COMS 464 Review Questions

The distinction between internal and external strategic communication

Internal: Communication within individuals in a organization
External: Communication between an organization and audiences outside of the organization

Strategic Communication

how organizations use communication purposefully to fill their needs/goals

5 Assumptions of Strategic Communication

1. Purposeful Communication (all have shared meaning, focus messages on active audiences, not passive ones)
2. All types of organizations (not just for for-profit organizations.)
3. Integrative (between different subjects and communication.)
4. Prioritizing external communication over internal communication
5. Strategy (directing activities and messages the organization as related the goal; active)

Examples of how strategic communication is used

Local: NIU
Dog: a part of the athletic communication
Crest: a part of the academic communication
use branding, online presence (websites and social media) influencers, and mission statements

Six social influence tactics

reciprocity
commitment/consistency
authority
social validation
scarcity
liking/friendship

Reciprocity

if I giving you something (a favor, Information, a request, concessions), I want something of similar value back in return
Ex. house plant for buying a car

commitment/consistency

more likely to persuade if they see consistency prior behavior
Ex. signing up for an intro offer, then buying a membership

authority

when someone has power/expertise, other pepsin is more likely to go along with it.
Ex. academic advisor

social validation

we look at the behavior of others how we should behave
Ex saying best sellers for x years

Scarcity

people value goods and services a lot more when they are limited availability
Ex. toilet paper shortage 2020

liking/friendship

People prefer to say yes to those they know and like

when is it ethical to use social influence, and when it is not

It is ethical when they naturally occur within the social influence, and it is unethical when manufacturing in authentic social influence

types of influence practitioners

Bunglers, smugglers, slueths

Bunglers

miss the opportunity to use social influences effectively because they don't understand

smugglers

know what and how the principles are but use them to influence a situation it does not fit in

negative consequences of social influence

loss of opportunities for further profitable exchanges
losses due to conflict with honest employees
losses due to selection of dishonest employees
damages due to work climate due to increased surveillance

Organizational Culture

it is the values, artifacts, and stereotypes from the interactions of organizational members

8 indicators of organizational culture

Values, Metaphors, Artifacts, Rituals, Heroes, Stories, Norms, Communication

Values

the shared beliefs about appropriate behaviors, the goals of the organizations, and the ideals that the organization collectively view as important

Metaphors

words or phrase used within the organization to define something something abstract in terms or something more familiar

Artifacts

tangible, physical features of an organization

Rituals

Traditional activities that highlight what the organization considers to be important

Heroes

serve as role models to present and future members of the org.

stories

narratives that are told and retold to communicate cultural values, important events in the history of the organization and the consequences of complying or deviating from cultural norms

Norms

the everyday ways of getting things done successfully within the org; what is acceptable and not

communication

what people talk about with whom and how

Why is org. culture important to strategic comm. campaign

facilitate or obstruct organizational goals

mission statement

they are formal, stable declaration of an organization purpose

Benefits of good mission statement

- Communicate direction and purpose
- boundaries for what the organization does
- Facilitate everyday decisions
- Inspires and motivates employees

Characteristics of a good mission statement

Keep it short
be transparent
be specific to the organization
consider your audience
revise when necessary
communication properly

digital handshake

the first impression of a organization with their mission statement

difference between vision and mission statement

vision- how we want to look in the future
mission- present business and purpose

Integrated corporate communication icc

blending strategic communication into all job roles in all divisions of an organization

outcomes of icc

shaping consistent messages
sustaining narratives of organization
goal alignment

ICC questions helps the organization

What is the right message
What is the right audience
What is the right voice
What is the right moment
What is the right channel

how does leadership influence strategic planning

intent to stay
investment in team goals

how did followers respond to leader curiosity

effects would be stronger if the leader is male

SWOT analysis

S- Strengths: internal resources and factors that influence the direction of the organization in a favorable way
W- Weakness: internal resources and factors that influence the direction of the organization in a unfavorable way
O- Opportunities: external factors that influence the direction of the organization in a positive manner
T: Threats: external forces that influence the direction of the organization in a negative way

