Browning considers corporate responsibility to race in new publication
Associate professor Nicholas Browning published “Engaging in Organizational Advocacy to Fulfill Corporate Responsibility to Race: How Passion Drives Activists’ Behavior” in Public Relations Review on April 10. He co-authored the article with Seton Hall University’s assistant professor and strategic communication scholar Sadia Cheema.
Their study examines corporate responsibility to race as an overarching framework, arguing that organizations have a moral obligation to combat racial injustice. Strategically managed organizational advocacy offers a way to fulfill the obligation, especially when focusing on activist publics as an audience of primary interest.
The study used experimental survey design to investigate various message attributes (rhetoric- vs. action-oriented) and their impact on Black Lives Matter activism trajectories (conventional vs. high-risk vs social media activism).
Findings indicate the importance of harmonious and obsessive passion among activists in bolstering conventional and high-risk activism, respectively. Social media activism is also shown to influence offline activism, especially among harmoniously passionate activist publics.