Is the information overload driving you crazy?

posted by Judette Coward-Puglisi, President of IABC T&T

It was a conscious choice not to become a "crackberrian." Among my friends that makes me an anomaly. I am aware of course, of the life advantages of the little black box, clutched in your hand in the same tenacious way a baby does an umbilical cord. The Blackberry keeps you connected. Switched-on. Clued-in. But, I swore a long time ago never to become one those people.

You know who they are. They are the ones who take their cell phone to church and put it on vibrate. They are your friends who are in a conversation with you, but, as you're obviously not holding their interest, they take the call from the phone that's ringing Rhianna's latest hit and continue to talk to whoever's on the other end. They are the people who are sitting in a restaurant and checking voice-mail every 15 minutes. They are the business persons who take another call during a face-to-face meeting with you. They are people who are not in the moment but always looking to see, "what's next" and "what else" should they be doing.

Most of my resistance to being constantly plugged in came after I took stock of my work day. When I get in at 5:00 am , I wade through 25 to 30 e-mail messages. I move onto voice-mail, which is limited, thankfully, to accepting only 2 messages since I last checked it. Afterwards, I check a handful of web sites, mail, and other paper-based notices from my assistants which also need my daily review. I do all this within a 2 hour time-frame, which would be perfect, if only for the fact that I have to repeat this process several times during the day, and also deal with a continuously ringing cell phone which is supposed to keep me in touch.

I am not alone. In a global survey of over 1,700 business communications professionals (conducted by the International Association of Business Communicators of which there is a T&T Chapter) an overwhelming majority of respondents (85%) said that e-mail overload was taking over their lives and having a negative effect on their productivity. The negative effect was even higher (93%) for users of Blackberry devices and other Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). 62% of respondents said they received too much e-mail, with 81 % saying that their e-mail was always left open, implying that they were continuously wired to a virtual mode of communication.

At some point, all the information from so many sources becomes too much to handle. For me, professionally being constantly connected in the workplace, while very useful, robbed me of the necessary silent time needed to reflect on my business, its current situation and where it was going. Personally, with a daily to-do-list a mile longer than Wendy Fitzwilliam's legs coupled with constant deadlines, it became easier and easier to move away from my centre and subscribe to the mistaken belief that busyness authenticated my presence in the world.

Of course there are many ways to take back control. Information filters can help with the volumes of data, screening out less-than-critical messages. Deleting your name from list servers is another way to limit the influx of e-mail. And sleeping in bed without the Blackberry on the pillow next to you (I swear a business associate told me he does this) will definitely be helpful.

But for me, the most important solution has been to continue the human, face -to -face connection with important relationships, whether business or personal. After all, these relationships are the very things that provide the energy in my life. I've found that you can never stray too far from what is really meaningful before losing connection with yourself, everybody else and the things that really matter. And if you've lost that, neither b-mobile nor the best Digicel hookup can bring it back.

Judette Coward Puglisi is the Managing Director of Mango Media Caribbean (www.mangomediacaribbean.com). She is the founder, and current President of the International Association of Business Communicators, Trinidad and Tobago .

Crime and its effect on brand T&T

posted by Judette Coward-Puglisis - President of IABC T&T

Just this morning at our staff briefing, I told Mango Media Caribbean's communications intern, Jane Sadaphal, that we should blog about the issue of taking crime off the front pages of the newspapers.

The issue was raised at the IABC T&T's first quarterly session, "Communicators meet the Business Press", and was in direct response to the Tourism Development Company's (TDC) corporate communications manager, Nicole Du Boulet, who said that the local newspapers' preoccupation with crime was having a negative impact on the Trinidad and Tobago brand and the country's tourism product.

I posed the question to Nadine Johnson, Marketing Specialist at TDC, whether visitors' arrival to T&T is affected when crime is covered on the front pages of the local print media, and how does the TDC measure the value of Brand T&T in relation to the amount of coverage crime gets.

In the interim, Karel Mc Intosh, a Caribbean PR researcher posted this response to my query about whether TDC's plea was in fact a request for the media to censor what was placed on their front pages of their newspapers.

"I understand the challenges facing practitioners in the tourism industry, especially since crime is always on or in the country's media houses' headlines. However, the journalists are reporting actual events. Yes, it might be more tourism friendly to not have those stories published. However, the reporters are doing their jobs. Some may argue that crime occurs everyday and has been going on for a quite a while. That's true, but one must also consider the fact that journalists are also historians in a sense, and right now they're documenting a dark period in the country's social history."

