Social Justice Documentary: Designing for Impact

Explores current methodologies for assessing social issue documentary films by combining strategic design and evaluation of multiplatform outreach and impact, including documentaries' role in network- and field-building. Includes six case studies

Effects of Symbol Sets and Needs Gratifications on Audience Engagement: Contextualizing Police Social Media Communication

We propose a research model based on media synchronicity theory (MST) and examine how the use of different symbol sets (e.g., images and text) is related to audience engagement on social media. We include uses and gratifications theory (UGT) in the model to identify task characteristics that are relevant to message recipients in the specific context of community policing. Based on our analyses of Facebook posts by five police departments, we find first that, consistent with MST, posts conveying information garner more responses when accompanied by more natural symbol sets, and more textual content is preferred to less, but responses differ depending on the type of engagement: intimacy (likes), interaction (comments), or influence (shares). Second, posts intended for meaning convergence gratify the audience’s socialization and assistance needs and are positively related to intimacy and interaction. Finally, the fit between symbol sets and task characteristics impacts different dimensions of audience engagement. These findings provide empirical support for relying on MST when studying social media and for integrating with UGT to capture contextual task characteristics. We conclude the paper with a discussion of the implications of its findings for theory and offer recommendations for practice

Narrative In Police Communication: The Art Of Influence And Communication For The Modern Police Organization

Violence in the City of Rockford, Illinois and surrounding cities has made the Rockford Police Department’s communication vitally important for shaping the future of the community. The primary objective of this project was to gain a greater understanding of how the local police department utilizes one particular communication channel: social media. While some research examining law enforcement’s use of social media exists, this study is unique as it specifically applies Fisher’s (1984) narrative paradigm and key concepts related to public relations functions including relationship building. The analysis revealed that the department does utilize some narrative concepts, but could certainly reevaluate their use of social media to enhance their communication with the community

Tweeting about emergency: A semantic network analysis of government organizations’ social media messaging during Hurricane Harvey

While social media like Twitter have been increasingly adopted by public-sector organizations, it remains less explored as to how government and emergency management (EM) organizations use these platforms to communicate with the public in response to emerging natural disasters. Extending the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) to the realm of social media, this study examines the emerging semantic networks from 67 government and EM organizations’ official tweets during Hurricane Harvey over a three-week period. It identifies how multiple crisis response strategies—including instructing information, adjusting information, and bolstering—are constituted of different issues, actions, and organizational actors before, during, and immediately after the disaster event. Results suggest that government agencies use the strategy of instructing information predominantly before and during the disaster, whereas adjusting information and bolstering strategies are utilized more during post-disaster recovery. The study offers theoretical and practical implications of using a semantic network approach to studying organizational crisis responses

Rethinking the Circuit of Culture: how participatory culture has transformed cross-cultural communication

This paper explores the influence of digital communication − and in particular social media − on cross-cultural communication, based on the Circuit of Culture model. Scholarly literature supports the notion that social media has changed the speed at which we communicate, as well as removed traditional (geographical) boundaries around cross-cultural campaigns. Since the introduction of digital media, the role of the public relations practitioner has become more strategic in order to maintain relevance with even more diverse − and dispersed − audiences. Large scale campaigns, like the Human Rights Campaign to support Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) rights, have seen messages spread far beyond the country of origin, and with that, demonstrate the ability to affect advocacy campaigns in other countries. The authors argue that instead of acting as cultural intermediaries, public relations practitioners must become cultural curators, with the skills to create meaning from audiences, who are now content creators in their own rights, and encourage a true participatory environment that sees cultural values shared as part of an organic exchange process

Train tweets and the social licence to operate: Exploring stakeholder engagement through the use of Twitter by train operating companies in the United Kingdom

