Action Alerts, p. 2
James Grunig's research on segmenting publics is the basis of many theories
incorporated in the public relations field. In one study, Grunig (1989) linked two well-
refined theories, situational theory and organizational theory, to predict communication
behaviors of publics and explain when publics become activists. This linkage explained
communication behavior and effects. Grunig intertwined these two theories with the
concepts of publics and activist groups to understand how these concepts interplay the
effects of membership and participation on the Potomac Chapter of the Sierra Club.
The purpose of this paper is to extend our knowledge of publics. It seeks to
understand the users of environmental online action alerts
The first part of the paper will
investigate who uses these alerts. What are the demographics of those who use this as a
means of public participation? The second part of the paper expands the understanding
from Grunig’s Sierra Club (1989) study by viewing publics through a specific application.
Grunig's study determined the predictive ability of the situational theory to explain
membership and participation in activist groups. This study's purpose uses the situational
theory to determine the relationship between online action alert users and participation
with activist groups. The paper rounds out the discussion by investigating the potential
constructs of empowerment from online action alert employing Elliot's use (1997) of
Sherwin's (1995) operationalization for empowerment
Activist groups can also benefit from
this research. Identifying the publics who use action alerts provides the ability for
researchers to segment the population. This segmentation will allow organizations to
design more effective communication messages. The redesigned messages will assist in
engaging their members and further improve the relationship building process between
organization and members.
Activist Publics
Convention