Kybernetes

The rise of digital intelligence: challenges for public relations education and
practices
Diana-Maria Cismaru, Patrizia Gazzola, Raluca Silvia Ciochina, Cristina Leovaridis,
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K
47,10 The rise of digital intelligence:
challenges for public relations
education and practices
1924 Diana-Maria Cismaru
College of Communication and Public Relations,
National University of Political Studies and Public Administration,
Bucharest, Romania
Patrizia Gazzola
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Department of Economics, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy, and

Raluca Silvia Ciochina and Cristina Leovaridis
College of Communication and Public Relations,
National University of Political Studies and Public Administration,
Bucharest, Romania

Abstract
Purpose – This research paper explores the development of four categories of skills (operational, informational,
strategic and digital fluency) as dimensions of the digital intelligence. The purpose of the pilot study is to determine
the consequences of these gaps on PR practices and the directions for educational adaptation.
Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was applied on a convenience sample of 98 PR
students from Romania, in March 2014. The majority of students (n = 88) were of 20 to 25 years of age.
Findings – The results of the survey showed an approximately equal level of development for each of the
four skills in the sample of PR students (with a lower degree for the information skills). The general level of
development is rather good and shows that the “digital literacy” acquirement is a need for the specialists from
older generations to communicate with younger publics.
Research limitations/implications – The third category of skills (strategic skills) has been coded as a
set of actions – instead of being coded as a set of self-assessed abilities – which created differences in
measuring.
Originality/value – The results showed the level of public relations students related to the development of
new skills in the digital environment.
Keywords Digital, Education, Public relations, Intelligence, Skills, Literacy
Paper type Research paper

Kybernetes
Vol. 47 No. 10, 2018
pp. 1924-1940
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0368-492X
DOI 10.1108/K-03-2018-0145
1. Introduction
The current sharing society demands constantly acquiring new digital skills, especially as
new means of communication and interaction between individuals are emerging at a fast
rate. People are flooded with information as the time dedicated to online activity increases.
Societies are increasingly depending on the levels of digital technologies and information
they can integrate, bringing social and economic value in this sense. According to a Eurostat
study measuring the levels of digital skills throughout Europe, 21 per cent of the EU
population has no digital skills, not using the internet. In Romania’s case, most of the
population (74 per cent) does not have the digital skills needed for effectively functioning in
 a digital world (Europe’s Digital Progress Report, 2016). Several authors emphasized that Rise of digital
public relations and communication practitioners are currently dealing and struggling with intelligence
the impact of new media and the internet on their practice (James, 2007; Macnamara, 2011;
Robson and James, 2012) and also with the lack of skilled people who can deal with the
challenges of today’s social media environment (Fitch, 2009; Tench et al., 2013). Tench et al.
(2013) found some of the core skills needed by a communicator to face today’s dynamic,
global environment: writing, critical thinking/problem solving skills, soft skills, legislative
knowledge and social media skills, which was the top area where specialists needed to 1925
improve.
According to research carried out by the PR Academy (2013), alumni respondents
identified as their top three skills gaps: digital communications (52 per cent), followed by
strategic planning (46 per cent) and measurement (44 per cent). In 2012, the European
Communication Monitor (Zerfass et al., 2012) which is the largest transnational survey on
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strategic communication worldwide, with 2,200 participants from 42 countries, also showed
that there are gaps between the perceived importance of digital media and the way they are
actually being used by public relations professionals, indicating the same knowledge and
skills gap. In fact, some of the biggest digital challenges identified by communication
professionals are coping with the digital evolution (46 per cent), addressing more audiences
and channels with limited resources (34 per cent), adopting an ethical approach in social
media practice and catching up in the field of mobile applications. Therefore,
communication specialists manifest a growing interest in obtaining qualifications in these
areas. The next year’s similar study (Zerfass et al., 2013) was conducted in 43 countries and
showed that communication practitioners believe that there is a need to develop different
strategies for different generations, the under 30 digital native generation being more
interactive (89 per cent) and that organizations use specific communication strategies for
each generation (60 per cent). Moreover, bloggers, consumers and digitally active employees
are starting to become important tools for strategic communicators. 67 per cent practitioners
believe that online videos are important communication tools, but only 46 per cent
implemented this tool in their organizations. As far as social media skills are concerned,
communication practitioners are looking at a slow increase from 2011, as only 29 per cent
are good at initiating Web-based dialogues with stakeholders. Also, seven out of ten
communication practitioners faced a communication crisis, but only few chose to use social
media for dealing with it.
Another relevant study (Parker, 2014) found skills gaps in the UK public relations
market, comparing the demands of organizations with the skills of public relations
candidates. The survey found that, amongst other gaps, writing, social media and client
services skills are considered missing in the evaluation of communication practitioners. The
National Academy of Sciences (1999, p. 11) significantly observed that “skills with specific
applications are thus necessary but not sufficient for individuals to prosper in the
information age”. As Resnick (2002, p. 14) suggested, fostering creativity and innovation
inside classrooms can be a first step. While acquiring computer literacy is crucial,
individuals also need to internalize in-depth understanding of information technology, so as
they are able to adapt of find alternative solutions when faced with an unexpected issue.
This represents technological fluency – “the ability to reformulate knowledge, to express
oneself creatively and appropriately, and to produce and generate information (rather than
simply to comprehend it)”.
In knowledge-based industries, specifically, social media skills hold important roles,
considering the process of value creation: “An important role in knowledge management is
played by applications that exist in the organization, such as intranet, enterprise resource
 K planning systems (ERP) and customer relationship management systems (CRM)” (Roblek
47,10 et al., 2013, p. 554). There is a developing need for social media specialists designing policies,
managing and monitoring the unlimited access to data and networks of information that
could potentially bring harm to organizations.
As younger publics incorporate the digital media into their lives at a more profound level,
not necessarily focusing on their utility, but rather on the experiences they provide, it is
1926 extremely important that communication practitioners dealing with these publics enhance
their level of understanding of digital media use, noted by Buckingham (2008) as “digital
literacy”. Considering this, the paper proposes a direction to study the development of a new
form of intelligence crucial for public relations and communication practitioners: digital
intelligence. The investigation of the skills that compose digital intelligence is connected
with the challenges and opportunities created by the development of social media. A second
aim of the paper is to identify some of the digital skills gaps that are visible in practice and
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education, considering the emerging new media environment.

