Archive for the ‘Media Control’ Category

Media statements – More than $2.4 million in funding to continue to make smoking history – Media Statements

The McGowan Government today announced Cancer Council WA has received more than $2.4 million in funding to deliver the Make Smoking History campaign over the next three years.

The Healthway funding will support the Cancer Council WA to continue Make Smoking History TV education campaigns and help Western Australians accessing services to quit smoking.

The funding will also be used to research the rise of e-cigarettes and other novel tobacco products.

Despite significant decline in tobacco use over the past decade, smoking continues to be the single most preventable cause of death and disease in Australia, accounting for 8.6% of total burden of disease.

Research also shows that e-cigarettes and novel tobacco products pose a significant risk to the health and wellbeing of the WA population, particularly for young people.

Comments attributed to Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson:

"Cancer Council WA plays a significant role in leading tobacco control efforts through the Make Smoking History campaign.

"This funding will help Cancer Council WA to deliver the next phase of the program and to continue to work alongside services to provide tailored support for Western Australians to help them kick the habit.

"The funding will also generate a new program that will address the rise of e-cigarettes and novel tobacco products."

Minister's office - 6552 5900

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Media statements - More than $2.4 million in funding to continue to make smoking history - Media Statements

Defending champion Justin Bonsignore rebounds with big Modified Tour victory at Richmond – NASCAR

RICHMOND, Va. After finishing last in the opening race of the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season in February at Floridas New Smyrna Speedway, Justin Bonsignore was in need of a rebound.

That came Friday at Richmond Raceway, where Bonsignore triumphed in the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150, the second race of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.

Bonsignore started from the pole and led early, but pit strategy shuffled him out of the lead and into the pack for much of the race. Meanwhile, 24-year-old Tommy Catalano was the star of the race, taking multiple turns at the front of the field as he appeared destined for his maiden Tour win.

However, Bonsignore had other plans.

RELATED: Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 race results

Restarting seventh with 49 laps left, Bonsignore worked his way to second and set off in pursuit of Catalano. It took Bonsignore 20 laps to run down Catalano, but once he did, the fight for the lead was on.

With 11 laps left, Bonsignore made the move to Catalanos inside. The two stayed side-by-side for the next lap before Bonsignore ultimately emerged with the race lead. He led the rest of the way for his first Tour win of the year and 32nd of his career.

Its been a long seven weeks, just driving home from work every day and youre like, Man, we are dead last in points, Bonsignore said. Deep down we know New Smyrna was out of our control. Youre going to have parts failures in this series. It was just important to come back and try and have a good day.

Its nice to bounce back. More than anything its the confidence that itll give our team.

Catalano settled for second after leading a majority of the race. Its his best Tour finish in 51 starts dating back to 2018.

Its one of those deals where youre so excited, but at the same time, youre disappointed, Catalano said. We came here with the goal of finishing in the top 10. A good day for us would have been a top-10 finish. To come 10 laps short of winning the race is definitely nothing to hang our heads on.

Chuck Hossfeld rallied late to finish third, with Kyle Ebersole overcoming a spin during qualifying to finish fourth ahead of Tyler Rypkema in fifth.

Eric Goodale, Jimmy Blewett, Jon McKennedy, returning NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Donny Lia and Ron Silk completed the top 10.

Ryan Newman, making his first Tour start of the season for the debuting SS Racing team, led a few laps early in the race before fading to a 13th-place finish.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season resumes May 14 at New Yorks Riverhead Raceway.

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Defending champion Justin Bonsignore rebounds with big Modified Tour victory at Richmond - NASCAR

Social Media Content Plan: Strategy Tips and Template

Updated Feb. 1, 2021

Concerned the impending demise of cookies will make audience behaviors harder to track across social media? Not sure if your business needs to make time for TikTok? Curious if misinformation and declining user trust make social media an unsafe space for your brand? Youre not alone.

Social media can be a tough nut to crack. The rules, opportunities, audiences, and value propositions vary greatly from one channel to another and can shift gears without notice.

The one thing to conquer those social media concerns is a channel plan an advanced directive for how your brand manages its content on these evolving platforms. It also spells out what you should (and shouldnt) expect to achieve.

Many brands mistakenly assume they must distribute content anywhere and everywhereto maximize its reach. But plastering your brands content across every social network, trendy news site, and video platform is not a channel plan. It holds no regard for whom it reaches, how they might be impacted, or how that impact might reflect on the business.

