Feb. 13th Theories of Publics, Audiences, and Stakeholders

In today's class we focused on how to segment stakeholder audiences. Stakeholder audiences include employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, members, local community, decision makers and key opinion formers. Public Relations practitoners speak directly to these audiences through various forms of media. Ralph Tench and Liz Yeomans in Exploring Public Relations say that the planning and conduct of public relations depends on our understanding of the nature of these audiences.1

In class i was a bit confused about the difference between stakeholders and publics. I thought that stakeholders could be put into the same category as publics. However, after reading the book Exploring Public Relations, it allowed to get a better understanding of the difference. The book explains that stakeholders are "those who have a stake or interest in a particular organization, i.e. they depend on the organization to fulfil their own goals." pg.241. However, the word publics and stakeholders can be used interchangeably. Stakeholders are potential publics because they can be stakeholders who have an issue or problem with the organization. Grunig and Hunt's situational theory sees "stakeholders developing into publics when they recognize that an issue or problem affecting them exists and they see it as worth thier while getting involved with the issue or problem." pg.243

Grunig and Hunt segment publics in the following categories:

Latent publics: those that face a particluar problem as a result of an organizations actions, but don't recognize it
Aware publics: those that recognize that a problem exists
Active publics: those that organise to discuss and do something about the problem

This theory of publics is used as a tool to manage the impact these publics will have on your organization.


I learned particularly how important all audiences can potentially improve the reputation of a business. They are also important to public relations because practitioners need to know their audiences and the best way to reach out to them. You cannot successfully deliver a campaign unless you know the people you will affect.

Michaela showed us nine ways in which to segment audiences. Those include:
1. Demographics
2. Psychographics
3. Geographics
4. Organizational membership
5. Covert power
6. Role in decision making
7. Influencers
8. Opinion formers
9. Decision makers

I think this form of segmenting will is effective in planning out who to target in campaigns. It can serve as a formula to better understanding who your audiences are and what type of power they have.

Sources:
1. Ralph Tench and Liz Yeomans. Exploring Public Relations. (Prentice Hall:2006) pg 235