New Decade Newer Media
January 4th, 2010 by Rob Brown
It’s the first working day of a new decade and there is a lot to do but I thought it was worth pausing for a few moments to reflect on just how much the media and public relations have changed in the last ten years.
When the sun pulled up on the new millenium we didn’t give much thought to creating video content to support PR campaigns, it was just too expensive in most cases. Oh, and there was no Youtube, it didn’t launch until 2005. Podcasts were still a thing of the future; the term “podcasting” wouldn’t be coined for another four years. It was first used by Ben Hammersley in The Guardian in a February 2004 article. The debate on the ethics of editing Wikipedia articles hadn’t begun because, well there was no Wikipedia until 2001. Even Google had only been around for 18 months when the ‘noughties’ began.
More recently we have seen the beginning of the end for many newspapers but new and exciting channels are emerging. The Guardian iPhone app launched last month may be the clearest indication yet as to the way forward for newspaper brands. The impending launch of the Apple tablet (iPad or iSlate, take your pick) may be the saviour of the newspaper albeit in a modern guise.
There is a lot to contend with for the PR practitioner in the coming decade; media fragmentation, the continued rise of the user as publisher and the convergence of marketing disciplines to name a few of the challenges. The ubiquity of iPhones, Google phones, tablets, slates or pads will mean that location based communication will become a powerful and empowering reality.
Oh and for those celebrating the end of the decade with the silliest moniker in history it looks like another daft description of a decade is in play as the ‘noughties’ make way for the ‘teenies’. We only have ourselves to blame.
January 27th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Advantageously, the post is actually a deserving contribution about the ipad. Although I dot harmonise with some minor points in general I?m fully on your way. I?m looking forward to your incoming updates. Just saying thanks for your Gratifying work and writing is an important thing nowadays. Lets watch what Steve Jobs will do in the next step. I will at once come back to stay abreast of any updates, and let us both see what the ipad will change.
March 5th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
I certainly agree that the PR practitioner has a lot to contend with regards to technological advancements. Even the simplest of things in every day life are updated in rapid succession 1st digital tv, then HD now it seems 3D is the way we are headed. For someone to keep up with the every day changes and then be expected to role with the new advances in a working environment certainly seems like a lot of pressure. But I guess in a society that are always competing that one must just have to deal with this and learn.