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This month, we chat to Shirish Kulkarni, Director of Monnow Media about effective storytelling. He shares his research about why the way we tell stories needs to change to make news more engaging, inclusive and informative. 

Isentia’s Insights Director, Ngaire Crawford also shares some of the trends we’re seeing across social and traditional media, and how we’re seeing the notion of ‘effective’ storytelling change for our clients.

https://youtu.be/tz8LuhjuzBA

Ngaire Crawford talks about the storytelling trends across social and traditional media

3:41 - Mainstream media is talking about:

1. Back to end-to-end COVID coverage with a regular cadence of updates
2. Anti-maskers are in the spotlight and the phrase “Bunnings Karen” has returned over 6000 media items
3. A slight increase in global coverage related to second waves of the virus.
4. Considerable reduction in racial inequality discussions
5. Across New Zealand where COVID isn’t quite the main focus, there is a lot of coverage about elections and electioneering.

 

5:12 - Across social media, there is a lot of division:

• Between openly calling out misinformation, and perpetuating misinformation.
• Between those ‘doing the right thing’ and those who are not. This is more about calling out individuals rather than organisations.

6:12  - On Google Trends, people across Australia and New Zealand are looking for search terms:

1. Kerry Nash (Bunnings Karen)
2. A lot of TV shows and celebrity content (Kanye West etc)
3. Sports (NZ)

 

7:06 - In terms of storytelling, it’s important to understand the context in which you are communicating. The things to consider:

• Impact of video - divisiveness can breed “recipients” or “evidence” based culture. Video is the easiest way for messages to spread quickly and for media to lift the story. Consider this from a risk perspective (media and customer service training) as well as your content - it might not the time for beautifully produced videos just yet.
•  
• Echo chambers - heightened emotional states can mean that audiences seek out information that confirms information they want to believe. Keep an eye on misformation that’s relevant to you and your organisation.
•  
• Media as a moral high-ground: Anti-maskers, “fake news” etc can cause a really visceral reaction from the public, and from news media. Unfortunately, this misunderstands the context of those arguments.

9:37 - The narratives to watch at the moment:

• Rules fatigue: People are getting tired of being told what to do, it’s a natural reaction (psychological reactance) but it’s something to be really mindful of when communicating right now. There is a heightened emotional state, especially for those who are entering a second lockdown.

Shirish Kulkarni talks effective storytelling

10:26 - Over the past year I’ve conducted research on how we can better tell news stories, and my findings can be applied across the communications industry. We are all storytellers in one way or another.

11:00 - We’re hardwired for stories, at an anthropological and neuroscientific level, stories help orientate us within the world. They are a virtual reality simulator helping us practice for real life.

11:53 - Typically, news stories do the opposite of traditional storytelling (i.e have a beginning and an end to the story). Instead, we (journalists) use the inverted pyramid structure where the top line is the conclusion and then filters down to the least interesting or least important information. 

12:39 - The concept of the inverted pyramid structure dates back to the days of the telegraph, the original newswire. It was expensive, unreliable and it made sense to put the most important information at the beginning, just in case you lost the end of it. Although we don’t use the technology of the telegraph anymore, we still use the habits formed by that technology which continue to define journalism and communications.

13:03  - We conducted research with 1300 participants and the results showed users prefer stories that work in a straightforward and linear structure, much like traditional stories.  More information was picked up as it fits with how we are hard-wired to navigate the world.

13:28 - Journalists are failing because they are ignoring what users need from the news. In an attempt to reverse that, I came up with six key principles that should be at the forefront of our minds when telling our stories.

1. Content - is it useful or relevant and does it help us understand the world better?
2. Context - are we providing enough context? News largely focuses on breaking or moving news but that's often to the detriment of context, analysis and understanding. 
3. Users have agency - they are not just passive victims of the news, they can be part of creating solutions and want the opportunity to choose how to engage with the news.
4. Tone - we need to consider the tone we are using. We tend to fall back on journalist language which is old fashioned and formulae.
5. Diversity and inclusion  - are crucial when storytelling. It’s about telling different stories, ones that reflect the richness of our societies. This is very important.
6. Inverted pyramid - is this the best structure to tell a narrative? What are the alternatives? What we are doing isn't working so we’ve got nothing to lose by trying something different.

