Choosing a public relations dissertation topic
Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
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I’ve reached the final hurdle in my CIPR Diploma studies - researching and writing the 6000 word personal project.
The personal project looks like a great opportunity to put everything I’ve learnt so far into action, and do some real in-depth research into a topic that’s interesting and useful for me as a student and practitioner.
I’m keen to research a subject that’s relevant to my day job, so I’ve been thinking of the following as a title:
“What is the role of social media in local government communications?”
There’s real potential for the use of social media for local government to communicate and consult more effectively with local audiences. However to date the sector’s adoption of social media has been slow and patchy.
In my research I hope to draw on UK and international case studies to understand how social media can play a role in helping local government communicate, particularly with audiences that it does not traditionally communicate effectively with.
I need to start thinking about my research methodology, but what do you think about this topic? Are there any must-see resources for public sector use of social media that you can point me towards? Do you have any examples of how your local council has used social media?
Tags: chartered+institute+of+public+relations, CIPR, diploma, research
Categories: CIPR Diploma, Public relations
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Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Sounds like a valid and interesting research topic. We’ve just finished marking the January submitted CIPR projects with quite a few students focusing on new media. One of the main concepts was whether social media supports the “ideal” of two-way symmetric communications. In terms of methodology, one of the most interesting actually piloted an internal blog rather than simply asking for views about whether it should be used.
Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
thanks for that Heather - it would be interesting to think about using a blog in the research methodology. I’ll have to have a think about that - I was contemplating using a wiki to build the research around, so that once I’d written my report I could then keep it alive and hopefully it’d become a useful resource local govt communicators
Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I agree, sounds like a fine idea. One thing you might look in to is how the public sector uses social media to engage ‘hard-to-reach’ groups in the democratic process. The Electoral Commission has (I think) done some work along these lines with young people from minority groups.
Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Jon - thanks for the comment. I certainly hope to be able to explore how social media can help reach the hard-to-reach audiences, both for engagement in the democratic process, but also for broader local government communications.
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 11:30 am
Simon,
I think it’s an excellent topic, pretty much in tune with current trends.
And I envy you, because I have 3 days left to write a 3000 word proposal for my own dissertation (MA Public Communication & Public Relations. While dissertation is due in August, the stupid proposal essay is due on WEDNESDAY.
And I still have no clue what to write about!
So, if you have ay creative ideas, maybe things you or your friends were considering - drop me a line!!!
Many thanks + good luck with your final project,
Katya
P.S. All ideas are welcome - from lobbying themes to investor relations
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Katya - my advice (having worked with dozens of students on their dissertation projects) is to consider two things:
1) What will keep you interested in this topic in the months ahead?
2) What is the body of existing knowledge and theory that you will draw on?
If you aren’t motivated, then it is very hard to keep focused or deliver a really good piece of work. Also, if there isn’t some body of knowledge to draw on, it makes the initial literature review difficult and so impacts on the rest of your project.
You don’t necessarily need to be topical, highly original or over ambitious in your choice of dissertation subject - just make sure you will be happy to work on it in the months to come.
Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 1:50 am
Thanks, Heather!
Well, just in case you are interested, my two choices are:
1) The «media’s pet» phenomenon of Marks & Spencer – what does it take to stay in the headlines?
2) Role of communication at different stages of merger and acquisition processes
While the first one seems too trivial, it has many interesting aspects to write about: CSR, financial crisis, potential takeover, corporate identity.
The second topic is related to corporate & city PR, the fields I’d like to explore.However, it’s very general, and I won’t be able to get quality info on a case study to make it at least a little original. I don’t want to repeat what others have already said. If I could just modify this topic somehow, that would be great.
Would appreciate (and very much welcome:) any feedback from you !
Many thanks, Katya
Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 7:16 pm
I presume that you have to include primary research in your dissertation, which would affect the choice of topic.
If looking at M&S, then you’d need to be able to research the concept of maintaining media coverage and identifying academically “what it takes” in terms of models. If you don’t have access at the company, then you’d probably need to access journalists, which could be difficult. So a study on M&S that relied on say, media content analysis would need to be devised. Not impossible, but probably not the topic you’ve initially mentioned.
Again, looking at mergers and acquisitions implies you’d need case study research - could you access organisations? And, how would you assess the role of comms at different stages? I would imagine if you could do interviews etc then you’d be asking about what happened which would likely be unreliable and post-rationalised.
I can imagine a topic involving M&S that would be based on looking at a couple of areas - eg the relationship between media coverage of M&S and its share price - which could be useful in looking at how media relations contributes to the bottom line.
Or research into an aspect like CSR - or specifically Plan A - and how this has affected “public” perceptions of the organisation. By which I mean different publics.
Hope that helps.
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I’ve recently completed a brief literature review project looking into ethical approaches in public relations practise (or lack of), however rather struggled with references. As a result the mark was far from sufficient, although worth only 20% of the module grade. My next submission is however worth 60% and is the research proposal for my final 3rd year dissertation. As you can imagine, Im having great dificulty debating of whether or not to sustain this topic or move onto something different. Does anyone have any ideas of any other topics relating to PR?
Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Daniel, You sound unhappy with your grade for ethics, so I’d probably not continue with that topic and select another area of PR that interests you. There are zillions of possible topics relating to PR - why not start with a previous journal article or theoretical framework that you feel has something to say that you could build on or even challenge.
Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Hi Daniel - Heather’s advice is very sound - to perform to the best of your ability in an assignment, you’ve got to be interested to keep motivated (i find…).
On the subject of references, I’m struggling to find “traditional” academic references for my dissertation topic, as the local govt PR literature is almost all media relations focussed, and there’s not much academic research on social media to date. Most of my referneces are web/blogs, but according to my tutors this is ok given the topic. I have noted in my literature review about the lack of academic literature to show that I’ve considered / looked at those kind of sources.
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
The ethics subject was actually provoked by a journal, but no others were obviously apparent.
dont think research is my ‘forte’. lol
Will keep reading though and I’m certain I’ll find something suitable. I do agree with you Simon, it’s paramount you research something that interests you.
Many thanks guys and all the best,
Daniel
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Simon - there are some journal articles on new media you should check out so I’ll email you separately on this. Don’t forget the “classic” books re online media as well (from Scoble to Cluetrain) which have more value academically than blogs/websites.
Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Simon i am beginning final year this october and have been told to start thinking of ideas for my dissertation. i am quite interested in corporate identity and have recently completed my work placement within a council in my home town. do you think there is enough research ect on this or do you have any other ideas that i could go with?? im new to this whole process so just want a good angle to take
Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Hi Claire - not sure whether there is much research on local govt and identity per se, but it’s definitely an area that is important to local government.
In my experience councils need a well controlled brand identity, yet there is constant pressure to invent new identities/logos that confuse customers as they don’t know who is delivering the service (is it the council, a contractor, a charity?).
This can have wider impact on the council through things like performance assessment, ratings etc as residents aren’t clear what services their councils deliver.
Interesting area - I led a brand simplification piece of work at Medway Council, reducing the number of different identities and making things clearer for customers.
sw
Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Claire,
I think corporate identity is a great area for study (especially with organisations such as local authorities that often seem to confuse elements of brand identity such as logos with the entire way in which others identify them - or identify with them).
I really recommend Cees van Riel’s book “Principles of Corporate Communications” for getting to grips with issues around identity and image.
Good luck.