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The Publics in Public Relations

How publics makes sense for communication objectives.

Jerry Silfwer
by Jerry Silfwer

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

tl:dr;
Being focused on earned, shared, and owned media, the PR industry is naturally interested in behaviours; hence, communication professionals typically prefer publics (psychographic segmentation) over target groups (demographic segmentation).

Table of contents

What are ‘pub­lics’ in pub­lic relations?

Publics are fun­da­ment­al to the pub­lic rela­tions profession. 

But what does this mean exactly?
And why does it matter?

Here we go:

The Publics in Public Relations

Publics are a cent­ral com­pon­ent of pub­lic rela­tions — in fact, the ‘P’ in PR. However, they are often mis­un­der­stood or con­flated with mar­ket­ing’s ‘tar­get groups’.

Publics in Public Relations - Doctor Spin - The PR Blog
The pub­lics in pub­lic relations.

Here’s how to define pub­lics in pub­lic relations:

Publics = psy­cho­graph­ic seg­ments (who) with sim­il­ar com­mu­nic­a­tion beha­viours (how) formed around spe­cif­ic issues (why) impact­ing a brand (to whom). 1Silfwer, J. (2015, June 11). The Publics in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​u​b​l​i​c​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Please note:

Psychographic seg­ment = sim­il­ar­it­ies in cog­nit­ive driv­ing factors such as reas­on­ing, motiv­a­tions, atti­tudes, etc.

Communication beha­viours = how the pub­lic’s opin­ion is expressed (choice of mes­sage, rhet­or­ic­al fram­ing, and medi­um type).

Specific issue = determ­ined situ­ation­ally by a spe­cif­ic social object, often high on the agenda in news media or social media.

Learn more: The Publics in Public Relations

Publics (Public Relations) vs Target Groups (Marketing)

In pub­lic rela­tions (PR), “pub­lics” is a cent­ral concept. 

Publics are situ­ation­al groups that exhib­it sim­il­ar com­mu­nic­at­ive beha­viours, and their impact on an organ­isa­tion is crit­ic­al. These groups, formed by shared con­cerns or interests, can play a cru­cial role in shap­ing pub­lic opin­ion and determ­in­ing the suc­cess or fail­ure of an organ­isa­tion’s PR efforts. 

In mar­ket­ing, a pro­fes­sion­al dis­cip­line closely related to PR, they must often con­sider a vari­ety of demo­graph­ic seg­ments to ensure they tar­get the right audi­ence (i.e. tar­get groups) with their mar­ket­ing efforts. 

Some stand­ard mar­ket­ing (demo­graph­ic) seg­ments include:

  • Age. Different age groups often have vary­ing interests, pref­er­ences, and pur­chas­ing beha­viours. Advertisers may tar­get spe­cif­ic age groups, such as chil­dren, teen­agers, young adults, middle-aged adults, or seni­ors, to tail­or their mar­ket­ing mes­sages effectively.
  • Gender. Marketing efforts can be tailored to spe­cif­ic genders, con­sid­er­ing the unique pref­er­ences, needs, and interests of men, women, or non-bin­ary individuals.
  • Income. Income levels play a sig­ni­fic­ant role in determ­in­ing an indi­vidu­al’s pur­chas­ing power and con­sump­tion pat­terns. Advertisers often seg­ment their audi­ence based on income brack­ets to ensure their products or ser­vices appeal to the tar­get mar­ket’s fin­an­cial capabilities.
  • Education. Educational back­ground can influ­ence an indi­vidu­al’s pref­er­ences, interests, and pur­chas­ing habits. Advertisers may tar­get audi­ences with vary­ing levels of edu­ca­tion, such as high school gradu­ates, col­lege gradu­ates, or indi­vidu­als with post­gradu­ate degrees.
  • Occupation. Different occu­pa­tions may require spe­cif­ic products or ser­vices or influ­ence an indi­vidu­al’s pref­er­ences and pri­or­it­ies. Advertisers can tar­get pro­fes­sion­als, blue-col­lar work­ers, entre­pren­eurs, or oth­er occu­pa­tion­al seg­ments to cater to their unique needs.
  • Marital/​family status. Marital and fam­ily status, such as single, mar­ried, divorced, or wid­owed indi­vidu­als and fam­il­ies with or without chil­dren, can sig­ni­fic­antly impact con­sump­tion pat­terns and pri­or­it­ies. Advertisers often con­sider these factors when craft­ing mar­ket­ing mes­sages and tar­get­ing spe­cif­ic audiences.
  • Ethnicity/​culture. Ethnic and cul­tur­al back­grounds can influ­ence an indi­vidu­al’s pref­er­ences, val­ues, and con­sump­tion habits. Advertisers may tail­or their mar­ket­ing efforts to cater to spe­cif­ic eth­nic or cul­tur­al groups, ensur­ing their mes­sages res­on­ate with the tar­get audi­ence’s unique exper­i­ences and perspectives.

