Dodging the meteor

While in no way, shape or form do I endorse knife crime or any sort of criminal activity I found it very interesting to hear this morning about the new strategy of Strathclyde Police Force to reduce knife or violent crime.

They have set up a special unit to hunt down images of people with knives, swords, or blades on social networking sites like facebook, bebo, and myspace. They will then send them to the violent crime reduction unit in an effort to reduce gang related violence.

An innovative approach to a very serious issue, this highlights just how powerful social media and online pr has become in a real world context. The lines between online and offline communications is becoming so blurred that the distinction between the two is becoming less of a gap and more of a complementing discipline.

This is not new thinking for the online pr world, we have long advocated the benefits of an integrated approach to communications. How people now have such a range of choices for sourcing their information that we need to cater and be engaged in them all.

Initially there was probably a fear from mainstream media that online would threaten their very existance. That a wealth of free, multiple sources providing instant news and comment in multiple formats would lessen the reliance and interest in printed newspapers that come out once a day, or news bullitins every hour if you're near a TV. And to a large degree they are right, if traditional media continued to resist change then they would become the modern day dinosaur, soon extinct from the internet meteor.

But the reality is that most media saw it coming, the spotted the benefits of evolution and embraced the technologies, advantages and new audiences that the internet reached. News now breaks online and is commented on in print, people have become the new tv reporters capturing breaking news footage from multiple angles on a variety of mobile devices and now you can find a news site or group that isn't a 'one-size-fits-all' news bulliten but rather discusses the news that interests you whether it's 'a million ways to eat a kebab' or 'whatever happened to the cast of El Dorado'.

It's an exciting new stage in the evolution of communications - social media, the internet and traditional media all have a role to play - they are all tools to inform, equip and influence and need to be appropriately used. Strathclyde Police are clearly keen to stay one step ahead of the meteor!