Donnalyn Pompper

Stormy weather: testing “stealing thunder” as a crisis communication strategy to improve communication flow between organizations and journalists

Abstract An experiment was conducted to examine the effectiveness of a highly proactive approach to crisis communication called “stealing thunder.” Reporters and journalism students were asked to read one of two fictitious crisis scenarios: one in which the organization’s public relations practitioner stole thunder (broke the news about the crisis) by contacting the journalist, and one in which the journalist learned about the crisis from another party. When the organization stole thunder, journalists rated the practitioner as more credible, but also indicated greater interest in the story. No differences were found across the two conditions in terms of perceptions of crisis severity or framing in reporters’ news leads. Implications for crisis communication and the ongoing journalist–practitioner relationship are discussed.

Fifty years later

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine identity intersectionalities of age, ethnicity, and gender among US professional women of color working in upper management as they challenge the glass ceiling in order to change organizations from the inside out.Design/methodology/approach – Featured are narratives of 36 midlife‐aged, middle‐class African‐American, Asian‐American, and Hispanic women who have built careers in mediated message industries. Feminism and Foucauldianism provide theoretical underpinning.Findings – The findings illuminate how midlife‐aged women of color paradoxically resist and accept master narratives of “less than” in striving to change organizations and achieve their maximum potential. Organizational glass ceilings remain impenetrable, but women of color are optimistic that benefits of diverse upper‐level managements ultimately will be embraced. Moreover, overlapping public and private spheres continue to further complicate career advancement.Research limitations/implications ...

Difference in Public Relations Research: A Case for Introducing Critical Race Theory

This article seeks to develop a theoretical understanding of the role of identity and power in issues management campaigns. It illustrates through original research how issues management strategies involving the management of multiple identities can motivate significant public activism. In this research, environmental interest groups attempted to influence public policy on genetic engineering in New Zealand, a country where genetic engineering issues are strongly contested and related public policy decisions will have outcomes of significant economic importance, nationally. The findings show that identity management strategies successfully extended public debate about genetic engineering and demonstrated the power of activist groups to influence the direction of government public policy.

The Gender-Ethnicity Construct in Public Relations Organizations: Using Feminist Standpoint Theory to Discover Latinas' Realities

This study examines intersections among dimensions of gender and ethnicity in public relations organizations and recommends further adaptation of the workplace as a site for embracing culture and promoting gender equity. A feminist standpoint methodology facilitated collection of perceptions about gender and ethnicity among Latinas who work in public relations during focus group meetings in Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York. Results suggest that Latinas encounter 3 major forces: (a) low status, no power; (b) navigating identity crisis; and (c) dealing with self-contained opposites. Implications of a gender-ethnicity construct in public relations organizations are discussed.

The Functions of Radio for Teens: Where Radio Fits Among Youth Media Choices

This research examines the function radio plays in the lives of todays youth. Teens have more media choices available to them than ever before. This study provides a contemporary benchmark for understanding the role of radio for teens. Among the findings here are that teens tend to have different functional uses for radio on the week days versus the weekends. Also, this study suggests that the notion of entertainment as a motive for radio listening with this audience may be a more complex notion than previously thought. Finally, this study reveals positive relationships between radio use and other media-both during the weekends and week days. The study suggests further research into gender differences and radio use.

On Social Capital and Diversity in a Feminized Industry: Further Developing a Theory of Internal Public Relations

Womens work relationships with other women in public relations management settings provide context for further developing Kennan and Hazletons (2006) conception of internal public relations (IPR) theory. To date, undertheorized in the public relations literature are intra-management relationships, social capital-diversity links, and connections between practitioners’ day-do-day lives and organizational contexts. Interviewed were 42 senior-level female public relations managers (African American, Asian American, Caucasian, and Hispanic) whose experiences reveal outcomes of woman/woman dyad work relationships over the past 5 decades and ways these may impact IPR in feminized industries. Explication of IPR theory and suggestions for further development are offered.

Advertising in the Age of TiVo: Targeting Teens and Young Adults With Film and Television Product Placements

Product placement in film and television is examined as a growing force in transmitting brand messages to hard-to-reach consumers-especially teens and young adults who use new technologies to tune out commercials. Although many scholars have scrutinized product placements cognitive effects on mass media audiences—and critiqued impacts of consumer culture—few have examined how marketers apply classical conditioning theory. Interviews were conducted with global brand managers who have placed their brands in blockbuster films and highly rated television programs in recent years. Initial findings suggest that marketers predict increased attention to product placement and a redefinition of advertising space.

Multiculturalism in the Public Relations Curriculum: Female African American Practitioners' Perceptions of Effects

This study investigated how a sample of female African American public relations practitioners view multiculturalism in the public relations curriculum and its effects on a feminized field that employs few women of color and where even fewer achieve senior-level management status. Focus groups were conducted in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Respondents shared anecdotes about workplace experiences that suggest multiculturalism is not being attended to at the college level and offered specific suggestions for public relations curriculum improvements.

Assessing Instrumentality of Mission Statements and Social-Financial Performance Links: Corporate Social Responsibility as Context

This study blends stakeholder theory’s instrumental component with contingency theory’s accommodation and advocacy variables for a new framework used to scrutinize corporate social responsibility (CSR) elements in mission statements with possible linkages to corporate financial performance. Although findings have been mixed among research on corporate mission statements’ connection to performance, we found that looking for links in a CSR context lends new significance to mission statement instrumentality. Specifically, we content-analyzed Fortune 500 corporations’ mission statements to compare/contrast language used regarding stakeholders and other specific characteristics central to CSR. Findings suggest that higher-performing corporations’ mission statements devoted greater attention to accommodation variable components – such as desired public image, concern for satisfying employees, and concern for relationships. Higher-performing corporations’ mission statements also attended more to advocacy variable components – addressing corporate concern for market/profit/product. Although findings do not definitively establish causality between mission statement and social/financial performance, discovering that higher-performing corporations attend more to stakeholders and to market/profit/product than lesser-performing corporations underscores mission statements’ instrumentality and represents a more nuanced means for investigating mission statement/ performance linkages.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Impact, Processes, and Roles for Strategic Communication

This study was designed to investigate interprofessional collaborations among communication, finance and legal managers at Fortune 500 corporations regarding compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX or Sarbox) of 2002. Marking the decade anniversary of SOX, in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 managers (communication, finance, legal) to discover specific effects of SOX implementation on corporations and ways internal departments work together to support compliance. A hermeneutic phenomenological analysis conducted on interview narratives revealed themes of: 1) Significant Internal Impact, 2) New Processes and a State of Constant Metamorphosis, and 3) Roles and Compulsory Teamwork. Findings are explained via the theory of planned behavior and recommendations are offered to strategic communicators.