Web Site Public Relations: How Corporations Build and Maintain R ...

By virtue of being rich and dynamic communication environments, Web sites provide their visitors with complex experiences. Multiple aspects of these experiences, such as the navigation, graphic design, or interactivity of a Web site have the potential to influence Web site visitors’ perceptions. The fundamental questions guiding this study are: What is the nature of a public relations Web site experience? How is organization-public relationship-building work performed on Web sites? What roles do various aspects of Web site construction play in the relationship building/maintenance experience?

The project rests on the premises that Web sites constitute a major communication force in today’s society; and that as complex communication environments, they offer new and multiple possibilities for expression, persuasion, and dialogue. The project sets out to inquire what these possibilities are and how they work together to shape the public relations experience of Web users. The aim of the project is to propose a conceptual framework of the public relations Web site experience that can be used to understand, analyze, and improve this experience.

The remainder of this chapter lays the foundation for this project. First, I define the context and focus of this research and discuss the views and assumptions underlying it. Then, I clarify the project’s goals and provide an overview of subsequent chapters.

The World Wide Web Versus the Internet

The Internet and the World Wide Web are terms often, but incorrectly, used interchangeably. A distinction between the two is necessary in order to understand the object of this study and its boundaries.

The technology that makes computer communication and data sharing possible is the Internet.