Abstract

The purpose of the study was to establish the role of new media in public relations practice in organizations in Nairobi county, Kenya. Specifically ,the study aimed at achieving the following objectives: To examine the role of new media in communicating an organizations  corporate identify; To establish the relevance of the messages on  websites,  internet and mobile based channels on the  organization’s self image ;To  establish the most  used channels in  communicating with the  organization various publics and To examine the role of new media in communicating an organizations products and services.  This was a descriptive study that employed the survey and observation methods to get data from selected organizations in Nairobi .To get the sample from the target population, purposive and stratified sampling were done.  Questionnaire and observation methods were used to collect data for the study. Content analysis was also done to establish the organizations’ online presence through the use of new media. The study established that organizations used different media depending on the publics they were communicating with. The findings also revealed that some organizations used traditional media -newspapers, radio and television more than they used new media. Some organizations had access to new media but they used them sparingly .It was concluded that new media have positively impacted public relations practice in Kenya.

Key Words: New Media, Publics, Public Relations, Electronic Mail, Digital Technologies.

*Juliet Wambui Macharia Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies and the Former Dean, School of Business at Karatina University, Karatina, Kenya. She holds a PhD in Educational Communication Technology, a Masters of Arts degree, PGD in Public Relations and a PGD in Human Resource Management.

^JCMR Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 9, No. 2, October 2017, 221 – 233