Bite Size Comms
Bite Size Comms is a weekly podcast that will give you a perspective on an aspect of public relations and communications practice. Bite size as they are short opinion pieces on topical issues. The episodes are sometimes contentious, sometimes funny, and they all aim to provoke thought.
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Bite Size Comms
2025
My predictions for 2025 that touch on Public Relations, communications and media. Happy New Year!
Predictions for Public Relations in 2025
The start of a new year is a good time to look ahead and attempt to predict what will happen. So here are my predictions for 2025 that touch on public relations.
I am not confident about PR practice. I feel personally stable as a freelancer, having strong relationships with my main clients. However, the world is changing in what I see as a negative way. 2025 may be a strange year.
I don’t know why I am pessimistic. James Marriott in The Times wrote that we are living through the passing of an age - the end of technocratic, good-mannered, optimistic and consensual politics that have prevailed since World War Two - and the arrival of a different world. The re-election of Donald Trump as President of America, the emergence of Nigel Farage (previously seen as a joke figure) as potentially the leader of the opposition and a future Prime Minister. The rise of populists, demagogues and strongmen in different countries. Adult reading proficiency is falling worldwide as we read less and watch more (TikToks and YouTube). However, the FT says that talk of doom and gloom is overdone. Economists predict that the UK will outgrow France and Germany this year. The dominance of services exports, rather than goods, means Britain is less exposed than European countries to potential high US tariffs. FTSE 100 companies are expected to benefit from Trump’s deregulation agenda, and private investment is improving.
Deregulation brings the threat of more misinformation. The US broligarchy, the group of male tech billionaires, sees an opportunity to extract as much wealth and power as possible from Trump’s presidency. Elon Musk has already gained a 40% share increase in Tesla. Peter Thiel 23% in Palantir. An unparalleled return on investment for the small-to-them Trump campaign donations. The others, like Meta’s Zuckerberg, are flocking to Trump. They are flexing the power of the ‘IT companies’.
In truth, we have seen this before, but not in our lifetimes. John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were all nasty pieces of work and operated as the likes of Musk et al now. The broligarchs believe that ultra-rich individuals, not powerful states, should control the world. This year, Zuckerberg has already threatened that institutions (he is talking about the European Commission) will no longer regulate American companies and stem their wealth-making. This is dangerous to the world order. I have boycotted Meta products for years. I no longer use X. I’m trying to do my bit to stop these individuals. Still, it will take a brave government (up for it, Sir Keir?) or a brave institution like the European Commission to severely fine these companies for their wrongs so that they backtrack.
This all harms truthful, fact-based journalism and information. Misinformation will become normal on Facebook and X when they have eliminated fact-checking and moderation controls on what people post. We are going back to the late 2000s claim that social media is about free speech and protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. I also see a cheapening of quality journalism. For many years, I have subscribed to The Guardian Editions, an award-winning tablet and phone app. It has been replaced with a less accessible PDF and a poor-quality reader with spelling mistakes. It saves money for The Guardian, but I stopped my subscription due to the poor-quality reading experience.
Search will undergo further changes in 2025. AI-produced summaries on search engines will become the norm, and many people will stop visiting actual websites. I use Perplexity AI several times daily and rarely use a search engine. I use a browser if I know the website address. SEO as a technique is dying. We will also see an increase in AI slop - low-quality AI-generated media. Influencers and creators will be seen as more important than journalists, academics, or serious organisations, particularly in consumption, lifestyle, and political issues.
And in 2025, we will probably see further opportunistic land grabs by states like Russia, China, Israel and America.
One thing about predictions. Unlike objectives, never go back to them a year later.
Happy New Year!
[Image: BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash]
