To boldly go...

One of my most firmly-held beliefs about being a PR guy is this ... if you're personally in the news, rather than the company you represent, then you ain't really doing your job.

A good PR guy champions a brand, not their own brand.

It is therefore with not a little trepidation that I decided to start writing this blog. 

Let's get one thing straight.  I am not writing this because I believe the world cannot exist without yet another individual ranting about their own personal agendas.  The rise of social media has ensured there is an endless stream of opinions from all sides of the political spectrum from which to choose.

Rather, I choose to blog because of this torrent of beliefs. 

You see, 99% of what seems to pass for personal opinion on Twitter, Facebook and whatever the next big thing is in the world of social media is in fact the regurgitation of somebody's carefully crafted spin.

Most people form their opinions based on an analysis of the information available to them through the free-press.  The only problem is that the press really may not be so free after all.

Crikey recently published an eye-opening article as part of an on-going investigation into the issue of just how much of our media is actually independent reporting.

As a guy who works in PR, this doesn't come as a surprise of course.  Whilst I work with plenty of dedicated journalists who would never dream of allowing themselves to be manipulated in the way outlined in this article, I have also come across more than a few that are thankful for someone who writes the story for them.

This isn't necessarily because they are lazy.  The reality of the modern newsroom is that there is incredible pressure on journalists to produce a constant stream of copy.

The rise of the on-line world started this squeeze, and the addition of things like i-Pad apps has only exacerbated it.

Content is king and the modern media has an unquenchable thirst for stories.

The rise of Facebook and, more importantly, Twitter, has allowed pretty much anybody with a mobile phone to essentially become a journalist now.  That means that the traditional media now needs to cover stories that are developing in real-time.  Unfortunately this is much faster than the press can keep up with using traditional methods.

This has also led to the sort of standards that journalism used to use to self-regulate (questionable as some might suggest theses standards were) being lowered considerably.  Any sort of rumour is now gleefully reported and, worse, retweeted to millions of people as fact. 

Perception is reality as they say and he who has the largest number of Facebook friends or tweeps usually has the last word.

A number of media organisations have been caught out in reporting on these types of erroneous (or sometimes mischievous) posts, but the truth of the matter is that journalists simply can't afford to ignore potentially explosive stories for fear of being left behind.

That has resulted in the power of setting the news agenda starting to swing away from traditional media outlets, towards individuals.  It is the questionable quality of those individuals however that makes this shift more than a little scary.

It also makes it necessary, at least in my opinion, to scrutinise reports in the media - traditional and social - even more closely than ever before.

And thus, I've started this blog.

I've chosen to raise my head above the parapet and give my own take on the issues that matter (at least to me anyway).

Although I work in basketball, I don't intend to focus excllusively on hoops, or even sport for that matter.  Whatever issue of the day takes my fancy, or raises my ire, will be the topic du jour. 

Here's hoping you enjoy my writing.  Or at least find it thought-provoking.