Media Standards Trust

ITV's entertaining interpretation of public service

Let me get this straight. Peter Fincham, director of television at ITV, believes entertainment programmes like the X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent should be more clearly defined as 'public service', so that they can become better supported by the ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Aug 27 2008 ]
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Can't get news coverage? Resort to Boy Dylan

Whoever does Tim Wheeler's PR will be patting themselves on the back this morning. The chief executive of property developer Brixton used the lyrics of Bob Dylan's 'All along the watchtower' (yup, the one you're humming now - though you're probabl... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Aug 20 2008 ]
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What the press can learn from advertising

If you read yesterday’s Media Guardian interview with Chris Smith , Chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority ( ASA ), but replace the ASA with the Press Complaints Commission ( PCC ), you may – like me - find the piece more inter... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Aug 19 2008 ]
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Should Labour really get blamed for UK's increased drug use?

A remarkable example today of how the same news story, based on exactly the same government report, can be spun in such a completely different way by two different newspapers. 'Drug Nation' dominates the Independent's front page, and documents so... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Aug 15 2008 ]
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How the Orwell diaries went global

We had no idea that when we - the Orwell Prize and Media Standards Trust - decided to celebrate the 70th anniversary of George Orwell's diaries by publishing them as a daily blog, they would attract such an astonishing amount of attention. From ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Aug 13 2008 ]
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Martin Moore is away

... and will be back blogging in August. more >>

[ Media Standards Trust, Friday, Jul 18 2008 ]
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Knife crime? Where? News from your local council

Anyone too frazzled to pick up a newspaper for fear of reading about yet more stabbings could turn instead to their local council's regular news magazine. Forget 'broken Britain' or knife-ridden hell holes, your local council magazine is more like... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Jul 18 2008 ]
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Has the News of the World judged risk/reward right this time?

A fascinating portrait of the News of the World's legal manager Tom Crone in Peter Burden's engrossing new book, News of the World? Fake Sheikhs & Royal Trappings : "Crone, regarded as the sharpest brief in the newspaper industry, wields ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Jul 11 2008 ]
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Contacting journalists

Responding to popular demand... we've added a couple more bits of information to www.journalisted.com . We at Journalisted get lots and lots of emails asking us for the contact details of journalists. In response we do our best to explain that we... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Jul 09 2008 ]
1 Comments

Who should judge if a charity has done a good job?

Selective and misrepresentative media coverage has led the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), the body that co-ordinates a dozen international humanitarian charities, to decide not to evaluate the overall success of these charities on the ground (... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Jul 08 2008 ]
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Does Welsh news matter?

Is "'Three Welsh politicians 'raped'" a big news story? The BBC thinks so. It's been one of its top stories all day. On its front page the BBC reports that 'Three members of the Welsh assembly have disclosed... that they have been raped', though n... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Jul 02 2008 ]
2 Comments

PR, journalism and reliable reporting

The PR vs Journalism debate continues tomorrow - this time at the Westminster Media Forum . Lord Fowler and Baroness Howe are chairing - fresh from the Select Committee on Communications that just published its report on Friday. Nick Davies, auth... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Jun 30 2008 ]
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House of Lords Select Committee Report on Media Ownership - Correction

I'll blog at more length about this report - there's an awful lot of meat to digest in it first - but before I do I want to correct a mistake for the record. I'm quoted in the report as saying that the editor of the Daily Mail was on the Editorial... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Jun 27 2008 ]
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What is 'publicly available to a significant extent'?

Today's PCC ruling against JK Rowling's privacy complaint raises intriguing questions about what constitutes the 'public domain' and what the responsibilities of the press are once someone is in it. Rowling had complained that pieces in the Dail... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Jun 26 2008 ]
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Why do people comment?

I'm genuinely perplexed. Why do people comment on news websites? On the BBC's 'Have Your Say' , on the Guardian's Comment is Free (CiF), on the Telegraph's View or on the various others? The overwhelming number of comments on many of these (n... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Jun 24 2008 ]
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How mainstream media got it wrong over David Davis' resignation

Jay Rosen , associate professor of journalism at New York University and one of the most astute commentators on the direction of journalism today, called the blogosphere - news' 'Court of Appeal'. By this he meant that a news story can have a secon... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Jun 18 2008 ]
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What next for political spin?

Vincent Cable, whose rhetorical skills won him admirers during his short stint as caretaker Lib-Dem leader, writes today that the current government’s ‘PR skills rival those of Marie Antoinette during the Paris food riots’. Oh ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Jun 02 2008 ]
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Why charities need to become more like news organisations

Just back from giving a talk to lots of charity folk (mostly from communications / press / pr) about why they need to become more like news organisations. By that I certainly don't mean ActionAid should try to become like News International. What ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, May 28 2008 ]
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Why doesn't the UK have anything like the Huffington Post?

Huffington Post looked, at the outset, like a car crash waiting to happen. Funded from Arianna Huffington's own pocket it seemed like the sort of vanity project that would quickly flounder for lack of interest. Indeed David Cohn tells me that pr... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, May 22 2008 ]
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We've won a Knight Foundation News Award!

