A spectre is haunting journalists – the spectre of unemployment.
In the past decade, tens of thousands of reporters have lost their jobs. And many more will in coming years as advertising revenues slump, newspapers shut up shop and journalism becomes more automated.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU 🎄
We’d like to wish all our readers a very happy Christmas and a sparkling start to 2019.
As it is the season of giving, we urge you to donate generously to two charities we’re proud to support:
We look forward to working with you in 2019 to make the world a clearer place.
We’ve completely revamped our social media workshops, adding new ones on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and rejigging our popular courses on Mastering Social Media, Drafting a Digital Strategy and Social Media Campaigning.
Learn more about how we can help you reach your digital communication goals here. Read More
TELLING THE EU’S STORY BETTER
John has been busy putting his storytelling skills to good use in Turkey and the Balkans over the past few months. Together with our social media coach Steffen Thejll-Moller, he has led a series of trainings for the European Commission on how to tell the EU’s story better by focusing on values and emotions as well as data.
So far, John and Steffen have trained project managers in Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia and Turkey. Montenegro, a return journey to Ankara and a wrap-up session in Brussels are planned for later in the Autumn.
The pair have earned rave reviews from the 40+ participants at each workshop. “The trainers were very energetic, positive, open and supportive,” said one. “They worked perfectly as a duo,” said another. “The trainers are real experts in their field.” Not that we’re proud or anything!
BOOK BY SEPTEMBER 20 AND GET 20% OFF
This autumn we’re offering ten masterclasses on how to communicate better in our Brussels training centre. Our one-day open courses are interactive, affordably-priced and led by experienced communication pros.
October 5 How to Write Clearly
October 10 Effective Public Speaking
October 19 Mastering Media Interviews
October 25 Social Media Campaigning
November 7 Perfecting Press Releases
November 14 Crafting Messages
November 22-23 Shooting & Editing Videos
November 29 Presentation Skills
December 5 Mastering Social Media
December 12 Working with Journalists
Check out our new open course catalogue and take advantage of our Back to School Deal – 20% off the regular price if you book by September 20.
If you are interested in three or more courses, we will knock 30% off the normal price. Please contact us to make multiple bookings.
Donald Trump has been in office just over a month but has already broken almost every rule in the press relations playbook used by communication advisers, media trainers and PR gurus for decades.
Instead of telling the truth, Trump has lied with such shameless abandon that a whole new lexicon has had to be invented to describe the parallel universe the president lives in. Post-truth has elevated baloney to the level of the possible, alternative facts are wheeled out to disprove demonstrable evidence and fake news is used as an insult against anyone who dares question the president’s policies.
Fact-checking, personalised content, cyber-wars and virtual reality will shape the media world in 2017. These are some of the key predictions from the Journalism, Media and Technology Trends and Predictions 2017 report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
2016 marked the year in which the media itself became news. Post-truth, the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year, reflects a world where “objective facts have become less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion.” It also heralded the staggering decline in trust in traditional media.
Here are five takeaways from the Reuters’ report, based on a survey of 143 digital leaders from 24 countries:
HOW JOURNALISTS HAVE BECOME HOOKED ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Almost half of journalists and media professionals say they couldn’t work without social media, yet many believe it has affected their productivity and is undermining traditional journalistic values, a new Cision report finds. The study also finds that the overwhelming majority of reporters prefer to be pitched by email, not phone. No time to read the report? We’ve condensed its main findings for you.
Journalists and media professionals are increasingly turning to social media to publish and promote their work, yet more than half say it has affected their productivity and is undermining traditional journalistic values. These are some of the key findings from Cision’s Global Social Journalism Study 2016, which explores the ways social media affects how journalists and media professionals work and how they communicate with PR professionals.
Most of those surveyed believe social media has ‘fundamentally changed their role as journalists and enables them to be more engaged with their audiences’. Over half of respondents in France and Canada and 48% in the US say they cannot conduct their work without social media, yet the majority of those surveyed don’t agree that social media has made them more productive at work.