Neil Baker

Sky following Ben Hammersley's lead

Following the excellent work that Ben Hammersely has been doing for the BBC, Sky has started to use Twitter, Flickr and RSS to cover news, as the Press Gazette reports.

Sky report Derek Tedder went to the environmental protest camp at Heathrow, and posted live updates on the Sky News website by writing short messages on his mobile phone. He also took photos with the phone's camera and uploaded those to Flickr.

There's no link in the Press Gazette piece to Teder's efforts, but you can view them here.

Unfortunately, the results are pretty dull. "Apparently a large generator is being delivered," he reports at one point. Personally, I could have done without the as-it-happens report, and waited for the generator scoop to be confirmed. And you'd be pressed to find any of his photos - I couldn't.

Anyway, at least he's having a go.

Blogging - academic silence?

Just picked up a nice commission from The Open University to write an article for one of its magazines.

"Write anything you like about culture and society," said the editor. Well, it's nice to get a 1000-word space to fill on whatever I fancy, but then ohhhh, the tyranny of choice! What to cover?

Here's one thing I'm thinking about: why isn't the academic community getting more involved in the debate about how blogging will affect journalism?

Well, maybe there are academics out there talking themselves hoarse on the subject, but I haven't noticed.

I'll look into it.

Archbishop hits out at 'suspicious' media

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams hits out at modern media practice:

"There is a tension at the heart of the journalistic enterprise. Its justification is that it promises to deliver what other sources can't - information that is needed to equip the reader or viewer or listener for a more free and significant role as a human agent. But at the same time it is bound to a method and a rhetoric that treats its public as consumers and the information it purveys as a commodity."

Naka Nathaniel interview

Here's an interview with Naka Nathaniel from the New York Times. He produced the new media reportage that I mentioned below.

Multimedia editorial

The New York Times has been doing some interesting work in multimedia journalism. Is this the future of online editorial presentation? I wouldn't mind having a go!

Six questions about Iran

Darfur: Why we should care

Thanks to Neil McIntosh for the lead.