NevilleHobson.com

Since I last wrote about PR spam a few weeks ago, I’ve been keeping an eye on some of the email that’s ended up in the spam folders in Outlook.
It’s a never-ending stream of spam, and it’s getting worse - it’s now running at an average of 10-15 emails a day.
Recognizing that ’spam’ is a [...]

Like many in the PR and journalism blogosphere, I get PR pitches by email every day.
Like many, too, I welcome pitches if they are relevant to my interests. If they are, the chances are good that I will talk about the product or service, either in my blogs or podcast, or I might Twitter about [...]

This is what you now see if you go to any of the websites of Blognation, the blog network that’s been embroiled in scandal and controversy for the past few weeks.
It’s too bad. If there’s one thing that disgraced entrepreneur Sam Sethi did, it was pull together a great team of talented writers in [...]

Ever since Blognation opened its virtual doors last July, it’s been one of my primary essential daily destinations for RSS reading.
It’s an ambitious idea from Sam Sethi - build a network of blogs covering news about emerging startups in Web 2.0 tech and mobile in key markets worldwide.
So far, Blognation has 13 localized sites [...]

Would you employ tactics like fake headlines, paying bloggers, and creating multiple accounts on discussion forums as part of your communication to get a video noticed on YouTube?
These are among the tips in The Secret Strategies Behind Many "Viral" Videos, a thought-provoking post on TechCrunch.
The video in this post contains my £0.1-worth of opinion. I [...]

In 2005, the European Union published a Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices that, among other things, outlines “sharp practices” which will be prohibited throughout the EU, such as pressure selling, misleading marketing and unfair advertising.
The Directive is due to become part of EU members’ national laws in early 2008. Social media channels such as blogs [...]

I received a letter the other day from Virgin Media telling me about a few reasons to be cheerful as a Virgin Media customer.
In his introduction, Steve Stewart, managing director of customer care, says we could all do with a bit of cheering up after the ’summer’ (his quotes) we’ve just had.
Stewart’s letter and [...]

If you think much of British television swims in a swamp of distrust, as I think it does, you ought to read the text of the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture delivered by Jeremy Paxman on Friday night at the Edinburgh International TV festival.
Paxman takes a typical head-on approach to the topic of trust in television [...]

Today, British Airways was fined £270 million for colluding in a price fixing arrangement with rival airline Virgin Atlantic.
This is the culmination of a sorry tale of greed and illegal practice that led to the departure of BA’s communications and commercial directors when this all came to light in mid 2006.
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh [...]

Trusting the creator or communicator of information you receive is paramount to belief in a) the source and b) the information itself.
You’re more likely to accept what you see or hear when you trust the source.
So when you hear of behaviours like this by mainstream media, is your trust shaken?

Channel 4 admits faking Ramsay scene. [...]