http://www.spada.co.uk Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:08:56 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en An email from a student penetrates the Swordplay labyrinth. It is from a lady called Natasha, who is researching the relationship between journalists and PR professionals as part of an undergraduate dissertation for a BA (Hons) in Public Relations. She asks that we note that "the relationship variables used in ... http://www.spada.co.uk/the-relationship-between-prs-and-journalists/ What to make of Zoe Margolis, author of Girl with a One-Track Mind? As the New Statesman reports, Margolis wrote an article for the Independent on Sunday on 7 March in which she described being outed by the Sunday Times as the author of her anonymous sex blog in 2006. ... http://www.spada.co.uk/a-circuitous-track-to-pr/ Is the media xenophobic? When Josef Fritzl's appalling crimes came to light, the media went to town. Every newspaper, sundry magazines and a plethora of television news items were devoted to the evil Austrian. Now, under our noses, we have "the British Fritzl". He can't be named "for legal reasons" but we ... http://www.spada.co.uk/xenophobia-in-the-media/ We find ourselves shuttling at ludicrous pace from task to task on this wind-chilled day but earlier, as we sped among the streets of the West End in a black cab, we espied a Number 19 bus. This, in turn, put us in mind of the words of the artist ... http://www.spada.co.uk/inspiration/ There is a simple PR value to immaculate spelling - it means that you disseminate your message accurately. In journalism, too, good spelling is vital, for without it the journalist's task - to report, observe and illumine - is undermined. With these thoughts in mind, we commend a new online survey ... http://www.spada.co.uk/can-journalists-spell-correction-can-the-spelling-society-write/ Is it a woman's world? We're not sure, for having read this piece in the Observer, it seems that although there are more females, by a head or two in every 100, than there are males in the British population, on television women are still a distinct minority. Apparently, only ... http://www.spada.co.uk/women-on-the-small-screen-not-having-it-all/ When was the last time you, as an employee, consulted your company's handbook of rules and procedures? Did you ever even read it in the first place? If you're an employer, when did you last bother to look at said tome? Or, heaven forbid, update it? And between both employers and employees, ... http://www.spada.co.uk/employee-handbooks-the-revolution-cometh/ We've been enjoying a ticklish perusal of Overheard in Court, an American website dedicated to absurd, amusing and incongruous courtroom utterances. Here's a taster: Employer supervisor testifying in gender discrimination claim: Supervisor: “I don’t discriminate against them – them women – just because they have them – them things.” Attorney: “What? Breasts?” Supervisor: “No! ... http://www.spada.co.uk/overheard-in-a-coroners-court/ Yesterday we brought you news of NOWNESS. Yesterday's news has not cooled - in fact, we rather wish we were trawling around the NOWNESS site again - but now we alert you to something completely different: the 'facial recognition phone'. Recognizr, developed by a Swedish company called The Astonishing Tribe, uses ... http://www.spada.co.uk/from-nowness-to-recognizr/ We're quite taken by NOWNESS, the new online magazine about luxury brands recently launched by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH). If we sound surprised, we are, for our initial thoughts were (a) that NOWNESS is not a very good title and (b) that anyone who avows the value of "information ... http://www.spada.co.uk/and-now-for-nowness/