-
Opinion | Features
My memo to your boss
So let me guess?
You really want to come to Mumbrella360, but you’ve got to justify the time and cost to your boss?
Good news! I think I can help.
Woz not great
In this guest post Tony Prysten argues that the thousand dollar price of seeing out-of-touch Apple co-founder Steve Wozniack on his Australian tour was a waste of money.
This week, for the cost of two iPads (yep, two) I went to the Woz Live conference in Melbourne. I was not impressed.
What the hell is transmedia?
From advertising campaigns to online video series, the term ‘transmedia’ gets quite the work out. But what does it actually mean? Cathie McGinn trawls the media landscape for a definitive definition.
Transmedia, all media and multiplatform are terms often used interchangeably when referencing modern storytelling techniques. Yet, depending who you speak to, there are distinct differences between them.
According to industry experts Encore spoke to, the key elements that define transmedia can be summarised as follows: platform, time, audience, adaptation, and creative collaboration.
Innovation is the remedy for the ailing magazine industry
With magazine circulations plummeting, FHM closing and rumours rife on future ownership of ACP Magazines, Paul Merrill says the only way forward is launching new titles.Eight years ago in the UK, nearly a quarter of all magazine sales came from magazines that were less than four years old. In Australia, the figure was slightly lower, but still significant. Today, the situation is very different. For a start there are so few new magazines. Yes, Masterchef briefly flared, and Top Gear made an initial impact. But Grazia and Alpha fizzled, and now ACP has shelved their plans to launch Elle.
More than a game: broadcasting the Olympics
The 2012 London Olympics will be the biggest televised sporting event of our time. Brooke Hemphill discovers the logistical challenges and technical requirements of producing the event.
From July 27 to August 12, the Australian media will go sport crazy as the Games of the XXX Olympiad, aka the 2012 London Summer Olympics, unfold. The games will be the most televised sporting event of our time as broadcasters look to master every manner of technology at their disposal.
The Voice - Australia's best example yet of social TV
In this guest post, Sputnik’s Rodd Messent has a theory on why audiences have taken to The Voice .I am an addict of Channel Nine’s hit show The Voice. Such is the extent of my addiction I seriously think my housemate might kick me out of our apartment for the semi-frenzied yelling and tweeting that ensues in our lounge room each time the show airs.It’s the first time in almost three years that such disagreement has resulted in less than civil behaviour towards one another, and it’s made me think it might be a microcosm of the large volume of online debate about the show and, correspondingly, an explanation for its success as a social TV experience.Why brands are the US Army - and culture jammers are the Viet Cong
In this guest posting, Dave Burgess, who painted ‘No War’ on the Sydney Opera House, claims that ‘amoral’ advertisers have copied his idea.
Culture jamming is a 28-year-old term coined by the San Francisco-based band Negativland, who declared that the ‘Studio for the cultural jammer is the world at large’.
Branded content is dead. Long live branded content
In this guest posting, Anthony Freedman argues why branded content is making a comeback.
A few short years ago, probably concurrent with the advent of the PVR, a new term emerged within the marketing communications industry; branded content. This was really synonymous with advertiser funded TV shows where programming was created by brands and deals struck with networks to broadcast them.
There were varying degrees of success with this model.
Shock advertising: 30 ads that would give Australia's ad watchdog a coronary
Is shock an underused weapon in Australian advertising, asks Robin HicksToday, Sydney agency The Cabana Boys used an image of a mouth sewn together to shock people with the idea that problem gamblers lie to conceal their habit. Is it the most disturbing image ever? No. Will it get banned by the Advertising Standards Bureau? No. But it did make me wonder why shock is not used more often in Australia – and not just by charities and government bodies. (WARNING: NSFW)
The making of ratings blockbuster The Voice
Jason Mountney goes on the set of Channel Nine’s talent search series, The Voice, to see how the format, based on an international franchise, has come together. What ingredients have gone into making this certified hit that’s rated more than two million viewers on three consecutive nights?
Mike Goldman has one of the toughest jobs on the set of the Nine network’s new talent show, The Voice. He not only has to narrate the show, but also keep the audience from losing their enthusiasm as they realise shooting TV programs takes a lot longer than the one-hour bursts they see in their lounge rooms. A lot longer.
