Adrian Monck

RSS Feed Homepage

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

Award-winning journalism 2
2008-02-21 09:53:00
Lots of excellent journalism on display at the Royal Television Society last night. But another plug for Guardian photographer Sean Smith and his work from Iraq, which won the international news award.
More About: Journalism , Award , Winning

Jobs for journalists
2008-02-21 09:38:00
Sorry. Only fluent, well experienced applications need apply... [HT: A Diamond’s eye view of the world]
More About: Jobs , Journalists

Award-winning journalism
2008-02-20 22:54:00
For any blogger there is no greater compliment than the attention of you, the reader. Of course, that would probably be chucked out the window the moment this blog won an award (unlikely) - when, in true journalistic tradition, it would become “an award-winning blog.”I’ve just come from the Royal Television Society’s journalism awards (I chaired the international current affairs jury - two films on Afghanistan, and one on China). It reminded me what a small, but quintessentially decent, community broadcast news is. (And I’m not even paid to say that anymore.)Looking back on awards, they tell you little about what is of lasting value - why would they? But at the RTS, and on other occasions, they do make journalists argue about the things they spend their professional lives avoiding, and maybe the public would have a little more respect for their journalism if they voted in secret but debated in public (or perhaps video-streamed those debates online). There’s a lot of hidd...
More About: Journalism , Award , Winning

Foreign correspondents - a dying breed unmourned by the audience
2008-02-20 18:02:00
In an elegiac musing by Jon Friedman on the decline of the traditional foreign correspondent, Why foreign correspondents are a dying breed, there is a welcome reality check in the comments from one of those people formerly known as...read it below and remember who you write for.Foreign correspondents (and all journalists) are becoming increasingly useless. Is it any wonder advertising revenue is falling for antiquated purveyors of “news”? I can get webcam/video of almost anywhere in the world right this second, read blogs from posters throughout the world on demand -- who the heck needs “news” agencies at all? Freelancing is the future of all information industry, as was alluded to in the article.And cry me a river about journalists becoming “disenchanted” ... oh, so sad, we are no longer powerful, important, entrenched, Edward R. Murrow wannabe, with endless funding and job security forever. Hey m*****, half the U.S. IT jobs are now living in India and Russia, and most...
More About: Dying , Audience , Breed

The new Five News with...
2008-02-18 22:55:00
Is fine. The thing that gave it most character, ironically, was not Natasha Kaplinsky but the promo for its long-running Your News segment, which was more impressive than the thin segment that actually aired.The style is a familiar mix of glossy professionalism up top, and poppy amateurism down bulletin.Will viewers abandon Emmerdale or Channel 4 News in its favour? Probably not on this showing. The One Show does the couch thing better (well, it can ignore the news even more).Strange that Sky, which can deliver Ross Kemp in Afghanistan, and Five (which once put art in prime time) have conspired to be so conservative. More thoughts when I have them.

How well informed are “official” sources?
2008-02-17 23:45:00
The usefulness of diplomats has long been a mystery to me. Former British diplomat Carne Ross has an anecdote that should ring alarm bells with anyone who wants to know how valid “official” government sources really are: I will here admit one shameful episode from my own career: when I was posted to Kabul, I was telephoned by the department in London and asked for a report on the car bomb in Jalalabad. I acknowledged the request and put down the phone. I had no idea what they were talking about.I duly went to the BBC website on the internet (whence presumably London had heard about it too), and took down a few details of the attack. Thus informed, I composed a short telegram back to London, classified it “restricted” and sent it.
More About: Sources

The decline of newspapers - nothing to do with journalism
2008-02-17 19:17:00
Declining newspaper readership has nothing to do with journalism. Should I say that again for the hard of hearing?Amongst those not listening, the normally wise and perceptive Howard Owens: If our readers so easily recognize that what we do isn’t trustworthy for its accuracy both in fact and spirit, then how can we expect to retain them as readers?Something needs to change.Deaf, too, at New Media Bytes: My guess is...journalism didn’t deliver what people wanted. Readers spoke with their wallets and readership rates. The same happened with U.S. automakers, which failed to produce vehicles coveted by the American public.Wrong. And wronger. In case one, the decline of newspapers has almost nothing to do with the lengthy moral failures of print journalism. And in case two, how do you explain growing newspaper circulation in countries like India? They must be practising a kind of super-journalism!I could call it a tribute to journalism’s culture of self-flagellation - but it is act...
More About: Journalism , Newspapers

Do spies tell lies?
2008-01-11 16:06:00
Do intelligence services spread lies? Sir Richard Dearlove, the only time I ever spoke to him, said they don’t set out to do so, but implied that lies may be the consequence of their operations.Stephen Hadley, Bush 43’s National Security Advisor, begs to differ. This from January, 2005:[Steve] Hadley went head-to-head with CIA director Porter Goss and some of his analysts and operatives. He wanted them to be engaged in propaganda operations to support the election. But the CIA’s idea of information operations, he thought, was to spread lies.“Why spread lies?” Hadley asked. “Spread the truth. It’s much more powerful. You don’t get it. You need to find ways to get out the truth in a way it won’t be instantly discredited because it’s from us.”From State of Denial, Bob Woodward (p.376).
More About: Spies , Lies

The Division of Personality is Limited by the Division of Labor [del.icio.u
2008-01-11 13:23:00
All personality differences increase in developed economies. If Robin Williams were a Bangladeshi rice farmer he might still be funny but he'd also have to be a hard-working, diligent rice farmer and that would push his personality closer to the mean of
More About: Labor , Limited , Division , Personality

