Table of Contents
WEEK 1 ORGANISATIONS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT....................................................................................2
I.STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION: DEFINING THE FIELD AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO RESEARCH AND PRACTICE (ZERFASS ET AL.,
2018).................................................................................................................................................................2
II.BACK TO THE ROOTS? THE APPLICATIONS OF COMMUNICATION SCIENCE THEORIES IN STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
RESEARCH – LOCK ET AL (2020)..............................................................................................................................4
III.SOCIAL MEDIA AND REPUTATION FORMATION - ETTER ET ALL (2019)............................................................5
WEEK 2 ORGANISATION AND LEGITIMACY.................................................................................................. 11
I.TOWARD A THEORY OF SOCIAL JUDGMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONS: THE CASE OF LEGITIMACY, REPUTATION, AND STATUS
(BITEKTINE, 2011)..............................................................................................................................................11
II.MEASURING ORGANIZATIONAL LEGITIMACY IN SOCIAL MEDIA: ASSESSING CITIZENS’ JUDGMENTS WITH SENTIMENT ANALYSIS
(ETTER ET AL, 2018)........................................................................................................................................... 13
III.THE GLOBAL TRUST DEFICIT DISORDER: A COMMUNICATIONS PERSPECTIVE ON TRUST IN THE TIME OF GLOBAL PANDEMICS
(TERRY FLEW).....................................................................................................................................................14
LECTURE 3 – ISSUE ARENAS......................................................................................................................... 16
I.TOWARDS A MORE DYNAMIC STAKEHOLDER MODEL: ACKNOWLEDGING MULTIPLE ISSUE ARENAS (LUOMA-AHO, VOS)...........18
II.THE BENEFIT OF ISSUE MANAGEMENT: ANTICIPATING CRISES IN THE DIGITAL AGE (STRAUSS, JONKMAN)............................19
III.POLITICIZATION OF CORPORATIONS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT: CORPORATIONS’ SOCIAL LICENSE TO OPERATE IN A POLARIZED
AND MEDIATIZED SOCIETY......................................................................................................................................21
LECTURE 4 – ORGANISATIONAL VISIBILITY IN THE NEWS..............................................................................24
I.THE NEWS VALUE OF DUTCH CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES AS A PREDICTOR OF CORPORATE AGENDA BUILDING POWER
(SCHAFRAAD ET AL)..............................................................................................................................................24
II.BUFFERING NEGATIVE NEWS: INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL EFFECTS OF COMPANY VISIBILITY, TONE, AND PRE-EXISTING ATTITUDES ON
CORPORATE REPUTATION (JONKMAN ET AL).............................................................................................................25
III.NEWS VALUES ON SOCIAL MEDIA: EXPLORING WHAT DRIVES PEAKS IN USER ACTIVITY ABOUT ORGANIZATIONS ON TWITTER
(THEO ARAUJO, TONI GLA VAN DER MEER).............................................................................................................26
LECTURE 6 – FRAMING................................................................................................................................ 27
I.POLITICAL FRAMING ACROSS DISCIPLINES: EVIDENCE FROM 21ST-CENTURY EXPERIMENTS................................................28
(BRUGMAN & BURGERS)......................................................................................................................................28
II.FIGURATIVE FRAMING: SHAPING PUBLIC DISCOURSE THROUGH METAPHOR, HYPERBOLE, AND IRONY..............................28
CHRISTIAN BURGERS1, ELLY A. KONIJN1,2, & GERARD J. STEEN3...............................................................................28
III.FRAMING IN A FRACTURED DEMOCRACY: IMPACTS OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ON IDEOLOGY, POWER AND CASCADING
NETWORK ACTIVATION.........................................................................................................................................30
I.STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION: DEFINING THE FIELD AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO RESEARCH AND PRACTICE (ZERFASS ET AL.,
2018)...............................................................................................................................................................32
II.BACK TO THE ROOTS? THE APPLICATIONS OF COMMUNICATION SCIENCE THEORIES IN STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
RESEARCH – LOCK ET AL (2020)............................................................................................................................33
, WEEK 1 Organisations and their environment
Organizations: Groups of people trying to achieve a goal using technologies
They are helped and hindered by their environment
They always deal with issues, that need to be included in risk assessment
Leadership is essential for strategy formation and execution
People work for organizations because of incentives that stimulate commitment
Structures: relatively stable distribution of work and responsibilities across division
of organization observable
Processes: dynamic within organizations, often less directly observable
What is the role of the media in the life of organisations and its surroundings?
