Bernhard Schieber

Situational Theory of Publics: Segment by the Problem People Perceive

Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 115

Awareness is not a route to action

Publics become communicatively active according to their recognition involvement and perceived ability to act on a specific issue

Premise

Communication campaigns often assume that everyone recognizes the same problem, feels equally connected to it, and can act with similar ease. Demographic segments then stand in for very different situations. James E. Grunig’s Situational Theory of Publics explains why people with similar backgrounds can seek, process, share, or act on information differently around the same issue.

The theory treats publics as issue-specific and dynamic. A person may be active around one problem, aware but constrained around another, and effectively a nonpublic on a third. For executives, this shifts segmentation from who people are toward what problem they perceive, how involved they feel, and what obstacles they believe limit action.

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Situational Theory of Publics — Awareness is not a route to action. Executive Insight Brief 123 by Bernhard Schieber.

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