Healthy Voices is an initiative of Bayside Medicare Local

HEALTHY VOICES

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Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

Course Notes

Session Eight – Representing yourself and your

organisation

Representing yourself and your organisation

This final session examines the possible impact/s of publishing material online. We look

at the ethical considerations involved and explore ways to ensure your ‘online brand’ is

protected.

The importance of consistency

Think about the following brands; Nike, Apple, Coles, what concepts do they conjure up?

Brands want to you to associate certain things with them, and if their marketing is good

you generally do. For Nike its all about ‘Just do it’, health, fitness, sport, and

achievement. For Apple it might be innovation, slick design, and cutting edge

technology. And Coles? – if you have a TV then maybe ‘Down, down, prices are down’ is

already assaulting your inner ear, ie they want to be associated with value for money.

To ensure these concepts are embedded the brands message needs to be consistent. If

Coles suddenly started featuring truffles and caviar in their weekly catalogues and they

changed ‘Down, Down….” to “The best in fresh organic produce” then there would be the

potential for their customers to be confused. Are they about cheap prices? Or is it a

supermarket for affluent foodies?

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Just as Coles want to become known for certain things, so do most

online brands. George Takei (https://www.facebook.com/georgehtakei) might post on an

ecletic mix of sci fi, gay rights and humourous ephemera but the quality of the links and

the stance he takes on the more serious subject matter is generally consistent.

Consistency in message is key if you want to be understood and have people value your

brand, and with that read your posts/tweets etc. This is true not just within each

platform but across platforms. Think about the ABC radio. Imagine if 774 (the ABC’s

talkback/news station which tends to have a more mature audience) started talking in

street slang just because it was posting on Instagram. Or if TripleJ (Youth oriented music

station) started to post comments to articles on Middle Eastern politics on The Drum?

(http://www.abc.net.au/news/thedrum/). 774 and TripleJ exist because they serve

different audiences (or even the same audiences looking for different things at different

times). People listen and respect them for the consistency of their product; their

reputation and credibility relies on it.

Like the ABC, it may be that in order for you to communicate effectively on a range of

platforms you actually need more than one online brand or persona.

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

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Ethical Considerations & Your Reputation

We dealt with ethical considerations in Session Two while exploring whether a particular

story was an appropriate one to be writing/publishing. This section reiterates many of

those ideas while considering their impact on your brand/online persona.

The privacy of others

If you are writing about identifiable individuals it is important to consider their privacy

and ways in which your material may impact them. Aside from ensuring that you don’t

infringe on some’s right to privacy under any of the relevant acts (Privacy Act, Health

Records Act, laws around confidentiality), there are ethical considerations beyond what

the law specifies.

Is it appropriate to share details of your children’s lives for example? What about their

health conditions? What about your partner? Or your extended family? Your

neighbour? An acquaintance? Someone you can into contact with in a professional

capacity and so on?

Does telling your story also mean telling someone else’s? Do you have their consent?

How informed is that consent?

What is the implication for your credibility of not exploring these questions? Or on the

flip side - What impact will not including information about others have on your

credibility? Is disclosing basic information a key part in establishing your credibility and

ensuring people understanding your perspective?

All these are considerations that may guide your decision to publish. Assuming you are

acting within the law and are acting in good faith there are no set answers to these

questions. There may be instances where small infringements on someone’s privacy may

be the more ethical thing to do, or others where a small infringement actually does

someone substantial harm.

Privacy considerations shouldn’t just be about immediate impact, there is also the future

impact to consider. Details about your children for example may not impact on them

immediately but may in the future.

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

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Promoting your own services?

If you are using social media to promote your business ensure that it is clear that that is

what you are doing. Sites should clearly indicate the business they represent and your

online bios should include professional details where they are relevant to the messages

you are conveying.

There are penalities for publishing false or misleading information. The ACCC provides

this information regarding Social media:

http://www.accc.gov.au/publications/advertising-selling/advertising-and-selling-

guide/advertising-selling-and-promotional-techniques/other-promotional-techniques

This specifically deals with publishing online reviews:

http://www.accc.gov.au/business/advertising-promoting-your-business/managing-online-

reviews

Your employer’s/future employer’s interests?

Aside from employer policies which are explored below, there are other considerations

around publishing on social media and its impact on your career. Consider Aaron Lane

and the fallout from a couple of 2 year old tweets:

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/liberal-candidate-aaron-lane-quits-over-twitter-

comments-20140801-zzhzu.html

Examples from politics are the most obvious but there is the potential for an individual’s

online persona to clash with their employers brand or values in other sectors. For

example a blog called Buy Nothing New might be viewed as inappropriate if written by

the Head of Customer Relations at Myer.

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

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It isn’t just your current employer you need to consider. Some

employers will look you up online prior to interview. Rightly or wrongly if they find

posts which clash with their values it is unlikely the interview will go very well.

• The communities best interest test.

There will be situations where a story presents itself and you need to decide whether

telling it is in the community’s best interest.

Things to consider:

Does your story bias total internet content on an issue in a certain way?

For example immunisations: The first page of a google search on “Should I immunise my

child” produces 10 articles.

Four clearly say no you shouldn’t, you can’t tell the position of five in the search results

and only one is a obvious yes. Does another article saying ‘no’ really served the public

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

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interest? It might be your view but that isn’t necessarily the same

as the public interest. Maybe it is, maybe not.

There are some topics that by their very nature tend to be misrepresented online.

