Search results

During the COVID-19 pandemic, mass media play a vital role in containing the outbreak of the virus by quickly and effectively delivering risk communication messages to the public. This research examines the effects of risk communication exposure on public understanding and risk perception of COVID-19 and public compliance with health preventive measures.

Data from Vietnam during COVID-19 social distancing and path analysis model are used for empirical analysis.

This analysis finds that exposure to risk communication in mass media encourages public compliance directly and indirectly through the mediating roles of public understanding and risk perception. Further investigations also find that exposure to risk communication in both online media and traditional media facilitates public compliance. In addition, exposure to risk communication in online media only raises public risk perception, whereas exposure to risk communication in traditional media only raises public understanding.

This research implies that traditional and online media should be combined to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of government risk communication work.

This research is among the first attempts that examine the role of mass media (both traditional and online) in enhancing public compliance with preventive measures directly and indirectly through the mediating roles of public risk perception and understanding.

To get beneath the surface of the focal concepts of public relations practice today, the major sociological theories of Jürgen Habermas and Niklas Luhmann have been fruitful as frames of interpretation. Two paradigms for reflection on the public relations phenomenon have been developed on their theories: the inter‐subjective and the social systemic public relations paradigms. These paradigms indicate fundamentally different interpretations of the concepts of conflict and social responsibility, with crucial consequences for the role of public relations in today's social order. Each perspective has its blind spots but the switching of perspectives allows us to see more. Habermas's theories make it possible to disclose the ideal perception which seems to prevail in the self‐understanding of public relations practice while, at the same time, setting out normative ideals for the practice. The ideal in the inter‐subjective paradigm is to re‐establish the system's coupling to the lifeworld. The public relations practitioner must act as an individual through communicative action. Public relations is a matter of ethical issues in a normative perspective. We might also call this the ethical, communicative or normative paradigm of public relations. The keyword is legitimation in post‐conventional discourse society. Luhmann's theories make it possible to disclose the social systemic mechanisms that can be viewed as the framework for public relations practice, and to set out functional conditions for that practice. The functions of the social systemic paradigm are to assist in maintaining the boundaries of the organisation system through strategic reflection and to assist in ensuring that society's differentiated system logics can function autonomously because they also understand how to function together. The sphere of action of the public relations practitioner is defined by the social systems. Public relations is a matter of functional issues in a cognitive perspective. We might also call this the functional, reflective or cognitive paradigm of public relations. The keyword is public trust in the context‐regulated society. This paper is based on a thesis by the author entitled: ‘The Inter‐subjective and the Social Systemic Public Relations Paradigms’, University of Roskilde, April 1996, also to be published in English.

Purpose: This study explored technology-mediated abuse (TMA) by looking at the influence of topic exposure via education (in/formal), media (non/fictional), and personal experiences (self/close others) in shaping public knowledge, understandings, and perceptions of TMA.

Methodology: Community-sampled respondents (N = 551; n = 235 men, 263 women; aged 18–81 years, M = 27.42, SD = 12.31) reported their TMA awareness and topic exposure (n = 110; 20% of the total sample indicated prior exposure).

Findings: Results indicated TMA knowledge, understanding, and perceptions varied by prior sources of topic exposure. This suggests that TMA is a crime varying in public awareness and perceived repercussions.

Research limitations: Open-ended responses, although ideal for exploratory studies such as this one, limit the scope and power of quantitative analyses. Future work should test the current study’s conclusions in a generalizable, random sample via closed-item surveys.

Originality/value: Present findings elucidate which societal forces and education types are best suited for helping people understand TMA in all its complexity. Such understanding allows for practical considerations of the comparative in/effectiveness of formal curriculum and media in shaping cognitions regarding TMA victimization.

The purpose of the study is to provide insights on the COVID-19 pandemic communication from the lessons learned by health communication executives—how they perceived the COVID-19 pandemic and recommend preparing for communication management of future public health crises.

