I’m rather pleased to be featured on All Media Scotland. I’ve written about citizen journalism and how ‘real’ journalists should work with them. (We need a new phrase here – the opposite to citizen journalism. Suggestions: professional journalists, trained journalists or sell-out journalists?)Anyhow, apart from a little showy off that’s not the point of this […]
Newsroom dramas – what they really need
Have you seen The Newsroom? It’s an American drama where a news anchor decides he’s going to make the transformation from Ron Burgundy to, well, someone brimming with integrity and with a fixation on The Truth. But the truth is a notoriously flexible thing, so clearly he’s on a hiding to nothing. The fact that the anchor […]
Newspapers: what are you seen to read and does it matter?
I’m writing this fast to get it done before the Panther of News gets home from the Coalface of Truth and requires my attention. Today, in hopeful sunshine, we visited Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens. The world had come out of their winter burrows and was enjoying the whiff of a new season. People were loafing about reading […]
Brand journalism: how to write interesting copy for your business
Sometimes it’s called advertorial, sometimes it’s known as blurb, you might find it on websites or blogs and occasionally it appears on fliers. It pops up on annual reports, brochures and in press releases. I’m talking about business stories – the good news stuff that you want to use to send people flocking to your […]
Colour blind: What’s a black man, mummy?
The other day, after overhearing a news report, my older kids, nine and twelve, asked who Stephen Lawrence was.So, I explained. I’d like to think I’m reasonably good at explaining news stories in simple terms – I worked on tabloid newspapers for a few years after all. But my nine year old started to look […]