Nick Browning | Indiana University (original) (raw)

Published Works by Nick Browning

Journal of Public Relations Research, 2024

Communicating for the public good is nothing new for public relations scholars and practitioners.... more Communicating for the public good is nothing new for public relations scholars and practitioners. Corporate social responsibility (CSR), perhaps the best-known iteration of that concept, has been a recognized piece of business and communication literature since at least the 1950s (Carroll, 1999), with proto-CSR activities dating back a century earlier, if not further (Browning, 2018; Lamme, 2014; Myers, 2020). More recently, public relations scholarship has extended that focus to include corporate social advocacy (CSA), as well as related constructs such as corporate political advocacy (CPA), CEO activism, corporate responsibility to race (CRR), and several others (

Journal of Public Relations Research, 2024

As we step into the new year, our editorial team would like to extend our warmest greetings to th... more As we step into the new year, our editorial team would like to extend our warmest greetings to the esteemed contributors/authors, editorial board members, reviewers, and readers of JPRR. As the editors of this esteemed journal, we are delighted to welcome you to another year of intellectual exploration and academic growth. The turning of the calendar marks a fresh opportunity to foster collaboration, stimulate critical thinking, and promote intellectual engagement. In the Chinese zodiac, 2024 corresponds to the Year of the Dragon, which is considered a highly auspicious and powerful year, symbolizing strength, leadership, and good fortune. May this new chapter bring forth exciting prospects, innovative research ideas, and enriching scholarly discussions. Together, let us strive to advance public relations research and practice, and push the boundaries of our collective knowledge. The state of the journal Volume 34 marked the beginning of our editorial term. In the inaugural issue of that 2022 volume, we proposed the following two goals: (1) Expand the breadth and depth of theoretical knowledge explored in JPRR, particularly through inter/multidisciplinary work as well as the inclusion of topics vital to the field that, for some reason or another, remain under-or unexplored. (2) Commit to transparent and prompt decision-making on manuscripts to strengthen the Journal's already stellar reputation, enhance trust among key constituents, and encourage scholars to pursue publishing opportunities at JPRR. On our reflections, we are proud to demonstrate positive progress toward those goals. First, we were delighted to close out 2023 with our first special issue (Volume 35, Issues 5-6) on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Dr. Dean Mundy of the University of Oregon and Dr. Nilanjana Bardhan of Southern Illinois University Carbondale co-edited our first special issue, which we believe greatly expands our existing body of knowledge in public relations theory, and subsequently JPRR's reach and relevance. The DEI special issue marks only the beginning of such efforts. Our team is currently working Dr. Ana Tkalac Verčič of the University of Zagreb, who will guest edit a forthcoming special issue on internal communication to be published later in this volume, for which we have received a substantial number of submissions from contributors around the world. Additionally, we have been consulting with our editorial board members on potential special issue topics and relevant guest editors, so be on the lookout for future calls. With regard to our second goal, we received 143 manuscripts in 2022, marking a 13% increase from 2021. That growth continued in 2023, as we received 160 submissions, a further 11.9% increase over the prior year. This figure represents the largest single-year number of submissions for our Journal over the past decade! We attribute much of this success to our professional and diligent reviewers. In 2023, the average reviewer turnaround time was 40.9 days for original manuscripts, and 35.4 days for revised manuscripts. Also, our editorial team strove to make prompt decisions for all manuscripts. In 2023, the average time from submission to first decision was 81.1 days, including all manuscripts submitted to our regular and special issues.

Journal of Public Relations Research, 2022

Public Relations Journal, 2022

This study examines the activities of a sample of Fortune 500 companies in the aftermath of the k... more This study examines the activities of a sample of Fortune 500 companies in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the subsequent nationwide protests associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. We identify three types of corporate responses to these events: making a statement; pledging a donation; and announcing an internal company program to address racial injustice. We then measure the effect that each type of response had on a company’s earned media volume, social shareability, and impact. We find that corporate social advocacy leadership, or the speed with which a company issued a statement, increased the percentage of high impact media coverage that the company earned. In addition, companies that pledged larger donations to racial justice causes garnered a slightly higher proportion of impactful media coverage. Contrary to expectations, however, companies that announced the implementation of programs aimed at increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion did not generate more impactful media coverage in the immediate aftermath of the events. Our findings suggest that public relations professionals who are fastest in communicating publicly following focusing events related to social injustice will generate more high-impact news coverage for their organizations. PR professionals can use these results to better prepare for such events and inform their media strategy, knowing the risks and rewards of various corporate responses to issues of social justice.

