Pirates are cool? Right?

I was taking a look through some of my files today and came across an article I wrote on assignment for a magazine, but had completely forgotten about. It was going to be a sidebar to go along with an article about Canadian pirates, but it never got published. Even though its not much, I'd still like it to see the light of day. With Halloween coming up, I think now is the time to post it.

Pirate Havens

Pirates, buccaneers, and privateers were the scourge of the high seas during the 15th to 18th centuries, but like everyone else, they needed a home to return to. From Africa to Atlantic Canada to the Caribbean islands, pirate havens took hold in isolate bays and sheltered harbours. Most of these settlements sprung up with the blessing of European colonial governments, as lawless home bases for buccaneers and privateers.

The Caribbean

The islands of the Spanish Main were a hotbed for piracy from the 15th to 18th centuries. Pirate havens sprung up in all corners of the Caribbean Sea, Tortuga being the most infamous. In the 1620s, the original French buccaneers began attacking passing Spanish merchant ships, as they sailed between the island and Hispaniola. Tortuga soon became a buccaneer hotbed, with the assent of the French government. English buccaneers began to arrive soon after, and Tortuga becoming the main base for attacks on Spanish shipping and settlements. After the buccaneers left, the island remained a base of operations for piracy well into the 18th century.

During the mid-17th century, England began to lure buccaneers away from Tortuga by establishing Port Royal, on Jamaica. The English governors of the island encouraged widespread attacks on Spanish interests to protect the newly founded settlement. By 1660, Port Royal was a lawless cesspool of 6,000 people. A preacher described it as “the Sodom of the New World...its population consists of pirates, cut-throats, whores, and some of the vilest persons in the whole world.” Port Royal was devastated by an earthquake in 1692 and never returned to its former glory.

Madagascar

By the late 17th century, many former buccaneers had left the Caribbean and turned to piracy in the Indian Ocean. Madagascar became their base of operation. The island's location allowed for easy access to Indian Ocean shipping routes and Arab shipping in the Red Sea. Pirate settlements sprung up all along the east coast of the the island, as more and more pirates arrived from the Caribbean. This new pirate scourge in the Indian Ocean quickly caught the attention of the English, Dutch, and French navies. Massive campaigns were launched against the pirates and soon, Madagascar's reign as the pirate haven of the Indian Ocean ended, as quickly as it started.

Nova Scotia

Piracy and privateering in the Americas was not just confined to the Caribbean. Privateering was an extremely popular form of employment for sailors of the coastal settlements of Nova Scotia. With Great Britain again at war with France and Spain in the 1790s, privateers, based out of the ports of Halifax and Liverpool, ventured far south to raid French and Spanish shipping in the Caribbean.

The War of 1812 was a boon to Nova Scotia's privateers and their home bases. With Great Britain at war against the United States, privateers marauded down the eastern seaboard. By the end of the war, Nova Scotian privateers were responsible for capturing 250 American vessels. The proceeds from the actions of these privateers ballooned the economies of port settlements up and down the Nova Scotian coast, from Louisbourg to Lunenburg.

Too social politicians?

This past week the subject of political figures and the use of social media has been a topic of conversation in several classes. These conversations stem from a presentation by Jenette Martens, of the Winnipeg Foundation, to the Editing Online and Print Media class. Martens is in charge of social media for the foundation and she lead a discussion of how she uses social media to communicate with stakeholders.

The discussion led to an exercise of researching how the Winnipeg mayoral candidates have made use of social media. Sam Katz and Judy Wasylycia-Leis have made use of Twitter and Facebook in completely different manners. Katz has a presence on both platforms, but it is extremely limited, while Wasylycia-Leis has a much greater presence.

The discussion of Katz and Wasylycia-Leis social media habits continued into our Public Relations class. The question that was posed during this discussion was if it was better if politicians tweeted for themselves or if staffers did it for them. Obviously politicians pay staff to do a lot of communicating for them, so its not surprising that staffers often are the ones that produce social media items. At the same time, politicians making use of social media for themselves provides a more personal, unfiltered viewpoint.

This can backfire though. Case in point, is the current situation involving former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray. Murray, now an Ontario provincial cabinet minister, posted tweets this week accusing Stephen Harper, Ontario opposition leader Tim Hudak, and Toronto mayor Rob Ford of being bigots. Controversy erupted, as to be expected, and Murray apologized in a written statement.

This is a major issue with politicians, and public figures in general, using social media. They're humans, they make mistakes. They're brain to mouth (or in this case fingers) filter malfunctions on occasion. Maybe they are better served by having their staffers communicate their messages through social media. What do you think?

Newspapers=King Makers?

