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Sunday, May 06, 2007

And In Conclusion...


Well my time with this particular blog has came to an end and this shall be my final post focusing solely on PR and technology.

No need to get upset people I severely doubt that it will be the last blog I ever do, if i have learned anything in the past 10 weeks it is that PROs must check out social media and evolve with the changing times and more than anything that means BLOGS!!!!!!

During my first lecture on PR and Technology way back in the 20th February I sat staring at the, at that time, slightly optimistic Derek slightly bewildered as he told the class that we would spend the next ten weeks blogging, now as I said in my first post I had no idea at all about this concept.

Well I am happy to say that I have done it, I have overcame my fear of the unknown and blogged!

Yes, Derek was optimistic in thinking that we would all warmly accept this new media and would turn into new media geeks but he was right to believe that we could all do it.

Anyway no point giving him an ego (unless it gets me extra marks) so I shall continue in my conclusion...

The next lecture was on "Implications for PR" and this gave me some food for thought over the following weeks and ended in me writing an essay discussing whether ICTs will eventually become integrated in existing practice or whether PR needs to be reinvented to fit a new digital world.

Guess what, I don't know what will happen but here are the points I have either came to a conclusion on or are just generally bothering me:

Where do people find the time? This is one thing that I have struggled with during this assignment. People who blog socially and for no particular reason, seriously where do they get the time. I mean i have only got a part time job and a uni course to complete and I find it very hard to find the time to sit in front of the laptop to write on the blog. How do people with families and full time jobs do it? Derek?

Have my studies been worthwhile? I think they have been as I am now more aware of evolving communication medias and what i have to do in order to stay on track but what about the traditional theories, well in my opinion through ICTs the epitome of PR, Grunig's two way symmetric communication (1984), can be achieved.

Honesty: With the Internet honesty us more important than ever and that is something which must never be forgotten or one will be caught out.Relationships: ICTs allow for the building of stronger relationships between audiences and stakeholders due to dialogue now being more akin to conversation as opposed to the mass media shouting that happened so frequently in the past.

Integration: Whether it is in further integration and interaction of stakeholders or the simple integration of new media vehicles into traditional practice. For the moment it simply a case of using new ICTs along with traditional methods in order for them to compliment each other.

Who knows what will happen in the future, I might even become an advocate for technology and spend my time ranting to my poor subordinates that they must check and update their blogs!

The biggest lesson I have learned... no one has all the answers so therefore no one knows what technology has in store for the practice of public relations so let us just sit back and enjoy the ride!

Adios amigos
Hasta Luego!
Debz


http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall99/Westbrook/models.htm

Grunig, J.E; Hunt, T. (1984) Managing Public Relations, Holt Rinehart and Winston, New York

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