PR and Fragmented Media Issues - Essay Example

PR and Fragmented Media Name Course Lecture Date Introduction The environment public relations operate in has changed radically in the last two decades. This change is characterized by the fragmentation of PR communication Media from the traditional types to include digital media. Digital media has placed new pressures on PR communication in organization and is forcing organizations to reconsider their PR practices. Aronson, Spetner and Ames (2010) argue that fragmentation of Media has changed the very nature of public relations. In this essay the fragmentation of media to thousands of separate channels and its implication on PR practice in the organization is discussed. The paper starts by outlining how the fragmentation of the media has occurred and how it allows everyone in the organization to communicate about its activities. It also details how any person from outside and within the organization can influence the public perception of the organization. Secondly, the paper focuses on the implications of fragmentation of media on the practice of PR and what organizations are doing to align their PR with the new fragmented Media and to respond to threats posed by the new media channels. Media fragmentation Fragmentation of the media means virtually thousands of channels can be used to influence the public opinion about the organization’s activities. The public can now access information about an organization via email, digital newsletters, blogs, RSS, live conference calls, viral marketing, search engines, podcast (Aronson, Spetner and Ames 2010). Other channels include social media, niche media cable channels, online publications, traditional TV and Radio and newspapers. While the traditional media channels were easier to control for PR practitioners, Digital Media is presenting new challenges to the field of PR. PR now has to contend with a situation where employees could diverge potentially embarrassing company information from their social media accounts, emails, blog posts or seemingly harmless threads from their social media accounts. While fragmentation of Media is a profound threat to the objectives of PR, it provides newer, cheaper and more effective ways for spreading PR messages. The Internet, wireless and broadband communication enable faster and cheaper preparation of PR messages (Aronson, Spetner and Ames 2010). Indeed, new media channels have a positive effect on the writing, researching, publishing and distribution of PR communication. They also assist in the presentation of messages through graphics, audio and videos. PR practitioners now make major cost savings by avoiding postage charges that characterized traditional media campaigns. PR practitioners also have to deal with the challenge of remaining effective and relevant in an environment where they contend with competing communication. PR practitioners must keep in mind the traditional goals of PR such as clarity, vividness, accuracy, correct grammar, apt details and a clear, varied style (Aronson, Spetner and Ames 2010). However, fragmented media also means that PR responses have to be immediate, accessible and forthright. PR practitioners now have to contend with tighter deadlines for preparation of PR releases and responses (Aronson, Spetner and Ames 2010). Digital media demands a constant stream of information and news about the company which PR has to provide. Failure to do so the information gap will be filled by information obtained from doubtful sources including news feeds from employee’s personal social media accounts. PR also has to contend with online rumours spread by anonymous bloggers who are keen on attacking the reputation of organizations. Since everybody communicates in the modern communication landscape, the blogger may pick communication by employees on discussion forums and social media accounts to provide viral news about the company that rival their own PR communication. PR practitioners must remember that bloggers have no consideration for the accuracy of their stories (Aronson, Spetner and Ames 2010). A thread by an employee on his social media wall may be picked by a blogger and end-up going viral projecting the organization negatively to the online audience. The company affected by the negative publicity will only know about the negative press one the thread becomes a page-one results on Google and other popular search engines. PR practitioners are also faced with the challenge of responding to rumours and news stories from online journalists. The electronic world is characterized by bloggers and citizen journalist whose new pieces compete with those of professional journalists. These competing journalists post rumours, stories, and speculations and reviews that are sometimes sourced from the organization’s own employees (Breakenridge 2012). PR practitioners thus have to constantly monitor the blogosphere for news stories that may require responses or correction. They must remember that stories and rumours in the blogosphere may cause permanent damage to the organizations reputation if not dealt with. PR professionals have also come under the pressure of speedy responses and accessibility. The media and top management expect PR management to be accessible for responses at any time through e-mail, phones or instant messages (Breakenridge 2012). However, the PR professional has to know that any ill-conceived and hastily prepared PR releases are irretrievable once they are posted online. The fragmented media means that the hastily prepared PR release can be seen on thousands of niche channels instead of the Two or three TV channels that characterized PR communication a decade ago (Aronson, Spetner and Ames 2010). A decade ago, professional discussion was on one or two trade publications. Now we have thousands of discussion forums and blogs replacing the