Although this class was supposed to show us both the up and down sides of social media, I think we all have to admit that we’ve seen a lot more of the up than the down. It’s only natural for us, well for me, to focus on how change and innovation is going to make my life better, easier, and more organized. It is all too natural to gloss over those things that perhaps make an innovation or change hard to swallow. After yesterday, I am seeing beneath the glossy veneer of social media. After reading my blog for this week, you may too…
I have found the down side of social media, and it’s not what anyone may think it is. The down side of social media is how quickly bad news spreads from person to person, across states and over the ocean. It spreads more quickly via social media than it can from one human being connecting with another.
Yesterday (Monday, November 16), a woman left work to go home for lunch. As she warmed up leftovers in the microwave, she logged onto Facebook to post a message to her three grown sons’ pages, something she typically does on Mondays. On her youngest son’s page, she sees hundreds of messages that read, “RIP Ryan,” “I’m glad you were preparing to do something you love,” “Much love from all your boys,” etc.
As she grabs for the kitchen counter, her mind reeling I’m sure, the doorbell rings and she hears a key in the lock. It is her middle son Brady, who walks in. He has come to tell his mom in person that Ryan is dead. You see, Ryan was cleaning his gun at his house in Bismarck sometime on Sunday or early Monday (we’re not sure exactly what time yet) when it went off and he shot himself in the head. When he didn’t show up to go hunting with his buddies on Monday morning, they went to his apartment and found him. Not wanting to tell his mom this horrible news over the telephone, Brady jumped in the car and drove the five hours to his mother’s house to tell her in person. However, he was too late; Facebook had already broken the news to her.
Who is Ryan? A boy I went to high school with…
I cannot possibly imagine learning of such a life shattering event in this way. It is horrible enough that something like this happened; it is truly unspeakable to think of finding out in such a cold, impersonal way. My first thought was anger toward those people that posted on Ryan’s page. How could they be so callous? Why couldn’t they have waited? But of course the rational side of me quickly takes over. How could they not post those nice messages to someone that was a friend to everybody? How would they have known that Ryan’s mom hadn’t been told yet, and that she habitually posted to his page every Monday? They couldn’t have; they were just expressing sympathy and memories in the way most readily available to them.
The long and short of my blog is that no one posted to his blog as a way to hurt his mom and his family, but they did. They posted to show how much they loved him and how much they will miss him, and their posts will mean that to his family later on. It’s just that right now, Facebook probably isn’t at the top of their list of friends, but it will be, when they’re ready…
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Happy Birthday Sesame Street!
Through this class we have all been exposed to many new and exciting things. Beyond this exposure we have had the opportunity to explore these new things, research their past, discuss their present, and speculate on their future. As I think back about the comments I’ve made throughout this course, I realize that all my posts that address the future of social media tools all sound the same.
In each post, I say that the tool will probably be around for another two or three years, at which time it will be replaced by something better, something more technologically advanced. Some of my classmates agreed with me, saying that is only a matter of time before things like Facebook go the way of the mimeograph.
With the thought that all things slowly die or are replaced before their death by something better swimming in my head, I was amazed by what I saw on MSN today. Did you know that Sesame Street turned 40 today (11/10/09)?! I remember watching Sesame Street when I was a little kid; Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers were the best!
So tell me, how does something like Sesame Street survive for 40 years? What is it about that program that made it capable of withstanding years of changes? Could it have something to do with Caroll Spinney, who has been playing Big Bird since the beginning? Is it because parents who watched Sesame Street let their children watch it because they know it’s age-appropriate? Or perhaps it is the long laundry list of celebrities that have had a cameo on Sesame Street (First Lady Michelle Obama is one). Or maybe it is the simple fact that nothing and nobody can ever replace the quality television baby-sitter / pre-school teacher that many parents rely on Sesame Street for.
If you ask the crew members, the show’s success has to be at least partly attributed to the fact that they stay with the times. The show has discussed birth, death, marriage, shootings, natural disasters, 9/11, and now the H1N1 flu. Perhaps this is what keeps people coming back…
Whatever the case, Sesame Street is indeed 40 years old and 122 Emmys strong, and it doesn’t sound like the crew has any plans of stopping. Although this season started with episode number 4187, there are many adventures left for the characters that live, work and play on Sesame Street.
