✅ Media Briefing #24: Characterising COVID-19 impact, internal NHS comms, PR planning, news shakeup, AI editorial fail, thematic text analysis, AI incidents database, and more

Research, best practice, media, social media and platforms, tools, and events

Good morning. My name is Stephen Waddington. This is a weekly summary of news from my blog and topics discussed in a community of practice that I run on Facebook. You’d be welcome to join us. My thanks to all the contributors.

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Research

⚗️ SOLVING SCIENCE MISINFORMATION: A report by Nielman Lab makes three recommendations to counter misinformation in health and science comms. The first is that journalists need to be educated about science and research. The second is that scientists need to be educated about the media ecosystem. The third is to level up audiences. Spotted David Gallagher.

⚠️ AI POVERTY TRAP: Poverty Lawgorithms reports on the AI systems that are marginalising low income communities. It reports on how automated systems are used to assess creditworthiness and make decisions about lending housing, jobs, and basic services. Spotted Craig McGill.

✍️ CHARACTERISING COVID-19 IMPACT: The PR industry has contracted by as much as £1.6bn in 2020. That’s a 10% decline due to COVID-19 according to the PRCA PR and Communications Census 2020. It has had a disproportionate impact on entry level and junior roles and ethnicity, social diversity and gender diversity. Source Stephen Waddington.

Best practice

💬 INTERNAL NHS COMMS: Ross Wigham recounts the approach taken by Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust to ensure its 5,000 staff received accurate information during COVID-19. It opened up Twitter DMs, email and online surveys, and created a newsfeed for staff that could be accessed by email or smartphone app. Source Ross Wigham.

📖 PR PLANNING: If Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns by Anne Gregory isn't on your desk or a shelf close by make sure you stick it on your Christmas list. The fifth edition was published this week. Spotted Stephen Waddington.

Media

📰 NEWS SHAKEUP: National news may appear on Netflix as Ofcom proposes a radical shakeup of rules for BBC and ITV. Small Screen: Big Debate reports that viewers have shifted away from TV and warns that public service broadcasting is unlikely to survive without a radical shake-up. Spotted Sarah Waddington.

🤖 AI EDITORIAL FAIL: HuffPost has overtaken MSN as the most popular news aggregator in the UK according to Comscore. MSN lost a fifth of its traffic after replacing human editors with AI software. Spotted Alan Morrison.

Social media and platforms

📊 SOCIAL TRENDS: Social media ROI, brand conversation, busting stereotypes, audience planning and targeting, and brand purpose are trends highlighted by Hootsuite in its Social Trends 2021 report. Spotted Stephen Waddington.

👤 ONLINE ANONYMITY: Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge has urged the Government to ban social media anonymity or make the directors of platforms personally liable for defamatory posts. Hodge is promoting an online harms bill, saying that she receives tens of thousands of abusive tweets a month. Spotted Stephen Waddington.

👋 TWITTER QUITTER: Mike Hind discusses the addictive nature of social media and the benefits of quitting platforms such as Twitter. “My head is clearer. I am reading more. Not just snacking on the latest outrage. I can concentrate.” Spotted Stephen Waddington.

Tools

🔠 THEMATIC TEXT ANALYSIS: MeaningCloud is a text mining tool that extracts trends from unstructured data. It correctly identified trends from past Wadds Inc. newsletters. Training the algorithm isn’t straightforward but it’s an interesting tool. Spotted Philippe Borremans and Stephen Waddington.

🚨 AI INCIDENTS DATABASE: The AI Incidents Database is a repository of real world problems aimed at helping organisations avoid bad AI related outcomes. The initial data set is around 1,000 reports. The public is invited to submit further incidents. Source Dan Griffiths.

🎭 VIRTUAL EVENTS: Airmeet is a platform for hosting virtual events including live streaming to Facebook and YouTube. It includes a suite of tools to network and build connections. AppSumo has a lifetime deal for $79. Spotted by Sara Hawthorne.

Events

📅 MENTAL HEALTH HALF HOUR: Join Chatelle Jeram and the rest of the community for the third session of the Mental Health Half Hour on Wednesday at 16:00 GMT. This week we’ll be discussing how to adapt to change. Source Rod Cartwright.

Thank you

We’ve raised more than £8,000 for my local foodbank thanks to your support. Please share this newsletter with friends and colleagues and invite them to sign up. It helps spread the word about Wadds Inc. Have an excellent week. Thank you.