International, Public & Corporate Communication Quarterly Digest of Public Affairs News Issue # 3 - 2015 FOREWORD This newsletter is aimed at providing Public Affairs practitioners with a short selection of recently posted stories, papers, etc. which may be useful to remain abreast of new trends or to stimulate a debate. Sources are linked and any copyright remains with the authors.
In this issue:
Volkswagen and failing comms
p. 2
Volkswagen’s intent to deceive
p. 4
VolksWagen: when crisis management is not enough
NATO signs five-year comms services agreement
p. 7
The VolksWagen crisis is still attracting wide attention by PR practicioner, as a study case. Most believe that – whatever the factory does to mitigate the impact, the intentional crime that has caused the crisis cannot be adequately mitigated with good crisis communication.
Poisoned Public Opinion in Russia
p. 7
The limits of photojournalism
p. 10
The second post in our hit parade was the announcement – made by the interested contractors – that NATO is seeking advice and/assistance from the commercial communications world. At least four PR firms would be involved. However, no confirmation by NATO has been spotted so far.
How to manage negative SM comments (infographic) p. 12 The Use of Digitalisation: Changing The Relationship Between Public Relations And Journalism p. 13 Where fake news is born p. 16 Measuring effects of PR activities p. 17 Altered Images Show Photojournalism at Its Worst p. 18
The remaining stories as usual reflect the sequence of our quarterly Facebook ‘hit parade’. By coincidence, several of them have one factor in common: photography as a tool to inform, influence or deceive.
The editor
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The Volkswagen crisis and failing comms By Franco Veltri
VW's handling of its current crisis has been exemplary so far. But will not be enough. Good crisis management can mitigate the impact but Volkswagen cannot survive the current scandal without heavy losses. Of course it would have been much worse without good crisis communication... Volkswagen timely reacted with crisis communication tools. Within 48 hours of the news story first appearing accusing VW of cheating on its emissions data the company leadership took full responsibility and promised action. They eventually admitted that that the number of cars fitted with "defeat devices" was much higher that what reported and that the deceit was not limited to the USA. But the milk was spilled and will not entirely return into the bottle. It was good to apologize and to be accountable, now they need to rebuild a reputation that was key to the commercial success of the brand.
On 18 September the Obama administration directed Volkswagen to recall nearly a halfmillion cars, saying the carmaker illegally installed software in its diesel-power cars that was intentionally designed to circumvent environmental standards for reducing smog. VW acted promptly and, within 48 hours the company had released a statement from CEO Martin Winterkorn in which he took full responsibility and promised action. I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public. We will cooperate fully with the responsible agencies, with transparency and urgency, to clearly, openly, and completely establish all of the facts of this case. Volkswagen has ordered an external investigation of this matter. We do not and will not tolerate violations of any kind of our internal rules or of the law. The trust of our customers and the public is and continues to be our most important asset. We at Volkswagen will do everything that must be done in order to reestablish the trust that so many people have placed in us, and we will do everything necessary in order to reverse the damage this has caused. This matter has first priority for me, personally, and for our entire Board of Management. Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, former CEO of Volkswagen AG
Mark Ritson, an Associate Professor at Melbourne Business School and consultant to several of the world’s leading brands noted in the Sidney Morning Herald that VW did go through the classical three steps of crisis management: First, act fast. 20 Sep. 2015 Second, take responsibility Third, declare the crisis over and use your successful response to rebuild trust and brand equity as quickly as Winterkorn went even further on 22 possible. September when he announced that the number of cars fitted with "defeat devices" According to Prof. Ritson, Volkswagen, on the was not half a million, it was 11 million and other hand, has been less than impressive in the deceit was not limited to the USA but had its crisis management over the last few years. been a worldwide practice for several years. Only two years ago the company was forced Finally, the day after Winterkorn announced into an embarrassing reverse after problems his resignation, saying "Volkswagen needs a with its direct-shift gearboxes began to get fresh start - also in terms of personnel." He coverage across Australia. Quarterly Digest of Public Affairs News – 3-2015
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resigned on 23 September and was replaced by Matthias Müller. “My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group – by leaving no stone unturned and with maximum transparency, as well as drawing the right conclusions from the current situation. Under my leadership, Volkswagen will do everything it can to develop and implement the most stringent compliance and governance standards in our industry. If we manage to achieve that then the Volkswagen Group with its innovative strength, its strong brands and above all its competent and highly motivated team has the opportunity to emerge from this crisis stronger than before.” Matthias Müller, new CEO of Volkswagen AG
Prof. Ritson’s assessment is that VW responded well to this new crisis, but this will not restore faith in its brand and prevent long term damage to the company: “As important as it is to manage crises in the correct manner, there are some mistakes that simply cannot be unmade… ..First, unlike the previous gearbox crisis which was born of incompetence, this crisis is born from absolute malfeasance and probably will result in criminal convictions. VW did not make an error with its emissions testing. It deliberately and successfully created a technological device that enabled it to break the law. Next, consider how many VW employees must have known about these "defeat devices" and how many of them are now likely to be prosecuted.”
