Misinformation, which is generally defined as information that’s just wrong, and disinformation, which is information that’s deliberately false – an intentional lie designed to make you believe propaganda – are two of toughest challenges that we face. It’s a serious problem regardless of the situation, but it becomes deadly when ...
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Cookies have sometimes been the bane of my professional life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of warm, chewy, nutty, chocolate chip, oatmeal cookies, and I love almost all Christmas cookies. There are emergency Girl Scout Thin Mint sleeves and Tagalongs in my freezer, and I sometimes have ...
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We live in unsettled times. More bluntly, people are more consistently pi$$ed off than they used to be. We’re polarized; a third of us are suddenly vindicated and complacent, another third are apoplectic about the state of the republic, and who the hell knows about the other third – the ...
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The most useful tool to ever come out of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) was actually “gifted” to the organization, and us, by the three people who created it. Two of our longtime friends and colleagues, Dr. Marty Rozelle and Lewis Michaelson, and TPC partner, Doug Sarno – ...
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People who have been wronged or mistreated need to hear an acknowledgement of that injury before they will ever likely be willing to move on to bigger or other conversations. A century and a half after the fact, one enormous wrong began being righted on a warm, wind-swept desert day ...
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Making America Communicate Again (MACA) isn’t going to be easy. We’re different; we have distinct priorities, experiences and we’re talking among six generations – Silents, Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z and the Polars. Consider Generation Z, now entering the workforce and getting lots of attention these days.
Explaining how ...
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PublicInput is a software company that recently released the results of their survey on current trends in public involvement. Keep in mind that this is from a for-profit business, but you might find some of the reported trends interesting, particularly numbers four and five....
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The age of weaponized propaganda that we’re lucky enough to be living through obviously isn’t going anywhere soon. It’s proven effective for nefarious actors bent on manipulating public opinion to get what they want. I’m not talking about the infotainment media darlings, influencers, and outlets that are so untrustworthy that ...
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Oscar Wilde supposedly said, “Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.” Those of us in the engagement and consensus business deal with tough people and situations for a living. Most regular human beings get to carry grudges all the way to their gastroenterologist’s office; we don’t have that ...
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My political science professor said on our first day in her class that politics is simply an alternative to violence. That stuck with me for decades and came roaring back to mind one January 6th. Nearly four years later, America has voted against politics. In a more recent ...
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