Topic The Language of Strategic Communication: Summary
Theme 1
Lecture 1: Introduction
Strategic communication by:
● For-profit organizations
● Non-profit organizations
● Activist groups
● Political parties and movements
● Government organizations
● And more!
Strategic was first used in the 1950s in relation to organisations, the classic definition had a
war perspective.
Strategic communication as an alternative interpretation:
● Games
● Winners and losers
● Dog-eat-dog world
Strategic communication perspectives:
● Rational decision making: SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
threats)
● Transmission model: Get information from here (sender) to there (receiver)
● Asymmetrical: Top-down communication
New perspectives of strategic communication:
● Changes society and media landscape
● At every level in the organisation, so not just the managerial level
● Symmetrical process of meaning creation (such as feedback)
● Embedded in social, cultural and political environment
● Interactive/ritual model: symbolic process in which reality is created, maintained,
repaired and transformed
Old definition strategic communication: Purposeful use of communication by an
organisation to fulfill its mission.
Redefined definition: The practice of deliberate and purposive communication that a
communication agent enacts in the public sphere on behalf of a communication entity to
reach set goals.
Strategic communication calls for an interdisciplinary course, it includes:
● Communication science
● Organisation science
● Marketing
● Psychology
● Linguistics
● Philosophy
● And more!
,Logeion’s BNP (beroepsniveauprofielen) model:
Communication jobs can be categorized based on:
● Job level
● Distribution of (one or more) six core tasks
Job level:
● Level of seniority in the position and field
● The higher the level, the more responsibilities
6 core tasks for communication professionals:
● Training
● Organizing
● Integrating
● Analyzing
● Creating
● Advising
Article 1: Defining strategic communication - Holtzhausen et al. (2007)
Essence of strategic communication: Disciplines that involve the organization
communicating purposefully to advance its mission. It further implies people will be engaged
in deliberate communication practice on behalf of organizations, causes, and social
movements.
Organizations make strategic decisions about the level and nature of resources they will
devote to certain efforts such as getting attention, admiration, affinity, alignment or
allegiance from other actors.
6 specialties commonly found within organizations involved in the development,
implementation and assessment of communications by organizations, each is
practiced by different staff within large, complex organizations with its own purpose:
Management communication
● Personnel: Managerial/administrative personnel
● Purposes: Facilitate orderly operations, promote understanding of an organization’s
mission, vision and goals and to supply information needed in day-to-day operations
Marketing communication
● Personnel: Marketing and advertising staffs
● Purposes: To create awareness and promote sales of products and services, attract
users/customers, and/or fundraising
Public relations
● Personnel: Public relations or publicity, human resources, finance, and/or
government relations staffs
● Purposes: Establish + maintain mutually beneficial relationships with key actors
Technical communication
, ● Personnel: Technical, engineering support, training staffs
● Purposes: Educate employees, customers and others to improve efficiency
Political communication
● Personnel: Government affairs staffs, politicians, advocacy groups
● Purposes: Build political consensus or consent on important issues involving political
power and allocation of resources
Information/Social Marketing campaigns
● Personnel: Employees in nongovernmental, not-for-profit, and government agencies,
corporate staffs involved in well-being
● Purposes: Reduce the incidence of risky behaviors or promote social causes
important to the betterment of the community
The shattering of traditional discipline boundaries was best seen in the emergence of IMC
(integrated marketing communication): having consistent messaging and tone across all
channels.
Strategic communication as a term is now emerging as a descriptive term that is gaining
acceptance, it makes sense as a unifying framework to analyze communications by
organizations for (at least) 4 reasons:
● The ability of communicators to differentiate between traditional communications
activities and their effects is disappearing fast. Functions are being redefined and
organizations must differentiate themselves and in which audiences view
organizations from multiple perspectives.
● Important changes in public communication are being driven by technology and
media economics. Digital technologies make it hard to differentiate what is
advertising, publicity, sales promotion or e-commerce.
● Organizations can use an expanding variety of methods to influence the behaviours
of their constituencies (what people know, how people feel and the ways people act)
relative to organizations.
