Previously we discussed market segmentation and target audiences/markets, but now, let's jump into a little more communications theory for insight into publics.
According to James Grunig's Situational Theory on Public Behaviours, a stakeholder (or stakeholder group) is created by the organization based on their relationship to business activities, strategies, and tactics. A public forms on their own and targets the organization based on their relationship to an organization's message.
'Publics choose an organization, whereas a stakeholder is chosen by the organization.'
Publics can be characterized into four different groups (active, aware, latent, and nonpublic). These categorizations are based on three variables: problem recognition, constraint recognition, and level of involvement.
Problem Recognition: group recognizes connection between themselves & problem
Constraint Recognition: level of power a person/group has over changing the situation
Level of Involvement: level the person/group is connected personally to the situation
Understanding these variables allows communicators to better predict the behaviour of publics and create strategies to manage these groups. Thus, as these variables increase or decrease, the type of public changes .
Active Public: high levels of involvement and problem recognition, and lower levels of constraint recognition - this public will actively seek information and act on that information
Aware Public: Aware publics will process information and might act, but are limited by lower levels of involvement and problem recognition, or higher levels of constraint recognition
Latent: Latent publics are not cognizant of how an issue involves them or don’t see it as a problem - or do not see it as an issue
NonPublic: do not face problem
Why is the important? Understanding what 'level' a public is at allows communicators to prioritize, and create targeted messaging and tactics depending upon the charcacteristics of the public.
The dissemination of message content by a public is what determines how they are affected by the variables; thus if we change the message, we are changing the variables, and we should expect a change in which public is affected. Just as an active public can become latent if the problem disappears, a nonpublic can also become active. (And this can happen from the same message!)
Here's an example:
Message: Municipality considering banning a specific breed
Active Public: Those who own that breed of dog & reside in that municipality
Aware Public: Those who own another breed of dog & reside in that municipality
Latent Public: Those who do not own a dog but reside in that municipality
NonPublic: Those who would not be affected by the breed ban (do not own dog & do don't reside in municipality).
Now consider if the messaging changed to 'Municipality considering banning a specific size of dog' or 'Municipality considering banning cats' how these publics would change in reaction.
How would the public(s) change with the change in each message?
Determining what groups may form publics can be predicted by how much the problem involves them, how much they recognize the problem, and how much power they have to influence it.
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