Viva Pamela

This Friday I have an interview with Viva Manchester magazine with the hopes of being taken on for some unpaid and freelance article-writing. In preparation for this I had decided to check out their website, only to find that this month’s cover star is the iconic Pamela Anderson.

Regardless of what one makes of Pamela Anderson, the woman is an icon. What she is an icon of and what she represents perhaps, one may debate, but she is an icon nonetheless. Pamela Anderson is most [creditably] remembered for her role as C. J. Parker on the hit television programme Baywatch, which she took on almost twenty years ago. Anderson’s stint on the show lasted a short period of five years and came to an end over fourteen years ago; despite this, many teenage boys and girls alike who were in their nappies in 1997 could still put a face to the name of Pammie. And this is why she is unquestionably an icon.

Since she lost the red swimsuit – and more often than not, donned very little over her body in its replacement – Pammie has satirised the stereotypes, rumours, character and demeanour thrown at her by the tabloid and the public. Playing ‘herself’ or something similar in roles she was given that followed Baywatch demonstrate Pamela’s ability to capitalise on the money. It is a shame in some senses that, if rumours are true, she just as easily knows how to spend it; if Anderson was a saver she could probably be a very rich lady right now… Pammie has been featured in the Borat movie, a string of fairly unsuccessful televised sitcoms and films and made appearances in advertising campaigns and music videos. Most notably however, are her appearances hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’ (‘SNL’) in the United States, her guest striptease at Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris and her dance on Elton John’s infamous red piano during his performance of The Bitch Is Back. Pamela Anderson always has and always will tried her hand at anything and, whether you consider her credible or not, never fails to put a smile on most people’s faces. Recently, Anderson was the second model/actress to be granted a star on the Canada Walk of Fame, and the first non-singer model to host the Canadian Juno Awards.

 

(above: Pamela Anderson for PETA and the protection of Canadian seals)

 

Despite a fighting spirit, love for her children and determination to succeed, Pamela Anderson has often received a bad press from many people who don’t know all that much about her. ‘Those videos’ that were arguably simultaneously the beginning of both the beginning and the end were stolen from Anderson’s home, and seemed to give her an unfair reputation that has stuck throughout her career. Pamela should have been an early lesson to many celebrities that followed: leave the camera outside of the bedroom!

In lighter notes, Pamela Anderson is an activist for animal rights and is a prominent member of charity PETA, which aims to look after and protect animals. As well as receiving the first ever Linda McCartney Memorial Award, she has campaigned against KFC, POM drink and seal hunting. She also backed a campaign run by MAC to help those suffering from AIDS and HIV. Though it is true that Pammie never brags about this, she definitely does not receive the credit one may argue she deserves for all the good she does. As a silver lining, however, the recent comedy roast on Pamela allowed famous comedians and US celebrity types to make fun of her, face-to-face, in a warm gesture, before she was praised for everything she had given to the US entertainment industry (and should carry on giving).

I saw Pamela Anderson at the New Wimbledon Theatre last Christmas where she played the Genie in Disney’s classic Aladdin, and whilst it is fair to say her acting skills may not be Cannes-class standard, she gives it some welly. It was clear that the crowd – mixed in age, gender and background – had come almost in their entirety to see Pamela on stage. There was no jeering, no tutting and no rolling of eyes – this is panto, let’s not forget – but instead huge roars of cheers and excitement for the ex Baywatch star.

It’s just a shame that instead of perusing the streets of central London purchasing lamps that Pammie is on stage in panto, in fancy dress, pretending to rise out from one…

***

The interview with Pamela Anderson that inspired this piece can be found on the Viva Manchester website here, where there is also a link to buy tickets to see her in Aladdin once again, this time in Liverpool.

-TCBT

Intern: WOW! Marketing and PR

WOW! Marketing and PR is the only agency that offers full service marketing and PR to Further Education institutions. Run exclusively by Kate Bishop, the firm works alongside colleges up and down the country getting them press cuttings, an online presence and full, positive exposure in the best and most efficient ways possible.

Though I have been interning for WOW! from home (whilst not bogged down by University work) since September now, it was only recently that I was able to meet Kate at the opening of a 3D advertisement campaign for Hopwood Hall college taking place first in Rochdale followed by Middleton. The image of a ricketty bridge across a giant chasm was designed by two artists and took centre stage at the Exchange shopping centre in the North West and members of the public were invited to come and have their photo taken ‘on the bridge’ as though they could fall into the hole in a matter of seconds. These photos were available online on the Hopwood Hall College Open Days page and was a stunt to encourage youngsters who were thinking about college – and their families and friends – to consider Hopwood as an option.