Marketing focuses on tar­get groups mainly because of the his­tor­ic­al pro­cess of buy­ing ad space. For ads in tra­di­tion­al mass media, only demo­graph­ic data was available.

  • Tounge in cheek, many PR pro­fes­sion­als will say, “Advertising is the tax you pay for not being remark­able.”

With a primary focus on earned and owned media, it has always been about beha­viours for the PR industry; there­fore, we use pub­lics (psy­cho­graph­ic seg­ment­a­tion) instead.

Ben and Jerry: Same, Same But Different

What’s the dif­fer­ence between demo­graph­ic seg­ment­a­tion (typ­ic­al for mar­ket­ing) and psy­cho­graph­ic seg­ment­a­tion (typ­ic­al for pub­lic relations)?

Example:

Imagine two ordin­ary indi­vidu­als. Let’s call them Ben and Jerry. They both belong to the same demographic:

  • Both are white het­ero­sexu­al males,
  • both have wives and two children,
  • both grew up in the same neighbourhood,
  • both now live in the same suburb,
  • both have white-col­lar jobs in the city,
  • both drive hybrid SUVs,
  • both play golf, and
  • both enjoy equal socio-eco­nom­ic status.

Demographically, Ben and Jerry seem more or less identic­al. So, are you likely to reach (and influ­ence) both through the same media channels? 

The short answer is — no.

Here’s how Ben and Jerry, who belong to the same demo­graph­ic, have entirely dif­fer­ent com­mu­nic­a­tion behaviours:

Ben is hos­tile towards social media (“It’s a bloody waste of time!”) and prefers to read busi­ness news­pa­pers over cof­fee in the morn­ing. During the day, he listens to pub­lic radio on his com­mute to and from work. Ben mostly avoids the inter­net (“It’s only ads and trolls”).

But Jerry thinks (and acts) differently:

Jerry spends his nights in the base­ment, immersed in a Japanese World of Warcraft guild, col­lab­or­at­ing with mem­bers world­wide; he’s a quint­es­sen­tial early adop­ter who streams tele­vi­sion, listens to pod­casts, and con­sumes news via social feeds.

In short: Ben and Jerry are demo­graph­ic­ally sim­il­ar but psy­cho­graph­ic­ally different. 

  • Ben and Jerry might belong to the same tar­get group, but they belong to dif­fer­ent publics.

In pub­lic rela­tions, we seek to under­stand how groups of indi­vidu­als con­sume (or co-cre­ate) media, research and mani­fest their buy­ing decisions, and group them­selves around opin­ions with others.

Seriality: Context Matters

“Seriality” is a concept that emerges from iden­tity- and social the­ory, par­tic­u­larly in the works of philo­soph­ers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Iris Marion Young. It refers to how indi­vidu­als are grouped based on shared char­ac­ter­ist­ics — without a strong sense of belong­ing or identity.

“Seriality is a key concept in under­stand­ing the con­stancy and trans­form­a­tion of iden­tity, par­tic­u­larly in pub­lic present­a­tions of the self and its online mani­fest­a­tions.”
Source: M/​C Journal 2Marshall, P. (2014). Seriality and Persona. M/​C Journal, 17, 1 – 10. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​5​2​0​4​/​m​c​j​.​802

In Sartre’s exist­en­tial­ist frame­work, seri­al­ity describes a form of social col­lectiv­ity. According to him, people can be part of a series without neces­sar­ily shar­ing a uni­fied group iden­tity. For example, people wait­ing at a bus stop are con­nec­ted by their shared situ­ation (wait­ing for the bus) but do not neces­sar­ily form a cohes­ive group with a shared iden­tity. They are sep­ar­ate indi­vidu­als linked by a com­mon object­ive or condition.

