Working in New Media

The workforce is changing and changing rapidly it's no lie my beloved readers. I am studying mass communication and my other major is P.R. so I will try to angle this from my point of view.

Last semester in the U.S.A I was being taught about so called Public Relations 2.0. Quite interesting in fact. The main point there is that communication has now changed dramatically. PR can no longer revolve around a defined message strategy that comes from one (organization) to many (publics and stakeholders). It is now forced to adapt the 2.0 model and go from many to many. A main objective here in my point of view is to target opinion leaders alongside publics. It has become almost impossible to 'spin' issues under the rug when those beneath the rug can cause such massive reactions at the click of a 'post' button.

Have you heard of a blogstorm? This is what will occur if caution is not used while handling delicate issues. A blogstorm is a massive attack from many angles about the issue in concern from almost anyone who has an opinion, and in the ever expanding networks of today this is a substantial part of the job.

There are also massive implications for journalists and all media savvy professions. As Gill (2007) put it 'all kinds of freelance, casualized, informal, and otherwise contingent labor arrangements' are popping up. I guess this means more opportunities for those with less privelige and more skill? Or perhaps a general degredation of everything? Or most probably vica-versa. Is it the death of newspapers as we know it? I know I for one get my news offline. I wonder what th world will be like when I am an old man, going by Moore's law it should be extremely interesting.

Gill, R. (2007). Informality is the New Black. In Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat? New Media work in Amsterdam a decade after the web. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures: 24-30 & 38-43.