BLOGS AND CRISIS!

Blogging as a communication tool might actually create a conducive environment between the university community, the PR departments together with the university management.
I would like to think that by using blogs as another form of communication with our audiences, we will shift from a system of one-way communication to an interactive and transparent one, putting into practice Grunig and Hunt’s two-way symmetrical model of communication.
Maybe this might change the way stakeholders view practitioners because at present university PR practitioners are labeled as ‘spinsters’, puppets of the management who represent only one voice.

ARE PR PRACTITIONERS LAGGING BEHIND?

I remember UKZN’s February 2006 strike. Staff, supported by a minority of students went on strike because of wage dispute. The management offered only 4% annual increase and staff demanded more. It was actually the biggest ever to be experienced by UKZN, lasting up to two weeks.

To view strike pictures http://southafrica.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/9673.php

As usual, the Communications department will send press releases to journalists updating them about the strike and also sending messages to staff using the university website.
At that moment, the Communications department was not aware that there were constant updates about the strike that happened minute after minute via new media.
UKZN's staff members were blogging. Posting videos, pictures and messages in their blogs.

People were communicating actively and involved in debates with their colleagues at other university’s in South Africa as well as internationally. Journalists were also picking up stories from these blogs. It was just a minority who were blogging, but the impact of the communication was effective.

UKZN Strike Bloggers:

http://stephinsouthafrica.blogspot.com/2006/02/free-ukzn.html

http://bulliedacademics.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html

http://voiceoftheturtle.org/raj/blog/archive/2006_02_01_archive.html

http://cupe1356.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html

Zhenya Gene Senyak blog is about the lagging behind of PR practitioners as he states that the ground has shifted so rapidly that too many PR people continue to deliver products that no longer work to a media world that no longer exists. New PR depends on new media, more a neural network of interactions than a broadcast channel. Every reader is a publisher...new media is a world that demands a creative response. http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=830391

Utilising only the university website to communicate with the audience is insufficient. If university stakeholders are using new media as a preferred tool for communication - especially blogs, there might be a need for PR practitioners to adopt the trend.

I perceive Public Relations and Public Communications within the higher education sector to be very important. Therefore, I would really like to see public relations and communications practitioners who work for university’ in South Africa learning to blog as a new trend of practising PR and as a tool for effective communication. It's importance to keep up with the technology savvy global world. Practitioners should see blogging as important as writing a press release for a newspaper.

Is the Usage of New Media the Solution?

Okay, lets start somewhere...
How about ditching the traditional ways of communicating with our audience and start using new media.
BLOGGING!!! Great idea.

It is becoming clear that university PR practitioners that depend only on the traditional media have a lot of catching up to do.
The most influencial people in the university are blogging.
We've always wondered where journalists get all the juicy stories about the tensions and conflict at UKZN. Why has UKZN's PR department continuosly failed to manage negative stories in the media...
It was not until I learnt about blogging at the University of Westminster and I discovered that the most controversial people at UKZN blog. They have managed to solicit great support from the media as well as other stakeholders through these blogs.

Larry Bodine Law Marketing blog states that
"By far, blogs are the most important development. Even though blogs have been around for several years, they're growing at the rate of at least 30,000 new blogs a day. You no longer have to rely only on the media to get your message to the masses. Blog expert Peter Blackshaw of Inteliseek said blogs are like "megaphones on steroids." He told a group of about 130 PR people: "Whether you think bloggers are crackpots or not, many consumers trust them more than they trust you." http://pm.typepad.com/professional_marketing_bl/2005/04/4_top_pr_trends.html

One wonders if the university PR practitioners are missing out on exploiting the usage of new media communication links especially during the times of change management.

The Technician and Management Levels

I read a book titled 'Public Relations in South Africa', written by Berendien Lubbe and Gustav Puth. I was actually drawn to it because it’s easy to read and yet very informative!
In this book they talk of two PR levels – the technician and the management level to which PR practitioners should operate. Lubbe and Puth quote Gruning to best illustrate this point, it is stated:

‘Public relations practitioners occupy two major roles, the technician and the manager. Communication technicians provide technical services such as writing, editing, photography, media contacts, or production of publications. Technicians are found in all organizations with public relations departments’.

It continues to say: ‘For excellence to be achieved in public relations and for public relations to fulfill its management function efficiently and effectively, expertise, commitment and vision are required at both these levels. These two levels are also interdependent, the PR manager cannot implement his policies without the technical expertise and support of the public relations technician.’ (Lubbe and Puth, 1994, pg 8)

Will PR practitioners ever be respected?

I have observed how some of stakeholders view the university PR department…they seem to believe that PR practitioners add a bit of spin to all the communication messages sent out to, especially the media and the general public.
Sometimes I ask myself if they have this attitude because there is a general perception that the Public Relations industry lies, spins, and manipulates.
Students on the other hand, think that public relations is only about organizing events and all fluffy, unimportant matters. ‘Basically a university can do without this department.’
Having worked in a university for four years, it still surprises me that, the university community trust journalists more than they would trust a university practitioner - perhaps journalists are viewed to be highly skilled than practitioners. Another crucial point is that during crises, PR practitioners will try and avoid sending out messages that might hinder the university’s image and its management, whereas journalists report events as they are, leaving ‘no stone unturned’.

This percerption has always concerned me. When I was reading Aeron Davis book Public Relations Democracy, i realised that like journalists, university PR practitioners since the merger have contributed to an account in which they function as independent guardians acting in the public interest. University practitioners have emphasized the neutral objectivity of the news production process.
Aeron Davis further states that professional values guide journalists towards neutral coverage of issues that are significant to the mass of consumers and therefore tend to act as check on major concentrations of power ensures that consumers get what they want…news that is balanced and broadly reflective of the concerns of the mass citizens. I strongly believe that this applies to PR practitioners as well because university practitioners main goal is to send out communication messages that reflect transparency.
Reference: Public Relations Democracy: Public Relations, Politics and the Mass Media in Britain Aeron Davis, 2002

About My Blog

My blog aims to explore how the role of new media came into play during the transition phase in the higher education system of South Africa- the merger. I will be referring to the University of KwaZulu-Natal as an example, an institution I studied at and currently work for as well. I will discuss why blogging is the trend that should be explored by UKZN PR practitioners.

The Merger: Brief Background

UKZN - this is an institution I have worked for, for the past 4 years.
The merger of the two major education institutions in KwaZulu-Natal, located over two cities Durban and Pietermaritzburg was a move that was not welcomed with open arms by the two parties involved. Hence it posed a great challenge for the public relations department to devise and implement a communications strategy that was effective, relevant and efficient.


South African cabinet backs merger plan for universities
by Michael Cherry

South Africa is to proceed with a controversial plan to merge institutes of higher education that taught blacks and whites separately under apartheid (see Nature 417, 377–378; 2002).The cabinet accepted the merger plan late last month after Kader Asmal, the education minister, made concessions that will allow two of the nation's best-known historically black universities — the University of the Western Cape and the University of Fort Hare — to retain their separate identities.

Reference: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v417/n6889/full/417576a.html