110 research outputs found
The Role of Public Relations in Social Capital
Public relations research has traditionally focused on how public relations efforts make organizations more effective. Recently, scholars have argued for the broader role of public relations in society. That is, how can public relations be used to improve society rather than simply making organizations more effective? Existing studies have emphasized the relationship between internal public relations and organizational social capital. Lack of scholarly attention has been paid to how public relations efforts affect citizensâ social capital in general. To fill the gap in this area, this study examines how different types of public relations efforts contribute to citizensâ social capital. Specifically, this study uses data from the 2010 Pew Internet and American Life Project âSocial Side of the Internetâ survey to examine the influence of public relations efforts by various organizations in individualsâ social capital. Overall, the analyses suggest that organizationsâ face-to-face meetings with their members enhance interpersonal trust and civic engagement, and that organizationsâ strategic use of social media boosts civic engagement, whereas strategic communication via email, blogs, and websites decreases civic engagement. This study provides empirical evidence and practical implications for the important role of strategic social media use and interpersonal communication in enhancing social capital
The Role of Public Relations in Social Capital and Civic Engagement
Public relations scholars have increasingly argued for the broader role of public relations and strategic communication in society (e.g., Taylor, 2010). That is, how can knowledge of public relations be used to make society better rather than simply making organizations more effective? This study examines how different types of public relations and strategic communication efforts contribute to citizensâ social capital and civic engagement. Specifically, this study uses data from the 2010 Pew Internet and American Life Project âSocial Side of the Internetâ survey to examine the relationship between various strategic communication efforts by social, civic, professional, and religious organizations and individualsâ social capital and civic engagement.
Overall, the analyses suggest that organizationsâ face-to-face meetings with their members foster interpersonal trust and both social-oriented and private-oriented civic engagement, and that organizationsâ strategic communication via social media boosts both social-oriented and private-oriented civic engagement, whereas strategic communication via email, blogs and websites decreases social-oriented civic engagement. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings for the larger role of public relations and strategic communication in social capital and civic engagement are discussed
Does Planning and Practice Make Perfect? A Study of Communication Culture, Autonomy and PR Practitionersâ Confidence in Handling Crises
The study builds on research by Marra (1998) who examined crisis communication case
studies and found that organizations with crisis plans do not always manage crises well.
To assess Marraâs (1998) concept of communication culture, this study looked at
organizationsâ use of two-way symmetrical communication (Grunig, 1992); PR
professionalsâ crisis confidence and communication autonomy; and the presence of a
crisis plan. An Internet survey of members of the Public Relations Society of America
(PRSA) yielded 251 valid responses.
Findings revealed that PR professionals who reported they were part of the dominant
coalition exhibited more confidence in their organizationâs ability, their own ability and
their CEOâs ability to handle a crisis. PR professionals who viewed their organizations
higher on their use of two-way symmetrical communication (communication culture)
displayed more confidence in their organizationâs and CEOâs abilities to handle a crisis
but not their own.
Additionally, PR practitioners who have a crisis plan for the organization and who
perceive they are part of the dominant coalition have more confidence in their
organization's ability, their own ability, and their CEOâs ability to handle a crisis than
those who only had a crisis plan.
Research also revealed that PR practitioners who have a crisis plan for the organization
and who perceive their organizations higher in their use of two-way symmetrical
communication exhibited more confidence in their organization's ability and their CEOâs
ability to handle a crisis than those who had only a crisis plan; however, they did not
display more confidence in their own ability to handle a crisis
Transcriptional profile of human thymus reveals IGFBP5 is correlated with age-related thymic involution
Thymus is the main immune organ which is responsible for the production of self-tolerant and functional T cells, but it shrinks rapidly with age after birth. Although studies have researched thymus development and involution in mouse, the critical regulators that arise with age in human thymus remain unclear. We collected public human single-cell transcriptomic sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets containing 350,678 cells from 36 samples, integrated them as a cell atlas of human thymus. Clinical samples were collected and experiments were performed for validation. We found early thymocyte-specific signaling and regulons which played roles in thymocyte migration, proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation. Nevertheless, signaling patterns including number, strength and path completely changed during aging, Transcription factors (FOXC1, MXI1, KLF9, NFIL3) and their target gene, IGFBP5, were resolved and up-regulated in aging thymus and involved in promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), responding to steroid and adipogenesis process of thymic epithelial cell (TECs). Furthermore, we validated that IGFBP5 protein increased at TECs and Hassallâs corpuscle in both human and mouse aging thymus and knockdown of IGFBP5 significantly increased the expression of proliferation-related genes in thymocytes. Collectively, we systematically explored cell-cell communications and regulons of early thymocytes as well as age-related differences in human thymus by using both bioinformatic and experimental verification, indicating IGFBP5 as a functional marker of thymic involution and providing new insights into the mechanisms of thymus involution
Target density effects on charge tansfer of laser-accelerated carbon ions in dense plasma
We report on charge state measurements of laser-accelerated carbon ions in
the energy range of several MeV penetrating a dense partially ionized plasma.
The plasma was generated by irradiation of a foam target with laser-induced
hohlraum radiation in the soft X-ray regime. We used the tri-cellulose acetate
(CHO) foam of 2 mg/cm density, and -mm interaction
length as target material. This kind of plasma is advantageous for
high-precision measurements, due to good uniformity and long lifetime compared
to the ion pulse length and the interaction duration. The plasma parameters
were diagnosed to be T=17 eV and n=4 10 cm.
The average charge states passing through the plasma were observed to be higher
than those predicted by the commonly-used semiempirical formula. Through
solving the rate equations, we attribute the enhancement to the target density
effects which will increase the ionization rates on one hand and reduce the
electron capture rates on the other hand. In previsous measurement with
partially ionized plasma from gas discharge and z-pinch to laser direct
irradiation, no target density effects were ever demonstrated. For the first
time, we were able to experimentally prove that target density effects start to
play a significant role in plasma near the critical density of Nd-Glass laser
radiation. The finding is important for heavy ion beam driven high energy
density physics and fast ignitions.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 35 conference
An Angry, Hopeful, or Efficacious Citizen: Information, Emotion, and Participation in an Emerging Democracy
A growing body of research has examined how access to political information via digital media contributes to democratic participation in new or transitory democracies. Much of this work focuses on cognitive factors, such as political efficacy and civic knowledge, while less attention is paid to the role of emotion. Drawing on insights from the orientationâstimuliâorientationâresponse (O-S-O-R) and anger activism model (AAM), this study proposes and tests a model of political information seeking and participation using a national survey of adult Nigerians ( N â = â600). Findings provide support for the model and highlight potential pathways through which political information may enhance participation
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