news

Almost half of people now avoid the news…

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After meeting up with a group of creatives in OKC, we spent the day driving around the city and capturing cool moments together.

The Reuters Institute has published its 2022 Digital News Report and it makes grim reading for news organisations. The Press Gazette has a good overview of the findings: Almost half (46%) of British people actively avoid reading the news as a result of fatigue at excessive Covid and political coverage and a drop in trust in journalism, a new report has found. While the BBC remained the most trusted and biggest news brand in the UK, the public service broadcaster …

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We have information – but are we informed?

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head, straw, ignorance

“Bits of information provide neither meaning nor orientation. They do not congeal into a narrative. They are purely additive. From a certain point onward, they no longer inform — they deform… I am not sure that the information society is a continuation of the Enlightenment. Maybe we need a new kind of enlightenment.” These are the contentions of Byung-Chul Han, the Korean-German philosopher, given in an interview with Noēma Magazine. There are 7.9 billion of us on the planet at …

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Journalism 101… Or How To Miss A Scoop…

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In the olden days, Football was just a sport. Now it is a business and entertainment. In the olden days, Politics was about governance. Now it is a business and entertainment. And the means of reporting Football and Politics are now very different. The designated man (always a man) from the Manchester Evening News sat on the United coach. The designated men from the Liverpool Echo were on the Everton bus and the Liverpool bus. It was Access…the link between …

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If I had to do lockdown again, I would cut back on media…

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In my younger years, I used to backpack around the world. One time I met an Australian girl who mentioned that she never consumed any news at all. This has always stuck in my mind. I was amazed and asked her was she not worried about missing out on anything important? Her insightful reply was that if it were important enough people would tell her. She gave the example of 9/11. The day after 9/11, someone said to her ‘Did …

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Gay conversion therapy—pray your gay away

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A conference was held yesterday (Tuesday 14 April) in London about ‘gay conversion therapy’. Its organisers included various ‘christian’ groups; it was reported in the Independent (here), Guardian (here) and Daily Telegraph (here). Parts of the meeting were closed to the press, to allow private discussion. One of the organisers’ concerns was that any opposition to their motives curtailed their ‘religious freedoms’. The recent history of homosexuality in the UK has seen remarkable changes, particularly in the last few decades. …

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Where do people get their news? BBC 1 & UTV out in front. But Sky News & Radio Ulster neck & neck!

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Perhaps pertinent to my earlier post on the media, Ofcom have recently released their News Consumption in the UK report. In Northern Ireland, the top news sources are BBC One (cited as being used by 65% of adults), UTV (56%), BBC website or app (28%), Sky News Channel (20%) and BBC Radio Ulster (20%). Lots more facts, figures and charts in the set of slides that accompany the report. Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast)Alan Meban. Tweets as @alaninbelfast. Blogs about …

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