final project public relation crisis case study use theory to answer it

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I. General Format Requirements:

10 pages minimum, 15 pages maximum (double-spaced, Times New Roman, Font size 12, and 1” standard margins) with APA style.

** Abstract is not required for this project.

II. General Description:
This final research project involves two parts. In part I (100 points), you will use the theoretical framework and current research to analyze how an organization (e.g., a for- profit organization, a non-profit organization, a government agency, or an activist group) has practiced strategic public relations or communication in the context of digital communication (Website & one dominant social media platform), a particular issue (e.g., creating an awareness campaign), an incident (e.g., launching a product), or a crisis (e.g., defective products, violation of ethics).

You will apply a major framework or approach as the guideline to assess the strategic public relations/ communication practices of the target organization. For example, major approaches in strategic public relations include: excellence theory, relationship management, strategic communication, dialogic theory of public relations, engagement, sociocultural approach, rhetorical approach, etc.

Research Paper

The following outlines the general structure of the research paper.

Introduction (1-2 pages)

In this section, first, you generally specify the goals of the paper and introduce the organization that you have chosen. Discuss briefly why you have selected the particular organization as the target of analysis.

Next, explain briefly one (at most two) theory, framework, or approach that you will focus on in this paper. Succinctly describe how you will assess the target organization’s

CMST 515 Final Research Project Guideline 1

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public relations/ communication practices (e.g., through analyzing the organization’s public documents, news report, social media posts, etc.).

Third, highlight some significance of this paper (e.g., how will your analysis enrich our understanding of strategic public relations/communication practices in a small-scale non- profit organization? How will your analysis extend the application of certain theoretical framework (e.g., dialogic communication in crisis)? etc.).

Lastly, end this section with a review of how this paper is organized. For example, what will you discuss first? Then? Next? Finally?

Literature Review (4-5 pages)

This section is devoted to discussing the theoretical concepts, framework or approach (maximum of two major approaches) that you have chosen to guide your analysis of the target organization’s public relations or communication practices.

First, describe the major concepts, dimensions, assumptions, of predictions in the framework.

  • § What are the major concepts or dimensions included in the theory, framework, or approach? How are they defined?
  • § How does each concept, construct, or dimension relate to one another?
  • § What communication practices does this chosen framework, theory, or approach try to describe, explain, or predict?
  • § What are the major predictions of this theory, framework, or approach on strategic or effective public relations practices? Then, discuss how the major dimensions, predictions, or relationships embedded in the selected theory, framework, or approach have been tested or studied. There is where you examine the major research findings about this chosen theory, framework, or approach. Listed below are some guiding questions that can help you structure this section:
  • § What are the current major findings, revisions, or gaps surrounding this selected framework, theory, or approach? Any similarities among the current findings? What is the current agreement or divergence regarding the explanations or predictions of this particular theory, framework, or approach based on the existing research? Any discrepancies? Any unresolved issues? Any challenges facing this theory, framework, or approach in terms of explaining or predicting certain public relations/communication practices?
  • § In what organizational contexts (e.g., for profit, NGO, nonprofit, organizational change, etc.) or situational contexts (e.g., crisis, issue management, etc.) has this particular theory, framework, or approach been tested or examined? What were the major findings?
  • § What particular dimensions, constructs, or linkages from this selected theory, framework, or approach will you focus on in this study? Why are they relevant in your study?

Finally, the above literature review leads to the research questions for this study.

Method (1-2 pages)

This is the section to address what and how you have collected, organized, and analyzed data.

First, provide a very brief description of the target organization (e.g., its background, major services/products, landmark success/achievements or failures, etc.).

Second, discuss the sources from which you gathered data, such as major online news outlet, Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis), organizational Website, organization’s social/digital platforms (e.g., blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc.).

