社交媒體時代的新聞與公關

The digital revolution will ultimately strengthen journalism, but so far public relations has managed the web far better.

數字革命最終會加強新聞業，但目前爲止更擅長經營web的是公共關係行業。

In the century in which PR has been an organised trade, the case for its importance in business has been the establishment of reputation. Now, the speed and ubiquity of digital communications both makes reputation more fragile — they can make a chief executive history with a tweet — and allows corporations and their leaders to develop their own channels, direct to consumers, without the intermediation of pesky reporters.

一個世紀以來，公關一直是個有組織的行當，其在商界的重要性在於建立聲譽。如今，數字通信的快速和無所不在既令聲譽更加脆弱（發條推文就能讓一位首席執行官成爲歷史），也讓企業及其領導人開闢直接面向消費者的傳播渠道，跳過記者這一惱人的中間環節。

The power balance has shifted. “Brand journalism”, produced by corporations and institutions and beamed direct to audiences through social media, is on the rise.

實力平衡發生了轉變。由企業和機構製作，通過社交媒體直接發送給受衆的“品牌導向型新聞”正在興起。

Public relations people, often former journalists, now supply much more copy to cash-strapped, slimmed down newspapers. “Native advertising”, designed to look and read like the publication into which it is inserted (with a discreet notice that it is sponsored), is a growing trend: papers are now taking on teams of writers to craft the copy the advertisers want in their outlet’s style.

公關人員往往從事過記者這行，如今他們向資金拮据、瘦身後的報紙輸送的新聞稿比以往多得多。“原生廣告”成爲一種日益盛行的趨勢，這種廣告的版面設計和內容跟所要插入的出版物風格一致（只是在不顯眼的地方聲明其爲贊助內容）。報紙現在聘用寫作團隊，根據各自的風格爲廣告商精心打造文稿。

Business leaders, especially the more visible ones, are being groomed to join “the conversation” — a 24-hour digital commons where corporate and institutional voices must be heard and seen — without the intercession of a journalist.

商界領袖，尤其是那些露面較多的領導者正接受專業培訓，以便參加沒有記者干擾的“對話”——一個24小時的數字公地，企業和機構的聲音必須被聽到、看到。

Some, such as Paul Polman, chief executive of Unilever, are public figures on issues (the environment in his case) beyond his corporation. In political communication as in corporate PR, the use of big data banks allow the identification of issues, concerns, habits and intentions right down to an individual level. Campaigns are increasingly run through social media, in which leaders as diverse as Barack Obama (re-elected in 2012) and India’s Narendra Modi (elected in 2014) built and retained an apparently “personal” connection with their voter base.

有些企業領導，比如聯合利華首席執行官保羅•波爾曼(Paul Polman)，已成爲某些議題上的公衆人物（波爾曼關注的是環境問題），其影響超出自己的公司。搞政治傳播與經營企業公關一樣，利用大數據庫可以識別議題、關切、習慣和意向，一直細化到個體層面。競選活動對社交媒體的運用越來越多，各國領導人都在與自己的基礎選民建立並保持貌似“個人”的聯繫，包括2012年獲得連任的巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)，以及2014年當選的印度總理納倫德拉•莫迪(Narendra Modi)。