(above: an image of the graphic in the midst of the shopping centre)

 

With the upcoming run to Colleges Week, what was originally just a small independent idea for a business venture in April 2010 has blown up for Kate, bringing more results than ever before. Resulting in bigger office space and the potential recruitment of new staff, WOW! Marketing and PR’s success is snowballing through word of mouth and results that speak for themselves. Not only is this firm an example of good marketing and great PR but another prime demonstration of how essential public relations are today.

As our society diversifies and the 2.4 children on a picket fenced street is perhaps a thing of a past, there are more options, at more times, for more people in more places. Whilst ‘free will’ is not a concept many would consider as ‘new’ – the idea of choice is no longer down to just having an ‘I will’ or ‘I won’t’ answer. With choice, options, routes and opportunities, it is essential that one knows exactly what they are bargaining for with a specific perfume, jumper, CD album or – in this case – college. Public relations in all ways, shapes and forms is something that all sectors need to make their firm, message, individual or experience grab a target audience, shake them and scream “TAKE ME!” more than ever. The increase of publicity for the colleges Kate represents, in the very short time she has been with them, goes to show this. Public relations is King.

I am greatly enjoying the tasks I get to do for Kate, such as write press releases, try and help a story fly with the nationals and update the database with essential contacts for WOW! Marketing and PR. This was the first taste of ‘hands on’ PR experience that I had gotten since the Summer and, without a doubt, I hope it continues…

 

-TCBT

Placement: The PR Office

During my week away from University studies (‘Red Week’) I decided to take it upon myself to track down some work experience within the PR sector… With a little help from a friend and a quick e-mail back and forth, I had secured a placement within a couple of days with North London based firm The PR Office.

Whilst an agreement I signed permits me against divulging any juicy bits, working for The PR Office for five days was a fantastic experience for me. I got a great feel of what it is like to work in different areas of PR, met some interesting and very friendly people and got some hands-on experience that should set me in great stead for my next placement.

The PR Office are situated in Kentish Town (near Camden) and are made up of Corporate & Commercial, Entertainment & Lifestyle, Voluntary and Public Affairs teams. Whilst the experience of the staff therefore spans a wide breadth, the team is relatively small, and TPRO carries a ‘compact but competitive’ vibe alongside it. Each of these sectors has a ‘team leader’ who keeps everything together and, whilst separate from one another, there seems to be a good social gel between those amongst each of these branches of the company’s PR. I believe a key component to this gel is receptionist and administrator Hayley, who I witnessed as on-hand to any of those who needed her and always brightening up the office spirit with good banter and big friendly smiles.

Additionally, however, there was a chic professionalism about The PR Office. All those there were very cool about their work, but also clearly did a very good job of it. Everything seemed to run smoothly and, even when it looked like this was ready to change, there was never a loss of control. Whilst I am unable to write about anything I specifically read, saw or heard at the office I can only say that – if you are one of their clients – they are working hard and achieving a damn good job for you.

The PR Office is my first ‘official’ placement with a PR firm and has only made me more excited for the next. The Office runs regular placements (although prefer them to span between two weeks and a month); I would highly recommend applying for experience there if and when you ever get the chance.

-TCBT

Social Media In A Corporate Context: Manchester

This week I acted as a student delegate at the Communicate Social Media in a Corporate Context conference in Manchester, wherein a host of current, respected and influential personas gave a number of presentations on how brand and businesses can utilise social media to the best of their abilities. For this my role was to Tweet throughout the day – with the hash-tag of #SMCC10 – on what was going on live from the conference, and compile notes in order to complete a blog on the event after the dust had all settled. And here is that very blog.

Arriving at 1pm (due to University commitment) I missed presentations given by the likes of Sony Europe, Real Fresh TV, Snapper Communications and DHL on topics such as Social Media Newsrooms, Social Media on PDAs and smartphones and the value of social media. Despite missing out on this I enjoyed a fantastic and very fast-paced afternoon at The Palace Hotel – where the event was being hosted – and met some fantastic and fascinating individuals whilst equally learning a thing or five. For the purpose of this blog I shall outline some highlights from some of the afternoon’s talks and follow with a quick re-cap of some of the day’s most interesting Tweets and what I enjoyed most about my time at SMCC10.

