One of my former students is in her mid-20s and works as a senior account executive for an agency. She asked me whether to use a second page for her resume and whether to omit her college internships. I turned to Chad Tragakis, a trusted colleague, who is a senior vice president in the Washington, D.C., office of Hill & Knowlton:

“An SAE should limit his or her resume to one page. I would not expect PR professionals to need or warrant a two-page resume until they have been working for 20+ years (e.g., VPs/SVPs with lots of clients/projects to list, at multiple agencies/employers) or unless they have very deep academic or technical expertise that cannot be conveyed on one page (e.g., someone in tech or healthcare PR who needs to list special software or credentials). If she is pushing toward two pages, she is likely going into too much detail in her bullets. She needs to keep them tight, focused and impact oriented.

People are so overloaded; they just won’t read beyond the first page — and even then, they are likely to skim… so it’s important that the resume be formatted with this in mind (e.g., clear, bold headers, bullets, short tight sentences, etc.).

If there is lots of good stuff to tell, she should work some of it into her cover letter or e-mail (for example, a major project she managed, a great client outcome, etc.); just make sure she doesn’t also include these examples in the resume as well.

She shouldn’t arbitrarily take off college internships or experience. It all depends on how relevant they are to what she is aiming for. What may be in order is for her to condense multiple college year experiences/internships into a single line or bullet, somewhere toward the bottom of her experience section — maybe in a section called “Other Experience.” This is actually what I have done on my resume so that I capture what I did, but don’t go into a lot of detail on any one listing. This way, you can introduce and raise these points during the interview.”

Many thanks to Chad Tragakis at Hill & Knowlton for sharing his expertise!

Our social media panelists: Alisa, Bill, Kaye, Kelli, Tiffany, Barbara

At the National Communication Association conference, I discussed a podcasting lesson, and Karen Russell suggested that I include the handout on my blog. Many thanks go to Karen for summarizing our panel. You can explore the blogs of my co-panelists and follow them on Twitter here:

• Alisa Agozzino, Ohio Northern University, a favorite blog post: interviews with public relations practitioners (especially great for new majors)
• Bill Handy, Oklahoma State University, a favorite blog post: social media and the law
• Barbara Nixon, Georgia Southern University, see her NCA presentation about teaching Facebook, blogging, and Twitter.
• Kelli Matthews, University of Oregon, a favorite blog post: advice for students to continue using social media after classes conclude (great for students who want to list social media skills on their resumes but are wondering whether they really need to continue blogging and tweeting)
• Kaye Sweetser, University of Georgia, see her NCA presentation about a viral video assignment, which features a video conversation with Paull Young from Converseon

The following discussion consists of talking points, information for structuring the podcasting lesson, an assignment, and step-by-step instructions for teaching yourself (and others) how to podcast. Ideas about podcasting expressed in this blog post come from an excellent book by Shel Holtz:

Holtz, S. (with N. Hobson). (2007). How to do everything with podcasting. New York: McGraw Hill. (Also see the companion Web site.)

My class reads excerpts from this book in preparation for class (with royalties paid through our course packet service, University Readers). My class reads pages 133-136 and pages 242-277.

Prior to the Lesson

• Show students how to find and subscribe to podcasts through iTunes and other podcast directories.
• Provide some recommendations of podcasts for them to try: Trafcom News, Inside PR, and Grammar Girl are popular selections.
• Ask students to listen to a podcast and come to the next class with their opinions about it. You can decide whether to ask them to listen to a PR podcast (or even more narrowly, a PR podcast about podcasting). Ask students to jot down aspects they liked and suggestions for improvement to encourage them to complete the assignment.
• Make sure you have good audio speakers for playing excerpts of podcasts in class. (I use some tiny portable speakers that I connect to my laptop.)
• Decide how you will listen to their podcasts (e.g., on their blogs or on a CD). If you choose a CD, I suggest purchasing the CD labels and giving each student one sheet. They are responsible for purchasing CD labels on their own if they lose their sheet. I order CD labels from here.
• Find out what your school’s options are for students who want to check out microphones (for students who do not have built-in microphones on their computers) and for students who want to check out digital audio recorders for interviews.
• Download Audacity (which works on both PCs and Macs) and experiment using the technical instructions found toward the end of this blog post.

Opening Discussion
Do you listen to podcasts, excluding the class preparation for today?

• Why or why not?
• Which ones do you listen to?
• What do you like and dislike about them?
• How do you listen to them (e.g., subscription or from the computer)?
• When do you listen to them (e.g., on the way to school, working out)?
• How did you find them?

Which podcast did you listen to for homework? What did you like about it, and what your recommendations for improvement? Is this something you would listen to regularly? Why or why not?