2. Theoretical background
2.1 Public relations practice in the online environment
Although past research evaluates the differences between roles in the public relations
profession, the practice of this profession implies various forms, especially with the current
emerging information and communication technologies which imply different levels of
execution and involvement. Many scholars investigated the new roles and challenges that
public relations and communication practitioners are currently facing, considering the
emancipation of information and communication technologies, especially social media
(Macnamara, 2011; Lee, 2013; Wigley and Zhang, 2011).
The contemporary digital culture, based on hyper-connectivity and global access to
computers, smartphones and other devices allowing internet connection, has changed the
realm of daily interaction. Information availability, from various sources, either
institutionalized or not, can cause both benefits and problems for communication
practitioners. Stories can spread easily and the dynamics of misinformation propagation
and attempts to deceive users are still at infancy levels (Ratkiewicz et al., 2011); false
information diffusion can cause damages to organizations or public actors.
Among other public relations and communication work categories, Sha (2011, pp. 188-
189) defined social media relations as activities which included “utilizing Web-based social
networks, developing social media strategies for communication efforts, producing in-house
or client blogs, apprising clients on how to use social media strategies as delivery channels
for communication efforts, SEO, blogger relations, etc.”. Considering that social media
allows communication specialists and brands to develop engagement and content strategies
that are more effective for some segments of online users (Campbell et al., 2014; Liu, 2014),
new skills are needed for identifying various types of publics and developing brand-related
relevant content in this sense. According to Sha (2011), the top knowledge, skills and
abilities used by communication practitioners in a typical week in 2010 were: use of
information technology and new media channels (91 per cent), management skills and
issues, media relations, research, planning, implementation and evaluation of PR programs,
among others.
On the other hand, Paskin (2013, p. 252) found that public relations professionals valued
traditional skills more and had this expectation from graduate students as well. In this
sense, good writing and good communication skills were highly appreciated, while social
media appeared on the third place. In fact, a great percentage (44 per cent) stated that the
new technical skills were not as important as traditional ones, although the majority
 strongly agreed that it was very important for students to learn those new skills. Rise of digital
Furthermore, the study showed that, besides traditional computer programs (such as Office intelligence
Suite), public relations professionals also expected students to learn Creative Suite package
and surpass the basic level in using it. Other expectations referred to proper usage of content
management systems, video editing and HTML.
While studies show that there is a constant need for future communication specialists to
learn, understand and use new information and communication technologies for both
technical and strategic roles, research still does not address their levels of digital skills. In 1927
this sense, specific scales should be developed for appropriate measurement of PR
practitioners’ digital skills. Even though there are many studies referring to the capacity of
individuals to face information society challenges, particularly the ones studying internet
skills (Van Deursen and Van Dijk, 2009, 2010, 2016), empirical studies that address public
relations digital skills are still at infancy levels, focusing more on the technological
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requirements and expectations from an employer and organizational perspective, and not on
actual measurement of skills. While there are many studies focusing on the digital
challenges and the new roles public relations practitioners need to adopt, to our knowledge,
there are none addressing the need for building an instrument that can actually evaluate
their digital skills level.

