Media

Image is everything –until you tick off the media

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

This is the flip side of my last post on image management –the futility of trying to control things.

The British journalist removed from the scene of a protest in Beijing on Wednesday can undo much of gains China has been making in the first few days of the Olympics.

The hand-covering-camera-lens tactic worked in times gone by. Today there are too many cameras that don’t look like cameras. There’s audio. There’s Twitter. And as we have seen only too well, reporters don’t have to be credentialed to cover a story. Images like this will gain more currency when mainstream people are ticked off.

As I more or less predicted last month, media rights mean nothing if someone has a story to tell and an audience.

Addendum:

This comment from David Wolf, on a post on Digital Watch, a blog out of Ogilvy China sums it up well:

“the IOC has yet to come to terms with the Internet and what it means to the way people enjoy – or at least “consume” – the Games.”

Analog to digital highlighted at Olympics opening ceremony

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

Thousands of years ago, our ancestors communicated across vast distances by beating out messages on drums. Today we relay messages across the world on Twitter, using our thumbs.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics combines both these communication impulses in a country that is seeing this dramatic shift from the analog and digital. The balance and alternation of signals is a powerful metaphor for much of what we do, no matter where we live.

The visually lavish opening ceremony with its human tableau set on a digitally created scroll was just the start. Bamboo scrolls gave way to print; and in a striking opposite effect, 2008 drummers played out a digital spectacle with their choreographed beats made to look like a LED screen which spelled out the count down. That too in Roman and Chinese numerals. How much richer could we get?

One Daily Mail journalist summed it up this way: “This was a feast for the eyes cooked not from the books of ancient culture so much as the latest Microsoft manuals.” I don’t think this is accurate. It was a feast for all our senses, cooked from a user manual that’s a mashup of the Little Red Book and Microsoft manual.

A few millenia after the drum and the torch, here’s how we send and receive information:

  • There’s a Twitter tag 080808 set up by three Chinese to connect everyone’s tweets.
  • Watch cell-phones streaming live video on Qik, a service also used by the Sacramento Bee to cover the torch protests.
  • Newspaper and TV journalists are blogging to give us expanded, less time-delayed coverage.
  • Text alerts (and video) on your phone is available at NBC at NBColympics.com
  • Several Facebook groups in support of, and as a protest to the Olympics.
  • NBC has a widget you could add to your blog or social network.
  • The Voices of the Olympic Games, courtesy Lenovo provides great back stories from the athletes themselves.

Quotes for the week ending 9 August, 2008

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

”He went from being this renegade making films that were banned and an eyesore for the Chinese government, to kind of being the pet of the government.”

Michael Berry, of University of California, Santa Barbara, on Zhang Yimou, who directed the spectacular Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing.

In addition I have offered to send the MAD Magazine Editor a $20.00 Circuit City Gift Card, toward the purchase of a Nintendo Wii….if he can find one!

Jim Babb, of Circuit City’s corporate Communications, apologizing to MAD magazine for pulling copies off the shelves in response to a parody of a Circuit City newspaper ad about “Sucker City.”

“Wait until Bob Garfield sees these new ads.”

AdRants, talking of an ad for Snickers, featuring ‘animals digitally tortured and forced to take on human qualities’ by agency NoS/BBDO Poland. The reference to Advertising Age critic Bob Garfield is because of his recent ‘open letter‘ to the president of another ad agency.

“More Americans died from pandemic flu in the 20th Century than died in World War I. It will happen again. Prepare now.”

PSA for the state of Ohio on its pandemic flu preparedness plan and publicizing of its website, OhioPandemicflu.gov

“At the moment the channel for reporters to use the internet is fully open.”

Beijing Olympic spokesperson Sun Weide, on the move by China to lift the blocks on several long-barred websites, that were only accessible by the media at their hotels.

“Never before in an election cycle has so much attention turned to the youth vote…”

Steve Capus, president of NBC News, on hiring the late Tim Russert’s son, Luke, to cover the Democratic National Convention this month.

“But what the clueless HR team doesn’t realize is that the manager community will find a way to shorten it for them – simply by hitting the “delete” button when they receive it.

Blog on MyRagan.com on why “HR is Clueless”

“The new Delicious is just like the old del.icio.us, only faster …”

From a blog post on Del.icio.us about the new, improved tagging and search features launched this week.

