Category: Media
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The Nightly Show
Before ITV launched The Nightly Show into the 10:00pm weekday slot I said that we should avoid comparisons with US late evening talk shows since contrary to popular belief, it’s not trying to be one, and we should hold off looking at the ratings until it had settled into something a bit firmer. This kind…
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RIP Steve Hewlett
Earlier today, the death of journalist and broadcaster Steve Hewlett was announced by Eddie Mair on Radio 4. He was 58. Since September last year, when Hewlett had announced he had cancer, he’d been giving Mair a series of interviews describing his various treatments, struggles and trials. The interviews ran fairly regularly on Monday editions…
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Amazon Echo – A Longer Term Test
I bought my Amazon Echo on its official UK release back in September last year. I wrote about it at the time, but I thought it might be worth checking back in here to see exactly how I’m using it. Right off the top, I’ll note here that I use Alexa multiple times a day,…
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Girls on Trains
That sounds a bit creepy. I’m actually talking about the phenomenon that is Paula Hawkins’ novel The Girl on the Train. It has been the book that everyone has been reading for the past year or so. Indeed, it if it weren’t for the fact that everyone watches iPlayer and reads Kindles, you’d have seen…
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Diversity in Radio
Yesterday, two things happened. I got an email from Sound Women telling me that the organisation will be closing down at the end of next year. And I went to a radio and audio conference in London. I’ll explain the link in a minute. But let’s just say for the moment, that I learnt a…
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Problems with News Video
Recently the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism published its annual Digital News Report, authored by Nic Newman. If you’re interested in the media, and particularly journalism in the digital age, then it’s an essential read. The report, which is supported by groups such as Google and the BBC, surveys 50,000 people across 26…
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Leading Questions
These are my own views, and do not represent those of my employer. Now we’ve got that out of the way, we’ll continue. It’s fairly understood that depending on how you ask a research question, you can get different answers. In research terminology, questions that can elicit a particular response are called “leading questions.” You…
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Satire, Parliament and Dennis Skinner
Last week Labour stalwart Dennis Skinner was ejected from the House of Commons for the rest of the Parliamentary day for calling the Prime Minister “Dodgy Dave” during his statement on his father’s off-shore affairs to Parliament. The Speaker, John Bercow, didn’t like it, and Skinner was forced to leave. Skinner regularly entertains with his…
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F1 to Follow Cricket Into Obscurity
Here’s how F1 and Bernie Ecclestone do business: 21 December 2015 – Channel 4 wins terrestrial rights to Formula 1, after the BBC hands them back. There was rumoured to be a fight with ITV for them. Bernie Ecclestone, Chief Executive Officer of the Formula One group said: “I am sorry that the BBC could…
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The New Day
Well full marks for bravery. The New Day really is a different offering to the rest of the national news offering. It’s Trinity Mirror’s new national daily – and yet still feels a bit like a spoiler targeting the now Johnston Press owned “i” as the previous owner – the Lebadevs – take The Independent…
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Search Engines in Film
In the Road Runner cartoons, Wily E Coyote often needed to buy various bits of equipment and products to try to stop said Road Runner. Invariably those anvils et al, were supplied by the Acme Corporation, a fictional company with a curious catalogue of products. It was always fun seeing what Acme was producing next.…