Presentation to the Open University Business School, 22nd March, 2006
Social movements and new technology: a challenge to the existing order of business.
Margaret Grieco, Professor of Transport and Society, Napier University and Salaried Visiting Full Professor, Cornell University
Email: m.grieco@napier.ac.uk mg294@cornell.edu
PowerPoint slide show available at www.design-and-determination.com/grieco-fairtrade.pps (404kb)
Abstract:
This presentation focuses upon the interaction between social movements and new technology. It argues that new information communication technology has profound consequences for the organization and development of effective global social movements. The globalization of contemporary social movements is characterized not only by the geographical scope that the technology permits but also by both the speed of bargaining and the velocity of campaigns within social movements. These characteristics are capable of raising a major challenge to the existing order of business. In this presentation, we will focus on the ‘fair-trade’ global social movement and the challenge which it presently represents to the existing order of business.
1. Introduction: a new campaigning environment.
New information communication technologies create a new campaigning environment for social movements. The advent of the web and the internet enable patterns of global political and economic association which constitute a new ground of social action. Discussions of the scope and scale of global social movements came strongly into focus with the activities of the anti-globalisation movement[1]. As importantly, and less discussed, is the speed of organization within this new campaign form. There is a new speed of bargaining which characterizes social life, social action and social movement campaigns which is an outcome of the highly distributed character of the new information communication technologies (see Grieco, 2003 @ www.geocities.com/transport_and_society/speed.html ). Within the labor movement, this new speed of bargaining has been recognized by Eric Lee and discussed as an increased velocity of campaigns (see Lee , 2005 @ http://www.geocities.com/unionsonline/globalcampaigninglee.htm . Through new information communication technology and the pattern of its distribution down to household and individual level, social movements are now able to organize over global space, in interaction with the whole of their base down to the individual level and to organize the interaction of their base with those organizations, institutions or agencies they wish to challenge: and to do so in real time.
Not only are social movements now well placed through the speed, scale and scope of the distributed technology to challenge existing business (and power) interests but they are also well placed to choose amongst existing business interests the very businesses they wish to sponsor and support: and indeed to set up new forms of business. The Fair Trade movement provides a very clear demonstration of the potential social movements have in challenging and changing the existing contours of business:
Fair Trade products now sit on the shelves of many major supermarkets and are beginning to build important market share in particular commodities, most noticeably coffee; furthermore, Fair Trade is growing beyond its first markets in Europe to develop a presence in Japan, Canada, Australia, and the US. Penny Newman of Cafédirect pointed out that the company's successful share issue in 2004 would have inconceivable in the 1980s; while Safia Minney founder of People Tree has proved that it is possible for Fair Trade products to compete in the cut-throat fashion industry. @ http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/news/archives/Skoll/Where+next+For+Fair+Trade.htm
The new information communication technologies not only enable social movements to pressurize business to reform along more ethical dimensions but also enable the development of alternative selling and market structures. Fair Trade companies can sell directly to consumers through e-shopping facilities. Equal Exchange, the oldest Fair Trade company in the USA does just that (go to http://www.equalexchange.com/ ). As e-shopping habits and practices develop, the ability of social movements to connect with consumers in the e-shopping mall increases.
This movement towards Fair Trade is assisted by new tools such as Fair Trade certification (see http://www.transfairusa.org/ ; http://www.fairtrade.net/) and the ready ability that the new technology provides for the authentication of such certification. The ethical branding of goods and the shape of new markets in ethical goods is greatly enabled by the affordances of the new information communication technology and the harnessing of the technology by social movements in their campaigns to change the terms and conditions experienced by vulnerable labor.
Transparency is an important component of the new campaigning environment, a component which is achievable as a consequence of a new civic capacity in respect of information access and information management. This new civic capacity for information management, sharing and pooling across geographical boundaries provides the opportunity for the formation of new social solidarities: the conditions of the labor which produced the good being consumed become visible, apparent and known. The technology provides a ground for the sharing of ontology: the condition of labor in the far distance can now be experienced and witnessed at home. The technology also provides the ground for the undertaking of immediate action – the online purchase of Fair Trade goods, the signing of an on-line petition, an on-line donation. With the opportunities for such ten minute activism, consumers enter the world of international labor relations: and the challenge to existing business spreads.
