Month: January 2008

  • Learning about the future of media from your kids

    Fred Wilson, affable tech venture capitalist and A-list blogger gives an anecdotal insight into media prospects based on the tastes of his kids (one of whom blogs too). I try, but it’s hard not to like Wilson. Here are his observations: 1) When they walk into a DVD store, they rarely walk out with a…

  • “Balance” in diplomacy: lessons for journalism

    I am sorry to say I have never had much time for diplomats. Prejudice, you understand. Reading former British diplomat Carne Ross’s enjoyable and self-critical memoir – Independent Diplomat: Dispatches from an Unaccountable Elite – hasn’t exactly changed my mind. But as well as reminding UK tax-payers that they could save a lot of money…

  • What’s gone wrong at Al Jazeera English?

    Check out the anonymous piece below on Al Jazeera English, posted – bizarrely – in the comments section of a Dubai media blog on 26 December, 2007. It certainly chimes with some of the things I’ve heard. And further below, more on soft-pedalling re. Saudi Arabia at AJE’s Arabic sister channel: What’s gone wrong at…

  • Two views on TV news

    I had a chance to look over the memo from ITN’s Dave Mannion on the return of News At Ten. Without repeating it in full, it offers important insights into the thinking of one of Britain’s best television journalists. We have been given a prime time slot. Our job is not simply to split the…