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15 October 2023
#EUPRERAtalks: Insights from the Prague Education Café

#EUPRERAtalks series is back!

Insights from the Prague Education Café
Date: October 27, 2023, Friday
Time: 2:00 pm CET
What to expect from the webinar

During the EUPRERA 2023 Congress that took place in Prague, the Education Network introduced the Education Café as a way to explore issues shared by EUPRERA members and EUPRERA Congress participants in their teaching activity. This 90 min workshop was an adaptation of the World Café, a methodology for hosting group dialogue that emphasizes the power of simple conversation in considering relevant questions and themes.

The participants in the Education Café went through four rounds of informal discussions regarding a selection of topics, issues and possible solutions that are relevant to communication and public relations education. The topics were shortlisted by the EUPRERA members through an online poll before the Prague Congress and then the participants selected the final topics. After fruitful and engaged discussions during the Education Café, the Education Network will present a summary and actionable insights from the discussions through the four members who acted as moderators in Prague.

Topics discussed during the Prague Education Café:

From negative to positive: Transform negative, dull or problematic tools and activities for the students (e.g.: leading an online presentation, integrating ChatGPT, identifying issues and solutions themselves) into positive and constructive ones in the classroom.
Education and sustainability: How do we teach and embed sustainability into courses/curriculums, how do we enable a clearer link between sustainability, what we teach and SDGs in order to build a framework around teaching PR and sustainability?
The challenge of reading: How to bring students to read (in a blended environment)? If the students do not go through the recommended readings before the class, it is difficult to have a constructive experience.
Gen Z: How to talk with them, how to bridge the gap? Are we speaking the same language?

 

Speakers and webinar moderators

Education Café moderators:
Anne-Marie COTTON – Artevelde University of Applied Sciences, Belgium
Camelia CMECIU – University of Bucharest, Romania
Raluca MOISE – City University of London, UK
Camelia CUȘNIR – University of Bucharest, Romania

Webinar moderators:
the co-leaders of the EUPRERA Education Network
Anca ANTON – University of Bucharest, Romania
Monique ABBENBROEK – Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands

 

Duration

1 hour

 

More about the speakers

 

 

Anne-Marie Cotton is Senior lecturer at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences (communication management, public relations and reputation management) and affiliated researcher to the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL).
She leads the MARPE Network and coordinates the Master Programme in European Public Relations (MARPE) since 1997. She was president of EUPRERA (1999–2000) and EUPRERA secretary general (2001–2009).  She is a member of several scientific committees and publishes in the fields of communication, public relations and education.

Camelia Cmeciu is a professor of organizational communication, risk and crisis communication at Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest. She is a member of the Romanian PR Awards Jury. Her research was published in Web of Science journals (Public Relations Review, Comunicar, Global Health Promotion, Discourse & Society) or at international publishing houses (Routledge, Springer, Peter Lang, IGI sau Bloomsbury Publishing).

Camelia Cușnir is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Communication of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences. She has a PhD in Communication Sciences with the thesis “Media discourse of Romanian public intellectuals after 1989”. Her research interest include Sociology of intellectuals, Social Media Influencers, Discourse Analysis, Digital Communication and Semiotics.

Raluca Moise is Senior Lecturer in Communications at School of Communication  & Creativity, City University of London. Her past research in public relations has focused on areas such as new technologies, reputation (individual, organizational; online and classic media); public opinion and public interest. Most recent research explores sustainability in strategic communications: in its
occupational field, with a focus on freelancers; in its communication practices, with an emphasis on diversity and inclusivity. Raluca is an active network member in ‘Women in PR’ and ‘Education in PR’.

 

 

4 October 2023
2023 Distinguished Public Relations Scholar Award

The European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA), a body of academic institutions, researchers and senior professionals in the field of strategic communication with 550 members from 51 countries, has named Peggy Simcic Brønn, from BI Norwegian Business School, Distinguished Public Relations Scholar. The lifetime award recognizes her outstanding contribution to research and education in public relations as a social science discipline on an international level.
She has been awarded on September 22, 2023, at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, on the occasion of the EUPRERA annual congress, by the association’s president elect Prof. Jesper Falkheimer.