Therefore, seri­al­ity is a way of under­stand­ing how indi­vidu­als can belong to col­lect­ive cat­egor­ies without neces­sar­ily hav­ing a shared demo­graph­ic identity.

Learn more: The Publics in Public Relations

Segmentation: Publics, Stakeholders, and Influencers

While mar­ket­ing primar­ily focuses on tar­get groups, PR has three main approaches to seg­ment­a­tion; pub­lics, stake­hold­ers, and influ­en­cers all play a cru­cial role in an organ­isa­tion’s PR strategy.

Publics = psy­cho­graph­ic seg­ments (who) with sim­il­ar com­mu­nic­a­tion beha­viours (how) formed around spe­cif­ic issues (why) impact­ing a brand (to whom). 3Silfwer, J. (2015, June 11). The Publics in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​u​b​l​i​c​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Stakeholders = rep­res­ent­at­ives of vari­ous ves­ted interests dir­ectly or indir­ectly con­nec­ted to a brand. 4Silfwer, J. (2021, January 5). The Stakeholders in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​t​a​k​e​h​o​l​d​e​r​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Influencers = inde­pend­ent con­tent cre­at­ors with influ­en­tial plat­forms and fol­low­ings of poten­tial import­ance to a brand. 5Silfwer, J. (2020, January 15). The Influencers in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​i​n​f​l​u​e​n​c​e​r​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

John Dewey and the ‘P’ in Public Relations

The term “pub­lics” can be traced back to the work of the American psy­cho­lo­gist and philo­soph­er John Dewey (1859 – 1952). 6John Dewey. (2023, March 25). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​J​o​h​n​_​D​e​wey

877px-John_Dewey_cph.3a51565
John Dewey (Wikipedia).

In his 1927 book, “The Public and Its Problems,” Dewey con­cep­tu­al­ised pub­lics as situ­ation­al groups formed in response to shared con­cerns or issues. He pos­ited that these groups emerge when indi­vidu­als con­front a com­mon prob­lem, recog­nise its exist­ence, and take col­lect­ive action to address it. 7Dewey, J. (1927). The Public and Its Problems. Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press.

“Dewey’s the­ory of the pub­lic sphere recog­nizes mul­tiple pub­lics and per­meable bor­ders between pub­lic and private, with com­mu­nic­a­tion play­ing a cru­cial role in pub­lic form­a­tion and re-form­a­tion.”
Source: Argumentation and Advocacy 8Asen, R. (2003). The Multiple Mr. Dewey: Multiple Publics and Permeable Borders in John Dewey’s Theory of the Public Sphere. Argumentation and Advocacy, 39, 174 — 188. … Continue read­ing

Dewey’s for­mu­la­tion of pub­lics marked a sig­ni­fic­ant depar­ture from the tra­di­tion­al under­stand­ing of the “mass pub­lic,” which assumed a more homo­gen­eous and pass­ive audience. 

By high­light­ing the situ­ation­al and dynam­ic nature of pub­lics, Dewey laid the found­a­tion for a more nuanced and adapt­ive approach to under­stand­ing the com­plex inter­ac­tions between organ­isa­tions and their vari­ous audiences.

  • The term pub­lics has become a corner­stone of mod­ern pub­lic rela­tions and com­mu­nic­a­tion theory.

This under­stand­ing of pub­lics as situ­ation­al and ever-chan­ging high­lighted the need for organ­isa­tions to remain agile and adapt­ive in their com­mu­nic­a­tion efforts.

By recog­nising the diverse and situ­ation­al nature of pub­lics, PR pro­fes­sion­als and com­mu­nic­at­ors can bet­ter under­stand the needs and con­cerns of their vari­ous audi­ences, allow­ing them to devel­op more effect­ive com­mu­nic­a­tion strategies. 

