Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2003-04-21 An External Communication Audit of the National Tropical Botanical Garden Jennifer Melody Murdock Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Communication Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Murdock, Jennifer Melody, "An External Communication Audit of the National Tropical Botanical Garden" (2003). Theses and Dissertations. 63. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/63 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. AN EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION AUDIT OF THE NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN by Jennifer Melody Peay Murdock A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Communications Brigham Young University April 2003 Copyright © 2003 Jennifer Melody Peay Murdock All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT AN EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION AUDIT OF THE NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN Jennifer Melody Peay Murdock Department of Communications Master of Arts This study presents the results of an external communication audit of the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG), a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of tropical plant diversity. Information was gathered during the communication audit through interviews with NTBG’s key decision makers, content analyses of NTBG’s primary publications, and a questionnaire measuring the public- organization relationship. The audit assesses NTBG’s external communication policies, practices, capabilities, and needs in the context of systems theory and external relations strategic planning theories.