Peggy Simcic Brønn is professor emerita at the highly-ranked BI Norwegian Business School, where she has been a professor since 2011. She has a long history as a leader, researcher and lecturer in the field of corporate communications and public relations. She was founder and leader of BI Centre for Corporate Communication for several years as well as an associate editor of Journal of Communication Management, among other assignments. Her research contribution is clear and relevant, especially in the field of reputation, corporate social responsibility and corporate branding. Besides her international career – she is a US citizen but with a strong base in Norway – she has been an active communication expert in the Norwegian public sphere. Alongside her academic reputation, she is a notorious motorcyclist, along with her husband Carl.

 

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29 September 2023
2023 Master Thesis Awards and PhD Award

The European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA), a body of academic institutions, researchers and senior professionals in the field of strategic communication with 550 members from 51 countries has awarded two master students for their excellent theses in strategic communication.

The Master Thesis Award for Excellence is an annual prize aimed to celebrate the PR academia and the role performed by European Higher Education Institutions in the evolution of knowledge of this field. The jury, headed by Martina Topić, from Leeds Beckett University in UK, selected the winning theses in two categories:

Practical Impact Award

“PR Strategies for Audience Engagement and Dialogue on Social Media: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Select British NGOs’ Twitter Posts”
by Temitope Oyelade, University of Stirling, UK
Supervisor: Sally Chalmers

This dissertation expands upon the dialogue theory of PR as enacted by Taylor and Kent in 2002 and 2014 by focusing on the use of social media for engagement by NGOs. It addresses the lacunae in PR research on social media engagement and dialogue within the relational paradigm, especially regarding social media’s multimedia affordances for facilitating dialogic engagement between organisations and their publics and building ethical Organisation-Public Relationships (OPR). The study indicates that purposeful selection of social media discourses for maximum cognitive and affective engagement may allow for more dialogically oriented conversations, and thus more ethical relationships with online audiences, as the presence of a dialogic orientation in the NGO communications has the effect of largely mitigating the effect of the unequal power dynamic that naturally exists between organisations and their audiences, leading to better OPRs in practice. The study also situates social media engagement within the dialogue theory of PR and provides direction for further research on the use of social media for dialogue, particularly the implementation of vulnerability, a key element of dialogic orientation.

Theoretical Impact Award

“The Role of Consumer PR in Feminist Menstrual Activism”
by Caitlin Carbury, University of Stirling, UK
Supervisor: Clare McKeown

This dissertation sought to examine the role of consumer PR in Feminist Menstrual Activism (FMA) to gather insight into what PR does for FMA and menstruators, and what FMA can do for PR. The findings revealed three dominant categories of meaning which (re)produced both old and new meanings regarding menstruation: 1. Prepare and Protect, 2. Menstruation as Womanly, and 3. Feminist Menstrual Activism. These dominant categories highlighted that consumer PR’s role in FMA is complicated by tensions and contradictions which largely stem from capitalism and commodification. Despite this, instances of transgression within the data suggested that PR has the potential to act as FMA. By drawing on these findings, this paper argues that PR practitioners need access to the dominant coalition, a will to do the right thing and harbour a feminist intelligence if consumer PR is to play an active role in the progression of both FMA and PR practice. Moreover, the paper highlights the need for further theoretical and empirical research which incorporates more organisations and media platforms to draw stronger conclusions on the role of PR in FMA and what these communications mean for varying identities.

 

The PhD Award for Excellent Doctoral Thesis is a bi-annual prize awarded by EUPRERA aimed to stimulate the academic discussion and build the body of knowledge in communication management across Europe. The jury, headed by Prof. Winni Johansen and Prof. Wim Elving, selected as winning thesis:

“The contribution of different communication channels and sub-state actors to country perception in today’s globalized and digitalized society. A public diplomacy listening approach”
by Jérôme Chariatte, University of Fribourg, CH
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Diana Ingenhoff

The thesis (179 pages) addresses new, relevant, and fascinating topics: listening within public diplomacy, as well as civic engagement across countries, and the role of sub-actors such as cities for the country image and the branding of a country. In addition, the relationship between place branding and public diplomacy in the digital sphere is addressed and extended by linking it to concepts like global governance and social responsibility. Furthermore, the study contributes with combining new and multiple methods and ways to listen and to measure country image and public diplomacy that take into account the globalized and digitalized context of todays’ public diplomacy efforts.

