Join the Conversation

Commencement Address

Boston University College of Communication

Ray Kotcher

Senior Partner and Chief Executive Officer, Ketchum

May 14, 2006 

Members of the Class of 2006, as well as proud families  – moms in particular on this Mother’s Day – Dean Schulz, faculty, ladies and gentlemen. I have been looking forward to joining you today as we come together to recognize and celebrate one of our society’s great milestones – a moment to be proud – the day you receive your diplomas and graduate. 

It was twenty-three years ago that I received my master’s degree from the College of Communication. In 1983, there was no such thing as an iPod to drown out the commencement speaker. The personal device of choice, the Sony Walkman, had been introduced just a few years earlier.ⁱ And we certainly didn’t have cell phones to let our family and friends know just where we were sitting.

In 1983 – though an early version of the Internet was in limited use by the government and universities and cable television was just getting off the ground – in those days we received our daily headlines from newspapers, three broadcast television networks, and radio. Yet the headlines of 1983 presaged those of today.

Saddam Hussein was the President of Iraq – and, of course, today he still thinks he is. U.S. forces invaded Grenada, and now we may be deciding to do the same in Iran. Hurricane Alicia left 17 dead in southern Texas – today we continue to sort through the destruction of Katrina.  

The U.S. Supreme Court declared many local abortion restrictions unconstitutional – now the High Court may move to reinterpret past decisions on this emotional social issue.   

And then there was Michael Jackson. In 1983 he ran away with the Grammy awards, and now he has run away to Bahrain. In some ways nothing has changed. But in other ways everything has changed – profoundly.

Now, I have a request. I want you graduates to consider what I have to say to you this afternoon not as a commencement address. Rather, think of my remarks – and I’ll keep them brief – as an e-mail, written just to you. 

An e-mail written to you – an emerging communicator. 

And as with most personal notes that are written to mark milestones in our great and privileged society– setting off for college; yes, graduating from college; that first job; committing to that someone special; the first child – this e-mail offers advice, encouragement, warnings about and hope for your future.  

Don’t hit delete just yet! 

Because most important, this e-mail urges you to join in today’s conversation – a planetary conversation that is integrating people with people as never before. This conversation is building dynamic new communities. It’s a global dialogue powered by new technologies. We have moved from a time in which news, information and entertainment were designed for mass consumption and delivered from central, agenda-setting organizations to a time in which INDIVIDUALS now can set the agenda, develop highly-targeted, specific content and CREATE a conversation. 

And, let me assure you, this is transformational. Every bit as profound as fire, the wheel, the alphabet, the printing press or this country’s agricultural and industrial revolutions.

And I urge you to join the conversation because your chosen field – communications, in whatever form it takes – and the years you have spent here at the College of Communication – enables you not only to create compelling conversations but to build and drive them in fresh, relevant and important directions. And with this ability to influence the global dialogue comes great responsibility. The conversation and your voice in it – the powerful voice of the trained communicator – can truly alter the world.

Indeed, members of your class already are joining in this conversation. Whether it’s in journalism, photography, film, broadcasting, public relations, advertising, or new media – your classmates already have made a mark in their field.

Consider Brandon Bodow, Jillian Kerlin and Ashleigh Ditonto in film. They partnered with Professor Garland Waller to produce a documentary that reveals the horrors of child abuse and the devastating custody battles that children endure. The documentary is nearing completion. Congratulations to them.ⁱⁱ

In public relations, Ashley Cheng already has made a mark. She’s the first-place recipient of the 2006 Public Relations Student Society of America award as the nation’s outstanding PR student. In addition to serving as chair of the BU chapter of the student society, Ashley has applied her public relations skills on behalf of the American Cancer Society All University Relay for Life and last year helped raise over one thousand dollars for that organization. Ashley, welcome to public relations.ⁱⁱⁱ     

In photojournalism, Alana Marcu won second place in the pictorial category of the very prestigious National Press Photographers Association Northern Short Course competition for her photo of Moscow’s Red Square. Alana was the only student photographer and non-professional to receive an award in the contest. You can see the photograph on the COM Web site. Congratulations, Alana.^iv

They have joined and are being heard in the conversation.  