Nine problems stopping The Global Mail from getting an audience
While it’s a shame The Global Mail has failed to make an impact on the media landscape, the signs have been there for some time.I love the concept of a well resourced, philanthropically-funded independent news site. Anywhere in the world, that’s a rare and wonderful thing. In Australia even more so. So I hope that Grame Wood gets to see his investment make a difference.
And I have no inside info on whether Monica Attard’s sudden departure is linked to the site’s failure to find an audience so far.
Regardless, here are nine areas they can easily start to address:
Journalism’s new model?
Does the launch of philanthropically funded news site The Global Mail signal a new era for journalism or is the model destined to be a passing fad, asks Cathie McGinn in this article first published in Encore magazine.With little fanfare, philanthropically funded news site The Global Mail launched in February this year.
The online-only title received a generous five-year funding commitment from businessman Graeme Wood, founder of accommodation website wotif.com, who donated $15million.
Five things that make a great suit
In this guest posting, Gareth Collins argues that the role of a great account manager is to make the work betterI’m surprised at how many suits I meet who don’t know their role in the advertising business. The question ‘what does an advertising account manager or director do?’ is frequently met with answers such as project manager, relationship manager, plate spinner or go between … and those are the nice ones.
Success is judged on the ability to manage a process, be strong administratively and get stuff done. And while a good suit needs to do all of these things brilliantly, if these are the traits that define a great suit, then I’m in the wrong job.
What the hell is transmedia?
From advertising campaigns to online video series, the term ‘transmedia’ gets quite the work out. But what does it actually mean? Cathie McGinn trawls the media landscape for a definitive definition.
Transmedia, all media and multiplatform are terms often used interchangeably when referencing modern storytelling techniques. Yet, depending who you speak to, there are distinct differences between them.
The top seven...most patronising pieces of communication
Sometimes brands have big ideas. Sometimes marketers get so caught up with a grandiose idea that instead of finding engaging ways to sell breakfast cereal, they start to believe their own rhetoric. And sometimes it’s just lazy marketing. Here are my top seven inadvertently patronising pieces of communication…
1) Last night thousands of women gathered in Sydney’s Centennial Park to take part in She Runs the Night, an event created by Nike.
A triumphant night of Masterchef coverage at Telegraph Towers
Sydney’s Daily Telegraph appeared to be inhabiting something of parallel universe last night – one that was not occupied by more than 4m TV-watching Australians.
But nonetheless, after the biggest TV audience of the year watched Julie win the first Masterchef Australia, the Tele rushed to announce that Poh had won.
“It was a case of third time lucky for the Adelaide artist who initially didn’t make it past the first audition,” burbled The Tele.
And apparently, Poh “returned one last time to claim victory over mother-of-three Julie Goodwin”.
Rather intriguingly, the story even contained delighted quotes from Poh in which she revealed that she described “was stunned by the verdict but happy to embrace it”.
Apparently Poh told the Tele that her experience of winning was “surreal”.
Not half as surreal as reading the website was was for the Tele’s readers.
Well. Done. Everyone.
(Hat-tip for this image @neerav)
July 20th, 2009 at 9:45 am
-
-
Follow Us
-
Email Newsletter
Latest Jobs- Sales & Marketing Assistant - Crows Nest
- Account Director - Sponsorship - Sydney
- Digital Producer - Melbourne
- Digital Producer - Melbourne
- Agency TV Sales - Sydney
- Agency Account Manager- Digital, TV, Radio - Sydney
- Contract Bid Writer | Tender Writer | Technical Writer - Melbourne
- National Display Advertising Director - Sydney
- Display Advertising Business Director - Sydney
- Display Advertising Business Director - Sydney
Comments
20 Jul 09
10:01 am
and then there was the herald sun, jumping the gun last week, announcing chris getting booted off a half hour before it actually aired:
http://twitpic.com/aix0x
at least *they* got it right…
20 Jul 09
10:04 am
Huh..I can see them announcing the wrong winner early. But the quotes? Wow… must be some heads rolling at Tele towers this morning..
By the way, did anyone else notice the dress the female host (you know, the boring one that repeats everyone else’s statements) was wearing? More of a corset…
20 Jul 09
10:14 am
Wow – I can’t believe they stuck the quotes in too. It is one thing having multiple stories ready to roll, but surely you would leave the quotes blank until they actually said something.
