Commanders must communicate their intentions and the troops, community, indeed the general public, must know his concerns and intentions. It is especially important to note that PA Information Provision techniques and procedures are just one channel that the commander may use in communicating to his audiences. A poorly recognized fact is that the communication links between the commander and his audiences occur on various levels and assorted channels. The explosion of today's digital technology has provided individual soldiers, civilians, family members, and the general public the ability to bypass rigid, controlled, vertical communication systems in favor of the common user, multidirectional, reciprocal, simultaneous, real-time transactive communications systems. Americans have the power to bypass the gatekeepers and ignore canned, shoddily produced, dated industrial age information products, in favor of accessing on-line information services or the Internet directly.
Information is passed in all directions, continually.
These audiences will have access to many more sources of information, which makes evaluating the effects of Army PA Information Programs all the more difficult. This explosion of information technology has also highlighted how critical it is for PA elements to stay up to date on communications technologies, information services, and socio-economic trends of these forces at work. Determine the command's mission and the commander's method for accomplishing that mission. Identify all the various audiences interested in information related to the command, its members, and the mission. Gather identify all the messages communicated and identify which audiences received such information.