The Bojonegoro Regency in Indonesia’s East Java province holds great potential in the oil and gas sector, which is important for supporting the regional economy. This study set out to determine how oil and gas companies communicate corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes to stakeholders by analysing the motives behind involving local NGOs in implementing CSR and comparing communication approaches between the multinational oil company ExxonMobil Cepu Limited and domestic gas company PT Pertamina EP Cepu. Thematic mapping was utilised to visualise the relationships between the main themes constructed from the data. The findings highlight the key role of local NGOs in managing CSR, namely serving as communication channels, empowering beneficiaries, and maintaining a strong performance track record that is closely linked to oil mining locations. NGOs also fulfil a dual role, namely carrying out tasks that may prioritise corporate interests over community welfare, and acting as contractors or project partners for implementing programmes that may differ from their original mission.

Rethinking internal communication from a community perspective has been advocated, but little is available on the communication principles underpinning internal community-building. This qualitative case study of a South African retirement village, where semi-structured interviews with management, as well as focus groups with residents were used to collect data, enabled the inductive identification of four communication principles that foster internal communities within this non-traditional internal context:  participation and collaboration, and shared values (both of which were previously identified in the building of communities), and inclusivity and a sense of belonging, and transparency and ethical communication (of which neither was previously linked to internal community-building). These four principles align with the two-way symmetrical communication worldview and the African philosophy of ubuntu; their identification extends the public relations body of knowledge on community building through internal communication in the South African context.

Radio stations conduct outside broadcasts to create awareness of their brands, promote their business clients’ interests, invest in their communities, and interact with their listeners. The outside broadcast is considered the most difficult form of radio broadcasting. Yet the experiences radio personalities encounter during outside broadcasts are under-explored in academic literature. This study explored the factors that impact positively and negatively on outside broadcast performance and interaction; and established the interplay between these two concepts. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with eleven radio personalities at a central South African community radio station. The data analysis was driven by theory (Goffman’s dramaturgical model of social interaction) and a thematic content analysis. The findings suggest that outside broadcasts involve four finely tuned components that work in tandem to enable radio personalities to perform and interact in meaningful ways with their respective audiences. These are control of the setting, accessibility to performing zones, teamwork, and creative script. The recommendations for best practice may assist radio stations in connecting more meaningfully with their clients and listeners.

Advances in technology allow organisations to collect and analyse huge volumes of data from a wide variety of sources. Analytics data (raw data to be analysed) gleaned from internal and external sources is transforming the world of business and also the public relations (PR) profession by informing decision-making. Despite the potential that analytics data holds for PR, few studies have examined how analytics data is being appropriated into PR functions. Premised on the excellence theory of PR, the concept of technological appropriation, and in-depth interviews with purposively selected PR practitioners, this study investigated how PR practitioners in South Africa are harnessing analytics data to enhance decision-making. The findings of the study confirm that PR practitioners are appropriating analytics data to enhance their practice. However, the appropriation of analytics data is still confined to the technical and managerial functions with little evidence suggesting that practitioners are harnessing analytics data to inform the PR strategist function. The findings suggest extending insights gleaned from analytics data to the PR strategist function for the profession to add more value to organisations.

The city of Cartagena in Colombia is recognised worldwide as a tourist destination with great wealth in terms of historical and cultural heritage. Tourists from all over the world visit the city, and have diverse experiences and opinions about the city. Advertising communication and the media contribute to the positioning of the city-brand with members of the tourist communities, understanding that each of them has different places of origin, varied ages and a different consumption of media. The objective of this study was to investigate the perception that a selected tourist community has about Cartagena as a tourist destination, considering demographic factors and the recall of advertising communication about the city in different media. After analysing the results from a survey of more than 400 tourists during a three-month period in 2023, it is concluded that their perception of the city is structured by a combination of positive and negative opinions. The place of origin, the age range and the various media have different relations with regard to the recall of advertising messages about the city, which encourages the development of tourism promotional strategies based on demographic and psychographic factors.

