In line with the past viewpoints of media effects, it appears that early public relations researchers were simply looking at and focusing on how and to what extent exposure to media coverage of an organization directly results in changes in audiences’ cognitive and behavioral outcomes relevant to the covered organization’s relationship management. While this line of research has helped develop theoretical foundations of public relations and contribute to the body of knowledge, it may have overlooked and oversimplified the complex mechanism of public relations effects determined by multiple factors and through multiple processes. Moving beyond the traditional approach, public relations scholars should take into consideration not only the role of framing and sidedness media effects, but also the importance of interpersonal communication following media exposure and the ways in which such interpersonal communication is influenced by network characteristics in its effects.
Apparently, media effects do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they are, for the most part, likely to be mediated or moderated by subsequent interpersonal
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communication and accompanying interpersonal influence along the social information and communication pipelines (Southwell & Yzer, 2007). Information that is diffused from the media is received and processed at an individual level, then, is communicatively conveyed and shared through interpersonal networks (Katz & Lazarsfeld, 1955; Watts & Dodds, 2007). The