Wonder why we do local reporting in class activities? Look at CNN … if it’s good enough for them …

OK, I’ll admit. This is a little bit of a personal rant. I don’t do this much, but I’m kinda fed up - just a wee bit - so, I’m venting. :o)

Local news reported in a social network / emerging digital media kinda way.

When I first thought of this for classes, some time ago, I’ll admit to having that image of Al Franken’s SNL faux coverage of politics flashing through my mind. But, today it really is possible and provides students with realistic and valuable experience.

As we embark on our class activities at The Loveliest Village, students may wonder why we’ll be doing all this local reporting using lil’ cameras, laptops and social media / social network software platforms to publish.

Well, if it is good enough for CNN, it’s good enough for us, right?

Now, imagine using the skills my students develop in these exercises and then share those stories, videos, photos and more with news outlets online and print.  Hey, they are seeking content. Get the drift? This is how we all may be doing a good portion of media relations in the future.

Actually, forget the future.  I had students doing it today.  This summer they pitched and delivered stories, video and photos.  This semester they are collaborating with multiple news outlets to place stories they will create for class.  Yep, it is not just what they post in The Loveliest Village.  These news outlets have actually sought us out for content.  No kidding.

So, students will create content much the same as CNN is now doing.  Pretty cool, huh.  ;o)  And people said I was nuts.  Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Well, some people said I was crazy.  Didn’t know what I was talking about. Why show students how to do this?  Hmm?  If it is good enough for CNN, I guess it’s good enough for us. :o)

According to that PRWeek article, at CNN journalists “…will report for broadcast and digital mediums with lightweight kits, including wi-fi-enabled laptops, cameras, and editing tools.”

So now, our students will be able to understand how major media works - the new way.  They’ll be sharing the content that reporters are looking for in this new world.  Not only ‘are’ we way ahead.  We’ve ‘been’ way ahead, for some time.  Update: And, by the way, it isn’t just major media.  Local … local … media has sought us out to create content for their sites.  Hello?

What CNN is now doing is what we’ve been talking about and doing for a long time now.  :o)  Just sharin’ …. just sayin’.

/rant

Noel Hidalgo Deported from China for Qik Video of Protesters in Tiananmen Square

A world traveler and citizen journalist was deported from China for recording the video below. It is Noel Hidalgo’s chance encounter in Tiananmen Square with protesters from the West decrying the human rights violations in Tibet.

Noel is on a trip around the world: Read more

Student Digital Resumes and Portfolios :: Summer 2007

Note: All student digital resumes and portfolios are featured at PRProspects.com.

This summer’s digital resumes and portfolios are complete. The project wound up being a bit different than usual, due to the short five week mini-mester term. But, the projects have some new aspects which, I believe, make them more appealing.

I appreciate the work of these fourteen students. Hire them and/or select them for internships.

Each project contains two major sections. First, there is the resume, an HTML version of the usual Word document. Second, you’ll find the digital portfolio. It contains samples from the work product of these students over their college career. Read more

Parents React To Media Coverage of Disabled Child’s Controversial Treatment via Blog

For all the other big “new media” stories that have hit the blogosphere over the years, aside from politics and the Iraq war, I believe this may well be the biggest story peaking the interest of most people and spurring them to online discussions.

The blog by the parents has received 1,477 comments and the MSN message boards have 1,955 messages by 860 authors.

Will this eclipse the Terri Schiavo story, at least with regard to online social media discussion? Perhaps that’s not a fair comparison as the Schiavo story was a political story, after all. And, the Republicans no longer control Congress.

Ashley’s story has particularly galvanized the disability community. The reason for all of this may simply be because more media outlets have adopted social media tools on their Web sites. We’ll see.

For the past week, I’ve seen references to this story on TV and in the newspapers.

The parents have been overwhelmed by media attention. They started a blog to answer questions. So far, the one post has received 1477 comments. They are essentially handling crisis management through their blog. The post contains this statement to the media in that MSN blog. It actually comes off looking sort of like a social media news release.

(Note to members of the media and our web visitors: We are getting more emails and requests than we can possibly handle– more than 1500 in the 48 hrs since the LA Times story broke out. We want to attend to our lives and our kids as we should. This web site received more than a million hits and about 1000 comments were added in those 48 hrs! We truly appreciate the overwhelming support and the thoughtful comments we’ve been getting. Rest assured that we will read every one of your comments and they might be used in the future to help other families through a similar decision process.)

The long post in the blog features a key talking points list from the parent’s side of the controversy.

