The voice of the internet: Are Indian Environmental NGOs exploiting their websites as a Public Relations tool?

I had recently conducted a study of websites of environmental NGOs based in India to see how they are being  used as a Public Relations tool.

This paper was presented at the:- 

XXXIII Indian Social Science Congress, March 10-14, 2010 at Hyderabad.

Abstract

The media generally determine which issues will be discussed by people, by placing those issues in a specific manner, the process being called agenda setting. On the contrary media becomes the audience when agenda building is done by public relations. Here public relations practitioners provide editors with newsworthy materials or ideas through many media, one of them being the internet. The websites of organisations become conduits of information to communicate these ideas, thoughts and objectives of these organisations. This study examines websites belonging to environmental non-profit organisations based in India and seeks to find out if this medium, which is a public relations tool, is being aptly used by these non-governmental organisations. The method to analyse the study would be quantitative content analysis.

Synopsis of the conclusion:-

It was found that the public relations practitioner of the NGOs has to use the website more effectively to the benefit of the organisation and spell out its agenda clearly.