Virtual Public Relations in

the United Arab Emirates:

A Study of PR Departments Use of Internet

-----------------------------------------
Dr. Mohamed Kirat
University of Sharjah - UAE

Abstract:

This paper discusses the use of internet by public relations

departments in the United Arab Emirates, to reach their key publics
online and to gather information and monitor data to perform their
tasks and to promote and develop their relations with the news
media. Findings of the study show that all 24 organizations have a
homepage, but only two thirds of them are posting their publications
on the net, and only one third are using electronic newspapers to
monitor their coverage in the media and to gather news, data and
information of importance for the various tasks they perform. Only
three organizations out of 24 have an online newsroom, and only
two have a virtual tour about the organization. None of the surveyed
organizations’ Web site has a film or videos. Organizations in the
United Arab Emirates still have a lot to do to take advantage fully
and rationally of what interactive communication, Internet and
online publications are offering for a better performance and more
effective public relations.

Keywords:Interactive communications, Online public

relations,Online media relations,Electronic newspapers, Web site,
Online publications, news rooms, press releases, visitors’ comments
and suggestions.
“ If everybody is a publisher on the Internet, your company is too.
The Net gives you the means to communicate directly to the public.
Your candid, useful presentations to your many publics will buy you
goodwill in times of trouble”. (Holtz,1999:232).

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Introduction:

In public relations, as in other fields, nothing seems more important,

than mastering the world of new technology and the advent
of interactive workplace: the Internet, the World Wide Web,
cyberspace. Internet has tremendous potential power for public
relations and other communications disciplines. The net has become
a strategic tool for public relations departments. Today’s publics are
better educated, smarter and more media savvy. Public relations
professionals can use the wired global village for immediate,
effective and persuasive communications. They can use the net
to structure their information to respond instantly to expanding
issues and market developments and changes. Organizations today
need to convey their thoughts, programs and objectives to narrow
segments of the population. The net offers such narrow casting to
reporters, analysts, consumers and opinion leaders. Electronic mail,
intranets, extranets, CD-ROMs and Web sites are the main tools
used by public relations departments. Media relations have been
promoted and developed through the net. Press kits are becoming
digital, products are launched through the net and interviews are
conducted on-line.

The World Wide Web is considered to be the first public relations mass
medium allowing direct communications between organizations
and their publics without going through news media gatekeeping
and journalists and editors filtering. Internet is a unique medium with
a score of opportunities for organizations to reach and interact with
their key publics online. Public relations practitioners can, through
the net, communicate directly with their public with transparency,
frankness and democracy. Internet is a strategic tool for public
relations to perform interactive communication, professional
development and conduct research.

This paper examines the patterns of Internet usage by 24 public

relations departments in public and private organizations in he UAE
to promote and develop their relations with the news media and their
respective publics, and to carry out their research, action, planning,
communication and evaluation tasks. What media materials, news,
information and data are public relations departments displaying
on the organization Web site? Do public relations departments use

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the Internet and online newspapers to do research and monitor
the organization’s corporate image online? Do public relations
departments have a policy and strategy to use efficiently and
rationally online communication to promote and develop their
relations with the media through the Web?

The Problem:

Thereisacommondenominatorbetweenonlinejournalismandonline
public relations, both need each other and both use news, reports
and data from each other. Online journalism needs and use online
public relations: Press releases, reports, Company and managers’
profiles, latest news and events, press clippings, video news items…
etc. Public relations departments use online newspapers and
publications to monitor the organization’s corporate image, news
coverage and public opinion. PR departments use online newspapers
to do research to plan and manage their activities and programs.
Excellent communications and public relations are those that
serve to facilitate the relationship between an organization and its
strategic publics. The Internet can play a significant role in this kind
of public relations, but generally it has not yet been used to that end.
Most public relations activities on the Internet are limited to using
it as yet another channel for the one-way, top-down publishing of
information under the traditional formula of mass communication.
Most public relations activities online are not strategic, they are not
measurable and they are not targeted toward specific audiences
or constituencies. For the most part, organizations’ online public
relations efforts are limited to a small component of a larger,
catchall company site on the World Wide Web. A huge number of
organizations and institutions have not yet embraced the Internet
at all as a communication tool. The home page is static , it never
changes. On the page, the company proudly displays its logo and
links to the various sections of the site. As a result, the one site
needs to accommodate all possible audiences, from customers and
consumers to newspaper reporters and investment analysis.
Excellent communications and public relations are those that
serve to facilitate the relationship between an organization and its
strategic publics. The Internet can play a significant role in this kind
of public relations, but generally it has not yet been used to that end.
Most public relations activities on the Internet are limited to using