1. Ashley is doing well, healthy, happy, and lovingly cared for.
2. The “Ashley Treatment” is intended to improve our daughter’s quality of life and not to convenience her caregivers.
3. Providing our daughter with this treatment was an easy decision since the benefits by far outweigh the risk and short term discomfort associated with the surgery.
4. We wrote the article and published this web site to inform and help other families of “Pillow Angels” who might benefit from our experience.
5. With the overwhelming thoughtful support that we are receiving (90%+ of the comments and emails) we feel better than ever about what we did for Ashley, and we certainly do not feel defensive about it.
6. Please make sure to read the five emphasized paragraphs in the first two sections below, since they convey the essence of Ashley’s story.

Fox News had a pro/con debate on The Big Story. It is a called “Frozen in Time.” (Don’t know how long that link will stay active.) I know. It is Fox. But, the debate does show both sides of the issue.
Click the image below for a larger version. The parents have actually created a media release statement for the photos in their blog, too.

More about the blog: The parents have actually posted a quite lengthy explanation of their side of the story in their blog. It is located at MSN Spaces in the blog The “Ashley Treatment”, Towards a Better Quality of Life for “Pillow Angels”.

There is much more out there in the way of coverage. See Parents defend treatment to keep girl child-sized from CTV.ca (Canada). Also, here is the link to 276 different stories in Google News.

Let’s face it. This is a difficult story to address. I am willing to guess that - at Camp ASCCA, for instance - we would have staff, counselors, parents and campers with wildly differing views on the actions taken by the parents and doctors. Also, as medical science goes forward, these controversial treatments are likely to become more common. Read more

Rick Murray brings Edelman me2revolution and WOMM to Auburn University

Rick Murray, president and general manager of Edelman Worldwide, will visit Auburn University on October 9th and 10th to speak with students and faculty about the firm’s me2revolution and WOM street marketing practices.

Edelman is the world’s largest independent public relations firm and widely regarded as the leader in social media within PR and marketing practices. Murray also serves on the Board of Directors for WOMMA, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

The emerging communication channels represented by social media represent an historic period in PR and marketing. Murray leads the Edelman social media practice with a collection of stars like Phil Gomes, Mike Krempasky , Guillaume du Gardier and Steve Rubel.

Auburn students have already collaborated with Phil Gomes on one survey research project and Erin Caldwell works with Mike Krempasky in Washington, D.C. To be able to have our students interact with Murray, a leader of public relations WOM and social media practices, is a privilege for Auburn’s future PR practitioners.

Serving clients like Walmart to Microsoft and Starbucks to General Electric, Edelman has established a hallmark practice with world corporations. Edelman’s integrated marketing and public relations practices with all of these corporations serve as ongoing case studies which offer our students tremendous learning experiences.

In 2006, Edelman received many awards including the PR Week and Holmes Report Large Agency of the Year recognition. (Source)

Edelman also received two other PRWeek awards and two honorable mentions including:

• General Electric and Edelman: GE’s Ecomagination – Corporate Branding Campaign of the Year
• Unilever and Edelman: Dove Campaign for Real Beauty – Consumer Launch Campaign of the Year
• Starbucks Entertainment and Edelman : It’s the Experience – Honorable Mention Corporate Branding Campaign of the Year
• General Electric and Edelman: GE’s Ecomagination – Honorable Mention Campaign of the Year.

We are grateful to Rick Murray for volunteering his time to visit with Auburn’s PR students. I’m looking forward to his presentations and interaction with Auburn PR hopefuls. Our students will also present their social media exercises and discuss future opportunities in social media as a career path in PR. That is an option that actually didn’t exist as few as five years ago. These are exciting times.

For background on Murray’s work in social media, visit these podcasts - Edelman’s Earshot podcast with Phil Gomes and a Roundtable on Word of Mouth at Jack Trout Radio.

HigherEd BlogCon Podcast - Holly Peterson and Tristan Roberts

Our first HigherEd BlogCon podcast. Meet Holly Peterson and Tristan Roberts from World Learning in Brattleboro, Vermont. They deal with over 100,000 alumni coming from their programs which take place in over 100 countries. Their constituents come from about 200 universities and perhaps even more high schools around the US.

World Learning’s Alumni Community Our World is one example of their work in using online social media to engage their stakeholders.

Holly Peterson photo to the left. Tristan Roberts photo is below, to the right.

This podcast is 15:39 in length (14.2MB). We discuss how they got to where they are today online. Also, their audiences - constituent groups - and hopes for possibilities in their future online plans are addressed. Holly and Tristan are participating in HigherEd BlogCon in order to share what they are doing, and to make connections. We hope you will participate, too.