25 Sep. 2015
The same day Berthold Huber, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board, issued a very strong public statement. “The test manipulations are a moral and political disaster for Volkswagen. The unlawful behavior of engineers and technicians involved in engine development shocked Volkswagen just as much as it shocked the public. We can only apologize and ask our customers, the public, the authorities and our investors to give us a chance to make amends.” The Supervisory Board today commissioned an American law firm to assist in further clarification and in preparing the necessary steps. Berthold Huber, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board 25 Sep. 2015
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According to Colin Shaw , to put the above quote in context for VW, one must ask if they have lied over the performance of their cars for emissions standards, then what else have they lied about? “When they were little, I used to tell my kids lying is the worst thing they can do. If they lie, then people can’t trust them. Without that trust, no one will believe anything they say. What other things have VW lied about?
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I am sure now the following pattern of behavior will occur with the resignation of their CEO, Martin Winterkorn: The new guy, Matthias Mueller will come in he will say that everything was terrible. And then he will promise to clear things up. In fact, he already did that. According to the BBC he said, “We will have even stricter governance, compliance, and standards, and I will vouch for that.” Whenever this is referred back to he will say, “Oh yeah that was the last guy, not me, I am okay. “ I hate this pattern. It’s as if the company thinks that a change of personnel at the top exonerates them from blame. That setting new standards, vouched for by the new CEO, will excuse their blatant disregard for the truth in the past.” Many more experts believe that in this case a good apology is not enough. Gary Frisch noted that: “We live in a culture that badly wants to forgive brands that we’re fond of. But sometimes, the act is so bad there is no reasonable excuse, no combination of words to undo the damage. Even when an apology is accepted, it takes definitive action by the organization and time on the part of your constituents to move forward in a climate of trust and affinity. In VW’s case, however, even the boldest of actions likely won’t be enough to mollify customers, shareholders, and analysts, let alone authorities. “ Even stronger are the negative feelings expressed in the following story. This case is likely to generate new ethical rules for industry and new best practices for the PR community. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-andmarketing/volkswagen-scandal-even-textbook-crisismanagement-cant-save-vw-20150923gjtizf.html#ixzz3ncibRSKg
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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/vw-lie-costbillionsand-thats-worst-colin-shaw https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sometimes-likevolkswagens-case-apology-just-isnt-enough-gary-frisch http://nicolematejic.com/crisiscommunications/volkswagens-intent-to-deceive-crisiscommunications-in-a-criminal-context/
Volkswagen’s intent to deceive: crisis communication in a criminal context By Nicole Matejic As Volkswagen descends into yet another organizational scandal with the revelation its diesel engine emission-cheating technology has been installed in over 11 million cars globally; the lesser-told story remains in their approach to crisis communications. I’ve read countless media articles since the scandal broke praising Volkswagens’ handling of the crisis, particularly in comparison to its DSG automatic gearbox global recall only two short years ago. If you need a reminder of how lack lustre that crisis response panned out: [insert the sound of crickets here] followed by the sound of fluent bureaucracy coming from the mouth of a faceless spokesperson after much prodding by Governments. Yet this time around, we’ve seen their then CEO fall ceremoniously on his sword in such a deliberately scripted way, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were watching the latest Game of Thrones installment. Like a Lannister scheming up yet another war to retain power over the Iron Throne, isn’t it rather convenient for the crisis narrative to be Edited by ComIPI – www.comipi.it 4
focused on how well they’ve handled this crisis instead of – you know – the actual crisis?! Make no mistake; this is not a story about a component failure. No engineering or design flaw. No malfunctioning computer.
Taking a quick look at the online sentiment around the keyword ‘Volkswagen’ shows audience neutrality toward the brand on social media.
This is a story about a multi-national company who knowingly and purposefully built and installed technology in their vehicles that would detect when the vehicle’s emissions were being tested with the sole purpose of cheating globally legislated environmental regulations. This was a crisis that was always going to happen. CRISIS NARRATIVE BY CHANCE OR DESIGN? Volkswagen’s engineered crisis response is a smart, yet dirty, play. By making their crisis narrative about their corporate legacy and comparing their crisis communications to the debacle of 2 years ago, they are successfully retaining control over the lesser of two narrative evils. Delivering a text-book crisis response with a perfectly timed CEO resignation enabled Volkswagen retain control of both the media narrative and by default, their SEO rankings. The reason why controlling the lesser of two evil narratives is a smart play is simple: the hit is less damaging. They have a fall-guy. He fell on cue (don’t feel bad for the outgoing CEO he is likely to walk away with an estimated 60 million Euro in severance). The decks are cleared with a soft-corporate- reset. A few days pass so that ‘important deliberations’ can be made before the new guy is paraded in and what do you know! The media are still reporting on the musical CEO chairs at Volkswagen HQ instead of focusing on the actual crisis. And it’s a strategy that works!
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* SCREENSHOT TAKEN AT THE TIME OF PUBLICATION.
This is good news for Volkswagen as the ‘care factor’ at a consumer level appears to be low Sales and share prices however, tell a different story. At the time of the scandal breaking shares in Volkswagen plummeted:
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And at the time of publication, they had failed to rally back at a loss of more than some 30 billion Euros. This is bad news for Volkswagen as investors lose confidence and the market devalues their stock as cars sit unsold in yards and warehouses around the world. Worse still is the bleak financial outlook that will last beyond the fines, investigations and loss of sales – meaning investors will not turn a profit in their now-devalued shares over the long term (optimistically years).