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it as yet another channel for the one-way, top-down publishing of
information under the traditional formula of mass communication.
And then there are the huge number of organizations and institutions
that have not yet embraced the Internet at all as a communication
tool. Most public relations activities online are not strategic, they
are not measurable and they are not targeted toward specific
audiences or constituencies.

For the most part, organizations’ online public relations efforts

are limited to a small component of a larger, catchall company site
on the World Wide Web. Most companies establish their outpost
on the Web using the company name. The home page is static , it
never changes. On the page, the company proudly displays its logo
and links to the various sections of the site. As a result, the one site
needs to accommodate all possible audiences, from customers and
consumers to newspaper reporters and investment analysis. One
link points to product information, another to job opportunities…
(Holtz,1999:11).

Public Relations in the United Arab Emirates:

As an emerging nation, the United Arab Emirates has experienced

rapid development and change in a very short period of time. Thanks
to its oil resources, open market economy and rational management,
the country attracted huge foreign investments and has been able
to be a regional center for trade and business. Modern organizations
and institutions cannot survive without professional and effective
public relations. In a country where expatriates form two thirds
of the population, and where there are over 200 nationalities
and thousands of foreign and international companies and firms,
efficient communication and healthy relations between various
bodies and organizations in the country are a must. Engaging in huge
developments plans in various sectors, the Emirati government
has to communicate, educate, inform and prepare the population,
whether local or expatriate, to keep up with the pace of change and
development which is taking place in the region and worldwide .
The private sector, has also, in order to survive and compete, to be
up to date with the latest developments at the international scale
in terms of information technology, communications, and public
relations.

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Public Relations in the United Arab Emirates has emerged as an
important profession to interact, cater for and keep up with the
rapid development that the country has witnessed since the
declaration of the union on the second of December 1971.With the
advent of the union and the oil, the country witnessed large scale
development programs in all aspects of life. Such development
programs needed effective public relations. The country enjoys a
high per capita income (over 20,000 US $), a free market economy,
a strong infrastructure and a cosmopolitan society with expatriates
from all over the world. This healthy and encouraging environment
attracted foreign investments. Hundreds of multinational and
foreign companies established their offices in the country, opening
the doors to the emergence of the public relations industry. Both
public and private sectors started PR departments, services and
offices to keep up with the new changes and development. The
country has not depended only on oil resources and wealth, but
diversified its economy and engaged huge investments in tourism,
transportation, telecommunications, trade, and lately real estate.
( Badran,Turk, Walters,2004:46)

The period of the seventies and eighties was characterized by

building all kinds of institutions and organizations in all sectors and
fields: Primary education, vocational education, higher education,
health, communication, transportation, agriculture, industry,
tourism, manpower development, sports, culture and media. This
period was a period of rapid change, and a drastic transformation
in all aspects of life. In the media sector, Al-Itihad newspaper was
established in 1969, in 1970 Omran brothers started Al-Khaleej
daily, which became later one of the leading newspaper in the
country. Emirates News was established in 1971, then after came
Alwihda in 1973, Alfajr in 1975, Khaleej Times in 1979, Gulf News in
1979, Albayan in 1980. This period also witnessed a proliferation
of hundreds of magazines and various specialized and professional
publications to keep up with the rapid developments in all sectors
and domains.
The audiovisual media went through the same experience as the
print media. Thanks to the British, broadcasting started from
Sharjah in 1969, and in 1971 it started from Abu Dhabi and Ras
Alkhima opening the way to commercial radio. Television started in
black and white in 1969, in 1972 the PAL system was adopted by

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Abu Dhabi and Dubai. (Nafadi; Babbili & Hussein, 1994:229302-).
As for advertising, this period witnessed a widespread expansion
of private advertising agencies, and the industry started to grow
following the path of overall development in the country.