2. Fair Trade households: consumer strength, consumer investment, consumer boycotts.
An important strength of the potential challenge lies in the ease of engaging the consumer in campaigns through the technology: and an important aspect of this technology is that it is now common household technology (Little, 2000). Within Fair Trade marketing there is substantial focus on the household and Fair Trade campaigning around food and grocery items is substantial – and within this sector of Fair Trade activity there is marketing to ‘grow’ the level of business:
Each and every day Fair Trade improves the lives of farmers, artisans, and their families by increasing incomes, improving working conditions and promoting democratic principles. Buyers of Fair Trade products also benefit from high quality goods and the knowledge that they are shopping responsibly. Take the Fair Trade Challenge: shift 5% of your household consumption to Fair Trade products throughout the year! Click for a list of Fair Trade businesses. @ http://www.fairtraderesource.org/WFTDintro.html
The recognition that consumers are now more reachable by campaigners and that campaigners can make Fair Trade purchase a convenient and attractive option moves the action beyond traditional boycotts toward the harnessing of consumer strength and towards new practices of investment. Before exploring these new practices of investment, it is worth mentioning the success of various consumer boycotts: the pressure on sporting goods manufacturers, such as Nike, to end the use of child labor is perhaps one of the better known campaigns (see http://www.saigon.com/~nike/news/Nytfair.html ).
Direct selling of Fair Trade goods through e-marketing and e-facilities represents one path towards harnessing consumer strength to provide the primary producers of the products with an ethical market, another is found in the insertion of Fair Trade product lines in High Street stores:
Forget Gucci and Givenchy, they say; the new coveted designer label will be Fairtrade.
In June the Fairtrade Foundation, the award-winning charity that promotes coffee, chocolate and bananas, is launching its fashion "mark" - a clothes label that gives shoppers a guarantee that cotton farmers in West Africa and India get a better deal.
The charity is in talks with leading high street chains about buying and selling clothes made from fair trade cotton. It predicts that many of the big stores will be selling ethically-produced clothes within the next few years.
Just as customers in Starbucks now demand fair trade coffee, men and women will demand fair trade clothes when fashion stores start supplying them, the campaigners say.
"The door is wide open for companies to work with us," said Harriet Lamb, the foundation's executive director. "The public is hungry for these products." @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/26/nfash26.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/03/26/ixhome.html
The Fair Trade campaign to ensure that Fair Trade products are sold on the High Street is greatly aided by the research by Mori which indicates that one in two UK adults recognize the Fair Trade mark and four out of five customers purchasing Fair Trade goods do so because they are concerned to improve the conditions of the producer farmers. A recent Fair Trade press release provides an indication of the success of the campaign and its position in the ‘consumer calendar’:
press release
FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT - BUSINESS TOLD NOW IS THE TIME TO GET INVOLVED
Fairtrade Fortnight (6-19 March 2006)
Many of the UK’s biggest retailers and catering outlets have already put their weight behind Fairtrade Fortnight, March 6 – 19 2006, the two-week period of Fairtrade campaigning and promotion which has cemented its place in the consumer calendar.
And this year the Fairtrade Foundation is encouraging more businesses to increase their involvement. Representatives of the 180 companies which are licensees of the Fairtrade Foundation together with many of the 200 suppliers and wholesalers of products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark met in London last month to discuss how to push Fairtrade throughout the commercial sector.
It was agreed that Fairtrade Fortnight is the best time for companies and organisations which have so far not used or sold Fairtrade products to become involved – and for those who have stocked and used Fairtrade products to increase their range. In previous years, sales volumes of products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark have trebled over the Fortnight when supported by in-store messaging, Point of Sale material and other prompts for customers.
