Independent news from the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance

ConocoPhillips CEO: Social media is ‘double-edged sword’

JT Shining Oneside shared stories about her Ojibwe and Anishinaabe inheritance during the Native American Heritage Month Celebration on Nov. 15. She spoke about the coming-of-age and traditional birth ceremonies. (Photo credit/ Adrianna Adame)

HOUSTON – ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said Tuesday that Twitter and other social media tools are helping the oil-and-gas giant communicate but are also providing critics a platform to quickly spread attacks.

“It is a tremendous opportunity,” he said at a major energy conference here, adding that the company is embracing social media.

“It can be a double-edged sword, but the opportunity there is the real alignment that it drives in terms of where you are trying to take the company and make sure everybody knows the direction you are going,” Lance said at the IHS CERAWeek conference.

But Lance also noted that industry critics, who he alleged have unfairly attacked energy development from shale formations, use the same tools.

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Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is the founder and director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization with offices in Bismarck, N.D. and the Fort Berthold Reservation. Jodi spent 15 years reporting for the mainstream press. She's been awarded prestigious Nieman and John S. Knight journalism fellowships at Harvard and Stanford, respectively. She also an MIT Knight Science Journalism Project fellow. Her writing is featured in "The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity," published by Columbia University Press. Jodi currently serves as a Society of Professional Journalists at-large board member, an SPJ Foundation board member, and she chairs the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee. Jodi has won top journalism awards from mainstream and Native press organizations. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.