reports, and 14 in-depth interviews with various organizations related to the HIV/AIDS issue in Thailand. Based on the analysis, 3 historical conditions--resource dependency, discursive connectivity, and legitimacy--were used to frame a typology of four publics: circumscribed, co-opted, critical, and circumventing publics.

Aldoory, Linda

2001 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1302_3

Focus groups and interviews were held with women from various ethnic, class, educational, and sexual backgrounds to explore antecedent factors that may characterize involvement, a key variable in the situational theory of publics. Findings revealed that a consciousness of everyday life, source preference, self-identity, a consciousness of personal health, and cognitive analyses of message content influenced involvement with health messages. Public relations practitioners can use findings to better tailor health messages to specific needs and lifestyles of different women.