Apple v Taylor Swift ÷ Me = Opinion

I went on CNN a few weeks back to talk about the whole Apple Music v Taylor Swift argle bargle (or is that fooforaw?)

You can watch my considered, on-the-spot live TV responses in the video via this link, hosted on their site. Sadly no embed option available.

Flat Earth News

I have just finished reading Flat Earth News today by Nick Davies, a hugely detailed expose of the way the media and the reporting of news has changed in the last 50 years over time as big business and commercial interests have overtaken the need for quality reporting and truth telling.

It was very interesting to read as a journalist – a news one at that – and touched on many issues I have seen myself: the rise of churnalism, the clearly fabricated story that gets run everywhere becaue it's easy and everyone else is running it, the wealth of PR nonsense that seems to invade the papers every day and so on.

But it also offered a lot more insights into specific newspapers and how they have changed and moved to become stagnant, reactionary rather than investigative, and downright duplicitous in the stories they run.

Davies seems to have save his real anger for the Daily Mail, rightly so, underlining its repeated, seemingly purposeful attempts at destroying people's lives with a lack of clear or any evidence, but instead merely appealing to the whim's and prejudices of its ramshackle readership.

He disguises his contempt well, letting it trickle through behind the sea of facts, stories and quotes the uses to make his points, the whole thing creating a feeling of deep mistrust at any of the stories you'd ever read in the paper, a lesson worth remembering when those always reactionary and scare-mongering headlines are looming up at you from petrol forecourts, WHSmiths and news agents stands.

Catch up

Hello, been too long since something was entered here.

Tennis. 70-68! Where to begin; tennis is sometimes unfairly maligned by people, believing it not to be a hard sport, not tiring, not exhausting, but any sportsman that can play a game, hurling their body around for almost ten hours is clearly some sort of athlete. What's more you have to do it while battling moments of calm, reflection in between points, and then pull of incredible shots, often under immense pressure of 'one mistake and I'm out'.

I've been reading Wolf Hall (still -it's very long...) but it is also very good, in places, which is hard to fully explain, but it's just that in some places the story really picks up and rattles along, and with a little historical knowledge, some of the asides, or hints at the future are very well handled ("You know she's a witch," says one character of Anne Boleyn before she marries Henry, and we all know how that turned out...).

While I am enjoying it I am looking forward to finishing it too, before I go away on holiday next week, as it's a massive book, even in paperback, and quite a tough read, requiring full concentrate; not that I can't concentrate mind you.

I finally got a smartphone too, after months of writing about the things, and it is very nice having a such a sleek piece of tech, that enables me to bring up maps, email and the internet as and when required. That's all really.

The World Cup is coming to life too, although I've not been disappointed with it at all. It always starts a little slow as teams try not to lose, but come the end of the group stages, you often see enthralling end to end games as teams suddenly have to win, as evidenced today with Italy's somewhat surprising loss to Slovakia.

Er...the weather's nice isn't it?

Brave new worlds

This morning, in the queue to vote, I got caught up in some electoral confusion as the ballot officials managed to get their numbers confused (how do those people get those jobs? any security / criminal checks? Who's in charge of dispensing the boxes? I digress...). As I stood there, watching the three of them recite a list of arbitrary numbers to one another, I said to the chap behind me, "We need that electoral reform, eh?", he nodded, said,"Yeah..." and that was that.

Elections are funny things. This was my second, but the first of much significance. I remember my Dad refusing to tell me who he voted for in the 1997 Labour landslide and I invested a lot of meaning in this, this sacred act of voting meant that even my own Dad wouldn't, or as I viewed it, couldn't, tell me who he had voted for.

Now, everyone bangs on endlessly about why you must vote Labour or Lib Dems, but just not Tories, for all kinds of reasons, in openly public arenas such as Twitter and Facebook. Yet, place people in a box, with a piece of paper and a pen(cil), and all the online posturing goes out the window. I imagine a lot of people may vote very differently from how they act/talk in public, where they are acting in an effort to keep up of appearances with, or an unwillingness to disagree with, the views and ideals their chosen social networks / friendship groups talk about and promote.

The Americans must find out one month sprint election process very odd, when set against their eight month effort which begins with primaries in various states for leadership choices within their own parities, before moving on to the epic cross country traversing they must endure between NY and San Fran.

