Note to Self, "When Promoting The Announcement of a New Public Relations Contract, Remove Track-Changes"

From Mumbrella comes this embarrassing example of what not to do when sending out a triumphant press release. Perhaps the worst part about it is that the release is announcing how the company has "been apppointed to lead the communications strategy and media buying" for a new mobile service provider.

See http://mumbrella.com.au/above-the-line-sorry-integrated-mediacom-36963 and prepare to cringe.

Could You be Sued for Tweeting at a Conference?

It seems to have become quite popular for certain conferences to encourage delegates to use Twitter as a form of instant feedback. Delegates sit in rows with iPad's, laptops or phones furiously Tweeting quotes from the speakers or questions they want answered. These pearls of wisdom are accompanied by a hashtag that means everyone else who is following the conference can see and engage in the conversation and they are usually displayed on a large screen on or near the stage.

Indeed the last conference Wieck AU attended one wit commented "INteresting how all eyes are on the Twitter feed rather than the speaker".

This kind of immediate participation can be a fantastic way to ensure the audience is engaged in the topics on offer and provides a way for interested parties who, for one reason or another, couldn't attend in person. But could this form participation land you in legal hot water?

Consider for a moment the case of The Australian's Editor-in-chief, Chris Mitchell, suing University of Canberra journalism academic Julie Posetti for defamation.

The general gist of the story is that Posetti quoted allegedly defamatory comments she said were made at a conference by reporter Asa Wahlquist, who used to work for the newspaper. In the tweets posted by Posetti, she said Wahlquist had claimed that "in the lead-up to the election the Ed-in-Chief was increasingly telling me what to write".

Wahlquist has denied saying this and has since stated "I would like to place on record the fact I have never had a conversation with the Editor-in-Chief of The Australian, Chris Mitchell, about climate change, in fact I have not had any conversations with Mr Mitchell on any subject for a number of years."

The question of who said what to whom in this specific case will undoubtedly be resolved in court however it certainly serves as a warning to any twitterholics who are would-be beetweeters, reportwitters or any other type of tweeple. If your twitterness is considered tweetsulting to the twitosphere you could easily induce twitterage and find yourself with your own hashtag - TheDefendant.

For more on the case see - http://ping.fm/4p33T

To decipher the last couple of sentences, see - http://ping.fm/1FRNG

Do You Want More Power than Powerpoint?

Visual presentations have become common place in business and none are more common than those (death) by Powerpoint.

ReadWriteWeb offers five online alternatives. Aside from differences in the features, these applications allow you to store presentations in the cloud meaning they are accessible from anywhere and the chance of them being lost or corrupted by thumb drives is eliminated.

The five offerings are Prezi, SlideRocket, 280 Slides, Google Docs Presentations and Zoho Show.

The full article can be found - http://ping.fm/WyQ9k

The Importance of Multimedia News Releases

It's common practice for press releases to be a simple text distribution of a new product, person or place. How this is still the case when we live in an age where multimedia dominates our lives is baffling.

Why not generate interest in your news releases by adding images or video? It can be the difference between your corporate message getting the attention you think it deserves and disappearing into the ethernet.

It's well documented that news releases that have accompanying photographs are often far more successful than text based releases alone. This trend is becoming even more evident in the Digital Age with publishers hungry for not only images but video content as well.

If you're not convinced about the importance of video, consider YouTube. YouTube is the second most visited website in the world, behind Facebook. 29 hours of video is added to YouTube every minute. And this is only one of many sites where users can watch video online.

Ask yourself how many online articles you read that don't have either an image or video displayed as part of the story.

Traditional print media (newspapers and magazines) now routinely use video and audio content for their online portals, traditional electronic media (television and radio) are required to use images and text on theirs.

Good PR departments understand that media outlets can no longer be pigeon-holed into 'press' or 'electronic' and are adapting their communications methods to take advantage of the opportunities this new paradigm provides. The importance of the multimedia new release in modern PR practices cannot be ignored.

Distribution services like AAP's Medianet offer multimedia news releases for their clients that allow clients to add images, video and audio to their text. The multimedia content can be downloaded in reproduction quality and it can be embedded into various social media networks for even greater reach. Clients can even provide corporate branding such as logos and colour schemes.

With a multimedia news release, media outlets are provided with all the elements they need to pick up the story and run with it in press, electronic and online forms.

