Technologies change, but good comms practice doesn’t

Our world is now dominated by media and communications technology that simply didn’t exist just 15 or 20 years ago.  

• The internet itself, as we would recognise it, is essentially only 30 years old. 
• Facebook, Twitter (X), and You Tube didn’t exist publicly until 20 years ago. 
• The first Iphone came out in 2007, followed by the Ipad in 2010. 
• Instagram is slightly newer, having been bought by Meta in 2012. 
• TikTok has been around for just under a decade. 

When you consider that the printing press and newspapers have been around for hundreds of years, and radio and television for roughly a century, the social media revolution is both relatively recent but also dramatic. 

The pace of change has been so fast it is rapidly reconfiguring the news and media industries. Legacy media is having to adapt to new tech to stay relevant, and facing huge financial pressures. Nevertheless, mainstays like the BBC now have completely integrated news operations across broadcast, radio, podcasts, and social media. 

It can be hard to keep up – let alone know what’s coming next! But the good news is that some key principles of good communications remain as true as they ever were. 

When I first got into policy and communications work around 20 years ago, the social media revolution was just starting, and the first book I was told to read was the Media Relations Speed Read by Moi Ali, published by DSC. It proved to be a super helpful starter guide to what communications is and how to do it well. Even today I still refer to it regularly, and now we’ve updated it! 

There are still a whole host of people employed to produce news, such as journalists, editors and researchers, and they all have the potential to get your charity’s message out there. Stories may develop slightly differently than they did in the past, but at the end of the day these are still people looking for interesting ‘content’.  This brilliant Speed Read is full of top tips for how to get their interest, including how to write good press releases, do interviews, and respond to hostile coverage. 

The pace of today’s media is quicker, but stories may have a longer lifespan then in the old days, or even come back after dying away as social media interest picks up from an unexpected source. They are also increasingly generated by social media posts, especially as politicians have come to recognise its power and used it to dominate the news agenda. 

It’s interesting that the term ‘influencer’ has evolved to describe influential people on social media. Even if the technology and pace has changed over recent decades, ultimately influencing the media is about influencing people. It’s about building relationships, communicating your message clearly, and providing something interesting that gets the attention of others – so you can drive that attention and interest to your cause.  

The Media Relations Speed Read is full of timeless advice to help you do just that – get your copy today here.