The recent Royal Wedding is instructive for many reasons, but probably mainly for illustrating the effectiveness of using tradition as a framing device.

This Christmas remember the best Christmas greeting - Bah Humbug – and don’t forget to blame it on the PR people, from the early Christians onwards, who created the monster which is the festive season.

As the annual political round-ups start to roll out it is fascinating to watch how they are all obsessed with ‘leadership’ and activity, and how the respective political parties’ PR people work to shape how that leadership and activity are seen.

Insight about the conventional wisdom is one which tells us much about how attitudes are shaped, how hard it is to change them and how the general consensus influences political debate.

Many journalists and others despair of what PR does and how it works. But there are times when its skills and practices can be more than useful.

The quickest way to identify who might have placed a particular story or viewpoint in a media outlet – and why they are doing it – is simply to ask the old question: cui bono?

The frightening thing about the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s current efforts is that they apparently spent about $60 million while ignoring almost every lesson about how to undertake consultation.

For an organisation which prides itself on its millennia-long view of the world, heaven and all things in between, the Vatican certainly spends a lot of time focussed on day to day public relations.