Do Media Directorships Influence Content?

Shel Horowitz — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:28:20 -0500

Unafraid to be controversial (as usual), media watchdog <a href="http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3845">Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) examined the boards of directors of nine major media companies</a>--and found that some of those directors also sit on boards governing health insurance companies. Media properties with interlocking directors with the insurance industry included the Washington Post, Gannett (publishers of USA Today and other papers), NBC, and several others.

Social Responsibility

Joseph Goebbels Would Have Loved This Youtube Video!

Shel Horowitz — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:29:18 -0500

The other night I saw a video that shocked me: A spliced-together out-of-context montage from Barack Obama's speeches and media appearances to create the illusion that he is a radical Muslim extremist (and disparaging Islam generally in terms that would be quite familiar to the Jews who were victimized by similar descriptions throughout history.

I will not dignify this filth with a link. But I'd like to analyze its impact.

Social Responsibility

Social Media as Time Transporter

Shel Horowitz — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:59:28 -0500

Thirty-one years ago, the housemate with whom I’d found an apartment
moved out, and I invited a poet friend of mine to take his place. We
shared that apartment for several months, until he, too, moved on, and
another friend moved in.

Last weekend, I went to see that poet friend for the first time since
around 1980. We’d been completely out of touch–but about a year ago, a
mutual friend tracked my wife down on Facebook. Turns out that mutual
friend also convinced my old housemate to join Facebook, where we found
each other a month or so ago.

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Laptops for Kids and Shared Village-wide Cell Phones can Fight Systemic Deep Poverty

Shel Horowitz — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:39:10 -0400

Horace Mann, founding President of Antioch College, famously said "Be ashamed to die until you have won one victory for humanity." Neither Nicholas Negroponte nor Iqbal Quadir will ever have to worry about shaming themselves in front of Horace Mann's ghost.

These two M.I.T. professors have both made substantial contributions in developing countries, bringing life-changing technology to villages that don't even have electricity or running water.

Social Responsibility

Lesson For Marketers: Respect Your Prspect's Intelligence

Shel Horowitz — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:10:14 -0400

One of the points I make repeatedly in Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First is to respect your prospect’s intelligence–and with good reason. To succeed in business, you need long-term relationships. And you don’t get them by insulting people.

I could list bad-practice examples from now until the end of time.
Every once in a while, I find one that just pisses me off because it
seems to shout, “Hey, Stupid! Send us money!” The one that landed in my
postal mailbox yesterday was one of them.

Social Responsibility

How Far We've Come, and How Fast!

Shel Horowitz — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:45:36 -0400

Sometimes, instead of ranting at all the things we want to change, it's
nice to take a deep breath and remember how far we've come. We've just
passed Canadian Thanksgiving, and the US Thanksgiving is coming up in a
few weeks. This seems like as good a time as any.

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Does Google's Sidewiki Really Fit the 'Don't Be Evl' Motto?

Shel Horowitz — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:43:25 -0400

Search on Google for the company's name plus the phrase "Don't Be Evil", and you'll get 366,000 hits. The company's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil">motto has been used at least since 2001</a>, according to Wikipedia.

As someone who has been writing and speaking about business ethics for seven years, I applaud this motto. But I question its authenticity as it applies to some of Google's actions. In other words, I see Google occasionally violating the motto with at least three sets of policies that--intentionally or not--certainly do evil.

Social Responsibility

Renewable Energy vs. True Sustainabiity

Shel Horowitz — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:18:46 -0400

Years ago, there was a bumper sticker, "Trees are America's Renewable Resource." And yes, you can regenerate a harvestable forest in 20 years or so: a nanosecond compared to the millions of years necessary to create fossil fuels.

Social Responsibility

Secrets of Social Media in 15 Minutes a Day

Shel Horowitz — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:36:58 -0400

Yesterday, I was privileged to co-host a teaching call with the amazing George Kao, a social media trainer who specializes in highy productive techniques for using social media in socially conscious businesses.

George gave me permission to share his very informative handout: his slides are at http://georgekao.com/socialslides

I also want to share a few of the takeaways

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LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Productivity--In 15 Minutes a Day

Shel Horowitz — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:28:23 -0400

Social media & webinar expert George Kao offers a free teleseminar on success with LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook in 15 Minutes Per Day. I'll be interviewing him.

Social Responsibility