The future of Public Relations

As public relations continues to adapt to the ever-changing digital media landscape, it has resulted in changes in the industry. The importance of multimedia communication tools, the expiration of the traditional press release and the ability for real-time news to travel at high speed are just a few changes the industry is currently facing.

The media business is changing, and so is the world of PR. Consumers are increasingly reading their news online through news websites or blogs and commentary pages. Today, the majority of print content is readily available in digital form resulting in the convergence of traditional and new media. The lines have blurred. However, according to Jenkins, media convergence is an ongoing process that should not be viewed as a displacement of the old media, but rather as interaction between different media forms and platforms (Jenkins, 2006).

"There is no longer such a thing as ‘traditional media,’" explains Tim Tessalone, USC’s sports information director. "With the 365/24/7 news cycle and with the wide variety of media (and social media) platforms now available to journalists and non-journalists, PR professionals need to remain not only vigilant, but must be proactive and progressive.”

Gable (2003) proposed ‘five major PR issues for the next decade’. Firstly, the need to improve strategic planning and the link to communications. The next issue raised was the encroachment on public relations services by other consultants including management consultants, accountants and lawyers. This connects to the third issue, defined as credibility. PR was still seen as ‘spin’ rather than the profession of strategics comms, reputation management and maintaining professional relationships. Following on from this, the fourth issue relates back to ‘defining PR’ and part of my first blogpost of the digital media assignment, the idea that the profession can sometimes be misunderstood or mischaracterised. Lastly, the fifth issue was set out to be the emphasis on finding qualified practitioners by promoting PR as an appealing industry to be work in.

As a student who has studied public relations and undertaken various work experience placements, I believe the scope of opportunities within the digital media landscape is increasing. PR professionals need to continue to adapt to the conglomeration that is the media business, focusing on stimulating conversations while remaining at the forefront of the communications arena. It is essential for PR professionals to embrace forward-thinking while measuring goals and competitor strategies in a competent way. Ralph Tench, then course leader at LMU (2004), said “Professionalism of the industry is key to the future” which I thoroughly believe should continue to be adopted, in order to communicate successfully.

In my opinion PR is about telling stories and distributing news effectively, but I think the future of PR is about creating a shareable and interlinked experience between a company and its publics, and communicating in an ethical, effective way.