Viestinnän strateginen monitulkintaisuus : vaihtoehtoinen ratkaisu sidosryhmien odotustenhallintaan?

Artikkelissa kerrotaan, mistä strategisessa monitulkintaisuudessa (Strategic ambiguity) on kyse, ja avataan, kuinka viestinnän ammattilaiset voivat hyödyntää sitä sidosryhmien odotustenhallinnassa. Strategista monitulkintaisuutta on havaittu esimerkiksi organisaatioiden tavoitteissa ja suunnitelmissa, joissa sen on huomattu mahdollistavan eriävien näkemysten ja erilaisten ryhmien toimimisen sulassa sovussa. Monitulkintaisuutta on yleisesti pidetty negatiivisena viestinnän elementtinä, ja sen tarkastelu laajemmassa viestinnän kontekstissa on ollut vähäistä tai se on määritelty suppeasti epäselvyydeksi tai läpinäkyvyyden puutteeksi. Artikkelissa esitellään, miksi organisaatioiden tulisi kiinn…

Future Trends in Social Media and Public Relations

Public relations (PR) focuses on storytelling by creating newsworthy content that will be communicated to target audiences. However, because social media has empowered individual consumers to an unprecedented level, we are no longer passive consumers of stories and some consumers have even reached influencer status where their opinions carry great authority. In the future, PR stories will shape global culture, but the Covid-19 pandemic has also alerted us to the damage caused by deliberate misinformation (e.g. the anti-vaccination movement). The digital environment — especially where PR now operates — is changing rapidly; artificial intelligence and machine learning are assisting corporatio…

Conversational agents in online organization–stakeholder interactions: a state-of-the-art analysis and implications for further research

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to review the extant literature on chatbots and stakeholder interactions to identify major trends and shed light on knowledge gaps.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review was conducted combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. A code book based on early systematic literature reviews was developed and used to extract information from 62 discrete peer-reviewed English articles. An inductive approach was used to analyse definitions of chatbots, topics, metrics, perspectives and implications.FindingsChatbots have been studied by many different disciplines, but not much from organizational, stakeholder and corporate communication per…

Lobbying, the public interest, and democracy: Communication perspectives

CSR Communication in Corporate Social Media : An Empirical Investigation of European Top Companies’ Use of Social Media between 2012 and 2020

Social media (SM) platforms have emerged as an online arena in which people can have conversations both about and with organisations. They have become a place where organisations inform key stakeholders about their corporate governance and responsibility initiatives and address accountability concerns. However, early public relations (PR) research on SM and stakeholder engagement found that many organisations use SM as a way to push content instead of engaging their stakeholders. This chapter presents a two-wave study (2012–2013 and 2019–2020) investigating large European corporations’ use of SM for communicating their corporate social responsibility (CSR). We selected ten highly reputable …

EU Communication in the Member States: Comparative Analysis of Finnish and Italian Communication Strategies

The aim of this paper is to analyze the information and communication policies and strategies developed by the European Union between 2001 and 2006 and their implementation in two member states, namely, Finland and Italy, from a public relations perspective. Six EU information and communication policies are presented, and it is discussed whether or not these policies affect the communication actions of the two selected member states and how these states have implemented them. The results indicate that EU communication strategies during this period were very similar in both countries and not sufficiently tailored to their individual needs. The study is based on a content analysis of EU docum…

Trade Unions and Lobbying: Fighting Private Interests While Defending the Public Interest?

Although framing theory has been extensively studied in strategic communication comparatively, little is known about how trade unions, as a specific type of organization, use framing strategies to achieve their organizational goals. Trade unions frequently aim to present themselves as cause groups, campaigning for broader societal benefits and values. A key communicative challenge for them is to argue that the interest of their members equates to the public interest. How do trade unions communicatively construct links between union interests and the public interest? How is this strategy reconciled with the more conflict-oriented framing found in much traditional union discourse? This study …

Public relations and social influence : Understanding the roots of a contested profession

How pedagogical agents communicate with students: A two-phase systematic review

Technological advancements have improved the capabilities of pedagogical agents to communicate with students. However, an increased use of pedagogical agents in learning environments calls for a deeper understanding of student–agent communication to assess the effectiveness of pedagogical agents in learning. This study is a two-phase systematic review of scientific papers on pedagogical agent communication research published between 2010 and 2020, including review papers and original research papers. In the first phase, this study analyses literature reviews and meta-analyses to find the status and research gaps. The findings indicate that pedagogical agents' characteristics and impact on l…

Engaging Employees via Digital Technologies : An Integrative Model of Change Management and Communication via Internal Social Media

Internal social media (ISM) has increasingly gained relevance as a networking platform on which employees can share content and actively engage in conversations across functions, regions, and hierarchical levels. Many employees have been working from home, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a variety of ISM platforms—a trend that could continue to increase. While the COVID-19 pandemic is only one example of how organisations must continuously change to adapt to a new context, research shows that it is difficult for management to implement changes successfully among employees, and most change initiatives fail. ISM provides a dynamic and interactive communication arena in which em…

Promoting the European Union : comparative analysis of EU communication strategies in Finland and in Italy

