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Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

TV and the presidency: Roger Ailes and Richard Nixon
2008-01-08 16:45:00
From Joe McGinniss, The Selling of the President 1968 - a young Roger Ailes , formerly exec producer of the Mike Douglas Show, has been hired to produce ten live one-hour programmes featuring Richard Nixon . Nixon met the 28-year old Ailes before he appeared on the Douglas show.“It’s a shame a man has to use gimmicks like this to get elected,” Nixon said.“Television is not a gimmick,” Ailes said.(BTW Nixon beat Mitt Romney’s dad to the Republican nomination) As he prepares for the last two shows of the 1968 campaign, Ailes reflects:“This is the beginning of a whole new concept,” Ailes said. “This is it. This is the way they’ll be elected forevermore. The next guys up will have to be performers.”Nixon wound up his last broadcast like this: “I’m not a showman,” Richard Nixon was telling America. “I’m not a television personality.”And Ailes’s assessment?“Tonight,” he said, “this was the Nixon I met on the Douglas show. This was the Nixon I wante...
More About: Presidency

BBC's Inside Dot Com: so not inside! [del.icio.us]
2008-01-08 12:39:00
"...you should never, ever confuse a brand focus group study with a usability study. Somehow, advertising agencies got away with pitching TVCs as storyboards and radio ads as scripts for so many years that they think it's OK to test websites basically
More About: Inside , Not I

The Simpsons on the future of newspapers
2008-01-08 12:14:00
The Simpsons on the future of newspapers (HT: Mark Hamilton).
More About: Newspapers , Future , The Future , The Simpsons

The Daily Telegram | EDITORIAL: New journalism model threatens old labor mo
2008-01-07 23:34:00
In many industries, labor and benefits are among the highest costs, and the news business is no exception. They pose a particular challenge for newspapers, where workers tend to be unionized — versus TV, radio and the Internet — where they largely are
More About: Daily , Journalism , Editorial , Model , Labor

Tomgram: Chalmers Johnson, An Imperialist Comedy [del.icio.us]
2008-01-07 22:09:00
Today there is ample evidence that, when it comes to the freedom of women, education levels, governmental services, relations among different ethnic groups, and quality of life -- all were infinitely better under the Afghan communists than under the Talib
More About: Comedy , Johnson

Honesty in factual entertainment
2008-01-07 17:50:00
Isn’t it time for the tricks - I don’t know what else you’d call them - of factual entertainment to be made as transparent in the UK as in the US?The Guardian’s media diary notes of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA: We would have liked the Granada America show even more had it not been followed by two qualifications in the closing credits telling viewers that events may have happened in a different order to the one that was shown on screen, and that diners may have had their bill paid for by the producers.The UK version of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (also on Channel 4) often appears to be edited out of sequence, with rows being separated out for dramatic purposes - most glaringly in the past series on an episode featuring restaurant-owner Allan Love in Brighton.Enterprising media reporters might want to check back editions of the UK version to see if the Ramsay MO - “good honest cooking” - is repeated in the show’s production process...
More About: Entertainment , Honesty

What kids don’t tell us about the future of news media [del.icio.us]
2008-01-07 15:25:00
Pramit Singh on Fred Wilson: "A world full of adults with the attention span and habits of kids is good news for marketers of things that let us deal with our boredom. But, we also need things that help us understand our world better. Nothing does that
More About: News , Media , Kids , Future , The Future

Google’s Lunchtime Betting Game - New York Times [del.icio.us]
2008-01-07 09:46:00
information is shared most easily and effectively among office neighbors, even at an Internet company where instant messaging and e-mail are generally preferred to face-to-face discussion. It is an argument, the authors say, for giving greater importan
More About: New York , York , New York Times , Game , Times

Annals of Communications: The Search Party: Reporting [del.icio.us]
2008-01-07 09:43:00
Google by Ken Auletta - “Privacy is an atomic bomb,” a Google executive who does not want to be identified says. “Our success is based on trust.”
More About: Party , Search , Communications

Learning about the future of media from your kids
2008-01-06 18:49:00
Fred Wilson, affable tech venture capitalist and A-list blogger gives an anecdotal insight into media prospects based on the tastes of his kids (one of whom blogs too). I try, but it’s hard not to like Wilson. Here are his observations:1) When they walk into a DVD store, they rarely walk out with a movie. It’s almost always the first season of a TV show they’ve heard is good. They’ll go see a movie in the theatre but don’t really enjoy watching movies at home or on their computers.They feel that TV shows are better written and more interesting. And the entertainment value is certainly more compelling. For roughly US$40, they got something like 25 episodes of Brothers and Sisters. That’s almost 17 hours of entertainment...It makes me wonder where this is headed. I don’t know enough about the economics of TV shows versus fims, but it may be that digital technology is changing the way the younger generation will consume filmed entertainment in some important ways. Somethi...
More About: Media , Kids , Future , The Future , Learning

