Research Goals

Research in public relations includes both practitioners constructing and executing public relations actions and researchers in pursuit of knowledge. The “Goals” entry in this encyclopedia refers to strategic actions and choices made by practitioners to achieve specific campaign-driven outcomes. In that case, research should not just happen, but should be designed to reveal something that is relevant to understanding and solving the problem facing the public relations practitioner.

Research goals are what direct public relations researchers. Research goals guide the research study and are the general outcomes desired by the researcher. The general goal of public relations researchers is to create knowledge and build upon the public relations body of knowledge. Research goals can be divided into two types: applied and basic. The goals of applied research involve trying to solve some practical problem, such as what publics are most likely to communicate on an issue or which message strategy would be most persuasive for the target public. The goal is the practical application of the research results. In most cases, practitioners are pursuing applied research goals.

Basic research goals seek to develop theory. A theory is a systematic view of a phenomenon, which specifies the relationship between variables; it explains how things work by establishing relationships between concepts/variables. These relations must be tested to prove the value and accuracy of the theory. The goal of some research is to test aspects of a theory, such as proving that two variables are related as prescribed in a theory. The articles published in research journals often pursue basic research goals, and the reader must decide how to apply that knowledge to public relations situations. However, public relations research can pursue both goals in the same study. Public relations is applied in nature, so testing a theory will often provide answers to practical problems as well. Research designed to test situational crisis communication theory, for instance, provides insights into how best to communicate after a crisis occurs.