The Global Strategic Communication Consortium (GSCC) recently announced that Ruth Avidar (pictured bottom right), Ph.D., senior lecturer, Yezreel Valley College, Israel, and Itzhak Mashiah (pictured top), Ph.D. visiting scholar, University of Mississippi, are the recipients of the inaugural Berger Research Award. They were competitively selected for their proposed research titled, “Strategic Approaches of AI Technology by PR Leadership: Exploring Ethical Artificial Intelligence Usage in Public Relations.”
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Avidar and Mashiah’s research argues that the field of AI in PR is ripe for a study that systematically explores how PR firms can uphold ethical standards amid technological disruption. It seeks to bridge the theoretical gap by proposing strategies to ensure that AI is used in ways that align with the foundational principles of PR professionalism.
Dr. Shannon A. Bowen, founder and executive director of GSCC, shared, “Though we have academic ethical AI standards, what is happening in industry? This research examines what public relations agencies are using as standards for their AI provisions, the ethical examination of AI use, and how practitioners are trained on AI — topics we desperately need to study in our industry but have received little to no attention from researchers.”
The authors aim to develop and refine strategic approaches that guarantee AI advancements and improve communication effectiveness while examining ethical standards. Their research will provide practical insights for industry to help PR professionals ethically utilize AI technologies. In the process, they seek to contribute to the development of ethical practices in strategic communication.
The Berger Award is an annual $2,500 award donated by longtime public relations academician Bruce Berger (pictured bottom left), Ph.D., professor emeritus and GSCC executive board member, formerly with The Plank Center for Public Relations at the University of Alabama. The award focuses on data collection for PR research that analyzes the intersection of ethics and futurism in global strategic communication. It is given to researchers focusing on ethical considerations in strategic communication, future trends and challenges, innovative approaches to moral decision-making, implications of emerging technologies on communication ethics, leadership through challenges and crises, and responsible values management.
Avidar is a senior lecturer and the head of the marketing communication track in the Department of Communication at Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Israel. She is also a faculty member in the Department of Health Systems Management. Her research examines online public relations, social media, customer and patient experience, and new technologies in communication and healthcare. Her works appear in several books and international journals, and she serves on editorial boards of international communication journals.
Mashiah is a visiting scholar in the Integrated Marketing Communication Department at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS. His research interests include marketing communication, brand management, strategic rhetoric, tech storytelling, innovation discourse, and policy. Both scholars represent the GSCC at institutions in Israel and will present their award-winning research at a specially themed Berger Award session of the GSCC Conclave in Sardinia, Italy, in May 2025.
Avidar will visit the University of South Carolina to offer a research lecture in the School of Journalism on behalf of the GSCC and Yezreel Valley College on August 28, 2024.
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