The Name of the Game I Now Play

Happy New Year everyone! Where I come from (Cameroon) it's not too late to say  "happy new year" if you haven't communicated with someone since the first of the year. Considering that it's been over two years since I posted anything, Happy New Year again my friends! :)
This time around I am back to blogging because of my cognitive science class (sigh). Just kidding. I must admit that it is hard for me to put my thoughts together in a blog post. Persistence is however the name of the game I now play.
I look forward to an exciting semester of classwork and blogging.
Peace!
Jenny

Three down, one more to go!

I can hardly believe that I am almost completing my third semester here at the University of North Texas. I have one more semester to go before moving to next destination. Fall 2011 has not been the easiest semester to survive. Having to deal with an increased work load and the loss of a dear friend has left me feeling very tired. I once questioned if I was learning anything this semester, but I now know that I did.

I took three classes this semester and so I thought I should share what I learned from each of those classes. Hopefully, that could enlighten someone else.

Media Ethics

Media organizations have policies which govern them. There are also state and Federal laws which protect the audience from certain of the media’s actions. There are however so many things the media could do that would harm the audience, irrespective of the laws and guidelines. I have learned to consider the feelings of stakeholders in the execution of my duties. Having the power to publish something or hide it it does not mean that I must use it. I have to minimize harm at all times.

Seminar in Public Relations

Public relations is all about relationships. Technology has made it easier for people to connect these days. Once you make those relationships, maintain them, they always come in handy.

Writing a communications plan for this class has also been an eye-opener. I am not likely to forget the lessons we had on the importance of planning and research in the process of producing a communications plan. Those lessons are relevant for everything else I could do in my career.

Research Methods II

The great quantitative research class terrified me long before I signed up for the class. This is probably the most intense and challenging class I have ever taken. It is also one of the most rewarding classes I have ever taken. Noticing how much of the course material I could understand, I feel like a winner. I learned that journalists and PR professionals use statistics in their professions. This class was therefore not a plan by the school to frustrate me, but a necessity.

With only a week left before this semester rounds up, I can confidently say that it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone!

Meet Eric Nadel, Broadcaster & PRO for the Texas Rangers

Eric Nadel has been the radio sports announcer for the Texas Rangers for 33 years. He is sharp, smart, funny and to some very important people. Eric is still in disbelief that the Rangers didn’t win the World Series this year.

Eric has known what he wanted to be in life from a very early age; get paid to announce baseball games. Upon graduating from Brown University, Eric held a few jobs including one with a minor league hockey team for six years.

Eric doesn’t have a degree in journalism, but he knows about being ethical in his broadcasts. He doesn’t have a degree in public relations, but he’s charged with portraying the Rangers in a positive light.

Here are a few things Eric shared with my media ethics class this past Wednesday: his first duty is to the audience, and also to the team. After all, who signs his paychecks? Eric says his job is not to release breaking news to the public, but he may talk about information that has already been published.

 He mentioned the 2009 incident involving Josh Hamilton as one instance where he had to think both about the audience and the team’s image. Eric says he learned that pictures of a half-naked Hamilton in a strip club were released on a website prior to a game. He had to decide whether or not to mention the incident in his broadcast and how often he was going to refer to it. He is fortunate to have a boss who is a public relations professional, and saw the importance of being honest with the crowd about the Hamilton affair.  Eric did what he thought was best for both the audience and the team, and led his presentation with details from Hamilton’s press conference. He told the truth, but didn’t repeat it.

·         Be aware of what is happening at your organization or in the news

·         Seek to know the truth from a firsthand source if possible

·         Verify with your boss if they want that information release, and build an argument for your position if your boss disagrees with you

·         Tell the truth, once people are aware of the truth, not mentioning it makes you look shady

·         Remember you don’t have to be repetitive once you’ve told the truth.

Make no mistakes; while Nadel may seem to you like a spin master for the Rangers, he says he is sometimes critical of them. He remembers his first years on the job when he was less likely to criticize the team. Not only was he new at a job he wanted to keep, but he had a personal relationship with many of the payers who were about his age. Now he is older than all the players, and only maintains a cordial and impersonal relationship with them, something which enables him to criticize them when necessary. At the end of the day, it always helps to be independent from your sources if you want to remain a fair and unbiased source of information. Eric Nadel shows us that there is a way to associate with your sources, yet tell the truth about them.

Do and tell: Why social media isn’t always appropriate

  

This semester I get to draw up my very first communications plan for an organization, and I decided to draw one up for an organization that I have a great deal of respect for, the Hospice Center in Richardson. This plan’s main objective is to seek ways of creating awareness of the center, and increase volunteer participation. Needless to say that I immediately thought to myself: “social media is going to play the trick.” I assumed that social media would be the most effective tool available, to show the good people of Dallas and elsewhere, what the people at the Hospice Center do. So I mentioned that as a tactic in my draft communications plan.

