Category Archives: Media

May26

Inside Media House – PRIA members visit The Age and 3AW

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Inside Media House – PRIA members visit The Age and 3AW
Media House with The Age and 3AW

Media House with The Age and 3AW

“People don’t actually read newspapers. They step into them every morning like a hot bath.” – Communications theorist Marshall McLuhan

Whether you like your newspaper with your morning coffee or prefer to save it for the weekend lie in, there’s no denying that newspapers play an important role in our lives and the professional lives of communicators.

Last week, I put my presidential hat on (ok I don’t have a special hat but perhaps I should get one?) and joined 12 members of the Public Relations Institute of Australia for an exclusive tour of Media House with The Age and 3AW. Following the tour we sat down for lunch with three journalists from the paper.

Fellow PRIA member and Communications Manager for The Age, Miranda Schuppan, led the exclusive tour. She started at the epicentre of editorial operations – the modern newsroom with numerous journalists working across the day to produce news for print and online versions of The Age.

Shane Green a senior journalist with The Age talked through the various areas of the newsroom. He’s held a number of roles with the organisation and was happy to share his insights with our members.

We then huddled around the screen of theage.com.au editor, Daniel Sankey, and saw how quickly they were able to publish stories. If you think the back end of your website is impressive, consider how it would cope with hundreds of new stories a day and thousands of unique visitors a month. At the time they were just about to break a World Cup 2022 story.

Daniel told us about the peak times for online news viewing. They are 8am when people are arriving at work, lunchtime when people are munching on their sushi and a little before 5pm when they’re packing up to head home. Hands up if you head to theage.com.au at one or all of those times?

If you’re a regular visitor to theage.com.au you’ll know that video content is being used more and more. What you might not know is that it is produced at Media House. We were shown the well-equipped studio, which is just like a mini commercial television studio and is used for video interviews, panel discussions and other reports.

A few floors up, we met David Mann or “Mann about Town” as many people know him. He’s been at 3AW for many years and has held both on-air and behind the scene roles.

David shuffled us into one of the studios that was free at the time and provided the group with an insight into 3AW’s production process. He gave each of us some handy hints on working with the team at 3AW and answered many of our burning questions.

We also met some of the voices behind the news broadcasts and were delighted to learn that one of our fellow PRIA members, Keith Hainsworth from Deakin University, had started his career in the 3AW newsroom.

David showed us the impressive technology that keeps the station on air and said that the greatest technological advancement for radio was the invention of the mobile phone. He said that mobile phones have produced thousands of news reporters for radio stations. Effectively, every listener is a reporter, because when anything happens in Melbourne, they ring in immediately with first-hand accounts of the unfolding event.

Finally, David and Miranda gave us some great advice for preparing clients for radio and press interviews. Over lunch with Daniel Sankey, Shane Green and Laura Hamilton we spoke about a range of topics from what different sections cover to the best way to present stories to The Age and 3AW.

Here are some tips:

  • relationships with journalists are critical, particularly knowing what topics/rounds they cover
  • read something written by the journalist or listen to a show that you’re pitching to
  • make sure your pitch/story is newsworthy and pick an interesting angle
  • make sure you know what time of day is appropriate to call a journo or producer. And even pick the right minute to phone in. For example, don’t call a radio producer on the hour or half hour, because they’ll be listening to the news bulletin. Best time to call is quarter past or quarter to the hour.
  • always spell a journo or producer’s name correctly.

Finally, a big thanks to Miranda, David, Daniel, Shane and Laura for sharing their time with us and showing us around Media House.

Cheers,

Jack @ the c word

Aug11

Let’s Get Digital

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Let’s Get Digital

PRIA's Let Get Digital Panel: Kristen Boschma, Liz Green, Jason Whittaker and moderator Jack Walden

Last night the c word’s Managing Director, Jack Walden, moderated a panel of digital communicators at an event appropriately named ‘Let’s Get Digital’. The panelists for the evening were:

  • Telstra’s Head of Online Communications and Social Media, Kristen Boschma (@Kristen_Boschma)
  • ABC TV’s Digital Communications Marketing Manager, Liz Green (@ABCTV_australia)
  • Deputy Editor of Crikey, Jason Whittaker (@thetowncrier)

With representatives from Australian organisations providing leadership and innovation in the digital arena, the panelists provided some fascinating insights and points for discussion.

