Got a Boss Who Denies Reality? A Behavioral Scientist’s Guide to Tactful Truth Telling
From The Conversation: ‘Tis the season for holiday parties at the office. While they’re great for building workplace camaraderie and team spirit, when was the last time a colleague – perhaps fueled by too much alcohol – said something so ridiculous that it made your jaw drop? Perhaps a desk mate went into something political, […]
Let’s Be Friends? FL Supreme Court Asked to Decide Whether Lawyers and Judges Can Be Facebook Pals
From our good friend, Karen Rubin, at Thompson Hine, writing for The Law for Lawyers Today (which actually isn’t just for lawyers): The Third District Florida court of appeals got some press this summer when it affirmed an order refusing to disqualify a judge who was Facebook friends with one of the lawyers in a case before her. The court wrote that “a […]
How Social Media Fires People’s Passions – and Builds Extremist Divisions
From Robert Kozinets, at the University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, writing for The Conversation: The people of the United States continue to learn how polarized and divided the nation has become. In one study released in late October by the Pew Research Center, Americans were found to have become increasingly partisan in […]
Fake News: The Real History – and How to Deal with It Today If You’re a Target
By Thom Fladung/Hennes Communications In 1782, Benjamin Franklin, while serving as American ambassador to France, reported a shocking story. American revolutionary soldiers had found bags with more than 700 scalps of soldiers, boy, girls and even infants. The massacre, Franklin wrote, was the work of Indians who were allied with King George. And the Indians […]
Not a Regular Cease-and-Desist, A Cool Cease-and-Desist
From The Atlantic: Phrases that are not often used to describe a cease-and-desist letter: “the best,”“hilarious,” “cool,” “perfect,” “super classy.” And yet that is exactly the praise that Netflix’s lawyers received this week, from a variety of media outlets, for going about that most lawyerly of tasks: telling people they aren’t allowed to do a thing. In this case, […]
ESPN Striking Out at Transparency in Jemele Hill Suspension
[By Thom Fladung/Hennes Communications] In the years I was helping run newsrooms, one of my least favorite experiences was being in the news. Odd sounding, I know, in that I spent 33 years putting people, businesses and other organizations in the news. Hypocritical? Perhaps. Almost always, though, if one of my newspapers was in […]
Corporate Attorneys & The Court of Public Opinion
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] “The house could be burned down before you even smell smoke.” In 2009, The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics set out to study how the court of public opinion can shape legal controversies. The sources were the people on the front lines – responses gathered from a questionnaire sent […]
The Media Revolution is ‘Iterative’ and Social: Experts Share How Not to Get Left Behind
Earlier this year, Bruce Hennes and Thom Fladung spoke at the American Bar Association’s Annual Mid-Year Conference, held in Miami, Florida. Their remarks were captured by Marilyn Cavicchia, writing for the ABA’s Bar Leader Magazine: “You’re all living in a media revolution,” said Thom Fladung, vice president of Hennes Communications. “And you don’t even know it.” […]
Inside the Crisis Management War Room
One day your luck suddenly runs out, and you’re consumed by a crisis that threatens to destroy everything you and your team have worked so hard to build. Rumors go viral on social media. News reporters fill your voice mail and email with interview requests. Work grinds to a halt and your staff wants answers. […]
When Social Media Bites Back
[By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications] Indiana Republicans have learned that social media is not as easy as it sometimes looks. We suspect the individual who came up with the idea of generating support for healthcare reform by soliciting criticism of Obamacare on Facebook has spent some time in the woodshed as a result of this […]