media & PR archive
Forget tweets, it’s Andy Coulson people should be talking about
Yes, someone said something foolish on Twitter. Yes, he then dug himself into a hole with an explanation that doesn’t stack up. Yes, he shouldn’t have done it.
But even for a Twitter-holic like me, you’ve got to wonder quite why this story is garnering so much online chatter in comparison with the news we may [...]
Good news for journalism as news and current affairs magazines circulations grow
The future for journalism is much debated in the context of declining newspaper sales and the question of whether their online operations can bring in sufficient income, whether by advertising, pay walls or other business models. But the latest ABC figures for magazine circulation shows that there are sectors of printed journalism which are managing [...]
Which blogs do MPs respect?
(Blogging this for my own convenience so I can easily find the information, but it may be of use to others too…) ComRes polled 151 MPs in April and May 2009 asking, amongst other questions, which bloggers they most respect: Conservative MPs: ConservativeHome Guido Fawkes Iain Dale Political Betting Daniel Hannan Labour MPs: Iain Dale [...]
Google Buzz: what is the implication for PR and journalists?
Cross-posted from the Mandate blog: Google has just launched a new social networking service and unsurprisingly the blogs are, ahem, buzzing with discussion. If you’ve not yet seen it yourself, this video is an excellent quick introduction: Based on what has been seen so far, it looks like Google Buzz’s biggest strength will also be [...]
Why blogging and moaning works
I’ve been on a bit of a roll this year, blogging about mistakes organisations have made and having senior, effective people get in touch as a result (including BT, Virgin Media and the Independent Safeguarding Authority). At one level, this is simply a reflection of how some organisations understand their reputations can be made or [...]
How did the media do at reporting opinion polls in January?
As I blogged last month, The Voice is going to start rating the quality of the media’s coverage of opinion polls, which is often far from perfect:
There is progress, helped no doubt by the criticism from Anthony Wells and Mike Smithson, both of whom are respected by many of the relevant journalists.
However, there is still [...]
The power of the press release: the British Social Attitudes survey
Cross-posted from the Mandate blog: The new British Social Attitudes survey has been all over the news. Credit is certainly due to the team for putting out a comprehensive, yet easy to understand, set of news releases. Enough detail and quotes to provide a large range of different stories but not so much as to [...]
TV leaders' debates: how to sort the details
Perhaps not surprisingly (though I only sort of included it in my list of 10 predictions for the TV leader debates: see number 9), there is some intense debate going on over the details for the general election TV debates between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. As the News of the World reported [...]
This is why the Editors’ Code of Practice needs reforming
It’s a small, but telling example.
The Evening Standard ran a piece from Simon Jenkins, which included a bit of myth-recycling about what the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health had said about people clearing snow from outside their property.
There were two problems.
First, either Simon Jenkins or a sub-ed dropped the word “probably” making the quote [...]
New poll shows strong public support for reform of the Press Complaints Commission
A series of proposals to reform the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) have won the backing of the public in a new IPSOS-MORI poll (8-17 January, 980 individuals) commissioned by the Media Standards Trust:
By a 61% margin the public believe the chief purpose of this body should be to monitor compliance with the code of practice [...]
