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... And The White Horse You Rode In On!

4/27/2012

 
Now that we’re well into the Era of Instant News With Instant Smarmy Feedback, I guess we ought not to be surprised when a news outlet joins in the smarm.

Earlier this week, The Appalachian, the college newspaper at Appalachian State University, reported via Twitter that a popular local Mexican restaurant was closing its doors. Turns out the rumors of the eatery’s demise were greatly exaggerated. The Appalachian corrected the report, but not before a flurry of tweets and phone calls from concerned students.

So The Appalachian decided to (sort of) apologize on its editorial page—but in the process it hauled its readers out to the woodshed. To wit:

“Sorry burrito lovers, in a list of the most important issues covered this year, the potential closing of Los [Arcoiris] wouldn't even make the top 10. … Instead of suddenly mobilizing when your quesadillas and margaritas are at stake, start engaging with issues that actually affect you—and the thousands of dollars you pay this university each year.”

Not surprisingly, most readers didn’t take kindly to this scolding.

In an email to media blogger Jim Romenesko, one of the newspaper’s editors said the apology was meant to be “snark—not condescension or deflection of our original responsibility,” but she admitted, albeit grudgingly, “the tone in which it was delivered was far from ideal.”

In a world where a billion humans are starving, millions are homeless, and shooting people earns as many cheers as jeers, I agree with The Appalachian—a restaurant closing shouldn’t register on the panic scale. But an editorial smackdown of its readers did exactly what the paper claimed it never intended: It belittled students while minimizing its own error. Rather than kindle constructive thought and dialogue, the editorial board gave its readers a collective Finger.

The sad thing is, The Appalachian could have made its point effectively and powerfully if it had raised it with respect for the audience. The error opened the door to a discussion on what’s truly important, what motivates people and how such passion can change things. Instead, the paper chose to slam that door shut in favor of “a little more room for sass.” Its apology rang hollow, and a valuable message became lost in the uproar.

To be fair, The Appalachian’s editorial isn’t as sanctimonious as some of the anonymous commenters who troll news websites these days. But let’s hope this approach never rises above that of a mistake by young, inexperienced student reporters. I shudder to think what would happen to the Fourth Estate if real-world journalists (beyond the occasional self-righteous examples) sank to this level as a matter of course.

Shared Misery: What Journalists and Used Car Salespeople Have in Common

4/19/2012

 
The folks at Gallup have released their annual poll gauging the honesty and ethical behavior of various professions. Public relations wasn’t on the list that pollsters used—I’m still trying to decide if I’m disappointed or relieved—but it’s interesting to see what was listed.

Let’s start at the bottom: car salespersons. Only 7 percent of respondents rated them above average in honesty and ethics, and 47 percent ranked them low or very low. As the son of a retired car salesman, I know a few folks in that business, and I’ll say that there are a great many good ones out there to offset the bad. (Still, I'm hoping my dad doesn’t read those results….)

The same is true with a rating I found more disturbing: that of journalists, who remain mired in poor rankings, with only 26 percent of respondents willing to mark them above average. In an earlier report, Gallup found significant distrust of the profession, perceiving most journalists as untrustworthy and biased.

As someone who started his career in the Fourth Estate, this is indeed troubling—but, sadly, not all that surprising. Fierce competition, rising costs, the ceaseless news cycle and the changing ways consumers get their news are forcing media to search desperately for ways to distinguish themselves. The choices they make aren’t always good ones. Do we really need multi-day coverage of Angelina Jolie’s engagement ring? How long will we continue to hear that Ted Nugent is having coffee with some Secret Service agents who don’t find his dialogue amusing? And then there are the very few but shocking examples of reporters who simply made it up.

On the perception of bias, the Gallup report shows that it's usually in the eye of the beholder—conservatives largely say the media is too liberal, while many liberals are inclined to label news outlets too conservative. Human beings are never purely objective, and one could argue we’re becoming more polarized. But the role of journalists is to report the news as objectively as possible. With today’s environment, they face a three-way tug-of-war between objectivity, the increased entrenching of their audience, and the desperate need to draw consumers to survive.

Many news outlets are losing this war, and that’s sad. Others are developing new approaches—some that try to recapture that relevance, others that simply capitulate to the lowest common denominator.

Over the years, I’ve interacted with outstanding journalists who are ethical, respectful, seekers of truth and insistent that those in positions of influence are held accountable. And I’ve had to deal with reporters who were out to slant a story toward a predetermined conclusion.

It’s the first group that leaves me optimistic for the profession. There are good journalists out there who are committed to the highest standards of integrity. So maybe it isn’t just the profession’s job to improve its Gallup score. Perhaps it’s our job, as consumers of news, to abandon the gossip and place value on quality, truthful, objective, relevant reporting once again.


