Is New Media the future within Public Relations?

Is the new kind on the block! New media is changing the PR industry in many ways. Even the name of this specific field in PR has change to PR 2.0. If you Google PR 2.0 or PR and new media you will get hundreds of articles related to this topic.

New Media and Education

Everybody in the PR industry is talking and learning about it. It is a must-have for entry-level PR practitioners to develop a deeper knowledge of new media and its tools. The following video is a brief interview with Rick Murray, President of Edelman Digital, at the 2008 New Media Academic Summit. He explains the importance of new media for graduate students that want to get into the PR industry. Also he mentions that it is important that academic courses start incorporating new media as an essential module for communication students.

But why is new media so important?

Public relations has to adapt to the new trends in society so they can reach new audiences in a creative and innovative ways. Not only PR is changing their working methods, even mass media outlets, such as TV news channels and newspapers, created new online version a few years ago. New media has transformed the way organizations, CEO’s and politicians communicate with their public. However, most of them do not understand new media and they are afraid of it. Senior PR practitioners feel obsolete because of new media and even young PR practitioners feel threatened by it. But they should not suffer PR 2.0 stress because new media should be seen as a new opportunity to communicate with your target audience.

Harold Burson, chairman founder of Burson-Marsteller, and Mark Penn, worldwide president and CEO of Burson-Marsteller, talk about some trends and the future of the public relations industry.

How is the source now- the journalist or the public?

The new media allows an easier interaction between sources and publics. The public is no longer anonymous. They have their own voice that can be heard through the blogosphere. The raise of Internet means that the communication between media, journalists and the public is much faster and interactive. The feedback is almost instantaneous and the communicational channels are always open. It is now that PR practitioners need to know its public with a deeper knowledge so the massages can reach the desire individuals through the appropriate channels. Also by understanding their communicational tools, PR practitioners can build relationships based on the two-way symmetrical communicational model.

New media has raised the public to a different level of power in the communication system. Here there is another interesting podcast about the role of PR in the new media. Rob Brown, PR director of Mc Cann Erickson Communications House, did the podcast for PRWeek.

What ever happens in the future, one thing we have to know is that communication evolves and we have to adapt if we want to be successful in any professional industry. Especially PR practitioners have to see this new trend as an opportunity to reach the different audiences. However, it is important for PR practitioners that new media has its own rules created by the public and if they do not respect them, they will be alienated and attacked. In conclusion, new media is part of the future of public relations and no one can stop it.

• Click in this link to read an interesting article in The Guardian written by Jack Schofield about What do bloggers want from PR 2.0? on what journalist and bloggers would like from the PR practitioners.

Is PR equals propaganda?

Most people know that during war, the countries involved in it will influence the public opinion to support their cause. The methods they use are sophisticated campaigns and messages aiming to change the behaviours of a target audience, usually a large number of individuals.

There are many and many examples of propaganda, so many that we could go back to Ancient history and find examples of leaders making use of a basic and rudimentary propaganda. But it was in the last two centuries that human’s mastered propaganda. In yesterday’s class we saw how the U.S. and British government were making use of propaganda in the Iraq war. It is a documentary done by the BBC that explains how they manipulated messages and spin information to convince the population that the war was necessary and it was being successful.

The debate around propaganda and war is especially interesting and can become awfully passionate. However there is another topic equally attractive, PR and propaganda. Many critics refer to PR as a synonym of propaganda. In Le Monde Diplomatic, the American writer Noam Chomsky talks about democratic governments manipulating the media and communication and how they also make use of propaganda. He also states that PR “is a major advance on totalitarian rule, as it is much more agreeable to be subjected to advertising than to torture.”

PR can be used as propaganda but it is not the ethical practice of this profession. PR practitioners want to take their massage across but also they want to understand the public and build relations that can benefit both sides. In this industry, like in any other, there will be “bad” PR practitioners that will manipulate the facts or restrict essential information to the media so a pre-design massage will come across to the public.

In this YouTube video the author and co-founder of PR Watch John Stauber also criticizes PR firms as a multibillion-dollar industry that manipulates the media and masses. Also, how they are trying to expose this PR firms that are manipulating public opinion.

I do not know if people can avoid manipulation and propaganda but an important habit that will help individuals to have a bigger perspective of what is happening is to read different media outlets. Now a day, the Internet is an enormous source of information and points of view that we can get information of the current issues in the world and our country. We cannot be naïve that there are authorities, opinion leaders and organization that will attempt to manipulate public opinion. However, I do believe that there are PR practitioners that work hard to give accurate information, build solid relations between shareholders and carry out an ethical PR practice.

Future of International Public Relations

Clearly, culture matters in international public relations. Its practice varies greatly around the globe through competing definitions of public relations and semantic nuances that suggest links to propaganda and persuasion. On a larger level, it’s the cultural subtleties that alter not only definitions of public relations but also what it means to do public relations internationally.

Culture represents the layers public relations must contend with to get to shared situations at the core of international public relations, whether building nations, attracting tourism, spurring economic growth, or controlling discord from opposition groups or nations. The layers of culture extend across international lines, from developed to developing countries, from democratic nations to authoritarian regimes.

Although it’s important to define public relations practice, such an endeavour can also limit theoretical scope. Definitions privilege worldviews, establish power relations, and attach names to communicative processes that are constantly in change, shaped by global forces that include economic and cultural waves.

International public relations is an area of the public relations practice that will continue growing with the development of PR in different parts of the world, specially with emerging countries in Asia and South America. They will add value to this profession and possibly develop new theoretical frameworks. The future of public relations, most importantly of international PR, is a global world without limits.

Ketchum Senior Counsel John Paluszek shares his perspectives on the future of public relations in an address to the Florida Public Relations Association at its annual conference in August 2008.

Education for IPR practitioners

The activities developed by IPR should be done by professional PR practitioners. This type of PR practitioner has to understand what is international public relations and also have a strong knowledge of International Relations. Expert in this field of International PR or Global PR are cultural interpreters of each host country, they have to be able to translate the cultural differences between the client and their audiences, being the last one of enormous dimension and diversity.

There is a complete article IPRA (International Public Relations Association) analysing A Model for Public Relations Education for Professional Practice.

IPR South America

PR is emerging as a socially mandated profession in South America just as it is in other parts of the world. Advancements in democracy and communication technology, along with growing economic and environmental interdependence, are the primary globally shared reasons for the profession’s growth and development.

In South America the social role of PR is truly reflected in the special characteristics of the PR practitioners. The social and economic imbalance in the countries in Latin America is a major factor in the development of the PR profession and practice, where PR practitioners are active agents of social and political transformation.

A continuation a will name some of the current characteristics of PR is South America:
· Licensing of public relations.
· The creation of public relations universities programmes and courses to develop student’s skills.
· Growth and development of professional organisations and the arrival of international PR consultants.
· The advancements in democracy, particularly in the transparency of government.
· There is a holistic concept of public relations.
· There is a need to balance relationship of public relations and journalism. In the region they can see difference between the two profession and each other roles.
· Development of stockholder owned corporations

The PR industry in some Latin American countries, such as Brazil, Chile or Argentina, is at the same level as some of the European countries. However, there are other countries that the PR industry is synonym of propaganda.