Strategic Communication Theory and Practice
The Cocreational Model
1st Edition
Published on 1. December 2017
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-470-67457-4 (ISBN)
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
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
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Hoboken
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 249 mm
Width: 191 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
635 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-470-67457-4 (9780470674574)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
12/2017
1st Edition
Wiley
€52.00
Shipment within 10-20 days
E-Book
10/2017
Wiley-Blackwell
€43.99
Available for download
E-Book
10/2017
Wiley-Blackwell
€43.99
Available for download
Person
Carl Botan is a Professor of Communication at George Mason University. He teaches undergraduate courses in Public Relations and graduate courses in Public Relations Theory, Research Methods, Introduction to Graduate Studies, International Relations, and Strategic Communication.
Content
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
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