Media Hype: Friend or Foe of Innovation?

Zamir Haider
Reporter Producer/Anchor, AAJ TV, Islamabad, Pakistan
Innovation Journalism Fellow 2007, Stanford University, California
Hosted by CNET News.com

zamirhaider@yahoo.com
+1 92 51 285 2265 (Pakistan)
+1 92 321 500 1091 (Pakistan)
+1 415 676 1607 (US)
 Media Hype: Friend or Foe of Innovation?

In a story in the April issue of CIO Magazine, “Risk-Taking and Innovation: Five lessons
I learned,” Segway Inventor Dean Kamen said, “Hype is the enemy of innovation.”

Kamen maintains that there was a ridiculous amount of press coverage related to the
Segway, the environment-friendly, personal, two-wheel transporter.

Segway was not a bad innovation. Despite the

media hype around this innovation, journalists
never clearly established why the public
actually needed the Segway or how it could be
integrated into everyday use.

A September 11, 2006 Business Week story,

“Reinventing the Wheel, Slowly,” maintained
that “journalists liked riding it, but they
couldn’t figure out who would buy it.” In the
same story, John Doerr, the Silicon Valley
venture capitalist who backed Segway, was
quoted singing a very different tune. He said
“entire cities would be redesigned around it,”
but that never happened.

From a journalistic point of view, Innovations

should be looked at from a 360-degree angle,
starting from the basic idea behind it and
ultimately, the need for that innovation and
how it will be integrated into society.

Troy Wolverton, a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, was part of a team of
reporters at CNET News.com that covered Segway in 2002 says that in general, the press
did not handle the hype around Segway well.

Recollecting that time, Mr. Wolverton said, "Journalists were all bought into the hype
around Segway during the time when, actually, the Segway had not rolled out. In that
pre-launch time period and immediately after the Segway's launch, journalists were not as
skeptical as they should have been.”

Mr. Wolverton said that there was lot of excitement around the innovation and reporters
were buying into much of what was said and intimated about the Segway.
"There were some skeptical reports as well, but most of the reporting was going along
with the hype," he said.
According to Mr. Wolverton, there can be a lot of tension and stress for journalists
covering hyped innovations.

“There is readers’ interest, competition within media, and above all, taking the lead in
reporting about the innovation,” said Mr. Wolverton. ”In such a situation or environment,
journalists should be both skeptical and judicious in their coverage.”

By skeptical, Mr. Wolverton said he means that they (journalists) shouldn't take all
claims about the innovation at face value, but instead should make sure to put them into
context and to explore why the claims might not be true or why the innovation might not
live up to the claims.”

Mr. Wolverton maintained that journalists should be wary of over-covering a story. They
should resist pressure from editors, readers, etc., as much as possible to devote more
coverage to a topic than the topic warrants.

When asked if hype promotes innovation, Mr. Wolverton said that it surely does. “Hype
help builds up new innovations and it encourages other innovations as well as
innovators.”

Commenting on the Dean Kamen's statement regarding Hype around Segway and press
coverage, Mr. Wolverton also said that Segway inventor Dean Kamen’s statement
regarding the media hype surrounding the transporter is self-serving.

“All the hype and press coverage during the early days of the Segway roll-out was
helping Kamen. If that would not have been the case, who would have known Kamen? It
is only now, since Segway didn't turn out to be everything that it was hyped, that Kamen
is taking the blame off of his shoulders.”

Mr. Wolverton also added that Kamen was as responsible as anyone for the hype. From
giving the device the code-name “Ginger” to leaking selective details about the device to
the press, to quotes from tech luminaries such as Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos that also
made their way into the press, Kamen was either directly responsible for or was at least
aware of the publicity campaign behind the Segway prior to and immediately following
its launch. “For him to decry the hype now is pure hypocrisy,” Mr. Wolverton
maintained.

Here are some of the examples from News.com writers reporting on Segway during the
hype period, i.e. 2002 and 2003 of the product.
Elana Varon, Executive Editor of CIO Magazine says journalists should puncture hype
whenever it rears its head. She maintained that journalists shouldn't participate in
generating hype. “Journalists shouldn't get carried away by the marketing buzz or their
own enthusiasm,” she said.

Using the Apple iPhone as an example, Ms. Varon said, “I might think it's extremely
cool. Assuming I am not reviewing it, but writing about it as a business development, I
should certainly say why the experts think it's an exciting product and why they think it
will influence future technology development. But I should also allow myself to be
skeptical and report my skepticism. I should tell my audience about the perceived
negatives of the product and report the critiques of its distribution model. And I should
not make predictions about how successful it will be until the product is actually on the
market and I see some sales figures. All in all, I think the coverage of the iPhone has been
pretty even-handed.”

When asked about relation between hype and innovation, Ms. Varon said she thinks that
hype is generally the enemy of innovation because it's disingenuous. When something
turns out not to be as great as its buzz, it makes people who bought into it feel that
they've been had, she maintained. When people become skeptical of newness, it's harder
for them to recognize an innovation that is genuinely revolutionary.

