Light Rays on Saturdays: Obama v Romney... Study Their Time At Harvard Grad Schools

After all the histrionics, debates and fabricated hoo-hah, the match-up for the presidency in 2012 will be precisely what everyone has expected all along: President Barack Obama versus Mitt Romney. If you want to truly understand the nature of these two men, study the one thing they have in common: Harvard University graduate schools. These New York Times’ features – one from January 2007 exploring Obama’s time at Harvard Law and the other from December 2011 assessing Romney at Harvard Business – provide tremendous insights into the personalities and characters of the candidates.

By now, you have had your fill of the “look back,” “look ahead,” “best of,” “top 10” and “what to watch for” stories that inundate us at the end and start of every year, in every medium and media. There’s no evidence that many people pay attention to the vast majority of these stories. It’s breezy filler designed to fill space between ads and give editors and reporters well-deserved time off during the holidays. That’s why it was nice to see Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank review the accuracy of his predictions for 2011. The annual churn of year-end content would be significantly more interesting if all media held themselves publicly accountable in such fashion.

You’ll hear a lot about the Iowa presidential caucuses this coming week. Political junkies swear the caucuses are important – as a winnowing exercise, as a springboard to voting primaries in other states, as a place for candidates to drop resume bombs on each other, and as a test of retail political skills. Yet the winner in Iowa is seldom their party’s nominee. For a different perspective on the importance of Iowa, read these pieces published in the past week in The Washington Post and The New York Times. Each offers important context about the state that will dominate political news this week.

As we head into a new year, I want to thank everyone for reading Bending Light. Somehow, it manages to get about 150 to 200 page views per post, and I’m very grateful to know that you're out there. By far, the two most popular posts since Bending Light launched two months ago have been on Jerry Sandusky’s decision to interview with Bob Costas and the five things reporters and PR people have in common. The “Light Rays” compilations on Saturdays also seem pretty well-read. Thanks again for making Bending Light a choice in your online buffet. 

I wish Happy New Year to you all! See you in 2012.

Daily Detente: Five Things The Media And Public Relations Have In Common

When was the last time you saw a front page story in the Washington Post (or any other top tier media outlet) in which press secretaries and spokespeople complained about the tactics, attitude and/or work habits of the reporters they deal with every day?

Just about as often as Newt Gingrich admits mistakes, I would imagine – as in, never.

Another Day At The Office For Jay Carney

No, you won’t often see national stories casting reporters in a negative light. But at least on an annual basis, you will see stories like the December 22 Post piece about White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and his staff, headlined, “Journalists complain the White House press office has become overly combative.”

It was a classic inside-baseball, warning shot across Carney’s bow – a lump of coal as he headed into what will probably be his last holiday break before the 2012 campaign makes life a round-the-clock nightmare. Given that Carney and his staff manage the flow of information to and from thousands of reporters around the world each day, it’s amusing when the complaints of “some reporters” trigger 1,400 words that can be summed up as:  A few of us don’t like the tone by which we are being held accountable for the stories we are producing.

Why This Blog Is Called 'Bending Light'

In the past few weeks, many readers have asked why this blog is called "Bending Light." Looking back at the readership data, I realized that only a handful of people saw the very first post. So, to answer the question (and to buy some time for holiday shopping), here's a reprint from October 24...

What light shows us (or what the absence of light hides from us) is not the present; it is the past.

When you see the sun, you are seeing it as it was eight minutes ago.  Moonlight isn’t really moonlight; it’s actually sunlight reflecting the moon as it was two seconds ago. When you marvel at the night sky, your mind is processing an image that no longer exists at the source. What you see is a scatter of light that began travelling toward your eyes anywhere from thousands to millions of years ago.

Distance is not the only distorting influence; the stuff through which light passes also alters what you see.  This is called refraction, and it magnifies objects under water; creates rainbows; makes it appear as if stars twinkle. The sky is blue because of the way gas molecules in our atmosphere interact with light from the sun.

Optics (the study of light) is an excellent analogy for communications. It follows many of the same principles. Successful strategic communications – communications that moves people toward a specific goal – relies on three core ingredients:

Three Key Next Steps For Massachusetts's Newest Industry: Legalized Gambling

Massachusetts launched a new industry yesterday – the biggest start-up in the Commonwealth’s history – and while most start-ups don’t need intensive strategic communications until later in their evolution, reputation management will be critical to the success of this new venture from day one.

