Negotiating public policy: Are there roles for the media and public relations?

• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Author: Kenneth D. Plowman,Susan B. Walton
• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2148

ACADEMIC PAPER

Negotiating public policy: Are there roles for the media

and public relations?

Kenneth D. Plowman

1

|Susan B. Walton

2

1

School of Communications, Brigham Young

University, Provo, Utah

2

Department of Communication, Brigham

Young University-Idaho, Rexburg, Idaho

Correspondence

Kenneth D. Plowman, School of

Communications, Brigham Young University,

Provo, UT.

Email: plowman@byu.edu

This study evaluated the use of 10 conflict resolution strategies in public relations/

public affairs to help those in public policy understand, prepare for, and not underes-

timate the significant role the media and public relations will play in a public dispute

and help the media to understand their unique responsibilities when reporting on

public policy negotiations. The abiding question for this research was, “What were

the mediator roles for the news media and public relations (PR) in the decision to

build the Real Salt Lake stadium?”A case analysis of the content of media reports,

and news releases was initially conducted, and initial patterns and themes were iden-

tified to construct an interview protocol and to set up the interviews. Twelve inter-

views were then conducted. Bias in this study was controlled through triangulation

and reflexivity. The qualitative computer analysis program NVivo was applied to

determine final patterns and themes. No one theory can explain the real interactions

of a multiple party negotiation. Contention spread from the issue, to the process, to

the media, and back again. The media both set agendas and have agendas set for

them. The media cannot be totally neutral because they are part of the public negoti-

ation process. The conflict resolution strategies of contention, cooperation, princi-

pled, avoidance, perseverance, and mediation were all used in this process. This case

study is at the forefront of research involving public relations and conflict resolution.

It brings together a number of other fields as well to evaluate a real public policy

negotiation.

1|INTRODUCTION

This study will advance research conducted at the intersection of pub-

lic relations (PR) and conflict resolution to explore such questions:

When public policy negotiations—any kind of protracted public

discussion—take place in front of the media, does that change the fun-

damental fabric of the discussion itself? Do policymakers act differ-

ently when the media are a key public, and do the media, in turn,

frame the story differently because they were a party to the discus-

sion? And, what is the role of public relations with the media in a

dispute?

As preliminary research the authors conducted a role play series

of negotiations in a college-level public policy communications course.

The objective of the exercise was to explore the role of the media in

the public policy negotiation process as well as to explore its potential

impact on the outcomes of that process. The negotiating parties were

involved in the policy discussions concerning the construction of the

Real Salt Lake soccer stadium, a major-league soccer stadium for the

Salt Lake City–based Real Salt Lake team (RSL) in the United States.

Conclusions reached in this study answered the questions in the first

paragraph above, as “yes,”public conversations take on a different

character when discussants play directly to a media audience. The

exercise also raised other questions: “How can public policy practi-

tioners deal effectively with media scrutiny in the real world? How, if

at all, can the media be leveraged as an effective public relations tool

in public policy negotiations?”(See Figure 1).

The above questions led to the current study. Since the soccer

stadium has been in place for about 10 years, much of the social and

political sensitivity regarding the issue has passed giving improved

access to the parties involved. More specifically, this study examined

Received: 28 May 2019Accepted: 4 March 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2148

J Public Affairs. 2020;20:e2148.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd1of10

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2148