prsa webinar: pr in a wikipedia age
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PRSA Webinar: PR in a Wikipedia Age by Andrew Lih, author of The Wikipedia Revolution, August 2013.TRANSCRIPT
Andrew Lihhttp://andrewlih.comTwitter: Fuzheado Email:[email protected]
Understanding the New Digital Public Sphere(PR in a Wikipedia Age)
PRSA WebinarAugust 19, 2013
Associate professor of journalismAmerican University School of Communication
Andrew Lihauthor of The Wikipedia Revolution
[email protected]: Fuzheado
article view sourcediscussion history
HOW A BUNCH OF NOBODIES CREATED THE WORLD’S
GREATEST ENCYCLOPEDIA“Imagine a world in which every single person
on the planet is given free access to the sum of
all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.”
—Jimmy Wales
With more than 2,000,000 individual articles on
everything from Aa! (a Japanese pop group) to
Zzyzx, California, written by an army of volunteer
contributors, Wikipedia is the #8 site on the World
Wide Web. Created (and corrected) by anyone with
access to a computer, this impressive assemblage
of knowledge is growing at an astonishing rate of
more than 30,000,000 words a month. Now for the
first time, a Wikipedia insider tells the story of how
it all happened—from the first glimmer of an idea to
the global phenomenon it’s become.
Andrew Lih has been an administrator (a trusted
user who is granted access to technical features)
at Wikipedia for more than four years, as well as a
regular host of the weekly Wikipedia podcast. In The
Wikipedia Revolution, he details the site’s inception
in 2001, its evolution, and its remarkable growth,
while also explaining its larger cultural repercussions.
Wikipedia is not just a website; it’s a global commu-
nity of contributors who have banded together out of
a shared passion for making knowledge free.
Featuring a Foreword by Wikipedia founder Jimmy
Wales and an Afterword that is itself a Wikipedia
creation.
U.S. $24.99
ANDREW LIH was an academic in new media and
journalism for ten years, at Columbia University
and Hong Kong University. He has been a com-
mentator on new media, technology, and journal-
ism issues on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR. Lih is
based in Beijing.
Become a part of The Wikipedia Revolution yourself,
and try your hand at editing the last chapter at: http://
www.wikipediarevolution.com/wiki/Main_Page
Jacket design by Ervin Serrano
Jacket photographs: globe by Frank Whitney/Jupiterimages;
puzzle by Shutterstock
Author photograph by Mei Fong
3/09
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Wikipedia RevolutionFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the book. For the different, similar terms related to Wikipedia, see
Wikipedia (terminology).
For Wikipedia’s non-encyclopedic visitor introduction, see Wikipedia:About.
Wikipedia Revolution (pronunciation ) is the story of the free,[1] multilingual ency-
clopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. The website’s name
is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites) and
encyclopedia. Wikipedia’s 10 million articles have been written collaboratively by volun-
teers around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone who can
access the Wikipedia website.[2] Launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger,[3] it
is currently the largest and most popular[1] general reference work on the Internet.[4][5][6]
The Wikipedia Revolution traces Wikipedia’s phenomenal success back to its roots, and
profiles the people who have contributed to its stated mission of giving every single person
free access to the sum of all human knowledge.
THE WIKIPEDIA REVOLUTION
ANDREW LIH
How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the W
orld’s Greatest Encyclopedia
ISBN: 978-1-4013-0371-6
ANDREW L IH
From the Introduction to The Wikipedia Revolution by Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales
By now, it’s hard not to use the Internet without experiencing Wikipedia in
searches and surfing. It has become an incredibly useful Internet resource in
many languages. Yet when you use Wikipedia, you may not understand the
philosophy behind it.
This book tells the story of how Wikipedia began and evolved from a traditional
encyclopedia into the intricate global community that it is today.
Core policies
• Neutral point of view (NPOV)
• Verifiability (V) and reliable sources (RS)
• Conflict of interest (COI)
NPOV
• ...representing fairly, proportionately, and, as far as possible, without bias, all of the significant views that have been published by reliable sources on a topic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view
COI
• Cannot promote your own interests or those of other individuals, companies, or groups
• Paid advocates are very strongly discouraged from direct article editing, and should instead propose changes on the talk page of the article in question
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view
Case of Wikipedia
Why? Wikipedia tops the Google searches
“If the news is that important, it will find me.”
– Unnamed teenager at a focus group, NY Times, March 27, 2008
Public relations in a new digital public
sphere?
PRSA 1982
• Traditional definition
“Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.”
http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/PublicRelationsDefined/Old%20Definition
PRSA 2011/2012
• Crowdsourced definition
“Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”
http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/PublicRelationsDefined
CIPR
• “Public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics”
http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/about-us/about-pr
Highlights
• PRSA: “process” and “relationship” are key upgrades
• CIPR: “maintain goodwill” and “mutual understanding”
• What does this mean in social media/digital public sphere?
Strategies
• Understand these communities
• Learn and respect their norms
• Be transparent
• The alternative is far worse
Bad strategies
• Astroturfing (fake grassroots)
• Fake/sock puppet accounts
• Undue influence
Wikipedia
• CREWE - Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wikipedia Editing
• Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Wikipedia Best Practice Guidance
COI history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_of_interest_editing_on_Wikipedia
CREWE
• Phil Gomes, Edelman Digital
“It’s imperative, however, that the public relations industry demonstrate by cooperation and good behavior that it can work with the Wikipedia community instead of taking the quick, easy-fix route.”
http://www.edelmandigital.com/2012/09/10/public-relations-and-wikipedia-the-unnecessary-impasse/
Bell Potinger (2011)
• Analysis of the edits demonstrated that the changes had both added positive information and removed negative content, including the removal of information regarding the drug conviction of a businessman and Bell Pottinger client, and changing information about the arrest of a man convicted for commercial bribery....head of digital at Bell Pottinger blamed the incident on Wikipedia's “confusing” editing system and “the pressure put on us by clients to remove potentially defamatory or libellous statements very quickly, because Wikipedia is so authoritative."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/wikipedia-founder-attacks-bell-pottinger-for-ethical-blindness-6273836.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_of_interest_editing_on_Wikipedia#cite_note-independentbell-58
CIPR warning
• There is another interpretation of public relations, commonly referred to as "spin". If this is your mode of operation then you are urged to steer clear of Wikipedia altogether in the performance of your job.
http://www.cipr.co.uk/sites/default/files/CIPR_Wikipedia_Best_Practice_Guidance.pdf
CIPR warning
• “You are reminded that ‘dark arts’ are the antithesis of best practice public relations. Intentional deceit and anonymous or incognito activities are breaches of professional codes of conduct.”
http://www.cipr.co.uk/sites/default/files/CIPR_Wikipedia_Best_Practice_Guidance.pdf
CREWE Flowchart
CREWE Flowchart
Wikipedia has...
• Volunteers who are copyright, research, reference and topic experts
• Superior technical and logistical to even top firms
• Database and system administrators
• Edit history is forever
http://www.cipr.co.uk/sites/default/files/CIPR_Wikipedia_Best_Practice_Guidance.pdf
Followup
• Join/understand Wikipedia and start editing articles with no COI
• Download and understand CREWE Flowchart
• Monitor the Facebook CREWE grouphttps://www.facebook.com/groups/crewe.group/
Andrew Lihhttp://andrewlih.comTwitter: Fuzheado Email:[email protected]
Understanding the New Digital Public Sphere(PR in a Wikipedia Age)
PRSA WebinarAugust 19, 2013
Associate professor of journalismAmerican University School of Communication