journalism
When all your readers are rapidly becoming self directed autodidacts?
Tweet From stone slate to silicon tablet and the importance of getting over a widespread platonic fear of making your ‘digital mark’ so happens that the generational progression in my family means that whilst my granddad started school in March 1879 in the first state school in his rural district, my youngest has yet to [...] more »
“On newspaper opinion pages, including this one, a shrill keening sound can be heard…”
Tweet Today Hugh Linehan in the Irish Times today channels the commonplace American role of reader’s editor, taking on two of the papers most respected columnists, John Waters and Davy Adams. I think this goes in the lesson boxed marked write about you know (don’t write about what you don’t): On chat show panels and [...] more »
National Newspapers of Ireland deploy the survival instincts of the Dodo…
Tweet So it’s Friday. On Sunday Simon McGarr wrote a fascinating piece in which he revealed that some of his professional clients were under pressure from Newspaper Licensing Ireland Ltd (NLI), a collection agent for the Newspaper publishers to pay for linking in to a number of newspaper articles about them. The piece went viral, and [...] more »
#Leveson: A mixed response to the British Press’s mass indulgence in criminal activity…
Tweet Worth waiting for Charlie Beckett to shoot down the idea that reforms in line with the current Irish system would suffice… - Guido has a scathing an op ed in the Sun today (sister paper of the now dead NOTW), noting the paucity of work in the Leveson Report on New Media. And pride [...] more »
Blessed are the newsbreakers; but which ones can you trust in the age of Twitter?
Tweet There’s a number of great pieces online about where new authority is emerging to challenge the older models, particularly in the wake of the US election and superstorm Sandy. Forbes had this to say in response to a mainstream anchor thanking people for ‘helping out’: News flash for my local news anchors: the “amateurs” [...] more »
Irish Times launches its new format and remains a broadsheet…
Tweet Great to see the Irish Times finally make a move it has been contemplating for some time. Briefly, it’s changed the format of the print version of the paper from classic broadsheet to a compact version. So now it is almost exactly the same size as London’s Daily Telegraph: The new size resolves a [...] more »
America’s standoff between the shills and the gamblers…
Tweet I’m afraid there will be no #DigitalLunch today due illness (mine) in the kitchen… So I’ve a couple short posts to share that I’ve collected over the last few days. One of the things that’s been exercising comment in America is the dominance of number cruncher in chief Nate Silver, who’s dominance of the [...] more »
Donald Trump movie and the ill-defined concept of the ‘public interest’…
Tweet If you have watched You’ve Been Trumped yet, you should. There are many strong points to this documentary on not just how Donald Trump threw his weight around with local residents whose homes bordered his development in Aberdeenshire. But of most interest to me is the degree to which the Scottish media and Scottish [...] more »
Culture Night Belfast & the right to freedom of expression #CNB12
Tweet Culture Night Belfast (and in a few other towns besides) is almost upon us. Tomorrow night is a chance for thousands of people to take to the streets, bars, cafes, offices and other nooks and crannies around the city to experience all sorts of arts and cultural experiences. While most events are concentrated on [...] more »
Was 9/11 Television’s last great exclusive on a truly global event?
Tweet Last Friday’s #DigitalLunch was ostensibly about 9/11, and the effects it has had on society, or at least how society has changed in the meantime. Whether those changes were consequential or not is a moot point. Certainly in the realm of human communication technology and culture have never been more closely entwined. Blogs in [...] more »
journalist ≠ campaigner?
Tweet There was an interesting – though overly lengthy* – session on Human Rights and Journalism in St Mary’s College at lunchtime today as part of this year’s Féile an Phobail. A panel of Mandy McAuley (BBC Spotlight), Steven McCaffery (Deputy Editor PA The Detail) and Chris Moore (the Detail UTV) was chaired by Amnesty [...] more »
New media networks are undermining traditional media formats yes, but…
Tweet Nice piece from Noel Whelan on media change in Ireland (and further afield)… What makes it interesting is the debate (originally between Conor Brady and John Bowman) about which medium was the main ‘significator’ of change in Ireland, newspapers or television. Whelan is in the Bowman (ie TV) camp: The Irish Times and other [...] more »
Tomorrow’s #Digital Lunch: Can digital journalism be commercially valuable?
