The master vault of news, events and resources.

I work for the Meningitis Research Foundation and some of what we see now in terms of coronavirus communications mirrors what we see when this terrible disease strikes. When there are cases of meningitis, public health teams respond quickly and my team works hard to get accurate information out to worried communities. Monitoring news and […]

In an interview with Faisal Islam of Sky News on June 3, 2016, Michael Gove said that the British people have had enough of experts. I remember it well because I had not long left working as Head of News at one of the Research Councils and it felt like the end of an era, […]

I used to think dealing with the media was easy. In my first job which involved media relations, my press releases were widely picked up, letters to editors were usually printed, and I never had a shortage of TV and radio bids. Coverage was sympathetic and shaped the wider debate. But looking back, there were a […]

Since we started on the daunting task of analysing hundreds of press releases and news articles in 2012, there have been several studies, including our own, presenting evidence on the topic of caution vs hype in news and press releases. The main conclusions from this research are: Cautious press releases still get news. The main […]

“It’s greed that makes you fat,” wrote Amanda Platell in the Daily Mail back in 2017. “Fatties lack the willpower to stop eating.” I realise that the sole purpose of Mail columnists is to raise the nation’s blood pressure, but this piece so incensed me, I was determined to challenge in somehow. The opportunity came […]