Out with the Old in with the NEW!...Does New Media pose any serious threat to Traditional Media?

So the debate continues. Does New media pose any serious threat to Traditional Media? For years, the main sources of news and information was television, radio and newspapers. Well, we no longer have to endure these boring....for lack of a better word, options. Technology has afforded us such luxuries such as the internet which propells us into a whole new world of communications. RSS feeds, Wikis and blogs and the ever so amazing Social media sites are just a few tools used in PR to reach audiences and share and interact. But, where does this leave our dear old friend Traditional Media? There has been decline over the years in newspaper readership and also television viewership and frankly, I believe traditional media is slowly dying. The fact that these media giants such as the BBC and CNN have sought to create different avenues; one such being creating websites, suggests that they too have foreseen the challenges posed by the emergence of new media.

Well, in a more detailed attempt at answering the question, I have created a Screencast for your viewing. Watch this video below.





View Transcript HERE

New Media...Connect PR, Connect!

Can somebody say Facebook, Twitter and Youtube?! Yes, New media is taking over the PR industry, and the world it seems. On this day in class, my colleagues and I did a presentation on New Media and PR. I nervously stood there and went through the ways in which the PR industry use New Media tools as opposed to Traditional media tools such as newspapers, television and radio. It was surprising to note that even though the possibilities of new media are limitless, the PR industry in the UK have been very slow to adapt to these changes. A study done by Bigmouth Media revealed that 79 out of 100 companies in the UK do not use New media and only 11% of the top PR companies use blogs to communicate with clients and other stakeholders. See the chart below. This is depressing.


However, the industry needs to get with the times in order to propel itself as a ‘real’ profession. Deidre Braekenridge outlines in her book PR 2.0, the bliss of online communications. For one, she states, journalists often prefer to be emailed. They especially love to know that news releases have some interactive features such as Podcasts, videos and other informational links so that it’s easier for them to pick up on other important information.
According to James Horton (author of Online Public Relations: What we should be teaching from a practitioner’s point of view), practitioners fear technology and as a result are not able to lead in developing technology for client services. He continues by stating that the PR industry will suffer until technology is integrated in the services offered by the PR Company: it will take long, by then, he says, other communications firms will already be well down the path of using technology in new and creative ways.

The argument that PR practitioners fear anything beyond writing is somewhat silly…haven’t you heard of the Credit crunch. The internet is so accessible and most of all FREE. That’s enough reason for practitioners to gravitate towards New Media. In the words of James L. Horton Online is the present and future of PR. It is not the end of PR as we know it. It is not the beginning of a new discipline. Online is a media tool with powerful features that PR practitioners should exploit. For instance, by just answering one question on Twitter (What are you doing now?), A news story can be created in minutes. Remember that plane that went down in the Hudson River a few weeks ago? Twitter was the first to break the news with one guy Janis Krums using his iphone to tweet about the plane crashing into the Hudson River. Isnt that Phenomenal... getting the news as it occurs?!

So get to blogging fellow PR practitioners!

References:

Big Mouth Media UK PR companies missing out on digital opportunity Industry News 26 August 2008 http://www.bigmouthmedia.com/live/articles/uk-pr-companies-missing-out-on-digital-opportunit.asp/5084/
[Accessed January 24, 2009]

Horton, James L. Online Public Relations: What we should be teaching from a practitioner’s point of view for Digitally conscious: Effectively integrating Technology into Today’s Classroom
http://www.online-pr.com/Holding/DigitallyConsciousspeech.pdf [Accessed March 30, 2009]

Beaumont, Claudine. New York Plane Crash: Twitter breaks news, again. Jan. 16, 2009 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/twitter/4269765/New-York-plane-crash-Twitter-breaks-the-news-again.html [Accessed Mar. 30, 2009]