new media

General Election 2010: The PDF Action replay panel at RSA London

Mick Fealty on June 4, 2010, 9:15 am

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Highlights from the beginning of a lively session at the RSA in London on May 13th, featuring Craig Elder (Conservatives.com), myself, James Crabtree (Prospect Magazine), Stella Creasy (Labour Tweeter and MP), Anthony Painter (author of Barack Obama: Movement for Change) and Harry Cole (aka the blogger Tory Bear). Well worth the listen not least because of the variety of the inputs coming in from very different angles… Although sadly there is nothing of the following (at times very lively) debate, …

On copyright and creative commons…

Mick Fealty on June 3, 2010, 6:08 pm

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Since we have moved to the new site, we have been getting better at using uncopyrighted photos. Though, according to Doc Searls, we should probably do more, particularly with regard to Create Commons licences, which often only require attribution. I know for a fact that one of Red Mum’s photos ended up in the News of the World, several times, with no attribution. Bare with us whilst we try to dig down and find an easier way of cracking it …

Does ‘FOI’ privilege the contingency of ‘now’ over a ‘complete record’ in the future?

Mick Fealty on June 2, 2010, 11:45 am

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There is a fascinating exchange (transcript below) on the BBC Radio 4 PM programme last night between the historian Anthony Beevor, and Open Democracy’s Anthony Barnett. It arose out Beevor’s rather feisty remarks at the Hay Festival in which he noted: …with journalists wanting to write history on the hoof there is a tremendous pressure on people wanting to protect themselves and their reputations for the future; and they are weeding out information before it gets to the archive, or …

The Irish News and operating profitably on the net…

Mick Fealty on May 28, 2010, 1:02 pm

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Roy Greenslade has an interesting piece on the Irish News’ firewall. Not least the money figures: If you click on the Irish News website up comes a page demanding that you pay for access to a digital edition. There is a choice: £5 for one week’s editions, £15 for a month’s and £150 for a year’s. The result? According to journalism.co.uk, since its launch in December 2009, the News’s site has secured just 1,215 paid subscriptions: 525 weekly, 370 monthly …

Still bloggin’ after all these years..?

Mick Fealty on February 24, 2009, 8:17 pm

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Before the time for thanks moves on, thanks to Shane Hegarty in the Irish Times for mentioning Slugger as one of Ireland’s must read blogs… He calls us “The granddaddy of Northern Ireland’s politics and culture blogs…” Now I mind the time (as my Uncle Seamus might say) when there was no such partition in the blogoshere… You got your Irish bloggers where you could find them… In my recollection the earliest blog I remember was Sean McCann who started …

Blog tip #6: never underestimate your audience…

Mick Fealty on October 2, 2006, 7:19 pm

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They may be smarter than you! A few years ago I remember reading a list of twelve characteristics of knowledge. The one that stands out most distinctly in my memory is that when you share it or give it away, it multiplies. If there is a risk in getting close to the audience, there is also a positive advantage in terms of what a knowledgeable audience can tell that you didn’t already know. After 18 months of writing Slugger it …

Blog tip #5: Keep it quick, light and consistent…

Mick Fealty on September 30, 2006, 1:21 pm

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Keeping a blog is about being brief and to the point. When you write, keep in mind Italo Calvino’s unfinished six memos: ‘Lightness,” ”Quickness,” ”Exactitude,” ”Visibility,” ”Multiplicity” and the unwritten sixth, “Consistency”. All of these qualities are key to a good blog, but the last is essential. As the British Labour MP blog champion Tom Watson has said, it is his blog archives that keep him honest. Previously: It’s a social thing! Next: Never underestimate your audience… The first Irish …

Blog tip #4: Remember, it’s a social thing…

Mick Fealty on September 28, 2006, 1:26 pm

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The capacity to link to other sites gives blogs their popularity, communicative strength or, if you are particularly sensitive I suppose, their weakness. Each time you make a entry the software automatically ‘pings‘ a central website to let other bloggers know that you have published a new page. Bloggers expand their readerships through sharing. So find out who else is writing about what you are interested in, and add them to your blogroll. Each time you link to them, they …

Blog tip #3: Make sure you’ve got something to say..

Mick Fealty on September 27, 2006, 1:38 pm

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Despite all the hype around blogging, not everyone should blog. If you are a politician or a member of a large organisation, make sure there is something you want to tell us first. Cut and pasting press releases won’t do. We have official websites not to go for that. Think of blogging as an opportunity to express those thoughts, explanations, or kites you’ve always wanted to fly, but could never get a journalist to listen. Just remember, you don’t need …

Blog tip #2: Rough but functional…

Mick Fealty on September 26, 2006, 1:22 pm

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Although broadcast methods are still the biggest focus for any political party, they are steadily losing ground to online audiences along with their advertising revenues…. Glossy presentation works on TV because it is a one way medium. It general fails badly on the net where send and receive is the most effective. Even top-most bloggers in the US and the UK eschew the glossy look, even when they can afford it. In the blogosphere, even mistakes can be a virtue …

Blog tip #1: Spin doesn’t work!

Mick Fealty on September 25, 2006, 3:28 pm

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In the countdown to the Irish Blogger Conference (registration now open), we have a tip a day from Slugger on how and why politicians should consider blogging. Popular Blogs are popular because people feel they get the straight dope, if not the last word on the question. Conventional party spin only works within the controlled space of the lobby, and the time constraints of print deadlines. Blogs blow that space wide open, and that conversational zone their stories become iterative. …

Big blogging on the Big Bite!

Mick Fealty on April 4, 2005, 8:28 pm

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Interesting discussion with a few bloggers I’ve been wanting to meet for some time at RTE this morning. RTE’s Big Bite programme goes live tomorrow about 2.25pm and features a lively discussion between Caoimhe Burke, Gavin Sheridan, John Ihle, Richard Delevan and Sue, (who is currently worried about a haunting in her house). Oh, and yours truly. It was an interesting variety of bloggers. Fair play to David McWilliams, who seems to be ahead of the curve in recognising the …