Communications for a Sceptical Public

Media, Communications and a Sceptical Public

2021 is a year of flux and change. I have been thinking about what I want to do, and the kind of ideas I want to engage in. Communications (as a field) has been close to my heart (and my bread and butter) for all my adult life. I am interested in discussing what the trends are, what ideas are worth exploring and whose ideas are worth listening to.

I had begun an informal Slack group for Communications professionals a few months ago along with a few other like-minded people. We ended up inviting Mary Gray, Research Associate at Microsoft, to discuss what work and audiences will look like in this new future. Mary has written Ghost Work and has an interesting TED talk as well. She is interesting because of how her work straddles big tech companies and the marginal labour of individuals working in the new gig economy. Here are some of the ideas we hope to discuss with her over a Zoom call soon.

1. Corporations and Independent Professionals

In a world that is increasingly sceptical of big tech and monopolistic corporations, how do communications professionals working within these big networks balance their creative and professional independence with their commitment to the job.

The discussion around ethics and tech is led by two sets of scholars: those with coding and engineering backgrounds who have stepped out to critically analyse the field; academics from the social sciences interested in the impact of tech on society.

With stories like Timnit Gebru’s dismissal from Google, and with an increasingly sceptical public, how do theoreticians and academics, or even professionals trained in critical thinking, keep their independence and integrity alive - and critically, also demonstrate it to the public. Is it possible to think about change from within?

2. Rising Social Scepticism

What role do communications professionals play in an increasingly skeptical environment, where the general public are deeply distrustful of big tech and media corporations? When there are big, sometimes misunderstood, discussions around user privacy, data mining and ad-tracking, how can communications professionals (often as industry insiders) help the public navigate these difficult topics? What role can they play and what opportunities are open to them?

Venue: Zoom (An interested few will be invited to join - write to us.)

Date and time: 3 February 2021, 6.30pm IST (8 am, Boston)

30 minutes for presentation and 15 minutes for questions/discussion (approximately).

For details please write to: tejah@hey.com or usha.raman@hey.com