  • § If you used data base to search news article, describe briefly the key words/phrases (e.g., Red Cross fund embezzlement in 2018, Red Cross corruption, etc.) that you used to search articles.
  • § What kind of data (e.g., organizational publications, social media posts, news, pictures, video, etc.) did you collect?
  • § What was the amount of data (e.g., the number of tweets, the number of news, the number of publications, etc.) that you collected?
  • § What was the time frame/period of your data? Why did you focus on that particular time period? Describe briefly the time frame (e.g., September 1 to September 20, 2018) from which the data were selected. Explain briefly why you have selected such time frame (e.g., a random selection of a month’s social media communication, the time period when the incident or crisis occurred, etc.). ** If you want to use data from social media, only one platform is required. Next, discuss briefly how you have analyzed data (i.e., discuss how you processed and identified relevant categories or themes from the collected data). A sample of issues that you can address include:
  • § What aspects or dimensions of the theoretical framework described in the Literature Review section was used to process and analyze data? How did you come up with the categories or themes in the Results section? How did you establish the categories or themes based on the literature review or current findings (a deductive approach for data analysis)? How many categories or themes did you come up with based on the current literature or studies?
  • § Did any new categories or themes (different from those identified or found in current studies) emerge out of the data (e.g., an inductive approach for data analysis)? How many new categories/themes were identified?
  • § How did you organize the data? (e.g., based on time sequence? Based on major themes emerged out of the categories? Generated a table to display data?

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Analysis (4-5 page)

In this section, you present the findings of your analysis to answer the research questions raised at the end of the Literature Review. Organize this section based on the major themes related to each research question (check APA posted on Canvas to use subheadings for organization).

Examples of issues that you may address or find in your analysis are outlined below:

  • § What were the main functions or purposes of this target organization’s communication?
  • § What were the main themes from the analysis?
  • § How did the themes relate to one another?
  • § How did the communication behaviors of the target organization revealed in your data relate to the theory, framework, or approach?

o How did the communication behavior of the target organization converge

or show similarities toward the key/core aspects of the theory, framework, or approach discussed in the Literature Review section? (e.g., pay attention to how the target organization communicated with its various key stakeholders, how the target organization engaged with its strategic stakeholders, how the target organization tried to influence its strategic stakeholders, etc.)

o How did the communication behavior of the target organization diverge or differ from the key/core aspects of the theory, framework, or approach discussed in the Literature Review section? (e.g., pay attention to how the target organization communicated with its various key stakeholders, how the target organization engaged with its strategic stakeholders, how the target organization tried to influence its strategic stakeholders, etc.)

o How did the communication behavior of the target organization support the key principles/tenets, predictions, assumptions, or implications of the theory, framework, approach discussed in the Literature Review section?

  • § If there was any new theme emerged out of the data, how did the new theme(s) confirm or diverge from the theory, framework, or approach mentioned in the Literature Review section?
  • § How effective were the target organization’s public relations/communication efforts based on the theory, framework, approach reviewed in the Literature Review section? Why? o What factors contributed to the effective practices? o What factors hindered the effective practices?
  • § Any alarming issues emerged out of the data?

o How did those issues affect the target organization’s public relations/communication practices?

o How did the target organization deal with these alarming issues?

CMST 515 Final Research Project Guideline 4

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Discussion/Recommendations (2 pages)

In this section, you discuss the significance of this analysis and make recommendations for the target organizations to practice strategic public relations/communication. Particularly, you are trying to make sense of your analysis of the target organization’s communication behavior in the larger scheme of strategic public relations/communication practices.

First, highlight the most interesting or salient findings in your analysis. This is not a summary of all your findings. Instead, it is a brief summary of the most exciting or most important findings from this analysis.

Second, address the significance or contribution of your findings to the current understanding, knowledge base, or practices of strategic public relations/communication.

For example

, possible points to address in this section include, but not limited to:
§ How did your analysis confirm, support, or contradict the existing studies or

research related to the chosen theory, framework, or approach discussed in the previous Literature Review section?

o How will your findings help advance our understanding of a particular aspect of public relations/communication practices examined in your study?

o How will the contradictions (i.e., between the findings and the predictions from the selected theory, framework, or approach) found in your study help refine or improve the current theory, framework, or approach?

  • § What specific strategies and/or tactics can public relations/ communication managers learn from this analysis?
  • § What are the new insights from your study to contribute to the strategic public relations/communication practices?
  • Finally, based on your analysis and current literature/findings, what specific recommendations would you provide to the target organization to practice strategic public relations/communication? (You can use bulletin-point format in outlining the recommendations.)




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