Ethics and Accountability in the New Media Environment

In May, I had the pleasure of participating in the IABC Newfoundland & Labrador 20/20 Visionary Communications conference. Jo-Anne Polak of Hill & Knowlton, while presenting her thoughts about contemporary crisis communication, made a comment that I haven’t stopped thinking about since her presentation. Jo-Anne pointed out that after September 11th, journalists have had to become more competitive and aggressive because media sources have exploded in number, and technology has provided immediate electronic delivery.

Hattori, Todd. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Risk Communication>Multimedia

Practicing Professional Communication Principles by Creating Public Service Announcements    

A primary goal of most introductory business and technical communication courses is to introduce students to the idea that the professional communication most of them will engage in is different from the writing they do for academic purposes. This overall idea covers several principles concerning professional writing. First, in an academic essay, a student may tell all he or she knows about a topic to an expert reader (the instructor); in professional writing situations, however, writers are most likely sharing only a small part of the information they know with nonexpert readers. Second, when writing in professional situations, writers must actively envision audiences different from themselves, audiences that will have different concerns and purposes than the writers do. Finally, the audience, purpose, and medium of a professional communication situation drive the choices a writer will make. If students are to understand these principles, discussing them in class is insufficient; students must also practice them. Implementing active learning that applies these principles authentically can be challenging. The makeup of many business and technical communication courses means that not all students share expertise in a given field that they can draw on for common assignments. Hypothetical assignments may not give students a deep sense of context, and students may continue to perceive the instructor as the real audience for such assignments.

Frederick, Terri. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Multimedia

Using New Media to Tame a Crisis

New media have drastically altered the way we communicate, particularly during a crisis. With the blogosphere, Web 2.0, Second Life and social media sites like Flickr, Twitter, Blogger, Facebook and MySpace, it seems that a new way to spread information crops up on a daily basis. Since crises can originate or be perpetuated online, communicators must incorporate social media into their existing media monitoring efforts.

Griffin, Chip. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Multimedia>Crisis Communication

Set Design for Online Corporate Video

In this article, I’ll discuss four design-related areas: how to create a simple set for in-house use; how to choose the best background for location shoots like case studies and testimonials; current trends in set design for internet-only media sites; how to dress your subjects for optimum compression. The importance of many of the set design principles discussed in this chapter relate to your distribution data rate. If the bitrate of the video you’re delivering is very high, say in the 400Kbps range for 320x240 video or 650Kbps or higher for 640x480, you have a lot more flexibility, since the compressed quality of your video will remain quite high. Once you sink below these rates, quality degrades. Choosing a poor background or set will only make the problem worse.

Ozer, Jan. Event DV (2008). Articles>Multimedia>Video>Business Communication

Producing Corporate Web Videos

Website videos are a natural for event videographers. We use them to demonstrate our work to prospective clients, and they have proven to be a vital marketing medium to showcase our range of products. We might even post short video testimonials from happy clients or put our own talking heads on our sites.

Sweetow, Stu. Event DV (2008). Articles>Multimedia>Video>Business Communication