Public relations – 2023
Table of content
Week 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 2
Lecture 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 2
Week 2 CRISIS COMMUNICATION ................................................................................................................... 3
Lecture 2: Crisis communication theme session ................................................................................................ 3
Lecture 3: Crisis communication in-depth session........................................................................................... 11
Week 3 – MEDIA EFFECTS ............................................................................................................................. 22
Lecture 5– media effects (theme session) ....................................................................................................... 22
Lecture 5 - Media Effects (in depth)................................................................................................................. 32
Week 4 – CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ............................................................................................. 40
Lecture 6 - Corporate Social Responsibility (theme session)........................................................................... 40
Lecture 7 - CSR (in depth session) .................................................................................................................... 53
WEEK 5 SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT ......................................................................................................... 62
Lecture 8 – Social media management (theme session) ................................................................................. 62
Lecture 9 – webcare in-depth session.............................................................................................................. 66
WEEK 6 – INTERNAL COMMUNICATION ........................................................................................................ 73
Lecture 10 – Internal communication (theme session) ................................................................................... 73
Lecture 11 – Internal Communication (in-depth session) ............................................................................... 78
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,Week 1: INTRODUCTION
Lecture 1 Introduction
We will cover 5 fundamental themes in Public Relations and Strategic Communication which we
approach both theoretically and from a social science perspective.
What is Public relations:
Managing of Communication of an organization, e.g., negotiation of points of views and bridging
interests (Grunig).
The development of relationships to help communicate about an organization, an issue, a person or a
product (Gordon).
Management of mutual understanding between an organization and its publics (Cutlip)
Important terminologies:
• Organizations: complies a broader range of institutions than ‘firm’ or ‘company’.
• When we talk of companies, we discuss commercial entities.
• Organization implies a number of other institutions that don’t necessarily sell something
but that might still be involved in Public Relations.
Public Relations vs. Advertising
PR: more subtle approach “Trust me. He’s very smart’. Word of mouth is very important.
Five themes
1. Crisis communication: how organizations frame communication in order to limit the damages
from crisis, depending on the origin of the crisis.
2. Media effects: How does the media influence public opinion and how can organizations
influence the media agenda.
3. Corporate social responsibility: what are an organization’s responsibilities beyond profit and
how can they be effectively communicated to the public.
4. Webcare: how can organizations use social media so as to build and maintain a relationship
with their relevant audiences. - How organizations reply to comments to online reviews. How
does this affect the person that commented and other people?
5. Internal communication: how should organizations facilitate communications with and within
their employees in a way that fosters a positive environment.
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,Week 2 CRISIS COMMUNICATION
Lecture 2: Crisis communication theme session
Questions we answer today:
Part 1: Crises and Stakeholders
- What is a crisis?
- What are stakeholders and why do they matter?
- How should organizations classify stakeholders and why?
Part 2: Understanding crises and how to respond
- What are issues and why should you care?
- How can you classify crises?
- What are best practices in crisis response?
What is a crisis?
= A crisis is a turning point in a situation, where an important change takes place that could determine
a negative outcome.
For organizations, crises include:
• Natural crisis (floods, earthquakes, fires)
• Political crises (corruption, changes in government)
• Internal crises (misconduct = wangedrag, abuse)
• …
What is a crisis?
A crisis is the perception of an unpredictable event that threatens important expectations of
stakeholders related to health, safety, environmental and economic issues, and can seriously impact
an organization’s performance and generate negative outcomes (Coombs, 2015).
Ø But a crisis is not ALWAYS unpredictable, sometimes companies see it coming.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders in a crisis can be defined as individuals, groups, communities, or organizations, who may
affect, be affected by or perceive themselves to be affected by the crisis.
(Ndlela, 2019)
à For example: you open a restaurant by your own. How many people, institutions are involved? You
need to know which customers you have, who are the suppliers, do you need the government or
other local authorities etc etc. Even with a small operation you have a lot of stakeholders which are
interconnected. If a crisis happens, a lot of delays can happen due to these interconnections.
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, Why stakeholders?
- Interest around stakeholders comes from stakeholder theory = an economic theory that posits
that organizations are embedded in a series of relationships with other organizations,
communities, and institutions such as governments.
- According to this theory, the main goal of an organization should be de mediation of
everyone’s interest ( not only making profit).
- “An organization’s success is dependent on how well it manages the relationships with key
groups such as customers, employees, suppliers, communities, financiers and others that can
affect the realization of its purpose (R. Edward Freeman & Phillips, 2002).
For example: You are a company called Nabisco, you close down the factory in the US and open one in
Mexico where you can pay employees less, but they go on strike and that goes on social media and
people see that and stop buying your products. One group of stakeholders can have a spillover effect
on other groups.
Stakeholder classification: why and how?
Organizations as networks
Most organizations, no matter if NGO or commercial, are involved in a number of relationships that
include people inside and outside of the organization. When thinking of how to respond to a crisis,
organizations should understand:
• Which stakeholders are affected
• How seriously they are affected
• What are the consequences of the stakeholders being affected
à you might pay different attention to the different groups
• Not all stakeholders are equally relevant for your business,
therefore you should be mindful how you classify them. This
requires a classification.
Stakeholder management
= Figuring out how you react to different stakeholders)
It is not to prevent a crisis but make sure the moment a crisis hits, you are ready (you are capable of
responding). At the center of establishing and maintaining relationships with stakeholders is
communication. Organizations should:
• Be aware of whom to relate to in case of a crisis.
• Involve stakeholders in pre-crisis preparedness, for crises that can be prevented
• Establish appropriate communication channels for each stakeholder
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