American Journalism, 2022

Book review of Karla Gower's "Betsy Ann Plank: The Making of a Public Relations Icon"

Journal of Public Relations Research, 2022

Change is the only constant, or so the Greek philosopher Heraclitus thought. In the public relati... more Change is the only constant, or so the Greek philosopher Heraclitus thought. In the public relations field, that certainly rings true. Social media and a decentralized internet brought with them the promise of a more engaged and informed publics, but the spread of dis/misinformation has become so rampant that news seeking on social media now negatively correlates with knowledge and engagement (Infield, 2020). Yet practitioners must divine ways to operate within this direct-to-public communication environment as traditional news media-and trust in them-simultaneously erode (UNESCO, 2022). Companies like Disney and Coca-Cola, which once prided themselves on avoiding sociopolitical controversy, now find themselves thrust into deepening culture wars (Barnes, 2022; Gelles, 2021). All the while, practitioners desperately search for ways to manage relationships and reputations amidst the fray. And as organizations amass power, wealth, and influence that rivals or surpasses that of nationstates, they now struggle to fulfill the increasing social responsibilities expected of them from both stakeholders and the public writ large (Scherer & Palazzo, 2011). These are just a few of the challenges facing our field, largely in corporate communication-to say nothing of nonprofit, governmental, and other sectors. How do we, as public relations scholars and professionals, meet this moment? As the incoming editorial team for the Journal of Public Relations Research, we've pondered this and many other questions in recent months. Volume 34 marks the beginning term of editor-in-chief Dr. Sung-Un Yang, associate editor Dr. Nicholas Browning, and senior editorial assistant Ejae Lee. We are humbled and grateful for this great opportunity to serve a vibrant community of public relations researchers, and we are committed to the continuance of JPRR's prestigious status, editorial mission, and research impacts. Strangely, the concept of continuance just as much as change brings us back to that philosopher from antiquity: It is that some things stay the same only by changing. [.. .] Here constancy and change are not opposed, but inextricably connected. [.. .] On this reading, Heraclitus believes in flux, but not as destructive of constancy; rather it is, paradoxically, a necessary condition of constancy. (Graham, 2019)

Public Relations Review, 2022

Inter-public conflict has largely been neglected in PR research. When left to fester, such confli... more Inter-public conflict has largely been neglected in PR research. When left to fester, such conflict may perpetuate prejudice, injustice, inequality, and other societal ills. From a PR standpoint, organizations may find it increasingly difficult to operate in the resulting climate of hostility. This piece aims to shift focus from managing direct, organization-public conflict to navigating indirect, inter-public conflict, thus broadening conflict management perspectives. Based on contingency and social identity theories, we test the dual orientation conflict model (DOCM) in the field of government public relations. The model posits two dimensions (embracing/ excluding and in-group/out-group) and categorizes four types of conflict orientation (adaptation, in-group adoption, out-group adoption, and avoidance). The proposed four-factor model, comprised of 16 items, was found to be reliable and valid in an online survey of 2.498 South Korean citizens across different conflictual problems. Theoretical and strategic implications are discussed.

Sustainability, 2022

This study investigates how legitimization strategies embedded in CSR messages related to the COV... more This study investigates how legitimization strategies embedded in CSR messages related to the COVID-19 pandemic influenced multidimensional stakeholder assessments of reputation. The results of this 3 × 2 × 2 experimental survey, which manipulated pragmatic and moral legitimacy using three conditions (self-vs. other-vs. both-oriented messaging); substantive and symbolic management (informative vs. uninformative content); and popularization and standardization approaches (leadership vs. followership), indicate that popularization strategies communicated substantively and standardization strategies communicated symbolically generally yield the greatest reputational gains. More nuanced findings from three-way interaction effects are further discussed, with an emphasis on the role of double-sided messages seeking to simultaneously establish pragmatic and moral legitimacy.

