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.