The Flack highlights changes and trends in the news, examples of communications practices, and content we at BYRNE PR thought you might find useful.
We hope you enjoy, and we always welcome your feedback.
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Thank you for reading, and Happy New Year!
Cable News Lost Plenty Of Viewers In 2021 – A volatile presidential election, global pandemic and loads of social unrest made 2020 a particularly strong year for news viewership and ratings. So it’s not surprising that 2021 could not match up. Nearly all major broadcast news outlets – and cable news in particular – saw sharp drops in viewership. The story and the numbers are pretty staggering.
What Is Web3 And Why Should You Care? – If you’re old enough to remember the dawn of the Web, Web 1.0 was the era of static web pages or the “read-only web,” according to Tim Berners-Lee, computer scientist and inventor of the World Wide Web. Web 1.0 allowed us to search for information and read it, but there was very little user interaction. Web 2.0 is the more dynamic version we know today where users can easily contribute content (think YouTube, social media, etc.). But now we are on the cusp of Web3. What is it, and how will it affect your life? Gizmodo explains.
We’re Cursing More. Blame The #%$ Pandemic – Two years in, and this pandemic won’t #%$ing end! COVID-19 has changed society in more ways than we can list, but one overlooked change is how we speak. Pandemic stress, the melding of personal and professional spheres, and an unrelenting slide toward casualness are making many of us swear more. It is “a perfect swearing storm,” says Michael Adams, a linguist at Indiana University Bloomington. The Wall Street Journal takes a look.
Targeting Truth In The Misinformation Age – As a result of the online movement Birds Aren’t Real, some people believe the US government has replaced all birds with drones to spy on its citizens. The movement drew thousands of followers, including 75,000 on Twitter, 363,000 on Instagram, and 636,000 on TikTok. The whole thing was a parody but also an experiment to illustrate how easily and quickly misinformation can spread. The spread of misinformation is a real issue for brands, companies, politicians, news organizations, etc. as, according to Forrester, it appears to be contributing to the destabilization of consumer trust. Check out their report.
Social Media Is A Bad Feelings Machine. Why Can’t We Just Turn It Off For Good? – The term Stockholm Syndrome came from an incident in 1972 in a bank in Stockholm, Sweden. Four bank employees were held hostage by two captors for six days. After police caught the captors, none of the hostages were willing to testify against them. Rather, they began raising money to aid them with their defense. For many of us, social media is a similar situation. Logically, we should turn it off, but we can’t. This opinion piece from The Guardian takes a look at the role social media plays in society and why it is so difficult to ignore.
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Feed Your Head:
The 50 Best Memes of 2021 Explained
21 Things That Happened For The First Time In 2021
The 10 Best Data Visualizations of 2021
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flack
: one who provides publicity
flack
: to act as a press agent or promoter for something
The word flack was first used as a noun meaning “publicity agent” during the late 1930s. According to one rumor, the word was coined in tribute to a well-known movie publicist of the time, Gene Flack.