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Does ‘No Such Thing As Bad Publicity’ Apply To Psychologists?

March 26, 2012 By 2 Comments
2012-03-17-therapy-on-tv

The ethical questions surrounding psychologists who appear in the mass media are emotionally-loaded and subject to much debate.  But we also have to realize that there really is no such thing as just 'mass' media anymore in the traditional sense of uni-directional broadcast one-to-many media.  The information flows are much more fluid and networked which has had a profound effect on society as a whole and individual behaviors, beliefs and expectations.  It's impossible to isolate broadcast media within the broad spectrum of media channels, including Internet and social technologies, because the boundaries are coming down.  New channels have web pages and stories show up on Twitter.  Blogs and social media can fuel news channels as well. Whatever the media channel, bad publicity is pretty clearly bad for all professionals, but no publicity or presence can be bad, too, when people use the Internet to check the legitimacy of services and information and can’t find you. Here are … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Psychology Tagged With: , , , , ,

Communicating the Value of a College Education

January 13, 2012 By 5 Comments
Conversation

The following are the notes from my presentation as part of a panel on “Communicating in the New Normal” at the College Board 2012 Colloquium held in Newport Beach, CA January 7-9.  I was part of very august company: moderator Phillip Ballinger, Assistant Vice President for Enrollment and Director of Undergraduate Admissions at University of Washington at University of Washington, Marie Groark, Executive Director of the Get Schooled Foundation, and Millree Williams, Executive Director for Public Affairs Strategy at the University of Maryland. The New Normal: The Changing Communications Landscape The need to explore new models was the emerging theme of the Colloquium.   I’d like to take us up to 20,000 feet for a minute and talk about the new model of communications and the media landscape that is the new normal. How many of you use Facebook personally? Compare this 30% to this number: 96% of your target audience, people aged 18 to 35, is on social networks.  The … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Emerging Technologies, Psychology, Social Media & Networks Tagged With: , ,

Should Teachers and Students Be Facebook Friends?

June 24, 2011 By 1 Comment
Prohibiting teachers from Facebook is like putting your head in the sand

Ask most students if they are Facebook friends with their teachers and they will tell you, “it depends on the teacher.”  That alone should tell us that a blanket policy prohibiting teachers from interacting on social networks with students is the functional equivalent of burying your head in the sand. As social networks become a normal means of connection, it’s time to step back and examine the underlying purposes that the social networking tools facilitate.   Facebook currently has everyone’s attention but it’s not because the relationships on it are unique relative to other types of social media.  It’s because it is so in-your-face.  Facebook, much to Mark Zuckerberg’s delight I’m sure, has become synonymous with social media, like Kleenex is for tissues.  In the past week alone, I’ve been asked if Facebook means we have to give up our privacy, be friends with people we don’t want to be friends with, and whether or not it’s okay to connect with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Psychology, Social Media & Networks Tagged With: , ,

Six Weiner Lessons for Using Social Media

June 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Anthony Weiner and the Twitter Faux Pas

Politicians may have personalities predisposed to risk-taking behaviors.  The same is often true with CEOs and Rock Stars.  These kinds of occupations attract competitiveness, narcissism, and the need for power along with talent, tenacity, resilience, and the willingness to take risks.  A bigger problem however is when success turns into Celebrity Syndrome, especially in the age of social media.  The only cure is a serious reality check. In Celebrity Syndrome, the people who achieve success or notoriety lose the ability to see themselves as 'regular' folks, subject to the same social norms and laws of gravity as the rest of us. The problem with getting cured is that reality checks at the top are hard to come by. When you have status and power, your world is full of fans, sycophants, power-seekers, and people on your payroll who reflect back the image that you want to see.  It's pretty hard to get real information--even if you actually wanted it-which most … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture & Society, Social Media & Networks Tagged With: , , ,
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