4^th Journal Review:

A critical review of the Four Models of Public Relations and the Excellence Theory in an era of digital communication

Stephen Waddington BEng (Hons) MCIPR MPRCA

            The writer started this paper as a short article that follows a discussion about how messages from organizations are conveyed among communities and markets via digital networks by public relations and author Andy Green in August 2012, which led him to question whether Grunig and Hunt’s Four Models of Public Relations (1984) and the Excellence Theory (1992) remain fit for purpose as they are taught as normative models and a public relations’ cornerstone on courses throughout Europe and the US.

James Grunig and Todd Hunt published the Four Models of Public Relations in 1984 whereas it describes the different forms of communication between an organization and its stakeholders. The first model is publicity or press agent, a one-way communication and uses persuasion and manipulation to influence audience to behave as desired; the second is public relations information model, a one-way communication and uses press release and other one-way communication technique to distribute organizational information; the third is asymmetric persuasion, two-way communication (imbalanced) and uses persuasion and manipulation to influence the audience to behave as desired and doesn’t use research to find out how stakeholders feel about the organization; the fourth is the two-way symmetrical model, a two-way communication and uses communication to negotiate with the public, resolve conflict, promote mutual understanding, and respect between the organization and its stakeholders.

The Excellence Theory was developed in 1984 as a result of a research programme funded by the Research Foundation of IABC, which sought to explore how public relations could evolve to become a management discipline from a tactical craft that focused broadly on publicity and media relations. Its general theory proposed that there are 4 levels of communication’s value, which are programme level, functional level, organizational level, and societal level.           

The application of Excellence Theory to organizational communication in an era of digital network communication has become very easy as the new form of digital media are making it easier for organizations to engage with their audiences by creating their own text, images, and video and sharing via social networks. Since so many organizations are wedded to publicity and one-way propaganda as a means of communication, the only thing to be excited about is the potential for new forms of digital media to disrupt organizations.

The development of the Four Models of Public Relations by Grunig was to set out how public relations should be practiced as practitioners and academics have idealized it. They were milestone texts in the project to professionalize public relations and shift away from propaganda and persuasion, but they have signification limitations but then they were conceived in a pre-social web era of well-defined organizational structures and communication’s modes. That’s why it’s important to recognize that the Four Models of Public Relations are models.

5^th Journal Review:

Remembering the Public in Public Relations Research: From Theoretical to Operational Symmetry

 Michael Karlberg

School of Communication Simon Fraser University 

                                

First thing first, the journal explains about the difference between academic research, which is serving the broadest public interest and practitioner research, which giving self-interest of its sponsor client. There are two kinds of research in academic research, which are instrumental and research. This research’s basic premise is the idea that public relations is a one-way process of communication, which is from an organization to public.

J. Grunig and his colleagues have provided a new theoretical framework within which public relations research can be reshaped and redirected, as its defined as the power of ethical and effective way to resolve conflicts and improve the community.  This journal discusses about the application of symmetrical theory in the practice which begins to emerge as it has been identified in the Fourth Model of Public Relations by J. Grunig and Hunt (1984). In this model the organizations employ two-way, which means the organization and various public engage in dialogue for the purpose of mutual understanding and change; and there is balanced communication. In order for communicative symmetry to be realized, there must be an extension in public communication skills and resources for all society’s segment, especially to those that have been excluded from public discourse. In order for this to happen, the symmetrical public relations’ theory must be translated into a symmetrical research agenda.

Valuable contributions could be made by the public relations scholars by exploring how symmetrical approaches to public relations could dovetail into these innovative journalistic models, which they could make a contribution there also. Public relations research’s expansion and redirection will not be anywhere near easy as it will require deeply rooted premises’ re-evaluation and well-established research traditions.

Bibliography:

·      Waddington, S. (n.d.). A Critical Review of The Four Models of Public Relations and the Excellence Theory in an Era of Digital Communication.

· Karlberg, M. (1996). Remembering the Public Relations Research: From Theoretical to Operational Symmetry. Journal of Public Relations Research. S(4). 236-278.

By: Putri Dena Ramadhania (135120207121025)