I summarised the grim news coming out of the motor industry in a lecture yesterday. Then I said that there’s an announcement of bad news expected soon from Toyota; this was greeted with a gasp from my students. I had forgotten that one of them had applied for (and been offered) a year’s placement at that company.
This made me doubt my information. How could I know something that hadn’t yet happened? Is it unprofessional to speculate and spread rumours? Or was it a useful exercise in going beyond the usual academic process of analysing yesterday’s news to that practical skill of predicting tomorrow’s?
What was my secret: Twitter? RSS? Inside information? None of these. I listen to the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 and have long known that this early morning radio news programme is more interested in events that are about to happen than those that have just happened (read the newspapers if you want to know what occurred in the world yesterday).
So here’s a student-friendly look inside the Today programme. According to another report on the same programme, few of them can reasonably expected to be alert before 11am: the Today Programme starts broadcasting at 6am.
YouTube video: Inside Today
PR Studies 
Thank you. I am a big fan of Today (must be age) and enjoyed this very much.
Caroline
Quite. But I was also listening to John Timpson and Brian Redhead way back then.