How would a person an organizational SWOT analysis

they would list each component SWOT and then figure out the strategic needs of the organization

What is CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)?

corporate social responsibility is the social contract between an organization, their stakeholders, society, and future members of society

Cause promotion

when an organization provides material support to increase awareness about a cause
Ex. Wendys and their work with adoption

cause-related marketing

organizations gives a monetary donations to a specific cause based on the organization's sales from a specific time period.
Ex. donate while you dine programs

Corporate social marketing

organizations promoting a prosocial behavior (usually public sectors and non-profits
Ex. campaigns promoting masking

corporate philosophy

monetary contributions, grants, or donations by a company to a charitable organizations.
Ex. corporate sponsors of an event

community volunteering

organizations encourage their employees to volunteer for a specific community organizations

socially responsible business practices

organizations freely making business choices that promote their prosocial, cause related goals.

Components in the theory of reasoned action

Attitudes towards behavior: the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of the behavior in questions
Subjective Norms: the perceived social pressure to perform or not to perform the behavior
Behavioral Intentions: They are indicators of how hard people are willing to try of how much of an effort they are planning to exert in order to perform the behavior
Behavior: Perform intended the behavior

What makes theory of reasoned actions and the theory of planned behavior different.

percieved behavior

Problem Recognition

people detect that something should be done about a situation and stop to think about what to do

Constraint recognition

people perceive that there are obstacles in a situation that limit their ability to do anything about the situation

Involvement

the extent to which people connect themselves with a situation

information seeking

planned scanning of the environment for messages about a specific topic.

information processing

unplanned discovery of information about the topic that the person processes after receiving the information

how are these related in a model?

problem recognition, constraint recognition, and involvement are the independent variable or cause. Information processing and seeking (info gaining) is the effect of the independent variable.

active publics

self-identified and self-organized groups of people that arises in response to a problematic situation. (high involvement and engagement)

Aware publics

People perceive a problem but are not as active in public. High involvement and low engagement

latent publics

people who face a common problem but have not recognized high engagement low involvement

non-publics

people who don't face the problem at all low engagement and involvement

Reading notes

Constraint Recognition
- the greater CR, less likely people will participate
- use strategic comm to overcome obstacles and bolster self efficacy to increase participation
Situational Support
- supporting non-profits involves a constellation

central route processing

when people centrally process the message and think about arguments, evidence, and information and logic presented in the message
strong arguments result in positive attitudes
weak arguments result in negative attitudes

peripheral route processing

When people peripherally process messages, they think very little about the message and instead look for basic cues that can help guide their attitudes such as source credibility, delivery, style or attractiveness.
favorable persuasion cues = positive attitudes
unfavorable persuasion cues = negative attitudes

What factors do receivers evaluate when they centrally process messages?

The process where the factors of ability and motivation are high

What factors do receivers evaluate when they peripherally process messages?

The process where the factors of ability or motivation or both are low

Dimensions of Credibility

Competence
- expertise or knowledgeability of the source
Trustworthiness
- the honestly, ethics, and morality of the source
Goodwill
- th and meme care and sensitivity to the other or others that the source communicates

importance of organizational Credibility

Visibility and memorability
- credible organizations should have more visibility and memorability in their markets than organizations low in credibility
Crisis Communication
- credible organizations have less need to offer detailed organizational responses with less serious crisis
Campaign Effectiveness
- when the target audience of a campaign processes a message through the peripheral route organizational credibility serves as a cure that determines whether the receiver will go along with the messages

paid media

advertising content, sponsored messages, social media advertising, and membership or subscription

earned media

pr releases, blogger relations, word of mouth, and traditional news stories about organization

shared media

social media curated content, reviews, forums, and other online communities

ELM Findings

level of trust in sources is greater for a low involvement product compared to a high involvement product

Source Credibility of PESO

consumers have the greatest amount of trust in online product

Reliance on PESO

the most frequently consulted information for both routine and important products was online product reviews written by other consumers

Conclusions on PESO

all sources in the PESO model are an important part of the communication life cycle process in terms of engendering awareness, knowledge, interest, product intent, and word of mouth.

