Sorry, no weeknotes for this week - yes I’ve failed already. But instead a quick post about ‘media representation’.
Now the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (my current Professional Leadership body for the moment - see more here) has done a ‘damn fine job’ of keeping pharmacy in the news over the last year or so, and on the whole for good reasons. I understand there are people in the background who develop the relationships with news outlets, and people (or person) at the forefront who does a lot of work too, in developing those links, and offering themselves up - sometimes at ungodly hours of the day - to give a pharmacy perspective on a news headline.
Let me say, they are doing a great job of getting pharmacy noticed.
Then I saw a tweet
https://twitter.com/ChaiwithAditya/status/1626365839359238145?s=20
I think I agreed with the thrust of the tweet, which was about more diversity of representation, and certainly not a critique of the performance of the current output - which some responses to the tweet appeared to assume.
I thought it meant we might be missing a trick by having other ‘key’ individuals of the pharmacy boards being omitted. For instance there is an individual on the board, who carries an “research and academic” gravitas - I don’t often hear from them, certainly not over recent months. But there are Hospital , Community and Locum pharmacists - we have a huge wealth of experience to tap into, given the right media training.
Apparently I am wrong, and the media perfer a regular face and contact.
https://twitter.com/Clairewynn/status/1626908751784554497?s=20
So I thought I’d ask an AI the question, what are the issues around having a single point of failure in terms of representing the RPS.
Here are its thoughts outputs.
- It may limit the exposure and recognition of other RPS leaders and experts who have valuable insights and contributions to make.
- It may put too much pressure and responsibility on one individual to speak on behalf of all pharmacists and RPS.
- It may reduce the credibility and influence of RPS if the individual is not available or prepared to comment on every issue.
- Developing a pool of spokespeople from different backgrounds, roles and regions who can represent RPS on various topics.
- Providing media training and support for RPS members who want to share their views and experiences with journalists.
- Collaborating with other pharmacy organisations and stakeholders to amplify their messages and campaigns.
- Using social media platforms and digital tools to reach out to wider audiences and showcase their work .
I thought they were reasonable responses for an AI - especially the second point.
But in summary I do have to reiterate, RPS keep up the good work of keeping pharmacy in the news spotlight - for the right reasons but think about the possibility of other voices.