2024 will be the Year Of The Expert…

What does a scientist look like?

Children are drawing more women than ever before.

When asked to draw a scientist, kids in the United States are increasingly sketching women. A new study compiled information about over 20,000 pictures drawn by 5 to 18 year olds over 5 decades.

READ MORE

Good morning, it’s Monday 27th November.

The week ahead…

Monday: Global Investment Summit, London

Tuesday: Deadline for bids in Telegraph sale 

Wednesday: UN Security Council Middle East debate

Thursday: Matt Hancock gives evidence to the Covid-19 inquiry (and Friday)

The world’s leaders convene in Dubai for COP28

Friday: King Charles delivers the summit’s opening address

Brazil assumes G20 presidency 

Saturday: Pope Francis becomes the first pontiff to attend a COP summit

Sunday: ASLEF train drivers strike action on four lines

“The first month of the Israel-Gaza war is now the deadliest month for journalists since we began documenting fatalities in 1992“

Since October 7th at least 53 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war.

READ MORE

According to numerous reports over the weekend Huw Edwards is set to step down from the BBC after an internal inquiry.

READ MORE

BBC Radio 4 Today programme’s Christmas guest editors this year will include:

Andrew Malkinson, wrongly jailed for 17 years

Ellie Goulding

GSK boss Dame Emma Walmsley

James May

NASA Head of Science Dr Nicky Fox

READ MORE

It’s rare the Daily Star gets much of a mention in the MMB, but the paper’s bizarre and long-running obsession with the word boffin has reached dizzy new heights...

On the Inside Edge website – Tony’s A-Z of media training: 

C is for Collateral Damage:

A term to drop in the file marked “sanitising language” and then leave it there. People use bland language to cover up the messy, the nasty and the worrying. The audience immediately are sceptical of any spokesperson who peppers their sentences with such phrases and the interviewer feels entitled to dig deeper and challenge the guest on what they really mean. “Efficiency savings” should be filed too.

Footnotes:

John Major won the Conservatives’ leadership elections, becoming Britain’s new prime minister on this day in… (answer below the dogs)

Highs today of 9 degrees in Southampton and 1 degree in Berlin.

That’s it. Just time for the obligatory dog photo. Spooning Part 2:

…1990

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done. We’re @insideedgemedia or just reply to this email. 

Have a brilliant week.

All at Inside Edge

2023. Polarised voices have enjoyed pushing debates to extremes. Misinformation is rife.

Enough is enough. We’ve decided 2024 will be the Year Of The Expert. 

In the year that countries with more than half the world’s population send their citizens to the polls, we’ll be championing media contributors that bring evidence, complexity, nuance, doubt and balance. 

We’ve been coaching experts for over a decade. It’s time to celebrate how good they are.

So buckle up. From January we muster an army of confident media-savvy experts to reclaim the airwaves from those that don’t deserve it. 

We have a slogan:

“Control. Connect. Never dumb down.”

We have artwork by young Ukrainian artist Vladimir Gasai…

We’re all set. Watch this space…

Good morning, it’s Monday 20th November.

The week ahead…

Monday: Covid-19 Inquiry: Sir Patrick Vallance (Tuesday: Sir Chris Whitty, Wednesday: Jonathan Van Tam/Dame Angela McLean)

Shakira due to appear in a Spanish court on tax fraud charges

Tuesday: President of South Korea Yoon Suk Yeol address to Parliament

Wednesday: The Chancellor delivers his Autumn Statement

Elections in the Netherlands

Thursday: Quarterly migration and immigration figures are released

Friday: Release of Leonard Bernstein film Maestro starring Bradley Cooper

Saturday: National March for Palestine in London

Sunday: Booker prize winner announced

“It spends too much of its time dealing with questions of race and gender and trans rights.”

Former Channel 4 News and Newsnight correspondent Michael Crick has a pop at Radio 4…

(…plus Jon Snow, Newsnight, Victoria Derbyshire and BBC News…)

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“It’s always the cover-up. The cliché, born of Watergate, applies equally to the clumsy attempt by people around Boris Johnson, who should have known better, to “fix” who got to be the head of Ofcom, the UK’s supposedly independent media regulator.”

Regular readers will know we’ve been following the Ofcom saga with interest. This, from Alan Rusbridger (via Nadine Dorries) in Prospect is worth a read.

READ MORE

Thoroughly enjoyed the Sky News Breakfast team’s reaction to David Cameron’s surprise appearance at the end of Downing Street on reshuffle day.

WATCH HERE (via Twitter/X)

On the Inside Edge website – Tony’s A-Z of media training: 

B is for Briskness:

We’re talking a trot here; a canter in a conversation is just too fast …and a gallop? Nothing will sink in. But a sense of purpose, the drive to shortcut to the important stuff and an urgency in tone can all make the audience sit up and take notice. Remember variety is engaging, so walk through unfamiliar concepts and be careful not to speed over what’s familiar to you but is likely to be new to the viewer or listener.

Footnotes:

A fierce blaze raged through Windsor Castle on this day in 1992.

Highs today of 12 degrees in Newcastle (UK) and 23 degrees in Newcastle (Australia).

That’s it. Just time for the obligatory dog photo. Spooning Part 1:

(Part 2 next week)

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done. We’re @insideedgemedia or just reply to this email. 

Have a brilliant week.

All at Inside Edge

Good morning, it’s Monday 13th November.

