The impact of intranets on college and university public relations professionals

The purpose of this thesis was to determine the impact of intranets with regard to the future job responsibilities and functions of public relations professionals in the field of higher education. The hypothesis of this paper was that as more and more colleges and universities begin embracing intranets as a communication tool, the issue of information management will arise. The question of who or what department will be responsible for the information that is placed on an educational institution\u27s intranet will be consistent and problematic. College and university public relations professionals need to be aware of the problems, opportunities, changes and challenges that intranets will bring to an educational institution. A search of previous research relevant to this study was conducted. Original research was conducted in the form of a mail survey randomly distributed to 100 public relations managers, directors or vice presidents at four-year colleges and universities across the country. The survey was used to ascertain the current and future influence of intranets on public relations professionals. A major survey finding revealed that 80 percent of college and university public relations professionals believe that working with intranets will be a future job function