Imagine you had some sort of surgery. Are you more likely to post about it if it went

well or badly? Does your post about your bad experience actually advance the public

interest? In some instances yes. In others maybe not. It may be that your story

describing your 1 in 1000 bad experience is the impetus someone needs to cancel an

operation they would benefit from, but equally it may highlight an issue with a

particularly procedure and create an impetus for change.

Will others act on your information?

You may remember an episode of Catalyst from 2013. It was called ‘Heart of the Matter’

and in two parts it explored the link (or lack thereof) between saturated fat consumption

and heart disease, as well as exploring the efficacy of statins as a medication.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/heartofthematter/.

Shortly after the program aired a number of viewers were prompted to cease their

medications.

Were Catalyst right to run this story? In what circumstances would it be appropriate?

What treatment of the subject matter would you expect to see in a story broadcast on

the ABC?

After you have considered this read the results of the internal ABC investigation into the

program: http://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Catalyst-Heart-of-the-

Matter-ACA-Investigation-Report.pdf

What has been the impact of this on the reputation of Catalyst as a trustworthy source

of information? Has it damaged the programs image?

Protecting your image

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

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As an online publisher you will probably want to protect your own

image/brand. In the last session we covered protecting yourself from others, specifically

flamers. Sometimes though you need to be protected from yourself.

The ethical considerations above in part provide that protection as does thinking

through the implications of something before you write it.

Inviting Controversy

Consider Tracey Spicer - the following link take you through an article Tracey Spicer

wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald’s travel section:

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/i-dont-want-my-kids-sitting-next-to-a-man-on-a-plane-

20140424-375z6.html

These are some replies to that article:

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/comment/blogs/blunt-instrument/keep-kids-away-

from-men-on-planes-yes-please-20140428-37e8t.html

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/a-response-to-tracey-spicer-20140429-zr0tf.html

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/holiday-type/family/airline-child-seating-policies-all-men-

are-not-potential-paedophiles-20140429-37epl.html

Sometimes being controversial gives you an edge, it is part of your writers voice and

adds to your authenticity. In others, at best it makes you look a bit silly and at worst has

the ability to destroy your credibility.

Which has Tracey Spicer achieved?

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Your organisation

Policies an organisation may have or need:

• Privacy policies – Website privacy policies give details about what they will do

with any information they collect on the site. If your site collects information about

visitors (ie it gets them to fill in a form or similar). Resources:

http://www.visser.com.au/blog/generic-privacy-policy-for-australian-websites/,

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Website-Privacy-Policy

• Internet Usage policies – These detail how internet provided by an employer or

service can be used. Internet usage policies usually place limitations around the types of

sites that can be accessed.

• Confidentiality agreements – Many organisations and/or professional have

confidentiality agreements which place boundaries about sharing information gained

during the course of employment.

• Commercial In Confidence – Even if an organisation doesn’t have a specific

confidentiality agreement there is still information that is inappropriate for publication or

sharing with a wider audience. Commercial information that may benefit competitors if

disclosed falls into this category.

What to do if you publish something you shouldn’t.

Even if you don’t breach an organisations policy there are times when you may publish

something you shouldn’t. The following tips and tactics are designed to help you in that

situation.

Tips & Tactics:

• Be willing to admit you were wrong - Avoid defending the indefensible.

Publish an article or post saying you’re were wrong.

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• Issue a public / personal apology – Apologies are

important, particularly if someone has been hurt but whatever you published.

• Remove the article, post, image – if you offend, infringe copyright and

someone’s rights in another manner then the first thing to do is remove offending item

from your site. The longer it stays up the more aggrieved people are likely to feel.

• Post a retraction – If someone has complained in an official manner, respond in

the same manner and issue a retraction. Indicate that you retract the remarks made or

the information imparted by issue a statement to that effect.

• Place a warning on content – If you are publishing something that may offend

then placing an advisory warning on the content is appropriate.

Dealing with the media

Attracting their attention:

Most media outlets get hundreds if not thousands of press releases each day. There is a

lot of information online about writing press releases including this:

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Press-Release.

Getting a story picked up by the mainstream media often comes down to two basic

points: How powerful is the accompanying photo opportunity? And what sort of

headline can be used with the article? Connecting the dots for journalists – ie, illustrating

the stories photographic potential and providing some headline worthy material should

help get your story noticed.

To quote a journalist from a leading local newspaper group:

“I should add that with pic and news stories - it is about making your message stand out from

the crowd. We get hundreds of press releases emailed through a day so you want to offer a

great pic op or quote able quotes (ie a funding cut is not just disappointing, it is catastrophic

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because it will cause mothers to start taking ice ...! Or whatever outcome

happens to be true!) and a follow up call never hurts ... And sometimes it just depends on the

news cycle so don't give up if one story doesn't get taken up as the next might if it is a slow

news day ....”

Dealing with negative publicity:

Sometimes you might attract the attention of the media for all the wrong reasons. Your

story might be picked up and used in a way you never intended or your one ill thought

article might be spread more widely than you imagined.

What do you do?

• Respond honestly. This means explaining or clarifying your position and apologising

if you are at fault.

• Avoid saying no comment except when dealing with completely baseless rumours.

People tend to read the words “no comment” as guilty.

• Ask for the opportunity to present your case – many media channels will allow you

the right of reply.

• Let others defend you. Hopefully you will have advocates or readers that will defend

your position. Let them.

• Find out the source of the bad publicity and confront it.

• Get advice. If you suddenly find you self at the centre of a media storm, getting

some of sort professional advice may be advisable.

Resources:

There is a wealth of information on the net offering advice on dealing with negative

publicity. This is an interesting place to start:

http://crenshawcomm.com/pr-advice-on-responding-to-negative-

coverage/#.U_FmvCXlrxN

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local