“This recog­ni­tion of the act­ive and dynam­ic nature of pub­lics has also influ­enced broad­er aca­dem­ic and pub­lic dis­course, high­light­ing the import­ance of under­stand­ing and enga­ging with dif­fer­ent groups of people who share com­mon interests, con­cerns, or prob­lems.”
Source: Contemporary Pragmatism 9Rogers, M. (2010). Introduction: Revisiting The Public and Its Problems. Contemporary Pragmatism, 7, 1 – 7. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​1​6​3​/​1​8​7​5​8​185 – 90000152

Learn more: John Dewey and the ‘P’ in Public Relations

Naming Publics in Public Relations

Publics are situ­ation­al. They are formed when extern­al factors cre­ate them. 10Blumer, H. (1946). The Mass, The Public and Public Opinion. In B. Berelson (Ed.), Reader in Public Opinion and Communication (pp. 45 – 50). 2nd ed. New York: Free Press. (Reprinted in 1966).

For instance, if a muni­cip­al­ity announces the build­ing of a new bridge, it might sud­denly cre­ate sev­er­al publics:

  • The Supporters. “We need a new bridge.”
  • The Environmentalists. “A new bridge will dis­turb wildlife.”
  • The Preservationists. “The bridge threatens our heritage.”

Where did I get those names from? 

Well, the use of pub­lics has no struc­tur­al nomen­clature. Identifying and nam­ing pub­lics cre­at­ively is part of the fun of using pub­lics in pub­lic relations!

Publics: Example of a “PR Persona”

Fundamentals

  • PR per­sona name: “Dave”
  • Member of pub­lic: “Conscious Sharers” (approx. size: 35,000 in Sweden)
  • Activation (situ­ation): Dave is an envir­on­ment­ally con­scious con­sumer who reacts to news stor­ies about cli­mate change and sus­tain­ab­il­ity issues being shared on social media.

Psychographics

  • Values: Sustainability, trans­par­ency in cor­por­ate prac­tices, com­munity involvement.
  • Beliefs: Strongly believes that cor­por­a­tions should be account­able for their envir­on­ment­al impact.
  • Attitudes: Skeptical of cor­por­ate gre­en­wash­ing, appre­ci­at­ive of genu­ine efforts towards sustainability.

Communication Style

  • Active chan­nels: Frequently uses Facebook, Threads and LinkedIn to share opin­ions and art­icles about envir­on­ment­al issues. Engages in online for­ums and dis­cus­sion groups focused on sustainability.
  • Content shar­ing: Prefers shar­ing well-researched art­icles, infograph­ics, and doc­u­ment­ary videos high­light­ing envir­on­ment­al issues and sus­tain­able practices.
  • Interaction style: Vocal and assert­ive in dis­cus­sions but open to con­struct­ive dia­logues. Values evid­ence-backed argu­ments and is quick to call out misinformation.

Media Habits

  • News web­sites: Regularly fol­low most nation­al news websites.
  • Podcasts and doc­u­ment­ar­ies: Listens to pod­casts on sus­tain­ab­il­ity and cor­por­ate respons­ib­il­ity. Watches doc­u­ment­ar­ies related to envir­on­ment­al issues.
  • Social net­works: Daily activ­ity on Facebook (espe­cially in groups), Threads, and LinkedIn. 

Influences

  • Thought lead­ers: Influenced by thought lead­ers in envir­on­ment­al act­iv­ism and cor­por­ate sustainability.
  • Reputable sources: Trusts con­tent from reput­able envir­on­ment­al organ­iz­a­tions and NGOs.

Goals

  • Increase aware­ness: Seeks to spread aware­ness about envir­on­ment­al issues.
  • Influence the agenda: Aims to influ­ence oth­ers, includ­ing cor­por­a­tions, to adopt more sus­tain­able practices.

Challenges

  • Finding inform­a­tion: Finding cred­ible sources of inform­a­tion amidst the spread of misinformation.
  • Corporate access: Engaging with cor­por­a­tions in a way that leads to the type of change they seek.

