Technology's impact on communication | Piktochart Infographic Editor

Technology's impact on communication | Piktochart Infographic Editor

Harare is choking, and its all our fault.

Harare is now choked by tonnes of plastic papers, dirty cloths and even rotten vegetables on its streets. Most of this is caused by the vendors that sell phone and electrical gadgets, film discs, clothes and there is now a major case of vendors selling vegetables along the street pavements to the extent that pedestrians even find it difficult to manoeuvre around. If one walks along Chinhoyi Street and Park Street, you would notice vendors competing to sell vegetables at the same time littering henceforth creating a filthy environment. Not only are the vendors causing such a problem, some pedestrians throw fruit peels and plastic papers on the streets without any courtesy or feeling ashamed. 

People need to know how this can badly affect our nation’s environment because soon it will become a major polluted area. Zimbabweans no longer have that culture of cleanliness within themselves. The city council has to come up with a feasible solution to this problem and one effective way would be setting up specific days whereby each and every citizen cleans around their residential area and/or around the city centre or maybe apprehend and fine those caught in such actions. This would instil a culture of cleanliness and keep the country safe from pollution. This problem of littering has to come to an end with immediate effect. What was once known as the Sunshine city is now on the verge of being a large trash settlement.

Use of SMART Objectives in Setting Projects

All organizations practically need to set objectives because they are vital in the ongoing of the company’s productions and they focus the organization. Businesses that have specific aims are usually more successful than those that don't; because a business with objectives knows what exactly it is trying to achieve. Objectives can be set in all areas of the business like in the sales department, production, finance and marketing areas.

An effective way to set objectives is to follow the well known acronym called SMART. This objective stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time, but we can also add Evaluation and Relevance further on calling it the effective SMARTER objectives.

An objective that follows SMART is very well likely to succeed because it is clear and very well specific so the organization knows exactly what needs to be achieved. You can tell when it has been achieved, in terms of being measurable because you have a way to measure completion. A SMART objective is likely to happen because it is an event that is achievable. Before setting a SMART objective, relevant factors such as resources and time have to be taken into account to ensure that it is realistic. Finally the timescale provides a deadline which helps people focus on the tasks required to achieve the objective. The timescale element stops people postponing task completion.

The meaning of the SMART objectives are:                                                                     
 Specific – the public relations department has to clearly define the organization objective so that everybody will know exactly what the company is trying to accomplish, rather than just flowing with the production without having a set plan on what exactly needs to be  achieved. Lack of a set plan will result in an unfavorable production outcome.

Measurable – the organization has to be able to measure their progress against the objective with relative ease. The company has to be more specific and report on activity specific to the objectives they want to achieve like the activity that is directly tied to that objective. If a company does not know how it will measure its objectives, the company can suffer some loses in its production.

Attainable – the organization should be able to complete their objectives within a reasonable amount of time. If its objectives are too far in the future, or too complex, they should break them down into a shorter-term objective. The company should not be too over ambitious; they should check that they are able to satisfy their objectives. One attainable step is to create and share a press release calendar with their team. Another step is to conduct interviews or press conferences.

Realistic – the organization should be honest with their objective setting. They need to be realistic about what they can achieve by their project deadline. If the organization has historically sent out one press release a quarter, they should notice if it is realistic to believe that they can do more or less a month. They should be realistic in measuring how much they can achieve. They should have enough news to maintain that pace and have accurate sources which are able to provide information quickly.

Time- The organization’s objective should be tied to a date or time. The more specific they can be with this deadline, the better. This has always been the biggest wake-up call for most companies. There is often a big gap between when they can possibly complete a task and when it actually gets done. The company has to use any task or project management system that encourages them to set deadlines for tasks and show them overdue tasks.  They should thoroughly be time framed with specific deadlines to be met.

Evaluation- they should evaluate their objectives before implementation, which is feed forward control during the operation of the company which is concurrent control, and after event action which is feedback control.

 Relevant- the organizations objectives should be time framed with specific deadlines to be met.
The first step in developing an effective business communications strategy is defining their goals and objectives. Organizations, businesses and people set objectives everyday often without realizing it. If they test their objectives against the SMART principle, they will increase their chances of success. Once a SMART objective has been set, the next step is to write a plan detailing how the objective will be achieved.

Objectives are strategic steps along the way to reaching a goal, and can be expressed in concrete terms where goals express end-points and ultimate outcomes. Objectives therefore lay out the plan for achieving a desired goal, and can be used to measure the progress or determine the efficiency of the organization’s public relations strategy. When formulating objectives, the organization should be sure to distinguish between output and impact objectives.  Output objectives relate to production output, while impact objectives relate to the effect of their public relations activities on the target audience.

If an organization really wants to improve their performance of public relations programs, they should implement the SMART objectives and work harder to attain them for they are very effective. SMART is used in project management for setting objectives for the project. It’s more than relevant and applicable to public relations strategy and planning.

How Media Intertwines with Culture

Media and culture need each other to coexist. Furthermore, in today's society the media serves the interest of culture which is the vehicle of free speech in a diverse multicultural society. The media is part of our day to day lives inculturation in which the members of the society are used to the culture of television, radio, internet and any other forms that we use in viewing of the media of our culture.

Culture is the way of life led by a group of people as defined by their, language, religion, rituals, norms, behavior and values. It is simply a people’s way of living as distinct from other groups. Media is part of culture and culture is part of media for media practice takes place in a cultural context. Most people live their lives and learn to be what they are in their culture through what they see in the media. We can say media brings out aspects which are likely to be expected from people in different societies.

 For any medium to outline information or a story about a certain society, that medium first of all has to thoroughly understand their culture, basically how those people live. The media manages to create our cultural values, norms, rituals and religion and also further shapes us to have a perspective of our own way of life, religion, beliefs and the way we live in our different environments and backgrounds.

Media takes place in a cultural environment of any given society therefore resulting we say media is part of culture and culture is part of media because they interconnect together and are indispensable components in society. Our cultures are changing fast due to urbanization and globalization mainly being vehicled by the media in our societies. We have lost our culture as Zimbabweans, this comes due to the fact that we have so much adopted the western culture into our daily lives or we can simply say that we have been drugged by the aspect of Americanization.

We have so much relied our lives to the media that each and every little thing we do is because of the media because we live our lives exactly as to what the media expects us to do. We have local programs that broadcast on media television like Mai Chisamba Show which showcases on ZBC. This program talks about the norms and cultural rituals and practices that are expected of Zimbabweans. Fellow citizens watch this program and hence live to the expectations by Mai Chisamba who is the show host, and also live according to what other peers portray or bring out on the show.

Most Zimbabweans no longer rely on our local media news broadcasting programs like ZBC news and rather focus on other international global news networks. People state that the local news is too biased or not entertaining. They mostly listen to and watch media of the foreign nations mainly that of the western world, and as they do so, they slowly adapt their type of culture and at the same time destroy our own cultural values. Henceforth we say that media is part of culture and culture is part of media therefore they are indispensable components in the society.

In order to understand how the media has a great impact on our lives, we generally and first of all have to explore the cultural context in which the media operates and basically understand why it operates like that. Media is like surveillance for people within a society and it mirrors our cultural values and the way we live in our societies. For example call-in programs on Star FM radio station which is a platform where people within a society get together to share and resolve problems affecting them. So media also brings people together.

Culture may be defined as the symbols of expression that groups and societies use to make sense of our daily lives and to articulate their values. With the massive development and improvement of globalization, media and technology, it is practically difficult for most people to live without media in their daily lives for media mirrors the way we live. In essence we can say that media is part of culture and culture is part of media and these two components need one another for them to co-exist.