Public Relations is Dead, Long Live PR

From time to time the assertion that public relations is dead raises it's ugly head. The advent of the digital realm, especially the emergence of social media platforms, has seen a shift in focus from PR to marketing in a desperate bid to capture this audience of cashed up, tech savvy Gen Y. The question is, how effective is this strategy?

Let's break down a couple of these assumptions. 

First of all, what is social media other than a massive online barbecue? Social networks are design to have friends and colleagues group together and engage in conversation. They encourage discussion on every and any topic you can think of, be that the news, scientific breakthroughs or celebrity gossip - the only think missing is the beer and snags. In short, they are driven by word-of-mouth.

People do NOT engage in social networks to look at ads. The movie "The Social Network" goes to great lengths to point out one of the main reasons Facebook is cool is because of the lack of advertising. There is no question some advertising strikes a cords and because a point of discussion but the sheer excitement of this demonstrates that these ads are the exception, not the rule.

Why then would you engage a marketer whose speciality lies in advertising to develop social media strategies over a PR professional whose career is based on publicity generated by word-of-mouth?

Secondly, Advertising to Gen Y is particularly difficult, they have an innate ability to tune out when it comes to anyone telling them what they should be buying. Conversely, they are particularly susceptible to being driven by what is cool. The difference here is between an advertiser telling them something and their friends communicating with them - advertising vs PR.

It should also be pointed out that the online audience isn't simply Gen Y. A survey of 19 different social media networks by Pingdom demonstrates that the majority of users are, in fact, over 35.

The PR industry is the perfect foundation to leverage social media, the only thing holding their success back are the PRs themselves.

The role of the PR needs to change from concentrating on generating media releases and schmoozing 'A List' journalists to embracing the new tools at their disposal. A well constructed and properly resourced Online Newsroom can help with the distribution of news releases, photos and videos leaving the PR professional to concentrate on developing effective communication strategies (that include online media), instead of marketing driven campaigns.

PR is not only alive and well, it's in the box seat to become the most important department in any company - long live PR.

Guardian Editor-In-Chief tells why Twitter matters for media outlets

There are still a lot of media professionals that dismiss the importance of social media platforms like Twitter with a roll of the eyes and a flippant comment like "How does someone commenting about what they had for breakfast help me report the news?"

Whether these journalists are afraid of new technology or genuinely dismiss the power of social media is irrelevant - the fact is they are missing out on what is happening now. In the past couple of years Twitter has been the original source of major news stories around the globe, from the US Airways crash in the Hudson to trapped Chilean miners to Qantas' engine explosion - these were all on Twitter first.

In his article "The splintering of the fourth estate" Guardian Editor-in-Chief, Alan Rusbridge discusses the changing media landscape and provides an insight into how he views the history of media, the current state of turmoil in the industry, right through to the future of communication. He also provides the following 15 reasons why Twitter must be embraced by media professionals.

1. It's an amazing form of distribution
It's a highly effective way of spreading ideas, information and content. Don't be distracted by the 140-character limit. A lot of the best tweets are links. It's instantaneous. Its reach can be immensely far and wide. Why does this matter? Because we do distribution too. We're now competing with a medium that can do many things incomparably faster than we can. It's back to the battle between scribes and movable type. That matters in journalistic terms. And, if you're trying to charge for content, it matters in business terms. The life expectancy of much exclusive information can now be measured in minutes, if not in seconds. That has profound implications for our economic model, never mind the journalism.

2. It's where things happen first
Not all things. News organisations still break lots of news. But, increasingly, news happens first on Twitter. If you're a regular Twitter user, even if you're in the news business and have access to the wires, the chances are that you'll check out many rumours of breaking news on Twitter first. There are millions of human monitors out there who will pick up on the smallest things and who have the same instincts as the agencies – to be the first with the news. As more people join, the better it will get.

3. As a search engine, it rivals Google
Many people still don't quite understand that Twitter is, in some respects, better than Google in finding stuff out. Google is limited to using algorithms to ferret out information in the unlikeliest hidden corners of the web. Twitter goes one stage further – harnessing the mass capabilities of human intelligence to the power of millions in order to find information that is new, valuable, relevant or entertaining.

4. It's a formidable aggregation tool
You set Twitter to search out information on any subject you want and it will often bring you the best information there is. It becomes your personalised news feed. If you are following the most interesting people they will in all likelihood bring you the most interesting information. In other words, it's not simply you searching. You can sit back and let other people you admire or respect go out searching and gathering for you. Again, no news organisation could possibly aim to match, or beat, the combined power of all those worker bees collecting information and disseminating it.

