Speaking Moylanguage #1: The First Edition
Talking drums, trade narratives, the 21st century newsroom, advice for trainers and presenters, thoughts on social media
Thank you so much for subscribing and welcome to the first edition of Speaking Moylanguage! Let me explain how this is going to work:
The newsletter is divided into three sections - stories, ideas and skills. As you’ll see, I’ve used the definition of these headings fairly liberally.
At the end, I include a few bits and pieces people have flagged for the newsletter or stuff I’ve seen around.
The content is mostly shared in Google Doc format, with comments enabled.
Please comment, share more content, elaborate and ask questions - but no spam, abuse or selling things please!
This format, the content and the newsletter at large is a bit of an experiment and things are likely to change - so feedback and suggestions are welcome. I hope you enjoy it!
If you do, why not subscribe?
1. Stories
African talking drums
I thought it would be fitting to open with my favourite story I’ve ever heard about communication. It is the story of the first ever large scale broadcast communication system - certainly the earliest I’d ever heard about! I first read it in James Gleick’s The Information and it really stuck with me since.
Three Narratives on Trade and Globalisation
Narrative analysis is always something that has intrigued me. It has done ever since my dissertation in university, where I did analyses on Irish and British newspaper narratives on Iran. I saw the how stories adopt repetitive characteristics, take on identifiable patterns and simplify reality - often (but not always) in the service of making it easier to understand complex situations.
Here are my notes on a paper by Nicolas Lamp. He looks at the different stories Americans tell themselves about international trade - and breaks down their characteristics and features to understand them better.
2. Ideas
21st Century Newsroom
Recently I taught a module in Vesalius College called “The New Media Environment: Conflict, Crisis and Communication”. It was a really nice experience and I intend to share some reflections, notes and material from this module in this newsletter. One of the sessions focused on modern journalism - the skills needed, pressures felt and transformations underway.
To prepare, I spoke to a number of helpful people working in the sector, but I would like to single out Beatriz Rios, Sofia Diogo Mateus and Mark Little for their particularly helpful guidance in preparing this section.
State of Political Social Media
One of the pieces of research that has really got me thinking recently is “Retooling Politics: How Digital Media are Shaping Democracy”. It is one of the more grounded, comprehensive and intelligent reflections on the state of social media and politics. It looks at what has changed - and just as importantly, what has not.
3. Skills
A Checklist for Trainers from a Speechwriter
Earlier this year, Dmitry Grozoubinski invited me to take part in Geneva Trade Week. I was asked to share some thoughts on a panel organised by the Trade Experettes (a wonderful project by the excellent Hanna Norberg) on how to explain trade to a non-expert audience - despite not actually being a trade expert and never having taught trade to anyone in my life.
It was really fun and I learned a lot. Below, I’ve “de-traded” my advice and shared some of the useful things that speechwriters know, that trainers, teachers, or anyone giving a presentation might find useful.
Developing a Personal Social Media Strategy
Last year, as a personal project, I developed a guide to “Building Social Influence” for the European Movement Ireland. It outlines some of the principles I have found useful for working on my personal social media, as well as examples and elaboration (including pointers on voice and tone, how to keep arguments online productive and comments on privacy and mental health).
Some recommendations
A few things of interest that kindly friends, colleagues and connections have shared:
Anamaria Dutceac Segesten shared this interesting book comparing European AI policy (PDF).
Michael Bossetta shared a great article on the thinking behind a publication’s new font.
Sofia Diogo Mateus’s excellent podcast interview on all sorts of topics related to journalism and social media.
Val Flynn kindly shared a nice article on how the QWERTY keyboard has shaped how we communicate.
Meg Jing Zeng on how “Twitter has become a new battleground for China's wolf-warrior diplomats”.
Andreas Jungherr, author of “Retooling Politics” discussed above, in a really nice podcast interview.