Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

Friday Happy Hour Video: Backstage, at rock bottom

08.08.2014 by David Murray // 14 Comments

Today's Friday video is an encore presentation of a Writing Boots post from 2009. This is the resignation of President Richard Nixon—Aug. 8, 1974, 40 years ago today—from set-up and rehearsal, through the speech itself. As I observed in the original post: Veteran communicators will find as familiar as strange, the incongruity between profound public moment and backstage banality.

Categories // Uncategorized Tags // backstage, communicators, President Nixon, resignation, Watergate scandal

The reason your clients and colleagues have been so respectful and deferrential lately

07.20.2010 by David Murray // 9 Comments

Digging out last week after my vacation, I came across a big news item I'd missed; a communicator posted it on Facebook. Sorry for the late notice.

A worldwide group of communicators finalized "The Stockholm Accord" June 15, a call to action to improve our reputations.

Boy. Nothing'll ever be the same.

Categories // Uncategorized Tags // "Stockholm, Accord, communicators, PR for PR, reputations

McLuhan was exaggerating, fools!

04.19.2010 by David Murray // 4 Comments

Marshal McLuhan famously said, "The medium is the message."

Clearly, McLuhan was talking out of his ass.

(Here is what is true about the medium and the message:

The medium influences, sometimes profoundly, how the message is perceived.

The message can't be separated from the medium that conveys it.

Some types of media and some kinds of messages mix well. Some don't.

Them are some important insights. But, especially for professional communicators, it's important to distinguish medium from message—communication vehicle from communication content.

So next time one of these technobabblers mindlessly says, "The medium is the message," let's retort, "Then why do we have different words for them?")

Categories // Uncategorized Tags // "the medium is the message", communicators, Marshall McLuhan

Now Available

An Effort to Understand

Order Now

SIGN UP TO RECEIVE BLOG UPDATES

About

David Murray writes on communication issues.
Read More

 

Categories

  • Baby Boots
  • Communication Philosophy
  • Efforts to Understand
  • Happy Men, and Other Eccentrics
  • Human Politicians
  • Mister Boring
  • Murray Cycle Diaries
  • Old Boots
  • Rambling, At Home and Abroad
  • Sports Stories
  • The Quotable Murr
  • Typewriter Truths
  • Uncategorized
  • Weird Scenes Inside the Archives

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Log in

  • Preorder An Effort to Understand
  • Sign Up for Blog Updates
  • About David Murray