I can now explain why I'm in Las Vegas (and it's not so I can enjoy the biggest seafood buffet in the US at this, the Rio, hotel - in a city that's an hours flight away from the sea). Up till now we've been told we can't talk about why we're here. ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, May 15 2008 ]
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Is China using the earthquake to political advantage?

The LA Times has a distinctly different take than most newspapers on the Chinese earthquake on its front page today. The article - ‘Amid the tragedy lies opportunity’ - suggests the Chinese government is using the disaster as ‘an o... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, May 14 2008 ]
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Commenting on the commentators commenting

There was a distinct sound of chomping in the air at last night's 'The Power of the Commentariat' event at the Royal Society of Arts. It was the sound of the press eating itself. A panel of commentators (Simon Jenkins, Suzanne Moore, Daniel Finkel... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, May 08 2008 ]
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Journalisted adds biographical links

Yet more useful features on journalisted ... As Comment is Free has shown, a brief bio about a journalist can be helpful when reading their opinion. It gives you a little more context and colour and - sometimes - gives you a steer on where the jo... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, May 06 2008 ]
1 Comments

The Orwell Prize: From Ramallah on Foot

How do you explain presence? It's not something you can really rationalise. Suggest a scientific explanation and you find yourself muttering about the release of pheromones or the 'smell' of confidence. Whatever it is, you know it when someone has... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Apr 25 2008 ]
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TV news & current affairs - the future's rosey... apparently

Agree with what Peter Bazalgette says or disagree (and much of it I wholeheartedly disagree with), but he has the knack of capturing a contemporary truth with a telling analogy. Attacking the complacency of the big broadcasters at the Royal Televi... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Apr 23 2008 ]
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Spinning against spinning

Spin is a central part of every election. But mayoral contests are especially conducive to the machinations of political PRs. They are based - necessarily - around limited policy agendas. They are targeted at a highly concentrated geographical area.... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Apr 21 2008 ]
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Economic hardship + media stoked resentment

Thanks in part to the downturn in the economy, this week's spat between the newspapers about whether the rise in immigration has led to a significant increase in crime, is more than an academic exercise. It is one thing to demonise foreigners when... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Apr 18 2008 ]
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The missing crimewave that didn't hit the papers

When Julie Spence said last September that influx of migrants to Cambridgeshire had 'been coupled with an increase in drink-driving, knife carrying, and feuding' few papers could resist splashing the story. 'Migrant workers importing crime' The Tel... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Apr 16 2008 ]
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Still waiting for local community websites

Today I find myself buried in Annex 8 of OFCOM's Public Service Broadcasting Review trying to work if there's a future for local news, community and social action on the web. The wonderful thing about the internet is that OFCOM can publish as muc... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Apr 14 2008 ]
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Journalism 0-1 PR

The journalists lost. At the end of last night's sparky and spikey Media Standards Trust / Westminster University debate, 59 people voted for the motion "The growth of PR is threatening the integrity of the Press" vs. 164 against (with about 80 plus... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Apr 10 2008 ]
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A sustainable model of 'citizen journalism'?

What does it mean to be a 'citizen journalist'? The phrase began life encompassing pretty much anyone who published material on the web but was not paid by a professional news organisation. This was daft. Most of the stuff published on the net was n... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Apr 10 2008 ]
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The charge sheet against public relations

"What we are looking at here is a global collapse of information gathering and truth-telling", Nick Davies warns ominously in Flat Earth News (p.154). Let it never be said that journalists over-use hyperbole. Davies is kept awake at nights worryin... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Apr 08 2008 ]
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Journalism... with added context

What do you think was the most blogged about article in the UK Press this week? 'Mobile phones "more dangerous than smoking or asbestos"' by Geoffrey Lean in last Sunday's Independent. 140 blogs linked to Lean's piece, from Greensboring in the... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Apr 04 2008 ]
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The bizarre relationship between Alastair Campbell and the BBC

Why are the BBC so keen to promote Alastair Campbell? It’s a question that seems to perplex even Campbell himself – as he revealed during the Orwell Prize discussion at yesterday’s Oxford Literary Festival (‘political diarist... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Apr 03 2008 ]
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Ilegal trade in private information set to continue

If you want to know how difficult it is to alter the behaviour of the press, take a look at the news this week that Gordon Brown is 'scrapping... longstanding plans for a clampdown on newspapers that illegally buy personal data' (from David Leigh &... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Apr 02 2008 ]
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The future of the net? Wait and see

After a pause and reflection I confess I'm still mighty confused as to the future of media and democracy. There were some mind-spinningly smart talks by some awfully clever people at Media Re:Public in LA (where I've spent the last four days), but... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Mar 31 2008 ]
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A toe dipped into Media Re:Public

People talk alot about our age of 'information overload'. That's how I'm feeling right now. Berkman have gathered together such an astonishing collection of internet eggheads (meant in a good way) at this one day 'participatory media' conference t... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Mar 28 2008 ]
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A chastened Express?

