(In case the embedded audio doesn’t work, here’s the link to the Here and Now show with Steve Goldstein.)

I used several different tools to research social media activity for the segment, although we didn’t get to discuss the results of most of them. The Twitter Positioning System (TPS), for example, showed me that discussion of the bill was taking place all over the country, although it was naturally much more concentrated in the southwest and Arizona in particular. SocialMention, which looks at a vast range of both textual and visual social media channels, showed me that there was a core group of passionate people discussing the bill by name, whereas the general topic of “Arizona immigration” was something far more people were interested in–although most only to the point of commenting on it in passing. Viral Heat, a (fairly inexpensive) paid service, breaks down online discussions by source: Twitter, not surprisingly, proved to be the liveliest font of conversation about the issue, followed by Facebook and YouTube. When the last caller asked about YouTube, I was disappointed that the lost Internet connection prevented me from clicking through on Viral Heat to identify the top users posting videos on the subject.

Technology is wonderful, but sometimes unreliable. And none of these tracking sources is infallible: the sentiment ratings on Social Mention, for example, need to be taken with a grain of salt, since no software can detect sarcasm. But we do have access now to vast stores of information about at least a segment of public discourse, as well as many tools that can give us a rapid general analysis. While they’re no substitute for more rigorous research, they’re fun to play with and can give us a useful starting point for discussion, in ways that would have been unimaginable even a few short years ago.

In the course catalogue, the description reads simply, “Covers topics of immediate or special interest to a faculty member and students,” which doesn’t really say much. So I thought I’d post some more details about what I have planned. Not a syllabus (yet), just a statement of intent, so to speak. If you’re an ASU student looking for an elective, think about MCO494! I’m very excited to have the opportunity to really explore the world of social media from a variety of perspectives.

The short and snappy description, if you’re in a hurry, is this:

This class will explore and critically analyze the social, cultural, legal, ethical, economic, and technological dimensions of social media tools from Facebook to FourSquare, Twitter to Flickr, and beyond.

More detail after the cut.

This is still in the drafting stages, but I wanted to be able to give people an idea of what the course will be about. So here’s the summary:

In the early days of the Internet, it was seen as a repository of data, a “giant library” to be consulted by information seekers, or a “shop window” where individuals and organizations could put themselves on display for “browsing.” The online world has since undergone a massive transformation, metamorphosing into an interactive environment where people engage in dynamic, ongoing conversations and actively produce as well as consume content in every imaginable form. Today’s tumultuous media environment requires both media professionals and ordinary users to not only know how to use the various tools available, but also to understand and critically reflect on the roles these tools play in shaping public discourse.

Social media and the news
Social media and organizations
Social media and government/public affairs
Social media, identity, and society
The global dimensions of social media

Most of the readings will be from articles, many will be online sources, and I’m still deciding on the books. In any case, this isn’t really a “textbook” course; I fully expect the readings to change radically throughout the semester, since the world of social media is constantly shifting. That makes planning ahead a tad difficult… but it’s the exciting kind of challenge.

I’m really looking forward to exploring these topics with students.

Of course, in the case of teaching in journalism, public relations, mass communication, and related fields, sometimes part of the purpose is to make students aware of what tools are out there, and give them some practice using these tools in appropriate ways. In this case, instructors sometimes find themselves working outside their comfort zone, since they may not be familiar or entirely comfortable with (or convinced of the utility of) certain forms of social media. Even though I’ve spent lots of time online in the past *cough* years (okay, fine, let’s just say more than a decade), I still don’t know everything that’s out there, and I have my personal preferences.

My presentations don’t lend themselves well to Slideshare, since I use very little text and prefer to fill in most of the content orally. So it’s difficult for me to share everything I discussed. However, I’m happy to post the contents of the handout I gave, which has some sites and resources about social media in general, a few specific to journalism or public relations, and a couple specific to educators. Hopefully there’s something useful in here, anyway. I’ve also tossed in a few sites I mentioned or showed in the presentation but didn’t include in the handout.

Note: I do talk a little about directionality as one of the criteria for assessing a social media tool, and deciding whether and how to use it. The terms I use are familiar to most public relations scholars, but might seem strange to others. In particular, people often struggle with the difference between two-way symmetrical and two-way asymmetrical modes of communication. In brief, asymmetrical communication takes place when people can give feedback, for example in the form of comments on a photo or blog post, but it’s difficult to engage in real back-and-forth dialogue. Blogs that offer threaded comments make symmetrical communication more likely, although what really takes place depends entirely on the people involved. I think one-way and multi-way communication are pretty self-explanatory.

So, here’s the list of resources:

Social media sites

This list doesn’t even pretend to be comprehensive. Think of it as a starting point for exploring Web 2.0 for your own purposes. Sites are grouped according to directionality (which way the conversation flows), permanence (how long information remains available), and content structure (what types of content each tool uses, and in what format).

One-way

Mixed permanence, linked content

Delicious
Social bookmarking. Useful for sharing resources with students, marking online items for use in the classroom, and for students working on group projects who may need to share research.
Digg
Link sharing site. In addition to tagging, Digg also ranks sites by the number of incoming links added by users.

