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To understand the role of research in public
relations practice
Research: Planning,
Monitoring and
Evaluating
To appreciate the need for ongoing research
and the cyclical pattern of PR research
To realize when it is best to go outside to an
individual or firm for research needs
Objectives
To evaluate secondary research and
determine its use in a PR situation
To know how to do primary research for PR
fact finding
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Every PR activity begins with
analyzing some facts, gathered
through research
Initial research is often
secondary: making use of facts
and data already collected
Informal: less rigorous and
perhaps less pre-testing, but still
structured with research designs
and protocols
Research is
Fundamental
Formal: more
rigorous, more
structured
May be
qualitative
or
quantitative
Formal vs.
Informal
Research
Primary research, gathering
new information, often follows
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RECORD KEEPING:
FILES, ARCHIVES
RECORDS NEEDED FOR
ORGANIZATION ITSELF,
FOR PERSONNEL, FOR
ORGANIZATIONAL
ACTIVITIES AND
PUBLICATIONS
 Scholarly done by academic institutions (students,
faculty)
FOR EASE OF RETRIEVAL, RECORDS
MUST BE KEPT IN A LOGICAL, WELLORGANIZED AND EASILY
RETRIEVABLE FORM
Research
Sources
 Sometimes funded by government, foundations or
professional associations
 Often published in scholarly or professional journals
and made public
Research Basics
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Research Sources (cont.)
 Government
Research
Sources
(cont.)
 Widely available, often free in print or on Web
Local, state and federal
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 Commercial
 Done by research, advertising and PR firms,
marketing companies
 Usually proprietary, so not published, although
some may be given limited access to data
 Commercial organization may release data if it
reflects favorably on the organization
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Research Sources (cont.)
Research Sources (cont.)
 The Web
 Organizational sites most dependable
 Search engines help fine-tune finding the information you are
seeking
 Diligence in determining validity, reliability of Web information is
critical
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 Mass media and professional publications
 Often applied research
 Much scholarly research published here
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Useful for both planning and monitoring
PR activities, programs
Research
Sources
(cont.)
Helpful to know the environment into
which your message will be moving
 Telephone interviews
 Landlines give inadequate results
 Mobile phone interviews are costly
 Online surveys are easier to manage
Research on
Trends, Issues
Environmental scanning helps determine
strategy and plan
Evaluation once program is implemented
determines if environment has changed
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Subscriber information
Learn where your publics get their
information
Learn which media have content and
readership compatible with your message
In addition to mass, trade media also
important sources of information
Circulation figures
Research on
Media
Audiences
Research on
Media
Shift to social and digital media for
information
Radio and on-line
video monitoring
Personalization of media choices
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Ratings of TV
programs
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Preliminary research in
planning stage
Research for pretesting
messages, surveys
Cycle of PR
Research
Generally conducted
without rules, procedures
that would permit someone
to replicate
Unobtrusive measures, e.g.,
color-coded tickets to an
event
Communication or opinion
audits (evaluate response to
all of an organization’s
communication efforts)
Analysis of clippings,
transcripts of media
coverage (quantity, quality
of coverage)
Research for fine-tuning
Informal Research
Research for final evaluation
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Validity of sources
Inability to replicate
Qualitative
Informal
Research
Risks
Difficulty of upholding
ethical standards
Measures by counting
Conducted either in lab or “in the
field”
Conducted either in lab or “in the
field”
Honesty, confidentiality and
objectivity are also important values
Honesty, confidentiality and
objectivity are also important values
Depending too heavily
on intuition or
experience for making
critical decisions
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Formal Research
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1
State the problem
2
Select a manageable
and measurable
portion of the
problem to address
3
Establish definitions
to be used
4
Conduct a search in
published literature
for relevant
information
5
Develop a hypothesis
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Design the
experiment or study.
This involves defining
the population you
wish to study and
then choosing a
sampling method
Steps in Formal Research
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Quantitative
Measures by describing
Obtain the data
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Analyze the data
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Interpret the data to
make inferences,
generalizations
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Communicate the
results
Steps in Formal Research (cont.)
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Define the
research
problem
2
3
Conduct a
literature review
Develop
research
objectives
4
5
Determine the
research design
Identify the
target audience
6
Adapt/Adopt the
research
instrument
Steps in Formal Research (Alternatively)
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Conduct the
research
Analyze the data
Interpret the data to make
inferences, generalizations
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Communicate
the results
Steps in Formal Research (Alternatively)
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Types of Qualitative Research
Types of Quantitative Research
 Textual analysis
 Content analysis
 Historiography, case studies and diaries
 Survey research
 In-depth interviews
 Sampling (probability, nonprobability)
 Focus groups
 Accidental
 Purposive
 Quota/stratified
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Testing Hypotheses
Preliminary,
exploratory: “I
wonder”
Prediction: “I
think”
Hypothesis
testing
Stages of
Research
Questions
 State your hypothesis
 State the opposite of your hypothesis (the null hypothesis)
 Determine the probability that null hypothesis could be true
 Reject null if that probability is slight
 If probability is significantly larger, don’t reject the null – but
neither can you “prove” the hypothesis
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Cross-section surveys
 Most familiar data-gathering device for
surveying audiences
• Probability sample (random)
• Quota sample (by known characteristics)
• Area sample (by geography)
 Face-to-face
 By online platform
Sampling
Audiences
Survey panels
Questionnaires
 By direct mail
• Consumer panels to test products, ads
• Usually selected on cross-sectional basis,
but quota
• May not physically meet but instead
participate through teleconferencing, mail
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 By social networks
 By list
 Respondent’s interest in subject
influences rate of return
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 Provide clear instructions so the
respondent knows what to do to respond
 Best way to get a good response rate is to
write a good questionnaire
Questionnaire
Tips
Questionnaire
Tips (cont.)
 Questions should be logically ordered and
separate: not several questions imbedded
in one giant question
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 Cultural, governmental differences
abound across borders: some types of
questions are inappropriate in certain
situations and locations, and some
governments prohibit the asking of
certain kinds of questions
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Questionnaire
Formats
 Semantic differential scales: measure
variations in intensity, often using
adjectives that are the opposite of each
other




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 Always pretest
 Closed-ended questions easier to code
and tabulate than open-ended, but may
yield less insightful data
 Summated ratings
Questionnaire
Formats
(cont.)
Pleasant – unpleasant
Fair – unfair
Exciting – dull
Accurate - inaccurate
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 Strongly approve – strongly disapprove
 Strongly agree – strongly disagree
 Scale analysis
 Dichotomous questions
 Multiple choice questions
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Identify problems
Delphi Studies
Analyze problems
 Respondent-generated questionnaire
 Begins with open-ended questionnaire
 Verbatim responses tabulated and reported, and circulated
among all respondents who are asked to rate or rank the
responses
Develop programs and guide
their implementation
Research
Applications
 Responses placed into categories based on their ratings or
rankings
 Categories are then rank-ordered by all respondents
Measure results of programs
 An interactive, repetitive process
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BEGINS TO ASSIST IN
PLANNING
MOVES ON TO TESTING
AND REVISING
HYPOTHESES
LEADS TO FURTHER
FACT FINDING AND
ASSESSMENT
Research is a
Cycle
SHIFTS TO
MONITORING
ONGOING PROGRAMS
CONCLUDES WITH
FINAL EVALUATION
THAT PROVIDES INPUT
TO HELP IN THE
PLANNING CYCLE OF
THE NEXT PROGRAM
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