Reading today's Daily Express is a very odd experience. It still says 'Daily Express' at the top and has the incongruous tagline 'The World's Greatest Newspaper'. The paper is the same size, the same price, and has the same font. Yet there is some... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Mar 26 2008 ]
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Has the Left stopped thinking?

Since thumping the next election into the nether regions of 2010, Gordon Brown has yet to outline new New Labour's big 'vision'. Is it there struggling to get out, or has the well of new Left ideas dried up? We've organised a debate, in associatio... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Mar 20 2008 ]
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Stop buying the Express

"I fail to see", comments Kieran216 below Roy Greenslade's excellent McCann/Express blog , "how anyone of sane mind could have such complete lack of dignity to actually perform the act of walking up to a shop counter and paying money for the Expres... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Mar 19 2008 ]
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A plea for more government information online

What do these three things have in common? - The Power of Information by Tom Steinberg and Ed Mayo - Report No.40 of the Statistics Commission - Andrew Gilligan's shortlisting for 'Reporter of the Year' by the British Press Awards All ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Mar 18 2008 ]
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Reflecting on a genocide - to camera

Seeing someone talking about committing mass murder is deeply shocking. Seeing them talk about it to camera, without remorse, with relish even, is frightening and scarring. This is what you see in an astonishing new documentary - 'Freemen', a new ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Mar 14 2008 ]
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What purpose did the Public Service Publisher idea serve exactly?

OFCOM chief Ed Richards this week said the Public Service Publisher (PSP) concept had 'served its purpose' and could now be shelved ( speech to RTS , Tuesday night). It has? What purpose was that exactly? Did it move forward our understanding of d... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Mar 13 2008 ]
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Is media to blame for the overflowing prison population?

It's difficult to know how to react to Jack Straw's claims yesterday that media coverage of crime is encouraging judges, magistrates and MPs to send more people to prison (Alan Travis, 'Straw warns judges not to overreact to coverage of big trials... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Mar 11 2008 ]
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21st Century 'News Duty'

Us older generations (i.e. post 35) have spent alot of time over the last decade lamenting the decline of 'news duty' amongst the young. Feeling that young people don't make enough effort to keep up with the important (occasionally dull) public inte... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Mar 10 2008 ]
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The Big Debate - Journalism vs PR, April 9th

Earning over £6.5 billion a year and enjoying double digit growth, our public relations industry is now the second biggest in the world (behind the US). Contrast that with the news industry. Newspaper circulations are in decline, internet rev... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Mar 07 2008 ]
12 Comments

Why it's a bad idea to make Paul Dacre head of the Code Committee

The Press Complaints Commission yesterday announced that Paul Dacre, editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail / Associated Newspapers, will be the new chairman of the Editorial Code Committee - the powerful body that sets the rules of press self-regulation... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Mar 05 2008 ]
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Iraq & WMD - a catastrophic failure of imagination?

Was the failure of newspapers to report Iraq's lack of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) not a reporting failure but a failure of imagination? That was what John F Burns , multi award winning New York Times journalist and Iraq bureau chief in the... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Mar 03 2008 ]
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Daily Mail turns green?

I looked at the headline, then up at the name of the paper. Then at the headline again. Yes, it was The Daily Mail. Yes, they had devoted their whole front page to an environmental campaign. 'Banish the Bag', the Mail tells its readers today. And it... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Feb 27 2008 ]
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Can newspapers 'do' climate change?

The science of climate change, complicated even for those who make a career of studying it, is made more complicated still by the way our newspaper cover it. Depending on their political persuasion, the papers seem quite happy to wade in on one si... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Feb 25 2008 ]
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Add another to Melanie Phillips' list...

The Speaker Michael Martin is the latest public figure Melanie Phillips has called on to resign (see previous post " Do the press' calls for people to resign have any effect?"). Under the headline " Until the Speaker goes, our faith in Parliament... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Feb 25 2008 ]
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Tony Blair and the media - "not bovvered"

I suppose it’s the equivalent of a teenage sulk. After the Labour government’s brutal battle with the BBC, and following the infamous 6.07am Andrew Gilligan two-way on the Today Programme, how did Tony Blair react? He turned it off. He i... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Feb 22 2008 ]
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Mail vs Express - who can be more xenophobic?

The Mail and the Express appear to be in a head-to-head contest to see who can out-xenophobe the other. Roy Greenslade today published an email sent by a Mail journalist ( Diana Appleyard ), appealling for lying, thieving Eastern Europeans: "I... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Feb 19 2008 ]
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The finest in contemporary political writing

There's something quite mesmeric about staring at a table full of the best contemporary political writing. Does it represent a snapshot of society's angst or just the personal bugbears of the writers? Do the books help explain, and maybe even answer... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Feb 18 2008 ]
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Is Wales the canary in the mine of news?

