Inside PR

We talk about news on Snapchat and  Facebook’s Hard Questions, a series of linkworthy posts on Facebook’s blog. Nuff said.

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This week, we keep the focus on Facebook and its algorithms. As long as two thirds of us are using the platform, it is important. We start our discussion with Matthew Ingram’s recent Columbia Journalism Review article, Facebook’s latest changes will probably make misinformation worse. Facebook is indisputably a media company. A change in its algorithm will not change that. And so measures like its two question news questionnaire are something we should examine closely, like every move Facebook is making in this area. But as we do, we must recognize that Facebook’s algorithm is opaque to its users. There is no way we really can know what is going on under the hood. And that affects what we read. It’s a question of having control.

And, if you think that we are just baying at the moon, another piece of news worth noting, this time out of Canada. Think about the Right to be Forgotten. Then think about the GDPR. Think about CASL, the Canadian Anti Spam Law. Now read a discussion paper from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. The need to give individuals more control over their data leads to a focus on de-indexing and source takedown. The bottom line: We may have a global internet, but we have national sovereignty over privacy and personal rights. So, pay attention. You may not want government regulation, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get it.

Finally, we talk about Google Bulletin,  It reminds us that, before Facebook pushed into and then fled news, there was Google. And when we talk about innovation, let’s not count out Google.

The post The tools we need to take control of my personal privacy and data appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

We take a further look at Facebook’s shifting treatment of news that appears in our newsfeeds. The problem: Facebook has become the dominant news distribution platform. However, the algorithms have had a nasty propensity to elevate what has been broadly labelled as fake news. So, in this new world, how are we to know what is real, what is reliable, what is trustworthy?

In recent weeks, Facebook has announced measures to address this issue. Today, our conversation centers on the introduction of two survey questions to ask Facebook users about their awareness of and trust in news sources.

Also on this week’s agenda, payola PR. Does it exist? What does it say about ethics in PR? What should we as an industry and as individual practitioners do to combat it?

The post Inside PR 496: Talking about accountability and responsibility appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg last week announced that Facebook’s solution for fake news is to remove news from the newsfeed. So, less news in the newsfeed. More things that my friends share or that I click on.

Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley talk about the implications of this for news outlets, PR people and Facebook users themselves.

It will take some time for this play out. And that could open a period of innovation as publishers and communicators turn to other platforms and tools (check out Feedly).

However this turns out, there is no doubt that Facebook always looks after its own business interests. And in this case, its interest simply was not to come to grips with the problem it created in its relentless push to aggregate audiences and content outlets.

Facebook made this mess. Now the rest of us are left to deal with it.

The post Facebook leaves publishers at the altar appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

A recent post by Gini Dietrich on Digital Distraction and Creativity provides our jumping off point this week. We talk about he importance of times when our minds are “in neutral” for creative thinking and serendipitous inspiration. For Gini, it’s long bike rides. For Martin, it’s long walks. For Joe, it’s shaving and the shower. It may be something totally different for you. But whatever it is, it’s important that you make time to enable your mind to free associate and generate new ideas.

Just a couple years ago, Canada’s Antispam Law (CASL) forced marketers everywhere to revise their approach to building mailing lists, as marketers everywhere discovered that, if they captured any  Canadians in their lists, they had to clearly indicate the intended use of the data and provide people with a clear opt-in for the list, not an opt-out.  And failure to comply with these standards could lead to legal action and fines.

Now publishers and marketers around the world are gearing up for Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which compels a similar rethink about the way that data about people is collected, including cookie data. And, similar to CASL, living outside of Europe is not a shield against the regulation. It’s effect and the truly sizeable financial penalties that can be levied against those who violate the regulation can be applied to anyone anywhere if the capture data about Europeans.

Finally, we discuss research from Pew that underlines the relentless erosion of television news consumption, that is leaving it as a medium consumed by older, less educated, less wealthy Americans. No wonder I see so many drug ads on CNN! And this trend leaves PR people scrambling to reach audiences in the new online places they habituate.

The post Inside PR 494: Finding Time for Creativity, GDPR and Pew Research appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

This week’s conversation was sparked by a comment from  Monica Miller, who wonders  how the flow of sponsored content and content originated by companies and published by communicators affects media credibility. This leads us to a discussion of the limits to sponsored content, new models for journalism and the possibility that local journalism may be linked to a more traditional blue collar model than it is to the television-fueled celebrity salaries of recent years.

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Artificial intelligence was a hot topic amoung communicators in 2017 and it’s something to continue watching and exploring in 2018. Clearly, it will have an impact on the nature of the work we perform. It will destroy many existing jobs, especially those involving repetitive, data-based tasks. But, for those who are lucky and prepared to innovate, it also holds the promise to create new opportunities.

The post Is 2018 the year that AI will transform my job? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

On this week’s episode of the the Inside PR podcast, Martin Waxman interviews Fatima Zaidi about the chatbot a couple of Toronto-based firms created for TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival. This led to a partnership with TIFF. Smart marketing for the firms involved. A good way to explore the leading edge of the communications practice. And something that more firms should try.

The post To Bot Or Not To Bot appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley discuss two topics on this week’s Inside PR podcast:

The post When Sorry Doesn’t Cut It appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Three friends, three communications professionals talking about issues of importance to us. The responsibility of the big platforms, Facebook and Google.  Their begrudging appearance before Congress, an appearance that makes that case that government has levers that, just by their existence, keeps the big players in check. If Congress had not persisted, we never would have gotten the real picture about what was going on with Facebook, Google and Russian interference in the US election.

Facebook and Google are media companies. Publishers that makes judgements through the algorithms they deploy just as surely as humans do. Have they become too dominant, too focused on their own commercial interest, to realize the original dream of people connecting with one another in a meaningful, positive way?

The may not be a remarkable discussion. But that doesn’t make it unimportant.

The post That may not be remarkable, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.