| Building and Protecting your Reputation |
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There's been unprecedented use of the word "unprecedented" in the press this week. Defence minister Gavin Williamson was given his marching orders by Theresa May, in a very strongly-worded letter indicating that he leaked information from the National Security Council about the potential role of Chinese company Huawei in the 5G roll-out. (and what a gift the company name was to headline writers).
Mr Williamson has strenuously denied being responsible for the leak, and the paper that broke the story, The Daily Telegraph, appears to be backing him on their front page. That's unprecedented (sorry). Mrs May has declared the matter closed. I don't think that will be the end of it. I suspect we may have seen a very significant event in our political history, which will have repercussions for some time to come.
In other news, there has been a long-awaited showdown, which has generated no end of discussion. Fans have been appalled and delighted by the outcome in equal measure. No-one expected all of the surprises that emerged.
Yes, the world now knows what new words are allowed in Scrabble. OK is one of three new two-letter words, the first added to the official list since 2007. The others are “ew” – an “expression of disgust” joining eew and eeew in the dictionary – and “ze”, defined as a gender-neutral pronoun. So you now have a Scrabble advantage over your less media-savvy opponents. |
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The MediaMaestro is British Telecom (BT), who haven't always been the most popular organisation in the land. So why the award? Because they have decided to put their red phone boxes up for sale to communities around the country who are putting them to all sorts of innovative uses.
More than 5,800 payphones have been adopted by communities since 2008, and old boxes have been given a new lease of life by being converted into mini-libraries, tiny art museums, information centres and even cake shops. Adopted phone boxes can also be used to house defibrillators - an increasingly popular and potentially life-saving conversion.
Communities can apply to adopt a kiosk as long as they are a recognised public body such as a parish council, community council, town council or a registered charity. It's a brilliant scheme.
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The MediaMug is Dr Young-hae Chi, an Oxford professor (remember that for a moment). He has claimed that extraterrestrials are breeding with human beings to produce a super-species which could one day save the planet from climate change (I'm not making this up).
Dr Chi, who is from South Korea, told reporters that aliens “are just next to us [but] we can’t see them” He said: “If they are far, they shouldn’t be concerned about us. I don’t think they are from far away, they are just next to us, we can’t see them".
Dr Chi said this week he was “looking for more evidence” to support his theory and told HuffPost UK “the majority of reactions” to his claims “are like ‘yes, you are right, I have also experienced abduction by aliens, I can tell you more in detail if you wish’ or ‘what you said may be true’”.
Hmmm.
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| Speaking Tip - Paint a picture |
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Your aim is to make your audience remember your core message. The easiest way to do this is to help them conjure up an image to fit your words. This is the technique used by storytellers for thousands of years, enabling knowledge to be passed around without being recorded in any other way. The more powerful the image, the more effective the communication.
There's a story, possibly apocryphal, about a conversation between Groucho Marx and a schoolboy. The comedian apparently asked the boy whether he preferred TV or radio. The boy had no doubt: "Radio" he said "because the pictures are better". The pictures that your words evoke can be far more powerful than anything you could show them on a screen.
There's nothing difficult about this, since we do it every day in conversation. However, many presenters seem to lose the ability to tell an image-rich story when they stand on stage. They may revert to a script, a litany of words on slides, or a mindless procession of facts that they think will interest their audience.
Not you, of course. You use imagery in your stories to make your point, and your audience loves you for it. Don't be afraid to use several stories in one speech to deliver the same message. As Winston Churchill put it "If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack." |
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| Media Tip - Brevity, Clarity, Confidence |
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However long a media interview is, editors will always be looking for short clips or sound bites of around five to eight seconds to use in news bulletins and summary reports. That means you have to make your point as briefly as possible.You should prepare and practice the technique. Last week, I heard a UK politician begin his response with this phrase; "There is a widespread belief in this country, and it is one that I myself share, that.." It would have been far better to say "I believe.."
As well as being brief, you need to be clear. That means avoiding any jargon and speaking in clear and simple terms. If you ever find yourself having to explain a term or abbreviation in the middle of an answer, you know you will be losing some of your audience. The old media trick is to imagine you are speaking to a twelve-year-old. That doesn't mean limiting your speech to one-syllable words, either. Twelve Is the reading age of most newspapers. It does mean that you need to be clear about your message, and in particular what examples you could use to make it even clearer.
Confidence is a third crucial trait to show in interviews. You may be "doorstepped" without time to prepare a message. You may even have to deal with unexpected and shocking information. The way the you react on camera will have a significant impact on how people react to the news. Always give yourself a moment to think, and react with a confident voice, even if you're taken by surprise. It's fairly easy to deliver a standard holding response, but the way you deliver it is crucial. |
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| Social Media Tip - 10 rules for anti-social media |
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I didn't coin the phrase "anti-social media", but I did come up with these rules ten years ago, back in 2009. I've updated them, and suggest that they still apply if you want to be really anti-social online. They should ensure that you use anti-social media for no gain and scant profit:
1) Promote yourself relentlessly, at all times. Make sure that every message is a selling one, so that your friends and followers understand what you are really about.
2) Never offer help. Why give away something that people should pay you for?
3) Re-send messages from experts, to give the impression that you have the same thoughts. Occasionally "forget" to mention their name to reinforce this impression.
4) Hide your identity behind a silly name or jumble of letters. You don't want to end up on a spammers list, do you?
5) Try to get as many people to follow you as possible, but ignore them completely. They are just your potential customers, so they have nothing to offer you.
6) Cut and paste articles and pretend that you wrote them (or at least hint at it by making it hard to spot the name of the original author).
7) Automate everything so that you never have to be at your computer, There are better things to do than listen to the dull conversations in social networks.
8) Constantly promote money-making schemes that you don't use yourself (because they don't work). You can make loads of money selling these as an affiliate.
9) Insult and abuse others, to damage their reputations and reduce their chance of getting work.
10) Never miss an opportunity to tell people that they are doing it wrong, and you are doing it right. They will get the message eventually, and give up, leaving you the winner. |
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The wonderful people at "We want Plates" have been conducting a campaign for a few years against the bizarre ways that some restaurants serve food. Some of them are jaw-droppingly daft.
Feel free to send them a picture of your favourite shovel, bucket, or whatever bizarre container your food arrives in....
Thanks to Su Butcher for the reminder about this wonderful site! |
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| Do you need to improve your speaking? |
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