Greatest Challenge Facing Online Media
Professor Larry Parnell at George Washington University invited me as a guest lecturer this week before his graduate class on communications, and I was struck by this profound question from a student. She asked what I thought is the greatest challenge facing online media today.
Here’s my answer – when you look across blogs, social media, and the whole explosion of online media, the greatest challenge is earning, building and sustaining credibility. Online media today is not, in my opinion, consistently credible. In fact, the scales too often tip toward a lack of trust.
One significant factor at the root of credibility is truth and accuracy. When blogs post rumors; when harmful accusations are posted on Twitter; when people post self-serving propaganda on Wikipedia; and when phony profiles are intentionally posted on social media sites like Facebook, credibility to the whole of online media is damaged. It’s like duck bites – each one hurts a little, but ultimately takes out a big chunk.
We all own a piece of the responsibility to do better.
[Thanks to Brian Solis and JESS3 for use of their graphic, The Conversation]
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Category: Featured, Reputation management, Social Media
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You’re 100 percent correct about the personal and organizational morality involved in using online media. You have to be more diligent than ever with the ethics of what you say and do (and with what other say and do) online. I would add another challenge — people’s limited time and attention. A lot of active users are opting to use fewer and fewer applications in order to bring some order and sanity back into their lives. Burn-out is a natural consequence of unlimited channels of communication. Who will the winners be as more and more users become selective — Twitter, You Tube, Dave Henderson? Who will the losers be — Facebook, LinkedIn, me? Stay tuned. In the meantime, point me to a digital rehab center. Because of online media most of us have added many hours to our work weeks, which pre-Web already meant 10 to 12 hour days. Over the weekend I found myself online for 18 hours and with good reason. Is that nuts or what?
Don,
I’d say you need intervention … big time! (I’m right behind you)
David
The comments from Don I think hit the nail on the head. It’s juggling so many balls that some get neglected. On top of that it’s not even just staying consistent, it’s staying on the direction of new trends. With the exponential rate of change it’s difficult to be an expert on every new trend/software/site/method or whatever.