Challenge: How many can you catch President Trump on? Or any politician for that matter. Find the quote and post it for discussion.

I’ve come across a trend that exist and can be applied and proven seriously—trends proven by the recent campaign and electoral process of our current leader of the free world. I’ve noticed that damage control is much easier than it used to be. All you have to do is wait out the news cycle. The deregulation of the media, namely the Telecommunications Act of 1996, have allowed the media to be dominated near completely by profit motive as opposed to more ethical considerations that were originally designed for seeking truth. Due to this profit motive, the news cycle has continued to demonstrate a significant amount of amnesia in regards to negative press. Investigative journalism just cost too much to engage in it, and it is much less expensive and easier to just move on to the next sound bite. For these reasons, if I were a Chief Executive Officer responsible for producing a somewhat manageable, yet destructive series of defective products; I would have to say that my best bet would be to do a minimal amount of damage control and just wait until the “newsies” became reconnoitered by their producers and editors to focus on something much less expensive such as a sound bite generated either genuinely or disingenuously from some other source or one’s own sources or purposeful leaks. The motive of the media is to sell, not to seek the truth. Mass media has become “an instrument of fragmentation,” according to Patterson and Wilkins in that “today, all of us now have the capacity to develop a Daily Me from the vast collection of information now on the World Wide Web.” The “daily me” aspect is a result of us now being able to personalize our news to suit our already established thoughts and values – all attributed to the genius of social media. And since we don’t have to muddle through opposing viewpoints and opinions, we have now isolated ourselves into little pockets of groups with the same unbending viewpoints. “In the absence of shared experience, society will have a much harder time addressing social problems.” Patterson and Wilkins cite the comment made by legal scholar Cass Sunstein who concludes that “the ‘Daily Me’ is the farthest thing from a utopian dream, and it would create serious problems from a democratic point of view” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014). Never the less, as a CEO who produces defective items; I have to find the fact that I have produced defective products irrelevant; and in addition, I find the media’s power to investigate equally irrelevant. Considering these things, Patterson and Wilkins discuss the “sleeper effect” and how “practitioners, from Nazi master propagandist Joseph Goebbels through contemporary political consultants, have intuitively understood this human tendency to disassociate the source from the messaging” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014). “When people are exposed normally to a persuasive message (such as an engaging or persuasive television advertisement), their attitudes toward the advocacy of the message display a significant increase. Over time, however, their newly formed attitudes seem to gravitate back toward the opinion held prior to receiving the message, almost as if they were never exposed to the communication.” (Sleeper effect, 2016) As time (measuring from the moment of message was delivered) goes on, the message’s persuasive impact diminishes to the baseline opinion that was previously held prior to the persuasive message. Considering the pace of messages that occur in our current world, the sleeper effect, in this ever-increasing rate of information and message presentation in the modern world, I believe will have a much steeper rate of decline over time as technology continues to allow for more and more mechanisms of message deliver, and it provides a great way to escape public exposure. These things being said, this just is not the right way to do things. And that being considered, PR representatives must be respectful of this increasing rate and the interest of society. The PRSA aspect of truth must be more accurately applied to cases where they must balance the interest of the client (and the client’s messages) so as to balance the possible negative effect on the interests of society. The truth is the best way to make this balance, and the PRSA provides ethical guidelines that cover that aspect, and those guidelines are becoming increasingly important as message technologies continue to develop. Reference Patterson, P. ; & Wilkins, L. (2014) .New Media: Continuing Questions and New Roles . Media Ethics: Issues and Cases . 8th Ed . 2014 . p 226-253 PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) . (2016) . PRSA Member Statement of Professional Values . Member Code of Ethics . retrieved from https://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/Ethics/CodeEnglish/index.html#MemberStatement Sleeper effect (2016) . Wikipedia . October 31, 2016 . retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeper_effect

Contemporary to our current, heated political debate, discussing who should go to the bathroom where; I ran across these song lyrics on http://www.coolest-holiday-parties.com/funny-christmas-carols.html.

