July 23, 2021

By: Chuqing Dong, Michigan State University and Jordan Morehouse, Clemson University

Declining public trust, increasing political polarization, and ongoing social injustice and inequality issues are just a few of the challenges the U.S. government has faced and continues to grapple with today. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified and complicated these issues, evidenced by numerous government failures in providing public services, disseminating accurate and consistent messages, and responding to citizen needs.

Amid the turbulent environment, open and… More

July 23, 2021

By Weiting Tao and Yeunjae Lee, University of Miami

In today’s environment, employee engagement and relationships with their organizations have become particularly fragile. The psychological, physical, and financial distress brought by the global pandemic and by organizational changes in response to the pandemic (e.g., downsizing, relocation, cutting benefit, and teleworking) has put employees in a vulnerable state and has made organizational care for employees a top priority of the public relations practice.

Meanwhile, global concerns around problematic… More

July 22, 2021

By Marlene S. Neill, Baylor University, and Juan Meng, University of Georgia

Servant leadership and ethics of care both emphasize the importance of interpersonal relationships, listening to others and empathy, all of which are critical to public relations practice. However, these two perspectives have received limited attention in public relations scholarship, despite the fact that public relations theory and practice have long advocated that public relations professionals have an obligation to seek out and consider the views of… More

July 7, 2021

By Hyejoon Rim, University of Minnesota; Moonhee Cho, University of Tennessee; and Katie Haejung Kim, University of Minnesota

Corporations today face pressure to express their positions on controversial issues and exercise their power to influence social and political change. As publics’ expectations have moved beyond traditional CSR to corporate social advocacy (CSA), it has become critical to understand transactional and relational consequences of CSA engagement.

There has been increasing scholarly interest in beginning to explore CSA, but… More

June 29, 2021

By Dunja Antunovic, University of Minnesota; Nicole M. LaVoi, University of Minnesota; Katie Lebel, Ted Rogers School of Management; Nancy Lough, University of Nevada Las Vegas; Ceyda Mumcu, University of New Haven; and Ann Pegoraro, University of Guelph

In 2020, women’s sports leagues in the United States saw remarkable commercial success. As we noted in our article for The Conversation, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) viewership numbers… More

June 21, 2021

By Jiun-Yi Tsai, Northern Arizona University, Ioana A. Coman, Texas Tech University, and Shupei Yuan, Northern Illinois University

In an age when most Americans feel deep political and ideological division, it is no exception whether the public thinks it is important for corporations to advocate controversial issues.

According to a 2020 Pew Research survey, 52 percent of U.S. adults increasingly demand corporations to take a stance on hot-button issues, while 48 percent consider companies’ neutral or no… More