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16 September 2024
2024 Master Thesis Awards – #euprera2024

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 more than 500 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 the University of Alabama, selected the winning theses in two categories:

Practical Impact Award

Darejan Tsurtsumia
“Flexible Organizational Structures of the Digitally Mediated Collective Actor – A Case of the Shame Movement in Georgia”
Supervisor: Ilkin Mehrabov, Lund University, Sweden

The success of social movements is highly dependent on their sustainability, and in
their efforts to produce meaningful change, they inevitably encounter oppressive
dominant forces. The winning dissertation is entitled ‘Flexible Organizational
Structures of the Digitally Mediated Collective Actor – A Case of the Shame
Movement in Georgia’ an analyses the stages of transformation a collective actor
undergoes, from a reactionary crowd-enabled network to a more traditional social
movement and emphasises the role of strategic communicative processes and
digital technologies in the constitution of its organisational structures.

 

Theoretical Impact Award

Megan Rollerson
“Strategic Communication of Trustworthiness in Autonomous Systems, Machine Learning & AI”
Supervisor: Marléne Wiggill, Lund University, Sweden

Autonomous systems, machine learning and artificial intelligence are increasingly
integrated into our everyday lives at an accelerating pace. The winning dissertation
is entitled ‘Strategic Communication of Trustworthiness in Autonomous Systems,
Machine Learning & AI’ and analyses how an organisation can effectively and
strategically communicate an autonomous system’s trustworthiness before and
during a system crisis, failure or rupture and develop a framework for how strategic
communication can foster trust in the technology and support a successful
organisation-public relationship.

 

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20 February 2024
EUPRERA 2024 Congress in Bucharest – submissions deadline approaching!

We are happy to announce that the EUPRERA XXV annual congress submissions platform is open!

If you attended the EUPRERA Congress in the past and you already have an account on ConfTool, then you can access the platform using the same username and password. If not, you must create an account to submit a paper or a panel.

The Congress submissions platform can be accessed at https://www.conftool.net/euprera2024/

More details on tracks, submission requirements, and publication opportunities are available on the Congress website: https://euprera2024.unibuc.ro/

Submit your short-length paper, full-length research paper or panel proposal by March 15th, 2024!

16 October 2023
EUPRERA 2024 Congress in Bucharest – Call for Papers

We are happy to invite members and colleagues to the EUPRERA XXV annual congress, taking place in Bucharest on September 11-14, 2024, and co-organized by the Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, Romania on the theme:

The Art of Communication
Bridging the Future and Past of Strategic Communication
in a New Technological Ecosystem

In addition to sessions and panels, the programme will also include:

  • multiple activities from our networks,
  • the Paper Development Workshop,
  • the PhD Seminar,
  • the Education Café,
  • a session on project collaboration proposals (new!),
  • activities from EUNES European Network of Emerging Scholars.
Call for Papers

Academics, PhD students and practitioners are invited to submit papers and panel proposals related to the congress theme and tracks:

  • Track 1 – Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Communication Research
  • Track 2 – The Future of Strategic Communication: Ethical Implications and Impact of Emergent PR Tools
  • Track 3 – Learning from the Past of Strategic Communication: Old Theories in a New Ecosystem
  • Track 4 – Community, Communication, and Stakeholders’ Interactions in the New Technological Ecosystem
  • Education track (new!) – Public Relations and Strategic Communication Education Research
  • Open track – Current Research in (Strategic) Communication and Public Relations

THREE TYPES OF SUBMISSIONS ARE POSSIBLE:
1. Short-length paper (double-blind review),
2. Full-length research paper (double-blind review),
3. Panel proposal.

Important dates
    • Deadline for submissions: March 15
    • Feedback for authors:  May 28
    • Full programme release: June 25
    • Submission of final full paper: August 25
Publications

Authors who have successfully submitted and presented papers at the congress can enter the selection for:

    • a special issue of the Journal of Communication Management (publication conditional upon the double-blind peer review process of the journal)
    • the EUPRERA Congress Book (edited collection), part of the Advances in Public Relations and Communication Management series, published by Emerald (publication conditional upon a peer-review process by the editors).
Call for Papers | The programme
Poster

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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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.