Remember: Yourcontent marketing strategyshould define your social media marketing strategy. Evaluate each social channel against your business goals and audience needs. Turn this evaluation into an actionable plan so everybody on your team will know where, when, and what they should post on each channel and what their efforts are meant to achieve.

Heres how to create and implement a channel plan for social media marketing that will enable you to do just that.

The channel-planning process involves three steps: (1) understanding the platforms value proposition, (2) creating your brands use case for engagement, and (3) ensuring everyone on your team works from the same set of guidelines. Lets look closer at each one.

Each channel and its core communitys engagement preferences play major roles in deciding if your content is a good fit. Your audience might be open to connecting with your brand in a Twitter chatbut reservesSnapchatfor personal conversations. Authoritative long-form content might play well onLinkedInor Medium, whilememes, mash-ups, and captioned photosare more appropriate for platforms like Instagram.

Its important to familiarize yourself with the characteristics of each channel and its corresponding community before joining the conversation. Use this helpful tip sheet from Aaron Agius as a primer for matching the content to the best distribution channel to achieve your brands goals.

With a short list of potential channels in hand, map existing content assets to their most appropriate distribution channels. Remember to consider the content experiences audiences expect, determine if you have the resources to meet those expectations, and evaluate the potential to deliver meaningful business results with your efforts.

Answer these questions (adapted from CMIs Social Media Survival Guide) to decide if a channel is the right fit for your business. Your responses also can provide clues as to how to position your content to compel the audience to act:

Who uses this channel and what are they using it for?

Will it help us meet our objectives?

Does it fit with oureditorial mission?

What results do we want to achieve?

What kinds of content work best on this platform?

If your responses dont reveal a compelling opportunity to engage on that channel or if the platforms environment isnt suited to your brands unique content vision and mission, take a step back and reserve your teams resources for channels that are a better fit.

While your companys goals are important, you also need to establish the right tone, the right topics, and the right conversations to ensure the content delivers the experience your audiences want.

Everybody who posts your brands content should understand and align with a set of social media guidelines to maintain a consistent voice and quality standards.

I recommend reviewing your company style guide to refine your social personality and instill factual accuracy and precision. That includes correct usage (and spelling) of unique terms like company trademarks, product names, personnel, and service offerings.

Also consider how to draw attention to your social media content, including the use of hashtags. Wally Koval, former CMI team member and author of Accidentally Wes Anderson created from his popular Instagram account by the same name, has pointed out that pursuing too many audiences at once can dilute your contents impact. He suggests aiming for five to 10 of the most relevant hashtags including two or three unique to your brand.

Take note of topics or issues your team should avoid discussing on social media, as well as any legal or regulatory policies they must follow. For example, if you dont want to risk falling afoul of the EUs GDPR rules, North Coast Medias Bethany Chambers suggests documenting these criteria in your social media guidelines:

Consumption preferences and audience trends: Are there industry events, media innovations, or consumer behaviors on which your content distribution can capitalize (e.g.,livestreamingvideo consumption habits, device-specific capabilities like memojis, popular memes)? How might these impact the tone/velocity of your distribution? Are there controversies oralgorithm shiftsthat might causeyou to reconsider their value to your brand?

Current events: Trending topics can present timely distribution opportunities. For example, important, culture-related topics like diversity and inclusivity, racial sensitivity, and gender equality are at the forefront of the U.S. medias conversations right now. When brands use their social content as a podium to express their values and lend their support to important issues like Chase and Fubu CEO Daymond John did by co-creating Black Entrepreneurs Day, a Facebook livestream event that featured roundtable discussions, audience Q&As, and musical performances it can earn them a critical boost in visibility and relevance in social media conversations that may have been closed to them.

Team resources: If you only have an editor or two managing the content marketing process, the bandwidth for consistent distribution and conversation monitoring may be limited to a few outlets; however, if you have a full team of writers, editors, and other distribution partners at your disposal, the extra manpower (or womanpower, see above) affords increased flexibility and control to manage content across many more channels.

Now that you have the information to determine where, when, and how to distribute your social content, building the plan is simple. Create a matrix of the channels that make the most sense for your brand and note engagement specifics for each one. When all the fields are filled, you have a template that can be referenced easily, updated as necessary, and shared throughout your organization.