The methods are ambitious and broad ranged. Based on four different empirical studies the thesis contributes a mixed methods approach to study country image and public urban actors relying on both classical and recent research methodologies, such as media content and survey analysis, semantic network analysis, structural equation modelling and analysis of trace data. The analyses are thoroughly executed and based on appropriate and well-argued research methodologies. The ‘mystery’ of the thesis is clearly embedded in its implementation of new research methods adopted to match the digitalization and social media implementation in today’s public diplomacy practices. Furthermore, the thesis contributes to strengthen the role and status of communication in the public diplomacy and country image branding, and to add new insights into methodological theories and issues related to public diplomacy research enriching the perspectives of diplomacy and urban civic engagement across countries.

The thesis clearly demonstrates how the field of public diplomacy and public relations can benefit from taking new theoretical and methodological steps forward.

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27 September 2023
Awards for Best Papers 2023: EUPRERA honours academics and practitioners from Europe

We are just back from the EUPRERA  Annual Congress, organised by Charles University in Prague, one of the largest and oldest universities in the world, as it was founded in 1348 by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV.

The congress was a success both in participation with nearly 200 attendants and in scientific contribution, with works on the theme “Responsible Communication – or Communicating Responsibility?”, grasping the legacy and challenges of the unprecedented times we are facing.

The Annual Congress is also time to hand out the EUPRERA Best Paper Awards. As always, the Awards were given to the authors of three papers with the highest rankings in a two-stage, blind peer-review process performed by a scientific committee of renowned international scholars, headed by Chiara Valentini.

EUPRERA Best Paper Awards

The three winning papers:

“I want what you want! Understanding the Impact of Public Interest Arguments in Lobbying and Public Affairs”
by Ketil Raknes and Øyvind Ihlen

This paper significantly contributes to the realm of public affairs by providing valuable insights into how politicians and lobbyists in Norway use the concept of public interest to advocate for or against energy and environmental issues. The paper is well constructed, rigorous and well-argued. It offers a comprehensive, relevant, and coherent theoretical framework that thoroughly examines the utilization of “topos” in the communicative interactions of these influential social actors. The theoretical framework is highly valuable in that it can be used to analyze a diverse set of advocacy initiatives beyond the ones in focus in this study. Overall, this study constitutes a significant advancement in the understanding of lobbyism and rhetoric within the political sphere and offers a theory-driven tool to dissect the quality of argumentations of those in power and the role of communication in affecting democratic processes.

“Sustainable Engagement with Digitalization Challenges in Strategic Communication: Introducing the VUCA Radar”
by Peter Winkler, Jannik Kretschmer, and Philip Wamprechtsamer

This paper explores the frequently used, yet ambiguously defined concept of VUCA, aiming to provide a conceptual and empirical analysis that sheds light on its impact on strategic communication and outlines effective responses to its challenges. The study is backed by qualitative data gathered in Austria. A commendable aspect of this research is the authors’ intention to enhance our comprehension of VUCA while contributing to the theoretical understanding of current public relations in both internal and external environments. To aid professionals in navigating complex and volatile situations, the paper introduces a valuable tool called the VUCA RADAR. Overall, the study stands out as an intriguing, innovative, pertinent, and ambitious contribution to the field.

 “Trend Research in Communication Management: Introducing an Interdisciplinary Approach based on Futures Research Methodology”
by Ansgar Zerfass, Daniel Ziegele, Sünje Clausen, and Stefan Stieglitz

This paper proposes an integrative approach for future research in public relations and communication management. The methodological approach integrates insights from research developments in society, management, and technology and integrates insights from professionals. There is a nice dialectical engagement between theory and practice-based experiences which positions this work as one highly commented for its practical implications and contribution in expanding our knowledge for conducting formative research. Overall, the paper suggests an innovative integrative methodological perspective, that can become an important practical toolkit for professionals and their research efforts in identifying key trends.

