A local council meeting may seem like an unlikely source of a story that has captured the attention...
So, who had ‘town council meeting takes internet by storm’ on their 2021 bingo card?
Just when you think things can’t get any more bizarre, footage from an obscure meeting went viral and resulted in extensive media coverage.
If you hadn’t heard of Handforth before, you surely have now.
Clips of its councillors trading insults, swearing, shouting and ultimately being thrown out of the virtual meeting have been shared thousands of times on Twitter.
The footage in the original post has been viewed 5.5m times. The tweet has been retweeted around 20,000 times, liked more by more than 123,000 users and resulted in countless memes.
i’ve never missed in person meetings more than i did watching this parish council meeting descend into chaos pic.twitter.com/I75zi1fIK5
— janine (@janinemas0n) February 4, 2021
And Jackie Weaver, who had been brought in from the Cheshire Association of Local Councils to oversee the meeting following previous reports of poor behaviour, became an overnight celebrity.
Emerging as a hero amid the chaos, she found herself trending on Thursday night and Friday morning.
She was also invited on to Radio 4’s Women’s Hour to discuss the meeting and was subsequently interviewed just about everywhere else, including Sky News, ITV News and Channel 5 News.
Today on Woman's Hour: We speak to the one and only Jackie Weaver to find out what actually happened at *that* viral #HandforthParishCouncil meeting https://t.co/MuiYTuYHF3 pic.twitter.com/tS97u4whA9
— BBC Woman's Hour (@BBCWomansHour) February 5, 2021
UPDATE: Britain's most famous woman Jackie Weaver will be on @GMB tomorrow. I hope she understands who's in charge during the interview... pic.twitter.com/JA6KIH2vxx
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 7, 2021
She even found her name had been put on to T-shirts and that Paddy Power was offering odds of 14-1 on her appearing in the next series of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
The story increasingly attracted the attention of traditional media. Here are just a few examples of the headlines it generated:
Some publications went further and delved into the story behind the row. The Daily Mail, for example, carried a feature on the ‘factions at war’ with profiles of the key players.
If you haven’t yet seen the footage of the meeting, you should take a look.
But you might be wondering why we are discussing it in this media training blog.
Well, it is a great way of helping to explain what makes something newsworthy.
The parish meeting pandemonium story includes all of the elements of TRUTH, an acronym we use on our media training courses to show why certain stories capture media interest.
It stands for Timely, Relevant, Unusual, Trouble and Human.
With Zoom continuing to play such a big part in our home and working lives, the ‘timely’ and ‘relevant’ boxes are ticked. Many of us will be able to relate to feeling frustrated and annoyed with others during video-conferencing meetings or recall ones that have descended into similar levels of disarray. Aside from the row, people could be heard muttering swear words under their breath, flushing toilets and taking other calls.
But at the same time, the story is also ‘unusual’. Parish council meetings are usually pretty sedate – something I can confirm having covered many of them during the early years of my journalist career. They don’t tend to be unruly, ill-tempered affairs.
That leads us nicely on to ‘trouble’. This is a story packed with that element of trouble journalists look for. It has got power squabbles, furious exchanges and councillors being thrown out of virtual meetings.
And, of course, there was a crucial human element to the story. Look how much interest there has been in the heroically stoic Ms Weaver since the footage was posted.
People are fascinated by stories of other people. Heart-breaking, heart-warming or heroic stories will always get covered.
We tell delegates on our media training courses that if a story includes four of the five elements of TRUTH, they have the basis of something which could attract media interest.
This one contained all the elements
It is also worth highlighting that, having found herself in the centre of a media storm, Ms Weaver handled the attention with great skill.
In her interviews, she came across as being calm and considered, raised important points about intimidation and she took the opportunity to try and focus on the positives of parish councils and get more people to take an interest in local government.
She told Channel 5 News: “Hopefully, even with all the restrictions around coronavirus, we have an opportunity in May to have a number of elections. If you think this isn’t the right behaviour for a local council, please get involved. You can make it different.”
She also added touches of humour, joking she “would have got her hair done” had she known the footage would be viewed so widely.
A newsworthy story with a strong spokesperson to help tell it.
Now the excitement has died down slightly, ill say this. Anyone who saw Jackie Weaver's interviews today...how well did she come across, especially in the sudden firestorm it became?!
— Aaron James (@aaronjamesf1) February 5, 2021
Queen of our times and a fine ambassador. #jackieweaverhastheauthority #HandforthParishCouncil
This is such a great interview. #JackieWeaver advocating for the importance and value of local government and local democracy. Such class and composure and respect! https://t.co/XUnsnaOp3P
— Charlie Kemp 💙 (@charliemkemp) February 6, 2021
Rather brilliant that the comedy element of the Jackie Weaver viral video has resulted in this lovely interview about the importance of local community involvement. Top governance heroine. 👏 https://t.co/ne8I5HF35e
— Muriel Gray (@ArtyBagger) February 6, 2021
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