Borkowski Weekly Media Trends: Hacks, Cultural Calendar Cancelled, Graphs And Surveillance

Borkowski Weekly Media Trends

A wrap-up of the COVID-19 soaked news agenda to read whilst isolating. Enjoy!


Best PR Stunt Post-Coronavirus?!
 
As traditional social interactions cease indefinitely, millions are flocking to video chat apps to interact with friends and loved ones. But as our culture of socialising shifts to digital alternatives, huge privacy and security concerns have emerged almost overnight. 
 
First rumblings this week came from the hugely popular app Houseparty with thousands of rumours circulating around social media that hackers were able access and exploit users’ personal information. These rumours appear to be false, and Houseparty dealt with the bad press exceptionally well with an announcement and an eye-catching stunt, offering a $1,000,000 bounty for the first individual to provide proof of such a campaign.
 
The likely cause of these hack claims? Credential stuffing attacks where cybercriminals use lists of login credentials from previous successful hack attacks.
 
When these digital trends first emerge, privacy and security are never number one priority for the masses. Once there’s a seed of doubt, however, panic can start to spread. In the last month there was a 550% rise in daily traffic but with these allegations of Zoom mishandling users’ data it looks like they can’t cope with the traffic. Zoom should learn from Houseparty’s forthright response before their reputation is irreparably tarnished.


Cancellation of the Cultural Calendar

That’s it folks, with the cancellation of Edinburgh Festival Fringe as well as the main International festival we wave bye bye to the cultural year. We’ve seen Glastonbury finally hang up the towel, and this week Wimbledon gone too. With the largest arts festival in the world officially cancelled, we see the final nail in this year’s cultural coffin…
 
Whilst we sympathise for all involved and hope this cancellation does not cost too many artists and companies their magnum opus project, or even their career, the scale of the impact COVID-19 is having on the whole arts industry is gargantuan.
 
However, the Edinburgh Festivals and particularly the Fringe will survive this; it’s bigger than COVID-19. But what this crisis and this year’s cancellation will do is intensify the spotlight on long term issues its organisers and major operators have been ignoring: Is the Fringe too big? Who pays for and who gains from it? How do we reconcile the festival with the lives of permanent residents of the city? How do you galvanize a media profile which has waned to the point that it’s considered a regional festival? And how does the Fringe secure a long term future in a culture landscape dominated by giants such as Netflix and Amazon? Without the pyrotechnics of the festival this August to distract, we’ve entered a quiet moment during which these questions are only going to get louder.


The Return of the Graphs

As Coronavirus puts the journalistic cat among the clickbait pigeons, one innovation seems to be having its moment in the sun: data visualisation. Whether it’s this terrifying chart of US unemployment in historical context from the Telegraph, or the Washington Post’s beautiful illustration of how a virus like Covid-19 spreads, it’s all about the charts right now.
 
Of course, this kind of data journalism isn’t new. But in an environment dominated by misinformation, confusion and reader fatigue, it does seem to be coming into its own. Reporting on coronavirus relies on hard numbers: of cases, deaths, employees furloughed. This format, more than any other, helps the reader to understand what those numbers really mean, and why they’re important.
 
PRs should pay attention to this trend too. Do your clients have access to data that might help make up these highly shareable pieces? That’s a clear win for you, and for the public who, more than ever, need as much hard information as they can get.


A World Without Corona
 

As our world slows down to a crawl, and our society goes through emotional and economic upheaval, we are only just beginning to think about how society will change after this. Post 9/11 was defined by a counter-reaction of aggressive foreign policy, Post-2008 crash by austerity and frustration with the European Union but this is arguably bigger than both. What will we emerge into, and more importantly – who will decide?
 

It is far too early to tell with any clarity, but we must watch which technologies are developed and where we turn for security. As the world’s political and corporate powers race to find a cure for COVID-19, will we take our lead from China and its mass control over population movement and information, or will a lasses-faire approach favoured by Trump take over. Events such as these force societies to reassess what they value and where they are going – let’s hope that we make the right decisions and emerge stronger and more careful from this.
 

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