“We often hear people in business saying they see the publicity which surrounds Fairtrade Fortnight every year and it makes them wish they had done something to join in,” says Mark Varney, Business Development Manager at the Fairtrade Foundation. “This is an early chance to get involved.”
The consumer message for next year’s Fairtrade Fortnight will be Make Fairtrade Your Habit. It will include a celebrity poster campaign where famous names will reveal their Fairtrade shopping habits.
“The Fairtrade Foundation can help business in many ways from giving guidance on promotional activity to explaining how best to stock Fairtrade products,” says Mark Varney. “Research shows that people are very interested in buying more Fairtrade products. Our aim is to make them more visible and available in more outlets during Fairtrade Fortnight – this is a great business opportunity for everyone interested in Fairtrade.”
The latest TNS Superpanel data shows that in the year ending October 2005 penetration of Fairtrade products in UK households rose by 20%, up from 33% to 40%.
A special trade leaflet that explains how and why the trade can make the most of Fairtrade Fortnight will be available on-line at www.fairtrade.org.uk from December 16 as well as from many distributors and wholesalers of Fairtrade products. Copies can also be obtained from the Fairtrade Foundation by e-mailing despatch@fairtrade.org.uk.
The leaflet, which doubles as a poster, details new developments in Fairtrade and describes the promotional materials available, many of them free. They can be used to involve businesses in what is increasingly being seen as an effective way of combating poverty in developing countries. The materials can be used by shops, wholesalers, cafes and restaurants, hotels, guesthouses, workplaces and college canteens.
“We know how interested many shoppers are in Fairtrade – and according to the latest MORI poll awareness is growing fastest amongst 25 to 34-year-olds,” says Mark Varney. “This is an opportunity to get more people to buy Fairtrade and for those who are occasional purchasers to buy regularly across a broader range of categories. Habit plays a big part in our choices when we go shopping. Our aim this year is to show people that Fairtrade gives you more from your shopping.”
Promotional work during previous Fairtrade Fortnights has included in-store video displays, outdoor poster campaigns, new product launches, Point of Sale materials, table-talkers posters as well as TV advertising.
Visibility for Fairtrade products is crucial. Respondents in focus groups say that they would buy Fairtrade products but can’t always locate them in store.
Promotional activity during Fairtrade Fortnight encourages customers to look for the FAIRTRADE Mark – the only independent consumer guarantee of a fair deal for farmers in developing countries – across more product categories. They become aware that as well as the core items – coffee, tea, bananas and chocolate – there are now many others, from a wide selection of fresh fruit, wine, rice, sugar, honey, nuts and juices to composite products such as jams, cereal bars and cakes. @ http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/pr020206.htm
The awareness of Fair Trade appears to be growing and the indications are that there is a slow but sure reshaping of business around the Fair Trade ‘choice’, however, disturbingly research out of Colorado State University shows that producer farmers and households are not always aware of the Fair Trade structure and purpose:
Knowledge is a key ingredient to developing the more democratic institutions envisioned by the Fair Trade movement. Yet a universal observation of the case studies was that producers lack a clear understanding of Fair Trade. Fair Trade was an abstract concept, distant from the daily lives of many producers. While producers are intimately aware of processes such as organic production, because it involves their daily farming practices, it appears that many of the activities surrounding Fair Trade certification, marketing, etc., are handled by cooperative leadership at the organizational level, contributing to a lack of understanding by producers. (p16) @ http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Sociology/FairTradeResearchGroup/doc/fairtrade.pdf
Consumer Fair Trade households have greater access to information technology and thus have the condition for greater awareness of and a better overview of the Fair Trade movement than do producer Fair Trade households. There clearly is an irony or paradox here and this raises the issue of whether the purchasing from the primary producers by Fair Trade organizations under Fair Trade terms is sufficient if the consciousness of the Fair Trade movement has not been evoked or conveyed.
Fair Trade ethics are not confined to consuming nor simply to supporting vulnerable producers but are also now part of investment practices. There has been a development of ethical investment organizations and agencies (http://www.ethicalmoney.org/ ):
Why Ethical Investment ?
