We spend a significant amount of time encouraging others and helping clients create content. The content we produce shows up on their websites, their blogs, their internal communication and their external communication. It even shows up in print when reporters publish excerpts of our press releases.
There is literally content available at your fingertips. All. Day. Long. From our desks to the hundreds of thousands of content producers, members of the news media and PR people across the globe. How you process that information and use it is up to you, but it's important you know how to distinguish the valuable from the invaluable.
Gone are the days of saving up for your own set of encyclopedias. Today you can do research from just about anywhere, you don’t even need microfiche to produce a thoughtful piece on a topic you’re unfamiliar with. It’s glorious for some and likely maddening to those invested in the art of thoughtful research.
The phenomenon of instant information isn’t going away, which is incredibly convenient, but it comes with its own set of difficulties. In an age where anyone can be a source of information it’s important to study the source, consider its credibility and use wisdom to decipher your intuitions.
Not all information is good information and sometimes you’ll read something that immediately sets off a red flag. It’s always wise to seek a second opinion if a source doesn’t seem reliable online. But, when you find a source that’s valuable, trustworthy and easy to read, create a bookmark and use it as a resource. As for the rest, disregard it and (try to) be thankful for our right to free speech. Just because someone says something doesn't make it right and it certainly doesn't make it news. It's up to you to decide. Likewise, it's a real responsibility to create something of value. In fact, it's a good thing to evaluate your organizations content on social media and your regular outlets for external information. If it's not providing value for the intended audience, re-evaluate your communications. If you need help reassessing, ask us. It's what we're here for.
The media we consume often times becomes the basis for much of the community’s understanding on unfamiliar topics, so as a content creator we work tirelessly to make sure everything we produce provides value but that most importantly it’s factual and not misleading. We have our favorites, but we’d love to hear some of your favorite industry led sources for news right now too.
We're in this together, the right to free speech comes with a lot of yes, freedom, but it also means we need to be smart consumers of news too.