UNAIR NEWS – The industrial revolution 4.0 leads to an era of disruption in various fields, including public relations. The current public relations crisis requires practitioners to be creative and innovative in managing information.
Universitas Airlangga in collaboration with the Association of Public Relations (Perhumas) and Jawa Pos held a discussion, Room of Idea, at Semanggi Room Jawa Pos, Graha Pena, 5th Floor, Surabaya, August 22, 2019. The discussion talked about Reputation Crisis Management and Public Relations in Educational Institutions in the Disruption Era.
The event invited four speakers, Deputy Governor of East Java Emil Dardak, Head of Association of Public Relations and Head of UNAIR Center for Information and Public Relations (PIH) Dr. Suko Widodo, Drs., M. Si., Deputy of Perhumas Heri Rachmadi, and Dean of Faculty of Communication and Business Sciences, Ciputra University Prof. Dr. Burhan Bungin.
Heri Rachmadi in his presentation explained that there are several things to do to adapt in the era of disruption. A public relations staff must be able to recognize challenges through risk management. Public relations practitioners must be able to build a new paradigm in developing social media.
“The crisis cannot be avoided and media relations must be able to survive in the era of disruption,” he said.
East Java Governor Emil Dardak who used to be public relations practitioner explained how important public relations is. The use of social media is necessary for public relations practitioners to disseminate information. Interesting content to be disseminated is also the key to the success of the public relations strategy.
“Public relations, especially in college must contribute greatly to higher education with multimedia content,” he said.
Social media that are vulnerable to hoax must be improved by containing positive and educational information. Information that contains hoax often appears, especially as clickbait. The role of public relations is essential to manage information to the public.
Suko Widodo revealed that successful public relations are about turning pain into happiness. The use of sentences in the information is the key to the success of public relations. Research on an event also needs to be done by public relations. The purpose of research is to dig deeper into information to be presented to the public.
“Creativity with word management must be mastered by public relations to improve an institution,” he said. (*)
Author: Aditya Novrian
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
