Tag Archives: Britain

Democracy and the media go together like…

Posted on by
2

Ditchley ParkLike Jeff Jar­vis, Charlie Beck­ett, and Richard Sam­brook, I too was at Ditch­ley recently for a con­fer­ence on the media and demo­cracy. Present com­pany excep­ted, it brought together a fas­cin­at­ing and lively group of people (not always the case at conferences).

Sir Jeremy Green­stock, formerly Britain’s man at the UN and in Iraq (and someone who speaks in per­fect para­graphs), gives his impres­sions below (bold, ital­ics, and broken paras are me).

For the record, I’m more pess­im­istic about demo­cracy than about journ­al­ism — but I also think Google — the acci­dental mono­pol­ist — should step up to the plate and fund some inde­pend­ent con­tent resource (listen — that’s the sound of me not hold­ing my breath). Con­tinue read­ing →

British Political TV ads — courtesy of Europe?

Posted on by
7

The European Court of Human Rights could be green­light­ing the kind of polit­ical advert­ising that the United States has grown used to.

Russ Taylor at Ofcom­watch aler­ted me to the rul­ing.

My caveats?

  • The Gov­ern­ment doesn’t want it
  • News­pa­pers don’t want it
  • Polit­ical parties can’t afford it.

Con­tinue read­ing →

Good journalism’s demand ‘problem’

Posted on by
3

Columbia Journalism ReviewThe Columbia Journ­al­ism Review takes on a famil­iar trope — the scarcity of atten­tion — and riffs on it in rela­tion to journalism.

Attention—our most pre­cious resource—is in increas­ingly short sup­ply. To win the war for our atten­tion, news organ­iz­a­tions must make them­selves indis­pens­able by pro­du­cing journ­al­ism that helps make sense of the flood of inform­a­tion that inund­ates us all.

Atten­tion, with respect to Her­bert Simon, is not scarce. It is a constant.

It’s just man­aged in ways that read­ers of the Columbia Journ­al­ism Review may find dis­ap­point­ing. Con­tinue read­ing →

Stakeholder syndrome

Posted on by
2

If you want an illus­tra­tion of the bril­liance and fra­gil­ity of the blo­go­sphere, take a look at Ofcom­watch. It’s a blog about the world of UK com­mu­nic­a­tions reg­u­la­tion which, let’s face it, is about as effer­ves­cent as a day-old glass of Alkaseltzer, and the bulk of its posts are the heroic work of Russ Taylor. Con­tinue read­ing →