Flipping through the Globe and Mail's website today, I came across the newspaper's official mayoral endorsement. The Globe has decided to endorse George Smitherman as Toronto's mayor. Yet before it got to the endorsement, it painted a gloom and doom situation for the city's finances and dealings with its employee unions. The editorial paints a bleak picture of the candidacy of both Smitherman and his opponent, Rob Ford. In the end, the Globe decided that Smitherman was the best candidate for the job, despite his flaws.

This editorial got me thinking. How important is a newspaper giving its endorsement to a political candidate? Will this sway large amounts of voters in their decision making process?

In the current Winnipeg mayoral campaign, the Winnipeg Free Press has yet to back anyone. To be honest, I can't remember if it gave an endorsement in the last civic election. The Sun, having an editorial slant to the right of centre, doesn't even have to give an endorsement. It's pretty obvious that Sam Katz is their candidate. I'm not sure if an endorsement by the Free Press would make any difference. Every organization out there has seemed to endorse a candidate. Would a newspaper's endorsement be anymore influential?

According to a a professor at Brown University, these endorsements do hold sway over the public to some extent. Mainly, if a newspaper goes against its traditional editorial ideology and selects a politician from the other side of the spectrum, that endorsement will be more effective. The example given was that the Chicago Tribune's endorsement of Barack Obama, the first Democrat it had endorsed in its 161 year history, was much more effective than the traditionally left leaning New York Time's endorsement of Obama.

Surveys conducted during the 2004 American presidential election found that in so-called "toss up states" the candidate with the most newspaper endorsements won that state 14 out of 15 times. It seems there might be some truth to the idea that newspapers can influence voters with their endorsements.

I'm going to keep my eyes out next week to see if the Free Press makes an endorsement and if they do which candidate they're endorsing.

Editing Key Messages

I've written in this blog, in the past, that editing seems to be the dominant aspect of 2nd-year CreComm for me. This trend continued yesterday in Public Relations class. We spent the afternoon working on developing key messages.

Key Messages are essentially what you want your audience to identify with your company, brand, organization, campaign, etc. They need to convince an audience that there is "something in it for them." Good key messages emphasize the organizations objectives, while explaining why audiences should care. They should be roughly 5-7 seconds in length, when read. This is the perfect length for a broadcast sound byte.

Now here is where editing comes into play. Key messages must be comprised of every day words, with a conversational tone. They must be written and delivered in a positive manner. Because the message needs to be short, every word needs to be hard hitting and make an impact with the audience. Good editing is essential to crafting key messages.

We sat down in class yesterday and attempted to hammer out key messages for a fictitious Red River College initiative. It was tough. People don't natural write in a conversational manner. My first draft came out extremely wooden. Then there were extraneous, filler words. These needed to be removed and sentences needed to be tightened up. After 45 minutes of work, and draft after draft of the key message, we were able to each come up with a fairly succinct, informative message for the college.

This wasn't bad for timing. I had the opportunity to work on some key messages at my summer job. I spent a full afternoon editing and re-editing, until I managed to have concise key messages.

Vigilant editing is essential to the public relations industry. It's always better to get your message across as succinctly as you can, so they can have the greatest impact with your audience.

PR and a Miracle

All 33 miners have been rescued from their ordeal deep within the earth of Chile. A touching and heart-warming story was broadcast around the world for everyone to see. I, like millions of others, sat bolted to my couch watching this unfold. The indomitable spirit of humankind had persevered.

I never thought of the what went into broadcasting the event and how it was used as a PR tool. There's a great article in today's Globe and Mail about the man who orchestrated the broadcast.

Reinaldo Sepulveda, the Chilean presidential media advisor, brought together a large, well-oiled crew that produced a broadcast that was able to fully capture the emotion of the moment. Sepulveda had been organizing the broadcast for almost as long as the miners were trapped. He made use of his expertise that he had gained as a producer of Olympic and World Cup telecasts.

The whole production has been a PR boon for the Chilean government. The success of the rescue is being used by the government as a re-branding of the nation's image. This is the image of a technological nation, that was able to overcome all odds.

The event brought together people from all over the world to watch 33 men safely rise out of the ground. Chile broadcasted a miracle, while bringing itself into the limelight.

The relevance of statistics

Statistics are a complicated part of news. The Canadian Press Stylebook acknowledges this by stating that "Statistics can be pillars of the day's news. They are also the devil's playground, luring reporters into errors of interpretation, assumption and fact." This is especially true in the field of sports reporting. Writers and editors must be able to decide which statistics have the most importance in regards to the story they are writing.

