For 20 years of my life I wrote press-releases. Well, many times I also wrote content for websites, magazines, intranets, whatever the boss asked me to write. Ended up that I never became the boss. Writing in Portuguese was easy and natural, I do it better than most of people, and does not cost me much. If I have time to research, even better. Otherwise we just connect words that make sense, and it was called content. Empty content nowadays that bots can analyses the quality of content! In the new age of bots, I’m proud to say I am used to be a old style productive content maker. And I don’t use Chat GPT – but you should!
Nowadays you input the information for your release in two sentences and upload the images, the press release should come ready. As 1980’s baby, I am the last generation that does not domain ALL tools… I don’t do even the design. The world has changed and for me, Journalism is made now in my second language. I learned English during 1h Tuesdays and Thursdays’ afternoon classes, after school, from my 7 to 14 years old. Actually, my mom says that my second language is German, that I used to speak with them from 0-5 and now is forgotten inside my brain. And now I know the reason I didn’t want to keep speaking German – was the language mom and dad were using to fight, so I would not understand. Very smart, couple! As a rebel kid, I need to go and learn German now. It’s time. German, and French and Italian, since they’ll will be easy.
What I came here to say is that anyone can write a release in any language, and use the format that is the same worldwide. Start with the most important information that is also in the title, explaining what is this about, then you bring the support reasons why this is so important, and don’t forget to explain who is the company and what does it do so well in the first paragraph. From here, if written as it should, you’ll need a quote from at least one speaker, some data from the agency/association with authority, and some comparison to another country or state or same situation or person. Finish with the boiler with the company’s highlights and you have your press release!
Used to take a day to send a release by fax to the newspapers in 1998… I was the intern doing that task most of my day for Persona Communications, a PR agency in fashion, in Sao Paulo. We had the best stylists by that time! And nowadays you press one button to send to thousands of channels at the same time. Thanks, technology. The intern in 1998 was not the best use of time to learn about the job.
Public Relations is marketing dressed on a pseudo Journalist costume. I wish I was an investigate or medical Journalist, but what I have experience in is to take care of the brand’s image, what people are talking about the brand, reputation and all that non-tangible invisible bullshit that has the huge visible impact. Everything you do a lot, you become good at. Nowadays I’m learning how to talk to old people on the phone. Yeah. Immigration sucks.
I was never asked to write a press release in English, but I’m up to that. Would be good to improve my English, but as soon as I have 3 thousand dollars available hanging in my bank account, and I can feel safe again, I am going to Hawaii!! And I will keep my basic English going on, since simplicity has its charm.
It’s 2024 and I thought having a channel on cannabis science was enough to educate and share knowledge, but it does not make any sense when people are lost in concepts, and forgot what science is. Forgot or have never learned.
I am a very lucky girl. Grew up in a big city, probably the best city of Latin America (Sao Paulo) and mom and dad never forced any bullshit over me. I was around 8 or 9 years old when the school sent a letter inviting for catechism and I remember I asked them what was that, and they said “religion studies”. I asked did you do it, dad? He said no. And mom, did you do it mom? She said no. So i thought why the f*ck they’re offering me this then? They said that was a decision up to me. And I decided for the no, I was not interested in religion studies. So I grew up with absolute no religion. A lucky and well preserved brain.
While a kid, I remember going to church once with my grandmother, I was probably 4 or 5, and it was boring. And then later, when going to lunch or dinner at the neighbor’s house, watching them praying was a little scary and intimidating as well. I didn’t know what to do, and I felt wrong there, since I was the only one who didn’t know how to sing that music. The “pai nosso que estas no céu santificado seja vosso nome”, the typical song that catholics sing together when reunite. I never learned in Portuguese and have no clue how to reproduce in English. And no interest in it, as well.
