✅ Monday briefing: Sourcing stories, McTaggart lecture, Channel 4 lobbying, costing of living survey, FOI review, climbing over paywalls, AI tool survey, WaddsCon returns, and more…

Media, Industry, Tools, Social media and platforms, events, and more...

We’re back after a six week break. Hope that you had a good summer. Thank you to everyone that supported Dan and I on our Three Peaks challenge. We climbed the three highest mountains in England, Scotland, and Wales, raising an incredible £10,050 to help bigmoose in Cardiff scale its mental health crisis services.

This newsletter is crowdsourced each week from our blog and community of practice for people studying and working in marketing, media and PR. It’s a hive mind, newsroom and source of information, help and support. You’d be welcome to join us.

Media

📰 SOURCING STORIES: Journalists should respect social media privacy settings, child welfare and anything that might trigger grief or shock. A guide published by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) covers the use of social media to source stories. Spotted Alan Morrison.

💬 MCTAGGART LECTURE: In a speech that generated headlines about BBC bias, Emily Mathias spoke about social media fuelled populism and the erosion of standards in public life. In fact Mathais’ McTaggart was far more nuanced than was widely reported. It’s a must read for anyone concerned about the future of the media. Spotted: Stephen Waddington.

📺 CHANNEL 4 LOBBYING: TV and film producers have urged the new Prime Minister to drop the privatisation of Channel 4 from his or her overflowing in tray. An open letter warns that the move will destroy value and distract the country at a time of economic uncertainty. Spotted: Sarah Waddington.

Industry

❓ COST OF LIVING: Socially Mobile would appreciate your help understanding the impact of the cost of living crisis. The data will be used to support the work of Socially Mobile and will be shared with industry associations, government, and media. Source: Stephen Waddington.

🏛️ FOI REVIEW: The Freedom of Information (FOI) Clearing House Review recommended that the Clearing House should be disbanded and be replaced with a centre of excellence within the Cabinet Office. It also called for all requests to be treated equitably and transparently. Spotted Stephen Waddington.

Tools

🪜 CLIMBING OVER PAYWALLS: Paywalled articles can be accessed by using a tool called 12ft.io. It serves the cached version of a page submitted to Google for indexing purposes. Spotted Andrew Smith.

🛠️ AI TOOL SURVEY: The CIPR is revisiting its crowdsourced project to characterise the tool market and use of artificial intelligence (AI) in public relations. It is inviting practitioners to submit details of the tools that they use in practice via this form. Source Andrew Bruce Smith and Stephen Waddington.

Social media and platforms

🖼️ INSTA ALGO REVERTS: The Instagram algorithm has reverted to pushing content from a user’s network. It follows a backlash against its move to promote Reels and Stories in a bid to rival TikTok. Spotted: Alan Morrison.

👦 HUMAN CONTENT: Google is constantly making changes to its algorithm to stop content generated by GPT-3 tools from being indexed. It says that the move is intended to ensure that it promotes authentic human content. Spotted Sarah Waddington.

⭕ CIRCLE CONFUSION: Twitter users are experimenting with a new product that allows them to create networks of up to 150 people. Unlike Twitter Communities, Twitter Circles are open rather than private. Spotted: Stuart Bruce.

🤳 AUTHENIC APP: Counter cultural social media app BeReal has hit 10 million users. The app notifies users at a different time each day to capture and share an image within a two minute window. It democratises content preventing influencers from gaming the platform. Spotted: Stephen Waddington.

📹 VIDEO SHORTS: Content syndication is commonplace across Instagram Reels, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube. Platforms are taking a variety of approaches including throttling cross promoted content. Post original content on each network for optimal performance. Source: Alan Morrison.

Events

🗓️ WADDSCONS RETURNS: Data driven storytelling and pitching are the theme for WaddsCon from 1-2pm on 28 September. Four speakers will share examples of using public and owned data, tools, and case studies for b2b and b2c. Tickets are a £5 or £10 donation to The Bay Foodbank. Source: Stephen Waddington.

COMMSHERO WEEK: The annual virtual event takes place from 28 September to 2 October. Session’s cover climate, crisis, the economy, sustainability, and more. Sarah Waddington will be speaking about managing overwhelm, and I'm talking about how to increase your earning potential. Source Asif Choudry.