The cold war between the PMO and the media heated up again yesterday.

This time the battlefield was Charlottetown, P.E.I., where the Conservative Party is holding its summer caucus meeting. On Wednesday, the RCMP evicted journalists from the hotel hosting the event.

As I watched some of the coverage on the CBC, I noticed one journalist - it looked like Jim Travers from the Toronto Star - yelling “Quick escape the gulag!” as he and his colleagues were being escorted from the hotel.

I completely understand the frustration of members of the media in this case. They’re only trying to do their job. But instead of reporting the news, they became active participants in it.

Does this somehow taint the objectiveness and integrity of the media? Is this why people are turning to Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert? I mean, if you can’t get an honest representation of the real news, you might as well get a good laugh at its expense.

However, maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way. You know what they say, “No news is good news.” Unless your job is to analyze it.

2 August 2007 | General Information | No Comments

Marcomms is today’s popular term to refer to a joint Marketing and Communications department, with the emphasis that marketing runs the show, but the recognition that internal and external communications is becoming a more important function within any organization.

I’ve heard marketing people say: “We must get better at PR, because it’s the cheapest way to reach people.”

This of course is the wrong attitude, and makes me recall what one of my communications professors once said: “Even though there are a lot of similarities between marketing and communications, they are very different and if you want to do marketing, then you shouldn’t be in communications.”

I’m guessing most marketing professors would say the same thing.

This makes me wonder: What does the term Marcomms really mean, and do they really exist?

My opinion is that the concept of blending the two operations is essential for a well run organization. But for this to happen there needs to be fundamental shift if the way the two disciplines function.

In short, communications needs more business acumen and more brand awareness, and marketing professionals need to realize the bottom line doesn’t always have a dollar amount attached to it.

That’s just my opinion. What’s yours?

11 July 2007 | General Information | No Comments

Blogs are becoming the media bellwether. Yes, you do have to be careful and blogs should not be a substitute for good ol’ fashioned research and common sense, as I touched upon in a previous blog entry, ‘Could the Loss of the Newsroom Cause Problems?‘ However, blogs can point you in the right direction if used properly, and can even warn you of pending problems and help you understand trends.

For example, I was considering buying a MacBook Pro. However, the models I was looking at came out last summer. If I was going to spend the money, I wanted to get the biggest bang for my buck by purchasing the latest model.

I wanted to see when the next release might be coming out. Apple wasn’t going to tell me this, because they still needed to sell their current stock.

So, I turned to blogs.

In late May, I came across a blog from LoopRumors that reported PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster, predicted the new MacBook Pros would be released by Apple at WWDC, the Worldwide Developers Conference, around June 11.

I kept monitoring the blogs and last weekend came across a post at Engadget that said Apple would be releasing the new MacBook Pros today, June 5, to coincide with Apple’s Back to School program.

I got up this morning to check Apple’s site and got a message that it was being updated. A couple of hours later Apple was advertising the new Macbook Pros on its site.

If it wasn’t for the blogosphere, I could be lamenting the fact I should have waited a couple more weeks.

5 June 2007 | General Information, Media Analysis, New Media, Trends | No Comments

I love headlines. They are among the most intriguing aspects of media analysis. Working with the news on a daily basis provides you with access to some eye-catching and hilarious headlines. I mean, how can you not read a story titled Man wrestles leopard in undies?

Apparently the mayor of Ottawa is also quite interested in headlines. He recently held a presser to announce he may sue the city’s biggest daily paper over allegations that he offered a federal job to another mayoral candidate if that candidtate dropped out of the race.

I found it quite fascinating that it was specifically the headline - E-mails from Larry O’Brien offer mayoral candidate help to get federal post - that really set things off. Headlines are by nature designed to attract attention, so I guess job well done. But in this case, when, in my opinion, the facts in the story don’t back up the headline, it raises a common question about the motivation of the media: Is it ok to stretch the truth to sell more papers? I’ll definitely be watching this story as it progresses.

From a media analysis perspective, headlines can be tough to handle when evaluating the tone or sentiment of the story. There are many cases where the headline does not match up at all with the tone or sentiment of the story itself. I’m working on a future post that will cover off some interesting examples of how contrary the headlines can be to the supporting story, and examples of how the same wire story can have outrageously different headlines from one publication to the next. Stay tuned!

31 May 2007 | General Information | No Comments

Many professional communicators are starting to talk about ROI or Return On Investment in regards to measuring their communications activities.

I came across a blog posting at Intelligent Measurement that questions the value of assigning an advertising equivalency to news coverage.

Advertising equivalency is essentially putting a dollar value to media coverage. Its value is generally calculated by comparing the size of the article to paid advertising of the relatively the same size and placement. Or in the case of broadcast, the length and time of the mention in comparison to an advertising spot.

The blog posting, The problem with ROI, would like to see more of an emphasis on brand and reputation issues.

Fair enough.

But it’s important to remember that when it comes to good analysis there is no silver bullet. There is no one technique that will communicate what exactly is going on or how your communications efforts are being perceived.

Some organizations have tried to correlate stock prices or sales to news coverage, and, similar to advertising equivalency, this practice has it detractors. Can you correlate stock prices or sales to news coverage? The answer is: Sometimes yes and sometimes no.

That may sound like a cop-out, but in reality it’s the most truthful answer and exemplifies why you need more than tools when it comes to media analysis. You need knowledgeable people who understand the issues to tell you what’s going on.

Good media analysis is about providing insight, and telling a story that accurately communicates to your organization what is going on and how information is being perceived. It’s about being able to read the tea leaves, and it’s important to use all means that are valuable to you to do so.