Organizations survive by adapting themselves to their environment, i.e. the demands
of customers (resource availability, market opportunities, political decision-making,
societal expectations)
Media are autonomous aspect of this environment as well as an intermediate
between other parts of the environment and the organization
Media report about organizations, mostly in a critical way
inform stakeholders such as citizens/clients, competitors, the political realm.
They also can lead to organizational anticipation: the possibility of coverage is taken
into account for decision making
I.Strategic Communication: Defining the Field and its Contribution to
Research and Practice (Zerfass et al., 2018)
Strategic communication is the purposeful use of communication by an entity to engage in
conversations of strategic significance to its goals. Entity includes all kind of organizations
(e.g., corporations, governments, or nonprofits), as well as social movements and known
individuals in the public sphere. Communication can play a distinctive role for the
formulation, revision, presentation, execution, implementation, and operationalization of
strategies.
External strategic communication plays a key role when it comes to addressing different
kind of stakeholders and audiences
-Based on factual evidence, stakeholder’s images and expectations can be monitored
-inform and influence stakeholders about events they cannot know from personal
experience
Strategic communication involves all substantial or significant activities carried out by an
organization in order to survive and be successful, this does not include operational and
routine issues.
Strategic communication can takes place on a variety of media platforms and within
different spheres (global sphere of mass media and private conversations) so it is
pivotal for organizations to be aware of developments in communication landscape
, Communication embraces both giving a message and listening to the surrounding
information that can help the organization quickly making sense of changes in the
environment
Strategy is about making choices and taking actions whose effects will be visible in
the long run. Choices need to be well pondered, since if mistakes are made, they are
not easily reversed. **
SUBSTANTIALITY
SUBJECTIVE: Focus on perceptions of importance/relevance of issues, based on
collective sense-making and understanding
- The way the situation is interpreted is what determines which action is going to
be taken (If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences
(Thomas theorem)
OBJECTIVE: The objective dimension of substantiality reflects the true impact of an
issues on an entity’s present configuration, future plans and fundamental purpose
- The extent to which matter are objective is a matter of social construction
- Underlines the importance of environmental scanning and reflective
communication management
- you can discover is something is objectively substantial only in retrospective. It is
about things that matters.
Strategic communication plays a key role when facing critical challenges
- In case of high value asset that needs to be utilised
- In an attempt to deal with competition,
- In case of change in environmental conditions
- When facing “black swans” events
- In situations driven by innovations, engagement (Uber investing in driverless-
technology) and operations that need to be addressed in order for an
organisation to achieve its vision.
** mistakes because issue that is objectively of strategic importance is not picked up as such
by the management; or it is picked up, and then becomes acknowledged as irrelevant.
, Strategic communication management could be defined as the systematic planning and
realization of information flow, communication, media development and image care in a
long-term horizon
The strategic process can be separated into three distinct phases:
(1) Strategy formulation and revision: communicative intervention that gives sense to
actions.
(2) Strategy presentation: actors involved are made aware of the strategy and its
requirements and affordances.
(3) Strategy execution, implementation, and operationalization: is committing resources to
operational procedures or tactical dispositions.
II.Back to the Roots? The Applications of Communication Science
Theories in Strategic Communication Research – Lock et al (2020)
A communication science perspective opens up a broad range of theories to explain
strategic communication, while maintaining a common focus.
-Acknowledging the importance of media in today’s societies and the role of communication
in social processes.
Within communication science, three major traditions of analyzing, investigating and
explaining communication phenomena in society are distinguished:
1.social science approach:
-The dominant paradigm of mass communication research. rests on assumptions of
objectivity and a value-free researcher.
- communication is defined as mediated communication for change in society with the focus
on media-effects, using social science methods, especially surveys.
-Within this paradigm key communication strategy topics: Crisis communication; Public
relations; Communication strategy; Agenda-building/media coverage and influence.