Shared Social Media Rules

• You are not selling products – your audience does not want to subscribe to ads.
• You are delivering something of value to your audience.
• You are encouraging a conversation by inviting comments and responding to them.
• Your audience needs to be the kind that uses the kind of social media you are proposing.
• You are starting with a public relations plan – one that includes goals, objectives, and strategies – social media are just tactics.

Discussion of How a Podcast Fits Into a Public Relations Plan
Provide students with an example of a goal, objective, and strategy that would fit well with the podcasting serving as the tactic. Holtz explains that podcasts can be used to

• Engage audiences
• Build brand loyalty
• Establish thought leadership
• Contribute to the community

Podcasting Advantages
As described by Holtz –

• The audience can multitask.
• You can deliver specialized content to niche audiences that want to seek it out.
• Hearing a human voice can encourage an emotional connection.
• Through subscriptions, you can build a loyal following.
• You can ask listeners for feedback.

Podcasting Examples
What are some examples of organizations that have used podcasts?

• Disneyland used podcasts for its 50th anniversary. It exclusive content to listeners, such as interviews with people who designed the first Disneyland.
• Purina: started with Animal Advice and expanded to include five other podcast shows, such as Snouts in Your Town (pet care tips and stories) and Puppy Care (a 14-month program).

For more details about these examples, see Holtz.

Application Exercise
In teams of four, select at least one organization and write a goal, objective, and strategy that would suggest using a podcast as a tactic. List the topics of the first four shows of the podcast. When writing your objective, remember that it must be measurable because that is how you will measure the success of your podcast.

Podcasting Tips

• Keep the podcast conversational. Use an outline of talking points; do not read from a script. Talk to the audience as “you” – as if you’re having a one-on-one conversation.
• Establish a regular structure for your podcasts.
• To avoid podfading (going from frequently produced shows to rarely produced shows), establish how many episodes will be in the podcast. Position the podcast as a 10-epidode show, for example.
• Unless you can edit your mistakes without the listener noticing, record your podcast in one take.
• Show your own interest in the topic through your tone and by explaining why the content matters.

Structure

• Introduction elements (in various order):
• Theme music
• The show’s name (include show number and date for subscribers)
• The host’s name
• Sponsors (if applicable)

This week’s topic:

• Use transitions between points and provide a recap at the end

Potential close:

• Respond to listeners’ questions and comments
• Theme music
• The show’s name
• The host’s name
• Next show
• Special thanks
• Farewell

Show Notes
Show notes are like a table of contents for the podcast. Use them to tell listeners what you’re covering and provide time codes so that listeners can jump to a particular section. Show notes also help people find you on search engines.

Examples
Play excerpts of podcasts for your class. I like this one by Trafcom News because Donna Papacosta discusses the importance of not reading a script for podcasts.

If you have extra time, I also suggest the Trafcom News interview with the person who does podcasts for Whirlpool to provide a grounded context.

Hosting/CD Production
I ask students to burn their podcasts to a CD, which I collect. Make sure to tell students that as practitioners, they can host podcasts on their Web sites, or they can use a hosting service. Libsyn packages start at $5 a month.

Promotion

• Tell everyone you know who you think would be interested. Other promotion ideas from Holtz include
• Adding the URL to your e-mail signature.
• Putting the URL on your business card.
• Promoting the podcast and URL through the newsletter.
• Registering the podcast with podcast directories (e.g., iTunes, Podcast Pickle, Yahoo! Podcasts).
• Commenting on other people’s podcasts and blogs that attract similar audiences.

Technical Demonstration
I teach Audacity because it works on both PCs and Macintosh computers. I do not teach GarageBand, but I allow students to use it.

With students (preferably having them follow along on their computers):

• Download Audacity.
• Open Audacity.
• Demonstrate how to record audio, listen to it, and edit it.
• Ask students to do a quick recording, play it back, and edit part of it.
• Demonstrate how to download royalty free audio and import it into Audacity and ask students to do the same.
• Show students how to export podcast and compress it in iTunes and ask students to do the same.
• Show students how to burn the podcast to a CD or upload it to a blog (however you will be collecting it for grading).
• If using CDs for podcasts, show students how to create labels and consider giving each student a sheet of two CD labels.
• Explain to students what their options are for checking out a microphone or digital recorder if needed.

The technical directions at the end of this blog post explain how to do all of the above items.

Assignment and Grading Rubric
Your assignment is to create a podcast about a public relations topic, such as relationship management. To help your content score, either interview someone or use several strong sources for your presentation.

To be eligible for an A, include brief introductory music. It must be royalty-free. You can download free music at http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/pir/free_music_loops.shtml or at http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free-music-clips.html, buy music from iTunes (search for “podcast music”), create your own music, or use GarageBand. Another optional element is to create your own podcast art in Illustrator, InDesign or Photoshop. When using music from Web sites like Partners in Rhyme and Royalty Free Music, you’ll need to credit the source through a Web site link from where you host your podcast.

