Social Media Press Release

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Lillian Omariba (Agency) Eagle Communications Agency Director, Media Relations 46 Fortune street New York 29803 010.276.9960 (office) 010.276.9969 (fax) 017.999.47332 (cell) Email: mailto:l.omariba@eaglecomm.com Web site: http://www.eaglecomm.com/ Blog: http://moreprissues.blogspot.com

First survey reveals new media taking over old media

The 2008 survey shows that online sources for news are booming as more Americans opt to shift from reading print newspapers and magazines.

New York, March 1, 2009

• The survey was conducted to check the trends of new media and it's affect to tradional media.


• Following the emergence of new media overal readership for print newspapers and magazines declined by 14 percent.


• The percentage of Americans getting their news from the internet has tripled in the last 10 years.


• Overal, 37 percent of Americans, including half of those who go on interet get new online regularly.


• Newspapers would have suffered even greater losses without their online versions.


• The most recent survey was conducted December from a nationally representative sample of 1,013 adults.

MULTIMEDIA ELEMENTS
New media poses a serious challenge to traditional media

MULTIMEDIA ELEMENTS:

Download new media vs tradional media slidecast

QUOTES

Sandra Garry, Director of Eagle Communicationas Agency said: "We are happy to be the first to have conducted this survey. We hope the findings of this study will be useful not just to the media but also public relations professionals."

Michael Cherenson, Chair, PRSA: "These results shows how receptive people are to the Internet as a medium and not just a tool. It is a good research for public relations professionals and media to study the findings keenly on trends of new media."

Jackson Rosenburg, Senior professor of Public Relations, University of New York: "The report will be a useful for students who are pursuing both Journalism and Public Relations to understand the trends in this new technology and it's implications to tradional media. It will also be good resource material for research."

Please contact Joyce Chin to arrange an interview and/or for additional quotes.

Eagle Communications Agency was established in 1990 and was the first agency in America to use new media. The agency specialsed in PR campaigns works with both new and established companies in a variety of technology to ensure best results. Eagle is currently, the top agency in New York with 60 experts in new media, PR and campaigns.

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Technorati Tags: new media vs traditional media new media old vs new media internet US new media research internet-based news internet news online news traditional media usage new media survey new media trends traditional media social media usage social media networks source of news technology communication agency information newspapers readership magazine readership trends unveil

Does new media pose a challenge to tradional media?

As technolgy evolves, online sources of news are booming. This seems to be threatening not only the Journalists but also Public Relations professionals on the way they communicate across and to the public. Many people may have different opinions on the emergence of this new technology: some believe traditional media is dying while others think it may not just vanish so easily. The slidecast below briefly discusses how the new media is becoming a challenge to old media.

New Media Vs Traditional Media

View more presentations from Lillykemmy. (tags: blogosphere networks)

Understanding CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a complicated subject, and often dismissed as a public relations tool for corporates or organisations to keep a good image. Does it benefit your business?

According to Mallen Baker, a writer, speaker and strategic advisor on CSR: "Customer satisfaction is where it begins and the bottom line is where it ends?" He explains that customer satisfaction these days in not just about price and service. And he argues that if one thinks CSR is just "only a cost to the bottom line rather than an opportunity then you don't know your business as well as you think you do." mmhh! well said.

To understand CSR, it is important to understand what responsibility means. L'etang. J., (2006), in Public Relations: Critical debates and contemporary practice, notes that responsibility may be used "in different ways in the context of moral responsibility of business, perhaps which is what leads to some confusion over the morality of both practice of CSR and the role of PR in this field."

It therefore would be right to say that, CSR is about how companies manage the business process to produce an overall positive impact on the society in which it operates and keep a good image. It is presented largely as a technique or tool for enhancing reputation.

However, according to Tench & Yeomans (2006) in Exploring public relations, the authors refer CSR as "often associated with the phrase 'enlightened self-interest' - how organisations plan and manage their relationships with key stakeholders."(p.97)

During this week's session on CSR, discussed from a practitioner's perspective by Adam Garfunkel, he pointed out three core elements of CSR explaining that it should be a voluntary action of business -- which means being beyond compliance, commitment to ethical behaviour and managing processes. Secondly, CSR is about achieving positive social outcomes -- meaning that a company or organisation ensures quality of life improvements for their employees, community and society in the long-term.

