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Highlights • Artificial Intelligence is already being used in some PR-related applications. • So far AI and PR have received little scholarly attention. • It is too early to form firm conclusions about AI impacts – but the public relations field needs to familiarize itself with developments now. Abstract Organizations of all kinds, as well as their in-house or agency public relations teams, increasingly co-opt Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance their capabilities. This paper examines a relatively new topic that has received little scholarly attention: the growing relationship between AI and public relations. It outlines several key roles that AI may play in future, based on trends in other industries, and considers the implications for public relations practitioners, their clients and employers. It therefore launches a dialogue about the diversity and extent of AI's uses in public relations practice. The paper argues that, to date, commentators have placed too much emphasis on AI's potential for task automation; AI's broader technological, economic and societal implications for public relations warrant greater critical attention. This does not imply that practitioners need become expert technologists; rather, they should develop a sufficient understanding of AI's present and potential uses to be able to offer informed counsel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are you paying attention? It’s a question teachers have asked students from time immemorial – yet it’s relevant, too, for public relations practitioners who should take note of developments affecting the way people process and focus (or not) on the material presented to them. Debate about the average length of a human attention span can obscure the salient features of these developments and consideration of how public relations could respond to them. While not offering solutions, this paper suggests that several areas warrant review, including the place of visual communication; engaging with the implications of increasing use of mobile devices and with the fast-developing field of The Internet of Things. The paper also applies information foraging theory to public relations practice, suggesting it offers a pointer to how practitioners might approach their communication tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islamic State (IS) has been vilified for its brutality and admired for the sophistication of its media productions. This conceptual paper argues that IS media is not propaganda in the western sense but rather propagation of a minoritarian ‘take’ on Islam. IS media are not simply fora for the gratuitous display of violence but rather venues for rational, strategic communication designed mainly for regional consumption. Global audiences are targeted, too, but media produced for them is less voluminous than that presented to populations in IS-controlled areas and surrounding regions. While Islamic State’s diverse media output is not western-style public relations, the artifice and artefacts employed in the group’s “media war” are not only relevant but also noteworthy for public relations professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Mobile communications technologies challenge public relations practitioners to expand their thinking and practice. Liberating electronic communication from fixed devices means that familiar PR approaches designed to reach audiences through such equipment are insufficient in themselves. They need to be complemented by new strategies, including those based on conceptualizing cyber-PR as dynamic communicative “touch.” [Copyright &y& Elsevier]