Deputy PM Michael McCormack underestimates the power of headlines
The country’s politicians are stuck in an old media time-warp, and are ignoring bad media headlines at their peril, warns comms expert Gerry McCusker.
In a (paywall) Media section interview for The Australian on April 23, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister (an ex-journalist) stated that his colleagues should ‘care less about bad news headlines’. In the article, he proclaimed: “Today’s front page news is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapping.”
This view patently betrays why too many of our ‘pollies’ and corporate brands are the victims of bad news stories rather than entities with the insights and technologies to counter – and dispel – knocking news narratives. Even savvy media types (ex journos and senior PRs), it seems, evidently don’t get reputation management 2.0 as, forgive the bluntness, they appear stuck in an old media time-warp.
First para, by “should care less” do you meant shouldn’t care less?