Examining reputation from a communication perspective: A systematic review

Abstract

The present study aims to systematically review communication reputation-focused research. After investigating several databases, a total of 366 peer-reviewed communication journal articles were selected. This study adopted quantitative content analysis to examine journals, as well as the progression, methodologies, media genres and platforms, geospatial distribution of discussed issues, and affiliations of first authors. The results revealed that communication reputation-focused articles have increased during the last decade. Most of the articles were published in public relations (PR) journals and adopted quantitative research methodologies. The most commonly used theories were related to communication, PR, and crisis communication theories. The articles discussed mostly social media and then digital media genres and platforms. The discussed regions and first-author affiliations were focused on the US.

Keywords

• Communication
• PR
• corporate and organizational reputation
• meta-analysis