2.2 Toward a definition of digital intelligence

Although many scholars addressed the importance of internet skills and proposed ways of
measuring them (van Deursen and van Dijk, 2010; Hargittai, 2002; van Dijk, 2005), there is
still a need to investigate what specific digital skills communication practitioners should
acquire in today’s digital era (and not only what they perceive to be important) and whether
future practitioners are prepared to meet the challenges of the online environment,
considering their levels of digital skills nowadays.
As van Deursen and van Dijk (2010) noted, considering people’s “increasing
dependence on information, internet skills should be considered as a vital resource in
contemporary society” (p. 893). Similar with this view, Khan et al. (2014, p. 141). consider
that information skills represent “higher-order skills” and that this ability of students “to
manipulate, structure, and use information to their advantage is critical in the new media
environment”. Stemming from Gardner’s (1993, p. 15) intelligence classification scheme,
which explained intelligence as the “ability to solve problems or fashion products that are
of consequence in a particular cultural setting or community”, Adams (2004) proposed
the emergence of a new form of intelligence: digital intelligence. According to Adams,
digital intelligence is a response to the cultural change brought about by digital
technologies and takes into account the skills and talents possessed by the “symbol
analysts” and “masters of chance” recently recognized in Gardner’s (1999) latest book”
(p. 94). According to Gardner, “a symbol analyst can sit for hours in front of a string of
numbers and words, usually displayed on a computer screen, and readily discern
meaning”, making future projections, while “a master of change readily acquires new
information, solves problems, forms ‘weak ties’ with mobile and highly dispersed people,
and adjusts easily to changing circumstances” (1999, p. 2).
Considering Schmidt and Hunter (2000) definition of general intelligence, which refers to
the ability to learn and solve problems, we conceptualize digital intelligence as the ability to
understand and relevantly use digital/online concepts and solve technological, informational
and communicational online problems.
As “each intelligence must have an identifiable core operation or set of operations [. . .] (and)
is activated or ‘triggered’ by certain kinds of internally or externally presented information”
 K (Gardner, 1993, p. 16), Adams (2004) observed that, considering information clusters and lack of
47,10 linearity, “those with the ability to understand and interact with this digital information to
arrange, manipulate, and display it according to their perceptions possess yet another
intelligence, an intelligence made up of components of the other intelligences” (p. 95). In this
sense, Echeverría and Tabarés (2016) discuss the rise of artificially modified human intelligences
and the changes brought about ICTs, especially by social media which allowed the emergence
1928 of techno societies and cybercities. The authors proposed that ICTs “have considerably
modified human relations despite people also continue to relate and interact in the old ways”
(p. 475). Considering individuals’ involvement in transforming the artificial environments
which they created, constantly looking at the arising needs, desires and skills people develop in
order to strive become a must. Gardner (1999) suggested after assessing the ways his multiple
intelligence theory can be applied in schools and education in general, specific techniques need
to be applied and goals to be established, and then a measurement of how successful
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implementation has been in the end. The author believed that education should combine
various resources which imply multiple intelligences usage, thus creating a complete and
challenging experience for students.
Resnick (2002) introduced the notion of digital fluency and emphasized that, even though
individuals are taught how to look up information on the Web and use specific platforms,
they are not fluent with technology, as they need to know how to construct things of
significance with the tools they use, not only understand how they work. He furthermore
foresaw that “in the years ahead, digital fluency will become a prerequisite for obtaining
jobs, participating meaningfully in society, and learning throughout a lifetime” (p. 33). While
the digital divide gap is currently shifting from internet access and opportunities to interact
with technology to digital fluency gap (Resnick, 2002), it is becoming more and more relevant
to develop the right set of skills and knowledge to overcome these issues, from their infancy
levels, starting with university programs. Livingstone (2004) asserted that “as people
engage with a diversity of ICTs, we must develop an account of literacies in the plural,
defined through their relations with different media rather than defined independently of
them” (p. 7). Resnick (2002) proposed a more entrepreneurial approach to learning, especially
as information is available and learning can become individualized: “Students can become
more active and independent learners, with the teacher serving as a consultant, not chief
executive” (p. 36).
There are scholars who observed how some individuals’ online skills are more
developed than others (Hargittai, 2002; van Dijk, 2005, 2006) and this phenomenon was
introduced as the second level digital divide, a form of exclusion derived from how
