The professor is back! PR lessons in today’s headlines

While hardcore denizens of Web 2.0 love to diss the mainstream media, I’m thanking the founding fathers for my morning newspaper today. Blogs and social networks are great places to discuss news, but few of us have the resources or expertise to actually report it.

So let’s have a discussion today as I review some headlines and discuss their implications for public relations.

The disappointing iPhone. AT&T said it’s disappointed in consumer response to the iPhone. Seems the company expected a half million sign-ups for its service in the first weekend and got fewer than 150,000. Apple stock fell 6.1% yesterday following the news.

Were AT&T’s projections pie-in-the-sky? Or did consumers reject the iPhone precisely because of Apple’s exclusive arrangement with AT&T? That’s why I don’t have one. My contract with another carrier extends into 2008. I’d buy an iPhone in a heartbeat if Apple hadn’t limited my choice of carriers. Now stir in the negative reviews for AT&T’s wireless broadband from the likes of Pogue and Mossberg and Apple’s toy loses even more of its luster.

True Confessions: I’m a middleaged blog censor

Hardcore “blog heads” are gonna call for my social-media license after for this. But I’ll just have to live with it.

I removed a comment last week (from this post), and I have no plans to re-approve it. The author of that comment has demanded I restore his “1st Amendment rights.” Sorry, dude. While I cherish open and unfettered conversation, I’m the final arbiter of what’s appropriate on this site.

So why did I approve the comment in the first place? Habit, I guess. Readers have posted more than 500 comments since I launched this blog last fall, and I’ve never turned one away. Until now.

The comment in question disparaged University of Dreams, a company that connects students to internships around the world. The comment made claims but offered no evidence. And from what I can discern, the accusations weren’t at all characteristic of U of Dreams behavior. Run a Google search on these guys and you’ll find they’re squeaky clean.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Andy Curran

My long-time pal and colleague, Andy Curran, has officially arrived in the blogosphere with his site, MediaTide. It’s housed here at WordPress.

Andy was moved to start his blog after watching the role of Web 2.0 in reporting news of the Virginia Tech tragedies. But it was the announced shutdown of his local newspaper, the Cincinnati Post, that proved to be the triggering event for this “old media guy.” But I’ll let him tell you the rest.

Andy and I met 35 years ago while students at one of our nation’s great party academies. We’ve managed to stay good friends all these years, a task made easier when he married my wife’s sister. I mean, what choice do we have? Andy is associate professor in computer information systems at Cincinnati-Clermont College.

Please take a minute to drop by MediaTide and welcome Andy to the blogosphere. Post a comment, offer ideas, or just give him grief. He deserves it.

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TransArctic Expedition Update: If you’ve tried to follow my son’s progress on the TransArctic Expedition, you’ve been stymied by a website glitch (though you can sneak into the site through the backdoor).

We talked last night with Brenda Harrison, wife of the expedition’s leader. She spoke to Jeremy just a few days ago via satellite phone.

Seems the men are well ahead of schedule and paddling north on the little-explored Morse River. They should reach Garry Lake in a few days. They’ll cross Garry west to east, then connect to the frigid Back River for the final leg to Chantrey Inlet, on the Arctic Ocean. If all goes well, they’ll arrive August 7, give or take a day, then catch a bush plane back to Yellowknife, NWT.

Two weeks back I told you about the group skidding their loaded canoes across 75 miles of Arctic ice. Last week they traveled upstream on a tributary of the Thelon River, then made the grueling portage to the Morse — 10 trips in all to move boats and gear. Good news is, they have plenty of food and are eating well. Seems the lake trout are practically jumping into the boats.

Something tells me these boys are gonna need a beer when they get back. Too bad 3 of the 6 are underage, eh? I’ll ask the same question I did last time: What are you doing this summer?

Roll out the rainbow carpet — It’s gonna be a gay old time in Akron, Ohio!

Never thought I’d see the day. I mean, this is Ohio, ya know.

This is the state whose Religious Right put W back in the White House. The state that has recurring debates over the teaching of “intelligent design” (aka, the Book of Genesis) in our science classes. Doh!

We’re also the state in which progressive universities like my own continue to deny benefits to domestic partners of employees, fearful of being bitch slapped by our intolerant legislators.

So imagine my surprise at learning that our local metropolis, Akron, is launching a promotional campaign to attract gay tourists to the city (link expires 7/22). While this campaign would hardly raise an eyebrow in more progressive locales, here in Ohio it’s radical social engineering. And not surprisingly, it’s the lead story in the local newspaper today.

Miss New Jersey gets a pass! But the lessons of Facebook are getting bigger each day

Last year it was a partying, under-aged Miss USA who caused the media fuss, only to be rescued by Donald Trump and sent to rehab. I love fairy tales, don’t you?

Now the story centers on Miss New Jersey and some “unladylike” pictures once posted on Facebook — pictures that, for a day or two, threatened to end the career of another beauty queen.

In the scheme of things, Amy’s PR problems were pretty mild. The board of the Miss America pageant is giving her a pass and letting her move on to compete in Atlantic City. Rightfully so, as the photos were pretty tame stuff by today’s standards.

So here it is again — one more example of social network content biting someone in the ass – or in Amy’s case, the breast. The pictures in question were posted on someone else’s Facebook page. But no matter. They showed her in “unladylike” poses that sound more funny than risque.

For two years I’ve preached to students about the reputation damage Facebook photos and messages can inflict. I’ve written about it here and here as well.

Some of those students have cleaned up their online profiles, but others continue to act as though the online world of social networks is a separate reality. Every student I know has cranked up his or her privacy settings to keep out the voyeurs, but if you have a large network of “friends,” those privacy settings are easily compromised. Copies of photos are easily passed along, then passed along again.

The hazards of Facebook have now spread beyond the college campus. Now that FB is open to the masses, working stiffs — including a lot of PR professionals — are flocking to the site. And that carries with it a new set of concerns.

Is higher education selling out to marketers?

In the next few weeks, Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise, the School of Journalism at Kent State moves to a fabulous new $20-million facility over by the Starbucks. It more than a shiny building. Its a great recruiting tool and venue for teaching and research that may even make our rivals in Athens jealous, at least until their next big gift from Scripps Howard kicks in.

Of course, we were kinda hoping a fat-cat media mogul would see Franklin Hall as a marketing opportunity. But, alas, no one has dropped $10 million in the kitty for naming rights to our J-School — at least not yet.

Half joking, I asked a prominent Ohio PR professional what he’d say if Rupert Murdoch offered us $10 mil to call it the “Fox News School of Journalism.” His response: “I’d say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Murdoch.’”

He wasn’t joking.

Media Convergence, Facebook, Lousy Writing and the Summer of Love

Lots to talk about today, so I’ll try to keep it short.

I’ve had nearly two weeks to think about this return-to-blogging post. But I didn’t. Instead, I hung out on the beach with friends and family, paddled my canoe down the Clarion, and drank a shitload fair amount of beer. But during moments of sobriety, here are a few items that tripped my trigger.

Media convergence and the iPhone. While the world suffered iPhone envy these past two weeks, the folks in our School of Journalism were checking out David Pogue’s video blogs about it. If you haven’t seen these clips (here and here), take the time.

To see a columnist for the MSM embrace a new medium this way, you have to wonder what’s next in media convergence. Of course, if you read Pogue’s bio, you won’t find his stage presence at all surprising.

This ain’t your father’s journalism, boys and girls. But that is your father’s newspaper, the venerable New York Times. Do you think maybe Pogue was celebrating the Summer of Love anniversary in a magic bus somewhere? Far out, Dave!