Thirdly, Adam noted that whilst benefiting its business objectives -- apart from gaining benefits through CSR, the programme also created wealth among the society where it operates. From lessons learnt in this class and after reading further on this topic, I came across some important points on CSR below.Through an effective CSR programme, companies can:

• improve access to capital
• sharpen decision-making and reduce risk
• enhance brand image
• uncover previously hidden commercial opportunities, including new markets
• reduce costs
• attract, retain and motivate employees

Will women rule in PR? The debate

In my previous post, I talked about feminisation in PR. On this post I'll talk about the debate which really got people emotional in class. The motion: 'Women will always work in PR but never run it.' Mmhh! To start with, I think this statement is just too exaggerated. I opposed this motion because to use the word 'never' is not right. I mentioned briefly about this in my previous post, that I strongly disagreed because we had women running the industry even when it was male dominated. I gave some examples in my earlier discussion.

Those who supported the motion, gave a list of qualities and past theories to justify why women will never run the industry. Some of their arguments included discriminating gender qualities to handling of PR jobs, such as lack of self confidence, occupational stress, soft to be managers and many more.

It was rather sad to hear a fellow female pursuing PR to say that "a lot of women think they have it but they don’t." If we cannot believe in and empower ourselves as women who will do it for us? This puzzled me. Just because there are many men at top positions does not mean that women will never achieve the same. Having many women run the industry is just a matter of time as change is already in the works.

To explain how this process is gradual, we must understand that it's only in recent years we have seen more women in PR. Larissa Grunig in Perspective on Public Relations, explained this in 5 feminist phases showing evolution of how women got accepted in this field. They include:
1. Male scholarship - The field was mainly predominant by men. Despite women's contributions, their roles were ignored.
2. Compensatory -Progress was noticed, women's contribution and experience was accepted.
3. Bifocal - Both men and women perceived to be separate and equal sexes. Women trying to self actualise themselves and overcome sexism at this stage
4. Feminist -- Women were more confident here and their activities became central
5. Multi focal --this phase redefines the field and develops understanding of men's and women's experience to achieve knowledge and practice that's truly inclusive.

This means women have made great strides considering that in the past they had no rights. Currently we can see many associations, groups and organisations exclusively for female PR practitioners such as Washington Women in PR (WWPR) and the Women in PR Group for Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).

According to PR Week, articles and other studies, women now account for about 70 per cent in the industry, and many more are enrolling for degree courses in PR to equip themselves to add to the skills they already have. Fewer men are now joining PR. All this means women already have a strong base to fight the stumbling blocks to push their way to the top.

Feminisation of PR

I must say this session was real fun. The subject was about feminisation of PR and diversity issues. To begin with, the course tutor, Michaela O'brien asked us to think about what makes a man and a woman.

It was interesting to hear classmates name characteristics attributed to Masculine such as: leader, ego, dominant, independent, objective, hunter and assertive. Some of those associated with feminine according to my peers include: emotional, sensitive, tender, soft, creative and adoptable.

The aim behind this was to show how society associates some of these characteristics with different sexes. After deliberations, students realised that some of these characteristics could apply to both female and male. And that stereotypes were very strong, just how peope look at others and perceive them differently.

How could some of these be applied in the PR profession. More of these was deliberated at length during a heated debate which I was taking part in. The motion of the day was "Women will always work in the Public relations industry but will never run it". I was on the opposing side. Firstly, I would like to say I found this statement not to be correct as we already have women running the industry even in the past when the profession was perceived to be male dominated.

I backed this with examples of women heading big PR agencies like Fleischman-Hillard, Edelman and Ogilvy PR Worldwide.

My colleagues pointed out some of the characteristics such as emotional, soft, ...etc to argue that women tend not to have what it takes to be in leadership positions. Ooops! did this actually come from fellow female students!

However, according to Larissa Grunig (2001), she has noted that women were perceived to be better communicators basically because they tend to build relationships, communicate with others, consider feelings of others and empathise with others. check out for more on this in my next post.