28 May 2007 | General Information, Media Analysis | No Comments

We have a saying at MediaMiser: Garbage in, equals garbage out. The key to successful and meaningful media analysis - both manual and automated - is ensuring you’re not tabulating unwanted information.

Granted, you’re less likely to include “garbage” when you’re performing your analysis manually, but it can still happen. And as mentioned in a previous blog posting, the biggest problem with manual media analysis is not that you’re getting too much information, it’s that you’re not getting enough, due in large part to the time and expense of finding and processing the data.

As for automated media analysis, this problem can be solved by simply refining your parameters and being vigilant.

A former colleague of mine once said, “A fool with a tool is still a fool.”

Enough said.

18 May 2007 | General Information, Media Analysis | No Comments

The other day I saw a commercial for 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to the sci-fi horror movie 28 Days Later.

I’m not a big fan of the zombie genre, but I enjoyed 28 Days Later enough that I took note when I saw the trailer for the sequel.

I sought out some online coverage of the new movie, and found a review by Kevin Williamson from Sun Media. The headline - 28 Weeks Later highly infectious - was a big reason why I read this review.

The review gave the movie a 3.5 out of 5, and said it was generally worth seeing. But I still wasn’t completely convinced.

Motivated by the review, I sought out more reviews from rottentomatoes.com. I love this site. It essentially provides quotes and summaries from the more mainstream media, as well as a good or bad rating for each movie. The good and the bad are then weighted and averaged, giving you a percentage out of 100. 28 Weeks Later has received a 74 per cent rating so far. Not too bad. Furthermore, rottentomatoes.com lets visitors to the site leave their own impressions, and some people did leave feedback I found useful.

  A scene from ‘28 Weeks Later’.

At this point I was still undecided: was this a must-see in the theatre, or could it wait until it came out on DVD? My mind was made up when I searched various blogs and came across a posting at giantmag.com. The headline for the post was ‘This Weekend’s Best Movie Bet: 28 Weeks Later’, and had a full-featured trailer from Youtube that was more in-depth then what I had previously seen on TV.

Some of the scenes looked truly terrifying, and as I mentioned I’m not a huge zombie fan, but this movie looked like a quality film that was worth seeing in the theatre.

So what does this have to do with Turning News Into Knowledge, or understanding the nature of media?

In this case, I was touched by each different medium. Every time I read or watched something, it encouraged me to dig deeper at some other source for more information. I think it’s a great example of how and why traditional media is being augmented by new and social media, such as blogs and specialized sites like rottentomatoes.com.

That said, it should not be forgotten that I was originally made aware of 28 Weeks Later by traditional media.

Furthermore, the various headlines, ratings, and trailers had an immediate effect to how I was influenced.

11 May 2007 | General Information, New Media, Trends | 1 Comment

In economics, the law of diminishing returns states that beyond some point, each additional unit of variable input yields less and less additional output.

So, what does this have to do with media analysis?

Simply put, media analysis, or any other business activity, is no different from a production line.

You need to add business value to any activity and there is a fine line between too much information and not enough.

Too much information creates information overload. This can be time-consuming and, therefore, not cost-effective.

Too little information doesn’t give you the value or context you need. This can leave your decision-making rudderless.

Media analysis is about answering why something is happening or has happened, so you can take action. That action can come in the form of learning from your mistakes and correcting the way you engage people or situations, or it can come in the form of being able to adjust your tactics in real-time to generate real measurable results.

It’s all about return on investment (ROI). That’s what will dictate what and how you monitor and measure your activities via the media.

In fact, at MediaMiser, this is how we decide what features we’ll add to our ‘News into Knowledge’ system. People and organizations need to derive value from the information that is collected and analyzed in a cost effective manner.

Furthermore, MediaMiser invests time and energy researching the why and exploring ways to take action on it. That’s a big reason why we created our Resource Center and our blog, Turning News into Knowledge.

18 April 2007 | General Information, Media Analysis | No Comments

We’ve added a new item to our PR glossary at www.mediamiser.com.

This one details the strengths and limitations of assorted types of media. Take a look, and let us know what you think!

12 April 2007 | General Information | No Comments

Statistics Canada has just released a study on media consumption in Canada titled Keeping up with the times: Canadians and their news media diet. While you can certainly take issue with some of the findings since the data comes from a survey in 2003, I think what the study does highlight is the importance of news to Canadians and our tendency to rely on multiple news sources.

While we are bombarded and force-fed advertising messages, often against our will, the news is something that we specifically seek out. It has a much higher degree of credibility and authenticity.

Some of the highlights of the study:

- 89 per cent of Canadians followed news and current affairs frequently (daily or several times a week);

- among the frequent users group 83 per cent depended on more than one media source;

- television ranked as the #1 source of news among frequent users of the news, with 91 per cent, followed by newspapers (70 per cent), radio (53 per cent), internet (30 per cent), and magazines (23 per cent), although I’m guessing more recent data will see the internet leap-frog radio and battle newspapers soon for the #2 spot;

- frequent users born outside of Canada were more likely to use the internet as a news source;

- news junkies were more politically engaged in non-voting activities (demonstrations, public meetings, volunteering for a political party, etc.); and

- in the demographics category, the study found that the frequent users group is more likely to be comprised of married men with incomes of $60,000 or more.

So while there’s not a lot of new or surprising information there, the study illustrates the important role the news plays in the media mix in Canada, and gives you an idea of the valuable insights that can be gained by analyzing the news.

10 April 2007 | General Information | No Comments