Journalism’s existential crisis; When will newspapers die?

That was the question asked by a student at the University of South Australia’s free public lecture series, Horizon SA Forum, with publisher Eric Beecher discussing Journalism’s Crisis. Beecher’s lecture focused on the problem with the century-old business model that supports quality journalism and whether or not quality journalism can survive the internet revolution – meaning [...]

Text 100 Sydney GREAT DIGITAL DEBATE: Homeless Hotspots – You Decide!

Ladies and gentlemen! Today it gives me great pleasure to present, for your entertainment, the first Text 100 Sydney Great Digital Debate. Today’s topic, “Homeless Hotspots – Helping the homeless? Or demeaning and degrading to destitute denizens?” Arguing for the POSITIVE is the suave, sophisticated, silent but deadly and possible MI5 agent -Text 100 Sydney’s [...]

In Need of Council? Why a new-media watchdog won’t work

The proposed News Media Council will have many media outlets to police. Photo. Last Friday, the Independent Media Inquiry – run by Ray Finklestein and commissioned by Stephen Conroy – called for a new watchdog for the new media. The “News Media Council”, as the inquiry’s termed it, would run what Finklestein et al are calling “enforced self-regulation” [...]

What can PR practitioners learn from those outtakes?

  The Gillard/Rudd leadership debacle has gone into overdrive since the emergence of KRudd’s temper tantrum hit the headlines this weekend. For me Gillard is looking more serene and in control by the day, and although its hotted up leadership speculation, it really doesn’t position KRudd well as a leader who can remain calm in [...]

Text 100 Australia’s Top Viral Videos of 2011

As 2011 draws to a close the brains trust at Text 100 Sydney thought we’d pull together a compilation of the top 2011 viral videos. They are in no particular order, except for Nyan Cat of course . Enjoy and let us know what you think! Full videos in order: Nyan Cat Charlie Sheen Winning [...]

The curious world of search

So it’s that time of year when all the big internet search companies announce the top searches of 2011, revealing the topics and issues we’ve all been obsessed with throughout the year. These lists are usually rather curious, and have a way of summarising the year that was quite succinctly, and provide a useful pulse [...]

The World Comes to Australia

Over the past 4 weeks Australia has had two major international guests – English Royalty and Political Royalty, and won its bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games. As a true patriot, I am so proud that our nation has successfully hosted two of the world’s most powerful people and out played Sri Lanka to [...]

Gruen Transfer… I mean Planet… It’s all in the spin

Please correct me if I am wrong, but weren’t we expecting to hear more about the issues of ‘spin’ on the reformatted Gruen Transfer show, Gruen Planet last night? I, like thousands of communications professionals, AKA ‘spin doctors’, tuned in to ABC 1 last night to see the popular show dissect ‘spin’, as it refers [...]

When a journalist is a bully

I’m fuming. Just read a “blog” published in The Australian by Nic Christensen about a PR who accidentally clicked “reply all” in an email hence sending the email exchange to 45 journos. The content of the email was not abusive nor controversial, possibly unnecessary, yet hardly worth reporting on. Not only has a respected publication [...]

Murdoch fights back…but makes things worse!

The News of the World hacking scandal shows no sign of slowing down with the scalps continuing to fall at an incredible pace. I’m looking forward to heading to the UK later this week on holiday, so I can tune into the fabulous BBC coverage, and watch developments in real-time in the same time zone. [...]