Category: Journalism

  • Public information in financial markets

    Just come across a paper by two Italian economists on the social value of public information. Post Britain’s Northern Rock banking debacle, the words of two other economists [pdf] seem a little prescient: For a decision maker facing a choice under uncertainty, greater access to information permits actions that are better suited to the circumstances.…

  • Time to call off the plagiarism police?

    Can I suggest it is time to call off the plagiarism police? Case in point. Journalism professor admits plagiarism. Yup, it is a neat headline. So was this a Jayson Blair-style rip-off? Hardly. In fact it wasn’t plagiarism at all. The plagiarism in question was three quotes (lifted from this piece) included in a curmudgeonly…

  • Review: Al Jazeera English – one year on

    Here’s a piece I wrote for Press Gazette on Al Jazeera English, one year on. In the gardens of Versailles you can visit a charming monument to France’s conservative, construction-crazed 18th-century monarchy. It’s the Petit Hameau, an idealised village built at the whim of Marie Antoinette as a way of “connecting” with the great unwashed.…

  • Jihad Watch

    Hadn’t really come across the JihadWatch folks before, but had to share this insightful gem from Robert Spencer: There is no reliable way to distinguish peaceful Muslims from those who may be inclined at one time or another to commit violence in the name of jihad and Islam. I’ve gotten a lot of criticism for…