I like all topics that are to do with the media because they are much easier to understand then information that raves on continuously about theories, theories and more theories. This weeks reading was easy to understand as it was mainly about the expansion and development of the new media.
Obviously, society is changing and this is through the technology advancement and the introduction to the internet. The internet has allowed the discovery of easy communication, access to information and so much more. The internet has also pushed "freedom of expression" to a whole new level because on the internet, there is no real gatekeeper. It is near impossible to be able to have a gatekeeper for the internet because we are the ones that are making the internet to work the way it is and we are the ones that provide it with the unanimous amount of information. So who are the gatekeepers? We are in such a way.
So what is the correlation with PR and new media? Well, according to some research, PR practice has not really changed even with the widespread used of the new media. This also shows that people working in the PR sector has not really found a particular way to effectively use this new media. Majority of people in the survey research, also said that the new media has widened the horizons for two-way communication and dialogue with the public.
New Media has also allowed the public to get together and become active. It doesn't matter where the person lives, the time zone or anything as long as the person is on the computer. Topics and awareness can be raised together and public relations really need to be aware of what is going on. The topic that they're discussing might concern them. An example given in the text book was about Kryptonite, which is a lock for a bicycle. It is considered an expensive product that is considered to be secure. However, someone posted up a video of actually picking the lock open. This created cyclist over the world to talk about the issue, yet the company was making no response till a while later. I think response needs to be relatively quick because online word of mouth spreads like wild fire! If the company is slow, their reputation is probably tarnished because of it.
The difficulty for public relations professionals are using the media in a way that will facilitate two-way symmetrical communication, which is where the public gets involved and there is a two-way communication between the organization and the public. One means of doing this is organizational blogs. People can comment and give feedback to a blog, while the person hosting the blog can also give back a reply to those feedback. This gives a two-way symmetrical communication. Blogs are also very useful researching to understand what consumers may want in a product or service. Other ways under new media are, podcasts, social networking such as facebook, and twitter. However, not all these mentioned can lead to two-way symmetrical
communication.
Yes, I agree that blogs do facilitate a two-way symmetrical communication. However, a point that I have to make is that the comments may seem unofficial. Fake names or nicknames could be provided instead of real names. Unlike traditional media like the newspaper, The Straits Times, it requires the people who send the letters to the editor to provide their real names. As such, I feel that blogs and other forms of new media may not provide useful information for the particular post and ultimately, for the company.
ReplyDeleteYes. I think thats a problem with any virtual online two-way communication. It can happen even in emails. Who knows if the emails are real or fake? Facebook profiles can be fake too. Forums can have spam and unreal comments. I think thats the main problem with the internet. We don't know what's truly original and meaningful or if its just trash. ;)
ReplyDeleteNew Media has also allowed the public to get together and become active.
ReplyDeleteI do agree on your take about new media offering newer and more platforms for the public to interact and get their questions answered. The media has indeed evolved over the years and I, for instance, have been an active participant on online forums these days. These new forms of media are definitely easier to access and I feel that it doesn't take too much time or trouble to draft out a response to a forum thread as compared to more traditional media such as newspapers and magazines. We are now able to express our opinions freely without the need to expose too much personal details.