| dc.description.abstract | Civil society is created and sustained through the relationships of interconnected organizations such as NGOs and donors. Social capital is created via these relationships, providing civil society actors with the tangible and intangible resources to accomplish objectives not easily accomplished alone. Public relations as a communication function dedicated to the management and maintenance of relationships is thus essential to the creation and preservation of a civil society. The purpose of this dissertation was to study the relationships in a sector of civil society to discover how relationship quality, as measured through variables of social capital and relationship management, affect the overall ability of civil society actors to gain influence and engage in collective action. In so doing, the research examined the case of the media development sector in Peru. Through expert interviews, organizational profiles, and a social network analysis survey, the research identified that while the existing relationships may be strong from a social capital and public relations perspective, the outcome of these relationships are not necessarily indicative of a thriving civil society. The research also determined that quality organization-public relationships are associated with positions of network centrality and facilitators of information flow. In so doing, it has helped to position network centrality and other measures as key metrics for the evaluation of the outcomes of organization- public relationships. From these results, the study makes contributions to the utilization of network analysis as an evaluative tool in public relations as well as the role of public relations in facilitating a civil society. | |
