How Pack Journalism and Predictable Crisis PR Responses Have Influenced the Techlash, With Nirit Weiss-Blatt

The “techlash” is a story of extreme pendulum swings—from an era
in which splashy product launches earned gushing media reviews to
a relentless crisis narrative in which the tech industry is
viewed with harsh suspicion. How has this happened? Is it a case
of pack journalism run amok, or have tech companies contributed
to the narrative with predictable formulas for handling a PR
crisis? Rob and Jackie discuss all this with Nirit Weiss-Blatt, a
former research fellow at the University of Southern California,
Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and author of
the new book The Techlash and Tech Crisis Communications.


Mentioned:


Nirit Weiss-Blatt, The Techlash and Tech Crisis
Communications (UK: Emerald Publishing Limited, 2021). 

Patrick Grother, Mei Ngan, and Kayee Hanaoka, Face
Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) Part 3: Demographic Effects,
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Interagency
Report 8280, December 2019. 



Related:


Robert D. Atkinson, et al., “A Policymaker’s Guide to the
‘Techlash’—What It Is and Why It’s a Threat to Growth and
Progress” (ITIF, October 2019).

Doug Allen and Daniel Castro, “Why So Sad? A Look at the
Change in Tone of Technology Reporting From 1986 to 2013” (ITIF,
February 2017).

Michael McLaughlin and Daniel Castro, “The Critics Were
Wrong: Data Shows the Best Facial Recognition Algorithms Are
Neither Racist Nor Sexist” (ITIF, January 2020).