Strategic Public Relations: An Audience-Focused Approach

With nearly thirty years of experience as both a public relations teacher and practitioner, Barbara Diggs-Brown has written a text based on her unwavering belief that to practice effective public relations today requires strategic thinking and audience focus, which can only be accomplished by listening and hearing audiences through formative, process, and evaluative research. In addition to highlighting audience-focused principles and techniques of audience research and recurring assessment, STRATEGIC PUBLIC RELATIONS: AN AUDIENCE-FOCUSED APPROACH is based on the premise that public relations is a management function, one coordinated with an organization's other management divisions. Intended for undergraduate courses in PR, serving both majors in the field and nonmajors, this text provides a comprehensive survey of PR's foundations, processes, tactics, and contexts.

Practical process approach--The four-phase strategic public relations process is at the heart of this text with complete step-by-step detail in Part III, The Process of Strategic Public Relations.
Solid foundations--The book provides concise, up-to-date surveys of public relations' foundations with separate chapters devoted to its ethics, law, history, and theories, as well as strategy and the core communication, information, and business skills and knowledge that every practitioner should possess.
A unique chapter on strategy--Chapter 4, Strategy in Public Relations, introduces students to the concept of strategy to ensure that they understand what this core concept of strategic public relations practice. The chapter begins with everyday strategies; moves into a discussion of the critical thinking, reasoning, and decision-making skills basic to all strategy; surveys the role of strategy within organizations; and places strategic PR in context in general and by providing snapshots of the full process it requires.
Emphasis on audience diversity--Instead of marginalizing coverage of minority, or "special interest" audiences, the text consistently addresses diversity within audiences and teaches students how to develop inclusive audience profiles as well as strategies for attending to the needs, concerns, interests, and behaviors of all audiences.
Engaging pedagogy includes the following: "Brief Case" boxes present a short case based on actual campaigns. Primarily intended for in-class group work or individual homework, these case descriptions and activities give students the opportunity to test their understanding of the chapter's concepts by applying it to the varied cases presented; "Point of View" boxes feature commissioned commentary or reprinted articles by current public relations practitioners on related topics, personalizing and bringing to life concepts and examples discussed; "Engaging Ethics" boxes focus on relevant ethical issues and include questions that comprise a decision tree to address potential outcomes; and end-of-chapter learning resources include Summary and Review, Key Terms, Questions for Review and Discussion, and Web Links.

Barbara Diggs-Brown
Barbara Diggs-Brown is a communication strategist with more than 25 years of communication experience, specializing in strategic planning, social marketing strategies, qualitative research, integrated communication, and media relations. She is a prominent national researcher on the development of effective social marketing and communication campaigns as tools to address social change issues, including education, race, and health. As senior social marketing counsel and strategist, Diggs-Brown has designed, conducted, and reported qualitative research for a number of government, foundation, and nonprofit clients. As a communication counsel, she advises communication directors of large and small organizations on planning, qualitative research, audience segmentation, message development, and management. Diggs-Brown is President and CEO of The Center for Strategic Research and Communication, a 501(c)(3) organization. She frequently lectures and writes on race in the media and is coauthor of a critically acclaimed analysis of race relations in the United States, BY THE COLOR OF OUR SKIN: THE ILLUSION OF INTEGRATION AND THE REALITY OF RACE, published by Dutton. She is the author of STRATEGIC PUBLIC RELATIONS: AN AUDIENCE-FOCUSED APPROACH, recently published by Cengage Learning. Her public affairs career in Washington has included Director of Public Affairs, Director of Government and Nonprofit Liaison, and Press Secretary for a presidential campaign. She is Associate Professor Emerita and the founding Executive Director of the American University School of Communication Institute for Strategic Communication for Nonprofits.

Part 1: GETTING ORIENTED.
1. What Is Public Relations?
2. Who Are PR Practitioners?
3. Historical Perspective.
4. Strategy in Public Relations.
Part 2: FOUNDATIONS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS.
5. Understanding Audiences.
6. Researching Effectively.
7. Adhering to Ethical Practices and Meeting Professional Standards.
8. Staying within Legal Bounds.
9. Understanding Public Relations Theory.
Part 3: THE PROCESS OF STRATEGIC PUBLIC RELATIONS.
10. Discovery and Analysis.
11. Program Planning.
12. Campaign Implementation.
13. Program Evaluation and Campaign Follow-Up.
Part 4: GUIDE TO PUBLIC RELATIONS TACTICS.
14. Written Tactics.
15. Spoken Tactics.
16. Visual Media and Interactive Media Tactics.
Part 5: PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTICE IN CONTEXT.
17. Corporate Sector.
18. Nonprofit Sector.
19. Politics and Government.
20. International Public Relations.