It would be difficult to find a quieter way to go. Last Friday Rhodri Morgan, Wales' First Minister, announced that he would step down in September 2009. It was reported in the South Wales Echo, the South Wales Evening Post, the Daily Post (Liverp... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Feb 13 2008 ]
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Do the press' calls for people to resign have any effect?

Along with much of the rest of the press, Melanie Phillips has today called for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to resign. "[W]e are all profoundly shocked by him [Dr Williams]" Phillips writes, "He should stand down and Dr Nazi... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Feb 11 2008 ]
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An 'Independent Standards Authority' for the net

Who should decide what your children should see online? The government, the ISP, the school, the parents or the children themselves? Right now it's pretty much up to the parents and child (more often the child given that most are more tech savvy t... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Feb 08 2008 ]
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Why have a suicide code if it's ignored?

Defending the press' coverage of the suicides in South Wales, Bob Satchwell told the Today Programme this morning that there had, as yet, been no complaints. Good grief. What an astonishing indictment of the current methods of newspaper self-regul... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Feb 07 2008 ]
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Exposed: PR's relationship with journalism

Journalism relies heavily on public relations and news agency copy. As a statement (rather than a judgment or criticism) this should not be that shocking. Newspapers have almost always used news wire services extensively, and 'PR' can cover everyt... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Feb 05 2008 ]
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Dog bites man; Alastair Campbell criticises the media

"I guess I'm just one of those people around whom myths tend to develop", Alastair Campbell said - with a straight face - to the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications where I spent this morning. His use of the passive voice perfectly cap... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Jan 30 2008 ]
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The vocabulary of news goes Germanic

The English language, it would appear, lacks the vocabularly to describe some of the massive changes engulfing media. So, stealing a trick from the Germans, people are squishing words together to capture bigger concepts. One of my favourites is '... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Jan 29 2008 ]
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Dog whistle journalism

As the Clintons are accused of playing the race card - and losing - in South Carolina, so the Daily Express once again plays the race card - with yet more virulence - on its front page today. 'Migrants send our crime rate soaring' is emblazoned ac... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Jan 28 2008 ]
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Mainstream media under attack - Round 2

Last year it was broadcasting's turn. This year it's spreading to the rest of mainstream media. Nor is it just pinpricks and scratches, but gashes and body blows. Mainstream media is under attack - for being too powerful, for getting too close to ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Jan 25 2008 ]
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Social networking, suicide and the power of imitation

It took a long time, but in 2006, after being shown compelling evidence about the link between media portrayals of suicide and 'copycat' suicides, newspapers agreed to be more restrained in their coverage. 'When reporting suicide,' the newspapers'... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Jan 24 2008 ]
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New MST site - tell us what you think

For instant judgement stand up comedy is probably your best bet. Get up on stage, make a joke or tell a story, and you'll find out pretty quickly if the audience finds you funny or not. Theatre's probably next best for audience reaction, though th... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Jan 21 2008 ]
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A Strange Silence About an Even Stranger Death

Why has the liberal media been so dismissive of people asking questions about the death of Dr David Kelly? Although Norman Baker's suggestions about how Kelly died are far-fetched, and his theory that the doctor was murdered by Iraqi exiles lacks s... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Jan 18 2008 ]
2 Comments

A new founding principle for the BBC

Fantastic. A proper thoughtful speech about politics, the media and the role of the BBC from Mark Thompson - the BBC's Director General ( 'The Trouble with Trust' ). Admittedly, part of the reason I'm impressed is that I've been banging on about m... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Jan 16 2008 ]
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Facebook becomes a source of US election news

The good old Pew Center has conducted a fascinating study into how Americans are getting their news about the US election. The big finding is, once again, that the internet continues to grow as a source of campaign news - and at the same time tr... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Jan 15 2008 ]
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The sprat to catch the mackerel

It seems like a strange, back door way of dealing with intrusion by journalists. Nick Mathiason reported in the Observer yesterday that the government plans to regulate private investigators. The catalyst for this, Mathiason suggested, was the i... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Jan 14 2008 ]
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Do you like tears with your politics?

I just got back from a rather scary discussion on 'Emotions and Journalism' at a conference organised by DART at Cass Business School. Edward Stourton (Today Programme presenter), John Lloyd (journalist and director of Reuters Institute for Study ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Jan 10 2008 ]
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'If - more likely "when" - she loses this primary...'