5. It's a great reporting tool
Many of the best reporters are now habitually using Twitter as an aid to finding information. This can be simple requests for knowledge that other people already know, have to hand, or can easily find. The so-called wisdom of crowds comes into play: the "they know more than we do" theory. Or you're simply in a hurry and know that someone out there will know the answer quickly. Or it can be reporters using Twitter to find witnesses to specific events – people who were in the right place at the right time, but would otherwise be hard to find.

6. It's a fantastic form of marketing
You've written your piece or blog. You may well have involved others in the researching of it. Now you can let them all know it's there, so that they come to your site. You alert your community of followers. In marketing speak, it drives traffic and it drives engagement. If they like what they read they'll tell others about it. If they really like it, it will, as they say, "go viral". I only have 18,500 followers. But if I get retweeted by one of our columnists, Charlie Brooker, I reach a further 200,000. If Guardian Technology picks it up it goes to an audience of 1.6 million. If Stephen Fry notices it, it's global.

7. It's a series of common conversations
Or it can be. As well as reading what you've written and spreading the word, people can respond. They can agree or disagree or denounce it. They can blog elsewhere and link to it. There's nothing worse than writing or broadcasting something to no reaction at all. With Twitter you get an instant reaction. It's not transmission, it's communication. It's the ability to share and discuss with scores, or hundreds, or thousands of people in real time. Twitter can be fragmented. It can be the opposite of fragmentation. It's a parallel universe of common conversations.

8. It's more diverse
Traditional media allowed a few voices in. Twitter allows anyone.

9. It changes the tone of writing
A good conversation involves listening as well as talking. You will want to listen as well as talk. You will want to engage and be entertaining. There is, obviously, more brevity on Twitter. There's more humour. More mixing of comment with fact. It's more personal. The elevated platform on which journalists sometimes liked to think they were sitting is kicked away on Twitter. Journalists are fast learners. They start writing differently.
Talking of which …

10. It's a level playing field
A recognised "name" may initially attract followers in reasonable numbers. But if they have nothing interesting to say they will talk into an empty room. The energy in Twitter gathers around people who can say things crisply and entertainingly, even though they may be "unknown". They may speak to a small audience, but if they say interesting things they may well be republished numerous times and the exponential pace of those re-transmissions can, in time, dwarf the audience of the so-called big names. Shock news: sometimes the people formerly known as readers can write snappier headlines and copy than journalists can.

11. It has different news values
People on Twitter quite often have an entirely different sense of what is and what isn't news. What seems obvious to journalists in terms of the choices we make is quite often markedly different from how others see it – both in terms of the things we choose to cover and the things we ignore. The power of tens of thousands of people articulating those different choices can wash back into newsrooms and affect what editors choose to cover. We can ignore that, of course. But should we?

12. It has a long attention span
The opposite is usually argued – that Twitter is simply an instant, highly condensed stream of consciousness. The perfect medium for goldfish. But set your TweetDeck to follow a particular keyword or issue or subject and you may well find that the attention span of Twitter users puts newspapers to shame. They will be ferreting out and aggregating information on the issues that concern them long after the caravan of professional journalists has moved on.

13. It creates communities
Or, rather, communities form themselves around particular issues, people, events, artefacts, cultures, ideas, subjects or geographies. They may be temporary communities or long-terms ones, strong ones or weak ones. But they are recognisably communities.

14. It changes notions of authority
Instead of waiting to receive the "expert" opinions of others – mostly us journalists – Twitter shifts the balance to so-called "peer to peer" authority. It's not that Twitterers ignore what we say – on the contrary (see distribution and marketing, above) they are becoming our most effective transmitters and responders. But, equally, we kid ourselves if we think there isn't another force in play here – that a 21-year-old student is quite likely to be more drawn to the opinions and preferences of people who look and talk like her. Or a 31-year-old mother of young toddlers. Or a 41-year-old bloke passionate about politics and the rock music of his youth.

15. It is an agent of change
As this ability of people to combine around issues and to articulate them grows, so it will have increasing effect on people in authority. Companies are already learning to respect, even fear, the power of collaborative media. Increasingly, social media will challenge conventional politics and, for instance, the laws relating to expression and speech.

