Future PR Battlefields
Keyboards and screens of all (read PC, laptop, games’ console, LCD displays, TV, mobile, handheld, PDA) sorts are going to be the battlefields of future PR. Within five years from now the PRWars will be very different. Well, if you are some PR Pro and think that it's not going to happen, then pack your baggage otherwise learn something from PC Games, Robotic Surgeries, Videoconferencing, Remote sensing, Computerized shops and malls, mushrooming broadband connections.Emergence of Superspecialized PR
The future PR will be a sort of customized media relations clubbed with the traditional mainstream print/electronic/photo/web media management solutions. Initially our expert would need to integrate all these faculties with a lot of difficulties but sooner or later, may be within one year, will have the customized action plans for diverse PR needs. The greatest future development will be the emergence of Advocacy PR, Marital PR, Solid Waste Management PR, Aviation PR, Counter Terrorism PR, Reputation &Credibility Management PR, And Customized Lobbying etc.
'Six Facets of the Future PR'
Ross Dawson in his world famous weblog SIX FACETS OF THE FUTURE OF PR.." There is a massive opportunity for those professionals who can help organisations get the right messages out.' He explains how the traditional domain of PR is swiftly changing. Just over 10 years ago, very few people had a personal email account, mobile phone or internet access. The graphical web browser with whichwe spend so much of our lives interacting didn’t even exist until late1993. Today, the nature of how information and messages flow, and peoplebuild perceptions of the world in which they live, is entirely differentto how it was just a decade ago. And this is merely the beginning. He explains further 'Traditional media will soon relinquish its role as the primary source ofour input about the world. Mass media is becoming relatively marginalised as our world becomes one of multiple and highly varied inputs...'
Governmental PR under fire
I would like to mention that U.S. President elect Barak Obama’s PR company Blue State Digital not only managed his massive PR mission but collected around $ 200 million for his campaigning. The total expenditure involved was $ 1.1 million, not even significant fraction of what BSD collected for Obama.
The government PR offices, despite slurping huge money every year hardly give the tax payer any return in any manner. The first casualty seems to be my fraternity, the government PR. Already suffering a severe credibility crisis, favoritism, unprofessional working style and isolation from mainstream Public Relations, I see several countries in a process of absolute revamping, restructuring and privatizing their age old systems to give better results within the schedules and budgets.
Within some years from now most of the governments shall abandon their present PR setups. In future, most of the governments will go on hiring expert PR firms and keep firing them as and when needed.
Cluster Bomb Public Relations
Rajesh Jain, CMD, ExpressionsPR says, ‘The PR is changing from a print-media oriented activity to a multilevel human resource management. Until now it used to be writing releases, speeches, handbills, designing signage, doing media relations and organizing events. In future the Public Relations will be a multidiscipline mammoth activity. It will be more like a cluster bomb, a big shell containing several lethal and very effective small bombs. The Future Public Relations is going far more effective from what it is used to be recently. The future PR, I believe will contain several weapons, just like a cluster bomb has several bombs in it.
24x7 PR is Coming
Another expert John Paluszek, Senior Counsel, Ketchum, and APR, Fellow PRSA supports the above comment in his article that there are many different areas PR will diversify in future. This future advancement of PR is thrilling. Brenda Hodgson also touches this aspect in her blog on the topic, PR in the next 25 years. Like Rajesh Jain’s claim that PR will have a lot of different shapes and be more like a cluster bomb; that means the future PR will be able to target various goals at the same time. The future PR will definitely be very different from today’s traditional journalist and media oriented PR. It will be able to achieve different aims within very little operation time.