Strategic communication theory and practice : the cocreational model

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Strategic communication theory and practice : the cocreational model

Carl H. Botan

Wiley, 2018

  • : pbk

Available at  / 2 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

A guide to strategic communication that can be applied across a range of subfields at all three levels-grand strategic, strategic, and tactical communication Communication is a core function of every human organization so when you work with communication you are working with the very core of the organization. Written for students, academics, and professionals, Strategic Communication Theory and Practice: The Cocreational Model argues for a single unified field of strategic communication based in the three large core subfields of public relations, marketing communication, and health communication, as well as strategic communicators working in many other subfields such as political communication, issues management, crisis communication, risk communication, environmental and science communication, social movements, counter terrorism communication, public diplomacy, public safety and disaster management, and others. Strategic Communication Theory and Practice is built around a cocreational model that shifts the focus from organizational needs and the messages crafted to achieve them, to a publics-centered view placing publics and their ability to cocreate new meanings squarely in the center of strategic communication theory and practice. The author-a noted expert in the field-outlines the theories, campaign strategies, common issues, and cutting edge challenges facing strategic communication, including the role of social media, ethics, and intercultural strategic communication. As the author explains, the term "strategic communication" properly refers only to the planned campaigns that grow out of research and understanding what publics think and want. This vital resource answers the questions of whether, and how, strategic-level skills can be used across fields, as it: Explores the role of theory and the cocreational meta-theory in strategic communication Outlines ethical practices and problems in the field Includes information on basic campaign strategies Offers the most recent information on risk communication, preparedness and terrorism communication, and employment in strategic communication Redefines major concepts, such as publics, from a cocreational perspective