(Read Mc Intosh's other insightful comments on www.caribbeanpr.blogspot.com)

Maria Rivas Mc Millan, Executive Vice President of IABC T&T, is in agreement with curtailing the amount of coverage crime gets.

She referred to the dumbing down (my words and not hers) of our population. According to Mc. Millan, the regular diet that Trinbogonians are being fed about criminal activities means that it is all we ever talk about i.e. who killed who, who comitted suicide, who drank poison and the bandit that entered the house and shot the man etc. etc. "We are becoming a country of illiterates."

I am not sure whether we can point accusatory, scrooge like fingers at the media and accuse their coverage as a cause of illiteracy but I think the comments from this fantastically experienced corporate communicator points to the issue of balance i.e. why is crime constantly on our front pages.


Is the media truly being a mirror, reflecting what is going on in society or is the amount of crime coverage a reflection of the internal working of the local newsrooms. Let's face it. Crime is the easiest kind of story to cover and in the ever revolving doors that comprise the various newsrooms, there are too few experienced reporters and journalists who are willing, or even able to do the more in depth kind of new gathering or investigation that leads to other kinds of lead stories.

Journalist Sandra Chouthi raised an important point at IABC T&T's panel discussion. According to the Guardian associate business editor, citizens need to hold legislators accountable. Are government policies on crime working? Obviously not. And citizens can assess only when they are informed.

Media Theory 101 states that citizens have outcome preferences. Outcome preferences are attitudes about the desirability of specific ends, such as safe communities, clean air or even protection from foreign interests deemed undesirable. And their preference can only be shaped through several sources, a primary one being the media. In any given year these outcomes preferences are critical, but in an election year, even more so.

Should crime be featured less on the front pages of the Newsday, Guardian and the Express? And how did the savvy, experienced editors in Jamaica and Barbados agree to decrease crime reporting on their newspapers' lead pages?

As President of IABC T&T I am determined to get some concrete answers.

Building the bridge between media and communicators

Judette Coward-Puglisi (IABC T&T President)

Fourty-four corporate communicators met with some of the country's most senior journalists today (December 7). It was the IABC T&T's first meeting with its external public and consequently a really critical one. Here's my take on some of the issues discussed. When corporate communications is done properly, an item of information is disseminated to media gatekeepers, who then decide to report the information either directly or indirectly. Reportage is done, research is accumulated, interviews are performed. Eventually the information item becomes a media report, and it is at that moment that the public relations professional can no longer control it entirely.

Media outlets - particularly the most desirable, most credible ones - operate autonomously, reporting the information they deem necessary or interesting and excluding all else. Time constraints, space limitations, and the realities of economics play as prominent a role in the decision-making process as the newsworthiness of the information being considered.

I was particularly intrigued by the comments form the tourism team who asked why crime was finding its way so frequently on the front pages of the country's newspapers. The argument being that when it does, it has a direct, negative impact on the country's brand.

IABC Seminar - Communicators meet the Business Press

On Thursday December 7, the International Association of Business Communicators Trinidad and Tobago Chapter will host the seminar - Communicators meet the Business Press - where business communicators will have the opportunity to meet editors from the print and broadcast media. The event will be hosted at Angostura House (Eastern Main Road, Laventille) from 7.30 am to 10.00 am.

In a moderated panel discussion, senior editors /journalists will speak on issues ranging from Alcoa and media ethics to forming a new relationship paradigm between communicators and journalists.

The panellists are:
1. Anthony Wilson – Business Editor and Acting Editor, Trinidad Guardian.
2. Sandra Chouthi – Associate Business Editor, Trinidad Guardian.
3. Julian Rogers – Media Consultant and Head of News, CNMG.
4. Nigel Cumberbatch – Business Editor, Trinidad Express.
5. Rory Rostant – Business Editor, Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.

The panel will explore the following themes:
· Business Journalism – Can communicators become a source and still maintain integrity?
· Understanding the faces of Business Journalism and putting the paper to bed.
· Identity and Image: a journalist’s perception of a communicator.
· Shaping a new relationship paradigm between communicators and journalists.
· Alcoa – the good, the bad and the ugly! The disconnect between journalists and the corporate entity.

The seminar fee for IABC members is TT$200. The fee for non-members is TT$250. Breakfast is included. For reservations, please call Jane Sadaphal at 621-3830 or email iabctt@gmail.com.

Registration closes on December 5 at 2 pm.