The Colosseum: Movies as PR?

Me at the Colosseum

Last Sunday, my classmate Phillip and I visited Rome for the day. Our first and last stop was the Colosseum. As one of Italy’s most ancient and major tourist attractions, it needs no publicity or word of mouth. When we first arrived, the line to enter the Colosseum was so long, we surmised it would take us at least two hours to gain entrance.

So, we decided we would hit some other tourist spots and make the Colosseum our last stop. When we returned and walked into the Colosseum, I immediately knew it was worth the wait. As an American who loves period movies, my first thought turned to Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. Who doesn’t remember Russell Crowe’s most infamous lines spoken in the final Colosseum scene?

“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”

Take that Commodus! OK, I digress. As I harkened back to some of the best scenes of Gladiator, Phillip asked me if I had seen Doug Liman’s Jumper film. I had not so he told me that there was a great fight scene that also took place at the Colosseum.

My trip to Rome showed me that PR takes many different forms. It can be overt or covert. But, it also can take the unconscious form of a Hollywood film, usually filmed not on location but on a studio lot miles away. And, some of the best PR is free PR, especially if a consumer can attach a brand to it.

My Fantastic First Class Voyage on Lufthansa

The anticipation for my two-week trip to Bologna, Italy had been building at a steady pace as I came closer to my June 4th departure day. This trip had been a culmination of sorts. As a longtime and loyal American Express cardholder, I racked up enough points in their membership rewards program to qualify for a first class roundtrip international ticket on Lufthansa Airlines.

When I entered the Lufthansa Senator Lounge at Dulles International Airport, my fantastic voyage officially began. There was a delicious complimentary spread of hot and cold foods, a variety of beverages, free Wi-Fi and flat screen plasma TVs. As I boarded the plane through the lounge, I was wowed by not only the layout of the first class cabin but by how wonderful and attentive the flight attendants were.

My seat, which converted into a bed, was wide and spacious. As soon as we were airborne, I received a personalized menu that was prepared by the chef at the San Francisco Ritz-Carlton. As I ate caviar and drank a glass of champagne, I marveled at my good fortune. Before each delectable course, I was given a warm hand towel and the flight attendant expertly anticipated my needs by bringing each course to me at just the right time. In my armrest were pajamas, socks, slippers, pajamas, an eye mask and a toiletries kit. After the flight attendant laid a warm blanket on me, I watched “Up In the Air” and then drifted off into a blissful sleep.

Morris and Goldsworthy (2008) defined PR as a way of “getting someone else independently to say you are good.” Lufthansa has achieved that goal. Although I am having an amazing time in Bologna, I do look forward to the return flight home just to experience first class one more time, Lufthansa style.

Apple Picking, Blogging and a Little Bit of Volunteering

A volunteer perspective on gleaning

August 8, 2009 was the first day of my six week stint as a Bread for the City volunteer. When my alarm went off at the ungodly hour of 6AM (ungodly for a weekend at least), I was actually pretty excited.

Not only was I going to glean for apples to help provide fresh fruit for food bags to feed Bread for the City’s clients, I was also going to observe and interact with everyone involved.

On the way to Crooked Run Orchard in Purcellville, VA, I learned about how a change from canned goods to fresh produce can help reduce chronic conditions like diabetes. I learned that providing fresh fruits and vegetables to vulnerable residents of Washington D.C. is truly a group effort. Several local farms and farmer’s markets donate the left over fresh produce that they don’t sell to fill Bread for the City’s pantries, truly paying it forward.

In just over a month, between the gleanings, farm pick-ups and farmers market pickups, Bread for the City has received almost 20,000 pounds of fresh food that has helped feed D.C’s low-income population.

When we arrived at Crooked Run Orchard, we were greeted by a diverse group of volunteers who were ready to glean the ripe apples that had already fallen to the ground.

There were young people and older people from all walks of life: college students, professionals, retirees, church members and families with young children. Although we didn’t all know each other, we quickly bonded while we gleaned. We helped fill each other’s bags and issued gentle warnings to beware of poison ivy.

