In this double MediaPodcast, Lee Hopkins talks with Amy Gooen who is Manager, Global Internal Communication for VeriSign, a world-wide internet security company. Lee also talks with Catriona Byrne who is a Director at SageCo, a company that looks at “demographic management within workforces”.

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theMediaPod interview with Amy Gooen

[audio:http://themediapod.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/themediapod_hopkins_byrne.mp3]

theMediaPod interview with Catriona Byrne

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Too many organisations treat their people as production units. They do so at their peril. Organisations aren’t a collection of offices, factories and sales outlets, they are a group of people working towards the same goal. Success isn’t dependent on the assets an organisation has, it’s what people decide to do with those assets, and how they use them, that brings about success. So effective communication is vital. No one understands this more than one of Australia’s leading communicators, Meryl David.

Meryl is the Internal Communication Manager for Zurich Financial Services in Australia. She is based in Sydney.
She describes her role as helping managers communicate effectively with people across the organisation.

“I think my job is to connect people with each other, and people with the company,” Meryl says.

That might seem like a simple explanation of her job role, but it also says much more about Meryl and her approach to communication. She connects people, not employees. The difference is more than semantic. The difference is in her attitude.

Apart from being a leading business communicator, Meryl is also a long-time member of the International Association of Business Communicators, and former Asia Pacific Director of that organisation. Few, if any, people around the world have done more to progress the interests and professionalism of business communication.

Lee Hopkins spoke with Meryl about communication and its importance to organisations. It’s a conversation that I’m sure both skilled communicators and students will get a lot out of.

There is another interesting interview with Meryl on the Ragan Postcard blog too.

Digging deeper

• If you’re interested in how internal communication plays a role in people interpreting organisational mission statements, you might like to read: Whitbred, R. (2005). They don’t see things like we do: A simultaneous analysis of the influence of formal organisational, emergent, and individual factors on emergent patterns of perceptions of organisational mission. Available at: http://praxis.massey.ac.nz
• If you’re interested in learning how to write content for newsletters, podcasts and other tactics that will keep people coming back for more, have a listen to Donna Papacosta’s Trafcom News Podcast #37.
  
• Shel Holtz has a good “rant” about internal communication in the September 11 edition of For Immediate Release.
  
• For a great overview of internal communication you can’t go past our own Lee Hopkin’s post What is internal communication? It’s cross posted from the very fine Forward blog

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theMediaPod interview with Meryl David

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A collection of dolphins is described as a pod, so when theMediaPod went looking for someone to talk about political communication, who better to ask than South Australia’s own parliamentary dolphin, Isobel Redmond.

Wikipedia details how Mrs Redmond, the Liberal Member for Heysen, whilst working as a solicitor on a native title land claim was bestowed the Aboriginal name Joondinya, meaning dolphin. In this MediaPodcast Mrs Redmond talks with Lee Hopkins about that experience, her thoughts on electronic communication, and how she communicates with her constituents. It’s a warm, funny and very informative interview that we’re sure you’ll enjoy (and recommend to your interested colleagues).

For more information about political communication you may like to read:

Davis, A. (2002), Public relations democracy, public relations, politics and the mass media in Britain, Manchester University Press.

McNair, B. (2003) ‘Party political communication II: political public relations’ in Introduction to political communication London: Routledge,

Stockwell, S. (2002), ‘Taxonomy of the political campaign’ paper to the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association conference 2002.

Stockwell, S. (2004), ‘Public Relations in Government’ in, Public relations, theory and practice. Jane Johnson, and Clara Zawawi, (Eds.) Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2004.

Wring, D. (2005), ‘The public relations state’ in Politics of marketing the labour party Houndsmill: Palgrave Macmillan.

Young, S. (2004), ‘The pr state’ in Persuaders, inside the hidden machine of political advertising North Melbourne: Pluto Press.

[audio:http://themediapod.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/isobel_redmond-lee_hopkins-07sep2006.mp3]

Interview with Isobel Redmond

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In today’s mediapodcast, Ross Monaghan ventures into the Victorian Police Media Unit to talk with recent Deakin PR graduate Marika Fengler about her role as a Media Officer. According to Marika, truth is stranger than fiction, and the truth is that she loves her new, fast-paced job in public relations.

[audio:http://themediapod.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/Mediapod%20Marika%20Fengler.mp3]

Interview with Marika Fengler, Vic Pol Media Unit

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In this mediapodcast Lee Hopkins talks about employee communication with popular Canadian PR podcaster Donna Papacosta. She shares some great insights into employee communication, based on her 20 years experience as a business communicator.

Donna, an IABC member, owns Trafalgar Communications, a consultancy that specialises in helping clients communicate better using both traditional and new media. Trafalgar’s website is jam-packed with practical tips for communicators (or anyone interested in improving their communications skills for that matter). In addition, Donna writes an excellent blog, and produces one of my favourite podcasts, Trafcom News.

Donna’s professional and generous attitude to sharing information is so typical of the spirit that I find in IABC members – which is why I’m a member, and recommend membership to anyone with an interest in business communications.

As Donna says, “hat-tip” to Lee Hopkins for another great interview.

[audio:http://themediapod.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/internalcomms-papacosta.mp3]

Lee interviews Donna Papacosta

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Communicating effectively with a large and diverse workforce is a crucial, but difficult, role in most organisations. When it comes to policing, the vital natural of keeping employees up-to-date is even more important. It is also often more difficult with a large percentage of employees on shift, often out of the office, and many dealing with difficult or sensitive issues on a daily basis. That’s the task faced by The Victorian Police Strategic Communications Unit’s Elise Tiedgen. In this mediapodcast Ross talks with Elise about the strategies and tactics used to communicate effectively with the 13,600 employees in the Victoria Police.

Victorian Police career information is available here.

[audio:http://themediapod.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/Interview%20with%20Elise%20Tiedgen.mp3]

Interview with Elise Tiedgen, Victorian Police

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