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.