Media relations for the military: 101
2008-01-10 22:45:00
How should the world’s armies respond to criticism or negative stories in the media? Well they could take note of the healthily robust approach demonstrated by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence. They tackle critics head on! Check out a piece from their website below:Mr. Iqbal Athas, stop insulting our soldiers’ sacrificesA free press or media can only flourish in a free society. In today’s world what threatens free society is terrorism, irrespective of its root cause. Whether it stems from communalism or religious extremism, terrorism is indeed a threat to a free society and therefore to the freedom of the media. Unfortunately, in our country there are some self-appointed free media champions who do not seem to understand this. Perchance, they do not want to, because promoting terrorism may have become a lucrative business for them.Mr. Iqbal Athas seems to be one such journalist who has been pandering to serve the needs of a ruthless terrorist outfit which is built on extreme ...
More About: Media , Military , Relations

Cry me a river: lobbyist turned therapist wants more political tears
2008-01-10 20:58:00
I chaired a conference session on some interesting work by Gavin Rees on journalism and trauma this morning.I missed the afternoon, but the ever-sensible Martin Moore was there for another step in the rehabilitation of former lobbyist Derek Draper: John Lloyd (journalist and director of Reuters Institute for Study of Journalism) and Derek Draper (ex journalist, ex lobbyist, ex New Labour insider, now adult and child psychotherapist - no, really - see here) were talking about whether it was an interviewer’s responsibility to ‘humanise’ politicians.In Derek Draper’s view our political interviews lack emotion. Not just the heat that comes from a typical Today programme cross-examination but raw human emotion - think Hillary’s tears in New Hampshire or Sarkozy’s romantic confessions. It’s only when they show this emotion - expose themselves as humans with feelings, Draper argued, that people connect and engage with them.Does this mean that rather than John Humphrys grillin...
More About: Political , River , Therapist , Lobbyist , Cry Me A River

No Country for Young Men [del.icio.us]
2008-01-09 21:41:00
Almost everyone has heard a classmate or friend say they want to “work with children” when they graduate. When was the last time you heard someone say they wanted to “work with old people”? Children represent the future, and your own happy past. T
More About: Country , Young

Three Keywords That Could Change The Course Of Television: Free Cash Flow [
2008-01-09 20:59:00
So unless Google were to use its considerable leverage to acquire a Time Warner Cable, or a Comcast - which it is not likely to do - how else could it get its hooks on television’s data streams? What’s that, you say? Nielsen? Yeah, that’d be my bet.
More About: Television , Change , Free , Keywords , Cash

Foreign Policy: Suicide Bombers: Warriors of the Middle Class [del.icio.us]
2008-01-09 20:54:00
Humans are not good at face-to-face violence. We are good at expressing emotions and we can work up an extensive litany of our grievances, but it does not follow that the final step into violence is at all easy to take. The image of the human being on a h
More About: Policy , Foreign Policy , Suicide , Middle , Warriors

Guillotine not yet down on France 24
2008-01-09 20:42:00
The superb Media Network blog has an AFP story out of Paris suggesting that the guillotine blade has not yet dropped on the Version Anglais of France 24.“The president has expressed his opinion and it is he who will take the decision,” Mr Kouchner went on. “But the consultation period has barely begun and the conception period is not over,” he stressed, while highlighting the need to “reflect with three entities” (TV5, France 24 and RFI).Culture and Communication Minister Christine Albanel said on Wednesday that the debate was “not closed”. She added, however, that “it is true that the president thinks that French culture can best be conveyed in French.”A tiny chink of hope. Now if I were running France 24, I think I would be looking for a slot for Carla Bruni...

Science 2.0: Great New Tool, or Great Risk?: Scientific American [del.icio.
2008-01-09 20:34:00
Scientific American goes Networked Journalism
More About: Science , Great , Tool , Risk

An interview aggregator...
2008-01-09 17:33:00
Rob McGibbon has just launched an intriguing looking site called Access Interview s, basically aggregating interviews. Will it work?(And in case you wondered what Andy McNab looked like...)
More About: Aggregator , Gato

Sarkozy's vision of a 'BBC' for France - Financial Times- msnbc.com [del.ic
2008-01-09 08:59:00
Georges-Marc Benhamou, the president's cultural adviser who was dispatched to London last year to study British broadcasting, said Paris was "looking at the BBC as a promising example" for a publicly funded French broadcaster.
More About: France , Financial , Times , Vision , Financial Times

No Politicos Understand How Advertising Has Changed - BusinessWeek [del.ici
2008-01-08 23:05:00
So roadblocks of 30-second political commercials, almost all of which are unwatchable, are a lousy way to market a product in an era governed by TiVo, remote controls, and gnat-sized attention spans? Get outta here! If I were a candidate paying thes
More About: Advertising , Understand

Adieu France 24?
2008-01-08 20:01:00
According to Forbes, France 24 in English is going to be axed.French President Nicolas Sarkozy is quoted saying:“a public channel, France Monde... can only speak French.“Between Al-Jazeera, the Arab perspective, and CNN, the Anglo-Saxon perspective, we would like to carry more of a French perspective,” he said.“We can perfectly have regional subtitling, in Spanish, Arabic, English, to carry a vision that is more French.”Ah, sub-titling - the wave of the future!
More About: France 24 , Adie

Sarkozy scraps English-language version of France 24 TV - Forbes.com [del.i
2008-01-08 20:00:00
Adieu France 24?
More About: English , Forbes , English Language , Sarkozy

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