Strategic Communication Theory and Practice The Cocreational Model

A guide to strategic communication that can be applied across a range of subfields at all three levels?grand strategic, strategic, and tactical communication

Communication is a core function of every human organization so when you work with communication you are working with the very core of the organization. Written for students, academics, and professionals, Strategic Communication Theory and Practice: The Cocreational Model argues for a single unified field of strategic communication based in the three large core subfields of public relations, marketing communication, and health communication, as well as strategic communicators working in many other subfields such as political communication, issues management, crisis communication, risk communication, environmental and science communication, social movements, counter terrorism communication, public diplomacy, public safety and disaster management, and others. Strategic Communication Theory and Practice is built around a cocreational model that shifts the focus from organizational needs and the messages crafted to achieve them, to a publics-centered view placing publics and their ability to cocreate new meanings squarely in the center of strategic communication theory and practice. The author?a noted expert in the field?outlines the theories, campaign strategies, common issues, and cutting edge challenges facing strategic communication, including the role of social media, ethics, and intercultural strategic communication.

As the author explains, the term "strategic communication" properly refers only to the planned campaigns that grow out of research and understanding what publics think and want. This vital resource answers the questions of whether, and how, strategic-level skills can be used across fields, as it:

• Explores the role of theory and the cocreational meta-theory in strategic communication
• Outlines ethical practices and problems in the field
• Includes information on basic campaign strategies
• Offers the most recent information on risk communication, preparedness and terrorism communication, and employment in strategic communication
• Redefines major concepts, such as publics, from a cocreational perspective

