Public relations roles empirically verified among public relations practitioners in Africa
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- Articles
- Submited: October 19, 2022
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Published: October 24, 2022
Abstract
There is a lack of knowledge and understanding of the practice of public relations (PR)
in Africa, which prohibits the continent to fulfil its responsibility towards the global PR
society as well as other developing countries. Based on the findings of a master’s
dissertation on the practice of PR in Africa, this article focuses on one of the concepts
that were measured, namely PR roles.
The article discusses current literature in the field of roles research and describes the
empirical verification of two PR roles in Africa. Although the three roles of the PR
strategist, manager and technician were measured, only two roles emerged during the
factor analysis: the role of the strategist (Factor 1), and the combined roles of the
technician/manager (Factor 2).
The data was collected by means of a self-administered electronic questionnaire. Data
analysis consisted of both Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Common Factor Analysis
(CFA) where the underlying dimensions were extracted, indicating the items used to define
the PR roles.
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