What is Public Communication

PA 685: Strategic Management of
Public Communications
Module 1:
What is Public Communication?

Public Communication Campaigns
 Public communications campaigns impart ideas for a
strategic purpose.
They are an attempt to shape behavior toward
desirable social outcomes.
Formally defined:
Public communication campaigns are campaigns that
use the media, messaging, and an organized set of
communication activities to generate specific
outcomes in a large number of individuals and in a
specified period of time.

Concept Behind Public Communication
Campaigns maximize their chances of success through
the coordination of media efforts with a mix of other
interpersonal and community-based communication
channels.
“May involve a conventional mix of brochures,
posters, advertisements, and commercials or a
different array of communication methods” for the
purpose of achieving certain objectives.
Communications campaigns use a variety of
techniques and strategies in hopes of improving
individual lives and making the world a better place.

Two Main Types of Campaigns
Individual behavior change campaigns: try to change
in individuals the behaviors that lead to social
problems or promote behaviors that lead to improved
individual or social well-being.
Public will campaigns: attempt to mobilize public
action for policy change. A public will campaign
attempts to legitimize or raise the importance of a
social problem in the public eye as the motivation for
policy action or change.

Campaign Type /
Goal
Individual Behavior
Change
Public Will
Objectives
• Influence beliefs and knowledge
about a behavior and its
consequences
• Affect attitudes in support of
behavior and persuade
• Affect perceived social norms about
the acceptability of a behavior
among one's peers
• Affect intentions to perform the
behavior
• Produce behavior change (if
accompanied by supportive program
components)
• Increase visibility of an issue and its
importance
• Affect perceptions of social issues
and who is seen as responsible
• Increase knowledge about solutions
based on who is seen as responsible
• Affect criteria used to judge policies
and policymakers
• Help determine what is possible for
service introduction and public
funding
• Engage and mobilize constituencies
to action
Target Audience
Segments of the population whose
behavior needs to change
Segments of the general public to be
mobilized and policymakers
Strategies Social marketing
Media advocacy, Community
organizing and mobilization
Media Vehicles
Public service/affairs programming;
Print, television, radio, electronic
advertising
News media; Print, television, radio,
electronic advertising
Examples
Anti-smoking, condom usage, drunk
driving, seat belt usage, parenting
Support for quality child care,
afterschool programming, health care
policy

Knowledge versus Behavior
Knowledge alone does not influence behavior.
With some limited exceptions, people already
know what they should be doing.
Simply telling them what to do rarely creates
change.
Behavior is shaped by factors such as:
Available range of choices.
Social reinforcement and approval (norms).
Rules (laws and policies).
Ease/difficulty (benefits and barriers).
Cost (economic and otherwise).

Theories Guiding Public
Communication Campaigns
 Theory of Reasoned Action
 A given behavior is primarily determined by the intention to
perform that behavior.
 Social Cognitive Theory
 Self-efficacy – the belief that the skills and abilities necessary to
perform the behavior under various circumstances and motivation
to perform the behavior are necessary for behavior change.
 Health Belief Model
 Based on: 1) a feeling of being personally threatened by a disease,
and 2) a belief that the benefits of adopting the protective health
behavior will outweigh the perceived costs of it.
 Stages of Change Model
 This model views behavior change as a sequence of actions or
events.

Creating Effective Public

Obstacles to Successful Public
 Lack of understanding the target audience.
Organizations must understand the audience’s need for information, existing knowledge, and language
processing skills.
Information overload.
Audiences are exposed to messages across traditional, social, and interpersonal media. You have to
compete with those to stand out.
Emotional interference.
Someone’s emotional state may make them too preoccupied to
receive or comprehend the intended message.
Channel barriers.
Organizations must know what communication channel their
targeted audience uses. If they use the wrong platform, then they
may miss their audience completely.
Conflicting messages.
Your competitors and opposition also are preparing campaigns to target the same stakeholders!

Public Speaking as Public
Communication
Public communication campaigns are most effective
when using interpersonal communication strategies,
but…
Interpersonal communication takes much longer to
reach the same number of people as media.
Interpersonal communication can be very costly
terms of employee hours.
in
Public speaking bridges interpersonal and
organizational messaging.
Representing an organization gives an opportunity to
voice your message points and interact with a
receptive audience.

Types of Public Speeches
Speaking to entertain.
To engage, interest, and amuse listeners.
May include information about occasion.
Humor vs offense.
Narrative speaking (story-telling).
Speaking to inform.
To increase listeners’ understanding and awareness.
May take form of demonstration.
Speaking to persuade
To change attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

Features of Public Speaking
Greater responsibility to plan and prepare your speech.
Evidence to support your organization’s message.
Reasoning—appealingto logic and emotions.
Structure of ideas.
With 3 supporting points, use the strongest argument first,
the weakest in the middle, and the second-strongest
argument at the end.
Less direct interaction.
Speaker dominates.
Listeners still participate “actively.”
Nodding, smiling, facial expressions.
Question-and-answersessions frequently follow.

