The most intriguing question of the entire PR measurement summit

The most intriguing question of the entire PR Summit Measurement 2008 -  was Mazen Nahawi's (CEO of News Group,  organizer of the 2nd annual Dubai Measurement Summit) presentation on integrity in journaism and what its implications are for measurement.  After a fascinating mini-history of journalism in the Arab world – including some great stats like the number of daiiy newspapers has increased in the last decade from from 87 to 415, magazines have increased from 1800 to 15,000.  He cited the 1967 Gulf War as the low point of Arab journalism when all news was state controlled. But where it got really interesting was when he raised the issue of journalism integrity and its impact on PR measurement – specifically on the weight given to specific publications, and should it be based not on circulation but on integrity. “If journalists aren’t perceived to be honest and credible, what impact does that have on the perception of their coverage, and the impact of their writings/repoting on your reputation?,” he asked. For us social media geeks, the question also has interesting implications, since it is clearly the role of citizen journalists to work around the state-dominated media and provide the real news, not just the regurgitated press releases that so dominate main stream media in Dubai. Mazen pointed out that in the 9 years since the establishment of Maktoob, it has become the largest social networking site in the Middle East and the place where more Arabs find news than any other media outlet in the Arab world. He predicted that 2008 will be the year that PR will focus on dealing with citizen journalists. His solution to the issue of credibility is to take advantage of the new generation of more educated and independent journalists that are more apt to rely on international blogs and other outside sources of news. His contention is that either way, it impacts measurement because Media content analysis is a pillar of measurement,  PR actions become based on media content analysis, and that we all follow generally accepted standards to ensure credibility, but what happens when the context of our analysis is not credible?” If the  context of our analysis is inextricably tied to the assumption that the media outlets that are being evaluated are equally honest and credible. But clearly they aren’t. What if the name of the journalist brings a negative connotation to your company simply by covering your brand?” he asks. There are now 45 million Arabs on the Internet, getting news from the burgeoning blog movement. Is citizen journalism trustworthy? Should it be held to the highest standards as well? We need to study the ownership, demand transparency  about mission values before we assume that all media can be judged equally. We  need to meet the editors & journalists to do determine are they for real, do they adhere to a mission tied to public interest. We need to read/view articles published by them” Mazen proposes a possible benchmark, to compare media integrity, and create fact sheets/databases on journalist and media outlets. He suggests ultimately create a media- credibility index.