The lesson If you’re up to engineering technology to cheat the world’s environmental regulators, a contrived crisis narrative is a piece of cake. After all, when your audience’s recall point is to an earlier crisis why override that to remind them of your potential criminal culpability? See how experiential audience recall can work in you favor there?
To be clear, I am not a proponent of deceptive While consumers don’t have much of an conduct during a crisis or business as usual. In appetite for this scandal (yet- sales data fact, most of the time my advice will be to figures won’t come in for at least another take the moral high road, apologize, mean it month) shareholders certainly do; making and then start picking up the pieces of targeted crisis messaging to audience whatever remains. That only works however, segments extremely important. In this when an organization recognizes the issues context, Volkswagen have seemingly that brought them to their crisis point in the appeased the public while losing ground with first place. In Volkswagens case, we can their investors. recognize the same patterns of crisis deceit and corporate misbehavior over the long CRIMINALITY IS THE ACTUAL CRISIS game. 2 years ago instead of issuing a recall on faulty DSG gearboxes, Volkswagen As some European countries ban the sale of remained silent until Government Volkswagen diesel cars and regulatory investigations in countries such as Australia investigations are launched around the world, and China led to recalls being enforced. proving the intent to deceive is paramount in Which begs the questions: this criminal case. Why don’t Volkswagen have a solid history of good corporate citizenship? Arguably, how else a technology that was Why is it that they need to have their hand designed, built and installed with the purpose caught in the proverbial cookie jar (again) of deceiving regulators (and customers) can before they take action? be explained is yet to be seen. The reality of “We 100% intended to deceive you” has For crisis communicators the latest broad ramifications across the entire business. Volkswagen scandal is a timely reminder that What we do know is that years will pass and during a crisis, perceptions are paramount the battle for narrative supremacy will rage and fighting fair, is only ever one of many on. Residing in a protracted state of crisis options to consider. communications will become situation normal for Volkswagen, presenting further challenges to the organization as they try to “rebuild trust” in a hostile environment. If criminality in this case is proven, it could spell the end for Volkswagen – particularly if they have promulgated a long-term counter-narrative in the interim. Winning back trust with more lies is a strategy leading nowhere. Quarterly Digest of Public Affairs News – 3-2015
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A spokesman for Engine could not immediately confirm which agencies had previously held the framework. [Editor’s note: NATO reportedly signed a five Agenda founding partner Doug Turner said: year framework agreement with two PR firms: "This was a long and highly competitive process and we are honoured to have the US Agenda and Engine London. chance to do important work for such a storied institution, and equally pleased to be NATO has made no announcement. If confirmed, it would indicate that the Alliance partnered with Engine on this effort. no longer believes its integrated PR structure "There is no greater challenge - and reward than helping the Alliance deal with a new can cope with today's challenges. generation of security threats."
NATO signs five-year comms services agreement with Agenda and Engine
According to Engine, the scope of work for NATO is likely to encompass strategic communications advice, assessment and evaluation, design, branding and advertising, marketing and PR, broadcast video, digital and social media.]
Simon Peck, who in March became UK MD of Engine UK – the brand that owns PR agencies MHP and Mischief – said: "We are excited to be working with such an illustrious and important institution, as it tackles some of the most fascinating challenges of our time."
by Sam Burne James “Engine is delighted to be working with Agenda to deliver advice and support to NATO,” commented Simon Peck, Group Managing Director of Engine UK. “We are excited to be working with such an illustrious and important institution, as it tackles some of the most fascinating challenges of our time.”
The contract, awarded following a competitive pitch, encompasses strategic comms advice, assessment and evaluation, design, branding and advertising, marketing and PR, broadcast video, digital and social media. It covers NATO across its 28 member states and beyond. It makes Agenda and Engine preferred suppliers to NATO effective immediately, with the first briefs through the framework due to be submitted shortly. There are also two other agencies on the framework, but Engine said it had not been told who these were.
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Europe’s Top Security Threat: Poisoned Public Opinion in Russia
Moreover, the country's current rulers act within a political system that either lacks or has not sufficiently developed parliamentary By Andreas Umland control of the armed forces, checks and [Note of the editor: This article is an excellent balances among branches of power, civil society monitoring of officials, or investigative analysis of the reasons why most Russians reporting on powerful politicians. Russia's today see the world as consisting mainly of political system represents a form of electoral intransigent enemies of Russia engaged, at authoritarianism in which power holders best, in a zero-sum game, or, at worst, in a depend only on the integrity of their chain of hidden war against their motherland. command, and on public support constantly However, while many agree that the West regenerated by the government's own should better communicate to the Russian propaganda. people living both inside and outside Russia, aside from generic calls to creating a united For these reasons, Russia's increasingly front there have very few practical neurotic collective mindset represents a suggestions on how to achieve this goal. critical threat to Europe's security and Brilliant ideas are welcome.] beyond. Russian electronic mass media has morphed from a platform of relative pluralism in the 1990s into a dangerous instrument of agitation and manipulation. Over the last fifteen years, leading Russian TV channels, radio stations, and newspapers have been purposefully designed to prolong as long as possible the rule of the kleptocratic clique surrounding President Vladimir Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes Crimea back into the Russian Federation at the “We Are Together” rally in Moscow on March 18, 2014. So far, the West has largely failed to address deeply poisoned Russian public opinion. It does not systematically counteract or attempts only insufficiently to expose the anti-Western conspiracy theories constantly spread by the skillful manipulators of Kremlin-controlled mass media. Credit: Kremlin.ru
The Russian Federation possesses—and will continue to possess for the foreseeable future—the second-largest nuclear arsenal on Earth. Like the Soviet Union before it and the United States today, this gives Moscow an overkill capacity. As did their communist predecessors, Russia's leaders today command enough weapons of mass destruction to destroy humankind several times over. Quarterly Digest of Public Affairs News – 3-2015
The Kremlin-controlled mass media achieves this by imposing a fortress mentality among the Russian people. Citizens are told daily that Russia is under deadly attack from the United States and its underlings—ranging from faraway Australia and Canada to neighboring Estonia, Georgia, and Ukraine. The propaganda machine's constant repetition that NATO, the European Union and its allies are after Russia's lands and resources has convinced many Russians they must stick together to secure their nation's physical survival. So far, the West has largely failed to address the core issue in its confrontation with Moscow: deeply poisoned Russian public opinion. It does not systematically counteract or attempts only insufficiently to expose the anti-Western conspiracy theories constantly Edited by ComIPI – www.comipi.it 8
spread by the skillful manipulators of Kremlincontrolled mass media. For instance, since 2005, the English-language Russia Today TV channel has become a noteworthy factor, although its effectiveness has recently diminished as a result of events in Eastern Europe rather than critical Western exposure.
