Entries from March 2011

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Why there will no longer be a professional career in the media

Quote of the day, from Wired’s profile of Demand Media: “You can take something that is thought of as a creative process and turn it into a manufacturing process.” Byron Reese, chief innovation officer, Demand Media The scariest thing is that the Wired article is already two years old…

Friday, March 25th, 2011

How to be a social media editor

Social media editor Chris Street talks to UCA Farnham online journalism students on the power of social media in journalism and the skills you need to succeed online, compared to traditional print journalism. (Hint: there is no real difference at all).

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Iraq 2003; Libya 2011 – doing the right thing

Iraq 2003 Tony Blair, UK House of Commons – March 13, 2003: This is the time for this house, not just this government or indeed this prime minister, but for this house to give a lead, to show that we will stand up for what we know to be right, to show that we will […]

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

Local free magazine of the day – Retired & living in Swindon

Found on the free magazine rack in Morrisons in Bath – an example of how the magazine industry is fighting back against the slew of sub-standard free online content. Basically, by producing a slew of sub-standard free printed content. At first glance, Retired – & living in Swindon looks as if it is produced by someone who […]

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

Nuclear power panic – why we need to protect UK nuclear plants from earthquakes. Or not

In response to the containment breach at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a predictable flurry of panicky “safety” measures elsewhere. According to the Metro: Tests will be carried out on Britain’s nuclear plants as part of a safety crackdown in the wake of the radioactivity leak in earthquake-hit Japan Because, of course, a nuclear disaster […]

Friday, March 11th, 2011

Media scientific illiteracy: John Humphrys and the 8.9% Tokyo earthquake

Heard this morning on Radio 4’s Today programme: John Humphrys expressing the magnitude of this morning’s Tokyo earthquake as a percentage – “8.9%”. The Richter earthquake scale is a base-10 logarithmic scale (ie, it has no unit as such, and each unitary value greater than the one before is actually 10 times more powerful). So […]

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Misleading headline of the day: Libya – it’s war!

The Metro seems to think we’ve got another Iraq on our hands as the US and the UK prepare an invasion of Libya to liberate Libyan oil the Libyan people from a dictator that the West has been trying to make friends with recently. No, wait. This is what is happening: The prime minister and […]

Monday, March 7th, 2011

The erotic face of professional magazines

You wouldn’t see this produced by the British Medical Journal. From 1935 comes “The Digest” – “An Annual Magazine for circulation amongst Medical Graduates and Students.” Doctors, eh? The tone is set by the ever-so modern lady on the front cover, whose state of slightly risqué déshabille can only be justified by her subtle indication […]

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

Why older drivers need to worry about ECJ insurance ruling

Today’s European Court of Justice ruling that insurance companies may not charge differential rates to men and women has hit the headlines. The ruling will probably mean that women will now have to pay more for their car insurance (and possibly men pay less – though insurers will be more likely to hike premiums than […]