Perhaps social media creators need to use Sesame Street as a case study to learn how their tools can stand the test of time while retaining a very large, very visible presence. In this new age, it would appear that Sesame Street doesn’t just offer lessons to pre-school children anymore!
I want to know: who is your favorite Sesame Street character and why? Mine is Cookie Monster because I feel like we’re kindred spirits; both fighting our addiction, and more often than not losing, to cookies!
In each post, I say that the tool will probably be around for another two or three years, at which time it will be replaced by something better, something more technologically advanced. Some of my classmates agreed with me, saying that is only a matter of time before things like Facebook go the way of the mimeograph.
With the thought that all things slowly die or are replaced before their death by something better swimming in my head, I was amazed by what I saw on MSN today. Did you know that Sesame Street turned 40 today (11/10/09)?! I remember watching Sesame Street when I was a little kid; Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers were the best!
So tell me, how does something like Sesame Street survive for 40 years? What is it about that program that made it capable of withstanding years of changes? Could it have something to do with Caroll Spinney, who has been playing Big Bird since the beginning? Is it because parents who watched Sesame Street let their children watch it because they know it’s age-appropriate? Or perhaps it is the long laundry list of celebrities that have had a cameo on Sesame Street (First Lady Michelle Obama is one). Or maybe it is the simple fact that nothing and nobody can ever replace the quality television baby-sitter / pre-school teacher that many parents rely on Sesame Street for.
If you ask the crew members, the show’s success has to be at least partly attributed to the fact that they stay with the times. The show has discussed birth, death, marriage, shootings, natural disasters, 9/11, and now the H1N1 flu. Perhaps this is what keeps people coming back…
Whatever the case, Sesame Street is indeed 40 years old and 122 Emmys strong, and it doesn’t sound like the crew has any plans of stopping. Although this season started with episode number 4187, there are many adventures left for the characters that live, work and play on Sesame Street.
Perhaps social media creators need to use Sesame Street as a case study to learn how their tools can stand the test of time while retaining a very large, very visible presence. In this new age, it would appear that Sesame Street doesn’t just offer lessons to pre-school children anymore!
I want to know: who is your favorite Sesame Street character and why? Mine is Cookie Monster because I feel like we’re kindred spirits; both fighting our addiction, and more often than not losing, to cookies!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Counterfeits are NOT the Answer to our Economy!
Last Thursday night was an ordinary evening. I met two girlfriends for drinks at the Green Mill, we talked, we laughed, we ate fattening foods, and we came home. Wait; there was one more thing that we did that night: we picked up our counterfeit merchandise from the UPS warehouse and shared secret smiles about the amount of money we had just saved.
Did anyone else think that my last paragraph was a little strange to announce so nonchalantly? To be honest, that is the way I thought about our counterfeit purchases until about 30 minutes ago when I opened the MSN homepage. That is when I learned that over 750,000 jobs and billions of dollars are lost to counterfeiting each year in the United States. Check out the "Spot the Fake" quiz!
I hadn’t realized that the fake Coach and Burberry purses that I ordered from China twice a year were putting people out of work. I thought I was being a wise consumer and saving myself some money during hard economic times. Okay, maybe that’s a bit over the top, but I really didn’t think my purchases were negatively impacting our economy in such a huge way.
On the flip side, the Chinese economy has benefitted a thousand fold from the increased demand for counterfeit products. China is where almost 85% of counterfeit goods come from and where nearly 35 million people are employed by manufacturers of counterfeit goods. Manufacturers of fake goods have been able to provide jobs to people that used to work for companies that manufactured the real version of the products they’re now copying.
Counterfeit does not just apply to purses anymore. Shoes, watches, jewelry, electronics, even medicines and other health products are available in the fake variety, often at a deeply discounted rate. The fact that companies are offering fake medicines and other health products are deeply concerning to me, and I can see why counterfeiting is more and more in the public spotlight.
Fake medicines are something that have the potential to kill you. It’s not like a fake purse that looks nice without costing you an arm and a leg. Real medicines are not something to be messed with, so I cannot imagine who thought throwing fake medicines in the mix would be a good idea.