Ahh, those pesky newspaper publishing deadlines. Anton Antonowicz must be kicking himself for not staying up till the early hours last night and convincing the sub-eds at the Mirror to let him file at the last possible moment. Given Hillary Clin... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Jan 09 2008 ]
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Stephen Carter's salary drops by about £863k

The discrepancy between Stephen Carter's old and new salary goes unremarked by the Guardian (though not, interestingly, by the Daily Mail). It shouldn't. The fact that Carter is choosing to go from a pay package worth over £1 million at Brunswi... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Jan 08 2007 ]
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A collection of corrections

For those of you unfamiliar with Craig Silverman's excellent site - Regret the Error - I can highly recommend his end of year round up of the best, or rather worst, errors of 2007. Though he himself is based on the west coast of the US, Silverman ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Jan 03 2008 ]
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Martin Moore is away

... but will be back blogging in 2008 more >>

[ Media Standards Trust, Sunday, Dec 23 2007 ]
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The Mail hits back... slowly and ineffectually

It took the Mail over a week, but yesterday it responded more fully to Sir David King's attacks on its coverage of MMR and GM crops ( 'I got it wrong on GM crop, admits science chief' ). For something that took such a long time to put together it ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Dec 20 2007 ]
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Sunday Times confesses to doctoring photo

Did anyone else see the slightly remarkable apology to Patricia Fisk in the Sunday Times? You'd be forgiven for missing it since it was only 125 words and tucked away on page 2 of the News Review. It's worth quoting in full: 'Our report “... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Dec 17 2007 ]
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Let Nation Speak Unto Nation

Why now? Why have many countries decided that the best way to get themselves heard internationally is through 24 hour news channels? Russia Today celebrates its second anniversary this week. To mark it the channel has taken out full page ads in l... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Dec 14 2007 ]
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Daily Mail 'threatens lives'

When Tony Blair criticised the media back in June his chief complaint was that it was having a 'seriously adverse' impact on public life. The government's chief scientific adviser has just gone considerably further by accusing the Daily Mail of th... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Dec 11 2007 ]
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Avoiding a bloody revolution

There's much to agree with in the NUJ's 'Shaping the Future' report published today, but it is also underpinned by a flawed assumption which, I think, undermines its central message. The report is absolutely right to emphasise the importance of ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Dec 06 2007 ]
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Should journalists register their interests?

For some reason I receive emails from PR week - I think because I once went to an event organised by them ( Does PR have a duty to tell the truth? - see previous post ). Anyway, the one I got this afternoon was an invitation to a PR Week conferenc... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Dec 05 2007 ]
1 Comments

Surveillance and the contradictions of our liberal media

Is the liberal media horribly hypocritical? That was David Goodhart's contention on Friday, in the panel discussion we co-hosted about 'Orwell, ID cards, the citizen and the State' . At the same time as publishing masses of editorials lambasting ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Dec 03 2007 ]
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Public gladiators in the media arena

It's rare to see thoughtful reflection about the media from senior figures in public life. It's even rarer be able to compare four very different perspectives. But that's what we got last night. A lawyer, a career diplomatic, a general, and the he... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Nov 29 2007 ]
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But that's not what I said...

The row that exploded yesterday about the Archbishop of Canterbury’s comments on the US and the Iraq war provides an appropriate backdrop to tomorrow evening’s Media Standards Trust / Reuters Institute debate . Following an interview... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Nov 27 2007 ]
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What media can learn from academia

Emerging from what feels like an endless series of consultations, conferences and conversations about the 'future of news' the one thing I'm now sure about is that people think things are changing an awful lot. Which means, whether they are or not (... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Nov 26 2007 ]
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Regulating quality

Listening to Ed Richards, Chief Executive of OFCOM, speaking at his old alma mater the LSE last night , it struck me that OFCOM's job is even more tricky than I previously thought. In addition to the enormous number of practical issues it has to ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Nov 22 2007 ]
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Impartiality - from whose perspective?

National newspapers yesterday reported that the BBC Trust is going to conduct a review into the impartiality of BBC coverage of the four nations. Most papers did it with a very straight bat. 'BBC to examine post-devolution news coverage' was the Gua... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Nov 20 2007 ]
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Blogging, commenting and anonymity

Help me out here. I've never really fully understood online etiquette when it comes to leaving comments / responding to them etc. I guess that's half the point, none of us do - indeed when Jimmy Wales and Tim O'Reilly tried to institute a bloggers... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Nov 19 2007 ]
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The British Press: Lessons in Self-Criticism, Part 2

You'd be forgiven if you missed the publication this week of a report about reporting of Muslims in the British press . I've scoured Nexis Lexis and found one news story - 87 words in the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday - and two pieces on the Guard... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Nov 16 2007 ]
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Not adequate justification for extended coverage of London's fire

There are a number of things that make me uncomfortable with Simon Waldman's defence of BBC News 24s decision to run extended coverage of the fire in east London on Monday. He cites three justifications for the coverage: - That the smoke was sp... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Aug 14 2007 ]
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Market driven media damages democracy

...was the basic message of Professor James Curran's dry but highly worthwhile lecture at the LSE this evening. Proving the impact of media is tremendously tricky. How can you tell it was the media that had an impact and not something else? How ca... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Nov 13 2007 ]
2 Comments

An experiment in citizen journalism

Amongst the many challenges facing budding citizen journalists two stand out - access and audience. Most current 'citizen journalism' is based on luck (or more often bad luck) and circumstance. You're driving by the Buncefield oil depot just after... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Nov 12 2007 ]
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Martin Moore is away

Martin Moore is away on paternity leave and will be back blogging on Monday 12th November. more >>