 

Special recognition to the best reviewer

EUPRERA Best Reviewer Award recognizes the work done by the reviewer because it is an essential contribution to the quality and success of the annual congress. This year’s winner is:

Melissa A. Johnson,
North Carolina State University

Dr. Johnson’s review stands at an exceptional level of quality. Her feedback is thorough, comprising in-depth and comprehensive comments, along with practical suggestions that effectively aid authors in enhancing their papers. Notably, her constructive and encouraging remarks prompt authors to introspect on their arguments and research decisions. Moreover, the review exhibits attentive feedback and a profound respect for diverse academic cultural traditions and perspectives, making it truly commendable.

 

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8 September 2023
IPRA’s webinar: Express crisis management: the 1-hour diagnostic

On Thursday 14 September 2023 at 12.00 GMT/UCT (unadjusted), IPRA is organizing the webinar “Express crisis management: the 1-hour diagnostic”, presented by Gerry McCusker, issues management specialist and the author of the book “PR Disasters”.

The webinar will introduce participants to the  Drill Crisis Simulator,  an online crisis management technology, developed by crisis management experts. Based around a custom SaaS portal, the Drill portal is an interactive, real-time crisis immersion simulator, that replicates the decision-making and publishing challenges of customised crisis scenarios to test, train and upgrade crisis management skills. The goal of The Drill is to teach the methodological steps that empower professionals to handle crisis, disaster, emergency and issues communication.

The event is free and registration is available here.

More info about the webinar

 

7 September 2023
European Communication Monitor 2023
A 15 year study by five universities reveals longitudinal insights: enhancing trust and securing strategic alignment remain top challenges for the communications and PR profession in Europe

The 2023 edition of the European Communication Monitor (ECM) has been presented by a research group from
leading universities in Germany, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Norway, and Spain today. The study is known as the
world’s longest running empirical study on current and future developments in strategic communication and public
relations. It is based on surveys of almost 40,000 communication professionals from 50 countries.

The current edition provides unique insights by combining a look back at the most important strategic issues for
communication management over 15 consecutive years with a look ahead that identifies five key areas of action for
communication leaders. The outlook is based on longitudinal empirical insights from the ECM and current research
literature. The authors present theses for communication leaders that stimulate reflection and debate.

The full ECM 2023 Report (PDF, 64 pp.) is available for free at
www.communicationmonitor.eu
Unique insights into a rapidly changing profession that drives our societies

Leaders in business, politics, and education are invited to download and read the European Communication Monitor
2023 report to learn about a profession that shape today’s societies in a profound way.

Today’s media reality with 24/7 debates on multiple channels forces businesses, non-profits, and
governments alike to invest huge resources into internal and external communications with multiple stakeholders.
This is the domain of communication departments and their external supporters like agencies or consultancies. The
profession counts hundreds of thousands of practitioners in Europe – there are no reliable statistics, as different terms
such as communication management, corporate communications, corporate affairs, organisational communication,
public relations, or simply communications are used to denominate this converging field which has long outnumbered
journalism in terms of employment.

Original empirical knowledge about the field is rare. Many concepts discussed have been developed in other
regions, especially in the United States, without taking into account the cultural, economic, and political diversity on
the Old Continent. Also, new trends are often propagated by industry studies that are hardly suitable as a basis for
strategic decisions as they do not meet minimum standards of applied research.

The European Communication Monitor (ECM) has closed this gap. It started as a small academic initiative in
2007 and has grown into the largest collaborative research project in the field, now involving 28 leading universities
and several partners from practice. It is the largest and longest running transnational study on strategic
communication and communication management world-wide with parallel surveys in North America, Latin America
and Asia Pacific, coordinated by Professor Ansgar Zerfass under the Global Communication Monitor umbrella.

The ECM is an academic study fulfilling high quality standards of social science research. It has been designed
and executed by a changing team of renowned university professors representing different countries, currently:
Ansgar Zerfass (Leipzig University, Germany), Dejan Verčič (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), Ángeles Moreno
(University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain), Ralph Tench (Leeds Beckett University, UK), and Alexander Buhmann (BI
Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway). The non-profit project is formally organised by the European Public
Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) and the European Association of Communication Directors
(EACD), supported by premium partner Cision as well as partners CECOMS, #NORA, and Fink & Fuchs.

