Elsevier

Public Relations Review

Volume 35, Issue 4, November 2009, Pages 437-439
Public Relations Review

Research in Brief
Social media, societal culture and Israeli public relations practice

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2009.06.002Get rights and content

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore Israel's societal culture as an environment with which public relations practice has to align. It asks whether Israeli public relations practitioners use social media elements, how do they perceive these elements and what do they think about their future? A web-based survey revealed that Israeli practitioners generally are willing to use and gain experience with social media elements although this usage is still in its initial stage.

Introduction

Sixty years ago, when the state of Israel was established, the Zionist institutions and the government of Israel promoted the idea of “social integration,” whose aim was to unite the Jewish immigrants in a new culture. Toledano and McKie (2007) argue that in order to support nation-building and social integration, most Israelis preferred the model of “social responsibility of the press” over “freedom of the press” and the cultural environment resulted in an Israeli media that restricted open and democratic public discourse.

From the 1970s till the 1990s, Israel's political, social and economic atmosphere underwent a major change. The government lost control over the media, which became more diverse and competitive, journalism became more critical and public relations practice became more professional, while public relations practitioners started to work also for the private sector and not mainly for the governmental and public sectors (Toledano and McKie, 2007, Zafrir, 2000).

Public relations theory also gradually changed from the Functional approach to the Co-creational approach (Botan & Taylor, 2004). The Internet and the World Wide Web have provided the field of public relations with additional space to grow and. New Web 2.0 and Social Media elements, such as blogs, wikis, forums, and social networks, enabled information-sharing and discussions among publics and within organizations and promoted diversity, individuality and freedom of expression. According to various scholars, social media elements and mainly business blogs promote and humanize two-way communication by enabling companies to talk with customers and allowing customers to talk back (Kelleher and Miller, 2006, Lim and Yang, 2006, Scoble and Israel, 2006).

In light of these environmental changes, it is important to question whether Israeli public relations practice has also changed. This study will try to provide answers to this question while using a Web based survey originally developed by Wright and Hinson (2008) and also Gillin (2008).

Section snippets

Methods

In Israel, there are approximately 400 public relations firms that work with the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. A web-based survey of Israeli public relations practitioners was conducted during September 2008 among 45 practitioners. The participants’ demographic characteristics were properly distributed across gender, age and work experience.

The survey was based on a questionnaire developed originally by Wright and Hinson (2008) and partially also by Gillin (2008), and it tried to

Findings

The first part of the survey explored the actual usage of social media elements by Israeli public relations practitioners. The findings showed that 78 per cent of the practitioners used at least one social media element in at least one campaign, while only 22 per cent did not use any of the elements. The most popular elements were blogs (56 per cent) social networks (53 per cent) and forums (49 per cent). In addition, 80 per cent of the participants had at least one personal experience (for any

Analysis and conclusions

The aim of this study was to explore Israel's societal culture as an environment with which public relations practice has had to align.

The first part of the survey revealed that most practitioners had experience with or started to familiarize themselves with social media elements. Nevertheless, the usage of social media elements by Israeli practitioners was still in its initial stage and its potential had not yet been utilized. In addition the Israeli clients of public relations services do not

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