When I arrived back in D.C. and watched the crates of apples being unloaded, it felt great knowing that come Monday morning, some hungry D.C. residents would receive bags of fresh fruits and vegetables.

And, that’s worth getting up for at 6AM any day of the week.

Changing Careers In An Uncertain Economic Climate: Are you courageous or just plain crazy?

After 10 years in the telecommunications industry, I decided it was high time to shift gears and pursue the career in communications I had always dreamed of. When I shared this dream with colleagues and friends, many of them were aghast and incredulous. “What if you never find your dream job?,” some asked. “Not everyone is lucky enough to have a fulfilling career, so why do you want to risk it?,” a few folks wondered out loud. “Aren’t you afraid that you may fail?,” an old acquaintance asked. Not to be outdone, a dear friend of mine finally asked what everyone else was probably thinking: “Are you crazy?”

WordNet, defines crazy as brainsick: affected with madness or insanity; a man who had gone mad. I knew that my decisions to leave the telecom industry, apply to graduate school and pursue a communications job in public affairs, public relations or media relations was a bold and courageous move.  But, was I cuckoo? Hardly.

Sure, I decided to pursue my career goals while America lay in the grasp of soaring unemployment, a mortgage meltdown and a near financial collapse. But, I don’t think I have gone mad, I think I have tapped into a well of courage, tenacity and mettle that had been dormant for longer than I care to remember. For me, deciding to pursue a career in communications was a no-brainer. I graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Temple University and spent a semester abroad in London, England as a marketing and communications intern at a Top 40 radio station.

I spent the better part of my career in telecom developing and maintaining strategic relationships with customers, writing and editing training materials and procedural documents, and preparing and presenting PowerPoint presentations to senior leadership. I chaired monthly brainstorming meetings with group managers and managed a $15M annual budget. Telecommunications touches nearly everyone’s lives so what better place to hone my communications skills than a telephone/cell phone/broadband company that consistently ranks in the top 20 of the annual Forbes’ Fortune 500 ranking of America’s largest corporations?

So, armed with a toolbox of transferable communications skills and a wealth of experience, I bid adieu to my telecom tenure and said hello to the next phase of my career. I began my first semester in the Master of Arts in Communication program at The Johns Hopkins University last fall and never looked back. Since then, I have become a blogger, a researcher and an author of literature reviews on media issues. I have sharpened my critical thinking skills, learned about a variety of research methods and how to evaluate and edit the work of others.

As a Johns Hopkins student, I landed an amazing Public Relations internship at an award-winning national newspaper. I drafted and edited press releases and pitched stories to reporters. I supported an fantastic team of publicists in developing and implementing special projects. I also had the opportunity to learn about both internal and external communications being executed in a deadline-driven environment.

So, while I continue my search for my dream communications job, I continue to do what I have always done quite well: multitask. I enrolled in a Public Relations Writing course where I have weekly writing assignments which will make a great portfolio. I network on LinkedIn and keep my Facebook and Twitter pages up to date because as the saying goes, “Be ready so you don’t have to get ready or people will think you are crazy!”

Book Review: “-30- The Collapse of the Great American Newspaper” edited by Charles Madigan

“-30-: The Collapse of the Great American Newspaper” is a collection of 16 previously published articles and essays which document the steady decline of the print newspaper industry. Journalists, social commentators, and industry experts provide background on the history of newspapers, the forces that have contributed to its near demise, and what the extinction of this industry would mean to the American citizenry.

In the introduction, editor Madigan (2007) asks the question, “What is killing the big-city newspaper?” (p. 5). Madigan (2007) explains that the purpose of the book is to determine why the print newspaper industry is in such dire straits and why it should be considered an American tragedy. All 16 contributors offer distinct and decisive viewpoints on how to answer that very question.
Articles by Neiva (2007), Hickey (2007), Shapiro (2007), and Wolff (2007) explain how changing tax laws and the shift from family-owned to publicly traded companies initiated the downward trend in which Wall Street analysts exert tremendous pressure on newspapers to increase their profits to satisfy shareholders each year. This pressure to increase profit and lower costs results in layoffs, buyouts, the closures of foreign bureau offices, and, in some cases, a lackluster editorial product.