information and communication technologies are used. Hargittai (2002, p. 607) identified
differences in how people find information online and in the ways they engage in various
types of web surfing, with younger people displaying more agility in using search
engines. In 2008, taking further research into the phenomena of second level digital
divide, Hargittai identified that there are differences regarding the levels of skills of
young adults as well, and those who benefit from higher education and access to various
sources use the Web for activities “that may lead to more informed political participation
(seeking political or government information online), help with one’s career advancement
(exploring career or job opportunities on the Web), or consulting information about
financial and health services”.
In Buckingham’s (2008, p. 60) view, definitions of digital literacy previously provided by
other scholars were too narrow, referring only to the operational skills developed for using
software and hardware, or “in performing basic information retrieval tasks”. Beyond the
instrumental or functional literacy of using digital media, he proposed that there were other
 abilities which needed to be addressed: the strategic ability to use information critically to Rise of digital
evaluate information resources properly, language, production and audience understanding intelligence
in the online environment (Buckingham, 2008).
Further, Van Dijk (2006) introduced the notion of digital skills together with Steyaert
(2000) as operational and, respectively, instrumental. In an earlier paper (Van Dijk, 2005),
the author distinguished between strategic skills, which refer to the ability to use
technology for reaching particular objectives and for building one’s social status,
information skills, which refer to finding, selecting and processing information using
1929
various sources and operational skills, which are more practical and refer to the ability to
work with computer software and hardware (and are the most basic skills). Moreover,
van Dijk stressed that individuals usually learn computer skills by practice, without the
formal help of education; but education is still required, especially as people need to
understand the effects of their interaction, either implicit or explicit, with information and
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communication technologies. Strategic digital skills, on the other hand, need more in-
depth research as they imply “making a transition to the actual usage of digital media
and how this usage may lead to more or less participation in several fields of society”
(van Dijk, 2006, p. 229). Based on earlier academic findings, Van Deursen and Van Dijk
(2009, p. 2) suggested a framework for adequately measuring four types of digital skills:
operational skills, information skills, formal skills (used to handle special structures like
menus and hyperlinks) and strategic skills.
In 2016, the same authors conducted research showing that operational (basic) skills are
required for performing formal skills and before executing informal and strategic skills.
This means that skills related to online orientation and navigation are needed before
information and strategic skills development, and also information skills are required before
engaging in strategic skills (p. 21).
Also, in building a quantitative research instrument the findings of Eshet-Alkalai
(2012, pp. 271-272) are relevant. The author identified six digital skills for effective
performance in the digital era: photo-visual, branching, reproduction, information, socio-
emotional and real-time thinking skills. The latter is important, as in today’s “digital era,
with the central role of fast computers, multimedia environments, and devices that can
process and present information in real-time and at high speed, real-time thinking has
become a critical skill”. Social emotionally skilled individuals show more willingness to
share information with others, are able to evaluate it and are “able to design knowledge
through virtual collaboration” and understand the rules for communicating in the online
space, aided by reproduction skills, which refer to rearranging information and content to
create new meanings. Information skills imply critically evaluating and assessing
information. The branching digital skills, or hypermedia skills, on the other hand, involve
a sense of orientation, the ability to create mental models and concept maps and other
forms of abstract representation, and the photo-visual skill helps users “to intuitively and
freely ‘read’ and understand instructions and messages that are presented in a visual
graphical form” (p. 268).
For answering the research questions, we developed a survey and we sought to identify
the level of operational, strategic and fluency skills developed by public relations and
communication students for dealing with the current digital online environment. Concordant
with Hargittai and Hinnant (2008) view, the online behavior can be a reflection of
individual’s online skills. Thus, we introduced items referring to behavior within the
questionnaire. The participants were asked to rate their abilities on new media platforms,
particularly social media.
 K 2.2.3 Research questions. Considering the theoretical framework, the aim of this paper is
47,10 to address the following research questions:
RQ1. Which type of digital skills (operational, informational, strategic or of digital
fluency) are more developed among students in public relations?
RQ2. Which are the digital skills dimensions that are less developed amongst PR
1930 students?

