The Media Audit: A Tool for Managing Media Relationships

SUMMARY

There is general agreement with the notion of public relations as the management of relationships between interacting organizations and key publics. The news media are a key public for organizations seeking to deliver information to viewers and readers of the media. The relationship between press relations practitioners and news media members, thus, is an important element in the practice of press relations. However, a review of relevant literature finds little to assist those charged with responsibility for managing that relationship. In this study, the authors advance the notion of a media audit as a means of identifying opportunities and issues and to serve as a tool for providing insight into ways to enhance the practitioner—media member relationship. The theoretical framework for the study is that of relationship management, and the research contributes to a growing body of research in that area.     

What Advertisers Need to Know about the iYGeneration: An Australian Perspective

A great challenge exists today: how to reach youth (a.k.a. the iYGeneration) who consume multiple media concurrently, who can access information on demand, and who have intertwined virtual social media networks in their lives. Our research finds that Australian youth multi-task and rarely use traditional media, although significant differences between males and females, as well as late tweens and 20-somethings, exist. Technology convergence facilitates two-way dialogue, allowing growing social interactions to occur in their technological environments. Our findings show that in order for marketing communication professionals to effectively communicate with this market, it is crucial to know exactly how the iYGeneration use media, which media they use, and when they use it.     

Electronic support for large groups

One of the key challenges in applying information technology to improve group performance lies in matching the capabilities of technology to the needs of the situation. Groups can choose meeting styles that use solely electronic communication, solely verbal communication, or a combination of both verbal and electronic communication. This paper reports on a series of ten case studies of large groups performing information generation tasks. For these groups and tasks, meeting styles with a greater proportion of electronic communication were found to result in higher perceived effectiveness, efficiency, and participant satisfaction. Qualitative evidence suggested that in this situation, the parallelism, direct access to the meeting memory, and anonymity offered by pure electronic communication outweighed its reduced media richness.     

Video teleconference use among geographically dispersed work groups: A field investigation of usage patterns and user preferences

Use of video teleconferencing (VTC) has been on the rise for several years, yet researchers have often discussed the failure of VTCs to support communication. The VTC facility at the MITRE Corporation is used more than would have been predicted by other research. Surveys were mailed to 300 MITRE employees who were known to have used our VTC facility or to have traveled (or both) during August of 1991. The survey asked respondents to describe at least one geographically dispersed work group of which they are a member, and it asked them to discuss how they choose among various approaches to communication, including holding face‐to‐face meetings and VTCs. Respondents felt that VTC is highly useful. It is best used for meetings that have little emotional content or requirements for interpersonal contact. The content of the meeting, however, was not the primary reason given for choosing between travel and VTCs. Cost and inconvenience of travel were cited as reasons for using VTC, and unavailability of VTC was cited as a reason to travel. Results are compared with those of conflicting studies.     

Attitudes Towards Product Website Design: A Study of the Effects of Gender

The research of the Internet2 project has resulted in the introduction of new technologies and has set the stage for another round of Internet growth. These technologies will enhance interactivity and allow for the delivery of greater amounts of information through richer communication. With these new options, World Wide Web‐based retailers must now rethink the design of their sites, the amount of information to deliver and the degree of media richness to provide. This article sets forth an overview of the evolution of the Internet, presents relevant media richness theory, gives a review of the literature with regard to gender and the Internet and presents an empirical illustration of the effects of gender on attitudes towards website design. The results suggest that, overall, males have more positive attitudes than females with regard to both rich and lean websites. The study details the development of an experimental instrument for measuring user attitudes and discusses the impact of the results.     

America's Most Admired Companies Social Media Industry Divide

While public relations and marketing research has analyzed how companies are using individual social media channels, minimal research has explored an organization's social media presence across several channels or identified differences among industries. Using theoretical guidelines for best practices, this study does both by analyzing the complete list of Fortune's “America's Most Admired Companies” (N = 417) on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Results found there were differences across industries regarding their adoption and integration of best practices into their social media accounts. A list of 20 gold standard companies is provided.     

