Papers by Ülfet Kutoğlu Kuruç
Online journal of communication and media technologies, Dec 1, 2017
This paper traces and documents the opportunities and potentials that social media offer PR pract... more This paper traces and documents the opportunities and potentials that social media offer PR practitioners while also highlighting peculiar challenges that such uses present to contemporary PR practitioners due, mainly-and paradoxically-to their widespread availability and usage by both PR and non PR actors. While proliferation of information, availability of modern technologies and availability of training of practitioners have greatly raised and shaped the profile of PR practice in recent decades, increase in the number of actors who are neither trained nor committed to the ethics of PR practice have posed special challenges and posed problems to the field. The mushrooming of technologies available to PR practitioners in the recent past prompts the need to rethink, re-evaluate, revisit with a view to re-assesing not only the promises that these advances bring to the practice but also the special problems that the new scenario may present to PR academics and practitioners alike. This is the exercise we attempt in this paper. There is no gainsaying the benefits of the largely direct and unfettered communication for the PR practitioners; immediate, democratic and participatory being just a few of them. However, in spite of their many benefits,, the uses of social media by PR practitioners is not free of drawbacks and threats, especially (but not solely) because of the scope they provide for abusive use. The same social networking and microblogging sites that have provided trained PR practitioners with platforms to conduct highly effective and ethical communication practices have similarly turned and empowered millions of people with smartphones and internet connection into an army of 'Journalists' & PR practitioners without formal training or commitment to ethical principles of communication; a scenario that provides much room for reckless and irresponsible usage of these platforms where everyone is free to speak "what's on their mind." An apt way to describe the resulting complications of PR practices under this milieu may be summed by the old adage attributed to American humorist, Mark Twain that, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." Indeed, PR practitioners often find themselves resorting to fire-fighting and reactionary PR techniques in response to online uploads from a variety of unconventional sources. Thus, while conventional wisdom may readily celebrate the many virtues of social media for PR practitioners highlighting the way in which they lend themselves to two-way communication between the organization and its various publics, we caution that such assessment of social media use should be examined and understood in terms of both potential and inherent constraints and risks. The study uses critical and case studies approaches together with a survey method to argue the need to rethink and reassess
Sustainability, Oct 9, 2020
Currently, the world is going through a pandemic, COVID-19, that affects the four pillars of orga... more Currently, the world is going through a pandemic, COVID-19, that affects the four pillars of organizational sustainability. At this point, institutions' sustainability depends on how they handle crisis communication. It seems that institutions that can adapt themselves to changes regarding the usage of digital communication platforms are survivors, and even winners, of this crisis. The general belief concerning education in developing countries claims that these countries are slow in adapting to technological innovations. Being a developing country, North Cyprus has a multi-cultural environment due to the presence of international students in tertiary education. This study explores how two public and two private universities maintained sustainability in higher education during COVID-19 by discussing the public relations models (PR) that they have used regarding digital communication. This study uses a qualitative content analysis and a quantitative method. The paper asserts that the effective usage of digital communication contributes to the sustainability of universities during this crisis. The findings revealed that the posts (text/image/poster) and videos these universities share are more concentrated on either press agentry or the public information model. Yet, a two-way symmetrical model that maintains dialogue within stakeholders is practiced less than the other PR models. Hence, there is a need for the universities to listen to their stakeholders not only in face to face communication but more through digital communication platforms as well.
