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Abstract
Introduction
Statement
of Problem
Literature
Review
Rationale
Method
Projected
Results
Discussion
References
AppendicesThe results of this study can effectively direct the efforts of a military public affairs campaign. Officials can commit to an exhaustive, intense, and timely campaign but fail in their attempts to reach a command’s audience because they do not understand how media channels affect the public’s retention of strategic messages. However, if commands periodically assess their efforts to combat an on-going crisis and discover their attempts to reach an audience is failing, then representatives can redirect their efforts. Instead of giving the majority of a command’s attention to television, this study’s results can redirect efforts to emphasize providing more information and efforts toward newspaper outlets when attempting to convey a strategic message.
The ability to discover flaws in a strategic campaign is critical to on-going crises and developing scenarios. Commands can use the results of this study to prepare, educate and train public affairs officials for future events. Although questions and requests can not be ignored by television and radio outlets, public affairs representatives can consciously choose to spend more time providing in depth, complete, and even background information to newspaper organizations. Similarly, public affairs offices may more frequently offer information to newspaper representatives that encourage reporters to request command interviews or exclusive reports. Ultimately, commands can effectively mass the efforts of a campaign on a target or media channel that offers more benefits to a command.
Limitations
As with all research, there are limitations to this study. Generalizability
of the findings is not far reaching. The study’s findings can only
be applied to the area where the research was conducted. Every military
base is surrounded by a unique community, and every media channel in that
community is guarded by different gatekeepers. Because the gatekeepers
control the flow of information to the public (Infante, Rancer,Womack,
1997), their interpretation of any message will affect the retention
or even receipt of command messages. Morton (1995) suggests that
messages be tailored to meet the needs of the gatekeepers to ensure it
is passed on to the public. Because all research takes money and time to
accomplish, this study may not be economically feasible for public affairs
offices to conduct. An alternative is to study an public affairs
event that occurred in the past on a specific installation. A content analysis
of the news releases and the subsequent newspaper articles, television
and radio broadcast will reveal if the command messages were released to
the public through the individual gatekeepers. Exposing a sample
of the population to review of this information and conducting a survey
afterwards will allow the public affairs office to see if their messages
are really as effective as they believe. While this may be more practical
for the PAO, the external validity of the study would again be in question
due to the lack of control on external variables. The publics’ prior
knowledge of the situation and their subsequent exposure to the facts surrounding
the incidents can not be controlled.
