A guide to strategic communication that can be applied across a range of subfields at all three levels--grand strategic, strategic, and tactical communication

Communication is a core function of every human organization so when you work with communication you are working with the very core of the organization. Written for students, academics, and professionals, Strategic Communication Theory and Practice: The Cocreational Model argues for a single unified field of strategic communication based in the three large core subfields of public relations, marketing communication, and health communication, as well as strategic communicators working in many other subfields such as political communication, issues management, crisis communication, risk communication, environmental and science communication, social movements, counter terrorism communication, public diplomacy, public safety and disaster management, and others. Strategic Communication Theory and Practice is built around a cocreational model that shifts the focus from organizational needs and the messages crafted to achieve them, to a publics-centered view placing publics and their ability to cocreate new meanings squarely in the center of strategic communication theory and practice. The author--a noted expert in the field--outlines the theories, campaign strategies, common issues, and cutting edge challenges facing strategic communication, including the role of social media, ethics, and intercultural strategic communication.

As the author explains, the term "strategic communication" properly refers only to the planned campaigns that grow out of research and understanding what publics think and want. This vital resource answers the questions of whether, and how, strategic-level skills can be used across fields, as it:

* Explores the role of theory and the cocreational meta-theory in strategic communication

* Outlines ethical practices and problems in the field

* Includes information on basic campaign strategies

* Offers the most recent information on risk communication, preparedness and terrorism communication, and employment in strategic communication

* Redefines major concepts, such as publics, from a cocreational perspective

Carl Botan is a Professor of Communication at George Mason University. He teaches undergraduate courses in Public Relations and graduate courses in Public Relations Theory, Research Methods, Introduction to Graduate Studies, International Relations, and Strategic Communication.

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Inhalt

List of Figures and Tables xv

Foreword xvii

Overview of the Book xix

Part I: Elements xix

Part II: Strategies xx

Part III: New Challenges xx

Part I Elements 1

1 Strategic Communication Concepts 3

Summary 3

Strategic Communication Is Big and Getting Bigger 3

Employment in SC 4

SC on the Internet 4

Organization and Goal of This Book 5

Communication as Constitutive 6

Role of information 6

General Definition and Role of SC 7

Tree metaphor of strategic communication as a gestalt 8

Grand Strategy, Strategy and Tactics 9

History 9

Analoguing 11

Specifically measurable outputs 12

Level of analysis 12

Grand Strategy 13

Strategy 13

Tactics 14

Relationship of Grand Strategy, Strategy and Tactics 14

Generic Grand Strategies 15

Background 16

Intransigent Grand Strategy 16

Environment 16

Change 16

Publics 19

Issues 19

Research 19

Communication 19

Practitioners 19

Resistant Grand Strategy 20

Environment 20

Change 20

Publics 20

Issues 20

Research 21

Communication 21

Practitioners 21

Partnership Grand Strategy 21

Environment 21

Change 22

Publics 22

Issues 22

Research 22

Communication 22

Practitioners 22

Cocreational Grand Strategy 22

Environment 23

Change 23

Publics 23

Issues 23

Research 23

Communication 23

Practitioners 23

Change in Grand Strategies 23

2 Theory in SC and the Cocreational Metatheory 25

Summary 25

Introduction 25

Metatheory 25

What Theory Is 26

Minima for a Theory 27

Kinds of Theories 28

Formal and Informal Theory 28

Less Formal Types of Theory 28

Commonsense or everyday theory 29

Lay or naive theory 29

Thought experiments 30

Positive and negative effects of lay theories 31

More Formal Types of Theory 32

Practicebased theories 32

Scientific theories 33

Theory and Practice 34

Experience versus Theory 34

Learning from Established Fields 35

ExperienceTheory Link in SC 36

Schools of Thought, Metatheory and Paradigms in SC 37

Epistemology of SC 38

Ontology 39

Axiology 40

Cocreational Metatheory in SC 40

Background 40

Lineage 41

Positioning Cocreational Metatheory in SC 42

Sequencing schools of thought in SC by metatheory and metaphor 43

Instrumental school 44

Modern/social scientific 45

Cocreational Molecule and Model 47

Components of Cocreational Molecule 47

Circle 1: Publics starting point 48

Box 2: Strategic research and information inflow 49

Box 2A: Strategic information outflows 49

Box 2B: Experience 50

Box 3: Campaign planning 50

Box 4: Campaign implementation 50

Circle 5: Acceptance and interpretation of campaign messages 51

Circle 6: New meaning cocreation 51

Circle 7: Assessment and progress 51

Levels of Evaluation 52

Category 1 52

Category 2 52

Category 3 52

Limitations of the Cocreational View in Evaluation 53

3 Stakeholders, Publics, Customers, Markets and Audiences 55

Summary 55

Introduction 56

Labels and Subfields Are Important 56