Why We Still Remember The Night

4/10/2012

 
I was about 10 years old when I first came across Walter Lord’s book, A Night To Remember, in the school library. Published in 1955, the non-fiction work reads like a novel, providing an almost minute-by-minute account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, killing 1,514 passengers.

While Lord gives adequate ink to the technical details of history’s greatest maritime disaster, his primary focus is on the people, both the survivors and the dead. Each has a story that Lord’s research (he interviewed 63 survivors) brings out, breathing life into the tale that cold facts and figures can’t summon.

Lord, who passed away in 2002, wrote a number of other books--Day of Infamy, about the attack at Pearl Harbor, is another favorite of mine—but A Night To Remember remains his most popular. A follow-up, The Night Lives On, published in 1986, is a bit more analytical, so for me it doesn’t resonate as well. And while I’ll grudgingly acknowledge the popularity of James Cameron’s 1996 film, nothing surpasses Lord’s real stories about real people who lived through, or died in, a truly horrifying disaster.

There’s a lesson to be learned here. Regardless of our technological evolution, there is a basic trait in humanity that has survived from the beginning: the love of story. Stories connect us in myriad ways. In the case of A Night To Remember, true stories put us in the place of the passengers on that fateful night in a way that Cameron’s movie (even in 3D) never can:

· Isidor and Ida Straus, of Macy’s fame, who couldn’t bear to part as the lifeboats filled. “Where you go, I go,” Ida told her husband. They spent their final moments together, seated comfortably on a pair of deck chairs.

· Daniel Marvin, a 19-year-old newlywed, who ushered his worried wife, Mary, onto a lifeboat, blew her a kiss and said reassuringly, “It’s all right, little girl. You go, and I’ll stay awhile.” Marvin didn’t survive.

· Wireless operators John George Phillips and Harold Bride, who continued to hammer out history’s first “S-O-S” on the ship’s wireless telegraph long after Captain Edward Smith told them to abandon ship. His last words to them: “That’s the way of it at this kind of time.” Bride survived; Smith and Phillips did not.

In communications, perhaps nothing is more effective than the power of story. It transcends soundbites and tweets and fact sheets. It connects people with the subjects of the story.

If a hospital saves the life of a child through an innovative procedure, what is going to impact the audience most effectively? A technical description of the process? Or a blow-by-blow narrative of how that child was saved, who was involved, what the dangers were, what emotions were at play?

As we approach the centennial of the Titanic’s sinking, the stories behind the disaster are what connects us to the people and to the event. As you reach out to your audiences, you can connect with them in the same, powerful way.

In short … what’s your story?


Lessons Learned and Yet to Come

4/4/2012

 
The vigorous boil of news, pseudo-news, social outcry and political punditry over the Trayvon Martin case is an eye-opener from a communications perspective. How sad that it comes at the expense of someone’s life.

You already know the basic facts: Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old high school junior, was shot and killed on Feb. 26 by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, in Sanford, Florida.

That’s pretty much where agreement on the facts ends.

Did Zimmerman stalk Martin, or did Martin attack him? Did Zimmerman shoot Martin because Trayvon was black, or did he shoot him out of self defense? Whose scream for help is on the 911 tape? Did the Sanford Police Department conduct a proper investigation, or did it hide behind the Florida “Stand Your Ground” law for racist reasons? Have news media purposely slanted their reports either for or against Martin, or are they simply trying their best to cover an evolving story of great public interest? And on and on….

Personally, I’m optimistic that the wheat and the chaff of this incident will be sifted eventually, and we’ll have a clear understanding of what really happened that night.

But by then, will it matter?

In this era of instant news and intense media competition, coupled with people’s fascination with the case and ability to broadcast their own conclusions across the Internet, we’re met with a cacophony of opinions and “facts” that will continue to confuse the issue, perhaps forever.

Many lessons will be learned from this tragedy—and it is indeed a tragedy, regardless of where one stands on the guilt or innocence of either Martin or Zimmerman.

For communications professionals, it’s a lesson in how quickly a story, particularly a horrendous one like this, can be interpreted, re-interpreted, even co-opted and owned by others. Being clear, deliberate, consistent, quick and responsive are the best investments in helping keep the facts straight.

For the loved ones of those involved, it’s a lesson in how life can, in an instant, become an endless nightmare.
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    Rick Chambers

    Rick is the owner and president of Rick Chambers & Associates, LLC.

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Rick Chambers & Associates, LLC, brings a solid track record of strategic, diverse, objective-based communications and public relations services. RC&A works closely with clients to understand their business, develop stakeholder relationships, build meaningful dialogue and help share their stories effectively.

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Rick Chambers & Associates, LLC
1514 Kingsbury Drive
Portage, MI 49002-1664
USA
269.873.5820
info@rickchambersassociates.com