Defining Stakeholders and Publics

Study Notes

Stakeholders refer to individuals who are recognized or acknowledged to be related to a particular business or organization.
Public refers to the people in general who are recognized based on the messages they transmit or convey to anybody.
According to Freeman (2006), a stakeholder is "any group or individual who is affected by or can affect the achievement of an organization's objectives."
Freeman's definition of stakeholders also includes "any identifiable group or individual on which the organization is dependent for its continued survival."
This definition covers a wide scope, including groups who have interests in a particular company.

According to Laurie Wilson, there are three types of publics involved in communication strategies: key publics, intervening publics, and influentials.
Key publics are those whose participation and cooperation are required to accomplish organizational goals.
Key publics have the highest priority according to their power/dependency/influence attributes, the urgency of the issue, and their level of active involvement in the issue.
Key publics can be profiled by their demographics, lifestyles, and values, media preferences, cooperative networks, and self-interests.
Effective strategies appeal to the self-interests of key publics and reach them through the most appropriate channels.

Intervening publics pass information on to key publics and act as opinion leaders.
Examples of intervening publics include the media, doctors, and teachers.
The success of many campaigns is determined by the strength of relationships with intervening publics.
Influentials can be intervening publics, but they also affect the success of public relations efforts in other ways.
Influentials can either support an organization's efforts or work against them.
Members of some publics will turn to opinion leaders to verify or refute messages coming from organizations.