This thesis provides an examination of the social media platform Twitter and its use by private train operating companies in the United Kingdom. The relationship between the operator and its stakeholders is central to the use of Twitter by these operators. Despite Twitter being widely adopted by public transport operators, there is a lack of understanding of the motivations and uses of Twitter in the context of private train operating companies. Literature on the use of Twitter by public transport operators has focused on the functions of Twitter, content analysis of Twitter user tweets, the collection of data through Twitter, and message framing for tweets. A gap in the literature exists, however, in examining Twitter stakeholder engagement by private train operating companies, particularly from the perspectives of the operator’s staff tasked with managing their Twitter accounts. To better understand the use of Twitter by private train operators, an analysis was conducted using the theoretical framework of the social licence to operate, focusing on how Twitter is used as a stakeholder engagement tool to gain legitimacy, credibility, and trust from the operator’s stakeholders. The aim of this research was to examine the extent to which the use of Twitter by train operating companies in the United Kingdom reflects the social licence to operate. As such, this study was broken down into four objectives: 1) To analyse the Twitter accounts, tweets, and policies of train operating companies in the UK to understand the ways in which Twitter may be used as a means to obtain a social licence to operate; 2) To examine the social licence to operate in the context of UK railway regulatory requirements and Twitter use by train operating companies; 3) To explore the motivation for using Twitter through the perspectives of staff managing rail operator Twitter accounts; and 4) To explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the use of train operating company Twitter use to obtain a social licence to operate. This study was conducted through an analysis of rail operator’s Twitter accounts, policies, regulations, and through a content analysis of their tweets. Semi-structured interviews with Twitter staff from franchise and open access operators were conducted to understand the motivations and policies from the perspectives of staff managing their Twitter accounts. From these objectives, four main findings emerged: 1) This study found evidence that the aspects of the social licence to operate are reflected in the use of Twitter; 2) This study shows the evolution of Twitter use from a mainly information sharing platform to one where customer service functions are offered, reflecting the finding that operators use Twitter as a tool for their customers, rather than a wider set of stakeholders; 3) The study found a lack of regulatory requirements for Twitter use and that the addition of Twitter as a committed obligation in franchise agreements, in the absence of regulations, was included as a means to set measurable requirements for operators; and 4) This study found that train operating companies used Twitter to engage with the wider community during the COVID-19 pandemic instead of only with their customers. This thesis offers recommendations for policy and practice for operators to take full advantage of Twitter’s functions in obtaining a social licence to operate. These recommendations include the establishment of regulatory guidance for Twitter use by train operating companies, a coordination of policies and practices across the rail industry, and expanding stakeholder engagement to include the community rather than focused solely on customers

Mass Shootings As Issue Management Exigencies And Focusing Events For Public Policy Debates

This content analysis of multiple mass shooting cases examines a crisis genre that is not as frequently studied as other crises such as natural disasters or organizational exigencies. Though just as rich with stakeholders’ communicative exchanges and neatly traversing the three crisis stages, mass shootings have yet to be fully elaborated. To further the examination of these crises, this dissertation identifies those actors who hold the principal stakes in the aftermath of a mass shooting incident, and explores what these stakeholders are saying. By applying focusing events and issue management theories, it uncovers the prominent public policy issues reported in national print news reporting following mass shootings. Three cases were analyzed for teasing out the nuances of this crisis type: 1) a theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado; 2) a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut; and 3) a church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. At issue was what if any difference exists in the media coverage of the typical shooting incident, which stakeholder voices are most prominent, and what public policies emerge as dominant in the aftermath of a mass shooting. The study suggests that community stakeholders are among the most referenced and widely quoted in the national press along with family members, national politicians and lawmakers. Therefore, as mass shootings unfold, it would be useful for policy makers and organizations interested in managing or advocating for community-related issues, post-shooting, to strengthen relationships with community stakeholders as these crises develop. This dissertation also notes how mass shootings activate not just a single issue, but they can magnetize several competing frames at once, depending on the specifics in each shooting case. Those responsible for managing issues for their organizations, particularly public policy issues, could benefit from insights into the emerging nature of these crises. Although common elements exist in mass shooting coverage, the notion that no two shootings are identical is confirmed. Frame-changing in the print media is a common feature as these exigencies unfold

280 insulting characters? An analysis of the content of tweets addressed to the police in Canada and the United States