 

17:24 - Based on these principles, I created a number of prototypes and tested them with users. When compared with a BBC news article, users overwhelmingly preferred our prototype. They picked up more information in less time and found it easier to navigate. This proves there is a better way of telling stories, we just need to be prepared to think differently and put users at the centre of our thinking.

Q&A

18:40 - How do you think the media coverage of COVID-19 applies to your research?

Media has a crucial role. The only justification to have journalism is to provide reliable and useful information. There’s a big thing about news being about entertainment and there’s a focus on the drama of news rather than the information of news. What do we need to know? We are users as well as the audience and this should be taken into consideration when wanting to drive engagement.

23:46 - Do you have any tips for making the linear narrative structure more effective especially through face to face presentations rather than emails?

What really worked for us was using a "narrative accordion". We had 5 questions, and the answers could be expanded and read based on the user's interest. It didn't matter whether the question was at the beginning or end as it was up to the interest of the user. Simplify what you’re saying, and question whether it’s useful to your users.  

28:15 - What have you learned about younger generations and their behaviours?

People have an incorrect characterisation of young people and get their needs completely wrong. There is a perception you can’t make a video longer than two minutes for the younger generation because they have a short attention span and are unable to comprehend what is being said. This generation is the most emotionally and culturally intelligent generation we have ever had. Young people aren’t put off by complexity or depth, they are craving it. Don’t underestimate them.

If you would like to view other Webinar Isentia Conversations: Communicating through Change:

Isentia Conversations: with Katherine Newton at RU OK?

Isentia Conversations: with Bec Brown at The Comms Department

Isentia Conversations: with Rochelle Courtenay at Share the Dignity

Isentia Conversations: with Rachel Clements at Centre for Corporate Health

Isentia Conversations: with Helen McMurdo at MTV

Isentia Conversations: with Daniel Flynn at Thank You

Isentia Conversations: with Campbell Fuller at Insurance Council of Australia

Isentia Conversations: with Craig Dowling from Mercury 

Isentia Conversations: with Stella Fuller from Bright Sunday

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With a new year brings new organisational goals and strategies. To help you achieve success in 2020, we have chosen the top 7 events for PR and Communications professionals to attend across Australia and New Zealand.

1. Mumbrella CommsCon

Event details: 2 April 2020. Sydney, Australia

Learn about: Brand building, behavioural science, cultural trends.

For: 

A must attend event for public relations, social media and communications professionals. Mumbrella’s CommsCon explores the major issues affecting the PR and communications business and helps industry professionals navigate the ever-changing landscape. The event features the industry’s most senior leaders discussing the biggest topics in PR and communications to better understand meaningful brand building, behavioural science, cultural trends, pitching and more.

Attending the Mumbrella CommsCon event will enable you to distinguish a clear plan for how you’re going to drive business value and gain trust and confidence with your audience.

Emergency Media & Public Affairs (EMPA) Conferences

2. Australia: Communicating and Engaging Communities in Emergencies

Event details: 3 - 5 June 2020. Sydney, Australia

3. New Zealand: Emergency Communications Conference

Event details: 12 - 14 August 2020. Wellington, New Zealand

Learn about: Disaster communications, public affairs responses, crisis communication best practice.

For:

• Communications professionals
• Emergency services professionals
• Response and recovery agencies
• Public information managers
• Public relations practitioners
• Researchers
• Social media specialists
• Community engagement

With recent catastrophic events occurring across Australia and New Zealand, the importance of strong crisis communications is more prevalent than ever. The Emergency Media & Public Affairs (EMPA) is the only representative organisation of emergency service and disaster communications practitioners in the world. Their conferences held in Australia and New Zealand assist with empowering communications professionals to deliver the right message to their audience during and after an emergency or crisis.

As a comms professional, communicating with employees, stakeholders, and lifeline organisations is critical to the resilience and safety of communities. During times of crisis, there is a highlighted need for communications that can influence individuals and organisations to make necessary decisions, quickly and comprehensively.

The rationale behind this event is to benchmark the best media liaison and public affairs responses to disaster across Australasia for comms professionals in emergency services, response and recovery agencies, public relations and similar.

4. 5th Corporate Comms for Leaders

Event details: 31 March - 2 April 2020. Melbourne Australia

Learn about: Stakeholder management, strengthening leadership skills, measuring value of external communications.

As a comms professional, it's important to understand how to effectively build and execute corporate communications and social media strategies. It’s also essential to keep brand loyalty during disruptions in the market and throughout organisational change.

