Traditional news outlets were (and to some extent still are) inherently projective. What I mean by that is traditional print and broadcast news media literally determined what the news was and how it would be reported. With the expansion of social media like blogs and bookmarking sites, the power to determine what is or isn’t important news is beginning to shift to the “common man.” The internet also offers surfers the chance to navigate from medium to medium instantly and free of charge. In the past, a consumer was more likely to purchase a newspaper or two and read the stories within that paper. Then TV came along, and people could browse between several news channels, picking and choosing what they wanted to watch. In the age of the internet, we see consumers using social bookmarking and networking sites to read the stories “common” people like themselves have recommended – irrespective of the news source.

In a reflection of the change in times, FOX News has integrated social bookmarking so that it isn’t just projecting news, but offering contributions to the social bookmarking community –allowing consumers to recommend which of its stories are the most important via the consumer’s bookmarking service of choice.

In addition to the bookmarking options, FOX provides RSS feeds so that its consumers can choose to follow specific commentators of shows, and have the top stories from those sources fed directly to their RSS aggregate. FNC even offers news by text message and voicemail – which further indicates a shift in who must go to whom for news to be consumed. No longer must people consume news on the media’s terms; a medium must now engage customers in the setting that is most convenient for them.

FOX News has also included a uReport application which lets the “common man” report his own news and then lets others vote on that story. The more positive ratings a story gets, the more exposure it gets (just like social bookmarking). In this way, FOX News isn’t just providing the news, it’s providing its customers with the opportunity to create their own news and determine which news stories are the most important.

FOX News also has several twitter channels and facebook pages (linked from and to their main site) for both the network and the individual talent, so as to engage its viewers in two-way communication. Readers/ viewers/ listeners are discussing FOX News’ content with other consumers and with representatives of FOX News. If you watch FOX News (CNN and MSNBC are doing this as well), it includes comments from twitter, facebook and e-mail and uses those comments to shape the stories it covers.

What is FOX News trying to achieve with all of this two-way relationship building? What does anyone try to achieve with such efforts? It’s looking to build a positive product identity by giving its customers what they want. What do they want? They want to be heard. They want to be spoken with, not spoken to. They want to be part of a conversation which helps shape the content they are consuming. And they will migrate to whichever news source provides them with this hierarchy of customer “needs.” It’s in FOX News’ interest to give its customers what they want lest they find another news source that will.

All organizations benefit from their customer feedback. It tells them what the people who are buying their product like, don’t like, want or don’t want. News organizations uniquely benefit from two-way communication. Not only can they adjust in accordance to the whims of their customers so as to provide a product which is more likely to be consumed, but they can use the customers to produce product which can be consumed. In allowing its readers/ viewers/ listeners to report their own news on its site, FOX News has basically employed thousands of journalists, free of charge. Because this volunteer commentary and reporting is executed on the FOX News website, all the generated traffic (and subsequent ad revenue) goes to FOX News. So, not only do these two-way communication initiatives improve FOX News’ relationship with its consumers and provide it with valuable customer feedback as to how best improve its product, but they also provide a product in and of itself (“civilian” opinion and reporting).

What’s impressive about these new media initiatives from a PR perspective is the lengths to which the organization has engaged its publics on a variety of levels. It’s no surprise, then, that FOX News Channel is the highest rated cable news network in the nation. Clearly, its customers feel engaged, involved and intrigued by FNC’s product and services.

Having interned with CNN, I can personally attest to the role which PR plays in these news initiatives. From my own perspective, all PR campaigns – even those centered around new media (like the CNN/ YouTube debates) – were still very much focused on generating media coverage. It seems odd to think of one news organization going to another to pitch for coverage, but that’s exactly thefocus of the PR department at CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta. Of course we also worked to get more exposure for the individual talent and executives, but even those efforts aimed at attaining media coverage. In fact, there was much discussion about changing the department name from “Public Relations” to “Media Relations.” So, while we learn in class that PR is moving away from the older models of press agentry, it seemed to me that the only function left to the “PR department” in an organization as multi-faceted as CNN was media-relations.

Of course, the field of media relations encompasses a whole host of responsibilities and objectives (to include: exclusive screen or clip grabs for distribution, massive pitch initiatives for special events and documentaries, news releases, crises management, and fielding questions to and from other media). The PR department at CNN played very little-to-no role in the social media/ new media/ two-way communication efforts of CNN, and I have no real reason to expect FNC is any different. They both provide, essentially, the same type of give-and-take applications, they’re both massive cable news networks and they both have several dozen departments under one roof.

Am I suggesting that PR has no role in new/social media? No, not at all. Quite the contrary actually. The “take-home lesson” from this situation seems to be that new media has not yet evolved to such a point of familiarity where executives are comfortable handing it over to the PR departments to handle. Instead of putting a PR practitioner – who specializes in boundary spanning and message control – on twitter feeds, facebook channels and website forums to engage the consumers, organizations like CNN and FNC are giving the task to their tech interns.

This leads me to my recommendation for improvement. It would behoove FNC (and any other organization) to put its PR practitioners on the front lines of new media interaction. New media has already created a groundswell of user-generated content for news organizations. But if FNC wants to optimize its business-to-public interaction, it needs to make sure that its social media representatives are PR practitioners, people whose entire business is relationship building.

It seems to me that FNC is only superficially engaging its readers/ listeners/ viewers. Its twitter and facebook account reps only make posts (outward projections), and there are infrequent references in some FNC shows of user-generated content. I’ve yet to see an FNC representative actively engaging customers in conversation. FNC may ask questions, post polls and make comments through new media outlets (and occasionally report on the responses), but it has yet to truly engage its publics in real two-way conversation.

It’s only a matter of time until customers realize they’re “being used” and reject these quasi-superficial social networking efforts. Clearly (as indicated in its ratings) FNC’s customers currently feel engaged and pleased with its product and services. What remains to be seen is how long these customers will remain happy before demanding an even larger stake in the news making business.

The progression from books, to journals, to weekly newspapers, to daily newspapers, to radio, to television, to “new media” has proven two undeniable facts. Customers seek a democracy of production, and they want instant gratification. The immediacy of new technology addresses (for now) the desire for instant gratification. And because customers want a say in the products they consume, we are experiencing exploding popularity of social media and increasingly interactive services.

At some point, it won’t be enough for FNC to merely provide a medium for social interaction; nor will it be acceptable for its reps to project and report comments and news from that social interaction. When FNC reaches this point, it will have to actively engage its customers in real conversation (ie: actually interact), and it would be in FOX News’ best interest to put its seasoned conversationalists (PR practitioners) in position to handle this situation when it arises.