The week ahead…

Inter Faith Week 2023 takes place from Sunday 12th – Sunday 19th

Monday: Rishi Sunak speech to the Lord Mayor’s Banquet

Sir Bobby Charlton’s funeral

Tuesday: Labour market statistics

Parole hearing for Jon Venables

Wednesday: Supreme Court issues judgment in the Home Office’s challenge to the ruling which blocked the government’s Rwanda immigration policy

US President Joe Biden holds summit with Chinese President Xi

Rupert Murdoch steps down from News Corp

Thursday: The Crown final series airs (part one)

Friday: Kurt Cobain’s ‘Skystang I’ guitar auctioned

Saturday: US Government federal shutdown may begin

Sunday: Argentinian presidential election run-off

“Over the past decade, Silicon Valley has learned that news is a messy, expensive, low-margin business—the kind that, if you’re not careful, can turn a milquetoast CEO into an international villain and get you dragged in front of Congress.”

A killer opening paragraph from Charlie Warzel in The Atlantic who brings us a fascinating deep-dive into the complex relationship between Big Tech and journalism. It’s behind a paywall unfortunately, but worth taking up the free trial offer to have a read.

READ MORE

Main winners at the Society of Editors Media Freedom Awards:

Bob Satchwell Award: Gary Younge 

Commentator of the year: Marina Hyde

Broadcast Journalist of the year: Piers Morgan

Foreign Correspondent of the year: Stuart Ramsey

Political Journalist of the year: Pippa Crerar

And speaking of awards…

“Ritula Shah, former BBC Radio 4 presenter of the World Tonight on overpaid news presenters, BBC cuts and news centralisation.”

Roger Bolton’s Beebwatch podcast is worth a listen.

LISTEN HERE 

On the Inside Edge website – Tony’s A-Z of media training: 

A is for Ambition:

It can be easier to talk about your work when you’ve got outcomes, fully formed analysis and results. It’s true that starting points – though vital to you – can leave the audience underwhelmed. Similarily aspirations may be a bit woolly. But an ambition -matched with the follow through of what your work could achieve – can really hit home. Exploration can be exciting. And it’s not about over-promising, instead it’s opening up a sense of the potential.

Footnotes:

The Times newspaper was published for the first time in nearly a year on this day in 1979 (READ MORE).

Highs today of 14 degrees in Norwich and 15 in Tokyo.

That’s it. Just time for the obligatory dog photo. Stan stifling a yawn during the King’s Speech…

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done. We’re @insideedgemedia or just reply to this email. 

Have a brilliant week.

All at Inside Edge

Have a guess how many stories the Mail Online publishes every day. I couldn’t believe it.

(Answer in the footnotes)

Good morning, it’s Monday 6th November.

The week ahead…

Covid-19 Inquiry: Wednesday: Mark Sedwill. Thursday: Priti Patel

Monday: Trump expected to take the stand as his fraud trial continues

Tuesday: The State Opening of Parliament

G7 foreign ministers gather in Japan

Wednesday: New Ofgem rules on prepayment meters in force

Thursday: Nadine Dorries’ The Plot and Coleen Rooney’s ‘Wagatha Christie’ memoir both published. (Decisions, decisions…)

Friday: GRAMMY nominations announced

Saturday: Possible mass march in London for peace in the Middle East

Arab League leaders gather for an emergency summit in Riyadh

Sunday: King Charles III at Cenotaph service marking Remembrance Sunday

Simon Mayo was interviewed in The Times and said something that caught my eye:

“Like a lot of people on radio, I am an introvert – it’s a way of being yourself, or a version of yourself, in a room on your own. There are plenty of loud, extrovert broadcasters out there but I think in radio the presenter would aways come across as a friend behind the microphone. Hopefully that’s where introverts like me come into their own.”

The World At War turned 50 years old last week. This extraordinary 26-episode documentary, then the most expensive factual series ever produced, is narrated by Laurence Olivier.

I fell down a Youtube rabbit hole last week and was gripped – it is just brilliant film-making. Before you read the rest of your emails watch the first 2 minutes of Episode 1…

The Today podcast fields questions from listeners:

How is it decided who will take a lead in a news item or interview? And does it create tensions in the team? 

When you’re covering a story like Gaza, how do you work out what is real and what is disinformation in a busy newsroom? 

What do you see as the future of print journalism? 

It’s just 15 minutes long and an interesting (albeit slightly smug) look behind the scenes of the programme. 

The answers of Nick Robinson and Amol Rajan:

LISTEN HERE 

On the Inside Edge website – Tony’s A-Z of media training: 

Y is for Yes:

I’ll add No to this section too. Either an affirmation or a denial is refreshing because we rarely witness spokespeople – especially politicians – using them. We can avoid them out of caution but if you’re clear it’s a yes – say it. Such directness goes down well, it shows a candour – you’re being straight talking. That doesn’t means you can’t be nuanced at other points in the interview, in fact the audience is more likely to buy in to some complexity because you’ve already won them over.

Footnotes:

Australians rejected a proposal to break ties with the British monarchy and become a republic on this day in 1999.

Highs today of 11 degrees in Keswick and 29 in Miami.

And as for how many stories the Mail Online publishes every day?

Press Gazette calculated that between 13th and 19th September the average each day was…1,490 stories. Utterly terrifying.

That’s it. Just time for the obligatory dog photo. And sometimes only a warm bottom will do… 

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done. We’re @insideedgemedia or just reply to this email. 

Have a brilliant week.

All at Inside Edge