Rob Watson, an experienced community radio practitioner and advocate, reports on how community media can play a key role during the Coronavirus pandemic by providing "a different space for discussion, deliberation and creative expression that is a valuable alternative to the mainstream way of presenting information and engaging with audiences." by Dr Rob Watson According … [Read more...]
What will the coronavirus pandemic mean for the business of news?
At a time when we need trusted information and analysis more than ever, Covid-19 threatens the very fabric of our news environment. With an announcement today by JPIMedia that it is suspending 12 of its local print titles because of a collapse in advertising and huge problems with home delivery, and the recent decision by Newsquest to put a 'significant number' of its staff on … [Read more...]
Interventionist agendas and media absences
The media have still not learnt their mistakes from the Iraq War. The consequences could be disastrous argues guest blogger Sam Jacobsen ahead of the session on media coverage of war and terror at the Media Democracy Festival. It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we can have American oil companies really invest in and produce the oil … [Read more...]
Towards a non-profit social media: the digital public library project
A guest post from Breezy Brian Gregg of Canada's Digital Public Library Project There is a need for a nonprofit universal free digital streaming service funded by general taxes, which does not surveil people using the service nor expose them to advertising. This project is about promoting the idea of creating such a service. Your on-line service will be a … [Read more...]
Public interest solutions to data abuses
by Angela Phillips and Eleonora Mazzoli This is the first of our posts for 2020 in which Prof Angela Phillips and Eleonora Mazzoli reflect on some potential solutions - including constraints on micro targeting and the development of a public service search engine - to abuses of individual users' data. It was originally published on the Media@LSE blog and is reproduced with … [Read more...]
How the media helped Boris Johnson win the election
by Natalie Fenton, chair of the Media Reform Coalition The mediation of messages plays a key part in the outcome of most elections and the United Kingdom's December 12 general election was no exception. Incumbent Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party took the single strapline "Get Brexit Done" and repeated it endlessly. The slogan was plastered on … [Read more...]
Election campaign reveals a media system that’s not fit for purpose
MRC asked some leading advocates of media reform for their reaction to the result of the general election. Angela Phillips: The media and the polls Outrage about the bias of the media has been a constant over many years of elections but the past four years allow us to make a fairly direct comparison between events. The main thing that has changed is not the … [Read more...]