List of Figures and Tables xv

Foreword xvii

Overview of the Book xix

Part I: Elements xix

Part II: Strategies xx

Part III: New Challenges xx

Part I Elements 1

1 Strategic Communication Concepts 3

Summary 3

Strategic Communication Is Big and Getting Bigger 3

Employment in SC 4

SC on the Internet 4

Organization and Goal of This Book 5

Communication as Constitutive 6

Role of information 6

General Definition and Role of SC 7

Tree metaphor of strategic communication as a gestalt 8

Grand Strategy, Strategy and Tactics 9

History 9

Analoguing 11

Specifically measurable outputs 12

Level of analysis 12

Grand Strategy 13

Strategy 13

Tactics 14

Relationship of Grand Strategy, Strategy and Tactics 14

Generic Grand Strategies 15

Background 16

Intransigent Grand Strategy 16

Environment 16

Change 16

Publics 19

Issues 19

Research 19

Communication 19

Practitioners 19

Resistant Grand Strategy 20

Environment 20

Change 20

Publics 20

Issues 20

Research 21

Communication 21

Practitioners 21

Partnership Grand Strategy 21

Environment 21

Change 22

Publics 22

Issues 22

Research 22

Communication 22

Practitioners 22

Cocreational Grand Strategy 22

Environment 23

Change 23

Publics 23

Issues 23

Research 23

Communication 23

Practitioners 23

Change in Grand Strategies 23

2 Theory in SC and the Cocreational Metatheory 25

Summary 25

Introduction 25

Metatheory 25

What Theory Is 26

Minima for a Theory 27

Kinds of Theories 28

Formal and Informal Theory 28

Less Formal Types of Theory 28

Commonsense or everyday theory 29

Lay or naive theory 29

Thought experiments 30

Positive and negative effects of lay theories 31

More Formal Types of Theory 32

Practice‐based theories 32

Scientific theories 33

Theory and Practice 34

Experience versus Theory 34

Learning from Established Fields 35

Experience–Theory Link in SC 36

Schools of Thought, Metatheory and Paradigms in SC 37

Epistemology of SC 38

Ontology 39

Axiology 40

Cocreational Metatheory in SC 40

Background 40

Lineage 41

Positioning Cocreational Metatheory in SC 42

Sequencing schools of thought in SC by metatheory and metaphor 43

Instrumental school 44

Modern/social scientific 45

Cocreational Molecule and Model 47

Components of Cocreational Molecule 47

Circle 1: Publics starting point 48

Box 2: Strategic research and information inflow 49

Box 2A: Strategic information outflows 49

Box 2B: Experience 50

Box 3: Campaign planning 50

Box 4: Campaign implementation 50

Circle 5: Acceptance and interpretation of campaign messages 51

Circle 6: New meaning cocreation 51

Circle 7: Assessment and progress 51

Levels of Evaluation 52

Category 1 52

Category 2 52

Category 3 52

Limitations of the Cocreational View in Evaluation 53

3 Stakeholders, Publics, Customers, Markets and Audiences 55

Summary 55

Introduction 56

Labels and Subfields Are Important 56

Practitioner or professional, scholar or academic 57

Organization of the Chapter 57

Different Ways Subfields of SC Think about the Groups We Communicate With 58

Stakeholders 58

Public 58

Customer 61

Markets and Marketing Communication 62

Audiences 64

Publics versus audiences 64

Attributes of audiences 65

Segmentation and Functions of Publics 66

History of Segmentation 66

Standardized or A Priori Terms 67

Most important publics: target, critical, primary and crucial 68

Other a priori publics: active, passive, latent, secondary and potential 68

Campaign‐Specific or Customized Segmentation 68

Altruistic Campaigns and Benefited Publics 69

Process in Publics 70

Instrumental School View of Publics 71

Humanistic View of Publics 72

Humanism in communication in SC 72

Language use 72

Semiotics and publics 73

Humans make choices 74

4 Strategic Communication Ethics 75

Summary 75

Introduction 76

Cocreationality and Ethics 76

Parable of the Pig Perfumer 77

Ethics, Morality and Law 77

Ethics 77

Two challenges to current codes 78

Morality 79

Law 79

Need for an SC‐Specific Ethical Code 81

Golden age of strategic communication? 81

Ethical issues facing strategic communication 81

Current Ethical Thought in SC and Its Subfields 82

Current Formal Codes of Ethics in SC Subfields 82

Disagreements in codes of ethics 84

Agreements in codes of ethics 85

Hired Gun or Mercenary 85

Attorney in the Court of Public Opinion 85

Other Ethical Models and Ongoing Questions 86

Adapting to publics 86

Cocreational Approach to Ethics 87

Human Nature View of Ethics 88

Image in strategic communication 89

I‐images and h‐images 89

Interpretive communities in strategic communication 90

Monologic and dialogic campaigns 90

Socially Responsible Strategic Communication (SRSC) 91

Agency in socially responsible strategic communication 91

Socially necessary information 92

Social responsibility in practice 92

Cocreational Code of Ethics for Strategic Communicators 93

Grand strategic, strategic and tactical implications for ethics 93

Application of Cocreational Ethics 94

