Here’s a nice exchange on this morning’s Today programme on Radio 4 between Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) chief executive Guy Parker and Climate Secretary Ed Miliband. The ASA has ruled that Government advertisements on climate change were exaggerated – specifically that they made definitive predictions about future weather effects that could not yet be proved. […]
Warning: intense WordPress stats geekery ahead We’re coming up to the annual WordPress geekery blowout that is my full year web stats report. Freelance Unbound’s half-yearly web stats geekery report came when the site was hosted on WordPress.com. This had its ups and downs. The upside was that it was simple to understand – WordPress […]
Here’s a nice dissection on the Forbes web site of a Toyota Prius accelerator fault hoax that has hit US news media. Apparently, James Sikes was driving a Toyota Prius in California when the accelerator jammed – the same fault that is said to have caused the death of a family in a Lexus and […]
The BBC has caught up on the whole unpaid internship debate. The Your Money segment on BBC News 24 on Saturday March 13 featured a new web site set up by disgruntled former intern Alex Try. Interns Anonymous is quite well done, actually – with video documentary material, surveys and resources for interns. It’s also a […]
I suspect that most journalists and journalism students assume that the toughest feature assignments are for the nationals – hard-hitting investigative exposes of political corruption, say – or for dirt-digging celebrity magazines. All that hanging around in the pouring rain at 3am to catch Ashley Cole in a compromising SMS incident, maybe, or pretending to […]
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 […]
There’s been a recent flurry of condemnation in the J-blogs over the question of whether employers should charge interns for work experience (“No!” is the answer). Emily Fraser Voigt [Update: original blog post deleted] asks “isn’t it hard enough already for new graduates?” and adds: It seems to me like a callous way to exploit young […]
Yes, I finally cracked and bought this. My Samsung N140 has been cast aside in favour of the sleek, white sexiness of the new Apple MacBook. And don’t forget usability. Oh yes. As many readers will know, I am not all that fond of my Samsung N140 netbook. Now I don’t have to use it […]
It’s time to turn my Typekit code off. Typekit offers an online library of fonts you can use in your blog or web site without relying on it being installed on your visitor’s computer. Though it’s been exciting to see Freelance Unbound with a headline font that isn’t either Georgia or Verdana (the web’s two […]
We’re coming up to about halfway on several student journalism units I’m teaching – and already the prospect of student assessments is looming threateningly over the class. So – a few words of advice to J-students faced with writing assessment deadlines. Relax One strange phenomenon I’ve noticed about student writing is that it’s much better […]