Think Digital!!

Do we really need to rely so much on Journalists to get all the latest gossip, news and latest trends??......

My answer to that is, take a look at the Oscar Pistorious trial for an example which took place last year. Before I even had to watch my 7 pm news to get the headlines of the court case, it was trending over my timeline so “No” I did not have to wait till  evening to hear what the journalist had to report, because I had heard it ALL already.

Don’t get me wrong, as much as Digital media does allows the public to get all the information one may need, Journalists are also essential to us because their job requires them to provide an honest service to the public, therefore the news they deliver is defiantly more reliable than the news one may get on social media.

However my argument here is that, PR Practitioners do not necessarily have to rely so much on Journalists to get all the information they may need. Reason I say this is because Social Media allows Practitioners to maintain ongoing, quality relationships with the media, influencers despite where one is based. When Practitioners use digital media more time is saved, than having to go through the whole process of setting up an appointment with a Journalist whom also might not be available to have the meeting as soon as you may need to.

Reasons to use Digital Media:

·         Flexibility- It does not only have text sources but also includes sound, Images and Videos. 

·         Interactivity- The fact that you engage online, it allows you to interact with a large audience.

·         Accessibility- As long as your network is great and you have paid a fee for example at the café, then one is able to access most information.

For PR Practitioners to only rely on Journalists for all the facts and information they may need is risky, it could cause the research process to slowdown. Therefore Digital Media might be more beneficial … like we all know the saying that goes “Time Is Money” 

All I’m saying is don’t be old-fashioned let’s move right along with technology else you will be left behind.

Ice goes viral

Reason behind “Ice bucket challenge”?? I honestly found it ridiculous when i watched videos of people including your celebrities being dumped with buckets of ice-cold water, till i asked myself what was the entire reason behind it all??? Then i heard of AmyotrophicLateral Sclerosis (ALS) . The purpose was to raise awareness and funds for the disease. 

This all started off because of an athlete who was diagnosed with disease which currently has no cure. People raised awareness by using the #hashtag on social media which was #ALSIceBucketChallenge. Yes! South Africa you have not been left behind on trends that take place over-seas. 

 However, the disease is not known as ALS in South Africa therefore, a lot of controversial took place with the name because it is known as “Motor Neurone Disease” in South Africa and Australia.  It would have been be fair to include the abbreviation that countries such as South Africa and Australia are more familiar with. Famous Springbok player n Joost van der Westhuize was diagnosed with the disease in 2011.

Social Media is essential today, because we now live in a “digital world”. It scared me reading that "Anaverage person spends up to 3hours of their day on social media". Thus, for one to raise awareness on a topic it is more reliable to raise it on social media. The Ice Bucket Challenge was trending all over; it was highly impossible for anyone to miss the videos which were trending all around social media.
  
The point of the challenge is to take a video of yourself, being dumped with ice cold water on your head. Then you post the video on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, Lastly you challenge other friends to do the same within 24hours. If u did not want to take place in that challenge you may donate any amount to the MND Charity. Most people actually did both, they raised awareness by the ice-bucket challengeT as well donating money for the charity.

Nonetheless, social media is vital for one who needs to spread the word about something and it is also beneficial for firms to promote their businesses. Without all of the social media platforms it probably would have been very challenging to bring the crowd to hear an issue like the ice-bucket challenge since the videos needed to be posted on social media. This allowed people to be more informed and increased the funds donated for the charity THANKS TO SOCIAL MEDIA