Chiara Valentini analysoi tutkimuksessaan Euroopan Unionin viestintää eri yleisöjensä kanssa kahdessa EU:n jäsenmaassa vuosina 2001-2006. Valentini tarkasteli erityisesti Euroopan komissiota ja - Useiden maiden kansalaisille suunnatussa EU:n ohjelmia koskevassa viestinnässä tulisi kiinnittää huomiota paikallisiin ja kulttuurisiin prioriteetteihin. Kaksisuuntaisen viestinnän kehittäminen on mahdollista taustatutkimuksen avulla, Valentini suosittaa.Valentini huomasi, että EU-instituutiot ovat alkaneet laajemmin toteuttaa pr-käytäntöjä viestintänsä kehittämisessä vasta viime vuosina. Pr:stä on tullut erittäin tärkeä strategisen johtamisen väline ja siksi julkisten organisaatioiden tulisi ohjat…

Digital strategic communication through digital media-arenas

Digital technologies have empowered an increasingly participatory communication environment that challenges the ability of organizations to maintain control over their messages. In this new environment, stakeholders not only receive these messages through organizational digital media, which this chapter argues are typically understood as transmission channels, they also are able to re-interpret and re-communicate these messages across multiple participatory, omni-directional digital arenas seemingly beyond organizational strategic control. This chapter examines the tension in strategic communication between a traditional message-controlling approach through digital media and a more nuanced …

What's in it for me and you? : Exploring managerial perceptions of employees' work-related social media use

PurposeThis study focuses on managers' perceptions of employees' communicative role in social media, and explores the changes in the contractual nature of employment relations in mediatized workplaces in which the boundaries of professional and private life are becoming more fluid.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach was employed to explore this relatively new phenomenon. The data, comprising 24 interviews with managers responsible for corporate communication and human resources in knowledge-intensive organizations, was thematically analysed.FindingsThe analysis shows that employees' work-related social media use creates new types of exchanges and dependencies between an organi…

Social media and consumer power : Opportunities and challenges for digital marketing activities

Social Media (SM) have not only become an important part of daily life for individuals, governments and organisations but have also transformed the way people work, learn, consume and socially interact. There are many SM uses, posting frequencies and content preferences. User participation also varies from passive to more active behaviours, depending on the motivation for engagement in online conversations. From a marketing perspective, SM have redefined the traditional company - consumer relationship by progressively shifting power from marketing managers to consumers. Organisations are increasingly interested in understanding how SM can benefit (or harm) consumer-brand relationships, incr…

Mapping public relations theory : Concluding reflections and future directions

The European Union and Its Public Relations : Context, Actions, and Challenges of a Supranational Polity

The European Union (EU) is the most advanced regional political and economic entity in the world. Since the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, the EU has gained increasing power in enacting new legislation in Europe, and has become a key player in international and trade relations. The EU as a supranational polity comprises different types of organizations that daily employ communication as a strategic means to establish relationships with different publics. This chapter presents and discusses the context, the actions, and the challenges faced by the EU in communicating to and with its diverse publics. Particularly, it shows how public relations and communication activities have played a key role i…

Future look : Communicating with customers using digital channels

Digital Marketing is a fast-moving field, and the future of Digital Marketing Communication is multifaceted. Communication with customers can be based on either their current geographical location, their past online behaviour or their actions across various social media platforms. Communications can vary from one-to-one to many-to-many with varying types of digital technology used to facilitate it. The focus of Digital Marketing is to deliver smooth, effortless and enjoyable experiences to customers no matter their location. Existing digital services will be enhanced by greater use of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and automation. Analytics, when combined with location-based services, wi…

Navigating Turbulent Political Waters: From Corporate Political Advocacy to Scansis in the Case of NBA-China Crisis

Drawing on insights from both rhetorical arena theory and contingency theory of conflict management, this study examines the role of political factors in shaping stakeholder groups’ perceptions and organizational responses and stances in a scansis of a multinational corporation. This study combined qualitative content analysis and semantic network analysis to analyze organizational responses, news coverage, and social media posts regarding the National Basketball Association (NBA)–China crisis in 2019, triggered by an online comment from a team executive supporting the Hong Kong protesters. The findings show (1) the presence of diverse and rich political-laden and politically divided discus…

Does Culture Matter? : Measuring Cross-Country Perceptions of CSR Communication Campaigns about COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought several challenges to businesses and societies. In response, many corporations have supported local communities and authorities in the management of the pandemic. Although these initiatives, which can be considered forms of corporate social responsibility (CSR), were highly coupled with explicit CSR communication campaigns, little is known about whether these campaigns were effective. Previous research indicates that culture can shape people’s perceptions of CSR initiatives and communications, suggesting that businesses pay attention to careful consideration of cultural norms for effective CSR communication. However, the COVID-19 pandemic as a new CSR setti…

Global versus cultural approaches in public relationship management

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to present and compare two approaches (the global and the cultural) to public relationship management and to argue by reference to different cases, why the cultural approach can be considered more effective in establishing good relationships in different national cultural contexts.Design/methodology/approachThe discussion identifies some of the limitations of recent thinking regarding the nature of a global public and the possibility to define and treat international publics as a global public in public relationship management. As validation of this claim, cases in the European context are presented to show that a cultural approach provides better interpretat…