I wouldn’t exactly call Kevin Myers one of my favourite writers, but it takes a belly full of bile to compose an epistle of anger this good.
I must admit to harbouring similar feelings for some of the people I’ve encountered along the way. Continue reading
I was one of the people interviewed for Andrew Currah’s What’s Happening to Our News, which is out today. Don’t let that put you off. Andrew’s an economic geographer — different, I guess, from a geographic economist — maybe it’s an economist who knows where he is. Continue reading
So you still haven’t seen The Wire? Probably the single best thing on a TV monitor since the genius that was Alan Bleasdale’s G.B.H., and 21C television’s single best attempt at recreating the 19C novel.
It’s dense structure and tight plotting means it has to be watched night after night — not once a week — one box set at a time. Anyone interested in telling a story on TV — in drama, news or otherwise could learn from it.
It will at once restore your faith in audio-visual entertainment and make you gasp in astonishment that UK network television couldn’t find time to air it (especially given the number of Brit actors in it).
Here is the whole thing in one 5′ rap homage:
Having written a book about trust in the media, I tend to keep track of the endless trust polling that pours forth. Here’s the latest from TNS.
When it comes to newspapers TNS observed that less than a quarter (23%) of UK respondents ‘highly trusted’ newspapers. In fact the UK gave the lowest score in this respect with an average of just under two fifths (39%) of respondents across all 16 countries highly trusting newspapers. The traditional press seemed to be most trusted by respondents in Finland (69%), Japan (50%), Sweden (49%) and most interestingly, China (49%).
China? Most interesting!
If you wanted a sign of the growing importance of the UK news media in reporting US politics (a phenomenon supported by Matt Drudge, the now global online market in English language news, and the largely apolitical US press), here it is.
Media Matters, a Democratic-leaning MSM rebuttal service, turns its powerful fisking attention to this Times report. Continue reading
Like 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