Journal Review 6: Global Activism and Online Public Relations

by: Sharifah Sufia Syed Ahmad Safri (200936293)

Today, most transnational organizations have realized the importance of using new media as a public relations tool.  It allows them to create greater impact with a fraction of the costs.  As new media is commonly used for all forms of communication, it is now wonder that it is used as medium to discuss social issues.  This makes it an effective platform for NGOs to promote their cause at the same time gain support and funding.

This journal reviews the way transnational NGOs’ use new media (digital media that allows interactivity and independent distribution of information) for their public relations activities.   With this we can better understand how NGOs’ use new media and the effects on global activism.  At the same time we can find ways to make use of new media for publicity purposes.

They conducted a survey on 5000 NGO’s in the United States asking them how important new media was for their organization.  The NGOs involved supported a range of causes including sustainable development, human rights, education and environment. The results revealed that the organization’s website was considered as the most important new media tool.  This was followed by blogs, videocasts, podcasts and wikis.  NGOs are also starting to invest more in social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

As for its function, NGOs’ considered it more important to use new media to promote their organization.  This was followed by fund-raising, providing information to journalists, interacting with the public and finally networking with other NGOs.   As NGOs often have limited funding, new media is a cheap and effective tool.  Most NGOs are geared towards promoting its cause and fund-raising in general.  However, advocacy NGOs considered interaction with the public and promotion their image more important functions compared to other NGOs.  This may be because NGOs rely mainly on the public to support their campaigns.

It should be noted that most NGOs consider providing information to journalist as a more important new media function compared to interacting with the public.  This indicates that new media has become a part of media relations among NGOs.

How effectively an NGO uses new media depends on its organization’s objective. For example advocacy NGOs considered blogs more important compared to those focusing on aid and research.  This may be because aid and research NGOs would be more interested in providing basic facts in order to raise funds and in turn prefer websites.  Advocacy NGOs may care more about holding discussions on their causes on blogs.

Other factors that affected the importance of new media for NGO’s would be their efficiency, capacity and revenue.  It was revealed that the higher the NGO’s capacity the more important videocastswere for its public relations and were more likely to consider promoting the organizations image as an important function of new media. 

A majority of the NGOs participating in the study noted that they have changed their strategies towards traditional media since using new media.  They focus less on mass media to spread their message.  They have already begun reallocating their resources towards social networking sites.  The audience is more likely to trust the source as they have a choice to get information from the organization.

Most NGOs were not so concerned about online PR. They still considered getting stories on their cause into mainstream media important as the public considered it as a reliable source.  NGOs were also concerned that the messages that they post online can be easily manipulated and misused by other parties.

Currently, online public relations may not significantly influence the effectiveness of an organization. Yet, for less wealthy NGOs new media may be an essential tool. It is likely that NGOs in the future will have a better use of new media allowing them to use their limited resources to target as many people in their target audience. Over time, new media may improve the NGO’s ability to sustain their activities and campaigns.

Source: Seo, H., Kim J.M. & Yang, S. (2009). Global activism and new media: A study of transnational NGOs’ online relations. Public Relations Review, Vol. 35, 123-126.