● Purposeful influence is the fundamental goal of communications by organizations,
other disciplines are conceptually grounded in providing information.
It is valuable to explore the different meanings associated with the term strategic and the
implications of applying the term to the practice of communication management.
The term strategic was first used in organization theory in the 1950s, its purpose was to
describe how organizations compete in the marketplace, obtain competitive advantage and
gain market share. Associating strategic as a war metaphor in connection with
communication practice can strengthen the existing negative perceptions of the field.
‘Strategic’ is often associated with practice and tactics used to implement strategy,
traditionally it was argued that strategic used in this context has the potential to reinforce the
perception that the practice of PR and communication is merely tactical and not considerate
of social, political and economic factors.
, Focusing on practice brings a much-needed critical approach to the field of strategic
communication. The concept of agency aligns strategic communication and practice and
focuses on power relations in the communication process.
2 conflicting perspectives about the ability of the agent being able to resist power and
control:
● Agents are put into place to legitimate the power and position of those already in
power
● Agents have the potential to deliberately and effectively choose and carry out actions
in defiance of established rules
A number of issues position agency as an important part of the strategic process:
● The power of the agent will influence the agency itself
● Societal norms, values and culture will play a role in how agency is executed
● The agent can and will be used by people with more power to cement that power +
wealth
● The ability of the individual agent to resist domination is in question
Refocusing on communication within strategic communication is important for 2
reasons:
● Theoretically, without their communication science roots, disciplines such as
management, advertising and PR lose their conceptual and methodological
apparatus
● Focuses interest on the fundamental processes at a time when some disciplines
have lost sight of their primary focus
4 academic clusters from which strategic communication can draw:
● Corporate communication
● Marketing, advertising and public relations (PR)
● Business communication skills
● Organizational communication
The transmission model of communication conceptualizes communication as the one-
way emission of information, the transmission of signals through a channel with a limited
feedback capacity.
The interactive model of communication argues that communication involves the creation
and exchange of meaning between the parties in a communication activity.
The ritual model of communication states that communication is a symbolic process
whereby reality is created, maintained, repaired and transformed.
Theme 1
Lecture 1: Introduction
Strategic communication by:
● For-profit organizations
● Non-profit organizations
● Activist groups
● Political parties and movements
● Government organizations
● And more!
Strategic was first used in the 1950s in relation to organisations, the classic definition had a
war perspective.
Strategic communication as an alternative interpretation:
● Games
● Winners and losers
● Dog-eat-dog world
Strategic communication perspectives:
● Rational decision making: SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
threats)
● Transmission model: Get information from here (sender) to there (receiver)
● Asymmetrical: Top-down communication
New perspectives of strategic communication:
● Changes society and media landscape
● At every level in the organisation, so not just the managerial level
● Symmetrical process of meaning creation (such as feedback)
● Embedded in social, cultural and political environment
● Interactive/ritual model: symbolic process in which reality is created, maintained,
repaired and transformed
Old definition strategic communication: Purposeful use of communication by an
organisation to fulfill its mission.
Redefined definition: The practice of deliberate and purposive communication that a
communication agent enacts in the public sphere on behalf of a communication entity to
reach set goals.
Strategic communication calls for an interdisciplinary course, it includes:
● Communication science
● Organisation science
● Marketing
● Psychology
● Linguistics
● Philosophy
● And more!
,Logeion’s BNP (beroepsniveauprofielen) model:
Communication jobs can be categorized based on:
● Job level
● Distribution of (one or more) six core tasks
Job level:
● Level of seniority in the position and field
● The higher the level, the more responsibilities
6 core tasks for communication professionals:
● Training
● Organizing
● Integrating
● Analyzing
● Creating
● Advising
Article 1: Defining strategic communication - Holtzhausen et al. (2007)
Essence of strategic communication: Disciplines that involve the organization
communicating purposefully to advance its mission. It further implies people will be engaged
in deliberate communication practice on behalf of organizations, causes, and social
movements.
Organizations make strategic decisions about the level and nature of resources they will
devote to certain efforts such as getting attention, admiration, affinity, alignment or
allegiance from other actors.
