It’s a new year and a new decade and that means a whole new generation of celebrities (and maybe some old ones) will be popping up again. There was once a time on earth if a certain individual possessed a particular talent this individual would be called a celebrity and celebrated on newspapers, magazines and on TV.

In the 21^st century all that has changed because of reality TV, the internet and the rise of new social media. Today media has become more affordable and easily available. By accessing blogs and social networking sites it is now even easier to get the latest gossip. Facebook and Twitter have allowed people all over the world to share and collect information and sites like YouTube let people create user generated content, which some argue is better than the content they get from the conventional media as it is unedited and the story behind the content grabs its audience’s attention because it’s made by ‘real people’.

Citizen journalism has not only been concerned with the serious news but is having a huge following in the celebrity gossip sector and these ‘citizen journalists’ have no allegiance to a media outlet and do not have to be politically correct. They are free to express their views how ever, when ever and where ever they want and anyone is free to comment on what they say. Some have even become celebrities themselves like Perez Hilton, which shows that even people with no academic or industry training in journalism can present their comments and opinions over the blogosphere and the internet and be celebrated.

So what does this mean for celebrity PR? Unlike advertising, PR is more difficult in controlling its messages and therefore needs to enforce PR strategy to gain competitive advantage. In this case public relation agencies should be embracing the future of media early in order to combat its negative attention for clients. PR needs to engage with these people in order to get positive news from them. Newspapers are in decline and finding it difficult to charge to consumers for their content over the internet. It is even easier for the public to gain information because of mobile phone technology and mobile internet technology for laptops.

We live in a world were information can be reached so fast that if you blink you’ll have heard of someone and then never hear of them again. It is absolutely critical that PR consultants get to know this new system in order to ensure its survival as an industry as this will be how people get their news during this decade with even more pictures and video content to go with it. Technology advances mean that media outlets will continue to invest online, which will lead to a greater demand for digital PR support. As for celebrities they will need to work harder as fame will come with an even bigger audience. In the age of new media and digital technology reputation management for people in the limelight will be a growing sector within the PR industry and goes hand in hand with traditional publicists and Celebrity PR consultants.