Power is not influence – DN gets it wrong, again

I wasn’t going to comment on the Swedish study about antisemitism that was published in Dagens Nyheter on 14 March, but when DN for the second time publishes an incorrect phrase I think it’s worth speaking up. The study (pdf, 3MB) has been the subject of much debate since it was published and it made conclusions like “one out of four Swedes don’t want a jewish Swedish Prime Minister”. About 3,000 Swedes were asked a series of negative statements against jews in order to see how antisemitism is spread in Sweden. But I noticed that there was a slight difference between one of these questions in the survey and how that question was reported in the press. It may seem insignificant, but trust is in the details.

In the survey, respondents were asked whether they agreed or not with the following statement.

“Jews have too much influence in the world today”
“Judarna har för mycket inflytande i världen idag”

In the first article in DN, this question had now been changed to:

“Jews have too much power in the world today”
“Judarna har för stor makt i världen i dag”

But “power” is not the same as “influence”.

The same incorrect phrase was used this morning by Mats Bergstrand in DN. I would argue that the second statement sounds “worse” than the first, and in my view it is a careless (and hopefully not deliberate) use of information. Not reporting correctly opens a survey up for critisism, and like in this case, doesn’t help the important fight against antisemitism.

Footnote: the question can be found on page 125 in the report.

The Olympic pizza

I read with great interest the story about the Swedish Olympic Committee (SOK) that sent some angry lawyers after a pizza place that advertised for Olympic pizza (OS-pizza, OS being short for the Olympic Games in Swedish). SOK have been quick to file complaints with businesses that use “OS” in advertising, but I wonder if SOK really have all the trademark rights they claim.

Turns out that the SOK have registered the trademark “OS” in the following classes in Sweden: 6, 9, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 25, 28, 30, 32, 37, 41, 42. The observant trademark specialist will notice that class 43 is missing. Class 43 includes “serving food and beverages”. (Utskänkning av mat och dryck; kortvarigt boende). They could possibly argue that a pizza would fall under class 30 (provisions, for example made from corn). Anyone out there that could enlighten us?

Worth noting is that the following companies also have registered “OS” as a trademark in Sweden in some form:

– OGAWA SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA (national)
– OSRAM Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (EU)
– The Secretary of State for the Environment t/a Ordnance Survey (EU)
– Organisation für die Sicherheit von Schleifwerkzeugen e.V. (oSa) (EU)

Here’s another example from the US, that includes four (!) olympic rings, very creative.

Update: The ad was from the US, not the UK.

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Citizen journalism no hit with the journalist union

The Swedish Union of Journalists (SJF) calls Metro’s editor-in-chief Sakari Pitkänen the “grave-digger of journalism” after initiating a project involving citizen journalists in areas in the Stockholm region that today are not covered by daily news media. SJF says about the project:

“It’s an insult not only to journalism, but also to readers/citizens.”

The Swedish Union of Journalists has about 18,000 members, a figure already surpassed by the number of Swedish bloggers. Let’s face it, like SJF say, journalism is a profession, but journalists are not the only ones that should be allowed to comment on different topics. What’s so wrong with involving citizens in the public debate, as bloggers, readers or “citizen reporters”?

“It’s about collecting and supplying relevant information that the ordinary citizen don’t have time and resources to sort out.”

Sure, but I think today’s media consumers are able to distinguish the difference between information on an unknown website, a semi-professional blog, and a news article by a well know journalist. And, value it accordingly.

Sakari Pitkänen responds to accusations that he is devaluing the journalist profession:

“If there was something to devalue, then that’s what I would be doing. But there’s not. There is no journalism out there today.”

2006 a promising year for Swedish PR

It seems like 2006 might become a very good year for the Swedish public relations industry, according to a survey by the PR association Precis. 57 percent of its companies say that order levels are better today than last quarter and 68 percent expect next quarter to be better than the current.

Nearly 80 percent of the PR agencies expect to have increased the number of employees the next quarter. Marketing communications and media relations are the two disciplines that have been increasing in demand the most from last quarter and the industries with the highest increase in demand are IT/tech, health/pharma and food.

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