Impact of Digitalization on the PR Profession

impact of digitalization on the PR profession

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Impact of digitalization on PR profession in context of rise of fake news...............................................3
Changing role of PR practitioner’s..........................................................................................................4
Role of PR practitioner’s in society.........................................................................................................5
Role of PR practitioner’s as a gatekeeper and educator...........................................................................7
Discuss increased demand of PR professional’s......................................................................................7
Dark side in case of conflict between PR professional and management.................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
In current time, use of digital technologies has been increased. Digital techniques are
used in different fields such as business, media and more. PR is a field wherein different forms
of media and communication are used in order to manage the positive reputation in market. In
this profession, one is responsible to maintain effective relationships with different stakeholders
by using digital platforms and medium of communication. This profession is effectively
associated with digitalization. Here, digital techniques are applied in order to maintain positive
interaction with stakeholders. In current time, digital platforms are often used to circulate
misleading and false information. A lot of people get connected with digital mediums thus the
fake news can easily spread within short period of time (Panda, Upadhyay and Khandelwal,
2019). Main aim of present study is to identify impact of digitalization on PR profession in
context of rise of fake news. Here, it includes changing role of PR profession within society
along with different national and theoretical perspectives. The report will cover changing role of
PR professionals in current time. Moreover, PR professionals play a crucial role in providing
suitable information to people with the use of mass media and other mediums of communication.
Impact of digitalization on PR profession in context of rise of fake news
In PR profession media, mass communication are used in order to build, maintain as well
as sustain a particular image of business in market. PR professionals use digital tools so that they
can maintain positive influence of their clients in competitive market. It has become a useful way
to stay connected with audience. Public relation has always been a crucial part of business. With
the rise in digitalization, there is a great shift has been witnessed within this field. Now, PR
professionals use digital mediums such as social media platform, ICT and more in order to stay
connected with audience (Gasparovich, Uskova and Dongauzer, 2020).
Digital PR is a marketing strategy which is performed using online tools and techniques.
Here, PR professionals can utilize these tools so that they can enhance presence of their client
company. Prior this, Television, radio and other such tools were used for the purpose of
connectivity and building relationships. Digitalization has been changed the entire scenario.
Now, it is quiet easy for PR professionals to stay connect with public. Digital platform has the
power to make as well as ruin the image of an individual and business in short time of span. With

few clicks, content get viral over online mediums. Sometimes, it is for good cause but sometimes
fake news also gets circulated with the use of electronic mediums.
Public relation professionals across the globe are well familiar with the recent and
effective tools of communication. Now, web based mediums such as blogs, vlogs, podcast and
more have become crucial platforms to express the opinion. Recent innovation is affecting the
PR professionals in performing their role. Additionally, press release was considers as a crucial
part of public relation. Rather using a typed paper, information is send via mail or fax now.
However, circulation of fake news has also become a serious issued with the increase in
digitalization. With increased use of technology, circulation of fake news is also enhancing. In
digital platforms, one can easily modify the information and pass it to general public in order to
mislead them (Just and Rasmussen, 2019). Now, people are highly active on online and digital
platforms. Here, information can reach to millions of people only with single click. Sometimes,
unauthorized people alter the information and make it viral which further mislead the readers. In
context of social media platforms, there is ample of information available on these platforms.
This information is not highly authentic thus it can easily mislead people. Hence, digitalization
has a profound impact over PR profession. It is the duty of public relation professionals to
provide authentic and reliable information to readers.
Changing role of PR practitioner’s
In current time, role of PR is not limited towards working as a bridge between company
and its audience. Rather, they are responsible to maintain a positive image of organization in
front of its customers. They are known as the face of business entity. In addition to this, PR
professionals represent organization in public (Diller, Asen and Späth, 2020). Now, PR
professionals work as a communicator thus they need to have detailed understanding of the
issues being faced by company. It will help them in performing their role with credibility. They
also work to establish positive relationship with both internal as well as external parties. In
addition to this, they are the medium of communication between company and public. In this
context, changing role of PR is mentioned below:
Corporate communications: With the growth of company, corporate communication
has become highly important. In this regard, PR professional need to ensure that information not
only reaches to suitable stakeholders but also generate desire outcomes. For this purpose, they