Telstra’s Kristen Boschma explained the use of three Rs to guide their social media policy; representation, responsibility and respect. She also stressed the need for flexibility in social media and empowering your staff to know how to respond and engage. Telstra’s approach is about equality in service, which means they respond to everyone on Twitter; not simply those with a huge following.

Kristen likened good social media to a great dinner party with great food, great guests and great conversation. The same analogy works for bad social media; the bad dinner party where one drunk guest sits at the end of the table and just talks at the other guests.

Liz Green from ABC TV spoke about the flexibility of ABC TV’s social media policy. Their four-line policy guides staff on how to interact on Twitter and Facebook, while allowing personalities to shine through. In total, the ABC has an impressive 438 accounts across Facebook and Twitter.

Liz also highlighted the value of strategy; although social media is cheap, it is also resource intensive, which is why you need to be strategic about how to best use your resources. One example of this is the ABC blog, which has become a primary channel to distribute press releases.

Jason Whittaker, Deputy Editor of Crikey is another champion of flexibility on social media. Although rules and guidelines are important, he said you need to be able to respond quickly. Journalists nowadays need to be on social media to be privy to where stories are being broken; he stresses however you can get caught out if you rely solely on social media for your information.

He attributed Crikey’s success to not trying to be something for everyone, rather they define their reader and seek them out. He believes if traditional media is to continue to exist, they have to relinquish the appeal to a mass audience and find their niche audience.

All three panelists agreed social media was a commitment to quality exchange rather than simply broadcasting a message. Some key points to take from the evening:

  • You can’t run a Twitter account without monitoring and responding to conversations
  • People can sniff spin. And the beauty of social media is they will tell you
  • Social media is resource intensive, which makes it essential to have a plan about how best to use your resources
  • Social media has empowered the customer, and potentially hundreds of thousands of people see complaints through Retweets making it important to respond quickly
  • Successful media companies will produce content across many platforms and give audience the choice on how to consume it.

You can view the panel’s Twitterstream on #priadigital to get a great overview of the discussion.

Chin chin,

the c word

Aug4

Communicator’s Corner: Sunday Age Political Reporter, Melissa Fyfe

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Communicator’s Corner: Sunday Age Political Reporter, Melissa Fyfe

Melissa Fyfe is the State Political Reporter for The Sunday Age. Her career with Fairfax has seen her take on a varied number of roles including: Sydney correspondent, health editor, section editor and also the state news editor. She has won several awards for her reporting on climate change and water during her time as The Age’s environment reporter.

With a State and Federal election upon us, this will be a feverishly busy year for the political reporter.

1. Tell us about your typical day.

I start the day reading the newspapers and keeping a keen ear on the radio. The rest of the day is spent meeting with contacts, digging through reports, talking to my editors about ideas for the paper, interviewing people and, when parliament is sitting, hanging around the big house on Spring Street. I write my stories on Fridays and Saturdays. Every second Friday I chat to Tony Biggs on RRR about state politics.

2. When did you first know you wanted to be a journalist?

Quite young – when I was in Year 7 at high school.

3. Who’s your communication hero/mentor?

I have had many fantastic mentors at The Age. My journalistic heroes are mostly American writers, particularly those working for The New York Times and The New Yorker.

4. Which tools can’t you live without?

My mobile.

5. What are the biggest challenges in your role?

Managing my time. I have a weekly deadline, so I have to be very disciplined about what I do. Also, dealing with the spin machine of the government and the opposition is very difficult at times. In an election year the stakes are very high.

6. Tell us about the best story/campaign you’ve ever worked on?

In the scheme of other stories in my career this one was quite small but it meant a lot to me: I reported on the plight of a young mother who was in a public housing flat so mouldy it was causing her and her baby significant illness. The housing minister moved her within months. She is now living in a place with no mould and her life has completely changed. Her baby is so healthy and happy now. I am also proud of the story myself and my colleague Jill Stark broke recently on Kevin Rudd’s chief mental health adviser quitting.

