Priorities in public relations research: An international Delphi study.

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Abstract

A Delphi study on the priorities for public relations research, conducted in 2007 amongst academics, practitioners and senior executives of professional and industry bodies in five continents, has ranked the ten most important topics for research and proposed the associated research questions. This is the first completed Delphi study into public relations research since Synnott and McKie (1997) which was itself a development of earlier studies of this type by McElreath (1980, 1989 and 1994). Some of the outcomes are comparable with the earlier studies; for instance, evaluation of public relations programmes ranks third in 2007 and was amongst the leaders in the Synnott and McKie (1997) study. After piloting, twenty six public relations topics were chosen. These were sent by email to the Delphi panel. After three rounds of intensive email debate, the Top Ten public relation research topics were in ranked order: 1) Public relations’ role in contributing to strategic decision-making, strategy development and realisation, and organisational functioning 2) The value that public relations creates for organisations through building social capital, managing key relationships and realising organisational advantage 3) The measurement and evaluation of public relations, both offline and online 4) Public relations as a fundamental management function 5) Professional skills in public relations; analysis of the industry’s need for education 6) Research into standards of performance among PR professionals; the licensing of practitioners 7) Management of corporate reputation; measurement of reputation 8) Ethics in public relations 9) Integration of public relations with other communication functions; the scope of public relations practice; discipline boundaries 10) Management of relationships

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