Last month, I joined 20 of my constituents from CMG offices across Asia Pacific, with experiential agency Jack Morton, sports marketing practice Octagon and PR agencies Golin Harris and Weber Shandwick and advertising giant McCann represented.
It was a fabulous, if brief, four days of debate around the notion of authenticity in business and its role in the future of PR and marketing. Debate ignited two key areas of relevance; the issue of definition and the challenges brought about through new media.
In relation to the latter, a study analysing attitudes towards new media by PR practitioners in Malaysia and Singapore, has revealed some interesting findings. In the study, PR practitioners identified feelings of anxiety and resistance to the adoption of social media. For some, new media channels represent a dehumanising of communication, a particularly interesting point when considering the role of authenticity in communication practices. (FYI: Other challenges identified include workload increase and keeping up-to-date with emerging platforms.)
Fitch, K 2009, 'The New Frontier: Singaporean and Malaysian public relations practitioners' perceptions of new media', Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal , Vol. 10 pp. 137‐148
Hot House facilitator Ian Rumbsby, Executive Vice President of Weber Shadnwick challenged us to consider the impact of new media in communication and the perception of control over the message. For example, a challenge to message delivery is the shift of public news consumption, through blogs, Tweets and online commentary. Does this mean that people consume news more authentically through Internet-driven tools than in a previous age where newspapers ruled supreme? Or is the art of reading a newspaper an authentic practice compared to the mass practice of online news consumption?
Kate xo
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