Media Marketing Communications» podcastinterview

Interview with Emmett Buell Jr., co-author of Attack Politics

Wes Conard — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:02:31 +0000

Every election we hear endless analysis about who is going negative and who’s being pulled into the mud, as if there was some courtly golden age when politicians would not spew invective to gain any advantage. Attack Politics, by Dr. Emmett Buell Jr. and Lee Sigelman, confirms that, yes, presidential politics is nasty. But, in analyzing 17,000 campaign statements extracted from nearly 11,000 news items in the New York Times since 1960, they find that presidential campaigns have actually gotten a bit more civil. Buell counts the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon campaign as the most acrimonious and believes that Obama’s campaign might have been the least negative.

Buell also takes issue with the entire idea of “negative campaigning” as a pejorative term, saying that there’s really no way for a candidate to take on substantive issues or differentiate himself from an opponent without attacking their record and hitting potentially personal issues like ethics and judgement. What might be most surprising is that while the front runner is generally less negative than the candidates that are trailing, there are few strategic rules that seem to hold up race to race. If there’s a formula or a tried-and-true playbook, it hasn’t been found.

I asked Dr. Buell to talk about the book because campaigns are the most dynamic, high-stakes communication exercise their is. Buell and Sigelman go through the communications strategy/positioning/messaging of each presidential campaign since 1960, showing what worked and what didn’t, backing up their conclusions with a wealth of details from historical accounts, poll data and from their own research in the NYT. It’s a great read for anyone who works in communication and at one time or another has had to weigh the risks and benefits of “going negative.

Podcast interview with Bill Wasik, author of “And Then There’s This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture”

Wes Conard — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:07:17 +0000

Bill Wasik’s new book “And Then There’s This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture” perfectly diagnoses the creeping Information Age anxiety of anyone who is trying to keep up with the online culture/news churn. Now that we can all produce our own newspaper/radio/TV, we begin to view the world as editors and producers, which is to say, ultimately as marketers, and that has changed the way we look at events and at ourselves.

“You monitor and you scheme and you promote, just like the hit-addled corporate culture has been teaching you for years. Because when your words or actions or art are available not only to your friends, but to potentially thousands or even millions of strangers, it changes how you act, what you say, how you see yourself. You become aware of yourself as a character on a stage, as a public figure with a meaning. You develop, that is, the media mind. You know exactly what you are doing.”

Wasik, a senior editor for Harper’s is a sharp, funny writer and the book is very entertaining. Wasik takes us through six viral experiments he performs that show the upside and downside of the global village. To get a taste of it, check out his recent NYT opinion piece or go to his blog at www.billwasik.com

Podcast interview with Pamela Shoemaker, author of Gatekeeping Theory

Wes Conard — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:30:48 +0000

In her new book Gatekeeping Theory Pamela Shoemaker explains the journalistic gatekeeping process that ultimately decides what news runs and what doesn’t. Shoemaker shows how the process has, and has not, evolved since the first gatekeeping study in 1950. Shoemaker is the John Ben Snow Professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Shoemaker co-authored the book with Tim Vos, an assistant professor of Journalism Studies at the University of Missouri.

Podcast interview with Erik Qualman, author of “Socialnomics”

Wes Conard — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:48:53 +0000

I recently had a chance to talk with Erik Qualman who has put together a great read called “Socialnomics” on how social media works and how businesses can use it. For companies that are trying to figure out what they should do to get involved in social media he suggests that they not let the perfect be the enemy of the good: simply put on foot in front of the other and start doing something. His advice is to first figure out where your audience is and how your brand is being perceived and then figure out how to create a relevant conversation. That may involve a lot of failure, according to Qualman.

For instance, about 3.7 million users a month use a TripAdvisor applications that enables them to put pins on a map of where they’ve been. While it looks like a no-brainer in retrospect, Qualman said TripAdvisor CEO Steve Kaufer said you have to be prepared to fail a lot to get a winner.

“He said `You have no idea how many iterations we did, not related to that idea, that failed, but the key for us was the idea that speed wins, that we just have to keep doing rather than deliberating.