It is a long piece, but one well worth putting the effort into - http://ping.fm/DmURB

If the Internet Confuses You, try Google's Awesome 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web

If you struggle to understand what the whole Interwebs means, Google's eBook, titled "20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web", is just what you need. It provides an extraordinarily easy to understand description to most of the current and future technologies available on the web.

Written and Illustrated by Christoph Neimann, it answers many of the questions you have probably wanted to know but have been too afraid to ask.

Most of us use Internet technologies every day to work and play - yet most of us don't have a clue what the jargon that has crept into our lives means. Terms like 'cookies', 'HTML5' or 'cloud computing' and explained in simple yet non-patronising way.

One of the best parts about it is that, because it's written in HTML5, it can be viewed on portable devices like the ipad even when you're offline.

I urge everyone to stop reading this post and visit http://ping.fm/1vwvp immediately.

Public Relations and Journalists Awards are The CRAPPS

Unfortunately The CRAPPS are only for PRs and media in the UK but surely it should be a global event.

The Communicative Relations Awards from PR Professionals "aims to celebrate the ‘special relationship’ between PRs and the media in the UK".

Awards are presented for "The journalist that makes you feel warm and furry on the inside", "The 'most likely to tell you to sling your hook' award", "Least twattish Twitterer" and "Journalist you'd most like to bring to the dark side".

If you'd like to nominate someone, visit http://ping.fm/y25Vz

DIAC's Approach to Online Engagement Gets Noticed

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship's national communications manager, Sandi Logan, showed off some of the online arsenal DIAC has employed over the last four years at the recent Government 2.0 Conference.

During his presentation Mr Logan spoke about the Department’s use of social media to distribute their messages using platforms such as their ImmiTV channel on YouTube. DIAC also utilises (a Wieck) Online Newsroom to provide broadcast material for newspapers, radio and TV.

“The extensive and innovative use of technology has provided DIAC with platforms for enhanced internal communications and engagement and with external stakeholders particularly the media,” he said.

A review by Government News can be found here http://ping.fm/JlozI

For more detailed information on DIACs approach see http://ping.fm/k4Uid

Make the Rules and Break Them all if You are The Best

The article "Who Needs Rules?" by Corina Mackay for TheNextWeb.com examines four recent examples of marketing campaigns that ignored all the rules and became hugely successful as a result.

The premise is simple - following the rules makes you part of the crowd, making the rules causes you to stand out. The black sheep gets noticed.

This article examines Old Spice guy and his videos, eSmart Tax's free returns for Johnson, FedEx delivering attachments via Facebook and Burger King's Whopper Freakout. Each of these ideas demonstrate new an innovative ways to not only engage the target audience but the wider community.

It's worth the effort http://ping.fm/Y0VR4

Is Big Brother Watching?

Well maybe not Big Brother of Orwellian fame but it seems in April this year, China decided to have a peek at what's going on in the world. For 18 minutes, China's state-controlled telecommunications company managed to hijack 15 percent of the world’s Internet traffic, including data from U.S. military, civilian organizations and those of other U.S. allies, including Australia and Japan. The scary part is, noone noticed.

How is this possible? Well apparently the telephone giants of the world work on a system based on trust, somewhat ironic really. Machine-to-machine interfaces send out messages to the Internet informing other service providers that they are the fastest and most efficient way for data packets to travel. For 18 minutes April 8, China Telecom Corp. told many ISPs of the world that its routes were the best paths to send traffic.

That's OK, the important data would have been encrypted, right? Well... Internet encryption depends on two keys. One key is private and not shared, and the other is public, and is embedded in most computer operating systems. Unknown to most computer users, Microsoft, Apple and other software makers embed the public certificates in their operating systems. They also trust that this system won’t be abused.

Among the certificates is one from the China Internet Information Center, an arm of the China’s Ministry of Information and Industry.

No one outside of China can say what they did with the data or even why they did it. Did they decrypt and analyse or simply see whether it could be done?

McAfee, the world’s largest dedicated Internet security company, as briefed U.S. government officials on the incident, but they were not alarmed.

The best part is, according to McAfee, “It can happen again. They can do it tomorrow or they can do it in an hour. And the same problem will occur again.”

For more details, see http://bit.ly/dmBKk1

An Online Newsroom - It's a Need, not a Want

On any given day, someone in the media is looking for your news releases or your photos, audio grabs, video footage or background information. Supplying these individually is time-consuming. It can drain your productivity and test your patience.

