Natalie T. J. Tindall

University of Texas at Austin | UT · Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations

Background The predominantly Black city of Albany, Georgia, and its metropolitan region, was hard hit during the first wave of COVID-19. In the midst of the wave, the local hospital produced a video of a Black man dying from COVID-19 as a part of its crisis communication strategy. The purpose of this study is to critically interrogate a crisis comm...

Voice is tangled with the concept of power. Voice is not just concerned with the message, but also with the platform, the reach, and the accessibility of the message. The opposite of voice is silence, which can be a strategic maneuver or a consequence of societal power and position. Within public relations and strategic communication, scholars are...

The concept of claims culture was recently introduced into the discipline of strategic communication. Social media have triggered a monumental shift as people have moved from being citizens to consumers, thus creating a claims culture. The shift to a claims culture occurred as citizens began to expect from local governments the choice and quality o...

This book discussion centers around Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green's book Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (New York University Press, 2013; out in paperback in spring 2018). In this meeting, participants examined the networked nature of media and advertising today and how it differs greatly from the ce...

Communication Perspectives on Popular Culture brings together communication experts with diverse backgrounds, from interpersonal communication, business and organizational communication, mass communication, media studies, narrative, rhetoric, gender studies, autoethnography, popular culture studies, and journalism. The contributors tackle such topi...

Grounded in literature stemming from higher education research, this study examines how students evaluate public relations educators by gauging their perceptions of the professors’ professional competency, professorial warmth, course difficulty, and industry connectivity. Using an experimental design, students (n = 303) from four U.S. universities...

While public relations practitioners have long focused on the relationship between organizations and their stakeholders, there has never been a time when that relationship was so dominated by public participation. The new model of multiple messages originating from multiple publics at varying levels of engagement is widely acknowledged, but not wid...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use relationship management theory to measure the impact of relationship cultivation on the employer-employee relationship. Specifically, the paper examines how well Kelly's (2001) conceptualization of stewardship can impact internal stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach – Through intercept surveys of...

Although the segmentation of publics is a standard practice in public relations programming, practitioners face challenges in using traditional approaches to identify and engage vastly different publics. Responding to the need for new approaches that consider global, cultural, and technological trends in consumer publics, this study provides eviden...

As a descriptive theory, intersectionality refers to individuals’ interdependent and simultaneous identities that affect how publics confront issues. In this article, we introduce an intersectional approach to publics that complements current segmentation strategies with publics. This article complements early efforts to study multiple identities b...

Purpose ‐ The purposes of this research are to understand the complex communication environment of South Africa, to determine to which extent previously identified communication models can be applied to this burgeoning field and to propose a new model of communication: an integrated marketing communications model. Design/methodology/approach ‐ This...

Despite the increasing focus on understanding the diversity of public relations, academics and practitioners have largely ignored gay men. Grounded in queer theory, this qualitative study examines the experiences of gay men working in public relations. We used in-depth interviews and focus groups to allow participants to discuss their careers openl...

The purpose of this study was to determine how previous American Red Cross donors from two separate chap-ters—one in Florida and one in Illinois—reacted to the "Text for Haiti" campaign following the 2009 earth-quake. Specifically, the study used the situational theory of publics to analyze awareness of and involvement in the text messaging campaig...

The purpose of this study was to determine how previous American Red Cross donors from two separate chap-ters—one in Florida and one in Illinois—reacted to the " Text for Haiti " campaign following the 2009 earthquake. Specifically, the study used the situational theory of publics to analyze awareness of and involvement in the text messaging campai...

This research on public relations campaigns, heart disease, and meaning making addresses individual-level and community-level decisions that influence women's retention and understanding of health messages. This research is grounded in several theoretical bases of knowledge: culture and communication campaigns, the situational theory of publics, an...

Deadlines have always played a significant role in the practice of public relations, especially the media relations specialization. Public relations textbooks and practitioner handbooks encourage budding practitioners to learn how and when journalists, broadcasters, and Internet authors work so that they may pitch story ideas to them appropriately....

The aim of this study was to promote theory building in strategic communication by testing and measuring public relations roles theory through an online survey among a population of 782 South African advertising, public relations, and government practitioners. Eight of the roles were previously tested in public relations research, and a ninth, the...

American teens are using online social networks more than ever before. According to a 2010 Pew Internet Project study, close to 75% of teens use social media sites and wireless connections (cell phones, game consoles, and portable gaming devices) to access the Internet (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010). These constant connections and ties...

A common tenet of fundraising centers on the connection between donors and specific programs in their communities, where they can see the impact of their donations. However, crisis fundraising runs counter to this model, as individuals donate to provide relief assistance to others throughout the world. This study analyzes the American public's char...

This chapter examines fraternity stereotypes by focusing on the tropes of the “Man’s Man,” “Ladies’ Man,” and “Gentleman” as they relate to three black Greek-letter fraternities (BGLFs): Kappa Alpha Psi, Alpha Phi Alpha, and Omega Psi Phi. It shows how these relatively newfound cultural images are propelled in part by the racist imagery of black me...

Fundraising, as studied from a communications/public relations perspective, is an understudied function. This research examines fundraising at public and private historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), specifically exploring how these fundraisers incorporate various fundraising strategies into their communication outreach programs wit...

The Internet has affected every aspect of society, and religion is no exception. Nearly 28 million Americans use the Internet to supplement their spiritual life by visiting Web sites to communicate with their churches and other congregation members. Online communication with religious organizations can be enhanced by the incorporation of five dialo...

With the changing media environment and the evolving online atmosphere, traditional media relations strategies (e.g., news release and media kit preparation and distribution) are shifting to practices that are more relevant to a social media environment. The purpose of this article is to define the changing interplay between journalists and public...

The study explored whether perceived shared experience with a media portrayal could influence various cognitions—such as concern, sense of personal involvement, and desire to learn more—that are important for behavior change. This research used the situational theory of publics in order to evaluate whether perceived shared risk is an antecedent to...

The goals of the research were to explore African-American practitioners’ satisfaction with public relations as a career and to examine their perceptions of tokenism and pigeonholing in the workplace. Three key themes emerged from the research: career entry and social support in public relations; encounters with everyday racism; and pigeonholing in...

The former president of Morehouse College, Dr Benjamin E. Mays, once said, ‘Higher education for Blacks has always been in a precarious position. These institutions were founded on short grass financially, and they live today on short grass.’ Today, many public and private historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have found success in f...

This empirical study examined whether public historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) predominantly practiced the press agentry, public information, two-way asymmetrical, two-way symmetrical or mixed motive models of fund raising. The findings reported the heavy usage of press agentry model of fund raising by advancement officers. The m...

An empirical study of practitioners in the newSouth Africa found no evidence that respondents grouped public relations practices according to principles of symmetry or asymmetry, thus rejecting the notion of symmetry as a normative public relations approach in international settings. Instead, South African practitioners developed their ownculture-s...

Public relations is important to organizations because this function has boundary spanning roles and responsibilities. Public relations practitioners work between the organization and various publics to communicate messages in an effort to inform and influence the organization's leadership and dominant coalition and to inform and effect change amon...