MAXIMISE YOUR MEDIA IMPACT

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Maximising your media impact FINAL:Layout 1

7/7/09

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Maximise Your Media Impact

Bookseller Waterstone’s sacked an employee in its Edinburgh branch because it alleged that comments on his blog, the Woolamaloo Gazette, had brought the company into disrepute. Although references to his workplace constituted a small percentage of his output he admitted that he had coined the alias “Bastardstone’s” and made references to a character called “Evil Boss”. He was later offered his job back.

Podcasts and videocasts A podcast, m’lud, for those who have been living in a cave on the Flannan Isles for the last five years, is basically a fusion of the words iPod and broadcast, and describes a highly personalised new medium. Podcasts democratise broadcast in the way that blogs have done for print. Basically it is an audio or video recording that has been converted to a digital file format such as MP3 for distribution over the internet via an RSS feed. It can be downloaded and played back on a computer or on a mobile device like an iPod. The big advantage of podcasts over other media is that listeners or viewers can listen or watch at their own convenience. Podcasts are simple to make and use and are proving very popular as anyone who has used YouTube will know. Independent podcasters can attract audiences into the tens of thousands. Some podcasts are attracting

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