The United States FDA estimates that over 10% of the global medicines market is comprised of counterfeit medicines. Up to 25% of the medicines used in poor or third-world countries are counterfeit. This puts the earnings of counterfeit medicine manufacturers over $32 billion a year!
As so many of the articles that I found about this topic said, we really need to address this problem with the consumers. The only reason the manufacturers are still making fake products is because the consumers are demanding them, in ever-increasing quantities. If we can educate the consumers about the harm these fake products are causing, perhaps we can strike at the manufacturers that way. If we can couch the argument in terms of the dollars we will save in the long run by buying real, perhaps that will tip the scales slightly. I know it’s just a small step in the big scheme of things, but the purses I picked up last Thursday will be my last designer bags, both fake or real!
What are your thoughts on counterfeit products, both accessories and medicines? Do you think we’ll be able to curb the spending on the fake and bring those billions of dollars back into our suffering economy?
Did anyone else think that my last paragraph was a little strange to announce so nonchalantly? To be honest, that is the way I thought about our counterfeit purchases until about 30 minutes ago when I opened the MSN homepage. That is when I learned that over 750,000 jobs and billions of dollars are lost to counterfeiting each year in the United States. Check out the "Spot the Fake" quiz!
I hadn’t realized that the fake Coach and Burberry purses that I ordered from China twice a year were putting people out of work. I thought I was being a wise consumer and saving myself some money during hard economic times. Okay, maybe that’s a bit over the top, but I really didn’t think my purchases were negatively impacting our economy in such a huge way.
On the flip side, the Chinese economy has benefitted a thousand fold from the increased demand for counterfeit products. China is where almost 85% of counterfeit goods come from and where nearly 35 million people are employed by manufacturers of counterfeit goods. Manufacturers of fake goods have been able to provide jobs to people that used to work for companies that manufactured the real version of the products they’re now copying.
Counterfeit does not just apply to purses anymore. Shoes, watches, jewelry, electronics, even medicines and other health products are available in the fake variety, often at a deeply discounted rate. The fact that companies are offering fake medicines and other health products are deeply concerning to me, and I can see why counterfeiting is more and more in the public spotlight.
Fake medicines are something that have the potential to kill you. It’s not like a fake purse that looks nice without costing you an arm and a leg. Real medicines are not something to be messed with, so I cannot imagine who thought throwing fake medicines in the mix would be a good idea.
The United States FDA estimates that over 10% of the global medicines market is comprised of counterfeit medicines. Up to 25% of the medicines used in poor or third-world countries are counterfeit. This puts the earnings of counterfeit medicine manufacturers over $32 billion a year!
As so many of the articles that I found about this topic said, we really need to address this problem with the consumers. The only reason the manufacturers are still making fake products is because the consumers are demanding them, in ever-increasing quantities. If we can educate the consumers about the harm these fake products are causing, perhaps we can strike at the manufacturers that way. If we can couch the argument in terms of the dollars we will save in the long run by buying real, perhaps that will tip the scales slightly. I know it’s just a small step in the big scheme of things, but the purses I picked up last Thursday will be my last designer bags, both fake or real!
What are your thoughts on counterfeit products, both accessories and medicines? Do you think we’ll be able to curb the spending on the fake and bring those billions of dollars back into our suffering economy?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Women Have Value!!
To all the guys in this class that may decide to read my blog for this week, I would like to apologize in advance. I am taking some time to talk about “women issues” this week, so if you feel like being enlightened, please, read on!
Today I had the pleasure of eating lunch with over 400 women from Cass and Clay Counties. No, that is not a typo; I actually did eat lunch at the Ramada Plaza & Suites with over 400 women. We were all there for the Women’s Leadership Council (a division of United Way) Luncheon. This was the ninth annual luncheon that the WLC has done, and by far the largest turnout they have ever had.
I arrived shortly before the opening speaker grabbed the microphone, so I ended up at one of the side tables near the back. From there I was able to observe those hundreds of women interacting with one another, sharing stories, laughter, groans of frustration, and squeals of excitement. The energy in the room was so palpable that I couldn’t help but feel energized and ready to take on whatever challenge the keynote speaker would give us.
