Erica Ciszek

University of Houston | U of H, UH · The Jack J. Valenti School of School of Communication

While organizations have increasingly engaged in corporate social advocacy (CSA) for sexual and gender diverse populations, transgender people have often been overlooked in LGBTQ advocacy campaigns. Among the different strategic communication tactics that can be used in CSA, advertising is an important channel for organizations to send their prosoc...

Since the early 20th century, public relations has been implicated in the production and sustainment of celebrity. Celebrities rely on the work of publicists to strategically cast, produce, and place discourses within spheres of popular culture. Through an extended interview with Alan Nierob, publicist of transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner, this...

Purpose The purpose of this work is to identify the components of authentic communication with LGBTQ publics and to examine if there is a difference in what constitutes authentic communication for LGBTQ publics compared to other publics. Design/methodology/approach We conducted in-depth interviews with professionals who both identify as LGBTQ and...

Drawing from positive psychology and journalism studies, this article proposes constructive advocacy as a theoretical and methodological arena for public interest communications. Through a case study of a transnational advocacy network, this research employs a thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with 40 activists, exploring positivity and solu...

Within digital landscapes, public relations research suggests organizations and publics do not always operate in ways that scholars originally predict. Fitting with the theme of this special issue, this article challenges consensus-driven orientations of dialogue, embracing the postmodern concept of dissensus and critically contesting the dialogic...

This article presents an historical overview of queer activism and inquiry, advocating for queer theorizing in public relations, and outlining future directions for theory building. It proposes making public relations theory queer (challenging the heterosexist foundations and presumptions that constitute theory in public relations) and queering pub...

This study explores activists as producers of strategic communication for social change, suggesting communication for development and social change (CDSC), activism, and public relations are not antagonistic but rather occupy a fluid space informed by cultural-economic forces. This article presents a model of cultural intermediation for social chan...

Digital media present great potential for disseminating campaigns, connecting with constituencies, and creating spaces for connectivity. This article explores a contemporary digital media project, Todo Mejora México, considering how emerging technology affects activism. This research illustrates how activists mobilize digital media, localizing and...

This article examines a contemporary articulation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activism, LGBT youth outreach, as a historically contextual moment. By way of a cultural-economic examination, this study explores the identities constructed by both producers and consumers of an LGBT activist campaign. The cultural-economic model (C...

Increasingly, advocacy organizations employ social networking sites as inexpensive and often effective ways to disseminate outreach messages. For groups working to reach lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth, social media provide key platforms for connecting with target audiences. While these young people increasingly utilize...

In light of the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States in June 2015, this case study provides a historical examination of one of the first corporate engagements with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) publics. In this case, readers are presented with a historical case of crisis communication and LGBT publics, with exampl...

This study examines narratives of the 20 most popular video submissions to the It Gets Better Project campaign to explore how they create a shared story around lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. The results suggest that while the movement has garnered global attention from activists and scholars, much of the discour...

This study examines how LGBT activists and LGBT youth make meaning of a strategic advocacy campaign. By examining activist and advocacy efforts aimed at youth, this research brings to light how LGBT organizations use campaigns to articulate identity and, conversely, how LGBT youth articulate notions of identity. Through the lens of the It Gets Bett...

This exploratory qualitative case study examines the role of participatory media in nonprofit public relations. Through a case study of the It Gets Better Project, this research examines how nonprofit organizations can provide a platform for publics to amplify their voices and in turn how publics can work to carry forth the message of a movement. T...