Blog posts by year and monthDecember 2011
Posts (18)
News media must embrace Facebook and other social networks
If you were in any doubt about the increasing influence of Facebook, two things caught my eye this week, both of which demonstrated the impact of the social network. In the US, Zynga, the maker of the Facebook-based hit game Farmville among many others, this week sold 14% of its shares, valuin...
Being bathed by a stranger: all part of my journalism training
Imagine going to see a public performance and then finding that a) you're the only person in the audience and b) the performance involves a complete stranger bathing you. It all started innocently enough, as part of the eight months I've spent in BBC News in Scotland, firstly writing for the w...
Event: Becoming a Freelance Foreign Correspondent
Wednesday 11 January 2012, The Frontline Club, London With uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa setting a relentless pace in 2011's news agenda, media outlets have frequently turned to freelancers to cover events in countries where they are without staff bureaux and wire servi...
Big Stories: The UK and Global Economy
The ongoing uncertainties over both the UK and global economy will be one of the big themes of 2012. At the last Big Stories seminar of the year, BBC director of news Helen Boaden talked about some recent audience research on the subject. The majority of those interviewed - 80% - believed the ...
2011, the year journalism changed. But into what?
Below is an adapted extract of a chapter by Kevin Marsh from the book The Phone Hacking Scandal: Journalism at the Crossroads, to be published in February. In 2011, journalism changed forever. We don't know yet what it's changed into. But we know what it's going to change from. The reaso...
Spy planes: the news industry's eyes in the sky
A few years ago I visited one of the frontlines in the West's battle against Al-Qaeda. It wasn't in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but inside an innocuous-looking prefab building on the outskirts of Las Vegas. At Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, US and British serviceman control heavily armed Rea...
Russian media targets US over Moscow protests coverage
Russia's state-funded English-language broadcaster RT (formerly Russia Today) has targeted US broadcasters over mistakes in the coverage of protests in Russia. It does not appear, though, to have reported on the much more significant omissions on the part of Russian broadcasters. The 'fair e...
Calling all innovative postgrad student journalists
Postgraduate Student Journalism Innovation Award The BBC College of Journalism is launching its first award this month, championing the most innovative postgraduate students at the UK's journalism schools. The world of journalism is undergoing a period of radical change. New technolo...
Postgraduate Student Journalism Innovation Award
BBC College of Journalism Postgraduate Student Journalism Innovation Award The BBC College of Journalism is looking for the most innovative postgraduate journalism students in the UK. In the first award of its type, we're asking for pieces of first-class original journalism which use the ...
Twitter redesign: homage to Facebook?
Last week, Twitter started to roll out a new interface. It's trying to both make the site look simpler and show at a glance all the things you can do on it. It's a tricky ambition which everyone from Google to Facebook and the BBC is grappling with: how to look 'uncluttered' while still reveal...
