Digital divide

In today’s world, technology has massively simplified people’s life: from video-calling applications such FaceTime which make ‘time travel’ possible to job-seeking platforms such as LinkedIn where you can find the job you’ve always dreamed of while lying on the couch.

Having grown up with the Internet and digital devices, I don’t even think my generation and I – I’m a ‘98 – can conceive how life was before it because even if ten years ago there was no such thing as smartphones, people could still send emails and google stuff using a computer.

The fact that our daily life completely changed after the rise of the Internet and technological devices makes people with no access to it a serious problem for society. ‘Digital Divide’, also known as digital split, is a social issue referring to the differing amount of information between those who have access to the Internet, or more specifically to Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), and those who haven’t.

The three main barriers to getting online are:

• Access, due to the affordability of equipment or usage, lack of time, lack of training or disabilities;
• Motivation, due to a too high cost/benefit ratio. Also, there’re people who are simply not interested in entering the digital world;
• Skills and confidence: elderly people tend to find it very hard to learn how to use ICT or are concerned about security.

This issue is global and serious, because some ICT are now vital to quality civic life and the main communication channel for many organizations.

Therefore, bridging the gap is essential to ensure economic equality, because underdeveloped countries with no access to the Internet are undeniably under informed; social mobility, because nowadays having access to a computer plays a central role in the learning process, and, by consequence, in career development; and economic growth, because some kind of technologies may give an organization, city or country competitive advantage.

These are just some of the major arguments which emphasize the importance of bridging the digital divide as soon as possible.

News about people addicted to social media or scandals about privacy breaches are constantly in the mainstream media now, but I believe this issue should be an equally important issue to cover.

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Let me know your thoughts about that in the comments below!

#digitaldivide #technology #internet #tech #techdevices

Concept of Mediamorphosis

Hello everyone! While looking for academic literature for one of my assignments, I came across to the concept of Mediamorphosis, which I consider to be a particularly relevant and interesting phenomenon considering the speed at which society is changing.

For those who do not know what it is, Mediamorphosisis a theory elaborated by Roger Fidler, an internationally recognized new media pioneer and visionary, that states that new media do not arise spontaneously and independently, but they morph from something that already exists or emerge gradually due to society changes, while older forms try to adopt or end up dying.

According to this theory, better known as ‘Digital Mediamorphosis’, the reason behind the transformation of communication media of the 21^stcentury is the ever-evolving technological innovation.

A simple and tangible example of it is the rise of social media platforms, from Facebook to Instagram and Twitter, which gained popularity after the Internet kicked in and started to be widely used in the early 2000s and which caused the decline of old media, such as magazines – some of which have now closed down or have only the online version available.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, virtual reality is a new and emerging form of communication which is kicking in in many sectors. So my question is: will AR – and VR – replace other “older” forms of communication or will it be integrated into PR’s media landscape?

Let me know your opinions in the comments below!

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If you want to read more about this theory, check this link out: https://bit.ly/2C6Vwl6

#PR #communications #mediamorphosis #AR #VR #universityofgreenwich

Public Relations and Virtual Reality

In today’s world, technology has affected every aspect of human life, and PR is no exception. Digital communications are an increasingly relevant part of the PR practice and one of the newest trends is Virtual Reality.

Virtual reality is a fully immersive experience – not to be mistaken with augmented reality, which ‘only’ overlays virtual objects on the real-world environment, just think about Pokémon Go – which allows you experience anything, anywhere, anytime.

With a VR headset, you can explore a new city – Stockholm for instance – live in a different house or sitting behind the wheel of your favourite race car without stepping out of your own living room.

This extraordinary new technology is able to make intangible experiences, such as travelling, tangible. That is why marketers and PR practitioners testing the potential with this experiential and storytelling platform.

Social networks are already seeing the benefit of VR and AR and Edelman in its 2017 digital trends report highlighted how brand managers in every sector should educate themselves on VR and use it during conferences and industry trade shows.

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To read more about Edelman 2017 Digital Trends follow the link here: https://edelmandigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2017-Edelman-Digital-Trends-Report.pdf

#publicrelations #PR #virtualreality #augmentedreality

Techlash

Hello everyone!

Today I am going to talk about one of the ‘’hot topic” of the moment: Techlash

The end of my second year at the University of Greenwich is approaching and by more or less two months I realized that tech PR is the right field for me.

