Firstly I would like to thank PRII for inviting me to contribute to its blog. As you know, technology is changing the way we all consume news. There have been more developments in the past five years alone, than in the previous 400. As Public Relations practitioners, at the very least we have to keep up with these changes. I hope this piece helps you do that.
The Evolution of the Web
The world wide web was 28 years old this month. It was conceived as an open space, free from government interference, where people could connect in order to exchange information and ideas.
From the beginning users developed ways to share news, starting with bulletin boards (BBS) and AOL. Later, websites like sixdegrees.com were launched, and bit by bit the phenomenon of social networking emerged. This infographic shows, however, that the growth in social media (SM) (as it’s now known) over the past few years has been exponential, and it doesn’t look like it will subside any time soon.
‘Old Media’ and ‘New Media’
Twenty-eight years ago in Ireland there were three national newspapers: The Irish Times, the Irish Press and the Irish Independent. The other major outlets were RTÉ Radio and television. Huge numbers of people turned on the radio in the morning to find out what had happened in the news overnight; they tuned in at lunchtime to get developments during the day; and at 6 o’clock families across the country gathered in their sitting rooms to watch the evening news.
At a regional level things were different also. The network of local radio stations (so popular today) did not exist. In fact, it would take another year before the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland issued the first licences for commercial radio stations. But there were more local newspapers, and if people moved away it was not unusual to take out a subscription to your local paper, although sometimes it took a week or more to arrive at your door.
Television has always been a powerful medium, but until recently technical limitations meant that capturing footage of unscheduled events was mostly a question of luck. In 1981 the Spanish national broadcaster was recording proceedings in the parliament (to be shown later) when Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero burst in waving a gun. The cameras kept rolling for 30 minutes. The images caught that day of the attempted coup are a clear example of why unaltered eyewitness recordings would go on to become such an important source for media outlets.
By the end of the 1990s advances in technology were starting to be seen more and more. Previously breaking news had been dominated by print media, but that was changing. Two world events, in particular, gave us an insight into the future of news reporting: 9/11 (September 2001) and the Asian tsunami (December 2004).
Everyone remembers where they were when the first plane crashed into the World Trade Centre. I was at my desk on the 23rd floor of an office tower in Madrid. They evacuated the tower next-door. Meanwhile everyone in my building spent the day glued to the computer screen waiting for updates and watching live footage of the towers as they burned and subsequently collapsed.
There are only one or two clips of the first planes crashing into the tower on 9/11. Mobile phones were common in 2001, but they didn’t have a camera. A few years later things were different. On 26th December 2004 when some tourists saw a giant wave approaching as they stood on the balcony of their resort in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, they pressed record on their camera phone to capture the moment. Those short, grainy videos show dramatic and terrifying scenes from one of the deadliest natural disasters in history and became prized content for television stations and news websites across the globe.
Instanteity and mobile accessibility are two key elements of modern news reporting. According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, in addition to news apps “social media, messaging apps, email and mobile notifications are becoming an increasingly important route to news”. Platforms like Facebook and Google are being used to distribute news, but they are also becoming standalone news destinations themselves; research carried out last year revealed that 44% of people use Facebook “to find, read, watch, share or comment on news each week”. Real-time news is available from around the globe at our fingertips and we are accessing it, checking our phones up to 200 times a day.
Ten years ago some analysts suggested that in the future online platforms might provide interactive media. Today’s reality is that all online news outlets have podcasts, videos, infographics, live blogs, surveys, interactive graphics and collaboration requests (e.g. crowdsourcing to analyse large volumes of data).
On a side note, with regard to video content, research reveals that it is less popular than the supply side would indicate, mainly because people find it slower than reading due to the obligatory ads. It is possible, however, that live streaming will help to buck that trend.
Overall it is safe to say that we are consuming more news, more often, more quickly and generally cheaper, than ever before.
The Business Model
Business aspects of media have been transformed also. In the past there were two sources of finance: sales and advertising. As we know, sales have been decimated, primarily because of the availability of free news online. More and more readers have migrated fully to digital sources and, of course, digital natives – some of whom are already in their 20s – are averse to paying for news, with 28% saying that social media are their main source of news. On a much smaller scale, freesheets, such as Cork Independent, have gained in popularity, which also discourages readers from buying a paper.
While advertising remains vital, the situation is complicated too. In the past readers were defined by their choice of newspaper and so companies were happy to pay for running ads. This is no longer the case. Revenue from newspaper advertising (digital and print) did rise in 2015. However, Ireland has one of the highest levels of ad-blockers in Europe, and in general our tolerance for ads has diminished considerably.