Learn more: How To Use Personas in PR

Case Study: Global Warming’s Six Americas

The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication has used ques­tion­naires to sur­vey US atti­tudes towards glob­al warm­ing. The pro­gram has iden­ti­fied six dif­fer­ent publics:

  • The Alarmed. They are con­vinced glob­al warm­ing is hap­pen­ing, human-caused, and an urgent threat, and they strongly sup­port cli­mate policies. Most do not know what they or oth­ers can do to solve the problem.
  • The Concerned. They think human-caused glob­al warm­ing is hap­pen­ing and is a severe threat and sup­port cli­mate policies. However, they tend to believe that cli­mate impacts are still dis­tant in time and space; thus, cli­mate change remains a lower-pri­or­ity issue.
  • The Cautious. They haven’t yet decided: Is glob­al warm­ing hap­pen­ing? Is it human-caused? Is it serious?
  • The Disengaged. They know little about glob­al warm­ing and rarely or nev­er hear about it in the media.
  • The Doubtful. They do not think glob­al warm­ing is hap­pen­ing or believe it is a nat­ur­al cycle. They do not think much about the issue or con­sider it a severe risk.
  • The Dismissive. They believe glob­al warm­ing is not hap­pen­ing, is human-caused, or is a threat, and most endorse con­spir­acy the­or­ies (e.g., “glob­al warm­ing is a hoax”).

Understanding dif­fer­ent groups based on their per­cep­tion of a spe­cif­ic issue provides valu­able clues on how to best engage with the pub­lics. 11Global Warming’s Six Americas — Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. (2023). Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. … Continue read­ing

The research makes it clear:

You need at least six com­mu­nic­a­tion strategies to suc­cess­fully com­mu­nic­ate about glob­al warm­ing in the US.

Five Types of Publics

There are plenty of inact­ive pub­lics around us in soci­ety, just “wait­ing” for extern­al situ­ations to activ­ate them and bring them togeth­er in coöper­at­ive, com­mu­nic­at­ive behaviours.

However, PR tends to focus on the already activ­ated publics:

“By focus­ing on act­iv­ism and its con­sequences, recent pub­lic rela­tions the­ory has largely ignored inact­ive pub­lics, that is, stake­hold­er groups that demon­strate low levels of know­ledge and involve­ment in the organ­isa­tion or its products, ser­vices, can­did­ates, or causes, but are import­ant to an organ­isa­tion.”
Source: Public Relations Review 12Hallahan, K. (2000). Inactive pub­lics: The for­got­ten pub­lics in pub­lic rela­tions. Public Relations Review, 26(4), 499 – 515. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​S​0​3​6​3​-​8​1​1​1​(​0​0​)​0​0​061 – 8

Kirk Hallahan, Professor Emeritus, Journalism and Media Communication, Colorado State University, pro­poses five types of pub­lics based on their know­ledge and involve­ment: 13Hallahan, K. (2000). Inactive pub­lics: The for­got­ten pub­lics in pub­lic rela­tions. Public Relations Review, 26(4), 499 – 515. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​S​0​3​6​3​-​8​1​1​1​(​0​0​)​0​0​061 – 8

Five Types of Publics - Kirk Hallahan - Doctor Spin
Five types of publics.

Hallahan sug­gests a mod­el based on know­ledge and involvement:

As an organ­isa­tion tar­geted by act­iv­ists, what would be the best issue response? Hallahan pro­poses four prin­cip­al response strategies: 14Hallahan, K. (2009, November 19). The Dynamics of Issues Activation and Response: An Issues Processes Model. Journal of Public Relations Research. … Continue read­ing

  • Active pub­lics: Negotiation.
  • Aroused pub­lics: Intervention.
  • Aware pub­lics: Education.
  • Inactive pub­lics: Prevention.

Learn more: Kirk Hallahan’s Five Types of Publics

How To Identify (And Measure) Publics

Publics are often seg­men­ted by identi­fy­ing and group­ing exist­ing com­mu­nic­at­ive beha­viours (out­comes). While it works for many situ­ations, this approach a) focuses on act­iv­ists, b) excludes inact­ive pub­lics, and c) pushes the PR func­tion to be react­ive. 15Warner, M. (2002). Publics and Counterpublics. Public Culture, 14(1), 49 – 90.

