Dialogic Communication Practices of Water District Officials: Insights from Practitioner Interviews

摘要

Limited research has evaluated organizations' public communication strategies for creating and maintaining dialogue about water risks with constituents. To fill this gap in the literature, 24 semi-structured telephone interviews with 25 officials employed by Texas groundwater conservation districts were conducted to determine how these officials engage in strategic public communication with their stakeholders. Results indicated that water district officials often adopt information dissemination strategies rather than dialogic communication strategies regardless of communication tactic (e.g. social media). Dialogic communication often seems to be stakeholder-driven rather than strategic, intentional, or organization-initiated. More research is needed to inform organizational approaches to promote and facilitate dialogic communication about environmental risks.