Do they really think the reader is that thick? That is poor….
20 Jul 09
10:49 am
Channel 10 obviously provided the outlets with quotes for either scenario so they could have both articles complete and ready to go.
Either that or they are statements she made in a different context – they dont actually comment on winning. If that is the case thats poor form from the Tele.
20 Jul 09
10:55 am
And the “traditional Media” are concerned that Blogs and social media are proliferating poor journalism in terms of content accuracy?
20 Jul 09
11:33 am
That’s hilarious
20 Jul 09
1:57 pm
I was a little surprised when i saw the DT story about 15 mins after MCA finished last night. I was a bit more surprised to see Poh’s quotes, and even more surprised to see Julie’s congratulatory message to Poh.
Then I saved the page and sent it to Media Watch before DT took the story down and replaced it with an amended story (with the same posting time of 8.57pm).
20 Jul 09
1:58 pm
Gold
20 Jul 09
2:01 pm
The news that a media outlet writes two stories covering two possible scenarios is nothing earth shattering – but the fact that the story contained quotes from a happy winner and gracious runner-up is the big deal here. Where did these quotes come from? A Channel 10 press release? From the contestants themselves? (“Just pretend you won – how do you feel?”) or were they just made up by the Tele?
Where ever they came from, this is a huge eye-opener on how our media outlets “create” the news.
We might only be talking about a television show in this instance, but if this is how “real” news is gathered, then the Tele has some very serious questions to answer.
20 Jul 09
2:02 pm
Hi Rhys,
As per Louise’s email. I am keen to explore what job opportunities are available at the moment. Are you be around to catch up for a coffee and chat in the near future.
Thanks
John
20 Jul 09
2:03 pm
I see a Mediawatch opener coming up.
20 Jul 09
2:19 pm
Classic – a few heads will be rolling.
20 Jul 09
2:20 pm
Hmm John, think you may be commenting in the wrong window there buddy.
20 Jul 09
2:34 pm
Why are people surprised that the Daily Telegraph journo’s are reporting inaccurate news stories? Don’t they do it on a daily basis
20 Jul 09
2:44 pm
@AC – Yes they do, but this is the first time we have proof!
20 Jul 09
2:53 pm
Hi, this is Kathy Lipari, Online Editor for The Daily Telegraph.
The story was posted due to a technical error. It was up for less than ten minutes. There was good reason why two stories with two outcomes existed in the first place. As with every reality show where the winner is kept secret, news organisations need to prepare themselves for either eventuality. And so on Friday we interviewed both Poh and Julie who were asked to answer as if they had won and as if the other had won. This is where the quotes came from – we did not make them up. We have apologised for the error.
20 Jul 09
3:00 pm
Thanks Kathy, appreciate the response.
20 Jul 09
3:08 pm
Much respect to Kathy Lipari for the response from The Daily Telegraph.
Good to see a straightforward answer.
20 Jul 09
3:24 pm
Kathy, I appreciate that there was a production error but that doesn’t make what the Telegraph did any less palatable. You still had a journalist sit down with contestants and conduct a pretend interview with all parties in on the deception. The quotes were not genuine, and they still aren’t genuine even now that the show has aired.
I fear that this represents the tip of the iceberg as far as news gathering in this country is concerned – not just at the Tele, but all news outlets. The fact that a television program can orchestrate such a charade and there being NOT ONE media outlet questioning the arrangement is of great concern to the Australian public.
If this is what you are willing to do for Channel Ten, what are you prepared to do for governments and other corporations? Do commercial arrangements dictate the way news is reported? These are the big questions that your little “production error” asks and is something that the media consuming public really need answered.
20 Jul 09
3:31 pm
If this was what Hartigan was talking about “original content” (http://mumbrella.com.au/news-l.....ginal-7294) then I would prefer the less-than-original content that non-news websites serve
Go online newspapers!
20 Jul 09
3:56 pm
Agree with Simon and Sully. Kudos to Kathy for the response from the Daily Telegraph.
20 Jul 09
3:56 pm
I love reading blogs but when i want the truth i look to the traditional media for accuracy. I think its a huge mistake to try for the exclusive or the to be first with the story at the expense of accuracy.
I understand Kathy’s position and the pressures that the larger organizations are under to try and deliver the news faster than the blogs but surely thier reputation for accuracy is more important. Disappointing.
