Public Interest Communications Emerges in the 21st Century

College Park, Md. --

, University of Florida professor, addressed the University of Maryland’s chapter of PRSSA on March 4th, 2019. Christiano spoke about her passion for creating social change through communication with Public Interest Communication. Public Relations professionals, Maryland professors, PRSSA members and other interested students gathered together for this annual PRSSA Grunig lecture.

“The Grunig Gala series was created by Dr. Elizabeth L. Toth, Ph.D., Professor and honors James E. Grunig and Larissa A. Grunig by continuing to enrich the education of Maryland's public relations students,” according to the PRSSA website.

Chrisiano added to this enrichment of Maryland students by discussing her emerging field involving social advocacy.

Christiano is piloting the Public Interest Communication curriculum at University of Florida in their College of Journalism and Communications. As the director of the Public Interest Communications department, Christiano seeks to build upon the link between scholars and scientists in order to create social change.

“Policy, media, social marketing, the market, activism and communities of influence” are the six spheres through which social change occur, according to Christiano.

“There is no question that strong communication has influence on positive social change,” said Christiano. While being the head of the Public Interest Communication department, Ann emphasizes how social change throughout history can be attributed to effective communication strategies. Great journalists have the job of describing why and how the event they are reporting on took place. With Public Interest Communications, describing why and how social change should take place can prove to be valuable.

The Civil Rights Movement, which occurred throughout the 1960’s, saw numerous examples of public relations and Public Interest Communications techniques long before there was a name for either of these fields. Christiano sees The Birmingham Bus Boycott as one example of a stellar use of communication tactics to achieve social change. The effective communication that leaders of the movement conveyed in order to begin the movement resulted in a chain reaction of a 381-day-long boycott of the bus system in Birmingham.

“Yes, people were inconvenienced by the boycott, but they had their long term goals in mind,” Christiano said when connecting this one boycott to overall social change and long term progress for African Americans. This boycott gained a lot of traction for The Civil Rights Movement.

Mass communication, mainly through word of mouth, acted as a catalyst to create positive social change. This boycott is just one example of how effective communication is the beginning of every type of movement. The message of boycotting the buses was spread effectively; large initial participation inspired nearly full participation in the boycott overtime, creating eventual change.

Historical events like The Birmingham Bus Boycott are what drive Christiano to have such a passion in this emerging field of Public Interest Communications. This type of social impact starts with effective and clear communication that drives people to believe in the movement.