The Defence Department is spending more than $1 million to acquire the expertise of a firm of former tabloid-TV journalists to help train its senior staff to speak to the media and write press releases.
Just before the axe fell on defence spending in the budget, Defence was able to push through a contract with the firm Media Manoeuvres to provide training to defence staff who are likely to be interviewed by the media or required to give written information to journalists.
The new three-year contract is more than double the value of its previous contract with Media Manoeuvres and brings the total value of contracts secured by the firm with Defence to $1.65m in the last three years alone.
Media Manoeuvres is one of many consulting firms that have profited from lucrative government contracts to provide media training. The firm Media Gurus has been awarded several defence contracts in recent years.
Two of Media Manoeuvres stable of training experts are former journalists with both A Current Affair and Today Tonight, while a third has worked for Hinch and Today Tonight. Other staff have experience in commercial radio.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Defence spends on media consultants
Fortunately, Defence has their priorities straight. They have 190-some PR staff and decide they need media consultants. I wonder why? A great percentage of Australian news sources only copy/paste Defence press releases with little reporting skill.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Today Tonight and A Current Affair? Is defence expecting to have to deal with dodgy plumbers ripping off battlers and single mums getting rich on the dole?
Why not just tell the truth?
Because senior defence portfolio officials can't handle the truth. QED.
Post a Comment