Online journal of communication and media technologies, Dec 1, 2016
The rapid development and widespread and increasing use of Social Networking sites is arguably on... more The rapid development and widespread and increasing use of Social Networking sites is arguably one the most significant developments in contemporary human communication over the past two decades. Indeed, perhaps comparable only to development of mobile communication technologies, social networking may well be one of the most important and visible forms of human interaction since the invention of the Internet. In this paper, we examine and highlight the enormous potential of these fairly recent technological developments and highlight opportunities they present to humankind as platforms for democratic and participatory communication and governance-especially in grassroots social movements activism. While doing so, we use cases to show the important potential and actual contributions that social media hold out and represent for democratic communication. The paper also casts a critical look at the potential risks and examines proven and theoretical shortcomings and challenges that these new advances in human communication may pose or represent for society, and identify cybercrime, cyber bullying, their effects on human physical and emotional health, their impact on productivity and other workplace complications, and potential societal disorder and dysfunction of certain social norms among the list of concerns that we suggest require further reflection and redress. The paper concludes by depicting social media as a potentially useful tool from which much social and societal capital can be derived; but also draws attention to their many problematic aspects that make them seem like doubleedged swordwith enormous opportunities and benefits on the one hand, and risks and threats, on the other, depending primarily on the uses to which they are put. Global, regional and national initiatives should be taken to maximize the benefits of social media while minimizing, or at least containing the threats through incorporation of independent but limited guidelines and regulations that would safeguard people's freedoms and rights while protecting users from abuses and adverse effects often inherent in new developments.
Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 2019
PurposeA number of studies have documented the use and popularity of social networking sites amon... more PurposeA number of studies have documented the use and popularity of social networking sites among Millennials and late Millennials, especially in Western countries. However, the usage of these sites by non-Western young adults/late Millennials has just barely begun. Informed by literature and findings of recent research on audience information-seeking behavior and principles governing the usage of social media to obtain and disseminate crisis-related information, the purpose of this paper is to employ survey research to examine how senior PR-track non-Western late Millennial university students use social media to obtain and/or disseminate information on issues they perceived as “crises.”Design/methodology/approachA combination of survey research and critical communication methods were used to gather and analyze data from a sample of future non-Western budding PR professionals. Survey research was designed and used to investigate social media use among PR-major students studying at...
Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Nov 8, 2019
Purpose-A number of studies have documented the use and popularity of social networking sites amo... more Purpose-A number of studies have documented the use and popularity of social networking sites among Millennials and late Millennials, especially in Western countries. However, the usage of these sites by non-Western young adults/late Millennials has just barely begun. Informed by literature and findings of recent research on audience information-seeking behavior and principles governing the usage of social media to obtain and disseminate crisis-related information, the purpose of this paper is to employ survey research to examine how senior PR-track non-Western late Millennial university students use social media to obtain and/ or disseminate information on issues they perceived as "crises." Design/methodology/approach-A combination of survey research and critical communication methods were used to gather and analyze data from a sample of future non-Western budding PR professionals. Survey research was designed and used to investigate social media use among PR-major students studying at a large State University in the Mediterranean region to probe their perceptions of these media as forums for activism during moments of crisis. Questionnaire was designed to elicit responses on social media use and perceptions on a range of crisis-communication related issues, and their responses on the Likert scale that were later analyzed using the SPSS (version 21) program. Findings-These future PR professionals appreciated the suitability of social media in disseminating crisis-communication messages. They also highlighted challenges that unethical use of such platforms pose to PR professionals. Social network sites were reported to be the most popular social media platforms used during crisis communication. Even though the respondents widely reported using social media to disseminate information during crisis situationsand answered in the affirmative that the use of social media at such times could positively contribute to social change, they did not consider themselves as activists who actively contribute to fostering of peace and justice. Originality/value-A number of studies have documented the use of social networking sites among Millennials especially in Western countries. However, the usage of these sites by non-Western late Millennials has just barely begun. This paper attempts to do this. The study explored social media usage by the non-Western late Millennial PR-track university students. Attempts were also made to elicit such PR professionals' perceptions of whether social media contribute to activist movements and social change during crisis, and whether they physically acted as activist on social media to contribute to the improvement of societal ills, and to bring local/global peace or not.
