MEGATRENDS AND MEDIA

MEGATRENDS AND MEDIA
public communication activities of CSOs. Two linked concepts relevant for
this partnership are communication for partnership and communication
for sustainability that translates into social responsibility of media that
has a double nature: they are socially responsible as any other business
and carry additional social responsibility because of their role as mass
communication media. The four focal points in communication which
emerge linked in a causative-consequential chain in that respect are:
stakeholder relations, collaboration, boundary spanning and two-way
symmetrical communication.
The framework chain starts with stakeholder relations. Power/interest
stakeholder mapping helps identify future partners. In any civil society
organisation the process of stakeholder audit should surface media as
the key stakeholder. The concept of corporate social opportunity can be
applied and media identiied as one stakeholder group of high interest
and power as a partner.
Partnership is based on collaboration success of which depends on
various factors related to the environment, membership characteristics,
process and structure, communication, purpose and resources. The
dialogue has high power in collaborative communication carrying what
is sometimes called a sea of change in the ways people see one another
and worked together.
The two-way symmetrical organisational communication model by
Gruning&Hunt is to be used by a civil society organisation to explore
perceptions to place messages and also to adapt its initial positioning.
The two-way mixed motive model is a normative communication model
in a cross-sector partnership.
The facilitation role of partnership brokers is also very important.
Brokers are on the boundaries of organizational systems with the main
function of spanning the boundaries with various degrees of boundary
permeability. In this case CSO communicators and journalists are also
in the positions where they can become partnership brokers. Boundary
spanners are “exchange agents” of processing information and enabling
relationship building. In the emerging change of attitudes among
organizations and individuals towards “partnership thinking” which has
the potential of social transformation, stakeholder relations are linked
to information low to “networks of trust” in multi-level partnerships of
the future.
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