The popularity of radio and television in the 1960s and direct mail advertising cutting into print newspapers’ advertising base are the main topics in Meyer’s (2007) article. Edmonds (2007) writes about how classified advertising, the economic engine of the print newspaper has declined considerably and shifted toward the Internet, specifically Google, Craigslist, and Monster. Smolkin’s (2007) piece about the New York Times and its sister property the Boston Globe covers how both papers merged their print and online newsrooms as a result of both declining circulation and advertising revenue. The article by New York Times columnist Carr (2007) describes how the combination of classified advertising’s shift to the web and the sale of its parent company has led to massive layoffs at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, his hometown paper. Auletta (2007) writes about how the Tribune Company’s purchase of the Los Angeles Times led to constant cost-cutting, outsourcing, and a decline in quality news reporting.

Shafer (2007) cites the migration of residents from the city to the suburbs who tend to gravitate to more local suburban dailies, changes in work and commuting patterns, and the waning quality of the editorial product as reasons for declining national newspaper readership and circulation. Plothow (2007), editor and publisher of Idaho Fall’s Post Register contributes a brief piece about how small town dailies are surviving and doing innovative work in both their print and online editions.

In an article about the Tribune Company, Smolkin (2007) notes that while circulation for print newspapers continues to decline, competition from the Internet continues to mount at an alarming pace. Epstein (2007) explains why America still needs its print newspapers and examines how the Internet and the blogosphere have been shaping the news.
Nichols’ (2007) commentary highlights the important role that print newspapers still play in politics, especially at the local and state levels. Nichols (2007) admits that the web devotes much more attention to politics than print newspapers do but reminds the reader that most of the political articles found on the web are written by former or current print reporters.
Mindich’s (2007) article offers several solutions on how to engage young people by using the Internet to promote the importance of reading the news. Some of Mindich’s (2007) suggestions range from petitioning the federal government to insist that computer manufacturers and web developers add news portals to computers desktops to news consumption and political involvement becoming a requirement to admission into the National Honor Society.

All 16 articles are concise, very well written, and provide critical input about the state of the print newspaper industry from many different perspectives. Every article cites statistics that are depressing yet it is the passion of the contributors that leaves the reader with the impression that the industry is in a state of emergency and immediate action must be taken to save it. Each article has a short preface that provides background on the author, which provides a framework for the article and helps the reader understand the author’s perspective. Since the articles are written by reporters, the tone of the pieces are more journalistic than academic which makes the reading engaging for people who know very little about the industry.

The contributors prove Madigan’s (2007) argument that the decline of the print newspaper industry is an American tragedy by detailing the history and decline of newspapers, citing gloomy statistics, and reminding readers how American papers have been and remain a critical part of our democracy.

This volume of work thoroughly explores every mitigating factor that has contributed to the decline of the American newspaper. The articles not only answer the question that Madigan poses in the introduction but, a few pieces also offer solutions and a glimmer of hope for an industry that is on the brink of extinction.

MMORPGs: Is this the Bizarro World 2.0?

For those of you too young to remember, the Bizarro World was a fictional planet that existed in the incredible DC comics universe of superheroes and supervillains. The Bizarro world was also known as Htrae, which was Earth spelled backwards (such a supercool play on words!). Superman, Lois Lane, Yellow Lantern, and the great Bizarro himself were early inhabitants of Htrae.

See, I was a big fan of the Superfriends cartoon when I was a kid. Remember that infamous line: “Wonder Twin powers activate”! OK, back to MMORPGS.