Your podcast will be evaluated based on the content, organization, delivery and adherence to instructions. Your labeled podcast CD in a jacket and show notes are due on _________.

Points for content:

Points for organization:

Points for delivery:

Points for show notes and instructions:

Is music included (a requirement for an A):

Final score:

Final grade:

Podcast Technical Instructions and Show Notes
You will record an instructional podcast that is appropriate to your personal/business needs. Cite your sources in your podcast (e.g., “according to Jones”). You will also produce show notes.

• The steps listed on this page are specific to a version of Audacity. If you do not see something in the location specified (such as where to import music), click on the other tabs until you see the option described.
  
• Also, sometimes I want to select an option in Audacity, but the option appears in gray, so I cannot select it. If this happens to you, hit the stop button and then try your action again.

Steps
You can download Audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net.
Another option is to use RecordIt (Windows) or GarageBand (Macintosh).

The instructions below are based on the use of Audacity as your recording software. Some of the menu options for the instructions below may differ depending on the version of Audacity that you have.

Recording
Make an outline with topics you want to discuss. Click the record button. Have an introduction, body and conclusion. Organize your content (e.g., 10 ways to improve your writing). Record your entire podcast in one take.

Editing
If you stumble over your words during the podcast, pause, repeat your sentence and continue. Here is how to edit the mistake:
Expand the size of your screen if needed.

Select the vertical dumbbell and drag it over the mistake. You can click the play button before cutting. When you are ready to cut, hit delete. If this does not work, make sure the pause button is not pressed. Hit stop and try again. It is easiest to record your podcast in one take. Make sure your environment is silent. Do not rustle with papers.

If you decide to add royalty-free music to the beginning, go to “Project” and “Import Audio.” Select your file. Use the vertical dumbbell to edit. Lower the sound by dropping the “Gain.” You will need to listen to the balance between the music and your voice to determine the best music level. You can find the “Gain” by looking to the left of your audio. It has an arrow you can slide to the left. If you use music, highlight the beginning of the music, go to “Effect” and select “Fade out.” Highlight the end of the music, go to “Effect” and select “Fade in.” You will not want music to play during the middle of your podcast, so highlight the middle section, go to “Generate,” and select “Silence.”

Editing An Interview
When playing a back an interview, see if you have problems with your voice and your interviewee’s voice being different volumes. If this is a problem, download the levelator at http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator and drop your podcast into it. See here for a visual demonstration: http://www.pixelheadsnetwork.com/2008/01/14/tdmd-daily-tip-podcast-36-useful-apps-levelator/. This will fix sound problems.

Creating a CD (or save to a jump drive)
When you finish editing, follow the instructions below:

Choose “File” and “Save” to save your recording.
Go to “File” and “Export as WAV.” Make sure to save the file to somewhere other than your Audacity folder, such as saving the file to your desktop.
Go to iTunes and drag your WAV file into your library or go to “File” and “Add to library.”

Go to “Advanced” and “Convert Your Selection to AAC.” This compresses the file. You are also welcome to convert your file to MP3 (under “iTunes,” select “Preferences,” “Advanced,” and “Import Using MP3.”

Once you have converted your podcast to an AAC or MP3 file, you can burn it to a CD. Make sure you burn the MP3 or AAC version rather than the WAV file. You can right click on your music file to see which version it is.

Once you have converted your podcast to an AAC or MP3 file, you can burn it to a CD.  Make sure that you burn the CD in a music player program like iTunes. Otherwise, the CD will record the file as a data file, not as an audio file, which means it won’t play in a CD player.

Creating the CD Label
In case you want to put your podcast on a CD, you can find CDs, CD labels, and CD jackets at an office supply store. Below are instructions for creating a label for Media Face labels. You can order them here: http://www.neato.com/product/PhotoMatte-CDDVD-Labels-100-Pack,85,12.htm

To create the CD label, go to http://www.mediaface.com. Create an account. To avoid having a watermark on your CD label, you need to enter a code when registering. The code is 077511999420.

Then go to the home page and select “CD/DVD Labels.” In the drop-down menu, search by SKU and select 863100. Click on the CD part of the image in the upper right corner. Then select “Templates & Layouts.” After designing your label, go to the “Preview & Print” tab in the right corner.

Make sure to not go to “file” and then “print.” Instead, scroll to the bottom of the screen and in the left-hand area, you’ll see a special print button. You might get a pop-up menu about calibrating the printer. That ensures that the printer lines up with the label, so make sure to do that if possible. You might want to test your printer with a regular piece of paper before inserting the label.

You are also welcome to create a CD label through software programs, such as InDesign, Photoshop or Word.

Burn your CD before adding the label. Burn your CD through iTunes. Do not simply drag the music file to the CD. If possible, print your CD label in color.

