Activist Public Relations in the Age of Digitalization: An Analysis on International Literature

Abstract

In today’s digitalization era, public relations activities of activist groups and non-govermantal organizations have increased through the internet. Activist groups and non-govermental organizations can easily organize, reach more people at low cost, create a worldwide awareness through the internet. In this study, which deals with the issue of activist public relations through new media, Public Relations Review, Public Relations Inquiry, Journal of Public Relations Research, that are scanned in Web of Science and have an important place in the international literatüre of the public relations, were examined. The articles published in these journals between 2000-2020 and linking activist public relations and new media issues were determined and analyzed with a systematic review method in order to reveal the effect of new media on activist public relations. The findings show that activist groups and NGOs have increased their activist public relations activities through the internet however profit-oriented institutions practice few activist publis relations activities. As stated in the postmodern public relations view, institutions and public relations practitioners should apply activist public relations activities.

Keywords

• Digitalization
• Activist Public Relations
• New Media
• Activism
• Public Relations

Dijitalleşme Çağında Aktivist Halkla İlişkiler: Uluslararası Literatür Üzerine Bir Analiz

Abstract

Günümüz dijitalleşme çağında, internet sayesinde aktivist grupların ve sivil toplum kuruluşlarının gerçekleştirdiği halkla ilişkiler faaliyetleri artmıştır. Aktivist gruplar ve sivil toplum kuruluşları internet sayesinde kolayca organize olabilmekte, düşük maliyetle daha çok kişiye ulaşabilmekte ve dünya çapında bir farkındalık oluşturabilmektedirler. Yeni medya aracılığıyla gerçekleştirilen aktivist halka ilişkiler konusunun ele alındığı bu çalışmada, Web of Science’ta taranan ve halkla ilişkiler uluslararası literatürde önemli yere sahip Public Relations Review, Public Relations Inquiry, Journal of Public Relations Research dergileri incelenmiştir. Söz konusu dergilerde 2000-2020 tarihleri arasında yayınlanmış ve aktivist halkla ilişkiler ve yeni medya konuları arasında bağ kuran makaleler belirlenip, yeni medyanın aktivist halkla ilişkiler üzerine etkisini ortaya koymak amacıyla sistematik inceleme yöntemiyle analiz edilmiştir. Bulgular, aktivist gruplar ve STK’ların internet sayesinde aktivist halkla ilişkiler faaliyetlerinin arttığını bununla birlikte kâr amacı güden kurumların aktivist halkla ilişkiler faaliyetlerini daha az uyguladığını göstermektedir. Postmodern halkla ilişkiler anlayışında belirtildiği gibi, kurumların ve halkla ilişkiler çalışanlarının da aktivist halkla ilişkiler uygulamalarına başvurması gerekmektedir.

Keywords

• Dijitalleşme
• Aktivist Halkla İlişkiler
• Yeni Medya
• Aktivizm
• Halkla İlişkiler

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