Jim Macnamara

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Verified

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• PhD
• Professor of Public Communication at University of Technology Sydney

Ethical conduct is a maxim in scholarly research as well as scholarly endeavour generally. In the case of research involving humans, few if any question the necessity for ethics approval of procedures by ethics boards or committees. However, concerns have been raised about the appropriateness of ethics approval processes for social science research...

The ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has changed society are the source of widespread discussion. But references to a ‘new normal’ are mostly confined to hybrid working and a possible four-day working week. Should future-scoping remain so narrow, a major opportunity for fundamental rethinking will be lost. This commentary seeks to take up and ex...

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world, requiring emergency management by health authorities and providers, it created flow-on crises and “crisis contagion” for organizations ranging from international airlines and tourism operators to local businesses, schools, and universities. In addition to the risks directly associated with the healt...

Since declaration of post-truth as Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year in 2016, studies show that ‘fake news’, ‘alternative facts’, and disinformation have continued unabated – and even increased. Fingers have pointed at individuals such as Donald Trump and the activities of Russian ‘troll farms’. Also, global outrage has risen in relation to the...

Speaking and listening are recognized and receive considerable attention in studies of interpersonal communication and related fields such as leadership studies. However, how organizations listen to their stakeholders has received much less attention. Organizational listening poses special challenges such as the issue of scale. Large organizations...

Purpose Comparatively, while the voice of customers, employees, and other stakeholders have been identified as key components of corporate and marketing communication, little attention has been paid to how organizations listen to, make sense of, and use the information provided. The research reported in this article examined how a multinational cor...

Purpose This paper aims to explore the evaluation theory in a field closely related to corporate communication and public relations (PR) as well as in other disciplines and argues that embracing the evaluation theory more broadly can break the “stasis” and “deadlock” identified in evaluation of corporate communication and PR. Specifically, this ana...

The development of evaluation scholarship progresses, but the slow and incremental steps taken are largely refinements on a direction of thinking that has become established and virtually taken for granted. Most frameworks and models which have gained recognition in the academy and practice follow programme logic methodology. They also point to the...

To many, development and adoption of professional standards for measurement and evaluation (M&E) is one of the most promising approaches for advancing public relations practice. In recent years, there has been a surge in efforts to develop standards for M&E in different parts of the world. Prominent examples of this include standard metrics, princi...

There is a concerning lacuna in communication studies and particularly in specialist sub-disciplines including political, government, corporate, and organizational communication, and public relations. Despite Craig’s succinct but cogent description of communication as “talking and listening”; theorization of communication as two-way transactional i...

A number of studies of the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs), competencies and capabilities of public relations and communication professionals have been carried out in the USA, UK and other countries. However, most have not engaged to any significant extent with literature in the human resource development field which specializes in defining...

Evaluation in various fields of strategic communication has focused for some time on outputs rather than outcomes and impact, and researchers have lamented a “stasis” and “deadlock” in relation to evaluation in practices such as corporate communication, public relations, and some specialist fields such as health communication. However, a number of...

Management writer Tom Peters noted that what gets measured is what gets done in organizations. Therefore, measurement and evaluation models and approaches provide insights into strategy. Furthermore, the most widely used approaches to evaluation are based on program logic models that identify objectives, planning, and inputs, as well as seek to tra...

This chapter focuses on one further fundamental of engagement that has received far too little attention in corporate, marketing, organizational, government, and political communication and in public relations (PR)—that is, how and how well organizations listen to their stakeholders and publics. In particular, the research and analysis summarized i...

After identification of “stasis” in evaluation of strategic communication including public relations and corporate communication despite intensive focus for more than 40 years, recent initiatives in measurement and evaluation on three continents highlight a number of important advances in theory and practice. Although studies have identified a lack...

With a number of Asia-Pacific countries among the fastest growing in the world, the requirements for public relations and communication management are also growing in terms of both demand and professionalism. It is essential that practitioners and academics keep pace with demand and achieve 'international best practice'. In 2015/16, the largest eve...

Evaluating Public Communication addresses the widely reported lack of rigorous outcome and impact oriented evaluation in advertising; public relations; corporate, government, political, and organizational communication; and specialist fields such as health communication. This transdisciplinary analysis integrates research literature from each of th...

While there is an important and growing body of research literature on listening, it is predominantly focused on interpersonal listening. Meanwhile, in contemporary industrial and postindustrial societies, organizations play a central role in society and the lives of citizens. People need to interact on a daily basis with government departments and...

From historical analysis of the early development of public relations evaluation (early 1980s to the early 2000s), this paper shows that public relations scholarship and practice have drawn heavily on media and communication studies in developing models and methods of evaluation, but have not significantly engaged with the large related body of kno...

The first comprehensive study of public relations (PR) and corporate communication practices across Asia-Pacific countries has found that, despite being an area of rapid growth, evaluation remains limited, is often not based on reliable research methods, and is focussed on outputs rather than the outcomes of communication. This reflects a worldwide...

