'Blogger Relations' -- or More Spin?

A PR firm called Issue Dynamics is setting up a "blogger relations" unit.

Issue Dynamics has done some excellent work over the years. But it also recently made news -- though not enough -- for one of the ways it works on behalf of at least some clients. As eWeek reported in February, a subsidiary of the firm issued a report denouncing municipal wireless installations without making clear that big telecom firms, which vehemently oppose municipal wireless systems, are among the firm's chief funders. (See also Glenn Fleishman's "sock puppets" piece about this.)

I'm not suggesting that the mass media have done a very good job in recognizing and exposing this kind of thing, but the opportunity for partisans (corporate and/or political) to launder opinions through unsuspecting folks is huge and, I fear, growing. Bloggers and their readers should be on their toes.

One of the imperatives in the emerging citizen journalism sphere will be to ferret out and tell readers about these techniques, in a systematic and lasting way. I have some ideas on how this might be done -- and I'm not alone; see, for example, the excellent SourceWatch (formerly Disinfopedia) wiki, which is steadily compiling -- with the help of a wider community -- some information people need to know.

Maybe Issue Dynamics will behave in an entirely honorable way when dealing with bloggers. Or maybe not. Either way, readers need to know who's behind the opinions, so they can make better judgments about what -- and whom -- they can trust.

Comments

[Ken Deutsch]

Thanks for recognizing our new Blogger Relations practice.

I could not agree more that "readers need to know who's behind the opinions, so they can make better judgments about what -- and whom -- they can trust." The work that IDI does - online and off - is to bring together people who agree on policy issues to create win-win solutions. Doing this work often involves finding where private interests and specific public interests groups agree. Unfortunately, conspiracy theorists assume that anytime two interests align that someone must be being paid off. The idea that we "launder opinions through unsuspecting folks" is baseless. IDI is a consulting firm. We work for clients. Everyone we work with or pitch to knows that.

Finally, the reason there is so much buzz about what and who we do is that we lay it all out on our web site. People who claim to "expose" our work, get their information from public information that we make available.

[craig]

Ken,
That only works if the article that's being presented links back to your website and the reason for the link, (say that the link will show who paid for the article.) is clearly stated in the article. That's proper disclosure. Anything else is lying and cheating.

If you're unclear on this point, then read the first chapter of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The negative impact of not disclosing relevant information where it's needed is clearly spelled out there.

[Anna]

"The negative impact of not disclosing relevant information where it's needed is clearly spelled out there"

quote?

[craig]

Anna,
No. Not a quote. Just a lame attempt at humor. In the book, the Vorgons (I think that's the name) are about to destroy earth because it's in the path of an interstellar freeway bypass. (Or something like that.) The citizens of earth are informed that the plans for this bypass have been on file for many years and if they had wanted to find out, the plans were located in a sub-basement in a locked file cabinet in a building on some distant planet. (Or something like that.)

Since no one had objected in all this time, the project went forward and the earth was destroyed.

In the case of this book, the negative impact is the destruction of earth because the relevant information was out there, but unavailable.

It's a hilarious book. I recommend it. They're finally making a movie out of it.

[Dan Gillmor]

Folks, you're witnessing a real-time (if mini) case study of ID's new practice. The fact that Ken Deutsch responded so quickly here is testament to that.

[Seth Finkelstein]

PR folks have been organizing the use of blogs as a conduit to journalists, for a while now. Take a look at this PR Newsletter article:

http://bjohnson.typepad.com/context_continuity/prn0322.comp.pdf

"Blogs Becoming a Growing Bazaar for PR"