The new industry is legalized gambling, a multi-billion-dollar enterprise that many believe will eventually take its place among Massachusetts’ traditional economic engines – tech, life sciences, healthcare, higher education, financial services, etc. In this business model, the state is the chief executive officer and chief ethics officer; every taxpayer is a shareholder; and, every community is a stakeholder, directly or indirectly, for better or worse.  

As a quasi-public enterprise overseeing privately run subsidiaries, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) will act as a hybrid board of directors and regulator, responsible for fulfilling the promises of the business but also acting as the eyes and ears of the citizens. The communications challenges it faces are immense and serious.

Here are three important steps for a successful launch of this new venture in the first quarter of 2012:

Light Rays on Saturdays: Occupy, FOX News and Content Creation

The Occupy movement never seemed very strategic, as discussed here previously.  Correcting economic unfairness is an admirable goal, but how exactly does squatting on public land suggest a solution?  Occupy’s lone success (thus far) was to generate a national discussion in October and early November among virtually every opinion leader and editorialist in the nation. Beyond that, a lot of people were left camping out, waiting for orders that never came. It will be interesting to see if the “movement” can define and push a specific action plan in time for the 2012 elections.

What’s left to say about FOX News? Today’s New York Times adds to the legend, discussing in detail the channel’s behavior around the Iowa caucuses. Here’s what people need to understand: Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes have built a network that doesn’t bother compete for viewers like others do. FOX owns its audience’s hearts and minds. It engages them on an emotional, sociological and/or ideological basis. FOX’s brand loyalty comes from being an utterly consistent reaffirmation of “the truth” for millions of people who feel the world is out of control. They don’t see their values reflected elsewhere, so they turn to FOX News for succor. You don't have to like it; just don't ignore it.

There’s no shame in putting “content creation” on your resume. It may drive a particular demographic of reporters nuts, but welcome to the modern news and information buffet that has empowered consumers with unlimited and unfiltered choices. Another example of the dynamic occurred this week when former Digitas CEO Laura Lang was named to run the media holdings at Time, Inc. David Carr, the New York Times media reporter, explained it exceptionally well. Still don’t get it? Read this piece by Dow Jones reporter Damian Ghigliotty.

Boston Globe Reporters Predict The Future: Their Gamble Could Be Your Opportunity

God bless Boston Globe Sunday Business Editor Robert Gavin. About a year ago, as the Globe’s economic reporter, Gavin pulled the story assignment that most major beat reporters confront every December: Predict the future. 

Art by Leo Acadia for Jan. 2, 2011 Money & Careers section.


This is the month when industry reporters “look ahead” to next year, talking to sources and using their expertise to offer audiences a sense of what to expect, trends, potential newsmakers, etc., in the year to come. Some reporters also produce “look back” stories, recapping the past year on their beat and, hopefully, offering some analysis.

Reporters and editors are people too, with families and friends. They want time off at the holidays like everyone else. These look back/look ahead pieces can be written and laid out well in advance, allowing the media to fill pages with staff content while giving reporters a year-end break.

For business and enterprises, these stories represent an opportunity to pitch experts and analysts who can comment on what lies ahead for an industry or segment. The pitches rarely work if they are self-promoting. Don’t expect a profile of you or your organization. Instead, be satisfied to position yourself as a thought leader and perhaps become a source for future stories.

What was unusual about the Globe’s effort to forecast 2011 was the lack of experts cited in the spread of stories penned by Gavin and his colleagues – Jennifer B. McKim, Robert Weisman, Scott Kirsner, D.C. Denison and Casey Ross. That’s gutsy.

Mitt Romney In The Media Sun: Can GOP Voters Like Him If They Don't Trust Him?

 

It’s a big weekend for Mitt Romney – the weekend he finally lets voters see him as a person, a human being, a father with a family, a husband with quirks, a guy with an IPod and a big appetite for cereal.

In fact, you now have four excellent opportunities – Mitt Moments – to understand the former Massachusetts Governor from four very different but equally insightful perspectives:

Mitt Moment 1: “A Mitt Romney You Haven’t Seen” is the topic of a big spread in Parade magazine this weekend. It’s online here. Fresh from his boy’s weekend in Italy with George Clooney, venerable presidential consultant David Gergen says he “still wondered what made Romney tick.” To his credit, Gergen confronts Romney’s Mormon faith, which many see as a hidden concern for GOP voters.

