M
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edia and communication have been
identified as effective means of relating and getting information across to the
largest amount of people. As a result of this, a lot of business organisations
and various institutions adopt this means in their relationship with the world.
The concepts: media and communication are interwoven and cannot be separated
since they complement each other. What this means is that media is employed as
an instrument of communication. The relevance of this is that through
communication and the media institutions have advanced in their dealings with
the outside world in bringing their ideas and their activities to the knowledge
of others who may be interested or appear as potential customers or clients for
business organisations as the case may be. Be that as it may, it is immaterial
as to the nature of the institution and its environment. What is important is
that communication and the media remain indispensable.
Communication through the media can
be effected in a number of ways. Traditionally, it can be affected through mass
media. These include: television, radio, prints, etc. It can also be effective
where people can be assessed in their number e.g. leadership trainings, seminars,
workshops. Today, the telephone has been productively exploited as it is a
major communication and media instrument. Apart from the mobile phone, the
social media network, the likes of Facebook and Twitter have contributed in the
words of McLuhan have made the world a global village. Through communication, the
world has become a small place.
Aside the dissemination of
information by communication and media, opinions, ideas, entertainment,
interviews are also offshoots of the media drive. However, in this paper we
shall be looking at the role of the media with particular interest in Public
Relations practice. We shall further distinguish the traditional mass media
from ‘the new media’ and proffer benefits which are still inherent in the
traditional mass media.
DEFINITION/CLARIFICATION OF TERMS
MASS MEDIA:
From the compound word, it means the
means of getting information across to the greater number of the people at the
same time. According to a theorist, it consists of the hot and the cold media.
According to him, the hot media are non-participatory i.e. the audience does
not take active role in the communication process, since each media detailed
and exhaustive information. These include radio, print media and motion
pictures. Conversely, the cold media actively engages the audience in the
communication process. Examples include direct conversation, telephone and
television. However, there exist a lot of criticisms on the status of the cold
media.
The above mentioned definition
focuses on the traditional mass media as obtainable in our world. The definition
of the ‘new media’ which undoubtedly is a mass media will be as a writer puts
it:” We are to a large extent dependent on regular contact with the new media
for information, entertainment ,ideas ,opinions and many other things all of
which are connected to our attempt to make sense of who and what we are. The
growth in the technology sector is so high that it has made us addicted to it
and does not let us function without its presence in our lives. As “McLuhan
said that technologies are the extensions of the human body” hence the recent
new media technology to be discussed
here would be the Internet.” In
other words, the new media which is the internet comes with a modification as
to frequency of information and updated at every minute. They are also regular
in character as it draws the attention of its audience.
PUBLIC
RELATIONS AND PRACTICE
It is said that public relations
also media relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you
say and what others say about you. Public relations are the discipline which
looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and
influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to
establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an
organization and its publics”.(CIPR-UK:2011:np)
“Media relations involve working
with various media for the purpose of informing the public of an organization's
mission, policies and practices in a positive, consistent and credible manner.
Typically, this means coordinating directly with the people responsible for
producing the news and features in the mass media.”(Wikipedia accessed)
THE
CONNECTIONS AND CHALLENGES
Traditional Mass Media comes
basically in three forms: Television, Radio and Print. These forms suggest that
information passed across to the public is well scrutinized and edited to
ensure that information is authentic in the highest order. Moreso, traditional
mass media forms meet up copyright laws and protect intellectual property,
information gotten from any source is well acknowledged as to respect the
intellectual property of the author.
The new media i.e. the “Internet has
made the world a very small and close place to live in where one can be updated
with all the major happenings around the world in fraction of seconds. Internet
provides us with lot of information on one particular topic and also saves
time. No matter what the age or the circumstance would be it is very necessary
for people to communicate with each other”. (Lohr, 2003). Be that as it may,
the new media is still confronted with a lot of challenges; one of which is the
inability of the verification of authentic content by the public. Also, the
property rights of the originator of the ideas or information is not well
guaranteed. To this end, a lot of web piracy as become the order of the day so
that you have to separate a lot of misinformation.
It’s our submission therefore, given
the aforementioned exposition that the relevance of traditional mass media in
public relations practice remains indispensable. Promoting Information and
Communication Technologies among Nigerian Youths Young people, for a variety of
reasons, are likely to be risk takers. Young entrepreneurs have been closely
identified with ventures associated with the digital economy and the spread of
the Internet in particular. This has been particularly the case in countries
such as Japan, China, India, and Singapore. In Nigeria, young people have used
ICT as a launching pad for initiating a range of entrepreneurial activities.
The Federal Government of Nigeria
Can Promote ICT among Youths in several ways:
ICT
skills and enhancing access to education
v
Governments
are in a position to provide opportunities to use ICT to assist the most
vulnerable by connecting schools to the Internet. Some middle-income countries,
such as Malaysia, and Thailand, are making good progress in connecting their
schools to the Internet. Where there is a government program to increase
schools’ access to computers and the Internet, scope exists for young people to
be trained as computer technicians to maintain a bank of networked computers
within a school.
Bridging the gap
between the digital economy and the informal sector
v
The
fourth best practice principle concerns the use of ICT to help bridge the gap
between young people’s opportunities for self-employment in the informal
economy and the high growth sectors of the world economy. Reference has already
been made above to how informal sector workers can gain easy access to the
Internet through telecentres to obtain information on markets or administrative
procedures, and to publicize their services to a wider clientele. For example,
the Foundation of Occupational Development in India, which operates eleven
telecentres, has also established a website called India Shop to provide a
market outlet for indigenous crafts people. As a result, an isolated community
is able to fetch much higher prices from international customers than from
retailers in nearby cities across Nigeria.
Public
Sector Reforms and Employment
v
The
government should enhance a proper man management system. The development of
any country very much depends on the calibre and organisation of the human
resources. So, the government of Nigeria should set on ground a public sector
reform that is strong and dependable. The government should encourage and
support ICT employment generation through youth entrepreneurship. The
government should encourage Telecentres to be set up in places like shops,
schools, community centres, police stations and clinics. People should be ready
to engage themselves in one work or the other as over dependence on the
government work will not be the right idea. To curb unemployment problems in
Nigeria, the government must provide power (electricity) and security as this
will give an enable grounds for the foreign investors to invest in the economy.
CONCLUSION
Having discussed the traditional
mass media and the ‘new media’ in public relation practice, we have been able
to arrive at some basic reasons why the traditional mass media should not be
jettisoned on the basis of the contemporaneous nature of the new media. On the
other hand, we have seen how traditional mass media preserves effectively the
reputation, goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its
public. The paper has also been able to explore concisely the new media via the
proposal to the Federal Government of Nigeria on the best ways to harness the
ICT for Youth Empowerment.
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