Creating Show Notes
Start with your title. If you have artwork, place it here. Describe your show and audience. Include at least four topics in a weekly show schedule. Add show notes and include at least three descriptions with the running time. Include all links mentioned in your podcast, as well as credits. Use parallel structure.

Uploading Your Podcast to Your Blog
If you would like to blog about your podcast experience, you should upload your podcast to your blog. You have about three gigabytes of space on WordPress. As long as you compress your podcast, you should be able to upload it.

You cannot embed your podcast into your WordPress account unless you have purchased an upgraded WordPress account. However, you can post it into blogger by using this code: <embed src=”Paste audio link here” width=”367″ height=”14″ autoplay=”false” loop=”true”></embed>

Podcast Directories
If you want to promote your podcast, you can link to it in the directories listed below.
•    Podcast Alley (www.podcastalley.com)
•    Odeo (www.odeo.com)
•    Podcast Pickle (www.podcastpickle.com)
•    Yahoo! Podcasts (http://podcasts.yahoo.com)
•    Apple iTunes Music Store (www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts)

One of my students commented that “awareness” can seem like a weak campaign goal, particularly in contexts in which action is urgently needed. So what are the reasons for building awareness? Why stop there?

In public relations, a good campaign plan requires an evaluation component. Evaluation is based on a plan’s objectives. If an objective is to raise awareness, then evaluation of how successful we are is based on how much awareness we have raised.

This leads to three points:

1.We should not promise something we can’t deliver. When we over-promise and under-deliver, we make a good case that we are incompetent, public relations is ineffective, or both. This could harm our employment and our public relations budget.

In some cases, changing behavior is more than we can do. It’s much easier to raise awareness, and it’s a step in the right direction. How much we can inspire people to change what they’re doing is going to depend on the case. Having an awareness goal can be a cop-out when public relations practitioners are capable of inspiring action; the point is that we’re not always able to do this, so our goals and objectives must fit the situation.

2. People have the right to make their own choices. By making people aware of the facts, we have done our jobs in some cases. We are not in the business of coercing people to do something.

Health Scenario
If some people decide not to floss, that is their choice. It might be our job to raise awareness about the consequences of not flossing, but ultimately, people can make an informed choice to do things that are not good for them, and that is fine in some cases.

Product or Service Scenario
We might not be doing PR for the best product or service. There could be a competitor that is better than us. Ideally, we will be able to have a seat with the “dominant coalition” (the informal group of decision makers in an organization) and persuade them to take actions that will make our products and services the best. Public relations practitioners are “boundary spanners,” helping organizations adjust to what people say, but some organizations don’t listen. If your organization doesn’t listen, you’ll likely have the most success sticking to awareness goals and looking for an employer who listens to PR people. At the very least, if you can demonstrate that your audience is aware of your product despite low sales, then clearly the problem with sales is not awareness. This can lead to a productive conversation in which a company does listen to PR people to find out what it needs to do.

3. Awareness can be a reasonable first step before tackling a goal to change behavior. In some instances, changing awareness is a triumph, and it can be a critical initial achievement that sets up future campaigns to influence people’s behavior. According to the extended parallel processing model, successful health messages require response efficacy (the belief that a solution is effective) and self-efficacy (people’s beliefs that they are capable of implementing the proposed solution). So health campaigns should always carry a recommended behavior, but it might take repeated awareness campaigns before people actually start doing something differently, depending on the case.

Suzi Steffen and I held an online panel titled “Extra! Extra! Tweet All About It” with professors and journalists on CoverItLive. Due to the number of participants (more than 200), the discussion was like “chat on steroids” as described by Kathy Gill of University of Washington. The drawback of using CoverItLive was that we couldn’t organize our discussion into separate threads, so keeping track of the path of each discussion topic was challenging.

I’ve taken excerpts from our transcript and organized it by threads. Below is an excerpt from one of the threads.

Tiffany Gallicano Q6: What is your advice for aspiring journalists with regard to Web 2.0?

Ryan Teague Beckwith (@ryanbeckwith):  BE CAREFUL.

Suzi Steffen:  Ryan, you’re scaring me.

Ryan Teague Beckwith:  Advice to aspiring reporters: Don’t post photos of yourself on Facebook holding a Mickey’s or Boone’s or whatever.

kathy:  LOL! Ryan’s PSA re Facebook is spot on.

[Comment From Meghan Grall]
Ryan, good advice. Seems like it would be common sense… but apparently not.

Ryan Teague Beckwith:  Twenty years from now, there will be naked photos of everyone on the Internet and we’ll all just yawn and move on. Until then, they will get you fired.

[Comment From Tyler] I think anyone that is “credible” in society should never put themselves in a situation for a picture of drugs or hard liquor.

Ryan Teague Beckwith:  I think that reporters are now targets. You may not realize it, but people will search through your Facebook profile, your online life, etc., in order to “damage” your brand and discredit reporting that they disagree with. Even if you keep Facebook personal, you should post on there as though it were going out to every subscriber or viewer of your employer.

