Archive for Opinion

What have I missed?

15 September 2012 Rachel News, Opinion No comments
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I’ve been suffering from something of a digital drought. A combination of limited internet access and my phone’s quick demise has left me struggling to keep up to date online. For example, I have no access to Twitter at all. Can you imagine?

There’s been a few stories worth mention during the last few months, but I simply have been unable to blog about, so here is a quick roundup!

Paralympics

There is an empty space in our lives now that London 2012 has come to an end. The Paralympic closing ceremony saw the finish of an excellent summer of inspiring sport. While we may have missed out on second place, we did fantastically, every one of our athletes is a credit to us.

Olympic Sponsors

The economic boom resulting from the Olympics has failed to materialise, as Sunday Trading Laws are once again enforced, shops will bitterly count their takings, and they’re not likely to be good. Rather than increasing footfall in the streets of our capital, we saw an empty London as tourists and workers avoided the expected chaos.

One group however have done alright for themselves, official merchandise has done very well and sponsors are likely to have benefitted from winning contracts to sell it. Sponsors such as Adidas claim to have made back their investment before the games even began. This is another plus for sponsorship as a marketing campaign, and if anyone fancies sponsoring a university ultimate Frisbee club, I happen to know one…

Parliament

The Palace of Westminster is in desperate need of a refurb. This would leave parliament without a home and one argument is that they should leave London. As a country we woefully lack the second city that most countries enjoy. While cities like Manchester and Birmingham try, they don’t quite match up to the likes of Barcelona or Frankfurt. Would moving parliament to a different city help move the power from our capital and spread it more evenly across the country? Should we be ruling the country from a city a significant journey from large parts of the UK when it could be in the middle? Or would moving our MPs and Lords really make a difference at all?

Cabinet Reshuffle

I declared the cabinet reshuffle my favourite day ever. My only defence for such a statement is that it was a slow week. It was however very interesting and does give one plenty to speculate upon. I was particularly interested in the demotion of health secretary Andrew Lansley, replaced by former culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt. Unfortunately I dare say he hasn’t been given an enviable job, handed the chart of an unpopular NHS reform. What he does next could be quite telling, turning his back on the reforms will send out a strong message that they were a wrong decision in the first place, but is it wise to support a decision with such condemnation?

It was also interesting to see my local MP, Anna Soubry, awarded a role in the Department for Health. While this is a positive promotion for her, although she’s already causing a storm with outspoken comments on the ‘right to die’, it is unlikely to win her much favour in her local constituency. Some say Anna’s 0.7% victory over the labour candidate is simply a result of tactical voting, and some may say its time she was moved to a less marginal constituency!

If you think this story will change the actions of our coalition government, think again, it is simply one of the first political stories since the parliament recess. After a summer of cheering on our sporting heroes we needed a dose of something to return us to our cynical routes.

Royal Privacy

You can’t get away from our young royals at the moment. They’re everywhere, spectating at the Olympics, going on royal tours, appearing naked in our publications…one could say we’ve seen too much of the trio. Both Harry and Kate were embarrassed by naked photographs and it leads us to ask, how much privacy do the royal family deserve? Should we allow them to lead anonymous lives, would they even want us to let them lead anonymous lives? Or should we snap them every time there’s a possibility of a nipple on show? I’d like to think there is a happy medium. One argument is that Kate signed away her right to privacy the moment she popped that ring on her finger, and that this is the downside to having exotic holidays with a personal hairdresser. Apply that same argument to her brother-in-law and the flaws are hard to avoid. Harry lost his right to privacy the moment he had the misfortune to be born to his parents. Doesn’t quite seem fair! There may be perks to being related to Queen Elizabeth, but that shouldn’t mean you run the risk of seeing your private parts on a magazine cover!

GCSE Results

If GCSE results are to be believed our children are getting increasingly clever every year, until this year, but even this year’s lot have outperformed those from 2006 when I collected my results. This is brilliant news, it means that we are breeding a fantastically clever bunch of students. Somehow though, it doesn’t quite ring true. Call me a sceptic, but I do wonder if today’s students are actually no more brainy than those from past years. The real victims in this story are the teachers (and yes, I am the daughter of one of these teachers), this story will simply lead to them being hounded for having failed. Maybe it’s time to create a fair form of assessment, and maybe that concept is but a dream.

