The other day a particularly nasty newspaper article caught my eye.
As part of the torture process, the police of the Middle East country anally raped a man using a wooden pole. Using a mobile, videoed the torture and humiliation of the innocent man. Sorry about the graphic description.
To intimidate his family, the police then sent the video to the mobile phones of the man’s family and friends. Disgusting, horrific, brutal, but unfortunately torture and intimidation are part of the culture of some countries, including the good guys.
The police concerned denied their brutality until it appeared on My Space, an internet site. My Space is a website where anyone can place messages, photos, and videos, quickly and simply. My Space is a place frequented by millions of internet users.
The police media unit tried to deny the allegations of torture, but had not counted on the police video reaching the world, particularly main stream media.
The message here is that with the World Wide Web, ordinary citizens can easily get their messages out to counter act ‘spin’ doctors. Now some of those citizens can be vexatious, as was the case in three aged care facilities in last year.
In one case the vexatious claims were made by a disgruntled employee and two residents who convinced a popular nightly TV program to air their ‘grievances’. A website was also used by an ethnic organisation to spread the allegations, which were without foundation.
The World Wide Web is also Citizen Journalists, people who aren’t formally trained as journalists, but have instant access through the Web to millions of potential readers, listeners and viewers. They may report allegations without checking their sources’ motives and integrity.
For example, a number of leading American companies have suffered at the hands citizen journalists who have made un-informed claims that have damaged their business. In some cases the companies did deserve ‘outing’ for poor services and faulty products; however, others did not deserve the treatment they received.
And then there are internet Blogs, short for Web logs. A blog is a place on the website where you can log onto and write what you think, and what you believe you have seen or what a friend told you.
Reporters from the media regularly monitor certain websites to pick up leads for a story,
So the message is that trying to spin a crisis is not possible as the facts and claims will be found out.
Before the World Wide Web, you could spin a story for a month or two, before the truth, or a version of the truth, surfaced in the media. Today, the chance of spin being ‘un-spun’ is far greater and will be done in record time, sometimes in hours not days or months.
One of the steps to counter spin, whether true, partly true or false, is to use the communication keys for tough situations:
The keys are
- Regret,
- Responsibility,
- Remedial Action and
- Resonance
To learn how to use these keys check out Making Media Magic under the Communication Skills tag.
Next Friday,February 19 Publicity Magic.
Christian Peterson
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