The Journalism Trend PR People Must Know

2013 will be the year data dominates journalism and  impacts on how PR professionals work.

This trend will affect us. Journalists will either be a key audience, or remain a critical channel to reach key audiences, in many of our campaigns this year. 

Big Data

Since the mid 1990s journalists have gone online to research stories.  Now there is so much  personal, organisational or issue-related information online, the next step will be mining deeper than ever before into this rich content, to arrive at fresh narratives or strengthen existing stories. 

Increasingly numbers will tell stories.

Reporters now have the tools to sift through mountains of information which previously would warn off even the keenest investigator. Google Fusion Tables, Tableau, datawrapper and other software allow data to be rapidly crunched, collated, analysed and presented.

So expect two things:

• PDFs are where data goes to die. Journalists will increasingly demand you present  data in easily accessible formats.  Releasing information in PDF may you look out of date, unhelpful, suspicious or all three.  
• And beware.  Reporters may now know more about your issues than you think so be prepared when they call in search of a story.

Watch The Guardian's Simon Rogers for more Big Data insights.

Presentation

Another data-driven change in 2013 will be drop and drag software that lets journalists combine text, imagery, video, audio, infographics, hot spots, apps and buttons into a single story package which can be quickly embedded into a news site. And which consumers can navigate when, how and in the detail they need from a story.

A software package called Storyplanet plans a public launch this year.  Reporters and photographers can use its grid-like architecture to build interactive and visually captivating packets of content for a quick upload to their websites. Read more....

So expect journalists to tell their stories using even more multimedia than they do now.  And don't be surprised if the the new presentation tools create more demands on us to offer up more than documents and someone to interview. 

IABC Directions For 2013

I'm a member of the Canberra Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). A global reaching organisation, IABC helps communicators develop their careers and businesses.

Watch as President Kerbey Meyers and CEO Chris Sorek share IABC's plans for 2013.

Tweeting Election Day in the US

Video courtesy of CNN

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Social Media Tactics From Obama and Romney

Watch out Wednesday! 

That's when the US Presidential race is finally over after a year of intense campaigning.  And, when there will be a vast outpouring of analysis on how the successful candidate used social media to support his bid.  

Both the Romney and Obama teams have extensively used social media to engage Americans through Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other platforms. Early on they took heed of research showing social media users are more politically active, more issues-oriented, better connected and contribute more money than non-users.  

At least that's the view of David Almacy who spoke on social media in the US Election at the recent PRSA Conference. Almacy a senior executive of Edelman PR and a member of the Republican digital media team at the party's Convention in August, gave an engaging presentation, particularly for the few non-Americans in the audience. 

He believes both parties have used online channels to push out information, take the pulse of voter sentiment and draw people to candidate websites where they are invited to volunteer their time and money. 

What's missing of course is talk about engaging in real dialogue.  It seems minor candidates are more likely to engage in two way conversations than the two major parties, who remained focused on pushing out messages on an almost industrial scale, in the hope of avoiding journalistic filters.

Almacy also noted those participating in social media do not necessarily increase their political knowledge because most of the chatter has amplified traditional media coverage of events and issues.

An August article on the impact of social media on elections in the US publication The Atlantic reached similar conclusions.