TV stations and newspapers. This fragmented new channels means PR is increasingly being used to influence public perception of the organization throughout multiple media channels. According to Breakenridge (2012), the value of PR has increased as the need to address negative press and reach a more fragmented audience has increased. Traditionally, the PR news releases would be made to one or two media channels that dominated the target group. The release would be well researched and would respond to all issues. In contrast, a PR release today has to respond to truths and half-truths that are already aired before the PR release (Breakenridge 2012). PR has been accused of misleading the public to believe that company’s care more about their consumers than they actually do. PR in a fragmented media landscape has to tell the truth or deal with the consequence of lying to the public. According to Breakenridge (2012), organizations have increasingly become more deceptive as a result of the pressure of the segmented media. Many organizations have been criticized for running unethical PR campaigns online. MCNamara (2010) gives the example of L’Oreal and Wal-Mart who created fake blogs to have people review and discuss their products positively. The fake blogs damaged the reputation and image of the two firms with some bloggers calling for a boycott of their products. Breakenridge (2012) advice companies to make graceful “ no comments” if they are in a situation where they are unable to tell the truth. Bloggers and citizen journalists have been known to go to great lengths to expose the truth about statement issued to the public by companies. Bloggers and citizen journalists have been known to hack employee emails and other internal communication in order to find the true state of affairs in an organization. PR continues to be criticized for past lies and having misled the public to perceive organizations more positively (Aronson, Spetner and Ames 2010). However, the public today can be able to punish bad PR practices by intensely criticizing organizations on social media or even organizing a boycott of their products. In the past, some PR people have been referred as spin doctors, hacks, flacks and mouthpieces for their role in deceiving the public. PR practitioners must know that the new media environment is unforgiving for those who tell lies. The Government and owners of organizations can sue PR practitioners for misleading communication or attempting to change the public perception by use of lies. PR professionals must always remember that even if they lie to the public, somebody within the organization still knows the truth and he may leak the information to the public. Sometimes these leaks of information are unintentional but their effect on the company is still profound. Public relations department must also be cautious about the use of email in the organization. PR departments must be aware that emails are not a private form of communication and that they can be stored and retrieved later (Aronson, Spetner and Ames 2010). Wikileaks’ exposure of sensitive emails from the US government is clear evidence of the potential of email communication to cause embarrassment to organizations. PR departments must make sure that all employees understand that emails are not a private conversation between the sender and recipient. All information that is not intended for the public domain must not be discussed in email. Emails are stored in business records and the servers of email service providers for a long time. From these servers embarrassing information about the company can be gathered and used to target the company’s reputation. Therefore, PR practitioners must come up with emails policies that discourage discussion of sensitive information via email communication. The PR practitioner must be aware that communication by virtually any employee in the company can reach millions instantly. A seemingly harmless post by an employee criticizing his organization labour practices can reach millions through sharing on social media. According to Fitzsimmons (2013), facebook had over 1.19 billion users in 2013. This means that the potential of damaging PR communication is greater in age of fragmented media than ever before. In the scenario above, if the story gets picked up by major news networks, the damage to the organization’s reputation is even more profound. Lately, many news channels have been using tweets and other social media post as a basis for news stories. PR practice in the contemporary organization also has to deal with communication to a culturally diverse audience. The fragmentation of media means that any PR releases is received by a global audience. According to Bardan and Waever (2011), PR releases must be presented in a way that they will not offend people from a diverse cultural background. Ambiguity and uncertainty in cross-cultural communication must be avoided at all costs. Communication over digital media must overcome real and perceived cultural and political barriers to be effective. Ethics across international boundaries is also a major concern for PR practitioners. Ethical relativism holds that what is unethical in one country is not always viewed as unethical in a country with different cultures (Bardhan and Weaver 2011). Organizations that operate globally are forced to participate in practices considered unethical at home in order to survive in some business environments. News items featuring unethical practices by multinational can damage their reputation in markets that are sensitive to corporate ethics. For example, labour standards in the South-East are low allowing for exploitation and mistreatment of workers. Many multinational organizations have transferred some of their operations to these countries in order to lower costs. However, the fragmented media allows for the voices of