LBCC Spring Term: Media & Society Kicks Off with Shirky

Over the break, I finished reading Clay Shirky's book, "Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations." It's an interesting exploration of society, the Internet and how social media (e.g. blogs, Facebook, Twitter) is changing the way we communicate.

Shirky emphasizes the power of the Internet as a tool to organize, and how people passionate about a cause are succeeding like no other time in history. It's not that people are more dedicated to their particular target for change, it's just that the Internet has made it more possible to quickly find people of like mind and to mobilize faster than ever before. Shirky includes a number of interesting case studies to support his claims and propel the reader through his book.

We focus on some of Shirky's ideas at the outset of my Media and Society class at Linn-Benton Community College. For a sneak peek, enjoy both Shirky's TED talk and this video from the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

Updated:
--For a discussion of some of the ideas in Shirky's upcoming book, "Cognitive Surplus," see this new post on Kevin Kelly's blog.



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Social Media for PR Pros Working with Reporters

A friend and local public relations professional sent me a Facebook message asking my opinion on a couple of questions she was considering for a newsletter article she was writing about social media, public relations and working with reporters.

She asked:

1. How have relationships changed between reporters and public relations professionals over the last decade?

2. What tips would you offer to a public relations professional to interact with reporters and build a trusted relationship?

Here's my response:

In this age of social media, public relations professionals have more authority – and responsibility – than ever before. This includes their relationships with news reporters and other media professionals, who they now outnumber.

With smaller newsrooms and tighter deadlines, reporters are even more reliant on public relations professionals to provide quick and accurate details about breaking news events or background information for longer-term stories. Reporters are working at breakneck speed these days to post stories online, so making immediate contact with knowledgeable, responsive PR pros is essential. Where once there existed a more clearly separate reporter-source relationship, today it’s all about collaboration.

Just as journalists are feeling more pressed to deliver, public relations professionals are under increasing pressure to stay “ahead of the story,” whether responding to an incident involving their company or setting the news agenda. And with extensive social media networks and information distribution channels of their own, they no longer have to rely solely on the news media to “get the word out.”

Meanwhile, customers as well as news and information consumers no longer have to depend on the media to find out what’s going on. Here’s where the job of public relations professionals becomes most critical, and must be most transparent. Customers want the facts and they want them now. They are savvy enough to recognize spin. And with their own social media networks, they will punish businesses and public relations professionals who mess with them. Who can afford having a Facebook campaign launched against them?!

With this in mind, here are some tips for public relations professionals looking to build a stronger relationship with the media:

1. Take full advantage of all the social media tools out there – Facebook, Facebook fan pages, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, Google maps, Flickr, Web sites, podcasts, wikis … and don’t forget old standbys such as e-mail.
2. Make reporters part of your personal and professional networks: become Facebook friends, invite people to become Facebook “fans” and Twitter followers.
3. Dedicate time every day to updating and maintaining your social media presence, making your media contacts aware of important business and industry news and articles, along with bloggers, Web sites and other “insider” resources they can use to inform readers.
4. Don’t neglect old-fashioned face time and telephone calls. Take advantage of informal “meetups” and other opportunities to connect outside of typical business “transactions.”
5. Be ever proactive, anticipating news and be ready to take immediate action.

What’s changed over the past decade? Building and maintaining a strong relationship with media professionals remains as important as ever. What’s changed primarily are the tools available, and the speed at which you are expected to respond.

A really good resource is the book “Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust” by Chris Brogan and Julian Smith. In addition to Chris Brogan, I’ve listed several other good marketing/public relations blogs in the “New Media” and “Eye on Marketing” sections of this blog (look to the right).

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(Photo credit: "News Reporter" by Truthout.org, courtesy of Flickr/Creating Commons)

Epic Video: "WOW" Can Save the World

Here's a sneak peak of a video I plan to show Spring term in Media & Society, a class I teach at Linn-Benton Community College.

The video, one of many fine works produced by TED (Technology, Education, Design), features Jane McGonigal of the Institute for the Future. In this video she shares her optimism for the future of the human race, which quite possibly could be saved by those who share the traits of the most engaged video gamers, those who play "World of Warcraft."

Gamers, she suggests, possess four invaluable qualities that could be applied to solving real-life problems. They:

• Possess "urgent optimism"
• Weave a trusted "social fabric"
• Engage in "blissful productivity"
• Desire "epic meaning"

The result of these traits is a booming number of people she describes as "super-empowered hopeful individuals," who may have the kind of determination and attitude it takes to save the planet.

With two boys who play hours of WOW and other games, I see the traits about which she speaks. I'm not sure whether my sons are quite ready to save the world, but I'm willing to let them take a shot at it...

