Friday, March 5th, 2010

Dumbed-down documentaries

Though it’s sad to see a likely closure verdict handed down to the excellent BBC 6 Music station, I was at least relieved that BBC 4 survived Auntie’s cull. Because I’m a documentary kind of guy. Sad, highbrow and worthy, that’s me. So why, oh why, oh why, BBC, do you insist on dumbing down your […]

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

"Dinosaur rages against approaching asteroid"

I loved this comment on Tim Luckhurst’s recent journalism-is-so-up-itself-it-believes-it’s-the-cornerstone-of-democracy opinion piece on the Guardian web site. “Dinosaur rages against approaching asteroid. Blog at 11.” There’s almost nothing else to say. But what the hell. One problem with the Luckhurst analysis is that he recognises the economic drivers that created the modern newspaper, but then tries […]

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Should media sites ditch low-value readers? (Or boost the value of their content?)

Steve Yelvington has a very interesting post here on the whole “is Murdoch an idiot for blocking visitors from Google?” question (he thinks not). Perhaps more interesting is the argument it generates in the comments, which manages to be both slightly vitriolic and also well-informed – an almost unheard of trick normally. Whether the planned […]

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Why I should take my own writing advice

As my dozens of regular visitors may have noticed, things have been a bit quiet around here for the past week or so. In my last post I took journalism students to task for strenuously avoiding core things on their course such as, well, actually writing copy. In the light of the lack of updates […]

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Publish and be filtered

After wittering on for ever about why journalism is changing irrevocably, I’ve read two things that make the point much more clearly. One is a post by Scott Porad on Journalism 2.0 on the relationship between journalism and the I Can Has Cheezburger brand of user-generated humour. The other is a weighty essay by internet […]

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Journalism: a suicide note

I’ve just read Build the Wall – a gently impassioned, 4,250 word essay in the Columbia Journalism Review by David Simon – that declares the only future for journalism is if newspapers – all newspapers, everywhere (in the US anyway) – start charging for their online content. It’s billed as “One man’s bold blueprint”. It’s actually […]

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Comments Unbound

For everyone who can’t get through the day without new and shiny material to look at, be reassured that there’s a lot going on here, but most of it is in the comments section, where readers and I are engaged in the savage cut and thrust of debate on matters ranging from why paid journalism […]

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Journalism: in whose interest?

Some interesting points have been made in the comments to my post about Why Paid Journalism is in Trouble. Crucially, they falls into the trap of conflating the interests of readers with those of journalists. It’s worth looking at this in a bit more depth. (Quite a bit more depth actually. Sorry if I ramble […]

Sunday, July 19th, 2009

Journalism's uncertain future

As they say, prediction is hard – especially about the future. Many years ago – sometime in the mid-to-late 1990s – I started to take note of the technological change revamping the journalism business, and I started to make some fanciful predictions about the direction it would take. Anyone who takes an interest in futurology […]

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

iPhone – the saviour of journalism

Inspired by the thoughts of blogger Soilman, my post on Why journalism may become software development struck a chord with a few readers. I’m now pleased to say it seems to be coming true (though not because of me, you understand). Media Industry Newsletter web site Min Online suggests 5 online content models worth watching – […]