3. Methodology
We applied a questionnaire investigating online behaviors and the degree of development of
digital skills (operational, informational, strategic and of digital fluency) on students
engaged in public relations and communication education, from two different universities
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(University of Bucharest and the National University of Political Studies and Public
Administration, from Bucharest, Romania). The respondents were either undergraduates or
graduates enrolled in a master program. The questionnaire was applied on students in
communication and public relations for two reasons: one of them is that they are the future
specialists in communication and public relations and the second was that, due to their age,
they are a sample of the digitally intelligent new publics.
The questionnaire was applied in March, 2014. A convenience sample was used and it
consisted of 100 participants who were required to fill in the questionnaires as accurately as
possible; 98 students submitted valid questionnaires, 83 of which were females. The
majority of students (n = 88) were of age from 20 to 25, most of them being students (n = 67),
and almost one-third, employed.

3.1 The research instrument

The questionnaire was developed for assessing online behavior and attitudes, the degree of
development of digital skills and the extent to which some dimensions are less developed
than others.
First, we enquired what digital platforms public relations and communication students used
for operational purposes, specifically if they used mobile phones, laptops or notebooks, tablets
or DVD/iPods for variate activities (visiting sites, reading and sending e-mails, reading press,
giving likes and shares, making comments, accepting connection requests, being able to buy
items and pay bills, listening to music, watching videos and movies and playing online games).
Then, we inserted items for self-evaluation of operational skills, which included orientation,
photo-visual and reproduction skills. As such, we enquired about the familiarity with the
following items: tagging, using hyperlinks and bookmarking websites, and by asking
participants whether they were able to generate their profiles on online social networks and to
edit attractive content materials and to make technical improvements to blog or Facebook
account, use monitoring tools for online channels and even to generate and design a blog
entirely. We also asked our participants what was the time spent on adapting to new interfaces,
either for mobile or online platforms in general.
To assess informational skills, which include critically assessing information, we
developed items inquiring about the time spent to find necessary information, and
familiarity with items like timeline, hashtag and mentions. We also asked participants to
refer to their attitude towards the degree to which they believe information is reliable after it
is found on several online channels, whether they acknowledged the credibility of a piece of
information if it was coming from a friend, and whether information overload was too much
to handle when engaging in social media communication. Moreover, we asked the
 participants to rate how quickly they could find the best information available for online Rise of digital
homework and exams. intelligence
As public relations and communication students need to understand and critically assess
social media opportunities and strengths for dealing with future challenges, we introduced
strategic social media skills, which imply the individuals’ ability to take advantage of social
media and reach specific goals. We sought to identify what social media students used for
both personal and educational-related purposes: for spending free time, for entertainment,
for keeping up with friends, for receiving trusted information and real time information, for 1931
identifying professional opportunities, for watching Power-Point presentations and for
accessing visual information. Also, we specifically enquired what types of actions students
took on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Slide Share, LinkedIn and blogs: whether they
updated their profiles; gave likes and comments; saw videos and photos; shared useful
information with friends; wrote statuses or postings; and uploaded presentations, videos or
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prints.
We also included digital fluency skills, which also imply socio-emotional involvement and
real-time thinking skills: the ability to understand that information cannot be controlled in
social media after it becomes available to users or dealing with criticism or negative
feedback. Also, items assessing digital fluency skills included: the ability to understand when
someone has evil intentions in an online conversation, understanding rules of acceptable
behavior in an online setting, coping with large volumes of information from a variety of
social channels in the same time, engaging in conversations on different platforms with
more than three people in the same time.
We used descriptive statistical analysis for identifying some of the items, aligned with
the way we developed our research instrument. We also included Likert scales and analyzed
them as ordinal level data, conducting mean analysis for each investigated item. Likert
scales were mostly used for the participants’ self-assessment of different online behaviors
and attitudes referring to new media usage.
To compare the four types of digital skills, the variables were recomposed (for each of the
four categories of skills, seven variables were introduced to generate a composed variable).
Some variables needed recoding for being correctly introduced in the composed variable (for
example, the “time needed to find a piece of information” was recoded). Finally, an entire
recoding through weighting was applied for the third category, strategic skills, since the
frequencies were not constructed on the same ordinal scale, from 1 to 5.

4. Research results
4.1 Results of the questionnaire survey
The introductory part of the questionnaire presented general questions regarding the
possession of devices, time spent on social media and association of devices with specific
actions.
Even though most students had one mobile phone (n = 76) and one laptop or notebook
(n = 86), almost a quarter had two mobile phones at their disposal (n = 20) and only 35
students owned a tablet. Students mostly use laptops or notebooks for looking up
information (n = 63), visit sites (n = 74), read and send e-mails (n = 67), read press (n =
58), buy items (n = 80), pay bills (n = 73) and watch videos and movies (n = 76). However,
when more social activities are involved, results appear to me more distributed, as they
show a balance between mobile phones and laptops/notebook usage, for the following:
giving likes and shares (35 vs 37 per cent), making comments (33 vs 42 per cent),
accepting connection requests (33 vs 42 per cent), engaging in online conversations (34 vs
43 per cent), and also for listening to music (28 vs 31 per cent) (Figure 1).
 K As far as social media accounts are concerned, results showed that Facebook and
47,10 YouTube were the most preferred by students: 99 per cent have a Facebook account, 82 per
cent have a YouTube account, 34 per cent have Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, 43 per cent
have an Instagram account and 32 per cent have a Pinterest account. Slide Share (10 per
cent), WordPress (21 per cent) and Blogger (18 per cent) showed low results in this sense
(Figure 2). The respondents were asked to rate their daily use of the platforms, and it
1932 appears that the search engine Google and Facebook are the main options for daily use,
followed by YouTube and Gmail, as secondary or third options available.
For measuring the first dimension of operational skills, which included familiarity
with tagging, hyperlinks and bookmarking, we developed a five-point Likert scale from
1 = no understanding to 5 = complete understanding. Mean analysis demonstrate that
students self-evaluate themselves with good understanding regarding these items:
tagging familiarity (m = 3.48, SD = 0.87), hyperlink familiarity (m = 4.00, SD = 1.40)
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and bookmark familiarity (m = 4.44, SD = 1.05). Respondents also had to identify the
degree to which they agreed with some of the dimensions we explored as operational
skills. For measuring purposes, we used a Likert scale, with 1 = not at all and 5 =
definitely. The respondents’ answers denoted a high degree of ability to generate their
own profiles on online social networks (m = 4.35, SD = 0.92), to update them (m = 4.56,
SD = 98), to edit attractive content materials for their readers (m = 4.04, SD = 1.09), and
to make small technical improvements to their own personal blog or Facebook account
(m = 4.15, SD = 1.08). Students reported using monitoring tools to a medium degree
(m = 3.37, SD = 1.33), and generating and designing the blog entirely to a medium