A more fun­da­ment­al approach is to focus on psy­cho­graph­ic seg­ments (psy­cho­lo­gic­al drivers) instead.

In prac­tice, this can be done pro­act­ively using ques­tion­naires and rat­ing scales, inter­views, reports (logs, journ­als, diar­ies etc.), and observations:

Using ques­tion­naires for stat­ist­ic­ally rel­ev­ant pop­u­la­tion sub­sets, PR pro­fes­sion­als can pro­act­ively identi­fy all types of publics.

Learn more: How To Measure Public Relations

Publics and Ethics

Traditional demo­graph­ics (com­pared to psy­cho­graph­ics) tell us little about how indi­vidu­als con­sume their media and communicate.

When a brand is talk­ing to me like I’m a white male in my early forties, a fath­er and a hus­band, liv­ing in a Scandinavian cap­it­al, and work­ing in the media industry (all of which is true, by the way) — I stop listening.

  • In the eyes of advert­isers and fun­nel spe­cial­ists, we are demo­graph­ic entit­ies stripped of our essence, mere pup­pets of con­sump­tion with wal­lets in place of hearts.

I’m not the sum of my socio-eco­nom­ic class, my job, age, loc­a­tion, eth­ni­city, sexu­al­ity, or my gender. Today, we should all refrain from basing cor­por­ate activ­it­ies on demo­graph­ic stereotypes. 

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ANNOTATIONS
ANNOTATIONS
1, 3 Silfwer, J. (2015, June 11). The Publics in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​u​b​l​i​c​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/
2 Marshall, P. (2014). Seriality and Persona. M/​C Journal, 17, 1 – 10. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​5​2​0​4​/​m​c​j​.​802
4 Silfwer, J. (2021, January 5). The Stakeholders in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​t​a​k​e​h​o​l​d​e​r​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/
5 Silfwer, J. (2020, January 15). The Influencers in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​i​n​f​l​u​e​n​c​e​r​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/
6 John Dewey. (2023, March 25). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​J​o​h​n​_​D​e​wey
7 Dewey, J. (1927). The Public and Its Problems. Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press.
8 Asen, R. (2003). The Multiple Mr. Dewey: Multiple Publics and Permeable Borders in John Dewey’s Theory of the Public Sphere. Argumentation and Advocacy, 39, 174 — 188. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​8​0​/​0​0​0​2​8​5​3​3​.​2​0​0​3​.​1​1​8​2​1​585
9 Rogers, M. (2010). Introduction: Revisiting The Public and Its Problems. Contemporary Pragmatism, 7, 1 – 7. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​1​6​3​/​1​8​7​5​8​185 – 90000152
10 Blumer, H. (1946). The Mass, The Public and Public Opinion. In B. Berelson (Ed.), Reader in Public Opinion and Communication (pp. 45 – 50). 2nd ed. New York: Free Press. (Reprinted in 1966).
11 Global Warming’s Six Americas — Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. (2023). Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. https://​cli​mate​com​mu​nic​a​tion​.yale​.edu/​a​b​o​u​t​/​p​r​o​j​e​c​t​s​/​g​l​o​b​a​l​-​w​a​r​m​i​n​g​s​-​s​i​x​-​a​m​e​r​i​c​as/
12, 13 Hallahan, K. (2000). Inactive pub­lics: The for­got­ten pub­lics in pub­lic rela­tions. Public Relations Review, 26(4), 499 – 515. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​S​0​3​6​3​-​8​1​1​1​(​0​0​)​0​0​061 – 8
14 Hallahan, K. (2009, November 19). The Dynamics of Issues Activation and Response: An Issues Processes Model. Journal of Public Relations Research. https://​www​.tand​fon​line​.com/​d​o​i​/​a​b​s​/​1​0​.​1​2​0​7​/​S​1​5​3​2​7​5​4​X​J​P​R​R​1​3​0​1_3
15 Warner, M. (2002). Publics and Counterpublics. Public Culture, 14(1), 49 – 90.
Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at Spin Factory and KIX Communication Index. Before that, he worked at Kaufmann, Whispr Group, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.

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