‘Community Development’ – Keith Bennett (Online Channel Marketing Officer for Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance) and Andy Wood (Strategy Director at Freestyle Interactive)

 

The first presentation I saw was made by Keith Bennett from Lloyds TSB and Andy Wood from Freestyle Interative, and dealt with decisions to construct a more innovative approach for this bank to engage its audiences at a time of banking crises. Having introduced the presentation with a video outlining the fact that “in our modern world life isn’t so easy” and that “social media [is] on the rise”, Bennett sets up the platform to discuss the tries, fails and successes of how one should and could use SocialMedia within their company and how, for Lloyds and Freestyle, it all managed to come together to the tune of great success.

In November 2009, after breaking from an e-commerce partner they had been with since 1995, Lloyds began to use Freestyle Interactive as their agency of choice to fulfil their need to provide something “new and different”. This saw the launch of the brand’s new website. Initially the problems of launching the site were “horrendous” according to Bennett, with only four specialist marketing staff on board (out of a possible 800 with ‘marketing’ in their title) and was being hosted internally and away from the agency, as decided by IT. With the recession only multiplying the issues involved with the new website large amounts of business were being lost. The next step of Lloyds was to check out trends in the market place and what was going wrong at that point in time within it.

Advice from Bennett and Wood:

What you choose to place online and where you choose to place it can often miss a large chunk of your audience. Whilst traffic numbers worry about your website hits, it is the search engines that are directing customers towards online content that discusses your brand; a huge realm of this is within the walls of social media.

Bennett here gives the example of holiday hunting. Initially, when one is looking online to book a holiday, they do not go straight to a holiday website and book everything then and there. Instead, search engines are used to divert the user to social sites telling them what’s hot, what’s not, and where to look for it. In this sense, those making the buying decisions are perhaps too those running the social media websites. It is important to know that sales messages being broadcast must move on and exist more currently – from now on the usage of blogs and own branded social media will prove far more effective.

With this in mind, Lloyds launched ‘Cover It Live!’ where blogging went on alongside live budgeting. The blogger, Simon, had twelve advisory staff on hand to fill him in on what was legal and was fitted the brand at the same time. This demonstrates the thought, time and effort that goes into the use of social media for brands and businesses. On top of this Lloyds also launched Businesszone.co.uk, where a survey asked accountants simple questions for research means (with a competition and prize winning incentive) as well as live Q&A sessions.

Andy Wood of Freestyle said that for Lloyds, the 2011 strategies are as follows:

1. Context is King
2. Good content must be developed
3. Teams need training, and
4. The power of research must not be underestimated

Mind sets of employees must be changed in order to understand that the brand website is merely one part of a network of online communicative forms available; equity must therefore be placed in different channels. It is important too to integrate clients’ voices into the new branded social media for future search engine purposes. One example of how Lloyds do this is in their Nurture website and the use of college students (third and fourth year) to create artwork for the domain. Students would send in work to make regional finals and the three winners from these head to a final in London to compete for one of three prizes. Last year this was held at the Saatchi gallery and the winners were given money both for them and their colleges. The project has proven successful and now has its own Twitter and Facebook pages as of the last six months.

 

‘Why I Use the Nokia N98’: a very personal, word of mouth case study – James Whatley (Engagement Director, 1000 Heads)

 

The second presentation of the day came from James Whately, the Engagement Director from 1000 Heads, about why he uses the Nokia N8. Whatley outlined a word of mouth case study which used twelve people from around the globe; astonishingly from this came 186, 000 pieces of content. Whatley’s main point was that online and offline means can be used to win over clients and customers – meaningfully engaging with your audience will have a longer lasting and more credible effect than just trying to hit target numbers. To do this, according to Whatley, we must not be afraid to embrace the extreme.

 

‘Engaging GenY’ – Claudia Bach (Marketing and PR Manager of Reckitt and Benckiser)

 

Reckitt Benckiser’s marketing and PR Manager Claudia Bach then gave a presentation on Raising Corporate Brand Awareness with a Facebook Game. After finding a more savvy brand logo the company launched a blog run by trainees all over the world, using the those who could engage with the same interests as the target audience such as Twitter and other forms of social media. The awareness modes we each follow that were embraced by the firm – who are in charge of brand such as Dettol, AirWick and Nurofen – were play, learn and search.

