ABSTRACT
Public relations is about knowing the stakeholders, the issue, the situation, and building relationships with publics through strategic communications. This essential chapter provides an overview of research and touches upon types of research important to the public relations professional. The chapter also reviews key terms, public relations research topics, research designs, statistics in general, the importance of sampling and various sampling techniques, and key research techniques. The public relations practitioner uses research findings in several ways through the planning and implementation process including the pre-, during, and post-campaign periods. Information is garnered through the risk and issue management process (environmental scanning), from the situational analysis (defining the issue and identifying all relevant publics), and throughout the strategizing and planning phase. For the public relations practitioner, research has many purposes for internal organizational situations as well as external circumstances. In short, it allows for informed decision-making.