Figure 1.
Balance between
mobile phones and
laptops use for social
media actions

Figure 2.
PR Students accounts
on social media
platforms
 degree as well (m = 2.98, SD = 1.65). For getting accustomed to the rules of using a new Rise of digital
interface, students reported spending between few hours and one day (m = 1.51, SD = intelligence
0.77) (Table I).
For measuring informational skills, the participants were asked to answer several
items (Table II). First, the respondents were asked to complete the time interval
required for finding the needed information using a digital device. The answers showed
that, on average, students need between 5 to 10 min to find the needed information
using a digital device (m = 1.91, SD = 1.11). Regarding familiarity with concepts such 1933
as hashtags and mentions, on average, students reported a medium understanding of
hashtags (m = 3.48, SD = 1.65) and mentions (m = 3.67, SD = 1.55). Furthermore, the
respondents believe to a medium degree that information is reliable after they find it on
several online channels (m = 3.76, SD = 0.95), as they showed some levels of skepticism
regarding information validity: students believe only to a small degree that information
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is true if they receive it from a friend via social media (m = 2.26, SD = 0.99). When
dealing with information overload, results showed that only to a small degree
information overload prevents them from engaging in social media communication
(m = 2.51, SD = 1.04). As a testing question, we also included an item for measuring the
rapidity of finding information (similar to the first one). The results were confirmed as
participants agreed to a high degree that they can quickly find the best information
they need for their exams and homework (m = 4.02, SD = 0.93).
To measure strategic digital skills, we focused our attention on two main dimensions:
social media usage for entertainment and informational purposes and the types of actions

No. Item Mean SD

1. I generated my own profiles on online social networks 4.35 0.92

2. I am able to update my profile on online social networks 4.56 0.98
3. I am able to edit attractive content materials for my readers 4.04 0.92
I am able to make small technical improvements to my personal blog
4. or to my Facebook account 4.15 1.08
5. I generated and designed my blog entirely 2.98 1.65 Table I.
6. I am able to use monitoring tools for my own online channels 3.37 1.33 Operational skills:
7. Time spent on getting accustomed to the rules of using a new interface 1.51 0.77
ability to operate in
Note: *SD standard deviation social media

