Table of content
1. Lecture 1 → Introduction to the course: Zerfass et al. article + Lock
et al. article + Etter et al. article.
2. Lecture 2 → Organizational legitimacy: Bitektine article, Illia et al.
article, Kjaer et Black-Orsten article.
3. Lecture 3 → Issue arenas: Luoma-aho et Vos article, van der Meer et
Jonkman article, Sommerfeldt et al. article.
4. Lecture 4 → Organizational visibility in the news: intereffication
model, news value theory, negativity bias, Schafraad et al. article,
Araujo et van der Meer article, agenda setting and agenda building,
Jonkman et al. article.
5. Lecture 5 → Framing: Brugman et Burgers article, Burgers et al.
article, Entman et Usher article.
Lecture 1 → Macro level/perspective: institution itself, societal perspective,
interactions at the broadest level. OMS is about this, societal developments that
impact organizations and their external strategic communication.
Meso: actors in the organization, interactions between them, groups.
Micro: individual himself and his systems of rules.
Focus on the shift from organization-centric view to the role organizations have
in society (ex: they get involved in political issues, embedded in society through
mediatization).
Strategic Communication: Defining the Field and its Contribution to
Research and Practice (Zerfass et al., 2018)
Introduction: Communication is central in the way organizations relate to
strategic issues. External strategic communication is an important way to handle
,the organizational environment because it monitors stakeholder expectations
and informs and influences them.
Notion of strategic communication —> “the purposeful use of communication
by an organization to fulfill its mission”.
Strategic communication can only flourish as a research field if it has specific
research objects and a specific research perspective. As an applied science,
strategic communication needs to draw on other disciplines as well.
What’s strategic communication? “Strategic communication encompasses all
communication that is substantial for the survival and sustained success of an
entity. Specifically, strategic communication is the purposeful use of
communication by an organization or other entity to engage in conversations of
strategic significance to its goals.”
There are some sources of confusion hindering the definition of strategic
communication:
1. Colloquial use of the term ---> often used as a synonym of “successful”.
2. Matter of prestige ---> for educational programs for example.
What is the perspective of strategic communication as a unique area of research
and practice? According to strategic management scholars, an issue is strategic
when it becomes substantial or significant for an organization’s or other
entity’s development, growth, identity, or survival. So, not all purposeful
communication is strategic (ex. routine or operational issues). Nevertheless,
such nonstrategic communication can make important contributions to goal
accomplishment.
Conversations of strategic significance might happen in a variety of arenas,
from the global spheres of mass and social media to private talks between
consumers, employees, or analysts -----> always be aware of the changing
communication landscape. Term entity----> encompasses corporations,
,governments, nonprofits, social movements, and known individuals in the
public sphere, e.g., celebrities, politicians (flexible).
Substantiality of an issue: the subjective dimension is the assigned importance
of the issue or conversation. If the top management considers a question
strategic, it tends to become strategic for that reason alone (top-down process).
The objective dimension of substantiality reflects the true impact of an issue on
an entity’s present configuration, future plans, and fundamental purpose
(retrospective analysis, bottom-up process).
A strategic issue could be:
1. Resource driven —> when high value assets are at stake, for example the
case of Initial Public Offering (when a private company first sells shares of
stock to the public).
2. Competition driven --> The most important driver of strategic development
is the attempt by entities to gain an edge over the competitor or antagonist in
order to evade direct competition (which is costly).
3. Environment driven --> Change in environmental conditions is another
driver of strategic significance, complementary to competition, because it
threatens the operational procedures and tactical precepts that entities have
established.
4. Risk driven --> High-risk scenarios, make-it-or-break-it situations tend to
greatly drive strategic complexity.
5. Innovation driven --> Situations quickly become strategic when new things
are tried, and the security of routines and well-established methods and
procedures are left by the wayside. The great emphasis that strategic
communication researchers currently place on multidisciplinarity is a symptom
of innovation driven strategic complexity.
6. Engagement driven ---> when free resources are at disposal of the strategic
actor. Here the strategic significance derives from the decision of where to
, invest and from the message that is consequently sent to the environment (Ex.
Uber investing in driverless driving-technology).
7. Operationally driven ---> when the operational configuration of a
corporation is altered. Strategic significance also lies in the decision of changing
the operational processes or facilities.
How does communication come into play? On the concrete level of
organizations and their management, communication comes into play: 1) as a
process (one-way relaying of information as well as two-way engagement in a
conversation), 2) in the form of communicative resources like brands,
established media with a significant audience, or platforms with established
reach and followership, or 3) in the form of intangible assets, i.e., social
capital such as trust, reputation, image. Communication can complicate
matters; lack of credibility aggravates strategic complexity. Example: High
value assets like nuclear weapons lose a lot of their strategic value if antagonists
are certain in their knowledge that they will never be employed under President
A. If later, President B starts to signal that they might be employed, the strategic
situation changes fundamentally.
Strategic communication management: Strategic communication as a subject
matter is not the same as strategic communication management (SCM). “At
base, strategic communication management is the attempt to manage the
communication of strategic significance with regard to a focal entity.” It deals
with communication activities and resources which are of substantial relevance
for the focal entity, e.g., an organization. The agents in charge are mostly
communication departments, professionals or agencies, but entrepreneurs,
politicians or CEOs might also decide to manage strategic communication
themselves – whether they possess the necessary competences or not.