What keeps communicators awake at night

The ECM has tracked the rise and decline of key issues rated as important by communicators since 2007. These unique
longitudinal insights reveal how communicators across Europe started to pay attention to new developments, how
they deprioritised issues after some time (probably due to a better understanding and the development of practices to deal with them), and how some issues took off again or kept their status as a key strategic issue.

The study shows that two issues have been constantly on top of the mind of communicators and they will
continue to stay there at least until 2025: building and maintaining trust and linking business strategy and
communication. The trust placed in organisations by their stakeholders is a valuable immaterial resource, which is
often based on communication activities. It is not surprising that communicators rate building and maintaining trust as
important – but the fact that they continuously prioritise it over multiple other values created by communications
confirms that trust is essential for excellent organisations.

Aligning communication management with overarching organisational goals is another perennial issue.
Research on future-proofing business models for communication departments; using measurement and evaluation for
continuous improvement, and for benchmarking communication practices provide many solutions today, but they
have probably not yet arrived in practice.

Stakeholder expectations regarding sustainability and social responsibility have also been a main concern for
communicators in Europe. However, they have become less important between 2008 and 2022 and are now again
among the top three strategic issues. A similar volatility, but on a higher level, applies to the assessment of challenges
and opportunities related to the intensified speed and volume of information flow in a digitalised and globalised
world. Last but not least, it is interesting to note that algorithmic communication has already been identified as a key
strategic issue by every fourth ECM respondent in 2016 – six years before ChatGPT took off in the last year.

Key insights and drivers of success for the next decade

The ECM 2023 report identifies five areas that will shape the future of strategic communication and need specific
attention, based on the empirical data and current research which has been additionally evaluated. These topics are
explained in the full report with references to additional sources. The authors provide three theses for each area that
help readers to reflect and discuss potential initiatives in their daily practice.

1) Leverage the potential of advanced tech and data use

Digitalisation is without any doubt the most important trigger and backbone for the rapid transformation of
communication departments and consultancies. This transformation goes well beyond new channels and forms of
stakeholder communication. It has a fundamental impact on the structures and workflows of communication
management and the communication profession as a whole.

Ansgar Zerfass, Professor and Chair of Strategic Communication at Leipzig University, Germany, states:
“Never before have communication leaders faced such great opportunities and risks at the same time. CommTech, big
data, and services based on artificial intelligence can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of organisational
communication, but they also threaten current business models of communication departments and agencies.
Concise transformation strategies adapted to the situation and courageous leadership are necessary to move
forward.” He outlines several theses in the ECM 2023 Report:

  • Digital technologies, artificial intelligence and big data change everything. Key to communicators’ success is using
    technology beyond automated messaging for internal advising and improved workflows.
  • Vigorously implemented digitalisation strategies increase the digital maturity of communication units. They should
    focus on redesigning tasks and processes as well as breaking down structural barriers.
  • Cyber security is essential: protecting organisational communication infrastructure, implementing analogue back-
    up routines and preparing for crises triggered by cyberattacks are indispensable.
2) Develop rare competencies and new roles for professionals

Managing and executing strategic communication in a global and mediatised world is a complex task. Few other
professions change so quickly. The move towards engagement across multiple media platforms, use and management
of large data sets and the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) require new competencies. They need to be
addressed to enable practitioners to keep up with the sector’s evolution.

“These are difficult times”, says Ralph Tench, Professor and Director of Research for Leeds Business School, Leeds
Beckett University in the United Kingdom. “Holding responsibility for managing and delivering strategic
communication in our global and mediatised world is challenging. Communication professionals need to ensure they
develop the skills to deal with changes to their work and evolving operational environments. The ECM outlines
roadmaps for developing the next generation of communicators to be high performing and equipped to meet future
business, environmental and social demands.” He argues that leaders should take care of those aspects:

  • Communication practitioners lack many of the competencies required to face the challenges and unleash the full
    potential of digital opportunities. More effective training for use needs to be developed.
  • New opportunities for communicators emerge from serving as advisors or consultants in their organisations – two
    roles that are expected to grow in importance in the coming years.
  • Increased investment in training, even for seasoned communications professionals, and new virtual formats are
    needed to keep communications departments and agencies at the cutting edge.
3) Reach and impact audiences in a hyperconnected world

Globalised media, analogue and digital, have produced a hyperconnected world in which communication is not only
connecting people and organisations, but is becoming the very environment in which we live. Reaching and impacting
audiences is becoming easier and harder for organisations at the same time. The mediatisation of our lives calls for
new ways to understand and manage media and relations with stakeholders.