No. Item Mean SD

1. Time needed to find a piece of information 1.91 1.11

2. Understanding of hashtags 3.48 1.65
3. Understanding of mentions 3.67 1.55
4. I prefer social media and search engines instead of traditional media. 3.96 1.09
5. I consider a piece of information reliable after I find it on several online channels 3.76 0.95
6. I believe a piece of information to be true if I receive it from a friend via social media 2.26 0.99
7. Information overload prevents me from engaging in social media communication 2.51 1.04 Table II.
Information skills
Note: SD standard deviation development
 K participants engaged in on these channels. The purpose was to identify whether participants
47,10 understood the specific utilities per channel. While Facebook and YouTube were the first
options for spending free time and for entertainment purposes, students also use SlideShare
(12 per cent), LinkedIn (15 per cent) and blogs (21 per cent) for receiving trusted information.
Facebook ranked as the top source for receiving information in real time (70 per cent).
Facebook was also a choice for identifying professional opportunities (26 per cent), along
1934 with LinkedIn (46 per cent). SlideShare was mostly chosen as the platform used for looking
at Power Point presentations (51 per cent). For accessing visual information, respondents
reported using mostly Facebook (38 per cent) and YouTube (37 per cent).
Usually, Facebook is used for updating profiles and writing statuses (92 per cent), for
giving likes and posting comments (99 per cent), for watching videos and photos (83 per
cent), for stocking personal videos and photos (87 per cent), for sharing useful information
with friends (91 per cent) and for uploading presentations (65 per cent) (Figure 3).
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Considering that few participants owned Twitter accounts, the results for this channel’s
usage was also low: only 17 per cent choose Twitter for writing statuses and for sharing
useful information with friends. Also, blog activities results suggest minimum levels of
involvement: 12 per cent use blogs for watching videos and photos and for sharing useful
information with friends and 15 per cent for writing posts. When using YouTube,
participants choose to like and post comments to a small degree (21 per cent), watch photos
and videos to a high level (84 per cent) and upload presentations (27 per cent). It appears that
respondents also choose SlideShare for uploading presentations (35 per cent), while
LinkedIn is used for profile updating by few respondents (12 per cent).
To measure digital fluency skills (Table III), we introduced items requesting participants
to rate their attitude toward social media and online interactions, from 1 = not at all, to 5 =
definitely. Findings suggest that students in public relations do not understand the
implications of loss of control on social media (m = 2.46, SD = 1.26). This could imply that
losing control over social media publics’ reactions could pose a threat in dealing with
responsibilities related to their future specialist positions, indicating a need to properly
master unexpected situations and accept this reality. As far as criticism and negative
feedback are concerned, the mean analysis shows low levels of fearing this sort of feedback
(m = 2.19, SD = 1.19). Participants reported high levels of understanding interactions across

Figure 3.
Strategic skills: use of
online social
networks
 No. Item Mean SD
Rise of digital
intelligence
1. After posting on social media, I cannot control the information 2.46 1.26
anymore
2. I fear criticism or negative feedback from social media users 2.19 1.19
3. I understand interactions across the online channels I access daily 4.40 0.89
4. I rapidly understand when someone has bad intentions within an 4.30 0.82
online conversation 1935
5. I know the rules for acceptable online behaviors 4.34 1.01
6. I can cope with large volumes of information from a variety of social 3.63 0.99
channels in the same time
7. I can engage in conversations on different platforms with more than 3 3.94 1.15
Table III.
people in the same time Digital fluency skills:
socio-emotional
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Note: SD standard deviation involvement

channels (m = 4.40, SD = 0.89) and rapid understanding of someone having bad intentions
in an online conversation (m = 4.30, SD = 0.82). Moreover, respondents seem to be aware of
online etiquette and acceptable behavior, as they assessed their level of knowledge to a high
degree as well (m = 4.34, SD = 1.01). In respect to coping with large volumes of information
from a variety of social channels at the same time and engaging in conversations on
different platforms with more than three people at the same time, the respondents reported
medium to high levels (m = 3.63, SD = 0.99, respectively, m = 3.94, SD = 1.15).

4.2 Comparison of digital skills

To compare the development of the four categories of skills, the means of the new composite
variables were compared (Figure 4). The means for the four categories have almost the same
level (around m = 3.5), with a slight difference for the informational skills (m = 3.24). Thus,

Figure 4.
Comparison of means
for the four categories
 K the comparison shows a similar level of development of the four categories of skills (rather a
47,10 good level, as a result of self-assessment) in the sample which was studied.