Ryan Teague Beckwith:  Nothing is really protected on the Internet. Remember that.

Dora Valkanova:  Yes, it is interesting because both Twitter and Facebook seem deceptively private when you are alone with your laptop but really, the whole world is watching (reading).

Ryan Teague Beckwith: Everyone is a celebrity now, in a sense. We’re all just waiting to be discovered. I think a lot of people don’t realize that they’re just a news story away from having their online life scoured and devoured.

Ryan Teague Beckwith:  It’s not about “personal” and “professional” per se. It’s about your representations of them. I don’t really post “personal” things online, though I do occasionally reference the fact that I’m eating lunch at a certain place or working on my house. But it’s not really my personal feelings.

Ryan Teague Beckwith:  As a journalist, you have set yourself up as a person with more credibility than the average person. You give up the rights to certain things, such as expressing your ill-thought-out opinions, when you do that. It’s like being a monk.

Mark Hamilton (@gmarkham):  Q6: You need to participate to really grok it, even if only at low levels. It’s the understanding that matters.

[Comment From digiphile] Answer to Tiffany’s question – register your name or (more likely) preferred nom de plume on relevant social media platforms ASAP. Get a Google voice account. Learn how to use a Flip camera. And choose a second major, like comp sci, science or the like. Niche is where it’s at.

Ryan Teague Beckwith:  I second digiphile.

[Comment From Greg Miller] Related to the advantages of a “second major”: once you develop an area of expertise, try tweeting exclusively about that subject for a while. Try to build a reputation.

Mathew Ingram:  At an event I was at recently, Andrew Keen (@ajkeen) said that journalists of all kinds should be thinking about how they can build their own “brand” in a specific area, and using social-media tools to do that — I think that’s a good point.   You need to know how to use these tools at the very least.

[Comment From LydiaBreakfast] Agreed Mathew, @ajkeen’s self branding advice is prescient. We all need our own brands in addition to the one we carry from the publication(s) we contribute to.

Carrie Brown-Smith (@Brizzyc):  Q6 Yes, be careful, but experiment with these new tools and don’t be afraid. Twitter is especially nice I think to help teach students a) what is news and b) how to write with brevity and wit.

[Comment From LydiaBreakfast] Journalism students would do well to establish relationships with seasoned editors and reporters from all over via SM. Not just for seeking work but to expand their professional community and find possible mentors.

[Comment From anblair2] I think Twitter has given a lot of young journalists the chance to meet new people. I never realized how many connections I could make.

Carrie Brown-Smith:  Good point by Amber anblair2. I have to say I wish that when I was in school I had the chance to learn from so many professionals and connect with them via Twitter!

Ryan Teague Beckwith:  More advice: Whenever you think of responding to an angry reader, write out what you would say, take a break, go get a cup of coffee, chat about the weather, come back and delete it. Then just answer the factual question or assertion they made and ignore the mean spirited attacks.

Ryan Teague Beckwith:  Respond to them as though they had phrased it how you wished they had phrased it.

[Comment From Alicia] @Ryan Teague Beckwith – That’s good advice about responding to an angry reader. With new media technology it is often so easy to quickly respond to people that we don’t think things through clearly – which is one of the reasons there are so many posts at the end of news articles online that are simply rants.

Suzi Steffen:  Ryan, that is SUCH great advice.

Ryan Teague Beckwith:  Final words of advice to aspiring journalists: You are living in one of the most exciting times to be a young reporter in the history of journalism. Enjoy it.

A repetitive finding in my research, from my dissertation about an advocacy organization’s volunteers to my current study of Millennial agency professionals, is that getting along with the people one works with or volunteers for is critical to one’s satisfaction with a work or volunteer experience.

I serve on the board of directors for the Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope, an entirely voluntary non-profit. We give life grants of $5,000 for young adults with life-threatening illnesses to engage in a project that makes a difference in people’s lives. With our annual event around the corner, we’ve been in high gear.

What has been fundamental at keeping us together is that we’re all Landmark Forum graduates. This means that we have all been through extensive training in how to relate to each other, how to communicate when we’re upset with each other, and how to resolve the conflict and move forward. It makes an enormous difference because instead of having things build up as people continue to upset us, we handle things and protect our professional relationships.

Being confrontational is no walk in the park, but it’s much easier with training on how to do it, and it’s much easier because we all have the same expectations about how to handle a situation when someone makes us upset, what the person who is upset should communicate, and how the person who upset the other should respond. We rarely upset each other, but when we do (which is bound to happen within two years of closely working together), we have strong training in sorting things out, and it makes a world of difference.

What do you think about organizations providing interpersonal training?