[ Media Standards Trust, Tuesday, Oct 30 2007 ]
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Plucky Lords to challenge the media

I yesterday had the pleasure of giving evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications. The House of Lords, unlike their counterparts in the Commons, have plucked up the courage to do a serious examination of the impact of media ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Oct 25 2007 ]
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The contradictions of impartiality

I'm finding it more and more tricky to work out what people mean by 'impartiality' in news. In the responses to OFCOM's consultation document, 'New News, Future News - Responses' - released yesterday - almost all the respondents argued strongly ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Oct 23 2007 ]
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The 4 'h's of our apocalyptic media

Our news agenda seems increasingly defined by four 'h's; hysteria, herding, health and Hobbes. Armando Ianucci wrote an unusually serious piece in yesterday's Observer suggesting that when historians look back on this period the adjective they'l... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Nov 22 2007 ]
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Ming's media age

Media myths, once they're set, are notoriously difficult to shake. But the media's conviction that Sir Menzies Campbell was too old to lead the Lib Dems was astonishing in the speed with which it took hold, in the doggedness with which it was purs... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Sep 18 2007 ]
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An Inconvenient Truth - a few things the reports missed

More on the coverage of Mr Justice Burton's judgment on An Inconvenient Truth . If you want a savaging of the reporting try Tim Lambert's science blog (hat tip Jim Giles): "Unfortunately a gaggle of useless journalists have misreported this... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Oct 17 2007 ]
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Ed Richards' Ofcom Annual Shopping List

Remember that children's game where the first child says 'Yesterday I went to the shops and bought some... eggs', then the next child starts again but adds something else; 'Yesterday I went to the shops and bought some... eggs and some ham', and so ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Oct 16 2007 ]
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The drawbacks of being too sceptical

Scepticism is hardwired into most journalists. And this is generally a very good thing - what help is it having a gullible journalist? But sometimes you have be sceptical about scepticism. As with the recent furore about a British judge's decision... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Oct 15 2007 ]
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Testing Journa-list

Did you know that Ben Webster (transport correspondent for The Times) has mentioned London 125 times in his articles since May? Or that Richard Norton-Taylor (The Guardian) currently writes more about Basra than anything else? No, neither did I ti... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Oct 12 2007 ]
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Journa-list now live in beta

I've been a little absent the last couple of days getting www.journa-list.com off the ground. It's now live in beta so if you get a moment please do take a look, tell me what you think, and if you find any bugs / mistakes (which there are bound to... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Oct 11 2007 ]
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Why are so few people worried about access to personal information?

I feel increasingly odd. I must be one of a diminishing number of people who don't think it's a good idea that the government have access to enormous amounts of our personal information. I know I'm joined by Henry Porter - who continues his lone... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Oct 09 2007 ]
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Few online discussion forums are democratic

I was interviewed by BBC Radio Oxford this morning about the dangers of mob rule on the net. It seems people have been raising fears in the forums of Chipping Norton's local website about rising levels of crime and the lack of visible policing... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Oct 08 2007 ]
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Queengate, video footage, and a nation of armchair detectives

It was the Reverend Green, in the drawing room, with the lead piping. Well, it wasn't actually, it was the Chief Creative Office, with the raw footage, in an edit suite. But that's how Will Wyatt's report ( 'Investigation into A Year with the Quee... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Oct 05 2007 ]
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The withering of childrens' television

First regional news, now children's television. Whilst it's good to see that OFCOM has finally expressed its concerns about children's programming (in 'The Future of Children's Television' ), it may be too late to save production of original chil... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Oct 03 2007 ]
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Chicago, citizen media, and some lessons from Adam Smith

In a series of fascinating conversations last Friday in Chicago some of the leading thinkers on citizen media chewed the cud on where citizen news is now, the state of big media, and what will become of participatory media. By good fortune and fortu... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Oct 01 2007 ]
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Harnessing the power of the new Fourth Estate

I spent yesterday afternoon in Oxford talking to BBC journalists, producers and editors about the threats to public interest journalism and the Fourth Estate (imagine how few news organisations would not only make time to talk about this, but where ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Sep 27 2007 ]
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TV's trial proves inconclusive

This evening's POLIS event, 'Can we still trust TV? TV on trial' , was as interesting for what wasn't said as what was. The witnesses - and the speakers were literally cast as witnesses and questioned by lawyer Mark Stephens of Finer Stephens Inn... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Sep 25 2007 ]
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Seeing patterns in news headlines

One of the joys of the internet is being able to see patterns that were previously difficult to spot. Such as patterns in a journalist's output simply by glancing at an archive of his/her articles. This is particularly true if a reporter's article... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Sep 24 2007 ]
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How many sources is enough?

