Do we still need journalists as public relation professionals?

A Journalists making notes.

In this forever changing world we live in, as professionals we have to learn to adapt to this changes or else we will not survive in the work place. It has come to my knowledge than we have moved from the barbaric era to the industrial and as of late we have moved to the information era and in this era we live in the sense that the quicker we receive information the better, but the information we receive has to be valid or correct in order for use to use it to the best of our ability’s.

So do we need journalists as public relations professionals in the digital era we live in according to Pew research center “as of September 2014, 71% of online adults use Facebook, 23% use twitter 26% use Instagram and 28% use LinkedIn” and the numbers keep on rising.

 With figures like these how do we still need journalist to publish our press realize while we can publish our own Blogs on the internet and have our specific target audiences read them on the internet because of the amount of people using the internet, this is all very true but we have to still remember that people out there still read newspapers and according to ABC Bureau of circulation of South Africa daily sun has the highest circulation figures with 274000 single copies sold daily while the times selling 57000 at number two on the circulation figures, they say numbers don’t lie and these one certainly don’t the newspaper is still a major media platform that can be used by public relations reach out a huge number of consumers and more importantly specific target audiences.

Journalism vs PR

So to answer the question, do we still need journalists in this digital era? I most certainly think so we still need their expertise because unlike citizen journalist on twitter journalists have gone to varsity to do what they do and they have certain rules that that they have to live by an example is journalists role is making sure information is verified as to make sure people trust the source of the newspaper they read and even more importantly they are sure about the new realizes we post on the newspaper thousands of people read on a day to day basis. Please let me know if have a different view on the topic or if you agree this is Nhlakanipho sibisi good morning, good day and good night. 

DAILY sun newspaper

           

Why I agree with Boycott Woolworths

While some people prefer Blogging about the simpler things in life I on the other hand prefer Blogging about more complex issues in life. As of late I have been thinking about Boycott Woolworths, to be honest what got my attention was the amount of people who have joined the Boycott in such a short amount of time, basically the boycott is caused by Woolworths trading Israel. Interestingly amongst the large amount of people who have joined the boycott I found people like Notably Blade Nzimande, Cosatu, SACP and PublicInvestment Corporation.

I’ve found Boycott Woolworths to be a complex issue because of its nature, in short the story covers a lot of issues related to different political, legal and ethical views.

According to the Oxford school dictionary sanction is defined as “action taken against a nation that is considered to have broken international laws, Sanctions against that country include refusing to trade with it.” I`ve felt the need to define sanction and put it out there to help express my feelings a bit more and explain why I agree with boycott Woolworths so much.

Firstly I want to take you back in time back to a bad place in time in a country I love so much I want to take you back to the apartheid era in South Africa and remind of a big role that was played by the sanction made against the South African apartheid government at the time, if you really take a minute to think about it the sanctions placed against the government were place because of the international laws broken by the government at the time and as a result of the sanctions the economy crashed and the government was forced to change their bad laws and as a direct result of the laws changed the sanctions were gone, so sanctions helped end apartheid in South Africa.

The reason why Israel is under sanctions due to its apartheid government and it apartheid laws. Head of retail operations Paula Disberry in Woolworths says “legislation Cleary allows trade with Israel” in all honest she is right it does. I’m not saying what Woolworths is doing is unlawful I`m saying it is unethical, because weather willing or unwillingly Woolworths is funding an apartheid government in Israel while so many South Africans clearly disapprove of such actions. I`m a public relations student and I know for a fact that it is not the legislations of South Africa that walk into Woolworths and buy bread and milk every day but rather the people of South Africa that walk into Woolworths and buy bread and milk, so I think Woolworths should stop hiding behind legislation and start standing with their consumers and more importantly stand with their fellow South Africans against an apartheid government in a foreign country.