Say what you mean, mean what you say

It might be good to talk, but it’s not always easy to get your point across. The gift of communication also brings with it the potential for misunderstandings, wilful misrepresentation and downright foot-squarely-wedged-in-mouth verbal mistakes. And communication – good, bad and confused – is the theme of this, theshooglypeg’s first scramble up into the editor’s chair at Scottish Roundup. It’s a nice chair, actually, a big leather one that you can spin round on and pretend you’re James Bond. Somebody’s dropped some crisps down the back of it though.

Anyway, let’s begin. Ellen at In a Bun Dance is a woman who ought to know about communication, being a Proper Journo as well as a blogger, and she tells an interesting story about recently being asked to place a PR puff piece as legitimate news. She refused, of course, but no doubt somebody said yes. Also pondering journalism is The Burd, who has swooped onto the Scottish Government’s publication of every piece of media engagement it’s had in the last few years, and found that nobody seems very interested in talking to anyone but Alex Salmond. She concludes that our media is not doing a very good job of letting us know what’s going on.

Luckily, other people are devoting their posts this week to doing exactly that, and it would seem that what is primarily going on is some sort of festival in Edinburgh. Anybody heard of it? Dorky Mum certainly has, and she’s written about the events she’s most looking forward to. Natasha at The Pop Cop is also reporting from the front line of entertainment, simultaneously reviewing not one but two gigs whilst also reflecting on the difficulties of using words to describe music. And Mike Ritchie Media brings us a message from the world of commerce: start shopping, it’s nearly Christmas!

Of course, there are many different ways to communicate. Rose Garnett chooses to do so through fiction, and this week has posted the start of a spooky short story set in a Scottish pub. My guess is it’s going to end with somebody getting eaten. Janey Godley has a style of communication that is all her own, combining sharp humour with massive digressions, global travel and highly inventive swearing. This week she discusses going on holiday, using Twitter and not being at the Fringe. And A Home in the Highlands gets a message across without needing words at all, simply by sharing some stunning photos of our wee nation’s West Coast. They mostly get a mention because of the picture of happy dogs. If there’s any sight more cheerful than a happy dog, I’ve yet to encounter it.

And finally, Better Nation highlights some communication that probably shouldn’t have happened at all with a new feature, Worst Motion of the Week. For those who are not politically-minded, I’d like to assure you that this has nothing to do with toilety matters, but instead brings you the week’s most pointless proposal made in the Scottish Parliament. A valuable service, indeed.

That’s it for this week folks, so I’ll get down from this chair, dust the crisps off my trousers and hand back the keys to the blog. Toodleoo!

 

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