Two-way asymmetrical

High permanence, long format text content (w/multimedia embedding)

Blogger
One of the oldest mass-blogging sites. Now owned by Google, so can be integrated with other Google accounts via shared login. Free. Home to many academic bloggers.

WordPress.com and WordPress.org
The .com address is for free blogging accounts; the .org is for software hosted on third-party servers. Probably the most widely used in professional blogging circles.

Example: JMC417 class blog
This is our class blog, and runs on WordPress. Note that comments are not threaded, so replies use the widely adopted “@” convention.

High permanence, multimedia content

Flickr
Photo sharing site. Allows formation of image sharing groups, individual (not social) tagging, favorites. Owned by Yahoo! & uses their login. Also a good source for Creative Commons images for  presentations. Unthreaded comments, multi-level “friending.”

Example: Flickschool
This site is really a wiki, but it relies on Flickr images (among other things) to create a resource on multimedia documentary production.

YouTube
Video sharing site. Allows users to rate videos, subscribe to “channels.” Owned by Google. Unthreaded comments, built-in viewership counter. Videos can be easily embedded in other social media platforms (blog posts, Facebook, etc.).

Example: Digital Ethnography Project
A fascinating ongoing project at Kansas State University.

SlideShare
Slide presentation sharing site (PowerPoint, Keynote, .pdf formats currently accepted). Now also offers “slidecasting” capabilities, or podcast narrations to accompany slideshows. Allows users to rate and favorite presentations, and easily share them on other platforms. Logged in users can also download presentations. Unthreaded comments, built-in viewership counter.

Example: Life Cycle of a News Story
Comparing traditional journalism to the new Web 2.0 paradigm.

Two-way symmetrical

High permanence, long format text content (w/multimedia embedding)

LiveJournal
Blogging site. Free and paid accounts available. Threaded comments, tagging, locking and filtering of posts to control visibility. Created as open source, so there are clones around (e.g., InsaneJournal.com). Home to the vast majority of media fan communities.

Example: Academics Anonymous LJ community
Note the threaded comments (usually accompanied by email alerts), which allow commenters to engage in direct dialogue with the blog author and each other.

MySpace
Personal (or commercial) profile site with some blogging and multimedia functions. Personal accounts are free. Threaded comments, subscriptions with email notifications. Used heavily in arts & entertainment (especially music, also film & TV), with less emphasis on blogging. Outside of entertainment, caters primarily to a young tween/teen user group.

Multi-way/decentered

Low permanence, short format text or link content

Twitter
“Microblogging” site, with posts limited to 140 characters. Accounts may be public or controlled-access.

Examples: There are numerous examples of interesting applications of Twitter, alone or in mashups. Here are a few of my favorites:

Tweet Chicago
Creative use of the Twitter API by the University of Chicago Law School to produce a page populated by students and faculty, giving visitors a real sense of the people who make up the school.

Google Maps meets Twitter trends
Combines location data with trending topics, to map Twitter trends in geophysical space.

BBC News map
Similar to the above, this mashup links RSS feeds of news items to their map location.

Twittervision
The mother of all Twitter mapping sites, it shows a random selection of tweets popping up all over a world map. Warning: may be mesmerizing.

Remember the Milk – Twitter integration
Now you can add items to your to-do list, and receive alerts, all via Twitter.

Medium-high permanence, variable format text, link or multimedia content

Discussion forums

There are thousands of discussion forums on the Web, most of which are dedicated to specific topics. The ones listed below are just examples of a few different formats. Terminology note: “pseudonymous” sites require users to maintain a stable moniker in order to participate in discussions; “anonymous” sites do not.

Jobs in Social Media forum
Newish and, so far, not very active discussion forum for anyone interested in discussing social media, particularly from a career perspective.

Chronicle of Higher Education fora
Pseudonymous discussion site for academics.

Wikis

Wikis are highly decentered, but can be a powerful way of producing group-sourced content on any topic, in a relatively stable and lasting form.

Twitter Fan Wiki
A good example of the “hive mind” knowledge sharing power of wikis–and also an excellent information resource for Twitter.

WikiNews
Crowdsourced news outlet.

Social media articles & resources

2008 Horizon Report
A detailed report on the state of social media use in higher education, particularly aimed at identifying emerging technologies and usage trends. Well worth reading.

Technorati
Blog directory and ranking site. Good starting point when searching for blogs on a given topic.

Teaching & Learning group (Facebook) -
A Facebook group for university professors interested in exploring the educational possibilities of Facebook. Invitation or approval required.

VizEdu
A blog of visual presentations and illustrations to explain various aspects of social media. Some very useful information here, updated regularly.

PR 2.0
Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks in San Francisco, focusing on PR and New Media. Useful even to those not in public relations, since his work focuses on how people use the social mediasphere.

A directory of short URL services
A post from the blog PR 2.0, mentioned above, that offers a very useful (and well maintained) guide to the pros, cons, and various features of the different URL shortening services. Especially helpful to Twitter users.

