7 news trends and their effect on PR
With a 24/7 news cycle and social media’s emergence as a primary source of information (regardless of its validity), the public relations world just gets wilder and wackier.
If your job is to communicate with journalists, your duties are becoming more complicated because of these disturbing news media trends:
Trend No. 1: Media speculation
CNN has taken the sin of speculation to an all-time high with its 24/7 guessing game regarding the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370.
In the future, you will spend more time than ever before responding to rumors. Combat this with more frequent crisis communications directly to your audiences.
Trend No. 2: Breaking news is broken, and there is nothing breaking
The phrase “breaking news” previously described events that were “breaking” at that very moment, such as a fire or explosion. Sadly, today news stations slap the moniker on whatever the first story of the newscast is, even if the event happened hours before.
This makes your job harder, because your little crisis might get portrayed as a much bigger crisis. You can’t afford to linger in your response and allow the media to blow things out of proportion.
Trend No. 3: Exclusive
Excessive use of the term “exclusive.” In its purest form, an exclusive is an interview all media outlets wanted but only one could get, revealing groundbreaking information.
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