Harry Fuller, Executive Editor at CNET News.com takes a different view, saying that
hype is a friend of innovation. When a strong product meets the public’s expectations
created by hype, the victory for the innovators can be huge. YouTube is a good example.
This promise of huge success and wealth fuels much of the drive for tech innovation in
American start-ups. New small companies do much of the innovating in American
business because they are not driven by a need to meet quarterly earnings goals to please
shareholders.

“Bigger companies are not affected by the hype, but small companies or start-ups could
benefit from hype and the potential gains from it,” said Mr. Fuller.

Because of hype, an innovation by a smaller company or a start-up could be bought by

some bigger company for a lot of money. “However, smaller companies usually try to
hide their innovations and avoid hype because of the fear of not meeting the expectation
that is generated by the hype--which might ruin them,” Mr. Fuller said. ”Contrary to this,
big companies have no fear.”

He said the Apple Newton Personal Digital Assistant, or PDA, attracted lot of hype. It–
was a new technology and the media jumped on it, but it turned out not to be that great.
“Since it was by Apple, a big brand name, it hardly made any difference.”

A level of uncertainty is always there until any particular innovation is out, tested and
checked. However, journalists while covering that particular innovation should tell their
audience that this is what the company says, this is what critics and analysts are saying,
and not pitch the innovation like a public relations company or flow with the tide of hype.

Tom Krazit is a writer at CNET News.com who covers Apple, chips innovation, PCs and
laptops. When asked whether media hype promotes or destroys innovation, he said, “It's a
hard question, because nobody knows where the line is between over-hyping a product
and legitimately covering the hubbub that surrounds a product such as that.

Mr. Krazit said that in the short term, hype is great for a company. It lifts their image and
generates a ton of interest. But if the product/concept doesn't live up to the hype, it can
really backfire.”

Mr. Krazit said that hype is a friend to innovation if the product is really something that is
innovative. But if you’re trying to pass off something as innovative that won't stand the
test of time, the fallout from the hype will make it much harder to be taken seriously the
next time you try to bring a product to market.

Mr. Krazit said that journalists have to try and legitimately capture the excitement
surrounding a new product or company while making sure not to overlook any possible
problems or issues with the company or the product.

Tom Krazit cited two examples of reporting on the iPhone from CNET published the
same week that the iPhone was announced:
Six Years of Segway: Are they still flowing with the Hype? – NO. Even after six years of
Segway, the hype around it is mocked in this funny talk show at the Onion News
Network.
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9714562-1.html
The Onion’s Onion News Network has put together a tribute to everybody’s favorite
disappointment: the Segway. Remember what it was like before those iconic scooters?
Yeah, I didn’t think so. They have changed our lives in so many profound ways!

Take a trip down memory lane with this thought-provoking, in-depth video feature
courtesy of the top-notch journalists at The Onion.

The popular media rarely question or investigate hype claims. In the case of Segway, the
hyped claim made by John Doerr, who backed Segway -- that entire cities would be
redesigned around Segway--was widely reported by the media, but not much was
reported as to how it would be done, or if it would really be possible.

Media has the tendency to choose stories hyping the exaggerated aspects of the booming
market or a product. Or choose those stories that confirm their theory of a plunging
market. These extreme stories do make for great sound bites and headlines that sell
newspapers, magazines and attract audience for electronic media, but do not reflect
reality.

I admit we journalists are always hungry for an eye-catching story, especially in this mass
content-consuming new media world. It’s not like we make statistics up. We just report
them. But do we crosscheck the statistics or claims in order to avoid unjustifiably fuelling
hype?

Media also talks and predicts about the future of technology. The hardest part may not be
envisioning what can be invented, but determining what will be needed and that too
without submitting to the Hype the technology is coming with.

When journalists cover innovation, they should look at the product from a 360-degree
angle, starting from the basic idea behind the innovation and ultimately, the need for that
innovation.

We need to be careful not to fall victim to marketing hype or the whims of Wall Street.
I think our role covering innovation is, at its foundation, the same as our role covering
any other aspect of society -- to inform and educate the public about developments that
may affect their lives.

Because innovation is such a hot topic these days, the label of innovation gets applied to
almost anything new, and brings with it plenty of hype. Reporters have to be familiar
enough with the technology and the business context for new products, services or
processes to assess whether they are truly significant in their field and whether they
create new sources of value for the intended beneficiaries.

We have a tendency to focus on covering big, disruptive innovations. But sometimes

innovations that seem small and narrowly focused nevertheless have a big impact on how
people live and work. And sometimes we don't know what the impact is going to be for
quite a while, so it's important not to dismiss developments that don't immediately
capture the public’s imagination.

We as journalists provide a bridge between those who are thinking about and developing
new ideas and the public at large in a way that opens the door for public discussion about
the importance of innovation to our economy and the way we live. One way I think we
can do that better is by covering not just individual innovations, but the processes that
produce them and the benefit that innovation provides to the economy. Journalists should
inform the public on how R&D works, the role of government support in innovation and
the contributions of different business functions within companies to the development
and finally diffusion of innovation.

*****************

NOTE: Link to CIO Magazine’s story “Segway Inventor Dean Kamen on Risk-Taking
and Innovation”:
http://www.cio.com/article/102903/Segway_Inventor_Dean_Kamen_on_Risk_Taking_an
d_Innovation

Link to Business Week story “Reinventing the Wheel, Slowly”:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_37/b4000411.htm?chan=search