Resources

Landmark Forum
(life skills)

Vanto Group
(affiliated with Landmark education, provides interpersonal training for organizations)

Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope
(our organization’s information and a place to buy tickets to our event)

Facebook Event Page for the Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope
(a place to RSVP for our event)

Facebook Fan Page for the Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope
(please consider joining)

If you’ll be in the Southern California area, I hope you’ll join us for our event on Sept. 26 at 6:30 p.m.

Here is the pitch from our fan page and our invitation. Our theme this year is a night of magic and miracles:

Ladies and Gentlemen! Children of All Ages! It’s Spectacular…It’s Fantastic…It’s for Charity!

Join Cameron Siemers and guest hosts Courtney Cox and David Arquette for an evening of magic and miracles at the second annual fundraiser of the Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope.

THE MAGIC
Be mystified and amazed by the wizardry of Magic Joe Reohm.

Thrill at the unforgettable spectacle that is the Zen Arts Performance Troupe.

Witness the wonder of Wisdom…Norton Wisdom and his luminous live paintings.

THE MIRACLES
Come face-to-face with pure inspiration when you hear from our Life Grant winners.

Look into the future with our founder Cameron Siemers as he reveals what’s next for the foundation.

Come one, come all for an evening of breathtaking performances, music, dancing, appetizers, a cash bar, raffle and silent auction. Contributions support young adults with life-threatening illnesses as they fulfill a dream, goal, or project that makes a difference in their lives and communities.

From time to time, I will highlight academic studies that I think are particularly interesting.

Tim Penning started a discussion on PR Open Mic about whether undergraduates should read academic public relations studies. Barbara Nixon, Gareth Thompson, and I expressed agreement that upper-level students should read academic journal articles. Here is a summary of an interesting study.

For this first academic feature, I am summarizing the findings from a study about the effects of labeling video news releases (i.e., “Video supplied by [organization name]“).

This study was conducted by

• Michelle Wood, University of Minnesota
• Michelle Nelson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Lucy Atkinson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Julie Lane, University of Wisconsin-Madison

and was published in the Journal of Public Relations Research.

Method

• 151 undergraduate students participated in exchange for receiving extra credit in their journalism and mass communication courses for participation.
• Nearly half of the participants planned to become public relations or advertising professionals, which suggests that they could be more favorable to VNR messaging.
• Students were assigned to one of four conditions:

1. reading about VNR practices and then watching a labeled VNR during a newscast
2. reading about VNR practices only
3. not reading about VNR practices and then watching a labeled VNR during a newscast
4. not reading about VNRs or watching a newscast with a VNR (the control group)

Participants then answered questions about

• the credibility of the newscast
• the credibility of the VNR story
• who the source was of the VNR story (e.g., the company, the news station)
• attitude toward the VNR message
• attitude toward the featured company

Findings (people who did not read about VNR practices first)

• Participants who did not read about VNR practices and then watched the labeled VNR story did not think the newscast or VNR message was less credible than the participants who viewed the unlabeled VNR.
• Participants who did not read about VNR practices and then watched the labeled VNR story did not have more negative attitudes toward the VNR message or the VNR company than the participants who viewed the unlabeled VNR.
• Labeling the source of VNR stories slightly improved people’s ablity to remember who the VNR company was.

This means that for people who have not read about VNR practices,

• labeling VNRs helps the VNR organization by slightly improving people’s ability to remember the organization.
• labeling VNRs does not hurt the credibility of the VNR sponsor or attitudes toward the VNR sponsor.
• labeling VNRs does not hurt the credibility of the newscast or attitudes toward the newscast.

Findings (people who read about VNR practices before watching the VNR)

• Participants who read an article about VNR practices and then watched a newscast with a VNR thought the VNR was less credible than participants who had not read an article about VNR practices.
• Participants who read an article about VNR practices and then watched a newscast with a VNR thought the newscast was less credible than participants who had not read an article about VNR practices.
• Labeling the VNR intensified the loss of credibility for participants who had read about VNR practices.
• However, participants who read an article about VNR practices and then watched a newscast with a VNR did not have more negative attitudes toward the VNR company or VNR message than participants who had not read an article about VNR practices and watched the newscast.

This means that for people who have read about VNR practices,

• a VNR message will not have a lot of credibility, especially if it is labeled.
• use of a VNR lowers the credibility of a newscast.
• a VNR will not necessarily hurt attitudes toward the sponsoring organization.

Guidelines to Which the Authors Refer

• Public Relations Society of America: Use of footage or VNRs provided by organizations other than the station or network should be labeled by the media outlet when aired.
• Radio-Television News Directors Association: Reporters should “clearly disclose the origin of information and label all material provided by outsiders.”
• Federal Communications Commission: News stations are only required to label VNRs when the subject matter is a contested issue of public importance, a political topic, or a topic for which stations receive payment for airing.

