Media

Comment is Free

Comment is Free, from the Guardian

CP Scott, from Wikipedia.

Paul Watson: Telling Stories by Painting Pictures

Paul Watson came to film documentaries from the world of Art.

----

You need to be subversive.

Try looking at the Establishment from another point of view. But do it with understanding and empathy.

Planning, scheming, worrying, thinking.

Real people all have secret hopes, ambitions, dreams. The role of the film maker is to be a conduit for those stories.

There are very few technical barriers to the modern film-maker. But it is still important to find the story.

Can such stories change the World. Probably not. But theyvcan start a chain of events. They can help support a cause. They can build pressure. They can provide sight to the sightless.

[Posted by Ian Yorston, via iPhone.]

Tom Bower - Why are the buggers lying ?

Peter Mandelson wanted Labour to own the Truth.

Newspeak - 1984 - George Orwell.

Richard Branson publicly stated that his "mother told him to always tell the truth". Methinks he doth protest too much.

Did Geoffrey Robinson lie? Did Jeffrey Archer lie? Did Robert Maxwell lie?

Presumably the facts will show the truth.

However, these people want to own to the truth. So if you contradict them they will sue.

But when these people sue, they often lose. Because it's hard to fight the truth.

Unfortunately, finding the truth is hard. And presenting the truth is hard. And the rewards may be meager.

And even if you bring these people down, they bounce back.

And continue to own the truth.

[Posted by Ian Yorston, via iPhone.]

Jonathan Hill, Spin Doctoring

The role of a "spin doctor" is analagous to that of a Barrister - fighting the best possible case in front of the Court of Public Opinion.

It may be possible to bury bad news. But generally it is better to tackle the issue head on.

Ask yourself "what is the most damaging aspect" of the story that you're up against.

What are the facts ? Which of those facts will best support your side of the arguement ? How might those be presented. In what sequence ? By what conduit ?

You don't have to tell the whole truth, but you do have to tell the truth.

cf:
Prince Harry, GCE Art
Oxford University, Laura Spence

[Posted by Ian Yorston, via iPhone.]

John Momoh, Channels, Nigeria

In a world of News and Information we need to look at why News might be wrong or distorted.

What we would want from our Media is the Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth - but each of those three may be difficult to find.

Facts need to found and researched.

All the facts need to be presented.

Nothing must be added.

But there are plenty of reasons why that won't happen.

Lazy journalism. Biased journalism. Naive journalism. Confused ethics. Commercial pressures. Technical difficulties.

In other words, it's difficult for any one organization to get the story right.

[Posted by Ian Yorston, via iPhone.]

Paying for Content ?

No-one in the Media really knows how to monetize the Internet.

Newspapers, TV, Radio are learning to be on the Web. They are all becoming multi-media organizations, with Journalism at the centre.

But who pays - and how - remains the unanswered question.

[Posted by Ian Yorston, via iPhone.]

If you sup with the Devil...

Celebrities are fair game. If you seek out Fame thro' the Media you must expect the beast to turn (and turn again, most likely).

[Posted by Ian Yorston, via iPhone.]

Good News isn't News

People need to be angry, frustrated, upset before they will demand Change.

Influence is about Change.

If the Media means to Influence then it is bound to play the "bad news" agenda.

Good news doesn't sell...

[Posted by Ian Yorston, via iPhone.]

Facts. Facts. Facts. - Lyse Doucet

Stories need facts.

Who. What. When. Where. Why. How.

But how you choose the facts can influence the agenda. If not in the mind of the journalist, then in the mind of the audience. Because the audience is partisan. In part. In whole. Because the audience has an opinion from the outset.

So how does the Media become a force for good? Should the media deliberately focus on a "good news" agenda ?

[Posted by Ian Yorston, via iPhone.]

Juvenal

Who guards the guardians...

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Comment is Free...

... but Facts are Sacred.

A quote from Scott, one of the great journalists behind the Manchester Guardian.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

John Ryley - Sky News

How does Sky News influence the agenda ? By choosing the stories.

But News happens. And so the agenda is largely written in advance.

The big stories can be broken. Look at the Westminster Expenses scandal which was driven by the Daily Telegraph.

"News is what someone wants to repress. Everything else is just advertising"

The Corporate world works very hard to manipulate their name and their reputation. Newspapers will often swallow Press Releases whole, reprinting them as "news".

Read "Flat Earth News" by Nick Davis.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Jim Gillespie, ex-Mail/Independent/Mail on Sunday

Perhaps newspapers don't matter.

Leader pages aren't read. Comment pieces aren't read. Columnists are only read by those who agree with what they have to say.

So newspapers are very good at reflecting the mood of the Nation.

Of course, newspapers endeavour to influence - particularly at General Elections. But it isn't clear that makes much difference.

What does matter is News - not Newspapers - the front page IS important.

So if the News agenda can be influenced, then newspapers have power. Beyond that...

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

John Murray Brown, FT

The power of Newspapers can be tracked back to the Times coverage of the Crimean War (c. 1850), breaking stories of military incompetence and medical triumphs (Florence Nightingale). The developments in photography were particularly important.