Leeds Trinity and All Saints journalism school has earned the ire of at least 4 regional newspaper editors by suggesting - in a study out this week - that 76% of the papers' stories are single sourced. The journalism department analysed 2,994 stor... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Sep 20 2007 ]
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If you haven't done the sums, best to be conservative

Ploughing through the many many column inches written about the Northern Rock crisis for this week's Media Standards Trust debate ( Informing or Inflaming? The media and the crisis at Northern Rock ) it was striking how conservative most reporters a... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Sep 19 2007 ]
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Give us more editorial judgment, not less

In his defence of the BBC's handling of the Northern Rock crisis, Peter Horrocks writes that 'it's not the BBC's job to tell the audience what to do with its money' and this includes keeping people calm or giving them advice. 'We judge it is right... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Sep 18 2007 ]
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Propping up the Fourth Estate

If you compared the UK media industry to a house, then its beams took another big couple of knocks last week. In commercial broadcasting Michael Grade called on Saturday for an end to all public service obligations. In other words to get rid of ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Sep 17 2007 ]
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JonBenet Ramsey & Madeleine McCann

JonBenet Ramsey & Madeleine McCann What can media coverage of JonBenet Ramsey tell us about that of Madeleine McCann? Following a comment left by Vincent Campbell on the Media Standards Trust debate, I spent some time looking at how the US m... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Sep 13 2007 ]
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Local news gathering lost at both ends

We knew it was going to happen. Even OFCOM knew it was going to happen. Back in June the media regulator wrote that : " Economic circumstances make it much less likely that commercial broadcasters would choose to carry news for the UK nations and... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Sep 11 2007 ]
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Will less power mean less ego?

Think about cedar and you probably think of evergreen forests, green needles and air fresheners. It's unlikely you'll think of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution - or CEDR to give it the proper acronym. This is despite the fact that CEDR'... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Sep 11 2007 ]
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And the media's upside-down pyramid finally topples over

How remarkably refreshing. A news debate stopped because listeners were tired of unfounded speculation and the call for snap judgments. Victoria Derbyshire was forced to abandon her Radio 5 Live phone-in this morning (Subject: 'Do you still have s... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Sep 10 2007 ]
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The unspoken side effects of surveillance

In William Boyd's novel 'Restless', the lead character - Eva Delectorskaya- is beset by paranoia. She is convinced she is being watched, and that someone wants to kill her. Though at first you think she is delusional, as the novel goes on you start ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Sep 06 2007 ]
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BBC squabbles erupt into public view

Mired by fractious infighting, paralysed by increasingly public squabbles between fiefdoms, the BBC is - sadly - starting to resemble the Labour Party in the 1980s. The current bout of discord appears to have been sparked by Paxman's Edinburgh Mac... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Sep 05 2007 ]
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A topless Putin and international media diplomacy

Over the last few weeks American military figures and government sources have lined up to speak to US news organisations about how the British have 'lost' the south of Iraq. Their attacks reached such a pitch (although barely reported in the UK pres... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Sep 04 2007 ]
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Dogme Ninety FIVE News

A dozen years after a group of directors rejected the decadence of modern film-making and signed up to a back-to-basics manifesto, Five News has announced it is going to take steps to restore viewer trust by banning editorial tricks from news broa... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Aug 30 2007 ]
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Papers draw up party lines

Old school political partisanship is alive and well in the papers today. Cameron's law and order speech captures the attention of the Mail and the Telegraph. Writing in the Telegraph Philip Johnston goes so far as to compare the speech to Tony B... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Aug 29 2007 ]
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Angst-ridden Edinburgh

I'm so glad I missed this year's angst-ridden Edinburgh Television Festival . Though it can only be a good thing that TV's top execs are questioning their omniscience, there is something particularly unattractive about watching people focus so much... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Aug 28 2007 ]
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OFCOM takes on JK Rowling

It's pretty rare you can say an OFCOM report is a page turner, but The Communications Market 2007 is just that - thanks to some gobsmacking statistics about UK media consumption, some audacious predictions of how our media use is changing, and s... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Aug 23 2007 ]
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How the coverage of Learco Chindamo has had a material impact on his case (and not in a good way)

'Hysteria' is a word used all too regularly about media coverage. But it would be hard not to apply it to the last 48 hours coverage of Learco Chindamo. Yesterday's and today's front pages have been dominated by his imminent release and by the decis... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Aug 22 2007 ]
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A pandemic of drunkenness or statistics designed to make a story?

Amongst the current clump of articles about fear on the streets, anarchy in the UK and the sorry state of our policing there have been some shocking statistics about young people and alcohol. 86% of teenagers have consumed alcohol under age, Davi... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Aug 21 2007 ]
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An undercover documentary at a British newspaper?

Why hasn't anyone tried the Daily Mirror tactics on the Daily Mirror? Roy Greenslade wrote yesterday about the Mirror's latest stunt - to get a 'sleeper' journalist into Conservative HQ. Emily Miller, the journalist in question, applied for a &#... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Aug 20 2007 ]
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If you're part of a news story you should be treated differently

Why don't news websites reserve a separate space for participants in the story? It seems very strange that while most news websites now allow people to comment below their stories - they don't provide any space or special treatment for the people ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Aug 16 2007 ]
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The PCC boldly goes...