7. Which campaign do you most admire?

This is difficult to answer because in my business a campaign means an election campaign. Barack Obama’s tilt for US president is easily the best example of a political campaign for office that we’ve seen in decades. It’s been said many times, but his harnessing of grassroots support through the internet was spectacular and left the Republican campaign totally flat-footed.

8. What’s been the biggest change to communication industry/journalism since you began your career?

Obviously the internet. It has massively reshaped the newspaper industry, eroded the classifieds and changed our business structure. It has opened up many more opportunities for journalism but obviously threatens the fundamental economics of old-school media.

9. What’s your favourite brand?

I don’t really have one.

10. What book/blog do you think every communicator should read?

Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. An oldy (1918) but a goody.

11. What tips do you wish you’d known starting out in your field?

The value of confidence. Backing yourself is important.

12. Finish this sentence: ‘Communication is… keeping the message simple, powerful and accurate’

You can view Melissa Fyfe’s work when kicking back with the papers on Sunday or follow her on Twitter @melfyfe

Feb17

Threes NOT a crowd: tips on media interviews

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Threes NOT a crowd: tips on media interviews

D/A Henry Wade (l) conducts press conf. in line-up room / New York Herald Tribune photo by Bill Sauro

With an increasing number and frequency of media outlets, podcasts, blogs and avenues for exposure, it has never been more important to be media savvy.

Nowadays the average sound bite is approximately seven seconds, a far cry from the 60-second sound bite common 30 years ago. And there’s no longer a 24-hour news cycle, instead we have an every-second news cycle.

Therefore being on message and getting there fast is essential when being interviewed by the media. If you do nothing else to prepare for an interview, you must prepare three key messages to convey during the interview. No more, no less.

If you don’t edit your story down to the three most important points, then an editor, producer or audience member will edit it for you. And often your most important messages will be lost and not remembered.

If you have to speak to the media on a regular basis then you should undertake some media training. In the meantime, here are a few basic tips to help you handle media interviews:

1. Give yourself time to prepare, even if that means calling a reporter back when on deadline. Get your messages ready first.

2. Practice, practice, practice: Like a professional sportsperson, the more you do something, the better you will become at it. It takes time and practice to be comfortable with preparing your three messages, getting your sound bites right and staying on message, so it’s best you practice.

3. Give details and examples to help make your point and flesh out your story. Telling stories helps to deliver your message to an audience.

4. Avoid fact and figures, lists, jargon, catch phrases, acronyms – they’re boring with a capital B.

5. Keep it natural and speak at your normal pace. Steer clear of big unfamiliar words but don’t dumb down your message too much either.

6. For radio interviews, check whether the interview is live or pre-recorded and what it’s being used for. If you’re doing the interview over the phone, make sure you’re in a noise-free environment.

7. Drink plenty of water and keep a bottle handy. Avoid caffeine or dairy before the interview as it can affect your speech (dry mouth, licking lips eek). Also don’t interview on an empty stomach. Your tummy grumblings will only distract you and perhaps the listeners. Grrrrrr

8. After each interview, review your performance. Figure out what worked well and what could be improved. Ask a friend or colleague to give you some feedback too. (If you can’t find a friend to be brutally honest, my mother is always willing to provide some frank feedback.)

9. Again, develop three key messages for the interview and make sure you know them off by heart and get them out early.

10. Finally have fun – it’s not the Spanish Inquisition ☺

There are plenty more handy hints and tips however if you prepare your messages and keep it simple, you’ll be an old hand in no time.

Call Jack or Maryann on 03 9676 9040 or email info@thecword.com.au if you want to learn more about how our crew can help you with media training or publicity campaigns to get you the interviews.

Or you can simply ignore us and take tips from Sarah Palin :P

Celebrate hump day. Yay!

the c word

Dec2

Can someone bring the mop, please?

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Can someone bring the mop, please?

Did you know what a spill was before last week? I have to spill the beans (pardon the pun) and admit until I saw it pop up on Twitter I didn’t. But that is the power of Twitter and like they say: “you learn something new every day”.

Australian politics has been littered with spills over the years. In fact this isn’t Malcolm Turnbull’s first nor second, it’s his third after winning his leadership in a spill vote against Brendan Nelson.