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Social Medialympics

13 August 2012 Rachel News, Opinion, Social Media One comment

Social media joined the Olympics this year. We may not have seen a Tweeting competition; however we did see the Games shared over social networking faster than the news sites could manage.

Unfortunately I did not manage to watch as much of the Olympics as I would have liked, but not at one point did I feel I missed out on an important achievement. I felt delight as Mo Farrah got his double gold, I felt the pain as Rebecca Adlington missed out on the medal she wanted and I shared the wonder as Usain Bolt showed the world just how amazing he was. I may not have watched it, but I definitely did not miss out. As one Olympics played out on our screens, another could be seen developing on our mobile phones, tablets and computers.

My Olympic view

I was able to have my own Olympic experience as I went to watch the Women’s Hockey on the first Sunday of the Games. We were actively encouraged to participate in the social discussion through the use of hashtags on Twitter.

Reading through the Sunday Times this morning, there was a report on Olympic sponsors using social media during the Games. This should come as little surprise to any of us, basic marketing comms theory teaches us that sponsorship requires a communication campaign to support it and make it truly effective. Common sense probably tells us those texts are unnecessary! Having paid millions to affiliate their names with the five rings, it would make little sense to try and disguise this association for many of the companies.

Social media has also been bad, we’ve seen Tom Daley through Twitter. However this is something we have grown to expect. Social media has been known to give people too much freedom to target people. It also lets people hear the criticism they don’t want to hear and we don’t necessary know how to take that.

It seems quite sad that the Olympics has already been and gone, but I loved it this year. I loved being able to keep track by Twitter, how about you?

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Social media: not just for the young

12 August 2012 Rachel Communications, Featured, Opinion, Social Media One comment
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The speed and ferocity with which social media has adopted itself into the business world was quite shocking. Many organisations did not expect it, many organisations are still only just picking it up and plenty of organisations are still getting it wrong. One place that a lot get it wrong is through thinking that because the young are on it that they know how to use it. There is a huge difference between having a personal social media profile and being able to run a tactical marketing campaign using Twitter or Facebook.

During placements and work experience I have frequently been asked for ideas about using social media and while I hope not to have let down my generation, I also think it is important to acknowledge that this is not a tool exclusive to those born post 1985.

Social media may work differently to other forms of marketing communication tools, it moves quicker and allows direct audience reactions, but to harness its potential it still should be approached with the appropriate business skills. The reality is these business skills are rarely natural and usually require education and experience. We know younger people have a tendency to feel comfortable with social media, but we need to teach them how to use this comfort to create effective results, instead of expecting them to know.

This is not to say we should underestimate the power of a childhood growing up with technology. While I was at school I remember the use of blackboards, the implementation of an ICT lab when I was well into my primary education and we still used old school projectors even in the later half of my secondary education. This is different for my sister, 10 years my junior. The world I knew was one of technology being adopted, the world she knows is of that technology being enhanced. While I consider myself to have very strong computer and internet skills, I have to accept that my sister, who has never known life without a computer or without the internet at her finger tips, will grow up with the potential to be more competent than me. And this is only in 10 years. Imagine how these 10 years will look like in the workplace.

Younger people can bring a wealth of knowledge about the benefits of social media in the workplace, and I don’t mean to undervalue that at all, all I wish to reiterate is the importance of having experienced strategic knowledge to back up social media use.

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Why now is the perfect time to care about politics

4 June 2012 Rachel Interests, News, Opinion No comments
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“Show me a young Conservative and I’ll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I’ll show you someone with no brains.”

I have met my fair share of people who declare that they simply have no interest in politics. These are the same people who will then happily debate about political issues for hours. I believe we should all take an active interest in politics, and if you currently avoid it, I will tell you why now is the perfect time to begin.