“Beard was supposed to shed her clothes and denounce the wearing of fur, but why anyone would wear fur in the summertime in Beijing is beyond me.”

John Crumpacker, in SFGate on U.S. Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard’s failed attempt at a stunt in Beijing, on behalf of PETA.

“Where is the protest against surgeon who remove big part of your brain?”

Someone going by the name of PeterH2 on the discussion page of the Wikipedia entry for the 2008 Summer Olympics, reacting to a question about the use of American English in the entry.

Quotes for the week ending 2 August, 2008

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“The humidity is really something here, you are dripping of sweat in a few minutes ..I guess i should not be complaining at all about humidity, being from Delhi, India.”

Rajyavardhan Rathore, Indian shooter, one of the Lenovo-sponsored bloggers, having just landed at the Olympic village in Beijing.

“I suggest someone be kind and bring an Airport Express or other Wifi router and share the Internet love.”

Andrew Lih, commenting on the claim that internet access in the Olympic village is not free nor cheap.

“Beijingoism”

One word re-used by The Economist magazine this week to describe what it calls a ‘virulently assertive strain of nationalism’ mixed with feelings of diplomatic triumph. In December last year, the article on the Challenge of Beijingoism, called the Olympic preparations a ‘colossal makeover.’

“When I first broached the idea of doing YouTube some people looked at me as though I must have completely lost the plot.”

Queen Rania of Jordan, on using her own YouTube channel to address important issues.

“Even though I am avidly digital, my devotion is not pure-play. There are six print news and culture magazines entering my household … — and of course the thump of a daily newspaper to my doorstep.”

Kendall Allen, on balancing old and new media as the news business goes digital.

“Come like you did for Don Bolles; come to Phoenix and stop this madness.”

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, telling the national media to scrutinize Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration sweeps like the way it focused on Bolles, an investigative journalist killed by a car bomb.

“You’ll get respect from providing the media what they need, and writing in AP Style is just icing on the cake.”

Charlotte Risch, at ValleyPRBlog, on whether journalists care or tear their hair out over AP style.

McCain caught between rock-star and hard place

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

The news about John McCain’s campaign isn’t looking good. Or positive. The folks directing marketing communications have to juggle between keeping too many metaphors alive: Maverick, fighter, experienced politician etc. They forget McCain has another metaphor: celebrity — for the right reasons.

The trouble with going after Obama with the latest round of attack ads is that it earns him the metaphor that sticks too fast: desperate.

It doesn’t help when the media, that used to be supercharged with maverick-ism, is not so enamored with the tactic. The dirty little secret, however, is that the media loves it. It gives the campaign coverage a lot of juicy bits to savor. So why the McCain campaign serves up these silly hors deurs (like the Brittany/Hilton analogy) beats me. The public already know that Obama is a rock-star, politics aside.

In the end, since I am more interested in positioning not politics, McCain’s brand that the media loves is more durable, and he needs not try so hard to reposition the rock star. If his campaign lets McCain be McCain, he would pick a different kind of fight, the kind of fight he’s best known for –on policy. No glitzy Euro photo ops required.

No dumb YouTube videos, too.

Mommy bloggers carve spot in media mix

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

So Proctor and Gamble is doing a McDonald’s? They are inviting 15 so-called “mommy bloggers” to their corporate office.

One of them is MIndy Roberts, a mother of three. She calls her blog, Wonderbelly, a chronicle of “life and children in the sleepless hours in an effort to capture her young family’s world in real time.” Roberts is also the author of Mommy Confidential.

P&G seem to have done their homework in making their pick. “Metropolotal Mama” Stephanie Sheaffer, is another in the group of invitees. She says she works in the PR industry by day and blogs by night.

The Golden Arches did something like this around this time last year. Creating an advisory panel was a good way to counter the kind of flak they were getting from some quarters —and bloggers. Today Blogger Relations is becoming standard PR practice with lots of advice from the pros.

What does this tell us? It signals that bloggers are quickly becoming part of the media mix, rather than a group that only exists on the edges.

Pandemic flu hits blogosphere

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

I’ve been tracking how the pandemic flu is being covered over the past few months, and notice a spike in interest across many cities, scary media stories, a military-styled exercise. The blogosphere has suddenly become engaged in this.

