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PR Exam 3 part 2
Exam covering PR research (chapter 8)
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Random sampling gives every member of a population an equal chance of being selected | true |
| The precedence for research.. | The growth of cell phones wrecked the polling business. The pervasiveness of answering machines and call- screening has made it more difficult to get through. Response rates today hover below 10%; PR professionals must analyze audiences (do HW) |
| The precedence for research continued | Clients are less interested in what their public relations professionals think than in what they know. The only real way to know your advice is on the right track is by ensuring that it is grounded in hard data whenever possible. |
| The first step in solving any public relations challenge is to conduct research. | true; Every public relations program or solution should begin with research |
| What is research? | Before any PR program or campaign is carried out, information must be gathered, and data is then collected to be interpreted. |
| The RESEARCH process in PR details how information is gathered, and the methods for interpreting the data collected as well as the channels for disseminating that information. | true |
| Dozier quote on research | It is the "controlled, objective and systematic gathering of information for the purpose of describing and understanding" |
| Essential first steps in research | Demonstrate that efforts contribute to the bottom line; Outputs – Did we get the coverage we wanted? Outtakes – Did our target audience see and/or believe our messages? Outcomes – Did audience behavior or relationships change, and did sales increase? |
| Research must be applied to help segment market targets, analyze audience preferences and dislikes, and determine which messages might be most effective with various audiences. | true. |
| Research should be applied in public relations work both at the initial stage, prior to planning a campaign, and at the final stage to evaluate a program’s effectiveness | true; Early research helps to determine the current situation, prevalent attitudes, and difficulties that the program faces. Later research examines the program’s success, along with what else still needs to be done |
| Research is... | Controlled, objective, and systematic gathering of data; Strives to describe, understand, predict, and control social and business phenomena; Seeks to answer questions; Reliable and valid way to access data (reliability & validity) |
| Public relations programs must help meet business objectives: | Segment market targets, Analyze audience preferences and dislikes, Determine which messages might be most effective. Is the Initial stage and final stage of campaign. |
| Research helps to meet organizational needs and answer questions such as... | How can we identify and define our constituent groups? How does this knowledge relate to the design of our messages? How does it relate to the design of our programs? How does it relate to the media we use to convey our messages? |
| Organizational needs questions continued | How does it relate to the schedule we adopt in using our media? How does it relate to the ultimate implementation tactics of our program? |
| Why is PR research important? | - Monitoring developments and trends - Define audiences and segment publics - Examining public relations position - Assessing messages and campaigns - Measuring communication effectiveness - Tracking studies - Gap studies - Evaluation research |
| General research assumptions | Decision-making process is uniformly the same in all companies and organizations |
| All communication research should: | Set objectives, Determine strategy to establish objectives, and Implement tactics which bring strategies to life. |
| Research can be divided into three general phases: | Program or campaign development, Program refinement, Program evaluation. |
| Key PR research principle | Differentiate between measuring public relations “outputs,” generally short-term and surface, and measuring public relations “outcomes,” usually more far-reaching and carrying greater impact (e.g., changing awareness, attitudes, and even behavior) |
| The most trustworthy measurement of public relations effectiveness is that which stems from an organization with clearly identified key messages, target audiences, and desired channels of communication | The converse of this is that the more confused an organization is about its targets, the less reliable its public relations measurement will be. |
| Research is conducted to do three things... | (1) describe a process, situation, or phenomenon; (2) explain why something is happening, what its causes are, and what effect it will have; and (3) predict what probably will happen if we do or don’t take action |
| PR research assumptions | Research must be behavior-driven and yield data that help design campaigns that lead to desired behavior; PR campaign research must parallel decisions communication pros make; otherwise, they are not knowledge-driven, or information based. |
| Final assumption | Effective research is integral to campaign creation, implementation, and evaluation |
| Public relations research types | Primary research is either applied or theoretical. Applied research solves practical problems, Theoretical research aids understanding of a public relations process. |
| What is secondary research? | research that relies on existing material—books, articles, internet databases, and the like—to form the research backing for public relations recommendations and programs. |
