Sunday, February 17, 2008

A New Generation of Reporters


Tragedy struck the Northern Illinois University campus on Valentine’s Day. The school shooting ended the lives of five students (six including the gunman) and injured many others. As I browsed the internet looking for up to date information on the unfolding events I began to think about how technology has changed the way we receive breaking news. People at the scene are now becoming reporters by documenting events through cell phone pictures and videos.

The Virginia Tech massacre last year was one of the first times our nation had the opportunity to be on campus in the midst of a school shooting. A student made a cell phone video outside of one of the buildings where the shooting was taking place. The news aired this video giving viewers the unique and chilling experience of being on Virginia Tech’s campus as the events unfolded. You could feel the terror and hear the shock in people’s voices. Experiencing news like this makes events feel more real. The Virginia Tech massacre was not just something that happened at a school far away it was an event that the entire nation experienced together.

The major news organizations (CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, etc.) have added applications on their websites which allow people to upload videos from the scene. News organizations can then search through these videos, pick the most relevant and air them during their broadcast. These videos allow our nation to see what actually happened during a crisis. We do not have to wait for reporters to arrive on the scene, interview people in shock and put together their own skewed versions of the story. We are now able to get a taste of what it is like to be at the scene which makes the news hit more closely to home then was ever possible in the past.

Just think next time you walk out of your house your cell phone video could be the eyes that our nation watches an event unfold though. We are all the new reporters of this generation.

The New Breed of Blogs

This weekend a friend brought to my attention a new website that is taking over college campuses, JuicyCampus.com. This website is the latest to join the breed of college gossip websites online. It is an interactive blog which allows students to make anonymous posts about other students, on-campus organizations or any other issue that revolves around campus life. As Jessica Bennett writes in Newsweek:
JuicyCampus.com is a rapidly growing gossip site that solicits content with the promise of anonymity. But what began as fun and games—and now has spinoffs on seven college campuses, including Duke University, where it began—has turned ugly and, in many cases, flatly defamatory. The posts have devolved from innocuous tales of secret crushes to racist tirades and lurid finger-pointing about drug use and sex, often with the alleged culprit identified by first and last name.

Some sample recent post titles include-
-List of People with Fake Tans and Fake Purses
-SMU Girls to Avoid (Golddiggers)
-Sorority Girl's Best?
-Biggest Drug Users on Campus
-Boys Most Likely to Send you Home with an STD

The post titles above are followed by discussion threads and comments from other students on the particular issue. There are comments about specific individuals with remarks that would make any human being cringe. I was disgusted when I read comments about people and organizations that are completely useless and just plain cruel. I cannot even begin to imagine what I would feel like if I were the target to some of these emotionally hurtful postings. It is hard to understand how a person could feel such hatred toward another individual that they justify it by writing crude, defamatory and vicious comments in a public forum for anyone to see. The saddest part of it all is that these comments are being written by the people who sit in our classrooms and co-exist with us on a daily basis. We are torturing people emotionally through our words and then we wonder why shootings at schools and college campuses are happening all the time?

Blogs have given each and every person in this nation a unique outlet to take full advantage of their freedom of expression and speech. The fact that we are using this expression to hurt others and participate in catty immature gossip makes me want to exit the world of blogging all together. In no way do I want to be a part of a system that allows and accepts sites that hurt other people.

CNN JuicyCampus Video

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Emerging Communication Technology


I would consider myself to be an original facebook user. Let me clarify what I mean by “original”. I created my account on facebook when it was only available to students at registered colleges. Back in the day when you could not tag pictures and bumper stickers were still just things you put on your car.

I remember when the facebook buzz began to generate through my dorm room freshman year. I was bored one night and created a profile, within an hour I was a full-fledged facebook addict! By December of my freshman year almost every college kid in America knew what the facebook was. It was a fun way to stay in touch with people but I would have never guessed that facebook would be one of the defining elements of our generation.

It is scary to think that in three short years the term facebook is known by every single person both old and young. Today, anyone can create a facebook account and PR practitioners have taken full advantage of that. The social networking site has given PR practitioners yet another outlet to connect to their target audience. They can also use the service to identify trends and gather research about a specific audience.

As a facebook member I can honestly say I am a bit annoyed by the constant overload of new information that appears on facebook daily. Our society is never satisfied and we are always left wanting more. We view technology in the same way, we can never have enough. I have personally watched the rapid growth of the facebook. It only took three years for it to explode into what it is today and I can only imagine what facebook will look like three years from now.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Media Relations Strategies


Relationships among PR practitioners and journalists are vital for both professions to succeed. As I thought about the importance of building a strong rapport between the two fields I was reminded of an article that was brought to my attention last semester in my Introduction to Public Relations class.

Public Relations Practitioners and Journalists: Can't we all just get along?
On October 29th, Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired magazine wrote a rather spirited post about some public relations practitioners and calling them "lazy flacks" due to all the emails he had been receiving. What did he do in response? He posted close to 300 email addresses (many from Edelman, 5W Public Relations and other well-known agencies) and announced that they have been blocked.Since then Chris has received an overwhelming response from his action and post. Many believed that what he did was not very nice. Others went immediately on the defense.The Bulldog Reporter took the opportunity to interview Chris Andersen and asked him how this whole situation can be avoided. Read it here .This re-occurring battle of public relations practitioners vs. journalists is really getting old. As students and future professionals of the industry, what are your thoughts?

I agree with Chris Anderson in that he is sick and tired of reading thousands of emails each day, especially when they have nothing to do with his area of writing. One of the main goals for public relations practitioners is to target news releases and pitches to appropriate media outlets. From Anderson’s point of view I think he is completely justified in calling PR people “lazy flacks”. Just because he is Editor and Chief of a magazine does not mean that it is his duty to send out possible story ideas to all of his employees. I understand his frustrations and although I may not have handled the situation in the same manner as him, I can see where he is coming from.

Last semester I interned with the Moroch Entertainment in Dallas. I was in charge of all college publicity and promotions for the Sony Pictures account. This gave me the unique opportunity to really act like a PR practitioner working with college media outlets. I realized right away that finding the appropriate editor at each publication was the sole most important thing. The media contacts I made knew that I would only send them information that would be valuable for what they write about, in other words my emails were targeted specifically toward them. Not only did this make them respect the information I sent but it also helped me to build a relationship with them. This relationship functioned as a valuable tool when I needed help with a project that was not being picked up by other media outlets.

Although I do believe that experienced PR practitioners sometimes get lazy and send out news releases or emails without fully considering a specific target audience I do not think it is fair to call the profession as a whole lazy. In today’s society many people who call themselves PR practitioners are not actually educated and qualified in the profession of PR. I think it is really up to the PR profession as a whole to communicate to our society that not everyone can be a PR practitioner. We must work individually to make sure that we strategically reach our target audiences through appropriate media outlets on a daily basis. It is better to not to send a news release out then to send it to a random media outlet. Educated and experienced PR professionals are the only ones that can change the way our profession is viewed. In every profession there are individuals who are less educated and not as qualified and we must work to show society that those individuals are not really considered PR practitioners.