Internet statto nerds get journalism’s old guard in their sights

It’s not easy when those you admire prove to have feet of clay. Barely ten days after lauding him on this very blog as being a ‘must read’ in the Independent, James Lawton crystallised the problem that many old guard journalists populating our national newspapers are facing.

Writing in Saturday’s Indy, Lawton used selective statistics to demonstrate how Kenny Dalglish’s reign as Liverpool manager is actually little better than that of his predecessor Roy Hodgson. In particular Hodgson’s points per game percentage of 1.25 compared to Dalglish’s 1.79.

Unfortunately for James, the internet is an unforgiving place. Nowadays, there is an army statto nerd football supporters out there who are able to tell you the exact pass completion percentage of an individual player in the final third of the pitch during consecutive February’s and illustrate it in the form of a venn diagram. More importantly, in the digital age, comment boxes below articles give this army of nerds an opportunity to voice their opinion.

And so it came to pass. Within a few hours of the piece being posted Lawton was skewered on his own stats by football supporters of multiple allegiances, not just Red. Here are a few of the most choice (and repeatable) comments:

“You make a point of Dalglish's average points haul being 1.79 over 29 games, when your beloved "English Arry" at Spurs is worse at 1.76 and Wenger's is 1.66”

“The difference between 1.25 points per game and 1.8 is relegation and Champions League form”

“How can you use numbers which undermine your point to make a point?”

I suspect Mr Lawton won’t have lost much sleep over the reaction to his article, but he should. It may well have been a crude attempt at generating link bait but credibility is hard won and easily lost. He must realise that the days of being able to slop together a thousand words of ill-thought out comment five minutes before deadline are over. There is an army of statto nerds out there who have done their research even if he hasn’t.

Anyway, Mr Lawton can take what little solace there is from the fact that the Tomkins Times, run by the doyen of statto nerds, Paul Tomkins, has nominated him “Media Muppet of the Month”!

Can You Be Right For PR in 5 Questions?

When PR Moment posted their blog yesterday ‘Am I Right for PR?’ with the opportunity to find out in just five questions, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the offer of a short questionnaire that promised to unveil whether I had correctly identified my calling or not.

After a few moments, I found my curiosity turning to impatience as I waited for the blog to address key career objectives prospective PRs should have in their sights (a fascination with communications, skills in writing and multi-tasking, a passion for the media both on and offline) but, the blog failed to mention any of this.

Instead it gave graduates the option to state whether they read the front page of a paper, celebrity gossip section or got straight down to completing the day’s puzzles. It seems to me (and everyone sitting near me) that everyone is drawn to the front page of a paper as it seems nonsensical to skip straight in without knowing what the day’s top story is (unless you’re an avid sports fan keen to find out the previous night’s score which will inevitably take you to the back page).

This struck me as a question that didn’t really have an answer – for grads looking to get into PR an interest in the media overall is key from the FT and Guardian Tech section to the Sunday Times’ Weekend supplement and Marketing Week. It doesn’t really matter where you’re looking or what you’re interested as long as you’re looking in all the right places.

Another aspect of the questionnaire I didn’t agree with was the decision to include multiple choice answers – this is incredibly restricting and as shown from the above answer often leaves crucial gaps where the real answer lies.

As a response to the original 5 PR questions I had a think and pulled together a list of what I feel to be five of the most important questions I would look to ask someone considering a career in PR.

Please let me know your thoughts and feel free to add in any you feel hold weight. Hopefully next year when the PRCA look for a test for their Frontline Guide, they’ll be able to include some questions with answers that matter.

5 Questions For Those Interested In PR

Do you find yourself drawn to a variety of media and news stories? If so, where do you gather your news and what do you enjoy to read about the most?

When working on a project, do you boast a range of organisational skills from planning and preparing timelines to evaluation and reporting? If so, list one example where your organisational skills came into play.

Are you fascinated by communication? Do you find yourself able to adapt your tone and writing to a variety of styles from informative and interesting to persuasive and promoting? If so give us two examples below of your own written text differing in tone.

Do you feel you have transferrable skills that would assist in client and team management? If so list three skills and why they would help lead and develop.

Are you able to think ahead as to how activities or a plan would be developed long term? Please give us an example of an idea that could be developed over a period of six months.

Do

1.

Just How Public Would You Go?

The BBC has written to me at home. It was a hand written envelope with a personal note inside from a BBC researcher inviting me to take part in a documentary on people’s attitudes to money and how they spend it.

She assured me that the BBC has “ an impressive track record for producing high standard documentaries.”

My first thought was that I might be an ideal participant …professional executive with penny pinching ways that hark back to my student days when “ The Pauper’s Cookbook “ was my bible. Eyebrows might rise at my efforts to grow my own, recycle and my personal clothes allowance is so small most women would gasp in amazement.

Certainly not what you would expect from a PR exec!

But why put myself through this? Do I really want people sitting at home knowing what my money habits are?

Celebrity trivia is so at the forefront of media content today - who would have thought 5 years ago The Sun would have put as the main front page story, as it did last week, that Lily Allen is “preggers”?

We are being lured into a culture of exposing every aspect of our lives ….be it on twitter, facebook or national TV.

From my experience broadcast programmes have largely written the plot before filming starts and the “guinea pig” simply has to fit into the strands of the story.

So while I may make fascinating TV fodder, I’ll give this one a wide berth.