A mediated dissertation on crisis coverage

Traditional news vs. social media: what’s different?
Guest post by Bob Conrad, PhD, APR
Picking a dissertation topic is not for the faint of heart or the unprepared. Narrowing an issue into components and sub-components involves, first, picking a topic, then exploring what others have researched in that area and, finally, finding your own niche.
Crisis communications, [...]

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Obama losing control of his narrative? Then why is Berlusconi successfully holding his?

It seems that, during his first year in office, President Obama is progressively losing control of his narrative. It also seems that Italy’s Berlusconi is, instead, holding on to his narrative with success.

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Talibans implementing an apparently effective public relations campaign in Afghanistan, reports the New York Times.

This morning’s edition of the New York Times carries on it’s front page an enligthening article by Alissa Rubin on the Taliban’s public relations campaign in Afhganistan, casting a well informed and brilliantly reported portrait of how the Taliban’s are increasing in their effort to gain the support of the people.

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Tackling social migration tensions with the architectural and the generic principles and specific applications concepts of public relations

You might have read these last few days of the serious social crisis developed in the southern Italian city of Rosarno in the region of Calabria, where an exasperated local community took to the streets and violently attacked the growing community of African migrants, leaving many wounded.

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A year end invitation to discuss the global public relations attack against Google

I have no personal gripe with Google
If anything, as an intense yet only partial user of its many and increasing services, I am a satisfied consumer of Google.
This however does not necessarily imply that I am an ally.
You have surely realized over these recent weeks and months that Google is under an intense public relations [...]

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Action diplomacy, just like action PR

As I was reading the thoughtful article by Carne Ross in Europe’s World on the need to re-think national diplomacy, I was struck by the parallels with discussions of the evolving role of public relations as a profession. For instance, he states, “For some reason, diplomats and governments have believed that somehow the message about [...]

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On Berlusconi again: when advertising and information find a synthesis and fiction becomes the only reality

Some of my international friends and colleagues have been probing me in these weeks to try and rationalise, from a communicational perspective, what is going on in my country.
A country which sees a priapist Premier, I wouldn’t say merrily… but certainly successfully, thrive through a national as well as global, ongoing now for months day-in-day-out [...]

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Culture and Public Relations: a letter from Bled, Slovenia

As many of our visitors know, Bled is a small and lovely Slovenian town on the shores of a charming lake where, for 16 consecutive years, a trio of committed and intelligent public relations scholars: Dejan Vercic, Danny Moss and Jon White, successfully convene, every first weekend of July, la ‘crème de la crème’ of [...]

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Lies, Damn Lies and Twitter

When used properly, statistics can be very informative. However, some statistics are meaningless, and some are dishonest. Interpreting statistics requires some technical knowledge, and most people do not have the basic training to know how to read statistics and to take them with a grain of salt. Statistics are particularly misleading with regard to the [...]

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The ethical state, social communication and public relations…

How effective are social communication campaigns, specifically when they are enacted by public institutions and their aim is to con-vince publics to modify their day-to-day behaviours?
The amount of literature is overwhelming and highly contradictory.
Of course governments and other public agencies or institutions, normally advised by many of our colleagues who thrive on the trade and [...]

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