Mainstream MEDIA.

[darren leonadas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close darren leonadas]

Today J19 will be a big day for hits on this site i reckon. For today biodiesel hit mainstream media BIGTIME.
The story in the AGE on page 16 of the Metro started it. (the electronic version doesn't have a huge photo of Paul spinning around in his 2003 peugot 307 HDi)
At 7 am in the morning the 7.30 report had already contacted myself and Paul to do a story, then by 7.30 Red Symons on ABC radio 774 was ramping it up, (met one of our members for dinner who just happened to have a jar in his hand tested as 97.8% methyl ester), ACA at 6.30 tonight will run with the same story as the Age, 9am on chanel 10 monday morning plan to run the same story. ABC radio 720 in Perth want to interview Myself, Paul or maybe Tony of WA.(get in touch mate) live on Saturday morning.
WOW, I just wanna get on with my day job!!!

[Robert Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Robert]

Re: Mainstream MEDIA.

Well done guys - enjoy your 15 mins of FAME (biodiesel pun, for those in the know). You should try to get in touch with Amber for some media advice if you are to be interviewed to make sure that you polish up as well as possible - Amber, hope you don't mind being mentioned as a source of help for this, but you seem to be a little media savvy, so maybe you might have some useful suggestions?
I'll keep an eye on the webstats over the next few days and let you know if they spike much. (they've been growing pretty strongly over the last few months anyway - over 8000 unique visitors and around 750,000 hits in June, July is looking like it will hit 10,000 and 1 million hits. Only about 10% come via search engines with the rest coming from direct bookmarks or links from other sites. There are consistently 10-12% of users adding this site to their favourites as well.) I'll keep an eye on sydneybiodiesel, melbournebiodiesel and brisbanebiodiesel as well, to see if there is a pattern. If anyone is interested, I might post up a report.

[darren leonadas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close darren leonadas]

Re: Mainstream MEDIA.

YES I wanna report after my day today!!! (melbourne site)

[Amber Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Amber]

Re: Mainstream MEDIA.

I guess I am a little media-savvy. I have no direct training, but have been doing some of my own media analysis. The one thing I can't emphasise enough is to be friendly and speak clearly. (oh, and for the TV appearances, of course, neat and tidy) Despite journalists' impudent questions, they are doing you a service by allowing you on air, and you'll come across better to your audience if you show respect.

As with any assignment, preparation is the key. Try to guess what sort of things they'll ask you, and prepare for questions about problems with biodiesel, particularly things like problem with supply and engine malfunction - basically everything the petrodiesel people try to tell you will happen. Also prepare a vision for the future - journos like to ask questions about the future of society as we know it. You may want to call the station up and ask what sorts of questions they'll be asking, or if a researcher calls and asks you questions, you may be able to get the gist of where the interview will go.

And as I said in the other thread, try to shake off the "fringedweller" tag they want to place on biodiesel users. It's not just the journos who need an agenda - you should also have a line or two you want to stick in the audience's mind (something like, "biodiesel can run in ANY diesel engine, WITHOUT modification" and "the number of biodiesel users is growing, along with the service stations that are supplying it"). I'm sure you can think of something better, but you get the idea.

The mainstream media usually only has a limited amount of time for any one subject, so if you have a lot to say, try to cut out anything that isn't essential to your core message. This is PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT when dealing with commercial stations.

That's about all I can think of right now. Basically you want to project an image of being calm and in control, and KNOWING ABSOLUTELY that your way is the best way forward (not the only way, and you are open to new ideas, but so far nothing has beaten it). That you are doing the right thing, and people are going to see that your way is the way of the future.

Last thing - don't get too worked up and dogmatic about anything. Make sure you shut up if the journo wants to butt in and give the other guy a go (if they're doing a face-off against the petrol lobby). Getting fired up just makes you look like you're losing control - and people don't like to see that. And journos hate being interrupted.

Good luck!

Oh yeah, one last thing - you might want to keep in mind (and may want to say) that it's no skin off your nose if the end consumer wants to pay continually rising petrol prices and be enslaved to the petrol companies. What you are advocating is a more diverse market - with more than one source of fuel. (the financial people watching the morning interviews will LOVE this line!) You just want to get to a world that provides the end consumer with more choice, and it doesn't matter to you whether that's by companies investing in biodiesel or by education so the end consumer can make it themselves.

Sorry for the essay and continual additions - last, last word, promise: make sure you have facts and statistics to back up any statements you make, and inform people of the need to change filters (can make the point that biodiesel cleans your entire fuel system of all the petrodiesel gunk, so change the filters please!)

[Sauman Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sauman]

Re: Mainstream MEDIA.

My 2c worth.
Please adventure into the possibilty of the need to have a relook at the tax bit.And how coops can be a definte answer .

We can only build it together.
A clean green tomorow.Our Tomorrow.And we can only do it together.Knowledge is the key.

Don't get Oz TV here.

Chin up guys.All the best from India.

Cheers
Sauman

[Robert Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Robert]

Re: Mainstream MEDIA.

Watched the story on Today Tonight (I shudder to watch that "journalism" as it is normally such sensationalist crap), but I was actually quite pleased to see biodiesel portrayed as quite a positive story. Well done Paul, you came up well on camera. We need more good press like this, but I agree with Sauman - the tax bit needs to be solved, especially with the extra focus/attention now on folk who are making it - you'd better be able to demonstrate to the taxman that you are squeaky clean.
Darren, I'll post up the stats tomorrow, or the day after - the server is hosted in Switzerland, so all the times on it are about 9 hours behind us, which skews the results a little. BTW - Darren (and Joe too), you can get your stats off your websites by adding /awstats to the end of the URL, just use the username and password that you do for webmail and you will get into them).

[darren leonadas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close darren leonadas]

Re: Mainstream MEDIA.

Anyone see Paul on ACA (channel 9) last night??????????????
Just shows you, some crap TV journo's just read the paper in the morning, and churn out trash for the trash. And nobody here on this site, bothers to watch it.

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: Mainstream MEDIA.

Darren,
Of Course we watched it.
Thanks for passing on the contact for Geraldine from ABC WA. She will be interviewing me on Saturday Morning, so that rural WA can benefit from what I have to say, not just the city slickers.
Tony

[Alga Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alga]

Re: Mainstream MEDIA.

I think I watched it here in Tas, not sure of the channel, we are different, you know. It was really good and there was another bit on ABC2 (I think) the other day, which was also good. Most of my TV is watched on the go or as I pass.

I don't like the agenda the government has in this, supposedly they want to stop it because they know it's hard to put BD production, distribution and control into monopoly hands. Sounds a bit conspiratorial, but they plan legislation for next year after their nuclear debate (statement of intent), it's already been written and includes making it only possible for those who currently have access to acceptable refining facilities, (read cartels) will be able to comply to the licensing requirements.

That legislation is planned for after the next election, but won't be part of the campaign. Don't know how we change this, as I believe it's already a bipartisan decision involving all parties. It was nutted out during a closed meeting held early this year they all had, to discuss their approach to peak oil. Just a rumour mind you, time will tell.

[Robert Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Robert]

Re: Mainstream MEDIA.

OK, you wanted some stats Darren? Your Melbourne Bio site has really shown some big increases! This site has shown some moderate increases, but this site is already doing very well in terms of incoming traffic .
I'll let you interpret the attached reports for yourself.

(BTW - the times are about 9 hours behind in the logs as the server is in Zurich. Also, about a month ago a problem with the serfver logs was noticed and fixed, so the previous stats are not terribly accurate until June, when the problem was corrected).