BBC NEWS | Politics | More diplomats to fight extremism [del.icio.us]
2008-01-06 17:56:00
"More British diplomats are to be sent to the Middle East and South Asia to combat extremism" - That'll do the trick!
More About: News , Politics , Fight , Extremism

Has ITV got past first Grade? | Business News [del.icio.us]
2008-01-06 14:54:00
"The lights on the Titanic are now burning brighter, the new captain has everybody in great spirits, the food has improved - but the iceberg is still exactly where it was and the ship has not yet changed course."
More About: News , Business , Past

Network Weaving: Social Networks: 1 Political Machine: 0 [del.icio.us]
2008-01-06 11:22:00
The low budget guy beat the the big spender -- shocking all of the pundits. The common wisdom in politics is that money wins -- s/he with the biggest machine marches on. Since Huckabee couldn't outspend his rivals he had to out-think them. [Lack of money
More About: Social , Political , Machine , Social Networks , Networks

South African journalism» 2007 overview [del.icio.us]
2008-01-05 17:11:00
Anton Harber on "a tug-of-war between two visions of journalism: those who believe the media should assist government by muting its criticism and who prioritize traditional values, national unity and the dignity of leaders above media freedom; and those w
More About: South , South African , African , Overview

Obsidian Wings: Andy Olmsted [del.icio.us]
2008-01-05 17:08:00
Not exactly "An Irish Airman foresees his Death," but poignant nonetheless
More About: Andy , Wings , Olmsted

“Balance” in diplomacy: lessons for journalism
2008-01-05 10:08:00
I am sorry to say I have never had much time for diplomats. Prejudice, you understand. Reading former British diplomat Carne Ross’s enjoyable and self-critical memoir - Independent Diplomat: Dispatches from an Unaccountable Elite - hasn’t exactly changed my mind.But as well as reminding UK tax-payers that they could save a lot of money by flogging Britain’s embassies, Ross does call to mind some problems that we in journalism share (did that phrase “unaccountable elite” sound familiar?). Ross’s chocolate teapot elite is simply invisible (except for a very enjoyable Paul Weller anecdote - sorry, you’ll have to buy the book for the rest).Here is Ross on the British Foreign Office’s version of “balance” - in essence summing up all my barely-suppressed suspicions about other institutions and “balance”. (Step forward the BBC.)Debating at a staff dinner in Bonn, I had attacked a colleague for his defence of Britain’s inaction to prevent the Holocaust in WW2. This...
More About: Journalism , Diplomacy , Lessons

A voice of moderation helps transform Arab media - International Herald Tri
2008-01-04 19:59:00
Last year, Al Arab iya heavily promoted a multipart series about King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The first episode apparently angered members of the royal family, and the rest of the series was abruptly canceled. "We had an internal conflict about the pr
More About: Media , International , Voice

What’s gone wrong at Al Jazeera English?
2008-01-04 09:45:00
Check out the anonymous piece below on Al Jazeera English , posted - bizarrely - in the comments section of a Dubai media blog on 26 December, 2007. It certainly chimes with some of the things I’ve heard. And further below, more on soft-pedalling re. Saudi Arabia at AJE’s Arabic sister channel:What’s gone wrong at Al Jazeera English?Al Jazeera English, a one billion dollar project financed by the Emir of Qatar and based in the small Arabian Peninsular, promised a fresh perspective on world news. The critics may have hailed the channel and complimented its unbiased reporting, but behind the scenes things have not been nearly so successful with morale at the station on the decline for the past year.Al Jazeera English (AJE) promised to give voices to the voiceless. Unfortunately for staff at the Doha base of AJE, the voiceless have turned out to be the very staff trying to produce the news.In an extraordinary meeting held last Thursday, a tired looking Nigel Parsons, Managing Dire...
More About: Wrong , Al-Jazeera

Two views on TV news
2008-01-03 11:42:00
I had a chance to look over the memo from ITN’s Dave Mannion on the return of News At Ten. Without repeating it in full, it offers important insights into the thinking of one of Britain’s best television journalists. We have been given a prime time slot. Our job is not simply to split the audience, but to win that slot, delivering volume, high share and drawing in more of the up market achievers so valuable to advertisers. That will not be easy. The BBC 10 is now well established and draws a consistently solid audience, both in volume and share. In spite of their current cut backs, the BBC remains hugely well resourced both at home and overseas.On the other hand ... we now have more coverage money than we have had for years...Our aim is to provide intelligent yet vivid programming for an audience which is becoming more sophisticated by the day. This applies to ALL our programmes, but the new News At Ten in particular must be a nightly showcase for the very best of our journalism...
More About: Views

