Thought Leadership Archives

New Media and its impact on PR practice

by Mangal Karnad | Sep 29, 2018 | Public relations, Thought Leadership

Welcome to the Age of New Media. Gone are the days when we had select few print publications, a handful of TV Channels and a fixed style of news reporting. The advent of the Digital Age has bought in an exhaustive list of new media thereby expanding the scope of coverage and opportunities.

Traditionally, media companies presented factual, unbiased reporting to their readers or viewers in order to provide them information. Today anyone with a smartphone or a tablet can create and share news or information to reach masses through various social media platforms.

However, this doesn’t mean that journalism is dead. With a shift in demographics like higher disposable incomes and the need to be well-informed, the new age media has the onerous task of living up to it. The new age millennial has a shorter attention span, and they are always on the hunt for compelling and gripping stories and content. Hence, new age journalism is all about reaching a larger audience in a shorter period time with exciting content.

Role of a Journalist or a PR professional in the age of new media:

Journalism today is no more about just writing and speaking. New age journalists rely both on verbal and visual communication skills and keep themselves updated with various forms of social media to tell their stories. Often, they are needed to take photographs or shoot videos, design the layout for the website or promote their message through social media. The traditional media houses are catching up fast and are exploiting the new media to expand their reach. PR professionals need to be creative and sharpen their pitching skills.

The media today needs a PR person more than before. Journalists are constantly on the lookout for new stories and information, and they pick up interesting stories from the social media feeds! PR firms need to be on the alert for such opportunities for their clients. The ordinary pitch isn’t going to work much longer. A creative pitch which is short, crisp, and accompanied by videos and infographics might be preferred.

Influence of Social media:

With the changing times, media has evolved too. As everyone is glued on to his or her smartphones today, the source of breaking news is no more the Newspaper or TV, but the various social media handles that one owns. Journalists share their personal opinion or a story more openly on social media than via traditional medium. Therefore, there is less fact-checking involved here as there is a constant need to upload new information before it gets published (by someone else) and becomes stale. No wonder for publications the order of the day is “Publish first and then correct if necessary.” Twitter is considered as a “news network” as it is the social media platform where generally news breaks first.

Social media has influenced public relation practitioners too, and the industry has seen some dramatic changes as well as new opportunities for communicating with clients and businesses. As journalists are more active on social media and pick stories from these mediums, therefore PR people should be active on these mediums too and portray and post newsworthy content on behalf of their clients in such a way that it is of interest to the media.

It is important to grasp these new channels of communication so that we can effectively use them as a means to communicate with the public and to see how it affects the PR practice. The journalism and PR programs in colleges need to implement these changes in the course curriculum to equip future practitioners with the knowledge and skills required to handle these media.

Gandhi – The Master PR Practitioner (Salt march PR/Dandi PR)

by Mangal Karnad | Nov 17, 2017 | Personal Branding, Branding, Public relations, Thought Leadership

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who is hailed as the father of our nation, in my opinion, is one of the most effective PR practitioners. He was a master strategist and understood his target audience very well and crafted his communication accordingly. Although he held no office, he was able to captivate the minds of India’s millions and took control of Congress and its elite, sophisticated and cynical leadership. It was his passion, careful consideration and discipline which got him the recognition which has well sustained beyond the man himself. Below are the reasons why I think he was the ultimate PR practitioner and a Brand:

The Salt March

The Salt march also popularly known as the Dandi March, was one of his most powerful campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience which had a massive support. The Salt Acts imposed on Indians prohibited them from collecting or selling salt. Indians were forced to buy salt which was a natural resource and a staple in the Indian diet which was needed to replace the salt lost by sweating. The British, who, in addition to exercising a monopoly over the manufacture and sale of salt, also imposed a salt tax. It contributed to almost 8.2% of the British Raj tax revenue. Gandhi, the brilliant strategist, thought that an item of daily use could resonate well with all classes of citizens of India and he chose mass civil disobedience to tackle the issue. In March 1930 Gandhi and 78 of his close associates marched from Sabarmati ashram, some 240 miles to the Arabian sea to take a pinch of salt. He informed the government well in advance about his intention to break the law to make salt. The British government threw people in jail for violating the law and censored the press. Despite that, the Media covered the event in great detail and people across the nation followed suit even though Gandhi was already in prison. Jails in India were filled with 60,000 Satyagrahis whom the British imprisoned.

Effective use of media

Gandhi was probably one of the greatest journalists of all time, and the publications he ran and edited were probably the greatest ones the world has known. In 1904 in South Africa, he had taken over the editorship of the ‘Indian Opinion’ and published it in English, Tamil, and Gujarati, sometimes running the press himself. He is known to have written on all subjects; he wrote simply, clearly and forcefully. His writing was passionate and burning indignation. He believed that the objective of a newspaper, is to understand the popular feeling and give expression to it; to arouse among the people certain desirable sentiments, and the third is to be fearless and to expose popular defects. He took up journalism more as a service to the public and he was devoid of any personal ambitions. He used his writing as a vehicle to present his various experiments to the public.

Signature style

He believed in powerful symbols and designed a headgear as a symbol of Indian unity which later came to be known as the Gandhi Topi. His own dress was one of the foremost and most visible symbols he adopted–the loincloth and shawl of homespun fabric –which he deliberately chose, after careful consideration, to show solidarity with India’s grinding poverty. We all know that clothing is an important way to communicate one’s personality and not merely playing a role or dressing solely to impress. This became his trademark attire which eventually got him a name of ‘half-naked fakir’ from Sir Winston Churchill. By the time that India’s independence was won, the homespun cloth or Khadi was inextricably woven into the fabric of India’s life. Even today Khadi is the unofficial uniform of India’s political leaders.

Powerful Orator

Gandhi is seen as one of the world’s great inspiring public speakers. He could inspire all classes of people whether they were freedom fighters, thinkers or even the farmers. He was very articulate and considerate in expressing his thoughts. His talk was authentic and could move the whole nation into action.