Do you text message? Do you use your cell phone to send photos or video? Do you blog? Do you Wiki? Have you produced a podcast or posted a video or film on the Web? Have you contributed a written piece to a citizen journalist Web site?

What these technology advances have done is empower people at a time when traditional media have become diffuse. They have spurred a deep personalization where each of us can create content and similarly obtain the information we want and bypass the rest. We now can sort and sift through the mountain of information that bombards us and gather what interests us.

We’re doing just that . . . now. The audiences of widely read blogs, such as Boing Boing, Gawker and Engadget, rival the size of the audiences of the online versions of major newspapers.^v

Each day 200 million Google searches are conducted and half aren’t in the English language.^vi  

There are two billion cell phone subscribers in the world today.^vii

And who knows, you may meet your significant other online. Twelve percent of American newlyweds met online last year.^viii

And while I don’t want to overburden this e-mail with statistics, have you, like the estimated 20 million people around the world, played and worked in the cyberworlds created by Entropia or Second Life? 

Second Life is an online society where you can explore, or socialize, or buy goods and services or even build, rent and sell real estate -- using your credit card!  Earlier this month, BusinessWeek reported on this 3D world and estimates in the article put the size of this virtual economy at $1.5 BILLION – that’s in real U.S. dollars – and growing.^ix                    

Today even religion is becoming “opt in.” International prayer groups – Christians, Jews, Muslims and others – meet online at predetermined times to pray together.^x   

As trained communicators you have received a special gift – the ability to create and send content that will resonate powerfully in this new world.

Just visit tv.oneworld.net, a Web site where video journalists and filmmakers can submit their work on subjects such as human rights, the environment and sustainable development.^xi Or go to ohmynews.com where more than 41,000 citizen journalists post their articles.^xii

Relish the idea of joining the conversation. Today’s media are participatory – integrating people with people to build community. Gone are the days of command and control. And this new networked world requires a new generation of communication leaders and leadership.  

Apply what you’ve learned at COM and in your life so far. Already, one-in-five college-age students has traveled abroad in the past three years. More than one-in-three of you speaks at least two languages. And your generation truly wants to help build this global community.^xiii 

And a survey that you and your COM classmates designed and fielded reinforced that. After the east-Asian tsunami hit, according to your survey, your age group gave five times the average amount of the oldest adults.^xiv 

We’ve had a rash of catastrophes, most the work of Mother Nature, in the past year. Young communicators in TV, print, photography, film, public relations, advertising and online have helped humanize the pain and suffering – and the ripple effects they spawned – to a world largely unaffected by them.

Long after many people forgot about the explosive impact of these tragedies, brilliant and courageous communicators kept those images alive through exceptional documentaries, broadcast and print news stories, photographs, public relations campaigns, advertisements and blogs that often touch us more deeply than the initial devastating images.

Communicators such as Don Van Natta Jr., Helen Ubinas, Justin Lane and Sacha Pfeiffer (MET ‘94). They’re Boston University grads who got their degrees in just the last decade or so and who already have won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished journalism.

Justin Lane, for instance, a 1995 BU graduate, is the New York bureau chief for the European Pressphoto Agency. He won the Pulitzer in 2002 for breaking news photography for his freelance contributions to The New York Times’ coverage of the September 11 attacks. A year later, he traveled to Iraq to document cultural looting, the crisis facing Iraqi women and the uncovering of mass graves. His photographs from Iraq garnered two gallery shows in New York and appearances in numerous newspapers, magazines and books.      

Then there’s Chris McKee, also Class of 1995 (CAS). He made an award-winning documentary that has opened up the little-known world of Mongolian nomads to the rest of the world. And Tyler Hicks – class of 1992 – named by American Photo magazine as one of the 25 most important photographers, in large part because of his compelling images from war-torn places like Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

And Michael Williams. He was at COM when I was here. This Academy Award-winning producer is a pioneer in delivering some of the most original content to be seen in theaters and on television. He won an Oscar in 2004 for producing The Fog of War, a film that delivered a riveting look at former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and his controversial role in the Vietnam War. 