While reading Julian Dibbell‘s “Play Money or, How I Quite My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot”, I could not help but think about the Bizarro world. Humans are a peculiar bunch. For us, the real world can be stressful, tedious, boring, expensive, and filled with endless responsibilites like bills and debt. And, that leads us to create these other worlds. The other world of the 20th century was the Bizarro world. Now, the other world for the 21st century is the world of MMORPGs aka Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games.

In MMORPGs, hundreds or thousands of players interact with one another in a virtual world. Think Dungeons and Dragons or Second Life. Like the Bizarro world, MMORPGs can mirror real life in many ways. While refreshing my memory on the Bizarro world, I came upon Wikipedia which stated, “ In one episode, for example, a salesman is doing a brisk trade selling Bizarro bonds: “Guaranteed to lose money for you”.

Funny how that line could explain our real world current economic collapse. Some things are just so timeless.

In “Play Money”, Dibbell writes about a real man named Troy Stolle who was a carpenter from Indiana. In Stolle’s spare time, he literally spent every waking hour on Ultima Online where he created characters who were expert hunters and archers, and bought a deed so he could build his virtual dream mansion. Virtual life was so good for Stolle until the real world crashed his party.

Stolle fell on hard times and had to sell his prized Ultima Online account. Dibble writes, “Stolle got to talking about the unfortunate reasons he’d sold the account- about how he’d been out of work since 9/11, and how the bills were piling up”.

And, just like in the Bizarro world, trading and bartering are a way of life. In Chapter 20, Dibbell wrote that he himself “had over a hundred dollars in my PayPal account and more than 20 million gp in my bank boxes”. But, probably hearing the ‘easy come, easy go’ mantra in his head, Dibbell goes on to state that “it was never wise to forget that any or all of your assets could vanish, at any moment, with the flip of a bit”.

All of this made me wonder if back in the real world, why had any of the folks who ran companies that were recently bailed out by the US government missed those words of wisdom?

In trying times, escapism is sometimes necessary. See, us humans like to create other worlds but somehow we always manage to bring our real world problems with us. And, we could certainly use a few superfriends right about now!

An Ode to the Digital Middleman

Web 2.0 is a phrase created by O’Reilly Media. It is the baby that Web 1.0 gave birth to. In other words, Web 2.0 is the second generation of Internet services that allows people to collaborate and share information and ideas via social networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. Web 2.0 is the place where people, technology, and economics meet in the digital age.

It is in Web 2.0 where the middleman is the main man (or middleperson, main person, you get the drift). In digital media, the middleman connects the user to where he or she needs to be. And, who is the biggest and baddest middleman on the web, you might ask? Well, it’s Google of course!

In Tim O’Reilly’s “What is Web 2.0 Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software“, he states, “Google happens in the space between browser and search engine and destination content server, as an enabler or middleman between the user and his or her online experience”. In the Web 2.0 world, the most powerful companies are those that bring the user to where he or she wants to go. The middleman is the users mode of transportation while they are on an internet joyride.

The middleman isn’t merely a mode of silent transportation. The digital middleman wants to know as much about your ride as possible. Google, the king of search, does exactly that. In “The Long Tail“, Chris Anderson wrote that Google taps “consumer wisdom collectively by watching what millions of them (users) do and translating that into relevant search results or recommendations”.

Companies that target the long tail which is the collective power of all the small sites on the web that make up the web are the companies that thrive in the Web 2.0 world. eBay and Amazon are also great examples of powerful middlemen who always keep the long tail keenly in their sights.  They understand what the customer wants and provide it in simple transactions. They also remember the last time the customer was there and make recommendations, like a waiter at your favorite restaurant.

And, two of the things that are oh so exciting about the middleman, is that their service automatically gets better the more people use it, and customer service really counts; well, most times it does. eBay grows bigger and bigger in response to its user activity and the comments section will let you know if it’s a safe bet to buy that antique vase from Joe Schmo for $29.95.