How did I draw that conclusion? Well, a combination of things I guess, both ‘good and bad’ aspects of tech that made me interested in working in this sector to help companies deal with current threats and see the limits of tech in communications.

First of all, I really do believe that technology empowers people: from Siri and self-driving cars to VR technologies and time travelling tools like FaceTime and Skype, which allow you to be anywhere without stepping a foot out of your own houses, tech has definitely improved our lives for the better.

Being one of the fastest-growing industry, it is no doubt true that in ten years’ time we’ll be doing things we can’t even think of right now. Let’s just consider how not even nine years ago there was no such thing as social media: no Instagram stories to show how cool your life is and no WhatsApp group chats to mute to stop your iPhone from ringing every two seconds – and no asking the group members for a summary when you can’t be bothered reading all the texts by the way.

I don’t think people of my age are 100% aware of how tech has massively made our life easier.

However, there’s always the other side of the coin, isn’t it? As quick as it made our life easier, from a couple of years tech has shown us its dark side: techlash.

Techlash is the word used to summarise the disillusionment society has toward tech in general.

The excitement coming from Steve Job’s first iPhone launch back in 2011 and Facebook’s motto “Move fast and break things” – with Obama’s $500 million social media campaign – left room for rising concerns around privacy protection and elections security failures caused by Silicon Valley tech titans Google, Facebook and Amazon.

Facebook-Cambridge Analytical data breach scandal, Google’s record £3.8bn fine for illegally making Android manufacturer pre-install Google search app to defend its dominance in search and Facebook-Youtube-Twitter failure in protecting users’ data from the Russians’ political purposes are just some of the examples of what’s going on at the moment.

So my question is: will the power of EU and its antitrust regulation be successful in protecting users? Technology is the future and there’s no going back to when it was not part of humans’ life, but will people regain trust in tech?

This would be a very interest topic to read in 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer.

#technology #techgiants #facebook #amazon #google #techlash #antitrust

Edelman Trust Barometer

Hello everyone!  After a little break, I am back to blogging… you all missed me, didn’t you?

As you can tell from the title of this post, this week I’m going to talk about the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer.

First of all, what’s it? The Edelman Trust Barometer is the company’s annual global trust survey which aims at measuring the state of trust across a number of institutions and sectors, such as in businesses, the media, government and NGOs.

First carried out in 2001 across five countries only, it has now turned into a global measurement of trust across the world, involving in 2019 33,000 participants in 27 countries.

According to the report, “My Employer” is the most trusted entity. People expect CEOs to speak up on public agendas and issues (67%), considering them the key to rebuilding societal trust. This is a great opportunity for employers to make the difference in society and improve their employees’ life by educating them on the issues of the day with fact-based information and on the importance of volunteering for the community.

The report also shows a high rise in news consumption – from 50% to 72%. However, while trust in news media is higher compared to last year, trust in social media is in crisis, with 73% of respondent worrying about false information and fake news being used as a weapon.

The fact that interested me the most is that “women trust less”. Considering the number of events happened in 2018 – with the #metoo movement, female presence in the Gilet Jaunes protests and the UK celebrating 100 years since women got the right to vote – a section of the report has been dedicated to investigating any difference between trust among men and women.

The findings show that, overall, women trust less than men. The largest trust gap regards to trust in business (7 points). Considering the gender pay gap and the lower number of female CEOs, we shouldn’t be surprised that women trust less by default.

So… what is the role of PR?

Despite the low level of trust, people are still consuming news.

In this era of public concerns and privacy issues, building and maintaining a strong reputation between an organization and its public is more important than ever.

PR has to make sure to deliver timely, honest and accurate news to regain the trust of the public for an organization.

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For more information about levels of trust read the executive summary at https://bit.ly/2GtFg1c

#PR #edelman #publicrelations #ThePRGirl

PR and Social Media

Hello everyone!

Today I’m going to talk about how the rise of the Internet, in particular of social media, has shaped new ways of doing PR.