Blogging a pandemic I. SDHD PanFlu BlogEx, a blog by the Southeastern District Health Department in Pocatello, Idaho is nothing to sneeze at. It is using a blog format to ‘report’ an outbreak within a two-week period using news-like headlines, fact-filled blog posts, videos and and links to external agencies. I like the fact that comments are open to the public. Every carries this disclaimer in red: “This is an exercise. It is not real.”

Unlike most What-If exercises (considered table-top exercises by the Dept. of Homeland Security) a global event like this cannot be contained by governments and medical professionals. There is a huge public component, not to mention a media component. Information will spread fast through whatever channels are available and it is not a stretch to assume that the blogosphere will upstage the traditional media in the same way it did during recent crises, such as the London bombings and the Asian tsunami. People will upload videos from their phones. Paramedics will provide advice via home made videos published on Youtube. Citizen journalists will break stories from far flung places before Newsweek or Catie Couric even get there –if flights to affected areas will even be possible. This format with potential for greater collaboration and dissemination is truly worth exploring.

Blogging a pandemic II: One Michael Coston, a paramedic, maintains a blog called Avian-Flu diary. He’s onto something, being a sort of a paramedic-meets CitJo.

On similar lines, the Kaiser Network is hosting a web conference called “The Health Blogosphere: What It Means for Policy Debates and Journalism” today at 1 p.m. Eastern time.

ASU fired the first shot? I like to think we had a head start on some of these. Our ‘hybrid’ Pandemic Flu exercise at ASU’s Decision Theater in April this year took the table-top model in a new direction, using the collaboration tools of the Theater with rich media inputs, and scenarios.

“Get clicking, pointing, editing and mixing”

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

At the risk of creating promoting a stereotype, I have to say this. A monarch is not someone we associate with being an advocate and user of social media. Queen Rania of Jordan, the wife of King Abdullah, loves smashing that stereotype, among others. (It runs in the family. Her husband has appeared on Star Trek).

Her web site begins with the line “A journey of a thousand miles can begin with a single click” and contains phrases like “join the conversation” so you you know where she stands on new media.

It therefore comes as no surprise that Queen Rania has her YouTube channel, where she tackles issues such as … breaking stereotypes. In this video, she not only speaks out about stereotypes (I like the way she takes on the stupid Michele Malkin comment about the scarf, in passing) but urges people to “get clicking, pointing, editing and mixing” to join her in this mission.

Just for the record, Queen Elizabeth does have a YouTube channnel, but doesn’t use it the same way.

Quotes for the week ending 26 July, 2008

/ Angelo Fernando / 3 Comments

“Randy died this morning of complications from pancreatic cancer.”

Posting on Randy Pausch’s web site, on Friday 25 July announcing the sad news of the American professor of computer science known for his “The Last Lecture,” that became a New York Times best seller.

“I get that many consumers of online-transmitted information don’t like print much anymore…What I don’t get is why those Republic readers who haven’t sworn off computers altogether would simply ignore the logical digital complement to their dirt of print-based information.”

Paul Maryniak, General Manager of The Mesa Republic, inviting print readers to make better use of the Arizona Republic web site.

“To the average flier, this isn’t a case of the boy who cried wolf; It’s a case of the wolf who cried wolf.”

Editorial in Advertising Age about the disingenuous attack by the CEOs of 12 airlines asking their passengers to support them in their fight against oil companies to restrict oil speculation.

After 9/11, Mr. Bush had the chance to summon the country to a great nation-building project focused on breaking our addiction to oil. Instead, he told us to go shopping. After gasoline prices hit $4.11 last week, he had the chance to summon the country to a great nation-building project focused on clean energy. Instead, he told us to go drilling.

Thomas Friedman on on the significance of 9/11 and 4/11

“The gnashing of teeth from the left took on the odd cast of intellectuals congratulating each other for recognizing the satire of the image …”

Ann Marie Kerwin, on the New Yorker cover that sparked an uproar by the Obama campaign last week.

“The Web is not stealing audience away from TV, but rather helping them to build it.”

Mitch Joel, commenting on the fact that 45% of the CBS TV audience, watches their shows online.

“A throng of adoring fans awaits Senator Obama in Paris …And that’s just the American press.”

John McCain commenting on Obama’s visit to Europe and being neglected by the local media.