Social Media Monitoring by Government Agencies – A Fine Line Between Privacy & Public Safety
[By Scott Juba] Social media monitoring and surveillance is a fact of life in today’s twenty-first century communication landscape. It is a near certainty that every person reading this has had their online communication monitored. In many cases, companies and brands track what customers and competitors are saying about them online and then use that […]
On the Ground in Cleveland During the Republican Convention
In a video produced by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, here’s what Cleveland looked like from ground level during the recent Republican National Convention. As the Washington Post said: They told us there’d be riots. Instead, we got a street party. You can see that video here. NOTE: The part about the convention starts at […]
How to Project Power
From The New York Times Magazine: ‘‘Keep your limbs away from your body,’’ says Deborah H Gruenfeld, a social psychologist who teaches at Stanford University. Some research shows that people posed in expansive postures feel more powerful, exhibit higher testosterone levels and have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol — all characteristics of high-ranking […]
As Profanity-Laced Video Leaks, Outlets Grapple with Trump’s Language
From Poynter: Open microphones have often left politicians and other powerful people red-faced and apologetic. But The Washington Post’s decision Friday to publish a video of Donald Trump explaining how he kissed and groped women pushed some newsrooms to dance around the graphic language while others took it public unedited. Because Trump’s attitude toward women […]
Body Language at the Second Presidential Debate
From The Washington Post: It’s not our faces that tend to offer the strongest clues about what we are feeling, but rather our bodies. In fact, the more intense the emotion, the more difficult the human face becomes to read and the more telling and accurate body language seems to become. That’s what a team of […]
Trick or Treat! Outrage Masquerades as Principles in Crisis Management
Why are organizations punished in the Court of Public Opinion for violating ethical principles when they have not broken any law? Dr. Peter Sandman, a preeminent risk communications expert, says when an issue sparks outrage (and we see plenty of organizations pilloried in social media by outraged trolls every day), society becomes desperate to blame […]
Context is King: 3 Ways to Take Control of Interviews
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] The second a crisis rears its ugly head and a reporter knocks on your door about it, you start quaking in your boots. You get a lump in your throat and notice you’re sweating. But you know in your heart that your organization is not the villain in this issue, […]
Crisis Management: Faced With Trump’s Relentless Attacks, Ford (Finally) Has A Better Idea
By Thom Fladung Hennes Communications During Monday night’s presidential debate, Donald Trump once again made Ford Motor Co. the poster child for corporate flight from America. “So Ford is leaving,” Trump said. “You see that, their small car division leaving. Thousands of jobs leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio. They’re all leaving. And we can’t allow it […]
Hypervigilance and the Digital Age
Keywords: Cyberterrorism; Hypervigilance; PTSD; Abstract: This paper discusses the development of a hypervigilant culture within the U.S., with attention-grabbing low-frequency incidents overshadowing the far deadlier but less sensational every day risks. While we now live in a modern world where people are living longer, free-er, and richer than ever before, more of us have become […]
Responding to Reports of Sexual Abuse of Students, Past and Present – The Convergence of Attitudes and Expectations
From our friend and colleague, David Wolowitz… Recently, the responses of independent schools to reports of past abuse of students by faculty have received intense scrutiny by the news media, social media, survivors, victim’s lawyers and alumni. Why is this happening now? I believe we are in a period of cultural change in which there […]