20 Jul 09
4:13 pm
Yeah, thanks Kathy.
Masterchef contestants will no doubt be well trained in how to extrapolate on how they would have felt/would be feeling, if X was going to happen.
After all, throughout this entire show they’ve had to describe how they felt at certain points *in the present tense*, so it can be cut in and used to build suspense.
20 Jul 09
4:43 pm
I’m with Adam Paull on this one – it’s refreshing to hear an honest response from Kathy at the DT, but it still doesn’t excuse the fictional story masquerading as real news. There was NO need for the story to include quotes from the winner if no genuine quotes were available. A standby story could have been written declaring the winner, with quotes cited as “when interviewed before the finale, Poh said…”
This story was a blatant lie. What else does the Telegraph lie about?
20 Jul 09
5:36 pm
Kathy the article was up for more than an hour and more importantly it was posted approximately ten minutes BEFORE Masterchef finished. It ruined my viewing but then confused me when Julie was announced as the winner on tv. I was elated but it was too late the masterchef finale had already been spoiled for me.
20 Jul 09
5:51 pm
The Daily Telegraph – never wrong for too long either!
20 Jul 09
6:19 pm
So two articles were written one which was a pretend article and one which was correct but at the time they didn’t know which was correct. This doesn’t really sound like journalism to me. Why didn’t channel 10 just embargo the result and have the interviews in the late afternoon a few hours before the broadcast?
21 Jul 09
10:50 am
The story was up for a lot longer than ten minutes though. It says it was posted at 8:57, yet I posted a link to it on my Twitter account at 10:25pm saying how suprised I was that it was still up.
And the excuse that they need to be prepared for either outcome is a bit ridiculous – why not just wait until there is an actual outcome and write a story then?
Dodgy from the Tele and Channel 10
21 Jul 09
11:33 am
Hi Caitlin,
Now you come to mention it, you’re right about the story being up much longer than the ten minutes being claimed. If you look at the iPhone screen grab above, that was at 9.42pm.
To give the Tele editorial team their due, it may have been that they attempted to take it down after ten minutes, but it stayed cached for longer. Can any technical experts tell me if that’s plausible?
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
21 Jul 09
2:52 pm
Hi to Kathy and other readers – this story not be allowed to go quietly, there it a lot at stake for us readers and indeed the entire Australian public here.
Firstly, this statement: “The story was posted due to a technical error. It was up for less than ten minutes. ” The (recorded) evidence suggests otherwise. Why make this mess worse?
2. You have an automated Content Management System (CMS), which can be overridden. When the Poh story was taken down, it was not immediately replaced with the Julie story, it was a ‘file not found’ (for quite some further time). Surely this is time for an apology (or don’t you think we are watching?) Well by this stage thousands were, it was post-Masterchef entertainment.
3. As several people above have pointed out, when the ‘correct’ story went up the time was not changed. This is the sort of thing a child might try on (on a bad day).
4. The quotes. For goodness,sake, what has happened to the rules of journalism? I agree with Andrew Yoole and Billy C, the story should have been written properly and then embargoed. Your CMS has a clock.
5. 100% agree with Adam Paull on this and all his comments: “I fear that this represents the tip of the iceberg as far as news gathering in this country is concerned – not just at the Tele, but all news outlets. The fact that a television program can orchestrate such a charade and there being NOT ONE media outlet questioning the arrangement is of great concern to the Australian public.” As you say, Adam, they have no doubt done this before, but this is the first time they’ve been caught with their pants as far down as they can fall.
6. Has anyone seen a NewsCorp publication reporting not only the error but apologising for this lapse of ethics? (Not saying they haven’t but I have not seen one.)
7. How can they suggest that they wish to charge for online content – indeed, paid content is the be the saviour of the news industry! – when these are the dishes we are served? I for one am not prepared to pay for such stories and practices, and I doubt many others would either.
I’d rather choke on the cholesterol and fat-laden chocolate dessert, personally.
PS to Tim – most CMSs have a ‘clear site cache’ button. This would remove a deleted story immediately from the Tele’s servers – it could get stored in some smaller caches en route for a while, but very unlikely in larger ones that refresh very regularly, and almost certainly not for 2 hours. It also does not explain the intervening ‘file not found’ period. However someone from an ISP might be able to add more to this.
