Comments on: The Strumpette Videos: Breaking Ground by Stating the Obvious http://thegoodthebadthespin.com/2009/01/30/the-strumpette-videos-breaking-ground-by-stating-the-obvious/ The Intersection Between Public Relations and the News Media Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:25:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Ike http://thegoodthebadthespin.com/2009/01/30/the-strumpette-videos-breaking-ground-by-stating-the-obvious/comment-page-1/#comment-568 Ike Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:57:30 +0000 http://thegoodthebadthespin.com/?p=496#comment-568 The real shame is that the mean side of Amanda made it easy to ignore the great points the creators were trying to impart. There are two things that stood out for me in this series of interviews: 1) Brian never mentioned why Strumpette ended. In some conversations, he's hinted that they'd said just about everything they needed to say, but it would have been nice for him to assert that the body of work was complete and move on. 2) Brian admitted that they were surprised by the splash they made early on. I personally believe that for a while they had lightning in a bottle, but no plan to channel that energy to productive use. It would have been interesting to hear not regrets -- but thoughts about what they might have done differently or perhaps a different direction. As one of those rare people who Amanda alternated between slamming and praising, I see where there is a need to continue questioning the groupthink. Amanda wasn't as forgiving to those who weren't as public in their calls for transparent reason, and this smacked as unfair to many who WERE questioning these very tenets -- and like you thought they were so obvious as to not require a public declaration. The real shame is that the mean side of Amanda made it easy to ignore the great points the creators were trying to impart.

There are two things that stood out for me in this series of interviews:

1) Brian never mentioned why Strumpette ended. In some conversations, he’s hinted that they’d said just about everything they needed to say, but it would have been nice for him to assert that the body of work was complete and move on.

2) Brian admitted that they were surprised by the splash they made early on. I personally believe that for a while they had lightning in a bottle, but no plan to channel that energy to productive use. It would have been interesting to hear not regrets — but thoughts about what they might have done differently or perhaps a different direction.

As one of those rare people who Amanda alternated between slamming and praising, I see where there is a need to continue questioning the groupthink. Amanda wasn’t as forgiving to those who weren’t as public in their calls for transparent reason, and this smacked as unfair to many who WERE questioning these very tenets — and like you thought they were so obvious as to not require a public declaration.

]]> By: Bill Sledzik http://thegoodthebadthespin.com/2009/01/30/the-strumpette-videos-breaking-ground-by-stating-the-obvious/comment-page-1/#comment-565 Bill Sledzik Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:37:51 +0000 http://thegoodthebadthespin.com/?p=496#comment-565 Bob, While it's true that many of Brian's observations are self evident to you and me, he really wasn't talking to those of us who keep social media in perspective. His focus and his cautions are for those who follow blindly the mantra of the Twitterati, etc. This is not the second coming of Gutenberg, and the smart ones in Web 2.0 are coming to understand that. I was surprised, frankly, by the number of folks you might think of as the "Kool-Aid" crowd of Web 2.0 who contacted me (via the back channels) to say they appreciated the series and felt is was important to broadening the discussion. Note, however, that they did NOT link to it, nor did they ever praise it in a public forum like Twitter. That would be bad for their online cred, and I can't fault them for protecting the personal and professional "brands" -- to extend the mindless marketing lingo. On the other hand, I'm troubled -- as I always have been -- by the elistist undertones in some of Brian's remarks and in the writings of Strumpette. Many of our Web 2.0 toys like Twitter may indeed, fade. But the old world order of mainstream media ruling the roost has radically changed and a higher level of citizen participation is inevitable. As I've said in past posts, I remain caught somewhere between the Cluetrain Manifesto and the Cult of the Amateur. It works for me. Bob,

While it’s true that many of Brian’s observations are self evident to you and me, he really wasn’t talking to those of us who keep social media in perspective. His focus and his cautions are for those who follow blindly the mantra of the Twitterati, etc. This is not the second coming of Gutenberg, and the smart ones in Web 2.0 are coming to understand that.

I was surprised, frankly, by the number of folks you might think of as the “Kool-Aid” crowd of Web 2.0 who contacted me (via the back channels) to say they appreciated the series and felt is was important to broadening the discussion. Note, however, that they did NOT link to it, nor did they ever praise it in a public forum like Twitter. That would be bad for their online cred, and I can’t fault them for protecting the personal and professional “brands” — to extend the mindless marketing lingo.

On the other hand, I’m troubled — as I always have been — by the elistist undertones in some of Brian’s remarks and in the writings of Strumpette. Many of our Web 2.0 toys like Twitter may indeed, fade. But the old world order of mainstream media ruling the roost has radically changed and a higher level of citizen participation is inevitable. As I’ve said in past posts, I remain caught somewhere between the Cluetrain Manifesto and the Cult of the Amateur. It works for me.

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