Social media in, Journalism out

Journalist at a press conference
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I’m currently studying Public Relations and Communication at the university of Johannesburg and one of the main things they teach us is that you need to make sure that you have a good relationship with journalist because you work with the media or rather are dependent on the media a lot in today’s times however we are owned by social media where everyone is a journalist.

Think of a successful campaign such as the ice bucket challenge

President Obama doing the ice bucket challenge
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,had it not been for social media the campaign would have been successful at all. The thing with social media is that it lives in the now as in the news are current and it gives everyone the platform to voice their opinion whereas with conventional media you have to wait a day or hours before you hear about the news plus they are not conversational, for them it’s all about stating facts. Another prime example is the state of the nation address ( SONA 2015) where the parliament jammed the signal  so that the public couldn't see what was happening inside the parliament, that however was a failed attempt because you cannot jam twitter’s signal and the information made its way to the public anyhow.

Now I’m not saying that journalist are completely out of fashion and that they have lost their value because that isn't so , many of the older generation still prefer their newspaper I know my father does. He will tell you that he doesn't like the fact he will hear his news from some random person who never went to school and studied journalism so don’t throw your journalism degree out the window yet because you are still needed.

Since the main aim of PR is to reach out to the audience then the best way is via social media, this way you get to feed your audience exactly what you want to say whereas with a journalist you not sure if they going to say exactly what you want them to. Another major benefit of social media is that instead of you telling your audience how they should feel about you they develop their own opinion of your brand. 

The different social media platforms available
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There are many social media platforms out there and each have their own attributes such as Twitter, which is where almost everyone gets their news. Each platform has a different comes different audiences who are all interested in different kind of things which means that you will be able to portray your message in different way and make it understandable to different markets which means that you reach a wider audience than you would with traditional media.

In conclusion, there are many way to reach people out there and although social media has taken over, traditional media still plays a role in the deliverance of news. We as Public Relations officers may not be as dependent on traditional media as we were back in the past but they still do play a role because some people still depend on an expects opinion.

Lights, camera, beef

A prime example of how to use social media in your favour

Local Rapper AKA

According to Urban Dictionary, beef is to have a grudge or start one with another person and boy did Cassper Nyovest and AKA get that right. About two years ago Cassper went on his twitter page and said that his song was the biggest song in the country which made AKA mad.

AKA must have hated the fact that he was the hottest act in the country then all of a sudden Cassper comes out and steals his thunder with his song Doc Shebeleza and called Cassper which in return must have given Cassper a big head about the matter because instead of handling it like an adult he went on to provoke AKA.

When it comes to education AKA does have an up on Cassper because he studied sound engineering whereas Cassper didn't finish his high school career  because he felt like he didn't want to play it safe when he can become great. Although when it comes to punch lines Cassper takes it there especially when he said in his song Phuma Kim’ “I made a fortune, AKA’s favourite rapper, I guess I made on the Forbes list” and we all know that AKA’s real name is Kiernan Forbes so that was ouch.

Now instead of solving the matter like any musical beef should be (over their songs) they turned it into a twitter war which made me feel like maybe it was a PR stunt because you can reach a wider audience with twitter whereas with their songs only a few will listen and also some people don’t pay attention to the lyrics which means some would never catch the punch lines. Even the SWAY club incident along with the Live Amp situation was all just a way to get people to focus their attention on them.

A few weeks ago a picture of Cassper and AKA standing together in front of a pool was posted on

Local rappers AKA and Cassper Nyovest
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both the rappers twitter account with few captions but from the looks of things they seem to have peace. Cassper has even said that he would like to do a song with AKA and K.O.  Another Urban Dictionary meaning for beef is: when rappers are good enough so they start a public fight, not that I’m saying AKA and Cassper aren't good rappers because they are truly gifted, but it makes me feel like their beef was a setup so that people can pay more attention on them especially Cassper because he made a hit song off the beef. One thing I’m happy about is the fact that it’s over and they now both focus on producing good music and tweeting about stuff that matters.