THE LIMITATIONS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTICE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

 

ABSTRACT

The study recognizes that there are limitations to effective public relations practice in developing countries.  There is grossly under utilization of the potent instrument of public relations.

The objectives of this study include:

  • To examine the limitations of public relations practice in developing countries.
  • To satisfy part of the academic requirements for the award of a Master’s Degree in public relations
  • To provide an academic challenge to scholars in the area of public relations practice in developing countries.
  • To offer recommendations on what actions to be taken in addressing the identified limitations.

 

Due to inadequate resources and the need for effective coverage, Nigeria was used as the main unit of analysis, with a sample size of 350.

The research study made use of both primary and secondary data. Albeit, the bulk of the primary data was obtained via the random distribution of structured questionnaires with multiple -choice. The secondary data came from journals, books, past research studies unpublished works etceteras.

The questionnaire used comprised multiple choice, dichotomous and open-ended questions. The instrument was pretested and that resulted into minor changes in wordings and sequence to boost its and reliability. In this study, simple arithmetic percentage was used in the analysis of the data obtained with the questionnaire.

The results of this study revealed that developing countries are not effectively making use of Public Relations techniques/ strategies in their national development programmes.

Also the investigation shows that Public Relations as practiced is facing problems in developing countries and these problems are capable of hindering the effective practice of the profession.