Public relations experienced its beginning and started to grow and

develop alongside with what was happening in various sectors of life:
education, health, sports, telecommunications, transportation,,
media, industry, trade, services, agriculture, tourism and the list
goes on. International public relations firms, started during this
period, to discover the huge business opportunities available in the
United Arab Emirates. As a result, tens of well-known international
PR firms opened their offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the eighties,
thus contributing to a large extent to the evolution, development
and expansion of the PR industry in the United Arab Emirates.

By the mid eighties, 63% of government departments and various

organizations and institutions in the country had their public
relations department. The other institutions and organizations
that didn’t have a PR body assigned such tasks to other services
such as human resources department, financial, marketing and
sales department, while others outsourced private public relations
agencies. (Alkhaja, 1985).

The United Arab Emirates became a regional and an international

center for various media organizations that used to be established
in Western capitals, thanks to its free market economy, good
infrastructure and rational policies. Dubai Media City was able to
attract tens of Arab and international broadcasting firms. According
to the 2005 United Arab Emirates yearbook, the media boom in the
UAE in the beginning of the third millennium was as follows:

The media scene in the UAE witnessed major developments in

the field of media technology as well as in the establishment of
various media centers such as Emirates Media Incorporated,
Dubai Media Corporation... The UAE has numerous indigenous
satellite TV stations. Some focus on Arab culture and identity,
others on business and sport…It also has a number of terrestrial
stations broadcasting in Arabic and English…Emirates Cable
TV and Multimedia (E-Vision)…offers viewers of a total of 160

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entertainment and interactive channels in approximately 14
languages. There are six Arabic and three English daily newspapers
in circulation in the country, in addition to more than 160 magazines
and journals published by local and national organizations, cultural
centers, clubs, chambers of commerce and industry, municipalities
and educational institutions.

(UAE 2005 Yearbook: 309).

The nineties witnessed a major development in the field of public
relations in the United Arab Emirates. Interest in the profession
took place and increased tremendously. Various departments,
organizations and institutions whether private or public, commercial
or services realized the importance of PR for their survival and
success. The organization realized that it needs a site on the
Internet, a documentary film, a catalogue, a booklet, a compact
disk, and various other media material to communicate with its
publics and inform them about its activities, products and services.
These new challenges imposed on the new and modern organization
a public relations body that will take care of various tasks and
responsibilities such as liaising with the media, production of media
materials, research, management and decision-making. As a result,
this period witnessed the beginning of public relations education
and training in various higher education institutions in the country.

Online Public Relations:

Excellent communications and public relations are those that

serve to facilitate the relationship between an organization and its
strategic publics. The Internet can play a significant role in this kind
of public relations, but generally it has not yet been used to that
end. Internet has become an essential communications medium for
PR practitioners, it is a powerful and integrated tool and a worldwide
network with a broad applications internally and externally. Internet
is a new medium requiring new ways of thinking and new PR tactics
and technologies.
Internet is a medium that cannot be ignored by PR professionals and
practitioners. It is to be noted here that the principles of PR are the
same and remain the same, the only change is technology that PR
should use and adopt to reach its different goals. With online public
relations audiences are self-selected by personal interest and no

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longer geographical, audiences are also global and local. Online public
relations means interactivity. It is closer to direct than mass media.
This means that public relations should emphasize interaction with
individuals online through two way symmetric communication.

Online communication serves all tasks and types of content in

organizational communication. Online is the closest an organization
can come to one channel carrying all forms of communication from
plain text through multimedia. Email is a primary communications
tool internally, externally and to national media. Public relations
departments can through email send text, pictures, and images.

Online newsrooms are essential and a must for companies. In

times of crises, online public relations help solve so many problems
quickly and efficiently. Online public relations helps in research
and data gathering, as well as, monitoring the corporate image
through online newspapers and all kinds of electronic publications.
Suggestions boxes and visitors’ comments and questions through
the organization’s Web site are major sources for research and data
gathering and are important feedback for public relations’ activities
planning and programming and a good source for decision making.

