Tuesday, 3 April 2012

New media technologies and Public Relations



New media is becoming the preferred term for a range of media practices that employ digital technologies and the computer in some way or another.  The new media as a general definition, refers to innovating forms of interaction between people and technology, is about the relationship between people and instruments of communication. Examples of new media: blogs, video games, virtual worlds, Wikipedia or any mobile device, interactive televisions and even sites and emails.

Consideration will be given to both the impact on skills, knowledge and work practices of current and future practitioners and the way new media is consumed and used, including the impact that related expectations and behavior of consumers is having on public relations practice. New technologies are being developed and updated continuously and in themselves pose challenges for public relations professionals in terms of keeping abreast of not only what is available but also of what is being planned for release in the future. Many large scale public relations projects such as national public information campaigns or major international events have long lead times.

If new media are to be embraced, 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. They will need enhanced online information architecture skills and skills related to managing an increasing amount of complex information digitally. 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.

If new media is already a part of your daily life, promote what you are doing, demonstrate the results that these campaigns deliver, and continue to innovate. As a result your organisations, clients and teams will all benefit, and the PR sector will be rightly seen as the natural champions of new media communications.


Reviewed by Izzati Suhaila

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