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: Itumeleng Ntheledi
1. The biggest challenge facing the South African PR and communications industry today is the over-reliance on stories that focus on current affairs or breaking news. While it’s important for people to understand what is going on currently, sometimes it becomes all that we focus on. As a result, other important stories that may not fit into the current affairs agenda get pushed to the wayside, neglected, and denied the spotlight they truly deserve.
If you look at South Africa currently, there is a lot of negativity, despair, and anger surrounding national events. But what happens to the stories cultivating positivity and hope, or covering the truly positive things that are happening? This over-reliance feeds an overall negative mentality surrounding the country.
Young professionals can address this by finding ways to tell these important stories in a gripping and fascinating way for South Africans. Young people are inherently creative, energetic, and have a zeal and zest for life. They need to take the initiative and be proactive about shining a spotlight on these neglected yet incredibly important stories.
Curiosity and hunger
2. They need to navigate these complexities by first understanding them – where they come from, how complex they are, and how sensitive these issues can be. The better we understand the actual issues, the better equipped we will be to cover them in a way that is respectful, tasteful, and does justice to the topic. It is about having that inquisitiveness, curiosity, and a real hunger for understanding in order to navigate this landscape properly and, overall, just do the right thing.
AI’s ethical risks
3. I’ll start with the biggest opportunities. With AI, you cannot ignore the absolute speed it offers for finding information, writing, and conducting work much faster. It gives young South African communicators an opportunity to learn better and faster. It also provides the ability to research niche insights and angles that previously required a highly nuanced approach to find, simply based on how proficient you are at prompting.
However, the biggest ethical risk we are encountering right now is passing AI-generated content off as our own work. Taking what AI gives you as-is reflects a lazy approach to prompting and content creation. Furthermore, a significant risk is the erosion of the ability to think. Critical thinking is incredibly important for young communicators. We need young people to be thinking about problems and solutions now so they can grow that muscle, pour their creative juices into the challenges we face, and become better thinkers. Losing that ability is a huge risk.
Timeless skills
4. We need to focus on skills that are essentially timeless. First is the ability to communicate and articulate your ideas effectively, whether that involves presenting concepts or simply building rapport with peers and your network. That is an invaluable skill that will never die out; your ability to communicate thoughts and insights will help you no matter what work you do, regardless of how these industries overlap.
Second is the ability to think critically and for yourself. These are crucial skills that will remain relevant over the next five years and push you above and beyond.
Finally, the ability to observe and analyse. Observation isn’t just about what you see on the surface; it’s about what you pick up, scrutinise, and look at from different perspectives to gain deeper insights – really squeezing all of the juice out of the orange. While many can see things at a surface level, having great observation and analytical skills allows you to look at something with such depth that you uncover things others miss, even when looking at the exact same thing.
Stories of hope
5. One thing I would change is creating more incentives around stories that are niche, that spread hope or joy, and that tell those important narratives that typically get left to the wayside. Right now, current affairs and negatively-focused stories are heavily incentivised. They are rewarded with views, reactions, and eyeballs, which might just be an aspect of human nature.
However, I want to create environments where niche stories that shift the narrative and spread hope are focused on, appreciated, and given the space to shine and grow. Doing this will shift the communications industry for the next generation toward professionals who are more dynamic and adept at searching for the stories that truly matter to them.