Online is a major medium that PR practitioners should use efficiently

and rationally for effective public relations. Online has matured
quickly as a communications medium, it is a nearly inexhaustible
topic. Public relations professionals should adopt and master the
new technology because of the various services it provides for a
transparent democratic and effective communication to promote
and develop strong relationships between the organization and its
publics.

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Online media relations:

The press is not only one of the most important groups with which an
organization must communicate, it also is one of the easiest groups
to apply to the Internet…You can hardly find an institutional Web
site that does not feature a link to material produced by the media
relations department. Reporters use Internet-based e-mail as a
means of corresponding with sources after initial contact was made
and the identity and credibility of the source established.

Your job as a media relations professional is to make a reporter’s

job easier. In doing so, you best represent your company and make
it more likely that reporters will listen to your point of view, your
story pitches, and your requests. Use the Internet to facilitate this
approach to media relations by making information available, not by
invading reporters’ e-mail boxes with unwanted e-mail.

Public relations practitioners in the age of internet and digital

society are investing online media relations to make the work of
the news media, reporters and journalists easier and more efficient
and to achieve PR objectives and goals. Online media relations is a
must for successful public relations. This can be achieved through
well designed and well thought Web site with a well structured news
room, links and various media materials such as press releases,
latest news and activities, press releases archive, news clippings,
online publications, videos, photo galleries, virtual tours, films and
documentaries. Other news, data and information such as company
and executives profiles, public relations managers and practitioners
contact’s numbers and speeches’ archive, executives CVs and
photos should be displayed on the company’s Web site and should
be easy to reach and use by journalists, reporters and news media.
Holtz argues that:

The real benefit of doing media relations on the Internet comes

from targeting the media as a dedicated audience and crafting a
strategy that specifically addresses their needs…Ideally, the job
of the media relations department is to help reporters do their
jobs. That objective is entirely consistent with the broader goal of
public relations, which is to manage the relationship between the
organization and its various audiences. (Holtz,1999:115)

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Literature Review:

An emerging body of research on the use of new technologies,

mainly Internet, by public relations departments to promote and
develop their media relations and reach their key publics suggests
that Internet integration is a must for effective and successful PR.
Mayhall argues that Internet can be used in the profession of public
relations as a tool of communication, PR practitioners professional
development and research.(Mayhall,2003).

In a study on “Virtual public relations in the United Arab Emirates”,

Ayish analyzed the use of the Internet as a public relations tool by
20 government and private organizations in the UAE. The author
looked at the availability of corporate or institutional profile,
community services, press releases and news, photo galleries,
search facilities, feedback facilities and bilingual communications.
Ayish argues that public and private organizations in the UAE are
using Internet as a public relations tool, and that they have a strong
interest in realizing a symmetrical model of public relations across
private and public sectors. The author noted that in many cases, PR
staff are not directly involved in the construction and updating of
the organization’s site.

Alkhaja conducted a research on the PR Internet’s use in the UAE.

She surveyed 100 public relations practitioners from public sector
(50), private sector (30) and public-private (20). The author found
that 87% of the organizations in the UAE have a Web site. Only 5.44%
of public relations departments participated in the construction
and updating of the organization’s Web site, while 81.82% of
the computer and IT departments designed and maintained it.
Organizations used Web sites to promote their corporate image,
their activities and their products (58.3%) and to gather ideas and
information and to exchange letters with both internal and external
publics (18.5%).Findings of the study showed also that 79% of PR
departments are using Internet in their work, and 47% use it to get
new ideas for their communication activities and 19.2% to exchange
letters with journalists.