Reckitt Benckiser look at the word ‘opportunity’ in a different way than others, which is why there are multiple answers to the question “what business does an organization have inventing a video game?”

There are currently 89, 000 ‘games’ on Facebook and Reckitt Benckiser’s, run by an organization and concerning ‘going to work’, is around #800 in that chart and has 161, 000 active monthly users. The brand also has 21, 800 Facebook ‘fans’, 365 online mentions and 60% of their game players are within their target audience. These are extremely impressive statistics.

 

Crisis Communications – Robin Grant (Managing Director from We Are Social) and Lisa Fogarty (Vice President of Industry at Augure)

 

Robin Grant, the Managing Director from We Are Social continued the afternoon in giving a joint presentation with Leesa Fogarty, the Vice President of Industry at Augure on Crisis Communications opening up with the example of the Nestle crisis.

For those who are unaware, Nestle’s crisis was triggered by a video uploaded onto YouTube by Green Peace which covered the chocolate brand’s bad conduct overseas. Nestle had their legal team remove this video, however Green Peace then simply uploaded it onto their own domains. The backlash of having the video removed from YouTube landed Nestle in far more controversy perhaps than the initial footage itself, as Nestle was seemingly trying to censor Green Peace.

Within 24 hours of this the Nestle Facebook page was bombarded with comments concerning this. Nestle responded to these comments rudely and did not treat users with respect, with a particularly “it is our page; we set the rules” attitude. This crisis all took place within 48 hours and, despite it dying off quickly, did impact Nestle’s share price and is an example of how not to handle PR.

With this in mind, Grant outlined some rules of thumb for the handling of crisis communication:

1. Get a real time listening and responding programme set up and running (monitoring software, training programme, robust rules of engagement, tone of voice guidelines (Nestle mistakes), workflow management tools
2. Integrated social media into overall crisis plan
3. Make sure all social media channels operate in sync
4. Have a conversation platform ready (blog) that can be updated instantaneously

Leesa Fogarty then introduced Augure, a French company that has been around for eight years running despite having not stamped itself onto the UK market. The brand is trying to move from a reactive to a proactive stance. With this in mind, Fogarty explained that, today, there is a new communications landscape built both online and with the challenge of reputation management. All crises, whilst unique to themselves, share the common traits of surprise, sufficiently used information, events and intense scrutiny. The presentation closed with the Warren Buffet quote:

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to do it, and if you think about that perhaps you’ll do things differently”

 

Social Media Reputation Management – Marc Campman (Managing Director, Webjam) and John Greenway (Press Office Manager, Manchester Airports Group)

 

Although the segment on Social Media Reputation Management was missing its third, original speaker (Birmingham City University’s New Media and Social Media lecturer Jon Hickman), Campman and Greenway successfully broke down the topic in two very different but equally effective presentations.

Mark Campman, the Director of Marketing from Webjam, gave us a concise and effective presentation on ‘The Cluetrain Manifesto – 10 tips (out of 99) to stay in “control” amid the chaos’. These ten tips were:

1. Markets are conversations; lots of case studies capture the essence of this
2. Enabling powerful new forms of social organisations and knowledge exchange (old words and new words; old = company, new = community; old is alienated, new is democratic. Old is hierarchies, new is networks; old is closed controlled communication, new is open interactive communication) – Google is now a verb
3. There are two conversations going on. One inside the company. One with the market
4. These two conversations want to talk to each other. They are speaking the same language
5. We wonder why you’re not listening. You seem to be speaking a different language
6. The inflated self-important jargon you sling around – what’s that got to do with us?
7. We like this new marketplace much better. In fact, we are treating it
8. You’re Not Invited, But It’s Our World
9. Companies that do not belong to a community of discourse will die
10. Talk is cheap but silence is fatal

Continuing the theme of social media reputation management was the second presentation from John Greenway, the Press Office Manager from Manchester Airports Group (MAG). In the press office of the MAG, customers are attempted to be contacted everyday through Twitter and other forms of social media. The MAG has actually won awards for their Twitter streaming. An example of when Twitter has been a vital tool to MAG was on a Saturday night at 3am when a window of opportunity for flights and repatriation flights was being waited on… live updates for this were being Tweeted whilst customers around the globe waited to find out whether them or their loved ones would be able to fly out. Unfortunately the flights did not happen, but all those involved were able to find this out at an extremely fast speed.