My Take

• Professional communicators are responsible for providing audiences with information that is needed to make an informed decision about the message. Thus, professional communicators should label VNRs.

Citation

Wood, M. L. M.,  Nelson, M. R., Atkinson, L., & Lane, J. B. (2008). Social utility theory: Guiding labeling of VNRs as ethical and effective public relations. Journal of Public Relations Research 20(2), 231-249. doi:10.1080/10627260801894405

At Edelman’s Third Annual New Media Academic Summit, I spent the first day listening and taking notes, and I spent the second day live tweeting. Some of my colleagues and students expressed interest in following the twitter coverage, and I wanted to deliver insight to people who did not attend. I also wanted to see what it was like to live tweet an event to help me decide whether to have my large lecture class live tweet during some of my class sessions.

I found that I missed information by live tweeting. Thankfully, I could watch the second day sessions to see what I missed.

Why was Listening Interrupted?

While listening to the speakers, I

1. followed other conference attendees’ live tweets on our conference hashtag

2. responded to other attendees’ live tweets

3. tweeted and proofed my tweets

4. engaged in discussion with non-conference attendees who commented on my tweets

It is no wonder that I did not hear everything the speakers said. Les Potter identified someone with similar problems at an exclusive session of the IABC conference. His discussion of this detached live tweeter is worth reading.

Is Live Tweeting Bad Manners?

I also felt uncomfortable looking at my computer screen while speakers were talking. I think that talking to someone who is not looking at you can be difficult, and I felt like it was bad manners to be looking at my computer screen. Perhaps it would not have been so bad if I had sat in the back of the room, but I generally find this area to be noisy, making it difficult to listen to the speakers. I prefer to sit toward the front. In a comment to Les Potter’s post, Robert Holland referred to live tweeting as an “obnoxious distraction.” His comment resonated with my experience.

I like the idea of being able to discuss what speakers are saying via Twitter; I did not like doing it while our speakers were giving presentations.

I think it would be great for meeting planners to designate staff members to live tweet a conference for those not able to attend. This way, conference attendees would not even need to consider live tweeting so that others could follow the conference from a distance. Discussion via Twitter could be appropriate during designated break times.

I don’t plan to live tweet again. Instead, I will be fully present and listen. I can post updates to twitter during a break and write a substantive blog post at night.

What Do You Think About Live Tweeting?

Conference Notes

Videos from conference sessions

Slides from Richard Edelman’s presentation

Bill Sledzik’s discussion of the conference

Karen Miller Russell’s discussions of Richard Edelman’s address, a panel from the first day, and a panel from the second day.

Christine Smith’s discussion of the conference

Twitter coverage

Thank you, Edelman, for a wonderful conference! The sessions were engaging, and it was a treat getting to spend time with the participants.

(Cross-posted to PR Profs and PR Open Mic)

The swine flu outbreak is an opportunity to discuss basic principles of risk communication. Risk communication includes encouraging people to take preventive measures in the face of risk (anything from evacuating before a flood to taking daily vitamins) and helping people cope with risks, such as terrorism. Below are guidelines for risk communication.

1. Think through your word choice. Does the situation warrant the label of “pandemic,” or would “outbreak” be appropriate? You don’t want to scare people unnecessarily or have the opposite problem of leaving people unprepared.

2. Look for aspects of the risk to highlight, depending on whether you want to heighten or ease the sense of risk.
If you want to increase public concern about global warming, your message strategy would differ from what you would do if you were developing message points about the swine flu outbreak. Based on Peter Sandman’s research, people feel more comfortable with risks that have the following features:

• People choose their chances of exposure to the risk (e.g., whether to travel to Mexico).
• The risk is naturally created, rather than resulting from human actions.
• The risk is easy to detect, such as an illness that has identifiable symptoms.
• The problem can be eliminated.

3. Acknowledge uncertainty when speculating. For credibility, risk communicators needs to be accurate in their communication, which usually involves using tentative statements. Also, for situations like the swine flu outbreak, Peter Sandman shared the following sound bite with reporters: “Everyone needs to learn how to say, ‘This could be bad, and it’s a good reason to take precautions and prepare’ and ‘This could fizzle out.’ They need to simultaneously say both statements.”

4. Give people something to do to lower their risk. However minimal it might be, give people something to do to reduce their risk (see here and here for examples). When the Washington, D.C., snipers were in my area in 2002, I followed police recommendations featured in The Washington Post to walk briskly in a zig zag pattern. Even though I felt silly walking zig zag, I felt like I had some measure of control in reducing my risk. Also note that people tend to feel more comfortable with risk when they choose to expose themselves to it. Even providing the threat level for air travel gives people some amount of choice in deciding whether the risk is worth the trip. For more information about the importance of this guideline, see Kim Witte’s extended parallel process model.