Imagine, DC (Cameron, not Washington), might have to travel, at most, between say, Plymouth and Newcastle. Barely a stone's throw in the US. Such a small country.

Whatever happens tonight and into tomorrow, there was a definite sense today that, even if only seen through the highly distorted leftist view of Twitter, people realised today was a day that could shape all our lives for the next four or five years time. Especially for those, like me, who will be going through some (potentially) highly transformative years in our lives, as we move out of post student years, and on towards our 30s, and the ideas of mortgages, housing, children, schools, education (x3) and all the other trappings of the endless momentum of time.

I am a Google Street View driver*

What do I do all day? Drive around all the roads of the UK, or Australia, or Chile. I get up and drive, I drive up and down streets. I see the people stare, I see the children run after me, the privacy people swear, the technology lovers wave.

I stop in bizarre hotels in side streets of villages and towns I'll never see again, I stare out of windows over desolate roads or thriving markets, before climbing in my little white car, mounted with its all seeing eye, and trundle off again, collecting endless images of life. A snapshot of things.

It's a strange way to live, a kind of job, a half life. But hey, you can see your house on the internet now, so I hope that makes you happy.

*(N.B. I am not a Google Street View driver, obviously).

War: what is it good for?

Two things yesterday:

1) DSEi: This show is known to some as the Death Show and is not popular with those of certain moral view points. Entry was Kafkaesque, involving several queues to be placed in queues, much anger at how slow the entire process was, and even a bag search before you could go in, to the Excel Centre. Felt utterly bizarre. Once inside I saw many tanks, guns, rocket launchers, an Apache helicopter, and various Asian generals wandering around in full military regalia.

On one side of an aisle you've got weapon manufacturers or suppliers with posters and literature proclaiming their weapons can 'pierce the strongest body armour on the market!' and on the other you have body armour manufacturers and suppliers saying 'can stop the strongest weaponry on the market!' And all beneath the brightly lit, air-conditioned, Subway sandwich franchised Excel Centre. Last time I was there was to collect my marathon entry number. Very different indeed.

2) Frontline Club: Access Denied. A talk about reporting from war zones and the implications for journalists. With Richard Sambrook from the BBC, Adrian Wells from Sky News, Jean Seaton and chaired by Tom Fenton.

It was a very interesting chat, and the floor contributed a great deal too, with those in attendance ranging from Al Jazeera reporters, to the London press official for the Dalai Lama. They discussed the use of Twitter, the difficulties of getting certain stories on the news agenda when they cease to have a news currency, and the challenges of trying to get in to areas you're banned from. Wells told us that Sky News tried to access North Korea by asking to cover the North Korean karate championships (and then do some other things on the side) but were politely refused entry. Darn.

It seemed though, due to the most recurring point, that war coverage, or conflicting reporting, is impossible to cover in a way that will ever please everyone, or cover all the necessary angles. Nothing is ever two-sided and war is surely one of the hardest things to pin down as to the causes, the rights and wrongs, the outcomes and so on - almost all wars are debated hotly by historians to this day, despite years of time passing, collation of huge numbers of documents, and even access to the leaders' writings. What chance do news reporters have, often embedded with military staff who take them where they want them to go, have of getting a 'true' story out? Have they ever been able to?

Twitter and the like may give the populations a chance to present views from inside but, again, it just adds more voices that conflict, disagree, present different ideas, to a picture that is already completely confusing and impossible to view in full, objectively. It seems hard to believe war reporting will ever move to a time when 'black holes' of information don't exist, especially when authoritarian regimes like Iran, North Korea and so on, are so staunch in their position on allowing foreign news teams in.

A few people introduced themselves, when speaking from the floor, as 'news consumers'. So you watch TV?

Bad (news)

As this post shows in far more detail the BBC has been spared a front-page mauling in the press today because of Jacko's untimely demise.

Not sure what to make of MJ's death as I've never been the world's biggest fan. Unquestionably talented of course, but I have never really quite got the full blown obessesion with the man. Give me a Dylan or a Springsteen any day of the week.

Breaking a world record (with 850 other people) by playing the ukulele

On Saturday it was a short tube ride to Liverpool Street to take part in the successful attempt to break the World Record for the highest number of ukuleles playing together. A total of 851 ukulele players crammed into Devonshire Square and strummed along to Sloop John B. (and sang too) for over five minutes, which resulted in a huge cheer and much uke waving (as you can see) when it was announced we had indeed broken the record.