In June 1977, a parliamentary Labor Party leadership spill saw Gough Whitlam defeat Bill Hayden (32-30). Other famous spills include Beazley v Rudd and how can one forget Latham taking over the Labor leadership in 2003 from Simon Crean. Or his downfall in 2005 against Kim Beazley.

How times have changed from the mixture of radio, print and a little television coverage of earlier Australian political spills to the continuous coverage of the regular Labor party and Liberal party spills earlier this decade on television and websites. Twitter now brings us real-time coverage and commentary of Turnbull v Andrews v Hockey v Abbott in the latest #spill.

With no 24-hour free-to-air news channel in Australia (come on ABC, 7, 9, 10 & SBS), most of my information about the Liberal Party leadership spills came via Twitter. Of course we did manage to tween some information from Lateline and other current affairs shows.

However political journalist such as @sandraom, @smurray38, @annabelcrabb, @latikambourke, @Colvinius, and @David_Speers gave up to the minute accounts for their followers. It felt like you were walking the halls of Parliament House yourself. Watching the #spill feed on Twitter was far more entertaining and lively than any of the debates seen on television. I guess this fly-on-the-wall coverage is what makes Twitter such a useful news broadcasting tool.

Back to the #spill and for those of you out of the loop, Turnbull’s leadership was challenged for the first time last week after backing the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) with a motion to spill held at 1pm Wednesday. Opposition MPs opposed to the bill said there were many among their ranks to support them. However Malcolm Turnbull retained his leadership after the secret ballot with a result of 48-35.

Climate sceptic Kevin Andrew (of Mohamed Haneef fame) led the challenge with Wilson Tuckey putting forward the motion to spill. Most opposing this scheme believe the economic costs to individuals and businesses are far too costly to take on.

Tony Abbott was quoted as saying the leadership fight was not an issue of leadership but of policy, and said that had now been resolved.

“We forced the Government to effectively admit that its ETS was going to badly damage Australia’s industries, badly damage jobs,” he said.

“We think that the amendments that we forced out for the Government will save 25,000 jobs that otherwise would have been lost.”

As the weekend rolled around, rumours were flying left, right and centre that Hockey and Abbott would challenge. There were resignations, offers of support, wheeling and dealing.

Tuesday morning, another motion to spill was passed and Malcolm Turnbull lost the leadership to climate sceptic Tony Abbott following yet another secret ballot vote with a result of 42-41. Hockey was ousted from the race early on. We watched the Twitter stream and the live stream from ABC (Thank you ABC).

Twitter is used as an information source by journalists and is an effective place for communal note-taking which adds plenty of background colour to what’s happening on a particular story. Although journalists tend to be serious and professional in their tweets, when House of Representative chambers allowed the use of mobile devices in the chamber this year, a new Twitter superstar was born – the political journalist. Suddenly, Question Time or #qt became a trending topic on Twitter.

Journalists such as Sydney Morning Herald’s Annabel Crabb, Crikey’s Bernard Keane and 2UE’s Latika Bourke began to “..provide up-to-the-minute fashion comment, online heckling and an undercurrent of political analysis…these Australian journalists present a unique larrikin voice in the twitterverse – unedited and informal for the twitter public”

In a recent survey of editors and senior editorial staff by The Alliance, they encountered a mixed response, especially due to economic constraints putting added pressure on staff and quality. However not all respondents were quite so grim with some outlining the added engagement of audiences through online channels.

“Our audience is bigger than at any time in my career and there are more ways to deliver the news than ever before,” wrote one, while another wrote: “I think that journalists are in a great position to gather, harness, interpret, deliver great quality journalism, and now there are a plethora of opportunities in the way that content can be delivered.”

This is certainly the case with the recent coverage of #spill 1.0 & #spill 2.0 with some even prophesising #split as a demise of the Liberal Party. Yesterday during this battle of leadership, policy and whether or not the Liberal Party want to be a throwback to the 1950s or a party with foresight, there were 10,000 #spill tweets in three hours (statistic courtesy of @wolfcat). This doesn’t include all the tweets without the #spill hashtag. Those interested in politics were stuck to their screens and an organic political discussion about the Liberal party, its leadership and climate change policy has taken place over the last week. Coupled with traditional media, there has been a serious amount of coverage for Australians.

