Orwell's sniff test of 'Native Ads' and 'Strategic Communication'

My inner Orwell, ever on the alert for new Orwellian words, has found two worthy of note.

Ironically, but alas not surprisingly, they are becoming embedded in the lexicon of communications jargon.

They are “strategic communication” and “native advertising.”

I first came across “strategic communication” when the University of Oregon opened an entire “strategic communication” program at its Portland campus. I got the strong sense that the term was trying to be an under-the-radar replacement for “public relations,” which has its own questionable meaning. The “public” appears because it is PR’s job to influence the public. (A qualification: As a journalist, I often rely on PR folks and many of them are exceedingly helpful, but we also harbor a mutual suspicion.)

PR is often about putting a verbal gloss on a corporation’s (or candidate’s or political party’s or government’s) image. The mission of PR is to get the client’s story out in a way that serves the client’s best interest. That can lead to omission, obfuscation, dubious comparisons and false association.

I can’t figure out how strategic communication is different except it has substituted a new name. Just ask your self: “Who’s strategy is this communication part of?”

The term is now creeping into my own neighborhood where the Hillsdale Main Street program has a board member assigned to “strategic communication.” As a journalist who covers Hillsdale (hillsdalenews.org), I take the board member’s designated assignment as fair warning. Indeed I’m already seeing frothy, “strategic” press releases issuing from the small, struggling program.

I don’t know where I first came across “native advertising.” The term on its face seems vacuous except that it suggests it is different from plain old advertising. “Native”? Could this be the “new new thing in advertising?”

Of course, advertising itself is riddled with deceitful devices. For a list visit any media literacy site. Try THIS ONE.

So what exactly is “native advertising”? It seems to be advertising that melds with surrounding editorial content (on-line and in print) by having the same “look and feel.” In short, it requires you, dear reader, to separate editorial wheat and advertising chaff. For me, the prime example is “WIRED” magazine, where editorial content looks like advertising; advertising looks like editorial content.

Most of the time a reader can “read” the “look” without having to read content to tell which is which. Not so with “native advertising.” Getting you to read it – ALL of it– is the point.

No doubt a “communication strategist” devised the term “native advertising.”

Before writing off both terms as not passing my Orwellian sniff test, I decided to visit Wikipedia to see what its entries had to say. It seemed as if “communication strategists” have again been at work. Worse, ACADEMIC communication strategists had been at work, sprinkling the definitions with vague jargon and an air of inscrutable respectability.

Example: Strategic communication management could be defined as the systematic planning and realization of information flow, communication, media development and image care in a long-term horizon. It conveys deliberate message(s) through the most suitable media to the designated audience(s) at the appropriate time to contribute to and achieve the desired long-term effect. Communication management is process creation. It has to bring three factors into balance: the message(s), the media channel(s) and the audience(s)

Another definition deals with governmental uses of “strategic communication”:

In the U.S., Strategic Communication is defined as: Focused United States Government efforts to understand and engage key audiences to create, strengthen, or preserve conditions favorable for the advancement of United States Government interests, policies, and objectives through the use of coordinated programs, plans, themes, messages, and products synchronized with the actions of all instruments of national power.”

Could we be talking about propaganda perhaps?

Wikipedia, fortunately, is not asleep at the wheel about its contributed content.  Wikipedia editors top questionable definitions with warnings. Of the “strategic communication” entry they write:

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (February 2010) This article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information. (April 2013)

“Native Advertising’s” definition on Wikipedia emphasizes how the device is used on the internet.

Native advertising is a web advertising method in which the advertiser attempts to gain attention by providing content in the context of the user's experience. Native ad formats match both the form and the function of the user experience in which it is placed. One form of native advertising, publisher-produced brand content, is similar in concept to a traditional advertorial, which is a paid placement attempting to look like an article. A native ad tends to be more obviously an ad than most advertorials.[1] The advertiser's intent is to make the paid advertising feel less intrusive and thus increase the likelihood users will click on it.

Again, to Wikipedia’s credit, the editors put up a warning about this definition:

This article may document a neologism in such a manner as to promote it. Please add more reliable sources to establish its current use and the impact the term has had on its field. Otherwise consider renaming or deleting the article. (May 2013)

You can’t say you haven’t been warned.

Hillsdale needs Wikipedic attention

The entry for Hillsdale in Wikipedia, the on-line, do-it-yourself reference, needs serious attention.

If you didn't click on the above link, here is what you missed—verbatim:

"Hillsdale is a neighborhood in southwest Portland, Oregon, USA. It is centered around the Hillsdale Town Center, which is located on SW Capitol Highway between Sunset Boulevard and Bertha Boulevard."

That's it, except for a few statistics and a list of provincial places of interest.

So what is the Hillsdale story?

Where to begin...or end for that matter?

Do we tell Wikipedia readers about the great SWHRL/Hillsdale "border wars" of 2004 and 2005 and its "colorful" (sobered by lawsuits, I use the term circumspectly) cast of characters?

What about the Farmers Market, Wiggles The Clown and Ayers Creek Farm's loganberry jam?

Or Don Baack and Southwest trails? And the schools' champion, parent Mike Roach of Paloma Clothing? What about the Hillsdale peace walks and vigils, and the Save-Rieke parent insurgents.

Or the amazing 2006 Wilson High School baseball team?

And then there's The Red Electric (no, not this one, but the one in the picture. It was the MAX light rail of its day, but with classy round windows and a rumbling flair). And what of its tragic 1920 head-on collision that killed eight and injured 101?

Do we tell them about overhead wires and transformers that blight the heart of our community?

Do we mention that half the commercial area is owned by the Wardin/Braidwood family, which looks after its property nearly daily—and in person?

And what about the little-known Bertha, whose name seems everywhere. Or the late, beloved Mary Becker, Helen Ferrens and Joan Edmunds of Poncho's? Or the much missed John Waddingham, artist and bagpiper?

Or how about hard-charging Celeste Lewis, who made Hillsdale a place again, urging us 11 years ago to forge one neighborhood out of the parts of two. (How did we miss that 10th anniversary?)

What about "Dr. Rock 'n Roll" who knows more mouths than I know words.

And what of "Hillsdale's Oldest Barber" Jack Carley and his crusty humor and easy liquor on St. Patrick's day? Or John Slavin, Hillsdale's first homesteader, or Col. Henry Dosch. The Colonel arrived in Oregon broke as a Civil War veteran and former pony express rider, became an itinerant shoe salesman and eventually rose to international fame as a horticulturalist—right here in Hillsdale?

Certainly there should be something about the the Swiss settlers and the dairies and pig farms of yore. About the sounds of a century ago, when the dawn woke to the distant clanging of milk jugs jostling in horse-drawn dairy wagons as they creaked down to the thirsty city.

In the evening, yodeling echoed across these hills and dales as Swiss farmers went about their barnyard chores.

And what of the wild? The beaver, elk and salmon? To this day cat-munching coyotes occasionally savage the streets, and raccoons skulk and scuttle amongst us.

And we haven't even begun to share Hillsdale in the making. Hillsdale which has so many balls in the air that sometimes I think we are creating our own civic space flotsam. A lot of it burns out, a lot stays in orbit, and every now and then we launch a project into gravity-defying eternity and success.

Certainly there is more to tell than than Wikipedia's modest words...."Hillsdale is a neighborhood in southwest Portland, Oregon, USA. It is centered around the Hillsdale Town Center, which is located on SW Capitol Highway between Sunset Boulevard and Bertha Boulevard."

Wikipedia is inviting us to write and revise our story.

Let's.