Digital corporate communication and media relations

Abstract

The media relations function continues to be important in today’s complex corporate communication processes. Because the news media reach both mass and niche audiences and influence what and how they think about organizations, they remain an important channel through which organizations reach stakeholders with carefully crafted messages. However, digital transformation has significantly transformed both journalism and media relations. For example, the emergence of digital-only news sites provided organizations with new opportunities to target corporate messages to these sites’ niche audiences. Nevertheless, what has not changed much is that media relations specialists still rely on direct and personal contact with journalists for relationship-building purposes. Furthermore, although digitalization of communication has spawned myriad digital channels through which organizations can by-pass the media’s gatekeeping power, and despite trust in media declining in many countries, mass audiences still turn to news media as a relatively trustworthy source due to the media’s rigorous editorial processes. For this reason, organizations continue to value media relations’ news-influencing function.