5. Give frequent updates and repeat core messages through various forms of media. An example of this is CDC’s Twitter account (hat tip to the In Case of Emergency blog). Here is a quote from a communication expert I interviewed for my dissertation: “Nowadays, you have to over-communicate… The information doesn’t filter. We have nine or 10 ways of communicating.”

6. Consider cultural barriers. At the University of Oregon Conference on HIV/AIDS in Africa, Pauline Peters, a lecturer at Harvard University, discussed cultural considerations for HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns in Malawi. Simply telling people to wear condoms to protect themselves would not work well in this environment. Many people there viewed condoms as poisonous and associated condoms with illicit sex. A best practice in developing messages is to partner with representatives of the community to determine message design and delivery.

Interested in teaching a risk communication class?
Feel free to use my course schedule for graduate students as a resource, which includes a list of journal articles and other resources. We are reading two books for the class, which I strongly recommend:

• “Effective Risk Communication: A Message-Centered Approach,” by Timothy L. Sellnow, Robert R. Ulmer, Matthew W. Seeger, and Robert S. Little
• “Trust Us, We’re Experts! How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future,” by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber.

I reviewed many risk communication books before selecting these two, and I also paid attention to book cost when making these selections. These books as a combination work well; their different approaches can result in rich class discussion.

Update
I received an insightful comment from Peter Sandman to the PR Profs copy of this blog post. If the swine flu becomes a pandemic, the discussion points here will be important: http://www.psandman.com/ (see the top story).

We are the early birds of Advanced Public Relations Writing! We gather on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8 a.m. to discuss social media and other topics in our Advanced Public Relations Writing class. Over the next few days, my students will respond to this post with a link to their blogs. They are eager to dive into the blogosphere, join the conversation, and meet public relations students, educators and practitioners.

Picture from Travel Portland, Creative Commons Attribution License

I found this news release about Portland’s Twisitor Center:

NEWS RELEASE
February 9, 2009
Contact: Deborah Wakefield, Travel Portland, deborah@travelportland.com
Contact: Martin Stoll, GoSeeTell Network, martin@goseetell.com

Nation’s First “Twisitor Center” Launches in Portland, Oregon

Portland, Ore., has become the first U.S. city to launch an official “Twisitor Center.” This cyber-style cousin to the more traditional walk-in visitor information center relies on Twitter technology to connect travelers with those who can answer their questions and help plan their trips. (Twitter is a free social networking service that allows subscribers to send and receive short, real-time updates, messages and questions.)

“Other cities are connecting with visitors through Twitter,” explained Martin Stoll, CEO of GoSeeTell Network, the company that created Portland’s Twisitor Center concept. “But Portland is the first city to set up a virtual visitor center to which people can direct travel questions just by adding a simple tag to their tweets [messages].”

Twitter-users seeking information on Portland can add #inpdx to their questions. Tweets tagged with this code (also called a “hash tag”) are sought out by Twisitor Center staff members who then send back suggestions. But the beauty of Twitter is that other users who aren’t affiliated with Travel Portland can also chime in with additional tips. So, if a traveler tweets “Need a good BBQ place in Portland #inpdx,” she could end up with suggestions from not only the Twisitor Center but also from anyone else – Portland residents, foodies, fellow travelers – in the Twitter community.

“With Twitter we can be more conversational and responsive,” said Jeff Miller, Travel Portland’s president and CEO. “And this is how a lot of people make travel and entertainment decisions these days. Twitter lets us talk to travelers who prefer social networking and who wouldn’t normally visit an official travel website.”

In addition to responding to questions from visitors, Travel Portland’s Twitter stream will include several proactive tweets per day, covering such pre-defined topics as dining, green travel, special deals and recreation.

Because Twitter is relatively new to many travelers, Travel Portland’s website features a Twitter page that explains the service and connects to Twitter in Plain English, a fun, two-minute video that covers the basics. The page also links to Travel Portland’s Twitter stream, where visitors can see what others are tweeting about and sign up to “follow” Travel Portland.

The Twisitor Center is one of several online initiatives that Travel Portland is undertaking. Another among these is GoSeePortland, a social-networking website where Portland residents and visitors share tips, ratings and reviews – as well as get customized travel recommendations. GoSeePortland launched in 2008.

For more information on Travel Portland’s Twisitor Center, go to www.travelportland.com. To follow Travel Portland on Twitter, visit twitter.com/travelportland.

Link to Twisitor Center images: http://flickr.com/photos/35211583@N02/
Link to Twisitor Center video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-uLPX3NPkY

Travel Portland is the official destination marketing organization for Portland and the Greater Portland Region. Its mission is to strengthen the local economy by marketing the metropolitan Portland area as a preferred destination for meetings, conventions and leisure travel. For more information on Travel Portland, visit www.travelportland.com.

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Readers, what do you think of Travel Portland’s social media efforts? What other exciting uses of social media have you seen in the travel and tourism industry?