Excerpt; The coalition sent a letter today to Trump and Pence, asking for a meeting or conference call to discuss: • the ability of reporters to directly interact with government employees who are subject matter experts, rather than interacting with Public Information Officers (or having all conversations monitored by Public Information Officers); • access to the activities of the President; • and ensuring that the Federal Freedom of Information Act remains as strong as possible. Read the entire article

Greetings…. As part of this exercise I chose Richard Nixon’s "Checkers" speech (Miller Center, 2009). If you remember, this was a speech in response to media reporting of a questionable funding. In this speech Nixon was attempting to persuade the Republican party members that he should stay on Dwight Eisenhower’s presidential ticket as Vice President. Throughout the speech, elements of Conger’s Multistep Model of Persuasion can be observed. The first part of four of Conger’s model is establishing credibility. According to the text, Walker states that “credibility has two aspects: expertise and relationships” (Walker, 2015). This clip taken in isolation makes it difficult to judge expertise; however, Nixon does present the speech competently and with ethos. This helps to present and element of an expert politicians who has knowledge of the issues, and Nixon makes sure to associate himself with his running mate Eisenhower – relying on Eisenhower’s popularity to buttress his own. In addition, Nixon stimulates “goodwill,” which is a concept that includes a friendly disposition, cheerful acquaintance, and reputation (Walker, 2015). Through these means, Nixon establishes credibility. Nixon helps to find common ground with his audience by mentioning his wife, his family, and his family dog Checkers – hence the name of the speech. There is even video of his wife, Pat, dressed properly to the day of that of a housewife. In addition, Nixon mentions how Pat was a stenographer who works on his campaigns free of charge. Evidence is a hard case to make with this speech; however, he does establish that the fund was no secret stash and cites the accountant who handled the fund. As mentioned before, Nixon makes it clear that Eisenhower trusts him, by dropping his name several times. During those parts the speech turns into a campaign speech as Nixon praises Eisenhower, citing several top issues that have negatively affected many Americans including communism, the Korean War, and alleged political corruption. Nixon presents his words with much passion which is Conger’s final part of the persuasion model. Through his varying presentations, Nixon is able to “connect emotionally” (Walker, 2015) which in turn supports his persuasive argument. Public Broadcasting Service (n.d) . Checkers Speech . American Experience . retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/nixon-checkers/ Miller Center of Public Affairs (2009) . Richard Nixon - "Checkers" Speech . Youtube . Sep 3, 2009 . retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9LcAJOsFGg Walker, Robyn (2015) . Strategic Management Communication for Leaders . 3rd Ed . Cengage Learning . Stamford, CT . pp 8

Many leaders, however, regard the “art of persuasion” as a difficult skill set to master — but it doesn’t have to be. In his seminal work on the art of persuasion for business leaders, research scientist Dr. Jay A. Conger boiled down the persuasion game to four simple steps: Credibility, Common Ground, Evidence, and Emotional Connection.[2. “The Necessary Art of Persuasion,” https://hbr.org/1998/05/the-necessary-art-of-persuasion] Master these four steps to persuade your team effectively! read the entire article....

On CBS Face the Nation "I think we're going to remember this weekend for a long time to come as not the end, not the campaign being over, but this is the beginning of the most tempestuous...awful conflict between left and right, between men and women, between young and old." Frank Luntz, Republican political consultant http://www.cbsnews.com/face-the-nation/

