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BBC Prepares For iPods
20 July, 2006
The BBC has announced plans to prepare broadcast content for distribution on mobile phones, PCs and iPods. "We need a BBC ready for digital, for 360-degree multi-platform content creation," said director general Mark Thompson.
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An Eye For Broadband TV
26 June, 2006
Blogs are easy to set up. Podcasts? A little trickier, but not beyond the reach of many users. What about your own broadcast channel, though, using broadband to send video and audio to viewers around the globe? It's easier than you'd think - and is set to become the next user-generated content phenomenon.
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Paperboy
08 June, 2006
Here's a question from a smart youngster. Mathias Döpfner, chairman and CEO of German newspaper publishing giant Axel Springer told of how one of his editors was explaining deadlines to a group of schoolchildren. He described how improving technology allows editors to hold deadlines open at the previously unheard of late hour of 11.00 PM, have the paper ready for distribution at 4.00 AM and on the newsstands for 6.00 AM.
“You say there are no changes to the newspaper after 11 p.m.” a boy asked. “Right” said the editor. “So why don’t you just email me the newspaper at 11 p.m?”
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Need Some Space?
25 April, 2006
Easy-to-build sites for individuals, which include blogs, photos, music files and comments from friends and community (MySpace is the most famous example) are one of the big growth stories on the internet. How can newspapers incorporate the trend for "personal space" websites into their online offering?
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Blogs? What Blogs?
20 April, 2006
Blogging's profile has been raised by all those profiles of bloggers - but still, only ten percent of British internet users read blogs, never mind write one themselves.
That's the finding of another survey of British media habits. Three months ago, 45 percent of British internet users had never heard of blogs; today, that figure is down to 30 percent. However, as the Guardian reports, only ten percent of those users visit a blog once a month or more - and only two percent of UK internet users publish one.
A spokesman for the survey group said that coverage of blogs and bloggers was "disproportionate", and added that there was a danger that blogs were over-hyped. He added, though, that weblog publishers may be more likely to be opinion formers, and as such "have a larger influence than their numbers would suggest."
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Support Act
03 April, 2006
Reporting from the Guardian's Changing Media Summit, Journalism.co.uk quotes veteran Channel Four anchor Jon Snow on how bloggers can force professionals to clean up their act:
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Tune Out, Log On
08 March, 2006
Britons now spend more time online that watching television, according to a survey carried out for Google.
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Parental Advisory?
27 February, 2006
Fake sites insulting schoolteachers. Swearing and sexy photos. Dodgy adults making overtures to teenage girls. Several real-life sexual assault cases: Teen and twentysomething community site MySpace is facing a media backlash.
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Lost In The Post?
21 February, 2006
More pouring of cold water on the blog bonfire. This time, it's in the Financial Times' weekend edition, and Trevor Butterworth is the master of ceremonies.
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You're The Editor
06 February, 2006
Here's your chance to play the editor, ordering a reporter out to cover the news that interests you. Or, at least to pick a story from three selected by the reporter's real bosses. Each Friday, CBS correspondent Steve Hartman will be lined up to cover three stories. Viewers can vote for the story that interests them most, and Hartman will be sent out to do his viewers' bidding.
The stories lined up this week are fairly light, lifestyle items: We'd quite like to see the one about the USA's smallest town: Population "one bizarre old lady who actually holds town meetings with herself."
Viewers can also recommend stories they'd like to see Hartman cover - "within reason, of course."
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Broadband TV In UK
19 October, 2005
UK broadcaster ITV is trialling a broadband television service in Hastings and Brighton.
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What's On Your Pod?
19 October, 2005
"You have to create new content for these new platforms. People behave differently when they're walking around with their iPod or a cellphone from when they're sitting on their couch with a clicker." - Gregg Spiridellis, of JibJab Media, in the International Herald Tribune.
UPDATE: 20 October - Well, that was quick. News reaches us that an "adult entertainment site" has already come up with porn videos designed for use on the week-old video iPod. Click more and scroll to the bottom of the article for details.
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The Content Challenge
13 October, 2005
Where does content from small providers fit into the digital dream home?
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Apple's Digital Life
13 October, 2005
Apple's latest batch of new products appears designed to bring the converged home media experience closer to reality.
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Yahoo Sounds Out Pods & Blogs
12 October, 2005
Yahoo's content revolution continues apace. The search engine - which increasingly looks like a media and lifestyle company - has just added podcasts to its news portfolio. Yahoo's podcast pages were launched in beta version alongside an equally innovative move on the company's hugely popular news search pages, where users now have commentary from weblogs posted alongside search results from traditional media.
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Blog Youth, Blog Nation
07 October, 2005
A survey in The Guardian has found that a third of Britons aged between 14 and 21 have created their own blog or website.
This report would suggest that if Technorati is right to guess that a new weblog is created every second, quite a few of them are being born in the UK.
The Guardian's leader column reflects on the challenges posed by what it calls "the Blogging Generation." It quotes outgoing Conservative Party leader Michael Howard, who in his valedictory speech described the young as "shaped by the internet and the iPod, by cheap flights and mobile phones" (he means this as a compliment, we think) and wonders what the future holds for "the most enabling revolution that has ever happened."
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Video Killed The Radio Star?
03 October, 2005
Podcasting has barely made it out of the stables but it looks set to be overtaken by video blogging.
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Best Blog Practice
23 September, 2005
Blogging can be a dangerous game in some countries. As press freedom organisation Reporters sans Frontières puts it, "Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest."
Because of this danger, RSF has produced a Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents with handy tips and technical advice on how to to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation. It also explains how to set up and make the most of a blog, to publicise it (getting it picked up efficiently by search-engines) and to establish its credibility through observing basic ethical and journalistic principles.
It's excellent for start-up bloggers in the west as well as those in more dangerous zones. You can download it for free here. Arabic, Persian, French and Chinese versions are also available.
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Hands Free Set
21 September, 2005
Pornography is one of the internet's big success stories, raking in an estimated 20 percent of the $10 billion spent on adult entertainment annually in the US alone. Up to now, however, the porn industry has been unable to make inroads into the lucrative mobile phone market.
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God Comes To Pods
30 August, 2005
From the BBC's Thought For The Day through to glitzy shows by evangelical preachers, religious broadcasting is not new. It has, however, shown a canny ability to adapt its message to emerging media, as a wave of "godcasts" designed to be downloaded and played on iPods demonstrates.
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The Wired Generation
28 July, 2005
Nearly ninety percent of US teenagers have internet access, making this generation of 12-17 year olds the most connected ever.
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Confessions Of A Digital Plumber
27 June, 2005
The digital revolution is on track to create thousands of new jobs - and dozens of new professions. Not far from today, you might find listings for a whole swathe of new professions in your yellow pages. One of those might be the digital plumber.
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