CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Advancement in modern technology which resulted in building computer/internet in short information and communication technology (ICT) in the late 20 century and with more powerful and sophisticated ones in this 21 century which has transformed the world into a global village as postulated by a Canadian English professor, Marshal Mcluham. 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. Internet being the host of many other media tagged socio-media like: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Ebay, Ebuddy, Eskimi, 2go, Yahoo, Google e.t.c making information distribution faster, cheaper and easier. The arrival of this information and communication technology has affected and the usual shapes of every human activities ranging from education to agriculture, business, mass communication, politics, health. However, the practice of public relation is not exceptional as ICT has influenced the PRS being practice in this century. Carrying out project work relating to the effect of social media on the practice of PRS will lead to the definition of ‘core word’ like public relations from different perspectives. According to the institute of public relations, “public relations are a deliberate planned and sustained effort to establish and maintained mutual understanding between an organization and its various publics. Therefore, there is no gain saying in the fact that, the practices of PR in this century has moved from manual to the digital public relations.
Digital public relations or an e-public relation is the latest concept in corporate reputation management. It is the practice of public relations through the new ICT, it is an innovation concept that is computer mediated yet it is cheaper. Today organization and clients are making greater demand as on public relations professionals that are more ICT creative, more innovation and more efficiency in service delivery.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The major concern of this project work is to access how social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, 2go e.t.c can enhance the practice of public relations especially in creating and maintain mutual understanding for better interaction. It is also the interest of the research to examine cost effectiveness, speedy delivery of message and see how public relations can translate the social media into feedback and opinion media.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
1. To investigate the potential roles of social-media in modern practice of public relations.
2. To study the differences and similarity in terms of cost, and effectiveness while using social media and traditional media for message dissemination.
3. To examine the publics response attitude towards the social-media message.
4. To investigate whether the socio-media are suitable for public relations practice.
5. To show the strength and weakness of socio-media as a public relations tool.