Experiments

Experiments within Public Relations research are important because they give a different type of result than focus groups, surveys or any other type of research. Experiments are becoming more popular within public relations because they are "the most accurate indicator of causality in the behavioral sciences" (Hendrix & Hayes, 2010)." Experiments are often used in public relations "to determine which forms of communications or messages may be most effective with selective audiences (Hendrix & Hayes, 2010)."
The article from the Public Relations Review that I used in my weekly assignment has a direct relation to not only the reason of use for experiments quoted above, but also to the topic of my blog from week to week: blogging as a form of PR. The article did an experiment to find whether or not PR practitioners would start to use blogs and other forms of social media to accommodate their publics, or if they would just assume stick with the format of the company's they work for. In the experiment different scenarios were created for participants to read, and then they were instructed to fill out a questionnaire. The results proved that yes blogging and social media are becoming major factors within PR, but as of now, they are not a top priority when actually conducting PR. Professionals are more likely to use methods that have a longer history in the field than to jump into somehting so new just because it would more easily accommodate publics.
However, as we have learned in class, experiements can have sources of invalidity. Maybe there were some sources of invalidity within this experiment and blogging will become more of a go-to method when conducting public relations.

Hendrix, Jerry A., and Darrell C. Hayes. Public Relations Cases. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.