2012-01-30
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2010-04-25
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John Naughton: Old media, new media and the UK election. The whole piece is worth a read (as, I suspect, is the Peter Preston article he quoted from, which I haven’t read in full).
It’s certainly an interesting counterpoint to the Economist’s piece, quoted here, which claims that the old media are dominant. Perhaps the problem is the millions of overlapping friends networks of discussion aren’t visible, but they surely take what used to be water-cooler discussions between five colleagues in an office and broaden them to a hundred, or even thousand, people - and more immediately, too.
Anyway, I’m sure there’ll still be argument about old vs new well after the result’s in.
2010-04-24
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Media and politics: The shock of the old in The Economist. The entire article is worth a read: it points out the ways the mass media still reach far more people, particularly older ones, who also vote more.
There were two other articles in the Britain section this week that caught my eye. One is on university students in Chester and elsewhere, and the other looks at how people’s opinions change when the costs of policies are stated. Both are worth a read, but the latter is perhaps the most universally relevant (and will be long after this election has come and gone).
2010-04-13
Free The Election Debates
This year’s UK general election sees the first televised debates between the leaders, bringing politics firmly up to date with the US. In 1960.
However, I think it’s worth asking about the step beyond that. Of the three debates, I can be pretty sure two of them - on ITV and BBC - will end up on their respective catch-up video services. However, I’d like all of them to be on all three broadcaster’s sites, and also on other video sites (the obvious choice being YouTube).
After all, these are really public service broadcasting. If the broadcasters don’t put the shows online, the public will, clip by clip (probably as part of a Cassetteboy remix). They should be preserved, not only as reference points during the campaign, but into the life of the government the victors will establish. There are also overseas voters to consider. How about it?
(Even if this plea falls on deaf ears, I’m pleased to note that Radio 4 has an extended The World Tonight covering each of the debates, if only because it’s pretty easy to get MP3s out of radio programmes.)