Planning and Presenting
Effective public speaking is a process, not an isolated
event. The process begins with understanding of
credibility and ways to earn it.
Earning credibility.
Listener believing in a speaker and trusting what is said.
Based on listener perceptions of speaker’s position,
authority, knowledge, dynamism, and trustworthiness
Initial credibility: Titles, experience, achievements.
Derived credibility: During presentation.
Terminal credibility: Cumulative combination of two
above.

Planning Public Speeches
Selecting a topic
Topic that your organization is stressing.
Appropriate to listeners.
Appropriate to situation.
Limited in scope—not too broad or abstract, but something the
audience can focus on.
Defining the purpose
What is your organization wanting to accomplish with this opportunity?
Leave the audience with a call-to-action, something to do!
Developing the thesis
Clear thesis statement – “I want listeners to buckle up.”

Researching and Supporting
Public Speeches
 Evidence
To make ideas more clear, more compelling.
To fortify speaker opinions (more persuasive).
To heighten speaker credibility.
Effectiveness depends on whether listeners accept.
Five forms of evidence:
Statistics, examples, comparisons, quotations, visual aids.
 Checking on evidence
Statistics still valid?
Quoted person’s personal interest (biased?)
Quoted person an expert?
Example representative of the topic?
Comparison fair?
Visual aids clear?

Organizing Speeches
Effectiveness can be increased:
Structure -- ideas coming in some order.
Organized speech more persuasive than
disorganized one.
Organization reflects preparation and enhances
credibility.
Organization:
The introduction.
The body.
Conclusion.
Transitions (therefore…; so…; let me summarize…)

Organization of Speech
 The introduction
To capture attention, state the thesis, preview the claims.
 The body of the speech
To organize content into related points.
Temporal (time, chronological) pattern.
Spatial pattern (physical relationships).
Topical (classification) pattern, star structure.
Wave pattern (repetition with variation or extension of theme).
Comparative pattern.
Problem-solution pattern.
Cause-effect; effect-cause pattern.
Motivated sequence pattern: order of human thought.
(next slide)

Organization of Speech
Conclusion
A good speech ends on a strong note.
Summarizing main ideas.
Leaving with memorable final ideas.
Transitions
Moving from one idea to another.
Words, phrases (stay hungry, stay foolish!)

Developing Effective Delivery
Oral style should be more personal than written: I
want to tell you (spoken) vs. The speaker encouraged
(written).
Making and maintaining eye contact with audience
throughout the speech.
Short sentences are easier for audiences to follow and
comprehend rather than long ones.
Strategies to get the audience thinking about the topic
Rhetorical questions.
Exclamations and interjections.
Redundancy—it takes hearing things 7 times before it is
truly learned so that it can be recalled at a later time.

Four Styles of Speech Delivery
Impromptu delivery
Little or no preparation; not for novice speaker.
Extemporaneous delivery
Substantial preparation; relying on notes not exact words;
politician, attorney.
Manuscript delivery
Presenting written manuscript; precision.
Memorized delivery
Presenting memorized text; risk of canned delivery lacking
dynamism; forgetting.

Challenges in Public Speaking
 Understanding and controlling anxiety.
 Causes of communication apprehension.
Unfamiliar with people (audience).
Uncertain situations.
Being in the spotlight.
 Reducing communication apprehension.
Systematic desensitization.
Being evaluated.
Past Failure.
Learned apprehension.
Relax and reduce psychological features (breath).
Cognitive restructuring.
Identify and challenge negative self-statement.
Positive visualization.
Enact positive mental pictures in speaking situation.
Skills training.
 Adapting to audiences.
 Learning about listeners.
 Tailoring speeches to listeners.

References
 Coffman, J. (2002, May). Public communication campaign
evaluation: An environmental scan of challenges, criticisms, practice,
and opportunities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project.
Public Communication Campaigns, Rice, Ronald E. & Atkin, Charles
K. (eds.), Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA, 2014.
Coffman, J. (2003). Lessons in evaluating communications
campaigns: Five case studies. Harvard Family Research Project.
Retrieved 28 August 2008 from:
http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-
publications/lessons-in-evaluating-communications-campaigns-five-
case-studies
National Cancer Institute (1992). Making health communication
programs work: A planner’s guide [Electronic version]. Washington,
DC: Author.
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What is Public Communication

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