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Archive for July, 2019

Lesson 508 Mueller Delivered

Posted in Leadership, Media Literacy, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on July 30, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Too many commentators chose to begin their critique of the Mueller hearing by expressing disappointment in his theatrical performance. This set the tone for everything that followed, and the magnitude of what had just happened was diminished.

What took place was exactly what Mueller promised. Colleagues who know Mueller’s work have repeatedly reported that he never was the big talker in the room. And for many years admiration for his integrity, professionalism, competence, and truthfulness has been trumpeted by republicans and democrats alike.

Mueller made it clear at the start he did not want to testify. He was satisfied for his report to speak for itself. So the fact that his age might have caused some hesitation in his voice was totally immaterial. One of the sad consequences of this age of television imagery is that moments of serious business are too often seen and evaluated through a theatrical filter.

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Lesson 507 Bold Slogans Win

Posted in Branding, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Media Literacy, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on July 26, 2019| Leave a Comment »

With or without impeachment, activating the growing number of Americans disgusted with today’s Washington will require a pragmatic strategic communication plan… one that leads with bold themes and slogans.

Many analysts think that in 2016 Mr. Trump simply stumbled into a new media environment created by a game-changing digital technology revolution. Surprisingly, he discovered that the more outrageous his remarks the more headlines news organizations would just hand him. And it also allowed him to make outrageous promises to people who felt angry and ignored.

Today “populism” and “nationalism” are gaining influence around the world in much the same way. Populism favors ordinary people over power elites, and nationalism favors citizens over foreigners. So extremists propose to redistribute wealth and limit immigration…. and they also use outrageous language to produce daily headlines, and eventually gain support from citizens who feel ignored.

So how can this apply to winning back a mostly invisible American majority?

First, replace the misunderstood “democratic socialism” term with “democratic capitalism,” and repeat it incessantly. Second, propose easy to describe pragmatic solutions to real world problems, including immigration. Third, invite input from everyone… and use digital media to collect it. Fourth, referencing this input, formulate, a bold vision for a whole new values-based America, drowning out social media noise with bold slogans and themes that command big headlines every day.

I believe a strong strategic communication plan with bold themes and slogans can win in 2020. Otherwise, both political parties will soon destroy each other and put an autocrat in charge for a very long time.

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Lesson 506 Dissent And Intent

Posted in Branding, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Media Literacy, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on July 19, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Dissent in America:

  1. Dissent in America is patriotic when it springs from a true love of country and expresses a sincere desire to make it better. In fact, this kind of dissent was basic to America’s founding.
  2. But dissent becomes dangerous and often un-American when it is cruel, produces social division, disregards its potential to incite violence, and appeals to deep feelings of hate.

Intent is what separated the president’s approach to rallying his base from the four dissenting freshmen legislators. One approach was hateful and divisive, and the other was distinctly American. One reflected a country that was made for immigrants, and the other chose to ignore it.

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Lesson 505 Intentional Cruelty

Posted in Leadership, Lessons Learned, Media Literacy, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on July 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »

The vice president stood next to inhumane conditions for children and families seeking asylum in the U.S. and said that Americans would be proud of what he saw. He was talking directly to followers, and the cruelty of his statement had to be intentional.

The fact that cruelty is used as a rallying point for political followers is a tragic example of what has happened to the use of language in our digital media world. Media has become tools for dividing and conquering… not unifying and inspiring.

And the fact that all this is tolerated by so many in the name of competitive politics is an additional tragic example of what has happened to a nation founded on the fundamental principles of liberty, justice, and human rights.

Only enlightened leadership can fly above all this and put unity and humanity back in our discourse… and our lives. But right now it’s not yet clear from where, or even if, that leadership will appear.

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Lesson 504 More About News!

Posted in Branding, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Media Literacy, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on July 12, 2019| 2 Comments »

My previous blog post pointed out that news media are really businesses. I follow-up here by suggesting that the entire topic should be dealt with in newspapers and on television as important public interest news.

Stories about big changes in major media organizations, the inside workings of biased news organizations, profiles of extreme talk show hosts and writers, sources of domestic fake-news, social media as weapons, foreign government generated fake-news, and much more, are all sources of potential audience-grabbing news stories.

Some news organizations already have media reporters. Brian Stelter at CNN is one of the few with high visibility. His program on Sunday mornings reports inside news about organizations, people and places, and also deals with the hot issues of the week.

Beyond reporting news media news stories, it is also in their self-interest for news organizations to invest heavily in media education. For them, promoting media literacy should simply be seen as essential immediate and long-term audience development.

 

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Lesson 503 News Business Realities

Posted in Branding, Lessons Learned, Media Literacy, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on July 9, 2019| Leave a Comment »

It’s not fake news. But it is a business.

Television cannot resist making drama, and newspapers cannot resist writing provocative headlines. After all, they both must deliver audiences to their advertisers.

Both newspaper and TV news organizations develop journalists and anchors with star power because it’s good for business. Both are attracted to covering the outrageous over the mundane because it’s good for business. Tweets become attention-getting headlines and are also good for business. And a government in chaos and out-of-control is certainly good for the news business.

When NBC producers designed their approach to the recent debates, they clearly had the nature of their visual medium in mind.. After all, TV likes drama, and the colors, set design, use of music, staging, and even the anchor’s introductions and questions were written with this medium’s power in mind. Some pundits even thought the program resembled a game show! But however you saw it, it certainly was good for the TV news business.

Bottom line: It’s difficult to imagine how news media organizations will fix things for us anytime soon… especially when the daily headlines are so good for their businesses.

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Lesson 502 Endless Lying

Posted in Leadership, Lessons Learned, Media Literacy, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on July 1, 2019| 1 Comment »

Communication is impossible in an environment of lies and confusion. Problem-solving processes simply shut down.

Even when our president begins with a smidgen of truth, he grossly exaggerates it, and then embellishes it with fictitious additions until it all becomes a sea of lies and mass confusion.

Whether it’s about what’s going on in Iran, the treatment of children on the Mexican border, the actual status of his wall, the true impact of Chinese tariffs, his love for North Korea’s dictator, his strange behavior with Putin, his attraction to the Saudi crown prince, his comfort in the company of any dictator, his disrespect for U.S. allies, his total rejection of climate change science, or all of the promises he hasn’t kept… whatever he says is intended to dominate the headlines, but it also produces widespread fear and unrest.

This is not about political ideology. It’s about how communication works… and as a result, his need to make it “all about him” has also made us vulnerable to social upheaval everywhere.       

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