At Wieck we know what that’s like, both from the perspective of someone trying to supply it and as the person trying to get it.

Whether you’re a government department, a publicly listed company, an NGO or a peak body for an industry group, there’s a communications challenge that never stops.

Media outlets expect – some would say demand – access to information 24/7. That’s what an effectively structured and resourced Online Newsroom can deliver.

So who is the media, is it television, radio and newsprint? Definitely. How about online news services, blogs and social media – is your PR strategy adequately servicing these increasingly important online forums?

PR operatives must also recognise that news organisations require more digital content than ever, but they have less staff to gather it. Radio and television stations now require text and images for their websites. Newspapers and magazines need video clips for theirs.

Their lack of staff resources can be a huge advantage to savvy PRs who can provide what they need.

Most companies already have a media section on their website. It’s usually a grave yards for their press releases. Often they don’t contain images, audio or video. If they do have these, rarely are they of reproduction and broadcast quality. Standardizing the format is usually overlooked and the ultimate result is that the media have little confidence in the quality of what's on offer.

Sharing with social media is just as rare, symptomatic of the entrenched corporate fear of not being able to control the conversation. This mindset can’t accept the fact that the online conversation is going to happen, ignoring simply means you’re not part of it.

An online newsroom cannot simply be a media section of a website where press releases are dumped. It must be a fully specified newsroom that contains reproduction quality images, and broadcast quality audio and video, all neatly packaged with news releases.

Online newsrooms need to be completely searchable, have comprehensive user management and detailed statistical information to quantify ROI.

Online Newsrooms must be designed not simply to respond to media requests, but to actively promote their content to the exact degree required.

The ability to embed content into popular social media networks, RSS feeds and email notifications sent to registered users are all necessities for the modern Online Newsroom.

And that’s what we do at Wieck – Online Newsrooms. We build them, we maintain them and we help our clients use them to maximise the return on investment they receive on their media material.

As part of a global network, we provide solutions for clients including news outlets, large corporations, photo agencies and government departments. This diversity of clients enables our team to stay on top of the changing technical needs of major news organisations around the world.

Are your Press Releases' Quotable Quotes Being Ignored?

Nothing takes the wind out your press release's sails like a quote that sounds like hot air. Thankfully, The Buzz Bin offers some handy hints on how to get your executive quotes noticed.

Suggestions include; make sure you actually say something, sound like a real person, avoid buzzwords or jargon and keep it short and sweet. In a broader sense, keep it interesting.

The full article is worth reading, especially when you find yourself quoting senior executives in your press releases - http://ping.fm/iqnqG

Tips for a better Online Newsroom from Journalistics

In this review Jeremy Porter looks at the Online Newsrooms for some of the world's largest IT companies. If anybody was to get it right, surely it'd be the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook and thankfully they don't disappoint.

There is a lot to like with the examples provided and organisations thinking about how best to approach their own Online Newsroom will benefit from this overview.

Part II of this article, Journalistics looks at addresses the question of "How can I compete with that with my budget?".

Common advantages include access to multimedia, ability to search, sharing with social media and easily accessible contact information.

Once the fundamentals of the platform have been created, the underlying theme across all of the examples provided in both articles is "Content is King"; adequately maintaining the Online Newsroom with new and interesting content is what will draw the media in time after time.

For Part I see http://ping.fm/3kraR

For Part II see http://ping.fm/0vsDa

Will Fairfax Media be the first Australian newspapers to go completely digital?

According to Crikey.com.au, Fairfax Media is setting the stage to gradually drop the printed version of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers.

The first steps in the process are to merge the organisational divide between the online and printed versions.

While it's understood that print will continue for some time to come, devices like Apple's iPad or other touted tablet devices are being carefully considered as the ideal transition away from the traditional broadsheet publication.

Read the full article here http://ping.fm/b9kgN

If a Broken Guitar can cause an Airline to Crash, what disaster is waiting for you?

Dave Carroll took a United Airlines flight to Nebraska with his band, Sons of Maxwell, and his fancy $3500 Taylor guitar. Enroute, the plane landed in Chicago where Dave saw baggage handlers throwing his guitar around. One can only guess the ground crew were Bull's fans.

Dave spent the next nine months trying to get some kind of compensation out of the airline only to discover that, while the baggage handlers like basketball, the rest of the airline preferred ice hockey and continually to passed the buck. Eventually they said no compensation would be forthcoming.

