Spokespersons and Message Control: How the CDC Lost Credibility during the Anthrax Crisis This paper was presented to the Red River Communication Conference April 22, 2004.

This study evaluates the role of spokespersons and message control in complex organizations facing ambiguous crises. Specifically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) response to the anthrax crisis in 2001 is offered as a case study. A textual analysis of CDC telebriefings and corresponding print media coverage of the anthrax crisis reveals the use of multiple spokespersons and poor message control resulted in a seemingly fragmented CDC message and apparent loss of CDC credibility. The study concludes that limiting the number of spokespersons and appropriate use of strategic ambiguity may afford organizations an opportunity to make sense of the situation, avoid confusing and contradictory messages and protect organizational credibility. Recommendations include (1) limiting the number of spokespersons, which allows for greater message control while reducing contradictory and inconsistent messages, (2) maintaining an organizational willingness to revise publicly stated positions as more accurate information becomes available, and (3) actively using strategic ambiguity as a mechanism to protect organizational credibility.     

A History of Ways of Seeing the Land: Environmental History at the National Museum of Australia

One of the distinctive features of the National Museum of Australia is the prominent role of environmental history in the Museum's programs and in its organizational structure. Environmental history is a field that operates best at the boundaries of science and the humanities, where the natural sciences and social history meet. The National Museum is one of few museums that facilitate this, drawing historians, geographers, archaeologists, earth scientists, and biologists into program development as members of the one curatorial and design team. This article discusses the advantages of environmental history as a strategic focus for the Museum, and looks at one of its major exhibitions.     

Testing the rhetoric of China's soft power campaign: a case analysis of its strategic ambiguity in the Six Party Talks over North Korea's nuclear program

China's soft power campaign has spawned many scholarly studies on it, but few have examined its rhetorical aspect. Through keyword analysis, this research examines strategic ambiguity in China's public affairs rhetoric surrounding the Six Party Talks over North Korea's nuclear program. The two keywords, ‘the Six Party Talks’ and ‘da ju’ (big picture, overall view), are semantically open and central to China's rhetoric in defining ‘What is it?’ and ‘Why is it?’ with regard to the talks. Analysis shows that strategic ambiguity contributed to some of China's goals. However, it was not adjusted when it stopped working. Its effectiveness was undercut by certain inconsistent messages, and da ju failed to differentiate between domestic and international political context and was also culturally maladaptive. This research contributes to public diplomacy and public affairs rhetoric research.     

Is It Necessary to be Clear? An Examination of Strategic Ambiguity in Family Business Mission Statements

Family businesses comprise the largest portion of organizations in the United States. Although much is known about how individuals interact in these businesses, little is known about how family businesses function at an organizational level. Family businesses are likely to use strategic ambiguity in their mission statements to allow for multiple interpretations of the same message by their stakeholders. This study analyzed the mission statements of the 20 largest family businesses in the United States to explore their use of strategic ambiguity. Family businesses used strategic ambiguity for the purposes of unified diversity, promoting varied understandings of goals, and for facilitating organizational change, but not for the purposes of deniability. This research begins to provide an explanation of the potential driving factors of family business mission statements.     

Indian field notes: new institutionalism and journalism education

This paper utilizes the theoretical framework of new institutionalism and a two-year qualitative study of three Indian journalism schools to explore the manner by which influences from the organizational field of American journalism education have spread across borders. The study locates and details a system of supranational institutional carriers and finds evidence of both institutional isomorphism, whereby the Indian schools structurally emulate established American programs, and ceremonial conformity, whereby the Indian schools enact a façade of isomorphism. The findings ultimately suggest a new layer of complexity – the influence of the organizational field – be included within the larger discussion of why journalism education looks the way it does around the world.     

European public service television and the cultural‐educational logic: A comparative analysis of children's and youth programming

One of the most recurrent themes in studies on European television trends, is that the policies of liberalization and deregulation have caused the industry to follow a more market‐oriented or crass commercial logic. New technologies and policies have led to an explosion in the number of commercial channels; new financial, organizational and programming strategies; increasing pressure from advertising and multinationals; and a decreasing role of the state in production and distribution.

This paper looks at how such pressures have affected the policies of European public service broadcasters (PSBs), by concentrating on their traditional commitment to education in an analysis of children's and youth programmes as an index of this change.     

Managing knowledge to support the patient journey in NHS Scotland: strategic vision and practical reality

BACKGROUND: The strategy for NHS Scotland Knowledge Services is set in the context of a global transition to a networked model of management within health services. OBJECTIVES: Development planning for NHS Scotland aims to establish strategic vision and operational delivery systems which meet the needs of this changing health environment. METHODS: Analysis of knowledge needs at strategic organizational level and through consultation with healthcare staff form the basis of a vision of seamless knowledge support throughout all stages of the patient journey, based on a hybrid model of complementary human- and technology-based knowledge networks. RESULTS: The central role of the NHS Scotland e-library as a system-wide technology infrastructure facilitating management of both explicit and tacit knowledge is described. The implementation pathway and approaches to evaluation are outlined, based on practical steps to translate the concept of knowledge networks into a working reality. CONCLUSIONS: The model emerging is that of a knowledge matrix, with the primary delivery system comprising inter-dependent human, organizational and technology-based networks focused on the overriding common purpose of improving patient care.     