The keynote this year was Victoria Rowell, better known to some of us as Drucilla from the daytime soap The Young and the Restless. Her challenge to all the women in the room was to give of ourselves, whether that be through volunteering, giving a financial gift, being a foster parent (she was a foster child and credits much of her success to her foster mother and the system), or any other way that you can help another human being.
Too often I think women undervalue or devalue the power of what they are capable of doing for the people in their lives. I know that I am sometimes guilty of thinking that the little that I could do wouldn’t be enough to make a difference, so I just don’t do anything. Listening to Victoria Rowell today helped me realize that the little things are sometimes the most important. Your gift of yourself doesn’t have to come in a $10,000 package, it can just be you in a pair of faded jeans, ready to volunteer your time and your enthusiasm to make someone’s life better.
After I got back to the office this afternoon, I typed the phrase “do women value themselves” into my search engine. One of the links that popped up was for a woman that does life coaching for other women. This really struck me because I cannot imagine a man receiving life coaching from another individual, regardless of sex.
Why is it that women have to be coached to believe that their life has value? Why isn’t our value self-evident to us in all of the small and large things we do for our employers, our families, and our friends every day? I made a pledged to myself today to start placing more of a value on the things that I do for all the people in my life. No, I’m not going to start charging people for things, but I am going to take the time to pat myself on the back more often for what I do to make life easier for the people around me.
I encourage all of my female classmates to really think about the good things that you are capable of doing for those in your inner circle and those within your community. Take a page from Sarah Palin’s book and take a risk. Stand up for something that you truly believe in; give a project your all because you know it will make a difference; and just believe in yourself and your value!
I know my post didn’t really address any current events, but it was something I was compelled to write. Thank you to anyone that read my post, and thank you in advance for the great things that I know you will go out and do, both in the near future and throughout your lifetimes!
Today I had the pleasure of eating lunch with over 400 women from Cass and Clay Counties. No, that is not a typo; I actually did eat lunch at the Ramada Plaza & Suites with over 400 women. We were all there for the Women’s Leadership Council (a division of United Way) Luncheon. This was the ninth annual luncheon that the WLC has done, and by far the largest turnout they have ever had.
I arrived shortly before the opening speaker grabbed the microphone, so I ended up at one of the side tables near the back. From there I was able to observe those hundreds of women interacting with one another, sharing stories, laughter, groans of frustration, and squeals of excitement. The energy in the room was so palpable that I couldn’t help but feel energized and ready to take on whatever challenge the keynote speaker would give us.
The keynote this year was Victoria Rowell, better known to some of us as Drucilla from the daytime soap The Young and the Restless. Her challenge to all the women in the room was to give of ourselves, whether that be through volunteering, giving a financial gift, being a foster parent (she was a foster child and credits much of her success to her foster mother and the system), or any other way that you can help another human being.
Too often I think women undervalue or devalue the power of what they are capable of doing for the people in their lives. I know that I am sometimes guilty of thinking that the little that I could do wouldn’t be enough to make a difference, so I just don’t do anything. Listening to Victoria Rowell today helped me realize that the little things are sometimes the most important. Your gift of yourself doesn’t have to come in a $10,000 package, it can just be you in a pair of faded jeans, ready to volunteer your time and your enthusiasm to make someone’s life better.
After I got back to the office this afternoon, I typed the phrase “do women value themselves” into my search engine. One of the links that popped up was for a woman that does life coaching for other women. This really struck me because I cannot imagine a man receiving life coaching from another individual, regardless of sex.
Why is it that women have to be coached to believe that their life has value? Why isn’t our value self-evident to us in all of the small and large things we do for our employers, our families, and our friends every day? I made a pledged to myself today to start placing more of a value on the things that I do for all the people in my life. No, I’m not going to start charging people for things, but I am going to take the time to pat myself on the back more often for what I do to make life easier for the people around me.
I encourage all of my female classmates to really think about the good things that you are capable of doing for those in your inner circle and those within your community. Take a page from Sarah Palin’s book and take a risk. Stand up for something that you truly believe in; give a project your all because you know it will make a difference; and just believe in yourself and your value!
I know my post didn’t really address any current events, but it was something I was compelled to write. Thank you to anyone that read my post, and thank you in advance for the great things that I know you will go out and do, both in the near future and throughout your lifetimes!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Trash or News? The Line Gets Blurrier Every Day!