The Parade profile is a must read for every voter.  But don’t stop there. Read what Gergen himself has to say about the interview in a separate Parade piece and in an online column on CNN. It speaks volumes that the nation’s most influential political consultant-analyst-author-commentator “still wondered what made Romney tick.” Romney ran four years ago and it’s only a month before the start of the GOP primaries, but Gergen concludes: “We can’t tell yet what kind of president Mitt Romney would be.” Ouch.

Mitt Moment 2: “Why Don’t They Like Me” is the subject of a five-page Time magazine cover story dated December 12 (available online if you subscribe.) Authored by none other than Joe Klein, the five-page piece examines the familiar litany of potential misgivings that bedevil Romney – flip-flops, Mormonism, technocratic, etc.

Klein has openly complained that he did not get the same access to Romney, his family and his campaign that Gergen was granted. His resentment may have seeped into his writing, giving the piece a negative slant. Reportedly, the Time article says of Romney: "The question always remains: Who is he really? Do we have any clues as to what he actually believes?" Sounds familiar.

Mitt Moment 3: "Building a Better Mitt Romney-Bot" is the unflattering headline of today's New York Times Magazine cover story, a comprehensive assessment of Romney's strategic choice to be portrayed as "a fixer" rather than a regular guy.

"Mitt Romney’s campaign has decided upon a rather novel approach to winning the presidency. It has taken a smart and highly qualified but largely colorless candidate and made him exquisitely one-dimensional: All-Business Man, the world’s most boring superhero," says author Robert Draper, who describes Romney as a man "puzzling his way to victory."

Mitt Moment 4: “Focus Group Weighs in on Campaign 2012” is a CSPAN question-and-answer session with suburban Republican voters in northern Virginia recorded Thursday, December 1. Less convenient than either the Parade or Time spreads, this focus group – facilitated by the legendary pollster Peter Hart – is a must-see for political junkies. It’s uncut and a great demonstration how focus groups should work.

Beware Barney Blarney: Three reasons the race to succeed Barney Frank is unpredictable

Congressman Barney Frank’s decision to retire at the end of his current term has set in motion a spectacle of political punditry that should vastly improve the sale of hip boots at Cabela’s during the course of the next 11 months.

Hundreds of reporters, consultants and political operatives will be eager to tell you how the race to succeed Frank will turn out; after all, politics is a professional sporting industry in Massachusetts.

Here are three reasons why you should keep your own counsel:

Light Rays on Saturdays: Mitt's Hair and a Modern Definition of PR

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was at the center of two big stories this week that demonstrate how political communications has devolved into something resembling professional wrestling.  

With President Obama visiting New Hampshire, Romney bought a tiny bit of local TV to air an ad attacking Obama’s handing of the economy. Romney aides also delivered the commercial to reporters. One little problem – the featured Obama quote was really a paraphrase of something an aide to Senator John McCain said during the 2008 campaign. Romney and his aides shrugged off the deluge of criticism.

Misleading and unethical, the ad had little to do with hurting Obama – it’s no secret the economy is his weak spot. It was primarily designed to earn Romney the “See, I can be a tough guy” merit badge among the GOP influencers who have yet to embrace his candidacy. Democrats may use the ad to bolster their attack on Romney as a cold, valueless, flip-flopping, say-anything-to-win candidate.

The other big Mitt story? One thousand words on his hair on the front page of Friday’s New York Times.  The Times even interviewed the “barrel-chested, bald Italian immigrant” barber, who “agreed to share some of the secrets” of Mitt’s hair. Are you ready to be blown away? No dye. No product. And, sometimes Romney trims it himself.

How many of you are saying: “Wow. I honestly don’t give a flying follicle about this?”

Media Coverage of Occupy Wall Street: Bigger Stories Obscured

The media has nothing to be ashamed of in its coverage of the Occupy movement.  The question now is whether they will start digging into the complex issues that have been obscured by the headline-grabbing civil disobedience.

Sunday’s New York Times "Media & Advertising" section featured not one but two different articles about the difficulties of satisfying everyone when it comes to reporting on the ongoing multi-city, mass sit-in for economic fairness.

