Entries from February 2012

Monday, February 27th, 2012

Comic books and Hollywood promote illiteracy #1: Iron Man

Marvel Studios may have spent around $140,000,000 to put Iron Man on the screen, but none of that money seems to have gone on proofreading. As Iron Man seems to be showing pretty much on a loop on Film 4 at the moment, sub-editing geeks can check out the montage of magazine covers featuring millionaire businessman/inventor Tony […]

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Marie Colvin – a sketchy timeline

Veteran foreign correspondent Marie Colvin has been reported killed today in Syria, alongside French photographer Remi Ochlik. Biographical details online are scant – but here’s a sketchy timeline (UPDATE: Wikipedia caught up with her today, but I’m updating here anyway). 1956/57* – born in Oyster Bay, New York 1974 – graduates from Oyster Bay High School in New York […]

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

Six interview tips for journalism university candidates

Last week saw interviews of a few dozen prospective candidates for places on the journalism degrees at UCA in Farnham. It was the usual mixed bunch, and some candidates failed to shine – despite the fact that is isn’t that hard, if you know what you’re doing. So, how do you make the best impression […]

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Five tips for success in sports journalism from Times football editor Tony Evans

Last week, Times football editor Tony Evans (@TonyEvansTimes) came to speak to journalism undergraduates at UCA Farnham. Here is his advice to J-students on how to get ahead in sports reporting. (Works for other kinds of journalism too…) Build contactsDon’t be shy – make contact with people in the sporting and media world via email and Twitter; and maintain your […]

Saturday, February 11th, 2012

Bad Logic: why Ben Goldacre’s 5 Tweets against Simon Burns’ ‘moronic’ NHS comment makes no sense*

Bad Science author Ben Goldacre is getting in a twist about the NHS reforms. On his Posterous blog he criticises health minister Simon Burns for recently pointing out that the British Medical Association was hostile to the NHS in 1946 (though I can’t find an actual link for Burns’ comment). In a neat “5 Tweet” format, […]