Communication Breakdown

Why are some people afraid to communicate face to face?  Why are some people more comfortable texting or emailing someone?  Why are we more and more finding out what our friends are doing because of their statuses on Facebook and Twitter?

 Communication breakdown is not just about the lack of communication, but also about the lack in face to face or vocal communication between people.  No I am not trying just to get the Led Zeppelin song in your head, I also am trying to prove a point that the majority of society has a problem communicating in person, and it is only getting worse with the increase in technology.  As PR professionals it is our jobs to make sure the lines of communication are not cut and if they are then we must find out where it was cut and fix it.  

I came to this realization last weekend when my apartment turned from civil to complete shambles in a matter of minutes because of the lack of communication between my roommates.  Basically roommate 1 was mad at roommate 2 for 'excluding her' or not communicating how and when she was going to this party.  And roommate 2 was mad at roommate 1 because she said texted her.  This lack of communication has been going on for months now between these two and the tension has been building along with driving a wedge between their friendship.  I was stuck in the middle with roommate 3.  We heard both sides of their arguments for months now, but neither one wanted to confront and communicate to the other face to face.  Finally roommate 3 had had enough and bringing them in the same room sat them down and told them they could not leave until this was fixed.  

Now this sounds a bit elementary, but it had come down to just that because of the lack of face to face communication.  If roommate 1 and 2 had talked to each other from the beginning the problem would not have snow balled into something bigger.  Because both parties had only survived on texting each for so long, instead of talking face to face, they grew comfortable there and became almost afraid to talk to the other one in person.  Why have some people worked themselves to a 'comfort zone' of communication via texting or messaging?

Think about how many times you call and talk to someone vs. texting, messaging , or emailing them.  The majority of people I think would prefer to text someone all day long, rather then call them and talk to them for an hour or two.  I am just as guilty as the next person, but where exactly should we draw the line and break through the breakdown?  How many of my fellow classmates would rather email their assigned food vendors then go and talk to them in person?  This summer I shadowed a PR rep from a local hospital and she told me how she is an 'email kind of girl.'  Meaning that she would rather email someone then talk on the phone them and if she did have to talk on the phone she would dread it.  I was shocked to discover that communicates for a living hated talking to someone on the phone.  I think this problem of face to face or even vocal communication is becoming a problem with the younger generation.  

No it is not completely a bad thing to have new technology that keeps the lag time between communication almost non existence.  Next time you go to text or message some think about the last time you heard their voice, in person or on the phone.  Communication breakdown has a very simple solution, its communication, good communication, and sometimes that requires using your voice not your fingers.   

The Future of PR: Changes in Media Relations

The increase and improvement of technology over the last two decades has created an 'instant messaging' society. A society where patience is now considered a rare and valuable virtue.  The waiting time for information is decreasing as technology improves. While this is a wonderful thing, it creates a problem or more like a challenge for those involved with media. For public relations it means thinking creativity, keeping up with the latest media trends and identifying the merging lines of social networking and news media sources.  

In the recent article The Future of the Media Relations: Expect the Unexpected, Pr News interviewed three professionals about their thoughts on where public relations is headed toward in the not so distant future.  

Steve Cody, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, predicts that companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and IBM will be in direct competition with major media networks like USA today, CBS, and Fox.  In the future people will turn to these major companies as their source of news instead of the networks. 

Ronn Torossian, Founder and CEO, talks about how public relations agencies will have the power to shape the future of communications in social media.  This would amazing if we had the ability to hold the strings of the social media in the future. 

Steve Rubel, Senior Vice President/Director of Insight , explains how the line between media communications and social communications is slowly disappearing and morphing into one.  Rublel suggests that PR professionals should rethink how they measure the media. I think it will be interesting to see in the future how will measure decide what is considered valuable media to the public.

It is hard to think of where the future of media will go. It is an important issue, especially for pr students to stay on top of, considering this will be the meat of our jobs.  I believe that this is a very critical and essential issue that will always be around, but that we as ‘the communicators of the world’ should always be on the front line if not one step ahead of the change.  One of the most important part of our jobs is media relations. How can we relate with the media if we stay in the dark about the changes in media?  We can not predict the future, but we can prepare for it.