Occupy Boston seen from The Fed.

The first story examined criticism at both ends of the political spectrum – and the protestors themselves – of how journalists have portrayed Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and the Occupy nodes active in cities throughout the country. “Lacking a list of demands or recognized leaders, the Occupy movement has at times perplexed the nation’s media outlets,” the story concluded.

Nearby in the same section, Times reporter David Carr analyzed what might lie ahead for the movement once its tent-city encampments are dismantled.  “In addition to the 5 W’s — who, what, when, where and why — the media are obsessed with a sixth: what’s next? Occupy Wall Street, for all its appeal as a story, is very hard to roll forward,” Carr wrote.

Those stories followed a November 13 column in which Times Public Editor Arthur S. Brisbane surveyed journalism experts for ideas about how to improve the paper’s coverage of “the seemingly formless mass of a movement that pointedly eschews leadership and formal demands.”

Brisbane’s best idea was buried amid a lot of hand-wringing: “In its future coverage, The Times should examine how these issues are changing America, giving rise to movements like Occupy Wall Street and its ideological counterpart, the Tea Party.”

Does Congress Care About Its Reputation Management Problem?

It’s not easy for an elected body to manage its reputation.

The actions of a few can reflect badly on the whole. Keeping members on the same page and moving in the same direction takes smart leadership. Ideological and personality schisms have to be respected and bridged. There are very few decisions that vast majorities agree with, so making a decision makes enemies.  

Even with those excuses in mind, the current Congress has set new standards for failed reputation management. The most recent New York Times/CBS News poll gave Congress single digit favorability – a historic low. A Washington Post chart shows that impressions of our legislative branch have sunk well below those of lawyers, banks, President Nixon during Watergate, and even Communism.

A horrifying column in today’s New York Times demonstrates exactly why.

Former star political reporter Thomas D. Edsall, now a journalism professor at Columbia University, explains that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (aka the “Super Committee”) is failing to reach an agreement not because it can’t, but because failure would produce a more desirable political outcome.

Twitter Is Becoming A Main Course In The Modern Media Food Chain

The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism is ordinarily an incredible resource for understanding modern media trends, but its most recent study asked the wrong questions about how mainstream media outlets use Twitter.

Pew’s content analysis found that the top news organizations use Twitter predominantly as a one-way promotional tool for their own content, meaning that the media’s institutional Twitter accounts churn out links that take followers back to news and features stories, videos, photos, etc. This confirms the obvious.

More and more of us get our news, especially breaking news, delivered online.  Busier schedules and more multitasking have fueled a greater reliance on mobile devices – the best vehicle for Twitter. At the same time, with print circulation and broadcast viewership declining amid a growing online buffet of news and information, the largest media outlets are working hard to attract empowered, wireless consumers.

Where Pew fell well short of its normally high standards was with its deduction that “individual reporters were not much more likely than the news institutions to use Twitter as a reporting tool or as a way to share information produced by those outside their own news organization.”

Not only was the data sample too small -- an examination of the Twitter feeds of 13 individual journalists – but the conclusion flies in the face of the reality that PR professionals see every day on their own feeds.

Denial Is A River: What Were Joe Amendola & Jerry Sandusky Thinking?

It's hard to imagine alleged Penn State child molester Jerry Sandusky as the victim of anything except perhaps a mental illness. Today, he is clearly the victim of some bad legal and communications advice.

Sandusky and his attorney, Joe Amendola, last night gave an exclusive interview to NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams. Sandusky needed to do something to anchor himself against a rushing river of bad facts and anger, but today he is further downstream.

Sandusky acknowledged showering with young boys and touching their legs. He said he “horsed around." He said he "enjoys" young people but denied being a pedophile. Amendola said he expects several alleged shower victims to deny that his client assaulted them, telling CNN: “Jerry Sandusky is a big, overgrown kid. He’s a jock. The bottom line is jocks do that. They kid around. They horse around."

It's doubtful that many 67-year-old “jocks” will verify that touching young boys on their thighs in the shower as commonplace. Not only do most reasonable men and women find Sandusky’s admissions disturbing, but even the conduct he acknowledged might constitute a criminal misdemeanor.

Sandusky and Amendola had hoped their media appearance would work to give the jury pool another side of the story, portraying the hulking former linebacker somewhat sympathetically and offering hints at a credible explanation for the disgusting accusations against him.