WEEK 1 ORGANISATIONS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT....................................................................................2
I.STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION: DEFINING THE FIELD AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO RESEARCH AND PRACTICE (ZERFASS ET AL.,
2018).................................................................................................................................................................2
II.BACK TO THE ROOTS? THE APPLICATIONS OF COMMUNICATION SCIENCE THEORIES IN STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
RESEARCH – LOCK ET AL (2020)..............................................................................................................................4
III.SOCIAL MEDIA AND REPUTATION FORMATION - ETTER ET ALL (2019)............................................................5
WEEK 2 ORGANISATION AND LEGITIMACY.................................................................................................. 11
I.TOWARD A THEORY OF SOCIAL JUDGMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONS: THE CASE OF LEGITIMACY, REPUTATION, AND STATUS
(BITEKTINE, 2011)..............................................................................................................................................11
II.MEASURING ORGANIZATIONAL LEGITIMACY IN SOCIAL MEDIA: ASSESSING CITIZENS’ JUDGMENTS WITH SENTIMENT ANALYSIS
(ETTER ET AL, 2018)........................................................................................................................................... 13
III.THE GLOBAL TRUST DEFICIT DISORDER: A COMMUNICATIONS PERSPECTIVE ON TRUST IN THE TIME OF GLOBAL PANDEMICS
(TERRY FLEW).....................................................................................................................................................14
LECTURE 3 – ISSUE ARENAS......................................................................................................................... 16
I.TOWARDS A MORE DYNAMIC STAKEHOLDER MODEL: ACKNOWLEDGING MULTIPLE ISSUE ARENAS (LUOMA-AHO, VOS)...........18
II.THE BENEFIT OF ISSUE MANAGEMENT: ANTICIPATING CRISES IN THE DIGITAL AGE (STRAUSS, JONKMAN)............................19
III.POLITICIZATION OF CORPORATIONS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT: CORPORATIONS’ SOCIAL LICENSE TO OPERATE IN A POLARIZED
AND MEDIATIZED SOCIETY......................................................................................................................................21
LECTURE 4 – ORGANISATIONAL VISIBILITY IN THE NEWS..............................................................................24
I.THE NEWS VALUE OF DUTCH CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES AS A PREDICTOR OF CORPORATE AGENDA BUILDING POWER
(SCHAFRAAD ET AL)..............................................................................................................................................24
II.BUFFERING NEGATIVE NEWS: INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL EFFECTS OF COMPANY VISIBILITY, TONE, AND PRE-EXISTING ATTITUDES ON
CORPORATE REPUTATION (JONKMAN ET AL).............................................................................................................25
III.NEWS VALUES ON SOCIAL MEDIA: EXPLORING WHAT DRIVES PEAKS IN USER ACTIVITY ABOUT ORGANIZATIONS ON TWITTER
(THEO ARAUJO, TONI GLA VAN DER MEER).............................................................................................................26
LECTURE 6 – FRAMING................................................................................................................................ 27
I.POLITICAL FRAMING ACROSS DISCIPLINES: EVIDENCE FROM 21ST-CENTURY EXPERIMENTS................................................28
(BRUGMAN & BURGERS)......................................................................................................................................28
II.FIGURATIVE FRAMING: SHAPING PUBLIC DISCOURSE THROUGH METAPHOR, HYPERBOLE, AND IRONY..............................28
CHRISTIAN BURGERS1, ELLY A. KONIJN1,2, & GERARD J. STEEN3...............................................................................28
III.FRAMING IN A FRACTURED DEMOCRACY: IMPACTS OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ON IDEOLOGY, POWER AND CASCADING
NETWORK ACTIVATION.........................................................................................................................................30
I.STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION: DEFINING THE FIELD AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO RESEARCH AND PRACTICE (ZERFASS ET AL.,
2018)...............................................................................................................................................................32
II.BACK TO THE ROOTS? THE APPLICATIONS OF COMMUNICATION SCIENCE THEORIES IN STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
RESEARCH – LOCK ET AL (2020)............................................................................................................................33
, WEEK 1 Organisations and their environment
Organizations: Groups of people trying to achieve a goal using technologies
They are helped and hindered by their environment
They always deal with issues, that need to be included in risk assessment
Leadership is essential for strategy formation and execution
People work for organizations because of incentives that stimulate commitment
Structures: relatively stable distribution of work and responsibilities across division
of organization observable
Processes: dynamic within organizations, often less directly observable
What is the role of the media in the life of organisations and its surroundings?
