What digital skills are required by future public relations practitioners and can the academy deliver them?

A recent study tour of Sydney public relations agencies and a major corporate for final year public relations students highlighted the significant trend toward digital as a core element of contemporary communication strategies. Compared with a similar tour in 2015, nearly all the case studies presented were based around digital communication, with only a very small number using traditional media. This study tour demonstrated that today’s graduates require a high level of knowledge of all the basics of digital communication to be employable in the future. Recent research in the United Kingdom and Australia has demonstrated that employers are expecting future public relations graduates to understand what digital concepts will improve productivity, increase innovation, deliver cost efficiencies and improve relationships with key stakeholders, customers, suppliers, employees, governments and communities. This paper outlines the digital technologies that the academy needs to introduce if public relations is to continue offering creative, innovative and effective relationship-building solutions to its many stakeholders.