Such events are what make London so unique, bizarre, never-ending and unknowable.

I've got a lot of love for the ukulele, despite only been playing for about a month (ten years guitaring and three mandolining have helped me pick it up quickly though) and it's great that so many people are equally keen on such a fun, enjoyable and easy / easier to learn instrument.

If you were ever tempted to buy one, I'd recommend spending a touch more money to get a good quality one, rather than the £15 toy ones, as it's better to have a good sound and one that stays in tune. Additionally, mine is a tenor one, rather than the soprano (which is smaller and the more popular size), and so gives a fuller, louder sound, while still retaining the light, airy sound of a traditionally ukulele and I would suggest this for anyone who can play guitar, and would like to add a uke to their repertoire. The one thing I can safely say though is if you do buy one you won't regret it.

One a final note (f sharp?) I played a dulcimer yesterday at a friend's house, which is a four-stringed instrument that gives a lovely, Indian sound, and is very hard to make sound bad as every position and strum gives a harmonious chiming sound, pleasant on the ear. Lovely.

The future of news (it's ducks)

I've said it before - here - and I'm going to say it again. Perhaps newspapers will survive by printing stories so small and trival they achieve a uniqueness that more traditional news cannot possible hope to offer anymore.

Clearly The Telegraph thinks this could work.

Oh dear

As this blog post explains in further detail, both the Mirror and The Telegraph fell for a rather obvious fake Twitter profile of convicted murderer Phil Spector, and turned one of "his" tweets into a full news story. Disappointing and a touch worrying.

An expert's view

This is a very interesting, well-written and reassuring, yet at the same time, sobering, article on the recent plane crash / disappearance, and some of the potential causes as to why it happened.

Better to travel in hope

So the Champions League final was a disappointment. Barcelona were excellent, United were not. The build up started at 10am on the BBC Sport website, while The Guardian had the decency to start at 6.45pm. Despite of nine hours and 45 minutes of pre-match hype on the Beeb the match was never a proper contest and will not live long in the memory.

Now there is the inevitable avalanche of writing that will appear on the match; reasons why United were poor, why Barcelona were so good, why Ferguson got it wrong, or why Messi is now the best player in the world and so on. But it's just football. It's just a game. Sometimes one team wins, sometimes another. As United won it last year, and AC Milan the year before, So Barcelona have won it this year and someone else will win it next.

See this article that underlines the futility of in-depth sports analysis. And this shows why it doesn't pay to take these things too seriously.

If you chip away long enough...

I don't watch ITV news but apparently last night's lead story was about Lily Allen (you know that quite popular singer) writing a tweet (a message on Twitter) in which she said that she thought that Susan Boyle (you know that semi-famous non professional singer, who looks a bit different) was 'overrated'. This off the top of her head comment, on a website, was the lead story.

Why? It's just opinion. It's not news. Today she said she was 'looking forward to the football tonight'. Is that worth a news story too? One could suggest that because ITV broadcast Britain's Got Talent they want to generate as much discussion = money as possible, so decided to use their flagship news service to do so.

"Well done everyone, we've made it through! Oh look, the barrel was standing on a paving stone all along."

News worthy

The old addage is, 'Dog bites man = no story, man bites dog = story'. Also, as you may know, local newspapers are dying out there, falling standards, fewer readers, smaller advertising revenues and so on. Quality seems to be shrinking too...

Example one: Woman can't find custard in any local shops.

Example two: Dead fish died of exhaustion.

Example three: Chair set on fire.

On one and three the comments from readers go on and on, mostly bemoaning the quality of the story, or making he-lar-ious puns on the stories. Perhaps the future of local news is to report nonsense and hope people's love of puns will run riot on the comments sections below. This would increase page impressions and encourage advertising spend. It's an idea.

Building snowmen to get on the news

Charlie Brooker's Newswipe was good this week, covering User Generated Content, or UGC to the media-savvy among you (or those with a penchant for acroynms). We heard a lot about UGC on our course in Cardiff - see - and so it was interesting to see what Brooker would make of it, especially with his ability to hit the target of his scorn repeatedly - X-factor for example.

It was interesting to hear his view that it's been since the death of Diana that the news has become far more interested in what we think and feel about particular issues despite the fact, as Brooker pointed out, it's not really news. The snow in Februray of this year gave him the perfect ammunition for this - showing the endless pictures of snow and snowman that the BBC showed throughout the coverage, despite the fact it's not really news at all. His clip of Jeremy Paxman's withering contempt for this practice was fantastic.

