Through DukeBluePlanet.com, Duke’s basketball program has found a way to add a personal voice to a program that most see as personality-free. The athletic department and, in particular, Mike Krzyzewski’s team haven’t exactly circumvented the media in putting out its own stories—but that type of media control technique wouldn’t be so farfetched for such a high-profile organization.
Take, for example, the way the most famous person on the face of the earth, Barack Obama, handles the press.
In the campaign, beat reporters covering Obama vented frustration regarding the future president’s aloofness. Many critics and studies found that the press’ coverage leaned more positively toward Obama, but that belied the fact that John McCain, if only at the beginning of his campaign, was more transparent than Obama. Think about it: Obama was the candidate to rise over the traditional media on many occasions. He announced that Joe Biden would be his vice president in a text message, rather than a press conference, and took pride in snubbing the Washington Post’s editorial board during the campaign and The New York Times’ crack reporting team in the transition.
In the White House, though, Obama has engaged the press more than some thought he would, even while putting out his own message. Trying to rise above the fray of the media is nothing new, but Obama has unique tools–think YouTube, a functioning Web site, Twitter and a BlackBerry–to make it more effective. And just like Krzyzewski, Obama hasn’t defied the mainstream media (or even reporting bloggers) while offering his own message, The Washington Post’s media critic Howard Kurtz writes:
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