Posts Tagged ‘Sunday Star Times’

1. Has our media diet become unhealthy or are we being fed what we are asking for?

   Published on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

   Is there a disturbing trend towards tabloid style news items taking precedence over the real news?  Just a few weeks ago the possibility that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had broken up was in our six pm news bulletins.  Don’t get me wrong I have been known to read the odd gossip magazine but a good diet is all about balance, variety and moderation. 

   Dee Dee Myers’ piece in Vanity Fair discusses trivialisation of news as she examines the Tiger Woods story.

   The entire country stops for Tiger yet when President Obama makes more important announcements the country barely pauses for breath. Her article concludes with the fact that finally the National Enquirer has been deemed eligible for a Pulitzer Prize. Now that is real news.

   The Tiger Woods saga highlights the potential crisis we are facing in the world of news – that of tabloid style stories stopping the real news stories taking center stage. Rosemary McLeod’s column in the Sunday Star Times was right on the money.   

   Today’s Toyota story relating to their faulty vehicle accelerators is as important as the collapse of Enron, yet was second or third in the morning news items.  The bigger story was a claim that Air New Zealand has a culture of excess drinking despite facts to the contrary being communicated clearly by their CEO. (Declaration of interest here, we do provide PR support to Air New Zealand.)

   Given Tiger’s speech and Robin Brooke’s Close Up interview, is Performance Media a new art form?  For audiences this is something we can watch and critique more easily than substantive news? In Tiger’s case we seem entirely focused on how he, and his team, is handling this crisis and how genuine the apology is.  All know his speech was scripted, rehearsed and stage managed. 

   If the media and public know this, then who is to blame – why did the media cover it?  For the simple reason they knew they could get an audience because it is just the sort of thing we love to watch.  In today’s commercially competitive environment what will sell is what will make the news.

   How can we make sure our media diet is balanced without it being so boring we simply gorge on junk or become undernourished and miss out on essential news and information that could be more relevant to our lives?

   

2. Critics are emboldened in a crisis, so don’t fall for making excuses

   Published on Monday, September 21st, 2009

   The Sunday Star Times yesterday reported that Auckland’s new community laboratory company, Labtests (which won the contract from DML) believed that some of the complaints it was receiving about its service were the result of “propaganda”.

   Its chief medical officer, Dr Michael Coglin, said that some complaints were being encouraged by the company’s critics and were without merit. The suggestion was that people’s confidence in the service could be undermined by this “propaganda”.

   However heartfelt, this was an extraordinary statement.  No one expects Dr Coglin to be a media or crisis expert, but it is difficult to comprehend that his advisors have not shared with him the anatomy of an issue or crisis. What he is experiencing is as normal as it is real, and any organisation that handled an issue of this nature the way Labtests has was surely headed for a crisis.

   On changeover-day plus-one, they were virtually boasting that everything was running smoothly. The reality was different and got worse.

   It is a fact that in any crisis, critics are emboldened.  Remember the lab contract was competitive and contentious, so there were many with strong held views. In this type of situation, people who would normally say nothing speak out, thereby encouraging others. Extraneous matters suddenly assume some relevance, or at least appear to. But at times like this, it is not the company in crisis that adjudicates on what is relevant and what is not. That lies with its critics and the media.

   What can you do about it? Not a lot. Stay humble and avoid enflaming the situation with attacks on the critics. At a time like this you can’t do better than follow the C.A.P formula: show Concern for what is happening, constantly update people on your responsive Actions, and, if you get the chance, provide some Perspective. But here’s a warning, never leave your “perspective” floating out there alone, or it will be interpreted as an excuse. Dr Coglin’s comment looked much like an excuse.