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 2024

The current study examines the influence of press releases about scientific studies in terms of t... more The current study examines the influence of press releases about scientific studies in terms of their impact on news coverage. Using an innovative approach that allowed for analysis of a large corpus of text and calculation of similarity scores, we were able to trace the uptake of press release materials into news media articles. In some cases, up to 65% of sentences in science news articles reflected high similarity to press release material-a potent indication of how powerful information subsidies can be. While our results contain some good news for public relations practitioners, they also carry a warning for consumers of journalism and for the public science agenda, which may be left vulnerable to bad actors undermining the trust that the public, and journalists, have in science. News organizations that had a history of producing award-winning science journalism were much less likely to draw on press release materials, indicating the importance of topic area expertise in producing independent science journalism.

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality, 2021

Though George Orwell is among my favorite writers, I have not found his recent resurgence in pop... more Though George Orwell is among my favorite writers, I have not found his recent resurgence in popularity particularly comforting. Whenever 1984 is “chiming with people,” it should give us all pause. Newspeak concepts have an eerie relevance in our age of alternative facts (think double-speak/double-talk) and gaslighted, partisan filter bubbles (or doublethink). Meanwhile, the slow, pervasive creep of Silicon Valley, fueled by our collective, consistent willingness to trade information for convenience—or simply access to platforms—oozes with overtures to Big Brother. We have allowed, and arguably empowered, tech giants to watch over us with too little concern for erosions of our privacy and Fourth Amendment rights.
There are, however, moments of punctuated concern over the government’s ability to access our data; for example, the tight Senate vote in May 2020 that allowed for continued, warrantless governmental collection of Americans’ browser histories drew intense criticisms. Interestingly, much of the public vitriol was aimed at the government’s right to access the information, with few people questioning the potential harm done by the companies that collect that information—or, indeed, whether the collection and storage of seemingly unquantifiable amounts of data lead to net societal gain.
Data mining is one of many pivotal ways in which established tech companies, as well as more recent start-ups, fundamentally alter individual lives, communal ties, corporate strategies, government policies, international affairs, and the myriad of relationships all these individuals and entities have with one another. The analogy of 1984 breaks down somewhat here, especially when we consider the economic consequences of these advances—even more so when focusing on the so-called “sharing” or “gig” economy that has emerged in the last decade or so.
Animal Farm, another Orwell masterpiece, more accurately captures the economic slight-of-hand at potentially at play here. Orwell’s biting satire of the totalitarian Soviet Union mocks the nature in which party leaders co-opted the ideal that shared economic ownership would create social equality. In effect, strict government control served to bolster a solidified caste system of inequality. The linguistic turn in Animal Farm’s most famous line summarizes my more cynical views of the sharing economy: “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 2020

This paper conceptualizes organizational advocacy as a relational communication strategy by which... more This paper conceptualizes organizational advocacy as a relational communication strategy by which organizations take stances on controversial, sociopolitical issues to signal shared commitment with key publics. The authors conducted a series of two-by-two experimental surveys—controlling whether an organization took a defined position (advocacy vs. silence) and whether it acted alone or in line with peers (leader vs. follower)—across both less partisan (Study 1) and highly partisan (Study 2) issues. Findings indicate advocacy is an effective relational communication strategy that strengthens organization-public relationships (OPRs) and increases publics’ support for the organization. Theoretical contributions and practical applications are discussed.

Public Relations Review, 2020

This study examined the ability of antecedents such as media diet and candidate traits to impact ... more This study examined the ability of antecedents such as media diet and candidate traits to impact political organization public relationships (POPRs), in turn affecting views on party reputation. As expected, survey respondents reported greater levels of relationship-focused communication and higher reputation assessments of their own parties, additionally rating their party's candidate higher in authenticity and character. Connecting media diet and reputation, heavier use of partisan, traditional media (e.g., talk radio and cable news) indicated increased partisan divides, suggesting young and often inexperienced voters engage in motivated reasoning, seeking out information from sources that cater to their existing ideologies. This pattern was less pronounced for infotainment and social media sources, suggesting promising agenda-building opportunities for political PR practitioners. SEM analyses demonstrated the significant influence of candidate traits and POPR on party reputation , though manifestations of effects differed among Democrats and Republicans, the implications of which are discussed.