“善有善报”的社会催化剂——媒体报道在慈善捐赠提升企业绩效中的作用

慈善捐赠是企业积极履行社会责任的表现,也是第三次分配的重要方式,因而其可以通过提高企业声誉来促进企业绩效增长;企业的慈善捐赠活动会吸引媒体关注,由此带来的正面报道增加则可以通过聚焦效应和放大效应强化声誉机制的作用。对2003—2020年沪深A股上市公司的分析结果显示：实施慈善捐赠行为和增加捐赠力度均有助于企业财务绩效和市场绩效的提升,其中媒体报道发挥了显著的部分中介效应,即存在“慈善捐赠增加—媒体报道增多—企业绩效增长”的传导路径;得益于“光环效应”和“明星效应”,盈利能力较强企业的慈善捐赠具有更大的绩效提升效应;得益于信息传播及资源配置优势,市场化程度较高地区企业的慈善捐赠具有更大的绩效提升效应;企业的正面和中性新闻、原创新闻增加有利于绩效增长,而负面新闻、转载新闻的影响不显著,报刊和网络媒体新闻增加均有利于企业绩效增长。因此,应营造良好的捐赠制度环境,并通过市场化改革以及传统媒体和新媒体协同高质量发展增强媒体的催化剂作用,使企业在通过慈善捐赠回馈社会的同时实现自身的良性发展。     

The characteristics and business impact of children’s electronic word of mouth in marketing communications

Abstract

Leading digital technology companies have shown a strong interest in enabling children to send electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Recasting children from passive to active participants in marketing communications, this shift expands children’s marketing practices from how companies influence children via traditional marketing communications, to how children influence companies’ marketing practices through eWOM. We apply the value-capacity-vulnerability framework for children’s expressive rights to the context of children’s eWOM. Using a dataset of Amazon customer reviews written by children under the age of 13, we examine the characteristics and business impact of children’s eWOM. We find that the volume and variance of children’s eWOM are smaller than that of adults’. Children’s eWOM increase the overall diversity of opinions. Although receivers perceive children’s eWOM as less helpful, children’s eWOM valence (i.e. average rating) correlates with that of adults’. Children’s eWOM volume has a product-category-dependent association with product sales: positively in children’s product categories, while negatively in general categories. Children’s eWOM valence and variance are positively associated with product sales in both product categories. Receivers are less likely to criticize children’s eWOM compared to that of adults’, suggesting an underlying protective behaviour towards children among eWOM receivers. These results show that children have the capacity to engage in eWOM of social and business value, with receivers typically mindful of children’s vulnerability in social interactions.     

基于改进TOPSIS法的上市传媒公司竞争力综合评价研究

传媒产业作为我国文化产业的重要组成部分,对我国经济发展和文化软实力的提升具有重要影响。随着中国传媒业发展环境的优化,传媒公司之间的竞争加剧。采用定性和定量相结合的方法对上市传媒公司的竞争力进行了研究。思路是首先构建上市传媒公司竞争力综合评价体系,然后采用改进的TOPSIS法对选取样本的竞争力进行综合评价和排序,最后提出增加上市传媒公司竞争力的对策建议。     

中国传媒产业要素市场扭曲对全要素生产率的影响

基于2013-2017年《中国文化及相关产业统计年鉴》数据,采用C-D生产函数法和Malmquist指数法分别测算中国传媒产业的资本、劳动力要素市场扭曲度以及全要素生产率。结果显示:中国传媒产业劳动力要素存在较大的负向扭曲,资本要素存在负向扭曲和正向扭曲两极分化现象,全要素生产率存在不稳定现象。用一般最小二乘法回归模型考察要素市场扭曲对全要素生产率的作用,发现中国传媒要素市场扭曲度与全要素生产率呈正相关,且劳动要素扭曲度效应大于资本要素扭曲度效应。结果表明,中国传媒产业全要素增长的一部分贡献率来自于要素市场扭曲,这在长期内会抑制中国传媒产业发展。因此,降低市场壁垒,促进市场竞争,消除要素市场扭曲,有利于提升传媒产业全要素生产率。