The Press Release as Communication Technology: A Media Ecology of a Key Public Relations Tool

The historical emergence of press releases has become an integral part of public relations research as Public Relations strategies are being tremendously influenced by modern communication technologies. The paper aims to study press releases as communication technology under the purview of media ecology theory. Public relations practitioners mainly consider press releases as communication tools, glorifying companies, and organizations' familiarity with the public and target groups. This paper critically identifies and defines their structural traits and biases which have an ecological role in society as well as the political sphere too. This ubiquitous and multipurpose role of press releases as public relations tools often disseminate information from various organizations while creating social and political campaigns to reach target groups. Despite this fact, organizations choose press releases as a mode of communication to accomplish and glorify the company, subsequently, biased, and sensationalizing information through press releases generates mistrust and favoritism in the organization and makes them questionable to the media and public.