This has major consequences on several levels, as Dejan Verčič, Professor of Public Relations at the University
of Ljubljana in Slovenia, states: “The digitalisation of communications is driving its datafication and strategisation.
Social media and social networks, often used via smartphones, shape today’s omnichannel communication. We are
witnessing an amalgamation of communication disciplines in organisations, and a hybridisation of formats in the
media. Trends towards greater visualisation of content are leading us into a post-literal society enhanced by
augmented and virtual realities that will soon multiply into parallel worlds.” His theses derived from current research
are:

  • There is a clear convergence of importance of all communication channels. Today, effective and efficient
    stakeholder communication must be conducted omnichannel via all suitable platforms and media.
  • The hybridisation of media content exemplified by brand journalism, content marketing and native advertising
    requires a deeper integration of communication disciplines in organisations.
  • The visual turn in strategic communication through advancements in digital media, augmented reality (AR), virtual
    reality (VR) and parallel worlds (e.g., the Metaverse) calls for new approaches and solutions.
4) Lead and motivate extraordinary communication teams

Excellent communication depends on advanced technology, media, and skilled practitioners – but also on diverse
teams that foster collaboration and innovation. The ECM and related studies in other continents have researched
these aspects in detail to identify drivers of success.

Ángeles Moreno, Professor of Public Relations and Communication Management at University Rey Juan Carlos,
Madrid, Spain, states: “Leadership makes a difference in communication. Educating, mentoring and promoting
leadership skills should be a priority to retain the talent into collaborative, committed and DEI inclusive teams to
advocate these changes for organisations and clients”. She highlights the following theses:

  • Communication leaders should reinforce inclusive leadership based on shared power and collaborative decision-
    making to nurture a supportive team culture.
  • Job satisfaction resulting from interesting tasks, career opportunities, and appreciation by superiors is a key driver
    for commitment among communicators – leveraging this must be a priority.
  • Combining the experiences and skills of diverse colleagues will enable communication departments and agencies
    to support organisations’ diversity, equality, and inclusion initiatives with solid expertise.
5) Build relationships in times of misinformation and distrust

Trust in the media and other institutions has been declining across Europe during the last decade. While the rise of
social media has opened up dynamic spaces for meaningful and interactive stakeholder engagement, it has also
spawned new challenges for strategic communication. As content on social networking sites is shared in real-time and
with little ability for editorial filtering or fact-checking, misinformation is now a common occurrence in digital online
environments.

“Mis- and disinformation pose seminal challenges within our increasingly digitalised information societies”, says
Alexander Buhmann, Associate Professor of Corporate Communication at BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo,
Norway. “Tackling the various forms of information disorder is now a priority issue for many, including strategic
communicators who are looking to build and maintain trust. As new platforms and AI-driven tools are set to further
exacerbate these challenges, the search for ways to achieve purpose-driven and authentic stakeholder engagement
will occupy practitioners and researchers alike.” His theses are:

  • Social media platforms have created an environment in which misinformation thrives – communicators should use
    contemporary digital tools to monitor and challenge information disorder.
  • Authenticity, emotional engagement, and storytelling are key to effective communication in a post-truth society,
    especially when stakeholders are highly involved, such as in crises.
  • More investment in concrete and applicable ethics guidelines is needed as the shift to autonomous forms of
    communication assisted by AI brings new challenges for building and maintaining trust.
Study will be relaunched in 2024 with a new research design

The ECM 2023 Report concludes the successful phase of this transnational study based on a broad quantitative
research design. The research project will recommence in 2024 with a new, more focused and advanced research
design to be announced later this year.

