The Launch of the International Media Association for Peace (IMAP)

Clifford Stearns February 2, 2020 2020 World Peace Media Conference Lotte Hotel in Seoul’s Sogang Ward

Let me congratulate all of you for your participation in this very important summit. Obviously this summit is designed to increase our understanding of where journalism and the media is today and what we can do to reclaim and upgrade the mission of journalism for the twenty- first century and to clarify the freedom and responsibility of the Press for the future. Obviously, the establishment of the International Media Association for Peace (IMAP) is a great step forward and I commend the founders for their foresight. I had the opportunity to read the IMAP Resolution. I feel it is concise and is a great way to chronicle man’s desire for peace, security and (obviously) for human development.

I also want to acknowledge the leadership of Dr. Hak Ja Han and her late husband Rev. Sun Myung Moon for their clairvoyance. I say that because he had extraordinary ability to perceive events into the future and to develop strategies to solve them. It is truly commendable on his part.

I read the Washington Times every day in Washington DC [see washingtontimes,com] and I cannot tell you how important this newspaper is. It provides insight that no other newspaper in Washington provides — from the balanced coverage of the Brexit issue in Britain to the continued turmoil in Iraq and Iran. The Times provides factual accounts and much needed factual information. I often say, after reading the newspaper, “I didn’t know that.” Why didn’t I read that elsewhere in another newspaper? I only wish the editors would come down to Central Florida and let me publish an edition of the Washington Times in Ocala, Florida.

My colleagues, I work in a large public relations firm called Apco Worldwide. We have thirty-two locations around the world. Our company is involved with media and journalism activities in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and America. Many of our clients ask us to help them in crisis situations that involve the Press. We also do a lot of corporate branding, helping our clients influence their market and target their customers. We have experience with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Google Search, and we use them daily in our ability to influence and target audiences around the world. I intend today to outline some of the techniques we use that gives us that ability. I also want to share with you this morning some new technology in the telecommunications field that is going to revolutionize media platforms and journalism — artificial intelligence as well as virtual and augmented reality.

This future technology… is a big revolution. It will affect journalism and media platforms throughout the world and it could be a disruptor, just as the smart phone has been for many of us.

Media is rapidly evolving

I am the past-president of the United States Association of Former Members of Congress. I have gained insight into how to strengthen the effectiveness of the United States Congress as it carries out its constitutional duties. As a former president, we promote a collaborative approach to policy making. Our membership includes one hundred senators and four hundred and fifty House members. This collaborative approach is also useful in trying to effectuate good working relations with the Press.

I don’t need to tell you what the onset of the Internet has done and how media has changed. Between the availability of Twitter and Facebook, Instagram and Google Search, a company now can get its message out without the mainstream media. Social media is less expensive and can be targeted; that’s the key. In some respects this has been a disruptive force — sometimes for good and sometimes for bad.

Let me give you some examples of how social media and focus groups are used in research and as tools used to clarify our clients’ challenges. What you see in front of you is a Tweeterboard, to help understand the impact of Twitter. [Tweeterboard is a weekly comparison of various politician’s Twitter traffic compiled by students at the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University in the US.]

If you look at this presentation, to the left are the current presidential candidates and a new person, Adam Schiff, who is a House Democrat prosecutor in the impeachment process. After the name of the individual is the current poll. This poll is done every week in the United States by Real Clear Politics. The next column shows the week-to-week trends and after that is the number of “likes” from the total tweets. The

last column shows the inertia or trend moving from positive to negative tweets.

Obviously the Tweeterboard is a good gauge of the engagement of American citizens and also the notoriety of the candidates. The next slide shows how we use a variety of research tools to answer our clients’ questions. We monitor social media but also try to answer the Why and the How that drives what people think, say and feel. You can see we do focus groups, digital analytics, and online surveys through a software program…. It’s much like Reditt [a US social news aggregator, rating and discussion website]. We send it around to thousands of people and ask them to put it online and to give us their response to questions we give them.

Market reputation

Once we’ve [done surveys] we go out into the field in the United States and do ongoing reputation monitoring across fourteen markets and six audiences to refine the answers. The last slide shows a proprietary product Apco has called Media Landscape…. We look at social media, print media and television media across the United States, in fact, across the world. The blue circle shows op-eds, panels and events that occur, the green circle shows activity on the Hill (in Congress) the red is the negative Press that is out there. The other [circles] cover some of the social media. You can see that in this one presentation you can get an idea of your company — how it is perceived in the marketplace. Based upon the slides you can see the way to communicate.

