Push and pull information

The Devil’s Advocate™ →Go uptown In which the curmudgeonly old sod puts the world to rights. Index — Click ᐅ to expand: The Devil’s Advocate Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

“Push” information is sent unasked — “pushed” — to a recipient. Push communications are used to solicit action, and communicate interesting, important, or time-sensitive information and, frequently, both. To solicit action: mail, email, advertisements, posters and billboards, push notifications (digital alerts sent from a mobile app), SMS, phone calls, conference calls, seminars, conferences, webinars. Information that is broadcast without the listener’s input.

“Pull” information is material that the recipient seeks out, when and where the recipient wants it. The recipient dictates, so is best presented as a self-service resource: open, convenient, non-time-sensitive.

Bookshops, libraries, encyclopaedias, hitch-hiker’s guides and internet searches. The JC is, largely, one giant, existential infernal howl of angst in the shape of a pull communication.

See also

• Communication