In my experience, it can be useful to outline as much information as possible in your initial plan so your team can refer to it when new opportunities emerge or a snap decision needs to be made. But its perfectly OK to start simply then build on or refine your data fields as you learn whats working and what isnt.

The following is a snapshot of recommended information for your initial channel plan. (You candownloadand customize the template [go toFile > Download As >and select the format.]):

Editors note:While CMI was used as a reference for this template, the content does not reflect its channel plan.

Click to download

You may also want to consider including:

No matter how far and wide your business intends to extend its reach, successful content marketing distribution often comes down to having a strategic, systematic, and scalable approach. This model ensures that everyone works from the same social media blueprint, but its not the only way to get the job done. Let us know what processes you use to determine where, when, and how you share your content and spread your brand influence.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Social Media Content Plan: Strategy Tips and Template

How to use the virgin tv control app | Virgin Media Help

If youve got a Virgin TV V6 box, you can use the app to watch selected recordings on your mobile or tablet around the home. You can even download them from the Virgin TV V6 box and watch them on the go.

Youll just need to be connected to your home network to stream or download your recordings. But once your recordings have been downloaded, you can play them anywhere. Say goodbye to boring train rides.

Note: You cannot download recordings from Virgin TV 360 boxes.

How you stream or download recording depends on what type of device you have.

To stream recordings on your Apple iOS device, simply do the following:

To download from recordings on your Apple iOS device:

The show will then be saved in the On Phone tab, ready for you to watch.

To stream recordings on your Android device, simply do the following:

To download from recordings to your Android device, simply do the following:

The download will show in the On Phone tab, where you can select it to watch.

You'll have 30 days from the download date to watch it. After you start watching a recording, you will usually have 48 hours before it expires. The expiry times can sometimes vary between content providers.

Usually, you can download a recording twice per household. However, this can vary based on the content provider.

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How to use the virgin tv control app | Virgin Media Help

How Western News Outlets Are Piercing Putin’s Propaganda Bubble – The Atlantic

As Russian forces continue their brutal invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is waging a digital war of his own at home. Russias media sphere, which was tightly controlled by the state even before the Ukraine invasion, has become even smaller. For years, Putin has overseen a sustained crackdown on press freedom in Russiaa process that in recent weeks claimed two of the countrys last remaining independent news broadcasters, TV Rain and Echo of Moscow. Now, thanks to the Kremlins latest censorship law, many of the Wests major news outlets have been forced out of the country too, and millions of Russians find themselves blocked from accessing numerous major social-media platforms as well as anything resembling free and independent news.

Instead of giving up on their Russian audiences, though, international news organizations are trying to exploit gaps within this new digital iron curtain to reach the Russian people.

Although the majority of Russians rely on state-run television as their primary source of news, the fact that some consume news from foreign outlets has long upset the Russian government, which has spent years asserting control over domestic and foreign media in the country. But even by the Kremlins standards, this latest effort to block Russians from much of the internet marks an escalationone that has quickly transformed the country into a digital pariah.

Russians are, however, finding technical workarounds to sidestep the governments bans, some of which have been encouraged by international news outlets that are keen to maintain a digital presence in the country, even if they can no longer claim a physical one. The New York Times, which has announced that it has withdrawn its journalists from Russia, and The Washington Post, which has removed bylines from its Russia stories to prevent its journalists there from being caught up in the crackdown, launched their own dedicated channels on Telegram, the as-yet-unbanned social-media-and-messaging app that claims more than 1 billion downloads (Russia is its second-biggest market) and acts as a platform to both news outlets and Russian state channels alike. Meanwhile, the BBC, whose Russian-language website more than tripled its weekly average audience (10.7 million people compared with its average 3.1 million) in the first week of the Russian invasion, before being blocked by the Kremlin, encouraged its audience to use tools such as the Psiphon app, an open-source, virtual private-network service that helps users conceal their location, and Tor, a more secure web browser. (The British broadcaster also reverted to more old-school tactics, announcing that it would revive its shortwave radio service as an alternative means of reaching its audiences in Ukraine and Russia.) In the weeks since the Russian invasion began, demand for VPNs in the country has skyrocketed by more than 2,500 percent compared with pre-invasion levels, according to Top10VPN, an online VPN tracker.

