Communicating Corporate Ethos on the Web: The Self-Presentation of PR Agencies

Abstract

This research examines credibility in the discourse offered on the corporate Web sites of 60 British, Danish, and Norwegian public relations (PR) agencies. This study's purpose was to see whether the North European PR industry moves in the direction of convergence or divergence in their corporate self-presentations. The authors have done this by unfolding the rhetoric and language of PR agencies Web sites. In this process, this study tried to determine whether the rhetorical strategies they use to achieve credibility show signs across the industry of becoming more focused on the responsibilities, enthusiasm, and caring nature of corporations and less directed at communicating expertise. Thus, the study expected to show whether PR agencies seek to build credibility by way of much the same rhetorical strategies and language, or whether they pursue different strategies in trying to build unique images. In analyzing the data, it is found that PR agencies across the three countries assign similar relative importance to expertise, trustworthiness, and empathy, and interestingly also that they strongly prioritize explaining their expertise at the expense of expressing their empathy for clients. To begin to understand this reluctance toward incorporating empathy in discourse, the authors investigate the linguistic representation of this one central dimension to explain its complexity and to point to the potential of an untapped resource for strategically managing self-presentation in business communication.

National Cultures on European Corporate Homepages in English: A Linguistic Analysis

“…The next step was to establish a criterion for the selection of company websites. As pointed out in Isaksson and Jørgensen (2010, p. 128), who studied the websites of public relations companies, it is very difficult to “develop [ . .…”

Ethos and senior leader communication: Examining responses to a policy change memo

“…Aristotle's ethos framework has been used productively by other business communication scholars in previous studies (Beason, 1991;Eckhouse, 1999;Griffin, 2009;Hyland, 1998;Isaksson & Jørgensen, 2010;Kallendorf & Kallendorf, 1985;Stoddard 1985;Williams, 2008;Walzer, 1981). The framework can be particularly useful in a specific case of leader communication for both methodological and practical purposes.…”

“…Of the three modes of persuasive appeals, Aristotle considered ethos, which addresses judgments of speaker credibility, most important (Aristotle, 2007, p. 39). Additionally, many business communication scholars have argued for the relevance of ethos to business communication (Beason, 1991;Eckhouse, 1999;Griffin, 2009;Hyland, 1998;Isaksson & Jørgensen, 2010;Kallendorf & Kallendorf, 1985;Stoddard 1985;Williams, 2008;Walzer, 1981 and its relevance to crisis communication. Griffin (2009) found that ethos appeals were important for maintaining a positive corporate identity during a crisis and showed how Merck tried to develop a corporate identity of "understanding, sympathy, and trust" through public letters.…”

“…Expressions of ethos as it relates to corporate identity have also been examined in the ways public relations agencies attempt to express credibility. For example, Isaksson and Jørgensen (2010) found that public relations agencies convey expertise, trustworthiness, and empathy on their websites in order to build ethos.…”

“…Therefore, it is fitting to focus on what is occurring in the discourse to explore how audiences make judgments regarding ethos, as many businesscommunication scholars have done (Beason, 1991;Eckhouse, 1999;Griffin, 2009;Hyland, 1998;Isaksson & Jørgensen, 2010;Kallendorf & Kallendorf, 1985;Stoddard 1985;Williams, 2008;Walzer, 1981). Eckhouse (1999) …”