Craigslist PR: Same OLD Media?
Corporate interest in shaping public messaging to its advantage is alive and well througout the Web.
Craigslist and the University of California, Berkeley are a match made in new media heaven, so say the two parties and so goes conventional media wisdom. Indeed, Berkeley hails a shared “fundamental respect for alternative thinking in the public interest,” in hailing a $1.6 million Craigslist donation to the university.
In tandem with Craig Newmark’s namesake Craigslist contributing $1.6 million to Berekely to help fund a Center For New Media, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster becomes founding member of the center’s executive advisory board. Buckmaster on Craigslist’s affinity for Berkeley: Their “history of challenging convention means a lot to us.”
Odd then, that despite public congratulations all around, little of substance has been offered on how the parties aim to “think rigorously about how new media will continue to change our lives and perceptions.”
Even more peculiar, new media bloggers dutifully regurgitate the UC Berkeley-Craigslist self-congratulatory press release of a “thrilling” financing of the “first endowed faculty chair in new media,” with nary a sighting of any of the supposed new media “critical analysis” that the Craigslist donation is said to support.
The blog “paidContent”–self-described as providing insight into “the economics of content”–acknowledges the lack of substantive information available in its one paragraph reposting of the press release announcement–”hard to say what the center itself is doing”–but apparently made no journalistic effort to find out for itself, or its readers!
Here at Insider Chatter, I have been making a deliberate effort to understand BOTH the economics AND the content of the Craigslist-Berkeley financial and executive collaboration.
I have submitted extensive, detailed questions to the Craigslist CEO with the goal of gaining a more in-depth understanding of how Craigslist will interact with Berkeley and how the substantial comittment reinforces the Craigslist mission, questions such as:
Among the prospective research areas of the Center, “privacy, reputation, trust, access and new ways to encourage socially constructive action,” what will you personally lobby for as areas of inital pursuit for the Center? What actionable types of deliverables will the Center research projects produce?
Buckmaster, however, declined to “say much about specific projects”:
Other than the advertised advisory role, i’ll try to be useful in any way that makes sense.
Surprising PR style speak from an organization that claims a “service mission and non-corporate culture” and touts a $1.6 million contribution to “partner with the Berkeley Center for New Media, as it is uniquely positioned to change the very way we think about new media.”
BUT, is Craig Newmark’s namesake Craigslist changing the way it thinks about any media coverage of its activities? Craigslist is not forthcoming about its philanthropic efforts beyond PR platitudes and it is secretive about its publicly posted Terms Of Use.
Since EveryBlock launched Thursday, I have been investigating and anlayzing the new site’s bulk use of Craigslist RSS feeds. SEE Craigslist vs. EveryBlock? UC Berkeley New Media Case Study and EveryBlock Tests Craigslist RSS Feed Generosity: Missed Connection? and have been in contact with both EveryBlock and Craigslist.
The issue extends beyond EveryBlock. Craigslist’s actions vs a vs Oodle and listpic caused many to consider Craigslist a “walled garden.” The hows and whys of access to Craigslist listings is of interest to the Web community at large. Unfortunately, Craigslist is not forthcoming about how it actually evaluates what is, or is not, acceptable to Craigslist.
I asked Buckmaster for clarification on how Craigslist defines “non-commercial purposes” regarding usage of its RSS feeds:
“Third parties can easily ascertain what is permitted on our site by consulting our Terms Of Use and/or contacting us with any questions they may have,” Buckmaster has demeured.
Cragislist’s lack of candor with the media, and subsequently the public, is contrary to the ethos of both Craigslist and its founder.
Craig Newmark wrote about “community building on the Web,” seeking the “strength of good citizen journalism”:
When the correspondent has the courage to speak truthfully even in the face of powerful opposition….journalism’s essential role of being a watchdog on government and other important social and economic institutions.
This citizen journalist has been seeking to get the truth from Craigslist, a very important social and economic institution. STAY TUNED!
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