I hosted the CIPR TV show on the Leveson Inquiry on Monday. As you may have seen, I wrote about the inquiry for last week's CIPR Friday Roundup, a day after the publication of the inquiry's report – Public relations and the 'ethical vacuum'.
Our guests were Michelle Stanistreet, General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists, and Jane Wilson, CIPR CEO.
[Originally written for the CIPR Friday Roundup.]
"Too many stories in too many newspapers were the subject of complaints from too many people, with too little in the way of titles taking responsibility." Newspapers have often demonstrated "a significant and reckless disregard for accuracy" and "misrepresentation and embellishment takes place to a degree far greater than could ever be thought of as legitimate or fair comment."
I've just read the Leveson Inquiry, published yesterday and running to nearly two thousand pages. These quotes come from the forty page executive summary. For those of you beyond the UK's shores, the Inquiry is about the freedom of the press in both the positive and negative manifestations of that expression, with a focus on how we can attenuate the negative.
The UK enjoys a pluralistic media of which other countries are rightly envious, and a free press is central to our national identity. The report quotes Sir Winston Churchill: "A free press is the unsleeping guardian of every other right that free men prize; it is the most dangerous foe of tyranny ... Under dictatorship the press is bound to languish ... But where free institutions are indigenous to the soil and men have the habit of liberty, the press will continue to be the Fourth Estate, the vigilant guardian of the rights of the ordinary citizen."
The latest episode of CIPR TV went out live yesterday afternoon, with plenty of interaction from the audience. The programme's guests are Jenni Wheller (@jenniwheller), Internal Communications Manager at SSP UK, and Mike Grafham (@mgrafham), Head of Customer Engagement at Yammer.
I think you'll agree the audience's questions and the guests' responses make for an interesting show. Rather than repeat anything covered in the show, I'll just take a few paragraphs here to make another observation.
I swapped sofas on CIPR TV yesterday, seeing the studio from the guests' perspective for a change. Gemma Griffiths presented the show and David Gerrard and I were the guests.
David is Wikimedia UK's volunteer spokesperson. As you may know, I've been helping to lead a dialogue between Wikimedia UK and the CIPR to build mutual understanding, and specifically to co-develop definitive guidance to PR practitioners on how to engage with the Wikipedia community.
If you're in public relations or have an interest in brand reputation and you don't consider yourself expert in the wheres and whyfores of Wikipedia, do take the time to watch the show. I think it's an excellent introduction to the guidance, version 1 of which is due out next week.
Previous posts:
Reputation and Wikipedia, part II
If you're in marketing or public relations you need to 'get' mobile. Period. So I was chuffed to be able to host a conversation on CIPR TV yesterday with Simon Liss, Managing Director of We Love Mobile, and David Murphy, Editor of Mobile Marketing Magazine.
Thanks Simon. Thanks David.
For information about upcoming CIPR TV shows, simply skip on over to www.cipr.tv.
CIPR TV goes from strength to strength. As part of the hosting team, I had the pleasure this week to host an extended show – sort of a two-for-one.
CIPR TV is only possible courtesy of the team at Markettiers4dc, and it was about time we invited Howard Kosky, Markettiers4dc founder and chairman, on the show. Howard walks us through how the broadcast landscape has transformed over the past decade and a half, and gives viewers some tips for the top and pitfalls to avoid. In fact, when you consider the role broadcast plays in the public relations mix, I can't believe we haven't addressed the topic before!
As you may have read in my last post, Dr. Jon White has undertaken some research this year on behalf of the CIPR looking at how the profession might evolve this decade. During the show, Jon explains the drivers of this research, how it was conducted, and some of the outcomes and recommendations. If you want to understand why Jon talks about PR becoming irrelevant in this timescale, then you better watch the video above! The full 'PR 2020' report is published on the CIPR website.
I had the honour and pleasure of hosting the Presidential Debate on CIPR TV yesterday – the annual show giving the Presidential candidates the opportunity to set out their stall, and for members to ask them questions live via Twitter and the CIPR web form.
You can watch the video here and you'll find the candidates' election statements on the CIPR website.
Voting for the President-Elect 2012 / President 2013 closes midday Friday 18th November.
I recently interviewed Carla Buzasi about her relatively new role as Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post UK. The interview went out as the middle part of October's three-part CIPR TV episode, and the video below is set up to go straight to the interview. To watch the whole episode, simply skip back to the start using the YouTube player controls.
This week's CIPR TV focused on the formation of the Public Affairs Council in response to the Public Administration Select Committee's recommendations in its December 2008 report, Lobbying: Access and influence in Whitehall. We're delighted that Elizabeth France, UKPAC's chair, and Keith Johnston, CIPR and UKPAC board member, could join us to explain what's going on, who it affects and how.
I enjoyed having the opportunity to grab a couple of minutes with the CIPR's new CEO, Jane Wilson, prior to putting members' questions to the two candidates for CIPR President-Elect 2011, President 2012. Thanks to Rob Brown and Sally Sykes for accepting the invitation, and thanks once again to the Markettiers4dc team for making it happen.