arguments drawn from Christian-Orthodox fundamentalism, 19th-century European conservatism, 20th-century Russian émigré nationalism, integral traditionalism, Bolshevik dualism, and post-war Soviet triumphalism to turn back the clock of the Russian collective mind.
RT's pseudo-pacifist stance began to lose clout with the start of Russia's all-too-obvious "hybrid war" against Ukraine. The downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 by a Russian missile over Ukrainian territory in 2014 has been particularly damaging. It dealt a lethal blow to the propaganda strategies of RT and other Russian outlets aimed at muddying the waters of Western public opinion on Russia's military escalation in the Donbas. Indeed, the Kremlin's project to subvert the integrity of the West from within has largely failed. Instead, the West is more united today than before Moscow's Ukraine adventure.
As a result, the people of one of the world's most powerful countries now suffer from collective neurosis. Existential fear, deep resentment, manifest insecurity, and profound mistrust dominates Russia's thinking about the West and especially the United States. Most Russians today see the world as consisting mainly of intransigent enemies of Russia engaged, at best, in a zero-sum game, or, at worst, in a hidden war against their motherland. Russia's present state of national paranoia means that humanity may have, without realizing it, entered one of the most dangerous moments in its history.
Yet a far more consequential and complicated challenge remains largely unmet: the ever stronger anti-Western infection of public opinion, inside Russia, by state-directed domestic TV. Major channels like ORT, RTR, and NTV bombard ordinary Russians around the clock with half-truths, conspiracy theories, defamatory allegations, and plain lies via their news programs, historic documentaries and political talk shows. These lavishly funded and peculiarly professional "myth engines" misinform and stir up the Russian public, on a scale and with a vengeance that's difficult to imagine for someone who doesn't understand Russian.
Neither better diplomacy with the Kremlin nor a boost in NATO's military capacity will overcome this threat. Instead of engaging in ever more diplomatic activism and spending more on weapons, the West's leaders and thinkers should ponder how and what to communicate to the Russian people living both inside and outside Russia. How can we reach them and make them believe that we are not their enemies? Where should we put our money and direct our energy to tackle not the symptoms, but the root of our problem with Moscow? Finding practical answers and workable instruments to address these issues will make the Earth a safer place for all of us.
The Kremlin's pseudo-journalists use rhetorical and psychological methods far more crude than RT's leftist attacks on certain pathologies of Western capitalism and liberal democracy. Instead of the human rights and universal justice rhetoric employed by RT, Russian domestic broadcasting is manifestly anti-liberal and sometimes radically rightwing. It uses an eclectic mix of ideas and Quarterly Digest of Public Affairs News – 3-2015
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former curator of photographs at the National The limits of photojournalism: What those pictures of the Syrian boy didn’t Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. But the photos also were consistent with a tell us
long history of gripping photos of children, she notes, especially as they attract attention by James Warren to atrocities. She immediately thought of these: Pulitzer [Note of Editor: A picture is NOT worth a Prize winners like Nick Ut’s image of the thousand words... Because a picture tells a napalmed girl running naked down the road in story that words cannot communicate. Vietnam (1972); Kevin Carter’s picture of a Pictures do not work on our brains according naked child with a vulture nearby — the to logic, but to emotions. There is a famine in Sudan (1994); the blue face of a fundamental difference between looking at a child in the rubble after Bhopal, India gas picture and reading. Our visual system tragedy by Pablo Bartholomew (1984); and processes images while looking at them, Frank Fournier’s little boy trapped in water whereas text is a sequence of pieces of after a volcano in Colombia (1985). information that are processed as they Indeed, Aidan Sullivan, the vice progress. president/photo assignments for Getty The pictures of the little Aylan Kurdi are now Images, told me, “I don’t think there has been an icon of the movement to stop the Syrian a picture that has stirred the public to such an exodus. But many of us, when we first saw extent since Nick Ut’s picture of the young girl them, thought about his parents (why they running down the road screaming in pain from were not there?), and about children, safety napalm that was burning her skin or the plane and danger before focusing on Syria or Turkey hitting the Twin Towers.” and on the migrants' and refugees' tragedy. Now we know the whole story of the Kurdi family. Let's hope that the wave of emotion does not evaporate and that the graphic evidence of the horror that occurs at our doorstep becomes one of the few pictures that changed history] When Mary Panzer saw the photos that have at least momentarily focused world attention on a long-term tragedy, she wondered about what the images didn’t make clear. She wondered about the partial story they told. Panzer, a New York photography expert, curator and historian, was troubled “that we don’t see pictures of the mothers. This makes it seem as if their parents have abandoned them, deliberately put them in danger, which is partly true. But why did they do it?” “To escape unendurable conditions? Where are they coming from? What did they leave? Why have they no resources better than a boat that’s sure to sink?” asked Panzer, the Quarterly Digest of Public Affairs News – 3-2015
South Vietnamese forces follow after terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, as they run down Route 1 near Trang Bang after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places on June 8, 1972. A South Vietnamese plane accidentally dropped its flaming napalm on South Vietnamese troops and civilians. The terrified girl had ripped off her burning clothes while fleeing. The children from left to right are: Phan Thanh Tam, younger brother of Kim Phuc, who lost an eye, Phan Thanh Phouc, youngest brother of Kim Phuc, Kim Phuc, and Kim’s cousins Ho Van Bon, and Ho Thi Ting. Behind them are soldiers of the Vietnam Army 25th Division. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
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The pictures that Panzer cites have become better known than the crises they document, although it’s curious why are we so attracted to some, not to many others.
