There are many differences in the way PR practitioners use to communicate and how they communicate now. The main difference I want to discuss is the technological shifts. Technology has changed drastically making our lives so much more convenient. Practitioners are now able to save so much time and received quick feedback through social media. The different social media platforms also gives practitioners the ability to customize the messages they want to get across to different audiences. For example, Facebook is a good source to reach the older population, whereas Twitter is the quickest and most efficient way to reach the younger generation. The time constraints have diminished over the years due to the high speed of the internet. Practitioners can now reach their audience remarkably faster than in previous times. My favorite aspect of changing technology is interactivity. I love that practitioners can create a personal connection with the public due to channels that have been created for responses, inputs, and new ideas. Overall, technology has been an impactful tool for communication and I cannot wait to see where it continues to take Public Relations.

I think it is crucial for PR practitioners to have a relationship with the media. The media relies on PR practitioners for many reasons. The most important aspect of this relationship is the client. When working for a client, the goal is to make a connection to the media regarding the message your client wants to send. Companies hire PR practitioners to grow their companies and create an outreach to the public and the media in order to raise awareness and draw attention to the things they are developing and changing within their companies. As a PR practitioner, having a positive connection with the media is critical so that you can do what you were hired to do by the client.

Hearing this statement, at first listen, was intimidating but after thinking further into it, it actually makes a lot of since. Communication is the basis of all of our interactions. Whether it is verbal or nonverbal, the way we communicate in interactions paints an image. Think about a time that you have had to have a hard conversation and your points get lost in the conversation because of a dominate person who leads the conversation. In that situation, the other person held the power over the conversation due to there communication skills. Being able to efficiently communicate gives us power in conversation. When you communicate confidently, you have more power. When you initiate hard conversations, you have more power. So much of our power comes from whether or not we can efficiently communicate. If you are in the workplace and have a question for your boss and you walk in obviously intimidated, quiet, and nervous, your boss is less likely to take you seriously or believe that there is motivation behind your question. If you walk in with confidence and clearly state your question, your boss is more likely to take you seriously. Not only does this apply to everyone but it is especially important when it comes to gender. It is a proven fact that there is a dominance that men carry over women. Whether you agree or disagree with that, it is a fact. Im my opinion, it is crucial, for women especially, that they carry a confidence in their communication to generate power. In order to be taken seriously and express our thoughts, women have to hold themselves confidently through nonverbal communication as well. Things like posture, eye contact, hand motions, and tone playa big role in the power women hold in communication. Overall, the statement “Communication is Power” is something that I think everyone should remember when having any sort of interaction, especially professionally or seriously.

News is important. If we didn’t have news, how would we know what is going on in our world around us? Especially with internet nowadays, there is so much “news” circulating. How are we supposed to know what makes something newsworthy? 

            Whenever I am trying to determine if something is newsworthy, I think about news values. There are eight big news values: Timeliness, Prominence, Proximity, Significance, Unusualness, Human Interest, Conflict, Newness. When looking at something that is potentially newsworthy, we should think about how or if it fits into any of these categories. If it doesn’t, it probably isn’t newsworthy. 

            There are obviously different types of news and news that is more important than others. There is a lot of controversy about whether pop culture is news. Compared to a mass shooting, one of the Kardashians’ divorce isn’t considered important. With that said, pop culture is still news. Pop culture appeals to the human interest news value and sometimes the unusualness and newness value as well. Although pop culture news can seem insignificant, people keep up with public figures, music, and fashion. We pay attention when our celebrity icon is in the tabloids for some crazy reason. 

            Determining if something is newsworthy isn’t as difficult as it seems when you have news values to refer to. Yes, some news is drastically more important and time-pressing than other news but, overall, news is news regardless of the headline. 

My name is Anna Jones and I have started a Public Relations blog to discuss various topics regarding Public Relations. I have started this blog, at the request of my professor, to further my knowledge of PR.