For my research I’m exploring the communication practices of New York theater publicists to see if they use the strategies on Alan Kelly’s “Standard Table of Influence,” which he presents as the most basic stratagems used by communicators.

My research question is: “Which types of strategies under the Standard Table of Influence’s “condition” class do the daily practices of two Broadway and off-Broadway theater-publicists fall under?”

I chose one class of strategies to focus on, the “condition” class, because those are the ones used most frequently according to Kelly.  I conducted interviews with two theater publicists from New York and am in the process of matching up their descriptions of their daily practices with the definitions of the condition class strategies on the Standard Table of Influence, to see which ones there is evidence of them using.

The most challenging part of my research is finding information on the field of performing arts publicity.  I really haven’t been able to find much literature related to this field.  I will be using this topic as I write my thesis in the fall, so any resources that would be valuable to writing my literature review would be extremely helpful.  I have access to all of the information I need on the Standard Table of Influence already.

As I move forward and begin to work on my thesis, I need to decide whether or not I will continue to focus on just the condition class, or the entire Standard Table of Influence.  I will also likely change a few questions and add some new ones based on my findings in the mini study.