It is so easy to fall into the same trap I fell into, by thinking that social media is the only tool, or the best tool available to market an organization’s image. Yes, social media is everywhere and reaches every continent on earth. Yes, almost everyone uses some social media technology and yes, schools now offer classes centered on social media. I even took one of those classes here at the Mayborn School of Journalism, and it saved me from my ignorance of Twitter, Blogging, LinkedIn and lots of other cool social media networks.

By now everybody should have figured out that the social media idea was not a good idea for the Hospice Center, which offers support for people whose life expectancy is measured in weeks or months. I admit I was shocked when Sandy Heitz, the volunteer coordinator at the center told me that social media was not an option for them. I just thought they were being old-fashioned. Anyway, here is the main reason why they have taken that stance: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prohibits the disclosure of patient information without the patient’s consent. Think of a dying patient, and a grieving family, and ask yourself how many people would grant you that consent. Also think of those consuming social media content, and ask yourself how many of those people would be willing to share the painful details of a private individual’s final days.

The bottom line is this, social media is not appropriate for every business. It is important for people to evaluate the nature of businesses, and look at the laws that govern the operation of that business before jumping to social media as a solution. Also, keep in mind that social media activity is a perfect example of “do and tell.” Social media users expect regular updates on an organization’s activity, and the Hospice Center just can’t do that for the most part. While the Hospice Center is a medical facility, I am in no way saying that hospitals or other medical facilities cannot have a social media presence. The Hospice Center just deals more specifically with a more sensitive and private issue.

Learning PR from a politician…

I can’t believe it’s already November, 2011 has really gone by so fast. So many things happened this week which led us into the 11^th month of the year. Monday especially, seemed like the most news-filled day ever. First, there was Halloween that fell on Monday, and then the 7 billionth baby was born on Monday, and don’t forget Kim Kardashian filed for divorce after 76 days of married life. Monday’s most exciting news in my opinion was however Herman Cain’s reaction to the accusations of sexual harassment by two women. Except if you’ve been living under a hole, you’ve probably heard that the Cain, the GOP candidate vying for President Obama’s job has been accused of inappropriate behavior by two, actually 3 former female employees of the National Restaurant Association. What interests me in this case is how he reacted to the accusations, and how he could have better handled it.

Let me get into some history here. In 1992, USA Today called Arthur Ashe, asking him if he had AIDS.  Ashe refused to comment on the issue, but was told by the reporters that they would pursue the issue despite his stance. Remember how AIDS was regarded in the early 90s? I do. Those who had the disease were stigmatized, people avoided them, and many people viewed he disease as a curse. Also, most people thought its victims were responsible for acquiring the disease because it was a sexually transmissible disease.

 There are certain similarities between Ashe’s and Cain’s stories. First of all, both men were public figures when approached by the media with accusations levied against them. Cain is a former business executive, and a presidential hopeful; Ashe was the first black player ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man to ever win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. While Cain was given a specific number of days by Politico to comment on the allegations made by the two ladies, Ashe was warned by USA Today that their investigation on the issue will continue.

Ashe’s handling of the situation was however remarkable, contrary to Cain’s. The day after Ashe received the call from USA Today, he summoned a press conference, where he revealed to the world that he had contracted HIV in 1983 through a blood transfusion. Ashe beat the press to their game, exposed a problem with the health care system, and even caused many to question USA Today’s motives for causing him so much distress. Cain on the other hand did nothing but raise more suspicions on his innocence. Based on his handling of the accusations, I learned the following things:

• o   Don’t lie. Isn’t that such a simple and obvious rule? Even the Bible advices people not to lie, and judging from Cain’s situation this week, not lying actually saves you a great deal of trouble. Remember Anthony Weiner? 
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• o   Don’t issue contradictory statements. George Romney’s withdrew from the presidential race in the 1960s because he changed his stance on the Vietnam War, saying he had been brainwashed into supporting the war by US military and diplomatic officials in Vietnam. When you take a position on an issue, stick to it, lest people think you are inconsistent.
• o   Don’t ignore the media on matters of such magnitude. That just fuels their suspicions that you are hiding something.
• o   Don’t yell at reporters when the story doesn't die down, you infuriate some people and stop looking like a potential president.
• o   Hire a PR person who can teach you all these things
• o   Most importantly, if you are aware that there are skeletons in your closet, draw up a strategy that you will use in tackling the issue if that skeleton is ever exposed.

There is always something PR professionals and students can learn from the campaign trail; Cain’s predicament has been a real learning experience.

Meet the experts

This week, my class was honored to have not one, but four professionals working in the PR and news world speak to us. NBCDFW’s Omar Villafranca, Denton PD’s Ryan Grelle, Dart’s Morgan Lyons and my former boss, Buddy Price from UNT were gracious enough to spend a Wednesday evening us, and gave us useful tips on how to succeed in our chosen careers. Most importantly, those gentlemen opened up about the hardest parts of their jobs. If they can successfully navigate through those tough situations, then I believe it is a testimony of their talent and skill.

