CHAPTER ONE
1.0
Introduction
1.1
Background to the Study
Communication
is a basic human need and for that reason, man has always found a means of
satisfying this need. It is believed that no human society can function
effectively if there is no exchange of ideas, experiences, etc between and
among the people within the society since no man can live in isolation of
others.
The
earliest forms of trado-media, interpersonal and group forms of communication
had the benefit of being easy to use and did not necessarily need complex
technologies. The weaknesses of not being able to communicate to large audience
led to the development of mass media such as: telegraph, newspapers, magazines,
radio and television and to the recent Internet/ICT/which
has helped in broadening the scope of digital public relations.
Advancement
in modern technology has revolutionized all facets of communication during the
past decades. Access to the people and information practically anywhere and
anytime in the world has been quicker, cheaper and easier.
Awake
(2002) cited in Kur (2004), posits that the dynamic nature of the 2ls century
and more centuries to come rest on technological revolution. No wonder,
Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian English Professor in 1964 propounded the concept
of “Global Village” regarding the
entire globe as having the potentials of becoming a “global community” where
information and news about anything and anywhere in the world would be readily
available for anyone’s consumption in any part of the world and without mincing
word, the impact of International Network (Internet) in achieving this feat
cannot be underestimated.
This
new technology has compressed the whole world into a single electronic to where
information about far and near can be exchanged and shared with just a click of
mouse or touch of screen.
Adepoju
et. al (2009). Observe that internet being the host of many other media tagged
socio-media like: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Ebay, Ebuddy, Eskimi, 2go, e.t.c
making information distribution faster, cheaper and easier especially for
public relations practitionals whose job is to build, maintain and polish the
image and interity of company.
The arrival of this information and
communication technology has influenced and shaped every human activities
ranging from Education to Agriculture, Business, Mass communication, Politics,
Health etc.
Public relations use social media to
share organisations view, opinions, e-releases, seek the opinion of publics,
make feedback easier and faster i.e it enhanced effective two ways
communication.
According to Paul Gillin (2008),
Senior fellow society of new communication Research, social media are giving
rise to a new style of communication that is characterized by conversation and
community.
However , the practice of public Relations is not exceptional as ICT has
influenced the PRS practice in this century.
Carrying out project work relating to
the influence of social media on the practice of public relations will lead to
the definition of core words “ Social Media and Public Relations from different
perspectives.
According to Mark Dykeman (2008)) “
Social media are the means for any person to publish digital creative content,
provide and obtain real time feedback via online discussion, commentary and
evaluation and incorporate changes or correction of the original content (p.1).
Many people think of social media, they think of facebook and twitter. However,
social media do not just include social networking sites, but also blogs,
forums, message boards, search engine marketing, wikis, professional network
and micro blogging sites (Wright and Hinson, 2009).
According to the institute of Public
Relations, “Public Relations is a deliberate planned and sustained effort to
establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its
various publics.
Digital public relations or e- public
relation is the latest concept in corporate public relations.
1.2
Statement of the Problem
Due to the rise in social media use
among consumers around the world, there as been an increase in the use of
social media as tactics for many public relations practitioners to track their
consumers and relate with them.
Because we are in the era of consumer
satisification due to heavy competition. The major concern of this research is to ascertain how social
media such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram e.t.c has influenced
the practice of public
relations especially in creating and maintain mutual understanding for better
interaction within internal and external publics.
Also, imitation of web pages and sharing of
fake or untrue information to consumers by fraudster is another challenge
identified imaging somebody imitate or design a facebook official page of
Dangote and send “you
have won tone of cement in our company quickly pay 10,000 to double your tones: this offer is available only today
and tomorrow”. This brings setback on the extentto which social media can be use as PRs tools.
Although others have examined some
part of the contribution of new communication media to the practice of public relations, there are fewer studies
looking at how public relations practitioners actually are using these new
media.
It is also the interest of the study
to examine cost effectiveness, speed delivery of message and see how public
relations can translate the social media into feedback and opinion media.
To this end, the research examing the influence of social media on the
practice of public relations especially in a telecommunication organization
1.3
Purpose of the study
1. To determine the levels of social
media awareness and knowledge help to increase brand awareness of Airtel
Nigeria
2. To describe the effect of social
media use on public relations at Airtel Nigeria
3. To examine the effects of social
media monitoring on brand involvement at Airtel Nigeria
4. To examine the level at which social
media affect the buying behaviour of Airtel subscribers
5. To examine the influence of social
media on brand commitment at Airtel Nigeria
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The relevant research questions related
to this study are:
1. What is the level of social media
awareness and knowledge to increase brand awareness of Airtel Nigeria?
2. What is the effect of social media
use on public relations at Airtel Nigeria?
3. What is the effect of social media
monitoring on brand involvement at Airtel Nigeria?
4.
What
is the level at which social media affect the buying behaviour of Airtel subscribers?
5. What is the influence of social media
on brand commitment at Airtel Nigeria?
1.5 Significance of the Study
This
research which is relatively new to the field of mass communication and public
relations, yet only few people ever written on social media and its
contribution to public relations profession or practice.
Therefore, being a new research, it will
benefit individual, corporate bodies, government, researchers, students, media
professionals and host of others
The study is to reveal how socio-media can
be translated into powerful tools in the hand of innovated and creative public
relations especially in building public confidence and effective interaction.
Individuals
will benefit from this study as they will know the best way to use and react to
social media messages and information.
Future
researchers who may what to carry out research in this area or related aspect
will find this material useful, while it forms bulk of academic materials.
1.6 Scope of the Study
This
research focuses on the effect of social-media on the practices of public
relations with a reference to the global communication Nigeria especially
public relations and customer care departments. However, demography of the
respondents within Airtel will be examined before the administration of data
collection instrument (questionnaire) such factor include but not limited to
age, sex, education, work experience, etc.
1.7 Limitation of the Study
Although, it is too earlier to start
pointing at limitations, nevertheless, some limitations are visible at the
outset of this research. First, the
research is limited to Global comumunication and its
publics. Duration for the research work is relatively short compared
to tasks involved in carrying out this research as there are other stresses
emanating from other academic activities.
Little materials are also available due
to the fact that the topic is relatively new because previous researchers have
focuses on mass media and not social media aspect of public relations practice.
1.8 Operational definition of
the Terms
Publics: These
are the Airtel internal public and extental public usually the subscribers,
staff, government, hosting community, etc whose activities influence global
communication.
Public Relations: This refers to as various efforts to deliberate planned and sustained effort to establish
and maintain mutual understandings between Airtel and all its subscribers,
government, staff etc
Relations: The
way in which Airtel deals with all its publics, including staffs, subscribers
etc.
Social Media:
A group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and
technological foundations of web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange
of user-generated content such as facebook, twitter, instagram etc