Using Twitter for Journalism

Just an example of how Twitter can be/is used by (on the ball) journalists…

I was just about to head to bed and noticed danjones101 mention that he was stuck on a train for four hours because of a gunman on a train track. I did wonder to myself where @danjones101 was and what was happening, but then I noticed the Birmingham Post twitter a link to their news article on it… then journalist BhamPostJoanna twitters @danjones101 to get the story.

Will be interested to see if Dan Jones is quoted tomorrow…

Twitter

EDIT: And in the time it took me to write this, danjones101 replied to BhamPostJoanna with contact details and BhamPostJoanna has emailed him.

EDIT (Thurs am): I sent BhamPostJoanna a link to this blog entry on Twitter and she replied with this:

You can read the article in full on the Birmingham Post website: “Rugby gunman hunt leaves passengers stranded”

Social Networking Wars

Via prgeek.net

Scallywagga on Facebook

Reminds us all that what we put online is in the real world not just the virtual world!

Twitter in Plain English

So Twitter has been around for a while and I signed up to it over a year ago, not really understanding how or why to use it. A year on and I returned to my Twitter account as I heard more and more people talking about it.

A video introduction to Twitter from CommonCraft…

This is a very basic introduction to Twitter, and emphasises Twitter as a tool for keeping up with ‘family, friends and co-workers’ but it doesn’t tell us how we can use it to make new contacts, find out new information and other possible applications such as organisational twittering.

The best way to work out how to use Twitter is to start using it yourself. I’ve started using it to follow people in the Birmingham area with an interest in social media, web2.0, higher education, music – all the things that are relevant and interest me. I think your experience of Twitter depends a lot on the people you are following and how much you are prepared to interact. I have found my Twitter community very friendly and responsive and that is what keeps me going back to it. If you are experimenting with Twitter, I suggest you use Summize.com to search for things that interest you – for me it was ‘Birmingham’, ‘Warwick’, ‘University’, ‘PR’ etc. Then look at who they are following and you will soon develop your network. Any other suggestions on how to improve your Twitter network? How many people should you follow etc??

Commoncraft have produced a load of videos on different aspects of social media, social networking, podcasting, blogging etc. Think this one on social bookmarking is pretty useful – can think of many professional and educational uses of social bookmarking.

Mighty Boosh v Sugar Puffs

An interesting blog entry from Chris Payne: Sugar Puffs crimping Mighty Boosh style

The makers of Sugar Puffs have ‘adopted’ the crimping style of the Mighty Boosh, apparently to the annoyance of the Boosh and their fans.

The Honey Monster: Golden pips of a sunshine princess

The Mighty Boosh: Bouncy Bouncy

According to The Sun:

A source said: “A pal of the Mighty Boosh boys was lying in his pants watching daytime telly and saw the advert.

“He rang the Boosh and congratulated them on their work for Sugar Puffs.

“They were baffled and checked it out on the internet. They hadn’t been asked permission to use the style and are speaking to lawyers about getting the Honey Monster’s crimp removed from the airwaves.”

I will be interested to see whether this turns into a legal battle but my thoughts are that it is doing a lot of good for Sugar Puffs – you have to admit the advert is quite funny if you know the Mighty Boosh. And for those who don’t really know the Mighty Boosh, they may do now with all this talk of Sugar Puffs! Everyone’s a winner right?

 

Nothing to say?

So true for so many people…

I should say something more here about companies or professionals using Web 2.0 technologies just to demonstrate that they can, even when it’s not credible, appropriate or effective communication but I need to go and study stakeholder theories for my CIPR diploma…

Maybe another time…

PR and modern society

So for our first practise assignment for the CIPR Diploma, we were asked “What contribution does public relations make to modern society?”. I kind of turned this question on it’s head, and instead I discussed “What contribution does modern society make to PR?” Admittedly not the assignment we were given, but something more interesting and relevant to my area of work…

“PR is a relatively new discipline and its role in society is a constantly evolving one. So to are the theories that guide its practice. The profession is continually facing new challenges from developing modes of communication in the Web 2.0 era to an increasingly complex and diverse society who need to be communicated with.

Previous dominant theories that have guided PR practice are becoming less relevant as new approaches are needed to respond to this changing media landscape.

In systems theory, the idea of PR practitioner as ‘boundary spanner’ between organisation and audience is harder to understand as boundaries become more flexible. Cutlip, Center and Broom (2000) emphasise the presence of an ‘established boundary’ between organisation and audience but with increasingly abundant channels of communication across the boundary, the PR practitioner can no longer be was viewed as ‘gatekeeper’ and must become facilitators enabling flow of information.