What the US military thinks of journalism
2008-01-02 16:05:00
So what does the US military really think about journalists? Below are excerpts from a report that addresses wider issues about the first Battle of Fallujah but contains some interesting points about “information operations,” in Orwellian milspeak.The document is chiefly the work of Jane Austen fan Dr Sean Edwards, on whom more below. But first, his report as it relates to the media: (U) Arab satellite news channels were crucial to building political pressure to halt military operations.For example, CPA documented 34 stories on Al Jazeera that misreported or distorted battlefield events between 6 and 13 April. Between 14 and 20 April, Al Jazeera used the “excessive force” theme 11 times and allowed various anti-Coalition factions to claim that U.S. forces were using cluster bombs against urban areas and kidnapping and torturing Iraqi children.Six negative reports by al-Arabiyah focused almost exclusively on the excessive force theme. Overall, the qualitative content of negat...
More About: Military , Journalism , US Military

Do Readers Know What They Want?
2008-01-02 10:54:00
That was the title of a speech by Vinod Mehta, editor of Indian magazine Outlook, as he picked up the International Press Institute award for exposing corruption and incompetence in the Indian navy.Here is a little excerpt: [C]ontent is a mix of what the reader wants and what he does not want. The trick is to marry the two and make money.Accompanying the mantra, is much loose talk that the old journalism is dead and a new journalism has been born. This new journalism is entirely based on reader or viewer demands. So, we are told the reader is king and it is the job of a responsible media organisation to provide cent per cent satisfaction.This proposition is now so widely accepted that to argue against it is like whistling in the dark. Those who believe otherwise are seen as cranks, out of touch with the contemporary market - in other words the reader. If journalism is a consumption item like butter chicken, then why not give the customer the flavour and taste he wants. That, after a...
More About: Readers

Restoring trust, one performance measure at a time
2008-01-01 19:19:00
When it comes to the BBC, putting sense on the radio is a lot easier than putting it into practice. Here is future BBC Director-General, and former Radio 4 controller, Helen Boaden posting at the BBC Editors blog on restoring trust in the Beeb this year. She begins with a little reminder of her radio days:...I commissioned the Reith Lectures from the philosopher and ethicist, Onora O’Neill. She took as her subject the issue of trust and argued that the so-called “revolution in accountability” of the last decade, with its ever increasing micro-performance measures, had singularly failed. This revolution had not reduced mistrust in institutions. Rather, she argued, it had actually reinforced a culture of suspicion and disappointment.So far, so convincing. And hang on! Here is Onora in her third lecture, Called To Account: In theory the new culture of accountability and audit makes professionals and institutions more accountable to the public. This is supposedly done by publishin...
More About: Performance , Time , Trust

Off topic: A Ghost Story
2007-12-28 22:57:00
This being the season for ghost stories, I thought I would pass on probably the shortest ghost story I know (and I’ve cut it short). It is from the pen of the masterly M.R. James. A classic tale, it even gets its own scholarly article - “The Rules of Folklore” in the Ghost Stories of M. R. James Jacqueline Simpson, Folklore, Vol. 108, 1997 (1997), pp. 9-18.The story comes from The Winter’s Tale. Enjoy.This, you know, is the beginning of the story about sprites and goblins which Mamilius, the best child in Shakespeare, was telling to his mother the queen, and the court ladies, when the king came in with his guards and hurried her off to prison. There is no more of the story: Mamilius died soon after without having a chance of finishing it. Now what was it going to have been? Shakespeare knew, no doubt, and I will be bold to say that I do. It was not going to be a new story: it was to be one which you most likely have heard, and even told. Everybody may set it in whatever fram...
More About: Story , Topic

Rumblings at Al Jazeera English
2007-12-22 16:10:00
From the Friends of Al Jazeera blog: Well it looks like my husband and I (and our children) will be leaving Doha sooner than planned.Al Jazeera International (or Al Jazeera English as we were forced to call it after objections from the Arabic news channel) was launched 13 months ago.Since then two things have happened:First, the channel has built itself a reputation as an authoritative news source on world issues...The second thing that has happened is that the people who have been responsible for this phenomenal innovation in the world of broadcasting have been treated like shit.Yes, you heard right - like shit!In the beginning, they were encouraged, induced, seduced, implored, begged to come out to Doha to make this dream a possibility; they were welcomed with open arms.That was then - this is now.Now, they are being treated with disrespect, ingratitude, disdain, even downright contempt. They are lied to, ignored, cheated, abused, ridiculed.This is all done, of course, to “persu...
More About: Al-Jazeera