| Theoretical research | Abstract, conceptual; Builds a “body of knowledge” for PR; Academic or Basic Research; Serves as a framework for understanding and predicting why people act the way they do. |
| Applied research (can be either strategic or evaluative) | Concrete, practical; Strategic Research: develops programs, messages, and benchmarks. Evaluation Research: determines whether a communication campaigns works. |
| Applied research can be strategic or evaluative. Both applications are designed to answer specific practical questions. Strategic research sometimes examines the tools and techniques of public relations. | true. |
| Strategic research is used in program development to: | - Determine program objectives - Develop message strategies - Establish benchmarks |
| Evaluative research (also called summative research) | Can be applied during a program to monitor progress/ indicate where modifications might make sense. Conducted to determine whether PR program accomplished goals and objectives. Can also be used for monitoring throughout the program’s life cycle. |
| Theoretical research continued | helps build theories in public relations work about why people communication, how public opinion is formed, and how a public is created; Builds theories/frameworks for persuasion |
| Other features of theoretical research | High credibility sources important (trustworthy, experts, powerful), Simple messages easier to understand, localize, make relevant, Persuasiveness increased when involvement is high |
| Secondary research | allows you to examine or read about and learn from someone else’s primary research, such as in a library; uses data that have been collected for other purposes than your own. |
| Features of secondary research | Cheap – based on someone else’s primary research; Desk research; Database monitoring; Launch |
| Public relations research is founded on.. | observation; Observation is the foundation of modern social science. Scientists, social psychologists, and anthropologists make observations, develop theories, increase understanding of human behavior. |
| Three primary forms of public relations research dominate the field: | Surveys (reveal attitudes and opinions), Communications audits (capture real communications and can refute assumptions), and Unobtrusive measures (do not intrude on the subject or object) |
| Unobtrusive measures can include... | fact-finding, content analysis, and readability studies |
| Communications audits.. | often reveal disparities between real/ perceived communications between management/ target audiences. Management may make assumptions about its methods, media, materials, and messages, whereas its target audience may confirm or refute those assumptions. |
| Best practice PR research programs.. | - Conduct background/secondary research to establish benchmarks - Establish achievable goals - Ask appropriate research questions - State measurable objectives - SMART - Employ the appropriate methodologies - Have the budgets/resources necessary |
| Secondary research/benchmarking | Establishes both an understanding of what has been done and how it was done. Adds to an understanding of theory; Provides a window into past practice. |
| Secondary research/benchmarking continued | Reduces the costs associated with needless replication; Provides possible benchmarks against which to gauge progress |
| Establishing achievable goals | Goal: General outcome expected by campaign end - Objective: Very specific projected output - Outputs: individual communication elements - Impact of specific tactics - Written, visual, verbal |
| Asks the appropriate research questions | All research addresses four types of research questions: Definition, value, fact, policy |
| Definition and value | Definition: What is it? How do I operationalize it? Value: How good or bad is it? How well was it done? Addresses aesthetics |
| States measurable objectives | *Management must concur about objectives*: Do they meet the business objective(s)? *Precise, results-oriented objectives*: Stated in measurable ways? |
| Realistic, credible, measurable and compatible objectives | Are they realistic or are they simply goals? SMART objective. |
| Other types of objectives | Informational: fairly clear cut, answers what info the public needs, and when they need it (before, during, after?). Motivational: require means to isolate effect provided by PR. Behavioral: state what you expect the public to do |
| Employs appropriate methodologies | A PR campaign hardly ever employs only one method; Best practices “triangulate” methods to ensure that all research questions are addressed; Methods are often classified as “qualitative” and “quantitative” or “informal” and “formal |
| Public relations methods | Surveys and polls, content analysis, communication audits, focus groups, field observations, case studies, experiments |
| Surveys and polls | - Descriptive - Explanatory - Attitude - Opinion Poll |
| Content analysis | - Descriptive - Readability - Readership |
| Field observations | Participant-Observation and In-depth Interview |
| Qualitative | Questions of definition and value; Intense, but small sample. In-depth knowledge vs. Generalizability. examples: focus groups, participant observation, informal observations, in-depth interviews, case studies. |
| Quantitative | Questions of definition and fact; Scientific, Large samples, Generalizability vs. In-depth understanding, Reliable, representative sampling. examples: surveys (descriptive, explanatory, attitude) opinion polls, experiments |
