Applying the Network Perspective to Public Relations Theory and Practice

Public relations is more than the sum of its parts-organizations, publics, issues, messages, and relationships-it is the result of the interdependence among these parts. Some assume public relations works to ensure an organization’s survival by fostering relationships with stakeholders. However, this approach narrowly centers organizations and overlooks the connections among and between all parts in a system. A network perspective is an orientation to social phenomena where social actors and artifacts are interdependent. Applied to the field of public relations, such a perspective sees organizations and publics as directly and indirectly connected through issues, messages, and relationships. Network theory, which is set of ideas and collection of middle and micro range theories, uses network properties to make sense of how interdependencies and interactions are antecedents or outcomes of concepts like organization-public relationships or social capital. Network analysis is the methods for producing network metrics, testing relational hypothesis, and visualizations. We focus on social capital research to illustrate the capabilities of the network perspective in public relations theory. We conclude with considerations of how computational tools can conduct multiple, multidimensional analyses to further inform public relations practice and scholarship.