What The Papers Say
2007-12-21 19:12:00
Apologies. This is one of those vanity posts where I tell you what a jolly time I had. But hell, it is Christmas. At the What The Papers Say awards lunch today, I found myself sandwiched between two journos called Peter Allen. What are the chances of that?Allen one is the excellent former ITN Pol Corr who helms drivetime on 5 Live, a top guy who had to nip off half way through to prepare for his show. Allen two is an old chum and the indefatigable Paris correspondent for almost every paper on Fleet Street (see below for the Telegraph).My City University colleague and Guardian investigative ace David Leigh picked up the Judges award, with his colleague Rob Evans, for their work on the BAe Systems investigation.And now...Christmas. And lighter posting, at least till 2008. See you there.

TV news in 2008...
2007-12-20 22:21:00
In 2007, Mark Thompson Peter Horrocks apparently walked into a meeting of top BBC talent and declared - not untruthfully - “There is no market for newsreaders.”Unfortunately “even a dead cat bounces” (as finance types say) and the market promptly leapt back into action and Natasha Kaplinsky and Dermot Murnaghan both left the BBC for Sky. Still, probably saved Peter a few bob.So what will be making the news about TV news in 2008 ?At the Beeb, 2008 will be a year of redundancies, budget cuts, and salami slicing in TV news. How do you like your budget cuts? Chunky chorizo or saucisson sec? Among those having their milano sausage shaved, BBC News night, where Jeremy Paxman will take early retirement after being required to work four nights a week.In a controversial move the programme will be outsourced to a different think tank each month, with Dean Godson of Policy Exchange as launch editor and Charles Moore replacing Gavin Esler. Their motto? Bigger stories, less evidence.News 2...

The BBC: focus groups and phoney accountability
2007-12-19 11:49:00
After talking to 96 people for three hours, the BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons writes: Performance in News and Current Affairs is rightly seen to be strong but the BBC is not always serving everyone on the audience as it should, with those who fall within the category of ‘low BBC approvers’ perceiving a performance gap. You [Mark Thompson] are addressing this as part of the six year plan to reach out to new audiences without jeopardising the support of existing and loyal audiences.Really, you couldn’t make it up.Remember, ‘regular and wide-ranging consultations are one of the key ways the BBC Trust ensures the BBC remains responsive and accountable.’Focus groups were never intended to be surrogates for democratic accountability. Political pollsters use them to inform the political process, but they have never suggested replacing it with focus groups...Of course, Mark Thompson could always pay for another 96 people to be canvassed and throw it back at Sir Michael. Don...
More About: Accountability , Groups

The biggest stories you won't see headlined
2007-12-18 20:39:00
The biggest stories you won’t see headlining the news are Germany and southern Europe’s growing dependence on Russia. And China’s advance into Africa.Where four decades of Warsaw Pact weaponry failed, gas and oil pipelines are succeeding. Russia’s influence runs right up to the Rhine - and where communism couldn’t win converts, cash and a seat on the board purchases politicians like former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.It is scary stuff. The British government knows it and buries it beneath a green agenda. And even as our diplomatic relations revolve around the Litvinenko affair the subtext is that we once again find ourselves lining up with Poland against an alliance between Germany and Russia.France looks across the Atlantic and gets results.Britain is divided by Eurosceptic Little Englanders and disillusioned Atlanticists. And so the not-so-great powers play out the not-so-great game.Meanwhile China advances in Africa, with Sudan its major overseas oil provider.An...
More About: Stories

Facebook for old people
2007-12-17 18:54:00
This finally made it to Valleywag. American readers may need help with translation. (Click to enlarge.)
More About: People , Facebook

Policy Exchange vs. Newsnight: Round 2
2007-12-17 17:33:00
Here is Policy Exchange chairman Charles Moore using his Telegraph column to attack Newsnight editor Peter Barron in round 2 of the popular Think Tank vs. BBC battle. Moore, a former editor of the Spectator, the Sunday and the Daily Telegraph does not do himself any favours, as you can see. Over the summer, Policy Exchange produced the most comprehensive report so far on the extent to which extremist literature is available in British mosques and Islamic institutions. It is called The Hijacking of British Islam. [pdf]Muslim undercover researchers visited nearly 100 mosques. In 26 of them, they found extremist material - titles such as Women Who Deserve to Go to Hell (for answering their husbands back), virulent insults of Jews and homosexuals, puritanical attacks on moderate Muslims, calls for the complete rejection of Western society etc.It was a big story, and as I shall make clear, none of Newsnight’s claims this week has diminished its dimensions.This is an unpromising start.P...
More About: Round