Communications Theory
Is it still useful to Public Relations Practitioners?
Agenda setting, agenda building, and framing could be perceived as the foundation of communications (Hallahan, 1999*). Without considering these practices and the insights gathered, public relations practitioners would have a hard time creating, managing, and shaping persuasive campaigns. Understanding framing, agenda setting, and building are crucial to creating effective mass media communications. Plus, insights from the concepts listed can be utilized to create successful mass media communications and environments.
This essay will review agenda setting, agenda building, and framing in relation to how public relations practitioners can use these concepts to support a communication campaign both internal and external to an organization.
Agenda Setting
Agenda setting is also known as how the media influences the public (Dearing et al., 1996; Teixeira, 2021). While the term came around after World War II, suggesting that war propaganda manipulated the public, utilizing an agenda is a tale as old as time (Teixeira, 2021). As time passed, agenda setting has become a cultural norm and is utilized today in countless ways. For example, agenda setting is often applied in corporate meetings or organizational changes.
Agenda setting can assist an audience in better understanding a story or a brand. By setting an agenda, public relations practitioners can encourage the audience to step into the organization’s reality (Dearing et al., 1996; Funkhouser, 1973). With this, a public relations practitioner can align the audience’s perspective with the organizational narrative. This could occur in a myriad of ways, from content creation to chosen medium. When a public relations practitioner understands how to utilize agenda setting properly they can encourage alignment between different messages and mediums. This alignment further solidifies the brand in the consumer’s mind to increase trust and loyalty.
As noted by Ragas (2012), agenda setting could also be utilized in the board room of an organization. How this relates to a public relations practitioner, outside of acquisition of votes, is utilization. In that, there is an opportunity to spread the agenda across mediums and channels to ensure a positive light is shed on the transition. For example, after Enron’s defaming CFO, Andrew Fastow, was fired (and if Enron wasn’t at fault) the public relations practitioner could utilize this leadership change to their advantage to set the audience’s understanding and knowledge base (Flanagan, 2020).
Agenda Building
“Agenda building is an important tool in a practitioners skillset,” especially when that practitioner qualifies as a “source of news” (Ragas, 2012;Teixeira, 2021). When a public relations practitioner qualifies as a “source of news,” they have been “known to increase the salience of objects” (Ragas, 2012). An example of a public relations practitioner being a “source of news” is the current White House Press Secretary, Jenn Psaki. As a public relations practitioner, she builds and sets agendas for all of the press conferences in the White House. This allows her to both manage the media and align the media’s knowledge to the goals of the Executive Office of the President.
Outside the White House, public relations practitioners could be internal communications managers or those that speak on behalf of organizations. By building an agenda public relations practitioners can ensure that the message, regardless of medium, shares the same viewpoint as leadership. One way a public relations practitioner could build an agenda would be to ensure alignment between mediums employees engage with.
Often, an internal public relations practitioner uses agenda building during an organizational change. The public relations practitioner builds an agenda that not only aligns the shift to organizational values and needs but drives the change through the finish line. One tactic in this example would be to certify all communications, mediums, and interfaces that employees have access to align to the change (Teixeira, 2021).
Moreover, it is critical for practitioners to understand how competing communication campaigns can affect their agenda (Ragas, 2012). This is known as “intercandidate” agenda setting (Ragas, 2012). While historically used in a political sense, in modern times intercandidate concerns across mediums are noteworthy (Ragas, 2012). If a public relations practitioner does not have experience with this concept, it is likely they will overlook their competitors, or unknowingly set the campaign up to fail. For example, if part of an agenda setting strategy is to promote big oil through social media but Amnesty International has an agenda to refute any big oil promotions in alignment with efforts to reduce climate change, that could affect the way the audience perceives the message.
Framing
It would be difficult to reach an audience without framing the message, especially if a public relations practitioner is looking to encourage behavioral change (Zoch & Modella, 2006). Similar to agenda setting, framing helps the audience “follow the story,” and align with a brand (Teixeira, 2021; Zoch & Modella, 2006). When compared to agenda building and setting, framing shifts focus to the audience, placing the receiver above the communicator (Zoch & Modella, 2006). In that, when a public relations practitioner utilizes framing of a message they think about the perspective of the receiver, or target audience/persona, and how they will identify the message in line with their current attitudes and beliefs.
Framing is a well-utilized tool in the public relations practitioner’s tool belt and insights from the application of this tactic can help to increase audience engagement and better understand the receiver overall (Waller & Conaway, 2011). A triumphant example of framing would be when Nikebiz.com used this tactic to enhance their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and reputation (Hallahan, 1999; Waller & Conaway, 2011). Many public relations practitioners and organizations were able to learn from their success and apply this tactic in other ways (Hallahan, 1999; Waller & Conaway, 2011).
Overall, framing appears across a variety of disciplines, from psychology to music, and is suggested to be the very “essence behind communication” which makes the insights collected all the more valuable to public relations practitioners (Hallahan, 1999). Hallahan (1999) suggests there are seven types of framing, from responsibility (as shown with Nikebiz.com) to situational. Similar to agenda setting and building, framing helps to construct a reality (Hallahan, 1999). Framing as a skillset for a public relations practitioner is necessary as it’s all-encompassing, in that, it involves “inclusion, exclusion, and emphasis” (Hallahan, 1999).
Conclusion
The role of the public relations practitioner is to utilize the insights from agenda setting, agenda building, and framing to manage communications and environments (Teixeira, 2021). Thus, ensuring the best outcome for a campaign (Teixeira, 2021). Consistently examining the environment where communications will be disseminated to avoid any harmful intercandidate effects is part of the practice as well (Ragas, 2012; Teixeira, 2021). Likewise, “quality, timing, access, and channel” are all important objects to consider when practicing public relations (Ragas, 2012; Teixeira, 2021). Finally, credibility also needs to be considered for the public relations practitioner, chosen medium or channel, and information shared.
In conclusion, agenda setting, agenda building, and framing are the foundation for communications and understanding them is crucial to succeeding as a public relations practitioner, especially those who engage in media relations. After reviewing the theoretical and applied knowledge surrounding these concepts, it’s hard to argue for the opposite. Removing them as a public relations practitioner significantly reduces the possibility of campaign success.
*References provided upon request.