Travail dirigé présenté à la Faculté des arts et sciences en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maîtrise en criminologie, option criminalistique et information.Les réseaux sociaux tel Twitter sont de plus en plus populaires. Il n’est donc pas surprenant que la police s’engage sur ce terrain. Les réseaux sociaux permettent à la police de communiquer facilement avec la population dans un espoir d’amélioration de leur relation avec les citoyens qui peut parfois être tendue. Avec la démocratisation d’internet et l’avènement des réseaux sociaux, les incivilités qui auparavant étaient limitées au monde réel se sont transposées en ligne. La police est donc parfois la cible de ces cyber-incivilités. Bien que l’utilisation des réseaux sociaux par la police ait été étudié ces dernières années, la manière dont la population communique avec la police, surtout lorsqu’elle le fait de manière antagoniste, n’a été l’objet que de quelques recherches seulement. La présente étude cherche à combler ce manque dans la littérature en analysant ce qui est dit à la police sur le réseau social Twitter. Les tweets de janvier 2018 mentionnant les départements de police sélectionnés au Canada et aux Etats-Unis ont été collectés. Les résultats démontrent que certains départements de police sont plus mentionnés que d’autres (c’est que le cas du TPS et de la NYPD) mais aussi plus insultés que d’autres. La police se retrouve au milieu de tensions puisqu’elle est la cible de plusieurs insultes. Les tweets mentionnant la police ont les thèmes suivants : cas spécifiques, comportement de la police, politique, histoires locales mais sont également composés d’insultes gratuites, sans contexte. L’étude conclue que les tensions en ligne, qu’elles soient ponctuelles ou systématiques, répliquent les tensions locales déjà présentes hors ligne.Social media such as Twitter are becoming more popular. It is without surprise that the police would engage in this field. Social media allow the police to easily communicate with the population in the hope to ameliorate the relationship between the police and citizens, which can be tense at times. With the democratisation of the internet and the advent of social media, incivilities which were limited to the real world have been transposed online. The police are therefore sometimes the target of these cyber-incivilities. Even if the use of social media by the police has been studied in the last few years, the way the population communicates with the police, especially when they do in an antagonistic manner, has not been researched thoroughly. The present study aims to fill this literature gap by analysing what is said to the police on Twitter. Tweets from January 2018 mentioning the selected police departments in Canada and in the United States have been collected. The results show that some police departments are more mentioned than others (it is the case of the TPS and the NYPD) but also more insulted than others. The police are caught in the middle of tensions as they are the target of several insults. Tweets mentioning the police have the following themes: specific cases, police behaviour, politics, local news but are also comprised of plain insults, without context. The study concludes that online tensions, whether they are punctual or systematic, resonate the already existent offline local tensions

The Power of Apology: How Crisis Communication Practices Impact Brand Reputation

During April 2017, Pepsi launched its tone-deaf Kendall Jenner commercial, United Airlines dragged a passenger off of Flight 3411 and the public responded to both incidents with “online firestorm[s]” (Pfeffer, Zorbach, & Carley, 2014). The purpose of this thesis was to use the aforementioned events of April 2017 as a case study for how crisis communication practices impact brand reputation. While there is an abundance of literature written on what the best communication practices are in crisis situations, there is little that depicts the direct, real-life ramifications that these practices have in regard to brand reputation specifically. This thesis aimed to contribute to the filling of the void. Social media data, as gathered through Crimson Hexagon’s ForSight software, was relied on heavily in measuring public sentiment regarding the brands in questions. Lessons and application for future crisis communication practices are discussed

Comm-entary, Spring 2016 - Full Issue

In this issue: Make Graffiti, Not War by Mikayla Schaefer The Photograph as a Montage by Christopher Kuist Washing Away Dirty Marketing by Ashley Layton An Ethical Dilemma in Media: “A Rape On Campus” by Jenna Ward Networked Movements & Social Change: The Success of #BlackLivesMatter by Carolyn Riley Body Cameras and the Problem of Technological Solutionism by Sean Fleese Persuasion Techniques in Reconceptualization Science: Rethinking Low-Dose Ionizing Radiation by Mikayla Collins Theories for Theories: A Rhetorical Analysis of Nancy Krieger’s Theories for social epidemiology in the 21st century: an ecosocial perspective by Dana Gingras The Anxiety of Digital Afterlife by Jacqueline Van Sickl