In more modern times we can look at similarly influential reporting by Michael Burke (BBC) on the Ethiopian famine.

Is the Media a "Force for Good". Well, it's certainly a powerful force. That's self-evident from the nature of UK regulatory structures and the strength of UK libel laws.

The desire of powerful people to own Newspapers shows little sign of diminishing.

cf The Hurst family ("Citizen Kane") and the Northcliffe family (who at one point owned 4 UK newspapers).

We now have regulation to limit ownership of multiple titles - and to limit cross-media ownership. cf Rupert Murdoch and Silvio Burlisconi.

Stories matter. Look at Watergate. Look at the Westminster Expenses scandal. But look also at the unintended consequences.

Sometimes the apparent story hides something rather more complicated - look at the developments in the UK negotiations with the IRA.

Corporate coverage is equally fraught. cf Jim Slater promoting shares in which he had already invested.

But the Newspaper business is now in financial trouble. Readership is down - departed to the Net. Advertising is down - also departed for the Net. A perfect storm that has led the Guardian to release 200 journalists. Other papers are closing bureaus and desperately cutting costs.

So newspapers are being forced to adapt and compete. They are evolving into multi-media creatures.

[Posted by Ian Yorston, via iPhone.]

>>>> GROUPS

You will be divided into 20 groups on Wednesday.

Standard Questions for all Groups are as follows:

A. What role does the Media play ? Does the Media: Set the Agenda ? Hold others to Account ? or merely aim to Inform ?

B. Do we trust the Media ? Are they telling the Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth ?

C. Who controls the Media ? Are these levers of Power in safe hands ? Is the Fourth Estate sufficiently independent ?

D. What is the likely impact of Social Media, Social Networks, etc ?

Groups as follows:

1. Crime, Punishment & Social Breakdown
2. Arts, Entertainment & Sport
3. War & Terrorism
4. Business, Industry, Economics & Corporate Influence
5. Race, Religion & Immigration
6. Health & Science
7. Politics, Privacy & Trust
8. Education
9. Fashion & Gender
10. Technology
11. Crime, Punishment & Social Breakdown
12. Arts, Entertainment & Sport
13. War & Terrorism
14. Business, Industry, Economics & Corporate Influence
15. Race, Religion & Immigration
16. Health & Science
17. Politics, Privacy & Trust
18. Education
19. Fashion & Gender
20. Technology

Obama Pushes For Internet Freedom In China

link

"For months, authorities in the communist state have blocked internet sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

But Mr Obama told students at the Museum of Science and Technology in Shanghai: "I have always been a strong supporter of open internet use. I am a big supporter of non-censorship.

"I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger a society becomes."

But it was unclear how many people in China actually saw the event because it was not televised nationally.

On Chinese state television's evening news, Mr Obama's visit was not mentioned until 25 minutes into the broadcast."

Lyse Doucet

Lyse Doucet (born December 24, 1958) is a presenter and correspondent from Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada. She works for both BBC World Service radio and BBC World News television, and occasionally reports for BBC Radio 4 and BBC News in the UK, although she is not a regular face on the BBC's domestic services.

Doucet is often deployed to cover special events such as the funeral of Yasser Arafat, reporting of the aftermath of the Tsunami from Tamil Nadu, India in 2004, and from Amman on the war in Iraq in 2003.

She has a Master's Degree in International Relations from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree from Queen's University at Kingston. Also, she has an honorary doctorate in Civil Law from the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from University College at the University of Toronto (2009), and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of New Brunswick.

Doucet joined the BBC in the early 1980s in West Africa, and then became the BBC's Middle East correspondent based in Jerusalem, and Afghanistan correspondent based in Kabul. She is now deployed to cover special events in the Middle East and Africa.

She speaks English, French and Persian fluently.

In 2002 she was the only journalist to accompany the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to his brother's wedding, where an assassination attempt was made. She and her team were later nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for their exclusive coverage of the attempt. In 2003 she was awarded a Silver Sony Award for News Broadcaster of the Year for her interview with Yasser Arafat in his compound in Ramallah.

In 2007 she was named International television personality of the year by the Association for International Broadcasting. She also received the News and Factual award from the organisation Women in Film and Television.

BBC World Affairs editor John Simpson describes her in his book News from No Man's Land: Reporting the World as 'ebullient' and 'great fun'.

John Ryley, Head of Sky News

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6817701.ece

"Why is it that voters from Washington to Warsaw, Tel Aviv to Tehran, Moscow to Madrid are able to hear their leaders pit their wits against each other in free and open debate, while here, in the UK, our leaders refuse us that opportunity?

[...]

Debates can also give an unintended insight into a person’s true thoughts and character. George Bush Sr’s glance at his wristwatch in debate spoke volumes as his rival Bill Clinton replied to an audience member who had asked how the recession had personally affected the two candidates.

[...]

The UK’s first televised leaders’ debate: no extended negotiations over lighting or rebuttals; no rows about who goes first and who gets to question whom. A date and time will be set. Three chairs provided.