It didn’t work. The decision was an incredible miscalculation. The weight of the allegations is massive. The intensity of the media scrutiny is white hot. There are shoes left to drop, including more alleged victims coming forward to authorities.

Light Rays On Saturdays

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry did the only thing he could do to overcome his worst-yet debate embarrassment. He joined in the fun. 

Perry’s appearance on The David Letterman Show, where he narrated a self-deprecating Top Ten list, was a very smart move. He also received a helping hand from health and science influencers, like the New York Times health columnist Tara Parker Pope, who quickly generated an expert analysis recounting other famous brain freezes and noting that “countless memory lapses like these happen to the rest of us every day.”

“When all goes well, the medial temporal lobe acts like a library’s card catalog system, pointing to the locations in the brain where different parts of the memory are stored and allowing the memory to be recalled. But in Mr. Perry’s case, it appears that something went wrong, and the search turned up the wrong card or looked in the wrong place or was interrupted,” Pope explained in her immensely popular style.

Now if she can just explain why Perry seems to walk and gesture in unusual ways.

The standards for what citizens expect from those who seek to serve as President of the United States have been slowly decomposing for decades now. We’ve come a long way since flawed candidates, like Gary Hart, would either immediately quit in shame or face automatic expulsion over character issues.

Whether or not you like Perry’s politics, he converted a potentially devastating flub into positive, empathetic exposure.  An upcoming $1 million national ad buy, if it’s distinctive, could reinforce his staying power.

How PR Can Help Penn State Now

People would be surprised to know how often PR counselors act as management consultants.

Often, those within a complex organization are too close to a situation or too insulated to see what needs to be done, what could been done, and how internal and external stakeholders might react. The blinders can be even thicker when the organization is in crisis. So, smart executives seek the advice of outside communications professionals -- not just for research, ideas and words, but for common sense and perspective.

As the trustees at Penn State prepare to meet today, let's hope hiring great PR counselors is on the agenda.

Penn State’s ability to do the right thing at this moment is suspect and will be for the foreseeable future. It lost its credibility on that score when it failed to act against Jerry Sandusky for more than a decade. It even failed to act seven months ago when a Pennsylvania sports columnist predicted what has now engulfed the University.

Penn State’s need for PR is not just a matter of credibility; it’s a demand of logistics.

Rupert Murdoch & News Corp: Reputation Irony

For a short time in July, it looked as if media mogul Rupert Murdoch would go the way of Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Moammar Gadhafi of Libya — another dictatorial strong man forced into a shameful exit by a popular uprising.

In my days as a reporter for the Boston Herald, a Murdoch-owned tabloid, that’s the good-versus-evil slant that I might have put on the story — the jowly, leering tyrant stooped like a vulture over the body of a saintly, murdered 13-year-old girl eagerly trading her blood for profits, an outraged nation mobilizing to demand truth and justice as the sordid details of the scandal spilled forth.

After all, stark contrast sells. Given numerous flavor choices, people are least likely to buy the most vanilla of them. Months removed from its summertime peak, the News of the World drama holds leadership lessons for our profession regarding crisis and reputation management. You can read my take on the News Corp. saga in the latest issue of The Public Relations Strategist magazine.

The Lazy Lob: Buttery Communication Goodness

Many intelligent people do not read the Wall Street Journal because they despise its owner (Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.), disagree with the paper’s editorial perspective, and/or get bored with hardcore business news. Politics aside, they should rethink their position. The news content in “Marketplace” and “Greater New York” offers excellent reporting, writing and analysis. The lifestyle and trend pieces in “Personal Journal” and “Review” are offbeat and intriguing. Joe Queenan’s column today (“Some Expert Advice: Get A Clue”) is just one example. Plus, reading the WSJ is a good way to monitor the conservative intelligentsia.

Today’s New York Times features an interesting story about efforts to thaw the icy relationship between former President Bill Clinton and President Obama (“With New Book, Bill Clinton Makes New Bid to Bolster Obama.”) Clinton is intensely frustrated with the current administration’s obvious failure to effectively communicate the vision, principles and successes of its policies. So he wrote their narrative himself. (“Narrative” is a snotty word for “story.”) Ya gotta love Big Bill. If it wasn’t for a constitutional amendment, he could run for President right now and beat all comers, including the incumbent in his own party. Listen to him Mr. President.