subject like Syria and the millions who have already been displaced. With a touch of cynicism, Panzer said this reality “is certainly pleasing to photojournalists who compete to win prizes, and also compete for the approving eye of posterity.”
Liz Sly, a Washington Post Beirut-based correspondent, has tweeted photos of dead Syrian kids many times and had no responses, she told me. This time, she says, she got lots But if the event fades while the picture of responses, some very negative. survives, who wins? So why do we remember the ones we do? In part, there’s the photojournalist, whose “Pictures do not work on our brains according name is tied to the picture. And, these days, to logic,” Panzer said. “They hit lower and there’s the publisher, or whoever is in charge deeper. Emotion is not reasonable, and in of getting traffic to a website. fact, there is undeniable pleasure in being able to submit to un-reason, to feel something Ultimately, it’s the picture, not the actual strong and true after all the titillation and situation that can prove paramount. trash that crosses our visual field every hour of the day.” Panzer gave me examples of photographers whom she feels have exploited subjects and She notes the key elements of the beach individuals “to get real estate in the Western photos: The little boy alone, the little sneakers press.” There’s some cynicism at play on her and shorts, the primary red and blue colors part, she concedes, but she also admits that, associated with kids, and the little body sometimes, something vaguely valuable can cradled in the arms of a tall strong man. We result. might think at first the boy is sleeping—then we think something else. When the victim of the tragedy is a child, there is a greater chance that public outcry The images exploit our collective memory and will have some constructive effect. associations. Where were the parents? Who “Maybe the UN will finally classify these and what might possibly hurt such a people as refugees so that they can apply for powerless thing? What evil forces lurk? visas?” she said. We don’t really think about Syria or Turkey and the obvious policy issues they inspire Or, as Sullivan put it to me Friday, if related to migrants and refugees, but just something is actually done about the refugee generally about parents, children, safety and and migrant crisis, the image of the little boy danger. and “the unbearable grief of his father and family will perhaps become an iconic and “As long as our minds are filled with such historic reminder of a tragic situation that was strong emotion, we lose the ability to think in part resolved because of one image.” critically about the situation that this tragic picture represents,” Panzer told me. “When we turn from the picture at last, in part we are already exhausted, our attention depleted.” So we remember a picture like these longer than the actual details of the precipitating event, or far longer than our interest in a Quarterly Digest of Public Affairs News – 3-2015
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According to Harris, such examples of “data Digitalisation: Changing The Relationship Between Public Relations journalism” are generated by PR firms for companies looking for public attention and for And Journalism By Stephan Russ-Mohl
coverage from online news organisations, which pick up such stories without hesitation: “If you’re a reporter at a news start-up who needs to constantly fill the news hole with new material, why wouldn’t you run one of these? Everybody’s happy, even if the data isn’t right,” Harris said. PR’s dependence on journalism is diminishing, while journalism’s dependence on PR is growing.
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ), at the University of Oxford, has recently conducted an in-depth study into Foul language has become more and more the relationship between public relations and socially acceptable, even in puritan journalism. John Lloyd, Senior Research America. Dean Baquet, the Executive Editor Fellow at RISJ, and Laura Toogood, a PR expert of the New York Times, recently called a based in London, co-authored a journalism professor, who had criticised him report: Journalism and PR. They summarised for his newsroom’s coverage of Charlie the results as: PR’s dependence on journalism Hebdo, an “asshole”. Jacob Harris, until is diminishing, while journalism’s dependence recently a New York Times software on PR is growing. “PR still needs journalism, architect, topped Baquet. In a contribution for which has always acted as a ‘third-party the Nieman Journalism Lab, Harris bluntly endorsement’ of its claims,” they concluded. described how the power balance between “But now it has other, often more powerful public relations and journalism is shifting: “the allies.” wave of bullshit data is rising, and now it’s our turn to figure out how not to get swept To examine how the relationship between away,” he wrote. journalism and PR has changed in the digital age of “anything goes”, Lloyd and Toogood Recent statistics from the US Department of interviewed 40 communication experts and Labour show that there are now nearly five journalists from the Anglo-Saxon hemisphere. times as many PR experts in the US as The outcome is something which might not journalists. Harris provides examples of how pass the peer review process of scientific PR professionals bypass newsrooms and journals but is nevertheless more useful than spread their stories themselves virally in social most “empirically sound” studies published by networks. Two of these are particularly such journals. Instead of blindly collecting impressive and salacious: Democrats “watch data and presenting it in predictable bar more pornography than Republicans,” charts, the authors condensed their interview according to the porn webportal, Pornhub; results into an exciting overview of how PR and “Mexicans and Nigerians are best at sex,” strategists exercise influence. is another, based on a poll conducted by a condom manufacturer.
