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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Shoppers Call Out Kellogg CEO’s ‘Cereal for Dinner’ Pitch for Struggling Families – Sometimes organizations find themselves in a crisis through no fault of their own – criminal activity, natural disasters, etc. But there are also times when they create the crisis themselves. And that’s just what Kellogg’s CEO Gary Pilnick did last week. During a live interview with CNBC, Pilnick suggested consumers save money by eating breakfast cereal for dinner. Not GRRREAT! USA Today has details of the debacle.
How the News Media Keeps Losing the Future – The goal of journalism was once to inform. Today journalism is much more about entertaining. Look no further than Taylor Swift being chosen as Time magazine’s Person of the Year. At the dawn of the World Wide Web, many experts were bullish on the future of news. Stories could now contain more information with links to supporting documents, images and eventually video. But the reality has become much more grim. Today, one in four newspapers that existed in 2005 no longer does. The New York Times takes a deeper look at how we got here, and, more importantly, where journalism is going.
Sports Anchors Went All In on Outrage. Then There’s Scott Van Pelt. – There was a time, beginning in the 1990s, where ESPN and SportsCenter, in particular, was a behemoth. Anchors Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann and others didn’t just report the scores – they delivered Letterman-level entertainment, and ratings reflected it. But that was many years ago. Today viewers have multiple choices for sports news, and cable TV often doesn’t even play a role. That said, Scott Van Pelt, SportsCenter’s primary anchor, has made the program relevant again. This profile from The New York Times explains.
Google’s Apology for Its Gemini Image Debacle Reveals a Much Deeper Culture Problem for the Company – It was a rough week for Google’s Gemini image generator. Apparently with good intentions, Gemini produced images that were very much in tune with today’s efforts of equity and inclusion. The problem is history wasn’t always so inclusive, so the search results were … let’s just say a bit off. When asked for an image of a U.S. senator from the 1800s, Gemini produced an image of an Asian woman. The first woman was elected to the Senate in 1932. The first Asian-American woman was elected in 2013. Inc. takes a look at the company’s fumble, their response and how they hope to correct it.
American Sign Language Reveals Wordplay Beyond Sound – When it comes to stand-up comedy, timing is everything. However, when delivering a joke in American Sign Language, subtle hand movements can be the difference between winning over an audience versus bombing. Sam Corbin, who writes about language, has taken a deep dive to understand the nuances of hand movements, tone and how jokes are delivered. And it’s fascinating.
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Feed Your Head:
Joseph Epstein’s ‘Lucky Life’ in Literature
More Than 300 Words Were Just Added to Dictionary.com—Here Are the Ones You Need to Know
5 Things You Learned Wrong in English Class
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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.