Public Relations Research

The topic of public relations research is vast. Consider that this volume has more than 20 entries that are directly related to research. This specific entry provides an overview to public relations research and indicates how it is utilized in the public relations process. The first half discusses research in general, including the two basic approaches to research and some of the methods used in research. The second half explains the role of research in the practice of public relations and building the public relations body of knowledge.

Research involves the collection of data or information. Data are simply observations about the world around us. Research can be divided into two general approaches: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative methods are descriptive and interpretive. Researchers collect data that provide descriptions of behaviors or events in a naturalistic setting—the data are collected in the “real world” rather than a laboratory. Researchers then interpret what these data mean. Different researchers can derive different interpretations from the same data. That is why qualitative methods are considered subjective; the data are open to multiple interpretations and all can be correct— or incorrect. Qualitative researchers are not trying to generalize their results beyond the sample they have studied. Their results only apply to the sample they studied.

Quantitative research is objective and reduces data to numbers. These numbers are then analyzed using accepted statistical principles and statistical tests. The agreement on statistical measures and principles make the results objective. Multiple researchers looking at the same data analysis should reach the same basic conclusions. For example, a basic statistical test is the correlation. A correlation looks for relationships between two variables. It indicates if two concepts vary in a similar fashion. For instance, the value of one variable increases each time the value of a second variable increases. Each statistical test has an accepted level of significance, a point at which the finding is considered important. The level of significance in public relations research tends to be .05. That means the results have only a 5 in 100 chance of being an accident. This means that if ten researchers run the same set of data and the correlation had a significance of only .10, all 10 would say there is no relationship. The reliance on numbers and statistics provides the agreement that makes quantitative research objective. Moreover, quantitative researchers are trying to generalize. They want to claim that the results should hold true for the general population and not just their sample.

Researchers have a variety of methods for collecting data. Quantitative research might use surveys and/or experiments. Qualitative researchers might use case study or focus groups. Each of these methods has specific entries in this volume. The way that data is collected reflects the general orientation selected for the research, qualitative or quantitative. The possible sources of data increased with the rise of online communication with a particular focus on social media. Quantitative researchers can collect survey data online or systematically code messages appearing online. Qualitative researchers can use online messages for case studies or textual analysis as well as conduct focus groups online.

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