This week under the leadership of blogging thought leader Elizabeth Albrycht, we will be discussing a new model for communications. Elizabeth kicked off the week with a reflective exploration of "social practices within the framework of 'cooperation.'" From her first piece:
... I open our discussion today with this statement, because I believe that "social practices" is what has historically been given short shrift in the world of technology -- and technology-based communications. We professional communicators adopt the latest-greatest tech tools (often rather slowly!) but we don't generally give much deep thought to what these tools mean to those we apply
them against, nor
do we have any sense of what the consequences (unintended, especially) are of
using these tools over time. I will be getting into a discussion about the
politics of tools later, but for today, I want to look at social practices
within the frame of "cooperation."
Today, industry observer Richard Bailey
writes one of the most thoughtful and lyrical pieces I have read on
the emerging role of the media and PR. I want to quote from a bit of
it below:
We can influence the media
through newsgroups and weblogs; we can know more of individual journalists
through their blogs…; but the most satisfactory relationships sooner or later
have to progress from the virtual to the real world.
Media relations remains as
important and as unpredictable in the digital age as it has always been. It’s
not the only game in town, but it still has a special place in making public
relations distinct within corporate and marketing communications – since media
coverage brings credibility to public relations messages. As the UK’s Institute
of Public Relations suggests, ‘public relations is about reputation: the result
of what you do, what you say, and what others say about you’. It’s the last of
these clauses that’s hardest to influence, but most valuable to the PR
practitioner.
Read these posts. It is well worth the time.
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