The most disappointing part about this whole fiasco is that it has pushed aside important dialogue about the ETS. If economic costs are such a big concern for Liberal Party members – how are they not disturbed at what the economic impact will be when the natural resources we rely on disappear?

If you’re interested in positive solutions and actions to curb climate change, please support our client Run for a Safe Climate. They are raising funds to develop and implement a Safe Climate Transition Plan.

Hope you had a happy hump day! :)

the c word

Oct19

A private conversation about social media

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A private conversation about social media
Cone of silence from Get Smart

Cone of silence from 'Get Smart'

We have been up to our eyeballs with social media at the c word office; tweet this, upload pic here, accept friend request, retweet there. Our fingertips are suffering from exhaustion. :P

Last week we hit the road with leading privacy and social media expert Mozelle Thompson in Australia for the International Association of Privacy Professionals conference. As we ferried him from interview to meeting to interview, we got the chance to chat about social media.

Along the way we asked for his top four social media issues and although he laughed at our penchant for even numbers, he was happy to oblige.

According to Mozelle the top four issues for social media are:

  1. how advertising will work?
  2. the lack of discussion around the limits of transparency
  3. legal responsibility for user-generated content, and
  4. the desire to ‘switch off’.

To start with Mozelle said: “People are looking at behavioural advertising … but I don’t think people understand what that means”.

“If you ask them: ‘Do you want ads targeted to you based on your profile?’ they might say ‘no’. But then you say: ‘Is the problem that you don’t want ads … because if you want it for free you’re going to have to have ads and if you’re going to get ads then would you want ads targeted to you?’ they would say ‘yes’.”

Mozelle believes (and we concur) the dialogue hasn’t progressed enough in the public eye. Let’s not keep this conversation private.

We wondered how this applies to online newspapers without established social networks and Mozelle believes we’ll see more partnerships with websites who want to target ads to you based on your demographic – so it will seem more seamless.

“The question is are you willing to give permission for targeted ads as opposed to general ads?”

On the issue of transparency, Mozelle said while we want governments to let us know about what they’re doing and what our neighbours are doing, it gives the public a lot of information about you.

He said: “It’s a global issue but especially in western societies where we’ve made this big push towards government transparency but haven’t defined what that means yet”.

The third issue Mozelle brought up was around who is ultimately legally responsible for user generated content.

“There’s this continuing war, just because it’s on YouTube, is YouTube responsible for someone putting on content that you find offensive or objectionable? You don’t hold newspapers responsible if somebody puts a crappy ad in.”

The fourth issue which made us hide our Blackberries and iPhones was that at some point, not right away, there may be a reaction to this real time availability of information.

“You may have a backlash from some people who decide they don’t want to be reachable. Are we going to start creating digital technologies that allow you to disconnect?”

And in between all of that we’ve kicked off a social media campaign for Run for a Safe Climate. We started with a training session for the runners and volunteers involved with Run for a Safe Climate – the question now is “how will they tweet while running?”

Have a great week,

the c word

Oct2

Fluoro invasion sequence commenced… 5,4,3,2,1

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Fluoro invasion sequence commenced… 5,4,3,2,1

aliensLast night a new design bible was launched in Melbourne. And what a party it was! Font geeks and design freaks came out in full force to support the new generation of Fluoro.

Fluoro is a biannual design magazine that explores Melbourne’s world of design and creativity, and challenges the boundaries of print while maintaining an environmentally sustainable approach. To sum it up… it’s just so hot! Best you get onto it.

We straightened our hair and slapped on some smokey eye make up (well not all of us, obviously) to air kiss with the best of them. The large crowd in attendance were clients, friends, sponsors, artists, DJs, photographers and supporters of design and the arts. The sea of cool Melbourne black was filled with new and old friends and colleagues, with Creative Director Miguel Valenzuela donning his DJ cap to pump out some beats for the cool crowd.

A launch party is nothing without a great crowd. You can have the best champers, yummiest canapés or coolest venue but none of that matters if you don’t have the right mix of people. the c word worked closely with the Fluoro team to ensure that the right crowd was invited and willing to party. We scoured galleries, boutiques and laneways in search of people with a passion for design, fonts and paper.