A case in point is the reporting concerning Steven Jyles of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, in the run-up to Monday's game against the B.C. Lions. Jyles, the former starting quarterback, had been benched in favour of rookie Alex Brink. In reporting on the story, writers from the Winnipeg Free Press, Globe and Mail, and reporters from TSN all seemed fixated on Jyles passing efficiency rating. It was reported throughout the media that Jyles' rating was 100.6, second in the CFL.

The question that needs to be answered is what exactly determines the passing efficiency rating. The media threw around this stat liberally, but never explained what formula determined this rating. A statistic is meaningless if readers and viewers do not understand it. Reporters and editors should clarify the meaning of statistics in order to make them more powerful parts of a story.

To clarify, passing efficiency rating is calculated by using a complex formula that takes into account completion percentage, yards per attempted pass, percentage of touchdown passes, and percentage of interceptions. While it isn't necessary to explain this obscure formula completely, an overview of what goes into the formula would enhance readers' comprehension of the statistic.

In the end, passing efficiency rating ranks much lower than the final score, when it comes sports statistics and reader interest.

Antarctica has streets?

This week Google announced that it had added Ireland and Brazil to its list of nations that it covers with its Google Maps Street View application. Brazil is the first South American country to be added to Street View. Twenty-five countries are now available in Street View.

Google had an even bigger announcement as well. It was adding Antarctica to Street View. Viewers can now zoom in on the frozen continent and take a look at ice, mountains, and the occasional penguin. Google can now claim that Street View extends to all seven continents.



On the subject of Street View, here's a site that highlights some of the better views that Google has to offer.

The Ever-Evolving Language

As I've mentioned before in this blog, English is a language that is constantly evolving. New words enter the lexicon on almost a daily basis, whether they be tech terms, slang or just something that people started to use.

The definitive authority on the English language is the Oxford English Dictionary. The dictionary traces its origins back to the late 1850s. Published by the Oxford University Press, the OED is comprised of over 300,000 main entries;157,000 bold-type combinations and derivatives; 169,000 italicized-bold phrases and combinations; 616,500 word-forms in total, including 137,000 pronunciations; 249,300 etymologies; 577,000 cross-references; and 2,412,400 usage quotations. That is a lot of words.

Each year the OED adds new words and phrases to the dictionary. 2009 saw words like Generation Y, superbug, and blogosphere added to the dictionary. These terms have been added to our language through popular culture, so the OED has added them to the dictionary. My favorite addition to the dictionary in 2009 is turducken. A turducken is a turkey, stuffed with duck, which is in turn stuffed with a chicken.

2010 saw the additions of vuvuzela, hashtag, and bromance. When bromance is officially recognized, you know that English has truly evolved.

Pass it Forward 2010 Reviewed

This year I've had the great honour of sitting on the board of directors of Pass It Forward, a charitable organization that helps kids who cannot afford hockey equipment the chance to take part in Canada's national past time. Pass It Forward, along with Perth's Drycleaners, collects used hockey equipment and gives it to kids who want to play the game, but whose parents can't afford the high price of hockey equipment. Hockey Manitoba, the sport's governing body in the province, takes the equipment and hands it out to participants in their youth hockey programs.

Pass it Forward was started last year by Kalen Qually, a Red River College Creative Communications student. Originally it began as his Independent Professional Project, but after the success the program enjoyed in its first year, he decided to continue forward this year.

Participating in the organization of the equipment drive has made me appreciate how much the implementation of the four principles of persuasion has made the program a success. The action, identification, familiar and trust, and clarity principles have all been put to good use.

For the action principle, the program's partnership with Perth's makes it easy to donate equipment. Perth's has 21 locations around Winnipeg, so it was very convenient for donations to be dropped off by people from all over the city.

As far as the identification principle goes, Pass it Forward answered the question, "What's in it for me?" by having a draw for autographed Jonathan Toews and Mike Richards Team Canada jersies. The winners were announced live on program partner Curve 94.3's morning show.

This also applied to the principle of familiarity and trust. Jonathan Toews and Mike Richards are both well known, local hockey stars and they both have a lot of name power in Winnipeg. Working with Perth's, Curve, and Hockey Manitoba has also helped to bring recognition to the program and boost donations.

Finally, the clarity principle was achieved through Pass it Forward's partnership with Curve. In the leadup to and during the equipment drive, Curve aired PSAs and frequently mentioned the program, it's goals, and how people could get involved. This helped get Pass it Forward's message out to a large audience in a clear and concise manner.

Pass it Forward 2010 was a huge success on many fronts. The most important being that thanks to the donations of Winnipeggers, lots of kids who may not of had the chance to play hockey now have been given that opportunity.