Journal of Public Relations Research

Reber, Bryan H.; Cropp, Fritz; Cameron, Glen T.

2001 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1303_1

Long considered adversarial, relationships between public relations practitioners and lawyers were analyzed via Q methodology and depth interviews. Subjective attitudes were measured regarding strategies in dealing with the public in times of organizational crisis and how the individuals viewed their professional counterparts. Analysis employed concepts central to coorientation theory. Lawyers more accurately projected the public relations response than vice versa. Relationships seem to be all-important, and the proverbial law-public relations conflict may have taken on nearly mythic proportions.

Callison, Coy

2001 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1303_2

Through a 2 × 2 factorial experiment (N = 141), information source type (public relations spokesperson or generic spokesperson) and message topic (client-neutral and client-negative) were varied to determine whether they affect audience perception of source credibility. Results suggest public relations professionals and the organizations they represent are perceived as less credible than unidentified sources and their employers. Also, sources and their sponsors communicating organization-negative news are perceived as less credible than those communicating client-neutral information.

Terry, Valerie

2001 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1303_3

Specialized groups of public relations practitioners, such as lobbyists, have gone unstudied in extant public relations role research. This study takes an alternative methodological approach in this important research line by delving into the human aspect of public relations practice from an interpretive perspective rather than a functionalistic one. This study attempts to put a human face back on public relations practitioners by exploring what motivates them. Thirty-seven former and current lobbyists based in Austin, Texas, were interviewed. Fantasy themes embedded in the homo narrans, or stories, that lobbyists recounted about their jobs compose the data analyzed. Burke's 7 offices of human motivation supply the interpretive framework. How this interpretation dovetails into and informs classic research on practitioner role models also is examined. Lobbyists seem to enact all 5 of the Broom and Smith original role models while they are particularly inspired to serve and to teach their clients in the public policy-making process. Fundamentally, lobbyists personify both manager and technician and embody all 7 motivational dynamics in their public relations practitioner role performance.