STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION THROUGH DIGITAL PUBLIC RELATIONS AND ITS TREND IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

The development of strategic communication practices through the use of digital platforms is seen to have an impact on the sustainability of strategic communication in the public and private sectors. Strategic communication is a process that determines the stability of an organization’s image, reputation, and position. The digital platform now not only serves as the main communication medium, but also able to function as a platform for dialogue communication between content creators and followers of the platform. Accordingly, the theory used to explain this article is the strategic communication theory (Hallahan et.al, 2007) According to Hallahan, strategic communication is involved in the development, implementation, and assessment of communication. This research aims to understand the impact and the role of strategic communication through digital public relations and its trends in Malaysia. The discussion and fndings in this research are based on a qualitative study that uses an in-depth interview method as a data collection technique and 12 informants among communication practitioners in Malaysia were selected through a purposive sampling technique. The results of the study found that strategic communication through digital public relations is used continuously and has a very important role to ensure that all communication strategies are used to reach the target audience. However, the function and impact of using digital platforms as the main medium of strategic communication still cannot guarantee the sustainability of corporate communication in the future.