4th journal review by Dianira Pradya Murti (135120207121017)

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

 &

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

Michael Karlberg

Dianira Pradya Murti

135120207121017

This paper examines the four models of public relations and excellence theory. It examines historical criticism and instances where the theories are being challenged by modern public relations practice as a result of digital communication.

Four models of public relations

In 1984, James Grunig and Todd Hunt published the four models of public relations as part of their book Managing Public Relations. The model describes the different forms of communication between an organization and its stakeholders.

The first model is publicity or press agent, the second is the public relations information model, the third asymmetric persuasion, and the final one – the two-way symmetrical model – has become accepted as a formal definition of best practice for communication in Western markets between an organization and its audiences.

The excellence theory

The so-called excellence theory developed over the next decade as a result of a research programme commissioned by the Research Foundation of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in 1984. It sought to explore how public relations could evolve from a tactical craft that broadly focused on publicity and media relations to become a management discipline.

James Grunig assembled a team of six public relations academics and practitioners under his leadership. These included his wife Larissa Grunig of the University of Maryland; David Dozier of San Diego State University; William Ehling of Syracuse University; Jon White, a UK consultant, academic and teacher; and Fred Repper, a public relations practitioner.

The first phase of study that led to the excellence theory consisted of quantitative, survey-based research of more than 300 organizations in Canada, UK and US, including a cross section of corporations, non-profit organizations and government agencies.

Survey questionnaires were completed by approximately 5,400 senior executives, public relations practitioners and employees. This resulting qualitative data was reduced through a process of factor analysis into a single index of communication management. The index was used to identify organizations for qualitative research to provide insight into how public relations excellence is achieved in different organizations.

The excellence theory’s general theory proposed that the value of communication can be determined at four levels as follows.

The original four models of public relations and vision of two-way symmetrical communications as a model of excellence was reinforced by the subsequent analysis that emerged from the excellence theory. As we’ll see, some academics believe this shows Grunig’s foresight while others claim that the research team was unduly influenced by the four models of public relations.

Applying the excellence theory to organizational communication in an era of digital network communication

It is very easy to get excited about the fragmentation of traditional media and celebrate the upheaval in organization communication created by social media. Digital networks and new forms of digital media are making it easier than ever for organizations to engage with their audiences by creating their own text, images and video and sharing via social networks such as Google+, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. But we only get excited about the potential for new forms of digital media to disrupt organizations because so many organizations are wedded to publicity and one-way propaganda as a means of communication.

The implication of Larissa Grunig’s comment is that modern digital media provides the opportunity for excellent public relations practice as defined by the excellence theory.

In this next section I have scrutinized some of the areas where the excellence model is being challenged by digital networks, fragmented media and modern public relations practice.

Communication in digital networks

The jointly sponsored CIPR/PRCA Internet Commission in 2000 foresaw the impact that the internet would have on the media and organizational communication. It recognized how the internet was set to disintermediate all forms of media and that this would necessitate fundamental changes in organizational communication.

The moment that a message is recorded in an electronic form it can be transmitted within a network with ease. The interconnected nature of networks means that if a message resonates with an audience it will be shared and passed from network-to-network. The original creator of the message has no control over how a message passes through a network or how it is modified en route.

David Phillips was an original member of the CIPR/PRCA Internet Commission. He has campaigned tirelessly for the last decade for the public relations industry to wake up to the impact of the internet on organization communication.

In a paper presented at Bledcom in 2009, Bruno Amaral and David Phillips reported on a research project at the University of Lisbon that investigated how relationships are formed online. The research examined a huge corpus of blog posts and discovered that relationships are formed at a nexus in values. Individuals and organizations that share similar values with other individuals and organizations will naturally converge online.

Amaral and Phillips stopped short of identifying how this convergence took place. Some of it was via hyperlinks but by no means all. There were lots of connections that were unexplained by network theory. Phillips has continued the programme of study and developed a work in progress called the Lisbon theory.

The four models of public relations and the excellence theory aren’t wrong but they are idealistic and as Sheldrake shows are showing their age in an era of internet-driven network communication, and are insufficient to explain the modern business of public relations.

Few organizations truly engage with their audiences as Grunig et al describe in the four models of public relations and the excellence theory but are locked into one-way forms of communication or imbalanced two-way asymmetrical communication.

Grunig’s intention in developing the four models of public relations and excellence theory was to set out how public relations should be practised. It has been idealized by academics and practitioners. That’s not a flaw or fault in the theory. I’d argue that this is recognition of the breadth and rigour of Grunig’s work.

The increasing adoption of social media and the shift to integrate social technologies into organizations puts audiences at their heart and calls for a reappraisal for the four models of public relations and the four levels of analysis proposed by the excellence theory.

The four models of public relations and the excellence theory were milestone texts in the project to professionalize public relations and shift away from propaganda and persuasion. But the four models of public relations and the excellence theory have signification limitations but then they were both conceived in a pre-social web era of well-defined organizational structures and modes of communication.

It is important to recognize that these are models. As such, no organization can expect to conform to them precisely. However they are important as a means of helping students and practitioners understand the flow of communication between an organization and its publics.

I’ve stopped short of proposing how the four models of public relations and the excellence theory might be developed. I’ll leave that to far more learned and wiser minds than my own. That said my view is that the models must take an audience, consumer-centric or influencer viewpoint and consider their impact on an organization rather than vice versa. 

Refferences

Karlberg, M. (1996). Remembering the public in public relations research: From theoretical to operational symmetry. Journal of public relation research, 8(4), 263-278.

Waddington, S. (n.d.). A critical review of the four models of public relations and the excellence theory in an era of digital communication. CIPR Chartered Practitioner Paper, 1-11.