Tag: digital

Cookies Can Be Ethical

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The day after a session in my Advertising and Public Relations Ethics and Law class in which we discussed digital media, one student emailed me a link to a web site. She said it was an unusual example of a company showing an ethical respect for customers by allowing customers and other site visitors to customize their cookies, or the way in which they are tracked.

It wasn’t a major brand that I was aware of before my student shared it with me. It’s Levoit Air Purifiers, and they allow people to accept all, reject all, or select to turn on or off six categories of cookies, from necessary to functional, analytics to performance and more. I’d encourage you to go to the site and see for yourself.

in class we had talked about legal changes with regard to cookies and other aspects of online privacy. But there are still annoying pop-ups that you must disable to see content, and some still only give you the option to accept, not reject. Certainly very few offer this level of customization and control for the user.

Here are just a few reasons why this extreme number of options is ethical:

  • it is a demonstration of a relationship metric called “control mutuality,” in which all parties in a relationship have equal control of topics, opportunity to speak, and in this case digital tracking settings;
  • it demonstrates good discourse ethics, similar to above, meaning that the user is not at the mercy of an organization;
  • it demonstrates a unique form of utilitarianism, not in the classic sense of “greatest good for the greatest number,” but it explains cookies to the user in terms of how they might benefit them and not just the organization;
  • it’s the old fashioned “golden rule”–follks at the air purifier company have considered how they would like to be treated when a customer on someone else’s website.

For these and other reasons, respecting the rights of others and giving them agency over how they are tracked and communicated to is good ethics. It’s also smart for the company in terms of building positive, long-term relationships and reputation.

In other words, as I tell my students all the time: ethics = strategy.

Penning Ink PR books now available from VitalSource

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Textbooks on public relations available from Penning Ink are now available from VitalSource.VitalSource offers more than one million ebooks for purchase and rent to students and professionals in a variety of fields.

The books include Media Relations Writing, Corporate Communications Writing, and Public Relations: A Management Function. Published in 2019, and 2020, the books have been available from Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble. The books are an affordable at $15 for a paperback and $5 for an e-book.

They have just been added to the catalog at VitalSource after an author acquisition representative from the company reached out because they had been receiving requests from people searching for the books on their digital platform.

For more about the books, see the books page on the Penning Ink website.

Local and National Perspectives on Social Media and PR Education

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It was an interesting coincidence that the Grand Rapids Business Journal had a local article about West Michigan colleges not offering social media degrees in the same week that the Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) PR Division tackled the subject in the current issue of the Teaching Public Relations (TPR) monograph.

The Business Journal article (self disclosure: I write the “PR and Media” blog for GRBJ.com) noted that it “checked in” with all local colleges and universities and that none offer a social media degree. The article included perspectives from faculty at only two of the colleges–Calvin and Davenport–but the comments were relatively universal–that there is not enough substance to offer a full degree or even a course in social media, that existing theory and practice can and should be applied and adapted to social media, and that social media concepts and assignments can be integrated into existing courses.
That matches the national scale views of educators as well as practitioners as reported in the TPR monograph. Professors are cautioned not to get caught up in chasing “shiny new objects” or bogged down in the tactical how-to instruction for each new app and platform. Some of these tech tools advance so rapidly that professors would have to change syllabi several times a semester. 
It was encouraging to read in the monograph that practitioners encouraged professors to teach theory–existing PR and communications theory as well as recent research on social media use and affects–before blending that knowledge with practice. Students should learn not just how to use social media, but how to use it on behalf of businesses, nonprofit organizations, and other clients. This changes the consideration of how to teach social media–professionally, with strategic insight fueled by empiricism and theory and not mere tactical proficiency.
Some of those “old” concepts that need to be applied to social media practice? Here’s a quick run-down of concepts and principles that have been taught in existing courses for years:
  • Research–students should be taught how to use social media to gain knowledge of public attitudes, issues, trends. 
  • Objectives–don’t just use social media because it’s new and cool. We saw a lot of disasters when web sites were new. Have measurable objectives, as in what you want to accomplish for an organization in terms of public awareness, attitude, or actions in response.
  • Strategy–who you reach out to, how you reach them, what you say, the frequency with which you say it, what platforms you choose–all of these and other questions should be carefully considered given the objectives above. If you don’t have a strategy, you are just pushing content into the crowded social space. Some old and newer theories are the basis of smart strategy in social media.
  • Tactics–we do teach tactics in existing courses. Social media should be seen as supplementing and not necessarily replacing existing communication tools. Also, social can be integrated with them and courses updated to include them, such as a media relations class now including social media and multi-media news releases, pitching bloggers, integrating hashtags at events and other ideas.
  • Evaluation–I would argue that the emphasis on evaluation has received as much buzz as social media in PR circles. Students need to know that clients, colleagues, and bosses will expect this. This is true of all PR efforts, but particularly social media. Research shows many executives still see social as a frivolous waste of time. Students need to know how to prove the affect of their social media efforts in terms of meeting organizational objectives.
Of course, I’m open to change. In 2006 when Twitter was new, I was the one telling students about it. Now students tweet me before I’ve had them in a class, and they reach out on many other platforms. I didn’t see Twitter and other social media coming or becoming this popular. There may come a day when I have to throw out the syllabus and craft an entire course on social media. 
Then again, the time may come when such a suggestion sounds as ridiculous as having a full course on the fax machine.