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Johnson argues that public relations practitioners use the Web
to promote media relations, internal communication, investors,
government, and customers relations. Public relations practitioners
are using the Web as a tool of transparent, democratic and direct
communicationwiththeorganization’skeypublics.(Johnson,1997)
In a study on “ Reaching key publics online: University public
relations practitioners’ use of the World Wide Web”, Silverman
content analyzed 261 American doctorate-granting universities
to determine how they are using the World Wide Web to provide
information for key publics. The author concludes That:

In general, America’s doctorate-granting universities are doing well

in their Web efforts to communicate with alumni, current students,
prospective students, and faculty and staff, but there is room for
improvement, both in terms of content and links, to other key publics
such as parents, the business community, and research partners.
(Silverman,2004:10)

In a study on the technological realities of public relations

practitioners in Ghana, Kwansah-Aidoo argues:

As practitioners, theorists and public relations educators continue

to make predictions about the impact of new technologies on public
relations, it is instructive to note that there is a technological divide
betweenpractitionersindevelopedcountriesandtheircounterparts
in developing countries, and also, that within developing countries
there is still a further chasm between the technological haves, and
the have-nots. These divisions are by and large indicative, reflective,
and also representative of the wider socio-cultural, economic and
political settings in which practitioners operate. (Kwansah-Aidoo,
2005: 13).

O’Malley and Irani did a study on “ Public relations and the Web:
Measuring the effect of interactivity, information, and access to
information in Web sites”. The objective of the study was to examine
whether interactivity, information, access to information or any
combination thereof, would be the best predictor of intention. The
study suggests that a combination of information and interactivity
would be the best predictor of intending to revisit a Web site.
(O’Malley and Irani,1998:1,9).

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Research Questions:

RQ1: What are the patterns of Internet usage by public relations

departments in the UAE?

RQ2: What media materials, news, information and data are public
relations departments displaying on the Web site?

RQ3: Do public relations departments use the Internet and online

newspapers to do research and monitor the organization’s
corporate image online?

RQ4: Do public relations departments have a policy and strategy to

use efficiently and rationally online communication to promote and
develop their relations with the media through the Web?

Methodology:

The following organizations were selected to assess patterns of

their usage of online publications and Internet to promote their
media relations and perform online public relations.

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A media relations Web site Analysis Sheet what developed for the
purpose of this study (appendix A). Items included the availability
on the organization’s Web site of news room, press releases, latest
news and activities, press releases’ archive, speeches’ archive,
CVs and photos, news clippings, company and executives’ profiles,
PR’s contact numbers, online publications, virtual tour, film, videos,
and visitors’ comments and suggestions. The study also used a 26
items-questionnaire administered to public relations departments’
managers in the 24 organizations of this study (appendix B). The
questionnaire was designed to assess the use of the Internet and
online publications by public relations departments to promote and
develop relations with news media and organization’s key publics
online.

Findings :
Media Relations Web Site Analysis’ Findings:

Some findings of the study show a healthy trend in PR media relations

through the Web, while others indicate that there is a lot of work
to do to invest all the potentialities of the Web for a better public
relations and news media performance.

News room, speeches’ archive, news clippings, PR’s contact

numbers, virtual tour, film and videos

Only three out of 24 organizations in this study have a news room

in their Web site. This means that the majority of the organizations
Webs are not well organized and structured to reach the media and
to give them an easy and effective access to the organization’s
activities, news and events. Online newsroom are usually structured
and organized in a way to provide a link where journalists and
reporters find all the information and the news they need to cover
the organization. Only two of the 24 organizations of the study have
a speeches’ archive. And only three had news clippings which are of

121
a great importance for journalists and reporters. They usually use
them for background stories and to catch up with what have been
said and published by other news media about the organization they
are covering. Findings of the Web sites’ analysis show also that only
two out of the 24 organizations’ Web sites posted their PR managers
and practitioners contact numbers. This is a major drawback
considering that journalists and reporters need some telephone
numbers and emails to contact directly the right person in the
organization who can provide them with the necessary information
they are looking for. Findings also indicated that the organizations
surveyed by this study didn’t use the Web efficiently to build up
good media relations. None of the 24 organizations of this study
have a film or video news items on its Web site, and only two have a
virtual tour. These are the negative aspects of using the Web by PR
departments to build and foster media relations. On the other hand,
some positive aspects emerged throughout this study.