So, thanks mom and dad, I ended up going to the Journalism school, then to the medicinal plants school that came along with many other pseudo sciences like chromotherapy, ways to treat the body with techniques without any evidence. Basically, charlatanism. Propagated by me, the little human trying to find meaning, that for long 10 years was selling crystal necklaces telling people that will work this and that chakra. Chakras, as well, have no evidence of existing. And selling necklaces in dollars could be profitable. I really believed in the mystic properties of the crystals by that time. And then I went to the Pharmacy school, where I have challenged my brain to learn chemistry. Best thing I ever did for me, to finally end with any remaining pseudo science thought I might still have. Here is what exists, minerals, water, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. No soul. No spirit. No after life. No bullshit.
And now, I am an alien! Not only because I accidentally ended up living in the empire, but also because people here where I ended up, is really religious. Everyone believe in stuff that doesn’t exist, and they get angry when we show, in regular conversations, that their belief is lacking of evidence, because, of course everyone with a brain is able to find quick evidence that the Earth os NOT flat, but it’s hard to find evidence that after life does not exist.
I really see things different, and it should be absolutely normal for someone who believes in unicorn to see the lack of evidence and be able to say “I don’t care about science, I can care only about Unicorns!”! By the way, that’s exactly why it’s called belief. When you know that 4 + 4 is 8, there is no need to believe in anything, you know and you can see, and you can prove, and your rational brain understands. The human brain LIKES to find rational explanations for things, but humanity now is changing this ability to the opposite: the capacity of being comfortable with the non-rational. And for me, this is threatening science and should be combated, urgently. To believe, you need to be able to not see any evidence of the thing you believe in. And that demands a lot of imagination. And if you are going to use your beliefs to create laws that affect everyone, then we actually have a big problem and it’s time to take your sit, choose your side, say loud what you believe, before it affects everyone negatively.
Last week (we’re in 2024, not 1954), at Sao Camilo Hospital, in Sao Paulo, a doctor refused to do the IUD birth control procedure in a woman saying that is against the hospital’s values. And this is really serious and deserves reaction! As we all know, this is not only happening in the poor shit Brazil, but in religious and shit states in the USA. When everyone has the same belief, and it makes no fuck*ng sense, we all put science in danger.
So, the unicorn people is all around, the hippie culture that remains in Colorado is a kind of collective outbreak that became the expected thought, the expected behavior and the expected belief. If you say rational things around, you might be excluded from the crowd, and it’s gorgeous! In the 21st century, all we need is people being able to say loud who they are, so we can choose the ones we hang out with, and the ones we don’t.
If everyone believes in unicorns, life after death, previous lives, manifestation, good vibes and all the sort of mystic concepts about life in the internet age, when we have access to research in every field of knowledge just in our pockets, then I guess our society went wrong and I might be more than just a political alien. I might be, again, socially wrong.
There are researches showing that when everybody agrees about something, you tend to agree as well, doesn’t matter how much your rational brain tells you the opposite. When everyone is tripping, we tend to trip together, because that is how we, humans, operate. We doubt about our own perception, influenced by the others or the environment. One particular research shows two sticks, one visibly longer than the other, and 50 people in a room, 49 are told to say the smaller stick is the longest one, while the one single participant is being tested to see if after the 49 other respond that the clearly smaller sticker is the bigger. When the 49 say the small one is the bigger one, the changes of you just agreeing with them are bigger, even if your brain and your eyes call clearly judge they are all wrong. You doubt about your own perception. To be able to disagree and say “I guess you are all incorrect, the other stick is the bigger one” demands a lot of courage and self confidence. Most of people in the experiment just agreed with the others. And this is called “the spiral of silence”, a theory that examines how public opinion can influence people’s behavior.
So even if it offends people talking about how bizarre their beliefs are, I prefer to keep doing that, in the name of science. My reasons are personal, and have name and age. Leticia my friend that was 40 when died of breast cancer untreated, since she came from a family that was “green ignorant” like I call it now, against going to the doctors for prevention care, against even taking an aspirin, a very “new age” family that believed that dad and mom can heal the kids with energy from their hands. And the kids, luckily, survived! Until Leticia dies, absolutely afraid of doctors and modern medicine. And here is where I have the moral obligation of share the animation below, from Tim Minchin, an Australian musicians and comedian that says better than I can ever say why it’s NOT ok to believe in bullshit:
Rê no Rolê 