Using the Ukrainian Wikipedia in Public Relations

Abstract

The article deals with possibilities of using the electronic encyclopedia Wikipedia, and in particular, the Ukrainian Wikipedia as a PR tool of commercial organizations. It analyzes the literature and resources related to this issue; it outlines the theoretical and practical possibilities of direct impact of PR-specialists on the content of «Wikipedia»; it studies the history and current contacts between the leadership of Wikipedia and the PR-industry representatives. It studies the level of information representation in relation to the big Polish companies in the Polish language edition of Wikipedia, as well as the big Ukrainian companies in the Ukrainian and Russian editions of Wikipedia. It is concluded that the PR representation of the Poland and Ukrainian big business companies differ in quantitative proportion only insignificantly. The methodology of further scientific and practical research of the Ukrainian Wikipedia for the tasks of PR industry and encyclopedia studies are researched; the strong potential of such an activity is marked