Although MAG were initially frightened about the prospect of becoming a ‘faceless’ organisation their use of Twitter is proving effective with over 11, 000 followers and is integral to their means of communication. On top of this, news agencies and stakeholders are involving themselves with this as oppose to shying away, whether by following MAG online or quoting their ‘Tweets’ in relevant and current news stories.

 

The hypotheticals debate – numerous speakers on a panel (listed below)

 

Closing the day was a Jerry Springer styled live debate presentation which featured the following speakers on the panel:

Stephen Waddington, Managing Director of Speed Communications; Karl Brookes, Head of Communications and Marketing at NHS Salford; Stephen Kuncewicz, Solicitor for Intellectual Property & Media at HBJ Gateley Wareing; Tom Mason, Social Media Campaign Manager at Delineo and Andrew Eddy, former Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs UK at Shell

The debate raised the fact that crises can often be expected; they will happen and people must be prepared for it. One speaker compared social media to poker – without a chip you are unable to play – you must either be full in or not full in. It costs 100K per year to be involved in social media as a bare minimum; on top of this fifteen things one must do in advance were listed within this debate. These were:

1. Business objectives must be understood
2. Social media objectives must be in place
3. Budget needs to be in place
4. ROI – Return on Investment
5. Plan, processors, policies (this will take a lot of time to produce)
6. Choice of tools: full-time monitoring. Know the team who will be involved; at least three people not including line managers
7. Training and practising – triage process; how do you know if something is important?
8. Engage

The situation used for this debate was a video featuring child labourers for a popular mobile phone brand. Various questions were put to the panel by members of the audience, for example:

Question: Who should be pulled together in a situation like this?

Answer: You need a portfolio of people to cover all bases; these people will sometimes be self-selecting. Invite everyone to come initially and very quickly decide who actually needs to be involved. You need enough competence in the room to be successful but as few people as possible. You would need a liar in the room (do not pay too much attention to him/her), subject knowledge or expertise and a number of other people (someone with corporate communications experience)

The panel raised the issue of Nestle once again; removing content is not always the way to solve a problem. The panel advised to only listen to so much of what a lawyer tells you, as there is only so much that law itself can achieve in a situation like this. It is essential to monitor what is being said and who is saying it; for example, there can be 50-100 bloggers in a case like this with a phone company scandal. It is important to maintain too that social media moves far quicker than everything else.

There is a response window of ten minutes for a Tweet, as oppose to one hour for a blog.

Question: What will we do about this content on YouTube?

Answer: The very worst thing you can do is remove this content. There will be a copy somewhere else and it will be put online somewhere else. This will make your brand look sinister and conspiring. Whether this is good enough for a story depends on who filmed it, who posted it etc – there are two stories to work with – the story of child labour and the instantly side running story of a firm in the centre of a social media storm. It depends on how big a fire storm it is but this is still a story today.

It is important to use employees of the company as key parts of the story; you must wonder who should be representing the company. There is often an expectation that a CEO or Marketing Director should get involved in situations. It is essential to think about cultural differences when selecting a representative. Dealing with situations is key and must be planned as often (as with Nestle) it is not the incident that matters but how it is dealt with.

 

Top Ten Tweets of the Day – taken from Twitter with the hash-tag of #SMCC10

 

1. realfreshtv RT @delineo If you missed it earlier, here’s a list of the #smcc10 speakers on Twitter. All worth a follow.http://bit.ly/9bTo0z *Brilliant!
2. jamiedanielali RT @matthewhorwood: RT @oana_jinga: RT @FelicityStewart: “Social media is word of mouth on steroids” Mark Campman #SMCC10
3. oana_jinga RT @HayleyJacquelin: “Twitter has a 10 minute critical window time to respond and a blog 1 hour” Leesa Fogarty. Wowsa#SMCC10
4. sasbongo Here here! RT @kerryneeds: 200 million people play Farmville?!? Honestly, I despair of this world sometimes  #smcc10
5. andygauk RT @andywood171: 83% of generation Y sleep with their phone on or next to their bed #smcc10 RT: @ClareEGamble
6. karenblakeman #smcc10 want to find out what employees are saying about their bosses, companies? Job Vent http://bit.ly/u5sl3
   
7. michaelcooper “Theme of the day: have an objective” #smcc10
   
8. FelicityStewart A few photos from the day so far #smcc10 More being added now! http://bit.ly/dkENgD
9. delineo DHL employee project: 3,098 photos sourced from employees across 112 countries. #smcc10
10. alistairbeech Interesting stat. Cinema, theatre or something else? RT @delineo: Twitter 97.3% accurate in predicting opening box office returns #smcc10

Above all, I had a really interesting afternoon and had a great glimpse of things to come in the world of PR. Hats off to all involved with the SMCC10 – the day seemed to go almost without a single glitch – and thank you very much to my lecturer for managing to get me a place on board with it all. I loved it!