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables xv Foreword xvii Overview of the Book xix Part I: Elements xix Part II: Strategies xx Part III: New Challenges xx Part I Elements 1 1 Strategic Communication Concepts 3 Summary 3 Strategic Communication Is Big and Getting Bigger 3 Employment in SC 4 SC on the Internet 4 Organization and Goal of This Book 5 Communication as Constitutive 6 Role of information 6 General Definition and Role of SC 7 Tree metaphor of strategic communication as a gestalt 8 Grand Strategy, Strategy and Tactics 9 History 9 Analoguing 11 Specifically measurable outputs 12 Level of analysis 12 Grand Strategy 13 Strategy 13 Tactics 14 Relationship of Grand Strategy, Strategy and Tactics 14 Generic Grand Strategies 15 Background 16 Intransigent Grand Strategy 16 Environment 16 Change 16 Publics 19 Issues 19 Research 19 Communication 19 Practitioners 19 Resistant Grand Strategy 20 Environment 20 Change 20 Publics 20 Issues 20 Research 21 Communication 21 Practitioners 21 Partnership Grand Strategy 21 Environment 21 Change 22 Publics 22 Issues 22 Research 22 Communication 22 Practitioners 22 Cocreational Grand Strategy 22 Environment 23 Change 23 Publics 23 Issues 23 Research 23 Communication 23 Practitioners 23 Change in Grand Strategies 23 2 Theory in SC and the Cocreational Metatheory 25 Summary 25 Introduction 25 Metatheory 25 What Theory Is 26 Minima for a Theory 27 Kinds of Theories 28 Formal and Informal Theory 28 Less Formal Types of Theory 28 Commonsense or everyday theory 29 Lay or naive theory 29 Thought experiments 30 Positive and negative effects of lay theories 31 More Formal Types of Theory 32 Practice-based theories 32 Scientific theories 33 Theory and Practice 34 Experience versus Theory 34 Learning from Established Fields 35 Experience-Theory Link in SC 36 Schools of Thought, Metatheory and Paradigms in SC 37 Epistemology of SC 38 Ontology 39 Axiology 40 Cocreational Metatheory in SC 40 Background 40 Lineage 41 Positioning Cocreational Metatheory in SC 42 Sequencing schools of thought in SC by metatheory and metaphor 43 Instrumental school 44 Modern/social scientific 45 Cocreational Molecule and Model 47 Components of Cocreational Molecule 47 Circle 1: Publics starting point 48 Box 2: Strategic research and information inflow 49 Box 2A: Strategic information outflows 49 Box 2B: Experience 50 Box 3: Campaign planning 50 Box 4: Campaign implementation 50 Circle 5: Acceptance and interpretation of campaign messages 51 Circle 6: New meaning cocreation 51 Circle 7: Assessment and progress 51 Levels of Evaluation 52 Category 1 52 Category 2 52 Category 3 52 Limitations of the Cocreational View in Evaluation 53 3 Stakeholders, Publics, Customers, Markets and Audiences 55 Summary 55 Introduction 56 Labels and Subfields Are Important 56 Practitioner or professional, scholar or academic 57 Organization of the Chapter 57 Different Ways Subfields of SC Think about the Groups We Communicate With 58 Stakeholders 58 Public 58 Customer 61 Markets and Marketing Communication 62 Audiences 64 Publics versus audiences 64 Attributes of audiences 65 Segmentation and Functions of Publics 66 History of Segmentation 66 Standardized or A Priori Terms 67 Most important publics: target, critical, primary and crucial 68 Other a priori publics: active, passive, latent, secondary and potential 68 Campaign-Specific or Customized Segmentation 68 Altruistic Campaigns and Benefited Publics 69 Process in Publics 70 Instrumental School View of Publics 71 Humanistic View of Publics 72 Humanism in communication in SC 72 Language use 72 Semiotics and publics 73 Humans make choices 74 4 Strategic Communication Ethics 75 Summary 75 Introduction 76 Cocreationality and Ethics 76 Parable of the Pig Perfumer 77 Ethics, Morality and Law 77 Ethics 77 Two challenges to current codes 78 Morality 79 Law 79 Need for an SC-Specific Ethical Code 81 Golden age of strategic communication? 81 Ethical issues facing strategic communication 81 Current Ethical Thought in SC and Its Subfields 82 Current Formal Codes of Ethics in SC Subfields 82 Disagreements in codes of ethics 84 Agreements in codes of ethics 85 Hired Gun or Mercenary 85 Attorney in the Court of Public Opinion 85 Other Ethical Models and Ongoing Questions 86 Adapting to publics 86 Cocreational Approach to Ethics 87 Human Nature View of Ethics 88 Image in strategic communication 89 I-images and h-images 89 Interpretive communities in strategic communication 90 Monologic and dialogic campaigns 90 Socially Responsible Strategic Communication (SRSC) 91 Agency in socially responsible strategic communication 91 Socially necessary information 92 Social responsibility in practice 92 Cocreational Code of Ethics for Strategic Communicators 93 Grand strategic, strategic and tactical implications for ethics 93 Application of Cocreational Ethics 94 Cocreational Ethical Codes Disrupt Old Views of Ethics in SC 94 Cocreational View of Ethics Applied to Pledges 95 Sample Ethics Pledges for Communicators and Organizations 95 Application: Cocreational View of Ethics Applied to Political Discourse 97 Part II Strategies 99 5 Issues, Issues Management and Crises 101 Summary 101 Introduction and History 102 Issues management 102 Managing versus Cocreating Issues 102 Issues and Problems 103 Issues 103 Other Cocreators 104 Problems versus Issues 104 Life Cycle of an Issue 105 Up the Time Stream 105 Attrition of Issues 106 Stages of an Issue 107 Pre-Issues and Environmental Scanning 107 Stage One: Embryonic Issues 108 Stage Two: Open Issues 109 Stage Three: Mature Issues 110 Normal mature issues 110 Crises 111 Strategic versatility and strategic ambiguity 112 Surprise in crises 113 Truth in a crisis 113 Meta-crises or secondary crises 114 Lurking Issues 115 Conclusion 115 6 Basic Theories of Strategic Communication 117 Summary 117 Introduction 117 Basic Theory in SC 117 Challenge 118 Coorientation Theory 119 Background 119 Concepts in Coorientation Theory 120 Evaluation of Coorientation 121 Theory boxes explained 121 Sense- Making Theory 122 Background of Sense-Making 122 Concepts in Sense-Making Theory 122 Caveat on misapplying theories 123 Application in SC 124 Evaluation of Sense-Making Theory 125 Attribution Theory 126 Background of Attribution Theory 126 Concepts of Attribution Theory 126 Applications of Attribution Theory 127 Fundamental attribution error 128 Self-serving bias 129 Evaluation of Attribution Theory 130 Trust 130 Background of Trust 130 Concepts in Trust 130 Measurement of Trust 132 Applications of Trust 132 Evaluation of Trust 133 Persuading versus Informing 133 Non-Persuasive and Persuasive Subfields 133 Background of non-persuasive SC 134 Academic non-persuasive SC 135 SC as a motivated practice 135 7 Risk and Preparedness Communication 137 Summary 137 Introduction 137 The Cocreational View of Risk Communication 138 Two Components of All SC 139 Social-Emotional Dimension of Risk 141 Cocreational Model of Risk Communication 141 Traditional Risk and Disaster Preparedness Communication 143 Emergency communication 143 Disaster communication 143 Preparedness Communication 143 Readiness communication 144 Terrorism communication 144 The Cocreational View 144 Understanding Risk Analytically and Experientially 146 Assumption of rationality 146 State Emergency Operations Plans 148 Natural Disasters and the Environmental Risks 149 Human-Caused Disasters 149 Expert-Media Relations 150 Quasi-Scientific Explanations 150 Costs to Publics 151 Conclusion 151 Part III New Challenges 153 8 Social Media and New Information Technology 155 Summary 155 Introduction 155 Interconnected Publics and the Cocreation of Meaning 156 Social Media-Cocreation Nexus 156 Mass Media and Social Media 157 Blessings and Curses 158 Key Attributes of New Media 159 Interactivity 159 Demassification 159 Asynchronicity 160 Up the Time Stream with Social Media 160 Success Rates of SC Campaigns 161 The Free Lunch and the Changing of the Guard 163 Shrilling of Public Discourse 165 9 International and Intercultural Strategic Communication 167 Summary 167 Cocreational View of International and Intercultural Strategic Communication 167 Intercultural and Cross-Cultural Models 168 Ethnocentric and polycentric models 169 Ontological knowledge 169 Planning, Evaluation and Ethics in Intercultural SC Campaigns 169 Lens and Mirror 170 Matrix 170 Background of the matrix 171 Four factors of the matrix 171 Matrix and cocreationality 172 Public Diplomacy as International/Intercultural SC 173 Conclusion 174 10 Strategic Communication in Terrorism and Counterterrorism: The Missing Narrative 175 Summary 175 Introduction 175 Terrorism as Strategic Communication 176 Meaning and Strategic Communication Purpose of Terrorism 177 Terrorism's Critical Publics 178 View of the Role of Mass Media in Terrorism 178 Effects of media coverage of terrorism 179 Terrorism's use of pseudo-events 179 Narrative Featured in Terrorist Strategic Communication 180 Narrative as storytelling 183 Narrative, naming and framing 183 Cyberterrorism and the New Media 184 Cocreational View of Terrorism Communication 185 Strategic content in terrorist communication 186 Counterterrorism Strategic Communication 187 Introduction 187 Narrative in Counterterror Strategic Communication 188 Law of the Instrument 189 No horse in the race 190 Overdependence on military-legal-expert responses 191 Mass Media Limitations in Counterterrorism 193 Conclusion 194 References and Further Reading 197 Index 223

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

Page Top