Related Links

Video News Releases

From June 2005 to March 2006, the Center for Media and Democracy documented television newsrooms’ use of selected video news releases (VNRs) and satellite media tour (SMT) “interviews.” While these 36 examples represent less than one percent of VNRs offered to newsrooms each year, this report provides the most comprehensive survey of fake TV news to date.

Targeting News (topix.net)

The problems associated with cataloging the billions of pages available on the Internet are not new to the Topix.net team. Previously, several Topix.net founders created the Open Directory Project (originally called “NewHoo”), the first open development directory for the Internet, and now the largest human-edited web directory.

This project is now a property of America Online and is the source from which many of the current web directories, including Google Directory, derive their information. While an open development solution is helpful, especially when it comes to an overall categorization of the various sites on the web, it does not address the one item that many users turn to the internet for: news. That is where Topix.net steps in.

News Front Page (topix.net)

News on 300,000 topics, from Autos to your ZIP code.

Center for Crisis Public Relations and Litigation Studies at Lehigh University (public relations and litigation studies)

The Center for Crisis Public Relations and Litigation Studies was established at Lehigh University with the dual purposes of 1) furthering the study and professional practice of crisis public relations, with an emphasis on litigation as organizational crisis, and 2) researching the publishing about issues related to civil litigation, in particular class action lawsuits. The Center is fulfilling its mission through research, information, education and consulting.

The Interdisciplinary Center is positioned to both conduct and support a broad range of research projects covering multiple disciplines in business and economics, law and the social sciences. Of particular interest is research on the impact of lawsuits on organizational reputation, management practices, research and development, product design, public opinion, public policy, government regulation, global competitiveness, and the judicial process. For example, while there has been extensive research done on the effect of pre-trial publicity on the outcome of criminal trials, studies are needed on the relationship between litigation journalism (media coverage of lawsuits) and jury verdicts/awards in high-profile lawsuits. Research from strategic, legal and ethical perspectives already is underway on the practice of litigation journalism and the relatively new specialty of litigation public relations.

Makovsky & Company

When a high-profile case is in litigation, managing public advocacy in the media is critical to the final outcome. Litigation public relations can help to diminish and/or eliminate the business disruption caused by current or threatened legal actions, as well as influence the legal outcome in the company’s best interests.

Our experience includes European Union cross-border suits, CEO/senior management indictments, violation of EPA laws and FDA actions against pharmaceutical companies. We work with our clients to develop the most appropriate communications strategy, be it to engage the media, stay out of the press, or manage the media. Carefully coordinating a company’s legal strategy with all its verbal and written communications is critical to bringing about the best results when a legal action is brought.