Organizations survive by adapting themselves to their environment, i.e. the demands
of customers (resource availability, market opportunities, political decision-making,
societal expectations)
Media are autonomous aspect of this environment as well as an intermediate
between other parts of the environment and the organization
Media report about organizations, mostly in a critical way
inform stakeholders such as citizens/clients, competitors, the political realm.
They also can lead to organizational anticipation: the possibility of coverage is taken
into account for decision making
I.Strategic Communication: Defining the Field and its Contribution to
Research and Practice (Zerfass et al., 2018)
Strategic communication is the purposeful use of communication by an entity to engage in
conversations of strategic significance to its goals. Entity includes all kind of organizations
(e.g., corporations, governments, or nonprofits), as well as social movements and known
individuals in the public sphere. Communication can play a distinctive role for the
formulation, revision, presentation, execution, implementation, and operationalization of
strategies.
External strategic communication plays a key role when it comes to addressing different
kind of stakeholders and audiences
-Based on factual evidence, stakeholder’s images and expectations can be monitored
-inform and influence stakeholders about events they cannot know from personal
experience
Strategic communication involves all substantial or significant activities carried out by an
organization in order to survive and be successful, this does not include operational and
routine issues.
Strategic communication can takes place on a variety of media platforms and within
different spheres (global sphere of mass media and private conversations) so it is
pivotal for organizations to be aware of developments in communication landscape
, Communication embraces both giving a message and listening to the surrounding
information that can help the organization quickly making sense of changes in the
environment
Strategy is about making choices and taking actions whose effects will be visible in
the long run. Choices need to be well pondered, since if mistakes are made, they are
not easily reversed. **
SUBSTANTIALITY
SUBJECTIVE: Focus on perceptions of importance/relevance of issues, based on
collective sense-making and understanding
- The way the situation is interpreted is what determines which action is going to
be taken (If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences
(Thomas theorem)
OBJECTIVE: The objective dimension of substantiality reflects the true impact of an
issues on an entity’s present configuration, future plans and fundamental purpose
- The extent to which matter are objective is a matter of social construction
- Underlines the importance of environmental scanning and reflective
communication management
- you can discover is something is objectively substantial only in retrospective. It is
about things that matters.
Strategic communication plays a key role when facing critical challenges
- In case of high value asset that needs to be utilised
- In an attempt to deal with competition,
- In case of change in environmental conditions
- When facing “black swans” events
- In situations driven by innovations, engagement (Uber investing in driverless-
technology) and operations that need to be addressed in order for an
organisation to achieve its vision.
** mistakes because issue that is objectively of strategic importance is not picked up as such
by the management; or it is picked up, and then becomes acknowledged as irrelevant.
, Strategic communication management could be defined as the systematic planning and
realization of information flow, communication, media development and image care in a
long-term horizon
The strategic process can be separated into three distinct phases:
(1) Strategy formulation and revision: communicative intervention that gives sense to
actions.
(2) Strategy presentation: actors involved are made aware of the strategy and its
requirements and affordances.
(3) Strategy execution, implementation, and operationalization: is committing resources to
operational procedures or tactical dispositions.
II.Back to the Roots? The Applications of Communication Science
Theories in Strategic Communication Research – Lock et al (2020)
A communication science perspective opens up a broad range of theories to explain
strategic communication, while maintaining a common focus.
-Acknowledging the importance of media in today’s societies and the role of communication
in social processes.
Within communication science, three major traditions of analyzing, investigating and
explaining communication phenomena in society are distinguished:
1.social science approach:
-The dominant paradigm of mass communication research. rests on assumptions of
objectivity and a value-free researcher.
- communication is defined as mediated communication for change in society with the focus
on media-effects, using social science methods, especially surveys.
-Within this paradigm key communication strategy topics: Crisis communication; Public
relations; Communication strategy; Agenda-building/media coverage and influence.