Establishing trust and transparency in brands through social media and corporate communications is equally important and this event will ensure you are equipped with all the tools required to execute effectively.

The most innovative strategies are explored to strengthen leadership skills in communication and address real-world challenges and opportunities.

Targeted to corporate leaders in today’s digitally connected world, the key drivers of this forum are:

• Maximising stakeholder engagement through storytelling and humanising the narrative being told
• Building agile communications teams
• Measuring value and effectiveness of external communications.

5. Corporate Affairs summit

Event details: 20 - 21 May 2020. Sydney, Australia

Learn about: Storytelling the in Corporate communication, crisis communication, reputation and social media

For: 

• Corporate Communications
• Internal Communications
• External Communications
• Corporate affairs
• Investor relations
• Government relations
• PR and public policy

This event focuses on insights to influence, and discusses the forces affecting the corporate affairs and communication landscape. From discussing ideologies and the divergence of civil discourse, to artificial intelligence solutions and the frameworks of communication.

The practice of corporate affairs holds the main responsibility for everything related to internal and external communications, government relations, PR and public policy. Corporate affairs now includes an added challenge of relaying those messages in various channels to accommodate business’ inevitable leap into digital.

Although corporate affairs continues to evolve and differs across various sectors, the goal is the same: to effectively communicate a message to the right audience.

Attendees are screened for seniority, so you can be assured you’re networking with similar minds shaping business today. Whether they’re users, consultants, channel partners or dealers, the Corporate Affairs Summit generates countless opportunities to learn, network, explore and to keep up to date with all that is taking place in the field.

6. Social media for Government NZ

Event details: 24-26 March 2020. Wellington, New Zealand

Learn about: Social media content, social storytelling, social media strategy

For: 

• Social Media Manager
• Social Media Specialist
• Communications Advisor
• Digital Communications Manager

Optimising social media is a critical tool for the New Zealand government sector. 

By attending this event, you will gain an understanding on how to find your target audience and learn what resonates with them using social media analytics - (to ensure your messaging cuts through the noise.)

Discussions will include the significant challenges being faced today across social media and how they’re being addressed. Appropriate strategies and technology options are uncovered to demonstrate where the impact and value of social media efforts can be improved. 

As building and maintaining a two-way dialogue on social media is imperative to improving service delivery and citizen satisfaction. This event will provide insight into the most innovative strategies to maximise social media success, how to create a personalised approach and connect experience whilst driving trust and confidence in government.

7. World Public Relations Forum

Event details: 12-15 October 2020. Auckland, New Zealand

Learn about: Building authentic relationships, communicating across cultures, Public Relations strategy.

For: 

• Public Relations
• Communications Manager
• Internal Communications
• External Communications
• PR and public policy

The World Public Relations Forum will explore the theme ‘connecting with courage’ through the four lenses of conscience, culture, capability and courage. It will reflect on key topics and trends that matter to the global communications community while also drawing on New Zealand’s ingenuity, creativity, and diversity to generate inspiring conversations.

Media today

As a PR or media communications professional, you’re the first to know when something important happens. You get the critical head start needed to course correct, alert the right people to target their efforts more effectively.

With the transition to a digital news environment, challenges to contemporary journalism have emerged due to a 24/7 news cycle. The new model of assertion means news is disseminated as fast as possible instead of an overarching concern surrounding the value of accuracy.

Attending any of the above events would be beneficial for a PR or communications professional as various strategies and operational phenomena are uncovered. These strategies will assist with effective communication and help with the leadership of media enterprises.

If you would like to understand more about real time analytics and what it can do for your organisation, get in touch with us today.

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The Your Right to Know Campaign was established in response to deteriorating media freedom. It prompted an unprecedented collaboration between competitors including Nine, News Corp, the ABC, SBS, The Guardian and journalists’ union in the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. All in an effort to call for reforms to protect public interest from Australia.

Politicians dominate the discussion

On Monday 21 October, Australian media organisations blacked-out text on print newspapers, instead of showing front-page headlines. The first bold statement instigated by campaign members. As a result, it created a lot of chatter in the media -  mentions spiked at 3,042 across across social and traditional media.

Data analysed by Isentia, shows in the week October 21 to October 25 2019 there were a total of 6,242 mentions of "press freedom." 

While it was the media who started the campaign on Monday, through the week politicians had 60% share of voice on the topic. Prominent journalists followed with 22.8% and CEOs of media organisations 15.3%.