The decision for the politicians is simple: fill them or leave them empty. I give this guarantee: the cameras will be rolling and anyone who doesn’t show up better be ready to explain themselves to the public."

John Ryley is head of Sky News

Tom Bower

wikipedia

"A former Panorama reporter, his books include highly critical unauthorised biographies of Tiny Rowland, Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Geoffrey Robinson, Gordon Brown and Richard Branson.

He won the 2003 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for Broken Dreams, an investigation into corruption in English football.

His biography of Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge was published in November 2006.

An unsuccessful libel case over a passing mention of Express proprietor Richard Desmond in the book was heard in July 2009.

A biography by Bower of Richard Desmond, Rough Trader, awaits publication."

Read also, from the Guardian

Tom Bower: biographer with a taste for the secrets of the powerful

John Murray Brown

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2008/sep/17/europe2

Broadside for FT's Irish correspondent

The normally impeccable reporting of the Financial Times's Irish correspondent John Murray Brown has received a broadside from Belfast Media Group chief Máirtín Ó Muilleoir.

Brown's report about the dispute threatening the collapse of the Northern Ireland power-sharing administration, contained the paragraph...

"At the same time, intelligence sources suggest a number of Catholic armed groups are opposed to devolved policing and the IRA is determined to murder a police officer – in the hope this may elicit a heavy handed security response and embarrass Sinn Féin."

Ó Muilleoir comments:

"Either it's a world exclusive and the IRA, contrary to all reports by from friend and foe alike, hasn't gone away or it's piss-poor reporting. There is a third option, of course; the poor old subbies have made a horlicks of John Murray Brown's copy. I'm going with the benefit of the doubt option, number three, until told otherwise."

I'd like to think Ó Muilleoir is right, but somehow I doubt that FT subs would do any such thing to Brown's copy. It looks to me as if the reporter should be the one with the red face.

For the record, Brown's September 4 story about the Independent Monitoring Commission's report said that the IRA was "no longer operational or functional" and it was headlined "IRA no longer seen as a threat." So which intelligence service was Brown referring to in his latest report saying the opposite?

Paul Watson

"An alcoholic is a drunk for whom nothing can be done. Until, hopefully, a day arrives when they decide they want to get well.

That day will come when they can go no deeper into the mire of self abuse. A day when there is only recovery available to them, or death.

My objective as a filmmaker was to record an alcoholic's journey either to well being or a miserable death.

In making "Rain in my Heart" I would need to film people with troubled psyches; people within which gremlins and monsters lurk producing psychological pain and miseries, miseries that often push them to self-harm.

Some will slash their wrists and arms as a way to forget the mental pain. Many more will medicate their pain by the use of alcohol."

>>>> PROGRAMME FOR THE DAY

08.45 am Boys arrive in Theatre foyer and take badges.

Sit in respective groups in Theatre.

09.00 am Girls arrive; get badges and join boys in respective groups.

09.05 am Opening remarks.

09.10 am Opinion forming; to what extent can, or should, journalists influence opinion?

• 9-10 am John Murray Brown

• 9-25 am Jim Gillespie

• 9-40 am John Ryley

• 9-55 am Lyse Doucet

• 10-10 am Panel Discussion

10.40 am Coffee and biscuits.

11.00 am ‘A Force for Good?’ - Spinning and de-spinning

• 11-00 am John Momoh

• 11-15 am Jonathan Hill

• 11-30 am Tom Bower

• 11-45 am Questions

12 noon Lunch in Hall (sit in groups as indicated).

12.35 pm Finish lunch; to David Rae Smith Building in groups.

1.35 pm Return to Theatre

Investigative Film Making – Paul Watson.

2.20 pm Debate – Ian Yorston.

3.25 pm Tea and depart.

Briefing

People

1. Paparazzi
2. Max Clifford
3. Government PR
4. Door-Stopped MP
5. Celebrity
6. Gold-Digger
7. Police
8. Distraught Parent

BBC News Editors...

... blog here. And it's excellent.

Debate Dinner at St Helen's

We're on Twitter

We're on Twitter as @RadleyMedia

Journalism, Media and the Like

Journalism on Wikipedia

Stories

1. Crime, Punishment & Social Breakdown
2. Arts, Entertainment & Sport
3. War & Terrorism
4. Business, Industry, Economics & Corporate Influence
5. Race, Religion & Immigration
6. Health & Science
7. Politics, Privacy & Trust
8. Education
9. Fashion & Gender
10. Technology

Media Institutions

1. Tabloid Newspapers; Sun, Mirror
2. Broadsheets; Times, Guardian
3. R4 Today, Newsnight, CNN
4. Wikipedia
5. Hello, OK Magazine
6. Economist
7. Private Eye
8. OfComm
9. New Scientist, National Geographic, Country Life
10. Blogs, Twitter, Huffington Post

Media - A Conference - Wed 18 Nov 2009

"I fear three newspapers more than a hundred thousand bayonets." - Napoleon

This will be our 14th annual VIth Form conference - held jointly with St Helen's. This year's topic will be "Media"

"In the real world, the right thing never happens in the right place and the right time. It is the job of journalists and historians to make it appear that it has." Mark Twain