5. Discussion
Because of the strong exploratory character of this research, we did not formulate any
expectations. The existence of the different categories of skills was obvious before initiating
1936 the research. As many authors addressed notions such as digital literacy and digital skills
and conducted research for measuring the levels of internet skills of various public
segments, the purpose of this research was to develop an instrument particularly relevant
for the digital skills measurement for PR future practitioners, taking in account market
expectations. It is impossible to predict the level of a certain category of skills within a
sample, except the fact that the level of skills decreases with age. On the other hand, since
the operational skills were defined as basic skills, one expectation could have referred to a
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higher level of informational and strategic skills (but this would not have been confirmed). If
we consider the consistent changes and updates of ICTs and the dynamics of publics’ digital
usage, it becomes necessary to address these skills gaps from an early age and to
continuously improve the way we define and measure the aforementioned skills. Social
media platforms represent one of the many enablers of relationship development between
organizations and public, and PR students should be taught how to use them especially from
a strategical standing point.
Results showed a somewhat advanced capacity to use online social networks for
strategic purposes and also advanced levels of involvement in social interaction via social
media (by using the digital fluency skills). At the same time, even if the capacity to select
and adequately interpret information was to a fine level, the informational skills level was
inferior to the other categories of skills. Their ability to quickly find the information they
need is important, as this can suggest appropriate use of search engines and a proper
understanding of how searching for key words and phrases works. In this sense, perhaps
another facet of the information skill could be introduced: ability to manipulate search
engines. Another interesting result is related to informational skills development: students
apparently face difficulties in identifying valid sources of information; even when they find
pieces of information on various channels or when these come from friends, students
perceive it to be true to a medium degree. The propensity to trust online sources of
information should be further explored, as well as the capacity to distinguish relevant and
credible sources that could act as enablers for different organizational messages. Moreover,
considering past research on students’ information-seeking skills and the predictive effects
on class-related academic collaboration (Khan et al., 2014), further research should
incorporate whether this type of skill can predict future content community sharing and
other online collaborative skills which are important for building online relationships with
various publics. The results of the survey also suggested the effects of information
redundancy, and the withdrawal from conversations as an effect of information overload
(Table III). On the other hand, the high levels of digital fluency indicate that students are
very familiar with online interactions and that they understand the norms they need to
adopt to be accepted. This is a relevant skill especially as online community management is
one of the main responsibilities of PR practitioners nowadays. Qualitative research could
explore how students actually propose solutions to different online scenarios, especially
when dealing with customer requests and complaints. Additionally, students’
understanding of how control mechanisms work on social media should be addressed. Even
if social media allows quick and consistent communication between organizations and
public, losing control of information still represents a challenge. There are situations which
 can be exploited, misinformation and speculations can potentially damage an organization’s Rise of digital
reputation. Students should have better understanding of how social media work and intelligence
acknowledge their own capacity of controlling what happens online.
Future research should also test the relationships between the proposed digital skills to
identify how they influence each other. Furthermore, introducing traditional literacy skills
measurement within the research, as Van Deursen and Van Dijk (2009) proposed, will
provide better understanding of how PR students read, write and interpret text and how this
affects their levels of digital skills. As the authors found throughout their research, 1937
individuals with low levels of traditional skills face difficulties in executing informational
and strategic skills. This could be tested for PR students as well, as these skills are highly
important for performing PR responsibilities within the digital setting.

6. Limitations of research
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A first limitation appeared in comparing the four types of skills. The fact that the third
category of skills (strategic skills) was coded as a set of actions –instead of being coded as a
set of self-assessed abilities – created differences in measuring. They have been solved by
weighting the percentages when recoding the composite variable (corresponding to the
strategic skills category). The study is exploratory and lacks sophisticated measurement for
the digital intelligence dimensions we identified. Therefore, more perspectives and, as such,
scales should be included so as a more comprehensive instrument can be developed.
The second limitation is not a limit in itself but is emphasized as a need in the intended
next stage of research. In future research, the questionnaire should include more scales for
the skills that were measured, as a variety of digital platforms and devices have been
developed for specific online PR objectives, including mobile applications, virtual and
augmented reality applications integrated in PR campaigns.
Additionally, similar to other survey-based research on digital skills, the data we
collected are self-reported and reliant on how the subjects self-evaluate their abilities.
Qualitative research should provide more in-depth information referring to the
motivations and benefits perceived by PR students when acquiring new skills, while
actual experiments or observant participation could provide useful insights on the digital
behaviors of students when faced with specific PR scenarios.

7. Conclusions
To explore a new form of intelligence that specialists in public relations are constrained to
develop as a consequence of social media expansion, the digital intelligence, we used a
quantitative research design. The methodological frame integrated previous research in the
area and considered four types of skills that compose digital intelligence: the operational
skills, the informational skills, the strategic skills and the skills of digital fluency. The
results of the survey showed an approximately equal level of development for each of the
four skills in the sample of PR students (with a lower development of the informational
skills). The general level of development is rather good (with a general average of 3.48 on a
scale from 1 to 5) and shows that the “digital literacy” acquirement is met by PR students.
In the future, both scholarship and practice need more investigation on the digital gap
between younger and older generations of PR specialists, in order to study the differences in
the relationships with specific publics within the expanding digital environment and also
the differences in building strategies of communication by using social media.
As far as limitations in digital fluency skills are concerned, future communication
specialists need to invest more in understanding the importance of letting go of control on
social media, as the ways content is generated within this space could impact the progress
 K and evolution of how organizations and brands are perceived (on both short term and long-
47,10 term basis) by various publics.
Finally, this pilot study gives some reasons to continue the exploration of the new
concept of digital intelligence. The results showed the level of development of new skills by
PR students that are related to the tools that the digital environment offers to users for
engaging online, for forming social contacts and for building interactions. Also, some
1938 dimensions previously considered in scholarship as relevant for this new emerging concept
were evaluated and compared. The relevance and the integrative capacity of the proposed
framework for evaluating the level of digital intelligence may stand as a beginning of
discussion for the next stages of research.

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Corresponding author
Patrizia Gazzola can be contacted at: patrizia.gazzola@uninsubria.it

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