As I sat down to peruse the online newspapers for fodder for my week nine blog, I realized that my head was not in the right place to be working on homework. There were hundreds of different snippets racing through my head, and not one of them (okay maybe just one or two) had to do with homework.
This past Sunday my sister came to stay with me because Monday was fall break at Jamestown College. She is currently lying on the couch across from me with a mask covering her mouth and nose. You see, I didn’t think she looked well on Sunday so I took her to the walk-clinic. We found out she has pneumonia!
The last couple of weeks at work have been sheer hell. Everyone has decided that my assistance is their one true desire, and projects have been heaped upon my desk and just today upon the floor of my office.
I am the district’s United Way campaign chairperson and I realized that last year at this time we were finishing up with our yearly campaign. This year I haven’t even written my first letter to our staff!
As I look around my house I see laundry that needs to be done and surfaces that need to be dusted, vacuumed, or swept. In a nutshell, I have a lot of stuff going on, and I’m sure a lot of you guys do too!
Now that I’ve laid that groundwork, I would like to discuss an article that was the front page of MSN today. This article is about Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California who lost her title because of a failure to fulfill her commitments, a violation of her contract. Prejean was also in the news when she responded to a question about same sex marriage by stating that she believed marriage should be between a man and a woman.
Now, Prejean is back in America’s spotlight. She is being sued by the competition director for the money they spent on her breast implants! Is there anything to say here besides “wow!”? I personally couldn’t of anything for a few minutes. After the shock wore off, though, I came up with a couple of things…
First, I cannot believe that MSN is wasting their time talking about this. It is reminiscent of some of the trash that the Fargo Forum prints because they have nothing better to talk about. I would love for someone to point out to me where it became a rule that trash was better than no news at all.
Second, the pageant’s lawyers brought the Bible into their lawsuit, quoting the Gospel of John. I don’t care how many people say that religion is everywhere and belongs everywhere; this is one place where the Bible does not belong: in a lawsuit about money for breast implants!
Now that I have wasted five minutes of everyone else’s day with this ridiculousness, I am going to go see a man about a vacuum!
This past Sunday my sister came to stay with me because Monday was fall break at Jamestown College. She is currently lying on the couch across from me with a mask covering her mouth and nose. You see, I didn’t think she looked well on Sunday so I took her to the walk-clinic. We found out she has pneumonia!
The last couple of weeks at work have been sheer hell. Everyone has decided that my assistance is their one true desire, and projects have been heaped upon my desk and just today upon the floor of my office.
I am the district’s United Way campaign chairperson and I realized that last year at this time we were finishing up with our yearly campaign. This year I haven’t even written my first letter to our staff!
As I look around my house I see laundry that needs to be done and surfaces that need to be dusted, vacuumed, or swept. In a nutshell, I have a lot of stuff going on, and I’m sure a lot of you guys do too!
Now that I’ve laid that groundwork, I would like to discuss an article that was the front page of MSN today. This article is about Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California who lost her title because of a failure to fulfill her commitments, a violation of her contract. Prejean was also in the news when she responded to a question about same sex marriage by stating that she believed marriage should be between a man and a woman.
Now, Prejean is back in America’s spotlight. She is being sued by the competition director for the money they spent on her breast implants! Is there anything to say here besides “wow!”? I personally couldn’t of anything for a few minutes. After the shock wore off, though, I came up with a couple of things…
First, I cannot believe that MSN is wasting their time talking about this. It is reminiscent of some of the trash that the Fargo Forum prints because they have nothing better to talk about. I would love for someone to point out to me where it became a rule that trash was better than no news at all.
Second, the pageant’s lawyers brought the Bible into their lawsuit, quoting the Gospel of John. I don’t care how many people say that religion is everywhere and belongs everywhere; this is one place where the Bible does not belong: in a lawsuit about money for breast implants!
Now that I have wasted five minutes of everyone else’s day with this ridiculousness, I am going to go see a man about a vacuum!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
PR -- Through the Good Times & the Bad
The first time I read the name Najla Amundson, it was on the agenda for my 35 Under 35 Women’s Leadership Group. She had been chosen to speak to our group about working with the media. As the Media Relations Director for NDSU, I figured she probably knew a thing or two about working with the media.
