Wag The Dog Newsletter Podcast

Everybody talks about the importance of "resilience", but in crisis communication, it's still a woolly term. Being resilient means having the ability to recover from disasters and even grow from them. For communication professionals, it's about planning ahead, reacting at the right moment, and learning from the experience afterwards. Breaking down resilience helps professionals better manage crise...

In this edition of Wag The Dog, we're diving into the concept of 'Red Teaming' - an interesting simulation technique often overlooked in crisis communication.

In this edition of the Wag The Dog newsletter and podcast, we're diving into the fascinating topic of integrating AI into the entire crisis communication process. From the pre-crisis phase to the rapid response during a crisis, and even the learning and improvement after it, AI has the potential to offer practical solutions at every step. So, let's get right into it!

Today, we'll discuss the important role of Public Relations professionals in handling ethical issues related to generative AI. This includes addressing transparency, engaging with stakeholders, and managing crisis communication.

In this episode, we will learn about Dr. Peter Sandman's risk communication theory. We will also discuss the difference between hazard and outrage, the three main tasks of risk communication, and why it is important to separate outrage management from crisis communication in risk communication strategies.

In today's episode, we'll cover the recent release of ChatGPT with voice, image, and multimodal elements and see how they could be used for crisis communication.

In this episode, we'll summarize a report called "Artificial Intelligence in Public Relations and Communications: cases, reflections and predictions" edited by Ana Adi from Quadriga University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. We'll see how AI can revolutionize PR by increasing efficiency, providing insights, and automating tasks, as well as the importance of staff readiness and data security for suc...

Covering the most importants points related to crisis communication and AI covered in the European Communication Monitor Report 2023 and "Humans needed, more than ever" from CIPR

An overview of crisis communication skills, knowledge, and attitudes in the absence of a capability framework.

In today's episode, we'll cover the use of podcasts during emergencies and the benefits of AI in creating professional-sounding podcasts.

An interview with the founder of Wondercraft AI, a podcast platform with a serious AI twist. This episode was completely generated via the text of the email interview we did. We also cover the potential use of podcasts for PR and crisis communication.

In health emergencies, clear and concise information is crucial. Social listening, both online and offline, helps health organisations capture the concerns and needs of communities. Telephone surveys, an important method for offline social listening, provide direct feedback from individuals and shed light on their understanding, behaviour, and challenges related to health emergencies. By actively...

This was my first official podcast, recorded in 2006. I had the incredible opportunity to cross paths with Professor Anne Gregory in Antwerp, Belgium. We had an exciting conversation about important subjects like democracy, media, public relations, journalism, ethics, reporters, spin, and anti-spin. A whole agenda! I am republishing here as the topics are still very important and so that these con...

Hi everyone and welcome to what is, already, episode number 40 of the Wag The Dog FM Podcast! In this episode, I talk with Bart de Vries, President of the International Association of Public Relations (IPRA) about the Golden World Awards for Excellence in PR 2017. During our half-hour chat, we talk about; The importance of [...]

This week’s episode is all about my favourite topic; Crisis and Emergency Communications. What better guest to have on the show than Christine Townsend, founder of Musterpoint, who worked in law enforcement and public sector communications for fifteen years! During our half-hour chat, we talk about; Differences and similarities between the private sector and public [...]

Jo Detavernier launches a new website about Science for PR – to help communications professionals with insights from diverse scientific disciplines. In this episode, I have a chat with Jo on the why and how of a new website around this important topic. Let’s face it, we, as a profession, have concentrated more on the [...]

Smartphone apps designed for emergency & crisis situations (emergency mobile apps) don’t provide what people actually need in a disaster, according to University of Calgary researchers who studied the digital response to the Fort McMurray wildfire. The team used specialized software to analyze nearly 70,000 tweets sent by affected residents during the catastrophe to gauge “what people really w...

According to Brand Finance, brands account for 18% of the top 500 global brands market-value (2017). Traditionally, brands have been created by agencies, and brand management has been undervalued. Fortunately, that mindset is now shifting… In this episode, I talk with Marc Cloosterman, CEO of the VIM Group on how to Future Proof Your Brand, [...]

Wag The Dog’s guest this week is Heather Yaxley and we’re talking about career strategies in public relations. In the context of her Phd research Heather wanted to understand how mid-career PR practitioners make sense of their careers, the career strategies they use and how they are responding to the changing working environment. This involved [...]

#FuturePRoof, a crowdsourced book and community with the bold ambition of asserting the value of public relations launched earlier last month. The book includes advice from a stellar line up of Communications academics and Public Relations practitioners who have all given their time free of charge to share their expertise. Chapters describe emerging areas of [...]

Monsanto… It seems almost impossible to mention the company without entering in a heated discussion about GMO’s. And for a very long time the management and employees of this 16 billion $ in revenue corporation didn’t get it. What was the fuss all about ? Science would and will always speak for itself they thought… But it doesn’t [...]

Episode number 32 of Wag The Dog is dedicated to the “Mother Of All Crisis”– Dieselgate. Estimates from Credit Suisse peg the costs of #Dieselgate at a worst-case scenarios of $87 billion. This would make the VW scandal almost 60 percent more costly than the BP Deepwater Horizon spill. – from Oilprice.com I know a [...]

This week I am talking to Maxim Behar, the brand new President of ICCO – The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO). Maxim and I met for the first time a couple of years ago in Davos at the World Communications Forum – one of the most international PR conferences I have ever had the pleasure to [...]

Thirty days is the length of time it takes to form a habit or shed an old one… In this week’s edition of Wag The Dog FM I am talking with Stephen Waddington, Chief Engagement Officer at Ketchum who – with his #PRBullets – is documenting exactly that. Stephen uses doodles and drawings on Post-it notes [...]

This week I am talking with András Baneth, the Managing Director of the European office of the Public Affairs Council. We’re covering the state of online advocacy in Europe and how email, social media, blogs etc.. are used (or not) by corporate and trade association public affairs professionals. Our discussion is based on the results of [...]