Inside PR 423: Has Big Tech Become Too Powerful?

We’re back after a brief end of summer hiatus and start off with this week's #IPRMustKnow segment. Martin: Signal, Facebook's new app for FB and Instagram, gives journalists a set of tools to discover breaking news, curate visuals and stories and share them on various platforms. Gini: Google and Twitter have teamed up to provide an open-source competitor to Facebook's Instant Articles, a place for publishers to display breaking news on mobile. Joe – How do you spell Google Reader? Apple News. Joe gives an overview of the much-touted app. He likes the visual interface but doesn't think it's a replacement for an RSS reader yet. And he offers a quick hack on how to get the app if you’re not in the U.S. – but you’ll have to listen to the show to get it :). And our talk of the big three - Apple, Google and Facebook - brings us to our main topic: a New York Times op-ed by Berkeley prof Robert Reich called, Big Tech Has Become Way Too Powerful. Reich contends Facebook, Google and Apple have too much influence over the government and regulators and the way we discover news and content. Listen for our discussion. And please send your thoughts. We're interested to hear what you think. We end by answering a question Barbara Nixon posed on Facebook and Twitter: 'What should new PR pros expect and prepare for when interviewing for an entry-level PR position?' Gini wants to hear where people see themselves in five years and where their career path is heading. Joe tries to have a conversation with potential hires to see if the person can exchange ideas with him, and if they fit into a culture of creativity and curiosity. Martin suggests searching the company to find out about the principals, how they think, and what their culture is. And then search yourself to see if there are any red flags. Any other suggestions? We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the FIR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter. And we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on iTunes. ****************************************************************** Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.