Rachel Barkley Aim HighSince 2008 we have experienced one of the worst recessions in history. This has resulted in huge job losses, painful budget cuts and has changed the political landscape as we knew it. After 13 years of New Labour, we ended up with a bizarre coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Can you argue this is not an amazing time for politics? In the past few years we have seen unpopular decisions such as lifting the cap on tuition fees and public sector budget cuts. Decisions such as these have ignited such passion in people that they have taken to the streets.

Another reason why this is a great time to care about politics is how accessible it is. Social media has made many changes, one of which means that we are now closer to politicians than ever. Public figures take to Twitter to discuss issues and interact with their people. There is no longer a need to search out politics, it now comes to you.

If you make it to university without taking an interest in politics, it is the perfect environment to develop an interest. Meeting hundreds of new peoples, understanding new ideas and greeting new experiences, all of these allow you to get a great grasp of your own beliefs and give you the opportunity to identify these to a political party.

Political beliefs can be private or public, personally I choose to share mine with the ballot box and few else. Other people share their views with the world, what is important is having political beliefs, there is nothing more damaging than complete apathy.

Political beliefs are also prone to change, we change in our lives and so do our opinions, priorities and who we want to represent us.

I love following and understanding politics, from its history, to predicting how its future is shaped. I know this is not the same for everyone but I would urge people who have not previously, now is the time to take an interest in politics.

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Campaigning against child obesity

13 February 2012 Rachel Communications, Opinion One comment

Polski: Otyłość English: Obesity

Obesity in the UK is a huge, increasing problem with 1 in 4 adults classed as obese. A particular area of concern is the increase of childhood obesity, according to the 2007 Government-commissioned Foresight report 25% of children will be obese by 2050. At a time when they should be enjoying the freedom and adventure of youth, thousands of children instead suffer from the disadvantages that come from carrying extra fat.

Yesterday I posted a spoof campaign using visuals and slogans from Haribo, KFC and Pringles to highlight childhood obesity. I loved the way that the campaign shared their message and how they communicated with an audience using familiar imagery. The posters give the audience the opportunity to consider the message sent by many fast food manufacturers. It takes the familiar message and asks the audience to take an alternative look at it and re-evaluate it for themselves.

I wanted to look at another couple of campaigns designed to overcome the obesity crisis within the Western world.

Strong 4 Life is a campaign from Georgia, USA. It is a controversial campaign with a very strong message and has encourage a lot of conversation. The big question is, among this discussion have they managed to change people’s opinions and behaviour. The aim of the campaign is to take the excuses and justifications used with childhood obesity and demonstrate that they are redundant. The adverts make a strong impact, leaving no room for confusion about the message. The campaign also includes a website with further information for parents and children.

The problem with a campaign such as Strong 4 Life is the message is uncomfortable and as a result it could have the opposite of the desired result and the audience could choose to ignore it, avoid the message and not change their behaviour.

Change 4 Life poster

Change 4 Life is an NHS campaign which took a different approach in trying to persuade audiences to change their behaviour. Rather than trying to shock their audience, their method included providing basic information about the effects of not exercising and eating well and providing alternatives.

Compared to the Strong 4 Life campaign this took the approach that people did not necessarily understand the message and needed to be educated. It did not blame its audience in any way, instead it encouraged them to make small easy changes and demonstrated how these would fit into their lifestyles.

Whether one communication method was more effective than another can be seen by the results, unfortunately it is hard to compare the effectiveness of the campaigns against each other. However as long as they have influenced and persuaded some of their audience to change their behaviour then they can be considered a success.

As communicators what is our role in ending childhood obesity? For people to change their opinion they need to be informed, persuaded and reminded of the message. It is our job to ensure that the public is aware of the dangers of childhood obesity, how it has happened and how we are able to prevent to fix it.

This is a big issue which will not be fixed easily however in my opinion, any little thing we can do to enable a child to avoid obesity or regain a healthy weight is valuable and worthwhile.

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Should I be paid for my time?