21 Jul 09
3:15 pm
hilarious
21 Jul 09
3:33 pm
Robyn, you’re not entirely correct regarding the caching. Major websites like the Tele’s use large caching systems based overseas, and they cannot necessarily be cleared that easily. So it’s like the story could have been removed within 10 minutes as stated, but it might still appear on the recipient’s end for quite some time.
21 Jul 09
3:39 pm
Thx for the heads up on that, Anon. Still doesn’t explain a whole heap of other things though, especially the ethical questions. (or why it went up before the program finished). Cheers.
21 Jul 09
3:39 pm
Hi Robyn,
Just on point number 6: The next day’s Tele did mention the error.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
21 Jul 09
5:04 pm
It was a disappointing episode of Media Watch last night which only gave the stuff-up a passing smirk. They missed a golden opportunity to dig deeply into the mechanics of the media – it’s rare that we see proof of their shenanigans, so to dismiss it with a wry smile and then spend so much time on yet another “PR survey” story (a topic they’ve been beating to death this year) was a let down.
This is not just a about a silly little publishing mistake about a frivolous TV show, there are much bigger questions here – questions that really need answering.
21 Jul 09
5:14 pm
Hi Adam,
Although it fell quite well for Media Watch’s Monday episode in terms of topicality, they appear to mostly have the show locked down by the end of a Friday, so I suspect that they didn’t have time to do much more with it.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
21 Jul 09
5:17 pm
I assume media watch had some regional North Queensland local paper editor that made a typo or paraphrased a press release they needed to focus on for the 10 mins.
21 Jul 09
5:39 pm
Locking a show down three days before it’s recorded?? How very old media!
I knew it would be a bit of a stretch (I’m long time ago ex-ex-ex-TV person) but to blow it off as a cheeky “gotcha” without mentioning the fake interview was a dropped-ball in my opinion.
I agree with Mr Littlemore above – MW has spent far too much time picking over fairly trivial matters this year. Daryl & Ozzie used to do it so much better in the original “Media Watch”! (If you’re under 30, ask your parents…)
22 Jul 09
11:44 am
Do you people whinge about syndication, claiming it’s fraudulent, too?
I fail to see how ethical concerns are breached when you’re dealing with a situation where there is only ONE provider of information (Fremantle/Ten) and they strictly control that flow – including, from what I’ve heard, a lot of NDAs and associated cloak-and-dagger. I’ve no love for the Tele, but this is an easy mistake to make – if anything, the posting on the web is the failure, not the process of writing the stories. Had it been in the hardcopy version, there’d have been more strict subbing at work – if the Tele is anything like the SMH, there just ain’t that level of care given to online posting.
23 Jul 09
9:13 am
Which just goes to prove the existence of a parallel universe – one inhabited by people (like me) who (somewhat naively no doubt) work on the assumption that if newspapers/the media don’t quite report the truth, then they still make some attempt to seek it out, and what would appear to be a significant proportion of the media (and probably their mutually-dependent bedfellows, politicians).
Don’t you guys/gals ever wonder why most of you have lost our respect? Why we don’t buy your papers anymore? But no, it seems the end justifies the means….
You might have our eyeballs (some of the time) but you don’t have our wallets.
24 Jul 09
1:04 pm
@Luke – What if this was the Government instead of Channel Ten? What if the story was vital to the National interest? Should media outlets bow to every demand of those “controlling” the news? Should news be manipulated like this in the first place?
These are the big questions that need answering.
In this case the story was just a TV show, but it demonstrates how media in this country, and therefore us as well, are being manipulated.
Another consideration here is credibility. When you start an interview by telling your subject to pretend they’re in a certain situation, you lose all credibility – and you don’t sell papers without it.
24 Jul 09
2:26 pm
i guess that’s an issue.. they aren’t exactly selling papers
anyway.. as you were.
24 Jul 09
2:32 pm
I’m not sure that’s true Great Strategy.
24 Jul 09
3:38 pm
I recall leaving a Waratahs game 3-4 years ago before Del was busted and being handed my free copy of the Tele with a back page story including the line “Del was spotted in a Paddington bar after the game deep in conversation with blah blah blah….”. This was about 3 minutes after the final whistle!
Trackbacks/Pingbacks