Trevor Cook on public relations, social media and politics

Category Archives: US Presidential Election

Zadie Smith on Obama

January 31, 2009 – 7:59 am

Zadie Smith, who is an extraordinary novelist and critic, has some fascinating things to say about Obama in this lecture given last month at the New York Public Libray. “Speaking in tongues” is an entertaining speech and insightful on identity in today’s world.

By Trevor Cook | Also posted in Books, Politics | Tagged Obama, Zadie Smith | Comments (0)

An excellent lecture on the Internet and democracy

January 27, 2009 – 10:10 pm

This was a lecture given by Stephen Coleman, professor of political communication at Leeds University at the RSA in London at the end of last year. It includes discussion of the Obama campaign and a very good Q&A session. Here is the blurb from the Princeton site:
Coleman believes there is a disconnect between government and the people, [...]

By Trevor Cook | Also posted in Online, Politics, Social Media | Tagged democracy, Internet, Marketing, Obama | Comments (1)

George Negus and the ‘boy’ comment

November 10, 2008 – 10:49 am

Some people have got a bit excited about Negus referring to President-elect Obama as ‘boy’ on last week’s Dateline election show. According to the transcript, it’s not even clear that Negus is referring to Obama singular or his administration more broadly.
But, anyway, so what? It’s clear that Negus is using it in an Australia sense [...]

By Trevor Cook | Also posted in television | Tagged George Negus, Obama | Comments (6)

Kristol, Palin and the NYT: a tale of intrigue and punditry

November 9, 2008 – 9:53 am

Conservative commentator (Weekly Standard, Fox and the New York Times) William Kristol is said to have been Gov. Palin’s ‘patron’ and is now in the centre of a post-election losers’ firestorm which could see him dumped (there’s even an online poll about who should replace him) from his prestigious NYT columnist role.
It raises questions about major [...]

By Trevor Cook | Also posted in Media, Politics | Tagged Fox, Kristol, McCain, Media, NYT, Palin, Rove, Weekly Standard | Comments (2)

Huffington: Obama would not have won without Internet

November 8, 2008 – 9:12 pm

If 1960 was the year television came of age as a political force then maybe the same is also true of the Internet in 2008:
Huffington says flat out that if it wasn’t for the Internet, Obama would not be president. Trippi notes that Obama’s YouTube spots gathered an aggregate of 14.5 million viewing hours. The [...]

By Trevor Cook | Also posted in Internet | Tagged campaigning, Huffington, Obama, Politics, Trippi | Comments (3)

Some interesting Saturday links

November 8, 2008 – 8:54 pm

Branding 101: How to Promote Your Blog Like the Big Guys Do
Social reader
Twitter Goes Mainstream: A lot more people — and businesses — are finding new ways to tweet
Perhaps iPods Aren’t Replacing Radio
Nearly One-Third of Web Users Watch TV While Surfing
Google at 10: Searching Its Own Soul
Palin denounces her critics as cowardly

By Trevor Cook | Also posted in Advertising & marketing, Business & economics, Internet, Media, Online, Public Relations, Social Media | Tagged blogging, Google, iPod, Palin, radio, Social reader, twitter | Comments (0)

Phillip Adams baulks at media democratisation

November 8, 2008 – 9:31 am

Phiilip Adams has an opinion piece this morning which is one of those classic big media lamentations about the passing of their control of the audience. This one has a twist because Adams, who made a fortune from advertising, is an acknowledged leading left-wing intellectual in Australia and a long-time proponent of more media diversity. [...]