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Opinion | Features
Disclosure in Social Media: How transparent should bloggers be?
In this guest post, blogger and digital creative Laura McWhinnie argues for more disclosure in the blogosphere.
The bloggersphere has always been a bit like the Wild West. Bloggers could post about products to their heart’s content without having to disclose their relationship with the brand. This meant that consumers had no idea who was behind the marketing messages influencing their purchasing decisions. But in 2009 that all changed
Liars, cheats and thieves
Is our industry full of cheats and liars or do people of honour who stand by their word still exist in business? In an exclusive that first appeared in Encore, Cameron Boon investigates. The recent court case involving Paul Fishlock suing his former employer The Campaign Palace brought into focus more than just the struggle of one man. It highlighted that there are some in adland whose word cannot always be relied upon.
Q&A with Adshel's Rob Atkinson
Online trading is the next big thing says Rob Atkinson in a piece that first appeared in Encore. Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
Harold Mitchell because of his influence and the footprint he has left. He’s built a huge brand in Mitchells, offloaded it into Aegis, Aegis has obviously done extremely well to be then sold on to Dentsu. So if you think about it, he is very much a father figure of the industry.
Making it overseas
Is the best way of being successful in Australia not be here at all? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Lee Zachariah speaks to Aussies making it big abroad.I always wanted to work in New York,” says Julian Cole. “I thought it was the number one place to work in advertising; a lot of the best campaigns were coming out of there. So I moved over and was lucky enough to have a couple of interviews in the first couple of weeks.”
Cole’s story is indicative of the somewhat contentious idea that the best way to be successful in Australia is to not be in Australia any more.
Got a book in you?
From journos to ad execs and PRs, these days everyone seems to have a book in them. But what does it take to get published and will you actually make any money? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Brooke Hemphill finds out.Attention wannabe authors. Forget big fat advance cheques and living off royalties. The reality of having a book published today is another story altogether. There are only two reasons you should even consider sitting down at your computer to bash out a manuscript – passion or profile.
Savage counsel
In an article that first appeared in Encore, Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas in his weekly advice column.Hi Chris,
My clients seem to be demanding more and more from us. At the same time, it seems many of the younger people in our industry simply don’t have the client servicing skills my generation grew up with. How do we instill in our executives some of the good old-fashioned behaviours that would keep a client happy and loyal?
Fake it til' you make it... as an ad agency receptionist
From dressing the part to playing the gatekeeper, Leo Burnett Sydney’s Susie Henry tells us how to make it as the face of adland in a piece that first appeared in Encore.What does a receptionist in an ad agency actually do?
Well, there’s the frantic every-day, all-day stuff of deliveries, courier bookings, doing expenses for directors – always challenging – plus arranging all the travel. But one of my main jobs is counselling the account service people. I also keep up with all sports information to discuss with our sports-loving clients – because who wants to be bored while they’re waiting? And I know how they like their coffee. You need to know everyone – from accounting to HR. I’m also the go-to for all catering and sending flowers.
Whose views skew the news? Media chiefs ready to vote out Labor, while reporters lean left
Most journalists lean left-of-centre, says Folker Hanusch of the University of the Sunshine Coast, in a post first published on The Conversation.Most Australian journalists describe themselves as left-wing, yet amongst those who wield the real power in the country’s newsrooms, the Coalition holds a winning lead.
But while the media’s political leanings will no doubt be debated in the lead-up to September’s federal election, our study has also found other largely unscrutinised biases remain – particularly whose views disproportionately shape the news.
It's time for a new New Wave in the film world
Government funding bodies are lazy and decadent, says industry veteran Michael Thornhill but in a piece that first appeared in Encore, Ed Gibbs begs to differ.I vividly remember the time I first saw Animal Kingdom, David Michod’s breathtaking labour-of-love feature debut. The press screening was half empty, despite the film winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance just months earlier, in 2010. Yet its superb performances, stylistic flourishes and overall polish left me speechless. Could this really be a feature debut, an Australian one at that, I wondered, almost out loud? It seemed too good to be true.
Going cold turkey on an agency addiction
Life is sweet for freelance writer Max Kitchen, but in a feature that first appeared in Encore, he admits his struggle against returning to the agency fold.I’ve never taken heroin. But I suspect if I had, the temptation to try it again would not be too dissimilar to the lure of returning to agency life.
Can sport save Ten?
First there was the Grand Prix. Next came the reported $500m bid for cricket rights, then Ten secured the 2014 winter Olympics. So, can sport save the ailing network? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Nic Christensen investigates.The television sports rights bidding process is a bit like a game of poker.
Check, fold or bet. Those were the options for the Ten Network last week when it had to finalise its bid for the cricket rights.
Andy Lark: good for the marketing of marketing
I can still remember the first story I wrote about Andy Lark, when it emerged that he was to be the new chief marketing officer of CommBank.
It was immediately clear that Australia was about to meet an interesting marketer, one who blogged and tweeted and thanks to his time at Dell in the US was digitally savvy. Even two years ago, that was a big deal. The fact that he also had a stint in public relations gave him an absolutely intriguing background before he even arrived.
Storming the media barricades - advice for young journalists
This week Mumbrella’s Nic Christensen, who began his career four years ago, gave the keynote address to would-be journalists at the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance’s Student Day. This is an edited version of his speech.Good afternoon, I can remember distinctly the last time I was in this room.
