Technology creates participative communication

The two-day conference, themed "Communication for Sustainability", is being hosted by the Public Relations Institute of South Africa (PRISA) and the Global Alliance at the ArabellaSheraton Grand Hotel.

Two-way communication

Wilson said communication for development required a lot of skill and training and “to do it well requires social science research strategy and creativity. It requires… two-way communication, not just putting the words from the top.

“When genuine communication process takes place it creates what some call a ‘positive political space' inside which change can take place – and can last.”

Research shows that often when development programmes don't work it is due to lack of consultation, participation and listening. Yet technology, particularly information communication technologies, is rapidly changing the input ordinary citizens and employees can have and is creating participative communication.

A new social media

“Suddenly there are no hierarchies, no hidden information that only important people can see. Everything is being reported by everyone. This has produced an unprecedented explosion of information, data, issue monitoring and citizen opinion…. it is a new social media to which we must help our clients and colleagues adapt to. We as professionals must learn to ride the wave.

“This brand new world is reaching the most remote places. Cellphone penetration is burgeoning at record speed. The unconnected are getting connected – it is a whole new world,” said Wilson.

To professional communications the new social media changes everything they have been used to doing and “if you haven't been thinking about that before now, get on with it or you will see that big wave coming down on you.”

Wilson said that communication for development was part of good governance and that it required three qualities of communication advisors – humility, courage and integrity. “Because sometimes our job isn't to make things look better than they are, or to spin for individual agendas at the expense of the larger institution.

Out in the public view

“Sometimes our job is to make sure that the facts are out in the public view, in a straightforward and truthful way with sufficient detail … That it is meaningful and can be analysed by the affected audiences.

“…Without what we do, and our companions in journalism, there is no transparency because transparency depends on professional, timely disclosure and meaningful detail. Sometimes that means that communication without translation is not communication at all. At other times, it means that communication in the middle of the night to a limited audience is not transparency, and we shouldn't be party to it. The failure to communicate when we have information important to a public debate can be a sin of omission.

Concluded Wilson, “These days top-down or corporate communications is dying fast, and communication without bottom-up mechanisms and meaningful use of the Internet and social media is not credible either. This is why I believe passionately that communication is a vital part of making development work more sustainable, why it contributes to good governance and can be a force against bad governance and why I believe that what you do every day matters so much to making this a better world.”

For more information, go to http://prisa.co.za/wprf.