Using Wiki in Education
Collection of case studies (self-published; paid download or hard copy in book form) about how educators at various levels have used wikis in the classroom and for research collaborations.

AcademHack on Twitter in the classroom
A description of how one humanities professor has used Twitter with students, and some of the results.

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube
Anthropology professor Mark Wesch of Kansas State University presents his research on YouTube, conducted as part of a course on digital ethnography, at the Library of Congress. Nearly an hour long, but worth every second.

I make no secret, starting on the first day, about the demands they’ll be facing in this course. It’s their senior capstone, so it’s supposed to be challenging. Bringing together knowledge and skills in an applied project, working with a group, learning to analyze cases and think about theory and practice, meeting regularly with clients, trying to come up with proposals that are both creative and viable, managing client expectations, keeping up with the reading, maintaining the class blog… it’s a lot to handle. Especially when you factor in their other classes and, for many of the students, jobs and internships, maybe even family demands. Plus the fact that most are in their final semester, busy applying for jobs or grad school or trying to figure out what to do when they suddenly find themselves college graduates in May.

One way I try to help them understand why the course is designed this way, and how it is intended to help prepare them for their professional careers (and frame it in a much less frightening way than I did in the paragraph above) is to compare it to another PR: Project Runway. I’m not (too) ashamed to admit my love for this show, and I think it has a lot to teach anyone who hopes to work in a field that combines the creative and the practical. To wit:

• the designers on Project Runway are forced to work under tight time and budget constraints, just like public relations practitioners;
• they are often required to work outside their comfort zones: people who typically do menswear might find themselves having to make a swimsuit, or a pageant designer might have to create a tailored suit using nonstandard materials. In public relations, too, practitioners have to learn to be flexible to meet client needs and take advantage of whatever resources are made available to them;
• the designers are frequently assigned to work in teams with people they wouldn’t have chosen as partners. In many fields, not just PR, the ability to work productively on projects with others you might not like personally–or even respect professionally–is crucial to success;
• clients on Project Runway often have unreasonable demands and expectations, and the designers (just like public relations professionals) have to learn to walk a tightrope between meeting those expectations, and educating/persuading clients to adjust them;
• the Project Runway designers are urged to take creative risks, but only if they make sense in the specific context. Creativity and innovation in our own PR field, and in this class, are also highly valued, but need to be appropriately motivated and fit the situation in question;
• most importantly, what Project Runway, public relations, this class (and, I’d argue, life in general) all have in common is the central theme of make it work: at the end of the day, something has to go down that runway. Similarly, at the end of this semester, something has to go into that proposal and be presented at the public pitch session. Some students will resist, claiming all kinds of obstacles are keeping them from getting the work done. These aren’t (always) just excuses: often there truly are problems, with the client, with team members, with the situation they’re addressing. But one of my greatest satisfactions from teaching this course is seeing those same students finally figure out that they have to make it work regardless of those issues, somehow, and overcoming all those seemingly insurmountable challenges to put something together. It may be the equivalent of a dress with a bodice held up only by a few strategically placed safety pins and a prayer, but often it surprises everyone. Necessity is the mother of invention, after all, and urgency is often the father.

Which leads us to my role, here. I think Tim Gunn is a great role model for teachers, since he is always respectful and honest with the designers even when he’s offering severe critiques. He listens to their point of view and tries to understand what they’re trying to accomplish, even if it doesn’t match his own preferences or taste. It’s obvious that he wants all of them to succeed, and to make a good showing for the runway judges. Of course I have a slightly different role, since I also lecture and grade and teach them new concepts, but when it comes to their projects I place myself in a similar coaching/mentoring role. I strive to be as Tim Gunn-like as possible when working with teams, or individual students who come to my office hours.

Now, I’ll confess that I actually have a Tim Gunn bobblehead, a gift from a grad school friend, and I refer to him as my TA. He offers great advice: along with “make it work,” my favorite of his recorded profundities is “I can’t want you to succeed more than you do!” So true. The best I can do is try to create an environment where they can learn to express themselves creatively and practice their new skills, receive helpful feedback, and learn to manage the many conflicting demands on their time and energy that they will face in their future careers, in PR or whatever path they choose to follow. If they can learn to make it work, then my mission is accomplished.

In my view, part of doing that means shifting the emphasis away from media-based campaigns. I continue to be surprised at how many students come into the class thinking that press releases, media kits, and a Blackberry full of journalists’ contact info represent the core of their future career. This capstone course is my last chance to shake them free of this idea. At the same time, they definitely need to come out of this class knowing how to research, develop, and evaluate a strategic plan. There is only so much time in a semester to give them the conceptual and methodological tools they need, practice dissecting campaigns to figure out what does and doesn’t work, expose them to enough examples to remind them just how vast a territory is covered by this field, continue their socialization into the profession, and coach teams as they work on their specific client projects. It’s a delicate balance. I push them hard, because I know I’m doing them a favor that way, but even so there are objective limits on how much you can do.