I’ll mention one other case. We had: a farm association ask us to help promote the branding of the eating of fruits and vegetables. Using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, digital, radio, outdoor advertising and print, we were to amplify this message to the Millennials [those born in the 1980s or 1990s] who for some reason the Farm Bureau believed were not eating their fruits and vegetables. We were successful. We changed the perception of eating fruits and vegetables. But in many social cases, these analytical tools can be used for a negative…. We try to prevent that.

International Media Association for Peace

Let’s talk about IMAP. What can be done? It could establish a code of conduct that is fair and credible. Which has been mentioned. The code could be distributed and posted on the Internet and social media. Your International Association of Academicians for Peace provides a platform for reference or commentary on various egregious action in the Media and you may use the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace to speak on the need for civility and frankly just respect for your opponents.

I was chairman of several subcommittees in Congress that had jurisdiction over the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC [a US federal government agency, that seeks to eliminate unfair business practices] which is responsible for Internet privacy and much of the consumer protection [related to use of] social media. Also over the Federal Commerce Commission, the FCC [another US federal government agency that protects consumers] which has broad jurisdiction over broadcast media, much of the standards of Internet speed and broadcast transmissions including the controversial argument for net neutrality. You

may have heard that that’s a very controversial issue. Many of the enforcement actions by these two agencies affect and apply on a global basis and frankly provide a paradigm for what IMAP may eventually adopt themselves.

For example, should broadband be classified as a public utility [like water and electricity] that everyone needs and that the government has some control over? This was not done when the new FCC chairman put out a publication “Restoring Internet Freedom and Order.” This would be a good publication for IMAP to look at. The FCC is involved with 5G [fifth generation wireless technology] infrastructure transition, robocalls and the next generation of TV standards. Now, under the previous Democrat FCC chairman Mr. Wheeler, he positioned that broadband network should be connected by analog to utilities and that utilities should be made available to the public. In other words, the Internet would be like a utility. Under Republican Chairman Pai, today that is no longer the case. Quasi-government control or public ownership has not always been a panacea.

I mention these two agencies because they could be another resource for IMAP in efforts to bring continued freedom and responsibility to the Press. These agencies should be monitored and in some cases IMAP should take positions on their final [decisions].

Innovations and technology advancements are making it almost impossible to curtail some of the “fake news,” which brings me to focus on the need for an overarching association of members who endeavor to set standards and crusade for freedom of the Press and social justice while maintaining your integrity and collaborative values.

Imagine the future

My colleagues, before I close, as I mentioned before, I want to bring your attention to this new technology that is going to transform the world. It’s being promoted by Google, Microsoft and Samsung. It could be a disrupter, much like the cell phone was. This is Google glass. Perhaps many of you have seen it before. It is designed to merge your physical world with your digital life with a device [here, on eyeglasses] similar to Google Glass. It’s evolving into an earpiece. But the revolution is that is occurring… It’s being developed as a contact lens. [Mojo Vision] is a company working on this technology. With this new technology, you’ll be able to connect and program through this device [the contact lens] by simply using your voice, your hand or head movements or shoulder movements to open the Internet and do everything you can do on your cell phone — through physical prompts. You won’t need a keyboard.

You can imagine what this is going to do to transform our communication and media presentation. There are billions of smart phones in the world, augmented phones with artificial intelligence devices that may surpass smart phones in the near future. Think about this: holograms on this device with 5G speed will allow you to (as they say in Star Trek) boldly go where no one has gone before.

Let me close, my colleagues, by saying that IMAP can do no better service to humanity than publishing ethical standards, bringing to bear the need for accurate and responsible journalism and building regional associations of nations for peace, security and human development. This is an incredible goal. Before I end, I want to show you one last slide. At Apco Worldwide, we have a client that is involved in creating this augmented virtual reality, xra,org is the website, which you might want to go on to follow it.

I have a quotation from Edward R. Murrow, a distinguished journalist and war correspondent and a pioneer in his field: “American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful. It is as simple as that.”