The rise of UGC is undoubtedly a good thing when it's used correctly and can add to the story - images of floods, fires, plane crashes, and so forth all can give a news story added value and an impact; Twitter has, as I have said, already shifted this up to another level. However, it is important that this isn't the story, it must be an adjunct to the story. Once the story has been covered, discussed, looked at and the days have rolled on it should, unless somehow continually relevant, be dropped / pushed down the schedules. Even if there are more people's opinions that can be gathered / pictures coming in it doesn't mean it should stay in the news agenda.

There's only so many snowmen you can look at.

As predicted

When Sarah Palin's daughter was found to be pregnant there was some nasty-taste-in-the-mouth, hypocricy, in some of the statements that were susbsequently realised, as I mentioned at the time. And of course now, under six months later, the 'loving and caring family environment' that Sarah Palin promised the child would be brought up in, is no now more, as her daughter and her boyfriend have split up.

The power of Twitter

Twitter once again showed what it can do as a news gathering source today, and proved it's not just a 'celebrity' application. Following 'tweets' about the plane crash in Holland helped me find not only someone at the scene @nipp, but also photos being taken and uploaded to the site, almost 10 to 15 minutes before they were uploaded on to the BBC website, usually one of the first sites to have images.

Not only this but following @nipp provided a series of updates, on what was happening on the scene live, before anything else was on a major news website, like these two updates: "I'm seeing a lot of ambulances and emergency heli's. It looks like the situation is under control, relatively" and "Again, the planes lookes like its in multiple pieces. With over a hundred people on board, that can't be good." (sic).

Furthermore both the BBC (via @ruskin147) and Channel 4 (via @channel4news), were messaging @nipp and asking him if he would contact them so they could speak to him. Indeed, C4's Twitterer simply asked its followers if they knew of someone on the scene and no doubt was directed to @nipp. He was then interviewed and it's on their website now. The Mumbai terrorist attacks, the plane crash in the Hudson and now this event, have all been covered by Twitter, with images coming in more quickly to an application site, TwitPic, faster than major media outlets.

When I was on my course blogging and so forth was consistently mentioned as the future of journalism, and most often as the 'death of the journalist', but it isn't/wasn't. It's a new writing outlet (not even new now), one that is open to everyone, and one that journalists need to engage with and use, and now do on almost every site of note, but not the end of journalism, just a new branch.

If I was coming into the media, giving talks on it, looking to the future etc, the impact of Twitter, especially its potential as a news gathering source for quotes, pictures and news, would be the thing I would focus on as the latest media development, and a far more interesting one too.

Pressing issues

There's been some debate about the usefulness of the Press Complaint Commission recently, such as the case against here, and for here. Thanks to the ever-useful Twitter I found a very interesting article here agreeing that the PCC is broken with reference to a recent story on the Daily Mail website. It's a good point very well made.

Snow joke

So much nonsense talked about the snow and Britain's inability to cope with it: "third world country" "other countries don't have this problem etc" and in London people saying, "The tube runs underground! Why is it closed?!" - Of course, many reasons why the tube was so affected, one of the most obvious being, of course, how do the tube drivers get to work if they can't travel because other transports is down - as this tube driver wrote here: Why London closes when there is snow

Secondly, if the government did spend millions waiting for the once-every-18-years occassion when snow did cause one/two days of problems, there would be outrage that they were wasting tax payers money that could be spent elsewhere, on the off chance one day may mean no buses could run.

I like the snow.

A poem

One of my favourite poems was written by the recently deceased John Updike: I'll include it below.

I Missed His Book But I Read His Name

Though authors are a dreadful clan
To be avoided if you can,
I'd like to meet the Indian,
M. Anantanarayanan.

I picture him as short and tan.
We'd meet, perhaps, in Hindustan.
I'd say, with admirable elan,
"Ah, Anantanarayanan --

I've heard of you. The Times once ran
A notice on your novel, an
Unusual tale of God and Man."
And Anantanarayanan

Would seat me on a lush divan
And read his name -- that sumptuous span
Of 'a's and 'n's more lovely than
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan" --

Aloud to me all day. I plan
Henceforth to be an ardent fan
of Anantanarayanan --
M. Anantanarayanan.