You may see all of the presentations coming up in the Admissions, Alumni Relations, and Communications and Marketing section here.

Hope you enjoy the podcast. Holly and Tristan are nice people. One podcast down, eight more to go.

Buzz-o-phone Word of Mouth

Matt Galloway, by all respects, seems to be a very nice guy. He is an independent blogger trying something different in his online activities.

Someone sent me a link to Steve Rubel’s blog where he posted a notice about Matt’s site - Buzz-o-phone. So, I thought I’d go look at what she was talking about.

Since Steve and Edelman have recently announced he “will be charged with helping the team win new word of mouth business as well as in developing/executing client programs” in his new role as a Senior Vice President for Edelman Worldwide, I thought he would be the perfect person to speak about the good and bad of these types of sites.

I thought an SVP would likely have some opinions about this kind of tactic. So, I commented on the post with some questions.

No commentary on the value of this? Good or bad?

How will businesses deal with the WOM this may generate? How would you counsel businesses to approach this new feed of consumer backlash for their product(s), service(s), brand(s) or company?

I would like to hear your counsel on these issues. I bet others would, too.

Richard Edelman believes Steve knows about WOM. He wrote, “I have always been impressed with his honesty, his passion for his craft and his commitment to changing the public relations business.” Even more important, in relation to this post - Edelman wrote, “What do we hope to achieve together? In short, we want to persuade our corporate clients to commit to the blogosphere.”

Well, I think this discovery of yet another WOM site is worthy of Rubel’s commentary - as a leader online. It deserves more than just a mention … a link. As of today, no response from Rubel.

But, I did hear from the site’s creator - Matt Galloway. His site is getting attention. Today Matt made it to RocketBoom with Buzz-o-phone.

Matt saw my comment and contacted me. Matt wrote, “I saw your comments on Buzz-o-phone over on Steve Rubel’s blog. You ask some great questions. It will be interesting to see if Buzz-o-phone gets enough momentum to be taken seriously by marketers. If you write about this in the future, please let me know. I’d love to read your thoughts.”

So, I wrote back with some questions. The questions, and Matt’s responses are below. I appreciate and respect his open and honest sharing of information. I have only edited for some stray characters that were created by the email transmission. His responses, and my questions, are in their original form.

A Note: There are some references in here that might offend the truly faint of heart, but they are - compared to some of the things I hear students say - quite tame by comparison. Nonetheless, I offer that warning. Some might say, “Robert, that’s silly.” However, I think about audience a lot. And the audience for this post could be anyone in the world. So, there ya’ go.

Danger, Will Robinson. This is long.

Read more

Society for New Communications Research - Society for New Communications Research Launches

Well, I find the EUPRERA survey and PR academic directory, yesterday. That, alone, was a great thing to see. But, when it rains it pours. Today I learn of the Society for New Communications Research. A Society for New Communications Research. Thanks to Jeremy Pepper for the heads up.

Check it out:

Society for New Communications Research Launches :: International, Multidisciplinary Consortium to Study the Impact of New Media & Participatory Communications

Palo Alto, Calif. - October 31, 2005 - The Society for New Communications Research (http://www.sncr.org), a new international, non-profit think tank, was announced today. The group was formed to provide a forum for research and education and a source of expertise focused on the broad theoretical and practical implications surrounding new communications methodologies, tools and technologies.

Vision

To be the leading think tank for the advanced study of new communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, i.e. blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts, collaborative tools and the growing phenomena of participatory communications and their effect on traditional media, marketing, public relations and advertising, as well as their broader impact on business, politics, entertainment, culture, education, religion and society.

Mission

To investigate, develop, share and transfer in-depth and forward-facing insights resulting from our deep ongoing study, learning, and continuous mastery of new communications tools and technologies with the academic community and industry for the promotion of best practices.

Their Planned Activities:

In-depth Research Studies
Whitepapers & Case Studies
Best Practices & Standards Development
Industry Education: via Face-to-face events, Teleseminars, Podcasts, Videocasts, Publications
Journal of New Communications Research
Annual Research Symposium & Awards program

The journal idea sounds particularly interesting. All of it sounds great, actually.

“Supercrip” :: Disabled and the Media - Nathasha Alvarez

First, I’ll explain the title of this post and explain why I liked the forum post it points to at Adrants. Then, you should go join Adrants Soflow - if you haven’t already - and read the post by Nathasha Alvarez for yourself.

