Earlier this month I attended a lecture by Nik Gowing, BBC World News anchor for the channel’s flagship news programme, The Hub, which reports on global news.
The theme of the lecture was about the compression of world events as a result of the power of social media and mobile communications, followed by an (as yet unresolved) discussion about who controls information power in the world of social and mobile communication.
Gowing showed how social networks, multiple mobile phone bearing witnesses, video and photographic images shared to the web have become serious challenges to those in positions of power – ie, governments and global corporations.
Gowing described how disconnected systems are in place to deal with sudden comms or social media crises both within corporations and governments, pointing out their inadequacy in dealing with the new information landscape. He referred to this situation as ’the tyranny of real time’, making power in today’s world both vulnerable and brittle.
For example, during the Millbank Tower riots in November 2011, the BBC news teams used video footage and Twitter reports from protestors to assemble the news story as it appeared, before the news crews could get on location to film.
Another example cited by Gowing was that of Zoltan Bakonyi, CEO of Mal Rt, the Hungarian Aluminium firm whose damaged silos spilled red toxic sludge into the local towns and countryside in October 2010. Because social media spread the message about what had happened, with reports, video footage and online comments appearing so quickly, Bakonyi was arrested within days of the toxic spillage:
With decades of experience in journalism behind him, Gowing also noted a shift in people’s behaviour because of the rise of mobile phones and social media. During natural disasters, riots or acts of terror, people immediately reach for their mobile phones and begin filming events as they unfold before them. This was evidenced widely during the Japanese Tsunami this year: for days and weeks afterwards new footage appeared from people who had filmed the events unfolding at great personal risk:
Asked whether he believed this was in an effort to gain money for their coverage, Gowing pointed out that the BBC seldom pays for such footage. He believes (as do we) that people are not so motivated by money as by the desire to share their experiences.
Key social and mobile learnings from the session
One of the biggest take-aways from the presentation was the sense that businesses and governments are ill prepared to deal with the massively reduced time between an event and mass public awareness.
Even news teams, better equipped than any corporate organisation to receive, interpret, fact check and then publish accurate information often struggle to keep up.
The challenge for organisations responding to events, especially comms crises, is the mediation, authentication and prioritisation of a massive volume of information. The reality is that organisations in 2011, from the UK government to BP, have failed to have put systems in place to respond appropriately to sudden, massive public awareness of an incident.
To Gowing, the brittleness of power in a digitally alert world is from the sudden deficit in legitimacy of power created when information spreads rapidly during a comms or social media crisis. Information is power; if organisations don’t have enough when they’re under the spotlight they look weak.
Ultimately, the corporate and government perception of “media” must shift. Media can no longer be controlled or managed. The media that exists today lies in the hands of 4Bn mobile phone users – essentially a public information space.
Although Gowing has been spreading this message for two years, organisations over the last year have failed to be ready for real-time information. The wisest ones looking ahead to 2012 will be asking whether they could have survived the big news stories of 2011 unscathed.
Here are 4 key questions organisations should be asking:
- How are we monitoring the public information space to we know what’s being said as quickly as the public?
- How many hours from news breaking to the first press questions do we have to brief senior people?
- What are competitors spending and what infrastructure are they building to deal with comms crises?
- How are brands and businesses safeguarding their online reputation on an ongoing basis?