Every day billions of pounds are lent or invested by banks, pension funds, insurance and investment companies on your behalf. It's your pension, savings or investment, but you don't often get a say in what happens to it, unless you ask!
Economic interests are increasingly influencing and dominating the political, social and environmental agenda across the world. We believe that financial institutions need to be more aware of the social and environmental impacts of the companies that they invest in. Ethical investment is an important part of this movement to help change corporate attitudes.
The traditional mantra of Chief Executives is to say that 'our role is to maximise profit for share holders'. We say that 'yes we want to make a financial return, but not at any price'. It is possible to profit with principles, in fact many companies are proving that by becoming more responsible corporate citizens, they are actually more profitable not less. Getting it right first time really can pay dividends and that helps your savings as well.
Through your pensions and investments you own equities or shares in different businesses and these shares can give a vote to the shareholder. A 'quality' ethical fund manager will use this vote to help influence improvements in corporate behaviour.
Ethical Investment is not just about influencing big companies, although that's an important agenda. Why should you invest in businesses whose activities or behaviour you fundamentally disagree with? Ethical investment gives you the choice. We undertake an ethical profile with you to screen out unsuitable companies from your investments e.g. armaments companies.
You can also invest in the industries of the future. By changing your banking, or investing in ethical funds, you can focus money into exciting new developments in areas such as renewable energy, organic farming, healthcare and education.
So, invest ethically and feel better about your money!
New information communication technologies make it easier for individuals to connect with such agencies and organizations and to track the ethical behavior of companies being considered for investment in. The concern and awareness about the social and environmental impacts of international companies has become global and it generates information which forms or shapes the ‘report card’ upon which ethical investment takes place. Clearly, there are real challenges in play to the existing order of business.
3. Fairtrade towns: new civic cultures, new transparencies
The interest in carrying Fair Trade items within the High Street stores follows upon the recent and rapid success of the Fair Trade towns movement in Britain.
In May 2000, Garstang in Lancashire declared itself ‘the world’s first Fairtrade Town’. The campaign caught the imagination of local people, the interest of politicians, and made headlines across the north-west – not to mention hugely raising awareness of the FAIRTRADE Mark in the area.
March 2005 sees the declaration of the 100th Fairtrade Town. @ http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/get_involved_fairtrade_towns.htm
To become a Fair Trade town, certain criteria have to be fulfilled:
To become a Fairtrade Town (or any other populated area), 5 goals must be met:
|
|
|
|
|
The application form to join the movement is downloadable. The campaign to gain status is local and within the campaign there is a clear focus on the retail sector amongst others. The website provides a tool kit of Fair Trade action that can be taken and provides links to existing Fair Trade towns. Within the Fair Trade Towns or towns having Council sponsored Fair Trade campaigns, there are a number of major British cities including London (see http://www.fairtradelondon.org.uk/ ).
A visit to the listed local Fair Trade Town websites demonstrates the high levels of activity within these campaigns. These represent new civic cultures and new transparencies on economic and environmental justice. These transparencies, and the momentum these create, are made possible by new information technology forms which can be used to create a common showcase for the autonomous, distinct and separate organizational actions within the Fair Trade social movement. A ‘parent’ web site to which all the individual local campaigns link and which links to those campaigns provides a very cost effective and simple transparency device. The ability to compare across locations and to gain information on steps taken elsewhere contributes to the current shape of the challenge to existing business on the UK High Street.
Manchester became the 100th British Fair Trade Town – the City provided an account of the steps it took to accomplish this status and it provided an explanation of why it took them;
Manchester City Council, jointly with Salford City Council became the 100th Fairtrade Town earlier this year. Manchester carried out a number of steps to achieve Fairtrade status including monitoring the availability of Fairtrade products in local shops and catering outlets, showing that businesses were using the products, demonstrating support from the local community and forming a steering group. Councillor Sue Murphy, Chair of the Fairtrade Manchester steering group explains:
“We also started the ‘Fairtrade Friendly’ scheme where workplaces, offices,
community groups, cafes, shops, and schools could apply to be recognised as
‘Fairtrade Friendly’ by meeting certain criteria - they then are included in
our fairtrade directory and get a certificate from the steering group.”
