The rise of digital intelligence: challenges for public relations education and practices Diana-Maria Cismaru, Associate Professor, Ph.D Raluca Silvia Ciochina, Ph. D. Student National University of Political and Administration Studies (NUPSPA Bucharest) Abstract The current global culture, built around networks of information technology which entails ease and speed of information flow, constrains PR practitioners to develop a new form of intelligence: digital intelligence. Considering the definition of Gardner (1993, p. ii) of intelligence as the “ability to solve problems or fashion products that are of consequence in a particular cultural setting or community”, Adams (2004, p. 96) observed that, in the global contemporary village, “intelligence is directly related to our ability to interact with this emerging digital environment.” Applying social media strategies to meet a competitive market, where publics gained the power to influence media interactions, has become one of the main requirements for PR practitioners. Yet, previous scholarship (Tench et al., 2013) showed that the development of digital skills is rather modest for European practitioners. Using a survey on a sample of PR practitioners and students, the paper explores two types of gaps that practitioners have to deal with. First gap refers to the difficulty of addressing constantly to two categories of publics (older traditional publics, and young publics with a higher level of digital skills). The second gap refers to education, as the curricula in universities does not address to the emerging digital intelligence in an integrative way. The aim of the pilot study is to determine the consequences of these gaps on PR practices and the directions for an educational strategy of adaptation. Keywords: digital intelligence, digital skills gap, public relations challenges Introduction Several authors have identified that public relations and communication practitioners are currently dealing and struggling with the impact of new media and the internet on their practice (James, 2007, Macnamara, 2010, Robson & 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 communicators 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 improve. The aim of this research paper is to investigate the current challenges that public relations and communication practitioners from Romania are facing when addressing external publics in today`s digital media environment. A second aim of the paper is to identify some of the digital skills gaps present at the educational level, considering the emerging new media environment. According to research carried by the PR Academy (2013), alumni respondents identified as their top three skills gaps: digital communications (52%), followed by strategic planning (46%), and measurement (44%). In 2012, the European Communication Monitor (Zerfass et al., 2012) which is the largest transnational survey on 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%), addressing more audiences and channels with limited resources (34%), ethics in social media,