Until next time…

- TCBT

 

X-Factor Turns Its Swag On

As auditions come and go with Britain’s The X-Factor, we are set up to be ‘wowed’ between once and twice per week during the audition shows, to introduce us to some of the talented characters we will need to remember when the program gets to the Boot Camp, Judge’s Houses and Live Stages. This had already happened in the opening weeks with alternative and awkward Katie Waissel, with her rocky start of a Queen classic, then followed by a heart-warming and very cute rendition of Etta James’ At Last. Equally Gamu Nhengu and her rendition of Walking On Sunshine by Katrina and The Waves.

On Saturday night however, we were introduced to Worcestershire born and sixteen year old Cher Lloyd, who sung the Keri Hilson version of Soulja Boy’s Turn My Swag On. Lloyd is now favourite to win the show (despite the fact auditions are not yet over) and has received momentous celebrity support from around the globe from Soulja Boy himself, online blogger Perez Hilton, American R&B star Ciara and Keri Hilson (whose rendition of the rap song Lloyd sung), last year’s X-Factor winner Joe McElderry and UK Rap artist Chipmunk. Lloyd’s audition video has now received almost 5 million views accumulatively on YouTube and has been available online for only five days, and six evenings.

What is interesting to note too, is that the first ‘News’ result under a Google Search for ‘Keri Hilson’ is an article on Cher Lloyd and Lloyd’s video is currently the fourth result under a YouTube search for ‘Turn My Swag On’ – none of the three top results are Hilson’s version. Comments on Hilson’s videos include “LIKE this if you came here for Cher” and “I love Keri, but Cher’s version is far better…”

But what is so special about the feisty high school girl from the midlands; where has this buzz even come from?

Cher brought something to the table that was not only highly unexpected – she was introduced backstage to the cheery, poptastic background music of Eliza Dolittle’s Pack Up - but furthermore something we rarely see in the United Kingdom, let alone from a girl her age or (dare I say) race. Cher demonstrated both a vulnerability and youthfulness combined with a confident, sassy and determined aura – a ‘swagger’, you could say. Cher is now firm-favourite to win the competition and bring home the Christmas #1 single to whichever judge she may end up with (if she makes it through Boot Camp and the Judge’s Houses) and auditions are far from even over. What will be interesting to watch is, firstly, whether Cher is able to adapt to different genres without losing her uniqueness and, secondly, whether her style and substance are altered by whoever is in charge of her as she progresses through the competition.

Channel 4TW

The 2010 Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival has named Channel 4 the ‘Terrestrial Channel Of The Year’, ending the BBC’s three year run of wins in this category, and I could not be happier. Whilst I do believe that the BBC has a lot to offer our viewers I have felt that, as time has come along, the chunk of our TV License that it eats up is often unjustified. Channel 4 has, for me, gone from ‘television for the younger generation’ to simply ‘more current and relevant television’. Although one cannot argue that Channel 4 has played host to a few disastrous television failures, and has never been short of controversial associations, it has risen through the rankings and stands tall today as a fantastic example of British television.

For me, Channel 4 does what the BBC claim to do in its statement of promise: “inform, educate, entertain and innovate”, however, they manage to do all four things at once whilst still remaining relevant, sophisticated and well humoured. From well followed soap operas to insightful reality television shows and both interesting and often heartbreaking documentaries, this is a channel that is leading television in the right direction. Only recently the Guardian argued over whether reality television had killed the documentary and, in my opinion, Channel 4 is an example of how it has not. Whilst many would argue that ITV are continually ‘dumbing down’ their programming, focusing explicitly on dating and ‘reality shows’ (even on their freeview/Sky channels ITV2 and ITV3), however Channel 4 arguably brings both these areas of television together. The problem for many with documentaries is the mixture of the medium through which we receive it and the message often within.