Dave went to the only place he could to vent his frustration - the Internet. He promised United he would write 3 songs, record them and post the videos onto YouTube. The first video was all he really needed to do. It's had nearly 10,000,000 views (to date) and as a result of the negative word-of-mouth generated by social media channels, United Airlines lost 10% of their share value - approximately $180,000,000.

This situation was the result of many mistakes but the containment of the problem comes down to a couple of key failings from United Airlines' PR team. There was no effective disaster management strategy, they were not actively engaged in using social media as an online tool and they failed to update their online newsroom with any information on the unfolding situation.

The 'ostrich strategy' of keeping your head in the sand and waiting for it to blow over clearly didn't work in this situation. This case clearly demonstrates the need for companies to be part of the conversation. It also strongly suggests the need to have a properly specified and resourced online newsroom that can be used as part of the response to a disaster.

Interestingly, Qantas adopted almost the exact same attitude towards social media in it's recent A380 engine problem - http://tiny.cc/ou1de

Dave Carroll's video see http://tiny.cc/4b6bd

For more on the United Airlines incident see http://tiny.cc/hrqje

Freedom of Facebook Speech

An interesting case is currently before the US courts involving the sacking of a worker because she insulted her supervisor via Facebook.

The US National Labor Relations Board has filed a federal complaint on behalf of Dawnmarie Souza, an emergency medical technician for American Medical Response of Connecticut. She was 'let go' when company found her guilty of violating company policy that bars employees from depicting the company in a negative light on social media sites. The NLRB concluded the dismissal was unlawful.

An NLRB representative told The New York Times that company social media policies that prohibit making negative remarks about one’s boss or company online are actually in violation of labor laws that protect employees’ right to talk about things like wages and working conditions.

American Medical Response of Connecticut has countered that Souza was let go only in part due to her Facebook posts and that there were many other reasons for the termination.

Although there is a long way to go with this case, there's no doubt many employers need to carefully review their current social media policies and perhaps check the legality of what they contain.

For more see http://ping.fm/Wvh3d

Marketers seem to have forgotten that the Consumer knows best

A survey by Alterian, "Brands At Risk", has revealed a huge difference between what consumers want and what marketers are giving them in regards to social media.

While it's prudent to take any statistics with a grain of salt, his one suggests only 6% of companies are ready to engage with customers while 82% of customers actively want to engage with the company.

81% of the people surveyed for this study saw the internet as the ‘first port of call’ to compare products or services yet only 5% of consumers surveyed trusted the advertising from an organisation.

Effective engagement with the customer via social media may be one way for companies to bridge the gap between the desire for interaction and the inherent mistrust of advertising, so why aren't marketers embracing this arena?

It could be argued that the time involved in developing and implementing social media strategies is much greater than the time involved in traditional media. This argument fails to consider the fact that, for the cost of an average TV campaign, a much more effective and longer lasting social media campaign with a higher impact could be launched.

It's also worth noting New Media Age published survey results in January 2010 indicating that just 14% of marketers believe social media has a significant impact on their brand and 60% do not currently have a social media strategy for their business.

For the full story from SEO Chicks, see http://tiny.cc/536pp

ABC interview with The Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger

Mark Colvin's interview with Alan Rusbridger provides a fascinating insight into the philosophy of London's The Guardian newspaper which has promised to stay free online. This promise is in response to News Corp's London Times and Sunday Times going behind the paywall.

When asked about the future of newspapers, Rusbridger replies, "It's beyond my control. It'll be in the hands of people who are going to invent the digital devices, it'll be in the decisions of readers and my overwhelming aim is just to keep on producing The Guardian in a form which will suit whatever technology people invent."

His opinion on contributions by the general public are also quite unexpected, "I think journalists have to ask themselves whether they really are the only figures of authority and whether they know more in all circumstances than their readers or whether we can adopt a more, slightly more humble approach and say well, we do know things and we do have certain skills but out there our readers probably know more than we do about certain things or are equally qualified to express views."

Well worth reading - http://ping.fm/9Wl8A

Does Copyright Still Apply in the Digital Age?

Copyright is an issue that's important to most media professionals. From an article written by a journalist to photographs to movies, copyright is designed to protect the IP of a content producer but is it relevant in the Digital Age?

Under Australian law, a photographer automatically holds the copyright for any image they take, unless they specifically sign away their rights. This applies to any published image but doesn't apply to images for personal use, such as family portraits or weddings. What happens when family portraits are published onto Facebook?

