What is Cancel Culture and how is it shaping our society? | PR Insider Podcast

Farzana Baduel, CEO of Curzon PR is in conversation with Shruti Advani, a journalist whose recent article in the Financial Times about luxury lockdown in Kensington went viral. Not in a good way. Shruti received over 4000 messages in one week from across the globe including death threats, racism and sexism. Despite being cancelled herself, Shruti holds an opposing view than most of her peers in the media when she says she would never cancel cancel culture. It is not cancel culture, but it's social media amplification that is the problem, she says. Episode highlights: 4:36 - How her article lost context when released outside the paywall. 8:06 - How she became a symbol for everything that was going wrong in people’s lives. 12:03 - The kind of threats she received, online as well as in person. 21:08 - How the people most vulnerable to COVID just showed kindness. 24:19 - How the article was published at the wrong time. 30:30 - The history of cancel culture and why it is an important part of a vibrant democracy. 31:36 - Why the social media amplification of cancel culture is problematic. 33:50 - Example from India on being comfortable with one’s history while having an environment that represents everyone who inhabits it. 38:07 - Her one general rule in life when it comes to cancel culture. Please check the website for selected links from the episode: https://www.curzonpr.com/theprinsider... Top quotes 'When you pick up a magazine and it says "Wealth", when you pick up a newspaper and it says "The Financial Times", you pretty much know what you're getting into. When you remove that broader context and you just float a column out into cyberspace where there is this patently privileged woman talking about flowers during the lockdown, you lose perspective of why and how it was written.' 'The fact that someone can make that (racist) comment. That comment is allowed to sit on a public site, but in the meantime, we should all be signing petitions to remove statues from parliament square. I just felt how does this add up?' 'People who are personal heroes of mine, people like Mahatma Gandhi, people like Nelson Mandela, have all used cancel culture with great effectiveness. Cancel culture is quite literally the impulse of a group that feels disenfranchised to seize the power of the narrative.' 'What has become a bit of a problem is the amplification of cancel culture. And this is really the speed that social media affords cancel culture. So that there is not even a semblance of due process. We don't pause to ask the question, "Could this be true?"' 'I come from a country where cancel culture has moved out of social media platforms into real life. It's more than just trolling someone online -- it can lead to loss of life in real life.' 'A lot of things that came my way were read by people who love me and are a part of my life. If you have an eight-year-old or a ten-year-old and you wouldn't like them to read something about you, try not to write it about another person.' About the guest Twitter:   / shruti_advani   Instagram:   / shrutiruparel   LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/shrutirupareladvani/ About the host Farzana Baduel is the CEO of Curzon PR. She has been appointed as the Resident Public Relations expert and Ambassador for the Oxford Foundry, the University of Oxford’s entrepreneurship centre. As a passionate advocate of strategic communications, she champions the power of PR as a dynamic force for building bridges and unifying the world’s voices into a global narrative. She set up Curzon PR in 2009, having previously served as Vice-Chair of Business Relations for the UK Conservative Party. Website: https://www.farzanabaduel.com/ Twitter:   / farzanabaduel   Facebook:   / farzana.baduel   Instagram:   / farzanabaduel   LinkedIn:   / farzana   E. [email protected] Find out more SUBSCRIBE:    / @curzonpr-london   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4tioMaK... Website: https://curzonpr.com/ Twitter:   / curzonpr   Facebook:   / curzonpr   Instagram:   / curzonpr   LinkedIn:   / curzon-pr   https://www.curzonpr.com/theprinsider... https://www.curzonpr.com/theprinsider... With special thanks to Agustin Mouratoglou: https://curzonpr.com/team/agustin-mou... Shaifali Agrawal: https://curzonpr.com/team/shaifali-ag...