Communication management and Crossmedia

By Harry Smals on 4 October 2009

Why would we bother about crossmedia? Why not just apply internet, TV, radio, print and events; isn’t that the same as crossmedia? I don’t think so! Crossmedia is not just about media, it’s about communication. The word ‘’medium’’ means that it is between two other things and connects them; a sender and a receiver in this case. Connecting, that is what media can do. Two or more people connect and consequently form a duo, a group, an organisation, and a network.

Connecting, using media is not sheer amusement, it is vital for organisations to survive. Any organisation needs consumers and/ or users of its products and services; an organisation also needs employees, suppliers, etc. Those people have to be informed – and if possible – emotionally involved, so that they stay connected to the organisation. This emotional loyalty helps relationships to sustain and thus helps the organisations’ continuity.

Therefore media are ‘’just’’ a means for a higher goal: communication, community forming, group forming. From the organisational perspective media are not relevant, but the effects of media are relevant: changing what people know, feel and do. If the effect is the goal, then it is not very relevant how the effect is provoked. Hence, thinking media-independent is important for communication-managers. Thinking independent from one medium, thinking across media, that is what makes crossmedia relevant for an organisation and therefore for its communication-managers. They should focus on effects, not on media.

After the previous considerations it will not be a surprise that crossmedia plays a more and more prominent role in all the programmes of our faculty of communication and journalism. Not in the least in the master international communication management (www.micm.hu.nl) that we are currently revising.

tagged with: communication, loyalty, crossmedia