Aantekeningen hoorcolleges + aanvullingen vertalingen en voorbeelden topic say hi to AI

Week 1 – introduction

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.” Zerfass (2018)

Entity
1. Engage in a sphere of responsibility
 De entiteit heeft een bepaalde verantwoordelijkheid in de
samenleving of binnen een specifieke sector.
2. A contested purpose
 Het doel van de entiteit is niet altijd vanzelfsprekend of onbetwist;
er kunnen verschillende meningen over bestaan
3. Limited resources involved  make choices
 Een organisatie heeft altijd beperkte middelen (zoals geld, tijd en
personeel) en moet keuzes maken over hoe en waar zij haar
communicatie inzet.

All communication?
“An interactive process of meaning construction” (Zerfass, 2008).
 betekenis geven aan informatie

Three lenses, according to Van Ruler (2018)
1. One-way process  one way transmission model




2. Two-way process  interactive in nature




Not only for those involved in the communication

3. Omnidirectional Diachronic process 
“An interplay between social actors, related to each other
(sometimes) only in the context of developing their meaning
continuously over time, thereby constructing society itself, and also
constructing ideas about how organizations in society should
behave.” (Van Ruler, 2018)
 Social media

, Omnidirectional (meerrichtingsverkeer)
- Not understood as interaction between two or more people
 But as interaction with the message  meaning construction
- Not linear, spreads up multiple directions simultaneously
- Level of social actors, sometimes not but also so society at large


Diachronic (ontwikkeling over tijd)
- Not static, meaning constructions development happens over time
- Continuously moving forward, yet also always dependent on the past
Informing the present and future
- Never truly finished; it is a continuous cycle
 voorbeeld: perceptie van klimaatverandering

Implications of definition, communication both:
- Messaging
- Listening




Implication Conversations and actions
- Communication is not limited to formal messages
- Actions also convey meaning
- Therefore, also be part of strategic communication.

Implication external en internal arena’s

Strategic significance to the goals of an entity,
Which could be anything:
- Protect reputation
- Educate people
- Spark societal change

, - Substantieel: hoe belangrijk de kwestie objectief gezien is
- Identificatie: (hoe het binnen de organisatie wordt waargenomen).
Strategic communication management
An attempt to manage the communication of strategic significance about a
focal company

What makes an issue a strategic issue?
1) Resource-Driven: Does it demand the allocation of high-value
assets or scarce, valuable resources?
2) Competition- driven: Does it strengthen a competitive
edge/bypass direct competition?
3) Environment-Driven: Does it challenge the organization to adapt
to political upheaval, technological advancements, or ecological
shifts?
4) Risk-Driven: Does it escalate into a high-risk scenario, force a
critical ‘make-or-break’ decision, or trigger a crisis?
5) Innovation-Driven: Does it introduce groundbreaking changes that
disrupt existing structures or methods?
6) Engagement-Driven: Does it leverage free resources to signal
strategic priorities?
7) Operationally-Driven: Does it overhaul how an organization or
process fundamentally operate

Strategic Communication Management
A. Product Quality: Shared with competitors in the contested space of
product publicity.
B. Problems with production process/corporate social
responsibility: Observed by both the organization and activists in
contested space of responsibility
C. Competitor Monitoring (C): Focused on tracking conversations of
rival organizations
D. Unnoticed Issues (D): Conversations not yet identified but potentially
impactful.

, Untill now...
- Strategic Communication is a continuous process of meaning
construction, on one hand.
- And involves managing those communication processes as a willful
activity, on the other hand (=strategic communication
management!)
- Strategic significance: Difficult to predict in prospect, only fully
understood in retrospect.
- As the case shows: easily missed, inaccurately prioritized or
deprioritized
- AI by itself also of strategic significance (7 factors)

What is AI?
“An AI system is a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit
objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs
such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can
influence physical or virtual environments. Different AI systems vary in
their levels of autonomy and adaptiveness after deployment.“ OECD
(2024)  Demystification approach

OECD (2024): Demystification Perspective
• This definition avoids human-like comparisons and instead focuses
on AI as a system that processes inputs to generate outputs.
• It follows a demystification approach, treating AI as a practical tool
rather than an intelligent entity.
• Example: AI as a system that makes predictions, recommendations,
or decisions, without implying human-like thinking.


“Efforts to understand human intelligence by recreating a mind within a
machine and to develop technologies that perform tasks associated with
some level of human intelligence.” Guzman & Lewis (2020) 
Anthropomorphic approach