The first (Kristen) has to do with the growing relevance that a minimal understanding of basic scentific concepts have on an effective practice of our profession.
As much as this has always been true, it is also a fact that some scientific knowledge has become much more pervasive and necessary as both science and public relations have become much more relevant in the public discourse and the way organizations decide.
As you, Kristen, are an expert in this area, I would think it might be useful if you could elaborate somewhat and give some suggestions as how the profession might want to go about implementing this….

Joao, instead, touches on another priority issue for us.
As much as it is a fact that media relations have declined in our day to day activities for all the reasons we have often discussed in this blog, it is also a fact that we would not be capable of performing our role in any significant way if we we did not update and refine our practice in this area.
I am aware that this is by far still the most discussed and studied area of our practice, but I fail to find intelligent concepts and rationalizations on how our role could benefit from an improved and creative approach to advocating the need for the younger generations to develop a critical approach to the issue of ‘media literacy’.
Therefore I hope that you will want to also elaborate on this issue.

Maybe both subjects could be each a separate post, so that we may all participate to this discussion more comfortably?
thank you

I think we need to look much more closely at concepts like convergence and globalization. I certainly do not want to dispute the existence of these trends but rather to acknowledge that they exist alongside their contradiction: just as all politics is local, so it could be argued that all PR is local. How many of us have interacted with social networks in Japan, China or Russia? Alphabets and languages are a first barrier, as are other aspects of culture, but our “local” concerns also “divide” us…not necessarily because we disagree but because we have discrete preoccupations. (However, I think our definition of “local” may need to be revised somewhat in the age of virtual networks and friendships.)

With regard to Africa, we are divided by bandwidth: while some countries are increasingly communicating through video and audio files, Africa’s bandwidth currently makes text messaging on “unsophisticated” handsets the mobile technology of choice. It will be interesting to see what impact the new undersea cables will have for Africa, although I suspect their impact will mostly be felt along the coasts and not inland.

The multiplication of communications via audio and video creates another divide, this time due to accessbility, by which technicians mean the ability of people with disabilities to access content. Text content can be rendered by machines for the blind, the deaf can read it…audio and video currently pose greater problems (although YouTube has just introduced a new feature to simplify the creation of captions).

Ironically, we can learn how to embrace the contradiction of convergence/globalization on one hand and localization/individualization/division on the other from the very Eastern countries that Paul claims can also teach us a lot about social media. Eastern mysticism has long taught that the unity of the whole contains polar opposites — yin and yang being the most well known and understood in the West. On this point, I would strongly recommend reading “The Tao of Physics” which gives a good overview of the main elements of Eastern mysticism and puts them in the context of our growing understanding of quantum physics (all in terms that the layman can grasp).

Because I think science is another important trend. As we come to terms with the interrelatedness of our world, we will also need to become more scientifically literate in order to grapple with the complexities of the issues we face. I am convinced that dogmatic arguments about how to resolve sustainability dilemmas will get us nowhere, nor will narrow discussions that only look at a single sub-issue. I see a critical role for PR in coming years to be facilitating informed discussions that are focused on joint problem-solving to achieve jointly defined outcomes, not defending entrenched positions, regardless of how noble they may seem. In order to play this facilitation role, PR practitioners need to understand and be transparent about their own beliefs and interests and be literate in the hard facts and “softer” cultural and ethical aspects.

http://www.trancepod.com/p/6894

The reality of convergence – mobile content.

Click here to download the complete Mobile Content book:

http://www.firsttuesdayzurich.com/the_body.cfmP

Here’s a summary of what contributors to this post have discussed for further ellaboration and integration:

1. Mobile, technological convergence, social media are inducing changes in the lifestyles and continuing to change fundamental concepts such as space, time, boundaries (also freedom?)

2. Communication is becoming simpler, shorter and more immediate (does this mean more sincere rather than strategic communication model?) and from “user generated” we can move to “user evaluated”;

3. Informal communication is becoming more important (is the dynamic of Public Opinion changing? How is the notion of credibility evolving?)

4. Organizations are changing closer to network organization models (does this require different concepts and practice from PR practitioners?)

5. Inside organizations, PR will need to get closer to financial directors and face the growing need to “moneterise” (can we do more to leverage on PR’s important support to efficiency projects and change management related with organizational transformation?)

6. PR will be, more than ever, connected with democracy. There seems to be a rise in tendencies for internet censorship (see interesting article http://tinyurl.com/ya5rwsb) and the distinction between propaganda and PR should be a priority.

7. PR professionals will need to pay much more attention to societal changes (and the factors driving them), looking to east and west

Moreover, Japan’s long flirt with recession/stagnation and how that has impacted its industrial relations and firms is, I think, a foretaste of how things are going to be in Europe soon. So get ready to see the consensus approach to decision-making and change management bite lots of dust (no country was more consensus-driven than Japan: not any more).

We’ve got to get used to the fact that R&D and innovation is taking place in the East while it languishes in the West. Confidence and economic growth is alive in the East right now while we are stuck in recession and looking to cut back on such things.

All of these developments will alter PR practice fundamentally at a practical level, because it alters the driving forces behind the world economy (how we work rest and play). However, when I read stuff about PR developments – and I read widely – I rarely see these real social societal changes discussed in depth by PRs. That’s a shame.

I agree that it travelled East to West and that social media is a revolution in our we relate to institutions, states and organisations- all of wich are painfully slow to adopt these techniques and when doing so in very controlled ‘push’ mode which defeats the purpose and creates more mistrust.

However I don’t agree that the trends only travel East to West which is what i think my friend Joao is trying to say. There were some that travelled the other way in the past- one could argue that modern public relations which is now 110 years old according to Bernays ! travelled west to East and is still being implemented by Middle East and Asian countries.
I subscribe to the notion that public relations and democracies are indisacociable. Where public relations tactics and approaches are practices in non-democratic societies, it becomes propaganda. There is no intent to dialogue and debate issues which i beleive is at the root of effective public relations.
As far as trends, I agree with Heather, Toni and Paul.

For me the tactics and functions of public relations are fluid and evolve with time. The fundamentals however don’t change: building and nurturing relationships for the purpose of effective two-way communication, advice and counsel that is in keeping with good relationships also includes an ethical dimension which should really be as simple as answering the question: ‘Is this good for our community,or country-in other words,the bigger picture- and in the best interests of a vast majority of those with whom we have a relationship?’

However there is much to learn from the East about how SM and mobile impacts rest work and play, and how it impacts the relations between adults, children and young people. There’s much to say about innovation, new business models and experimentation (not mention their love of R&D). The striking thing is that in the West SM and its usage, not to mention the technology that supports it, is so comparatively backward and underdeveloped.

So, yes, I think we can see an image of our own future by looking at how what comes next here in Europe has already impacted those who have it and have had it for some time already.

Surely that’s just commonsense approach, even if there will be differences between cultures – as there is the East on a grand scale.

But a paper as already been presented at this year’s BledCom Conferece by me and David Phillips, and is available here: http://www.bledcom.com/home/knowledge

However, the dissertation does take a few ideas further, presenting a stronger method and a case study using the British Olympic Association.

I feel that the value of that work is not the methodology alone, but that it shows that it is possible to work on corporate communication with a different assessment of values. And I think it needs work, there are several ideas that I could not explore at the time.