The Bishop and the Gargoyle: A Study of Network-Produced Prime-Time Church-Set Dramatic Old-Time Radio Programs

This research examines dramatic old-time radio programs produced by the networks to identify prime-time shows that focused regularly and principally on ecclesiastics- people in service to the institutional church. Although many such programs appeared on prime-time broad- cast television, this study reveals that only one such program aired in the history of prime-time radio. The article draws a profile of this program, The Bishop and the Gargoyle, looking at how it represents ecclesiastics. The aim is to contribute to an understanding of how popular culture represents the institutional church and its leaders, here adding a review of radio to the existing literature that looks at the church's representation in television and movies. The study also considers why church-set network-produced prime-time programs were so scarce in old-time radio.     

A Qualitative and Quantitative Study of Social Media Communicators: An Extension of Role Theory to Digital Media Workers

The life of knowledge workers in the information age is enwrapped in both uncertainty and opportunity. Organizations have faced ill-defined times by placing their confidence in the ability of digitally literate workers. We explored how social media communicators navigate the role stressors of this recently developed organizational position. The qualitative results revealed communicators struggled with and managed role ambiguity by relying on outside social media experts and Web analytics. A separate international quantitative survey of social communicators showed organizational leadership and social media self-development activities diminished levels of perceived ambiguity. The implications of this research suggest that organizational leaders possess minimal authority and influence in defining the role of knowledge workers.     

Paradoxes of Strategic Renewal in Traditional Print-Oriented Media Firms

This article continues and extends the emerging scholarship of strategic media management by examining the day-to-day challenges that media managers face when managing strategic renewal in traditional print-oriented media firms. The aim, in particular, is to shed light on the tensions and paradoxical situations that middle managers need to deal with in contexts where taken-for-granted industry recipes and well-established business practices have become problematized as a result of industry-wide technological and cultural change. Based on an empirical case study, the article identifies and elaborates on three interconnected paradoxes, rooted in the history of the company and past decisions of its top-management: (1) balancing employees’ needs for stability with organizational needs for change; (2) bridging employees’ needs for security and tradition and the organizational need for learning and taking risks; as well as (3) reconciling employees’ needs to “focus on themselves” with organizational needs to collaborate for collective success. Theoretically, the article contributes to the literature by working toward a new paradox perspective on managing strategic renewal in media organizations. This theoretical perspective is offered as an interpretive framework for empirically exploring and critically examining the dynamics and complexities of strategic media management in the continuously changing business environments of the industry.     

Girls rule!: gender,feminism, and nickelodeon

Nickelodeon is a powerful commercial cable network of television, internet activities, toy manufacturing, and video production. The network has been recognized by both industry professionals and media scholars for its representation of girls as strong, intelligent lead characters. Focusing on entertainment programs Clarissa Explains It All and As Told by Ginger, as well as on Nickelodeon's non‐fiction children's news program, Nick News, I argue that the media context of girl power, combined with the increasing recognition of adolescent girls as both powerful citizens and consumers, offers what at times looks like a radical gesture in terms of disrupting dominant gender relations. However, we can also read the mainstream embrace of girl power as a restabilization of particular categories of gender, so that this “radical” challenge moves toward the entrenchment of conventional gender relations.     

An analysis of role conflict and role ambiguity within the cancer information service's communication network

This research examines the relationship between individuals' positions in a communication network and their corresponding levels of role conflict and role ambiguity. As part of a larger research program, the data for this study were collected at two points in time from members within the Cancer Information Service (N = 56), an award winning information service of the National Cancer Institute. In general, findings suggest lower levels of role conflict and ambiguity experienced by members of the CIS. In addition, neither the role conflict model nor the role ambiguity model were consistent with the data. Revised models, however, did suggest that experiencing role conflict and role ambiguity may lead to a decrease in the perception that a person is powerful within one's network. In addition, as members' interpersonal contacts increased, levels of role conflict and role ambiguity between regional offices and the National Cancer Institute decreased. The implications of these results for the CIS and other organizations are discussed.     

Law School Firms and Incubators and the Role of the Academic Law Library

This article examines the recently developed postgraduate, law-school-supported programs intended to provide recent graduates with a continued experiential learning environment in order to bridge the gap between law school and law practice. Both law school firms and practice incubators are discussed. Specifically, this article looks at what, if any, role academic law libraries have within these programs. Lastly, ways in which these libraries might possibly add or improve services to the programs are explored.     

两岸电子杂志经营模式比较分析研究

网络时代来临,对平面媒体造成的冲击与日俱增,消费者的阅读体验也开始改变,加上不同的载体和素材的混搭,数字出版的形式愈来愈多元,连杂志出版也不得不转换全新经营思维来面对数字时代的媒体发展趋势。本研究从两岸电子杂志市场现况,分析经营模式之异同并进行对比,总结两岸电子杂志产业发展的问题。期许两岸的杂志出版业者打破传统思维,开始思考新的杂志出版形式,是否能有新的经营模式来突破现有产业困境。     

Socialization,resocialization, and communication relationships in the context of an organizational change

This investigation explores the influence of perceptions of socialization tactics' use and communication relationships on employees at the initiation of and 4 months into an organizational restructuring. Results of this longitudinal investigation reveal that employees (N = 72) report considerable changes in perceptions of organizational socialization/resocialization efforts. Results also indicate that both perceptions of socialization tactics' use and communication relationships contribute to decreased role ambiguity and role conflict and increased commitment at the initiation of the restructuring and four months later. However, the influence of these factors on the dependent variables changes over time. These findings are discussed in relation to recent research on organizational entry and change, and suggestions are made for future research.     

An operational view of the role of health librarians in informatics

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