PR Studies

Journalisted: out of darkness, enlightenment

Here's a tale from the dark ages (less than 20 years ago).

I've arranged some press briefings for a visiting executive and I'm asked to supply the following: who each journalist writes for, copies of their last three published articles, a list of their hot topics, bugbears and some personal notes (favourite food, sports etc).

The exercise requires you to imagine finding this out without the internet (it barely functioned back then). It wasn't easy.

Today, PR people can read journalists online (publications and blogs), follow them on twitter and friend them on Facebook. This makes the task so much easier - except that the media landscape is much larger and more fluid than in the past. Who's a journalist? What's a publication?

So you can do it yourself, or you can be grateful that someone else has pulled together much of the data. Take a look at the Media Standards Trust's Journalisted site. Once you struggle past the poor search facility, it's a mine of information including social media features such as a tag cloud of frequently mentioned terms.

Just one concern. Did the difficulty of media relations in the dark ages make us more respectful of and knowledgeable about the media? Because now that it's so easy, why is there so much bad media relations?

Reinventing news as culture and community

Here's the paradox. We won't pay when we can get something for free; but we're willing to pay a lot for unique experiences involving real people and a sense of community.

Simon Jenkins muses on the future of the newspaper business in The Guardian. (And, yes, I feel a bit guilty that this reached me through my RSS reader, not through my letterbox.)

Media, popularity and public opinion

Mark Lawson asks Is it time to kill off Big Brother? in The Guardian.

In an analytical piece he reflects on Big Brother's ten years and suggests:

• That there's a natural eight year lifespan for popular television series
• Big Brother has influenced other areas of public life: politicians and football coaches now fear instant 'eviction' if public opinion turns against them
• The media tries to predict rather than report the public mood, and it's turned its back on Big Brother this series (contributory factors being the busy news agenda this summer with MPs' expenses, swine flu and Michael Jackson dominating news and commentary pages).

Blurring boundaries in media

The Guardian's annual list of media influentials has been published today. It's increasingly hard to define the media because of convergence (Google, Apple and Huffington Post people are prominent, as is politician David Cameron); national boundaries are also blurring (see above) and public relations remains in the shadows - though just as prominent as marketing and advertising in this list.

PR practitioners within the top 100 include Max Clifford (at 65), Matthew Freud (74), Alan Parker (82) and Roland Rudd (92). 

The economics of news

I'm sure David Phillips will enjoy this (he's been defending the internet from the attacks of media pundits only today).

John Naughton's usual column is missing from today's print edition of The Observer. There's a small note to say it's available online instead (a suitable place, you might think, for a column about technology). I'm sure it was moved for reasons of space... until I read it. The column's about the problems facing the newspaper industry, including the issue of charging for content online and the difficulties even Rupert Murdoch will experience in moving to a paid-for model for online news.

Surely this can't have displeased the section editor? Will Naughton mind he's been exiled to cyberia?

Susan Boyle: rags to riches

Here's what we can learn for sure from the past week in the life of Britain's Got Talent contestant Susan Boyle.

We learn of the enduring power of storytelling - this is 'rags to riches' while 'David and Goliath' is another perennial favourite. There are surprisingly few great stories.

Great stories get people talking; great stories have the power to move. Great stories remind us of our humanity.

What we don't exactly know is what this tells us about the balance of power between broadcast and social media, between manufactured and organic success. Sure, people will comment on the ability of a YouTube video to make her a global viral phenomenon - but don't forget that this would not have been possible without prime time broadcast television.

Sure, she's a homespun amateur talent. But the ITV programme is presided over by Simon Cowell, that master creator or manufactured success. Will she now have a makeover?

The Guardian newspaper has a detailed analysis of the fame factory at work, including comments from Max Clifford. (That's how The Guardian justifies most of its celebrity and entertainment coverage - by taking an analytical view of the phenomenon.)

See also NBC: An Unlikely Star is Born. Don't be too quick to dismiss the so-called mainstream media and their ability to influence public opinion.

