Managing Media Relationships among Asian Organizations: A Grounded Theory Approach

Asian organizations need to engage media to establish trust and reputation. This research examines the phenomenon of press engagement, focusing on the relationship between public relations professionals of organizations and journalists. The study draws on both the public relations and relationship marketing literature to examine the efficacy surrounding various press engagement strategies. Eighteen in-depth interviews were conducted with journalists from broadcast, print, and online media in Hong Kong. The results were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Four press engagement themes emerged, including role reinforcement, responsiveness, social justice and segregation. These themes provide guidance for Asian businesses and organizations to develop their media relationship strategies. As there is no study that has investigated PR-journalist dyad relationships from the angle of the PR and customer engagement literature, this study offers new insights on organizational relationship marketing within a corporate communication context.