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Journal Article 6.1: Cabosky, J. M. (2014). Framing an LGBT organization and a movement: A critical qualitative analysis of GLAAD’s media releases. Public Relations Inquiry, 3(1), 69-89.

Abstract: Combining the mass communication theories of agenda building and framing with a critical analysis of power, this study examined how an LGBT organization, GLAAD, used media releases to build and frame its message into public discourse. By analyzing 213 of GLAAD’s media releases from 2011 through 2012, this study, applying queer theory, critically examined how the releases defined the organization and indicated levels of power within the LGBT rights movement and the greater society. Overall, GLAAD’s releases indicated an emphasis on issues of violence and vulnerability against LGBT individuals and the promotion of LGBT celebrities and allies at media events. This showed the organization and the media’s lack of attention in promoting or covering less sensational LGBT issues based in principles of equality or relating to non-famous LGBT individuals. While the releases demonstrated an overall lack of power for non-elite individuals within the movement, the inclusion of social media and online petitions created by LGBT activists indicated new forms of public relations models that moved away from two-way symmetrical or asymmetrical approaches and toward fluid and dynamic models, allowing individual LGBT stakeholders greater power within the LGBT rights movement.

Journal Article 6.2: Cismaru, M., & Lavack, A. M. (2010) “Don’t Suffer in Silence”—Applying the integrated model for social marketers to campaigns targeting victims of domestic violence. Social Marketing Quarterly, 16(1), 97-129.

Abstract: We conducted a review and analysis of multicomponent social marketing campaigns targeting victims of domestic violence, which were gathered from a variety of websites in five English-speaking countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. We examined the degree to which these campaigns conform to the Integrated Model for Social Marketers developed by Cismaru, Lavack, Hadjistavropoulos, and Dorsch (2008). This model describes the variables salient in each stage of behavioral change and provides a description of the most effective strategies for persuasion. Key recommendations for enhancing future initiatives targeting victims of domestic violence suggest that it is important to emphasize the benefits of changing, as well as to convince victims of domestic violence that they can improve their lives.

Journal Article 6.3: Waller, R. L., & Conaway, R. N. (2010). Framing and counterframing the issue of corporate social responsibility: The communication strategies of Nikebiz.com. International Journal of Business Communication, 48(1), 83-106.

Abstract: This article reports on the communication strategies that sports shoe giant Nike used to successfully protect its corporate social responsibility (CSR) reputation during the late 1990s. The article opens with a brief discussion of CSR and its critical importance to transnationals such as Nike. The opening also includes four research questions guiding this study. The article then discusses why frame analysis offers such a potentially rich approach to analyzing public relations controversies like this one. The Analysis section of the article examines how an anti-Nike coalition initially succeeded in imposing negative frames on two CSR issues and how this framing generated highly negative media coverage. The remainder of this section provides a detailed commentary on eight Web texts from Nikebiz.com and how the framing strategy behind these texts enabled the company ultimately to defend, even to enhance its CSR reputation.