I was excited to meet Najla and pick her brain about best practices and must-have policies. Obviously, I was not disappointed. As a former journalist, Najla offered great insight into the mind of the reporter, as well as practical tips for forming a relationship with a reporter. The only letdown I had came after that meeting when I started looking for her on television or in the paper and never saw her face or name.
But now, Najla’s name has blown back into the local media with the force of a tidal wave. NDSU and President Joseph Chapman have been in the newspaper for the last couple of months for various issues, the majority of which have involved money and the fiscal responsibility associated with managing that money. All of those issues culminated today in what has become the fastest spreading news in the metro area in a long time.
As one of the “Daily Updates” on the Fargo Forum website today, President Chapman’s resignation was announced. Chapman attributed his sudden decision to recent controversies that have made it difficult for him to provide NDSU with the leadership he feels it deserves. To say that the last couple of months have been rocky for Chapman is an understatement.
First, the house NDSU is building for him went over budget by $900,000. Then, it was revealed that Chapman’s wife Gale received a salary of $50,000 per year to serve on the Foundation’s Board. In today’s paper, NDSU Development Foundation documents showed that President Chapman spent $22,000 to go to the Presidential inauguration in January with his family.
Najla’s role in these articles appears to be as the defender of the President’s actions. While she was not interviewed for the stories about the house, she was quoted in both the article about Gale Chapman’s salary and the inaugural trip.
In the article about Mrs. Chapman’s salary from the Development Foundation, Najla discusses the over 2,000 events that Mrs. Chapman attended last year as a representative of NDSU. If you think that each of those events was on average 2 hours long, that means that she worked 4,000 hours for $50,000. The average worker puts in right around 2,100 hours each year for an average salary of perhaps $30,000.
In the article about the trip, she effectively justified the two major expenditures that the newspaper wanted to pick apart. The Chapmans would have taken the NDSU plane, but it needed maintenance and a part had not arrived in time for them to utilize the plane. With an event like the inauguration, hotels place restrictions on the number of nights a reservation must be, and the amount of money their clerks must receive for a room. Thus, the majority of their expenditures for this trip were simply unavoidable.
These two brief examples should prove to any doubters left in this class how valuable a communications department or a media relations specialist is to an organization. When the sh*t hits the fan, it is so very useful to have that person or department whose expertise lies in dealing with the media.
I was excited to meet Najla and pick her brain about best practices and must-have policies. Obviously, I was not disappointed. As a former journalist, Najla offered great insight into the mind of the reporter, as well as practical tips for forming a relationship with a reporter. The only letdown I had came after that meeting when I started looking for her on television or in the paper and never saw her face or name.
But now, Najla’s name has blown back into the local media with the force of a tidal wave. NDSU and President Joseph Chapman have been in the newspaper for the last couple of months for various issues, the majority of which have involved money and the fiscal responsibility associated with managing that money. All of those issues culminated today in what has become the fastest spreading news in the metro area in a long time.
As one of the “Daily Updates” on the Fargo Forum website today, President Chapman’s resignation was announced. Chapman attributed his sudden decision to recent controversies that have made it difficult for him to provide NDSU with the leadership he feels it deserves. To say that the last couple of months have been rocky for Chapman is an understatement.
First, the house NDSU is building for him went over budget by $900,000. Then, it was revealed that Chapman’s wife Gale received a salary of $50,000 per year to serve on the Foundation’s Board. In today’s paper, NDSU Development Foundation documents showed that President Chapman spent $22,000 to go to the Presidential inauguration in January with his family.
Najla’s role in these articles appears to be as the defender of the President’s actions. While she was not interviewed for the stories about the house, she was quoted in both the article about Gale Chapman’s salary and the inaugural trip.
In the article about Mrs. Chapman’s salary from the Development Foundation, Najla discusses the over 2,000 events that Mrs. Chapman attended last year as a representative of NDSU. If you think that each of those events was on average 2 hours long, that means that she worked 4,000 hours for $50,000. The average worker puts in right around 2,100 hours each year for an average salary of perhaps $30,000.
