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STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION: A CRITICAL EVALUATION
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CHAPTER 1
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION:
A CRITICAL EVALUATION
Dr. Ahmet Cevdet AŞKIN1
1
Independent researcher, Istanbul/Turkey, ahmetcevdetaskin@[Link], ORCID
ID: 0000-0002-2049-2941
3
4 Communication Studies In The New World
INTRODUCTION
The construction process of strategic communication as a scientific
discipline in social sciences, and the discussions it has created have
been going on for 15 years. The power of the word ―strategy‖ due to
its military connotation attracts both scholars and managers. The
scope of the concept of strategic communication has gradually
expanded with the contributions made over time, an internationally
respected journal that includes scientific studies in this field - The
International Journal of Strategic Communication - has begun to be
published, and last but not least, universities have added strategic
communication as an interdisciplinary discipline to their postgraduate
programs. However, the debates on whether strategic communication
is an integrated scientific discipline continue.
The concept of strategic communication entered the communication
studies literature for the first time in 2007 with Defining Strategic
Communication. The article’s contributors defined strategic
communication as "the purposeful use of communication to fulfill an
organization's mission" and pointed out in this context that "people
engage in planned communication activities in favor of organizations,
causes, and social movements" (Hallahan, Holtzhausen, van Ruler,
Verčič, & Sriramesh, 2007: 3, 4).
As a result of the contributions made to the field after the publication
of this seminal article, the scope of the concept of strategic
communication expanded to include the public sphere. Holtzhausen &
Zerfass (2013) described it as "the practice of deliberate and
5
purposive communication that a communication agent enacts in the
public sphere on behalf of a communicative entity to reach set goals."
According to Holtzhausen, these entities "cover the full spectrum of
economic and social sectors, such as trade and industry, politics,
nonprofit and government agencies, activist groups, and even
celebrities in the sports and entertainment industries" (2008: 4849).
Conceptual expansion continued, and most researchers started to look
at the matter from a broader perspective and think of strategic
communication as an umbrella term denoting any communication by
any actor to serve the interests of any constituency (Zerfass, Verčič,
Northhaft, & Werder, 2018: 488). Several communicative disciplines
such as public relations, organizational communication, marketing
communication, and corporate communication came together under
this umbrella term.
By the way, there emerged a group of scholars questioning the
scientific development level. Those who think that strategic
communication lacks a coherent theoretical synthesis and that the
problem stems from that shortcoming suggest focusing on
communication theories as a way out. These circles argue that
strengthening the communication science perspective will facilitate a
coherent theoretical integration process (Lock, Wonneberger,
Verhoeven, & Hellsten, 2020).
In this study, after addressing the development of strategic
communication as a scientific discipline within the framework of the
formation and integration of disciplines, it will be discussed how the
6 Communication Studies In The New World
scope of concept expanded over time, and a critical perspective will be
presented.
1. FORMATION AND INTEGRATION OF SCIENTIFIC
DISCIPLINES
The historical development of scientific disciplines provides an
essential context for the concept of interdisciplinary. Science was a
system of loyal members who fulfilled the requirements of a major
discipline such as theology or philosophy for centuries in the Middle
Age. Modern scientific disciplines were formed in the 19th and 20th
centuries when empirical disciplines declared their independence one
by one. The segregation and specialization of disciplines affected the
whole of intellectual life. A movement towards unity emerged again
towards the end of the 20th century. However, this union was not in
the style of medieval strict subordination systems. Instead, there was
an open-minded meeting of disciplines and the acquisition and
development of knowledge through interdisciplinary work (Stember,
1991).
Stichweh (2001) lists the generally accepted features of a scientific
discipline as follows:
• Having a particular object of research
• Having a body of accumulated specialist knowledge about
their object of research
• Having theories and concepts that organize the accumulated
specialist knowledge effectively
7
• Using specific terminologies
• Having specific research methods
• Having some institutional manifestation
As the original knowledge base of a scientific discipline expands in
parallel with theoretical and empirical developments, it paves the way
for the emergence of new disciplines. Such a stage of scientific
development can be described as a moment of interdisciplinarity.
According to Klein and Newell (1998), interdisciplinarity is to
construct a more comprehensive perspective by using the perspectives
of different disciplines and integrating their insights in a subject that is
too broad or complex that a single discipline or profession cannot
adequately tackle. Considering the integration of scientific disciplines
as a cyclical process, Stember (1991) offers the following descriptive
scheme for the intradisciplinary, crossdisciplinary, multidisciplinary,
interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary phases:
Figure 1: Scientific Integration Cycle (Stember, 1991)
8 Communication Studies In The New World
The cycle starts with intradisciplinary or, in other words, with a single
discipline and continues with a crossdisciplinary phase. At this stage,
the discipline is viewed from the perspective of another discipline. For
example, the discipline of art history looks at art from a historical
perspective. After that comes the multidisciplinary stage, where
several disciplines come into play, each offering a different
perspective on a problem or topic. For example, the fact that scholars
from the disciplines such as history, literature, and sociology teach in
a doctoral program on the social situation of women makes the
program multidisciplinary. In this framework, the doctoral student is
supposed to integrate the perspectives and ideas of different
disciplines. The next stage is interdisciplinarity. Here, there is an
integration of the contributions from various disciplines to a problem.