A number of top health communication executives in the United States, who worked in the healthcare industry for at least 25 years and held titles like director, president and chief strategist, were interviewed for their unique perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used the contingency theory of strategic conflict management for qualitative deductive analysis of the following segmentations of key factors that drove organizational communication management decision making during the pandemic: organization characteristics, relationship characteristics, general external climate, external publics and the issue under question.

Health communication executives heavily relied on their past health communication experiences, which led to nuanced understandings of the COVID-19 pandemic. Practically, the health communication executives urged future practitioners to constantly assess risks, hire and use diverse and representative decision-makers; set a communication protocol; and keep the communication in perspective. Theoretically, the contingency theory is furthered—there appears to be a theoretical linkage between the construct of general external climate and the construct of the external public.

The unique perspectives of top health communication executives, based in the United States, provided in-depth insights on the COVID-19 pandemic—its nuances, challenges and main influences (e.g. political, racial, etc.). These takeaways and recommendations can be adapted by other organizations and future health communicators in other parts of the world.

The purpose of this research is to understand reflective journalling in a first year Public Health practice unit.

This research uses pure phenomenography to interpret students’ descriptions of reflective journalling. Data were collected from 32 students enrolled in PUB215 Public Health Practice in the School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology. Participants completed a brief open‐ended questionnaire to evaluate the first assessment item in this unit, a reflective journal. Questionnaire responses were analysed through Dahlgren and Fallsberg's seven phases of data analysis.

The reflective journal required students to reflect on lecture content from five of seven guest speakers. Participants’ responses were categorised into four conceptions: engagement in learning, depth of knowledge, understanding the process and doing the task. Participants describe reflective journalling as a conduit to think critically about the content of the guest speakers’ presentations. Other participants think journalling is a vehicle to think deeply about their potential career pathways. Some define journalling as a pragmatic operation where practical issues are difficult to navigate. The reflective journal successfully: engaged students’ learning, increased students’ depth of knowledge and deepened students’ understanding of the journalling process.

This research gives an insight into how first year public health students understand reflective journalling, supports educators in reflective journalling assessments and confirms a reflective journal assessment can move student reflection towards higher order thinking about practice.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of phenomenological or attuned listening and explore its implications for deliberative governance. Drawing on examples from urban planning and city administration, we make a case for listening as a hermeneutic phenomenological practice of crucial importance for public organizations.

This research relies on interpretive phenomenology, critical reflection, and political theory. Through the examination of case studies, we show that attuned or phenomenological listening contributes to greater participatory processes in organizations and to democratic governance processes, more generally.

By enhancing both collaborative endeavors and discretionary action, phenomenological listening acknowledges the unpredictable, dynamic and political aspects of organizations. Finally, it helps transform the latter into spaces where democratic and accountable action can take place.

This perspective encourages public deliberation and attentive listening for practitioners to make decisions on the spot that are sensitive to people’s needs.

Embodied and attuned listening fosters reflection-in-action, as well as a reasoned pathway toward public accountability and deliberative democracy.

The relevance of the work is determined by the fact that administrative law appears as one of the significant factors influencing the development of both the public administration system as a whole and the processes of its reform that the Russian Federation has faced today. The authors show that if the relations of state administration are the subject of the administrative law’s influence (after all, it is they who are influenced by administrative and legal norms), then we are faced with an extremely important question regarding the character and specificity of the relationship between administrative and legal relations and relations of state management, on the one hand, and analysis of the concept of administrative and legal regulation of public administration relations on the other. This goal is important, given that the authors substantiate the relationship between administrative law and public administration through identifying the possibilities of regulatory influence on the part of administrative law on public administration relations.

Prospects for the further development of the study are the formation of an understanding that government is not limited to administrative law, but it cannot be denied that the regulatory impact of law in public administration is decisive, and therefore public administration is largely a state-legal category, although it is not limited to this.