The steering group has enabled the council to forge closer links with voluntary groups working in the field and has enhanced the council’s connections with related campaigns such as “Make Poverty History.” Sue believes that by recognising their responsibility as a ‘world class city’ Manchester is able to bring diverse communities together through the Fairtrade movement. She recalls how a sugar grower from Malawi who supplies the Co-op supermarket with Fairtrade sugar visited the city and met with members of his family who live in Manchester. This closes the distance between what can be viewed as ‘us’ and ‘them’ and help support the multi-cultural population which exists in many of Britain’s towns and cities.
This is just one of the reasons why councils become involved in promoting fair trade. @ http://www.opportunities.co.uk/editorial/workwise/workwise_16_08_05.shtm
Manchester’s sensitivity in ensuring that Fair Trade producers have the opportunity to contextualize Fair Trade through experience of the consumer location is worthy of attention. The linking of Fair Trade with issues of ethnic identity also warrants our attention.
The Fair Trade movement has clearly grown beyond a simple contact with the individual consumer or the committed activist and taken on new institutional forms. The involvement of councils and the monitoring of the Fair Trade practices of the High Street raise new challenges for existing business. And indeed they provide new opportunities for revitalization of the High Street business: greater diversity and new brands with customer willing to pay higher prices for ethical goods – but only if these goods are so certified.
4. Fair trade ‘labor’ movements: the development of globalized organizational structures and institutions.
The organized labor movement of the developed world has also begun to play its part in the Fair Trade movement. Sweatshop Watch focuses upon Sweat shops both in California and globally – it communicates under the slogan ‘Empowering workers, informing consumers’ ( see http://www.sweatshopwatch.org/index.php?s=51 )
Their most recent alert to action notice is concerned with the jeans company Levi Strauss:
ACTION ALERT: Feb. 16, 2006: Ethical Code? Tell Levi’s They Can’t Have Their Ethical Code AND Sweatshops Too.
Join us in a PROTEST at Levi Strauss & Company’s Corporate Headquarters
WHERE: 1155 Battery Street, San Francisco, CA
WHEN: Thursday, February 16, 2006
12 noon.
If you can’t make the protest, please send letters of support. Scroll down for
a sample letter.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
= =
Ethical Code? Tell Levi’s They Can’t Have Their Ethical Code AND Sweatshops
Too.
MANUFACTURAS LAJAT, a Levi’s supplier in Mexico, has violated Levi’s code of
conduct. In Lajat’s Gomez Palacio plant, workers experienced:
12 hour workdays with no overtime pay, exposure to dangerous chemicals, dirty
bathrooms, and blocked exits.
UNDER Mexican Labor law and Levi’s code of conduct, workers have a right to
freedom of association. However, when workers formed an independent union, they
faced:
Intimidation, midnight visits from amangement, blacklisting, firring, police
attacks, factory closure by Lajat to avoid the union.
NOW Mexico’s federal labor tribunal and a local labor board have granted Lajat
workers registration for their independent union—a historic victory!
Support these workers by attending a protest at Levi’s headquarters!
Levi’s is Lajat’s most important client. Levi’s did nothing when Lajat
illegally closed its Gomez Palacio plant. In Fact, Levi’s increased its order
to Lajat, even though Lajat refuses to recognize the union, pay workers their
legal severance, and pay the Mexican government thousands of dollars it owes
for workers’ health & housing programs.
Join the protest. Tell Levi’s:
- Lajat workers want jeans with justice. <
- Levi’s should ensure Lajat recognizes thhe union and follows the law.
