Media Brief

I'm the BBC's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

Hackers have attacked the websites of credit card giants Mastercard and Visa, after the companies stopped processing payments to the whistle-blowing site Wikileaks, the BBC reports.

As Coronation Street celebrates its 50th anniversary with an hour-long live episode tonight, William Roache, who appeared as Ken Barlow in the first episode, says the term "soap" diminishes the series. He tells the Daily Telegraph that when it started it was "cutting-edge, kitchen-sink" drama.

I explain in my analysis of Coronation Street's its impact on ITV and its viewers.
Without the financial security of Corrie, it is unlikely that Granada could have afforded its award-winning dramas such as Brideshead Revisited and Jewel in the Crown.

The Press Gazette reports that the Sunday Times will become the latest - and biggest - newspaper to launch an iPhone app this weekend. It will offer access to all 12 sections plus a new interactive TV guide. It will be available for £1.79 a week.

The foreign correspondent is an endangered species, writes Timothy Garton Ash in the Guardian. He says only a few news organisations such as the BBC and New York Times have worldwide networks of correspondents.

The BBC's newspaper review says several papers lead on the computer hackers' attack on Mastercard, in revenge for cutting off payments to Wikileaks. They say the attack highlights the vulnerability of the world's computer systems.

Links in full

• BBC | Anonymous hacktivists say Wikileaks war to continue
• Telegraph | 'When Coronation Street started we were a cutting-edge drama serial'
• BBC | Why Coronation Street is an enduring TV hit
• Press Gazette | Sunday Times iPad app to launch on Friday
• Timothy Garton Ash | Guardian | The foreign correspondent is dead.
• BBC | Newspaper review.

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• Read my archive of media stories on Delicious

• Read Wednesday's Media Brief