The dawn of a new golden age for media relations? How PR professionals interact with the mass media and use new collaboration practices

Abstract

The article reviews the status of media relations in Europe while it reflects the upcoming media shift from mass mediated communication to own produced and delivered content by strategic communicators. The literature review echoes the changing media landscape from the PR practitioner’s point of view: Whereas the 20th century gave birth to different kind of media relations, the highly networked and fluid ways of content re-production, dissemination and therefore the co-construction of meaning became much more important for all kinds of organizations and their public relations practitioners as well as marketeers. Referring to these new forms of mediatized content, the final section of the literature review introduces the concept of strategic mediatization as a new practice supplementing and/or replacing old media relations. Based on the theoretical ground stressed out in the literature review, an empirical study was carried out based on a quantitative survey among 2,253 communication practitioners across Europe. The survey results emphasize a strong shift from the prevalence of mass media to owned media especially in Western and Northern Europe. However, the rising importance of new content practices is considered important in all European regions alike. Nevertheless, the study identifies large gaps between the considered importance and the usage of these new media relations practices.