In other words, with interdisciplinary integration, harmonious
relations are established in line with a particular strategy between
independent knowledge clusters. The final stage of the cycle is
transdisciplinary, where intellectual frameworks merge beyond
disciplinary perspectives. The cycle repeats itself when it comes to
this stage, but now a new discipline has emerged (Stember, 1991).
The integration pointed out by Klein and Newell has crucial
importance for interdisciplinary research; this is the point of its
distinction from multidisciplinary research (Szostak, 2013). As a
result of a true integration process that gathers the documents of the
common scientific basis, a more comprehensive understanding that
brings together facts, theories, and/or methods from different
disciplines emerges (Repko, Newell, & Szostak, 2012). Such
9
integration is characterized by an understanding of the importance of
the parts of something only in reference to the whole (Bergmann et al.,
2012).
Based on what has been mentioned above regarding the development
of scientific disciplines, it is argued that strategic communication can
be characterized as a discipline. Because it has a specific research
object such as the communication of organizations, accumulated
specialist knowledge as a result of a journal (International Journal of
Strategic Communication), an encyclopedia (International
Encyclopedia of Strategic Communication), and a handbook (The
Routledge Handbook of Strategic Communication); also it has theories
and concepts such as persuasion and communication field, particular
terminologies such as strategy and representation; specific research
methods such as survey, content analysis, in-depth interview, and
institutional manifestations such as postgraduate programs and
company sections (Werder, Nothhaft, Verčič, & Zerfass, 2018). In this
context, the interdisciplinarity of strategic communication can be
shown as follows:
10 Communication Studies In The New World
Figure 2: Strategic Communication (Werder, Nothhaft, Verčič, & Zerfass, 2018)
This Venn diagram also illustrates the difficulty in the integration
process of strategic communication as an interdisciplinary science due
to its relationships with many disciplines.
2. EXPANSION OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
CONCEPT
The term "strategic communication" was coined in the early 21st
century, after the terms "communication management" and "corporate
communication" were replaced by the term "public relations," which
was increasingly disgraced and despised in the late 20th century.
A research conducted for 43 countries in Europe in 2011 showed that
the term "public relations" has been largely disgraced. Instead,
corporate communication, especially for the business world, and
strategic communication for nonprofit and government agencies were
the most preferred terms. In the third place came "communication
11
management." Public relations ranked last in preference (Zerfass,
Verhoeven, Tench, Moreno, & Vercic, 2011).
After the article Defining Strategic Communication was published in
the first issue of the International Journal of Strategic
Communication in 2007, the authors' strategic communication
description became the primary reference for discussions and research
in this field. Accordingly, in the broadest sense, strategic
communication is the purposeful use of communication to fulfill an
organization's mission. The strategic communication process is
typically a communication process carried out according to a strategic
plan of the organization and concentrates on communication in
achieving its strategic goals and objectives (Holtzhausen, & Zerfass,
2015).
The first phase in the expansion of the concept was experienced with
the involvement of the public sphere. Since the public sphere is
essentially composed of communication institutions of a society and
information and ideas are circulated through these institutions
(McNair, 2003), the approach to the concept in terms of the public
sphere has become inevitable. Holtzhausen & Zerfass (2013) define
strategic communication as the planned and purposeful activity of a
communication agent operating on behalf of an entity in the public
sphere to achieve the determined goals.
A decade after the concept of strategic communication was coined,
claims continued to be made that the term was attractive but vague
and not clearly defined. Some scholars contended that the status of
12 Communication Studies In The New World
strategic communication as a discipline was not clear, and the
variations in strategy and communication have not been thoroughly
investigated. Many researchers have tended to broaden their
perspective, and eventually, strategic communication has come to be
seen as an umbrella term denoting communication carried out by any
actor serving the interests of any environment (Zerfass, Verčič,
Northhaft, & Werder, 2018: 487-488). In this context, the concept is
described as follows: ―Strategic communication encompasses all
communication that is substantial for an entity's survival and
sustained success. Specifically, strategic communication is the
purposeful use of communication by an organization or other entity to
engage in conversations of strategic significance to its goals‖
(Zerfass, Verčič, Northhaft, & Werder, 2018: 493). The authors point
out that the definition implies critical points. The first one is that not
all purposive communications are strategic. Communication in
running day-to-day activities is not strategic. However, this
communication can also make significant contributions to the
achievement of goals.