6 specialties commonly found within organizations involved in the development,
implementation and assessment of communications by organizations, each is
practiced by different staff within large, complex organizations with its own purpose:
Management communication
● Personnel: Managerial/administrative personnel
● Purposes: Facilitate orderly operations, promote understanding of an organization’s
mission, vision and goals and to supply information needed in day-to-day operations
Marketing communication
● Personnel: Marketing and advertising staffs
● Purposes: To create awareness and promote sales of products and services, attract
users/customers, and/or fundraising
Public relations
● Personnel: Public relations or publicity, human resources, finance, and/or
government relations staffs
● Purposes: Establish + maintain mutually beneficial relationships with key actors
Technical communication
, ● Personnel: Technical, engineering support, training staffs
● Purposes: Educate employees, customers and others to improve efficiency
Political communication
● Personnel: Government affairs staffs, politicians, advocacy groups
● Purposes: Build political consensus or consent on important issues involving political
power and allocation of resources
Information/Social Marketing campaigns
● Personnel: Employees in nongovernmental, not-for-profit, and government agencies,
corporate staffs involved in well-being
● Purposes: Reduce the incidence of risky behaviors or promote social causes
important to the betterment of the community
The shattering of traditional discipline boundaries was best seen in the emergence of IMC
(integrated marketing communication): having consistent messaging and tone across all
channels.
Strategic communication as a term is now emerging as a descriptive term that is gaining
acceptance, it makes sense as a unifying framework to analyze communications by
organizations for (at least) 4 reasons:
● The ability of communicators to differentiate between traditional communications
activities and their effects is disappearing fast. Functions are being redefined and
organizations must differentiate themselves and in which audiences view
organizations from multiple perspectives.
● Important changes in public communication are being driven by technology and
media economics. Digital technologies make it hard to differentiate what is
advertising, publicity, sales promotion or e-commerce.
● Organizations can use an expanding variety of methods to influence the behaviours
of their constituencies (what people know, how people feel and the ways people act)
relative to organizations.
● Purposeful influence is the fundamental goal of communications by organizations,
other disciplines are conceptually grounded in providing information.
It is valuable to explore the different meanings associated with the term strategic and the
implications of applying the term to the practice of communication management.
The term strategic was first used in organization theory in the 1950s, its purpose was to
describe how organizations compete in the marketplace, obtain competitive advantage and
gain market share. Associating strategic as a war metaphor in connection with
communication practice can strengthen the existing negative perceptions of the field.
‘Strategic’ is often associated with practice and tactics used to implement strategy,
traditionally it was argued that strategic used in this context has the potential to reinforce the
perception that the practice of PR and communication is merely tactical and not considerate
of social, political and economic factors.
, Focusing on practice brings a much-needed critical approach to the field of strategic
communication. The concept of agency aligns strategic communication and practice and
focuses on power relations in the communication process.
2 conflicting perspectives about the ability of the agent being able to resist power and
control:
● Agents are put into place to legitimate the power and position of those already in
power
● Agents have the potential to deliberately and effectively choose and carry out actions
in defiance of established rules
A number of issues position agency as an important part of the strategic process:
● The power of the agent will influence the agency itself
● Societal norms, values and culture will play a role in how agency is executed
● The agent can and will be used by people with more power to cement that power +
wealth
● The ability of the individual agent to resist domination is in question
Refocusing on communication within strategic communication is important for 2
reasons:
● Theoretically, without their communication science roots, disciplines such as
management, advertising and PR lose their conceptual and methodological
apparatus
● Focuses interest on the fundamental processes at a time when some disciplines
have lost sight of their primary focus
4 academic clusters from which strategic communication can draw:
● Corporate communication
● Marketing, advertising and public relations (PR)
● Business communication skills
● Organizational communication
The transmission model of communication conceptualizes communication as the one-
way emission of information, the transmission of signals through a channel with a limited
feedback capacity.
The interactive model of communication argues that communication involves the creation
and exchange of meaning between the parties in a communication activity.
The ritual model of communication states that communication is a symbolic process
whereby reality is created, maintained, repaired and transformed.