The presence of a concerning and seemingly growing ‘democratic deficit’ in a number of democratic countries is widely acknowledged and discussed in political communication, sociology, and critical literature. In 2016 in the wake of the shock UK referendum vote to leave the European Union, commonly referred to as Brexit, the Prime Minister of the UK...

An extensive body of literature theorizes public relations as two-way communication, dialogue, and relationships between organizations and their publics. Although there are alternative views, including public relations as advocacy, most theories emphasize dialogue, co-orientation, and relationships incorporating satisfaction, trust, and control mut...

Health communication is identified as an important strategy in achieving health outcomes, particularly in supporting preventative approaches to combatting disease and ill health. In Australia’s multicultural society, health communication needs to address a number of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in order to achieve health...

Listening is extensively discussed in relation to interpersonal communication, in therapeutic contexts such as counselling and, to some extent, in the context of intra-organizational communication conducted as part of human resources management. However, listening is surprisingly and problematically overlooked in the large body of literature on org...

It is well established that the internet, and particularly the unprecedented growth of social media, are changing the mediascape and media practices in advertising, public relations, and journalism. Some of these changes are leading to convergence of genre and practices as well as the technologies of media. This analysis focuses on the first two of...

Organizations including government departments and agencies, corporations, and non-government organizations claim they want and practice two-way communication, dialogue, and engagement with citizens, customers, employees, and other stakeholders and publics. But do they in reality? Voice—speaking up—is recognized as fundamental for democracy, repres...

Purpose – Noting findings by Michaelson and Stacks in the USA and Zerfass and colleagues in Europe that research-based measurement and evaluation (M & E) of public relations and corporate communication are still not widely applied despite more than a century of discussion and intense focus since the 1970s, the purpose of this paper is to explore t...

The influence of public relations (PR) on media content has been shown to be substantial, and research indicates that it is growing through new media practices. However, the interrelationship between journalism and PR remains obscured by paradoxical discourses and stereotypes such as “spin doctors.” This article identifies gaps in the literature an...

The fields of business and management with which public relations interacts and in which it is often located are rife with concepts, models and theories on leadership, performance, and effectiveness. Recently, these have turned attention to alleged multiple forms of intelligence, such as Howard Gardner’s claims for eight types of intelligence, whic...

Extensive research over the past 100 years has shown that the interrelationship between journalism and PR is tensioned and paradoxical, with negative perceptions of PR among journalists and trivialization and demonization of PR as ‘spin’ contrasted by claims of ‘symbiosis’ and evidence that 40–75% of media content is significantly influenced by PR....

Following the 2004 US presidential election campaign, which was described as 'a critical turning point' in use of social media, and particularly the 2008 Obama campaign, there has been increasing focus on use of social media for political campaigning and what is termed e-electioneering and e-democracy. However, studies of election campaigns between...

The interrelationship between journalism and public relations (PR) is one of the most contentious in the field of media studies. Numerous studies have shown that 50-80 per cent of the content of mass media is significantly shaped by PR. But many editors, journalists and PR practitioners engage in a `discourse of denial', maintaining what critics ca...

After 30 years of modest progress in measurement and evaluation of public relations since Jim Grunig uttered his cri de coeur about lack of evaluation, a flurry of activity has occurred in the past few years. A new momentum started with the Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles in 2010. In 2011, a Coalition for Public Relations Research S...

The International Public Relations Association (IPRA) was established in 1955 as the lead international organisation for the development and promotion of public relations as a professional communication practice (L'Etang, 2004). Involvement by Australian practitioners in IPRA began in 1959 and became intensive during a 15-year period from 1982 to t...

This book examines the major changes taking place in media today, including the phenomenon of Web 2.0 and social media, and expertly synthesizes competing theories and the latest data, including international research from fast-growing markets such as China and Taiwan as well as the US, UK, Europe and Australia, to provide a comprehensive, holistic...

Despite cautionary analyses and critiques by some scholars, cyberoptimism and what Steve Woolgar calls cyberbole continue to characterise much discussion of social media in the context of democratic politics (e-democracy) and citizen engagement and participation, and is evident in claims of emergence of the ‘social organisation’ and ‘social busines...

While product placement and ‘advertorial’ have been used by advertising and public relations for the best part of a century to place sponsored messages in media content in covert ways, a raft of new techniques and formats for ‘embedding’ marketing and promotional messages in media content are emerging which take these practices to a whole new level...

Australia Day is a foremost expression of Australian culture and identity, but historical and critical analysis shows that, far from being an organic or spontaneous expression and celebration of identity and culture, Australia's national day has been ‘manufactured’ by what can be identified as ‘new cultural intermediaries’. Drawing on but reinterpr...

Considerable attention in communication, media and social science scholarship is focused on voice, which is considered as an important form of social capital and necessary for social equity. Studies have extensively examined access to communication technologies and various forums such as the public sphere, as well as media literacy required to have...