Fluoro Editor Nancy Bugeja enjoying her champers

Fluoro Editor Nancy Bugeja enjoying her champers

Skye giving her date @ScottKilmartin the cold shoulder :P

Skye giving her date @ScottKilmartin the cold shoulder :P

Fluoro’s editor Nancy Bugeja was thrilled with the night’s turn out especially all the positive feedback she and her team received, having poured countless hours of creativity and passion into the publication.

“It’s AMAZING to celebrate Fluoro with all these people who are passionate about Melbourne, art and design as much as we are. It’s turned out so well and everyone seems to be loving the textures, colours, and the look of Fluoro,” Nancy Bugeja said.

The design packed issue includes an interview with Melbourne DJ and Kiss FM regular DJ Cherokee, a look into the mind of a rising star of the Melbourne fashion scene Nadia Pearse, 60 seconds with Rock Wiz host Julia Zemiro, and a visitor’s experience of Federation Square’s Volume exhibition.

Fluoro6_ 5Fluoro6_ 3

Fluoro6_ 6Fluoro6_ 9

Fluoro taps into Melbourne’s creative energy and provides design lovers with pages to play and get inspired. The larger format, cotton binding and three different types of paper stock: Nordset, Novatech and Look! prove print is still innovative, surprising and in demand. The crowd last night certain agreed. Read the rest of this entry →

Sep18

Glee Marketing Class 101

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Glee Marketing Class 101

There’s no denying the c word is a fan of Fox’s hit new show Glee. Like millions of other fans, we got caught up in the online hysteria generated by this new show and have been anxiously waiting for each new episode. You have to be seriously impressed with the marketing onslaught by the people behind Glee.

We discovered the show online…not sure where as it was a while ago but probably popped up in our Google Reader. The show developed a cult following even before going to air through its use of MySpace, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. The first episode was the number one downloaded television show on iTunes with Fox offering the show for free.

We regularly check the YouTube for snippets of performances and behind-the-scenes footage and chats with Glee cast. From a social media perspective they’ve gone all out.

Not only that, across all platforms that have targeted the campaigns. They’ve developed links with American Idol and Australian Idol to piggyback off their audiences. Both Channel Ten and Fox have been inundated with Glee ads during Idol and other high rating television shows with a strong 16-35 audience base (my favourite is the Gleek one… yes I’m a Gleek too).

Old and new marketing angles have been utilised. Social media… check. Promotions… check. Advertising… check. Publicity… check. The cast are even doing shopping mall visits… How old school? We are half tempted to head down to Highpoint Shopping Centre this Saturday to meet the cast. Wonder if Kurt will be there?? *squuueeeeaaaals*

No stone has been left unturned. With 24,000+ Twitter followers, 250,000+ Facebook fans, let’s hope this buzz translates to TV ratings. In Australia, the pilot attracted 1.2million viewers following the insanely popular Masterchef. However, last night the director’s cut of the pilot kicked off the season’s regular airing, but only rated 871,000. Let’s see how it goes next week when episode two airs?

We’ve got our finger crossed this show does well. Snarky high school shows with spirit fingers, late 80s/early 90s music are just what the doctor ordered in the c word office.

Anyway, off to do a phoner (that’s an interview with a major network), probably on my iPhone.

Have a fab weekend.

the c word

Jun29

Remembering our ABCs thanks to the ‘King of Pop’

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Remembering our ABCs thanks to the ‘King of Pop’

After a super crazy week with no time to post, Friday ended on such a sad note with the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.

Iconic Farrah

Iconic Farrah

They will definitely be missed by family, friends and fans around the world. Neither will ever be forgotten. Jackson for his music and Farrah for her film and television work.

Twitter has been a flutter with posts about Michael Jackson’s death. Not since the US inauguration have we seen so many updates on a topic. Literally thousands in the blink of an eye. The media circus following his death can only be described as ‘nutz!!!’  Even Triple M football got in on the act with Michael Jackson tunes playing during the coverage. How strange!!

