Media revolutions change everything, i.e. families, relationships, politics, governments, education, religion, even foreign policy.
For almost 50 years I have been a strategic communication practitioner, teacher, writer and consultant. And beginning with the television revolution and continuing through the recent digital media revolution my primary lesson learned is that information overload is real and that cutting through that clutter is the big challenge for all of us, professionals and consumers.
Experience teaches that communication actually always breaks down. Experts disagree about facts. Information clutter confuses. Success requires feedback, response, and persistence. And planning strategically over time is basic.
For example, leading institutions, causes, cities, and even countries today requires the simultaneous use of communication strategy, marketing thinking, organizational processes, new media platforms, and consideration of the social changes brought about by media revolutions.
Consider that higher education is quickly becoming a global industry. Most institutions will be called upon to rethink everything from their entire advancement and communication programs to how they develop global leaders, educate the consumers of new information realities, and use research and consulting resources to help solve the serious international problems threatening our very existence.
A number of years ago my TCU team and I discovered that bringing organizational processes, marketing principles, and media revolution produced changes, into our strategic communication practice made our work significantly more effective.
But why then does daily communication almost always fail? We identified three basic reasons: (1) Audiences remember little more than half of a message. (2) they generally hear what they want to hear. And (3) confusing information clutter produced by digital media technology.
And why do repeated lies and partial truths begin to sound true? This is so because 24/7 digital media saturation makes it almost impossible to keep up with and sort through the resulting information clutter and confusion.
All this means that both leaders and consumers must become their own media editors? There are so many information sources now that its virtually impossible to edit information before it gets to consumers. Thus, everyone must now take responsibility for managing their own input.
But there is a danger. Many of those sources have biases that enable consumers to choose only the media that reinforce their beliefs. Achieving media literacy means choosing a wide range of information sources to insure an understanding of all sides of issues and problems.
For leaders, communication success takes more time and patience. Simple messages, feedback, response, repetition and persistence are basic…plus a complete understanding of the power of strategic communication integration and how media revolutions change everything.