I’m still fine-tuning the syllabus (and probably will be right up until Tuesday morning before the first class), but I think the course description now says everything I want it to.

The world of public relations is changing. One-way, media-driven communication is rarely the most effective means of conveying information, shaping attitudes and influencing behavior among stakeholders. Today’s PR practitioner engages in an array of ongoing conversations, and prepares campaigns based on in-depth understanding of the cultural, social, technological, and local dimensions of those conversations. Doing so may require various combinations of controlled and uncontrolled media, social media, formal presentations, events and initiatives, and other means.

This course introduces students to the many ways in which they can identify and participate in these conversations, while providing an opportunity to synthesize and apply the theories, principles and techniques of public relations they have learned in previous courses. They will explore many of these areas in greater depth through readings, lectures, and class discussions as well as the team project. This body of knowledge includes (but is not limited to) research methods, communication theories, strategic planning techniques, budgeting, organizational systems, management styles, campaign components, types of campaigns, technology, ethics, diverse channels of communication and stakeholder relations.

Students in this course will:

• Review and learn theories and concepts applicable to public relations
• Analyze and discuss public relations case studies
• Keep up to date with issues, trends, and events in the public relations field through a variety of channels
• Analyze and discuss the aforementioned current issues, trends, and events, both in class and through a communal blog maintained by students in both sections of the course
• Learn and practice effective presentation skills
• Work in teams on client projects, which will require students to
  • Develop an in-depth understanding of the client’s needs
  • Research and prepare a comprehensive campaign proposal to address the client’s goals and/or problems
  • Design and develop media products as needed for the above
  • Determine the appropriate measurement tools to evaluate the success of their proposed strategies and tactics
  • Formally present the proposal and media products to the client, fellow students, and other interested members of the community

Of course I could go on to say a lot more, but I figure that’s what the rest of the semester is for, no?

In addition to the textbook (which I supplement a lot–to many students’ dismay–with lectures and additional readings) and their case study book (ditto), I’m also having them read Seth Godin’s Tribes. I always emphasize that PR practitioners are boundary spanners, and one way they accomplish this balancing act is by building tribes inside and outside the organizations they work for or represent. I’m hoping to bring this message home in a way that will be reflected in the final projects they put together. Most of all, I hope they’ll leave this course understanding that public relations is all about relating, and only secondarily about media.

We’ll see what happens. The curtain will go up in a few short days.

Last semester, students in my Public Relations Campaigns class were responsible for maintaining a class blog on trends and issues in PR. The main goal of the assignment was to allow them to get their feet wet in social media, encourage them to read a variety of PR blogs, gain experience writing in a format unfamiliar to most of the students, and provide a forum in which they could discuss professional topics. I taught two sections of the course, and each section was broken into teams for their larger client projects. Teams from both sections contributed to the blog, which was also a way for them to interact amongst themselves despite being in different classes.

I didn’t provide many guidelines for the assignment, since my main purpose was to get them writing, and I didn’t want us to get bogged down in rules. Teams were required to post once a week, and individual students to comment on at least two posts by other teams. They were required to include at least one link, preferably to a public relations blog, and to explain the significance of their chosen topic to public relations. That was basically it. As a result, the quality of the posts was uneven, but at the end of the semester most of the students noted that they had enjoyed the assignment and learned a lot from it.

Next semester, the assignment is going to change considerably. For one thing, we are in the process of creating a microsite for our PR program within the larger school web site, and the student blog will be featured content. This greater visibility means that readership is likely to be wider, bringing in casual visitors to the site, potential students, local practitioners, and others. Furthermore, due to recent curriculum changes, more students coming into the class are likely to have a basic understanding of the mechanics of blogging and some experience with maintaining at least a personal site. And finally, although I incorporated plenty of social media into the course last semester, this time around I want to make sure that SM practices are even more deeply embedded into the course content and assignments. Somewhat paradoxically, I’m convinced that doing so will help prevent some of the “have hammer, will find nail” effect that leads students to attempt to incorporate social media strategies and tactics into their campaigns in ways that don’t really suit the client’s goals and objectives.

Since I try to give very detailed explanations of my assignments, outlining both the purpose and my expectations, I’ve been working on the assignment sheet for the new and improved class blog. What better place to look for feedback than among fellow PR bloggers? Details of the assignment are tucked away below, and your input is welcome.

Class Blog Assignment Details

Purpose of the assignment

Blogging is one important way in which public relations practitioners take part in conversations within the field, establish their expertise, and represent their organization to fellow professionals and the public at large. The blogosphere is a place where tribes form, grow, change, and dissolve.

The purpose of the JMC417 blog is to highlight and reflect on trends and issues in the public relations field. It is prominently linked from the new PR microsite within the Cronkite School web site. It is therefore your job to turn this blog into a valuable resource for the public relations community, as well as to represent our Public Relations program.

Reading widely among professional blogs will deepen your understanding of blogging cultural norms, and ensure that you stay abreast of changes and new developments in the profession; writing regular posts will give you practice in the genre and allow you to reflect thoughtfully on current topics; commenting on others’ posts and responding to comments on your own will help you become active, engaged participants in the online PR world.