How many of us, after a long day at work or studying, want to sit down and learn heavy facts about something we had never had prior interest in? Very few, I would guess. This is the case especially for the younger generation who, for many, hold the attitude “why would I care if I don’t already?”

With Channel 4 however, documentaries are a whole new ball game. Children, students and adults alike are tuning in to two or even three part series on issues they never knew had even existed. Channel 4 provides a face to the fact, an interaction between cameraman and subject to bring what we are watching almost inside and within our living rooms. Whilst the interactive form of documentary is at best subject to controversy, there are some issues that there is little scope to argue right or wrong over: mass murder, rape, sex trafficking (which Channel 4′s current documentary series is covering) etc. Here, something we may have before thought “that’s such a shame” towards has us angry and in tears at the screen, asking ourselves if there is anything we can do to stop it.

Channel 4 shows us that ‘reality television’ (whatever that means) has not ‘killed’ the documentary. If the entire meaning of the documentary is supposedly a piece of moving media which ‘documents’ a person, case, issue or story – then surely there has to be some reality in there somewhere?

Similarly the channel and format of reality television has allowed an in depth look at persons, whose positioning inside a traditional ‘documentary’ format may have before been implausible and therefore impossible; we can do this by looking at another Channel 4 example, Big Brother. From Nasty Nick’s controversial game-planning, to the storm of racism amongst Shilpa Shetty and the late Jade Goody and co., to developing love stories and various mental breakdowns – Big Brother has to be one of the longest spanning televised insights into the way the human mind can come to work. Having studied Social Anthropology for three years at Undergraduate level, I find the program fascinating. The amount of spin-off shows, doctoral assessments and even Psycho-analyst Sunday show the program once had, Big Brother is an example of purely manufactured reality television that in itself is still very much a form of documentation.

To be honest, if anything ‘kills’ a television format, it is the general public’s loss of interest in that area to begin with…

So, hats off to a very deserving Channel 4, who continue to challenge the BBC in terms of both quality and quantity. And for anyone who believes reality television has ‘ruined the world’ and wants their documentaries back – have a closer look and try and find an instance where the two don’t at least slightly overlap… But don’t tell me about it, as I doubt I’d be tuning in!

-TCBT

Crap Roulette

So, ChatRoulette is now apparently defunct, since its unsuccessful “re-launch”… Whilst this reinvention of the website went completely unnoticed to me (you too?) its existence had actually escaped me entirely as of a very long time ago.

When I first heard about ChatRoulette I, for some reason, was fascinated by it. However, when I sat down and actually had a look at it, I couldn’t pin-point the exact purpose for it. Furthermore, who was its target audience? At just a glance it became clear: ChatRoulette was for drunken friends, groups of aggressive chavs and naked, masturbating desperados. Its no wonder the website never caught on as a viable concept amongst the educated masses…

The anonymity of ChatRoulette prevents it from being a social networking device; there were no options for creating a profile, sustaining a ‘friends list’ and ‘finding people you know’ through verifying devices such as Hotmail, Facebook or AOL accounts. Equally, advertised as more of a ‘meeting’ site, the ‘porn’ and ‘exhibitionist’ elements brought to the website get lost in its place in cyberland. For ChatRoulette experiment #2 (which apparently is on its way), the website needs to choose which direction to take itself in. Casual masturbators would be thrown off by needing to sign up, and the presence of better moderators, whilst being able to connect to specific individuals would enable the chance to talk to both real and online ‘friends’.

Until then, I think I’ll just stick to text messaging.

-TCBT

Sundown At Sunhill

ITV’s legendary drama The Bill has come to an end after an astounding 25 years and 2400 episodes on the U.K. screens. The programme, which was originally titled “Old Bill” and thereafter “Woodentop” was a staple of English television and featured some of the most memorable characters featured in British television. These include Constable June Ackland, DS Don Beach, DCI Frank Burnside, DS Jim Carver, Sergeant Bob Cryer and, more recently, Inspector Dale Smith (or “Smiffy”) and DC Mickey Webb. Ring any bells? Of course they do.

I remember watching PC Polly Paige helping elderly women from the ground as my mother was telling me that it was “time for bed”; I later remember watching The Bill and relating to the dashing Luke Ashton, as he came to terms with his sexuality (and so did I). I stopped following the programme as its schedule changed, I grew up a bit more and blossomed into more of a social butterfly. However as a second year University student, living with my then-boyfriend, would begin to tune in and watch this brand new cast of PCs, DCs and Sergeants at the more mature age of 20. The Bill, which I had remembered as a fairly light-hearted drama series, was now dealing on a bi-weekly basis with rape, paedophilia, sex trafficking and serial killers. The theme tune had noticeably changed, the show was being split into ‘parts’ and everything seemed a little more grown up. I liked it.

