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AEJMC Public Relations Division Membership Newsletter

Volume 37, No. 2, Spring 2002

In this issue:

Convention Preview

• Convention Schedule at a Glance
• Opportunities for Students
• Surveys Provide Insight for Upcoming Convention
• Miami Travel Guide
• Off-Site Event: Miami Museum of Science

Other News

• In Situ Research
• Retheorizing Public Relations' Media Relations Role
• Ballot Deadline: June 30, 2002
• Calendar, Mailings, Listserv

Tentative Conference Program

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Tue., August 6

1:00-5:00
PRE-CONFERENCE
Ways of Knowing:
A Practitioners' and 
Professors' Summit on Research
Lou Falk and Lisa Fall

______________
Wed., August 7

8:15-9:45
RESEARCH: Top Student Papers

10:00-11:30
PF&R (PR/Mag.)
Animal Conservation or Animal Cruelty
Lisa Fall

11:45-1:15
RESEARCH: Top Faculty Papers

1:30-3:00 TEACHING (PR/Adv.)
Theory Across the Curriculum
William Thompson

3:15-4:45
MINI-PLENARY (ICIG/CJ/VisComm)
Dealing with Violence and Trauma

5:00-6:00
RESEARCH: Extra PR Session

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Thu., August 8

11:45-1:15
PF&R (Science/PR)
Communicating about Physical Hazards
Joye Gordon

1:30-3:00
SCHOLAR TO SCHOLAR

3:15-4:45
PF&R (PR/MME)
Segmenting the Spanish Media Market
Pat Curtin

5:00-6:30
RESEARCH: Top Faculty/Student Papers

6:45-8:15
"YEARBOOK SIGNING PARTY" SOCIAL

8:30-10:00
PRD BUSINESS MEETING


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Fri., August 9

7:00-8:00
INCOMING EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING

8:15-9:45
PF&R (PR/Science)
Marketing Medicine to the Masses
William Thompson

11:45-1:15
PRD LUNCHEON

3:15-4:45 PM
TEACHING PAPERS 
(Omitted from printed version)

5:00-6:30       PF&R (PR/Advertising)
Bridging the Gulf: Cuba to Afghanistan
Ken Plowman


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Sat., August 10

8:15-9:45
ADDED!  RESEARCH PAPERS

10:00-11:30
PF&R (PR/Advertising)
Is IMC Dead?
Ken Plowman

1:30-3:30
Teaching (Ethics/PR)
Teaching PR Ethics
Peggy Bowers

3:15-4:45
Teaching Panel (PR/CCJA)
Writing Isn't Everything: Other Skills Needed
Larry Lamb
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Opportunities for Students

Preliminary PRD convention plans are to have at least a couple of sessions at the pre-conference especially for graduate students. Among ideas perking are "The ABCs of AEJMC," which would be a primer on how to take advantage of the stimulating ideas for scholarship and the golden networking opportunities with potential research collaborators at the convention.

There will be roundtables on research orientations, as well as a panel of the field's leading scholars to discuss "hot" research topics for those graduate students who are in the process of selecting their dissertation topics. Ken Plowman has scheduled the session for top graduate research papers for early Wednesday morning following the Tuesday pre-conference, so students can take advantage of this convenient time packaging.

Carolina Acosta-Alzuru and Karyn Ogata Jones are working to resurrect the buddy mentoring program for the convention, and we're developing ideas to help students network with the leading scholars during the Thursday evening social.

A "Yearbook Signing Party" will have a prize drawing for students and faculty members who have their program booklets signed by the "secret signee," one of the division's panel participants whose autograph is the key to prizes. Following on the heels of last year's "I'm So Cited" social, it promises to be a fun way to network with the top names in our field.

Don't forget about PRD awards that help students. Inez Kaiser Awards provide one-year memberships in AEJMC for graduate students of color, and the Roschwalb Grant helps undergraduate and graduate students with travel money for international study or research.

Graduate students can stay on the cutting edge concerning impending research in the newsletter's special "in situ" forum, and they are encouraged to submit their own contributions.

Surveys Provide Insight for Upcoming Convention

One of the key questions from the research paper sessions was about the balance between theoretical and applied papers. Most respondents said the balance was about right, meaning more theory is presented at AEJ. Several comments added that practical implications are incorporated into the presenters' discussions, and that applied papers should be theory-based as well.