They are as follows:

Press releases, latest news and activities, press releases archive,

company & executives’ profiles, online publications and visitors’
comments and suggestions:
All the organizations of this study except for two post news releases
and latest news and activities on their Web site. Over two thirds of
them provide a company profile as well as top managers and senior
executives’ bios and CVs. Over half of the companies displayed their
publications on the Web and have a “box” for visitors’ comments
and suggestions. These are good signs of effective and successful
online public relations. Such news, information, publications and
archives are all important elements of professional coverage,
efficient reporting and in-depth analyses and presentations.

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Questionnaire’s Findings:
As for the Web site analysis’ findings, the questionnaire’s findings
show some good news and some bad news. The bad news show that
in over two thirds of the companies the public relations department
do not design or maintain the Company’s Web site. This is a negative
trend in online public relations. To be effective on the net, PR
departments should be part of the team that construct, design and
maintain the Web site of the organization, they should be involved
and have a say in what to be displayed on the Web site? How? When?
and for what purposes? They should make a systematic and scientific
use of the new technology to reach their key publics online, and to
give the opportunity to their audience to communicate and interact
through the net with the organization. Public relations departments
should also display on the organization’s Web site news, reports,
data, profiles and CVs that are of importance to the news media,
reporters and journalists. Respondents in their majority said also
that they are not using email to perform their PR work. Over half of
the respondents are not aware of the meaning and importance of
a news room, press room, media room or media center online for
Web media relations This is a dramatic finding if we are talking about
online media relations.

As for monitoring the media online to assess the corporate image of

the organization and its coverage by the news media, over two thirds
of the respondents said they do not use Internet to do research. This
can be explained by the fact that in real life public relations, research
is not a priority in a large number of public relations departments in
the UAE. ( Kirat,2005:167).

The good news about online public relations in the United Arab
Emirates are stated as follows by the respondents of this study ‘s
questionnaire: Public relations managers and practitioners think
they should construct and upgrade the organization’s Web site.
The majority of them think also that providing press releases, and

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press releases’ archive, posting the companies publications and
displaying the latest news and events and future activities of the
organization are all indispensable and essential elements of good
media relations online. Over two thirds of the respondents said they
use visitors’ comments, suggestions and feedback in their planning
and activities. All the respondents think that Internet has helped
tremendously their organization in promoting online relations with
the news media. .

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Discussion and Conclusion:

Findings of this study show positive and negative trends of the

usage of the new technology, namely Internet, by public and private
organizations in the United Arab Emirates. It is to be noted here that
the successful adoption of new technologies in the field of public
relations depend on several factors such as the background and the
education of public relations practitioners, management strategies
and methods, democracy, how public relations is conceived, and how
it is practiced in real life. It has been argued by many that globalization
will definitely lead to democratization in the Third World countries.
Unfortunately, such thing never happened. Technology, has
never by itself made success for those who apply it. In this regard,
Kwansa-Aidoo argues:
As practitioners, theorists and public relations educators continue
to make predictions about the impact of new technologies on public
relations , it is instructive to note that there is a technological divide
betweenpractitionersindevelopedcountriesandtheir counterparts
in developing countries, and also, that within developing countries
there is still a further chasm between the technological haves and
the have- nots. These divisions are by and large indicative, reflective,
and also representative of the wider socio-cultural, economic and
political settings in which practitioners operate.
(Kwansa-Aidoo,2005:13).

The case study of 24 UAE organizations’ use of the Internet show

that public relations departments have to get more involved in
constructing and updating the organization’s Web site. More
transparent, democratic, symmetric two-way communication
should be adopted by the PR practitioners. Media relations online
are not efficiently promoted and developed by public relations
departments. Findings show that PR are not using virtual tours,
films, videos, news rooms, PR’s contact numbers, news clippings
and speeches’ archive. In the UAE, as in other Arab and Third World

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countries, the problem of online public relations is a problem of
the practice of the profession itself, and not only a problem of
technology. In this regard, Kirat notes:
Although public relations is growing very fast in the Middle East, and
although it is developing along the years but still the profession is
facing some old problems.
Public relations in the Arab World is still distanced from top
management and relegated to secondary roles instead of advising
and contributing in the decision -making. The status of PR in society
is correlated with the degree of freedom, democracy and the place
public opinion occupies and the role it plays in society.
(Kirat,2005:330331-).