Yesterday’s Bending Light post mentioned Andrea Estes, a colleague during my time as an editor and reporter at the Boston Herald. She was vastly underappreciated there, despite excellent sources and clean writing. When the Boston Globe hired Andrea, she restarted her career back at the bottom of the caste system, covering suburban events. She is now one of the most respected (read: feared) journalists in the city. Take a look at this Google search. Her name has been on every big scandal story for the past five years. The best thing about Andrea?  She is invisible. You won’t find her picture. She has no social media footprint. She is not a public speaker. But you’d be a fool to ignore her call or e-mail.  

Herman Cain's Hard Lesson in Issues Management

After I had covered the Gennifer Flowers news conference in New York in January 1992, the Boston Herald sent me and Andrea Estes to Little Rock, Arkansas, for a week to see what we could else we could dig up on then-presidential candidate, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.

I came back with a story about Clinton’s honorary membership in what appeared to be a whites-only country club. The Clinton campaign did not seem surprised when I called them for comment, and brushed off Clinton’s role as nothing more than “playing privileges.”

The story ran on page one of the Herald and the Associated Press picked it up. Within two weeks, it had found its way into The New York Times. (There was no worldwide Internet in those days. The only things that spread virally were illnesses, gossip and bad jokes.)

By then, however, Clinton’s famous "War Room" had acted. The candidate apologized succinctly and his campaign defused the issue by rallying prominent African-American friends and supporters.

Nineteen years later, watching presidential candidate Herman Cain flounder under the weight of sexual harassment allegations, you begin to wonder how many scandals it will take for anyone to heed the basic rules of engagement in issues management and crisis communications.

An Off-Broadway Threat for Personal Device Makers

If you’re Apple, or any personal device maker for that matter, the epicenter of your most serious issues management challenge has begun brewing inside a brick building on Lafayette Street in New York City.

That’s where the Public Theater is hosting Mike Daisey in a one-man show entitled, “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” which runs through November 13.

Daisey, described by the New York Times as “one of the greatest solo storytellers of contemporary theater,” isn't on stage to pay homage to Apple or its late CEO Steve Jobs. He is zeroing in on the legendary company’s supply chain in China, where he went undercover to visit the factories that give birth to the personal technology we rely on each day.

“I’d expected conditions to be bad, to be worse than I’d ever experienced, and I’ve lived a relatively comfortable life. What was shocking to me was the level of dehumanization built into the systems that have been put into place by American corporations in collusion with suppliers,” Daisey told the Theater section of the Times in an interview last month.

The Times' recent review of the production underlined a threat device makers should take seriously.

Why Bending Light?

What light shows us (or what the absence of light hides from us) is not the present; it is the past.

When you see the sun, you are seeing it as it was eight minutes ago.  Moonlight isn’t really moonlight; it’s actually sunlight reflecting the moon as it was two seconds ago. When you marvel at the night sky, your mind is processing an image that no longer exists at the source. What you see is a scatter of light that began travelling toward your eyes anywhere from thousands to millions of years ago.

Distance is not the only distorting influence; the stuff through which light passes also alters what you see.  This is called refraction, and it magnifies objects under water; creates rainbows; makes it appear as if stars twinkle. The sky is blue because of the way gas molecules in our atmosphere interact with light from the sun.

Optics (the study of light) is an excellent analogy for communications. It follows many of the same principles. Successful strategic communications – communications that moves people toward a specific goal – relies on three core ingredients:

Proximity -- How relevant it is.

Medium -- The way it is delivered.

Context -- The way it will be received.

Think of a prism. On the left is the content. This is the light source -- the information, facts or point of view you wish to make relevant and compelling. Near the middle is the medium – the channel, the words, the pictures and/or the video through which the content must pass. On the right is the audience – the target who will absorb the spectrum of content based on their own subjective context.

The goal of strategic communications is to create a vision that compels an audience to act. The action may be laughter, protest, trust, purchase, etc.  

Studying, informing and moving opinion is what I have done my whole adult life as a journalist and as a public and private sector professional.

That’s why this blog is called “Bending Light.” Together, we’ll put on our eyeglasses and analyze modern efforts to shape reality through effective communication.