Category: Journalism

  • Putting commenters in context

    Comments have had a lot of play recently, what with Marc Andreessen turning them off, and US newspapers banning anonymous ones. So is comment worth it? I like the ones I get on this blog, because the responses are invariably interesting and engaged (flattery etc.). But is context important for comment? I did a little…

  • The collateral damage of documentary promotion

    Yesterday the BBC invited assorted media journos to take a peak at its autumn schedule. According to the Guardian, as BBC One boss Peter Fincham introduced a clip to promote RDF doc series A Year with the Queen he announced, “Annie Leibovitz gets it slightly wrong and the Queen walks out in a huff.” We…

  • Live blogging live news…

    Hats off to Simon Waldman at BBC News 24 for live-blogging his gallery stint this morning. Interesting exercise, if slightly twitterish. At one point he points to traffic volumes on the BBC’s website providing a useful gauge of a story’s popularity. IMO they ought to stream talkback (the “conversation” in the gallery). For starters it’s…

  • The Campbell diaries

    I’ve never been run over by a pedestrian, but Alastair Campbell did the next best thing striding down the narrow atrium walk towards the studios of Channel 4 News. He was about to berate Jon Snow. Personally, I think he made Tony Blair a lousy press secretary, but a very good counsellor. I don’t know…