It wasn’t until a few nights ago that I tuned in to find The Bill being shown on ITV3, two years after those cosy nights in with my fiancee, and the subtitle ‘Last Ever Episode’ caught my eye. I could not believe it.

Smithy was still there, as was Mickey Webb and a few other faces that I recognised – but the show seemed to have moved on even more. Colloquial terms were being used between teenagers on the estates, inside of the interviews, and everything about the show seemed to be directing itself at a more youthful and modern audience. I can’t help but wonder if this choice of direction is what might have shot The Bill in the foot… Despite this I watched the show, which was to be continued the following evening on ITV1 (I assume the edition I had seen on ITV3 was a repeat from a night or two before this). So, as my current partner was readying to leave my apartment at 9pm The Bill: Respect (Part II) came on to the screen, and he saw how excited I got over it. Out of pure intrigue he sat with me “until the first break”… which resulted in him staying until the very end (which, I may say, was far too cheesy for my liking…)

The point is, I feel as though The Bill has always been a fantastic programme but fell inbetween the scheduling styles of Eastenders and Hollyoaks and, say, Waterloo Road. The Bill is not thrust in our face on a basis regular enough to keep the nation gripped, and the fact it is easy to ‘dip in and out of’ would be great if only it was on our screens less than it is, giving us something to really look forward to. I am sad that The Bill has come to an end however, from one member of the Great British Public who has good taste (if I may say so myself), may I say this: the show was an asset to all things British (and London) and will be greatly missed.

The final episode of The Bill pulled in 4.4 million viewers, beating the BBC 9pm slot in their last ever ratings battle.

-TCBT

No Method In The Madness

Despite being an avid reader of the UK PRWeek online articles, I had to stop myself after consuming an earlier article and decipher for myself what exactly the author was trying to say. Unfortunately for me and for her, in terms of this article as a repercussion of aforementioned events, I had no luck in doing so.

Rakhee Vithlani’s article ‘How Will Cuts Affect The General Public?’ started as it (seemingly) meant to go on: with vague direction and a familiar ring of recession related ranting.

So cuts are taking place within the public communications sector – agreed. This will affect those both in-house and externally whether we like it or not – agreed.

After then implying the social impacts that the spending cuts alone will have, Vithlani addresses P.R. professionals that this is an article telling them to keep on top of their game and in fact, as the article began to dictate, a piece about spending cuts. I’m lost.

As a Head of Social Campaigns perhaps Rakhee has her priorities clear but her methods and meaning slightly less held together. The article, inquisitively hollow, asks as many questions as it does not answer. To link in with an earlier post, it is easy to get lost amongst a world filled with words, where each and every one of us has our own say. When these words begin to lose their meaning however, and are filtered through trustworthy domains we rely on for fact and essence, we arrive at a problem.

Just Sayin’,

-TCBT

Poetry In Motion

When ‘caged’, for most, one is taken from their natural environments and held away in captive for purposes beneficial to the taker. In her poem ‘(I Know Why) The Caged Bird Sings’ poet Maya Angelou describes a bird, whose “wings are clipped and his feet are tied”, as a metaphor for an African American struggling within a racist world. The cage, prohibiting the symbolic bird from the life outside of it, illustrates a segregative nature between Caucasian (free) individuals and African American (trapped) individuals. In singing, this bird not only speaks out, protests, and wishes to be heard, but sustains hope.

Sometimes it is not the present prejudice of others that traps us from our dreams, in a literal cage or a ‘glass ceiling’. In fact often it is simply the feeling that we are ‘caged’, caused by a smoke of prejudice left after the fire, from which we lose our will to really ‘sing’. And for this ‘caged bird’ Maya Angelou discusses, albeit as a metaphor, the only way to be known and found is to sing.

And for the young writer, in a world of young writers, who will write about writings written by older writers, who once wrote about writing when they themselves were once younger writers, it is easy to get lost amidst everyone else’s word counts. Where is our safe space?

Perhaps in a digital-world, created and arguably led by a new generation of writers, the caged boy types.

– TCBT

(The poem ‘I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings’ can be found here)