Libby Fordham
Communications & Events
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Libby Fordham
Communications & Events
NBC's program, Today, has opened its annual wedding competition to allow gay couples to enter for the first time in the competition's eleven year history. The program invites its viewers to act as wedding planners ,choosing what the winning couple will wear, where they will honeymoon and who will ultimately win a wedding at the Rockefeller Plaza.
The controversial move came as a federal judge in Boston ruled part of the Defense of Marriage Act, within the US, as unconstitutional. The theme of the competition this year is 'modern love' and the show's move to include gay couples has created a lively debate, including this letter to the Los Angeles Times by community commentator, Andrew Heslop.
He writes,"The decision by the NBC Today Show to allow same-sex couples to enter the program's annual wedding contest is both landmark and revolutionary. It's also not unexpected from a show that has been a consistent leader since its inception.
Read more: Heslop Responds as Today Opens Wedding Competition to Gay Couples
Sky News, known for their constant tickers and captioning, airing the response speech by Opposition Leader,Tony Abbott, today, reflecting his comments as large captions as he made them. Shame that captioning doesn't provide a real context for what is being said. This sends a very strange unconscious message which is almost hypnotic.
Australia's leadership spill this morning, which has seen the Julia Gillard become Australia's first female Prime Minister, has seen a range of coverage which at times has shown the media's approach to women in the top jobs as out-dated and bordering on juvenile.
Read more: Australian Journalists Watch Your Language - there's a Prime Minister in the House
The lead up to the end of financial year is often a signal for companies to gear up to produce the most boring yet important piece of corporate communications for the year. Some may even torture themselves by producing one for each department of their business.
Companies every year can spend millions each year protecting their reputation, building their brand visually and through their social interaction with their audience yet still produce major pieces of work outlining corporate strategy or policy which makes watching grass grow look fascinating. If you've ever been sent a copy of someone's operating charter, their whitepaper or their policy, you may have asked yourself, "Why on earth would I read this?"
Read more: Policies, Charters and Whitepapers - who is reading your tome?
The headline of the article, featured in The Weekend Australian newspaper, had all the right attributes to grab attention. As did the intriguing picture of the bullet-riddled execution chair in Utah, raising my interest even more. "What? Why are there bullet holes in a chair normally reserved for death by lethal injection," I asked myself. Picture of handcuffed man in orange prison attire - yes, I check myself before reading one word of the article, we are talking about the US here. So, I press on to read the article to figure out how someone, in this day and age, in a Western country, can still be shot by firing squad.
Have you suddenly found you have a junior working on your media relations? Is your real story buried in the fourth paragraph of your press release? Have you spent thousands on media training only to find you never get an interview? Is your competitor getting coverage everywhere but you can't make it off the editorial fax?
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