It is no doubt true that digitalisation created benefits for PR practitioners and new tasks that have been added to the PR toolkit:

• a new way of communication: first of all, social media allow PR practitioners to communicate with their audiences and to have a ”two-way” kind of communication, because they can connect with people by engaging conversations and getting feedback
• Working with influencers: to improve a brand’s reputation and awareness, PR professionals can collaborate with social media influencers, whose digital following is massive
• Social sharing and press releases: including what people think into a public relations campaign is now possible, by adding social sharing capabilities to press releases
• Crisis handling: PR practitioners, who are also responsible for handling crises,  can address and solve problems more efficiently and quickly thanks to social media

Despite all these benefits PR gained from social media, it seems that digitalisation brought some challenges with it. One of the main threat of the ”social world” is that PR practitioners have less time to deal with deadlines, because they have to keep up with the new rhythm of society and this may penalize the quality of their work.

Overall, I think that the impact that social media have on the practice of PR cannot be avoided any longer, therefore it is important to learn how to handle the threats and use the new opportunities as well as possible.

Press Release’s Importance to PR

Hello everyone!

Today, as you can tell from the title of this post, I’m gonna talk about press releases and their importance to Pubic Relations.

As you all know, a press release is a free PR tool that aims at attracting media attention to newsworthy information, to an upcoming event or to one that has occurred. The first press release dates back to 1906, when a young man named Ivy Lee used it to talk about a tragedy happened after a train accident in Atlantic City, N.J.

After almost 100 years, despite we live in the age of social media, press releases are still play a central role in spreading news and a wide range of new items, such as:

• scheduled events
• new products or services
• business accomplishments and awards
• sharing data and trends
• addressing issues

For what concerns the PR world, the press releases has been and are still being an invaluable component of PR campaigns and programmes. It can be used and adopted to a great variety of media relations situations: as I already mentioned, as tool to spread news; but also as feature, as starting point for a more extended news feature; it can be the base on which a press conference is underpinned and finally as starting point to communicate with social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Press releases’ importance to PR has also been highlighted by a study conducted by the Guardian’s Nick Davies, which shows how PR practitioners s are successful in leading the news content of quality newspapers.

 

 

 

Traditional PR vs Digital PR

Hi everyone! Today I’m going to introduce what PR communication channels are.

As I said in the last post, the use of PR communication channels are increasing and constantly changing.  While some decades ago PR practitioners mostly used magazines, newspapers, radio and television as tool to spread their messages, nowadays, this ”one-way” form of communication is not sufficient anymore. People started to highlight their desire for a more interactive form of communication, as well as for readily available information. and the rise of internet was the solution, because it gave PR practitioners new opportunities and ways to put in practice their communication strategies.

I’m talking about social media platforms, of course. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are widely used now and represent a powerful tool, because more and more people from any generation use them. Therefore, being able to engage in dialogue thanks to these tools can build a positive reputation in a company and understand the audience. So basically,  traditional PR is one-way communication and digital PR is two-way.

Despite these new opportunities, it is important to know that the subject and the target audience play a central role in picking the right communication channel, because some of them are more effective in certain scenarios than others.

In the next post I will talk about PR communication channels more in details, so stay tuned!

I’ve gotta start somewhere, don’t I?

Hi everyone. My name is Laura and I am a current student of Public Relations and Communications (also known as PR) at the University of Greenwich, in London, UK. The purpose of this blog is to share with you some insights of PR and help you understanding a little bit more the PR’s use of communication channels.

I know, most of you will start wondering ”what is PR?’‘, I’m aware that there’s a lot of confusion about it. Public Relations is a form of communication that aims at creating and maintaining mutual understanding between an organisation and its public. That’s basically it, and please don’t confuse it with advertising, because it’s not.

As you can tell from the title of this blog, PR is one of my biggest passions. Building up strong  and long-lasting relationships, getting to know many cultures  and working in a stimulating and ever-changing environment, where no two days are the same, are just some of the reasons why I decided to ”start” this journey into the PR world.
This passion, since I was in high school, is driving me to look for always more ad more information about this field. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it definitely makes a PR a pro. So never stop being curious if you wanna start a career in PR,  that’s the first tip I can give you.

Also, you have to have a strong passion for writing, because it will take most part of your time, both when studying and working. If not, then you should take into consideration that PR might not be the career that suits you the best.
The rise of social media platforms is definitely increasing the number of communication channels PR use, but also changing their use.

That’s what I’m going to talk about in the next post, so stay tuned!

 

 

 

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton