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11-minute videocassette containing a minibiography with commen

tary tailored to their concerns.

Commenting on the use of videos, Tom Edmonds, a political consul

tant, reiterated the advantage of direct marketing: “You can bypass the

mass media and target only the people you want to reach.”

He says

that for about $2 a cassette, he can send his clients’ customized mes

sages to thousands of demographically desirable television screens,

thereby avoiding the need to buy expensive commercial time on a

station or cable system.

The Internet

The Internet has become an essential part of public affairs campaigns. It

and other modern online systems (e.g., e-mail, forums, bulletin boards,

and newsgroups) allow persons and organizations to communicate

their messages directly to their intended audiences without filtering or

distortion by reporters, editors, producers, or hosts.

Online services,

such as America Online, allow a sender to select audiences on the basis of

topics of common interest, such as the environment or animal rights.

An estimated 10,000 bulletin boards existed in 1996.

The Web is a medium that works best when information is available

for those who go looking for it, using the pull model of communica-

tions, says Shel Holtz, author of Public Relations on the Net.

A company

can take advantage of user initiative by dedicating a site, or a clear sec-

tion of a company home page, to an issue of special importance. When

several companies share a view on an issue, a consortium can build a

single website, such as the Camisea website on oil exploration in the Pe-

ruvian rainforest.

Trade associations can likewise centralize positions

shared by the majority of their members. Holtz suggests that readers be

invited to submit their thoughts in response to a website, but a com-

pany should then be ready to respond to each. websites can help support

grassroots lobbying efforts. A company’s intranet can reach employees,

as Caterpillar did in spring of 2000 to convince Congress to grant China

permanent normal trade relations.

Among the converts to online systems are some members of Con

gress. In The Hill on the Net, Chris Casey tells how they have learned to

post material to the Net and thereby “bypass traditional media and en

hance their ability to deliver material directly to constituents.”

Fur

thermore, says Casey, “reading the speeches and other statements of a

member of Congress will tell you much more than you would get from

the sound bite coverage (if any at all) that print or broadcast media gives

to these types of events.”

Burson-Marsteller’s research has identified e-fluentials among

Internet users—a powerful group of online users who steer current cul

tural and consumer trends.

This emerging class of online elites partici

pate in chat rooms, use e-mail frequently, utilize message boards and

forward selected information to others. E-fluentials also yield clout

212 I CHAPTER 8

offline as well as online: 77% vote, 55% sign petitions, 48% e-mail gov

ernment agencies, 47% e-mail congressmen or senators, and 40% serve

on committees of local organizations. Companies, as well as communi

ties and special interest groups can tap the power of e-fluentials and en

list their support. Users of online services insist that messages are brief,

simply stated, and contain essential information, because they have

limited time, either because of restrictions or because they are billed for

the time used. They want to browse rapidly and will reject a message

that wastes their time.

E-Mail. The clearest way to reach people directly, without mass

media interference, is through e-mail. When the audience is one individ

ual, this new channel simply imitates personal correspondence. Special

conventions, called netiquette should, however, be observed in using

e-mail. As recommended by Nadine Udall Fischer of NADIA, The Profes

sional Speaking Company (Lawrenceville, NJ):

1. Use e-mail for urgent, time-sensitive matters.

2. Be brief, action-oriented, and direct. Make your point within 30

seconds of the reader’s time.

3. Be sensitive. Avoid hiding behind e-mail to say something you

would not want to say face-to-face. Write in upper- and lowercase

letters because writing in all caps is the e-mail equivalent of holler-

ing. Avoid slam-o-grams—negative, curt e-mail messages.

The ability to send an e-mail message to a list of people, instead of

just a single recipient, differentiates e-mail from personal correspon-

dence and enhances e-mail’s capability to bypass the mass media.

When using such mass-distributed e-mail messages, several common

elements should be included: the name of the individual or institution

that sent the message, date, listing of the contents in the same order in

which the items appear, information on how to contact the author of

the message, and how to unsubscribe from the mailing list.

Companies are neglecting the opportunity to respond to people who

send e-mail to them. According to the consulting firm Customer Re

spect.com, 37% of the 100 largest corporations who were sent e-mail

didn’t respond at all, even with an automated form letter. Only after 3

or more days did an additional 22% answer. “It was as if they were say

ing ‘Don’t communicate with us. Ever.’” In grading companies on the

speed and quality of responses, researchers who posed as customers

found several companies most responsive: Freddie Mac, Costco Whole

sale, DuPont, Allstate, Lowe’s, Verizon Communications, Intel, Sears

Roebuck, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM. Among the least responsive was

Pepsi, appearing in 97th place. Said a Pepsi spokeswoman—and, hope

fully, others on the least responsive list—“We are making changes as

we speak.”

BYPASSING THE NEWS MEDIA I 213

Discussion Groups and Blogs. The Internet allows users to get on

line with “communities” of like-minded people on specialized topics

through forums, bulletin boards, and newsgroups. Listserv and elec

tronic mailing lists are available that enable someone to subscribe to dis

cussions covering a wide variety of topics.

“More than 53 million

American adults have used the Internet to publish their thoughts, re

spond to others, post pictures, share files and otherwise contribute to

the explosion of content available on line,” according to a report from

the Pew Internet & American Life project.

It also reports that some

where between 2% and 7% of American Internet users have created blogs

and about 11% of Internet users are blog readers.

Blogs, or Web logs, are becoming a public affairs tool of choice for

associations and corporations to influence public policy, says Ken

Deutsch, executive vice president of Issue Dynamics.

He outlines four

techniques used by bloggers to allow people to process a growing

amount of content:

1. Develop an audience and become the place to go on an issue with

the most up-to-date information. Do this by sifting through all of

the Internet’s content and providing high-quality and usually

short postings for a very specifically segmented audience.

2. Benefit from the ranking system of returns on Google, currently

the dominant online search engine, which ranks sites and key

words based on how many other Internet sites link to them. Make

an effort, therefore to link to other sites and promote other sites

through content reference within each blog entry.

3. Use the community-building approach by allowing site visitors to

become participants.

4. Get your message heard by using “rich rite summary” or “really

simple syndication,” which are akin to a news feed.

Companies can take advantage of discussion groups to reach partici

pating individuals, including e-fluentials. If a company wants to submit

information or views on discussion group sites, however, it must make

sure the message conforms to the interests of the site. In some cases a

“moderator” may serve as an intermediary. Certain Internet norms

must be observed. Blatant advertising and self-promotion must be as

siduously avoided, and messages must be of clear benefit to recipients.

Home websites. A major growth industry in public relations has

been the establishment of home pages by companies and others. These

company-sponsored sites make messages available to the public. The

messages typically contain product information, press releases, com

pany backgrounders, fact sheets, financial statements, and reviews of

issues. Unlike a newspaper or television station that is routinely “pro

cessed” by readers and viewers, a company home page requires moti

214 I CHAPTER 8

vated audience members intent on “seeking” information. This is called

the pull model of communication—that receivers go to those sites that

they think contain the information they want when they need it. In

other words, the sender must depend on audience initiative because a

proactive information-seeking effort is required by the user to locate a

site and utilize it. A certain amount of random navigating of the

Internet is done by some computer users, but this audience is irrelevant.

The use of company home pages was explored by Yi-Chun Regine Liu in

a master’s thesis, as described in Box 8.3.

Push Technology. Theoretically push technology—in contrast to

pull technology“—enables organizations with home pages to “broad

BYPASSING THE NEWS MEDIA I 215

Box 8.3 Study of Some Corporate Websites

Yi-Chun Regine Liu examined the use of home pages in the top 10

companies in four industries—chemicals, airlines, commercial banks,

and health care—to determine whether and how they used home

pages. Even as early as 1996, when the research was conducted, 35

of the 40 companies carried home pages: all 10 airlines and all 9

banks (reduced to 9 because Chase Manhattan and Chemical Bank

merged); 8 chemical and 7 health care companies. Home pages typi-

cally display a company logo and slogan; for example, DuPont’s

“Better things for better living,” bears this explanation: “We’re a sci-

ence and technology based global company of people who make

products that make a difference in everyday life.”

Liu found that almost all of the information in these company

home pages, such as annual reports and employee publications, du-

plicated material already existing in other media. But home pages had

certain advantages. Aside from potentially reaching new audiences,

two features of home pages make them a potentially powerful me-

dium, says Liu. One is their multimedia capability—the ability to use

audio and video materials, such as brief speeches by CEOs and pic

tures of products and services (thus imitating colorful high-quality

magazines and reports). Another is their capability to provide audience

interaction. “Visitors” can select the specific information sought, en

hance it, and give feedback. For example, airlines provide interactive

schedules that allow someone immediately interested in a certain des

tination to receive the departure and arrival schedule; some airlines go

a step further by accepting online reservations.

The Internet has the further advantage of creating a one-on-one re

lationship between an organization and a person. As stated by Brian

Johnson of Alexander Communications, an Atlanta-based public rela

tions agency. “The Internet is about interactivity, a dialogue, and pub

lic relations is about interactivity, the give and take of ideas, ideals,

and information. On the Internet, listening is as important as talking.”

cast” messages to audiences without requiring their initiative. Instead

of relying on Web users to “pull” news and ads from a variety of sites by

browsing and searching, push technology places material on users’ PC

screens to receive their attention.

However, as Shel Holtz points out,

such push technology cannot be relied on to get a message to a targeted

audience. It is the user who configures the tool to receive only material

in categories that are of interest.

The user specifies generic channels

such as news, companies, industries, and sports, or branded channels

from news organizations like The New York Times or CNN. Topics can

then be chosen within these channels, but customization does not ex

tend to refined levels.

These push technologies were pioneered in 1996 by two California

firms: PointCast of Cupertino, and BackWeb Technologies of San Jose.

PointCast software goes out to the Internet and retrieves the kinds of

stories demanded. PointCast presents stories to the user in headline form

via a screen saver, and BackWeb does so in the form of Info-Flashes—

“little graphics that pop out of the edge of your screen or march along its

borders in whatever program you’re using.”

By clicking a headline,

the user displays the text. What is considered a complaint by a reviewer

of this software is to the advantage of an organization. Walter S.

Mossberg frets that “a significant proportion of the stuff in the generic

channels isn’t independently written news but one-sided company press

releases.”

Spamming Endangers the Internet. Spamming has become the

number one scourge of the Internet and threatens to undermine its

value. Worldwide, 10.4 million spam e-mails are sent every minute.

AOL says that every day it tags as spam and blocks 80% of the e-mail

reaching it.

Spam accounts for 50% of all electronic mail in the United

States

and costs U.S. businesses $10 billion annually in lost productiv-

ity and additional equipment and software.

Spamming is defined as “an inappropriate attempt to use a mailing

list, or Usenet or other networked communications facility as if it was a

broadcast medium (which it is not) by sending the same message to a

large number of people who didn’t ask for it.”

Efforts are underway to

control spamming through antispam technology and legislation. One

of the most popular technologies is the so-called white list, which ac

cepts mail only from a list of approved contacts. EarthLink, the third

largest Internet service provider, has been building such a system. Users

are installing antispam software, the use of which is expected to reach

$653 million in 2003. The “unfettered, open and chaotic” nature of the

Internet is being replaced by an orderly and closed system. Mailing from

work, friends, and e-tailers will be filed into separate mailboxes.

After much debate in Congress, a sweeping antispam bill was

passed, Can-Spam of 2003, which was signed by President Bush on De

cember 10 and took effect January 1, 2004. The debate centered

around marketers’ First Amendment rights of commercial speech ver

216 I CHAPTER 8

sus people’s privacy rights. As the Supreme Court said in 1951 in re

sponse to solicitors of magazine subscriptions, the First Amendment

didn’t give companies free rein to invade “the living rights of others to

privacy and repose.”

Because 79.1% of spam messages are claimed to

originate in North America, the European Union is asking for stronger

measures, such as an “opt-in” system rather than the new law’s

“opt-out” provision. The powerful Direct Marketing Association has

opposed a blanket opt-in rule and instead wants harsher penalties for

the worst offenders.

Use of Web Pages During a Crisis.

The characteristics of speed

and availability make the Internet an ideal tool for a company to pro

vide the media and others with information about a crisis. In today’s

24/7 environment, word of a crisis is quickly broadcast by the news

media, even as the crisis unfolds and before details are available. To ob

tain balanced treatment from the media, a company can offer three

types of websites: the company site; a special site dedicated to the cri-

sis; and the sites of supporters, advocates, and allies.

The Internet can

also take a company’s message directly to stakeholders, such as ven-

dors,franchisees,customers,andemployees.Thus,anewroleforpub-

lic relations practitioners is that of content provider, a role that

eliminates the “filter.” The Internet’s multimedia capability makes

possible the exciting prospect of broadcasting visual images directly to

a company’s stakeholders. Box 8.4 describes how Odwalla effectively

used a dedicated website when its apple juice was implicated in several

casesofE.colipoisoning.

CONCLUSIONS

When customers dislike a product, they find a substitute. The same is

true for corporations that have depended on the mass media to dissemi

nate their messages. When trust in the news media is low, companies

may bypass them entirely or supplement the media’s version with their

own through various forms of direct communication with their audi

ences. Trust has been undermined as evidence mounts that the media are

failing in their mission of objective and fair reporting. Charges abound

of a liberal media bias and commercial values that favor sensationalism

and entertainment over journalistic values. Fortunately for business,

alternatives to the traditional news media are growing—in the form of

alternative media, private communication channels, direct marketing

channels, and the Internet.

ENDNOTES

1. “Strategy ’92 & Beyond …,” pr reporter, Vol. 35, March 2, 1992, pp. 1–2.

BYPASSING THE NEWS MEDIA I 217

218

Box 8.4 Odwalla’s Tainted Apple Juice Crisis

Late in the evening of October 30, 1996, health officials in Washing

ton State notified the San Francisco juice maker Odwalla that its com

pany’s apple juice was implicated in several cases of E. coli poisoning.

Sixty-one people eventually became sick and 1 child, a 16-month-old

girl, died from the same type of bug that had contaminated Jack-in-

the-Box hamburgers in 1993.

Within 20 minutes after receiving the news of contamination from

state officials, Odwalla held a press conference to announce a recall

of all products containing unpasteurized apple juice, which amounted

to about 70% of its product line. It also shut down its production facil

ity and carefully analyzed every point in the process.

During the recall, Edelman Public Relations Worldwide worked with

Odwalla. Although the company did not have a corporate or promo-

tional website, Edelman set up a crisis-related site within 72 hours.

Edelman uses its domain name (www.enw.com) as a way to create a

subdomain to host a client’s site when crisis strikes.

Odwalla’s site became an important part of the company’s re-

sponse. The website address in news releases led many reporters to

refer to the site for updated information. Within 48 hours of its estab-

lishment, the site generated 19,000 hits. Odwalla had a chance to tell

its story after the immediate crisis passed.

A feature of Odwalla’s site appreciated by reporters was that it of-

fered links to two government agencies most closely involved with the

recall: the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention.

Odwalla’s swift action and communication are the likely reason an

independent survey conducted by America Online found 96% of the

respondents said they approved of the way the crisis was handled and

86% said they would continue to buy its products. The company sur

vived, but its stock price, which was $28.70 a share before the crisis,

is only slowly recovering from a 52-week low of $9.25 a share.

Based on its Odwalla experience, Edelman has prepared a “Crisis

Preparation & Response” (CPR) product that “enables rapid, real-time

Internet response” as well as updating and worldwide access. Within

an hour, CPR can place an immediate text response online. In 12

hours it can add third-party influence statements, graphic sophistica

tion, and digitized video footage, including interview segments a pro

gram such as 60 Minutes might have left out (provided the company

prepared its own film).

2. “In the News: Prepared Testimony of Dr. Jay Black Before the Senate Commit

tee on the Judiciary,” Federal News Service, December 19, 1996.

3. “The State of the News Media 2004,” Pew Research Center for People & the

Press. www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/narrative_overview_conclusions

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. From Roper Center, Public Opinion Online. Also see Rita Beamish, “Voters Rate

the Coverage by News Media as Mediocre,” Los Angeles Times, November 27,

1994, p. A-19; Reginald Stuart, “A Year of Sizzle Boosts Audiences, Arms Our

Critics; Sensationalism in Journalism to Erode Public Confidence in Media,”

Quill, Vol. 82, November 1994, p. 56.

8. Steve Berg, “Gingrich Joins Chorus of Media Critics,” Star Tribune, January

18, 1995, p. 6A.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. James Fallows, Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American De

mocracy (New York: Pantheon, 1996), p. 3.

12. Peter Vanderwicken, “Why the News Is Not the Truth,” Harvard Business Re-

view, Vol. 73, May–June 1995, pp. 144–152.

13. Bruce Nussbaum, “The Myth of the Liberal Media,” BusinessWeek, November

11, 1996, p. 34. The poll, however, is criticized for including only 139 Wash-

ington journalists.

14. Robert J. Barro, “The Liberal Media: It’s No Myth,” BusinessWeek, June 14,

2004, p. 28

15. S. Robert Lichter, Stanley Rothman, and Linda S. Lichter, The Media Elite:

America’s New Powerbrokers (Bethesda, Md: Adler & Adler, 1986).

16. Ibid., p. 294.

17. Ibid., pp. 20–23.

18. Ibid., p. 86.

19. Ibid., pp. 294–295.

20. Nussbaum, op. cit., p. 35.

21. Lichter, Rothman and Lichter, op. cit., p. 150.

22. “Watchdog Watch,” American Journalism Review, Vol. 5 , April 1993, pp.

32–34.

23. Lichter, Rothman, and Lichter, op. cit., pp. 294–295.

24. New York Times, March 20, 2001, pp. C1, C6.

25. Gary C. Woodward, Perspectives on American Political Media (Boston: Allyn &

Bacon, 1997), p. 46. Also see p. 48.

26. Ibid., p. 49.

27. Jane Hall, “ABC Pulls Story on Misdeeds in Congress,” Los Angeles Times, May

17, 1997, p. A15.

28. John R. Wilke, “FTC Asks Media to Reject False Ads,” Wall Street Journal, No

vember 20, 2002, p. A3.

29. Jacqueline Sharkey, “The Diana Aftermath,” American Journalism Review,

Vol. 19, November, 1997, p. 22.

30. “Even Media Pros Now Question Validity of Current ‘News’; Another Reason

to Go Under-the-Radar Directly to Publics,” pr reporter, Vol. 37, March 21,

1994, p. 1.

31. Michael Elliott, “Blunt Arrows Miss the Mark,” Guardian, April 8, 1996, p. T16.

32. Ed Siegel, “The Tabloid Approach Takes Hold; News Analysis,” Boston Globe,

December 23, 1993, p. 1.

BYPASSING THE NEWS MEDIA I 219

33. “Television Newsmagazine Shows Called Trash—Yet Rate Highest; Watch for

Local Television Reporting to Turn Uglier,” pr reporter, Vol. 36, August 23,

1993, p. 3.

34. Lisa Bannon, “In Special Section, Los Angeles Times Raps Executives’ Role in

‘Tangled Tale,’” Wall Street Journal, December 21, 1999, p. B10.

35. Ibid.

36. Larry King, with Mark Stencel, On the Line: The New Road to the White House

(New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993), p. 6.

37. Ibid., p. 60.

38. Ibid.

39. Ibid., p. 160.

40. Ibid., p. 16.

41. Ibid., p. 36.

42. Ibid., p. 161.

43. Ibid., p. 32.

44. Ibid., p. 155. He cites the Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 102nd Session,

1992 (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1993), p. 6-A.

45. “Natural Communications Methods Work Best; Some Examples,” pr reporter,

Vol. 38, June 26, 1995, p. 2.

46. “One More Reason for Going Around the Media to Publics,” pr reporter, Vol.

38, June 5, 1995, pp. 2–3.

47. Ibid.

48. Bill Vlasic, Douglas Harbrecht, and Mary Beth Regan, “The GOP Way Is the

Amway Way,” BusinessWeek, August 12, 1996, pp. 28–29.

49. “Database PR: Opinion Leader List Overpowers Media List,” pr reporter, Vol.

36, February 1, 1993, p. 1.

50. Ibid.

51. Ibid.

52. “Database Marketing Could Be Threat to PR, or an Ally,” pr reporter, Vol. 36,

January 18, 1993, p. 1.

53. R. Kenneth Godwin, One Billion Dollars of Influence (Chatham, N.J.: Chatham

House, 1988), p. 1.

54. Eileen Gannon, “Solving Environmental Problems With Information Tech-

nology,” The CPSR Newsletter, Vol. 13, Summer 1995, pp. 9–10.

55. Sally Goll Beatty, “Philip Morris Starts Lifestyle Magazine,” Wall Street Jour

nal, September 16, 1996, p. B1.

56. Andy Meisler, “From Your Mailbox to Your VCR: More Ads,” New York Times,

October 16, 1994, p. E6.

57. Ibid.

58. For an excellent review of the subject see Daniel S. Janal, “Public Relations:

Influencing Editors and Your Target Market,” in Online Marketing Handbook

(New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1955), pp. 287–333.

59. John V. Pavlik, New Media Technology: Cultural and Commercial Perspectives

(Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1996), p. 170.

60. Shel Holtz, Public Relations on the Net, 2nd edition (New York: AMACOM,

2002).

61. Ibid., p. 345.

62. Ibid., p. 225.

63. Chris Casey, The Hill on the Net: Congress Enters the Information Age (Boston:

AP Professional, 1996), p. 84.

64. Ibid.

65. See www.efluentials.com.

220 I CHAPTER 8

66. “What’s Proper & What’s Not in the Use of E-Mail? Channels (monthly

newsletter published by PR Publishing Co., Exeter, N.H.), p. 7.

67. Holtz, op. cit., p. 125.

68. “1-Way Patrol: E-Mail: Signed, Sealed, Deleted,” BusinessWeek, November

11, 2002, p. 14.

69. Casey, op. cit., pp. 77–78.

70. “44 Percent of American Internet Users Have Contributed Their Thoughts,

Digital Content to Online World,” Ascribe Newswire, February 26, 2004.

71. Ken Deutsch, “Blogging Bids to Become the New Tool of Choice for Influenc

ing Public Policy,” Impact, May 2004, p. 1.

72. Ibid., pp. 1–3.

73. Walter S. Mossberg, “Personal Technology: ‘Push’ Technology Sometimes

Pushes News You Can’t Use,” Wall Street Journal, March 27, 1997, p. B1.

74. Holtz, op. cit., p. 123.

75. Ibid. PointCast has been replaced by Entrypoint, owned by Launchpad Tech

nologies. This service displays information in an on-screen toolbar that en

ables users to link to shopping, financial, and news sites of their own choice.

Laurie J. Flynn, “Compressed Data; ‘Push Technology’ Returns in a Form

That Is More Polite,” New York Times, March 13, 2000, p. C4.

76. Ibid.

77. Stephen Baker, “The Taming of the Internet,” BusinessWeek, December 15,

2003, pp. 78–81.

78. Stephen Baker, “From Open Doors to Gated Communities,” BusinessWeek,

September 8, 2003, p. 36.

79. Mentioned in a professional paper by Marinos Papadopoulos, who refer-

ences the Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org). An early infa-

mous case is the “green card lawyer” who, in April 1994, sent an

advertisement to more than 5,500 Usenet newsgroups without any regard

for the groups’ topic of discussion. The sender was consequently vilified

across the Internet. The lawyers violated the rule, or netiquette, that mes-

sages should only be posted to newsgroups appropriate to the subject of the

message. Casey, op. cit., p. 57.

80. Ibid., p. 55.

81. Baker, “The Taming of the Internet,” op. cit.

82. Lorraine Woellert, “Commentary: Will the Right to Pester Hold Up?”

BusinessWeek, November 10, 2003, p. 73.

83. Brandon Mitchener, “Europe Blames Weaker U.S. Law for Spam Surge,”

Wall Street Journal, February 3, 2004, p. B1.

84. The crisis story is based on a press kit by Edelman Public Relations World

wide and the following: “Take Control,” PR’s Magazine of Reputation Man

agement, November–December 1997, pp. 48–50; Richard Rapaport, “PR

Finds a Cool New Tool,” Forbes ASAP, October 6, 1997, pp. 101–108.

85. Suggested by Holtz, op. cit., p. 336.

BYPASSING THE NEWS MEDIA I 221