One dissenter said that papers should directly relate to the field; otherwise the results are of no use. In response to the question about making presentations more interesting, most said they were good but several tips were offered:

• Don't read the screen. Look at the audience. Keep a more conversational style.
• Keep to the main/most important points. Keep lit review items to a minimum. Keep on time.
• Prepare and polish presentations more ahead of time.
• Focus on what is new and different.

Regarding the panel evaluations, one respondent was amused in the interactive media session that several of the panelists spoke directly from notes on their laptops. "Does it make the presentation more technology-oriented if you speak from your laptop?" she asked.

More visual presentation would have been appreciated from the emerging democracies panel although the discussion of Romania and Latvia provided good examples for the classroom.

Respondents were of many opinions on the panel for writing short. One said he had taught writing for 44 years and gained new insight – the panel had great variety. Another said she could have gotten the same information from her own lecture notes – the advice was too basic. Another was looking more for tips on how to teach writing – e.g., ways to help/motivate students.

On the panel about critical research, one respondent said the format was excellent – good use of discussant questions to guide the panel rather than the typical format of opening remarks followed by questions and answers. Others said it would have been better to allow the panelists to speak longer and have fewer comments from the discussant.

A respondent wanted the division to do something like the spiral of silence panel again, while another added that they wanted to hear someone "abled" but experiencing the effect of the spiral of silence in either the corporate or professional work situation.

Ken Plowman
San Jose State University
Vice Chair and Programs Chair

Miami Travel Guide

The area's greatest change came through a visionary Cleveland widow, Julia Tuttle, who purchased 640 acres on the north bank of the Miami River in 1891, moving her family into the abandoned Fort Dallas buildings. Within four years, she convinced Standard Oil co-founder Henry Flagler to extend his railroad to Miami, build a luxury hotel, and lay out a new town. The railroad arrived in 1896, and the City of Miami was incorporated on July 28.

Miami Beach was born in 1913 when John Collins, a New Jersey Quaker, and Prest-O-Lite king Carl Fisher started building a bridge across the bay. During the Depression, a predominantly Jewish group came to Miami Beach and built several small hotels. World War II brought 100,000 people to Greater Miami when the Army Air Corps and the navy established major training centers.

When Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1959, the revolution changed Miami as much as Cuba. During the next three decades, more than a half-million Cuban exiles fled to Miami.

Greater Miami and Miami Beach now feature the arts, culture, sports and entertainment, all with an international accent.

AIR TRANSPORTATION

Save up to 15 percent using special negotiated airfares.

Refer to Star File A8282AI when calling American Airlines, 5 a.m.-midnight Central time, at 1-800-433-1790. Travel must be August 1-15, 2002.

Refer to File No. 187116A when calling Delta, 8 a.m.-11 p.m. Eastern time, at 1-800-241-6760. Travel must be August 2-13, 2002.

Refer to Gold File No. 131322370 when calling U.S. Airways, 8 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Eastern time, at 1-877-874-7687. Travel must be August 2-13, 2002.

To save 10 percent on Amtrak Metroliner fares, refer to Code No. X81V-940 and dial 1-800-872-7245. Travel must be August 1-13, 2002, and discounts are not applicable to sleeping accommodations.

GROUND TRANSPORTATION

For discount rates on rental vehicles, August 1-15, refer to No. J955734 when contacing Avis at 1-800-331-1600 or at www.avis.com.

Reservations for airport ground transportation can be made at www. SuperShuttle.com, 1-800-874-8885 or 305-871-2000. The shuttle runs 24/7.

Make sure taxi, limousine and van drivers are licensed. A decal and/or license number must be on the vehicle, the driver must display a registration with a picture, and you are entitled to a receipt. The meter should display the charge for the ride, not a "per person" fee, which should be about $20 from the airport. Call Central Cab (532-5555), Tropical Taxi (859-8100) or Yellow Cab (222-2222, 444-4444, 666-6666 or 999-9999).

The Electrowave shuttle is the easiest, safest, most scenic way to travel South Beach. The cost is only 25 cents, and the shuttle has 46 stops. It runs continuously 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 8 a.m.-4 a.m. Thursday-Saturday, and 10 a.m.-2 a.m. Sunday and holidays.

