Special guest Jonny Orme joins Michael in what becomes a wacky and unique show. This is still Not Wireless Radio and it is best to expect something different this week!

Every radio show is ‘top and tailed’ to remove music so that it may be enjoyed as a podcast.

Not Wireless Radio is broadcasted on Tone Radio, the University’s radio station, every Friday between 10am – 12pm.

If you enjoy Not Wireless Radio then you can join the ‘Not Wireless Radio Fan Page’ on Facebook. To listen to Tone Radio you can tune in via their website. You can also subscribe to the Not Wireless Radio podcasts via iTunes.

I have been naughty and published this article 2 days ahead of the main promotional period. Tickets are set to fly so if you want to come I highly recommend to jump the gun before the University starts promoting. Tickets can be purchased here.

For the last couple of months it has been in the making. On a few occasions I thought it would never happen… but now it is official!

Wednesday 10^th March 2010, 7pm – 11pm, marks the date of the #AddMe Conference. Founded by myself as part of my role as CIPR Student Representative for the University of Gloucestershire. The conference is associated with the CIPR and arranged as part of the CIPR West of England regional group.

“Open to students and businesses the #AddMe Conference aims to tackle the key questions of how to create, manage and utilise relationships online. To highlight the significance of creating relationships online keeps the #AddMe Conference open to a wide range of topics.”

The conference will include 3 prominent, highly acclaimed speakers on social media. These being Aren Grimshaw, Alex Sass and David Phillips. More details about the speakers and their talks with come out over the next few days on the #AddMe Conference Website.

The event is taking place at the University of Gloucestershire, Park Campus. Location and directions can be found here.

Tickets for the event are £5.00 each and student’s tickets are discounted to £3.00 with a promotional code. Considering the speakers; an affordable amount for an amazing social media conference. Tickets can only be purchased online on the #AddMe Conference’s website. The observant of you will notice the website is actually a sub-domain of this one.

No doubt the evening will partly play host to an embarrassingly long list of thanks to everybody who has helped me so far. There are a few people I would like to thank so far though. They would be:

• CIPR West of England group for always being there to help.
• Family friend, Richard Bratton,

(…)

We all know him as my faithful radio companion on Not Wireless Radio, the voice-over artist from the shire, the radio production student from @uniofglos and now he is dipping his toes into the water of charitable work.

On the 28^th March @ianpinnell will be abseiling 100ft down the Women’s Centre at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. In doing so Ian will be raising money for the Silver Star Society.

The Silver Star Society provides special medical care to pregnant mothers and their unborn babies who have serious or difficult problems. If it wasn’t for the Silver Star Society then Ian wouldn’t be with us today.

Ian aims to raise £100 for this worthy cause and every little bit helps. Please consider supporting Ian. Whilst abseiling for some might be considered a “walk in the park” I can reveal that Ian isn’t a great fan of heights. Have you seen the size of that building? Sheesh!

To donate visit Ian’s JustGiving page. Donating doesn’t take very long and will help the lives of many mothers and families.

If you are feeling especially kind and you are on Twitter then please retweet this post.

Thanks x

Hear the latest news about the University, what is going on in Gloucestershire, plus an insight into the bigger news stories of the week.

Every radio show is ‘top and tailed’ to remove music so that it may be enjoyed as a podcast.

Not Wireless Radio is broadcasted on Tone Radio, the University’s radio station, every Friday between 10am – 12pm.

If you enjoy Not Wireless Radio then you can join the ‘Not Wireless Radio Fan Page’ on Facebook. To listen to Tone Radio you can tune in via their website. You can also subscribe to the Not Wireless Radio podcasts via iTunes.

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This question is a cliché for anybody introduced to Public Relations and ethics. On a couple of occasions I have been asked but I have never had a defiant response. Let me explain why…

A couple of weeks ago for my birthday a friend of mine bought me the film, ‘Thank You for Smoking’. Originally a novel by Christopher Buckley which follows a lobbyist, called Nick Naylor, who works for the Academy of Tobacco Studies. If you haven’t watched the film then I definitely recommend it. As for me, I’m going to try and find the time to read the book.

Potentially this could be a very simple question to answer. It is the cognitive processes through which offers the difficulty. We have to understand that there will always be a demand for tobacco, people need to make their own choices but that smoking seriously damages your health. Perhaps the only people who can justify working for tobacco companies are smokers. Yet, I smoke (admittedly not nearly as much) but still find my conscience battling against my habit.

Do tobacco companies offer a positive service for society or are they fuelling a product which the majority would chose to abandon?

Currently I am undecided and this question is for you. Would you work for a tobacco company?

Welcome to Series 2 of Not Wireless Radio on Tone Radio. An awkward start to the morning as everything in the studio decided to stop working but the show still went on. The latest news from the University is discussed, happenings over the holiday period are delved and the latest news stories are mused.

Every radio show is ‘top and tailed’ to remove music so that it may be enjoyed as a podcast.

Not Wireless Radio is broadcasted on Tone Radio, the University’s radio station, every Friday between 10am – 12pm.