Press contact for interviews and more information

Professor Ralph Tench
Leeds Beckett University, UK
eMail: r.tench@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

Ansgar Zerfass
Leipzig University, Germany
eMail zerfass@uni-leipzig.de

About the survey organiser

European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) – The mission of EUPRERA, an autonomous organisation with nearly 500 members from 40 countries, is to enhance and promote innovation in the knowledge, research, education and practice of strategic communication. Through its membership of universities and other research associations and bodies, EUPRERA is a global leader on high profile transnational research projects and networks. More than 200,000 scholars and practitioners can potentially be reached through its extended communication channels and partnership arrangements. www.euprera.org

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1 September 2023
Bledcom – Paper submissions and Conference proceedings
Here are two opportunities for publication coming out of Bledcom 2023
Special issue of Corporate Communications
Dejan Verčič, Krishnamurthy Sriramesh, Ana Tkalac Verčič are guest editing the special issue of Corporate Communications: An International Journal, on Sustainability and Communication.

Important information:

  • Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 11 September 2023
  • Closing date for manuscripts submission: 18 December 2023
Read the complete Call for Papers

BledCom 2023 Proceedings
All papers presented at the jubilee 30th edition of the Bledcom symposium (except those that will be chosen for publication in the special issue of Corporate Communications) are eligible for inclusion in the conference proceedings.

Important information:

  • Opening date for manuscripts submissions: September 16, 2023
  • Full papers should not exceed 6.000 words, including charts, footnotes, graphs, references, tables, and bibliography
  • Email for manuscript submission and submission queries: bledcom@fdv.uni-lj.si
30 August 2023
EUPRERA Annual Congress 2023 – full programme

Our Annual Congress will take place in Prague this year, from September 20th to 23nd.

Under the title “Responsible Communication or Communicating Responsibility?”, a wide selection of scholars, professionals and researchers from all over Europe and beyond will support discussion around a key topic of communication for our present world.

Discover the full programme here and consider joining this unique opportunity!

See you in Prague!

More details on the dedicated webside.

28 August 2023
Coworker communication – a valuable glue that constructs organizations

by Vibeke Thøis Madsen, PhD, MA
Senior Associate Professor in Strategic Communication
DMJX Danmarks Medie- og Journalisthøjskole

Employees are increasingly visible as communicators. They represent, promote and defend their organization on external social media, they scout for information and build relationships externally and internally, they come up with ideas, share knowledge and make sense of organizational cues (Madsen and Verhoeven, 2018; Verhoeven and Madsen, 2022). In this respect, Madsen and Verhoeven have found that they fulfill at least eight communication roles in organizational contexts.

This focus on employees as communicators has been emphasized in public relations for more than a decade. Heide and Simonsson (2011) turned the spotlight on coworkers and their importance as active communicators in relation to their manager, colleagues and employer especially in post bureaucratic organization, and how their communication from a CCO perspective (Ashcraft, Kuhn, & Cooren, 2009; Putnam & Nicotera, 2009) construct the organization. Their argument was that this realization changed the role of communication professionals in organizational contexts turning the focus from producing to facilitating communication.

At the same time, Frandsen and Johansen (2011) emphasized that employees were different from other organizational stakeholders both in everyday life and in crisis situations. They are far from a homogenous group, but they share some common elements that distinguishes them from other stakeholders in terms of their relationship with their employer, their stakes, the identity and the degree of identification with the organization and their role as both receivers and senders of internal (crisis) communication. Again, they draw the attention to employees as active communicators.

Employees have always represented their organizations but with social media their communication has become more visible. Organizations are aware of their importance as communicators, and employees increasingly perceive communication on social media as part of their work roles (Andersson, 2019; Pekkala and van Zoonen, 2023). At the same time employees are also visible as communicators on interne social media where they share knowledge, solve problems and discuss organizational paradoxes (Madsen, 2020; 2022).

This tangible web of communication on internal and external social media helps us understand how communication constructs organizations (CCO) or as Francois Cooren (2004) phrase it the constant shift and interaction between text and conversation. In his terminology texts are the accepted consensus or understandings in an organization, while conversation is the discussion of these texts which might develop into new texts about what the organization is. You can argue that when employees start to communicate on internal and external social media, they increasingly become the authors of the organization. They create or construct the organization as they speak. They might repeat the current perception of the organization (the text), but they are just as likely to alter and change the understanding a bit when they talk about the organization in their own words. In other words, rather than to speak with one voice, organizations increasingly speak with a plurality of voices. 

