LINKED FACTORS AS PREDICTORS OF THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS ON THE INTERNET: A STUDY OF CROATIAN ORGANIZATIONS

The change from traditional interactions between organizations and the public to interactions via the Internet needs further exploration in order to understand the factors that might influence public relations activities of organizations on the Internet. This study investigates the responses of 111 Croatian PR professionals to a survey about the influence of organization-linked factors on the choice of public relations models on the Internet. The results confirm that social orientation level of top management’s members, availability of resources to operate, previous negative experience with the public and practitioners’ knowledge of research methods and techniques are influential predictors of the choice of the models of public relations on the Internet. The findings also validate the contention that organizations’ selection of the models of public relations depends on practitioners’ formal education in PR and experience in dealing with conflict, PR unit size, its location and role in the formulation of PR strategies. It is also shown that organizational culture, management style, support for and understanding of the PR function by top management, existence of risk and issue management programs or staff, PR unit’s involvement in organization-wide decisions, legal department (counselor) support and number of PR practioners with higher education degree are not able to predict organizations’ decision to use a particular model of public relations

New Media Literacy Skills of Youth in Zadar

The emergence of new media has caused changes in peoples’ communication behaviours. Despite their potential, there is a lack of empirical data on the ways they have been used. This paper presents the findings of a study conducted in 2014 on new media literacy of youth enrolled in secondary schools in Zadar. The purpose of the study was to assess youth’s media exposure, engagement in Web 2.0 services and new media literacy skills. The theoretical framework is a concept of twelve new media literacy skills developed by H. Jenkins (2006). These skills are: play, appropriation, distributed cognition, collective intelligence, judgment, transmedia navigation, networking, negotiation, and visualization. The results of the study showed that the most developed new media literacy skills were visualisation, collective intelligence, play and judgement. The one-way analysis of variance confirmed the hypothesis that gender, type of educational program, exposure to media and engagement in Web 2.0 services have significant effects on these skills. Compared with the findings of similar studies, these results represent the starting point in discussing youth’s adaptation degree to changes in the public communication in the digital era

New Media Literacy Skills of Youth in Zadar

The emergence of new media has caused changes in peoples’ communication behaviours. Despite their potential, there is a lack of empirical data on the ways they have been used. This paper presents the findings of a study conducted in 2014 on new media literacy of youth enrolled in secondary schools in Zadar. The purpose of the study was to assess youth’s media exposure, engagement in Web 2.0 services and new media literacy skills. The theoretical framework is a concept of twelve new media literacy skills developed by H. Jenkins (2006). These skills are: play, appropriation, distributed cognition, collective intelligence, judgment, transmedia navigation, networking, negotiation, and visualization. The results of the study showed that the most developed new media literacy skills were visualisation, collective intelligence, play and judgement. The one-way analysis of variance confirmed the hypothesis that gender, type of educational program, exposure to media and engagement in Web 2.0 services have significant effects on these skills. Compared with the findings of similar studies, these results represent the starting point in discussing youth’s adaptation degree to changes in the public communication in the digital era

PR Models in Online Environment

U radu se istražuje i analizira primjena modela odnosa (komuniciranja) s javnošću na internetu, s naglaskom na dvosmjerno-interaktivnom komuniciranju i ostvarivanju dijaloga na relaciji organizacija – javnost. Rezultati istraživanja provedenog na uzorku zaposlenih u odnosima s javnošću (n=106) pokazuju da se na internet, najviše primjenjuje model javnog informiranja (83%). To pokazuje da službe za odnose s javnostima još nisu potpuno prepoznale najvažniju karakteristiku koju im nudi novo medijsko okruženje – interaktivnost. Provedenom multivarijantnom analizom nije podržana polazna hipoteza prema kojoj je izbor modela komuniciranja internetom povezan s ulogom službe za odnose s javnošću. Ipak, uspostava i vođenje interaktivne dvosmjerne komunikacije i dijaloga ostaje zadatak djelatnika odgovornih za odnose s javnostima. Internet, sam po sebi, ne vodi u nove oblike komunikacije.In this paper, the author is researching and analyzing the use of public relations (communication) models on the internet, with a special emphasis on the two-way interactive communication and the building of dialogue between organizations and the public. The results of the research on the sample of 106 public relations practitioners reveal that the mostly exercised model is the public information model (83%). This indicates that public relations departments still fail to exploit the most important characteristic offered by this new media environment – interactivity. The result of the MANOVA procedure does not support the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the PR department’s role and the choice of the PR model which is used on the internet. However, the creation and management of two-way interactive communication and dialogue still remains the task of public relations practitioners. The internet, by itself does not create new forms of communication