20 July 2023
Education Café in Prague: poll and registration

A new activity. The Education Café is a 90 min. workshop proposed by the EUPRERA PR Education Network as a way to explore issues shared by EUPRERA members and EUPRERA Congress participants in their teaching activity. This is an adaption of the World Café, a methodology for hosting group dialogue that puts an emphasis on the power of simple conversation in considering relevant questions and themes.

As a participant in the Education Café, you will go through quick rounds of informal discussions regarding topics, issues and possible solutions that are relevant to communication and public relations education. You will share your personal experiences in the classroom and will have the opportunity to learn from other colleagues. The summary and insights of the discussions will be shared with the EUPRERA community and inform future projects of the Education Network.

When and where. The first edition of the Education Café will take place Wednesday, September 20th 2023, from 15:10 to 16:40 at UMPRUM, Technology Center Mikulandská – please see the Congress website for the exact location of the venue.

Registration. In order to register, you need to select the Education Café as an activity during the EUPRERA congress registration process. You do not need to pay any fee in order to attend the Education Café, nor prepare any material, only be open to experience and knowledge exchange with other international colleagues through constructive conversations.

Topics. The Education Café is for all the EUPRERA community. In order to make this experience as relevant as possible for you, we need your input regarding which topics we should address during this first edition. Please find below a selection created by the members of the EUPRERA PR Education Network from which we kindly ask you to select your top three by September 15th, 2023 (no matter if you attend the Prague congress or not).

  • 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 more clear link between sustainability, what we teach and SDGs in order to build a framework around teaching PR and sustainability?
  • Curriculum development: Back to basics or follow the hypes? What approaches do PR educators have within their systems and how to approach this balance/imbalance?
  • Map course progression throughout the years: What subjects and topics do you teach in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd year of BA?
  • 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?
  • Assessments and students: (How) do we involve students as active agents in course assessments?
  • Technology and education: Integrating technology into PR education
Select your top three topics!
16 May 2023
EUPRERA congress: First day ⭐ & Travel preparation 🚅
Special venue for the opening

Charles University is delighted to prepare the next EUPRERA congress in Prague. We are looking forward to the first day, hoping that the congress’ opening at the building of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, Technology Center UMPRUM (picture), will inspire all of us.

Refreshment & Ateliers

On the first day, participants will have the opportunity to visit the ateliers of UMPRUM. We will provide you with two rounds of guided tours to present how works are crafted by students and teachers in various ateliers and workshops. Meanwhile, those who arrive and register can have a break and take refreshments in a lounge.

Kick-off activities

As pre-conference activities, there will be the Paper Development Workshop led by Alexander Buhmann, BI Norwegian Business School, Sophia Volk, University of Zurich, and Chiara Valentini, University of Jyvaskyla. Then, a special format event, Education Café, will take place, convened by Anca Anton, University of Bucharest, and Monique Abbenbroek, Hogeschool Rotterdam.

Keynote Speakers

After these pre-conference activities, there will be the official opening of the congress (in the late afternoon). The short speeches given by the organizers from the Faculty of Social Sciences and the EUPRERA president will precede two keynotes:

Ganga Dhanesh

Associate Dean from the College
of Communication and Media Sciences
in Dubai.

 

 

Lars Thøger Christensen

Professor from the Department of Management,
Society and Communication, Copenhagen Business School.

 

 

Evening reception

After the keynotes, we will enjoy an opening reception. From day 2, we will move to the buildings of Charles University.

Prepare your travel!

So now that you know the first day programme, you can start booking your tickets and reserving your room. The organiser kindly suggest to opt for one of the hotels listed in the congress website.

ACCOMMODATION

Mind the planet – Consider choosing the less impacting means of transport: depending on your start point, you might opt for a train instead of a flight. At due time, we will open the online forum among registered participants to facilitate smart solutions such as the taxi sharing. Local public means are efficient, as well.

Registration

Registration will open soon, we’ll keep you posted.

Programme structure
    • From Sunday Sept. 17 to Wednesday Sept. 20: PhD Seminar
    • Wednesday Sept. 20: congress starts late afternoon
    • Thursday Sept. 21 to Friday Sept. 22 late afternoon: congress sessions
    • Saturday Sept. 23: social programme
CONGRESS WEBSITE  |   KEEP ME POSTED

 

Photo credits: Peter Fabo, UMPRUM, Prague.

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