the exploited workers to be heard. Workers and citizen journalist can now bring to light the exploitive practices through social media and the countless media channels that are available to bring information about organizations to the public. Organization must also be aware of the influence bloggers and citizen journalism have on a fragmented audience. Bloggers and online journalist are becoming key partners in influencing the public perception of the organization (Edwards and Hodges 2011). Bloggers are interested in stories that will attract the most attention from the public. Therefore, PR practitioner must come up with exciting news items which bloggers will be keen to publish to attract attention to their pages. Any mention positive mention of an organization in an independent blog is key to building a positive reputation of the firm in the public eye. However, PR practitioners have been working in chaotic information environment even before the fragmented media age. To deal with negative communication the organization must be constantly vigilant of all media channels. Once rumours and rants are noted, the organization should offer an effective response. PR practitioners must constantly watch out for employee complaints and negative feedback from consumers. Unfortunately, fragmented media means criticism of the organization always occurs in multiples of posts, news releases, blog posts and podcasts. Responding to each of the instances of the organization’s criticism is a challenging task to the PR department (Breakenridge 2012). For example, if an employee posts on his facebook account a complaint against his company’s labour practices, a response by the company may be inadequate to cover any damage made. Unfortunately, the organization cannot be able to remove or retract such negative press about its labour relations even though such complaint might be false. Fragmented media channels offer the PR organization an opportunity to collect data that can help them understand how the public perceive them. However, data collection and dissemination online face the challenge of maintaining user privacy. Users have complained that posts containing PR communication are being placed on their walls and profiles without their approval. This situation shows that the PR industry may be misusing the new channels of communication and consequently violating the privacy rights of users. (Edwards and Hodges 2011). PR practitioners must also use the right channel to communicate particular kind of messages. According to Edwards and Hodges (2011), traditional media may be more suitable for PR communication in a crisis situation. Occasionally organizations experience major crisis such as server failure, plane clashes, and employee strikes which call for a firm public relations response. Issuing such a response over the new digital media channels may not be as effective as using the traditional channels which are more official. In addition, a PR release online seems insensitive in situations where the organization has wronged the public. Conclusion PR practice in a fragmented media environment where virtually everybody communicates about the organization is very challenging. Unfortunately, the public can be influenced by information about a company that is available across thousands of new media channels. The public can now access information about an organization via email, digital newsletters, blogs, RSS, live conference calls, viral marketing, search engines, podcasts. Other channels include social media, niche cable channels, online publications, traditional TV and Radio and newspapers. These channels provide ways in which negative press including information leaks by the organization employee can reach the public. Organizations are thus tasked with offering speedy responses to negative press that can virtually come from anywhere. Organizations are also faced with the challenge of remaining truthful in their PR responses and communication. Lying is a costly practice that can be easily exposed in the fragmented media age costing the organization heavily in terms of reputation. Organizations must also take into consideration the potentially damaging effect of leaks in internal communication. PR must seek to ensure that potentially embarrassing organizational information is not discussed over insecure media channels such as email. Email can be leaked or hacked exposing the company to public embarrassment. Organizations must also act ethically in all their dealings including labour practices as exposing unethical practices is easier. In addition, new media channels mean damage to an organizations reputation is more widespread as the new media channels have the potential to reach a global audience. In summary, fragmentation of media channels means maintaining a good reputation and image of a company is a much harder task. References Aronson, M., Spetner, D., & Ames, C 2010, The public relations writer's handbook: the digital age. John Wiley & Sons. Bardhan, N., & Weaver, C. K 2011, Public relations in global cultural contexts: Multi-paradigmatic perspectives, London: Routledge. Breakenridge, D 2012, Social Media and Public Relations: Eight new practices for the PR professional. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Edwards, L. & Hodges, C. 2011, Public relations, society & culture: Theoretical and empirical explorations. Abingdon, England: Routledge. Fitzsimmons, M 2013,  Facebook has 1.19 billion monthly active users, mobile use is skyrocketing, TechRadar, http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/web/facebook-now-has-1-19-billion-monthly-active-users-mobile-use-is-skyrocketing-1195063. Macnamara, J 2010, “Public relations and the social: how practitioners are using, or abusing,social media. “Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts-ed/apprj/articles/11-macnamara.pdf Read More