The future is actually now.

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The New Media, sometimes referred to as Web 2.0, is the advance in technology that is having reverberating effects on the communication field. Everyone can be a journalist to some extent, and the amount of information available through various forms of new technology has increased dramatically, demonstrated by some interesting statistical estimates. An article by Richard Alleyne, science correspondent with the British publication The Daily Telegraph, provided several measurement analogies that demonstrate our increasing exposure to information over time. He claims that “the growth in the Internet, 24-hour television, and mobile phones” are responsible for a five times multiplier scaling information exposure in 1986 and comparing it  similar measures to 2011. Alleyne claims that this multiplier “pales in significance” when compared to “the amount of information we churn out through email, twitter, social networking sites and text messages.” His article claims that the “average person” creates a “200-fold increase” in information handling today as compared to 1986 (Alleyne, 2011).

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The Alleyne article is based upon the work of Dr. Martin Hilbert of University of Southern California, where Hilbert and a team used mathematical theory and formulas to produced estimated measures of information “sent” around the world. "These figures show that we are in the middle of the information age," Dr Hilbert said. "When you think that 100 years ago people we're lucky to read the equivalent of 50 books in a lifetime but now most children have watched a couple of hundred movies” (Alleyne, 2011).

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The ethical guidelines of the Public Relations Society of America are advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty, and fairness. The advocacy aspect requires that public relations experts serve “as responsible advocates for those we represent” and the loyalty aspect requires that PR experts be “faithful to those we represent.” However, the honesty aspect requires the expert to adhere to the “highest standards of accuracy and truth” and the loyalty aspect mentioned before is two fold, as the later part of the aspect states that PR experts “serve the public interest” (PRSA, 2016). These things being stated, the ethical obligation of a PR expert does not simply end with simple servitude to their client’s wishes, they also have an obligation to the truth and the interests of the society. This dilemma is worked out in the somewhat traditionally adversarial roles of public relations experts and journalists. This handbook has been an effort to focus on the PR concerns of facilities that deal with the high stake privacy concerns of their residents and balance those privacy rights with the First Amendment protections afforded journalists.

The Alleyne article also points out that “using the analogy of an 85-page newspaper, they found that in 1986 we received around 40 newspapers full of information every day but this had rocketed to 174 in 2007” (Alleyne, 2011).

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Privacy in the digital world is a tough thing to maintain, yet privacy is an especially important right for individuals who may require additional assistance during a health or financial concern. In the Preface of this handbook, the Google definition of “homeless” is included to demonstrate the negative connotations that can go along with the term. These connotations may or may not be true concerning the image of a facility resident. However that image can easily be digitally transmitted and associated with those biases and negative views even without intention. While those proposed synonyms of the Google definition have harsh, negative connotations go along with the message because of the meaning of the term – illustrated by the definition of “homeless.”

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It is also important to note when considering the future, why such a specific public affairs handbook was created? That question is also covered in the Preface with the statistics that demonstrate a growing number of veterans facing PTSD challenges -- as as those challenges coincide with potential homelessness and in facilities residences. This appears to be a trend for the future, and that trend is likely to garner media interests -- making this handbook a relevant document for future media actions concerning veterans.

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The importance of ensuring that media visits and queries are honored professionally, while simultaneously covering the privacy rights of in-facility veterans, is more challenging today than in the past– yet it is still extremely important. A cause that this handbook has attempted to treat in order that effective tools be offered to employees and staff of such facilities in order that they will be better equipped to preserve privacy rights while maintaining freedom of speech.