Communication Technologies

Technology in the Workplace

Today work planning and production is centered on computer screens, while much information flows electronically in real time via the Internet and wireless communications. Intranets (password-protected, Web browser-based communication systems) allow employees in scattered locations to seek and share work-related information through a variety of tools (email and text messages, webpages, mobile apps and webcasts, to name a few). People also can work collaboratively using groupware and group decision support systems (GDSS) software. Popular forms of these tools include forums, wikis, and Web conferences. Meanwhile extranets permit suppliers, distributors, retailers and others to participate in training programs, to collaborate on projects, and to access needed information (such as order processing and inventory data) via secured virtual personal networks (VPNs).

Similar to other organization units, technology has transformed virtually every aspect of public relations work. Public relations research today employs numerous electronic intelligence gathering tools, including Web search engines, proprietary databases, systems analytics, and specialized research software to conduct surveys and content analyses of media and online content. Virtually all public relations messages are produced in digital forms using word processing, database, graphic design, photographic/videographic, and electronic presentation software. Although digitalization also has transformed modern printing processes, an increasing amount of content is distributed electronically in digital formats via the Internet and World Wide Web, telecommunications networks, over-the-air broadcasting and cablecasting systems, and satellite uplinks and downlinks.

Impact on Public Relations

Whether communication technology has improved the effectiveness and efficiency of the public relations practice continues to be debated. However, new communication technologies clearly have

• Increased the sheer volume of information public relations practitioners create, distribute, and manage—a trend that requires thoughtful planning, dissemination and archiving.
• Required organizations to disseminate information using multiple tools to reach the same audiences they could access using fewer tools only 2 or 3 decades ago. Audience fragmentation has resulted in an increase (versus a decrease) in the amount of staff and other resources deployed.
• Placed a premium on timeliness. However, the haste to distribute information immediately often results in the distribution of incomplete or erroneous information and a blurring of time that did not exist previously.
• Altered audience expectations about the availability of information. Indeed, audiences demand information on a 24/7 basis, and now [Page 159]audiences—not organizations—determine when, where, and how information needs be distributed. To ignore audience preferences can compromise access and exposure.
• Transformed audiences into producers as well as receivers of public relations messages. Many online and mobile public relations efforts today solicit immediate replies or prompt the audience to forward messages to their friends, rate content, make recommendations, or create user-generated content.
• Provided mechanisms for dialogue. Indeed, interactivity allows organizations to engage in two-way communication with constituents but also facilitates communication among various constituencies. The downside of this trend can be biased anecdotal feedback and potentially damaging word-of-mouth, rumors, and gossip.
• Reshaped organization structures and cultures. Boundaries that once delimited organizations have dissolved. Hierarchies have flattened. Authority has waned in its significance. Learning and intelligence sharing are imperatives. Organizations also are forced to be more open.
• Changed social values pertaining to proprietary organizational information, confidentiality, transparency, and privacy. Users now expect organizations to provide advice and information at no charge but also now expect—more than ever before—that organizations will safeguard personal information provided to them.
• Enabled the easy manipulation and duplication of an organization's intellectual properties by others, thus leaving organizations vulnerable to digital attackers, hackers, lurkers, rogues, and thieves.

Technology and Public Relations Messages and Media

Theories of technological determinism suggest that technology shapes the nature of societies, organizations, and the communication process itself. Marshall McLuhan popularized this notion when he observed “the medium is the message” and thus contended that media effects result from the experience of using a particular medium, not its content. Similarly, Joshua Meyrowitz argued that media redefine social geography, while media use patterns among audiences shape group identities, socialization processes, and social hierarchies. Ronald Deibert similarly suggested that the new media alter how information is disseminated, but also social epistemology (the knowledge shared by people).

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