Details of the assignment

General requirements

Being an effective blogger involves three main areas of skill and activity:

1. Writing engaging, thought-provoking, and intelligent posts that encourage others to respond.
2. Responding to those who comment on your blog.
3. Engaging with others in the blogosphere.

This assignment therefore also has three parts:

1. Each team is required to post once a week, before 11:59 p.m. each Monday night. You may decide amongst yourselves who writes the post each week, or whether to collaborate. The category for the post should be your team name; use appropriate tags. See below for requirements and grading criteria for each post. Everyone on the team is responsible for making sure that a post is published by the weekly deadline.
2. Someone from the team must respond to each comment made on the blog, whether by classmates or outsiders. Again, you can work out amongst yourselves how to handle comment responses.
3. You must comment on at least two blog posts each week, also by 11:59 pm on Mondays. Early in the semester these comments may be limited to blog posts by classmates, but I will eventually require you to comment on posts within the broader PR blogosphere. I may also sometimes specifically assign a blog post or series of posts to comment on. Email me links to your comments as you make them, using the subject line “JMC417 Blog comment.”

Posting specifics

Each blog post must:

• Link to at least one post in another blog (the blogroll is a good starting point for source material). Additional links are encouraged. If the post you are referring to addresses other online material, please include all links necessary to help your reader follow the conversation. Use meaningful link text.
• Identify all people and organizations named, with links and brief descriptions.
• Express an opinion or point of view on the issue addressed.
• Ask a question to encourage discussion.
• Be unique: do not link to the same items or address identical topics as other posts in the JMC417 blog. Search the blog before posting to avoid duplicates. If you are particularly interested in a given topic that has already been posted, you are free to participate in discussion in the comments thread.

Assessment criteria

Posts will be graded on:

• Meeting the basic criteria outlined above, for starters. Additionally:
• Presentation. Writing should be clear, professional, and grammatical. Links should be worded appropriately. Bolding, bullets or numbered lists, white space, and other formatting elements should be used to enhance the readability of the posts. Tags and categories should be accurate and reflective of content.
• Relevance. Topics need to relate to public relations practice, research, and/or education, and the relevance should be clear and explicitly described in the post. Timeliness is an added bonus, but topics of ongoing significance are also acceptable.
• Engagement. Posts should thoughtfully address the chosen topic using concepts addressed in class, internship experiences, or other reference material. The point of the blog is to engage in conversation, so make sure you have something worth saying. Readership is diverse, so explain any references to theories or other specific concepts from class to ensure that everyone can follow your post without effort.
• Persuasiveness. By “persuasiveness” I don’t mean that you necessarily have to “sell” a point, or avoid voicing your own doubts and indecision regarding the complex issues you may wish to write about. However, your opinions should be supported by evidence, including links wherever possible.

Comments will be graded on:

• Presentation. Comments should be written clearly and grammatically.
• Relevance. Comments should pertain to the post topic.
• Engagement. Comments should respond thoughtfully to the post, and contribute substance to the conversation.

Blogging will be worth a cumulative total of 15% of your grade for the semester. Post and post response grades apply to the entire team; comments are graded for individuals.

Meanwhile, on the last day of class I asked them to write down, on index cards I provided, three pieces of advice to next semester’s students. I promised them that I would pass on all of their tips, although I reserve the right to point out bits that are ill advised or incorrect. Many of the recommendations were repetitive, and underscore things I’ve said myself–although I suspect they will carry more weight coming from students who have been through the class. Some of the comments are wise, some amusing, some downright worrisome or simply baffling. Here, for your edification, is the complete collection of tips on what you should know if you ever find yourself in my Campaigns class, according to this semester’s students:

On time management

Don’t leave everything to the last minute. The campaign components really add up!
Start campaign early and establish solid contact with client.
Don’t procrastinate when it comes to proposal materials—consistently work on the project each week.
Don’t procrastinate on campaign work.
Begin working on the proposal paper in chunks over the semester. Spread the work process out so you aren’t overwhelmed at the end.
Don’t wait until the last minute to start writing out your proposal. Formatting woes happen!
Make sure that you keep a good schedule for the class. Time management is KEY!
Work hard on your campaign from beginning to end to cut down on stress at the end of the campaign.
Start work on your proposal early.
Don’t procrastinate on the proposal.
Don’t wait until the last weekend you have to finish and print your proposal.
Make sure to work on the proposal throughout the semester according to the deadlines and make the first drafts a real effort.
Keep up with the work on your campaign throughout the semester so you don’t have a ton to do right before it’s due. If you have questions, ask Dawn or your group members.
Don’t just turn in whatever. Actually work on the assignments when they are due and don’t cram at the end.
Always make time to work on your proposal; the end comes quickly and before you know it, it’s due.
Even though the assignments aren’t graded weekly, work on the proposal throughout the semester.
Work on your project early… it catches up in the end and you won’t sleep!
DO NOT procrastinate!