So, having analyzed the above approaches and positions of scientists regarding the subject of administrative law, the authors believe that it can include any managerial activity of the state authority and local government bodies that does not directly concern the subject matter of another branch of law; is realized with the help of the executive-administrative mechanism (in this case the author does not consider the executive-administrative mechanism as an exclusive prerogative or a unique feature of the executive authorities, although, of course, he agrees that it is the most typical and characteristic feature for them); is realized within the framework of a certain state authority, local government or non-governmental organization (in case of delegating state powers to it) to ensure its proper functioning (internal management relations); is implemented outside the framework of a certain state authority, local government or non-governmental organization (in case of delegating state powers to it) and is directed to other (external) with respect to the relevant body or organization of entities (external organizational management relations); and is largely characterized by relative constancy and immediacy of implementation relative to the management object.

Prospects for the further development of the study are the formation of an understanding that government is not limited to administrative law, but it cannot be denied that the regulatory impact of law in public administration is decisive, and therefore public administration is largely a state-legal category, although it is not limited to this. At the same time, indistinctness and uncertainty about different ways of understanding public administration often generate negative effects both at the general scientific level and at a purely practical level (when it comes to the exercise of administrative powers by certain state authorities).

This chapter examines the notion of spatial justice and its applicability in the context of informality. In the first part it examines the concept of informal urbanism in the context of informal settlements and experiences with upgrading programmes. Drawing on critical evaluations of some of the most well-known upgrading programmes, the chapter in the second part then theorises the notion of spatial justice. I argue for a multidimensional, fragmentary, context- and culture-specific concept, which encompasses equity, empowerment and recognition. As an operationalisation of the notion of spatial justice developed in this chapter and a conclusion to it, a framework is proposed to underpin the assessment of spatial justice in public space based upgrading programmes in informal settlements. It contains aspects regarding the quality of the material space, the integrity of its production process, issues of management and regulation as well as the use of space.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how discourse and figure nurture the narrative “capital” available to the community of marketing scholars through expanding its horizon of translational frames. It specifically discusses one such translational frame as presented within Holbrook’s (2015) discussion of jazz within a narrative of marketing management and how it enhances the understanding of marketing as a creative cultural force.

Generalising from “jazz” to tropics, the commentary discusses three thematic reflective possibilities inspired by Holbrook’s article: content strategy; visual fluency and marketing creativity; and wider visions. This paper also examines how discussions about the wider public understanding of marketing can draw inspiration from the narrative framework suggested by Holbrook (2015) and his calculus of constructive ambiguity.

As an area of study, tropics enriches the reflexive awareness of how the discipline of marketing is understood within academia and its various stakeholder communities.

The academic discipline of marketing needs to continuously reimagine itself and its relation to the changing social order in order to participate in dialogue with it.

In particular, the commentary examines the jazz metaphor developed by Holbrook (2015) and suggests how this could affect the way that marketing presents itself within wider social contexts.

This paper aims to explore the concept of public relations in the progressive era to gain a greater understanding of the historical development of corporate public relations in the USA.

The paper provides historical analysis of 87 magazine articles dating from 1900 to 1917, which discussed press agentry, publicity, and public relations.

In the early 1900s, publicity meant both legal requirements of corporate disclosure and press exposure of secret corporate activities. The purpose of publicity was to reveal excess and corruption. The term press agent was used in two ways. First, it was used to refer to literary and theatrical press agents, and second, it was used interchangeably with publicity agent to signify individuals hired by corporations to respond to the publicity and explain corporate policies to the public. By the second decade of the twentieth century, corporations, specifically the railroads, were using the term public relations to refer to the practice of developing relationships with the public.

Most historical studies of public relations in the USA have described the development of the field as a linear progression or evolution from press agentry, to public information or publicity, to two‐way communication. This study suggests that that linear evolutionary model is only partially accurate. At least some corporations in the progressive era had a greater understanding of the two‐way street than corporations in this period normally are given credit for.