Saturday, May 26, 2012

Why bias in the News is Wrong?


In the Spring semester of 2012, in my Introduction to the Mass Media course, I asked students to tackle various crucial themes relevant to the contemporary understanding of the news media. For example, I asked students to use examples from the Fox News documentary, “Outfoxed” they watched in class, their own watching of the news, as well as their reading on agenda-setting, and framing in the news, to discuss the importance of objectivity and why bias in the news is wrong. The following is the discussion presented by student, Ellen Burke.

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Why Bias in The News is Wrong
by Ellen Burke

Copyright: modernsurvivalonline.com
The function of the news is to report current events and information that does not intentionally misdirect its audience. When news is delivered in a biased way, it interferes with the consumers’ abilities to formulate their own opinions and make their own decisions. In the documentary “Outfoxed,” the Fox news station’s biases are investigated and brought to attention. From running uncut news stories that weren’t fully developed, to the memos that are sent out before a broadcast determining what point of view newscasters should take on issues, Fox News proved to be deliberately creating a source of biased news for its consumers. Their idea that “opinion cannot be proven false” just goes to show how much emphasis they put on cementing their own opinions and leave out the objectivity that is so important in the delivery of the news. 

As of 2004, Republicans were said to have appeared on 83 percent of the one-on-one interview formats, showing that the Fox Corporation was intentionally reaching out to Republicans with similar conservative views, so as to make their opinions look more reputable. When the ability of media consumers to form their own opinions is threatened, the value of the news should be questioned. Objectivity is so extremely important in the society we live in today because there are simply so many opinions that can be held. People should expect to be presented with news that treats each opinion equally and presents the issue in an unbiased manner, allowing people the opportunity to formulate their own opinions on issues.

Copyright, CNN.com
The agenda-setting theory states that, “the media’s focus and framing of stories, issues and events will determine what audiences talk about- thereby setting the public agenda.” (Sterin, 2012) This theory is played out in the media very often, having an effect on how consumers perceive issues and stories in the media and this framing is often seen as a form of bias in the news. After Trayvon Martin was killed by community watch coordinator, George Zimmerman, on February 26, 2012, the media was filled with articles, broadcasts, and updates on the state of the trial and what kind of action was to come. Because racism is such an issue in the U.S. today, the media saw a case such as this, as a way of starting a global discussion about the underlying issues Martin’s murder brought to the surface. The media set the agenda of media consumers in this case by constantly presenting the story, either on the front page of newspapers or as the first article you see on a media outlet’s website. Because of this massive amount of coverage of one story, consumers understand the story to be of utmost importance and it thus becomes of importance to them. 

The framing theory "suggests that how something is presented (the “frame”) influences the choices people make.” In an article titled “The Provocateur,” published in the New York Times on April 13, 2012, journalist David Carr reports on the death of Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger and author. The article began by giving a background into what Mr. Breitbart had been doing hours prior to his death, but took a bias spin about halfway through. Carr negatively framed the reading from then on by stating, “For good or ill (and most would say ill), no one did it like Mr. Breitbart.” For readers who did not know about Mr. Breitbart prior to reading this article, they most likely took on the opinion of Carr for the remainder of the piece because of negative framing in the article. According to anyone else, Mr. Breitbart could be a very honest, likeable person. But because David Carr is a professional journalist for the prestigious New York Times, the negative framing could be overlooked in this case, causing people to assume the opinion in the article to be the truth. This negative framing is detrimental to readers’ abilities to formulate their own opinions, ultimately diminishing individualism. 

As supported by my examples, you can see that it doesn’t matter if it’s a liberal or conservative viewpoint; bias is prevalent in our media. Irrelevant of the viewpoint, bias can falsely inform the public and unfairly direct discourse in an agenda-driven manner. This is problematic for the news agenda which is supposed to give citizens unbiased information from which to form decisions that affect their lives.
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Ellen Burke is a student at Roger Williams University, studying Media and Communications.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

The Montego Flag Fiasco - A PR Case Study


The following is a PR Case Study that I am using for my online PR Class with Jamaican participants. It is such an interesting case that I thought I would share it here:


 CASE STUDY TASK- CRISIS MANAGEMENT (Flag Fiasco)

INSTRUCTIONS - Please read the following links and undertake the tasks following:


http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/After-the-flag-fiasco-probe-

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120415/lead/lead2.html

http://m.jamaicaobserver.com/mobile/news/Fired-Government-orders-investigation-into-flag-fiasco

TASKS:
  • Please outline, using bulleted points the crisis that the People's National Party and The Montego Bay Parish Council faced in this instance.
  • How did the People's National Party organisation respond to this crisis? 
  • List factors (or approaches) a PR counselor could focus on as appropriate responses to this crisis? 
  • Assume the 'flag fiasco' has just taken place;  Write a statement on behalf of the People's National Party  in response to this crisis.

