Words Dept. » bbc

Bookmarks from 13 May to 14 May

David Quinn — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:17:33 +0000

A selection of my latest bookmarks. You could visit my Tumblelog for more stuff I’ve seen on the web.

Steve Bell: “Lash me with wisteria” – Absurdity of the MPs’ expenses row successfully nailed by Guardian cartoonist.
Blog This, Grandma – I really love this phrase.
Tim Luckhurst: The BBC pays too much for too little – What does Carrie Gracie actually do for her £92k? Luckhurst: “Output editors on live programmes must assess every item for regulatory and legal pitfalls. Then they must compile a running order while looking out constantly for breaking stories. They are paid a lot less than presenters who may arrive just in time to read the running order, check their scripts and take up position in front of the cameras.”

David Quinn — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:24:32 +0000

A selection of my latest bookmarks. You could visit my Tumblelog for more stuff I’ve seen on the web.

Nielsen Wire: Twitter Quitters Post Roadblock to Long-Term Growth – "Twitter has enjoyed a nice ride over the last few months, but it will not be able to sustain its meteoric rise without establishing a higher level of user loyalty. Frankly, if Oprah can’t accomplish that, I’m not sure who can."
Journalism.co.uk: RBI to make 50 redundancies in UK
Roy Greenslade: Express editor makes 'mistakes' at Commons committee – Greenslade launches methodical and entertaining rant against Peter Hill
Silly Surgical Masks – Fun Face Masks to Fend Off Swine Flu Symptoms – Great fun for all the family, even when a medieval death plague strikes. "Not only will you be protecting yourself by wearing one of these funny face masks, you will also undoubtedly be putting a smile on someone’s face during this frightening outbreak of swine flu symptoms."
BBC Press Office: The Thick Of It back for a new series on BBC Two

David Quinn — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:15:52 +0000

A selection of my latest bookmarks. You could visit my Tumblelog for more stuff I’ve seen on the web.

Video: Hilaire Bollock – BBC regional presenter makes testicle goof.
Media Guardian: MEN Media and NUJ settle dispute – Strike ballot called off. Less redundancies than originally planned but local offices will still shut.
Radio 4 Today: 13/04/2009 (iPlayer expires 20 April, 9am) Last 10 minutes, Paul Bradshaw and Will Hutton on the future of the regional/local press. Bradshaw: "There's an expectation that 'the news will find me'… Businesses focus on monetising content and that's not actually what most newspapers have done in the past. What they've really been doing is monetising audiences. In print the best way to do that was to sell advertising against it. Now online, advertising is much cheaper, Google is a massive force… you need to think more creatively about how you monetise that audience that you have."

David Quinn — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:49:05 +0000

A selection of my latest bookmarks. You could visit my Tumblelog for more stuff I’ve seen on the web.

Journalism.co.uk: The social effects of disappearing regional newspapers "That loss is something people won't necessarily be fighting for because they don't know they're losing it. We as journalists – that's our job – it's for us to ensure that we try and fight to save it." – Roy Greenslade
Journalism.co.uk: BBC refused Guardian G20 protest vid – too much of a London story?
paidContent: Video Nasties Gallery: 15 Years Of Anti-Piracy Warnings (Video)
Jon Slattery: NUJ ideas for future of local media to 'fill the news gap' left by cuts and closures Ideas and proposals discussed by the NUJ Local Media Commission, which met last week to discuss the future and new business models at a time of job cuts and closures across the regional media.
I was bashed with a dildo by man in leather mask… and he killed my dog.
Swearing in the Guardian, 1998 – 2008 – Useful graph. The word "fuck" and "bastard" saw a big rise in 2002, for some reason. Use of the word "shit" has recently shot up.

David Quinn — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:15:38 +0000

A selection of my latest bookmarks. You could visit my Tumblelog for more stuff I’ve seen on the web.

Nik Hewitt: Can local newspapers still win at digital? – “Digital is where we should be driving traffic, where we can provide the excellent journalistic content we have in abundance to a targeted online audience.”
Malcolm Coles: Do blogs make reporting restrictions pointless? – Bloggers couldn’t find out about the Alfie Patten reporting restrictions, even if they wanted to
CounterValue: The BBC won’t save local papers – nobody can “The local press’s problems are of its own making. They will not be solved by Andy Burnham, the BBC or anybody else. Some centres of publishing will survive but we should brace ourselves for a mining-style industrial death.”
Robin Brown: What would my Twitter page look like if I were a social media evangelist? Successfully nails the key Twitter habits of the “social media evangelist”. “Website/ebook logo and contact information partially obscured by the bit where updates go. All writing slightly bitmapped.” Etc.
Newspapers last bastion against political corruption says David Simon, creator of The Wire – “If you don’t have a product that you’re charging for, you don’t have a product. If you think that free is going to produce something that’s as much of a cost centre as good journalism – because it costs money to do good journalism – you’re out of your mind.”

David Quinn — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:17:36 +0000

A selection of my latest bookmarks.

BBC News (Video): Local newspapers in decline – Report by Nick Higham about what happens when local papers close.
How to get a football legend to insult a singer – Extremely funny post from the "occasional drummer for Dakota Suite". Well worth reading, especially if you're a Liverpool fan.
Video: Smithy out of Gavin & Stacey meeting England players

David Quinn — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:26:55 +0000

A selection of my latest bookmarks.

Creature Features – The site that likes to ask: What if Virginia Woolf was a wolf? And then shows you.
BBC News: Runaway horse in French capital – Something weirdly beautiful about this video.
More Adam Tinworth: NUJ: “effing blogs” – Analytics jiggery-pokery reveals NUJ anti-blog prejudice

David Quinn — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:57:31 +0000

A selection of my latest bookmarks.

Journalism.co.uk: BBC Trustees’ expenses revealed online – Loving the phrase "opinion formers"
Why Robbie Keane is like a Virgin Train – Actually, Keane is probably cheaper than the train fare.
Slight technical hitch (video) Messed up advert spotted by Robert Popper