It was 2009 and I was sitting where you are. I’d come to this event, a friend and myself — from memory we sat up the back — and I can remember at the time wondering if I’d ever get a job as a journalist.
It was only four years ago and then as now getting a job was ultra competitive but I’m not sure there was quite as much media ‘doom and gloom’ as there is now…
Paywalls will help fund campaigning journalism
In this guest post, News Limited’s group editorial director Campbell Reid responds to the views of ninemsn’s Hal Crawford that the company’s push into metered paywalls is about data rather than dollars.Hal Crawford is both right and wrong in his article which argued that our digital subscription plans are all about the data.
Fake it 'til you make it... as a features editor
Cosmo’s Kate Leaver tells us how to bluff it in her job in a feature that first appeared in Encore.What do you do, as a features editor?
Really, play with words and ideas all day. At any one time, we’re working across three issues of the mag – getting one on its way to the printers, pooling all the words together for another, and planning the issue after that. It’s busy but it’s a pretty magnificent process.
SMH Readers’ Editor: Our standards will get worse before they get better
Editorial standards in the Sydney Morning Herald will get worse before they get better, the newspaper’s Readers’ Editor has warned in a column today. And the paper’s reporters need to buy themselves a book on grammar and to study up on spelling, Judy Prisk added.
Prisk began the column by quoting a reader who complained that editorial standards had slumped since Fairfax outsourced sub-editing of the SMH and The Age to AAP’s Pagemasters.
Prisk – a former managing chief subeditor of the newspaper – wrote: ”And fair enough. The thing is, though, it will almost certainly get worse before it gets better. Although Fairfax’s ‘newsroom of the future’ – a digital-first attitude to its journalism – began operating on Monday last week, naturally there is much work to do implementing it and training staff for it. This will take a few months.”
Prisk also pointed out that copy used to go through several levels of checking including layout subeditors, downtable subs and the a final round of proofreading. She said that journalists would now have to do so themselves – and that they would need to improve their grammar skills.
She wrote:
“There is, of course, a matter that cannot be ignored: the delicate subject of personal responsibility. Delicate for reporters, that is, but I can hear a cheer from ghosts of Herald subeditors past.
“Back in the day reporters would file their copy and hope for a good sub. Now that the industry has moved forward there is a strong possibility that that will not afford a good outcome.
“Reporters need to hunt around for a good book on grammar, and they should study up on their spelling and learn by rote, if necessary, the difference between, say, phase and faze, their and there, birth and berth, etc. A dictionary should always be by their sides, nestled close to their stylebook, and a thesaurus should linger nearby.”
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Comments
11 Jul 12
11:22 am
In other words, journalists can look forward to less time doing journalism.
11 Jul 12
11:29 am
It’s the last paragraph that is of concern. While accidental typos are of little concern, despite the self-righteous rantings of many readers, the fact that many journalists are graduating without decent grammar or vocabularies is a concern.
Knowing the difference between “birth” and “berth” is the difference between being poorly educated and poorly read, and decently educated and decently read. If you don’t know the difference, then your English (and likely your intelligence) simply isn’t of a sufficiently competent standard to be working in a communications field.
A dictionary or even automated spellchecker is no use, because it will not pick up “ignorance” errors.
11 Jul 12
11:45 am
gr8 rticl, im fully sic of peeps getin stuff rong.
11 Jul 12
11:52 am
Typos chip away at their professionalism but poor grammar chips away at their credibility. You would think that one of the requirements for being a qualified journalist is to at least get these two pillars of the written language right.
I guess when you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
11 Jul 12
12:06 pm
I recently received a CV from a junior copywriter who promised “maticulous attention to detail.” Fully sic.
11 Jul 12
12:14 pm
The real value of editors is when they say: how can you justify this? Good editors push back on the hype and flim flam that too often passes through. Just look at the commonality of copy across papers on so many stories. The reason is that there is a depth of spin that is too readily accepted.
I don’t care how many subs get the axe. I do care that there are fewer and fewer editors who require that the reader has confidence that someone is standing between them and a truckload of crap from a “crisis management expert”.
11 Jul 12
1:06 pm
Poor little Hugo,
What, proper writing is a distracting alternative to journalism? And ‘doing journalism’?
Oh, pleeeeez! (Unless you were being ‘ironic’).
11 Jul 12
1:46 pm
The difference between knowing your shit and knowing you’re shit.
11 Jul 12
3:45 pm
“learn by rote, if necessary, the difference between, say, phase and faze, their and there”
Yes, and for god’s sake flair and flare. The two are NOT interchangeable.
11 Jul 12
4:19 pm
Laughable comment
11 Jul 12
4:35 pm
Unfortunately poor use of language today is far more prevalent today than just on paper. You, don’t have to look any further than television interviews or language used around the office to see the increasingly incorrect usage of ‘myself’.
Why has everyone all of a sudden replaced ‘I’ and ‘’me’ with ‘myself’??? It makes no sense.
11 Jul 12
10:15 pm
Dear Apostrophe — “Good editors push back on the hype and flim flam that too often passes through.” — There was a time when sub-editors had a lot of say on the quality and substance of articles. The introduction of computers coincided with subs being turned into production-line workers. Look at the job title again: sub-EDITOR, not subhuman.