1. Lecture 1 → Introduction to the course: Zerfass et al. article + Lock
et al. article + Etter et al. article.
2. Lecture 2 → Organizational legitimacy: Bitektine article, Illia et al.
article, Kjaer et Black-Orsten article.
3. Lecture 3 → Issue arenas: Luoma-aho et Vos article, van der Meer et
Jonkman article, Sommerfeldt et al. article.
4. Lecture 4 → Organizational visibility in the news: intereffication
model, news value theory, negativity bias, Schafraad et al. article,
Araujo et van der Meer article, agenda setting and agenda building,
Jonkman et al. article.
5. Lecture 5 → Framing: Brugman et Burgers article, Burgers et al.
article, Entman et Usher article.
Lecture 1 → Macro level/perspective: institution itself, societal perspective,
interactions at the broadest level. OMS is about this, societal developments that
impact organizations and their external strategic communication.
Meso: actors in the organization, interactions between them, groups.
Micro: individual himself and his systems of rules.
Focus on the shift from organization-centric view to the role organizations have
in society (ex: they get involved in political issues, embedded in society through
mediatization).
Strategic Communication: Defining the Field and its Contribution to
Research and Practice (Zerfass et al., 2018)
Introduction: Communication is central in the way organizations relate to
strategic issues. External strategic communication is an important way to handle
,the organizational environment because it monitors stakeholder expectations
and informs and influences them.
Notion of strategic communication —> “the purposeful use of communication
by an organization to fulfill its mission”.
Strategic communication can only flourish as a research field if it has specific
research objects and a specific research perspective. As an applied science,
strategic communication needs to draw on other disciplines as well.
What’s strategic communication? “Strategic communication encompasses all
communication that is substantial for the survival and sustained success of an
entity. Specifically, strategic communication is the purposeful use of
communication by an organization or other entity to engage in conversations of
strategic significance to its goals.”
There are some sources of confusion hindering the definition of strategic
communication:
1. Colloquial use of the term ---> often used as a synonym of “successful”.
2. Matter of prestige ---> for educational programs for example.
What is the perspective of strategic communication as a unique area of research
and practice? According to strategic management scholars, an issue is strategic
when it becomes substantial or significant for an organization’s or other
entity’s development, growth, identity, or survival. So, not all purposeful
communication is strategic (ex. routine or operational issues). Nevertheless,
such nonstrategic communication can make important contributions to goal
accomplishment.
Conversations of strategic significance might happen in a variety of arenas,
from the global spheres of mass and social media to private talks between
consumers, employees, or analysts -----> always be aware of the changing
communication landscape. Term entity----> encompasses corporations,
,governments, nonprofits, social movements, and known individuals in the
public sphere, e.g., celebrities, politicians (flexible).
Substantiality of an issue: the subjective dimension is the assigned importance
of the issue or conversation. If the top management considers a question
strategic, it tends to become strategic for that reason alone (top-down process).
The objective dimension of substantiality reflects the true impact of an issue on
an entity’s present configuration, future plans, and fundamental purpose
(retrospective analysis, bottom-up process).
A strategic issue could be:
1. Resource driven —> when high value assets are at stake, for example the
case of Initial Public Offering (when a private company first sells shares of
stock to the public).
2. Competition driven --> The most important driver of strategic development
is the attempt by entities to gain an edge over the competitor or antagonist in
order to evade direct competition (which is costly).
3. Environment driven --> Change in environmental conditions is another
driver of strategic significance, complementary to competition, because it
threatens the operational procedures and tactical precepts that entities have
established.
4. Risk driven --> High-risk scenarios, make-it-or-break-it situations tend to
greatly drive strategic complexity.
5. Innovation driven --> Situations quickly become strategic when new things
are tried, and the security of routines and well-established methods and
procedures are left by the wayside. The great emphasis that strategic
communication researchers currently place on multidisciplinarity is a symptom
of innovation driven strategic complexity.
6. Engagement driven ---> when free resources are at disposal of the strategic
actor. Here the strategic significance derives from the decision of where to
, invest and from the message that is consequently sent to the environment (Ex.
Uber investing in driverless driving-technology).
7. Operationally driven ---> when the operational configuration of a
corporation is altered. Strategic significance also lies in the decision of changing
the operational processes or facilities.
How does communication come into play? On the concrete level of
organizations and their management, communication comes into play: 1) as a
process (one-way relaying of information as well as two-way engagement in a
conversation), 2) in the form of communicative resources like brands,
established media with a significant audience, or platforms with established
reach and followership, or 3) in the form of intangible assets, i.e., social
capital such as trust, reputation, image. Communication can complicate
matters; lack of credibility aggravates strategic complexity. Example: High
value assets like nuclear weapons lose a lot of their strategic value if antagonists
are certain in their knowledge that they will never be employed under President
A. If later, President B starts to signal that they might be employed, the strategic
situation changes fundamentally.
Strategic communication management: Strategic communication as a subject
matter is not the same as strategic communication management (SCM). “At
base, strategic communication management is the attempt to manage the
communication of strategic significance with regard to a focal entity.” It deals
with communication activities and resources which are of substantial relevance
for the focal entity, e.g., an organization. The agents in charge are mostly
communication departments, professionals or agencies, but entrepreneurs,
politicians or CEOs might also decide to manage strategic communication
themselves – whether they possess the necessary competences or not.