Evidence

factual assertions, quantitative information, eyewitness statements, testimonials, or opinions advanced by credible sources

Types of evidence

Statistics
Narrative Evidence
Testimonials

Statistics

evidence is presented using a quantifiable metric like a rate, average, or probability (influence attitudes)

Narrative Evidence

real and hypothetical anecdotes or stories related to the topic of a message (as seen on TV ads)(influences behavioral intentional)

Testimonials

endorsements, quotes, or arguments from other sources other than the message source that support the claim of the argument

Evidence is persuasive when

Central Processing
- Evidence is evaluated when the receiver of the message is processing the message centrally
Credibility, novelty, and plausibility
- evidence is especially persuasive when attributed to highly credible external sources and when it is plausible and novel
Evidence and argument Quality
- the presence of high-quality evidence increases the strength of an argument

Steps of the Information Processing Model

Message Exposure
- the receiver is exposed to the message of the persuader
Attention
- receiver processed the persuasive message of the persuader
Comprehension
- the persuasive message was understood by the receiver
Yielding
- the receiver changing their attitudes to be consistent with the recommendation in the message
Retention
- receivers of a persuasive message have memorized the information in the message and have incorporated the message into their knowledge base
Behavior
- receiver acts in a manner that is recommended in the persuasive message.

Online processing

evaluating and making a judgement about the message exposure is occurring

memory based processing

the receiver of a message learns the arguments of the message for storage in long-term memory

Carpenter and Boster Experiment

Processing Type
Online Processing
- induced by asking participants carefully evaluate the message
Memory Based Processing
- induced by asking participants to learn information in order to pass a quiz about the content of the message
Argument Strength
Strong
- Well Established evidence from qualified sources
Weak
- tangentially related evidence from dubious sources
Argument Complexity
High Comprehension Difficulty
- The message was written with more complex language and structure
Low Comprehension Difficulty
- The message was written with simple and easy language to understand the message

Results

- Strong arguments resulted in more favorable attitudes to the position in the message than weak arguments
- Receivers of the message who used memory-based processing were more persuaded. than receivers that used online processing
- Difficult-to-understand arguments were less persuasive than easy-to-understand arguments

Implications of Carpenter and Boster

Know your audience
Use High-Quality evidence
If possible, teach instead of persuade the info.
Write simply

Ethos

attempt to construct the speaker's credibility (trustworthiness)

Logos

the advancement of explicit argumentative justifications of claims

Pathos

emotional appeals and refers to the use of an audience-oriented and emotive language

Mood vs Emotion

Mood: diffuse, background affect of uncertain cause (general feeling)
- GM: appeals to keep in good mood
- BM: appeals that expose the counter point, people tended to tear it apart.
Emotion: specific focused, foreground in consciousness

happiness

positive emotion that might self-reward, indulgence or fun and is most mood like

anger

negative emotion that signals to a person that there is an obstacle in the way of the person accomplishing the goal

fear

negative emotion that signals to a person is in danger

pride

positive emotion that signals to the person that they achieved important goals or accomplished important tasks

guilt

negative emotion that signals to the person violated a code of conduct for a relationship or society

Results of Palmieri Study

Successful vs unsuccessful product comparison
- most successful projects described the problem the product would address as a societal problem (widespread and shared within the community)
- successful projects contained more description go the project and problem than unsuccessful products
- successful products used less ethos but more logos and pathos in the pitch

Ordinary Social Media users

people we know
social media users who are connected to each other on platforms

superdiffusers

maven (expert on specific topic), well networked and persuasive

real world celebrities

individuals who are celebrities outside of their role on social media but maintain social media accounts

corporate influencers

organizational members who act influencers for the organization on their own social media

social media influencer

third party actors that have established a significant number of relevant with a specific quality to and influence on organizational stakeholders throughout content production, content distribution, interaction, and personal appearance on the social web.

Content Production Competencies

SMI have technical production skills that are well suited to their media channels, SMI have project management skills to execute content production, and they know what content will interest their audiences