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 2019

This study examines how frequently committed ethical misconduct regarding values closely aligned ... more This study examines how frequently committed ethical misconduct regarding values closely aligned to an organizational mission affects stakeholders' pro-organizational responses to an offending nonprofit. Using a 2 × 2 experimental survey, findings showed that ethical misconduct in primary values resulted in significantly decreased positive attitudes toward and donation intentions to the organization. Also, the patterns of unethical behaviors significantly increased stakeholders' negative attitudes toward the organization and willingness to assign the organization responsibility for unethical behavior. Perceived organizational responsibility for ethical misconduct and deteriorating organization-public relationships (OPRs) were significant mediators for the effects of primary ethical violations.

Scholars consider the development of public relations ethics to be an integral component in profe... more Scholars consider the development of public relations ethics to be an
integral component in professionalizing public relations. If this connection
exists, the solidifying of the profession that took place from the interwar to
postwar periods should provide not only evidence for this linkage, but also
insight into a philosophy of public relations practice and its key ethical considerations. This study establishes the bookend years of 1936, which marked the founding of the first professional public relations association, and 1964, which marked the start of Public Relations Society of America’s accreditation for practice, as defining moments in establishing a profession. An analysis of speeches from business leaders, government officials, and communication practitioners shed light on practices and ethics. The uneasiness many current scholars and professionals express toward persuasive strategies was largely absent during the formative years, as truthful advocacy via two-way communication became emblematic of public relations practice.

Purpose – Using the elaboration likelihood model as a framework, the purpose of this paper is to ... more Purpose – Using the elaboration likelihood model as a framework, the purpose of this paper is to
investigate the effects of cause involvement, ability to process, and motivation to process on consumer
judgments of organizational image following exposure to a corporate social responsibility (CSR) message.
Design/methodology/approach – This study relies upon an experimental manipulation of message
complexity and uses quantitative survey data. The data were analyzed via tests of means differences,
hierarchical multiple OLS regression, and mediation analysis.
Findings – The authors found that CSR’s influence on image is unaffected by message complexity – at least
directly. However, CSR’s influence on image is intensified by greater cause involvement and information
processing ability, which indicates that central route processing is more likely to move the needle on such
assessments. Additionally, involvement serves as an important mediator on the effects that ability and
motivation to process have on ratings of organizational image.
Originality/value – The findings suggest the necessity for communicators of CSR to foster cause
involvement in consumers if social responsibility efforts are to resonate and garner positive results.
Additionally, should organizations wish to create deeper elaboration about CSR messages among consumers,
simple, straightforward messaging appears most effective. Complex messages can, however, serve as
valuable peripheral cues among certain audiences.

Public Understanding of Science, 2018

Given the ethical questions that surround emerging science, this study is interested in studying ... more Given the ethical questions that surround emerging science, this study is interested in studying public trust in scientific and religious authorities for information about the risks and benefits of science. Using data from a nationally representative survey of American adults, we employ regression analysis to better understand the relationships between several variables—including values, knowledge, and media attention—and trust in religious organizations and scientific institutions. We found that Evangelical Christians are generally more trusting of religious authority figures to tell the truth about the risks and benefits of science and technology, and only slightly less likely than non-Evangelicals to trust scientific authorities for the same information. We also found that many Evangelicals use mediated information and science knowledge differently than non-Evangelicals, with both increased knowledge and attention to scientific media having positive impacts on trust in scientific authorities among the latter, but not the former group.

Journal of Public Relations Research, 2017

This national online survey (N = 493) examined the political organizationpublic relationship (POP... more This national online survey (N = 493) examined the political organizationpublic
relationship (POPR) that voters perceived with their own political
party and their opposing political party, as well as voters’ assessment of the
credibility of candidates running for president during the primary season of
the 2016 election. Results indicated that although credibility assessment of
one’s own party’s candidate was much as expected, POPR with the
Democratic Party was generally stronger than that with the Republican
Party. Data showed no evidence that a poor POPR with one’s own party
would drive voters to support interloper candidates. We conclude by
reflecting on the importance of POPR with the opposing party and what
weak relationships may mean for parties in the long term.

Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 2015

J. E. Grunig’s (1992a) seminal work on excellence theory and subsequent works by other scholars a... more J. E. Grunig’s (1992a) seminal work on excellence theory and subsequent works by other scholars advance the two-way symmetrical model as a best-practice approach to public relations (PR). In part, two-way symmetry is preferred because of an assertion that it is the most ethical form of practice. However, only within a means-based deontological framework do two-way symmetry and the principle of dialogue emerge as universally ethical. Taking an ends-based utilitarian standpoint makes the potential ethical ﬂaws of two-way symmetry apparent. Issues of moral luck, hegemony, and the limitations of dialogue also pose problems for the moral primacy claims surrounding two-way symmetry. The analysis that follows points toward a need for a more relative and contingent approach to PR ethics, and by extension to PR practice itself.

American Behavioral Scientist, 2014

Using experimental design, this study compares first-time voters’ gratifications and uses of a tr... more Using experimental design, this study compares first-time voters’ gratifications and uses of a traditional News1 format with the increasingly popular fake news format. The data here found that while indeed young people may have initially assessed a greater level of gratification associated with the fake news genre, the group was significantly “let down” after exposure to such a program. Though first-time voters understand that traditional surveillance-type information-seeking activities are better associated with traditional News, they were ambivalent about approaching and avoiding both traditional News and fake news genres.

Public Relations Review, 2011

The following is an evaluation of “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer’s image restoration attempts during... more The following is an evaluation of “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer’s image restoration attempts during his March 2009 week-long media battle with Jon Stewart, host of “The Daily Show.” Using Benoit’s (1995) image restoration theory as a conceptual framework, it is apparent that Cramer failed in restoring his reputation because he frequently coupled incongruent strategies and was unable to grasp the dynamic nature of communicative image restoration.

Journal of Public Relations Research, 2024

Journal of Public Relations Research, 2022

Public Relations Journal, 2022

American Journalism, 2022

Book review of Karla Gower's "Betsy Ann Plank: The Making of a Public Relations Icon"

Journal of Public Relations Research, 2022

Public Relations Review, 2022

Sustainability, 2022

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 2024

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality, 2021

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 2020

Public Relations Review, 2020

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 2019

Public Understanding of Science, 2018

Journal of Public Relations Research, 2017

Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 2015

American Behavioral Scientist, 2014

Public Relations Review, 2011

Journal of Public Relations Research, Jan 20, 2024

Journal of public relations research, May 3, 2024

American Journalism

Book review of Karla Gower's "Betsy Ann Plank: The Making of a Public Relations ... more Book review of Karla Gower's "Betsy Ann Plank: The Making of a Public Relations Icon"

The SAGE Handbook of Marketing Ethics

As a subdiscipline, public relations (PR) ethics focuses on questions of moral rights and wrongs ... more As a subdiscipline, public relations (PR) ethics focuses on questions of moral rights and wrongs as they relate to PR professionals and scholars. As such, PR ethics necessarily stretches across disciplines. On the one hand, scholars focus on the practice and theory of PR. This includes an understanding of the day-to-day activities of professionals working in various sectors (e.g., agency, corporate, nonprofit, government) and the major theories that inform our understanding of that practice (e.g., excellence theory, contingency theory, relationship theory). On the other hand, PR ethicists are grounded in philosophy, typically employing theories of Western ethics in their studies. Perhaps the most widely utilized approaches are the Enlightenment ethics of utilitarianism—most notably championed by John Stuart Mill—and Immanuel Kant’s deontological approach. While Enlightenment ethics arguably dominate theoretical approaches to PR ethics, critical theorists have offered alternative ethical perspectives based on a variety of approaches (e.g., postmodernism, Marxism, Jungian psychology). Other theories of ethics based on justice and care have also broadened our perspectives of PR practice, as has renewed interested in Aristotle’s pre-Enlightenment virtue ethics. As such, the objective of PR ethics—providing a means to evaluate right and wrong and the guidance to act morally—becomes predictably murky as contradictory concepts within and across theoretical and practical domains collide. In particular, competing ethical theories conceptualize both the role of PR and the focal point by which we judge right and wrong differently. Given this state of both the PR and ethics fields, communication ethicist Wendy Wyatt advocates for a pluralistic decision tree through which key concerns of PR can be examined through the lens of multiple ethical theories, resulting in a fuller understanding of the nature of right and wrong within a PR context.