 

My Melting Pot of Public Relation Attributes

When I was in high school I competed in 'Emerging Business Issues'  at the F.B.L.A (Future Business Leaders of America) State Convention.  My topic was to argue the affirmative side on the growing problem of the depleting social security funds and how my generation would probably not see a penny by the time we would draw from it.  The problem was I was given a panel of judges who in 5-10 years would start drawing from the pot.  How could I pitch my argument to the judges who saw the problem in a completely different spectrum then I did?  Somehow I managed to convince them of my ideas and walked away with the 4th place trophy, but it was afterwards in the brutal interview session when I realized the power that was in my communications skills.  The judges asked me what I would be my major in college and I told them I had no idea.  One of the judges looked up and said, "might I suggest sales?"  I asked, "Why sales?"and he answered, "because you just completely sold me on your ideas and you argument, you have amazing communication and speaking skills, use them wisely and you will go far." 

Communications skills are essential in the mass comm world.  Good communication skills will get you far and great communications skills are like having a gold mine.  I always knew I had great communication skills because I was the one in class that was excited to give a speech in while my classmates cringed.  

As I learn more about public relations I realize that having great communications skills will only get you so far.  There are other attributes that are just as important if not more important to being a well-rounded PR rep.  I like to think of the skills talked about in Dave Fleet's article as a melting pot of traditional and new skills that only gets better with time and the addition of new skills that you master and add to your pot. 

I do not believe that I have mastered any particular skill completely or ever will because there is always room for improvement. However there are skills that I am stronger at then others.  My strong skills that I bring to the table and place as the foundation in my melting pot are: communications,  writing, proactiveness, work ethic,and  social networking.  I am not afraid to communicate with people whether it be with 2 million or 2.  I consider myself a good and creative writer; I try and put an interesting spin in my writing so that it is eye catching and people will enjoy and want to read it.  I am very proactive about getting projects and deadlines met in a timely fashion.  I live, eat, breathe, and sleep by my planner as does every other public relations student.  When I am working on something, especially for a client, I like to make sure that it is done to the best of my abilities and that I have something to turn in that I can stand behind and be proud of.  Sometimes that might mean that I have to stay late, and sacrifice my time, but I would rather do that then present something that was half-heartedly done.  Social networking is something that I feel every college student has down, but at the same time being a public relations student I feel like I have a slight edge in that skill over the majority.

There are skills that I would consider mediocre and would like to expand my knowledge on before I spread my wings into the real world.  These skills I could add to my melting pot, but are not quite seasoned yet: media relations, attention to detail, blogging, microblogging,  blogging relations, and social media ethics.  Last spring was the first time I was introduced to media relations and I feel like I know more now, but I still feel a bit like an amateur when dealing with the media.  Attention to detail is one of those hot and cold skills for me.  Sometimes I am at the top of my game and can pick out all the details that others passed over and other times I am in shock at how I let a detail slip through like that.  As far as blogs, microblogging, and blogging relations goes I am definitely still in the baby-step-stage.  However I feel like this skill is something that is 'user-friendly' and can be acquired through trial and error.   Social media ethics is a personal skills that I have not really tested and would like more guidance on because I feel that there are no set rules, but more guidelines when it comes to ethics.  

Coding, RSS, and SEO are attributes that I would definitely not stick into my pot, but I would like to learn more about so I could one day use them in my future career.  

There are only two more skills or attributes that I would add to my melting pot: creativity and flexibility.   I am a very creative person it is one attribute that I am very strong in and believe that it might not be essential to PR, but it definitely gives me an edge.  Flexibility is one those attributes that is so important to PR because nine times out of ten something does not go according to plan and you have to have the ability to think on your feet and work with what you are given to move over the obstacle.  

All these skills whether I am strong or need to expand on make up my melting pot of PR attributes.  I feel like my pot has a good solid base of skills , but there is definitely room in there for additions and improvements.