Our fave Michael

Our fave Michael

Sad to hear channel 9 couldn’t pull together a decent tribute … we didn’t get to see it but from TV Tonight’s post … A a-p-p-a-l-l-i-n-g … we don’t think we need to see it. Come on guys!

Tributes to Farrah and Michael have been flooding the media and internet for the last few days. Our favourite tribute has got to be the Dancing Inmates from the Philippines. Here is one to the Charlie’s Angels starlet.

Here is a clip of Michael with the Jackson 5 singing ABC.

RIP Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.

Jun12

Oh the commotion… Ramsay V’s Grimshaw

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Oh the commotion… Ramsay V’s Grimshaw

boxing_gloves

We’re going to be fence sitters again this week and not comment about the Gordon Ramsey vs Tracey Grimshaw battle. We will however draw parallels with another moment in Australian history, when Frank Sinatra called our female journalist ‘hookers’.

 

Now if you don’t know the story about Ole Blue Eyes, here it is:

In 1974, Frank Sinatra toured Australia and caused a sensational uproar when he called female journalists ‘hookers’. Sinatra’s “bums and hookers” insult came after “no one met his plane, he was driven into town in the wrong car, and at Festival Hall the singer had to push his way through the media throng to bash on the stage door before he was allowed inside“.

 

The Unions reacted quickly and demanded an apology. Sinatra’s silence was greeted by transport workers, waiters and journalists striking in retaliation.

 

So let’s compare the playing fields, shall we??

 

In the red corner, we have the big, bad ‘Celebrity’ oooohhhhhh

gordon_ramsay-730834franksinatra

 

In the blue corner… The great & mighty ‘Media’ aahhhhhhhh

grimshawpaparazzi-5

What’s interesting is how the media have bandied together once again. Some may argue it’s tall-poppy-syndrome. After all, Australians do ♥ that! Or simply, righting a wrong. Poor Trace! (he really did say some horribly inappropriate things) So what happened next all those years ago?


“The Australian Journalists’ Association (AJAA – the journalists’ union) called on other unions to see to it that Sinatra’s remaining concerts were cancelled and that he could not leave the country. Further, the hotel unions were asked not to give the Sinatra party food or drink, or to handle their bags. The second Melbourne concert was cancelled at once. Sinatra’s entourage had to carry their own bags as they left Melbourne for Sydney. The president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), at the time, Bob Hawke, was quickly involved. He was reported to have told Sinatra, “You may not be able to leave Australia unless you walk on water. If you don’t apologise, your stay in this country could be indefinite.” Sinatra was told his plane would not get a drop of fuel until he apologised.” Now we doubt that our beloved former PM Hawke would have said anything that cocky… but if we had to choose one PM who could do it, it would be him, wouldn’t it?


hawke

Australia had a highly unionised work force so when the call to arms came…*chants* “the workers united, shall never be the defeated”… not even by Ole Blue Eyes.”

 

Then Hawke flew up to Sydney for a meeting with Sinatra where they worked out a compromise statement – I think it was the only time that Sinatra backed down in his life. He said he didn’t quite mean to call Australian women journalists hookers, that there was a bit of a misunderstanding.


How things have changed? Back in 1974, our former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, then head of the ACTU had to come to the defence of the honour of the country’s female journalists. How ironic that the hero of the story had a wild reputation himself… (hehehe we all ♥ PM Bob Hawke).


Three decades later and Grimshaw didn’t need no man to fight her battle. She successfully managed to take down a male ‘whinging Pom’ on her own? Not only that, she also pitted Channel 9′s A Current Affair against Channel 9′s Hell’s Kitchen… and won (Channel 9 V Channel 9 … fishy or not?). Either way, as a ‘journalist’ (being ACA we’re a little hard pressed to use that word seriously) it’s also an interesting observation that Ms Grimshaw became the headline story for her own program. Post Modernists are having a field day with this (yes BB, we’re referring to you).


I’m sure some overseas readers may be giggling at the goings-on of the Australian media. Well… so are we. Should we be grateful that it’s a slow news week? It has been quite funny to see this story pop up on my Perez Hilton feed and international media outlets. I wonder if they’ll make an awful movie about it :)


Enjoy the weekend folks.

the c word

 

Let’s remember Ole Blue Eyes fondly now…