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Sheldon Rampton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sheldon Rampton
Occupation(s)Editor, author

Sheldon Rampton is an American editor and author. He was editor of PR Watch, and is the author of several books that criticize the public relations industry.

Career

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In 1995, Rampton teamed with John Stauber as co-editors of PR Watch, a publication of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). They were described as liberal,[1] and their writings are regarded by some members of the public relations industry as one-sided and hostile, but their work drew wide attention.[2] ActivistCash, a website hosted by Washington lobbyist Richard Berman, has castigated them as "self-anointed watchdogs," "scare-mongers," "reckless" and "left-leaning."[3] Rampton and Stauber have in turn argued that the ActivistCash critique contains a number of "demonstrably false" claims.[4] According to a review in the Denver Post, their 1995 book, Toxic Sludge Is Good for You, offered "a sardonic, wide-ranging look at the public relations industry."[5]

After leaving the Center for Media and Democracy in 2009, Rampton became a website developer, joining an open government initiative led by New York State Senate chief information officer Andrew Hoppin.[6][7] In 2010, Hoppin and Rampton co-founded NuCivic, an open source software company,[8][9] which they sold in December 2014 to GovDelivery, a software services company now known as Granicus.[10][11] Rampton currently works as a software engineer at Granicus.[12] He also serves on the board of directors of Global Energy Monitor (GEM), a non-governmental organization that catalogs fossil fuel and renewable energy projects worldwide in support of clean energy.[13]

Writings by Rampton

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References

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  1. ^ Chisun Lee, a writer for the Village Voice, noted of Rampton and co-author John Stauber's work:

    There isn't likely to be much corporate support there. These guys come from the far side of liberal. Saying so is not to detract from their exhaustively detailed reportage and calmly convincing tone; indeed, the book is generally light on rhetoric, and there's hardly a radical quoted.

    Chisun Lee, "The Flack Catchers", Village Voice, April 10, 2001.
  2. ^ Manning, Anita (4 February 2001). "Their message: Don't trust experts The public must be skeptical, authors say (profile)". USA Today. ProQuest 408879145.
  3. ^ Organization Overview Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, ActivistCash.com website.
  4. ^ A Visit to the ActivistCash.com Website, SourceWatch (wiki permalink Feb. 25, 2008).
  5. ^ Rosenberg, Paul (4 February 2001). "All's safe in twists of public relations experts Authors decry manipulation to downplay dangers (book review)". Denver Post.
  6. ^ Wagner, Mitch (29 June 2009). "CIO Seeks Open Government In Brawling New York State Senate". Information Week. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  7. ^ "Sheldon Rampton on the New York State Senate". Lullabot.com. 27 April 2010. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  8. ^ Rosenberg, Matt (11 November 2014). "Open Government: State of the Union". Social Capital Review. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  9. ^ Seward, Zack (15 February 2011). "State Senate tech guru is taking his gov 2.0 skills elsewhere". Innovation Trail. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  10. ^ "GovDelivery Acquires NuCivic to Bring Proven Open Source Solutions to Government". Granicus.com. Granicus, Inc. 17 December 2014. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  11. ^ Chappellet-Lanier, Tajha (25 October 2016). "Merger news: GovDelivery and Granicus are now one". TechnicallyMedia. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  12. ^ "Sheldon Rampton (profile)". LinkedIn.com. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  13. ^ "People". GlobalEnergyMonitor.org. Retrieved 6 December 2024.
  14. ^ Brown, Valerie (29 November 2001). "Mad Cow; Could the Nightmare Happen Here? (book review". Eugene Weekly. ProQuest 362764093.
  15. ^ Taylor, Philip (2003). Rampton, Sheldon; Stauber, John (eds.). "Propaganda to Believe In". The World Today. 59 (8/9): 20–21. ISSN 0043-9134.
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