If you enjoy Not Wireless Radio then you can join the ‘Not Wireless Radio Fan Page’ on Facebook. To listen to Tone Radio you can tune in via their website. You can also subscribe to the Not Wireless Radio podcasts via iTunes.

It is in my strictest, sternest and possibly controversial view that advertising online is dead.

Once upon a time it did flourish and at the same time the internet was known as a commercial trap for users. I remember in the early 1990s it was almost impossible to visit a website without a pop-up advert greeting you. Sometimes you would be unfortunate enough to stumble upon a hoard of multi-pop-up adverts which would force your browser to take you to all sorts of corners of the internet.

I can hardly say that advertising isn’t used on the internet. This would be untrue and in the past I have had deals with companies to host their advertising on my blog for a fee. It just so happens that such companies are growing in numbers on the internet. Ideally a website owner would want to avoid banner ads and these new online advertising companies are offering text links.

Why though? Why would a company ask for text links to be placed at the bottom of each page of another’s website? It would be very unlikely for a user to actually click on them, especially if the site in question featured a mass of content. There is only one possible answer and that would be search engine optimisation. If your company’s hyperlink can be found on the bottom of many website pages then searches would yield a crop of hyperlinks directed to the advertised site. There is something sly and accidental about such influence on individual’s searches though.

Advertising relies upon a passive audience. This is an audience that is subjected to a message which they are to take as granted. Hypodermic Needle theory explains this well as there is only a single line of communication. It is this single line of communication that does not exist on the internet anymore. Social media shows how internet users are engaging with each other on a two way communication model.

A few days ago I heard an Ex-Journalist talk about(…)

Goodbye teenage years. It was nice meeting you but I could have done without the spots, grease, tantrums, fluff on the upper lip and identity confusion.

There has been a rumour going around that today is actually my 50^th birthday. This is but a mere proposed mental age though. I have gone through life with people commenting that I act much older than I am. Not entirely sure if it is a ‘maturity thing’, more a side-effect caused by my introverted character that extravagantly extraverts itself online as if trying to find some plausible reason to why-I-think-the-way-I-do.

So far my life has stretched beyond several decades and after each year passes the next is to be presumed. For I am at that age when the body is young, mind remains sharp and it is easy to mistake yourself as invincible. Everything always moves too slowly. The moments in life take millennia to pass but should be savoured as a vintage wine.

It is the speed of youth that misses the colours of moments. Some people spend their whole lives missing the casual reasons and spend their life just as content as me who desires to know why life dealt a particular card.

At the turn of the millennium I honestly looked ahead 10 years I doubted I would make it. I was only 10 years old at the time but to live another 10 years, another lifetime, seemed utterly impossible. Yet, I have made it. Presuming no accident or illness occurs I can expect at least another 50 years. How scared that makes me feel. To think that my dreams must be accomplished before it is too late. That I have already lived 20 years and how I have changed during that time.

Whilst I think it is a giant leap to escape the teens and enter the eeeeees, at University I am one of the younger ones. People were forever bursting out in laughter when they learnt that I was a mere 19(…)

It is a story so very familiar when a trade union is dedicated to protect its members through the form of a strike. The only problem is that strikes cause disruption and for this I have no desire to support the UCU (University and College Union) ballot.

There is no doubt that higher education is in a little bit of a muddle. Just look at what happens when students decide not to vote. The government is able to withdraw their support for us through funding cuts. Add that to the financial mess the University of Gloucestershire have got themselves in.

It is in my absolute confidence that the University’s management is to blame. Fair enough, the world has a recession and Gordon Brown has not provided medicine for the UK. This recession goes beyond the academic’s hairline though. The University of Gloucestershire is in big trouble. Lots of Universities have debts but I go to a small University with a huge debt. Last time I heard it was over £36 million, an amount which must have been building before the recession.

I would be lying if I said that the University are being completely closed about what is going on. After pressure by the SU (Student’s Union), last semester, they lightened up a little. Still, there is no complete honesty and most details I learn are through word of mouth. Be honest University management; be open about your mistakes. It isn’t difficult, this blog has taken but a few minutes to write and will reach a couple of hundred readers.

I do feel sorry for staff members. During my first year at University I made good friends with the cleaning staff who have seen over half their colleagues lose their jobs. It is heart breaking when anybody loses their job but I feel angry when you hear about management being on vast salaries but at the same time wielding the weapon.

Even though I am sympathetic towards staff members losing their jobs, this is sympathy(…)

“The Shorty Awards are a worldwide effort to engage hundreds of thousands of Twitter users to identify the best people and organizations on Twitter.”

I am currently trying to get some votes in The Shorty Awards in the unofficial category of #publicrelations. Although feel free to nominate me for anything as The Shorty Awards are partly about how people view you on Twitter. Even getting one vote in The Shorty Awards would brighten up my day!

You can vote for me here

Or by posting on Twitter: I nominate @michaelwhite1 for a Shorty Award in #publicrelations because… (you need to provide a reason otherwise the vote won’t be counted.)

Any unofficial #categories you make will still be included and have the possibility of becoming official if there are enough votes.

If you don’t want to vote for me then you can always vote for me in the #egocentric category… which means I still get a vote!