Why we find it easier to believe “bad” things about people who we don’t know...
Hello there :)
Welcome to issue seventy seven of Manufacturing Serendipity, a loosely connected, somewhat rambling collection of the unexpected things I’ve recently encountered.
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Speaking of coffee, grab yourself a suitable beverage my loves, let’s do this thing…
Part I: Things I’ve Been Thinking About
One for my PR friends, (feel free to skip this, if PR isn’t your jam).
I mentioned in the last edition that I’d written a post for Buzzstream — it’s now live, and you can read it here: How to Write a Media Pitch.
It’s a long read, but (hopefully!) a good one. Writing media pitches is something I’m asked about a lot, and in this post I’ve tried to include as much practical advice as I can. I’ve also written it through the lens of a particular PR campaign, so rather than being purely theoretical, you’ll see examples of how I’d go about pitching three different stories to journalists in three seperate verticals.
I hope you find it useful, and if you’ve got any questions/thoughts/feelings, I’d love to hear them, just hit reply to this email.
Moar serendipitous finds:
Why we find it easier to believe “bad” things about people who we don’t know…
“When you ask people how happy they are, most of them go, “I’m pretty happy.” When you ask them how happy other people are, they go, “Oh, other people are not very happy.”
This effect is gigantic and you see it all over the world:
In this article, experimental psychologist Adam Mastroianni, explores two of the psychological pillars which cause us to think like this.
I particularly loved this bit — possibly we find it easier to believe “bad” things about people who we don’t know, because we hear far more “bad” things, than “good” things about them:
“One of the main things you hear about people who aren’t part of your social network [or group] is that they’re up to no good. When you pay for this information, it’s called “news,” and when volunteers provide it for free on an ad-supported site, it’s called “social media.”
Once, as a little demonstration for a talk, I took a random two weeks of New York Times front pages and color coded them: red for “people are bad to one another,” green for “people are good to one another,” and gray for “people doing neutral stuff/it depends on your point of view.”
The Grey Lady is, in fact, black and white and red all over:
Isolated for six months, scientists in Antarctica began to develop their own accent
“Antarctica is a bleak, remote and dark place during the winter, but a handful of people each year brave the conditions to live in almost totally cut off from the rest of the world. The experience can change how they speak.”
An analysis of title drops in movies
“A title drop is when a character in a movie says the title of the movie they're in. Here's a large-scale analysis of 73,921 movies from the last 80 years on how often, when and maybe even why that happens.”
In the Shadow of Silicon Valley
A wonderful long-read from Rebecca Solnit:
“By producing such extremes of wealth, tech is returning us to a kind of feudalism, with a few powerful figures accountable to no one.”
How Taylor Tomlinson Nailed the Closing Joke in her Netflix Special
I’m fascinated by the process of creating a stand-up set, so I loved this interactive look at how Tomlinson workshopped the closing gag for her Netflix special over a 9-month period.
“It seems to me that there is a fundamental discrepancy between the way readers interact with books and the way the hack-your-brain tech community does. A wide swath of the ruling class sees books as data-intake vehicles for optimizing knowledge rather than, you know, things to intellectually engage with.”
João Charrua’s Origami Portraits
“There is something mysterious and magical about masks,” says João Charrua. “A mask intrinsically carries an energy with which we identify in some way. They are like portals to our imagination.”
[…]
Charrua began exploring origami around 13 years ago, when he was looking for a pastime to share with his daughter. He started researching contemporary practitioners and was fascinated by the level of detail that could be achieved. “Origami requires rational and sequential thought, where each fold goes to form part the whole, and they all have to come together to produce the final result,” he says.
Before creating the final piece, Charrua often makes “sketches,” or three-dimensional drafts, which allow him to visualize specific features and make changes before starting on the formal model.”
All the images below are from Charrua’s Instagram:
Part II: Books I’m Reading Right Now
Swanfolk, Kristín Ómarsdóttir (translated by Vala Thorodds) — set in the near future, in an unnamed, totalitarian society, this Icelandic novel focuses on protagonist, Elísabeth Eva, who works for a “Special Unit” that monitors everything from stand-up comics to the sexual activity of young women. One day, whilst out walking, she encounters the swanfolk: creatures with the lower bodies of swans and the upper bodies of humans.
In an interview, Ómarsdóttir revealed that, in her view, modern society is “like a spaceship speeding away from reality” — and, for me, at least, this is the core theme the book deals with: what we perceive to be real, and the extent to which our perceptions of reality are continually skewed. It definitely won’t be for everyone, but I loved this world-bending, dream-like, troubling novel.
Part III: Things I’ve Been Watching
Is There Anybody Out There? (Netflix) — director Ella Glendining was born with no hip joints and very short thigh bones; and so, as she notes herself: her disability is both visually obvious and very rare. This rarity is what prompts her to begin to look for others with the same condition, and in the film we follow her on this journey. Glendining is unflinching when it comes to asking questions, not just of those around her but also of herself; and in doing so, she exposes the ableism she and others experience in both obvious and less overt ways. Utterly brilliant.
Ladybird (Amazon Prime) — I’ve been meaning to watch this film for ages, and I’m so glad I finally got around to it. Laurie Metcalf and Saoirse Ronan are brilliantly cast as mother and daughter in Greta Gerwig’s beautifully observed coming of age comedy-drama; and the friendship between Saoirse Ronan and Beanie Feldstein is an absolute delight.
Part IV: What I’ve been up to…
I spent a lovely weekend with Dad — I got to take part in the quiz he’d organised, plus we went for a fancy afternoon tea at Hartwell House which was amazing. I also got to meet Elle and Areej for lunch, and celebrated Anna & Hayley’s birthdays.
Workwise, I recorded a podcast episode with Buzzstream, and spent a bunch of time prepping for the PR Pitch Writing workshops I’m running this month with Britt Klontz.
What’s next?
I am excited about:
Emceeing WTS Fest London
The PR Pitch Writing workshops I’m currently running with Britt Klontz
Continuing to work on my talk for Digital PR Summit
Shameless self-promotion
I’ll be speaking at the Digital PR Summit in April this year, and the line-up is incredible. You can buy tickets here.
Planning on heading to BrightonSEO in either April or October this year? If so, you might like to sign up for my in-person Content Creation for Digital PR training course.
That’s all from me for now :)
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Big love,
Hannah x
PS Wanna find out more about me and my work? Head over to Worderist.com
