The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication: A Guide to Internal Communication, Public Relations, Marketing, and Leadership

Research Tools for Effective Public Relations Measurement

While there is an array of research applications for public relations, we focus on three fundamental tools for scientific measurement and evaluation of public relations: news content analysis, survey research, and statistical modeling. While public relations is more than media relations, and the motivation for PR research is more than proving value and improving performance, the three areas explored here represent the most common forms of PR research and evaluation and reflect the most common motives.

Content Analysis

One popular application of secondary research is news content analysis, a method for tracking the activities or outputs of a PR program. Outputs might include news conferences, ...