Threats Rarely Work: A PR Lesson from HBO’s ‘Succession’
David Ball, writing for PR News, hits it on the head… With the return of HBO’s “Succession” next month, I remember at least one teachable communication moment from the second season. In episode six, a magazine writer approaches the leaders of fictitious Waystar Royco with a story of sexual harassment and abuse within the company. The story […]
Consider the ‘Message Effect’ of Inviting a Consultant to Help Your Witness
From Ken Broda-Bahm, Ph.D., writing for The Persuasive Litigator… Arriving for the preparation meeting, the witness notices that there’s someone new in the room: a communications consultant. A non-lawyer visiting from out-of-town, the consultant is introduced by the lawyer as a specialist in legal communication and as someone who “is here to help us prepare […]
It’s Not Misinformation. It’s Amplified Propaganda.
From Renee DiResta, writing in The Atlantic… One Sunday morning in July of last year, a message from an anonymous account appeared on “Bernie or Vest,” a Discord chat server for fans of Senator Bernie Sanders. It contained an image of Shahid Buttar, the San Francisco activist challenging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the 2020 congressional runoff, and […]
Troll Farms Reached 140 Million Americans a Month on Facebook Before 2020 Election, Internal Report Shows
From Karen Hao, writing in MIT Technology Review… In the run-up to the 2020 election, the most highly contested in US history, Facebook’s most popular pages for Christian and Black American content were being run by Eastern European troll farms. These pages were part of a larger network that collectively reached nearly half of all […]
Why Women Face Different Standards on Zoom and What to do About It
From George Bradley, writing in PRNews… Research from The Harris Poll shows 39 percent of women, but just 25 percent of men, turn off video during Zoom calls. That’s a fairly significant difference. In addition, when they turn on video, women are more likely than men to prepare (do their hair, change clothes or clean visible workspaces). […]
I Can’t Go On – What’s Behind Stage Fright
By Joan Acocella, writing in The New Yorker… Sara Solovitch, in “Playing Scared: A History and Memoir of Stage Fright” (Bloomsbury), says that while she was a good pianist as a child, she fell apart—sweating, trembling—when she had to play for an audience. She got through the Eastman School of Music’s preparatory program. Then she […]
How ‘Engagement’ Makes You Vulnerable to Manipulation and Misinformation on Social Media
Filippo Menczer, Luddy Distinguished Professor of Informatics and Computer Science at Indiana University, writes… Facebook has been quietly experimenting with reducing the amount of political content it puts in users’ news feeds. The move is a tacit acknowledgment that the way the company’s algorithms work can be a problem. The heart of the matter is the distinction between […]
Social Media Jeopardizes our Lives
By Evan Nierman, writing for PR News… The swift downfall of “Jeopardy!” host Mike Richards is the latest example of the jeopardy that surrounds us in today’s lightning-fast unforgiving age of social media. Whether you make a wrong move, say something offensive, or have ugly skeletons in your closet, the career-ending rush to judgement can be fast […]
Why Jim Cantore and Hurricane Reporters in the Eye of the Storm Matter
By Tom Jones, writing for Poynter… If the world can see what is happening, help is more likely to follow. One of the most powerful storms to ever hit the U.S. — 16 years to the day that Hurricane Katrina hit the same part of the country — dramatically overtook the news on Sunday. Right […]
9/11 at 20: Not Just Another Anniversary
Tim O’Brien writes… There are anniversaries and then there are anniversaries. The one that’s coming up is the latter. On September 11, 2021, the country will mark 20 years since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that not only shook a nation, but changed it. The event created a new term that defines the era in […]