If there is one thing Gen Y is comfortable with, it is an increasing sense of transparency. We live out more and more of our lives in a see through world, reminiscent of a crazy snow globe, which is often shaken up by the hand of controversy. It started with the advent of the Internet but with increasingly advanced technology, has grown into an entity all its own.
It started with Tylenol in the 1980's. In the 1990’s we had the Clinton scandals, who can forget the infamous black dress, the taped phone calls? Then there was Enron, Martha Stewart, Dan Rather is resigning and Valerie Plame has to find a new line of work because Scooter has a big mouth. All of these cases represent how the new media is changing the way we live, work and practice public relations. They sparked discussions about just what real journalism is and who has the right to disseminate the “news.”
Now we have what’s called social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace so that we can remain “on” all the time, 24/7. The world is constantly surfing, checking out your profile, posting comments, making judgments. Do you know who’s looking at you?
All this transparency has changed the world of public relations. No longer can you hide behind your press release and declare “no comment” whenever you feel uncomfortable. With the media being given almost unlimited access right into the souls of industry, it is more important than ever to learn how to use this transparency as a tool, no matter if you work for an agency with multiple clients, or a small non-profit.
In this new age of PR, you must be more aware than ever before. The world is always watching, whether it is the co-worker with a new camera phone or the reporter who happens to run into you at your kid’s book fair. (This really happens).
Gen Y’ers know no other world however, and increasingly are leading the way in business. They text, carry iphones, email more than a dozen times a day and read more online news before lunch than some of our parents did in a lifetime. They blog and are not afraid to make their comments and feelings known to the world. If they disapprove, they say so, and if they think they can do something better, they start their own company.
We live in a glass world. As a PR practitioner I am my company. I represent them whether I am at work or not. As a government PR person, I am more aware of this than ever. Maybe it's not 1984, but Big Brother is real, and he is always watching. Everything I write, say or do must be up to standard.
I probably sound paranoid, but in reality, this new transparency is a good thing. It gives us power for change. Gen Y can make a difference precisely because we live out our lives in such a public fashion. We are more informed, we vote, we care.
How do you see public relations changing? What new roads are you paving that may have seemed crazy even 10 years ago? I want to know. Keep the conversation going.
Posts
7 comments:
The transparency bothers me sometimes. If you think about it in a paranoid way there are negatives to having everything there is to know about you available for anyone to see. Gotta keep an eye out for Big Brother.
There are positives as well. Relationships and friendships can be formed which have positive effects long and short term. So I stopped being paranoid because it wasn't helping anything. :)
Do you ever find a disparity in the fact that we live life in the "real world", yet seem to experience it, vocalize it, emotionalize it, and socialize it primarily in the online world? Do we lose touch that way... or are we making the real world more real?
Just FYI, the dress was blue...(Clinton).
@ mhenreckson - Transparency can really get to you, I am certainly less revealing than I used to be before I had my children, and you better believe I know what they are doing online. (I hold the passwords). On the other hand I love that there are so many more opportunities for networking and learning, such as with great blogs, professional groups like PRSA and services like LinkedIn. Being hooked in can be a real advantage in several aspects of career/home/life. I too am trying not to be quite as paranoid.
Matt, with so much of my life revolving around the virtual world, whether it be my blog,email, press releases or just plain research, I do find that there are times when I have to make a real effort to keep at least one foot in the "real world" as you say. I know that certainly spend more time texting and emailing than having real conversations, and that is sort of scary. I wonder what kind of example I am setting. At the same time, I really love to learn new things, but I often want to know what I'm getting into, particularly with activities that I participate in through work such as observing a prescribed burn. In that case, often my research makes my time away from the PC that much more enjoyable. Great question!
anonymous, thanks for putting me straight. I've been searching for the perfect "little black dress", must have black on the brain :)
Yeah, I'm not sure if the virtual world is any "less" real than the physical world... I guess there's an efficiency in the virtual world that makes learning, interacting, and socializing easier and faster. At the same time, there is a true value to genuine face-to-face relationships that cannot be duplicated online, and I want to be sure that I never ostracize those relationships in my life, as I also tend to spend an overwhelming amount of time online. Good thoughts - thanks for the post!
Post a Comment