Second, strategically essential conversations can occur in various
areas, from traditional and social media to conversations between
consumers and employees. Therefore, the changing communication
environment and technological developments should be taken into
account. Third, communication means giving and receiving messages.
Any communication channel can be used for this purpose. Finally, the
term ―entity‖ includes companies, governments, non-governmental
organizations, social movements, and publicly known persons such as
13
celebrities and politicians (Zerfass, Verčič, Northhaft, & Werder,
2018: 493).
3. CURRENT SHORTCOMINGS IN THEORY AND
RESEARCH
It is argued that strategic communication research is theoretically very
weak and cannot provide insights beyond common sense (Lock,
Wonneberger, Verhoeven, & Hellsten, 2020).
Nothhaft argues that ―strategic communication is a more stringent
concept than public relations, marketing communication, or corporate
communication. But it has inherited the problems of the disciplines it
united. And it is plagued by the very deficiencies of the social sciences
in general.‖ (2016: 71). According to him, strategic communication
researches converge very little; results obtained from them do not
seem coming together; absolute progress, that is, accumulation of
verified knowledge, is inadequate.
A descriptive profile of strategic communication studies reveals the
situation in the field. Werder, Nothhaft, Verčič, & Zerfass (2018), in
their study on 207 articles published in the internationally respected
journal of strategic communication, International Journal of Strategic
Communication, in 11 years, found that disciplinary communication
grew, the number of articles published in that period doubled, and
international attention increased. They found that although studies
were concentrated in the USA, scientists in Europe and Asia also
focused on strategic communication. However, it is also stated that
strategic communication studies cannot reach high levels of
14 Communication Studies In The New World
disciplinary integration. Only half of the articles published in the
journal for 11 years have approached strategic communication from a
multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective. Thinking that a
multidisciplinary approach will not facilitate the growth and
development of strategic communication as a unique field of study,
the authors observed that the articles on interdisciplinary integration
remained at a relatively low level of 21 percent.
Although there is progress towards disciplinary integration in general,
theoretical stringency appears to be contested as ―the pieces in the
mosaic should come together as a body of knowledge, in other words,
not merely a corpus of texts‖ (Nothhaft, Werder, Verčič, & Zerfass,
2018).
CONCLUSION: Strategic Communication or Strategic Approach
to Communication?
It would be too easy to explain with scholars and researchers'
insufficient efforts that strategic communication studies have been
inadequate in integrating towards the construction of a scientific
discipline. First of all, the strategic communication definition
suggested in 2007 and expanding this definition over time seem to be
the primary source of the problem. In other words, parallel to the
expanding state of the research object, the convergence of studies in
the field, which is supposed to accelerate the disciplinary integration,
seems delayed.
On the other hand, using the concept of strategic communication as a
substitute for public relations and corporate communication causes
15
this scientific discipline-building initiative to contribute to companies'
image work. This substitution creates the perception that a word such
as strategy, which is appealing and can increase the importance of
whatever subject it is attributed to, is called for help to advance
corporate interests.
By applying a Foucaultian approach to the construction of strategic
communication as an interdisciplinary science, it could be suggested
that there is a new discourse order setup as well as a revaluation,
distribution, and sharing of knowledge. However, every discourse
order also includes the seizure of desire and power (Foucault, 1987).
Opening a new chapter in the scientific field, which is the object of
desire, is also an attempt to make those who open it have power.
Therefore, as long as strategic communication maintains its claim as
an interdisciplinary science, it will have the potential to access and
possess power as a discourse order in which its pioneers and
maintainers have a say. However, the established discourse order has
the potential to empty itself with its functioning. According to
Foucault, the reference system works in this direction in scientific
discourse: ―Referring to an author in the order of scientific discourse
was necessary during the Middle Age because a reference was an
indication of truth. Since the seventeenth century, this function has
gradually disappeared from scientific discourse: it now functions only
to name a theorem, a fact, an example, a symptom‖ (1987: 35). From
this perspective, strategic communication can also be considered a
means of opening a new field and having a say in the academy and
business world by establishing a new discourse order. Therefore, the
16 Communication Studies In The New World
question that needs to be asked and considered here is this: Is it an
objective requirement that all communication activities carried out to
ensure the existence of an entity should be labeled with an impressive,
powerful, and mysterious concept such as strategic communication? It
can be predicted that the search for an answer to this question will
increase in parallel with the loss of momentum in the scientific
integration levels of strategic communication. It can finally be
encountered with the simple fact that it may be sufficient to carry out
the necessary communication activity from a strategic point of view to
ensure that entity's existence.
17
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