On case studies

Make sure to read case studies—don’t just summarize them.
Make sure the case analyses are well written and turned in on time.
Before every case study, read through the chapters involving research, planning, implementation, evaluation, etc. to make sure you don’t leave anything out.
Put every concept you learn into the case study write-ups. You are bound to get something right. (Note: I don’t actually recommend this approach, since you are also bound to get some things wrong. The easiest approach is just to learn the concepts.)
Get as much help on case studies as you can.
Take notes, they will be helpful in case studies.
Learn the principles of communication to ace your case studies.
Ask Gilpin to give you more specific instructions on what to include in your case studies.
Work hard on your case studies.

On class in general

Attend class!
Familiarize yourself with social media, especially blogs.
Take thorough notes.
Know about Twitter before the class.
If you can’t write a blog, learn!!!
Come to class and be on time. It is vital to your success, especially on the final exam.
Take many, many notes in class.
Take notes because the lectures aren’t posted on Blackboard. And use your notes when you do your case studies and compose your proposals.
Take good notes.
Take good notes because most are not online.
Be active in social media.
Don’t miss any classes.

On editing

Revise, revise, revise!
Proofreading is your best friend for everything in this class (proposal, case studies, blogs).
Proofread each part of your proposal AS YOU DO IT, and again at least 3 times before you get the final copies printed.
 

On teamwork

Stay in constant contact with your group and divide up work evenly.
Don’t screw your group members by not doing your fair share.
Communicate with your group constantly, openly and honestly to avoid future problems.
Take time to meet with your group after class. It’s harder if everyone doesn’t meet at the same time.
Delegate roles, more than just ROPE.
Try your best to work well with your group members!!!
Get along with your group—do your share—your grade depends on peer evaluations!
Try your hardest to get along with your campaign group because it will make your life a lot easier.
Get along with your group members, but don’t let them walk all over you.
Go to class and be a good groupmate! You all need to contribute in order to put on a good show!
Make sure your group members are pulling their weight from the start so you don’t end up doing all the work.
Work with your group to met deadlines and fine-tune the proposal and presentation.
Work as a team. Doing so will just make your life easier. Be considerate of each other’s schedule conflicts.
Do your part in your group and learn how to work together!

On stress and sanity

Pray.
Don’t stress in the beginning because everything will come together in the end.
Drink lots of coffee before class.
Don’t stress out too much… it will make sense eventually.
Buy Kleenex because you’ll cry every day. (Note: I truly hope not!)
Be patient, you will get through it…

The miscellaneous

 
Make sure to run all contact moves and questions by the contact person you work with.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions or say something stupid.
Don’t hesitate to ask questions. It doesn’t make sense—and it probably won’t make sense until it is completed. Then you will be shocked at the progress you made.
Go in and talk to Dr. Gilpin in office hours. She will explain things really well and direct you on where you need to be—best for case studies!
Put all your effort into this class, it is the culmination of you time in school and reflects what you have learned. Represent yourself well.
Have fun with your proposal, it is a lot of work but it is a great opportunity to use your creativity.
Be creative and utilize the resources at school, and your professor’s knowledge.
Be as creative as possible with your campaign.

The mysterious

Call her Dr. not Professor. (Note: I have no idea where this one came from. Either is fine by me.)
The blogging (Twitter) section throws the class off and you aren’t sure what is important about the class and what to learn but just be open. (Note: ?)
Only purchase the case study book. (Note: I definitely do not recommend this strategy.)
Don’t worry if you’re the best, everyone will pick on you, but keep working it—they are just jealous!

I noticed that there continues to be an emphasis, in the public relations research on this topic, on rhetorical strategies regarding image restoration/repair/renewal.This year, I was happy to see a shift away from concentrating solely on the mid-crisis or immediate post-crisis stage, and more discussion of crisis preparation, prevention, and learning. The “pre-crisis” period–aka, any point in time when a crisis is not (knowingly) in full swing, or just ended–also overlaps with risk communication and issues management, and I enjoyed several presentations on these topics.

Although I believe there is certainly a need for organizations to be aware of the range of image management strategies they might use, and I’m glad there are people researching the topic and applying it to the field, I confess that it is an area of crisis communication that fails to fully ignite my enthusiasm. I am more interested in studying where crises come from, and the role communication plays in their emergence and management when viewed in conjunction with other ongoing social processes. In other words, I prefer to take a big-picture approach, which I think is particularly important in this period of increasingly intertwined global systems, in which a narrow focus on a single organization’s image can risk ignoring or even exacerbating problems on a larger scale. For crises such as the Chinese melamine adulterations discovered over these last couple of years, for instance, or the large-scale E. coli contamination of spinach in the fall of 2006, strategies need to take the full context of the situation into consideration, and move away from the organization-centric approach that has dominated the crisis management literature.

Which leads me to another fascinating session on crisis that I attended at NCA–and since it was scheduled for 8 a.m. Sunday morning, you know it had to be worthwhile to get me there. (Actually, I did come in late, due to a longer-than-expected line at the hotel coffee shop, but I was technically up and out and ready to attend promptly.) This was a session organized by the Peace and Conflict Communication Division, on macro and micro approaches to terrorism. Among the panelists was my colleague Steve Corman, from the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication here at ASU, and director of the Consortium for Strategic Communication.

