The use of English in online external communication by public relations agencies located in the Brussels area

The transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 has profoundly changed our way of communicating. What was born in a monolingual environment is now evolving in a multilingual climate. Many actors, including public relations agencies, have had to adapt their language strategy to communicate effectively with their audiences. This thesis aims to study the extent of the use of English (and other languages) in the external communication of public relations agencies based in Brussels. The analysis of social network sites and websites of three public relations agencies revealed that English is an important part of their digital communication but is not the only language used. Dutch and French were also found on the platforms but to a lesser extent. The findings also provided up-to-date information on the use of social networks by the industry.