Top spokespeople

Despite journalists and media organisations instigating the campaign, politicians dominated the conversations. The top spokespeople discussing the topic for the week period were:

1.Scott Morrison, Australian Prime Minister - 95 mentions

2.Anthony Albanese, Federal Opposition Leader - 38 mentions

3. Barnaby Joyce, Nationals MP - 33 mentions

4.Hugh Marks, CEO Nine Entertainment - 33 mentions

5. Campbell Reid, Senior Journalist, News Corp - 32 mentions

---

Dominating the discussions, politicians generated negative sentiment around “press freedom”.

Background

Over the past two decades, 75 laws related to secrecy and spying have been passed through parliament. These laws criminalise some practices within journalism and penalise whistleblowers. Government wrongdoings could be hidden and important decisions regarding public information may be concealed. As a result, Australia has been described by the New York Times as the world’s most secretive democracy. 

Media organisations are taking action with the ‘Your Right to Know’ campaign. They’re determined to change the government's approach to media freedom so they can provide Australians with essential information.  They’re pressing for the introduction of a Media Freedom Act, which they say would be advantageous for national security, press freedom and democracy, and ensure legitimate journalism is not subject to criminal charges.

If you would like to receive unparalleled media insight or to better understand trends in the media, get in touch with us today.

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Tis’ the season to be jolly, but before we get into the holiday spirit here’s a few things that we’ve heard bring joy to our clients…

A portal to your media data, made easy.

The volume of chatter and news coverage has increased and diversified with the introduction of new distribution channels almost daily. The task of capturing all relevant data is incredibly important, but often overwhelming and difficult to manage. Our Mediaportal clients love that while the technology is complex, the solution is simple.

Wherever a story appears – from Twitter to the weekend press – our technology picks it up, and delivers it directly to Mediaportal. It doesn’t matter when or where that story breaks, our clients get 24/7 access to their data via our intuitive online portal and app. They can customise how they would like to view their coverage, or zero in on a slice of data with flexible filtering tools. Most importantly, it is now even easier for our clients to sit back and take a look at the bigger picture, all from the one platform.

Have it your way.

One of the most loved features of Mediaportal is the ability to create Personal Folders. Mediaportal can automatically organise media items into folders based on criteria set by you. These folders can be organised by search terms, locations or media outlets, with the added feature of being able to manually add content to a folder if desired. This makes managing topics or key themes much easier – once created, folders can be shared with colleagues too, so they automatically appear under their Mediaportal login too.

Trust us with no fuss notifications.

Who sits at their desk from 9am-5pm nowadays? Our clients need to be kept informed and provided with timely updates no matter whether they’re in a meeting, dropping kids off to school, or presenting at a conference. Isentia’s media alerting system utilises all platforms and devices, supported by our news-hungry, market-leading account management teams who distribute information via email, RSS feeds or Isentia App notifications. The ability to receive information anywhere, anytime is a huge advantage for many of our clients who need relevant, accurate and manageable updates in a timely fashion.

Reporting that matters.

Regular reporting is nothing new for our clients – it is imperative in demonstrating sentiment and success relative to outputs. We know how important this is; in fact, we know that more than 5,000 reports are built in Mediaportal every week! Our Custom Reports tool is designed to suit a range of needs, allowing Mediaportal users to create, brand and share reports via a simple web link in under 2 minutes.

Analytics to help develop understanding.

With Mediaportal Analytics you can create visually engaging charts to measure the success of your media coverage and efforts. Many of our clients add relevant charts to their Mediaportal dashboard for repeat use – both saving time and allowing the delivery of a consistent picture of activity across every report.

Confidence in coverage.

Everyday our technology ingests millions of media items, and adds hundreds of millions of additional data points from other sources. Our team works hard to capture coverage that matters most to our clients, while also ensuring that the content captured meets the brief. It’s what gives our clients confidence in communicating this activity out to their wider teams, internal stakeholders and sometimes even with industry peers. 

There when you need us most.

We’re no strangers to a crisis. We’re there when our clients need us – whether the news is good, or not so good. One of the key reasons why many of our clients choose Isentia is because we know technology is great, but people are still critical to success. We have some fantastic, longstanding relationships and dedicated teams ready to assist at any time of day whether that is to simply help compile a report, or deal with an urgent crisis. Our clients lean on us, on the days when it really matters.

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