Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Marketing communication has the potential to work effectively as issues management because it is a proactive, ‘friendly’ mode of communication.

and may not necessarily raise suspicious hackles from stakeholders.

Certainly, the marketing communication dimension of business communication, in the context of issues management, may have been glossed over quite significantly.

Marketing communication is an unusual discipline, if indeed it is a discipline. I tend to think of it as a set of tactical mechanisms that fall under both marketing and public relations.

It’s a unique experience to be in New York during the week commemorating the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that made the term “9/11” part of the global lexicon. With measured emotion, this indomitable city remembers a grim moment whose legacy defined a decade and divided the world. But 9/11 was more than a moment of geopolitical significance; it also heralded some fundamental changes in global communication.

In the wake of a disaster, the media are recording history in a hurry, and they are vulnerable to what sociologist Michael Schudson calls “a prose of solidarity rather than a prose of information.” A decade later, we can consider such events with less emotion and more perspective. With this in mind, here are five communication trends that were influenced or accelerated by 9/11...