Amazon has cornered the market on user reviews and they use user activity to produce better search results. But, beware of their return policy. A few months ago, I ordered two of the same books by mistake and had to return one copy. The books each cost $16.47. When I returned it to Amazon, they charged me an $8.24 restocking fee, and a $3.99 prepaid return label reduction which left me with a measly $4.24 for a new book I never even opened. But, I digress.

The digital world is in some ways similar to the nondigital world. But, what’s fantastic about the digital world is that anyone with a computer and an internet connection can participate in Web 2.0 and make their presence known. Maybe some bigwig at Amazon will read this blog and then some other folks will link to it. And, then I’ll get primo Google PageRank status. And, well, who knows what could happen next?

Because in the digital age, how you get to your destination can be just as important as the destination itself. And, that is my ode to the digital middleman.

Help Kell Get an A on Her Research Paper Project!

Bullying. Unfortunately it is one of America’s oldest pasttimes. In grammar school, you either belonged to one of three groups, the bullies,  the bullied, or the just plain lucky. Well, in the 21st century, bullying has gone high tech and morphed itself into cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying includes such acts as harrassment, making threats, spreading rumors and insults via social networking sites, instant messaging, email, photoshop, and blogs. Cyberbullying is usually carried out by minors but some adults have been known to participate. Cyberbullying is a serious problem and can have traumatic and sometimes deadly consequences.

This brings me to my research topic and how you all can “Help Kell Get an A on Her Research Paper Project!”

Social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook in particular are the most popular method offenders use to cyberbully their peers.

You all may be wondering how you can help me get an A. Well, I want your feedback, your comments, and your ideas on how I can shape my research. Talk to your kids and your kids’ friends. Talk to your nieces and nephews. Teenagers! I need to hear from teenagers!

Think about the following questions and post some comments! Join me in the blogosphere!

1. Do you know anyone that has been a victim of cyberbullying?
2. How was the issue resolved?
3. If so, what was the digital method of choice? MySpace, Facebook, email, instant messaging?
4. As far as you know, have social networking sites (i.e. MySpace, Facebook) implemented adequate privacy and safety controls to reduce cyberbullying?
5. Are our schools doing enough to educate and prevent cyberbullying among children?
6. Are parents doing enough to monitor their children’s computer use?

Your answers to these questions will aid me in my research and help shape my hypothesis. So, get busy, give this some serious thought, and post your comments on this blog!

As Yahoo Falls, Google Remains On Top

The most fascinating aspect of digital media is how fast things change. Within the span of 3 years, an internet startup, once flying high can see it’s stockprice plummet to unprecendented lows or bought by a competitor at rockbottom prices. Within 3 years, new technologies are introduced that can make some of the earlier innovative inventions seem outdated. Email services are revolutionized, virtually anyone with a PC can become a blogger and a citizen journalist and search is apart of the fiber of our lives.

So, in 2005, when John Battelle wrote his book titled , “The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture”, is anyone surprised how much has changed and how much has stayed the same since his book was published?

Well, the thing that has stayed the same is that Google is still number one. Number one in search, number one in advertising, number one in popularity, and number one in plain old coolness. Now, I know it may sound like I am drinking the “GoogleAid” (I wonder if I should copyright that phrase!) but, it is all based on reality and cold hard facts. Google Inc. was incorporated on September 7, 1998 and 10 years later, Google is trading at a whopping $362.75.

In 2005, Battelle wrote in The Search, “Google’s competitors are legion, but the most important of them all, at least in 2005-2006, is Yahoo. Microsoft, like an aircraft carrier lurching into a ten-mile tack, will certainly be a force to reckon with by 2007, but Yahoo is Google’s main foe in the present day, and it is striking how similar, yet distinct, the two companies really are”.

Now, here’s what has changed. On Tuesday, October 21, 2008, Yahoo is reportedly cutting at least 1,500 employees from its workforce. In addition to reducing its workforce, MSNBC reported that Yahoo is not only considering closing some U.S. offices but also outsourcing some of its jobs overseas to lower-paid workers.

