Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

Course NotesSession One

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

Introduction to the ‘Healthy Voices’ series of Workshops

‘Healthy Voices’ is a series of workshops designed to enable you to communicate effectively online. The workshops

Session One – Why you are here – An Introduction to Communicating Online

Session Two – The Art of Storytelling – Explores how to choose which stories to write and introduces tools and concepts to help you write them.

Session Three – The Mechanics of writing – Focuses on the role of writers voice in reaching a specific audience

Online only session – Legalities & Conventions – Covers copyright in the context of publishing online

Session Four – An introduction to Social Media - We look at the different platforms and how they can be used to communicate

Session Five – Getting Technical – blogs & websites - An overview of your choices and factors to consider when deciding between them

Session Six – Building your site and your audience – Covers design considerations and technical factors in reaching an audience

Session Seven – Promoting yourself and your stories - Techniques for building an audience base

Session Eight – Representing yourself and your organisation - We consider issues related to maintaining an online identity

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

Introduction – Session OneIn this first session we will be introducing the concept of ‘good communication’. Good communication can be hard to pin down. We know bad communication when we see, hear or read it. We turn off, tune out or surf to the next web page. What we don’t always consciously recognise is good communication. We have our favourite authors, journalists and blogs but we don’t always think about why we like them, and what it is about their message, or their voice that keeps us reading. These first few workshops explore those ideas pinning down this concept of good communication or good writing.

The basis we start with is that good communication understands its intention, it uses a suitable channel to get to a desired audience, and it follows a set of basic rules to ensure it gets its message across. These are the concepts we will consider during this first workshop.

Why communicate? What do you want to achieve?The reasons why you, as a group, have enrolled in this course may be many and varied but you share one thing in common; a desire to communicate. Behind that wish will be a range of motivators. These may include a desire to:

entertain, compel others action, impart knowledge, raise awareness, get noticed eg press coverage, contribute to a larger body of knowledge, refute something someone else has said, create community, or some combination of the above

Or perhaps you see communication as an end in itself. You may wish to embark on this project for clarity, for expression, for the sake of writing, to clarify and contextualise ideas, to unburden, to document, to record, or to remind.

It is unlikely you have one singular reason for communicating. You may want to achieve all of the above and more. The reason you want to talk may change over time.

Whilst you don’t always need to know why you are communicating, if you are communicating for a reason other than purely for communications sake then understanding your goal/s is an important part of the communication process.

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

Understanding why you are communicating informs how you choose to frame your message. It impacts on everything from; your choice of social media, to your voice and the language you generate.

We will explore this concept more in Session 4 when we consider different types of social media and how to choose one (or more) that is suitable for your particular health message.

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

Different methods of communication:

Getting your message out there can involve choosing between hundreds of different vehicles for communicating.

Printed media – newspapers, books, magazines, pamphlets Online – blogs, Facebook, websites, Pinterest, Via a hand held device – Tweets, text messages, Visual media – TV, Billboards, posters Aural media – Radio, phone, talks, discussions, forums, meetings =

detailed discussions, investigative, informative, subject based.

Printed media – Whilst its prominence is diminishing, printed media is still a legitimate method of communicating. People do still read newspapers, they still pick up pamphlets and they still browse magazines. However they don’t do this in the same numbers as in the past. Printed media tends to be an expensive way to deliver a message and as such is best suited to situations when the target audience is either; unable able to access other forms of media, or is most comprehensively reached via printed media. An example of the former may include target groups who lack the ability access the internet as a result of either disability or disadvantage. An example of the latter would be local newspapers which rely on letterbox delivery to ensure a high circulation.

Online – When you want to find out something what do you do? Google it? If you answered yes you wouldn’t be alone. The internet is the preeminent source of information in Australia today. Whether that information is; the phone number of the local plumber, the session times for a movie, advice on dealing with a fractious toddler, how to cast on when knitting, or inspiration for the evening meal, a large proportion of the population turns to the internet to furnish them with that information. And it isn’t just information people access online, it is also entertainment. Games, online newspapers, blogs, videos, podcasts, the list goes on and on. The internet has the potential to deliver almost any message you want it to. It can be used to provide information, it can engage and it can motivate. Think about the different ways people interact with and absorb information from the following sites: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page), a favourite blog (http://thegardendeli.wordpress.com/), and GetUp (https://www.getup.org.au/).

