George Monbiot on form as ever in today’s Guardian. Out of the bombings a national consensus has emerged: what we need in Britain is a renewed sense of patriotism. The rightwing papers have been making their usual noises about old maids and warm beer, but in the past 10 days they’ve been joined by Jonathan… Continue reading Patriotism – The New Chauvinism
Tag: media
The Disinterested Media
An interesting anecdote about Alastair Campbell from John Humphrys’ book Lost for Words. In order to follow the story, you need to know two things about Campbell. Firstly that he was Downing Street’s Director of Communication (and could therefore be assumed to know a little about the English language) and secondly that he often accused… Continue reading The Disinterested Media
Comics and Films and Masks
I saw Fantastic Four yesterday. Not a bad film, but there were a few things that bothered me about it. The biggest of these was the portrayal of Doctor Doom. As every comics reader knows, Doom has worn a metal mask ever since we first met him over forty years ago. We’ve never seen his… Continue reading Comics and Films and Masks
BBC Streams
I’ve made some pretty sweeping changes to the BBC streams page. Some of the Real Player links are now gone and there are now links to play everything in the BBC Radio Player application. You’ll notice that there are still some links to Real streams on my page. These mainly point to talk shows where… Continue reading BBC Streams
BBC TV and Radio Listings Data
The BBC Backstage project has announced a new data feed which contains details of BBC TV and Radio programs for the next seven days. Looks interesting but, of course, what I really want is details of the listen again radio streams so I don’t have to screenscrape them.
Telegraph on RSS
Interesting article from the Telegraph about the rise of RSS and its (potential) impact on news media. To the consumer, the main benefit of RSS services is that they make receiving news more efficient. Instead of looking at one news website, then another, and then another, each time looking for stories that are interesting, RSS… Continue reading Telegraph on RSS
Media Organisations
My contract with Guardian Unlimited finishes at the end of the month. So I’ve been poking around looking for a new contract. And it seems that I’ll be moving from one large media to another one. I start work for the BBC out in White City in two weeks.
Striking up Conversations with Strangers
Simon Waldman talks about the way that Guardian Unlimited needs to interact with bloggers. He’s talking about it in the context of the Guardian‘s forthcoming move to a Berliner format. The world our Berliner will launch into is almost unrecognisable to the one that greeted our last major change – the redesign of 1988. It… Continue reading Striking up Conversations with Strangers
Newspapers vs the BBC
An interesting article from the Economist discussing the fall in newspaper circulation and largely blaming the BBC’s web site for this. It is the success of the BBC’s news website that most troubles newspapers. Its audience has increased from 1.6m unique weekly users in 2000 to 7.8m in 2005; and its content has a breadth… Continue reading Newspapers vs the BBC
Guardian Resizes
The Guardian has confirmed the rumours that it will be resizing to Berliner format this autumn. The Observer will follow early next year. Update: Oh. They’ll be full colour too. Update: Changed link to a very similar-looking story in the business section (which doesn’t require registration).