So, where did Yahoo go wrong and Google continue to go oh so right?  For starters, maybe Yahoo should have allowed Microsoft to buy them at $33 a share back in May. But, Yahoo Chief Executive and co-founder Jerry Yang put the kibosh on that idea and now Yahoo is paying the cost of that fatal error.

In “The Search“, Battelle wrote that Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page are exacting managers and you get the impression reading the book that Brin and Page rule Google with an iron fist and that is somehow a negative. About Yahoo, Batelle calls Jerry Yang and David Filo “self-effacing, deflective of credit, and quick to delegate authority and responsibility to others”. If only, Yang would have done that when he decided to turn down Microsoft’s offer.

And, as the US economy remains in freefall and consumers, companies, advertisers, and the like cut back on spending, Google still remains on top of the heap as Yahoo is heading toward the trash heap. And Yahoo’s advertising model has just not been as effective as Google’s.

So, for all of the negative press that Google gets about being too secretive, doing business in China, and Page and Brin being the ultimate micromanagers,the end result is as Yahoo falls,  Google remains on top.

Where Are the Corporate Bloggers When A Crisis Comes A’Knockin’?

In Chapter 13 of Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, the authors discuss the power of blogging in a crisis. On page 198, they state, “Blogs enable businesses to jump in quickly and effectively control, reduce, or eliminate damage”.

As a budding crisis communications specialist, I completely agree with that sentiment. When a company is facing a financial meltdown, a scandal, a strike, financial turmoil, product defect, etc., I believe its customers want to hear the unfiltered truth from the inside, barring leaking confidential or proprietary information. Blogging from the inside should be part and parcel of traditional communication methods.

The marketing and PR departments should put out the obligatory press releases, hold press conferences, update the company websites, and their spokespeople should speak regularly with the media. Blogging should come from different departments of the company. I would want and expect to hear stories about what’s going on at the company to give it more of a human face.

Israel and Scoble wrote Naked Conversations in 2005, and I wondered if when faced with a national crisis, would companies use the blogosphere to their advantage? So, I did a simple Google search of some of the companies that Scoble and Israel mentioned to determine if any of them had been embroiled in a crisis lately. I wondered if I could find any blogs written by employees at those companies to get their take on it.

In my search, I stumbled uponPaul Gillin’s blog titled “Social Media and the Open Enterprise”. On October 2, 2008, Paul wrote an excellent blog entry called, “Corporate Blogs Blather While Markets Tumble”.

Gillin visited several Fortune 500 company blogs for signs of any discussion about the financial crisis that has gripped our nation. Two of the company blogs that Gillin visited were discussed in Scoble and Israel’s “Naked Conversations”: Boeing and General Motors.

When Scoble and Israel wrote their book 3 years ago, they mentioned Randy Baseler’s GM blog called Randy’s Journal. In 2005, Scoble and Israel described Randy’s Journal as “an example of a blog that emulates a corporate brochure, and it’s actually pretty good as a brochure” (p. 163). Well, Randy’s Journal is now being written by Randy Tinseth (weird coincidence that they are both named Randy). Boeing is in the middle of its third strike by machinists in within the last 15 years and I could only find one short blog entry dated September 11, 2008 about the strike. As someone who does not work in the aircraft industry, that blog post did not give me any insight into the feelings of the employees on the inside.

On the other hand, in Naked Conversations, Scoble and Israel had great praise for Bob Lutz’s GM blog Fast Lane. Lutz regularly talks about the crises facing the American automotive industry. Congress may need to offer loans to automakers to help them meet fuel mandates and Lutz blogged about it extensively on September 29,2008.

Like Scoble and Israel, I do see the value and importance of company blogs especially during times of crisis. It makes me feel that they not only care about their customers and the public’s perception, they recognize that the return on investment of engaging the blogosphere is worth more than money. If you give the blogosphere what it wants, constant and honest two-way communication, the blogosphere will be there when you need it.