I’ve been lucky enough to have been working with the COMOPS people these last few months, so I was already familiar with the content of his presentation, largely based on some of the excellent white papers produced by the Consortium as well as their book. His talk, titled “Complex Systems and Terrorism: Responses to Terrorism from a Communication and Public Diplomacy Point of View,” explained how the rugged landscape of a complex communication environment requires an ongoing process of developing message and interaction strategies, since it is all too easy to embark on a suboptimal path if one fails to constantly monitor the larger context. In other words, you may believe you are doing everything right, all is going according to plan–until it suddenly turns out success is short-lived, or less than expected, because you’ve misjudged the shape of the territory.

To further complicate matters, although this aspect wasn’t addressed in the course of the panel, the landscape is constantly shifting underfoot. In a complex milieu, the focal individual or organization is just one among many actors, all of whom are engaging in their own communication and interaction strategies as they negotiate the peaks and valleys. Some of those strategies change the shape of the landscape itself: some peaks become higher as new challenges are suddenly thrown in one’s path; others flatten as new technologies or information render them easier to navigate.

Anyone who works with complexity theories will find all of the above quite obvious and natural (but the specifics of computing the fitness landscape and developing appropriate strategies remain extremely challenging). Although my focus on crisis has typically been at the level of the organizational or issue network rather than public affairs or public diplomacy, there is a great deal of overlap between the approach outlined at the panel and the one we presented in our book. Most of all, there is something of a disconnect between the linearity of traditional crisis communication responses such as image repair, and the nonlinearity inherent in a complexity perspective.

I don’t have anywhere near the expertise or knowledge to address the situation in Mumbai in any detail, but I’ll close with an observation related to the above discussion. The emergence of multiple sites of information via Twitter, SMS broadcast, Flickr, Blog Talk Radio, and other social media tools is an example of how even an event-based crisis without an organization at its core (as opposed to a purely organizational crisis of legitimacy, such as ther recent MotrinMoms débacle) can become a moving target in terms of communication management.

Although not strictly in the same category as the decentered crises mentioned above (spinach, melamine), mainstream media outlets and media consumers are faced with similar dilemmas regarding the speed and source credibility of information. When lives are at stake, whether one is dealing with gunmen or potentially deadly contaminants, there is a need for rapid, accurate information. Organizations have traditionally been positioned as the information gatekeepers for contained crises, with mainstream media working to verify claims and demand accountability. but when there is no central source, and when communication tools allow for both accurate and inaccurate information to spread wide and fast, the fitness landscape is negotiated through a self-organizing process. This self-organization, however, is subject to the same pitfalls mentioned above, and may not emerge with the optimum strategy. I think we need to be ready to study the evolution and information pathways in these kinds of crisis situations, in order to determine what–if anything–can be done to encourage accurate flows of information while stemming the tide of misinformation, including propaganda.

This year’s conference was a short one for me: given last week’s Cronkite Week celebrations, particularly the luncheon on Friday to honor our award recipients Jim Lehrer and Robin McNeil, I didn’t get to San Diego until Saturday. I was supposed to arrive early in the morning, but fog caused such serious delays I didn’t make it to the Manchester Hyatt until around noon. So I missed both the Top Papers session and business meeting for the PR division, unfortunately.

I was, however, able to attend a number of panels in the public relations, political communication, mass communication, and organizational communication divisions. A quick glance at the program showed that social media figured prominently throughout the conference, and there were a number of sessions dedicated to the subject in nearly every division. Even those panels and presentations that were not explicitly given over to social media often contained numerous references to Web 2.0 issues, such as discussion of how this year’s electoral campaigns used social media tools, or a top paper by my colleague Serena Carpenter that analyzed online citizen journalism.

I was present at two panels that focused on social or emergent media (and presented at one of them). The first was all about social media in public relations and journalism, with topics ranging from campus newspapers and television stations to PR teaching and practice. I have to say that I was surprised to hear so many presenters refer to blogs as “new” and describe their uncertainty about the role of social media in communication teaching and practice. I’ve been active online for (cough) years, and find it a little disconcerting that so many communication professionals and scholars are still relatively unfamiliar with the online world.

The main exception was of course Mihaela Vorvoreanu of Clemson University, author of Web Site Public Relations. She presented some findings from a recent survey she conducted about blogging among PR practitioners and academics, showing that blogs help build credibility and are seen–even by non-bloggers–as important communication tools in today’s environment. (A longer version of her conference presentation is available here.) She emphasized to attendees the importance of gauging one’s stakeholders properly, and in the case of student-authored blogs, of giving adequate training and guidance regarding the art and craft of blog writing. Like any other genre of writing, Mihaela noted, blogs have rules and characteristics that must be learned if they are to be effective means of communication.

