currybetdotnet Media archive

Can you trust going to a 'Can you trust the media?' event for a good debate?
I've been lucky enough that whilst I've been in London for a month working, there have been a couple of interesting events that I have been able to go to. Last week it was Chinwag Live, and this week it was the launch of Adrian Monck's book "Can you trust the media?". It is some testament to the openness of media professionals in the UK that you could just walk into a college and go to a debate featuring big...

Read the full post - Published May 2, 2008 in Media, Newspapers, Radio, Television

Reviewing the Instablogs 'citizen journalism' platform
A couple of week ago I was contacted by the team at Instablogs, asking whether I would be interested in having a look at their site. I normally shy away from this kind of promotion, but I was rather intrigued by the premise of the service, so I did have a look, and had a bit of email to-and-fro with the PR manager. In one sense, Instablogs is just another simple blogging platform. However, it combines the regular concept of...

Read the full post - Published April 4, 2008 in Blogging, Media, Product review, Web

The online fall-out of the Daily Express apology to Madeleine McCann's family
There is only one story about the media in today's media, and that is the story of the Daily Express making a front page apology to the family of missing Madeleine McCann. There is plenty of fall-out from the apology on the web as well, where the story was the lead item this morning, with the additional admission: "Please note that, for legal reasons, we have disabled reader comments on this article". The effects are felt strongest if you try...

Read the full post - Published March 19, 2008 in Daily Express, Google, Media, Newspapers, Search, Web

Woman's Own gets a print 'blog'
You'll do almost anything to keep yourself amused in an airport whilst waiting for a flight. On Monday in Heathrow's godforsaken Terminal 2, that included flicking through a copy of "Woman's Own". Well, a man has to get his fill of celebrity gossip, female health problems and lead interviewee Piers Morgan. At the back of the mag was the "Woman's Own" 'interactive' section, called 'Chat Room - Your life, your opinions, your page'. I was more interested in this than...

Read the full post - Published March 19, 2008 in Blogging, Media, Voting, Web

Sky News message board users get 'zapped'
It seems that Sky News have been having a torrid time on their message boards this week, to the extent that Simon Bucks yesterday posted an apology and explanation on their Editors Blog. A technical glitch and some unsporting behaviour have practically decimated the boards, which are dominated with discussions of the mysterious 'zapping' phenomena. "OK, first the apology. We have had a technical problem with the discussion boards which allows perverse individuals to block other people's identities. It's an...

Read the full post - Published February 20, 2008 in Media

24/7 TV news websites: Part 16 - "Most Popular"
One of the user interaction elements I've been fascinated with over the years has been in the ways that people illustrate the activity that is taking place on their site. A visit to a website is often undertaken alone, in the sterile environment of using a computer. Visiting a site that lets you know that other people read this, or that people emailed this to a friend, or that popular searches are x, y and z, gives a site a...

Read the full post - Published January 31, 2008 in Media, Television, Web

24/7 TV news websites: Part 15 - Lateral and related navigation II
As part of my look at the websites of 8 24/7 TV news channels, I've been reviewing the types of related and lateral navigation they use. Yesterday I looked at Al Jazeera, the BBC, CNN and Euronews. Today it is the turn of the other 4 sites in my survey - France 24, ITN, Russia Today and Sky News. I haven't done an exhaustive survey of all the variations and permutations available on each site. Instead, I took a screengrab...

Read the full post - Published January 30, 2008 in Media, Television, Web

24/7 TV news websites: Part 14 - Lateral and related navigation I
In the previous post in my ever-lengthier look at the websites of 24/7 TV news channels, I examined some of the types of global navigation that the sites had in common. Today I wanted to start looking at the ways that users are encouraged to move between stories. In general the dominant types of page on a news site are the 'story page', and the 'index page' which carries links through to various 'story pages', usually arranged into a hierarchy...

Read the full post - Published January 29, 2008 in Media, Television, Web, Widgets

24/7 TV news websites: Part 13 - Global navigation and classification
I've been doing a series of articles looking at the websites of some of Europe's leading 24/7 English language TV news channels. This week I wanted to concentrate on some of the ways that the sites handle navigation issues. For a start we should note that all of the sites use nearly exactly the same type of global navigation structures. Links to stories are grouped into clusters by either the geographical locations of stories (e.g. UK, Middle East), or by...

Read the full post - Published January 28, 2008 in Media, Television, Web

Some very British reporting of the Chania court case
For much of this week, my adopted hometown of Chania has been the focus of some of the British press pack. They've been here following the trial of John Hogan for the death of his son last year in Ierapetra. Some of the coverage has been ripe with cultural ignorance. Germaine Greer, for example, writes a textbook feminist interpretation of the trial - well, I suppose that is her job - that fails to take into account any local Greek...