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Search engines and social networks allow PR compared to their adversaries. Nonsense is experts to communicate directly with target simply “liked” and “shared” much more often groups and intensely than serious information. According to their analysis, search engines and social networks in particular have become powerful communication tools. They allow companies, government agencies and nonprofit organisations to bypass journalists and communicate directly with their target groups. How this is taking place, and how Google and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are generating profits is described in detail by Toogood in the book’s fourth chapter. This is not a “how to-guide” for PR experts who still have to find their way in the digital world, however, it may seem sinister to anyone concerned about the future of our democratic societies. If the powerful elites can strategically exploit their subalterns, among them their trolls, and if journalists are increasingly unable to verify whether messages circulating on the internet are true, more and more parallel universes – and bizarre Facebook communities – will emerge. Propaganda spreads quickly via social networks The rational deliberative discourse, based on facts, is losing ground, according to recent research from Italy. Media researchers there have analysed how nonsense and conspiracy theories are spreading on social networks, like Facebook, compared to information that has been checked by scientists or professional journalists.
How are journalists and PR experts seeing themselves and each other? Are journalists and PR experts aware of the power shifts between the two professions caused by digitalisation? Thomas Koch, Magdalena Obermaier and Claudia Riesmeyer (all University of Munich) recently presented a study, which looks at both professions in German-speaking countries. Their findings are not breathtaking, however it is surprising how much the mutual perception is diverging. Only a quarter of journalists consider their relationship with PR professionals to be “close” and nearly 40 percent as “trustworthy”, while nearly twice as many PR experts rate their relationship with journalists accordingly. Nearly 50 percent of the PR experts believe (realistically…) they have a strong influence on journalistic work, while only 20 percent of journalists are willing to admit this. Less than one third of the surveyed journalists conceded their work would be “much more difficult“ without PR deliveries, while this perception is confirmed by a strong two thirds majority of the PR professionals. Another book, written by the former head of corporate communication of Porsche, Anton Hunger, ties neatly into this debate. Hunger, a powerfully eloquent communications expert from the German speaking world, has spent years analysing (as a columnist for the Medium-Magazin, a well known professional journal) the PR sector and its influence on journalism.
A team of researchers around Walter Quattrochiocchi (Institute for Advanced Study, Lucca) has examined a corpus of 270 000 According to Hunger, “the crux of the PR job” postings on 73 Facebook pages. The sobering is that “those who professionally contact result reveals that researchers and journalists press [officers] don‘t like any interference” – trying to report the truth have no chance, Quarterly Digest of Public Affairs News – 3-2015
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an observation which fits with the research results from Munich. Press officers also have a public service role Journalists, according to Hunger, “are the heroes of the fourth estate, they succumb to the illusion of unprejudiced enlightenment and deliberately ignore their own overestimate of self-esteem in this business”. On the other side, still according to Hunger, press officers also have a “public service commitment”: “they need to publish bad numbers … as [well as] good, layoffs as well as new hires, defeats as well as successes”. However, they receive their “opulent salaries” mainly to “make their clients look splendid in public” and to “exploit the media pack”. It is hard to imagine such wisdom being presented more pleasurably and more cheekily. Similarly, Hunger discusses, with surprising bluntness, the limits of crisis PR. “Whoever gets ‘scandalised’ by the media cannot expect much he help,” he said. “The suspect is naked, the spyhole in the peepshow is open, and the spin doctor who is supposed to protect the suspect is a toothless tiger.” Those who have been vilified by the media, such as Geri Müller, a Swiss politician, and Philipp Hildebrand, the former president of the Swiss National Bank, can serve as recent testimonials to this.
I also question how Hunger could spend years analysing and commenting on the changing relationship between journalists and PR experts, without ever appearing to ever take relevant research into account. Journalism and PR researchers would deserve a peppered commentary from a PR professional who knows every trick and who has climbed all the peaks of glamour in the industry, and who also knows well the “other side of the table”. (Hunger worked as a business journalist before moving on to corporate communications.) An occasional excursion into the parallel universe of research might help even professionals of Hunger’s caliber. Arriving there, they could gain “privatissime et gratis” some additional insights about the complex, changing, partially symbiotic and partially antagonistic relationship between the two professions in the attention economy.
