New media
technology is the application of digital (computer) technology to mass
communications (Hoggatt, 1999). Today, new technologies are being developed and
updated continuously and there are some challenges for public relations
professionals in term of keeping equal of not only what is available but also
of what is being planned for release in the future. According to Stephens
(2007), Internet news services are not just relying on the news wire services
but turning increasingly to other places for raw materials. Public relations
practitioners would be aware that ‘transcripts, reports and budgets are
regularly being placed on the Web, either by organizations themselves or by
citizens trying to hold those organizations to account’.
There are some implications for
public relations practitioners in order to prepare material faster than ever
before being able to produce what is required almost immediately and with the
required level of accuracy. In-house public relations practitioners may need to
form stronger alliances with IT departments and may have to engage with the
organization’s legal advisers in order to refine content clearance procedures
when content is demanded immediately (James, 2007).
Public relations practitioners will
need more technical skills in areas such as web publishing, new software
operation, online security, search engine optimization, web analytics and web
trend analysis software operation (James, 2007). However, writing for cross-media
delivery will continue as a major component of practice but the demands for
multimedia elements will bring even more challenges in this area.
PR News Online started their PR Digital Report earlier this
year and is now regularly covering stories on issues such as blogging, online
communities and podcasting (James, 2007). Only a few years back it would have
seemed unlikely to many practitioners to have to plan campaign components to hold
website possibilities such as YouTube, Facebook, My Space and Twitter but it is
obvious that many organizations even election campaigns are doing that.
Practitioners will need to be able
to analyze how new technologies can assist or hold back traditional public
relations roles like public information dissemination, media relations,
reputation management, marketing communications, investor relations as well as
issues and crisis management.
References
Hoggatt, L. (1999). New Media Technology: A Design for A Mass
Communications Graduate Seminar. Retrieved October 5, 2012 from http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/kheraiji/Documents/NEW%20MEDIA%20TECHNOLOGY.htm
James, M. (2007). A Review of the Impact of New Media on
Public Relations: Challenges for Terrain, Practice and Education. Retrieved
October 5, 2012 from http://www.pria.com.au/sitebuilder/forms/forms/file/34174/Melanie%20James%20article%20Asia%20Pacific%20PR%20Journal.pdf
By Nur Syazwani
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