This creative project is a 24-page publication designed to publish the best public relations case studies done by students from universities across the country. The creative project began with the conception of the idea and consisted of all responsibilities, under the title of assistant editor, up through and including a thorough evaluation of the publication.An Advisory Board was selected, financing and printing determined, material solicited and edited and basic design and page layouts determined, and 275 copies were printed and distributed to educators and professionals.This creative project was designed to be the first issue of an annual periodical published by the Ball State University Public Relations Sequence within the Department of Journalism.

Recently, the reputations of celebrities have been scrutinized. Reputation management was a concept thought to be beneficial for celebrities. Image restoration theory has been a concept formulated for use by individuals; therefore it was used for this study. This study is one of the first to review the theory's use in public relations, and its influence on celebrity status.Celebrity R. Kelly was the subject because he was involved in legal scandal. The objective was to determine if Mr. Kelly's publicist utilized image restoration theory as the basis for constructing response statements.A case study approach was utilized to provide an understanding of how this strategic plan might salvage reputations. The researcher reviewed documents and interviewed persons who had knowledge of the R. Kelly crisis. This study found use of elements of image restoration theory in this case as a form of reputation management, thereby confirming the usefulness of it as a cogent public relations tactic. / Department of Journalism

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Bibliography: leaves 157-159. / by Randy Glenn Woelfel. / M.S.

There have been a number of studies that examine how public relations professionals respond during a crisis including use of traditional legal response and traditional public relations response strategies. The degree of use of either can be influenced by the relationship between legal and public relations professionals. Thus, a pre-crisis relationship between the two groups is important for successful crisis communications. The purpose of this study was to examine media coverage of the Missouri drug dilution case to determine how many of Eli Lilly and Company's public relations messages were carried by the three major media outlets covering the crisis, if there was a difference among the outlets, and whether there was a significant difference in response strategy messages were reported.A content analysis of articles during the crisis period from the Indianapolis Star, the Kansas City Star, and The Associated Press were obtained through a Factiva search and were used to gather responses made by spokespersons. The search yielded 64 usable articles and 254 sentences from company spokespersons.Coders were trained to identify the response strategies defined as traditional public relations strategy, traditional legal strategy, mixed strategy and diversionary strategy. A chi-square test was used to test the hypotheses.The first hypothesis which stated "the number of sentences attributed to Lilly spokespersons in The Indianapolis Star, The Kansas City Star, and the Associated Press in the Missouri drug dilution case will differ significantly" was supported. The second hypothesis which stated "there will be a significant difference in response strategy sentences as defined by Fitzpatrick and Rubin and attributed to Lilly spokespersons in The Indianapolis Star, The Kansas City Star, and the Associated Press during different time periods of the case" was also supported. / Department of Journalism

The author conducted a case study for analysis of the Boy Scouts of America's (BSA) "Youth Protection" campaign, a social action campaign, developed to increase awareness and educate members on how to prevent, identify, and deal with child sexual abuse (Scoutmaster Handbook, 1990; "Unacceptables Relevancy Program," 1985).The author looked for evidence of Bandura's social cognitive theory in the campaign by identifying the following elements of the theory: observational learning, modeling, enactive learning, and symbols, in campaign artifacts (Bandura, 1977).The author sought to suggest the use of Bandura's social cognitive theory in the formative research of social action campaigns and to help public relations planners in nonprofit organizations in understanding how social action campaign messages incorporating Bandura's social cognitive theory could be presented and transmitted.Procedures began with an examination of BSA organizational and "Youth Protection" campaign artifacts, supplemented by an interview with Lawrence Potts, Administrative Group Director of the BSA, who was responsible for the development of the campaign, followed by an analysis of the campaign for evidence of Bandura's social cognitive theory.The author followed Miles and Huberman's (1994) guidelines for addressing reliability and validity.The following elements of Bandura's social cognitive theory: observational learning, modeling, enactive learning, and symbols were evident in the campaign. Observational learning, modeling, and imaginal symbols were seen in two of the videos. Enactive learning was identified in a booklet. Verbal symbols were seen in various campaign artifacts. No single artifact was identified as containing all of the elements of the theory. Campaign artifacts targeted to youth contained the most elements. Symbols were identified in all artifacts targeted to youth but only the videos showed observational learning and modeling.The author's recommendations for improving the campaign would be to use observational learning, modeling, and enactive learning for encouraging the desired behaviors and skills of the volunteer leaders and parents, in a similar way these elements were part of the artifacts targeted to youth.Campaign artifacts targeted to volunteer leaders and parents provided a great deal of information about child sexual abuse, but often the information was only stated or printed, rather than coded into verbal or imaginal symbols and demonstrated through observational learning, modeling, or enactive learning. The author would also recommend verbal and imaginal symbols be used to help volunteer leaders and parents remember information about child sexual abuse.The boys serving as models in two of the videos only appeared in these artifacts. The author would further recommend these models be used in all campaign artifacts targeted to youth.Limitations of the study included the legitimacy of qualitative research, that the study may not be considered a case study in the strictest sense, and that BSA campaign planners did not intentionally incorporate elements of Bandura's social cognitive theory in their "Youth Protection" campaign, although elements of the theory were identified in campaign artifacts.Further research on the BSA's "Youth Protection" campaign should be to evaluate its effectiveness. / Department of Journalism