The technology is being used to call a demonstration within the United States against action taking place in Mexico. It is also being used to distribute a sample letter of protest – and the information is archived so that it can be revisited. The ethical challenge is explicit – ‘Ethical Code? Tell Levi’s They Can’t Have Their Ethical Code AND Sweatshops Too’. This is one of many possible examples of the involvement of labor organizations in international ‘Fair Trade’ issues, issues which are also labor justice issues. The conjunction of labor organizations and consumer organizations is increasingly common.
Similarly, the academic structure which relates to the organized labor movement – labor studies – also play their part in advocating Fair Trade arrangements and make use of the new information communication technologies to encourage others to take up the Fair Trade challenge ( see http://bss.sfsu.edu/labor/fair_trade.html ). This matches, it should be noted, previous USA student campaigns in the late nineties to put pressure on logo garment companies which use sweat shop labor to adopt an ethical code that prohibits the practice (http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/campus/usatoday021799.html)
There is ample evidence of consumer, student and labor social movements coming together to alter business practice – and some history of success. As we have already seen Fair Trade is becoming a High Street store practice and even Macdonalds have moved to Fair Trade coffee within the North East United States but there are other models of labor action which we should also be aware of.
The JustGarments company of El Salvador ‘offers 100% unionized, sweat-free garment production’ (http://www.justgarments.net/index.htm ). Sweatshop Watch (http://www.sweatshopwatch.org/index.php?s=39 )provides a summary of the situation of JustGarments:
ACTION ALERT (UPDATED): Feb.14, 2006: Sweat-free
Factory Needs Your Support, How to Keep Just Garments Open
The effort to help Just Garments (www.justgarments.net) has already
raised over $18,000! Because of the international support, the courageous women
of Just Garments continues to sew in El Salvador. Please continue to
share the story of Just Garments with others. Donations and loans are
still needed.
(FROM Jan. 26, 2005): Just
Garments, the only unionized garment factory in El Salvador, faces a dire financial situation. The factory needs monetary contributions in order
to get out of debt and begin their new Beta Test business plan that would help
them reach financial sustainability.
Just Garments is a symbol of an alternative garment industry. Its
mission is “to produce top-quality clothing in a unionized factory that models
fair business practices and respects workers' rights.” Just Garments was
formed when Tainan, a Taiwanese-owned factory, shut down after workers
organized a union (STIT). The workers decided to form Just Garments to
challenge the sweatshop model of production. Just Garment is unique
because it is 100% unionized and workers even own shares of the company.
Says one worker, “Yes, here it’s very different compared to when it was Tainan. We’re not under the same constant strong pressure, but at the same time we feel
responsible for the success of the factory.” Many of the workers who work at Just
Garments have been blacklisted due to their involvement in the union
struggle. She continues, “Of course, I know that I’m on the blacklist, and that
if the factory closes I’ll find it hard to find work again…”
Please support these workers who are building a just garment industry!
REQUESTED ACTION:
Send a donation to the emergency fund. Donations are tax deductible. Please
send checks made payable to "Activist San Diego" with "STIT-Just
Garments" in the memo line to:
Activist San Diego € 4246 Wightman Street € San Diego € California € 92105-2618
Or make an on-line donation: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=5966
Put "Just Garments" in the project donation category on the on-line
form.
Contact Activist San Diego: 619-528-8383 € info@activistsandiego.org
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Please visit www.justgarments.net. Also
download the letter
from Just Garments with more information on their history and current
financial situation.
In the context where unionizing caused the Taiwanese ownership to close the garment factory, the workers decided to organize themselves into a company to create a new ‘sweat-free’ model of business: in this they are making of use of the new information communication technology to obtain support, sales and investment. It is not clear whether Just Garments itself will be successful but it clearly does provide a new model and a challenge to the old ways of doing business.
5. Conclusion: transparency and the consciousness of global business.
In concluding this short presentation, I want to draw attention to the impact of transparency on the consciousness of global business. Transparency generates knowledge and enables the search for other paths and processes where knowledge indicates that present performance is unsatisfactory. Holding information away from consumers, most particularly global consumers, is no easy business and global business is increasingly aware of consumers’ knowledge and reactions to unsatisfactory performance.