The 21^st century has seen a massive rise in the number of people publishing content online. Access to new technologies and the availability of web publishing has introduced two fundamental changes for communicators and audiences: who provides information and how audiences get the information they need (Holtz, 1996).

New communications channels such as blogs, social networking sites, RSS feeds, video-sharing sites, wiki’s allow publics to become more discursive and find their own voices and communities who share their voices. The dialogue’s that user-generated content allows is in keeping with more recent rhetorical perspectives.

Heath (2001) supports the rhetorical approach as the primary perspective through which PR should be viewed: “Through statement and counterstatement, people test each other’s views of reality, value, and choices relevant to products, services and public policies”.

Skerlep (2001) also advocates the rhetorical approach as it allows multiple viewpoints to be given on situations, allowing the PR practitioner and audiences to arrive at the truth; “The ‘truth’ can only be reached through argumentative dialogue that reveals which of the participating parties has better arguments” (Skerlep, 2001). By rigorously questioning and challenging statements, we can arrive at the ethical truth. For this approach to be truly ethical, the PR practitioner must be responsive to these multiple viewpoints and not ignorant to them.

As new challenges are emerging for PR practitioners, Mackey (2003) suggests that more traditional PR theories are left wanting. In the globalised world, we are witnessing a more “plural society that is becoming even more postmodern and difficult to stereotype”. New theories of communication are needed that help map the apparently teeming and far harder to see and understand lateral communication between targeted publics and others (Mackey, 2003)

PR practitioners are required to continually address the challenges that are encountered as society evolves, re-evaluating the boundaries of the profession. Whilst this is necessary for its practice it can also confuse the publics understanding of the profession. PR practitioners must continue to look at new challenges to communications whilst re-enforcing the role of the PR professional in society as a facilitator of information exchange.”

References

Cutlip, S. M., Center, A. H., and Broom, G. M. (2000) Effective Public Relations (8^th ed) Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice Hall.

Heath, R. L. (2001) Handbook of Public Relations, London: Sage

Holtz, S. (1996) Communication and technology: The complete guide to using technology for organizational communication. Chicago: Lawrence Regan Communications.

Mackey, S. (2003) Changing vistas in Public Relations theory. PRism 1(1)

Skerlep, A (2001) Re-evalutaing the role of the rhetoric in public relations theory and in strategies of corporate discourse. Journal of Communications Management 6(2) 176-187

Opinion

“Opinion can be void if not presented from both sides” Preston (2004)

The wise words of Samuel Preston of the Ordinary Boys – a good example of rhetorical theory. You may wonder where I am going with this, but I have recently started studying my CIPR Diploma so thought I would try and make the theory more entertaining by relating it to another of my interests – popular culture!

Rhetorical theory according to Heath (2001): “Through statement and counterstatement, people test each other’s views of reality, value, and choices relevant to products, services and public policies”. Heath supports the rhetorical process as the primary perspective through which PR should be viewed.

For rhetorical theory to be ethical, Heath states that the dialogue must be conducted on a level playing field. But how can a playing field be level in the corporate world? Surely there is an argument here about big fish in little ponds? The louder the voice, the stronger the message?

Skerlep (2001) also advocates the rhetorical approach as it allows multiple viewpoints to be given on situations, allowing the PR practitioner to gain new perspectives. By rigorously questioning and challenging statements, we can arrive at the ethical truth. For this approach to be truly ethical, the PR practitioner must be responsive to these mutliple viewpoints and not ignorant to them.

“In the situtation of public contention on a controversial issue, the speaker can only marshall the best arguments for his or her case… The ‘truth’ can only be reached through argumentative dialogue that reveals which of the participating parties has better arguments” (Skerlep, 2001).

I agree with Skerlep to an extent, but I think ‘debates’ are desirable rather than ‘arguments’ which marks the PR practitioner as an antagonistic challenger of opinion. Although the word ‘argument’ does convey the persuasive nature of these dialogues.

Finally, more words of wisdom from Samuel Preston “A healthy argument to start the day, what better way?” – he must be an advocate of rhetorical theory!

Online Communities

Century of the Self: Happiness Machines

The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud’s ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn’t need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.

Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar.

His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile.

It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate today’s world.

Taken from BBC Four