Causing barely a ripple in August's becalmed news, the Press Complaints Commission has just taken a bold new step into the unknown. It has made its first ruling on audio-visual content on the web. It has upheld the complaint of Mrs Laura Gaddis,... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Aug 15 2007 ]
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Disenchantment with mainstream news media mounting

If you're young, male, right-wing (and American), chances are you'll be highly critical of the mainstream news media. If you watch Fox as well, you're unlikely to believe a word you read. So says the latest survey about attitudes to news organisati... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Aug 14 2007 ]
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Wake-up call for news websites - Google to realise untapped value in right-to-reply content

I almost spat out my Pret coffee this morning when I read that Google is launching a right-to-reply service on GoogleNews ( Richard Wray, Media Guardian ). Google says it plans to let "those people or organizations who were actual participants i... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Jul 13 2007 ]
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Martin Moore is away...

... and will be back blogging Monday 13th August more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Aug 03 2007 ]
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The myth of authenticity

Does authentic mean true? Speaking to Sarah Montague on the Today Programme Captain Leo Docherty said videos of fighting in Afghanistan, recorded by soldiers on their mobile phones, are more authentic "because they are not manipulated by the media".... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Aug 02 2007 ]
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How citizen journalism changes broadcasters' relationship with their audience

Have news broadcasters really thought about the implications of using 'user-generated-content' (UGC)? Richard Ayre, in his July report for OFCOM about the use of premium rate services (PRS), said that "It was striking that even when I repeatedly... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Aug 01 2007 ]
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Menwith Hill - thank goodness someone noticed

Burying bad news works. That's why the government does it. It doesn't do democracy much good, and it doesn't say much for the democratic credentials of this administration (or its courage) but it often succeeds. So it has - almost - with Des Brow... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Jul 31 2007 ]
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Youtube debates - where questions matter more than answers

What should we take from the YouTube / CNN presidential debate? Rather than accepting the over-hyped rhetoric of the debate's organisers ('revolutionary' etc.) or listening to the dismissals by new media gurus (e.g. Jeff Jarvis ) it's worth consi... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Jul 26 2007 ]
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Does the UK do 'tough media criticism'?

Amazing what a skewed impression you can get of the UK news media if you're only exposed to it briefly. Dan Gillmor (of citizen journalism fame) was here from the US last week and concluded - based on the newspapers' attacks on the BBC and Ben ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Jul 24 2007 ]
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Martin Moore is away...

... but will be back blogging on Tuesday more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Jul 19 2007 ]
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The false scare about the MMR jab and autism

Backstory: Last week's Observer 'broke' a story on its front page about unpublished research by the Cambridge University Autism Research Centre. The research looked at how different methods of defining autism affected the number of people defined ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Jul 16 2007 ]
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Observer scoop about Daily Mail gambling site

A cheer and a boo for The Observer . A cheer for yesterday's piece about the '" Incredible hypocrisy" of Mail web betting site'. Nick Mathiason reported on the front of the business section that the Daily Mail has been running a gambling website... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Monday, Jul 16 2007 ]
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The Queen as entertainment

Let's start by agreeing on something. That trailer was not an accident. We can argue about lots of things - whether the scene was 'illustrative', that this was just a bit of fun and no-one is much the worse off etc - but let's agree that the trailer... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Jul 13 2007 ]
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A lesson in self-criticism

Clark Hoyt, the Public Editor of the New York Times, published a fascinating article in the paper on Sunday (thank you Jim Giles for bringing it to my attention). 'Seeing Al Qaeda around every corner' strongly criticises the NYT for swallowing t... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Jul 12 2007 ]
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The power of information

What did we do before we had an Information Commissioner? Richard Thomas now crops up on such a regular basis, sounding the alarm about everything from sloppy information security at banks to the illegal acquisition of information by journalists. ... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Wednesday, Jul 11 2007 ]
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Times follows BBC line on repeats

Was today's Times being ironic when it decided to publish the same story on consecutive pages ( 'BBC fined £50,000 for Blue Peter Scandal' , p.4 & p.5)? Perhaps this was a cheeky nod to the BBC's decision to increase repeats? Printing c... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Jul 10 2007 ]
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Alastair Campbell in perspective

Talking yesterday to a delegation of Chinese government officials about government-media relations forced me to get a little perspective on the Blair-Campbell-Press media circus. The delegates seemed quite perplexed by my concerns about a crisis o... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Tuesday, Jul 10 2007 ]
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Think the UK media overdid the terrorist threat? Take a look at the US

Those people upset at the UK media for giving too much airtime to the attempted bombings in London and Glasgow last week might have a glance at the way the US media reacted. I only realised how big they'd gone with it when I started receiving emai... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Friday, Jul 06 2007 ]
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Where to find quality TV journalism in the future

Despite the fact that OFCOM doesn't regulate the BBC, its new discussion paper on the future of news has significant implications for the national broadcaster. Implicit in the paper is the belief that funding for quality broadcast news (for qual... more >>

[ Martin Moore, Thursday, Jul 05 2007 ]
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