Should the PR profession be judged morally? Should journalists be more transparent? Occasionally, however, even Hunger gets it wrong. He collectively addresses PR experts as “spin doctors”, and he declares cynically that one should not raise moral questions related to their actions – as equally the “behaviour of rating agencies and banks cannot be judged morally”. He also says that it is unnecessary to be transparent about who is financing invitations for expensive journalistic jaunts, because “corrupt” journalists will “be corrupt anyway, with or without transparency rules.” Quarterly Digest of Public Affairs News – 3-2015
Source: http://blogs.ft.com/ftdata/2015/09/18/journoshacked-as-prs-rise/
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Where fake news is born By Cesar A. Hidalgo
Have you ever asked yourself whether what you read online is true? Recently, I was able to discover the trustworthiness of many online “news” sources through a natural experiment. The natural experiment involved news about me going viral. When news about you go viral you know exactly if the news is accurate, since you know both, the ground truth about the story and the information that was available to the “writers” that pushed this misinformation on the web.
Hidalgo.” A few hours later the English tabloid: The Daily Mail, published their version of the story. In that new version, they purposefully took the quote out of context, eliminating the reference to me being joking, and writing instead, that I was a credible source accusing Facebook to be performing an experiment. Was this an honest mistake? Clearly not. The Daily Mail article had evidently copied The Atlantic piece, since they had the same pictures than the Atlantic, so their writers must have read Nathan’s original piece. Also, my Facebook Profile Picture is set to public, and has been set for a long time (just go to www.facebook.com/cesifoti) so the “journalists” could have checked the original source and read the exchange I had with Nathan in the comments of that picture directly. But did those writing this piece at The Daily Mail cared about veracity or fact checking? Of course not! After all, they were not writing an article to inform people, but to harvest clicks to sponsored links by exploiting their fears.
They knew that the combination of “Facebook” and “Experiment” was troll food gold, and if they were reporting a lie to get the clicks that paid the bills, that did not matter. What matters for a high traffic tabloid are clicks to sponsored links. Throwing the The story began when I changed my Facebook truth out the window is a price places like The profile picture to its rainbow version last Daily Mail are happily willing to pay. Friday. In my status update I joked that Facebook was doing an experiment. Since The Daily Mail lied more than twenty Soon after doing my post, Nathan Matias—a thousand pages were written reporting on the media lab graduate student—used my profile new “Facebook experiment” and citing me as picture, with my permission, to write a note the source confirming it. This is counting only for the Atlantic about Facebook. sources in English, but I have seen also many In that article, which was the patient 0 of the sources in Spanish, Italian, and French. By viral spread, Matthias clearly indicated that now, millions of people have been lied to. my comment was meant as a joke. He wrote: “This is probably a Facebook experiment!” Some of these people were lied to joked the MIT network scientist Cesar purposefully—like those who read The Daily Quarterly Digest of Public Affairs News – 3-2015
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Mail. Most others, however, were probably lied to by irresponsible writers, who copied fake news like lemmings hoping to get some traffic.
campaigns. Revision of this set of guidelines is in progress. This info-graph indicates the main changes being adopted. In short, here are the most important trends: But did any of these writers cared to check - measurement should be applied with a the original sources: my public Facebook holistic approach (considering the whole profile picture and The Atlantic article, or tried spectrum of communication efforts), to contact me (I am easy to find on the web). - measuring communication outcomes None of them did. (effects) is recommended versus only measuring outputs; quality of performance The sad outcome of the experiment is that in should be assessed, rather than measuring its our modern media environment most online quantitative result sources do not care about building any trust - better use of social media measurement, or reputation with their audience. They only using updated tools able to assess care about harvesting clicks from people by engagement, along with quantity and quality. exploiting the fears they know these people have. So what’s the conclusion of the experiment? Well, even though it is not very surprising, the conclusion is that the vast majority of online sources do not check their facts, and some of them, are willing to lie to get a few clicks. My recommendation is to avoid these sources, and to not easily trust any news that targets the fear of its audience. Targeting fear is just one of bad journalism’s dirtiest old trick.
Measuring effects of PR activities To measure effects of PR activities is becoming more and more difficult, because of the simultaneous use of several different channels, and the added difficulty of measuring effects of Social Media campaigns. The PR world issued in 2010 a Declaration of Research Principles, known as the 'Barcelona Principles'. It was a set of voluntary guidelines established by the public relations (PR) industry to measure the efficacy of PR Quarterly Digest of Public Affairs News – 3-2015
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These Altered Images Show Photojournalism at Its Worst By Jordan G. Teicher
Adnan Hajj was found to have used Photoshop to clone and darken the smoke in this 2006 photo of Beirut to exaggerate the bombing damage. This photo was distributed throughout the media before the manipulation was caught by a blogger. Reuters news agency, which worked with the freelance photographer, immediately fired him. Reuters then withdrew all 920 photographs by Hajj from its database after it was discovered that he had manipulated a second photo.
This iconic photograph from World War II shows a triumphant Red Army soldier waving a Soviet flag over the Reichstag building in Berlin, signifying communist conquest over Nazi Germany. Many discoveries regarding the construction and continued manipulation of this photo have been made since its original publication. Yevgeny Khaldei
Adnan Hajj
Mistakes, misrepresentations, and downright deceptions in photojournalism are as old as the practice itself. And according to photojournalist Michael Kamber, founder of the Bronx Documentary Center and curator of its exhibit “Altered Images: 150 Years of Posed and Manipulated Documentary Photography,” these problems are only getting worse. “The newspaper industry is disintegrating before our eyes, thousands of professionals have been laid off, and freelancers who came up in the digital age are used to changing things and altering things. Then you have some professionals who feel that as standards are slipping they can fake and lie and cheat,” he said.
