A blog posted today by Crisisblogger Gerald Baron attributed “Toxic Talk” as one of many reasons public opinion about BP and its handling of the oil spill response has been so . . . toxic.
Toxic Talk, as defined by Baron, is the lack of civility and decency in public discourse. “It’s a sad part of our culture,” he says, “but it contributes to an overall attitude of animosity, venom and cultural dis-ease.” Today, when bad and tragic events occur, the public - and by extension, the media - gets incensed and needs someone to blame, shame and crucify.
Weber Shandwick, one of the leading global PR firms with offices in 76 countries, just published a nationwide study entitled “Civility in America.” Of the more than 1,000 adults surveyed, 94% said they consider the general tone and level of civility in the country today to be a problem; 65% said it was a “major” problem. Here are some additional findings:
- 72% attributed the worsening of civility in recent years to the financial crisis and recession.
- The top 5 uncivil elements in American society today are
- Government/politics (72%)
- Traffic on roads/highways (69%)
- American public (61%)
- Talk Radio (59%)
- High schools (59%)
Who’s responsible for putting a stop to all this nastiness? Survey says:
- American public (87%)
- Political leaders (83%)
- News media (81%)
- Business/companies (79%)
- Places of worship (76%)
So what impact does incivility have on Americans?
Unfortunately, it is causing people to tune out some of our most important sources of information, like government and the media. To address the issue, Weber Shandwick offers the following five solutions to employ both online and offline.
- CEOs should set an example
- Tame your “badvocates” by monitoring and mitigating
- Be civil in your social media discourse; create and adhere to codes of conduct
- Media needs to curb incivility in discourse and reporting
- Use advertising to influence; punish uncivil ads with fines and withhold ad buys from uncivil programs and websites
According to the Weber Shandwick study, it appears that politicians, business leaders and the media all have a very important role to play in helping our country learn how to put the civil back in civilization. I couldn’t agree more. When, how and if this happens remains to be seen, but I doubt it will occur while the oil is still flowing into the Gulf.
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Tags: BP oil crisis, civility, crisisblogger, Talk
