How the web is saving journalism…

Making Journalism Better View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: journalism blogging) As promised, my slides from my talk at the Reuters Institute on how the web is making journalism better… although the caveat I did not enter at the time is that it’s not making life any easier for newspapers; the two are not precisely contiguous… The economics of the net is squeezing the value out of papers such that Bryan Appleyard is forced to admit that “In …

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Slugger’s Daily Blogburst…

Okay, kicking off with news from across the sheugh, it’s the Damian Green story… Anthony’s worried it will “fuel the bloggertarian paranoia about Gordon Brown being a Stalinist dictator”… But not everyone on the left, it seems is taking the Whistleblower aspect of the story seriously… Iain takes issue with several leftist bloggers to task. He notes of previous Whistleblowers: “neither Tisdall or Ponting were Parliamentarians. Ponting leaked information to Tam Dalyell. No one even considered arresting him.” Danny Finkelstein …

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Why can’t I see the Bertie Ahern series?

Mick’s post involving access to RTE’s Questions and Answers reminds me how I disappointed I was after settling down to watch the first on the three parter doc series on Bertie. To be greeted by the caption after the ad: We’re sorry but this programme is only available to play in the Republic of Ireland.” News and Current Affairs yes, but a big doc series of wide interest, no, it seems. When I responded to RTE’s invitation to go their …

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Victology

I don’t know if this one will work, but we’ll see. I am going to update this thread periodically. Go with gut reactions and try not to double guess what I’ll post next. ****UPDATE 4 ***** A man is shot dead in his home front of his wife and two children by loyalist paramilitaries. Who are the victims? Update1: The man is active in the IRA. Does this change how you feel, and why? Update2: His wife wasn’t involved directly, …

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What date is it again?

Does Sinn Féin’s Francie Brolly have supernatural powers? I’m just asking.. Update Apparently not.. Explanatory screenshots below the fold.Update Here’s the Sinn Féin website earlier today. And Francie Brolly’s statement at that time. Pete Baker

Not always what it seems…

Here’s an interesting thing that happen to me in the last ten minutes (anything longer than that is ancient history on Twitter)… First I see a note from the BBC on a new report saying that 1/3 of the Scottish population is breadline poor… Ten minutes later I get a twitter message from Mike Power who says the research involved is ‘utter tosh’, and links this annotated facsimile of the original… Hmm… Clever… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. …

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Ireland, the Commonwealth and history

In an Irish Times article headlined , Historical amnesia is not a sign of maturity John Waters argues strongly against the idea of the Republic joining the Commonwealth, a fairly easy Aunt Sally, you would have thought. (Waters can be forgiven for failing to keep up with the forms of Commonwealth terminology; the term “British” has been dropped now for at least a quarter of a century). But irrelevance is not as you might expect the preferred reason for spurning …

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Even the Republic’s retailers are heading north…

For many years the border has cast a gloomy economic shadow by turns on either side. For a long time, towns on the northern side of the border have suffered economically. Letterkenny prospered at Derry’s expense. And Dundalk at Newry’s. In fact the shoe has been on the other foot for some time now, but it has only recently become a major issue in the Republic since the global credit crunch has fouled up the steady flow of FDI, and …

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O’Leary strikes again

O‘Leary, although predicting losses for the second half of the year makes a lower bid. Ryanair, Europe’s largest low-cost airline, on Monday offered to buy Irish rival Aer Lingus for €750m ($970.4m), or just half the price of its bid in 2006 which was blocked by the European Union. Why should it not be blocked again? Aer Lingus’s, first reaction is keenly awaited. The unions have no doubt. The initiative was “doubtless” designed to coincide with a dispute in Aer …

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“We aren’t just having the meeting in Washington..”

Having come to a new “indigenous” arrangement, whereby Sinn Féin quit claiming they have invisible commitments to a deadline for devolving policing and justice powers, and the Northern Ireland Executive resumes business while they and the DUP work towards building the necessary public confidence in the ability of the NI Executive to handle those powers responsibly, “Even if there are setbacks in the months to come..”, the First and deputy First Ministers have now absconded to the US.. where they, …

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Conversations with Kathleen – the dry run

Long time Slugger contributor and material provider Kathleen has recently been driving forward a new avenue for Slugger. She has proactively sourced numerous women politicians who have agreed to hold a series of recorded informal conversations on ‘Women politicians and their experiences of politics in the north of Ireland’ commencing next week. As yet Kathleen is unsure how these conversations will be presented, if she will blog them herself (something both Mick and I would really prefer), how they’ll develop …

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Willie Frazer subtitled

Disclaimer (please read first): Opinions expressed within this blog are not necessarily those of the author or site owner. However, that disclaimer doesn’t apply to this Disclaimer. Opinions expressed in this Disclaimer are definitely the view of the author. If you read or view anything on this blog, you are entirely responsible for any deleterious effects which may result in you or others, be they animal, vegetable, mineral or Republican. The following entry is a humorous entry and is provided …

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The cut and paste of Northern Irish journalism…

The Staff at Bobballs have discovered the Newsletter pushing a press release as a piece of journalism… Slugger can see why they bought it as such, since as a press release it’s not a bad piece of journalism… But it’s still a Press Release… Well spotted, and congratulations to The Staff at Bobballs… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular …

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