Resources – Thinking point:

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

This article considers the potential of online as an avenue for activism within the disability community: http://www.abc.net.au/rampup/articles/2014/06/16/4025975.htm

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

Hand held devices - In 2013 half of all adult Australian used a Smart phone, world-wide only Korea has a higher proportion of adults utilising the technology. The Australian newspaper predicts that smart phone ownership will exceed that of PCs in 2014 and that tablets won’t be far behind. (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/technology/predictions-2014-smartphone-penetration-to-beat-computers/story-e6frgakx-1226836221379#mm-premium). What this means is that a huge segment of the population will access the internet via a hand held device. This has implications for online communication. Do you want to read long swathes of information on your phone? What is most likely to attract your attention?

According to the Harvard Business review a massive 46% of people’s primary use for their Smart phone was entertainment or relaxation – to play games on, to read an entertaining blog, or watching a funny video. This means that if you want people to access your material via their Smart phone it probably needs to be entertaining. That doesn’t mean funny, but it does mean compelling, interesting and engaging.

The other thing to consider around the widespread use of hand held devices is the potential of tweets, text messages and other brief pieces of communication. The Egyptian uprisings in 2011 were dubbed the ‘Twitter revolutions’1 due to the use of tweets, and social media more generally, as a tool for organising and information sharing. Or closer to home consider how the role of tweeting in Cathy McGowen’s victory over Sophie Mirabella to win the seat of Indi at the last federal election: http://www.cathymcgowan.com.au/the_story, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-13/cassidy-indi/4955258, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/yes-she-can-how-cathy-mcgowan-won-indi/story-e6frg8h6-1226741701495

Visual Media - Television, billboards, posters can all be considered to be forms of visual media. The power of visual media lies in images, or using a picture to tell, at least part of, a story. Visual media can also be used online. YouTube, image based sites like Instagram and Pinterest are also examples of visual media. Visual media can be an incredibly powerful method of communication. Think about the TAC ads, that truly gut wrenching photo taken during the Vietnam war, or the emotion inherent in images of the athletes raising their fists in ‘black power salute’ at the 1968 Olympic games. Visual media is at its most effective when it captures a moment, tells a story or it contains a simple straight forward idea.

Aural Media - Despite the huge preponderance of visual media, aural media remains a part of most people’s day to day lives and can be an incredibly effective method for disseminating some messages. Aural media includes radio, 1 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/oscar-g-lopez/revolution-in-the-digital_b_4832936.html

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

phone, talks, discussions, forums, meetings and training sessions. Aural media tends to be best utilised for detailed discussions, and investigative, informative, and subject based communications.

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

Good CommunicationGood communication is about connecting with an audience. It is about conveying a message and having that message understood.

Features of good communication:

It contains ideas that are interesting and important It is ordered and comprehensible It is of an appropriate length and complexity for its delivery method The language used, the spelling, grammar, and layout are all appropriate

for both the idea being communicated and its audience It engages its audience - the power of storytelling, leave them wanting

more. Its voice is individual and appropriate. Its intent is clear and transparent

It contains ideas that are interesting and important.

Think about the media you consume. What makes you read or watch it? Most people are motivated to read things they either find interesting or important. Their interest may result from a desire to be entertained or a search for knowledge but they still generally need to be interested to bother watching or reading. The other reason people may take notice is that they regard the information as important. Changes to taxation rates aren’t particularly inherently interesting but many people will read them as they have the potential to impact them – they are important things to know.

Some ideas will have wider spread appeal than others. At the end of the day more people are likely to be interested in whether Kale is really a ‘superfood’(apparently not as good as Watercress ) http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/the-top-powerhouse-fruits-and-vegetables-20140609-zs23u.html) than they are in wool prices in Victoria last week but that doesn’t meant that no one will find the later relevant. The trick is to make what you write relevant and accessible to as broad an audience as you need it to be. In the case of wool prices maybe you only want to reach sheep farmers so a dry informative piece maybe sufficient, although not necessarily desirable. If your intention is to try and reach a broader audience, then numbers alone are unlikely convince anyone that what you write is worth reading. Ie, it is unlikely to appear interesting and important to them. But what if you added in some information about declining prices resulting in farmers being forced off their land? Or in the instances that prices are rising how that will impact on the cost of winter coats? Suddenly what you are writing about becomes more interesting and more important to a much wider group of people.

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

Consider these headlines:

From www.theage.com.au- These are the headlines from the most read articles between 12pm and 1pm on Saturday 21/06/2014. How would you characterise the topics? As interesting? or important? or perhaps both?