On November 4 at the WIPO Global Meeting on Emerging Copyright Licensing Modalities – Facilitating Access to Culture in the Digital Age, influential copyright scholar Larry Lessig issued a call for the World Intellectual Property Organization to lead an overhaul of the copyright system. According to Lessig, the current copyright system is failing "“And its failure is not an accident, it’s implicit in the architecture of copyright as we inherited it. It does not make sense in a digital environment.”

This is a sentiment Monica Gaudio, a student blogger, no doubt agrees with. Ms Gaudio has recently found herself in the centre of an IP storm when she discovered Cooks Source magazine had taken an article she wrote for a website and published it with her byline.

The magazine did not seek consent nor even try to contact her to let her know they were interested in using her copy.

She subsequently contacted the magazine and told them "I wanted an apology on Facebook, a printed apology in the magazine and $130 donation (which turns out to be about $0.10 per word of the original article) to be given to the Columbia School of Journalism".

Her requests weren't particularly onerous, there is no hint of litigation, in fact none were even for personal gain. Despite this, Cooks Source response was:

"Yes Monica, I have been doing this for 3 decades, having been an editor at The Voice, Housitonic Home and Connecticut Woman Magazine. I do know about copyright laws. It was "my bad" indeed, and, as the magazine is put together in long sessions, tired eyes and minds somethings forget to do these things.But honestly Monica, the web is considered "public domain" and you should be happy we just didn't "lift" your whole article and put someone else's name on it! It happens a lot, clearly more than you are aware of, especially on college campuses, and the workplace. If you took offence and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than was originally. Now it will work well for your portfolio. For that reason, I have a bit of a difficult time with your requests for monetary gain, albeit for such a fine (and very wealthy!) institution. We put some time into rewrites, you should compensate me! I never charge young writers for advice or rewriting poorly written pieces, and have many who write for me... ALWAYS for free!"

She continues:

"The web is NOT public domain! Don't believe me? Try the University of Maryland University College -- or just Google it ... I should be thankful because I wasn't flat out plagiarized? Don't college students get, oh, I dunno, tossed out for being caught for plagiarism? How is this a valid argument?"

Lessig says the basic architecture of copyright law must be simplified, “if it’s going to regulate 15-year-olds it should be something that 15-year-olds can understand”; and targeted – regulation makes sense in some areas, such as protecting professionals, but not in others, such as in amateur remixing. It also must be effective, and realistic in consideration of “actual human behaviour.”

Perhaps a fundamental overhaul will also protect amateurs like Ms. Gaudio form professionals like Cooks Source magazine.

For more on Monica Gaudio -http://tiny.cc/e2lwd

For more on Lessig's views on copyright - http://tiny.cc/cviz0

UPDATE: Due in part to the Monica Gaudio incident, Cooks Source magazine has closed, see http://www.cookssource.com/

Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2010 Report Suggests Less Hobbists and More Professionals

Since 2004, Technorati has undertaken an annual study following growth and trends in the blogosphere.

The results of the 2010 Report suggests that the authors of blogs is shifting from outspoken hobbists towards writers who have worked or still are working in traditional media. It seems hobbists are updating blogs far less often than in previous years, moving more towards social media and micro-blogging citing family commitments as the main driving factor.

Corporate or self-employed bloggers, on the other hand, have increased their output largely because it has proven to be valuable for promoting their business. Another interesting twist is that while the blogosphere has not replaced traditional media, it is becoming more firmly entrenched as an information source, and consumer trust in traditional media is dropping.

Read more: http://ping.fm/mevbv 

Nudgemail - Friend or Foe?

Is Nudgemail the best thing since the invention of email or the ultimate procrastination tool?

This service allows you to forward an email and have it returned to you when you want to deal with it. Say for example you're in a break from a series of meetings and an important email comes in. You don't have the time to deal with it there and then but you know you will have time in 3 hours and you know you're likely to forget. Nudgemail is the answer, simply send it to 3hours@NudgeMail.com and that email will pop back into your email in 3 hours time.

Of course, the downside to this is you can postpone to tomorrow@NudgeMail.com or next week or even next year. Tempting isn't it...

Check it out http://www.nudgemail.com/

The End of MySpace?

It seems as though the end is nigh for MySpace.

News Corporation has put what was once the most popular social networking site in the world on notice that performance is being judged 'in quarters, not in years' after quarterly losses in its digital and other activities widened by $30m to $156m.

