Accentuate the Positive ...

For all its faults I yield to no one my admiration for the BBC; despite the sniping that seems of late to be persistent.  A small confession: what education I've gained was enhanced by radio programmes that stimulated the imagination and touched the curiosity button school didn't quite excite.

But like some others I'm increasingly concerned about Aunty's news coverage; or rather the way she tells it. Maybe she's suffering an identity crisis, a hangover from the May elections.

Any old hack will tell you the emphasis given to the treatment of a news story - the spin - is designed to influence the way the TV viewer and radio listener is informed. That's why it's vital to be able to trust sources of information - and to use more than a grain of common sense when we hear or see something that on the face of it doesn't seem quite right.

That said, we do seem to be enjoying an era, however brief, of good news from around Westminster way and everybody knows good news is unattractive to news editors.  I know, I've been one! Reporters can be much more confident of getting their well-honed piece into the bulletin if it has the misery quotion.  Even the good news has a habit of hitting the'but' buffer.

Listen to the Today programme on Radio Four and hear how the story remains the same but over time shifts in emphasis significantly.  A case in point recently was David Cameron's idea to help council house tenants increase their mobility.

The story began that positively, a benefit to people wanting to move to maybe get a job but fearing they might have to drop to the bottom of another authority's  housing list.  Come the end of the programme an hour later the closing headlines turned the story negative as an attack on a tenant's right to their council home for life and the opportunity now enjoyed to pass it on through the family.

Manipulation of facts doesn't reside solely with news media.  Helping executives in particular to prepare cvs and resumes Focus for Change www.focus4change.co.uk consultants have wide experience on the wise choice of words which appeal to interviewing boards. Often candidates are too close to their career histories to accurately convey the best possible light on their achievements or where their strengths lie.


A general curriculum vitae, designed to show succinctly the career path of an applicant, needs care in its construction.  Enough, you might say, to cover the subject, but short enough to be interesting! The functional cv is vital when the candidate needs to detail their career, under function headings which more readily demonstrate  their expertise - particularly good where job titles fail fully to represent responsibilities, or when seeking a change of direction.


Either way, the cv is your shop window.  Be sure it's an attention-grabber!