The Age

Chris Uhlmann and Gai Brodtmann a very Canberra couple History of the AFL could be turned on its head Miranda Kerr and James Packer stay warm on the Arctic P, but it's just

cosmetic It's the season for reason in a climate of discontent World Cup shows football really is the people's game

WA Today

Miranda Kerr and James Packer stay warm on the Arctic P, but it's just cosmetic

History of the AFL could be turned on its head World Cup 2014: Ticos triumphant, shocks abound and the mighty

continue to fall Wild weather front heading for Perth and southwest Police arrest teenage hoon driver

The Sydney Morning Herald

Tony Abbott choked by lack of vision, not ideology Chris Uhlmann and Gai Brodtmann a very Canberra couple World Cup 2014: Costa Rica beat Italy to send England packing Alzheimer's disease: Breaking the multicultural barriers to help sufferers The real Ryan Tandy

It is ordered and comprehensive

If your ideas are scattered and only half formed it is unlikely your audience will understand your point.

Explore this site: http://www.tie-a-tie.net/. How easy is it to find what you are looking for? How comprehensive are the instructions? Would you be able to tie a tie after consulting it?

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

It is of an appropriate length and complexity for its delivery method

Is it likely that your piece will be viewed primarily on hand held devices? In which case is it too long to be read comfortably? Is it destined for the newspaper’s Sunday supplement? In which case does it contain sufficient detail to do the issue justice? Just as you wouldn’t necessarily feel inclined to read a 5000 essay on your mobile phone you wouldn’t be expecting a 500 word puff piece in the Economist. Think about tailoring your writing to its delivery method.

Information from the Bureau of Meteorology (www.bom.gov.au) needs to be accessible on a range of devices. Think about how their site is tailored and arrange to be easy for different audiences to reach on different formats.

The language used, the spelling, grammar, and layout is appropriate for both the idea being communicated and its audience

Unless you are trying to target a very specific audience using slang, acronyms, excessively scientific language or loud or edgy site design has the potential to alienate more people than it appeals to. Ensure your language is accessible to the vast majority of your audience. As anyone who has read the letters section of The Age’s Green Guide will know, bad spelling and grammar irritates a lot of people. Don’t let people focus on these basics rather than your message.

It engages its audience - the power of storytelling, leave them wanting more.

Good writing leaves you wanting to read more, to know more. Who shot JR? Will Maddie and David (Moonlighting) ever get together? Will Frodo make it to Mount Doom? Will Harry Potter eventually triumph over Lord Voldemort? And so on. These are examples from fiction but the same is true of non-fiction works. Who wasn’t riveted by the Diary of Anne Frank? Drawn in by an enticing headline? Ever seen Super Size Me? , Bowling for Columbine?, An Inconvenient Truth? Consider how those films use storytelling to engage as well as inform.

Watch this video of an Alain De Botton TED talks presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtSE4rglxbY#t=102. How does he engage the audience?

Or this TED talks presentation from Stella Young: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K9Gg164Bsw How does she engage the audience?

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

Its voice is individual and appropriate.

The very best communicators produce material that could be only produced by them. When you read a Caroline Wilson (Chief football writer for the Age newspaper) article, particularly her opinion pieces, you can almost hear her speak. Her tone might not be for everyone but it suits it audience and it allows her the space to be heard in a very crowded field. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/bombers-need-to-sever-ties-with-james-hird-20140321-hvl6y.html

Consider how Stella Young used ‘voice’ in the clip highlighted above. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K9Gg164Bsw)

Its intent is clear and transparent

Good writing is clear where it stands. Whether it is written as an opinion piece or a feature article its stance should be clear and transparent. Opinions shouldn’t masquerade as analysis and the author’s vested interest (where they have one) should be clear and stated.

In this article http://www.abc.net.au/rampup/articles/2014/06/12/4024165.htm the author clearly states his standpoint, and his opinion. He writes in the first person (I) so it is clear who is talking and what they think alerting the audience that the contents are opinion rather than fact.

Healthy Voices is an initiative of

Bayside Medicare Local

Session OneTasks:

1. Consider the following: a. Caroline Wilson writing on James Hird: www.theage.com.au, search

under Caroline Wilson, James Hird for a range of pieces or simply read this sample: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/bombers-need-to-sever-ties-with-james-hird-20140321-hvl6y.html

b. Seth Godin’s blog: http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/

Two totally different writing styles but consider what they have in common. Do they both fulfil the features of good communication?

2. Search the web and identify other examples of good communication. We will compile a list of links during this course which illustrate good communication (and bad if you find that too).

3. Consider why you want to communicate. Define it.