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Arthur Rothstein, a photographer for the Farm Security Administration, moved and photographed a steer skull at several locations in South Dakota during a severe drought in the region in 1936. Several frames of this exist, all showing different backgrounds. After one of the photos was distributed by the Associated Press, Republican opponents of President Roosevelt seized on the opportunity, and articles about the staging of this photo were published in conservative newspapers around the country. Arhtur Rothstein (Library of Congress; The Crowley Company)
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but Kasper said the distinctions should be clear. “I met young photographers at portfolio reviews and they're telling me, ‘I'm reenacting my dream states and my sexual fantasies with my friends and this is documentary work.’ I’m like, ‘No, it's not. That’s you doing some personal artistic vision and in my opinion it has nothing to do with documentary work,’ ” he said. Eugene Smith’s photo essay “Spanish Village,” which depicts a small rural village in Spain under the rule of dictator Francisco Franco, was published in Life magazine in 1951. In this photograph, an intimate scene of the wake of a Deleitosa villager, Smith retouched the wife and daughter’s eyes. Originally the two women had been looking toward the photographer, but in the darkroom he printed their eyes much darker and then applied bleach with a finetipped brush to create new whites, thereby redirecting their gazes downward and to the side. Eugene Smith
In decades past, manipulation was harder but still prevalent. Fewer photographers had the capacity to expertly airbrush or retouch— Eugene Smith was a notable exception—but there were other ways of misrepresenting or altering reality. As early as 1936, for example, Farm Security Administration photographer Arthur Rothstein moved a steer skull around South Dakota to illustrate drought there. And during World War II, Yevgeny Khaldei gave a homemade Soviet flag to soldiers in Berlin and asked them to pose with it. The photo was later altered to hide the fact that the soldiers had been looting. Clouds of smoke were also added.
The photograph, taken in the earliest days of the Iraq invasion, is a composite of two images taken seconds apart. After the Hartford Courant published the image, a Courant employee noticed a duplication of civilians in the background. The Los Angeles Times, which first published the image on its cover, confronted the photographer, Brian Walski, who confessed to having digitally merged the two photographs to improve the composition. He was immediately fired. Brian Walski/Los Angeles Times
Today, altering images is easy and fairly commonplace, and it’s a problem not just among young freelancers but professionals at Giovanni Troilo’s photo was part of a winning photo essay in the 2015 World Press Photo awards. This image, of the the top of their game. The most prominent photographer's cousin and a woman having sex in a car, lit by instance came to light this spring when the the photographer’s remote flash inside the car, was set up. World Press Photo contest took away a prize WPP judges eventually rescinded the award after numerous other complaints surfaced. it had awarded to Giovanni Troilo after it Giovanni Troilo emerged that he had staged and lit a photo of a couple having sex in a car. That event In the digital age, a pressure to “feed the Web” sparked a conversation about the increasingly has also led to sloppiness in newsrooms. “I blurry line between art and photojournalism, think the bottom line is there’s literally Quarterly Digest of Public Affairs News – 3-2015
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hundreds of millions of images ricocheting around the Internet everyday and editors are looking for new material, and they’re grabbing things that are not coming from trusted sources,” Kamber said. That problem showed up in April as riots broke out in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray. FOX13 Memphis posted a picture to Facebook of what was described as Baltimore in flames. The photo was actually taken in Venezuela a year earlier. While the Internet has been the cause of many problems in photojournalism, Kamber said it also frequently provides the solution. Independent researchers and bloggers online can often catch manipulations or mistakes before editors do, using reverse image search on Google. Still, as long as economic pressures make newspapers depend on cheap, unreliable workers and ethical codes remain inconsistent between publications and contests, Kamber said problems will likely continue to arise. His primary source of hope for the industry lies with some of the younger photojournalists he meets. “Since I came back from Iraq three years ago, there’s been a steady stream of young photographers coming to the Bronx Documentary Center. They’re coming with new work, with questions, and they’re constantly asking about what’s fair, what’s ethical, what’s right. If young people didn't care they wouldn't be beating down my door with these questions. It’s the new generation that's going to change things because the old generation has mucked it up pretty bad.”
Memphis’ mistake just a couple of days after the original posting.
In June 1994, both Time and Newsweek featured O.J. Simpson’s mugshot on their covers. Placed side by side on newsstands, one could see that Time’s cover had darkened Simpson’s skin considerably. The photo, representing a case already laced with racial tension, received massive public outcry. : Photo illustration for Time by Matt Mahurin. -------------------------------------------------------------
On the same subject, you may wish to read also an older post https://comipi.wordpress.com/…/when-a-phototells-a-differ…/
On April 27, 2015, FOX13 Memphis posted a picture to their Facebook page of what appeared to be Baltimore engulfed in flames. While Baltimore was overrun with riots that night, the photo was taken in Venezuela a year prior. A user on Imgur, a comment-based online image hosting service, exposed FOX13
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ComIPI is a no-profit study center aimed at developing and implementing advanced techniques to communicate with the public while respecting ethical principles. Edited by Franco Veltri info@comipi.it www.comipi.it our Blog: http://comipi.wordpress.com/
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