Just like many newspapers must compete with growing paperless options, marketers and public relations (PR) professionals must deal with new media that weren’t incorporated into traditional PR.
Climbing statistics show the rapid popularity of social media sites, even in 2008:
- Blogs are now used by 24% of Internet users, up from 13% in 2006
- Social networks are now used by 26% of Internet users, up from 17% in 2006
- Videocasts are now used by 11% of Internet users, up from 6% in 2006
Today, there are over “800 million members on Facebook, adding more than 200 million in a single year. Twitter now has 100 million active users and LinkedIn has over 64 million users in North America alone.”
Prior to all this growth, cable television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers and books were the traditional media sources responsible for circulating information to the public.
Some argue that although new media has obvious benefits, “traditional media were not anonymous … imparting opinions and analysis with faces or the writer’s name can be more convincing. Most of the old media have groups of professionals who are resourceful and qualified to present the real issues to audiences or readers.”
It is also said that despite its popularity, new media actually feeds on traditional media.
“Bloggers often write about what’s going on in traditional media, whether it’s a new TV ad or a story that ran recently in the news. If you land an interview in traditional media, you’re likely to catch the attention of social media as well.”
For now, traditional communication and new media are finding ways to co-exist, but it is inevitable in a growing society filled with new technologies that communication and advertising will continue to be pushed toward social media outlets.
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All of the statistics are very interesting, however I think many aspects from the traditional media will continue. Posted by Sam Force
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that you mentioned new media incorporates old media into it. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteKate! I like how you say that traditional communication and new media are finding ways to co-exist for now but eventually things will change. Nice job!
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