All of this leads me to argue that coworker communication is a valuable glue that constructs organizations, and that we need a better understanding of communicative coworkership, recently defined as “an abstraction of the various communication roles performed by a coworker in interactions with managers, colleagues, and external stakeholders and that has important implications for organizing, and in extension for the performance of the organization as a whole” (Andersson, 2022, p. 463). 

At the same time, we also need to be cautious that this knowledge is not just used to harvest the benefits of coworker communication for organizational and commercial purposes, and that communication professionals constantly evaluate the ethical aspects of using employees as communicators. What is part of the job contract and what is not? And it is not better that the employees enter into different communication roles voluntary and because that they wish to rather that to be forced?

References

Andersson, R. (2019). Employee communication responsibility: its antecedents and implications for strategic communication management. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 13(1), 60-75.

Andersson, R. (2022). Communicative coworkership. In (Eds.) Falkheimer, J. & Heide, M. Research Handbook on Strategic Communication. Edward Elgar Publishing, 460-474.

Ashcraft, K. L., Kuhn, T. R., & Cooren, F. (2009). Constitutional amendments: “Materializing” organizational communication. Academy of Management annals, 3(1), 1-64.

Cooren, F. (2004). Textual agency: How texts do things in organizational settings. Organization, 11(3), 373-393.

Frandsen, F., & Johansen, W. (2011). The study of internal crisis communication: towards an integrative framework. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 16(4), 347-361.

Heide, M., & Simonsson, C. (2011). Putting coworkers in the limelight: New challenges for communication professionals. International journal of strategic communication, 5(4), 201-220.

Madsen, V. T. (2020). Communicative Leadership on Internal Social Media: A Way to Employee Engagement?. In Joy (Vol. 5, pp. 93-114). Emerald Publishing Limited.

Madsen, V.T. (2022). Internal social media: a promise of participatory communication and organizational transparency. In (Eds.) Falkheimer, J. & Heide, M. Research Handbook on Strategic Communication. Edward Elgar Publishing, 431-444

Madsen, V. T., & Verhoeven, J. W. (2019). The big idea of employees as strategic communicators in public relation. In Big ideas in public relations research and practice (pp. 143-162). Emerald Publishing Limited.

Pekkala, K., & van Zoonen, W. (2023). Work‐related social media use and the shaping of communicative role perceptions. European Management Review.

Putnam, L. L., & Nicotera, A. M. (Eds.). (2009). Building theories of organization: The constitutive role of communication. Routledge.

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Photo credit: Christian Falck Wolff

3 August 2023
EUPRERA Master Award – Finalists announced!

Out of 18 applications from 7 countries, the jury selected 6 finalists for the EUPRERA Master Thesis Award for Excellence. Specifically, 3 in each category.

The winners, 1 per category, will be announced during the EUPRERA congress in Prague on Sept. 22, 2023. In the same awarding ceremony, the Board will also deliver the EUPRERA PhD Award for Excellent Doctoral Thesis.

2023 Master Award Finalists
Practical Impact Award

Xinyu Yang, “Understanding Brand-Culture Interaction: A Social Semiotic Analysis of an Emerging Form of Brand Communications on Bilibili”
Supervisor Lee Edwards, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

Scott McLean, “A World Leader on Climate Action? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Scottish Government Communications Through the Lens of Climate Justice”
Supervisor Sally Chalmers, University of Stirling, UK

Temitope Oyelade, “PR Strategies for Audience Engagement and Dialogue on Social Media: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Select British NGOs’ Twitter Posts”
Supervisor Sally Chalmers, University of Stirling, UK

Theoretical Impact Award

Elias Weber, “Business intelligence in communication management: The use of digital technologies for internal consulting”
Supervisors Ansgar Zerfaß and Christof Ehrhart, University of Leipzig, Germany

Chukwuemeka Agunwa, “Evaluating the role of diversity statement in perception creation since 2020 black lives matter movement protests in the estimation of racially diverse employees within the UK PR and Communications Industry”
Supervisors Ritchard Emm and Rudiger Theilmann, Leeds Beckett University, UK

Caitlin Carbury, “The Role of Consumer PR in Feminist Menstrual Activism”
Supervisor Clare McKeown, University of Stirling, UK

Congratulations!

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