Bite Size Comms

In the 1980s, public relations academics researched that dialogue - two-way balanced communication - was the ideal. We examine this Excellence Theory through two case studies: Boaty McBoatface from 2014 and the NHS improvement consultation in 2024.

Trust in politics and politicians is low. The media story of the first 100 days of the new UK government has been dominated by freebies, gifts and money from companies and wealthy individuals. We look at the different rules on gifts that apply to officials and to MPs and Ministers.

We give each letter of the alphabet a public relations angle. With a little humour too!

Many of us have moved to using LinkedIn as our prime social media platform for work. How can you gain a good reach and engagement with your LinkedIn posts? How can you play the algorithm game? That's what we explore in this episode.

The concept of sensemaking involves collecting data and scrutinising it for trends and patterns that point to better solutions, “the hidden leadership and communication superpower”. We discuss this leadership and public relations skill.

We examine data and anecdotal evidence from the last few years to determine whether Public Relations in the UK still has a diversity and inclusion problem.

We need to communicate strategically by thinking about the purpose of the communication, then the audience, and finally the appropriate channels to use.

For the first time, OFCOM’s annual research shows that online platforms have overtaken TV channels as the most popular sources of news in the UK. We look at what changes are happening in news consumption in the UK.

I quite like my phone. But I hate using it for phone calls. It is a good device for taking photos, recording videos, and recording parts of podcasts by sticking my Shure mic in for an interview. I also use it to listen to music and podcasts. Phone calls? What a disturbance!
We look at changing trends in using phones.

Stakeholders, audiences and publics. Three terms we use in PR to describe who we are communicating with. Nowadays, they are used interchangeably. Is there a difference?