For a hot second the internet got abuzz with the news of Actress Amanda Bynes' announcement that at the age of 24 she has retired from Hollywood. Bynes'decision to leave her movie-making past was unveiled through social media--Twitter. The article I have linked talks about how Twitter was the outlet of choice for the star and opens thought about the role of the publicist or spokesperson in light of social media. Some stars, it seems, are skipping the press conference and leaving their publicist out of work--or at least in the sense that news is coming from celebrity social media accounts and not from their hired mouth pieces.
This I think might point to some questions down the road especially when we consider public relations and the environment in which a message is given. Is it, for example, better to disclose information on Twitter as compared with a traditional press conference if that information might cause a backlash? Or does that depend entirely on the information at hand. One thing is for certain, whether or not Tiger Woods Tweeted his marital apologies instead of hugging his mom in a press room full of silent friends, it still made for an awkward conversation. But the PR industry would do well to consider how social media might soften, lighten, harden, or otherwise taint information because of where that information was presented.
http://tinyurl.com/3745nxa
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3 comments:
I saw this announcement about Amanda Bynes' decision in the paper. You make a good point about how stars are turning to Twitter for announcements instead of their publicists. I never really thought about it from that perspective before.
In some respects I think Twitter is a great vehicle for dispensing news because it's authentic, and a lot of people follow celebrities they like to hear their own perspectives. However, celebrities can also land themselves in hot water by tweeting things they shouldn't, which in turn is where the publicists are definitely going to be needed - to clean up the mess. But, I do think there can be a happy marriage between using the traditional ways of distributing information (press conferences, news releases) and news forms like social media.
I agree with Allison - I wonder about this move - is it real, was she trying to bypass her publicist or was this just designed to get her more publicity? I guess we will find out (thought part of me wonders why I even care!)
I agree with Allison in that Twitter appears more authentic but sometimes what the celebrity is selling (and what we are buying) isn't really them. I hate to do this, but think about Britney Spears. The moment she called off all her "handlers" the Britney show entered a very scary place.
Publicists are still very necessary for some people in the spotlight!
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