Thursday 21 February 2008

THEORIES OF PUBLICS, AUDIENCES AND STAKEHOLDERS: THE SITUATIONAL THEORY OF PUBLICS



The class lecture on the theories of audiences, publics and stakeholders really allowed me to explore my role in a lot of things around me that affect me.

I find Grunig and Hunt's situational theory of publics incredibly fascinating - the examination of why and when publics are formed and most likely to communicate, how their predicted communication and behaviour can be used to segment publics in order to provide a basis for deciding what strategy is most likely to achieve cognitive, attitudinal and behavioural effects in the publics.

The idea that as a stakeholder of Tesco, I can become a public if I recognise that an issue or problem affecting my family exists which I can see as worth getting involved with the issue or problem.

In recent months, hurdles of young teenagers congregate in front of my neighbourhood Tesco store for hours during and after school hours often harassing by-passers. As you can imagine, in a relatively quiet area this is slightly unusual. I have been puzzled on what to do next however using the Grunig model, I have better understood what type of audience myself and my neighbours are.



I have also learnt further that it is in Tesco's best interest to address this situation whilst its audiences are still latent and aware. If we become active, we could switch to other nearby corner stores.

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