Saturday, March 31, 2012





 

About US  - Strategic Communications!

Thanks for dropping by our blog! As loyal readers, it is a pleasure to share with you the professional services we offer at our Consulting Firm, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION! Dr. Hume Johnson, and her team of experienced consultants will assist you to identify and manage sensitive or emerging issues. We can help you understand the environment in which you operate, deal with media pressure, and prepare reports, submissions and media materials that will convey your position with clarity and precision. 

We have assisted clients to manage sensitive issues such as poor behaviour at their events, negative publicity involving high profile clients, personal branding and publicity, as well as emotive campaign issues during events such election campaigns. We also undertake the following:



MEDIA RELATIONS

 
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION employs a team of experienced journalists, broadcasters and communication specialists, some of whom have served as media advisors for high profile clients. This means that they understand what the media need to do their job. Our approach is to help you or your organisation to work productively with the media. Our approach combines traditional media and social media. We write comprehensive, accurate and solid materials- media alerts, media releases, fact sheets, questions and answers, backgrounders, company profiles etc. 

We will help you develop and focus your messages so your story is understood and acted upon. We then measure and evaluate your media coverage. The growing influence of social media has created new opportunities for direct engagement with your target publics. We will devise and implement social media strategies that can help you win new clients or patrons for your organisation, products and services.

EXECUTIVE SPEAKER TRAINING

In an age dominated by information, image and the constant gaze of the media, the ability to communicate effectively, attract attention, achieve recognition, is one of the hallmarks of professional and personal success. We offer our clients training in media interviewing, public speaking, managing meetings and how to become more confident. Our ‘Step Up to the Microphone’ for Professionals training module is a one-day workshop designed to help working professionals improve their public speaking skills as well as their personal and professional brand. We believe that effective communications creates more confident and effective individuals, inspires leadership, increases productivity, and fosters professional success.
 

 SOCIAL MEDIA TRAINING

Social media provides new and exciting opportunities for advocacy and promotion.  STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION is training clients to work more effectively with social media tools. She has a passion for helping others understand and use social media in pursuit of their business objectives. We believe that social media is at its most effective when it is run from within an organisation. Our goal aim is to embed social media capability into our clients’ organisations.

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, blogs and YouTube have changed the way we communicate. Social media platforms provide organisations with the capacity to publicise and control their own stories, bypassing traditional media gatekeepers. They provide new and immediate channels to directly build and engage audience, including on sensitive issues; and they provide new opportunities to encourage more people to become advocates of your organisation, its services and activities. It can also allow for good news to spread quickly but also for critical commentary to be ‘broadcast” that can damage reputation if not addressed promptly.

Our training modules are designed to help you understand the social media maze and to create a cost-effective social media presence. We provides businesses and organisations with an introduction to the risks and opportunities presented by the rise of social media. We helpsparticipants to develop an appropriate social media policy, understand the elements of a practical social media strategy and provides participants with a practical working knowledge of sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, WordPress and Flickr.  

PUBLIC RELATIONS TRAINING
 
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Telling your story in a complex and rapidly changing communications environment requires new skills and new expertise. The team at STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION can help you to develop those skills through our PR Techniques workshops.

We provide training in clear and effective writing. We can provide training in issues analysis, writing media releases, business letters, press advisories, statements and crisis communication plans to help you to make your case effectively in written submissions, and to conduct some public relations of your own.

We can assist you to build the skills you need to tell your story using text, podcasts, digital storytelling and stills photography. We can help you to understand how to use social media effectively so that you can tell your story directly to your audiences.
 

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT

Reputation Management is essentially the process of removing negative opinions, and converting those negative opinions into positive ones. Your reputation is your most precious asset. It takes years to build but can be lost in minutes. The consultants at STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION have extensive experience helping organisations, companies and individuals to build and maintain reputation. From entertainers  to politicians and political parties,  we have advised a broad range of clients on how to build and sustain a positive reputation whilst protecting against the risks of reputation damage.
 
 
 
 
 

NATION BRANDING - PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

The team at STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION recognises the urgent need of governments to enhance their international reputation and control how they are perceived in global public opinion. Many governments have embraced the need for public diplomacy. 

By designing new and strategic communication tactics within the context of public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy, we will help our clients in governments, civil society to compete for market leadership and attract investments and tourists. 

 We will conduct research on your cities (and places) and develop strategic plans position and promote your culture locally and overseas, set up long-term relationships with publics abroad with various sectors, and to counter negative perceptions in global public opinion.

MEASUREMENT & EVALUATION

We measure, evaluate and audit the activities we undertake for clients, from the quality, reliability and timeliness of our advice, the impact of our public relations efforts, the professionalism of our client and media liaison to the appeal of the content we provide.