Journal of Public Relations Research, 2022

Public Relations Review

Journal of Public Relations Research, 2022

Maurer School of Law: Indiana University, Jan 26, 2021

Bloomington. His primary research interests are communication ethics, corporate social responsibi... more Bloomington. His primary research interests are communication ethics, corporate social responsibility, and political public relations.

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 2022

The current study examines the influence of press releases about scientific studies in terms of t... more The current study examines the influence of press releases about scientific studies in terms of their impact on news coverage. Using an innovative approach that allowed for analysis of a large corpus of text and calculation of similarity scores, we were able to trace the uptake of press release materials into news media articles. In some cases, up to 65% of sentences in science news articles reflected high similarity to press release material—a potent indication of how powerful information subsidies can be. While our results contain some good news for public relations practitioners, they also carry a warning for consumers of journalism and for the public science agenda, which may be left vulnerable to bad actors undermining the trust that the public, and journalists, have in science. News organizations that had a history of producing award-winning science journalism were much less likely to draw on press release materials, indicating the importance of topic area expertise in produci...

Journal of Media Ethics, 2015

J. E. Grunig's (1992a) seminal work on excellence theory and subsequent works by other schola... more J. E. Grunig's (1992a) seminal work on excellence theory and subsequent works by other scholars advance the two-way symmetrical model as a best-practice approach to public relations (PR). In part, two-way symmetry is preferred because of an assertion that it is the most ethical form of practice. However, only within a means-based deontological framework do two-way symmetry and the principle of dialogue emerge as universally ethical. Taking an ends-based utilitarian standpoint makes the potential ethical flaws of two-way symmetry apparent. Issues of moral luck, hegemony, and the limitations of dialogue also pose problems for the moral primacy claims surrounding two-way symmetry. The analysis that follows points toward a need for a more relative and contingent approach to PR ethics, and by extension to PR practice itself.

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 2020

This article conceptualizes organizational advocacy as a relational communication strategy by whi... more This article conceptualizes organizational advocacy as a relational communication strategy by which organizations take stances on controversial, sociopolitical issues to signal shared commitment with key publics. The authors conducted a series of two-by-two experimental surveys—controlling whether an organization took a defined position (advocacy vs. silence) and whether it acted alone or in line with peers (leader vs. follower)—across both less partisan (Study 1) and highly partisan (Study 2) issues. Findings indicate advocacy is an effective relational communication strategy that strengthens organization–public relationships (OPRs) and increases publics’ support for the organization. Theoretical contributions and practical applications are discussed.

Public Relations Review, 2020

Abstract This study examined the ability of antecedents such as media diet and candidate traits t... more Abstract This study examined the ability of antecedents such as media diet and candidate traits to impact political organization-public relationships (POPRs), in turn affecting views on party reputation. As expected, survey respondents reported greater levels of relationship-focused communication and higher reputation assessments of their own parties, additionally rating their party’s candidate higher in authenticity and character. Connecting media diet and reputation, heavier use of partisan, traditional media (e.g., talk radio and cable news) indicated increased partisan divides, suggesting young and often inexperienced voters engage in motivated reasoning, seeking out information from sources that cater to their existing ideologies. This pattern was less pronounced for infotainment and social media sources, suggesting promising agenda-building opportunities for political PR practitioners. SEM analyses demonstrated the significant influence of candidate traits and POPR on party reputation, though manifestations of effects differed among Democrats and Republicans, the implications of which are discussed.

Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 2018

Purpose Using the elaboration likelihood model as a framework, the purpose of this paper is to in... more Purpose Using the elaboration likelihood model as a framework, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of cause involvement, ability to process, and motivation to process on consumer judgments of organizational image following exposure to a corporate social responsibility (CSR) message. Design/methodology/approach This study relies upon an experimental manipulation of message complexity and uses quantitative survey data. The data were analyzed via tests of means differences, hierarchical multiple OLS regression, and mediation analysis. Findings The authors found that CSR’s influence on image is unaffected by message complexity – at least directly. However, CSR’s influence on image is intensified by greater cause involvement and information processing ability, which indicates that central route processing is more likely to move the needle on such assessments. Additionally, involvement serves as an important mediator on the effects that ability and motivation to proces...

American Journalism, 2018

Scholars consider the development of public relations ethics to be an integral component in profe... more Scholars consider the development of public relations ethics to be an integral component in professionalizing public relations. If this connection exists, the solidifying of the profession that took place from the interwar to postwar periods should provide not only evidence for this linkage, but also insight into a philosophy of public relations practice and its key ethical considerations. This study establishes the bookend years of 1936, which marked the founding of the first professional public relations association, and 1964, which marked the start of Public Relations Society of America's accreditation for practice, as defining moments in establishing a profession. An analysis of speeches from business leaders, government officials, and communication practitioners shed light on practices and ethics. The uneasiness many current scholars and professionals express toward persuasive strategies was largely absent during the formative years, as truthful advocacy via two-way communication became emblematic of public relations practice.

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 2019

This study examines how frequently committed ethical misconduct regarding values closely aligned ... more This study examines how frequently committed ethical misconduct regarding values closely aligned to an organizational mission affects stakeholders’ pro-organizational responses to an offending nonprofit. Using a 2 × 2 experimental survey, findings showed that ethical misconduct in primary values resulted in significantly decreased positive attitudes toward and donation intentions to the organization. Also, the patterns of unethical behaviors significantly increased stakeholders’ negative attitudes toward the organization and willingness to assign the organization responsibility for unethical behavior. Perceived organizational responsibility for ethical misconduct and deteriorating organization–public relationships (OPRs) were significant mediators for the effects of primary ethical violations.

Public understanding of science (Bristol, England), Jan 25, 2016

Given the ethical questions that surround emerging science, this study is interested in studying ... more Given the ethical questions that surround emerging science, this study is interested in studying public trust in scientific and religious authorities for information about the risks and benefits of science. Using data from a nationally representative survey of American adults, we employ regression analysis to better understand the relationships between several variables-including values, knowledge, and media attention-and trust in religious organizations and scientific institutions. We found that Evangelical Christians are generally more trusting of religious authority figures to tell the truth about the risks and benefits of science and technology, and only slightly less likely than non-Evangelicals to trust scientific authorities for the same information. We also found that many Evangelicals use mediated information and science knowledge differently than non-Evangelicals, with both increased knowledge and attention to scientific media having positive impacts on trust in scientific...

Public Relations Review, 2011

The following is an evaluation of "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer's image restoration attempts during... more The following is an evaluation of "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer's image restoration attempts during his March 2009 week-long media battle with Jon Stewart, host of "The Daily Show." Using Benoit's (1995) image restoration theory as a conceptual framework, it is apparent that Cramer failed in restoring his reputation because he frequently coupled incongruent strategies and was unable to grasp the dynamic nature of communicative image restoration.

American Behavioral Scientist, 2013

Sustainability, 2022

This study investigates how legitimization strategies embedded in CSR messages related to the COV... more This study investigates how legitimization strategies embedded in CSR messages related to the COVID-19 pandemic influenced multidimensional stakeholder assessments of reputation. The results of this 3 × 2 × 2 experimental survey, which manipulated pragmatic and moral legitimacy using three conditions (self- vs. other- vs. both-oriented messaging); substantive and symbolic management (informative vs. uninformative content); and popularization and standardization approaches (leadership vs. followership), indicate that popularization strategies communicated substantively and standardization strategies communicated symbolically generally yield the greatest reputational gains. More nuanced findings from three-way interaction effects are further discussed, with an emphasis on the role of double-sided messages seeking to simultaneously establish pragmatic and moral legitimacy.

Journal of Public Relations Research, 2017