Monthly Archives: May 2011

Changing nature of media production and consumption in sport

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As I revisit stumblings by high profile Australian athletes around the micro-blogging social media platform Twitter for the purposes of my current research, I look with fresh eyes at the Faggot Tweet: Sponsors Speak scandal of last year.

Refreshingly, my position on the relevance of context and content remains unchanged. If anything, I would further jump up and down on my strategic communicators tool box with the intention of seeing more support given to our elite athletes in navigating the new media channels.

In order for this to happen however, it’s the administrators and communications professionals who need to stop, listen and learn from the tech team.

It’s the marketing communications leaders who need to patiently stumble through diciphering the tech team’s codes and ‘geek jargon’, just as they have had to endure our homage to the acronym for the past 20 years.

People and business fundamentals haven’t changed, technologies have.

With technology, new communications platforms have been consumed by information-hungry individuals and groups as the nature of association and information gathering has become more social. By this, I mean a global sharing process.

Not surprisingly, this change in the production and consumption of information now brings new, global and dynamic communications channels into the structured and controlled environment of corporate entities.

This embedded disconnect does not have to be detrimental to the evolving relationship between corporate, team and individual brands, it just requires an entirely new approach which permits key players to not always get it right.

Stumbling isn’t a problem for those businesses with strong key stakeholder engagement and support.

So maybe the evolution towards transparency of communications through technology and the inherent nature of the new communications environment in the business of international sport, is more reflective of the health of key partner relationships than anything to actually do with sport performance.

While this is a sentence I never thought I’d write, it is undeniable, that when it comes to intra-organisational social media engagement in sport, the UFC is streaks ahead of the professional sporting pack.

King stuns in An Impending Rupture of the Belly

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It’s not often I venture away from the books at the moment – such is the joy of being elbow deep in research. However, when I heard Juilliard graduate Stephen James King was supporting the local community theatre scene on his return from the US, trekking to Newtown was a no brainer.

In what proved to be a robust and surprisingly funny script – not what I was expecting from a piece titled An Impending Rupture of the Belly – strong performances were a feature of the evening, King was a stand out.
On stage for the full 90 minutes, the awkward pleasures and pains of King’s character were artfully portayed – in a performance more suited to the Sydney or New York Theatre Companies. Not a huge surprise considering we are talking about the man who played King Lear in Juilliard’s King Lear.

 

One of the highlights of the evening for me, came in the knowledge that someone of King’s international standing supports the local Sydney theatre scene with a dedicated performance at Newtown Theatre.
So if your idea of a good night at the theatre includes talent, timing and great storytelling, don’t miss the opportunity to be artfully engrossed in King’s world: An Impending Rupture of the Belly.

 

Introducing Bert…

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I just found this in the archives and rediscovered the joys of the telecommunications disconnect between hardware and the Australian data service network…

So imagine my surprise when wrapped up in all white – looking pretty schmiko too – I am unceremoniously thrown into a cardboard box and thrown about in the back of a van before being left on a chilly doorstep.

Finally placed on a busy kitchen bench I eagerly await the arrival of my new designated owner. It’s 4pm and no sign of those noisy little people, so icons crossed, I haven’t arrived in one of those loud, busy and complex houses with kids.  Three hours later, I light up with joy as I hear: “Tiff, There’s a package for you on the bench”.

First I hear the eager tear of cardboard before finally being wrapped adoringly in the warm embrace of a delicate hand.

Seventy-two hours later however, things have turned pear-shaped and I have gone from being the adored iPhone4 to Bert.

Why Bert, I hear you ask…?

Because for the past 72 hours whenever Tiff has asked me to do something that actually requires using the cellular data network, 9 times out of 10, I can’t help but roll my icons sideways (she hasn’t found my voice control function yet) as I try to communicate as best as my interface will allow to let her know, I know what she wants me to do and where she wants to go BERT NO SERVICE!

If only humans spoke iPhone…