Too Much Sharing; Not Enough Thinking

Yesterday, I had a phone conversation with Senator Stephen Brewer of the Mass. State Legislature. I asked him several questions about his perspective on the state of public affairs today as well as about some legislation he is sponsoring.

He characterized the state of public affairs today as acrimonious… a state we’ve reached because of political malfeasance and distrust that goes all the way back to Nixon lying about Watergate and Johnson lying about Viet Nam. The senator noted that “a healthy mistrust of power is important” but once that distrust reaches the point of abject cynicism, then we’ve got a problem because there also needs to be a certain amount of trust in the decisions that government makes.

I also asked him about the influence of social media on public affairs and discourse. Senator Brewer hit on two topics that I’ve mentioned before in other blog posts: the speed by which information is distributed via social media, and the ease of spreading misinformation. He mentioned an old adage: “A rumor can get around the world before the truth even gets out of bed in the morning.”

This completely ties back to our desire to hear the truth, yet our apathy towards actually working to discover what the truth is.

He also noted that “you can vilify an individual very rapidly without a lot of accountability.”  Telling lies and spreading misinformation is nothing new. It has been done throughout history. The practice is not new but the technology we have today – that is the variable. Rumor and innuendo have always been spread but the speed with which those rumors spread today? That’s the game-changing element and all the more reason why we ought to make even more of an effort to understand the truth (or lack thereof) of the messages we are spreading.

I’m guilty of it myself – I’ve forwarded emails, Tweets, and other communications and realized later that I didn’t have the whole story. I’m not proud of it, but I like to think that now I try to be a little more discerning with what I share and what I say.

It would be nice to think that others think before they speak or share as well, but I think I’m in the cynic camp on that one.

Social Media and Public Affairs: Friend or Foe?

As we’ve gone through some of the lectures in my Public Affairs class this semester, one theme has been emerging and that is the fact that public affairs and public relations are about images and perceptions. But we’ve also talked about influencing stakeholders. In fact, a recent paper that I just wrote for the class centers on the idea that messages intended to influence can be undermined depending on your choice of media outlet.

There is so much talk these days about social media: Twitter, Facebook, blogging, Digg, YouTube and so on. I started to wonder how effective some of these particular media outlets may or may not be. Then it just so happened that I stumbled upon (thanks, Google!) a blog post by Doug Pinkham is president of the Public Affairs Council (http://www.pac.org/). In his January 27, 2011 post titled “Is Anyone Listening,” he talks about some of these very things.

Based on a report released at the Public Affairs Council’s National Grassroots Conference (“Communicating with Congress: Perceptions of Citizen Advocacy on Capitol Hill”), Pinkham notes several interesting things:

• Only 41% of Hill staffers think that email and the Internet have increased public understanding of what goes on in Washington.
• The Internet has made lawmakers more accountable, but electronic communication “has reduced the quality of constituents’ messages.”
• More than 60% of staffers think Facebook is an important medium for understanding constituent views and nearly three-quarters consider it important for communicating their members’ views.
• YouTube is valued almost as much for congressional communication, but not as highly for understanding constituent views.

So, like any tool, social media and electronic communication can be used well and with influence, or wielded wildly and become scattershot and unfocused.

Take care when you’re choosing the media outlet for your message; it can make all of the difference.