I’ve heard PR people take issue with organizational objectives simply because it violated a personal belief. When that is the case, the PR person should find another job; conversely, if I were the CEO of an organization where a PR person had difficulty with the organization’s mission and suggested policy changes, I would be tempted [...]
June 10, 2009
There’s an inherent danger in promoting research studies that are not yet peer reviewed. Foremost is that many people, reporters in particular, probably do not fully understand what peer-review technically means. This being the case, Ohio State University recently had to go on the offensive against an avalanche of misinformation reported about a study the [...]
April 16, 2009
Recognizing What Triggers Environmental Misinformation [This was published originally in the April 2009 issse of PRSA's TACTICS newsletter.] Environmental concerns are driven by good intentions and, often, a sense of urgency. There is a reason for this. Climate change indexes, regarded by [...]
April 2, 2009
A manifesto for credibility The emergence of the Information Age has given most everyone access to an unlimited wealth of knowledge. More recently, as social online media have flourished, there is an even greater rate of participation. With that, curiously, has been a trend to claim expertise. Tim Ferriss’ book, The Four Hour Work Week (which I [...]
January 16, 2009
Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite authors. Few have the ability to translate complex ideas into something readable. Even fewer have the ability to do it well. Gladwell is one of those rarities. Outliers: The Story of Success is Gladwell’s latest and arguably his best. In Outliers, Gladwell takes a look at select anecdotes [...]
July 18, 2009