In the past few years pay walls and subscriptions have done better. In fact, I got an email the other day from The Guardian to tell me that subscriptions are up! But whether or not this will continue, is hard to say. In the meantime, revenue at the likes of Google and Twitter benefit hugely from the news being disseminated through them.
A Few Future Trends
Before moving onto the effects on PR of all these changes, I want to identify a few emerging issues that might be of interest to you.
- Starting with hardware, it appears that the transition to mobile technology will continue. However, the use of tablets for reading news is on the decline.
- Publishers are exploring other ways to improve revenue, such as sponsored stories (advertorials), micropayments and possibly even payments from Twitter, Facebook, etc. for the news they share.
- Certain traditional publications will continue to do well in print and online, e.g. The Irish Times and the New York Times. That said, there will be a growing number of publications that make the move to online-only, like The Independent (UK), as well as an increase in digitally-born news media, like The Journal.ie and The Huffington Post.
- Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are vulnerable to fake news stories. These stories can get undue attention and consequently gain in credibility. Sometimes very biased pieces are passed off as news. And sometimes the mechanisms behind these items are sophisticated. Consider the 2011 presidential campaign in Ireland: one tweet all but buried Sean Gallagher’s prospects of winning the election.
The Implications for Public Relations
First and foremost, it is vital for professionals working in PR at present to be proficient in a variety of technical areas including photography and video production, data analytics and basic computer/online security.
The volume of news being produced by journalists working in digital formats is very high. Therefore, it is to the advantage of the PR professional to be able to provide media contacts not only with a good and reliable story, but also other usable content, such as copy, a catchy headline and visual assets.
While there is reliance on the traditional press release, writing is more important than ever. Susan Crawford, a former member of the American National Economic Council, sums it up as follows:
It’s popular to decry texting and lousy email drafting, but it’s clear to me that people are writing and reading more than ever before because of the Internet. It’s also clear to me that good writing is recognized and admired online. I don’t think the advent of video will change that – people in a hurry for information still want to scan text instead of being subject to someone else’s video habits. Presenting yourself these days requires having a written identity, and that will continue to be the case ten years from now.
Despite the vast changes in the media, when preparing content for the journalists, etc. it is important to remember that the media is a public and not just “a technical medium for the transmission of messages to audiences”*. Members of the media may use the information you provide verbatim, but they are equally likely to probe it, interpret it and critique it.
PR practitioners must understand push and pull strategies for disseminating information. Journalists report that social media is useful for leads and sources. In fact those working in large media organisations are more likely to use SM (see Social Journalism Survey) as part of the newsgathering process. It is also essential to verify the story, however, and recent research shows that journalists will check if the company has a website and use other traditional sources, e.g. a press officer, for that purpose. On that basis, it is imperative to have additional information at the ready.
At a recent PR seminar held by CIT PR students, former CNN reporter Gina London highlighted the importance of the human connection, “the human element”. Social media are becoming the modern equivalent of the phone book; people connect through Twitter and LinkedIn, and build productive relationships from those connections. So the basic PR skill of being able to connect with others will never lose its place.
Targeting the right media people, however, is more important than ever. Media professionals use SM to engage with their audience and journalists state that they would like less contact by phone, so in order to stand out PR practitioners must concentrate their efforts on those more likely to listen.
Nowadays journalists can use social media to go direct to the source. Most journalists have a good relationship with their PR contacts, but industry and professional contacts and experts are perceived to be more important sources. Therefore, establishing and maintaining trusted relationships is key.
In the past, news cycles were longer and you may have had up to 24 hours to come up with a strategy after an incident. That is not the case today, when it is very possible that you only have a few minutes before images of the incident are broadcast around the world. Remember also, like the pope’s very unappetising image at the end of last year (coprophilia, if you missed it), negative stories often move faster. So be proactive in identifying and planning for potential crises.
At the same CIT seminar, Jill O’Sullivan from breakingnews.ie talked about the importance for publishers of covering catchy and quirky stories, and of “covering the telly”, in addition to the ‘serious’, traditional news. These organisations do not produce clickbait, but they are under pressure to keep up readership numbers. Journalists generally agree that SM encourages “soft” news, but utilised well this could be very useful for PR practitioners.
Lastly I will leave you with a resource that I have found useful.
Use Twitter to Gain a Competitive Edge in Media Relations
Thanks for reading!
Suzanne
Suzanne Carey is a freelance PR consultant. She can be contacted at suzcarey@gmail.com or on Twitter @harmless_suz
*L’Etang, J. (2008) Public Relations: Concepts, Practice and Critique, SAGE Publications Ltd.: London
Suzanne Carey Communications 