Public Health Affairs

Category: Uncategorized

  • Via Reddit: I am Cory Booker, Ask Me Anything

    What if your Executive went into the middle of the town square and said, “Hey! I’m the (Mayor, Governor, President, CEO, Commissioner, etc.)! Ask me anything you want!”

    Setting aside the fact that 99.999% of them would NEVER do that, what do you think would happen? Now imagine if your Executive went to the town square of the English language internet and said the same thing? You don’t have to ask what would happen because you can see it right here. Newark Mayor Cory Booker did just that this weekend. On the popular Reddit site (frequently called the “front page of the internet”), he opened the floor for questions and answered away. Huge, massive answers. Comprehensive descriptions of problems and proposed solutions, with links.

    Yes, it’s a very technical, niche audience, but it’s one that has more and more frequently driven what is popular and deemed news-worthy on the internet. News organizations are mining this site for leads.

    After you finishing laughing/hyperventilating at the thought of your Executive actually doing this, think about the good that could come from it. Imagine your Executive trying to raise awareness for something. More interestingly, imagine your public health or emergency Executive answering any and all comers about a disease outbreak or other ongoing emergency. Not depending on the press to issue cleaned up talking points, but actually, directly, specifically answering questions from the public. Sure they don’t know what Reddit is, and they don’t type that fast. But what if your comms team supported them. Found supporting links and fact sheets, crafted the angle of the response, mined the thread for questions that are pertinent and important, typed up your Executive’s responses?

    I’m starting to think this doesn’t looks so world-stopping now…

  • Via View From the Bridge: Penn State’s Crisis is NOT a Crisis Communications Failure

    Yesterday, the always excellent Bill Salvin published a great post on the Penn State fiasco. Instead of doing what most public information/crisis communications folks are doing (namely, analyzing the complete lack of good crisis communications principles at, really, any point in the crisis), he’s stepped back and approached it from the 10,000-foot level.

    His point, and one that I’ve made in the past, is that NO amount of perfect crisis communications can fix a disaster. Granted, poor communications can doom a situation in which everything is going right, but if it’s a cluster-you-know-what, there is NOTHING your communications will do to fix the situation. It might delay the inevitable (as we saw in Penn State), but eventually everyone gets their comeuppance.

    It’s not as if the communicators ever got close enough to make a recommendation about how to proceed. Senior people covered it up. You can’t blame the field-goal kicker for the loss if he never gets on the field to try and win the game.
     
    I also believe that if the communicators did know about what was going on, they likely would have been unable to convince their leaders to do the right thing or have been complicit in the chosen course of action. I know that’s cynical, but they all drink the same water in Happy Valley.
     
    Gerald Baron has talked in the past about communicators getting the old heave-ho because they were faced with a disastrous situation and not being able to clean up the un-clean-uppable. It’s a shame, and a sham. In situations like this, those at the top are the most guilty, and should be made to deal with it

  • Sourcing

    Given that I’m a relative newbie at media relations, I try to keep a close eye on what they do, in case I’m working with them. Given that I also spend the majority of my time in non-media world, I’m one of the few people who take an interest in their actions without having to directly interact (positively or negatively) from them. Interested, unaffiliated party let’s say.

    And this is one of the coolest new developments that I’ve seen. Reporters looking for sources via Twitter.

    It’s not the first time I’ve seen that, but the number of reporters and producers that are doing it has increased by leaps and bounds in the last few months. (And, hey, they wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work, right?) In fact, one of the first times I’d seen it was during the Midway Airport quarantine of Delta Flight 3163:

    I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what this means for those of us who work with the media. They’ve expanded their potential pool of sources, to just about everyone. And that means they will get more sources. Better placed sources. Source perhaps with an axe to grind. The thing about it is, we can see what’s coming down the pike now. By following or monitoring members of our local media on Twitter, we can see what’s coming down the pike; and isn’t the first rule of crisis communications famously getting ahead of the story?

    That’s great Jim, but how can I possibly follow all of the media in my area? I’ll be the first to admit, it’s tough. Especially because I have a large group of people I follow on Twitter and don’t want to intermingle the two. So I created lists. Lists of Philly-centric print media, Philly-centric TV media, etc.

    And I won’t lie, it’s not easy building those lists; it takes time. One shortcut that I found was the MuckRack website, which purports to be a “destination for journalists on Twitter.” The service they sell is real-time notifications about what the press–your press–is talking about online right now. Journalists sign up for free, communications follows pay a fee. But you can still see who’s signed up in your area for free. And, ultimately, their Twitter accounts. Which you can then follow or add to your lists. With a bit of elbow grease and some periodic culling and additions, I have an ear to what the media is talking about and can now see when someone in my area is digging for sourcing online.