Marcus Beard ✨

Digital, Disinformation and AI Specialist | Founder at @FenimoreHarper | Former @10DowningStreet Disinfo Lead

contact: [email protected]

[Joshua Topolsky @joshuatopolsky]

me every single morning

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

@Discoplomacy Not quite focused on media rounds but a closer look at the grid..

"Our analysis has found that major government policy announcements fade from public attention after 24 hours"

https://t.co/XfOwFPQSGz

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

Digital ID received 50x higher public interest than all other flagship police announcements this year.

Precisely because other parties/voices have been so consistent in their opposition across social, podcasts, etc.

Full report: https://t.co/pMFk1fg9di

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

Most 'top of the grid' announcements only capture the public attention for 24 hours - then they're forgotten.

We collaborated with @WeAreNewBritain to inspect how the 'the grid' fails.

It's a once-and-done approach that doesn't meet modern expectations (and media consumption habits).

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

🥣 Fundamental change in the day for working parents? Over it within 48 hours.

[Luke Tryl @LukeTryl]

So revealing. Reinforces need to say it and say it again, when you’re bored of it most people will only just be starting to look, repetition and multi channel matter so much in the attention economy and if you don’t you end up being defined by what most animates opposition.

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

@danmall PROJECTS

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

it is me, on @BBCr4today

[BBC Radio 4 Today @BBCr4today]

“Tackling disinformation is very different to dealing with a normal negative press story.”

Marcus Beard, former UK government’s digital counter-misinformation strategist, explains why certain news topics are vulnerable to disinformation.

#R4Today

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

@POTUS criminalizes deepfakes, similar to @MoJGovUK's move earlier this year.

Deepfakes are incredibly easy to create and share, it is right to move swiftly from a legislative point of view.

Side note: the "Take It Down Act" has a memorable sound it.

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

sometimes im shocked by how little user control smartphone apps have.

it seems like they just want you to hit the 'go' button and have the algorithms take control. maybe you'll get a thumbs up or thumbs down. if you're lucky.

why is it so much easier to find and choose my music on a 2.5inch screen vs a capacitive, ultra-hd 5+ incher?

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

Aside from everything else, @elonmusk obsession with Starmer and UK politics will massively boost his platform's metrics.

• Musk's X posts on UK politics have been viewed astonishing 4.02 BILLION times.

• The biggest single post has been seen just shy of 120 million times.

• UK politics represents over 70% of his total tweets since the year began. That 336 total tweets - 3 per hour on average.

Typically, there's a flurry of misinformation/mal-information/disinformation which follows intense spikes of activity on X.

It takes a while for fact checkers, community-noters to trickle in and add missing context. By then - the damage in people's mind is already done, particularly with emotive topics.

In a heightened emotional state (anger) - it's easy to get people to do/follow/share what you want them to.

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

I like to think this is where @BorisJohnson got 'Hi, folks'

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

Interesting - The Guardian attempting to make two quite different points at once.

A) "resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere"
B) "X is a toxic media platform"

X is becoming more and more right-leaning - certainly moreso that was pre-Musk. It's unlikely The Guardian will get many more subscribers from posting on here.

Running away from the platform feels dangerous though - what if X grows and grows in influence like it has done over the last year? Now there will be even less fact-checking and rigorous journalism present.

I back any org wanting to speak more directly to their audience - but there's a risk here of further echo-chamberisation.

[The Guardian @guardian]

Why the Guardian is no longer posting on X https://t.co/j4fRgzSYde

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

astounding

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

🎙️ Trump's podcast strategy* is going to be to be new norm for political communications - maybe in the UK too. Kamala should have done Rogan.

📣 OWN THEIR EARS - OWN THEIR MIND

In the final week of the campaign, the MOST POPULAR PODCAST IN THE WORLD (@joerogan) dropped a 9 hours of content (Vance, Trump, Musk) with Trump campaign - vs 2hrs w/ John Fetterman.

Voters could have feasibly spent last week the ONLY listening to Republicans tell soft stories on comedy podcasts. If Kamala did Rogan, at least she would have been in the room with these listeners.

🙋 THIS HAS IMPLICATIONS FOR CANDIDATES / POLITICAL FIGURES. Can Starmer, Reeves, Badenoch, Stride sit down for a 3 hour conversation and be entertaining? Maybe Stride..

The days of walking off camera left to end an interview like Cameron used to do seem to be over... You'll be drowned out by someone turning up directly in someone's ears for 3 hours.

*calling it a 'strategy' might be overselling it - it's just 'doing it'. DO THE PODCASTS!

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

@MrJCrouch @AasmahMir Sad!

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

If this is 'at no extra costs to departments' it 100% means it'll be staffed by secondments and borrowed mid-level comms people.

Depts hate it and No.10 doesn't get the best. Seen it happen.

If SpAds take control it becomes a showreel machine for whatever agency they'll launch when they leave in 8 months...

Every new DoC tries to set up one of these units, each with a different flavor - I was in maybe three?

Whether they succeed depends on the personal appetite from the very top. Johnson/Cain's team made the most progress! We had a podcast - weekly live streams!

My take - bring back the C.O.I...

[Lara Spirit @lara_spirit]

EXC: A new digital unit is being launched by No 10 – the New Media Unit – as Morgan McSweeney moves to take central control of govt communications

Based in the Cabinet Office, No10 hopes it can sidestep the “Westminster bubble” with a focus on platforms like Instagram and TikTok

[Marcus Beard ✨ @marcusbeard]

Interesting comment from @jimwaterson on the @Beebwatch podcast on understanding what 'makes the news'

It's true. Legacy media interests vary wildly from social audiences.

We run a TikTok Briefing daily - the Yung Filly arrest (which made no national print papers) got 20 million views on TikTok alone. The BBC accounted for 10 million of them.

If Tim Davie wants to sign up, he can do so (for free!) at https://t.co/qQ4ZvLc2hI