Our evaluations assess whether our activities were properly focused, well constructed and appropriately aligned to our client’s overarching corporate objectives.   We evaluate whether we have reached and engaged our target audiences.  We assess whether our efforts impacted thinking, shaped conversations, delivered sales or new leads, created new advocates and promoted public expressions of support. 

We also assess the dollar value of the results examining whether the return on investment made the activity worthwhile. 


Whether your project is large or  small, the consultants at STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION can assist. Contact us at strategiccommunicationjm@gmail.com

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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Barriers to Getting your Media Release Run

By Hume Johnson, PhD

In my current post at Roger Williams University (Bristol, RI, USA), I teach, inter alia, Public Relations Techniques. This includes such things as writing news releases, business letters, crisis communication plans and media pitches. Whereas the ability to use language effectively is crucial to public relations success, the practitioner must have a keen understanding of media relations; i.e, what makes news; how to organise and structure a media release and, importantly how to get it published.

Recently I came across some sobering yet alarming facts about the latter. Editors revealed in an interview that 80-90% of the releases they get they throw away! Before I get into the reasons for this and how you can guard against your release making it into File 13, let us talk about what a media release is, and why they are the most important in the PR writer's arsenal.

WHAT IS A MEDIA RELEASE?
A media release is essentially information, usually in written form about an organisation, product or event, or issue that is given to journalists in the hope (stress, hope!) that they will publish it.  Media releases are designed to pursue an organisation's objective. The fact is people make decisions about anything once their awareness has been raised. Media releases are written like news stories. Indeed they are the basis of some 80% of the news we read in the newspapers, listen to on radio or watch on television.  They may be quoted word for word; saves time for you and the reporters; help reporters get the facts straight and significantly help to inform a number of news people at the same time.

WHY YOUR MEDIA RELEASE MAY NOT BE RUN

The reasons news editors say they dump media releases are pretty basic; they are not usable! I will look at each below: 

1. THEY ARE NOT NEWS!: 
In order to be considered news, a story must include two or more of the following criteria : timeliness, proximity, significance/relevance, conflict, prominence and human interest. Each news story ought to satisfy one or more of these news values in order to be considered news worthy by journalists.

2. THE STORY IS INCOMPLETE OR FULL OF HOLES 
Practitioners must be aware that they are writing news and must offer reporters the news as comprehensively as possible. If for example you are writing about a layoff, substantive reasons must be given. Here quotations and evidence are useful. Anything less than this will be considered too hollow to make the news feed.

3. THEY ARE INACCURATE
It is important to check the accuracy of the information you are writing in your media release. Verify facts, recheck sources and make sure you get quotations correct. It is not only professional to check the credibility of the information you provide but it is ethically sound to do so.

4. THEY ARE NOT TIMELY
Any successful PR practitioner must understand the basic principles of media relations. This means knowing news deadlines and operating with these deadlines in mind. It also means knowing writing news stories that are current, or knowing which stories are not time bound and submit these to the appropriate publications.

5. THERE ARE NO CONTACT INFORMATION 
This may seem unimportant but every media release must contain contact information so journalists can get follow up information. Often journalists contact PR contact people for clarifications, to get sound bytes or full interviews based on the information provided. If no contact information is provided, journalists tend to move on to the next release on their desk! Yours? Filed away - 13 definitely!


6. THEY ARE FULL OF HYPERBOLE
The advice here is not to exaggerate. Talk about your product, client or organisation in clear terms. Do not embellish it or oversell. Do not use flowery language; simple concise succint, factual information is required.

7. THEY ARE TOO LONG
A media release is meant to be at least one page long. If it does onto the second page, do not allow your media release to pass the half point. If you have more than this, it is advised that you write two releases using different, unique angles. In addition, some of that information could easily be used as a  backgrounder. This is an additional information put in press kits, in the event that time and space does not allow for in the media release.

8. THEY DO NOT FIT INTO THE NEWS FEED
Some times, the news day is very busy and there is no space or time to fit your media release into the news feed. Other times, stories from PR practitioners are simply so 'soft' that they cannot make it into the news fed because other/more news worthy stories are given priority.

9. PRACTITIONERS CALL JOURNALISTS TO PRESSURE THEM TO RUN STORIES.
Public relations practitioners, for success, must develop professional relationships with working journalists. The PR person would be wise to follow the beats of the reporters whose work aligns with their PR duties.  Contacting them every now and then to offer story ideas is a professional thing to do. To call them however to pressure them to run your story can be seen as unprofessional. My personal experience is that one call is appropriate to ensure the information is received and that the pitch is accepted. Anything beyind that may be seen at best, as unprofessional or at worst, rude.

Guard against these mistakes and you may be surprised to see an improvement in the number of your media releases making the evening news!


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Dr Hume Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Public Relations at Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI, United States. She has over 15 years of experience in public relations within government, entertainment and business. Learn more about Hume at http://www.humejohnson.com