Corporational Determinism: Grandiose Product Launches

Big Tech is embra­cing cor­por­a­tion­al determinism.

Classical pub­lic rela­tions advice sug­gests that you should­n’t call for a press con­fer­ence if you haven’t got any­thing sub­stan­tial for the journ­al­ists to report.

However, many Big Tech com­pan­ies reg­u­larly do massive product launches des­pite not hav­ing any sub­stan­tial advance­ments to show­case. And it seems to be working.

Today, product launch­ing for the sole reas­on of launch­ing products might be a PR tac­tic of the past. 

Here we go:

Grandiose Ideas of Self-Importance

A recent research paper pro­poses a new the­or­et­ic­al concept — cor­por­a­tion­al determinism. 

“This paper pro­poses a new the­or­et­ic­al concept, cor­por­a­tion­al determ­in­ism, to describe nar­rat­ives by which digit­al media cor­por­a­tions are presen­ted as the main or only agency inform­ing socio-tech­nic­al change. It aims to unveil how digit­al media cor­por­a­tions employ such nar­rat­ives to rein­ter­pret the past of digit­al media, to under­line their lead­ing role in present soci­et­ies, and to show their abil­ity in pre­dict­ing and shap­ing the future.“
Source: Critical Studies in Media Communication ¹Natale, S., Bory, P., & Balbi, G. (2019). The rise of cor­por­a­tion­al determ­in­ism: digit­al media cor­por­a­tions and nar­rat­ives of media change. Critical Studies in Media Communication. … Continue read­ing

I’m sure many of us would agree that Big Tech have a flair for want­ing to rewrite his­tory and name them­selves as lead dom­i­n­os in chan­ging the world. 

It’s also fair to assume that Big Tech is push­ing this nar­rat­ive past the point of being that obnox­ious type at a social event who can­’t stop talk­ing about just how mag­ni­fi­cent they are.

The Myth of Incessant Revolution

Taking pride in actu­al accom­plish­ments is sens­ible. Revising his­tory to fit with gran­di­ose exag­ger­a­tions is … cor­por­ate cringe?

“Believing that one single device brought about a digit­al revolu­tion is like see­ing a crowd of people in Times Square and assum­ing they turned up because you broad­cast on WhatsApp that every­one should go there. It is, how­ever, a con­veni­ent point of view for huge cor­por­a­tions such as Apple or Google. To keep their pos­i­tion in the digit­al mar­ket, these com­pan­ies not only need to design soph­ist­ic­ated hard­ware and soft­ware, they also need to nur­ture the myth that we live in a state of incess­ant revolu­tion of which they are the key engine.“
Source: Fast Company ²Nataly, S., Balby, G., & Bory, P. (2019, October 16). The real reas­on Apple and Google still hold big launch events. Fast Company. … Continue read­ing

Balancing Corporational Determinism

Instead of mak­ing it all about the new products, focus­ing the Core Message on how the brand fits with­in a lar­ger story could also make sense out­side Big Tech. 

One long-stand­ing chal­lenge with product launches is the rel­at­ively short spike of atten­tion it gen­er­ates, only to return to nor­mal interest levels shortly after. Perhaps all brands can learn some­thing tan­gible from Big Tech’s cor­por­a­tion­al determinism.

The chal­lenge? We must find the right bal­ance between brand nar­rat­ive and cor­por­ate cringe.

PR Resource: Media Logic

Classic Media Logic: Beware the News

Classic media logic can be regarded as a rhet­or­ic­al approach to PR the­ory.

“The pos­i­tion and size of art­icles on the front page is determ­ined by interest and import­ance, not con­tent. Unrelated reports […] are jux­ta­posed; time and space are des­troyed and the here and now are presen­ted as a single Gestalt. […] Such a format lends itself to sim­ul­tan­eity, not chro­no­logy or lin­eal­ity. Items abstrac­ted from a total situ­ation are not arranged in caus­al sequence, but presen­ted in asso­ci­ation, as raw exper­i­ence.“
Source: The new lan­guages (1956) ³Carpenter, E. & McLuhan, M. (1956) The new lan­guages. Chicago Review. 10(1) pp. 46 – 52.

Contrary to pop­u­lar belief, clas­sic media logic is not one single the­ory. Instead, it’s a col­lec­tion of the­or­ies about how the medi­um and its con­text influ­ence medi­ated messages.

“[…] each com­mu­nic­a­tion chan­nel codi­fies real­ity dif­fer­ently and thereby influ­ences, to a sur­pris­ing degree, the con­tent of the mes­sage com­mu­nic­ated.”
Source: The new lan­guages (1956) ⁴Carpenter, E. & McLuhan, M. (1956) The new lan­guages. Chicago Review. 10(1) pp. 46 – 52.

Classic Media Logic Effects

Classic media logic is hypo­thes­ised to influ­ence the news media in the fol­low­ing ways: ⁵Nord, L., & Strömbäck, J. (2002, January). Tio dagar som skakade världen. En stud­ie av medi­ernas beskrivningar av ter­ror­at­tack­erna mot USA och kri­get i Afghanistan hösten 2001. ResearchGate; … Continue read­ing

“The dom­in­ant pro­cesses, estab­lished routines, and stand­ard­ized formats which frame and shape the pro­duc­tion of mass-media con­tent, espe­cially its rep­res­ent­a­tion or con­struc­tion of real­ity, and its man­u­fac­ture of news. Media logic inter­sects with com­mer­cial logic and polit­ic­al logic — con­flu­ences asso­ci­ated with such phe­nom­ena as tabloid­iz­a­tion and the medi­at­iz­a­tion of polit­ics. Media logic exists wherever medi­ation exists. It con­trib­utes to the shap­ing of social order in mod­ern post-indus­tri­al cul­tures.“
Source: Oxford Reference ⁶Media Logic. (2023). Oxford Reference. https://​www​.oxfordrefer​ence​.com/​d​i​s​p​l​a​y​/​1​0​.​1​0​9​3​/​o​i​/​a​u​t​h​o​r​i​t​y​.​2​0​1​1​0​8​1​0​1​0​5​3​5​7​611

Learn more: Media Logic is Dead, Long Live Media Logic