View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Dayton University of Dayton eCommons Communication Faculty Publications Department of Communication 2014 The Role of Public Relations in Social Capital and Civic Engagement Weiwu Zhang Texas Tech University Alan Abitbol University of Dayton,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://ecommons.udayton.edu/cmm_fac_pub Part of the Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Public Relations and Advertising Commons, and the Religion Commons eCommons Citation Zhang, Weiwu and Abitbol, Alan, "The Role of Public Relations in Social Capital and Civic Engagement" (2014). Communication Faculty Publications. 45. http://ecommons.udayton.edu/cmm_fac_pub/45 This Conference Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of eCommons. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. The Role of Public Relations in Social Capital and Civic Engagement Abstract Public relations scholars have increasingly argued for the broader role of public relations and strategic communication in society (e.g., Taylor, 2010). That is, how can knowledge of public relations be used to make society better rather than simply making organizations more effective? This study examines how different types of public relations and strategic communication efforts contribute to citizens’ social capital and civic engagement. Specifically, this study uses data from the 2010 Pew Internet and American Life Project ‘Social Side of the Internet’ survey to examine the relationship between various strategic communication efforts by social, civic, professional, and religious organizations and individuals’ social capital and civic engagement.