This study examines the roles and functions of public relations professionals in Major League Baseball. Grunig's four models of public relations were used to categorize the perceptions of the respondents regarding this subject.Eleven respondents took part in this study. All were given thirty-six statements that described typical public relations activities and philosophies. The statements were derived from original research conducted by Grunig. Each respondent was asked to sort the statements according to their perceptions of the organization in which they were currently employed.The results of this study were analyzed using the Qmethod program. Two distinct factors were revealed through this process. Factor I perceived their role as advocates for the organization (Grunig's press agency model). Factor II perceived their role a more neutral channel for communication (Grunig's public information model). Both factors believed it was important to relay the truth to the public. / Department of Journalism

Previous research has shown that although women outnumber men in public relations, women hold inferior positions, are paid less, and possess less credibility in their organization.Gender and roles in public relations has become a common focus of research for the public relations scholar; however, very few studies have used Q-methodology to gauge attitudes on this subject.Using Q-methodology, 21 public relations practitioners from a variety of organizations in 3 states were asked to sort 48 statements concerning attitudes about gender and roles in the field. Two factors emerged from the results and were labeled: Initiators and Generalists.Results indicated gender was no longer a factor in what roles the practitioner played and roles in public relations were blurring. It suggests further research should focus on differences between generalists and specialists rather than managers and technicians. / Department of Journalism

Access to abstract permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Department of Journalism

Currently, there are questions over which role, communication manager or communication technician, public relations practitioners at institutions of higher education should perform to best meet the needs of their institutions. To understand the reasonings behind these questions, a better understanding of practitioners in this area of the profession was needed. This study focused on public relations practitioners at institutions of higher education in Indiana. The objectives of this study were to create a demographic profile of these practitioners, determine which role was more prevalent among these practitioners, identify significant variables related to these practitioners' roles, and determine if the findings of previous roles research could be applied to this targeted population.Practitioners at 43 institutions of higher education in Indiana were asked to complete a questionnaire concerning their role and demographic information. Thirty-nine practitioners from this population completed and returned the questionnaires. The typical practitioner among this population was: A Caucasian male, at least 40 years old, making over $60,000 a year.Respondents were divided into two role groups, communication managers and communication technicians, based on their responses to 14 role-related questions on the questionnaire. A t-test analysis found significant differences between the mean role scores of these two groups, meaning that practitioners in this population can fit into one of the two dominant practitioner roles.Further analysis identified significant differences between four of seven variables tested on the two role groups. Significant differences were found between the two groups concerning the variables of size of institution, years of experience, use of formal research, and decision-making responsibility. No significant differences were found between the two groups concerning the variables of gender, level of education, and age.Finally, the dependent variables of use of formal research and decision-making responsibility were each tested through crosstab analyses with the independent, demographic variables of gender, age, size of institution, level of education, and years of experience. These analyses found that only years of experience was significantly related to use of formal research. Meanwhile, gender, age, size of institution, and years of experience were all significantly related to decision-making responsibility. No significant interactions were found between the variables of use of formal research and decision-making responsibility. / Department of Journalism

The fields of public relations and marketing are experiencing interdisciplinary assimilation, especially in the health care industry and specifically in hospitals. With the recognition of this basic trend many questions have been raised by public relations practitioners, marketers, and health care administrators dealing with present and anticipated functions of these public relations/marketing departments.To survey the status of public relations and marketing in Indiana hospitals the study's research question became: What is the status of the functions of public relations and marketing in Indiana hospitals?A questionnaire was the basic research tool in this study of the status of hospital marketing and public relations. The questionnaire included three sections: 1) hospital demographics; 2) identification of public relations and marketing functions performed; and 3) professional staff demographics. This study's universe was defined as healthcare marketing/public relations professionals in the State of Indiana and therefore drew its sample from the Indiana Society for Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing membership list, 1993.The researcher's survey findings led her to the conclusion that because marketing is such a new and powerful force in Indiana's hospital industry, it is swiftly integrating its functions into traditional hospital public relations programs and even rising to a position of primacy over traditional public relations programs. / Department of Journalism

This thesis examined the concept of career commitment and its relationship to certain demographic variables, including gender, to determine if a positive relationship existed. The purpose of this research was to address from a different perspective the perceptions identified in previous research that female public relations practitioners lack managerial motivation and a willingness to sacrifice family needs for work, to see if there might be some refutation or support for these perceptions.One hundred and eighty three Indiana public relations practitioners completed a 39-item telephone survey questionnaire. The findings in this study revealed that there is no significant difference between male and female practitioners in work commitment, and there is no relationship between certain demographic variables, including gender, and work commitment.The findings that female public relations practitioners are just as committed to their careers as their male colleagues indicates that, at least in Indiana, there is simply no basis for the sex-role stereotypes that have been identified in previous research. / Department of Journalism

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on October 6, 2009). Thesis advisor: Maria Len-Ríos. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MTech (Public Relations Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011. / This study investigated the professional status of female public relations practitioners in Rwandan public and private institutions by using direct managers as a focal point to get their perspectives about their staff. The study used a structured questionnaire to get information from the managers in public relations or communication departments. While different authors such as Aldoory & Toth, (2002); Wilcox and Cameron (2006:35) and Hon (1995) indicate that the public relations industry is feminised to the extent of 70 percent, the results of this study present it otherwise. The findings reveal that the trend of feminisation in Rwandan public relations industry is not on the same speed as the one in the industry worldwide. This means that based on the findings from different studies worldwide, females are represented by a big number in the public relations industry than males do. Furthermore, there is a gender gap in terms of responsibilities whereby women are more clustered in technical tasks rather than managerial ones. Although Rwanda has opted to empower women in its reconstruction process, they are still affected by the legacies of indigenous culture in terms of stereotypes associated with them and salary gaps which shows that the promotion of a female professional continue to be a problem in some organisations. Considering the research results, the public relations industry in Rwanda is still a new field and hence its practitioners' professional status especially women is not well depicted. However, the results show that female practitioners are able to offer good services to their customers due to their innate caring character and professionalism. The results recommend that local high learning institutions should include public relations courses in their program to ensure long run availability of public relations professionals. In addition the Rwanda private sector is encouraged to open up public relations agencies which will contribute to the improvement of customer care in Rwanda. Finally, the researcher recommends that public relations activities should be well planned in organisations to avoid confusion with other related fields such as marketing, for instance. The researcher further recommends that advance studies should be conducted to engage in the evaluation of the implementation of gender promotion laws and its efforts in various organisations.

The objective of this project is to provide public relations practioners with an understanding of marketing concepts and communication theories as they apply to the production of a local community event. This project is also intended to be a resource for other public relations practioners involved in the process of communicating with a variety of audiences and to fulfill the void of scholarly research on the subject of event planning. The end result is expected to be a resource for event planners, providing tips and insights into the development of the community festival, Orange Blossom Holiday Village.

The 221 members of the Financial Communications section of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) were surveyed about their continuing education views and practices through a mail survey. Out of the 221 members, 118 (53.4%) completed and returned the survey. Respondents were asked their opinions about the importance of different types of continuing education programs, how long it had been since they last participated, and what topic they would most like to see covered in a continuing education forum. The members were asked whether their companies encouraged involvement in continuing education by providing financial assistance and positive recognition. Respondents were also asked their number of years in the field, education, type of company, position level, age, income, and gender.It was concluded through the results of the study that the majority of members find continuing education important to themselves and to their profession. Most of the companies do encourage participation in continuing education and members feel that their companies' encouragement does influence their decision on whether to to participate. / Department of Journalism