THE JACKSON WELLS REPORT

Jackson Wells' Bob Lawrence on Spin Doctors Thursday

Benjamin Haslem

Jackson Wells' Account Director Bob Lawrence (left) is making one of his regular appearances on ABC Radio Sydney's Spin Doctors segment this Thursday at 9.15am (11.15pm Wednesday GMT). If you're in Sydney tune in on 702AM or you can stream it. The Spin Doctors panel analyses the week’s best and worst spin in the media.

A meaningless survey on alcohol abuse

BENJAMIN HASLEM

This breathless media release (complete with incorrect date) has been put out by the Alcohol Education & Rehabilitation Foundation:

New national market research reveals over 2.2 million Australians over the age of 14 experienced physical and/or verbal abuse during the recent December – January holiday period from someone under the influence of alcohol.

Really? And how did the AERF reach this startling conclusion?

An on-line survey.

The release doesn't explain where the link to the on-line survey was. However, such surveys are inherently problematic. Primarily because respondents are self selected. Therefore you get a highly skewed sample, with people with a gripe about alcohol and drunks more likely to take the survey.

This can be partly remedied, but still without great reliability, with on-line omnibus surveys covering a range of subjects but including one or two questions about alcohol. Perhaps a survey on spending habits covering mobile phones, clothes, entertainment and alcohol (including questions about abuse and booze).

Unfortunately, the release doesn't give a lot of detail of the on-line survey, other than there were 1,000 respondents. That's an awfully small (and unreliable) sample from which to extrapolate that 2.2 million Australians were subjects of abuse.

Finally, how do the respondents know the abuser was "under the influence of alcohol"? Did they breath-test them? Could they (abusers) have been mentally ill, under the influence of other drugs or just having a bad day?

Alcohol-related violence is a serious issue in Australia. Jackson Wells works with the Australian Hotels Association (NSW), whose members are acutely aware of the public expectation that they serve alcohol responsibly. The AHA (NSW) is a strong supporter of the State's tough Responsible Service of Alcohol laws.

The AHA is also aware of the importance of an evidentiary-based approach to policy making.

The AERF survey does not cut it as evidence. It's pretty poor hearsay. AERF needs quantitative research that will provide statistical validity and therefore reliability and credibility

Short of that, the media release should acknowledge the limitations of the 'research' and be structured to reflect these limitations, such as saying that the survey "suggests" not "reveals" conclusions. Otherwise it's just bad spin.

Not that the media is skeptical. News Limited's news.com.au ran the survey complete with the reporter's own spin: "Research commissioned by the advocacy group Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation (AER) Foundation shows Australia's culture of regular binge drinking is alive and well."

No it doesn't. There is no claim in the 'research' findings that the abusers had been binge drinking.

Media: the shift to a culture of negativity

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL, the political editor of a seamy tabloid who became Tony Blair’s controversial press secretary, might be the last person journalists want lecturing them on their role. But in last week’s UK Cudlipp Lecture he did so anyway. Here’s an extract…..

[Hugh] Cudlipp, who warned he would sack any reporter who intruded on private grief, once said this: “A sensationalist tabloid newspaper should strive - more diligently perhaps than a 'serious quality newspaper' - to be acknowledged as mature, stable and fair in its attitudes to people and public issues.”

He would find it hard to spot that as the dominant philosophy today, not just in the tabloids, so often the whipping boys, but in the broadsheets and broadcast media too. Indeed, much of what makes up today’s tabloids would be recognisable to those who were around in the tabloid heyday era. It is in broadcast news and current affairs media that the biggest changes have taken place.

There has been a shift to what may be defined as a culture of negativity, which goes well beyond coverage of politics. Of course, the idea of news as something that someone, somewhere would rather not see published is a good one. But it is partial. When a prevailing wisdom takes hold that news is ONLY news when it is bad for someone, and especially someone in power, then it narrows and distorts the view of the world.

I cite the case of Jill Palmer, a former colleague who as health reporter used to fill the Mirror with stories of miracle babies, life saving operations, the heroics of NHS staff. When she was laid off a few years ago, it was made clear to her that the market for positive health stories just wasn’t there any more…..

Real breaking news stories are, by their nature, few and far between. The need to pretend to the listener and viewer that they are happening all the time is stronger. But the public know.

You can read the complete version of Campbell’s entertaining Cudlipp Lecture here.

The risk of expressing a media opinion

BENJAMIN HASLEM

Making yourself available to offer commentary and insight to print journalists covering your area of expertise can be a great marketing tool. It helps raise your and your company's profile and can deliver a perception that you have been endorsed to some extent by a third party -- the journalist. Is certainly beats a paid advertisement.

But as this excellent post by John Quiggin attests, there are serious risks.