Excerpts FROM USA TODAY "In his address Friday, Trump said his lodestar would be "America First," a phrase with resonant history suggesting a withdrawal from global engagement. one core campaign promise was to protect American workers by ending or renegotiating free-trade deals. Another was to build a wall along the southern border to limit illegal immigrants he portrayed as rapist and murderers. He suggested he might propose a registry for Muslims. He wants the Supreme Court to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion nationwide." "In contrast, the Women's Marches on Saturday limited official participation to groups that support abortion rights, and they accused Trump of trying to toll back hard-won equal rights for women. Marchers made a point of welcoming Muslims to their ranks and extolling the alue of immigrants, including the young people known as DREAMers wha may be about to lose protection from deportation that former president Barack Obama had extended." http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/22/trump-inauguration-womens-march-washington/96918936/

transcript http://media.wix.com/ugd/275ed6_a1950eab97454ebbaed31e2423a6e6b6.pdf message concepts http://media.wix.com/ugd/275ed6_fa79fccc8a2a4866a32bb16108160cbf.pdf logic model http://media.wix.com/ugd/275ed6_b2f599e642a0459b80ef07de975a2cab.pdf Prezi http://prezi.com/p0lqq40eiryz/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

The New Media, sometimes referred to as Web 2.0, is the advance in technology that is having reverberating effects on the communication field. Everyone can be a journalist to some extent, and the amount of information available through various forms of new technology has increased dramatically, demonstrated by some interesting statistical estimates. An article by Richard Alleyne, science correspondent with the British publication The Daily Telegraph, offers up several measurement comparisons of increasing exposure to information over time. He claims that “the growth in the internet, 24-hour television and mobile phones” are responsible for a five times multiplier scaling information exposure in 1986 to 2011. Alleyne claims that this multiplier “pales in significance” when compared to “the amount of information we churn out through email, twitter, social networking sites and text messages.” His article claims that the “average person” creates a “200-fold increase” today as compared to 1986 (Alleyne, 2011). This drastic amount of information sent and received by the masses has changed the communication field drastically over the last couple decades, and the field of public relations is no different. A PewResearchCenter article by Maeve Duggan demonstrates the participation levels of “creators” and “curators” (Duggan, 2013). These trends bring into light legal concerns on “originality,” according to Patterson and Wilkins (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014). Throughout their textbook, Moore and Murray, along with the module overview “Module Eight: Intellectual Property, What’s Your’s Is Mine?,“ demonstrate that copyright law is automatic and through strict interpretation violating the protections afforded to the creator is as simple as including an image on a PowerPoint slide (Moore & Murray, 2012) (SNHU, n.d.). In addition, Moore and Murray point out that citing sources does not always constitute fair use (Moore & Murray, 2012, pp 638); however, public relations experts are typically journalist-trained media experts and often perform activities akin to journalism – press releases, public statements, preparing speakers for press conference, etc. These thing being considered, careful citations and knowledge of privacy and copyright laws are critical when it comes to using Web 2.0 as a source, as such use, in my opinion, appears to be a grey area of the law at times. However, “If noting the originators of your information creates problems, then be willing to accept those problems as the price of using the information” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014). There are also ethical considerations that should be considered by modern public relations specialists. I choose to include two ethical issues here. Mass media is “an instrument of fragmentation,” according to Patterson and Wilkins in that “today, all of us now have the capacity to develop a Daily Me from the vast collection of information now on the World Wide Web.” The “daily me” aspect a result of us now being able to personalize our news to suit our already established thoughts and values. And since we don’t have to muddle through opposing viewpoints and opinions, we have now isolated ourselves into little pockets of groups with the same unbending viewpoints. “In the absence of shared experience, society will have a much harder time addressing social problems.” Patterson and Wilkins cite the comment made by legal scholar Cass Sunstein who concludes that “the ‘Daily Me’ is the farthest thing from a utopian dream, and it