Journal of Public Relations Research

Kim, Jeong-Nam; Ni, Lan

2013 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2012.723276

Through a review of related research programs within the behavioral, strategic management paradigm in public relations, this article integrates the use of formative and evaluative research in two types of public relations problems. Aiming to propose a theory-driven guiding procedure for public relations practice, this article first defines 2 different kinds of public relations problems and proposes new ways of using existing theories (situational theory and relational theory) for both formative research (focusing on identification of publics) and evaluative research (i.e., assessment of public relations effectiveness using the most appropriate metrics).

Kim, Hye Kyung; Niederdeppe, Jeff

2013 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2013.739100

This study investigates how both positive and negative emotions relate to stakeholders' attributions of crisis responsibility, relational trust, and willingness to engage in crisis-related information seeking from the organization. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data obtained from a survey of 429 students in a university that experienced a large H1N1 influenza outbreak. Students felt several positive emotions more frequently than negative emotions during a flu pandemic. Crisis responsibility was associated with both negative and positive emotions, and these emotions were significant mediators between crisis responsibility and both relational trust and willingness to seek information from the organization in a crisis. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Liu, Brooke Fisher; Jin, Yan; Austin, Lucinda L.

2013 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2013.739101

Through 22 in-depth interviews and an experiment with 162 college students, this study applies the social-mediated crisis communication (SMCC) model to understand why and how publics communicate about crises. Specifically, the study focuses on how the source and form of the initial crisis information publics are exposed to affect their crisis communication. The findings confirm the validity of the SMCC model's core components related to publics' crisis communicative tendencies under the influence of traditional media, social media, and offline word-of-mouth communication. The results also indicate that traditional media, compared to other media forms, seems to exert a stronger influence on how publics communicate about crises.

Stokes, Ashli Quesinberry

2013 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2013.739102

This article employs a constitutive, or meaning-generating, approach to investigate how the Slow Food USA social movement employs public relations to counter commercial food industry messages. It argues that Slow Food successfully employs the rhetorical public relations techniques of definition, identification through narrative building, and enactment to build relationships and attract broader support of the sustainable food movement, to translate its somewhat lofty messages to mainstream audiences, and to encourage supporters to live the Slow Food lifestyle. Examining Slow Food's public relations through a rhetorical approach expands theory and practice by answering the call to explore how noncorporate entities successfully use public relations techniques.

2013 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2013.759865