Focus: Public Relations

Abstract: This study uses a novel approach, the conjoint analysis, as a way to investigate the interactions between three factor groupings of the contingency theory variables that are relevant for public relations practitioners when they engage in strategic decision-making. This study’s approach offers unique perspectives and insights into the decision-making process—both furthering the contingency theory […]

Every two years the International Association of Language and Social Psychology selects a Top Paper Award. This year the award was given to David Clementson for  “Truth Bias and Partisan Bias in Political Deception Detection,” Abstract: This study tests the effects of political partisanship on voters’ perception and detection of deception. Based on social identity […]

Abstract: Background: The perceived threat of a highly contagious virus may lead people to be distrustful of immigrants and outgroups. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the salient politicized discourses of blaming Chinese people for the virus have fueled over 2,000 reports of anti-Asian racial incidents and hate crimes in the U.S.. Objective: This study investigates relationships […]

Abstract: After working in corporate public relations during the 1930s, Mabel Flanley and Sally Woodward opened an all-woman agency in New York City in 1944. Their specialty was targeting women publics, and they drew on their experiences with home economics and women’s clubs to promote a variety of clients from agribusiness, heavy industry, and government […]

Read, G. L. (Forthcoming). Processing ambiguous social identity: Disclosure of identity and phenotypic prototypicality affect processing and evaluation of persuasive messages. Journal of Communication.  Abstract: This study investigates how news stories about models’ social identities, models’ actual social identities, and ease of categorization of models into societally predominant gender and racial categories affect processing and […]

David Clementson was one of three people nationally to receive a seed grant from the Glen M. Broom Center at San Diego State for his study investigating the effectiveness of narrative appeals used by PR spokespeople.

Abstract: Upwards of 200 studies over the past hundred years have reported on the relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists. However, no experiment has compared the group members’ perceptions when seeing their roles in action. Inspired by frameworks of social identity theory, intergroup deception, and the black sheep effect, we test how public relations […]

Abstract: This paper aims at addressing the value of readiness for Industry 4.0 to the practice of public relations. The researcher argued for the necessity of defining the construct of “readiness for Industry 4.0” in public relations and proposed a conceptual framework that encompasses dimensions relevant for readiness for Industry 4.0 in public relations: cognitive […]

Meng, J. (2019). The Most Dedicated Reviewer Award, recognized by Public Relations Division at the 2019 International Communication Association annual conference in Washington, D.C., May 27, 2019,