Read the full post - Published January 26, 2008 in Greece, Media, Newspapers, The Guardian

24/7 TV news websites: Part 1 - Introduction

Published January 8, 2008 in Articles, Media, Television, Web

Voting for your American Idol in Greece

Published December 10, 2007 in Greece, Media, Music, Voting

Finding, sharing, and playing with that Tony Palmer BBC rejection letter

Published December 10, 2007 in BBC, Media, Music, Television

Sky News give up on the hunt for Madeleine McCann

Published December 6, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Media, The Sun

The Daily Express Inheritance Tax 'Crusade' re-writes British politics. And massages the numbers in the process.

Published October 10, 2007 in Daily Express, Media, Newspapers, Politics

Diana remembered on the BBC - nine years on from the 'One Year On' special

Published August 27, 2007 in BBC, Media, Web

Is Britain's brightest A-Level student a boy or an anonymous photogenic teenage girl?

Published August 16, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mirror, Media

Tintin abuses the animals in the Congo as much as Hergé abuses the Africans

Published July 15, 2007 in Media

Off with their heads!

Published July 15, 2007 in Media

National Television Awards vote seems wide open to multiple vote fraud

Published July 12, 2007 in Doctor Who, Media, Television, Usability, Voting, Web

What tickled me in the Daily Mail this week

Published July 6, 2007 in Daily Mail, Media, Newspapers

Times Online WBLG oddity

Published June 27, 2007 in Blogging, Media, Newspapers, The Times

The Telegraph's scatter-gun approach to related RSS feeds

Published June 26, 2007 in Daily Telegraph, Media, Newspapers, RSS

Newscounter blog-jacked

Published June 18, 2007 in Blogging, Media, Web

Extra URLs for the Guardian Gamesblog in Bloglines

Published June 14, 2007 in Bloglines, Media, Newspapers, RSS, The Guardian

Free the BBC from the same old tired DRM debate

Published June 13, 2007 in BBC, DRM, Linux, Media, Microsoft, Popular, Radio, Television, Web, iPlayer

RSS article in the Press Gazette this week

Published June 12, 2007 in Media, Newspapers, RSS, Web

The Independent's confusing use of timestamps

Published June 12, 2007 in Media, Newspapers, The Independent

Guess who is the the favourite search term on the Daily Express site?

Published June 11, 2007 in Daily Express, Media, Search

Under siege from the future maybe, but news isn't in a terminal decline yet

Published June 11, 2007 in Media, Newspapers, Web

Athens News apology for racism due in the shops today. Again.

Published June 8, 2007 in Greece, Media, Newspapers

Newspapers 2.0: OPML file for British newspaper RSS feeds

Published June 7, 2007 in Bloglines, Media, Newspapers, RSS, Web

Too much Big Brother nipple for the Daily Mail

Published June 2, 2007 in Daily Mail, Media, Newspapers, Television

Who benefits financially from the Madeleine McCann publicity juggernaut?

Published June 1, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Media, Newspapers, Search, The Times

Bloglines subscriptions numbers and OPML file for The Guardian's Comment Is Free site

Published June 1, 2007 in Bloglines, Media, Newspapers, RSS, The Guardian, Web

Official News blogs - Bloglines subscriber numbers and OPML file

Published May 31, 2007 in Media

Blogging journalists - Bloglines subscription numbers compared to newspaper blogs

Published May 30, 2007 in Blogging, Media

Daily Mail survey asseses how "Web 2.0" their readers are

Published May 29, 2007 in Daily Mail, Media, Newspapers, Web

Madeleine McCann and Alex Meschisvili - a culture contrast

Published May 28, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Greece, Media, Popular

Newspapers 2.0: RSS links on The Guardian's new homepage

Published May 25, 2007 in Media, Newspapers, The Guardian, Web

Newspapers 2.0: What metadata can tell you about a newspaper

Published May 24, 2007 in Media, Newspapers, Web

Newspapers 2.0: Bloglines newspaper blog RSS subscription figures

Published May 23, 2007 in Blogging, Media, Newspapers, Web

Newspapers 2.0: Bloglines newspaper RSS subscription figures

Published May 22, 2007 in Media, Newspapers, Web

Newspapers 2.0: Homepage RSS information locations

Published May 17, 2007 in Media, Newspapers, Web

Newspapers 2.0: RSS features on British newspaper sites

Published May 15, 2007 in Media, Newspapers, Web

Newspaper 2.0: Blog features on British newspaper sites

Published May 11, 2007 in Blogging, Media, Newspapers, Web

Newspapers 2.0: Social Bookmarking links on British newspaper sites

Published May 10, 2007 in Media, Newspapers, Web

Newspapers 2.0: How Web 2.0 are British newspaper web sites?

Published May 8, 2007 in Articles, Media, Newspapers, Popular, Web

Today's burning question: "What will the weather be like on the UK's Bank Holiday?"

Published May 7, 2007 in Daily Express, Daily Telegraph, Greece, Media, Newspapers

The Times RSS feeds are broken

Published May 4, 2007 in Media, Newspapers, The Times, Web