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Ted Rall Cartoon: How (Not) to Save Newspapers

Ted Rall spotlights the strategy that too many newspapers continue to cling to...

... and another story tip from Reportr.net: Paywalls not the answer for newspaper online revenue...

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Another Very Cool Video by OK Go!

You may remember the band OK Go rose to fame in part based on its viral treadmill video for the song "Here It Goes Again." Well, the foursome is at it again with "This Too Shall Pass" and an amazing Rube Goldberg machine.

As noted by Dylan Tweney on Gadget Lab:

For nearly four minutes — captured in a single, unbroken camera shot — the machine rolls metal balls down tracks, swings sledgehammers, pours water, unfurls flags and drops a flock of umbrellas from the second story, all perfectly synchronized with the song. A few gasp-inducing, grin-producing moments when the machine’s action lines up so perfectly, you can only shake your head in admiration at the creativity and precision of the builders.

In a word: Amazing!

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Jeff's TED Talk: This Is Bullshit

Fellow TED fans ...

Another one of our favorites, "What Would Google Do?" author Jeff Jarvis, just made his debut talk to TED. (He said the video will be posted in a week or so.)

Based on Jarvis' notes posted on BuzzMachine, it's an interesting speech on education, media, innovation, Google, collaboration ... and it starts by saying, "This is bullshit."

Here's a couple excerpts from the rest:

I tell media that they must become collaborative, because the public knows much, because people want to create, not just consume, because collaboration is a way to expand news, because it is a way to save expenses. I argue that news is a process, not a product. Indeed, I say that communities can now share information freely – the marginal cost of their news is zero. We in journalism should ask where we can add value. But note that that in this new ecosystem, the news doesn’t start with us. It starts with the community.

And...

We must stop our culture of standardized testing and standardized teaching. ... In the Google age, what is the point of teaching memorization?

We must stop looking at education as a product – in which we turn out every student giving the same answer – to a process, in which every student looks for new answers. Life is a beta.

Why shouldn’t every university – every school – copy Google’s 20% rule, encouraging and enabling creation and experimentation, every student expected to make a book or an opera or an algorithm or a company. Rather than showing our diplomas, shouldn’t we show our portfolios of work as a far better expression of our thinking and capability? The school becomes not a factory but an incubator.

It's a good speech that picks up on many of the concepts Jarvis continues to tout on BuzzMachine, his various talks and, of course, "WWGD?"

I'm looking forward to adding the video version to my media curriculum at LBCC.

p.s. The BuzzMachine comments are interesting too...

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(Photo credit: "Jeff Jarvis" by Robert Scoble, courtesy of Flickr.com/Creative Commons)

Another Cool Ad: The Human Chain - Nike

I've only seen this a few times, and it gets more intriguing every time I watch it.

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College Journalists Gaining Upper Hand in Campus Coverage

Where once college journalists competed against the pros to see who could best shine a spotlight on what was happening on campus, it now appears they may have to beat all to themselves.

An interesting new story on Huffington Post notes that cutbacks in mainstream journalism means one of the areas that isn't getting the professional coverage it once did is college campuses. Not only is this leaving the territory open for college journalists to fill the void, but it's also giving university officials more leverage to spin the news by providing their own "coverage" of higher education in the form of news releases and staff-written feature stories that newspapers, radio news bureaus and television stations are only too eager to air and publish.

I've also seen reports about a growing number of college interns and part-timers being hired to fill the ranks of a declining number of pro journalists as a cost-saving measure.

The Huffington Post article by Daniel Reimold notes:

As the professional press compresses and its original content wanes, student news media are rising to a place of uber-importance, specifically with respect to higher education reporting. Even with the hurdles of a learning curve, competing academic and extracurricular commitments, lack of resources, and occasional censorship or pressure from their host institutions, student journalists are providing coverage that greatly expands upon the deplorable 1 percent quota the professional press is currently churning out.

And they are using their student status to their advantage -- including their close proximity to campus news events and newsmakers and their inbred new media know-how -- to grab exclusives and report with extra innovation.

As with anything, these changes in the industry can be viewed with alarm or optimism. On the one hand, it gives college journalists an opportunity to serve a new audience that isn't getting what it needs in the form of campus news coverage. Those "lucky" enough to land internships and other gigs will look back on these opportunities and be thankful for the experience they gained.

On the flip side, mainstream media appears to be hoping it can get by on the cheap by replacing experienced journalists with coterie of young journalists who may or may not be ready for prime time. And you have to wonder if readers aren't getting short-changed when big-money campus institutions no longer get the scrutiny and attention that once made them one of the plum beats in many U.S. newsrooms.

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(Photo credit: "Graduation, Spring 2007, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications" by adobemac, courtesy of Flickr.com and Creative Commons)