Introduction

Sometimes, the two terms are used interchangeably, so how do we tell the differ - ence? Grunig and Repper (1992: 124) suggest that ‘Publics form when stakeholders recognise . . . consequences (of the actions of an organisation) and organise to do something about it.’ A ‘public’ seems to be distinguished by the recognition of a problem, although we can see from Grunig’s own model above that some publics are deemed to be passive.