Some horses I know all looking for the feed bucket: always guaranteed to get their attention!
If only it was as easy for we, as public relations practitioners, to achieve the same level of interest in the audiences we seek to engage?
Grunig's Situational Theory provides some pointers here. People will engage depending on high problem recognition (being concerned enough to engage with an issue), low constraint recognition (the need to feel that the action they take will actually make a difference) and high involvement.
New technologies are assisting this engagement, particularly as activist groups can use them to build on involvement and empower people who may want to engage but think it's too much effort to do so. As practitioners, we have to make it as easy as possible for people to engage. I like the approach Amnesty International takes to helping anyone become an activist. We can all learn something from this campaign and many similar.
