Media Training Update w/c 20th November

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…)

READ MORE

“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