Perhaps no outlet is better placed to overcome these challenges than Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The broadcaster was founded during the Cold War with the explicit purpose of reaching audiences behind the Iron Curtain. Despite the Soviet Unions efforts to jam broadcasts, people still found a way through the static, Jamie Fly, the president of RFE/RL, told me. I meet people all the time who remember sitting by the radio, literally turning the dial, trying to find the one frequency that had not been jammed. Today, RFE/RL, which is funded by (though editorially independent from) the United States government, is directing its audience to utilize a number of circumvention tools, including VPNs and Telegram.

I spoke with Fly days after RFE/RL announced that it was suspending its operations in Russia after a more-than-three-decade presence in the country (initiated in 1991 with an invitation from thenRussian President Boris Yeltsin to open a permanent bureau in Moscow, which Putin revoked a decade later). The decision, which came days after the Russian government blocked access to RFE/RL and several other foreign broadcasters, was the culmination of the Kremlins yearslong campaign to expel the broadcasterone that involved designating RFE/RL as a foreign agent and subjecting it to tens of millions of dollars in fines. Although the broadcaster continues to report from within Russia in a limited fashion, Fly said that the majority of its Russian service is now based out of Riga, in neighboring Latvia.

Read: The ultimate symbol of Americas diminished soft power

That RFE/RL now finds itself facing another iron curtain, with its primary methods of serving its audience once again jammed by authorities who would much rather it didnt exist, hasnt undermined its resolve. Our history is coming full circle, Kiryl Sukhotski, who oversees RFE/RLs Russian and Ukrainian teams, told me. Only this time, the broadcaster has more technological tools in its arsenal. In addition to Telegram and VPNs, RFE/RL has also been experimenting with other circumvention tools such as mirror sites, which enable the outlet to replicate or mirror the content from its blocked website at a different URL. When those sites invariably get blocked, we just open up a new mirror, Patrick Boehler, RFE/RLs head of digital strategy, told me. Its a bit of a cat-and-mouse game.

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the broadcaster isnt getting its content to Russian audiences but ensuring that its methods are easily accessible. This is where the Kremlin has the greatest advantage. For all the Russians who have been able to access independent news and information using various circumvention tools, millions more remain firmly ensconced within the Kremlins echo chamber. Although its influence in Russia has been in decline, state-run television still remains the primary source of news for as much as 62 percent of Russians, according to a 2021 study by the Moscow-based Levada Center, Russias last independent pollster. To tune in to a typical Russian television broadcast, as my colleague Olga Khazan recently did, is to peek into this carefully crafted alternate realityone in which Russia is the victim, the Ukrainian government is controlled by Nazis, and the war in Ukraine doesnt exist.

If youre a middle-aged person who is not really on the internet, who is maybe supportive of Putin and the government, and youre watching TV, as most Russians of that age do, you will definitely be exposed to a firehose of propaganda about how bad the West is and [how] Russians are under attack, Jill Dougherty, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and CNNs former Moscow bureau chief, told me.

The pervasive nature of the Russian governments efforts doesnt make attempts to combat them any less vital, however. Even if a Russian thought that it was propaganda from the West, at least theyre getting a different viewpoint, Dougherty said. What theyre getting right now is only one viewpoint, and it is highly emotional and very angry.

Though news outlets such as RFE/RL are best placed to provide these alternative viewpoints, they arent the only ones who can. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made an impassioned appeal to Russian citizens through Telegram and other channels, urging them to spread the truth about what is happening in Ukraine. Others have endeavored to reach out to ordinary Russians directly using a tool created by a team of Polish programmers known as Squad303 that enables anyone to text, email, or phone tens of millions of Russians at random. Since its March 4 launch, thousands of people have used the service to send more than 40 million messages to Russians directly with information about the war. We are bypassing the digital iron curtain, a Squad303 spokesperson told me. He cited RFE/RL as part of the groups inspiration.

Thanks to Radio Free Europe, there was in us a hunger for freedom and democracy, which was the basis for the creation of Solidarity, which in effect overthrew communism in Europe, he said, referencing the independent Polish trade union. Now we are trying to help the Russian people in the same way.

Arnold Schwarzenegger: I have a message for my Russian friends

The way everyone I spoke with for this story sees it, the Westand, in particular, its news mediahas an obligation not to turn its back on the Russian public. As space for alternative information becomes ever smaller, and as the threats against those who diverge from the Kremlins narrative become more explicit, the greater that responsibility becomes.

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How Western News Outlets Are Piercing Putin's Propaganda Bubble - The Atlantic