To the point: fairness is difficult
This year’s Communication Summit centered on the topic of fairness. Subtitle: «How the media, PR, and the public benefit from treating each other with respect.» And even at that point, one might have been skeptical. Treating what? Treating whom?
Respect is always good and should be one of the basic features of our life together, not only in the communications industry. Where respect for one another is lacking, everything collapses.
Respect for the other person is also a fundamental condition for fairness. And fairness requires empathy, the willingness to put oneself in the place of one's fellow human being, to feel with him, to think from his perspective, and also: to suffer with him. Then you can let everyone have their say with the best argument, without losing your distance from the subject matter.
But what exactly is fair, decent, just behavior on the part of a journalist? When he prints everything that is said, does not shorten, does not reformulate? When he seeks a counter-position to every statement? If he checks the facts until the competition has published? And how does a PR person provide fair information? By also talking about the competitors' products?
Do the media and PR really profit when they act fairly? On the contrary. The higher profit beckons when you communicate unfairly: First place a scandalous report, then check the facts and, if necessary, set the record straight with a counterstatement. This does not undo the damage that has been done, but it does generate attention once again. No wonder trust in the media is declining. And you'll laugh: Canadian scientists have found that stressed people feel less compassion. That fits the image that journalists and PR people present today.
In our ego-centered society, it has become almost tricky to behave fairly - because if you also look at other people, you can all too quickly fall behind. Those who have their own opinion are attacked anyway, because someone always feels unfairly treated. How courageous, then, of the Zurich PR Society to make the debate about fairness the focus of the Communication Summit. And how important, especially today. But how bland the results!
One would have wished for insight, suggestions for thinking, for action. Instead, a lot of old and unfair things were brought to the table: the accusation that Claudio Zuccolini is not funny (from 2013). The agitation against Jörg Kachelmann in the course of the rape trial in Germany (from 2010/11) and the assumption that he feels pleasure in suing German and Swiss media houses one after the other. Res Strehle's police photos, which were already 30 years old two years ago, and his decision to charge court and procedural costs to the "responsible" Tagi departments - a little "motivation to work in a technically correct manner ". What, pray tell, is fair about that?
Consequently, no central insights were tweeted, but above all the corny jokes of the all-time clown Zuccolini. The greater the time and cost pressure in our industry, the less its representatives dare to take a stand. After all, you want to be fair and not step on anyone's toes. Least of all oneself.
Anne-Friederike Heinrich, Editor-in-Chief
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