Recently the blog heard a speech delivered in which the speaker spoke without notes, had a well-ordered and well-thought out presentation and interspersed it all with evocative (indeed potentially moving) quotes from historical figures. Was it a good speech? Well actually it was very ordinary.

The speaker was Dr Brendan Nelson, Australian War Memorial Director, at the Wheeler Centre’s April debate on whether Anzac Day was more puff than substance. The blog previewed the debate (24/4/13) in an item. The video of the debate can now be seen at http://wheelercentre.com/videos/video/intelligence-squared-debate-anzac-day-is-more-puff-than-substance/ so readers can judge for themselves. read more

The current US controversy about the IRS targeting political groups obscures a number of important issues. First, using the IRS to target political groups – particularly liberal or leftist groups – has been the norm for much of the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Second, while the IRS actions are outrageous, whatever the groups’ political leanings, the waters have been muddied by the way various conservative groups have recently been exploiting the Supreme Court’s decision to allow open slather on corporate and other funding of political action campaigns. Third, the increasing lack of clarity and transparency in US election and campaign funding. read more

The release of the latest Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census data puts into context why many PR and ad campaigns fail – they are simply not directed towards the real Australia.

Despite some efforts from government and an increasing number of advertisers who use more realistic images in ads, too many campaigns still focus on the traditional nuclear family and ignore the profound changes going on in Australia. You can read the Census data in detail at www.abs.gov.au but most people would have focussed on the initial Census release media coverage and its angle – the average Australian is a 37 year old woman with two children who is likely to work in a sales position – which might mean that iconic representations of lean Australian males in Akubras will disappear the way that market segment actually largely disappeared a while ago. Yet what is most interesting is the growth in categories which don’t fit the stereotype promulgated by, for instance, political campaigning. read more

One of the most prominent individuals in the fight against the Google Books project, the historian Robert Darnton, has also been a key proponent of a major free alternative – the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). The first stage of the project is now up and running and available at http://dp.la/. read more

Sanity in politics?

Perhaps there is some sanity in parts of the Anglosphere. Well at least the beginning of it. Both parties in the UK, mainly Labour but also the Tories, have finally woken up to the fact that Germany might be a good source of information about how to run a successful economy.

For much of the past few decades the conventional wisdom in the US, the UK, Australia (and some places like Chile under Pinochet) was about the unparalleled benefits of de-regulation, encouraging the finance sector and generally behaving as if Hayek and Thatcher were not a theorist and politician respectively but the author of a sacred text and a messiah come to proclaim it. However, according to de Spiegel there is a growing interest in the UK about what they have got right in Germany. The following was published before the recent Queen’s Speech, which seems to have been concept tested in a few bars full of tweedy men and horsey women somewhere in the Home Counties, but it might be an indicator of a new approach.  http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/britain-increasingly-regarding-germany-as-an-economic-role-model-a-898399.html read more

At the PRIA’s Women in PR lunch last week one of the guests asked one of the guest speakers for any advice on what to do when you are the only woman in a meeting. The response: it gives you a chance to ask the stupid question.

Now the blog has always been a great advocate of the stupid question in the form of the question that no-one else wants to ask in case it makes them look stupid. These are normally the most important questions. For instance, it is the groupthink question to ask what everyone thinks of the Emperor’s clothes while it is the stupid question to ask why he’s not wearing any? read more

“In 2012 a continued erosion of news reporting resources converged with growing opportunities for those in politics, government agencies, companies and others to take their messages directly to the public.”

These are the first words of the Pew Research Centres Project for Excellence in Journalism report, The State of the News Media 2013 (http://stateofthemedia.org/). They have significant implications for the media and the public relations industry.  The blog has been talking about the issues in various forums for some years now, always trying to stress that the situation is very unclear and, despite the confident assertions of many, it is still uncertain how PR people should respond to this new situation. Suggestions that we simply turn to social media are facile when we are still unclear as to how precisely to use the proliferation of new media for specific target audiences and target messages. This hasn’t stopped many people offering services which pre-suppose that we have found the answers but the blog is unsure if we have even formulated all the right questions yet. read more

The real offence of Abbott adviser, Mark Roberts, was not telling the head of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation that an incoming Abbott Government would ‘cut your throat’ but rather the more serious one – telling the truth and allowing the private language of politics to become public. read more

Writers’ festivals are always entertaining and educational – at least until the question time.

You hear a fascinating discussion of someone’s work or their background and then….. the floor is thrown open to questions and there is a procession of people who preface questions with an identify signifier and then launch into some long statement. The session chair starts to politely ask about where the question is and the audience starts to groan. Eventually the ‘questioner’ sits down. read more

Although PR people are constantly trying to shape cultures – both community and corporate – with language it is striking how often they just focus on trying to use language to shape the culture rather than considering the complex inter-relationships between the two.

In all human societies throughout history language has been shaped by culture while language has also shaped the culture. Far too often, in internal communications for instance, PR people fail to notice a massive disconnect between the messages they are trying to communicate and the meanings conferred on those messages by the culture in which they are delivered. The simplest examples are always around messages about change, downsizing and so on – the listeners know it is bad news for them irrespective of the spin the PR staff put on them at the direction of management. read more