Like Media, PR Reshaped by Changed Information Culture

BANGKOK, Jan. 23 (Asia Media Forum) - Public relations work, whether labeled 'traditional' or otherwise, is at a crossroads of an information highway that is lorded over by digital media, PR and communication professionals said at a forum here this week.

   While public relations’ aim remains the same, it is far from immune from the changes in information cultures and consumers’ habits due to the Internet and how it has blurred traditional definitions of who are information providers, content makers, producers and receives.

   "Very soon, the web is going to take over. (There will be) no more one main centre; we're all centres in this configuration as content is generated more and more by the user,” Thierry de Gorguette d’Argoeuves, vice president of the International Association of Business Communicators (Thailand), told the AMF on the sidelines of a discussion at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand.

   “We become the media, we're users and we constantly interact with other users who are also the media," added d’Argoeuves, a Thailand resident for 15 years and a full-time e-commerce lecturer at Assumption University in the Thai capital.

   The Internet is a new media channel for public relations in that the former will "change the services PR agencies provide for their clients",” said marketing specialist Pacharee Pantoomano-Pfirsch.

   "To create consistent communications to support the clients' brand, PR practitioners will be required to monitor this new channel and be ready to quickly address issues," Pacharee, who is also the founder of the Bangkok Network of Women, said in an interview.

   “Traditional public relations is an intermediary,” explained d’Argoeuves. “Its role is to entertain relationship with (traditional) media to make sure that the corporate message is disseminated properly.”

   But how the ways of information dissemination has changed, he said at the Jan. 20 mini-debate.

   For instance, he said, "Digital media means interactivity and direct feedback as opposed to the passivity of users in the traditional public relations and media partnership.”

   Bangkok-based Ian Fenwick, author of the book 'DigiMarketing: The Essential Guide to New Media and Digital Marketing', agrees that the traditional PR model has been "very much a top-down affair".

   Commenting on the title of the event, 'Goodbye PR, Hello PR?', d’Argoeuves remarked that it should be aptly be more about 'goodbye public relations, hello personal relations'.

   In response to the changing information environment, the PR world has also become more flexible and open to exploring new virtual ways of reaching out, they said.

   More people are being allowed to speak for the companies PR firms represent, for instance, Fenwick explained. "Messages are less controlled and are more bi-directional. The disadvantage of this is that control is diminishing. On the other hand, communication becomes more organic and authentic, meaning people really care and talk of things they know personally," he added.

   Fenwick cited the case of Frank Eliason, popularly referred to as the Comcast customer-service guy, who with 26,000 followers on Twitter (http://m.twitter.com/comcastCares), is giving PR and customer service a very personal approach.

   "He's a technical support guy who uses Twitter. He's not traditional PR and is a good example of what a helpful, consumer-oriented communication is like," said Fenwick.

   Marketing specialist Pacharee Pantoomano-Pfirsch, the marketing specialist, adds that the more direct communication relationships that new media allows, will also make room for "more transparency in the relationship" between PR firms and their clients, due to the public's expectations of accountability from these clients.

   "In these days of multi-polarity, the corporate message cannot anymore be controlled from a 'centre', for where exactly is the centre in this setup?" said d’Argoeuves. "You can't insert yourself in the social networks using a third party."

   But seasoned PR professionals Tom Van Blarcom and Daniel Riordan disagree with the assumption that PR is slowly becoming extinct.

   "There's no such thing as traditional PR in the first place. Public relations is evolutionary. It's all about informing people, persuading people, and integrating people with people," said Daniel Riordan, managing director of Baldwin Boyle Group, Thailand.

   He added that there are channels, including the digital media, for getting the PR message across as these are all part of toolkits to understanding clients.

   Total Quality Public Relations-Thailand (TQPR) managing director Tom Van Blarcom concedes that the face of the public relations industry is indeed "changing" but this does not signal a death knell.

   "In Thailand, for example, Internet penetration is still low at 19 to 20 percent. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter still have limited impact. Besides, uncontrolled information means an overload of information, not necessarily all true and accurate," he said.

   Pacharee describes the relationship between PR agencies and the Thai media as "symbiotic".

   "There are countless local lifestyle publications in Thailand and much of its content is coming from PR-related events and releases. Thai consumers enjoy society news and because of that, many publications regularly feature pictures from high society events and interviews with prominent personalities in the media," she said.

   The Thai PR industry, like in most countries in the region, is pretty much based on the "relationship and management of those relationships to facilitate communications for the clients", she said.

   One reason why PR circles in Thailand do not feel threatened by the new media is the local’s culture's preference for tradition and oral transmission of information, explains d’Argoeuves. "Thai writing goes against fast reading. To post an article, for instance, is not in the Thai tradition. SMS messages, online chat and blogs are news ways of writing, a kind of new language being born," he said.

   D’Argoeuves added that the existence of networks based on influences and paternalism might be good for PR in Thailand.  "Lobbying therefore is still part of the picture and might justify PR as an intermediary, the old way," he added.

   But whatever — and however fast — the PR world is changing, everyone agrees that there is a need to adapt creatively to this shift.

   "We're now dealing in multiply realities and we can't escape it," said d’Argoeuves.

   Van Blarcom agrees. "At a certain degree, public relations has to adapt and we need to know how to do this and what language to use, etc. At any rate, PR will keep evolving and changing as it did in the past." (END/IPSAP/LC/JS/220110)