I was interviewed recently about the economic problems facing the new government and said, several times, that we would be better off if both parties had not committed themselves to large tax cuts on the basis of optimistic projections but that, having made the commitment, the Rudd government should honour it. This is how it came out in ... news.com (sic).

Some economists believe the promised $31 billion tax cuts should be abandoned.

“The country would be much better if we hadn’t had these tax-cut promises from both sides in the election campaign,” University of Queensland professor John Quiggin said.

“It was irresponsible to promise such large tax cuts where the fiscal situation needed more flexibility than that allowed.”

But Mr Swan insisted the tax cuts would be delivered.

Remember, journalists seeking opinion will, if they're doing their job, seek all sides to an argument.

So if, as in Prof Quiggin's case, you add a qualifier, you run the risk the qualifier will be dropped to suit the journalist's purposes (running a counter argument). Or, as was perhaps the case here, the sub-editor's!

Wild weather? More like wild journalists

Benjamin Haslem

Those who know me know about my weather obsession. It ranks just slightly below train spotting on the weirdness scale. But there's plenty of us out there.

I am forever annoyed and concerned by the Australian media's appalling coverage of the weather. Be it forecasting or reporting  current or recent events. The tendency  to exaggerate is huge. "Absolutely" huge.

Take this from one on-line report this morning:

Overnight some 500 people have been evacuated from areas around Kyogle and South Murwillumbah where more than 300mm of rain fell in just three hours (emphasis added).

I have scoured through all the rainfall figures from the NE of NSW for the 24 hours to 9am. No gauge has recorded more than 200mm. That 200mm total was in Murwillumbah.

Perhaps the journalist has spoken to a resident with their own gauge or heard a report second or third hand. Did he or she verify it with the Bureau of Meteorology? Perhaps.

This isn't simply pedantry on my part. The weather affects people's lives. It kills. The reportage should be spot on. Not alarming hyperbole.

Imagine if the ASX200 fell 100 points and some journo heard from a broker that it had fallen 200 points and reported that. Or one mining stock fell 50% so the journo decided to report that all mining stocks fell 50%.

The problem is that few if any news outlets have reporters with more than a basic understanding of meteorology.

UPDATE: Since posting a 24-hour rainfall figure of 347mm to 9am came in from Bald Mountain, west of Murwillumbah. But my point still stands.

Research tips for effective media relations

Keith Jackson

US research shows that the volume of media coverage, and especially the tone of that coverage, has substantial impact on business outcomes. Here are some practical steps organisations can take in the light of this knowledge.

1. Plan media tactics focusing on areas in which your competition is weak. A hospital knows its major competitor has a dominant share of news coverage about cardiology but is weak in cancer. Depending on hospital capabilities, it may make strategic sense to run a PR campaign aimed at grabbing the dominant share of cancer discussion, and wait for a better time to address cardiology.

2. Design positive messages that resonate. A company can disseminate a lot of information in an attempt to drown out- the competition, but if its off message or the tone is negative, there will be no cut through to consumers.

3. Keep up the pressure. PR needs to be consistent and to constantly create ways to secure media exposure. There is an absolute need for steady, continuing campaigns rather than short, disjointed projects.

Source: ‘Exploring the link between share of media coverage and business outcomes’, Angela Jeffrey, Dr avid Michaelson & Prof Don W Stacks, Institute for Public Relations, April 2007

Media training program now embedded

Keith Jackson

We've now got a better and faster link available for My Media Trainer, the interactive, self instructional program for media trainers developed for UNESCO by a team, including me, based at the University of Queensland. Look for the link under Jackson Wells Plus at left

See what it takes to be a media trainer

Keith Jackson

For the last couple of months, a small group of people has been working with the University of Queensland to develop a self-instruction program to build the skills of media trainers in developing countries. The program addresses that well-known problem where professionals, although highly competent, encounter great difficulties passing on their skills to others.

Associate Professor Martin Hadlow, Director of the University’s Centre for Communication for Development, was commissioned by UNESCO to develop a self-instructional CD ROM to meet this challenge. He put together a team, including me, to produce My Media Trainer. If you want to see what it takes to be a media trainer, you can access the program here.

The basic edition includes content on identifying learning needs, setting the climate for learning, developing media training courses, and module design and evaluation. The kit also includes competency indicators for the five core media areas of radio, television, Internet, print and public relations.

My Media Trainer guides users in how to teach media skills to others, whether through formal classroom activities, on-the-job or in specialist workshops. Being a self-instructional tool, users can learn at their own pace and in their own location. By the end of the program, users are be able to identify the needs of adult learners, plan courses and implement successful, outcomes-based media training experiences.

Prof Hadlow recently presented the program at the UNESCO General Conference in Paris. “I’ve already had people asking for copies,” he says. “We feel we have produced a competent, professional and useful teaching resource.”