April 2009 Archives

If you follow the media business in Chicago like me, you hotly anticipated the Chicago Journalism Town Hall last February.  It was a rare meeting of about 350 media-minded people in Chicago, all trying to figure out what comes next in the industry.

Almost as soon as the meeting began it became clear to the audience and organizer Ken Davis, that the topic had too many tendrils to be covered in one conference.  Although Ken gamely tried to cover it all, the meeting seemed to divide into two main topics, the how the nature of journalism is changing and how what a successful media businesses will look like.

In the course of my work I got to a lot of candidate forums. Most folks think candidate forums are an opportunity to learn how much candidates know - their policy knowledge, or understanding of the community - but really it's an opportunity for the audience to decide how likable each of the candidates are.

In a candidate's forum, the most likable one wins. That's who people remember and vote for. Don't try to convince yourself otherwise. It was true in junior high, and it is true as an adult.

For this reason, the question and answer period in a forum takes a backseat to the opening and closing statements.  The opening is when the audience decides how much they'll pay attention to you during the forum. The closing is when the audience decides how they'll remember you.