Reaching Your Internal Stakeholders: Traditional and New Media Channels

Excellence in Internal Communication Management is a 10-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2017 and written by Rita Linjuan Men, Associate Professor of Public Relations at the University of Florida, and Shannon A. Bowen, Professor of Public Relations at the University of Southern California. The authors combine theories, research insights, practices, as well as current issues and cases into a comprehensive guide for internal communication managers and organizational leaders on how to communicate effectively with internal stakeholders, build ethical organizational cultures, and engage employees in a rapidly-changing business environment. In Chapter 5, the authors discuss communication channels that organizations can use to communicate with internal stakeholders. They highlight face-to-face communication, print publications, videoconferencing, e-mail, social media tools, intranet, blogs, SNSs, and social messengers. They write that face-to-face communication is the most preferred channel because it is instant, interactive, and personal, but they acknowledge the benefits of each mode of communication. The chapter also discusses criteria that companies and leaders can use to choose channels for certain messages and audiences. These criteria include audience needs, available resources, delivery speed, sender objectives, message attributes, channel attributes, and characteristics of receivers.

• Stakeholder relations
• Communication strategy
• Employee engagement
• Internal communication
• Organizational behavior
• Business ethics
• Business communication