M.Th. / The calling of the church is put in no uncertain terms. A lost word must be reached with the good news that there is salvation and new life in Christ Jesus. The local congregation is mainly carrying the responsibility for this. In the modern, rapid changing, consumer oriented society, congregations don't always succeed in reaching the people in their neighbourhood with this good news. A new genration of church growth experts suggest that good marketing principles can be helpful. Although the congregations already make use of certain marketing practices, a new world of marketing is opened up in the church. Church marketing originate from this. This is, however an unknown area for the most congregational leaders and require thorough study. The Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa is standing within a rapid changing context, that direct enormous challenges to the local congregation. With great social crisis, a rapid changing society and drastic internal changes, there are almost unlimited opportunities for congregations. The question is thus, how these new tendencies in church marketing can help congregations in the the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa to meet these challenges. In this study an incisive inquiry is conducted into the new tendencies of church marketing, in order to get insight into marketing practices. Next, the specific situation of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa is investigated in order to identify how church marketing can help local congregations. Practical guidelines for church marketing in the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa are suggested in order to help church leaders with implementation.

This study compared the public relations efforts in three Dallas retirement facilities against suggested standards of professional public relations practitioners to determine which standards each facility utilized. Externally, all three facilities related to the community in an "above average" way, as indicated by their utilization of the twenty-two suggested standards. Internally, two facilities related to residents and staff in a "superior" way, and one facility related in an "average way," as indicated by their utilization of the twenty-two suggested external standards and twenty suggested internal standards. The conclusions drawn from this study are that retirement facility administrators, in general, are not fully aware of the internal and external public relations strategies that could benefit them within the community and with residents.

Incorporation of social media during a crisis provides many benefits for universities, including opening two- way communication with stakeholders, informing the public quickly with updated information, and reaching a wide range of audiences. This case study aimed to explore whether Ball State incorporates social media into their crisis planning and what are the main reasons of using social media. Also, this case study aimed to see whether the university differentiates between crisis management and an emergency response. The researcher incorporated an online survey, Interviews, and documents to obtain detailed information about using social media in Ball State University. The results found that Ball State incorporates social media especially Twitter in their crisis planning. The study found that Ball State differentiates between a crisis and an emergency. / Department of Journalism

This case study has presented a comprehensive overview of the context and significance of relationship management/maintenance strategies in downtown Goshen. The study reported herein is an attempt to identify and verify efforts by Downtown Goshen, Inc. (DGI), a non-profit organization that led the revitalization efforts between 2006 and 2011. Online surveys with business owners and interviews with DGI stakeholders were conducted, along with secondary data analysis of DGI event surveys. The study’s research questions addressed how DGI’s relationship management/maintenance strategies, along with elements present in the downtown, have influenced the community. The results revealed coalition-building through collaboration, relationship maintenance strategies of openness, networking, and shared tasks, along with creative class leadership and investment in infrastructure to have positively influenced the community. / Department of Journalism

Using case study methods, four crises that were reported in the past 36 months were examined to see if university officials modified established crisis communication plans to better respond to messages and rumors on social networking. Two of the crises dealt with safety issues and two were reputational crises designed to discredit the institution. Four communication professionals were also interviewed for their opinions about social networking use during crises. The study concludes that universities should adopt a social networking aspect into crisis communication plans, including preauthorizing specific types of messages to be released during the first few minutes of a crisis without review from higher administrators. A model of this new crisis communication plan is included. Social media use is also recommended during other stages of a crisis to better inform the community of what is happening on a campus.