Lessons Learned. This blog is based on 50 years of lessons learned about communication and media, i.e. More is not better. Information clutter creates confusion. Debating polarizes. People hear what they want. Repeated lies soon sound true. Some media favor reason. Others favor emotion. Success requires strategy and persistence.
Media Revolutions Change Everything. When television over took print as the dominant medium in society it changed the way families, politics, governments, education, religion, and even leadership work. Since then, digital technology and social media brought more changes… with both positive and negative consequences. And 24/7 cable news and a growing number of social media and Internet outlets produced even more changes… including consumer confusion caused by a daily deluge of information, opposing expert opinions , fake news, exaggerations, and lies.
Strategic and Integrated Communication. The challenge these days is to cut through this media generated information clutter and respond effectively to intense competition between institutions. This requires combining the process and planning tools of organizational communication, group dynamics, marketing, social media, and market research, to create a more sophisticated model for making each institution better understood. I wrote a series of books about how IMC applies to academic institutions, which many have also found helpful when applied to other institutions and nations. You can find them at… www.case.org/books
Media and Communication Literacy Education. With today’s digital world of political chaos and social change, media literacy should be a required course for every citizen… offered in public schools, universities and even community groups. Citizens must become editors of the information they consume… seeking a balanced of opinions, and acting as a watchdog for a constant flow of exaggerations and lies. The universe has become a confusing overload of mind-boggling information, and technology will guarantee that it stays that way.
