January 6, 2021

By Holly Overton, associate professor at the University of South Carolina

Is corporate social advocacy (CSA) the new corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Do stakeholder expectations vary for companies’ CSR vs. CSA efforts and how they should communicate about them? Do company motives matter any more or less for CSR or CSA?

These are some research questions that I explored in a recent study with co-authors Joon Kyoung Kim, University of Rhode Island; and University of South Carolina… More

December 17, 2020

By Marlene S. Neill, Page Center research fellow

In 2018, the Arthur W. Page Center appointed me as a research fellow to conduct a study in response to the 2017 Commission on Public Relations Education (CPRE) Report on Undergraduate Education, specifically to provide guidance for ethics education.

The CPRE found that public relations professionals ranked ethics third behind writing and communication as a necessary competency to work in public relations. In addition, the… More

December 7, 2020

By Justin Walden, North Dakota State University

Workers are experiencing considerable stress these days, from juggling family responsibilities, to dealing with an unsteady economy, to figuring out how to get through another Zoom meeting.

The coronavirus pandemic has put a glaring spotlight on organizational leaders and the challenges that employees face in teleworking.

How can organizations support their frontline workers and what conditions might bring out the best in employees?

With funding support from a… More

November 30, 2020

By Katie Place, associate professor of strategic communication at Quinnipiac University

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest this year, organizations have renewed their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), as well as ethical values. This includes the Page Principles of remaining patient, telling the truth, managing for tomorrow, proving it with action and listening to stakeholders.

A forgotten public

Yet again, as organizations engage diverse publics, low-income individuals remain “the forgotten vulnerable” (Patel et… More

November 19, 2020 • Fuyuan Shen

Does adding visuals to stories make them more effective in communicating issues and changing individuals’ attitudes? This is the research question that I; Michail Vafeiadis, Auburn University; and Jiangxue Han, Appalachian State University, examined in our recent publication in the International Journal of Communication.

As part of our research project, “News storytelling through images: Examining the effects of narratives and visuals in news coverage of issues,” we conducted an experiment in which participants read narrative or nonnarrative… More

November 11, 2020 • Frank Dardis

Nonprofit organizations have always done their best to try to convince stakeholders of the importance of an issue as a “problem” that can and should be solved. They seek to explain how their cause(s) or mission is an effective way to combat the problem and to advocate or promote specific actions that can improve the situation.

Much research in the realm of public relations and strategic communications can inform the communication efforts of a non-profit regarding the attempt… More