earticle

영어

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the public’s situation recognition regarding public conflict on their communication behavior by applying the situational theory developed in the field of public relations. This study focused on the case of public conflict in the selecting process of new nuclear power plant in Samcheok-si. This study selected 268 persons, community opinion leaders as a sample group and performed multiple regression analysis, K-means cluster analysis and one-way ANOVA using SPSS Win 22 Program. The results of this study are as follows. First, it show that there are significant differences in influence between situational variables(problem recognition, constraint recognition, involvement recognition) and communication behaviors(information seeking, information processing, information forwarding, information sharing). One thing to note here is that influence of involvement recognition factor on all communication behavior factors is far higher compared to other factors. Second, it show that there are significant differences in communication behaviors by the type of public based on the degree of situational recognition of public for public conflict. Namely, key point to note here is that the public with the high-involvement recognition for a particular issue is more likely to show proactive communication behavior compared to the public with the low-involvement recognition in general. Therefore, the government as a subject of public policy needs to consider customized and tailored public relations strategies based on public segments.