Jerid's Encounter with 'Control the Message'

Magi1 — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:25:43 -0700

I found this in The Public Relations Strategist (PRSA) magazine and was amazed how relevant it was to Jerid ... it sees the 'old school' thinkers don't understand 'Control the Message' is dying in the digital era ... I shortened it a little to save some space.

www.instituteforpr.orgThe Institute for Public RelationsAnnual Distinguished LectureThe Yale Club, New York, NYNovember 8, 2007“Putting It on the Line” - Beth ComstockPresident, NBC Universal Integrated Media

Are you sure you wanted me to speak tonight?

Here’s an anonymous quote, obviously from one of my best friends. It comes from Page Six, but has now been well circulated in the blogosphere. "She's lethal. She could take out your kidney, and you wouldn't know it was gone." Frankly, I’ve come to love that one. So while my background in PR maybe hasn’t served me so well in dealing with tabloids and bloggers, it’s given me thick skin. And my trip through the blogosphere raises some questions: How can we manage in this world of viral chatter? Is anyone immune? The answer: Not really. People are manipulating these outlets to their own ends, sometimes just for the sheer fun of it…with little to no filtering. And little or no control. In my early PR days, I often wrapped myself in a shield called “control” – enrobed in an illusion, or rather delusion – that I could actually command an outcome. After all, that’s what we attempt to do as good communicators, right? “Control the message,” “shape media outcome,” “direct stakeholder’s actions.” Is there anyone here who hasn’t spent a sleepless night anticipating the next day’s big story? Having quite confidently told our boss or our client we knew the outcome… And then living in fear of being fired the next morning for not delivering what we had promised.I’ve been fired in my imagination at least a couple of hundred times. But face it, there is little control. Maybe there never really was, but especially not now. We have to live with the fact that our digital world is built on an odd mixture of transparency and conspiracy, where all kinds of stakeholders vie for control. And they have the ability to get their messages out with a volume and frequency on a par with established media. I remember when I first worked as a publicist for NBC News more than 20 years ago.

In those days the late Jack Carmody of the Washington Post was THE definitive source on the inner workings of the media. News presidents, anchors and publicists alike worked hard for his nod of recognition. To bewritten about by “Captain Airwaves” meant you’d made it. Jack was a kingmaker with a wellearnedjournalist pedigree. Today you can point to Brian Stelter who started his career a few years ago as a 19-year-old blogger working from his parent’s house. Wielding his computer and a passion for television, he created the TVNewser blog and quickly built an impressive sphere of influence. (By the way – Brian now works for the New York Times.) A clear example of how digital technology has become the great equalizer. And more power to Brian and others like him. All of us are trying to make our way through the tumultuous digital age. And it isn’t easy, because so much digital media is not yet sorted out. Those trying to “control the message” need to give it up – or at least be willing to share control. As consumers are more deeply engaged, they want more control….sometimes even of the story itself … or at the very least to feel they can participate in it’s unfolding. You can fight this ... or use it to your advantage. So while I started out my PR journey believing it’s all about control, I’ve learned that you haveto give it up if you’re going to move things forward. That’s how you navigate in a world of change. When I returned to NBC in late 2005, I found an industry fighting change on many levels, especially in the face of a growing Internet. Some of this was understandable, because online video, promised for a decade, had only just started. There was also a belief that the digital revolution was being overblown. Particularly in the wake of the dot.com bust. There were still questions out there about how to build something in this space that actually makes money. But most often the reaction I got was fear: fear of the unknown, fear of change… terrible fear of losing face. Because what you were expert in in the past, no longer applied. Because above all, you didn’t want to be caught not knowing the answer. Kind of like the student who asked Albert Einstein, when he was teaching at Princeton, why every year Einstein gave precisely the same test. Wouldn’t students be able to get last year’s test and cheat on the answers? Einstein replied, “You’re absolutely right, all the questions are the same. But the answers are entirely different.” That’s so typical – we want it tidy, predictable, controllable. And we don’t want to not know. In the digital space, I’m suspicious of people who claim too readily to know the answer. It’s a fail-fast world….How do we live in it? How do we succeed in it?

Buckeye State Blog - Jerid's Encounter with 'Control the Message' - Comments

Jerid's Encounter with 'Control the Message'