Out of 19 applications from 11 different countries, the Jury, together with a panel of 24 expert reviewers, selected nine finalists for the Master Thesis Award for Excellence: three in the theoretical category and six in the practical one. The EUPRERA BoD, the award coordinator Alexander Buhmann and the jurors congratulate these promising graduates on the outstanding academic work done so far.
Winners of each category will be announced during the EUPRERA Congress in Aarhus, on September 29. 2018.
The Master Thesis Award for Excellence, run since 1995, is a celebration of PR academia and of the role performed by European Higher Education Institutions in the evolution of knowledge of this field. With this award, EUPRERA together with PRCA (Public Relations and Communications Association) and ICCO (International Communications Consultancy Organisation) want to honour and reward Master theses (MSc, MA and MPhil) that make a significant professional/practical or academic contribution to the field of Public Relations in Europe.

2018 Finalists

Theoretical Impact Award

  • Luisa Bißwanger, Value Creation through Thought Leadership. Theoretical fundamentals and empirical framework, supervisor Ansgar Zerfaß, University of Leipzig, Germany
  • Alexandra Joon, A Little Bird told me… Examining the Relevance of Social Media for Reputation Management in Dutch Hospitals, supervisor Vidhi Chaudhri, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
  • Michael Odichi-Dan Ugorji, Brexiting through the Gates of Trumpism: The Machiavellian of Political Communication, supervisor David Bousquet, Université de Bourgogne, France

Practical Impact Award

  • Jenifer Boughey, Mind the Gap: Female Perceptions and Narratives of Women’s Journeys in Communications/PR, supervisor Ana Adi, Quadriga University of Applied Sciences, Germany
  • Lisa Grimmeiss, Towards a Lobbying Regulation – A comparative study on the efforts to implement a lobby register in the Republic of Ireland and the Federal Republic of Germany, supervisor Tom Clonan, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
  • Andrei Ispasiu, The impact of racing video games in car image perception, supervisor Alexandra Crăciun, The University of Bucharest, Romania
  • Benedicte Nylund, Are you safe? Emergency communications on Facebook related to opinions, behaviours and attributes of the users. The use of Facebook and its ‘Safety check’ after the London terrorism attack on June 3rd 2017, supervisor Mark Phillimore, University of Greenwich, UK
  • Lilli Pukka, From influencing to engaging: The role of communication in protecting endangered species, supervisor Laura Asunta, Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics, Finland
  • Tom Salina, Framing Sustainability: Media Narratives of CSR in the Fashion Industry, supervisor Wim Elving, Hanzehogeschool Groningen / IULM Milan, Netherlands/Italy