Journal of Public Relations Research

Bramlett, Josh C.; Jennings, Freddie J.; Quick, Mackenzie; Gillespie, Breck

2024 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2024.2427621

Political candidates can face scandals and crises which threaten their relationships with key voting publics. When faced with a reputational threat, political candidates attempt to repair their image. In the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker faced reputational threats to his image. This study employs an experimental design that compares partisan cognitive and affective responses to Herschel Walker’s actual image repair strategy employed on social media with one of five hypothetical responses constructed using the image repair typology. An elaborative theoretical lens is employed to test how different image repair responses are cognitively processed by partisan voters and affectively evaluated. Results showed that partisans engaged in differing levels of valenced elaboration about Walker depending on the image repair response, and through this cognitive process subsequently evaluated his image differently. Findings revealed differences in how partisans elaborated upon Walker’s strategy of denial compared to alternative strategies such as mortification, transcendence, and corrective action. Theoretical and practical implications for political public relations are offered.

Ziegele, Daniel

2024 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2024.2433240

Quality agency–client relationships are critical to an organization’s public relations success. However, many relationships are fragile. The current focus on researching agency-client conflicts seems insufficient to measure the quality of such relationships. The purpose of this study is to systematize and analyze how the quality of agency–client relationships in public relations can be defined and what dimensions of quality exist, with the aim of developing a comprehensive framework for agency–client relationship quality. The result is a novel framework that helps cultivate effective agency–client relationships and offers new perspectives for public relations research.

Britt, Brian C.; Hayes, Jameson L.; Holiday, Steven; Lyu, Yuanwei

2024 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2024.2421563

Data mining represents a suite of data collection, management, and analysis approaches to elicit novel findings from large behavioral data sets. Prior to collecting data, researchers should define the population and consider whether a sample is sufficient. Especially large data sets may require sophisticated data management approaches such as database architectures. Computational resources likewise facilitate an array of cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. While data mining is not appropriate for every research problem, it constitutes an invaluable set of research techniques that is well-suited to the online domain, making it a vital resource for PR researchers to employ in the future.