Clickbait headlines are written in a way to entice you to click on them because they pique your curiosity.(“The Moneymaking Secrets that Banks Don’t Want You to Know”). You’ve probably seen them in social media platforms and those paid partner content sections at the bottom of traditional media websites (check out CNN.com for example).
Continue reading “Clickbait Headlines are Infiltrating Traditional Media”Before reporters tweet, they need to double-check for accuracy, just like they would before publishing an article or going on air. After the Badgers basketball team won on Tuesday, they improved to 2-1, not 1-0, in the Big Ten Conference:
What makes this tweet worse is the media outlet retweeted its reporter, so that’s another set of eyes that didn’t bother to fact check.
It’s also important to review your website from time-to-time to make sure there aren’t any mistakes after the fact. Otherwise, you could end up with something like this:
That’s similar to the recent mistake the Cambridge News had with its print edition, as seen in this Press Gazette photo:
I’ve been listening to more and more podcasts recently. Here’s something I’ve noticed: Interviewers need to get better at asking questions concisely. For example, they’ll start a question, reword it to provide unnecessary clarification and then throw in an anecdote to provide unnecessary illustration.
The interviewee and the audience have long understood the gist of the question and now have to wait until the interviewer finally finishes. Sometimes, the interviewee commences with an answer, but the interviewer interrupts by continuing to ask the question.
I’ve also noticed this during press conferences–especially in sports–in which reporters overly complicate their questions, and the respondent consequently provides a poor answer.
In PR, we provide media training to prepare spokespeople how to speak on message because it requires practice. This may sound odd, but you also should practice asking questions. You’ll avoid sounding like you’re rambling, and you’ll hopefully get better answers as a result.