PR Models in Online Environment

U radu se istražuje i analizira primjena modela odnosa (komuniciranja) s javnošću na internetu, s naglaskom na dvosmjerno-interaktivnom komuniciranju i ostvarivanju dijaloga na relaciji organizacija – javnost. Rezultati istraživanja provedenog na uzorku zaposlenih u odnosima s javnošću (n=106) pokazuju da se na internet, najviše primjenjuje model javnog informiranja (83%). To pokazuje da službe za odnose s javnostima još nisu potpuno prepoznale najvažniju karakteristiku koju im nudi novo medijsko okruženje – interaktivnost. Provedenom multivarijantnom analizom nije podržana polazna hipoteza prema kojoj je izbor modela komuniciranja internetom povezan s ulogom službe za odnose s javnošću. Ipak, uspostava i vođenje interaktivne dvosmjerne komunikacije i dijaloga ostaje zadatak djelatnika odgovornih za odnose s javnostima. Internet, sam po sebi, ne vodi u nove oblike komunikacije.In this paper, the author is researching and analyzing the use of public relations (communication) models on the internet, with a special emphasis on the two-way interactive communication and the building of dialogue between organizations and the public. The results of the research on the sample of 106 public relations practitioners reveal that the mostly exercised model is the public information model (83%). This indicates that public relations departments still fail to exploit the most important characteristic offered by this new media environment – interactivity. The result of the MANOVA procedure does not support the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the PR department’s role and the choice of the PR model which is used on the internet. However, the creation and management of two-way interactive communication and dialogue still remains the task of public relations practitioners. The internet, by itself does not create new forms of communication

Razlike u odabiru modela odnosa s javnošću na internetu s obzirom na obilježja službi za odnose s javnošću

Ovaj rad imao je za cilj identificirati i opisati modele (praksu) odnosa s javnošću na internetu, ustanoviti stupanj univerzalnosti tradicionalnih modela i utvrditi da li njihov odabir uvjetovan karakteristikama službe za odnose s javnošću. Rezultati provedenog anketnog istraživanja pokazuju da organizacije (n=111) prakticiraju tri modela odnosa s javnošću na internetu: tiskovno-informativni, dvosmjerni asimetrični i dvosmjerni simetrični model odnosa s javnošću. Rezultati ujedno jasno pokazuju da je dvosmjerni simetrični model najčešće korišteni model odnosa s javnošću na internetu što ukazuje da službe za odnose s javnošću ne obraćaju pozornost samo potrebama i težnjama organizacija u kojima rade, nego i javnosti. Provedenom analizom varijance potvrđena je pretpostavka o postojanju razlika u odabiru modela odnosa s javnošću na internetu s obzirom na obilježja službe za odnose s javnošću. Rezultati istraživanja pokazuju da organizacije u kojima službe za odnose s javnošću imaju dovoljno resursa za rad (vrijeme, osoblje i budžet), imaju iskustva u rješavanju konfliktnih situacija, sudjeluju u donošenju važnih odluka u organizaciji, sudjeluju u formulaciji i implementaciji strategije odnosa s javnošću iskazuju veću sklonost odabiru dvosmjernih modela