would create serious problems from a democratic point of view” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014). The ethical guidelines of the Public Relations Society of America are advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty, and fairness. The advocacy aspect requires that public relations experts serve “as responsible advocates for those we represent” and the loyalty aspect requires that PR experts be “faithful to those we represent.” However, the honesty aspect requires the expert to adhere to the “highest standards of accuracy and truth” and the loyalty aspect mentioned before is two fold, as the later part of the aspect states that PR experts “serve the public interest” (PRSA, 2016). These things being stated, the ethical obligation of a PR expert does not simply end with simple servitude to their client’s wishes, they also have an obligation to the truth and the interests of the society. Considering these things, Patterson and Wilkins discuss the “sleeper effect” and how “practitioners, from Nazi master propagandist Joseph Goebbels through contemporary political consultants, have intuitively understood this human tendency to disassociate the source from the messaging” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014). To expand on this sleeper effect concept for clarity, I want to include this Wikipedia definition. “The sleeper effect is a psychological phenomenon that relates to persuasion. It is a delayed increase of the effect of a message that is accompanied by a discounting cue.” (Sleeper effect, 2016) I am also including this image of a graph, Figure 1, that Wikipedia includes with the article. From the graph one can see how the sleeper effect works. “When people are exposed normally to a persuasive message (such as an engaging or persuasive television advertisement), their attitudes toward the advocacy of the message display a significant increase. Over time, however, their newly formed attitudes seem to gravitate back toward the opinion held prior to receiving the message, almost as if they were never exposed to the communication.” (Sleeper effect, 2016) Notice that the typical independent variable on the x-axis is time. Time and actual message persuasive levels demonstrate a negative correlation. That is as time (measuring from the moment of message delivery to the delayed assessment) increases, the message’s persuasive impact diminishes to the baseline opinion that was previously held prior to the persuasive message. Considering the pace of messages that occur in our current world, as described in the first paragraph with the Alleyne article, which I will conclude with using the newspapers-read-per day analogy proposed by the article. “Using the analogy of an 85-page newspaper, they found that in 1986 we received around 40 newspapers full of information every day but this had rocketed to 174 in 2007.” (Alleyne, 2011) The sleeper effect, in this ever-increasing rate of information and message presentation in the modern world, I believe will have a much steeper rate of decline over time as technology continues to allow for more and more mechanisms of message deliver. And that being considered, PR representatives must be respectful of this increasing rate and the interest of society. The PRSA aspect of truth must be more accurately applied to cases where they must balance the interest of the client (and the client’s messages) so as to balance the possible negative effect on the interests of society. The truth is the best way to make this balance, and the PRSA provides ethical guidelines that cover that aspect, and those guidelines are becoming increasingly important as message technologies continue to develop. Reference Alleyne, Richard (2011) . Welcome to the information age – 174 newspapers a day . The Daily Telegraph . February 11, 2011 . retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/8316534/Welcome-to-the-information-age-174-newspapers-a-day.html Duggan, Maeve (2013) . Photo and Video Sharing Grow Online . Pew Research Center . retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/10/28/photo-and-video-sharing-grow-online/ Moore, R.; & Murray, M. (2012) . Media Law and Ethics . Ed. 4th . New York . Routledge . 2012 Patterson, P. ; & Wilkins, L. (2014) .New Media: Continuing Questions and New Roles . Media Ethics: Issues and Cases . 8th Ed . 2014 . p 226-253 PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) . (2016) . PRSA Member Statement of Professional Values . Member Code of Ethics . retrieved from https://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/Ethics/CodeEnglish/index.html#MemberStatement SNHU (Soutern New Hampshire University) (n.d) ..Module Eight: Intellectual Property, What’s Your’s Is Mine? . COM 530 Module 8 . Fall, 2016 . p 1-3 Sleeper effect (2016) . Wikipedia . October 31, 2016 . retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeper_effect #Ethics #MediaEthics #CopyrightLaw #Sleepereffect #PublicRelationsresponsibilit #DailyMe

