Initially, this website was used for public relations courses I taught at Northern Kentucky University, but now it's used as a supplemental textbook at scores of schools and as a reference source by both students and public relations practitioners, especially those seeking professional accreditation or certification.

The cornerstone of the site are my Online Readings in Public Relations, about 100 textbook-style articles, tipsheets, and fill-in-the-blank templates for public relations projects and planning.

The site is maintained by: Professor Emeritus Michael Turney, Ph.D., ABC

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"Shards of glass"
will change public relations work.

If Axios is correct about "shards of glass," (see article at right) it won't change the purpose, role, or goals of public relations. But, we will have to change how we work with clients and the media, and we will need better ways to achieve our goals.

A short list of key media contacts to help us publicize any and all of our clients won't work when those clients and their target audiences stop using the same few media sources. And, it could easily become a two-tier problem (or a double-edged sword) if the clients and target audiences start to prefer different media. The media clients want to be promoted in, may no longer be the media their target audiences prefer to consume.

If we as public relations practitioners have to deal with "shards of glass" instead of a few, key, dominant media, our jobs will be much harder and far more time-consuming than they used to be. We'll now have to learn about countless new and different media and how best to work with each of them.

 
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Are the reach and impact of once-dominant,
major news media dramatically shrinking?

Axios, among other media analysts, certainly thinks so. And, if they're right, it could affect all news-seekers who want to keep up with daily developments around them. Its effects could be even greater on those who need to share information with large numbers of people and have traditionally relied on the major news media as the best way to do it.

A March Axios article by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen declared: "America is splintering into more than a dozen news bubbles based on ideology, wealth, jobs, age and location." This is in marked contrast to nearly two-centuries of journalism history in which a few, major news outlets, starting with the newspaper wire services in the 1840s, became so dominant in reach and influence that some alarmists feared these media would coalesce into a single, media giant that would monopolize news and information for everyone. Now, Axios is saying almost the exact opposite is happening.

"Think of it as the shards of glass phenomenon," VandeHei and Allen wrote. "Not long ago, we all saw news and information through a few common windows: newspapers, TV, cable. Now we find it in scattered chunks that match our age, habits, politics and passions." Although the old, big-name news media aren't dead, at least, not yet, they no longer attract a majority of news-seekers.

Just weeks before Election Day 2024, these same authors followed up by discussing the "shards of glass" impact on the Presidential campaigns. They began by asserting: "The mainstream media's dominance in narrative- and reality-shaping in presidential elections shattered in 2024... Both campaigns have targeted small, often little-appreciated shards to reach hyper-specific pockets of potential voters. The campaigns are doing this with unorthodox, sometimes lengthy media appearances and precision ad targeting."

Axios believes, "This shift — partly a reaction to plummeting trust in traditional media, partly the reality of younger people gobbling up news/info on new platforms — has reordered the information ecosystem at an epic scale. ... All the shards mean it's much more effort for you, the consumer, to find healthy news that doesn't waste your time or insult your intelligence."

Read the original "Shards of Glass" article on Axios.

Read more about the impact of this on American elections.