Super‐themes for PR evaluation

This paper shows how new technologies open up significant research and development opportunities for the PR industry. It reviews public relations evaluation methodologies that can progress from evaluating media coverage of small numbers of “messages” to the development of systems for analysis of both objective and subjective texts. Applications include internal, external, research and media content. The paper looks to the next generation of analysis using International Standards Organisation (SGML) and web‐based technologies such as NewsML and XTM (both XML derivatives) in the processes of content and analysis, particularly as it can be applied to themes and topic analysis. The paper makes public for the first time the concept of corporate superthemes.