Section I of the Facebook policy is titled “What kinds of information do we collect?”, which is a 600 word, eight paragraph description that details the information that the Facebook site mines about its users. The obvious ones are the profile information and any type of information shared, created, or messaged between users. This includes such things as photo tags and other devices that allow for the other users to actually provide Facebook mining programs with information about you. If you make a payment of some sort through Facebook, your financial information is also collected which includes “your credit or debit card number and other card information, and other account and authentication information, as well as billing, shipping and contact details.” Third party website visits are also collected. Some device information is also collected, such as ISP, IP address, and location services which can be edited through certain Facebook privacy settings (Facebook, 2016). Part II or the Facebook policy, “How do we use this information,” provides another 500 words explaining in a large sense that the information is used for marketing products. The four major bullet points are listed below for brevity; *Provide, improve and develop Services *Communicate with you *Show and measure ads and services *Promote Safety and Security (Facebook, 2016) In 1971, John Rawls wrote the book A Theory of Justice, where he laid out his “Veil of Ignorance” philosophy. In that concept, in order to have the most “just” society, one must not be aware of one’s own position in the society, advantages or disadvantages, so as to not be biased for or against the political policies being constructed (Veil of ignorance, 2016). Rawls’ theory is related to Age of Enlightenment concept of the social contract, where individuals must “consent” to surrender certain rights in order to reap the benefits of some “authority” that remains intact in order to offer protections against stakeholders stomping on the freedoms and rights of other stakeholders (Social contract, 2016). The first three bullet points from the Facebook policy listed above, to me, are clearly commercial in nature; however, reaping the rewards of having certain products offered up that cater to your interest can be both an advantage and disadvantage. However, the last bullet – Safety and Security—appears to focus on an issue of serious breach of the social contract, where one may call upon the “authority” to intervene on the behalf of certain stakeholders who have had their freedoms and rights crushed. In particular, Patterson and Wilkins Case 5-B specifically mentions the cases in 2012 where Facebook “augmented the power of its Family Safety Center” providing “new tools to report cyberbullying” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2016). So in many ways, as the evolution of Facebook and its privacy policies continue to transform to meet the rigor of Web 2.0; we are in in a metaphoric veil of ignorance – as we venture into the ever evolving way in which social media has transformed privacy. Because as in Rawl’s theory, we are in many cases unaware, or ignorant, of how forfeiting some of our privacy rights will actually benefit or disadvantage us in the long run. References Facebook (2016) . Data Policy . September 29, 2016 . retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/full_data_use_policy Patterson, P. & Wilkins, L. (2014) . Case 5-B: Facebook: Should You Opt Out or In?. Media Ethics: Issues & Cases . McGraw Hill . 2014 Social contract (2016) . Wipedia . 1 December 2016 . retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract Veil of ignorance (2016) . Wikipedia . 29 November 2016 . retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil_of_ignorance