LODGING

Miami's legendary hotel, the Fontainebleau Hilton Resort and Towers, is convention headquarters. It is situated amid 20 lush tropical acres overlooking the Atlantic. The three-building complex features a new Octopus swimming pool, a rock grotto pool, a fitness center, spa, watersports and seven lighted tennis courts. Dining options include the Bleau View, Outdoor Tapas Under-the-Trees, Trop-Art Cafe, authentic Japanese cuisine and sushi bar at Kamon, and the Poolside Beach Boiler. The hotel also has four lounges, as well as Club Tropigala, a nightclub with Las Vegas and Latin revues.

Convention rates are $119 single, $139 double (one or two beds), $164 triple (two beds), $189 quad (two beds), $170 Towers Bayview, and $195 Towers Oceanview. Children 18 and younger stay free in parents' rooms in existing beds. Check-in is 3 p.m.; check-out is 11 a.m. Reservations must be made before July 5, and before the AEJMC block is filled. After that date, rooms will be filled on a space and rate availability basis only. Contact the Fountainebleau Reservations Department, 4441 Collins Ave., Miami Beach, FL 33140, 1-800-548-8886, fax 305-673-5351, www.fontainebleau.hilton.com.

ATTRACTIONS

To find out more about Miami attractions, visit the following websites: ci.miami-beach.fl.us
www.miami-florida.com
www.miamicity.com
www.miami.com
www.misternightlife.com

The Espanola Way Weekend Festival is free, 6 p.m.-2 a.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-2 a.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. 305-673-4166. All of the following numbers are also in the 305 area code:

251-0400 Miami Metro Zoo
235-1611 Monkey Jungle
666-7834 Parrot Jungle and Gardens
673-7256 Miami Beach Botanical Garden
361-5705 Miami Seaquarium
242-7700 Everglades National Park
247-2628 Everglades Alligator Farm
667-1651 Fairchild Tropical Gardens
250-9133 Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
253-0063 Gold Coast Railroad Museum
375-1492 Historical Museum of Southern Florida
646-4200 Miami Museum of Science and Space Transit
531-1001 Wolfsonian Museum
252-3535 Black Heritage Museum
672-1001 Sanford L. Ziff Jewish Museum
538-1633 Holocaust Memorial
351-1700 Miami Art Museum
893-6211 Museum of Contemporary Art
534-7872 Barbara Gillman Gallery
534-8533 Bettcher Gallery
284-3535 Lowe Art Museum
443-3399 Midori Gallery Inc.
573-7020 Stephen Watt Gallery
758-6939 Haitian Art Factory
740-9620 Thomas Kinkade Gallery
444-8890 Miami Art Works Inc.
929-7000 Miami City Ballet
667-0015 Miami Symphony Orchestra
374-2444 Gusman Center for the Performing Arts
442-2662 Coconut Grove Playhouse
674-1026 Colony Theater
673-7300 Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts
223-8380 Miccosukee Indian Village
649-3000 Flagler Greyhound Track
885-8000 Hialeah Park Race Course
230-7223 Homestead Motor Sports Complex
663-6400 Miami Jai-Alai
759-3483 Skydive Miami

Off-Site Event: Miami Museum of Science

Members will have an opportunity to tour the Miami Museum of Science during the AEJMC Convention in August.

Although a specific time has been set aside for the tour, it's a very informal activity.

If the timeframe conflicts with other activities, you may wish to visit when you have some free time.

The museum includes a number of exhibits, from dinosaurs to the science of football, plus a birds of prey center and planetarium. Information about the museum is available at www.miamisci.org

Those interested in attending should e-mail (A HREF="mailto:lboynton@email.unc.edu">Lois Boynton, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

We'll meet in the lobby of the conference hotel (look for the "Museum Tour" sign) and take taxis to the museum.

In Situ Research

She argues that those new realities, in which information is often the product, have inflated the importance of media relations. This dynamic, worldwide flow of information can unite formerly dispersed audience members into a single public. This may lead us to consider supplanting strategic communication with the crisis communication paradigm as a more useful planning model for public relations. A provocative article that introduces important questions for practice and pedagogy.

If you would like to create a research note of 300-500 words on your own in situ research, newsletter editor Susan Gonders (SGonders@ hotmail.com) is eagerly awaiting your contribution.