Cocreational Ethical Codes Disrupt Old Views of Ethics in SC 94

Cocreational View of Ethics Applied to Pledges 95

Sample Ethics Pledges for Communicators and Organizations 95

Application: Cocreational View of Ethics Applied to Political Discourse 97

Part II Strategies 99

5 Issues, Issues Management and Crises 101

Summary 101

Introduction and History 102

Issues management 102

Managing versus Cocreating Issues 102

Issues and Problems 103

Issues 103

Other Cocreators 104

Problems versus Issues 104

Life Cycle of an Issue 105

Up the Time Stream 105

Attrition of Issues 106

Stages of an Issue 107

Pre‐Issues and Environmental Scanning 107

Stage One: Embryonic Issues 108

Stage Two: Open Issues 109

Stage Three: Mature Issues 110

Normal mature issues 110

Crises 111

Strategic versatility and strategic ambiguity 112

Surprise in crises 113

Truth in a crisis 113

Meta‐crises or secondary crises 114

Lurking Issues 115

Conclusion 115

6 Basic Theories of Strategic Communication 117

Summary 117

Introduction 117

Basic Theory in SC 117

Challenge 118

Coorientation Theory 119

Background 119

Concepts in Coorientation Theory 120

Evaluation of Coorientation 121

Theory boxes explained 121

Sense‐ Making Theory 122

Background of Sense‐Making 122

Concepts in Sense‐Making Theory 122

Caveat on misapplying theories 123

Application in SC 124

Evaluation of Sense‐Making Theory 125

Attribution Theory 126

Background of Attribution Theory 126

Concepts of Attribution Theory 126

Applications of Attribution Theory 127

Fundamental attribution error 128

Self‐serving bias 129

Evaluation of Attribution Theory 130

Trust 130

Background of Trust 130

Concepts in Trust 130

Measurement of Trust 132

Applications of Trust 132

Evaluation of Trust 133

Persuading versus Informing 133

Non‐Persuasive and Persuasive Subfields 133

Background of non‐persuasive SC 134

Academic non‐persuasive SC 135

SC as a motivated practice 135

7 Risk and Preparedness Communication 137

Summary 137

Introduction 137

The Cocreational View of Risk Communication 138

Two Components of All SC 139

Social‐Emotional Dimension of Risk 141

Cocreational Model of Risk Communication 141

Traditional Risk and Disaster Preparedness Communication 143

Emergency communication 143

Disaster communication 143

Preparedness Communication 143

Readiness communication 144

Terrorism communication 144

The Cocreational View 144

Understanding Risk Analytically and Experientially 146

Assumption of rationality 146

State Emergency Operations Plans 148

Natural Disasters and the Environmental Risks 149

Human‐Caused Disasters 149

Expert–Media Relations 150

Quasi‐Scientific Explanations 150

Costs to Publics 151

Conclusion 151

Part III New Challenges 153

8 Social Media and New Information Technology 155

Summary 155

Introduction 155

Interconnected Publics and the Cocreation of Meaning 156

Social Media–Cocreation Nexus 156

Mass Media and Social Media 157

Blessings and Curses 158

Key Attributes of New Media 159

Interactivity 159

Demassification 159

Asynchronicity 160

Up the Time Stream with Social Media 160

Success Rates of SC Campaigns 161

The Free Lunch and the Changing of the Guard 163

Shrilling of Public Discourse 165

9 International and Intercultural Strategic Communication 167

Summary 167

Cocreational View of International and Intercultural Strategic Communication 167

Intercultural and Cross‐Cultural Models 168

Ethnocentric and polycentric models 169

Ontological knowledge 169

Planning, Evaluation and Ethics in Intercultural SC Campaigns 169

Lens and Mirror 170

Matrix 170

Background of the matrix 171

Four factors of the matrix 171

Matrix and cocreationality 172

Public Diplomacy as International/Intercultural SC 173

Conclusion 174

10 Strategic Communication in Terrorism and Counterterrorism:

The Missing Narrative 175

Summary 175

Introduction 175

Terrorism as Strategic Communication 176

Meaning and Strategic Communication Purpose of Terrorism 177

Terrorism’s Critical Publics 178

View of the Role of Mass Media in Terrorism 178

Effects of media coverage of terrorism 179

Terrorism’s use of pseudo‐events 179

Narrative Featured in Terrorist Strategic Communication 180

Narrative as storytelling 183

Narrative, naming and framing 183

Cyberterrorism and the New Media 184

Cocreational View of Terrorism Communication 185

Strategic content in terrorist communication 186

Counterterrorism Strategic Communication 187

Introduction 187

Narrative in Counterterror Strategic Communication 188

Law of the Instrument 189

No horse in the race 190

Overdependence on military‐legal‐expert responses 191

Mass Media Limitations in Counterterrorism 193

Conclusion 194

References and Further Reading 197

Index 223

Carl Botan is a Professor of Communication at George Mason University. He teaches undergraduate courses in Public Relations and graduate courses in Public Relations Theory, Research Methods, Introduction to Graduate Studies, International Relations, and Strategic Communication.