Who would have believed that the main subject of conversation between middle-class white women over coffee mornings and dinner parties would be soccer? Who would have seen themselves grinning wildly and have an overwhelming urge to embrace total strangers spending their euros and dollars at our shopping malls? For the last month, the new national pastime became ‘go to malls, fan parks and stadiums to watch the tourists’...
Recently I judged a journalism award for a large pharmaceutical company based on a very serious health issue. Most of the entries were of a very high standard and I was enjoying being educated with the latest news on the fight against this illness. That was, until I got to the final entry.
If you mention the name Lance Armstrong this week in South Africa, you’ll be met with mixed reactions. Talk shows are talking and twitterers tweeting. It all started when Armstrong arrived in Cape Town with a full passport – a no-no for admittance to any country in the world. You need at least two blank pages for stamping and you’d think Armstrong, being a world traveller, would know that.
One of my clients forwarded me an email from a well-known international media house requesting an interview with her. The email was scrappy, badly written and totally unprofessional. Its highly distinctive logo was nowhere in sight – in fact it wasn’t even written on a letterhead.
So your company needs to nominate a spokesperson – pretty straightforward decision, don’t you think? After all, who are you going to choose, the person with the speech impediment or perhaps someone for whom English is a third language? Maybe an alien from another planet or possibly just someone who doesn’t seem to have enough to do in the office and volunteered?
When quite a while back, former Bizcommunity.com editor and friend Louise Marsland said I HAD to join Facebook – be in or be out – I jumped to attention and immediately signed up. My 21-year-old son’s reaction was “Ma, you joined Facebook – that’s so lame...” That, of course, made me feel much better about my choice.
It’s finally happened – the SABC board is being dissolved. At last the penny’s dropped that these guys, or at least the majority of them – have tipped the sinking ship even further into the sea.
Been to OR Tambo International Airport in the last week? What would you expect to see right now, during the much-feted Confederations Cup? Why banners, of course, welcoming much-needed tourists to our country and the event.
As a media professional, I should be grateful to Julius, Jacob, Helen and most of COSATU for constantly letting their mouth-offs make the front page and selling papers. But it’s now time to take on a more professional image.
Beware of the pitfalls of relying too much on the Internet as a source of information, and - too often - cutting and pasting information virtually ‘as is'. 30 Mar 2010 09:51
When I was asked to compile this column, I thought I had to be particularly careful not to overlap with other forecasters by talking about the interaction between social networking and media - but it's impossible. Social networking has impacted onto every form of communication, especially media. With just a cellphone you can be aware of what's happening anywhere in the world - virtually as it's happening... 20 Jan 2010 12:05
In the last year I've visited the US and the UK and the one thing they have in common is their fear of South Africa as a destination. Unless they've already been here, you'll hear the same refrain - “South Africa, oh no, wouldn't consider going there - way too dangerous.” 22 Oct 2009 09:41
As I write this it's elections day. The talking is over and it's time for people to make their mark and maybe change their lives. But how effective was the ‘talking'? How well did the various parties use the ‘free' editorial opportunities that were given to them? 23 Apr 2009 14:19
Well, maybe they're sometimes unused and not all are unloved, but it made you read this, didn't it? I spend a lot of time rewriting other people's work or, worse, trying to decipher press releases and editing reams of paper which make up reports. And then I meet up with other freelancers who complain of how quiet it is right now and I wonder, "Why don't more companies take advantage of these really talented people?" 27 Oct 2008 09:05
We all know the feeling. You're at a speech day, wedding or company function when the moment nobody's been waiting for arrives - the obligatory speeches. If you listen carefully, you can almost hear the collective sigh. People brace themselves and wait hopefully for pearls of wisdom to wash over them. Sometimes the wait is rewarded and the speech is funny, topical and most importantly short. Other times - not so much. 20 Oct 2008 09:09
New movements seem to be in the air and I'm thinking of starting one myself - but this one has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with language. 8 Oct 2008 09:28
Every time I give a writing course for business people in particular, I hear the same thing: “I know I'm writing too much but my client/boss insists on at least three pages, giving all the technical data with at least three quotes.” 3 Sep 2008 09:08
They've done it again: the UCT Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing that brought you the Wildfire and the groundbreaking Black Diamond research projects has launched its latest study on the ‘Prime Time' generation which shows that South African marketers, unlike their European and American counterparts, are ignoring one of the most lucrative markets around. 15 Aug 2008 08:59
Communication is what I do for a living and I have to say, in my last 20 years as a journalist, technology has made my job easier and easier - albeit puzzling at times. But I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps we were better off before instant messaging. 26 Jun 2008 09:05
Marion Scher is an award-winning freelance journalist who writes for many of South Africa's major consumer publications and the custom publishing field, as well as public relations companies and the corporate world. Through her company Media Mentors (www.mediamentors.co.za), she consults and trains in the corporate world plus parastatal and NGO organisations – her speciality being training people on all aspects of media.
For 14 years Marion was head of journalism at Damelin College, Bramley (until 2008) with her pupils now working in every major field of journalism both here and overseas. She regularly gives courses both within the industry through the Magazine Publishers Association of South Africa (MPASA) and the Print Media Association of South Africa (PMASA) as their official editorial trainer, as well as designing specific media and writing courses for companies.
She is the author of two books; her latest Surviving the SA Media (published by Knowledge Resources) is due out in July.
She is the holder of a Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism and is currently on the Board of this Fellowship in South Africa.
Her major clients include Unilever, Telkom, Mondi, Anglo Gold Ashanti, Sappi, DBSA, Standard Bank, MTN and MultiChoice.
Who would have believed that the main subject of conversation between middle-class white women over coffee mornings and dinner parties would be soccer? Who would have seen themselves grinning wildly and have an overwhelming urge to embrace total strangers spending their euros and dollars at our shopping malls? For the last month, the new national pastime became ‘go to malls, fan parks and stadiums to watch the tourists’...
When I was asked to compile this column, I thought I had to be particularly careful not to overlap with other forecasters by talking about the interaction between social networking and media - but it's impossible. Social networking has impacted onto every form of communication, especially media. With just a cellphone you can be aware of what's happening anywhere in the world - virtually as it's happening... 
In the last year I've visited the US and the UK and the one thing they have in common is their fear of South Africa as a destination. Unless they've already been here, you'll hear the same refrain - “South Africa, oh no, wouldn't consider going there - way too dangerous.” 
As I write this it's elections day. The talking is over and it's time for people to make their mark and maybe change their lives. But how effective was the ‘talking'? How well did the various parties use the ‘free' editorial opportunities that were given to them? 
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