Erik L. Collins

Paralleling the Practice: An Analysis of the Scholarly Literature in Nonprofit Public Relations

Although analysis of public relations scholarly literature has become an ongoing topic of investigation, there has been little examination of how different areas of public relations have been studied, and no studies specifically on the nonprofit sector. Therefore, this study investigated scholarly articles about nonprofit public relations in the top public relations and international communications journals (n = 206). Employing a quantitative content analysis, we examined the selected articles in terms of theoretical perspectives, research topics, methodologies, data collection and types of nonprofit organizations. We conclude that, despite an overall paucity of published research, the last 6 years has evidenced a notable increase in the number and proportion of scholarly articles about this topic. If scholarly articles published in 2012 are any indication, then the future of scholarly study of nonprofit public relations looks to be more promising than ever.

Public relations and libel law

This article examines the current problematic relationship between public relations and libel law in the case where corporations and their executives might want to protect their reputations by initiating a libel suit. Because of the way that courts have been applying the public figure designation to organizations and their executives, public relations and other communications activities intended to enhance the reputation of the organization and its executives may, paradoxically, undermine the ability of the organization and its executives to protect that reputation when they believe it has been libeled. A series of recent lower court decisions have found that organizations and their executives may lose their ability to seek successful redress for defamatory statements because of their public involvement, as evidenced often by communications activities of the sort public relations executives would recommend as a matter of course.

Targeting the young, the poor, the less educated: thinking beyond traditional media

Abstract The research presented in this article focuses on ways to communicate pro-social messages to often overlooked and underserved societal subgroups. Specifically, the research focuses on methods of disseminating information to low-income persons lacking reading skills or a high school education (or its equivalent) to encourage them to enroll in classes provided by a state’s adult education (AE) programs. The results of the research suggest that traditional mass media may not be the most appropriate or efficient information channels for public relations and other communicators wishing to convey such pro-social messages to similar audiences. If mass media are employed, it may be necessary to rethink both the content and the intended receivers of such messages.