Rudy Guiliani at NH Kickoff

[nonother]

From the article:

There were so many candidates and so little time that some of them were forced to go to unorthodox ends to win attention. Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, whose campaign has shown little signs of traction here, rode into his first speech of the day, at a robotics convention in Manchester, on a scooter.

“This is fascinating,” he said. “Unbelievable. I think I’m going to keep it.”

------------
Robotics kickoff = robotics convention?
Segway = scooter?
Oh well...

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by nonother

From the article:

There were so many candidates and so little time that some of them were forced to go to unorthodox ends to win attention. Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, whose campaign has shown little signs of traction here, rode into his first speech of the day, at a robotics convention in Manchester, on a scooter.

“This is fascinating,” he said. “Unbelievable. I think I’m going to keep it.”

------------
Robotics kickoff = robotics convention?
Segway = scooter?
Oh well...

Real thorough investigative reporting.
For all they know he could have been attending a Robotics-Event That Shall Not Be Mentioned event.

[Michael Sperber]

Originally Posted by nonother

Robotics kickoff = robotics convention?
Segway = scooter?
Oh well...

This brings up a very important point!

With Dean's 2008 Homework Assignment, it is our responsibility to ensure that we clearly communicate the important things about FIRST.

In reality, whose fault is it that this reporter interpreted the FRC Kick-off event as a "robotics convention," and the Segway as a "scooter?" Is it his for not listening clearly, or ours for not explaining explaining clearly?

It is very important that we all realize that not everyone "gets it." That not everyone understands what FIRST is all about, or what FRC, FTC, FLL and JFLL stand for.

It is our responsibility to ensure that we are telling the right story to the media. If we properly tell the story of FIRST, I truly believe that the media will properly report it....

In short, we shouldn't blame the media for what may very well be our own problem for assuming that they get it! Our goal is to make sure that they get it!

-mike

[David Brinza]

This year's homework assignment for FRC teams is to engage the media. Great concept, but it has potential pitfalls.

It's important to be clear in communicating the FIRST message to the media. Sometimes the accuracy of a story can get lost in the process of relaying it to the masses. Unlike in the book or technical periodical publishing world, there isn't often the opportunity to review a "proof" of what is broadcast to the world.

Something else to realize about the world of "news": failure and shock-value reporting "sells". Failures can spend days on the front page, but even remarkable successes will go completely unnoticed. It's the nature of the business. Thousands of airplanes landing safely every day isn't news, but crashes are. The last commercial airline crash in the US was over a year ago (Kentucky) and it was justifiably big news. The fact that it's been so long since an accident has occurred is remarkable, yet not "newsworthy".

Safety in FIRST is paramount because even a fairly minor injury can create publicity that hurts the program. Several football players off might be carried off of the field, but that is secondary to the number of points scored in the game. Injury is an "acceptable" risk in contact sports. FIRST's world is 180-degrees opposite to that environment. The outcome of a FIRST event (champion, winner) probably wouldn't even be mentioned in a news story that reports some sort of an accident at that event.

Teams need to adhere to guidelines that FIRST provides for getting the message to the media. Dean mentioned a "Media Guide" in the Kick-off. The official FIRST Q&A forum includes a "Key Message Summary" which provides "talking points" in clear language to be conveyed to the media during interviews. FIRST does not want the Key Message Summary to be duplicated and distributed directly to the media but wants members of the FIRST community to speak in a common voice. I'll leave it to the CD moderators to decide whether the Key Message Summary should be hosted on CD (white paper?).

[ahecht]

There was more discussion of the press coverage (including several other, longer stories on the event) in this thread:
pic: Dean and Giuliani at Kickoff

[Julia Magoolia]

Maybe this is a good opportunity to get started on Dean's Homework. Newspapers will sometimes correct themselves if you send a letter to the editor and point out inaccuracies.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Michael Sperber

This brings up a very important point!

With Dean's 2008 Homework Assignment, it is our responsibility to ensure that we clearly communicate the important things about FIRST.

In reality, whose fault is it that this reporter interpreted the FRC Kick-off event as a "robotics convention," and the Segway as a "scooter?" Is it his for not listening clearly, or ours for not explaining explaining clearly?

It is very important that we all realize that not everyone "gets it." That not everyone understands what FIRST is all about, or what FRC, FTC, FLL and JFLL stand for.

It is our responsibility to ensure that we are telling the right story to the media. If we properly tell the story of FIRST, I truly believe that the media will properly report it....

In short, we shouldn't blame the media for what may very well be our own problem for assuming that they get it! Our goal is to make sure that they get it!

-mike

Mike -
I completely agree with the central elements of the point you are making. We have to be sure to be clear, concise, and consistent in the message we provide to the media. The information we provide, whether it be about one team member, the team, the region, or the entire FIRST program, must be sufficient to accurately communicate what the program is all about and what we are attempting to accomplish.

However, I am willing to cut folks a little bit of slack in this particular incident. The press interactions during this event were conducted by Giuliani's press team, not by FIRST or anyone actually connected with the kick-off activities. The candidate's press team was provided with the appropriate information about FIRST and the event. However, their focus was to emphasize the particular candidate for whom they work, not the event he was attending. Promoting the event to the press in attendance was a secondary or even tertiary concern for them. It is unfortunate that the FIRST activities could not have had a more prominent role in the resulting stories. But that was driven by the unusual circumstances of the event, not due to inaccurate or incomplete information being provided to the press by FIRST.

-dave