HOW TURKISH PR PROFESSIONALS AND STUDENTS USE DIGITAL RESOURCES

Öz

This study aims to address how Turkish industry practitioners use digital resources and how would-be PR practitioners learn to use the latter. In this respect, the main emphasis on digital communications will mostly be focused on social networking sites (Twitter in particular) and user generated content sites (Ekşisözlük in particular). The aim is to map out which sources emerge to determine reasons behind particular choices of digital sources, to focus on the evaluation processes of the gathered information and finally to elaborate the end results of these processes. The results of the research confirm that public relations professionals in Turkey are aware of the potential offered by digital communication and embraced the changes resulting from the digital turn in public relations.

Key Words: social networking, user generated content, public relations, online credibility, online verification.