While doing anything online, one has to be “troll” literate. This especially true when one is dealing with the emotions of a certain illness and joins online support groups. According to Anti-Troll.org, a troll is someone who “posts a deliberately provocative or abusive messages to a newsgroup or message board, with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.” This is a disgusting but all too common occurrence on the internet. Trolling is related to “cyber stalking” which is best described my Anti-Troll.org as below; "Cyber-stalkers meet or target their victims by using search engines, online forums, bulletin and discussion boards, chat rooms, and more recently, through online communities such as MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, and Indymedia, a media outlet known for self-publishing, in exacty the same way as Trolls. They may engage in live chat harassment or flaming or they may send electronic viruses and unsolicited e-mails, in the exact same way as Trolls do. Victims of cyber-stalking may not even know that they are being stalked. Cyber-stalkers / Trolls may research individuals to feed their obsessions and curiosity. Conversely, the acts of cyber-stalkers / Trolls may become more intense, such as repeatedly instant messaging their targets." (Anti-Troll.org, 2016) If a friend of mine was suffering from a health condition and was considering joining an online support group, the first warning I woulw give them is information about trolling. Anti-Troll.org appears to go a bit far by demanding that trolling become a federal crime. There is the issue of freedom of speech here, and I know that the freedom of speech probably doesn’t include the abusive nature of trolling, however, I don’t believe that creating a law against the action is necessary. One visitor to Anti-Troll.org pointed out in the comments that ; "Comments: This is ridiculous, if you see something mean on the internet just ignore it for the love of god. This is just overboard, and in my opinion the results of a very successful trolling. Seriously, this is the most laughable cause. Next you'll want pranks made illegal because it's having a laugh at the expense of someone else being minority inconvenienced for a little bit. Or you'll want to stifle folks irl for saying something that hurts your feelings. Grow a backbone and deal with it, it's how the world works." (Why, 2016) While this comment makes a good point and presenting something similar to my opinion for dealing with trolling in the beginning, then the comment suddenly turns rude, arrogant, and egotistical and begins to get troll-like. I am sure that this person would not talk to a complete stranger in this manner in person, because they would risk getting a punch in the mouth. But the internet’s provision of anonymity allow for this kind of behavior. And in a support group where people go to find some sort of emotional treatment and support, one can see how such discourteous comments could cause harm. In the "Talk" section on mumsnet.com, a discussion exist that points out another issue with online support groups, where some individuals in the group may be fake, may be exaggerating their personal issues for attention, and therefore drain the group of support creating an environment “where other people give so much time and emotional energy to [a particular person] while dealing with immense problems of their own, that I just can't help but worry [a particular person] might be a fake” (OnThePrittStick, 2015). Again, we have the problem of the internet offering an extreme sense of anonymity. Many individuals have a huge contrast between their online identity and the in-person identity. Some individuals have several online identities, and the existence of these abusive, unempathetic online behaviors offer problems for those who need help dealing with the emotions surrounding an illness. I choose to end this discussion with the comedy of Trevor Moore and his “The Ballad of Billy John.” Moore’s comedy comes in the form of satirical songs, and the content of the “The Ballad of Billy John” addresses the issues of trolls. Billy John was a simple man, worked in the fields most his life He provided for his wife and kids and left his dreams on the side One day when the kids left home billy picked up his guitar It had been awhile but his fingers still knew how to reach the heart Played a song about life and love, his hopes and regrets Then with a little problem from the Mrs. he put it on the internet (Moore, 2015) Then the trolling begins. Then they scrolled to the comment section and this is what they saw Eat a bag of s[***] c[***]face Go blow your f[****]ing dad This s[***] just raped my ears never heard nothin so bad I hope you f[***]ing die And I hope you get aids You should just kill yourself You're a fag Lol gay (Moore, 2015) This is the horrible reality of the internet, and it is best to see it from obviously distorted and deprived view of the pitiful troll, and do not give them the satisfaction of letting them troll you by engaging in their senseless banter of online hate speak. Billy John and his wife did nothing wrong, and they weren't dumb They just hadnt paid attention to what we'd all become (Moore, 2015) References Anti-Troll.org (2016) . ANTI-TROLL.ORG IS THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE ANTI-TROLL ALLIANCE WE ARE A COLLECTIVE ORGANISATION ACTIVELY CAMPAIGNING TO MAKE 'TROLLING' A RECOGNISED CRIMINAL OFFENCE . retrieved November 13, 2016 from http://www.anti-troll.org/index.html Moore, Trevor (2015) . The Ballad of Billy John. www.musixmatch.com March 15, 2015 . retrieved from https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Trevor-Moore/The-Ballad-of-Billy-John OnThePrittStick (2015) . To be worried my support group has a troll . Talk . mums.net . 28-Sep-15 . Retrieved November 14, 2016 from http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2476373-To-be-worried-my-support-group-has-a-troll Why (2016) . Anti-Troll Guestbook . Anti-Troll.org . retrieved November 13, 2016 from http://svcs.myregisteredsite.com/svcs/dcc.jsp?tpage=http://www.anti-troll.org/index.html&dsrc=gb:4090130721795950280/DS_TLXGuestbook_1303326169604.xml&partner=inldspear&pcon=yes&xsl=dccfile:gb.xsl&obpp=blDe2trOXurEzlraytTKxObuWO5azlrm6sTkYGBsYGJ2&ret_url=http://www.anti-troll.org/index.html&page=1 #Trolling #dealingwithtrolls #TrevorMoore #BalladofBillyJohn #Trolls