Governments worldwide are increasingly attempting to use the internet to engage citizens. After an initial focus on delivery of information and services via what technologists call Web 1.0, strategies referred to as ‘Government 2.0’ and e-democracy have turned attention to the use of interactive Web 2.0-based ‘social media’ to engage citizens in co...

Organizations from government departments and corporations to small businesses are increasingly adopting social media for strategic corporate and organizational communication and public relations. This is seen by many as a positive development because the openness of the Web 2.0 environment potentially democratizes voice and affords participation,...

There are increasing claims and, in some quarters, celebration of a ‘sociocultural turn’ in public relations that has allegedly shifted the locus of scholarship and practice from US-originating functionalist and organization-centric models to more socially and culturally orientated approaches. However, this article presents a critical analysis of P...

The status of Australia Day has long generated mixed responses - from patriotic flag-waving, to apathy, to outright hostility. Proponents of 26 January consequently have engaged in various public relations activities in order to promote Australia Day and to establish its credentials as the national day. From the early nineteenth century through to...

Purpose A number of scholars including Benno Signitzer and Jacquie L'Etang have proposed public diplomacy as an alternative model to describe and/or inform the practices of public relations. However, international relations and political science scholars claim major differences between public diplomacy and PR, and few studies have sought to reconci...

Historical, social and cultural understanding of public relations in Australia is limited because most histories of PR examine practices specifically labelled 'public relations' and almost all study PR from 'inside out' – that is, from the subjective perspective of PR practitioners. This article reports an alternative approach to PR history which a...

A transtheoretical exploration of public relations drawing on systems orientated management theory which is the dominant US paradigm as well as psychological, semiotic, sociocultural, and critical perspectives, along with international case studies and applications, providing a comprehensive text for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students...

Despite cautionary analyses and critiques by some scholars, cyberoptimism and what Steve Woolgar calls cyberbole continue to characterise much discussion of social media in the context of democratic politics (e-democracy) and citizen engagement and participation, and is evident in claims of emergence of the 'social organisation' and 'social busines...

In the wake of the ‘turning point’ 2004 US presidential election, the Obama campaign of 2008, the 2010 UK election and e-democracy movements globally, Australians went to the polls in 2010 in a media-hyped flurry of tweeting, YouTube videos, Facebook befriending and ‘liking’, blogging and other social media activities. Following a study showing tha...

Scholars and practitioners are widely agreed that media and public communication are undergoing significant change deserving of close attention and, along with widespread popular media discussion, a body of scholarly research on the changing 21st century mediascape is emerging. The term ‘new media’ is widely used in the literature to describe inter...

One of the most contentious and pressing issues concerning media in the early twenty-first century is identifying viable business models, with widespread reports that twentieth-century business models underpinning press, radio and television are collapsing because of 'audience fragmentation' driven by an ever-widening range of choice in media conte...

Concerned by declining interest, trust, and participation by citizens in democratic politics, governments and political institutions worldwide are turning to the internet in attempts to revitalise democracy through online public consultation and citizen participation, referred to as e-democracy or ‘government 2.0’. This paper reports research into...

A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the use of social media by Australian politicians and major political parties during the 2010 federal election.

Contemporary scholarship recognises the importance of diversity and open ongoing construction and reconstruction of knowledge to remain current and relevant. However, content analysis of fourteen contemporary public relations prescribed texts and reference books supports claims of a Western, and particularly a North American, dominant paradigm and...

This article presents a critically informed analysis of public relations practice in what Mark Poster termed the Second Media Age that began with the internet and which is increasingly characterised by interactive ‘social’ media enabled by Web 2.0 and the emergent Web 3.0. Industry texts and statements suggest that the growth of ‘PR 2.0’ is taking...

After its landslide victory in the 2007 Australian Federal election which was widely described as the YouTube election, the Rudd Labor government launched a series of trial public consultation blogs in 2008 as part of a commitment to e-democracy through the use of interactive Web 2.0 communication applications. At the same time, Barack Obama swept...

This paper argues that focusing on 'media as practice', as proposed by Nick Couldry (2004) reconceptualises media in a historical context and escapes the narrow framework of mass media theory which focuses on particular technologies of production and distribution, and accumulation and maintenance of mass audiences. Whereas other approaches to study...

Internet media have come under increasing examination since the early 1990s within a number of theoretical frameworks, including their use and potential influence in the public sphere of political discourse. Increasing use of internet media was identified in the 2000 and 2004 US presidential elections, with the latter being described as 'a critical...

Like the 2007-2008 US presidential primaries, the 2007 Australian federal election was described as 'the YouTube election' and an 'internet election' (Media Monitors, 2008). This followed studies of use of what are termed 'new media' for political communication in a number of campaigns including the 2000 US presidential election (Bentivegna, 2002,...