William Thompson
University of Louisville
Division Head

In Situ Research: Retheorizing Public Relations' Media Relations Role

One of the "Holy Grails" of public relations theory is that media relations duties are relegated to mere public relations "technicians." Since the press agentry model has been formulated, media relations has been denigrated to the extent that most practitioners would hardly admit to doing this lest others think they do not perform management duties.

I believe these underlying assumptions have inhibited public relations scholars from reexamining the media relations role and trying to understand this role in the context of emerging social, cultural and political factors that are creating a totally different dimension to this role.

This reevaluation should be stimulated by changes in the nature of the media. Media now saturate our every waking moment, and the media relations role is now not necessarily driven by crises but rather by the incessant need for information so typical of our time (Gephart, 1996). News channels on cable television and electronic newspapers need new content on a 24/7 basis.

Although this allows for more opportunities to use the media for publicity purposes, it also creates the opportunity for more negative coverage of organizations' behavior, which requires different, and more strategic, practitioner skills. Second, media are more global, more immediate and more influential than in any previous historical period.

The Internet in particular has made it possible for global communication campaigns to be launched by groups who in the past had no financial resources to compete with traditional power holders, such as corporations, governments and giant media companies. At the same time, those traditional power sources have become more adept in using their own communication to affect global trends and policies (Mayhew, 1997).

This global audience also challenges our understanding of a "general public." We have taught our students that there is no general public, and that we need to segment specific publics.

However, the pervasiveness and reach of new media might well mean that an influential "general public" could be assembled from individuals scattered throughout the world, using the media only. These scattered individuals, who might never form a coherent, identificable "active public" within the traditional public relations definition, could still create a firestorm of public opinion crossing the globe that could directly affect groups such as consumers and investors. Such scholars such as Hallahan (2001) have already done some research in this regard, and these new theories of publics need to be incorporated into a new theory of media relations.

This media pervasiveness requires from practitioners an increased knowledge as well as a new kind of knowledge that defies our traditional perception of the media relations technician. In a recent research study, we found that the more senior public relations practitioners became, the more they performed the media relations role.

Qualitative data suggested practitioners do not require technician skills as much as an extensive knowledge of current social, political, economic and cultural trends to perform this duty. In effect, this function now requires the technical skill, strategic acumen and cultural sophistication to design media efforts that will immediately be distributed across the globe. This has transformed information from a supporting commentary on the products our society produces to a new reality in which information is the product.

Baudrillard (1981) underscored this important new social role of media. He believed a new era of simulation has dawned where society is organized around simulation codes and models that replace production as the organizing principle of society. He coined the term "semiurgical" society (p. 185) where signs take on a life of their own and come to constitute a new social order structured by models, codes and signs, created by new technologies, the media and, inevitably, public relations practitioners.

In essence, public relations practitioners and other media professionals become the architects, engineers and inventors of this new social order and media relations become the responsibility of public relations heavyweights, not of technicians who write releases for mere publicity value.

This background shapes the possible tenets of a new theory of public relations' media relations role:

1. An exploration of the role of media and new technologies in current society.

2. The role practitioners play in shaping society through their use of the media.

3. The knowledge practitioners require about the social, cultural, political and economic trends in society.

4. A reevaluation of the role theory that depicts the media relations role as a technician function.

5. The reevaluation of the concept of a "general public" in public relations theory.

Perhaps, if we can acknowledge this changing scenario and challenge the dominant perspective of media relations as press agentry, we will start asking the right questions.

REFERENCES

Baudrillard, J. 1981. For a critique of the political economy of the sign. St. Louis: Telos Press.

Gephart, R.P. 1996. Management, social issues, and the postmodern era. In David M. Boje, Robert P. Gephart and Tojo Joseph Thatchenkery (eds.), Postmodern management and organization theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Grunig, J.E., and Hunt, T. 1984. Managing public relations. Ft. Worth: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.

Hallahan, K. 2001. The dynamics of issues activation and response: An issues processes model. Journal of Public Relations Research 13, 27-59.

Mayhew, L.H. 1997. The new public: Professional communication and the means of social influence. Cambridge University Press.

Ballot Deadline: June 30, 2002

Voting member's name:

_______________________________

Signature:

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