From early this month (because it’s been knocking around the house and I’ve only just got around to glancing at it before I put it in the recycling bin) – here’s the Guardian Money report on uSwitch’s annual broadband satisfaction survey. What’s wrong with this piece of simple reportage? It couldn’t be simpler, really. In […]
“Faze”: “to cause to be disturbed or disconcerted”. As in: the journalism lecturer was seldom fazed by the constant mis-spellings and poor grammar of his students. “Phase”: “a stage in a process of change or development”. As in: she wanted to work in the media, but luckily it was just a phase she was going through. This pairing can be a bit of a puzzle, but don’t be fazed. […]
What matters to those LibDem voters who hate the idea of hooking up with a Tory government? Social justice? The environment? European integration? Proportional representation? Whatever it is, it’s probably not civil liberties, as this fascinating tool from the Liberal Democrat Voice web site shows. “Authoritarian vs. liberal” tracks the voting patterns of MPs to 10 […]
Much furore on last night’s Question Time about the nascent coalition government – the LibDems “betrayed” their voters by jumping into bed with the ghastly Conservatives. And now the country is being run by a party that was opposed by 74% of the electorate. It’s all so sordid and unprincipled. The politicians just did a deal […]
Just for the hell of it, I spent last Thursday night’s election on Twitter (on TweetDeck, since you ask – thanks for the tip, Soilman). At the same time, I watched the BBC’s new coverage. I wanted to see what value, if any, each one had in following and understanding the events of the night. […]
[youtube width=”300″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVLnZfVfUnw[/youtube]The main problem for the media during last week’s election was that it was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The real story didn’t happen at the count – where all the reporters were eagerly awaiting whatever electoral upset was on the cards – but at the polling stations. It was […]
It’s interesting to see this from the BBC, which has some handy interactive digital graphics on its web site to show how the different voting systems work, in the run-up to most likely adopting one. What I want to know is how on earth they can apply the alternative vote system to the 2010 result, when […]
Nearly 30 years ago, David Steel told the Liberal Party to “go back to your constituencies, and prepare for government”. I wonder if, three decades later, they’re actually ready for it…
Spotted on Journalism.co.uk, a journalism job ad for a blogger/opinion former to cover the foreign exchange markets. “Great,” think the mass of underemployed hacks scouring the classifieds. “I could turn my hand to that. Let’s see, what does it need? Hmm – ‘Must have a genuine interest in financial markets’. Well, I don’t know much […]
What went wrong with last week’s election? In media terms, clearly, it was a lack of narrative. How could the media make sense of the voting patterns in 2010? Massive swings to the Tories in unexpected seats, solid swings away from Labour in others. But swinging to where? Sometimes to Tory, sometimes to Labour, sometimes […]