Nearly five years ago, the head of one of the world’s largest PR firms turned the communications world on its ear by (presciently) declaring that we’ve entered an age when companies have the capacity to “bypass the media” filter to deliver their messages directly to their constituents. Journalists decried this seemingly pretentious idea as heresy…… Continue reading Control Nut
Category: Slate
Blog–>Microblog–>Nanoblog?
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone on “The Colbert Report” (posted April 4, 2009)Twitter’s other founder Evan Williams at the Ted conference (Feb 27, 2009)”Flutter” founder, Matt Ibsen (April 3, 2009)The messaging service we didn’t know we needed until we had it” is how Twitter co-founder Biz Stone described the explosive micro-blogging platform last week to Comedy…… Continue reading Blog–>Microblog–>Nanoblog?
Recovery Release
Slate’s John Dickerson tweeted news that the administration has “revitalized the press release…with the launch of Recovery.gov.”The site sub-head reads “Your Money at Work” and includes the following mission statement: Education: Explain the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; Transparency: Show how, when, and where the money is spent; Accountability: Provide data that will allow citizens…… Continue reading Recovery Release
Ink-Stained Victims
One of the older case studies I like to cite in my public talks on the changed PR landscape entails citizen empowerment and the hatchet job The New York Times did on Blog Maverick Mark Cuban several years ago.Instead of sulking or demanding a printed retraction, Cuban took to his keyboard to cut and paste…… Continue reading Ink-Stained Victims
Not Ready for Prime Time
I love Joan Walsh’s comparison of Sarah Palin’s comments on Iran to those of Miss South Carolina on why Americans don’t know simple U.S. geography. First Miss South Carolina: “I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps. And I believe…… Continue reading Not Ready for Prime Time
N-PR-ozac
Leave it to Slate to prolong the debate over the use by the news media of “experts” with financial ties to organizations whose POVs they espouse. So what’s wrong with that? What media pundit today isn’t advocating for one side of an issue or another?The problems arise when the news organization neglects to inform the…… Continue reading N-PR-ozac
Corrective Inaction
In a post last evening, Slate media critic Jack Shafer takes us into the imperfect world of printed newspapers, and specifically a topic on which this blogger previously has pontificated: when journalists make factual errors.Mr. Shafer shares an analysis from the University of Oregon School of Journalism’s Scott Maier in which UofO researchers checked the…… Continue reading Corrective Inaction