GRBJ Preps for Digital Launch

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The Grand Rapids Business Journal is reaching out to attract an online editor and reporters for the October launch of its  GRBJ.com.

I first learned about the digital hires and new online emphasis appropriately on Facebook.

Not only does this provide opportunity for good business journalists with online skills, it changes the local media landscape in several ways. For one, the GRBJ.com site currently is proprietary, requiring a subscriber log-in to read full text of articles. Secondly, the current online content largely mirrors that of the weekly print product. The new site looks to have real-time reporting and presumably more open access.

For PR pros, this broadens the audience and shortens the deadlines. It means seeing the GRBJ as not just a long-lead business publication with an influential albeit limited audience. From now on, the weekly can be considered  for both long-form print articles and added to the mix with TV, radio, MLive and others for breaking news and rapid-pace social media shares.

Come October, there will be more urgency and diversity in local business coverage. That will force both journalists and PR pros to be more on their toes, as well as their laptops and smart phones. It will also give me one more thing to talk about in my media relations class this fall:-)

MLive Goes Live, Getting Ready for Close Up

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It’s been interesting to watch the news executives at MLive Media Group doing public relations and blogger outreach in the gear-up to the bow of its new digital/print product and home in a ‘hub’ in downtown Grand Rapids later this week.

After blogging recently about MLive facing a new competitive environment with the increase of local news bureaus at the Rapidian, including some branded journalism efforts of local nonprofits, I was invited to take a tour of MLive’s new downtown space with Grand Rapids Press Community News Director Julie Hoogland.

Ari Adler got a similar treatment from MLive Media Group President Danny Gaydou, as Adler recounts in his own blog.

Hoogland had taken issue with my indication that the Press was losing staff capacity. Of course my sense of that was largely informed by the numerous farewells of long-time Press staffers on Twitter, Facebook, and in person. Hoogland maintains that many were offered jobs but chose to take a buyout and move on to new ventures. What remains is a large number of veteran journalists, as well as some savvy young ones who have graduated from area college journalism programs. So she says quality journalism will remain. She also points out that capacity will not suffer as formerly independent Booth papers work more  collaboratively on statewide news, including coverage of Lansing, major league sports, entertainment and other subjects. Meanwhile, each of the local papers  will continue to stress local coverage.

In the new hub across from Rosa Parks Circle, Hoogland showed excitement at the possibilities. The ground floor will have a studio with a window on the sidewalk, similar to New York City morning network TV programs, for video interviews of newsmakers. Job titles include the word “producer,” indicative of the new multi-media nature of news gathering and reporting by MLive and its various digital entities.

The public will also be welcome to walk-in and visit on the main floor. The second floor news room looks strikingly like a college computer classroom, with modern Steelcase chairs at long tables where journalists will work adjacent to each other when they’re not out in the community.

“Previous changes were triage; this is embracing the future,” Hoogland said.

She did change my view about the potential for both the quality and quantity of news coverage in the new model. I am excited  and hopeful that the “newspaper” we have known and loved will adapt and thrive, both locally and nationally.

But I still maintain that the MLive launch later this week puts it into a new media landscape. The Press will co-exist and/or compete with with citizen journalism, other print media, television, and news content directly  from companies, nonprofits and government entities–all of which will have a digital presence as well. Just as young people have lost the distinction between cable and network, in the online/mobile/social mix of 24/7 information, news consumers may lose at least some of the distinction between print and broadcast, as well as between third party news reports and direct sources of information.

I eagerly await their close-up.