Public relations in general has been stereotyped as being a profession that “spins.” Whether you are in entertainment public relations or work in athletics or even politics, you hear about these statements regarding spin. There has been a lot of coverage recently with the presidential election– and it’s been interesting following the coverage and looking at what is being presented in the media. The media are constantly talking about what this candidate said in this speech, and how this person reacted in this one. The question is–what about the things that are not apparent the first time you see it? How are people perceiving each candidate’s body language? What about the underlying meaning that are in these messages?
There is an interesting article on New Scientist’s web site that says that there is a software that can analyze spin that appears in political speeches. These new programs can analyse a person’s voice and tone in a speech, their body language, and other elements that people were not aware of before, but can be captured and analyzed with these new programs.
Hmm– this is really fascinating! These softwares can “analyse a person’s speech, voice or facial expressions” that politicians can make during their speeches. Here is an analysis that Skillicorn (a software looks at “verbal spin) on the speeches that were made by the presidential candidates for the 2008 election:
It is interesting to see the differences between the candidates, and how this software determined who did the most “spinning,” and which candidate was considered to be the most straightforward. Technology is allowing us as public relations professionals an opportunity to see how our messages are being perceived and labeled as either being positive, neutral, or negative. With these new advances in softwares like Skillicorn, public relations professionals have to be aware that their client or spokesperson is even more under a microscope before, and every move will be monitored for analysis and interpretation. This is just another example of how we as public relations professionals have to keep up with the current technology to be proactive with our clients.
Hope you all are having a great day! 🙂
Best Wishes,
Karen
0 Comments