Cet essai analyse la notion de « travail décent » en suivant trois lignes principales, à savoir les bases juridiques, les éléments de définition et les potentialités. Le développement de cette notion a été fortement encouragé par des recommandations, des conventions et des outils de l’Organisation internationale du Travail (OIT). En ce qui concerne le droit de l’Union européenne, le « travail décent » est inscrit avant tout dans les dispositions du Traité sur l’Union européenne (TUE) et dans les articles de la Charte des droits fondamentaux. Certaines directives récentes de l’UE sont aussi particulièrement intéressantes. Dans le cadre juridique prédéfini, cette notion est destinée, dans un contexte de plus en plus mondialisé, à faire face à la fois à la crise environnementale, à la crise économique et sociale, ainsi qu’au phénomène associé de l’augmentation des personnes exposées au risque d’exclusion sociale. À ce sujet, dans de nombreux pays, on parle de « pauvreté au travail » en se référant non seulement à la valeur économique attribuée au travail, mais aussi aux conditions mêmes de la relation contractuelle. Cela s’applique aux personnels employés dans le secteur des services, qui comprend différents types de prestation de travail, en particulier à la suite de la pandémie de COVID-19. Dans les sources juridiques supranationales (conventionnelles et européennes), le « travail décent » sous-entend en effet l’application de droits minimaux, dont celui à une rétribution équitable, à une protection sociale appropriée et à des conditions de travail saines et sûres. En outre, le concept comprend non seulement le travail subordonné en entreprise, mais aussi le vaste univers du travail illégal (ou, selon la terminologie européenne, « non déclaré »), qui suggère l’exigence d’une nouvelle règlementation non liée à l’existence d’une relation de dépendance au sens propre, afin que le travail soit décent pour tous. En ce sens, la notion exposée ci-dessus identifie la nécessité, dans une perspective d’avenir, d’élargir le champ de l’outil règlementaire à des formes de travail « plurielles » et en particulier aux activités de l’économie informelle (anciennes et actuelles). Nous nous référons par exemple aux prestations de travail via le numérique dans le secteur de la restauration, pour lesquelles le risque que les droits permettant un travail décent soient niés est parmi les plus élevés. Enfin, cette conception du travail exprime l’idée selon laquelle l’équilibre entre croissance économique et justice sociale est nécessaire à la lutte contre la pauvreté et au développement durable. Le potentiel du travail décent au demeurant consiste justement à lutter contre la pauvreté pour l’éradiquer en vue d’un monde meilleur.

This study investigated the coverage of COVID-19 in Vietnam to understand what types of information can be published, how accurate it is, and if media bias exists. The results show that media biases are more clearly presented during the gathering and editing stages of news production. Although COVID-19 received a heightened frequency of reporting, news articles about this topic had limited use of sources, provide mostly general information and statistics, and lack of scientific quality. These results are intended to provide public health authorities and news audience with an understanding of how a health event is presented in the media.

Calls have resonated within media scholarship and practice for more ethical oversight in the production and distribution of media content by producers through ethical frameworks. This article intervenes in the literature on the global debate around media ethics frameworks by focusing on the underexploredvalue of human dignity in the context of television reality shows. The article makes two interventions in relation to the value of dignity, one theoretical and another applied. The theoretical intervention, contrary to the tendency to rely on Western cultures and theories to conceptualise human dignity, draws from a Global South perspective, specifically from the African ethical idea of Ubuntu that proffers a relational (as opposed to an individualist) conception of human dignity. The applied ethics intervention responds to the scant literature focusing on the representation of human dignity in media ethics. The article uses Ubuntu’s theory of human dignity to compare the representation of participants on similar factual television shows from the United States of America (USA) and South Africa depicting relational infidelity. Multimodal critical discourse analysis from three episodes of Cheaters and three episodes of South Africa’s Uyajola 9/9 (n=6) reveal that human dignity in the representation of the participants in these two shows is often neglected in the media production process, leaving many questions about the global and local media ethics of these two reality shows.

This study sought to explore the safety risks female journalists working in Ghana`s rural and peri-urban media encounter while doing their work, how safe they feel and how they are coping with safety breaches. Thirteen semi-structured interviews with female journalists employed by Ghanaian broadcast media outlets in rural and peri urban areas were undertaken. Guided by Braun and Clark’s (2006) six steps for qualitative data analysis, interview transcripts were thematically analysed. It was found that physical and emotional security threats; poor working conditions were the main threats to female journalists working in Ghana’s rural and peri urban media. While there are generally bad working conditions, some participants believe that men receive more benefits and opportunities for professional growth than women. Compared to their male peers, females are occasionally ridiculed and refused training and professional opportunities. When there are safety violations, employers generally offer little assistance. Female journalists cope with violations and insecurities by self-censoring, avoiding working during specific hours of the day, and steering clear of reporting conflicts, politics, and elections as a safety measure. The study recommends that to avoid maladaptive actions by journalists, media organisations address the safety needs of their female journalists. Journalists themselves should look out for personal security initiatives to enhance their skills.

In today’s dynamic business environment, every avenue that can contribute to fostering business performance has to be embraced. Interest in the contribution of communication to organisational effectiveness and performance has increased considerably in the last few decades. Despite positive claims made by advocates of adventure-based experiential learning programmes (AEL), the expansion of AEL into business schools and the corporate world necessitates ongoing empirical investigations. The aim of the study was to determine the developmental impact of a one-day programme on the communication competence of adult learners at a business school. The Communicative Adaptability Scale was administered as pre- and post-test measurement to adult learners with a permanent work appointment who enrolled for a qualification in management leadership in a business school at a university in South Africa. The overall post-test scores of the experimental group (n=140) were significantly higher (p=0.0001) than the post-test scores of the control group (n=126). The post-test scores of five dimensions differed significantly (p<0.05) from the post-test scores of the control group. The findings indicate the potential efficacy of an AEL course for the development of communication competence in adult learners. Ongoing research directed at principles underlying the application of particular methodologies and other programmatic factors to maximise efficacy in reaching the desired outcomes of the interventions, are required.