Trevor Cook on public relations, social media and politics

Monthly Archives: February 2009

Stay together for the planet’s sake, Fielding

February 25, 2009 – 12:20 am

One thing you have to do in spin doctoring is go with the flow. If the issue of the day (or millennia) is say, global warming, you don’t try and turn your issue into an alternative flavour of the month. You just hook your little wagon to that rollin’ freight train.
So here’s a classic, Senator [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Federal politics, Media, Politics, Social issues, environment | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Twitter delivers the real shaq

February 24, 2009 – 11:18 pm

Too many stories like this and Twitter really is going to explode:
Sean informed me a few days ago that he had been following “The Real Shaq” on twitter. 
“You realize that ‘The Real Shaq’ is probably a 5′4 White, 14 year old emo kid who’s getting his jolly’s from the attention, right?” I asked him.
“I don’t [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Social Media | Tagged | Comments (0)

Gillard goes where no man can

February 23, 2009 – 9:04 pm

Gillard got stuck into Pyne in the Parliament today:
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard mocked the Coalition for choosing Christopher Pyne as the manager of opposition business, rather than Tony Abbott, who did the job in Government.
“In a choice between macho and mincing I would have gone for macho myself,” she said.
“The leader of the Opposition [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Federal politics, Politics | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Anne gives the finger to republicans

February 23, 2009 – 8:13 am

Maybe I’m being a tad too conspiratorial but during yesterday’s national day of mourning I was struck by Princess Anne’s lavish praise of Her Majesty’s representatives in Australia in the form of the Governor-General and the Victorian Governor during the bushfire crisis. Did Anne mean that we wouldn’t do any better as a Republic? Remember [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Federal politics, Politics | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

What the Dickens, Costello?

February 23, 2009 – 12:20 am

One of Evelyn Waugh’s bitterest satires, if such a fine distinction can be drawn, is A Handful of Dust. The hero of the novel Tony Last is a decent man whose life is destroyed by the barely concealed barbarity of those around him. Poor Tony’s final humiliation is to be imprisoned in a remote jungle [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Facebook passes 175 million user mark

February 14, 2009 – 4:38 pm

Robert Scoble says:
 
Is it just me or is Facebook’s growth speeding up?
Dave Morin, who runs Facebook’s application platform team, tonight announced on Twitter/friendfeed that Facebook had passed 175 million users.
Congrats. I told a few people at Davos that Facebook would be THE story of the year in Silicon Valley. Twitter is trying to make it interesting, [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Social Media | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Welcome to the world of social media war rooms

February 14, 2009 – 2:10 pm

Israel’s recent invasion might be the continuance of an old conflict, but it brought us something new and very depressing – social media propaganda campaigns:
Both sides deployed dangerous new media weapons during this latest round of fighting in Gaza. Armed with Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts, and Lavazza espresso, warriors fearlessly and tirelessly scoured the cyber [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Media, Public Relations, Social Media, history | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Newspapers are no longer the core business of newsagents

February 14, 2009 – 2:02 pm

From Australian Newsagency blog: “Newsagents say that with publishers wanting to get into more and more non-newsagent outlets they are less likely to see newspapers as a core product in their newsagencies”.

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Business & economics, Media, Newspapers | Tagged , | Comments (0)

History favours Rudd’s race to the polls

February 12, 2009 – 9:12 pm

For some reason, new Federal Governments seem impelled to head to the polls early. One reason may be that they seem almost guaranteed of getting re-elected. Elected in March 1996, Howard was back at the polls in October 1998 – 2 years seven months. That’s a long time. Howard had a very up and down [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Federal politics | Tagged , , , , | Comments (2)

Binishells and the training of a young journalist

February 12, 2009 – 8:41 am

Bob Meade’s recent post on Binishells (concrete domes named after their designer) at Killarney Heights school reminded me of a story a young Glenn Milne told me in the bar of the old parliament house twenty years ago. There was some controversy about these innovative concrete domes, one had failed or it was alleged that [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Media | Tagged , , | Comments (0)