Tweet Yep, programme number three in an evolving series… Not only is it to be kindly hosted by UTV in Belfast, but our first special guest interviewee will be the TV station’s MD, Michael Wilson… We’ll kick off by looking at the vexed issue of how to extract commercial value out of digital journalism and [...] more »
The net deals with ‘acute’ issues better than the ‘chronic’
Tweet Interesting piece from +Daniel Drezner in which he lauds the network of the web as a fact checker (not to mention dealing with idiots), but then argues that it also “permits an amplification of conspiracy theories that can attract pockets of people that otherwise would never bother to organize”. He continues: “The problem comes with slower-moving [...] more »
Sinn Fein discrimination: Granting any institution immunity from public scrutiny can easily become a habit
Tweet It’s not entirely fair to say the whole of the southern press went to sleep on the Conor Murphy discrimination case, but Davy Adams has a point that in allowing itself to get spun into near hysteria over the “Tiocfaidh ár Lámh” PR campaign the Irish press took its eye run over yet another [...] more »
Who’s in charge: PRs or journalists?
Tweet The News Letter’s Ben Lowry was written an interesting opinion piece highlighting the jarring interface between reporters, PRs and in particular the government press machine. It sits well alongside Mick’s earlier post about the Hearts and Minds’ discussion around Stormont ‘nationalising’ its own images. [Ed – Is that new media talking about mainstream media [...] more »
Is #Stormont effectively ‘nationalising’ its own images?
Tweet When I was working as a sort of blogging pacemaker at the Daily Telegraph, it used to slightly irk me that the papers subs would always choose the photos. Invariably, if it was a piece that featured Gordon Brown the photo would alway capture some deeply unattractive aspect of his physog. But the point [...] more »
#EUref: Great editorials are built on great journalism: Ireland’s desperate choice…
Tweet I don’t always see eye to eye with the Guardian newspaper. For one thing, their line between comment and news is often a little too blurred for my tastes [But you run a bloody blog! - Ed] Yes, but, well I’ve come to praise the Grauniad, not to bury it. Those of you who’ve [...] more »
Licence fee freeze leads BBC NI slashes top journalist jobs…
Tweet Grim reading this morning in the Belfast Telegraph (h/t Nevin)… Hearts and Minds, as long expected, is to finally go. The production teams for three programmes will be to some extent amalgamated, and run on a rolling basis…. And some key assets are being got rid of, including Julia Paul who’s film pieces for [...] more »
And the Orwell Prize shortlist is…
Tweet Well, Long listed for the Orwell is as far as we got, but if you haven’t already read them here’s the shortlist with two of my own favourites for the blog prize, Rangers Tax Case (who’s exceptional work is now coming to fruition) and the intimiable Alex Massie, a Tory blogger that most Scots Nats [...] more »
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Books
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“This coming 16 June, Radio 4 will be a wall-to-wall Joycefest…”
Tweet As The Observer’s Alex Clark notes This coming 16 June, Radio 4 will be a wall-to-wall Joycefest, kicking off at 9am and running until midnight: a new, five-and-a-half hour dramatisation of Ulysses, narrated by Stephen Rea and starring Henry Goodman, Niamh Cusack and Andrew Scott, will be punctuated by broadcasts by Mark Lawson in [...] read our review » -
What has The Third Man got to say about Northern Ireland?
Tweet Short answer: very little, other than he enjoyed the environs of Hillsborough Castle, enjoyed working with the local politicians, and has Gerry Adams to thank for Bobby his dog. Peter Mandelson’s book The Third Man has captured media headlines in recent weeks as the Times serialised the most juicy bits. But what did he [...] read our review »
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A rolling First World War reviews thread.
Tweet Given the day that is in it, and since there are only whatever number of shopping days until Christmas, this post is a rolling review of First World War literature, in its broadest sense to include personal accounts, historical fiction (and everything in between), histories, cinema, documentary, drama, theatre and the endless poetry. Next [...] read our review »
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