Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

If you want to learn more about @cmmonwealth.bsky.social campaign, visit their amazing website and story telling dashboard here:
www.common-wealth.org/interactive/...

Thanks for watching our TED Talk! If you want to know more... get in touch!!

Who Owns Britain?

How the radical experiment of privatisation transformed society and reshaped our lives.

www.common-wealth.org

2 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

Closing quote:

1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

Learning from the opposition: YIMBY's

1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

A quick note on "enemies":

We prefer the term "opposition" - every campaign needs an opposition.

We mapped the following groups each of whom, in different ways, we represent groups that maintain the rigged system we are living in.

1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

The Message:

1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

Our Approach (ctd)

Crucially: avoid the kind of conspiratorial approach used by the right "it's immigrants." etc

Avoid scapegoating individuals without also making clear the role of those individuals in a system that has been designed through law, policy etc, to rig the system.

1 1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

Our Approach:
1 - Lead with emotion: use those everyday frustrations as a starting point. Speak to people's reality today.

BUT THEN:

2 - Offer a systemic diagnosis (Privatisation) for why people feel so frustration. Give people an explanation for why the water is full of sewage etc.

1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

... the seemingly non political things that occur all the time but aren't immediately obviously political or policy in nature.
"Extortionate fares on overcrowded trains that never arrive on time."
"The rising cost of heating and eating."
"The literal sewage in our rivers and seas."

1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

Our entry point: The "entry point" for a political or policy conversation with an ordinary member of the public cannot be policy or politics.
You need an "Entry Point", and that means engaging with emotion.
The emotional entry point we chose was "everyday frustration"

1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

The Framing: "The System is Rigged".

Drawing on research by @frameworks.bsky.social we sought to channel the pervasive sense that the "system is rigged".

But with an important caveat: to channel that anger toward systems, not scapegoats.

1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

The Opportunity:
Make those everyday frustrations synonymous with privatisation.

1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

The challenge? How to help Brits make the connection between their everyday feelings of frustration and anger at the way things are, with the UK's failing economic and political systems.

1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 3d

We recently worked with @cmmonwealth.bsky.social to frame a story about the state of the UK in a way that gives people an alternative to the explanations on offer from the far right.

The result?
A campaign that links people's everyday frustrations to a specific cause: Privatisation

1 1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 5d

Local journalism is hollowing out.
So we have built an automated data wire to feed it.

WageSight.

20 stories/mo, regular media engagement with journalists responses: no funding, just code + persistence.
🎥 See what landed:

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 10d

Maybe Nigel Farage has a point?
There is an elite that dominates the discourse about what is politically possible in the UK.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/public...

Public schools still dominate senior roles in political media and think tanks

I'm really not surprised at the latest Sutton Trust research, which finds that the middle class continues to enjoy a vice like grip on the BBC, the newspaper commentariat and UK think tank movement. J...

www.linkedin.com

1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · 11d

The BBC, political journalism, commentariat and think tank world remain gatekept by the public school educated middle classes.
New LinkedIn newsletter.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/public...

Public schools still dominate senior roles in political media and think tanks

I'm really not surprised at the latest Sutton Trust research, which finds that the middle class continues to enjoy a vice like grip on the BBC, the newspaper commentariat and UK think tank movement. J...

www.linkedin.com

1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · Sep 11

How do we make news stickier in the AI era? 📰🤖

At WageSight we’re testing a salary checker widget alongside local pay stories — turning attention into engagement + sponsorship revenue.

👇 Demo and link below
57.128.224.76:8080

1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · Aug 14

We've launched a data driven news service: WageSight

It harvests stats about wages & employment across the UK & distributes newswire style stories to local media outlets.

We can now tell a hyper-local news story about employment in 200+ towns & cities in the UK.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/using-...

Using data and tech to tell hyper-local news stories

I've recently launched a data driven news service: WageSight. It harvests hard-to-find stats about wages and employment across hundreds of UK towns and cities, cleans, builds dashboards, visuals and b...

www.linkedin.com

1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · Jul 11

The government's report about the fiscal risks to the UK economy of climate change, ought to be compulsory reading for every newspaper and broadcast editor in the country.
- the cost of overshooting 2C warming: 3% of GDP.
- the cost of 3C warming: 7.8% of GDP.

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · Jul 11

The costs of getting to net zero are substantially less than first thought. Undermining the argument of those who claim getting to net zero is unaffordable.

Bonus: here's an illustration of what actually drove the cost of living crisis in 2022 (Clue - it wasn't the costs of net zero)

1 1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · Jun 18

Great to see a mention of some analysis by WageSight our @campaignsalience.bsky.social employment and pay app in today's Northern Agenda edition by @robparsonsna.bsky.social

newsletters.e.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/2n-3WT9WgtOj...

1 2

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · Jun 17

There's more in our latest report:
Employment and Pay in the UK, powered by Wage Sight, a real-time pay and employment insights app that transforms raw data into concise, local labour market stories across 270+ cities and towns in the UK.
www.campaignsalience.co.uk/wage-sight

1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · Jun 17

At a more granular level, wages in Hull jumped 7% in the year to May 2025, and 6.3% in Liverpool.
But latest data shows that in towns and cities across the UK there's been an ongoing reduction in the number of employees recorded on company payroll retuns. 3/

1 1

Campaign Salience @campaignsalience.bsky.social · Jun 17

Median income has grown by 38% since the start of the pandemic: 7% a year! Which sounds good, until you factor in inflation, which led to a 27.15% increase in costs over the same period. Despite pay rising, people on the median income have barely been able to keep pace with rising costs. 2/

1 1