The other panel on social media was jointly sponsored by the PR and Organizational Communication divisions, and organized by Alison Henderson of Waikato University in New Zealand. Presenters represented a diverse range of perspectives and ideas about social media, as well as varying levels of experience. To start off, Lewis Freeman of Fordham University discussed how the world of business journalism is increasingly turning to Web 2.0 technologies as it searches for a new business model. Both journalists and current college students often feel a sense of displacement in this changing media environment, a phenomenon that Lewis described as “confusion of innovation.”

Corey Hickerson of James Madison University presented the results of a fascinating study on wikis, based on Taylor and Kent’s work about the characteristics of effective online public relations. His study found that wiki participants have high levels of trust and involvement in wiki content production, but non-participants tend to show more distrust toward user-generated wiki content than toward more traditional one-way sources of information online.

Bill Kinsella of North Carolina State University reported on a study carried out with several colleagues, regarding the role of social (or multimodal) media in social movements, focusing in particular on climate change. They found that such movements are increasingly relying on these tools to form alliances, foster communication among movements, recruit new members, and communicate the movement’s aims to government actors as well as the public at large.

The panel organizers, Dr. Alison Henderson and Dr. Ted Zorn of Waikato University, instead described the specific challenges faced by nonprofit organizations seeking to use social media: on the one hand, Web 2.0 technologies should provide a relatively inexpensive means of communication with low entry barriers. In practice, however, these organizations often face difficulties in obtaining funding for social media implementation, the time to develop them, and internal resistance by technophobic members. Furthermore, their desired targets often cannot be assumed to have Internet access or experience.

Mihaela was supposed to participate in this panel as well, also to discuss Twitter, before her flight home was canceled and rescheduled to conflict with our session time. She was missed, and the (surprisingly large, given the timing of the session on the last day of the conference) audience only got to hear my own perspective on Twitter. I presented some (very) preliminary findings of a study of Twitter use among PR practitioners. I am using social network analysis–later to be combined with either semantic network analysis or another form of content analysis–to study emergent patterns of interaction, as well as identify both the forms and reasons of Twitter use among practitioners. The most interesting finding, so far, is confirmation of results found in other research on social media: rather than acting as a surrogate for face-to-face interaction, Twitter (and other social media) typically serve to expand and reinforce one’s personal network of “real life” contacts and associations. More on that as I proceed with the project.

Of course, I also managed to talk to a bunch of friends and colleagues I hadn’t seen in a while, form some new connections, and came away with a notebook full of ideas that I will be able to use in my own research and teaching. That’s what conferences are all about, as far as I’m concerned.

(Oh, and bonus note: I also had the excitement of seeing my book at the Oxford University Press booth in the book forum. That was quite a thrill, as was seeing that someone had already placed dibs on the display copy! It’s good to know someone is reading. Or at least buying.)

• they are made up of individual elements, or agents;
• these agents engage in local, recurrent interactions based on rules that may change as circumstances evolve;
• these interactions lead to patterns of self-organization among agents, as they form groups and develop modes of behavior to adapt to internal and external changes (self-organization is also often referred to as emergence);
• as a result, the system is dynamic and unstable, subject to both gradual and sudden change;
• everything that occurs within the system is dependent on what has come before: history plays a central role in self-organization and system change, even when the changes are nonlinear (cannot be immediately traced to a proximate cause);
• the boundaries of complex systems are highly permeable and not clearly defined: the extreme level of interdependency makes it difficult to say what lies “inside” the system, and what lies “outside”;
• for similar reasons, complex systems cannot be reduced: extracting part of the system, or statistical sampling, will necessarily lead to the loss of significant sets of relationships among agents, and thus obscure some sources and/or reflections of change.

One reason that the complexity sciences have resonated so deeply with me ever since I first discovered their existence, several years ago, is that I can so clearly see evidence of complexity in my own life. Seemingly random interactions form recognizable, emergent patterns over time, and an insistence on expecting linear a+b=c results is bound to meet with disappointment. Personally, I’ve found it less stressful and more satisfying to embrace nonlinear outcomes and allow myself to be surprised by where life takes me. (This doesn’t mean accepting fatalism: the importance of history and local interactions means that I have to focus on my own efforts, actions, and relationships. They just may not end up leading to where I think they will.)

My professional interest in complexity has produced some emergent patterns as well. First, it led me to pursue a doctorate, which wasn’t at all my initial plan, and to write the book that came out this past summer. Both were the result of my master’s thesis and my resulting relationship with Priscilla Murphy, who was the only person writing about public relations and complexity back when I first began studying these issues. It has led me to study networks and narratives, which in turn have introduced me to certain people and bodies of literature. And at the moment, it has led me to projects as diverse as my current research on Twitter in public relations, collaboration with my colleague Yushim Kim in the School of Public Affairs here at ASU’s downtown campus, and with the Consortium for Strategic Communication led by Steve Corman at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication in Tempe.

As recently as six years ago, I never could have foreseen any of the above, yet in retrospect it all fits together perfectly. (That’s what I would call the narrative dimension of complexity.) I love seeing the emergent patterns in my life and my work.