Transparency

Transparency: A flavour of the debate....

Jeremy Pepper (April 2005): Transparency, Blogging and Public Relations

(Includes argument that transparent blogs must have a displayed Comments policy and that it is somehow more transparent to conduct interviews over the phone rather than by email, which allows messages to be crafted).

Jeremy Pepper (Nov 2005): Transparency and Synthetic Transparency

Transparency is an issue I have tackled on my blog, and thenquestioned on others. For me, it is pretty simple. We are communicators. As communicators who blog and are counseling clients to blog, we need to lead by example.

Walter Carl (Nov 8, 2005) Corporate Blogging as Synthetic Transparency?

The purpose of this post is to introduce a new phrase (or at least I think it is) into the discourse about corporate blogging -- synthetic transparency. Synthetic transparency involves using blogs to give the impression of openness, honesty, and transparency but without really doing so.

Steve Rubel (Jan 27, 2006) Blogger Junkets Rekindle an Old PR Approach

So, blog junkets are empowerment programs. Now I am not saying that blogger bribing should be your primary goal here. However, if you remain transparent and can walk the fine line between helping bloggers and engaging them in a real dialogue to get feedback (warts and all), you're going to build word of mouth. As always, remain ethical, truthful and transparent.

Jeremy Pepper (Sept 19, 2005) Blogs, Comment Policies and Transparency

As a corporate blogger, though, you need to go into that black and white, and decide how far you want to go in transparency. As you will be representing your company, it might be best to disclose as much as possible, when appropriate.

Best practice for transparency? Reveal all. Tell the truth up front and you own the high ground.

Council of Public Relations Firms (Dec 12, 2005): Need for transparency boosts PR's import

Public relations is designed to build relationships between an organization and its most critical audiences.. As with any credible and trusted relationship, whether personal or professional, the ability to influence is based on being transparent about who you are and what you stand for.

....

Three principles, in particular, are key to this transparency: 1) the highest possible standards for ethical behavior; 2) accuracy of information; and 3) disclosure. While there may be different points of view represented, we are committed to factual accuracy. Our clients and the public are best served when audiences receiving information-and the channels that convey it, such as the media or the internet--know the source and can trust it, whether that source is a public relations professional, a spokesperson associated with the organization or a public relations firm representing the client. Thus, when we engage with journalists or other organizations, we disclose who we represent. Our bias in counseling clients is toward disclosure, which we believe is an appropriate and effective communication tool. These principles are essential for the public discourse that helps people make informed decisions in a complex world.

Shel Holtz (Feb 11, 2005) Can PR handle transparency?

Here’s the idea: In an effort to address the mistrust with which so many people approach the work of journalists, articles and broadcasts that feature “polished edited content” can be linked to “a parallel channel that’s full of the raw materials.” Specifically, a journalist could link a quote or sound bite in the finished product to a recording of the entire interview. Berlind came up with the idea while pondering how to “unobscure that which is obscure from public view.”

....

There should be nothing in any of our communications with the media that we should mind having exposed to the scrutiny of the public, particularly if journalists are enthusiastic about having their own source material put under the same microscope. 

David Berlind (March 24, 2005) David, what is a media transparency channel?

Why not give audience members a way to tune into the raw materials just as easily as they can tune into the polished content?

Robert French (July 7, 2005) I Have Questions: Transparency in PR Blogging

Richard Edelman (April 25, 2005) If The Media Can Do It, So Can PR

..the PR business must embrace transparency on funding sources and motives. We can insist that organizations provide greater transparency, no matter how inconvenient is to us or our clients.

... we must counter accusations about PR being propaganda. As in any crisis management, you need a good defense as well as offense. We could be bridge building with opinion shapers such as Jon Klein. We need to create the PR 500, a list of opinion leaders who opt to receive weekly updates on the work we are undertaking.

Bob Burton, Center for Media and Democracy (May 19, 2005) Edelman's Rescue Plan for the PR Industry

Comments

[Andrea Weckerle]

Thanks for this comprehensive list; I'm clipping it.

[Philip Young]

But where does it take us!!!! Although this was by no means an exhaustive review and I will also be drawing on other papers/ sources, for all the talk about transparency an blogging I was quite surprised by the lack of substantial discussion.

PS. Are you going to Palo Alto?

[Jeremy Pepper]

My posts on transparency have a lot to do with others lacking any sense of transparency. We need to be above the board, and too often we try to hide.

[Andrea Weckerle]

Philip,

No, unfortunately I'm not going. It would have been great to see everyone! I'm shooting for next year. Now, if there were just a major event like this in Washington DC...

[Walter Carl]

Thanks for this! Here's a comment I made to another post about synthetic transparency that you might want to add to this great list!

http://virtualreal.eponym.com/blog/_archives/2006/5/8/1940736.html?nc=1&message=#630173

Basically the discussion here is whether all blogs are INHERENTLY synthetically transparent or if synthetic transparency is a label we can apply to certain blogs (as a way of calling them out based on the violation of certain community standards) while calling other blogs authentically transparent.

Walter