Edelman Trust Barometer
Microsoft the most trusted? Wild. But it’s the truth according to Edelman’s latest trust barometer.
Global opinion leaders say their most credible source of information about a company is now “a person like me,” which has risen dramatically to surpass doctors and academic experts for the first time, according to the seventh annual Edelman Trust Barometer, a survey of nearly 2,000 opinion leaders in 11 countries. In the U.S., trust in “a person like me” increased from 20% in 2003 to 68% today. Opinion leaders also consider rank-and-file employees more credible spokespersons than corporate CEOs (42% vs. 28% in the U.S.).
The Edelman Trust Barometer found Microsoft Corporation the most trusted global company, followed by iconic companies in their home markets, including Toyota in Japan, Haier in China, Samsung in South Korea, and Petrobras in Brazil.
The Internet is a big gainer as a trustworthy source:
Television is the big loser in media trustworthiness with the rise of the Internet. When asked where they turn first for trustworthy information, 29% of respondents in the U.S. still cite TV first, down from 39% three years ago. The Internet is now cited by 19%, up from 10% in 2003. The same trend is evident in the U.K., where television has declined from 42% to 33% as respondents’ first choice, while the Internet has risen from 5% to 15%. Newspapers, which are often thought to be the most serious casualty of the Internet wave, show rankings essentially unchanged in most markets at approximately 20%. Newspapers remain the first trusted medium of choice for respondents in France, Germany, Japan, Brazil, Korea, and Italy.
I couldn’t see it in any of the materials on Edelman’s site, but one thing they ought to do is indicate which of the companies in the survey are clients – like Microsoft.
Another Media Disgrace
The NYT reports that the ex-chief of HealthSouth (he claims unknowingly) paid for positive coverage:
Throughout the six-month trial that led to Richard Scrushy’s acquittal in the $2.7 billion fraud at HealthSouth Corp., a small, influential newspaper consistently printed articles sympathetic to the defense of the fired CEO.
Audry Lewis, the author of those stories in The Birmingham Times, the city’s oldest black-owned paper, now says she was secretly working on behalf of Scrushy, who she says paid her $11,000 through a public relations firm and typically read her articles before publication.
It’s just stunning that this kind of stuff keeps happening without any kind of ability for censure by industry bodies – both media and PR. I’m sure there are as many frustrated journalists as there are PRs who are sick of having their profession tarnished by this kind of behavior.
The New Journalist/ism
In case you missed it, the new journalist/ism is upon us. Powered by wifi and blog-engines, journalists like Dan Farber over at ZDNet are hammering out stories live from announcements. They are breaking a few rules along the way – commenting on what ‘competitors’ are saying – in this case Shankland, opting for speed over gramatical accuracy, and capturing the essence of the event.
This has been going on for a while now – Farber’s peice on ZDNet today just bought it home for me.
If you are in a non-technology industry and see this happening in your trade rags and elsewhere I’d love a few other examples.
Media Extensibility
The power of the media coupled with the power of participatory communications can be a wicked thing.
I’ve been waiting eagerly to see the first reviews on the new Windows Treo and if there is one review to wait for, it is Walt Mossberg’s. His brutal, but polite, honesty is to be admired. The cascade effect of his review can be witnessed over at BuzzMachine. Today, rather than the echo of a negative review being solely restricted to word of mouth – or a “did you see that” – it is a case of “did you read, see, hear that” as well. The echo isn’t just louder, it has more depth.
I wonder what effect this will have over time on the theory of “Chasm Crossing” (a theory I passionately beleive in). In the past the power of PC Magazine and Walt were absolute. They made and killed product in a couple of pages. Now I can triangulate news quicker – not just listening to the reviewer but also the early adopter. This has definitely changed the mechanics of “Chasm Crossing” – it might have even altered the concept.
One thing that many of these reviews fail to focus on is the ecosystem that surrounds a device of this kind. I recently bought one of the new Blackberry’s. The device itself is nice, although the lack of camera and WiFi is annoying. What isn’t nice is the absolutely archaic email service that a consumer has to use to collect and forward emails. The automated deletion of emails on the server once they are deleted on the device rarely works and so you pretty quickly are unable to recieve emails until getting to a PC and browser.
To make things work, Blackberry’s world is a Windows world. The mail interface works inconsistently across platforms, only working well on Internet Explorer.
And, Cingular is still stumped as to why the International roaming capability works OK in some places and not at all in others (I know this will result in a conversation about replacing my SIM card – meaning the problem is unique to my device).
Finally, the lack of applications for the Blackberry is really apparent. I got used to all kinds of useful apps on my Treo and Sony phone. There are very few for the Blackberry and those that are there aren’t priced to move.
I was ready to give the new Treo a shot but I’m going to wait. Triangulating the news has convinced me again not to be an early adopter.
Mine Explosion
Just prior to reading Paul’s entry on how the tragic mine explosion has been handled I stumbled onto this site which provides the Journalist’s perspective. It’s a really enlightening read.
