Theoretical Underpinnings

1
Theoretical Underpinnings

• The roots of public relations theory are in the
  social sciences and they provide another good
  reason for integrating the communications of your
  organization.

2
Public Opinion

• The collective opinion of groups of people
• Public opinion will change
• Those who hold an opinion were somehow persuaded
  to hold that opinion.
• Remember responses are always individual before
  they are collective

3
How People Respond to Communication

• Structural Functionalism the organization or
  structure of society provides its stability.
• Evolutionary Perspective social change follows
  a set of natural laws.
• Social Conflict social struggles occur between
  groups with competing needs and goals.
• Symbolic interactionism media construct
  reality, which results in individual and
  collective creations of reality.

4
Psychological Approaches

• Cognitive Approach examines what people do to
  and with sensor input. This is the most commonly
  used approach in studies of the effects of mass
  communication.
• Other psychological approaches
• Neurobiological
• Comparative
• Behavioral

5
Persuasion Models

• Sociocultural paradigm what cultural factors
  are involved in an individuals decoding of
  communication?
• Psychodynamic model how an effective message
  will make a person do something

6
Organizational Theory

• Systems Theory The idea that all parts of a
  system are interrelated and function as an
  organized whole that is greater than the sum of
  its parts. (objective)
• Cultural Theory The idea that the organization
  functions as it does based on the values of the
  organization. (experience) - Ethnography
• Critical Theory examines power relationships
  within organizations to determine whose view of
  reality sees the light of day. (Postmodern

7
Communication TheoriesThree Models

• Communication Model
• Sender Audience Response
• Behavioral Model (personal appeal)
• Awareness Latent readiness Trigger Behavior
• Two-way Symmetrical model
• Discovery, Awareness, Investigation, Latent
  Readiness, Measurement, Trigger Event,
  Monitoring, Behavior, Evaluation

8
Moving People

• Power
• Patronage
• Persuasion

9
Persuasion Six-step Process

• Presenting
• Attending
• Comprehending
• Yielding
• Retaining
• Acting

10
Persuasion

• Public Relations frequently employs persuasion
  to articulate a point of view

11
Persuasion

• How do you persuade
• Think about your daily life

12
Persuasion

• Personal Persuaders People you care about
  exercise leverage over you.
• Family, organizations, bonded cultures
• Very often personal persuaders can get you to do
  things contrary to your own desires, best
  interests or values.

13
Persuasion

• Impersonal Persuaders found in the mass media
  in the form of editorials and advertisements.
• Opinion Makes and News Managers