Massaging the medium: “messaging” in the social media age

“Under a free enterprise system commercial propaganda by every and any means is absolutely indispensable. But the indispensable is not necessarily the desirable. What is demonstrably good in the sphere of economics may be far from good for men and women as voters or even as human beings.” ~Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited, 1958

As my latest renunciation of global warming deniers (and media that facilitate their message) hit the blogosphere, a conference in Vancouver—Communicating to the Public and Employees in the Age of Social Media—gave me the chance to stick my nose into the debate in real-time, as presenters and attendees tweeted their 140-character talking points and responses.

Via the hashtag #socmedBC, I was able to engage people like Christopher Barger, “Director of Social Media” for General Motors, who believes you can win over your most ardent critics using social media.

Allan Seckel, deputy minister to our own Premier Gordon Campbell, has embraced the powerful new communication tools (though he doesn’t himself have a Twitter or Facebook account) and told his audience not to be afraid of risk, advice his boss has evidently adopted with gusto.

The Vancouver Sun’s Managing Editor, Kirk LaPointe, was there. Five years ago, listening to him on CBC Radio, I noted his suspicion that the press might be “covering too much, uncovering too little.” On Monday, he reportedly mused that “newspapers don’t print the truth, they pursue the truth.”

GM’s Barger was the only speaker to respond to my tweets, agreeing it’s the communicators job “to make sure the content is not bogus,” regardless of medium.

Does this mean his company is moving beyond retired GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz’s message that global warming is a “total crock of shit,” are they ready to rethink the whole idea of car-centric culture, or are they just rebranding in the age of social media?

The communication revolution will have arrived when the message focusses on the rescue of truth, not resuscitation of the obsolete.

Tagged as: blogging, chris barger, ecology, economics, global warming, kirk lapointe, public relations, social media, vancouver, vancouver sun