Newsletter – September 2025
The risk from AI images, Australia’s algae crisis, press conferences – good and bad, vessel branding in a crisis, Baltimore bridge disaster: still the risks for shipping, framing makes better training …and more
Devils in the detail: Confronting AI imagery in news reporting
AI imagery is everywhere. From celebrity parodies to exaggerations of wildfires, artificial intelligence is illustrating marketing campaigns, social media content and news articles with shocking realism. In less than a decade, it has become “mainstreamed” into our most important information platforms. Just in the past two years, several well-known news organisations – including the New […]
Lessons from Australia’s algae bloom crisis
When a massive algae bloom hit South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula in March 2025, the ecological fallout was unprecedented – turning the pristine water toxic green, wiping out hundreds of marine species and crippling local fisheries and tourism. For months, dead marine life continued to wash up on beaches, heightening local concern. Many argued the federal […]
Flight SUZ1 crash: a horrible thing – a text book response
Southend-on-Sea, mid-afternoon one hot Sunday in July, and a scheduled medical flight is preparing to depart. The small Dutch aircraft is returning to Lelystad, Netherlands, where the plane is based, having made recent visits to Croatia and Greece. The four passengers on board are on their last leg home, having dropped their patient, and at […]
Press conference performance: leave the dancing at the door
“Let’s dance!” states the US President as he and the British Prime Minister head into a press conference in front of the world’s media. What follows is an uncomfortable display of showboating, petulance, and one-upmanship as both ‘key speakers’ go off message, detract from the agreed script, and challenge each other, while their communications teams […]
How long is a piece of string?
Well, it depends. This idiom of how-long-is-a-piece-of-string strikes a chord with me. As crisis communicators, we are often confronted with questions for which definitive answers aren’t immediately available. “When will a suitable port of refuge be identified?” “How long will the fire continue to burn?” “When will the vessel be refloated?” “When exactly will the […]
Baltimore bridge disaster: the safety risks in modern shipping
It has long been said that shipping rarely makes headlines for the right reasons and no event made more striking and major mainstream headlines in 2024 than the incident of a commercial vessel colliding with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. During the early morning of 26 March 2024, the Singapore-flagged 9,971 teu neopanamax […]
Vessel branding: the impact in an incident
One question that often arises in maritime circles is whether it’s beneficial—or detrimental—for a vessel to prominently display a company’s name or logo. Branding, after all, is a powerful tool. But when it comes to shipping, especially in the context of accidents or incidents, the implications of visible branding can be far-reaching and complex. There […]
Not a knowledge gap – it’s a framing thing
At a recent Nautical Institute (Singapore) conference, during a panel on sustainability and future fuels, a comment from a well-regarded voice in maritime innovation struck me. Su Yin Anand, Strategy & Transformation Leader at IBM Consulting, explained how anxiety surrounding new fuels may have less to do with the fuels themselves, and more to do […]
Shaping the narrative before it shapes you
Shaping the narrative before it shapes you Chetan Desai, Managing Director Navigate Response Asia I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Marcus Hand, editor of Seatrade Maritime News in Singapore, to talk about crisis communications in the maritime sector. The article, titled “Why bother with media and reputation management in a crisis?” explores […]