As PRISA’s PRISMS Summit & Awards takes place from 22 to 24 October, The Media Online profiles this year’s Top 10 Young Voices, emerging talent shaping the future of public relations and communications in South Africa.
Selected from a competitive pool of youth entries, each brings a distinct perspective to this year’s theme, Kaleidoscope, Patterns of Impact Across Past, Present and Future’, reflecting on the ideas, experiences and ambitions that will influence the profession’s next chapter.
We asked them:
- What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the South African PR and communications industry today, and what role can young professionals play in addressing it?
- South Africa’s communications landscape is shaped by issues such as inequality, social change, political polarisation and declining trust. How should the next generation of communicators navigate these complexities while protecting credibility and reputation?
- AI is rapidly changing how communications work is researched, created and distributed. What do you see as the biggest opportunity – and the biggest ethical risk – AI presents for young South African communicators?
- Young professionals are entering an industry where traditional PR, social media, content creation, marketing and journalism increasingly overlap. What skills do you believe communicators need to remain relevant and influential over the next five years?
- The PRISMS theme, Kaleidoscope: Patterns of Impact Across Past, Present and Future, asks us to think about how the profession is evolving. What is one thing you would change about the communications industry in South Africa to make it more inclusive, innovative or meaningful for the next generation?
PRISM YOUNG VOICE: Jeffrica Masilela
Our industry does an impressive job of creating visibility, but it’s difficult to show impact. We can count media coverage, impressions, and engagement, but the real question is whether our communications have changed perceptions, strengthened relationships, or resulted in meaningful organisational outcomes.
My work in music, technology, and corporate communications has only reinforced the idea that data alone doesn’t tell a story. The real value lies in understanding what the data tells us about people, culture, and behaviour, then translating that knowledge into stories that resonate with audiences.
Young professionals are the ones to question the traditional ways. We understand the new platforms and the changing needs of the audience, but we must be more confident in linking those findings to a business strategy and measurable results. We need to be asking smarter questions, challenging briefs when appropriate, and pushing for communications to be involved in decision-making from the beginning.
Ultimately, we should not be valued as communicators on the amount of noise we make, but on the impact we leave behind.
Cultural intelligence
2. The first thing to recognise is that South Africa is not one audience with a single set of experiences. Language, culture, economic circumstances and lived realities all contribute to the shape of the communication landscape. If these differences are not taken into account, there is a risk of producing communication that is technically correct but does not connect with the people it is supposed to reach.
Cultural intelligence has to be as important to me as technical competence. Communicators should listen before they speak, question their assumptions, and use research to understand the communities they are working with. This is particularly important in a digital environment where public sentiment can shift quickly and where audiences increasingly expect organisations to demonstrate accountability.
We have to be honest about the limitations of communication itself, too. If an organisation’s actions don’t align with its messaging, it cannot resolve a credibility issue through communication alone. We’re not in the business of protecting reputation at any cost. We’re in the business of providing strategic counsel that helps organisations understand the consequences of their decisions and communicate with greater transparency.
Credibility is not built by having the perfect answer to every controversy but by consistently lining up what an organisation says with what it does. In a complex society like ours, that alignment is essential to earning trust.
Equal opportunities
3. I see AI as a tool to make communications smarter, more efficient, and insight-driven. It may support practitioners in accelerating research, handling vast amounts of information, discovering new trends and exploring creative potential that could otherwise be limited by time or resources. These capabilities can create equal opportunities and promote strategic thinking, particularly for young professionals in resource-limited environments.
But the most significant ethical risk is that we start to mistake efficiency for expertise. Artificial intelligence is able to produce authoritative-sounding content that is not factually correct, culturally sensitive, or contextually appropriate. This is especially relevant in a country like South Africa. Communication needs nuance, lived experience, and the social implications of language, things that can’t simply be outsourced to a tool.
A tool trained largely on global English content can flatten how a message lands across different communities, or misread tone in isiZulu, Sesotho or Afrikaans, and the reputational cost of that mistake falls on us, not the software
There are also fundamental questions around data privacy, intellectual property, bias, and accountability. Just because artificial intelligence is able to write something quickly does not mean it should be published without fact-checking or critical thinking.
I think we should embrace AI, but not let it replace our judgment. We need to understand its capabilities, recognise its limitations, and remain accountable for the work we produce. The real competitive advantage will belong to communicators who combine technological fluency with critical thinking, cultural intelligence, and ethical leadership
Business literacy
4. I think the next five years will call for communicators to be more multidisciplinary but still rooted in the fundamentals of public relations: stakeholder relationships, strategic counsel, reputation management and trust.
Above all, strategic thinking and business literacy will be important. Communicators need to understand the organisations they represent, the industries they work in, and the goals they are trying to achieve. We need to be able to demonstrate how communication supports wider organisational priorities, rather than thinking of it as a siloed function.
Secondly, data literacy will be even more important. We must analyse audience insights, media performance, and cultural trends and translate those insights into actionable recommendations. Reporting numbers is one thing; understanding what they mean and advising an organisation on what to do next is where our value becomes clear.
Third, storytelling and cultural intelligence will remain critical. In a crowded information environment, the scarce skill is no longer producing content but identifying the narrative that matters to a specific audience, and knowing why
Finally, digital fluency, AI literacy, and ethical judgment are non-negotiables. Understanding how technology changes the way people consume information matters, but so does remembering that the relationships at the core of our work are human.
I don’t think all PR pros need to become content creators, data scientists, or marketing specialists. Rather, we need to understand how these disciplines intersect and how to bring them together strategically.
The communicators who stay relevant will be those who can connect data to insight, insight to strategy, and strategy to meaningful outcomes.
Intentional pathways
5. If I could change one thing, it would be how we create opportunities for young professionals to have a voice in the strategic direction of our industry. Young professionals often sit closest to emerging platforms, changing audience behaviours, and cultural shifts that organisations need to understand.
We need more intentional pathways for them to take part in strategic discussions, work alongside senior leaders, and contribute to thought leadership. Mentoring is important, but so is sponsorship: seasoned professionals actively creating opportunities for their younger colleagues to be heard, trusted and considered for leadership
My journey through the industry, alongside my academic research into how PR professionals build their personal brands, has made me particularly interested in how expertise is recognised and whose voices are given space. We spend our careers helping organisations build credibility and articulate their value, but we should also be creating an industry where practitioners at different stages of their careers can build their own professional visibility and influence.
The PRISMS theme, Kaleidoscope, speaks to the idea that different perspectives can reshape how we see the same picture. I believe our industry is better for the willingness to learn from those who came before us and the opportunity to allow new voices to challenge the status quo.
The next generation must not only inherit the future of South African PR but also play a meaningful role in shaping it.
