New Media: Creating more threats or opportunities?

The concept of “New Media, New Challenges” if briefly discussed in the Cutlip book pg. 252-254. However, this discussion does not identify new media utilized after the books printing in (presumably early) 2006. Such new media outlets are described in an Oct. 2, 2006 PR Week article on the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s (ONDCP) use of YouTube. The ONDCP is using YouTube to post anti-drug commercials as a part of their “Above the Influence” campaign. The organization hopes that by posting the videos on YouTube, they will be viewed by more people than would otherwise have access to them. The problem with providing these videos online is that they are available to critics who may parody them. Cutlip does not go into detail about the effects, especially the uncontrolled effects, of utilizing new media to convey your organization’s message. How much should we, as practitioners, accept the potential threats of new media in order to have our message reach as wide an audience as possible? Are there ways to control the use of our new media messages with third party outlets? How can we best utilize these new media outlets to create opportunities with the least amount of threat produced by critics as described in the article?