Yes, I know that “Supercrip” is not the most PC term, but it does tell a powerful story in just one word. After over 20 years of disability advocacy, I can say that this has been done over and over in the media. “This” being the portrayal of people with disabilities as the “super crippled” over-achiever. I am even guilty of it, too.

Once, I created a PSA for Camp ASCCA that got tremendous play by media. It was video and commentary of an amputee and hemophilia campers rappelling down a mountain side - a 100 foot cliff. At the end, the young amputee - Eddie Lee Wright - is asked how it makes him feel. He responds, “It makes me feel like Superman.”

When we pitched the story to TV, one station even sent their helicopter out to cover it. Now that’s quite unusual for a story of this kind.

Why did I make that particular PSA and why did it work so well? Why did it gain such play by TV stations? Why did it win PRCA/PRSA Medallions? Well, truth be told - probably because it was a “Supercrip” story. No one had ever seen anything like it before. No one else was doing this kind of thing with kids in a therapeutic recreation facility. And, it was something I knew would play into the perception and practices of those gatekeepers at media outlets. So, I’m guilty. I felt it also illustrated that people with disabilities are much more ‘able’ than common perceptions allow. Still, I’m guilty.

Nathasha Alvarez has posted a very interesting piece about how the media portrays people with disabilities.

Soflow - View a Forum - Version 1.0

The media has a tendency of using the disabled as either a pity story or making the person “supercrip” which I strongly suggest you don’t say to a disabled person.

Interestingly, if you work with people with disabilities enough, you’ll learn that they use these terms quite often themselves when discussing disability issues. But, yes - you shouldn’t use it “on the fly” in a casual conversation with someone you don’t know well. If you do, expect to be pounded - severely.

I have suggested that you join and visit the Adrants Soflow Forums before, but this one post by Nathasha Alvarez makes the trip and effort even more worth your while. Please visit and join.

I think I’m in love. Nathasha sounds absolutely wonderful. Hmm? Wonder if she would participate in our blogs? Ya’ think? She’s working on a newsletter of her own, but perhaps some cross-promotional participation in MarcomBlog might help her gain even more visibility? I think she deserves it.

Visit Nathasha’s online magazine Audacity.

Related post: My First Camp ASCCA post.

Sarcasm on ABC News blog earns criticism - PRWeek UK

This is an interesting cautionary tale about what might happen when MSM tries to join in a new medium while not understanding it first.

Yet another example of “know your audience” and “know your medium” that will likely re-play over and over again as corporations experiment with blogs.

Sarcasm on ABC News blog earns criticism - PRWeek UK

NEW YORK: What was meant as a satirical posting by ABC News’ political blog, The Note, has drawn criticism from some in the blogosphere for compromising the integrity of the ABC News brand.

The posting last Tuesday, September 27, claimed it was featuring an advanced copy of a speech President Bush was to make the next day. Instead, what followed was a speech Jimmy Carter gave almost 30 years ago.

Printing what is known as Carter’s “malaise” speech was intended to show a comparison to President Bush’s new conservation effort. But not all were in on the joke, and, ultimately, it served as a cautionary tale for news organizations as they increasingly try to penetrate the blogosphere and its culture.

Kaye Trammell, LSU Professor Blogging Through Katrina

The Washington Post has an op-ed article by Kaye Trammell, LSU professor of Mass Communications. Slogging, and Blogging, Through Katrina. Visit her blog, too.

On August 28th, Kaye started her Hurricane Update Blog:

you asked for a hurricane blog

So now you get it.

I’m in Baton Rouge, La., & watching the hurricane warnings swirl around me (no pun intended). Since Dave Winer & others seem to be interested in people blogging the event from a local perspective I decided to start up a new blog & post as long as I have power.

If you’re interested in my little citizen journalism dispatches about Hurricane Kristina, then check out http://hurricaneupdate.blogspot.com/.

There, Kaye writes about immunizations & medical concerns and the effect the storm has had on LSU’s students and faculty.

Kaye kept going right through the storm, too.

Within hours my readership expanded from my family in Florida, Kansas and Texas to people in Israel, Germany and across the United States. With A-list blogs (whose audiences rival those of small weeklies) linking to my site, the word that I was blogging the storm spread quickly.

As the storm approached, it was never a question of whether power would go out but when and for how long. I knew that silence would cause concern. I soon discovered that I could continue my humble dispatches from my BlackBerry, which could transfer data, though no calls could come in.

Our blogging friend and contributor Josh Hallett, who participates in MarcomBlog is mentioned, too.

Great work by Kaye Trammell. My Dad and Mom, both LSU grads, will applaud.

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