Buddy is the news manager at UNT’s news service. Previously, he worked as a reporter for eleven years, held a position at IBM, and even co-owned a company for a while before his partner bought him out; that’s just a summary of Buddy’s resume.  He has worked for corporate America, and now works for a public institution; he has been a reporter, now he is in charge of media relations.  One of the challenging aspects of his current job is the difficulty of controlling the amount of information that is disclosed at a public institution. IBM for example, he says had a tighter grip on what information was released about the company. I have had the opportunity to see what the UNT news service does, and it isn’t always a fun job of just dealing with the media on positive stories about the university. They manage crises and aim to protect the university from negative press. As much as companies might want to disclose their information, certain things can become a PR nightmare if made public.

Ryan Grelle is the Public Information Officer for the Denton Police Department. This is the second time he’s speaking to a class I’m taking, and he is always full of interesting insights. If you follow Ryan on Twitter (@DENTONPD), you might not need to watch TV certain nights, because he tweets 911 calls. I think Denton PD was the first to tweet those calls in the US, or among the first to do so. Ryan’s challenge in his capacity as communications officer is getting his colleagues to tell him information when things are about to blow up instead of keeping him in the dark till the last minute. Nobody likes practicing reactive PR if they can avoid the situation beforehand. You are more likely to find an effective solution to a problem if you have enough time to think.

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) transports over 2000 people day. Well that implies that business is good, but it also means that they have dissatisfied and satisfied customers.  I believe that it was easier for companies to hush the negative comments their customers made about them a few years ago, but that has changed thanks to social media networks. If a dissatisfied customer decides to complain about a product to the whole world, he/she can do so, and that’s not good for any organization. I’m sure Morgan, who is Dart’s Media Relations Director, has to handle such situations on a daily basis. He however says the hardest part of his job is trying to navigate changes in the way information is delivered.  He says they at Dart are trying to figure out how to make use of the new tools that are available, and cut the clutter in their releases, because news media offers even less space for stories than traditional media.

“Everybody wants to be on the news,” said the NBCDFW reporter, Omar Villafranca. Though he did not say that this was the hardest part of his job, I’ll assume that it is difficult for him to deal with people who think that every aspect of their lives is newsworthy.  Omar told us about this man who sent a picture to their newsroom of hail in his backyard. Great picture, but Omar said after taking a closer look, they discovered that the ice was perfectly shaped. Whoever saw only square shaped hail?

I belong to the tribe of Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn...

I come from one of the most beautiful countries in the world, blessed with resources, and people. What makes us unique and special is the diverse nature of the Cameroonian population. There are about 19 million Cameroonians, spread across ten regions, and we belong to over 230 different tribes. Many of these tribes share a few things in common; however many of them have customs, food and local languages. Many years ago, one thing that was common to the entire country, was the tradition of storytelling. Tribal elders, surrounded by their families, and particularly young people sat around a bonfire at night to tell stories. This was how tradition was passed from generation to generation, that was how culture was preserved.

That was a long time ago anyway, and my country and many other parts of the world that practiced such traditions have moved on. Tribes are no longer the country or local places they used to be for the most part. There were no phones back when our elders told nighttime stories by the fireside; none of those people ever dreamed of a computer. Those tribes were established based on geographic locations, and shared history.

How then can Steve Lee, APR, CEO of QuickSilver Interactive assert that we live in tribes, and all thanks to social media? Social media technologies might be storytelling tools but have they don’t pull people together, they’ve pushed us apart. I Skype with my friends instead of paying them actual visits; I text them any interesting stories I have from the day, instead of sitting with them to talk, I submit reports to my boss via email. How then could Steve say that we live in tribes?

He’s right, and this PR guru and social media expert is often right about a lot of stuff (he was wrong about his baseball jersey bringing the Rangers luck if he wore it during a game). Look at the spirit of a tribe, and not necessarily the traditional aspects of it and you will make sense out of Steve’s claim. Tribes are made up of people who communicate with each other, share common interests, influence each other and who have a relationship with one another.

Who are your friends on Facebook or Twitter for example? These are people you communicate with, have a relationship with, and they are probably capable of influencing you, and vice versa. Isn’t that a tribe? The social media tribe is one modern and cool tribe. Don’t forget, you may relate to other in a tribe more than others, so even that person you added to your Facebook friends list but do not communicate with often is a member of your tribe.

I share details of my life on Facebook with my family and friends, exchange news tips on Twitter with my course mates and people who have similar interests with me, share YouTube videos with my friends, and seek for professional guidance from LinkedIn. Those are my different tribes. In it are people from my family, church, school, and even my actual traditional tribe in Cameroon. Social media tribes bring people together, and give them an opportunity to tell their stories or others stories without inconveniences.

Like Steve said, we have moved circle from the traditional tribes to the social media tribes. TV, radio, books and newspapers may attract a following, but none has as much of an impact as social media technologies do. Knowing this, it’s left for businesses to figure out how to sell their products, ideas or image using these tools. If I get an online coupon from one of my favorite stores, I am most likely to tell my social media tribal relatives, and that might influence a couple of them to patronize that store.

Social media tribes exist, and they are beneficial not only to their members, but to organizations as well. Thanks for the lesson, Steve.