| Triangulation | Uses secondary, qualitative, and quantitative methods to better describe, understand, predict, and control public relations campaigns. It Provides both representative sampling and in-depth knowledge of the publics/audiences under study |
| Takes the case study into the “real” world | triangulation |
| Quantifying via measurement | Assigning numbers to categories; there are 4 levels: Nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio |
| enable the study of a subject or object without involving the researcher or the research as an intruder. | unobtrusive measures |
| Nominal and Ordinal | Nominal distinguishes only, counts, percent. Ordinal distinguishes and orders, counts, percent. |
| Interval and ratio | Interval assumes an equal distancing between categories; counts, means, dispersion. Ratio assumes absolute distancing between categories; counts, means, dispersion |
| Measurement examples: | Nominal: England, France, Germany. Ordinal: GNP: Austria ($1B), GNP England ($2B). Interval (Strongly agree, agree, disagree). Ratio (actual date and time of birth, bank account balance) |
| Surveys vs. Polls | Polls are short and quick and fact based; surveys are longer, definition and fact based, and allow for limited questions of value |
| Poll and survey sampling | scientific sampling = probability sampling. Non-scientific sampling = convenience sampling |
| Probability sampling | Group sampled represents the entire population from which it is drawn (cross-sectional; trend; panel; cohort trend) |
| Convenience sampling | Group sampled is not representative of entire population, but only one limited segment (volunteer, snowball, quota, “man- on-the-street" |
| Surveys come in two types: | Descriptive and explanatory. |
| Descriptive surveys | offer a snapshot of a current situation or condition. They are the research equivalent of a balance sheet, capturing reality at a specific point in time |
| Explanatory surveys | are concerned with cause and effect. Their purpose is to help explain why a current situation or condition exists and to offer explanations for opinions and attitudes |
| Best practice research is divided into 3 categories: | program development, program refinement, program evaluation |
| The 4 elements of a survey are: | 1) the sample, 2) the questionnaire, 3) the interview, and 4) the analysis of results |
| Surveys | are the most frequently used research method - can be applied to broad societal issues, such as determining public opinion about a political candidate, a new university chancellor, a new CEO, etc. Most survey research is now done online |
| The sample, or selected target group, must be representative of the total public whose views are sought. | true. |
| Random sampling | Requires: Equality - no element has a greater or lesser chance of being selected and Independence - selecting one element in no way influences the selection of any other element. |
| Types of random sampling | Simple random sampling, Systematic random sampling, Stratified random sampling, Cluster sampling |
| Systematic random sampling | uses a random starting point in the sample list |
| Stratified random sampling | surveys different segments or strata of the population. |
| Cluster sampling | involves first breaking the population down into small heterogeneous subsets, or clusters, and then selecting the potential sample from the individual clusters or groups |
| Nonrandom samples | include convenience samples, quota samples, and volunteer samples |
| Convenience samples | are also known as accidental, chunk, or opportunity samples. They are relatively unstructured/unsystematic, and are designed to elicit ideas and points of view. |
| Quota samples | permit a research to choose subjects on the basis of certain characteristics |
| Volunteer samples | use willing participants who agree voluntarily to respond to concepts and hypotheses for research purposes. |
| Questionnaire guidelines | What you seek to find out should influence the specific publics you ask, the questions you raise, and the research method you choose. |
| Questionnaire guidelines continued | - Keep it short - Use structured (vs. open-ended) questions - Measure intensity of feelings - Don’t use fancy/unclear words - Don’t ask loaded or double-barreled question |
| Unobtrusive methods | Facts are the bricks and mortar of public relations work; no actions can be taken unless the facts are known, and the fact-finding process is continuous; content analysis, copy testing, case study research |
| Communications audits | A communications audit is part of a process of measurement and performance improvement. Understand relationships between management actions and objectives and communications methods to promote those objectives. |
| Some of the tools to measure public relations outcomes are: | 1) awareness and comprehension measurement, 2) recall and retention measurement, 3) attitude and preference measurement, and 4) behavior measurements |
| Awareness and recall and retention | Awareness and comprehension measurement – benchmarking and tracking. Recall and retention measurement - track whether targets remember what was said. |
| Attitude/preference and behavior measurements | Attitude and preference measurement - captures whether a message moved an individual’s attitudes, opinions, and preferences. Behavior measurements - captures the desired outcome |
| Communication audits... | Analyze company’s standing with employees/community neighbors, Assess readership of annual reports and news releases, Examine organization’s performance as corporate citizen, Part of process of measurement and performance improvement |
Created by:
FaithMcBaith
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