Media Bullseye

Spam stories interest me because I don't get as up in arms about spam in general the way so many do. Is spam annoying, intrusive, and sometimes downright offensive? Absolutely. Is there much we will ever be able to do to put a stop to it? Probably not. So can't we just try to get along while we work on it?

Jen looks at PR issues caused by not paying attention to the words used--always take care to examine how things sound to your audiences. She also takes a look at Bill Sledzik's observations about the overwhelming numbers of women in PR.

This week, Jen asks how much of a public presence is considered enough for those adopting Web 2.0 hiring tactics. She also examines the exploits of a group determined to eradicate typos--will they succeed?

Vanity Fair shoots a revealing photo of teen star Miley Cyrus, and the media loses its mind. Am I the only one who thinks this entire scandal and the ensuing media circus was completely coordinated by a PR machine? Whether it was the publication, photographer, Disney or Miley herself, everything about this story seems calculated. Was this reaction truly not anticipated?

First up: Wikipedia’s obstinate march to uselessness For at least one very large community, Wikipedia is losing its relevance—the e-patient community. For anyone who has received a recent diagnosis, don’t bother using Wikipedia to find out anything more than rudimentary...

Spike Lee has signed on to "direct" a film project consisting of footage taken from users cell phones. Lee is calling the project the "democratization of film". In reality, the Nokia-produced film is an attempt at using user-generated content to create a long-form advertisement while fostering a community based on brand loyalty.

Occasionally, the "big stories" that get everyone talking have nothing to do with the communications business, and everything to do with personalities; gossip, really. Instead of discussing an interesting case study or the latest hot new web application, we end up, as Eric Eggertson aptly pointed out this week, "navel gazing." Is this sort of activity helpful to the cause of social media evangelists?

If you think the media is slow to understand the dramatic changes taking place in their own industry, you may not be surprised to know that Congress is even more in the dark. Recent reports suggest that some politicians would seek to handcuff the American media at a crucial juncture in the industry's history.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been under fire lately in the French press for, of all things, hiring an advisor to monitor the blogosphere. Mark Story wonders what the French are up in arms about, wouldn't you want to know the president was paying attention?

The New Yorker, itself a print publication, thinks that print journalism is on its way out. I'm thinking we all ought to take a deep breath and stop obsessing over it. The Death of the Newspaper is a bit premature, and likely will not even occur in our lifetimes.