New media - Is it really that good?

The usefulness of new media to the public relations practitioners can be seen during the tutorials of the PR lesson whereby successful PR campaigns are being carried out using new media are shown to us. The recent debate on the topic whether blogs provide a also shown me that the increasing efficiency and the usefulness of new media to the public relations practitioners.

This chapter (Chapter 12 – New Media and Public Relations) tells me the ways in which public relations practitioners can tap on using new media for their campaigns and the issues which new media can bring to public relations practitioners. The internet offers the practitioners in a cheap and easy way to reach out to a large number of people. It can be using a video to be uploaded on Youtube and if the video is interesting and creative enough, through the word of mouth, the links of this video can spread. A website can also be set up following the success of the video’s dissemination, providing an online forum for feedback for the video or the products purchase. It is convenient and fast. Anybody with a device which is able to access to the internet is able to access to it.

However, it is important to note that not everybody is able to access to internet. Not every part of the world has internet connection. So it depends on the targeted audience. The chosen medium needs to be appropriate to reach out to the right audience. If not, it will be a waste of resources and effort.
Besides, new media seems to be widely used by children, young adults and working adults but not the elderly. For example, majority of the elderly in Singapore do not really use the internet for entertainment, networking or any other purposes. According to IDA (2008), 3% of the elderly between the age of 50 and 59 years old use the internet for purchasing/ordering of goods. Only 1% of the age group between 60 and 69 use the internet for the same purpose. From these statistics, if the product is being targeted to the elderly in Singapore, it will be ineffective to use new media as the medium.

In conclusion, public relations practitioners have to be well-informed and conscientious with their research. They need to be wary of the new media’s usage among the people. It is not just the researching that is important but also choosing the way to reach out to the people has to be appropriate.

Link to statistics: http://www.larrylim.net/singapore-internet-usage-statistics.htm