Findings of this study show that public relations departments in the

UAE have no clear policy and a strategy to use the Internet to promote
and develop healthy relationships between the organization and its
publics. The companies’ Web sites are still lacking a media relations
strategy and lack a lot of information and data of importance to
journalists, reporters, news organizations and key publics. This
confirms what Ayish found in his study of 20 UAE organizations’ Use
of the Internet: in the UAE:

This situation seems quite alarming, underscoring low appreciation

of the role of public relations in virtual communications. In this case,
PR staff members continue
to play their traditional role in real world situations, but when it
comes to online
communications, they do not seem to have a big say in controlling
the flow of information to the public. This may suggest that what
appears online a bout a certain
organization may be in tune with what is carried out in real world
communications.
(Ayish,2005: 387).

For sure, news media, reporters and audiences are using, and will
use Internet more and more; public relations departments have to
find out how, when, where and for what purposes are using this new
tool and how to make an efficient use of it to achieve their objectives
and goals. Then, they have to build communications programs and

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efforts to accommodate those trends to satisfy the needs of the
news media, the publics and the organizations themselves. The final
goal in online public relations is not the fact to have a Web site for
your organization, but rather is what you have inside that Web site,
what kind of information, data, statistics, archives, photo galleries,
virtual tours, video news clips and useful links.

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Appendix B: Questionnaire

Dear colleague,
We are conducting a study on online public relations in the United
Arab Emirates. Kindly fill in the following questionnaire . We would
like to inform you that all your answers will be treated in strict
confidence. Neither you, nor your organization will be reported by
name.
We would like to thank you in advance for your time and cooperation

Q1: What is the name of your organization?

……………………………………………………………………………
Q2: What is your job title ?

……………………………………………………………………………
Q3: Who designs and maintains the organization’s Web site ?

……………………………………………………………………………
Q4: According to you, who should design and manage the
organization’s Web site ?

……………………………………………………………………………
Q5: Does your organization’s Web site have a newsroom, pressroom,
news bureau, media room, or media center?

……………………………………………………………………………
Q6: If yes, What kind of news, reports, information does it display?

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………

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Q7: Do you use Internet to promote online media relations in your
organization? How?

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
Q8: Do you use email to perform your PR tasks? If yes, how?

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
………….………..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..…
Q9: Do you use email to send press releases, news, photos, and
information about the organization’s activities to news media? If
yes, please give examples:

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
Q10: Do you have a press releases’ archive on your organization’s
Web site?

……………………………………………………………………………
Q11: Do you have an archive for your organization officials and top
managers’ speeches, statements, interviews?

……………………………………………………………………………
Q12: Does your organization’s Web site display profiles, photos and
CVs of its executives and top managers?

……………………………………………………………………………
Q13: Are public relations managers, practitioners and company’s
spokesman’s contacts numbers available on the organization’s
Web site?
……………………………………………………………………………

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Q14: How is your organization’s media relations Web site structured
and organized?
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
Q15: Do you use public relations online research in your organization?
If yes, how?

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
Q1 6: Are the organization’s publications posted on its Web site? If
yes list them please.

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………

Q17: Does your organization’s Web site have online bulletin

boards?

……………………………………………………………………………
………….………..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..…
Q18: Is there a virtual tour about your organization on its Web site?

……………………………………………………………………………
Q19: Does you organization use videos and Web casts to reach its
key publics online?

……………………………………………………………………………
Q20: Is there a film about your organization on its Web site?

……………………………………………………………………………

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Q21: Do you monitor online publications to do your PR work? If yes,
please give examples:

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
Q22: Do you monitor online newspapers to do your PR work? If yes,
how?

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
Q23: What kind of information and data you get from the net to
perform your PR tasks?

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
Q24: Is there a visitor feedback link on the organization’s Web site
that allows members of the public to report their views, comments,
questions and suggestions?

……………………………………………………………………………
Q25: If yes, do you use publics’ feedback in your PR work? And how?

……………………………………………………………………………
………….………..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..…

Q26: In your opinion, have your organization’s media relations been

promoted and developed through the net? If yes, please explain and
give examples:

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
Thank you for your participation in this study

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