The past and future of PR

With the exception of one brief era, all human communications can be characterised as social media. Epic poetry, fireside storytelling and conversations have dominated our collective history.

The exceptional era has been the industrial age, which introduced mass media (large circulation newspapers and broadcasting). We're now emerging into a post-industrial age in which mass media sits alongside new forms of web-enabled social media.

So to suggest that public relations is returning to a more conversational style involving community building and storytelling is not to predict something new, but rather to describe a return to something more traditional.

This was one of our discussion points from a guest lecture I gave for London Metropolitan University PR students yesterday.

Print is dead?

Ahead of tonight's talk (Print is dead: long live new media) take a look at my news reader this morning. It's dominated by news feeds from traditional media sources (The Guardian newspaper and PR Week in my case). Only one solitary PR blogger interrupts the stream of news from professional reporters (the energetic Trevor Cook).

One hypothesis suggests that new media will replace old media; this is supported by the closure of some magazines and the decline in circulation (and advertising revenues) of most newspapers. Another hypothesis argues that the traditional skills of the news journalist (speed, selectivity, accuracy, compelling storytelling, editing) gain new value online; that there's new life in old brands.

Notice how both hypotheses can be true when traditional media adapts for an online future.

Print is Dead – Long Live New Media

Copied from a CIPR regional newsletter. This event should be of interest to some PR students and all of those on my 'PR and new media' module.

Print is Dead – Long Live New Media

20 February – James Graham Building, Headingley Campus, Leeds Metropolitan University

What does PR mean in the internet age? Now that information is more likely to be delivered via a monitor than through print it is time to explore new creative options. The ground has shifted so rapidly that firms continue to deliver press releases that no longer work to a media world that no longer exists.

What do firms need to know to be able to move with the times rather than be left behind by the new media wave?

David Parkin, founder of The BusinessDesk.com and formerly business editor of the Yorkshire Post will explain the way forward in reporting business news and why he decided to leave print media in favour of the internet.

David is a high profile figure in the business community and has held senior roles on newspapers in London, Cardiff and the Midlands. He has secured many exclusive interviews with major business figures including Sir Ken Morrison, Lord Hanson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This seminar will take place on 20 February at James Graham Building, Leeds Metropolitan University 6 – 8pm. The event is free to attend to register your place please call Nicky Wake, Don't Panic Projects on 01706 828855 or email nicky@dontpanicprojects.com

My week in media

I've been tagged by Simon Wakeman. Since I'm indebted to him (he's setting up the online edition of Behind the Spin magazine), here goes. This is my week in media, January 1-6 2008.

What I've read

• The Economist (essential weekly reading)
• The Observer (favourite columnists include Andrew Rawnsley on politics, John Naughton on technology and Simon Caulkin on management - he makes his column sound rather like a blog...)
• Double Fault by Lionel Shriver (tennis as a metaphor for marital strife)
• God's Architect - the new biography of Pugin
• Lonely Planet and Insight guides to Oman / Arabia (I'm going there next week)

What I've listened to

• John Humphrys on Desert Island Discs (BBC Radio 4)
• New copies of old Beatles albums (Rubber Soul, Revolver)
• Sting singing Dowland

What I've watched

• My television highlight was Andy Murray winning the ATP tennis title in Doha (British Eurosport)
• Lots of news: usually BBC or Channel 4, but sometimes Al-Jazeera for a different perspective

What I've surfed

• RSS feeds (in Google Reader) - though it still felt like a holiday week
• Travel and currency conversion websites
• I've lived vicariously watching so many New Year's Eve party photos appearing on Facebook (me, I prefer to stay at home - that way I've avoided the flu and the vomiting bug...)

I've probably understated my television and radio consumption: radio is always on in the car and in the kitchen. But this list has reminded me how much I still value print. Thank you, Simon. Rather than tagging others, why don't you pick up the baton (after all, you've read this far)?