That same year, Michael won an Emmy as the executive producer of the barrier-breaking, pop culture sensation, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. His roster of other powerful films and TV shows clearly illustrates how he has joined the conversation.

So what will be your contribution?

The broader world that you enter as communicators promises some very tough times ahead . . . by the end of this DECADE, according to the very reputable Institute for the Future. Let me give you their headlines: 

• Biodisaster – natural or human made – lurks on the horizon
• Extreme meteorological and geological events continue to threaten human life
• China’s rapid growth redraws global economic, political maps
• Megacities leave giant ecological footprints as they sprawl across the developed and developing world
• Tech innovations spur even greater fervor and zeal and a deep personalization

Most are troublesome headlines. But the last one – in particular the part about personalization – is where you as communicators come in and can make a real difference.

But, as I cautioned earlier, be careful how you use the power of communication. You have an obligation to employ it wisely and responsibly – whether your particular instrument is a laptop, a digital camera, a microphone, a press release, an advertisement or a blog.

So, this e-mail to you is just about finished. Yet I can’t close without giving you some personal advice – about what I have gleaned in my career and life since those impossibly cold mornings walking to class at 640 Comm Ave.

Here goes.   

ENGAGE YOUR CURIOSITY. Be indefatigable in ferreting out the answers to questions that will inform a world, assist a client, uncover an injustice, right a wrong.

NEVER FORGET YOUR INTEGRITY AND CREDIBILITY. Character takes a lifetime to build – it represents the sum of all of your actions. And now, more than ever, it can be destroyed in a moment. So please define your individual values and decide where the line is that you will not cross. Always communicate within the boundaries of those values.

I owe the late Professor Al Sullivan here at COM for a life-changing educational experience in a class about values and ethics in public relations. No, that is not an oxymoron. He took apart our value systems and reassembled them through wide-ranging readings from philosophy, science and religion. He taught us about the responsibility we have to one another.

DEVELOP YOUR VOICE. You’re a skilled communicator. Always strive to improve and develop your communication skills and apply them atop a deep understanding of all that has preceded you. Combine that with your personal experiences and what is important to you. And be willing to listen and to be taught because learning NEVER ends.

FOSTER YOUR CREATIVITY. Oh, how the world, especially the business world, seeks creative and innovative thinkers who can communicate their imaginative and inventive ideas. First, of course, you must continuously improve your mastery of the craft so that you can express what’s in your mind’s eye. But I also have come to believe that creativity is borne out of disciplined and systematic observation of what is going on around you. And then the ability to take what may seem to be two unrelated observations and put them together in such a way that the result is a fresh and exciting new way of seeing things.     

All of these characteristics are important – indeed critical – because what you take with you to each job or assignment or project is YOU – your principles, your experience, your creativity and your voice.

Also take with you PASSION. If you’re not passionate, then – for heaven’s sake – consider doing something else. Life truly is too short to be less-than-enthusiastic about what you do. Live what you love!

Finally, please carry forward the spirit of Boston University and all that this place has aspired to teach you:

• Determine to embrace your passions in service to the common good.
• Be open to fresh ideas and nurture global sensitivities. 
• Pursue a lifelong devotion to freedom, the rights of others and justice.
• And nurture the highest standards of mutual respect and integrity. 

Well, you are joining quite the conversation – a global dialogue in this new, networked world. You can have a strong voice. The potential to shape the conversation and the world of the future lies in your hands . . . and minds.

And I want to hear how it goes for you. Please respond to this e-mail – one of the 60 billion sent in the world every 24 hours^xv  – whether you respond today, tomorrow, next year . . . whenever. My e-mail is ray.kotcher@ketchum.com. Tell me how you are contributing to the conversation. Know that I will read your e-mail and even answer. And from one alum to another, again, congratulations and the best of luck. 

Citations available upon request.