Big Pharma is now on the back foot – blogs, social movements of the medicated, professionals and increasingly policy makers are now all vehicles of challenge. Angell’s work (2005) is both a revelation and a call to action and Big Pharma is aware of the quality of the challenge (see also http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17244).
The technology enables the easy coordination of challenge but it also permits the challenged to view inside the world of the challenger and shape and reform for survival. Already there have been concessions from Big Pharma and it is likely that there will be more if Angell’s call is met.
The new technology enables and indeed forces business into the ground of a ‘new public relations’ ( Bray @http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2005/07/11/New-Public-Relations ). It becomes impossible to control messages through the simple device of hierarchy and this requires adjustment within business (and indeed within other power interests). Here is a view of the future of public relations as developed by Bray:
Finally, last week I was talking to a senior marketing person from a major pharmaceutical manufacturer about enterprise blogging, and he asked “But what about the risk that if you turn your employees loose, they’ll make you look bad?” The answer is at the center of everything in the New Public Relations.
The Old Public Relations · The mechanism was easy to write down, it went like this: ¶
1. Senior management, with a lot of input from marketing people, would work out a company’s message and talking points.
2. Internal marketing people, working with PR consultants, would try to burn the message into the retinas of the trade press and analysts.
3. The journalists and analysts would do what they do: the whorish segment of the profession regurgitating the company messages to the attention of very few, the independent thinkers producing sometimes-useful analysis of what the companies were really up to.
It never worked that well; to start with, it was expensive and slow. Also, there was a huge conflict of interest: the journalists and analysts, who positioned themselves as independents, were in fact mostly on the payroll of the companies trying to push the messages.
There’s another obvious problem with this picture: the real experts, the actual people who work at the company who are down in the trenches getting the job done, aren’t in it.
The New Public Relations · The new PR pipeline is a lot shorter, simpler, and wider: ¶
1. Senior management works out a company’s goals and messages.
2. Management works hard to make sure that the employees understand them.
3. The people who are really doing the work tell the story to the world, directly.
Will You Look Bad? · Now let’s address the question from the Big Pharma person: Suppose your employees make you look bad? The answer is obvious: if your employees either don’t understand what your company is trying to accomplish, or can’t do a good job of explaining it, then blogs are the least of your problems. That’s not new. What’s new is that when the information chain’s gatekeepers were the PR people and journalists and analysts, it was a lot easier to run a company from the top down, using traditional Pointy-Haired-Boss techniques. ¶
This is nothing new: The world has a lot of PHBs, and probably always will, and a lot of places will always be badly managed. What’s new is that, in the era of the New Public Relations, well-managed companies—defined as ones where the employees understand the strategy and can communicate it—have one more advantage. This might, in the big picture, make this whole free-market economy thing work a little better.
The key to Bray’s understanding is that: The people who are really doing the work tell the story to the world, directly. The technology makes this possible and possibly even inevitable. The technology increases transparency and the increased transparency imposes, through the various paths of challenge that we have charted, ethical behavior.
References
Angell, M. (2005) The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It.
Calhoun, C. 1998. Community without propinquity revisited: Communications technology and the transformation of the urban public sphere S.ociological Inquiry 68 (3): 373-97.
Introna, L., and H. Nissenbum. 2000. Shaping the Web: Why the politics of search engines matters. Information Society16 (3): 1-17.
Little, S.E. (2000) Networks and Neighbourhoods: Household, Community and Sovereignty in the Global Economy. Urban Studies 37 (10) 1811-1823
Howard, P.N. (2005) Deep Democracy, Thin Citizenship: The Impact of Digital Media in Political Campaign Strategy. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 597 http://faculty.washington.edu/pnhoward/publishing/articles/annals.pdf
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/
http://www.oxfam.ca/campaigns/fairTrade.htm
http://www.organicconsumers.org/starbucks/
http://www.maketradefair.com/en/index.htm
http://www.fairtraderesource.org/
[1] Note that this movement makes use of globalised technology and globalised social action to challenge economic globalization.