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, Dec 1, 2016
The rapid development and widespread and increasing use of Social Networking sites is arguably on... more The rapid development and widespread and increasing use of Social Networking sites is arguably one the most significant developments in contemporary human communication over the past two decades. Indeed, perhaps comparable only to development of mobile communication technologies, social networking may well be one of the most important and visible forms of human interaction since the invention of the Internet. In this paper, we examine and highlight the enormous potential of these fairly recent technological developments and highlight opportunities they present to humankind as platforms for democratic and participatory communication and governance-especially in grassroots social movements activism. While doing so, we use cases to show the important potential and actual contributions that social media hold out and represent for democratic communication. The paper also casts a critical look at the potential risks and examines proven and theoretical shortcomings and challenges that these new advances in human communication may pose or represent for society, and identify cybercrime, cyber bullying, their effects on human physical and emotional health, their impact on productivity and other workplace complications, and potential societal disorder and dysfunction of certain social norms among the list of concerns that we suggest require further reflection and redress. The paper concludes by depicting social media as a potentially useful tool from which much social and societal capital can be derived; but also draws attention to their many problematic aspects that make them seem like doubleedged swordwith enormous opportunities and benefits on the one hand, and risks and threats, on the other, depending primarily on the uses to which they are put. Global, regional and national initiatives should be taken to maximize the benefits of social media while minimizing, or at least containing the threats through incorporation of independent but limited guidelines and regulations that would safeguard people's freedoms and rights while protecting users from abuses and adverse effects often inherent in new developments.
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 2017
This paper traces and documents the opportunities and potentials that social media offer PR pract... more This paper traces and documents the opportunities and potentials that social media offer PR practitioners while also highlighting peculiar challenges that such uses present to contemporary PR practitioners due, mainly-and paradoxically-to their widespread availability and usage by both PR and non PR actors. While proliferation of information, availability of modern technologies and availability of training of practitioners have greatly raised and shaped the profile of PR practice in recent decades, increase in the number of actors who are neither trained nor committed to the ethics of PR practice have posed special challenges and posed problems to the field. The mushrooming of technologies available to PR practitioners in the recent past prompts the need to rethink, re-evaluate, revisit with a view to re-assesing not only the promises that these advances bring to the practice but also the special problems that the new scenario may present to PR academics and practitioners alike. This is the exercise we attempt in this paper. There is no gainsaying the benefits of the largely direct and unfettered communication for the PR practitioners; immediate, democratic and participatory being just a few of them. However, in spite of their many benefits,, the uses of social media by PR practitioners is not free of drawbacks and threats, especially (but not solely) because of the scope they provide for abusive use. The same social networking and microblogging sites that have provided trained PR practitioners with platforms to conduct highly effective and ethical communication practices have similarly turned and empowered millions of people with smartphones and internet connection into an army of 'Journalists' & PR practitioners without formal training or commitment to ethical principles of communication; a scenario that provides much room for reckless and irresponsible usage of these platforms where everyone is free to speak "what's on their mind." An apt way to describe the resulting complications of PR practices under this milieu may be summed by the old adage attributed to American humorist, Mark Twain that, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." Indeed, PR practitioners often find themselves resorting to fire-fighting and reactionary PR techniques in response to online uploads from a variety of unconventional sources. Thus, while conventional wisdom may readily celebrate the many virtues of social media for PR practitioners highlighting the way in which they lend themselves to two-way communication between the organization and its various publics, we caution that such assessment of social media use should be examined and understood in terms of both potential and inherent constraints and risks. The study uses critical and case studies approaches together with a survey method to argue the need to rethink and reassess
Sustainability
Currently, the world is going through a pandemic, COVID-19, that affects the four pillars of orga... more Currently, the world is going through a pandemic, COVID-19, that affects the four pillars of organizational sustainability. At this point, institutions’ sustainability depends on how they handle crisis communication. It seems that institutions that can adapt themselves to changes regarding the usage of digital communication platforms are survivors, and even winners, of this crisis. The general belief concerning education in developing countries claims that these countries are slow in adapting to technological innovations. Being a developing country, North Cyprus has a multi-cultural environment due to the presence of international students in tertiary education. This study explores how two public and two private universities maintained sustainability in higher education during COVID-19 by discussing the public relations models (PR) that they have used regarding digital communication. This study uses a qualitative content analysis and a quantitative method. The paper asserts that the...
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Papers by Ülfet Kutoğlu Kuruç