In the article about the trip, she effectively justified the two major expenditures that the newspaper wanted to pick apart. The Chapmans would have taken the NDSU plane, but it needed maintenance and a part had not arrived in time for them to utilize the plane. With an event like the inauguration, hotels place restrictions on the number of nights a reservation must be, and the amount of money their clerks must receive for a room. Thus, the majority of their expenditures for this trip were simply unavoidable.
These two brief examples should prove to any doubters left in this class how valuable a communications department or a media relations specialist is to an organization. When the sh*t hits the fan, it is so very useful to have that person or department whose expertise lies in dealing with the media.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
H1N1 & the Misinformation Age
As we all know, the spread of H1N1 is currently making its way across the states of North Dakota and Minnesota. With any hot-button issue, we all know the amount of misinformation that is reported and the bad decisions that are made in the heat of the moment exponentially increase. This pandemic is no exception.
This morning I attended a meeting held by Fargo Cass Public Health for local health care officials, school leaders, and employee service centers. In the two hours that we met, almost 45 minutes was spent dispelling rumors and setting the record straight. My notebook is filled with scratched out notes and new notes scribbled into the margins to replace the “bad” information.
Tonight on the news, an announcement was made that Fort Yates, a reservation school that straddles the North and South Dakota borders, has closed for the remainder of the week due to high absentee rates. However, this decision is not one that has been recommended by local, state, or national agencies. In fact, it goes against the current recommendation that states that schools should stay open as long as possible even with confirmed cases of H1N1.
The meeting this morning and the announcement from Fort Yates makes me wonder when public health officials are going to start being more proactive and visible about recommendations and expectations of all organizations as the pandemic intensifies.
Perhaps a Twitter account, like the one VCSU had during the flood, would be a good way to communicate the ever-changing information to everyone that needs to know. A blog or podcast would also be a great step to take. However, those may be more time consuming to update, and with the daily change of information, this may not be a feasible option.
Something we talked about during our morning meeting was having the state open a telephone hotline where all calls, no matter where they originated, would be transferred for information about H1N1. This could help alleviate the amount of misinformation that the metro area is currently dealing with.
If dealing with a pandemic isn’t stressful enough, it has become impossible to trust any of the information you hear from people or sources you typically trust. Unless I see it on the FCPH or the CDC website, I have started to doubt everything I’ve heard.
One little tidbit to leave you with...get in to get your seasonal flu shot as soon as you can; don’t wait until the H1N1 vaccine is available. Who knows when there will be enough of the vaccine to give to us “common folk?” Remember, they have to vaccinate the high risk groups first!!
This morning I attended a meeting held by Fargo Cass Public Health for local health care officials, school leaders, and employee service centers. In the two hours that we met, almost 45 minutes was spent dispelling rumors and setting the record straight. My notebook is filled with scratched out notes and new notes scribbled into the margins to replace the “bad” information.
Tonight on the news, an announcement was made that Fort Yates, a reservation school that straddles the North and South Dakota borders, has closed for the remainder of the week due to high absentee rates. However, this decision is not one that has been recommended by local, state, or national agencies. In fact, it goes against the current recommendation that states that schools should stay open as long as possible even with confirmed cases of H1N1.
The meeting this morning and the announcement from Fort Yates makes me wonder when public health officials are going to start being more proactive and visible about recommendations and expectations of all organizations as the pandemic intensifies.
Perhaps a Twitter account, like the one VCSU had during the flood, would be a good way to communicate the ever-changing information to everyone that needs to know. A blog or podcast would also be a great step to take. However, those may be more time consuming to update, and with the daily change of information, this may not be a feasible option.
Something we talked about during our morning meeting was having the state open a telephone hotline where all calls, no matter where they originated, would be transferred for information about H1N1. This could help alleviate the amount of misinformation that the metro area is currently dealing with.
If dealing with a pandemic isn’t stressful enough, it has become impossible to trust any of the information you hear from people or sources you typically trust. Unless I see it on the FCPH or the CDC website, I have started to doubt everything I’ve heard.
One little tidbit to leave you with...get in to get your seasonal flu shot as soon as you can; don’t wait until the H1N1 vaccine is available. Who knows when there will be enough of the vaccine to give to us “common folk?” Remember, they have to vaccinate the high risk groups first!!
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