Curiously, News Corp's net profits for newspaper advertising is up by 13% and profits in the new books and newspaper division were 50% ahead.

As if the shift from traditional media to social media wasn't confusing enough!

Full story http://tiny.cc/qqccl

Corporate Communications is more than Public Relations

Arik Hanson contends that the most successful companies out there today are built on trust and open culture from within. These companies are active on various social media platforms however it's the level of trust and empowerment granted to the employees rather than the social media itself that is the real reason for their success.

Hanson offers 4 key tips for success; Focus on middle management, Open up the lines of communication, Coach your spokespeople–for social media and Build trust (repeat…and repeat again). Of particular interest is the tip about middle management.

Companies tend to spend a lot of time convincing executives of the virtues of any new agenda however tend to ignore middle management. The problem with this approach is that it's the guys in the middle that are often responsible for actually implementing initiatives and processes. If they are engaged and empowered it's destined to fail either though a lack of understanding the requirements or concerns over accountability.

This is especially relevant when considering interaction with social media.

Read the article in full at http://bit.ly/doBowt.

The Danger of Irrelevant Press Release

Or should I be more specific and say "the danger of spamming a journalist that loves Twitter"?

The following link demonstrates how delicate the balance is for a PR between engaging with the media and going too far. It's a spat between journalist Renai LeMay and PR firm Edelman.

It's quite amusing but with an edge of 'am I guilty of doing this?.

Check it out http://bit.ly/ajaH6M

Truth Lies Here

The article "Truth Lies Here" by Michael Hirschorn, published in The Atlantic Magazine provides some very interesting food for thought about how truth is determined on the Internet. This is highly recommended reading.

Hirschorn questions conventional wisdom of the early social-media era held that the end of mainstream-media dominance would create a democratisation of truth and provides some compelling case studies that underline the flaws in this idealist view of people power.

The distortion of truth is apparently particularly bad in the arena of (surprise, surprise) politics. One of the favoured tactics being to make outlandish claims that are clearly incorrect via platforms such as Twitter to garner support for a particular opinion. The sensationalist claim gets re-tweeted and often picked up as headline news, while the inevitable correction gets buried and almost completely ignored.

The over-riding question is "In a time when mainstream news organisations have already ceded a substantial chunk of their opinion-shaping influence to Web-based partisans on the left and right, does each side now feel entitled to its own facts as well?"

It's quite long but definitely worth the effort http://tiny.cc/o8nnm.

2010 Study Of Social Media Trends & Journalism

Cision Europe’s Social Journalism study conducted among journalists from UK, France and Germany, underscores that Social Media have become standard tools for journalists supporting their daily workflow.

The key finding was that 80% of respondents claimed to use social media as a key working tool, using it to source and promote their stories; and work alongside the more traditional working tools.

Interestingly, 70% of the journalists asked said that they still use traditional tools such as press releases, PRs and corporate websites as often today as they did three years ago.

The three social media trends named as important are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

The full report can be found at http://tiny.cc/u2ylc

Curley: Newspapers Now Provide Only 20 Percent of AP Revenue

This article, published on PoytnerOnline and written by Rick Edmonds, provides further evidence that the strength of newsprint is dwindling.

Associated Press has reported a drop in revenue from newspapers of about 1/3 in just 2 years - that's around $80,000,000. AP CEO and President, Tom Curley, also says they expect it to continually decline in the years to come.

In contrast, online revenue is positive and broadcast revenue is stable.

Interestingly, the 160-year-old collective remains fully owned by its 1,500 newspaper members.

For the full article see http://lnkd.in/VSbWrs

Australia to Host the World Public Relations Forum

Global Alliance for PR and Communication Management have announced that the World Public Relations Forum will be held at Melbourne in November 2012.

Global Alliance Chair Elect Daniel Tisch made the announcement at the 2010 National Public Relations Institute of Australia Conference in Darwin.

"Australia is one of the world's most advanced and innovative public relations markets and PRIA's bid was both comprehensive and compelling," Mr Tisch said.

"The Global Alliance is excited to join PRIA in welcoming the world's top communicators to Melbourne in 2012."

Organisers expect in excess of 1500 PR professionals from around the world to attend.

The Melbourne 2012 World Public Relations Forum will be the seventh in the event's history, following Rome, Trieste, Brasilia, Cape Town, London and Stockholm.

For more information see http://bit.ly/9iWt50.