Strategically Communicating

Are we moving into a post “talk scandal” age?

Certainly we now live in a time where the things people say in the public sphere are more well-documented, accessible, and scrutinized than ever before – even the things one doesn’t say is fair game to be exploited by opposition parties. In addition, the means to convincingly fabricate a digital representation of someone speaking or not speaking the words we do not or do want to hear is becoming rapidly more feasible. Lastly, this public scrutiny of one’s speech is no longer limited to the globally or nationally known figures.

However, the ability to effectively influence moderate thinkers, through the exploitation of talk scandals, seems like it could be in peril, at least by my estimation.

Existing or up-and-coming public figures who maintain an honest presence that can be thoroughly vetted in a publicly available and digital space have just as many advantages as disadvantages:

1. Transparency of one’s honest digital presence is likely an appealing quality to the moderate public.
2. An extensive and searchable digital presence by a public figure, especially maintaining a regular blog and appearing on long-form podcasts, allows for the general public to directly engage source material that would have once been filtered through news and editorial organizations.
3. As digital manipulation tools become more sophisticated and made known to the general public, folks will be increasingly skeptical as to the authenticity of any given piece of media.