17 January 2012 Rachel Career, Opinion, Placements 4 comments

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I recently wrote about the story of Cait Reilly looking at the affordability of a personalised welfare state. In the comments section Ruairidh Pritchard brought up an alternative view of the story and I would recommend reading Ruairidh’s article  on the story.

An important thing that he highlighted is that if you strip the story to its bare bones, removing any “middle-class job-snobbery”, the real issue is the ethics of having people work for free. Working for free is an accepted part of many students and graduates lives however it is a topic which has been under scrutiny recently.

I have personally worked free for a range of reasons from charity and voluntary work, work trials but most relevant to my blog is my unpaid PR experience. Many of my classmates have also taken on unpaid roles within PR agencies and departments in order to build up our CVs and portfolios as well as helping us to develop our skills and experience.

Is it right that we are not paid? I personally believe that an unpaid placement alongside studying is completely acceptable. It is important to remember that money is not the only compensation for your time. Gaining key skills, work experience and a good reference can be far more valuable, particularly for a student. I believe one of the best places to learn about a job is by working in that industry and role. I have a huge appreciation for academic education but for it to be effective it does need to supplemented with practical experience.

If organisations are demanded to pay for their placement students or interns the threat is that they will not be able to afford to take them on and as such it will be the students who are disadvantaged.

Having said this, there is a line. If by taking on a placement a student is not being compensated adequately, for example they become the tea maker and office photocopier, and are not given the opportunity to gain the skills they require over a significant period with the organisation, then I think they have crossed the line. Another issue is organisations asking students to work for 12 month or long but indefinite periods unpaid then again this is unfair.

It is an interesting subject and in many cases open to interpretation. I absolutely believe that unpaid placements have been invaluable to my education and career however I also understand the argument for legislation demanding payment for working.

I would be very interested to hear your views on the topic. Should we pay people for their time? Or is the experience adequate compensation?

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We Cannot Afford a Personalised Welfare State

13 January 2012 Rachel News, Opinion 9 comments
English: Poundland in Cremer Mall

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Today a degree does not guarantee a job. Despite all the money and time invested in gaining an education many graduates will face a period of indefinite unemployment. Anyone who has suffered from this position will know how frustrating and demotivating it is to not be working when you really want a job. I personally spent just under 6 months in such a position, and I would do anything to avoid it again.

Unemployment does not have to mean all doom and gloom, it is a great time to work on improving employability skills and exploring alternative career paths. During my job-seeking period I also volunteered and was fortunate enough to be able to take up some temporary jobs meaning I could sign off for a couple of weeks. Ultimately the skills that I developed from these experiences led to me gaining my first real job.

Cait Reilly was doing the right things; she was pursuing her dream job by increasing her employability through volunteering in a museum. Then the Job Centre stepped in and demanded she volunteered temporarily at Poundland. At this point Cait decided to sue.

This is a story that has got a lot of people talking with very different views on the situation. I have read articles supporting and others that are outraged at her reaction.

The reality is we cannot afford to personalise the welfare state. Cait may have been working to develop her skills and attain her dream career, however this does not mean that she can be excused from the responsibilities placed upon job-seekers. The scheme she was placed on offered job-seekers the chance to gain employability skills within the retail sector, which in turn could be transferred to alternative roles and dare say, skills she could use in her own future career. In an ideal world the Job Centre would be able to personalise plans for each individual, but in that same perfect world we would all walk into our dream jobs without the need to be unemployed. The reality is while Cait was working to gain her career, other job-seekers are not able or willing to do the same and therefore schemes such as this one offer them the opportunity to improve their skills and employability.

On the other hand this raises questions on the ethics of Poundland. If they want the employees, why are they not paying for them? Working for under minimum wage certainly seems tough, particularly if the alternative is to lose all money and as such you feel forced into taking the role. If this scheme was encouraging job-seekers to work for non-profit organisations, or was offering either to pay job-seekers minimum wage, or a real chance to gain a job on good performance then perhaps there would be less outrage.

Whether it is decided that this case has breached human rights or not, what it does do is to encourage us to talk about our welfare system and the dire employment situation at the moment. What is your opinion on Cait’s case? How can we work to improve the current job market?

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