The revolution will be streamed
The random occassional musings of Donnacha DeLong – anarchist, NUJ activist, freelance journalist, social media expert and online communications consultant
So, after a great NUJ meeting with a brilliantly ethnic diverse turn-out, I turn on the TV and the BBC is showing “Last Whites of the East End“. Despite being fully aware it would annoy me, I watched it. I’ve been trying to think of something to blog about, so here’s another blog about history.
According to the programme, “white British” people are leaving the East London and it’s the end of the “good old East End”. This needs serious unpicking.
The Labour Party got a lot of mileage from David Cameron’s refusal to give a straight answer in Parliament on Wednesday. Watching minister after minister ask him whether he had discussed the BSkyB during any of his meetings with representatives of News International, I was struck by the unasked question.
Continue reading “Unasked questions about Murdoch’s influence”
Beyond the banks and the retailers, there are two very live and interconnected issues in the UK at the moment where people are clashing with the damaging effects of corporatism.
The first is in the media. Corporatism came late to the media in the UK, the media was a tool of corporations, so, for a long time, it was fairly protected. At least until the ’80s, most UK newspapers generally had a proprietor, broadcasting was divided between the public-funded sector (the BBC) and an atomised private sector (independent television used to be owned regionally and feed into a central broadcasting channel – ITV).
Continue reading “The UK media in crisis (Corporatism in crisis)”
In between bouts of meaningless comedy (I do have a hangover today after attending the London launch of Firefox 3 last night), I decided to be serious for a bit and watch Question Time. It was definitely an interesting show – it says a lot about the ridiculous state of British politics that the guest speaking most sense was a former Apprentice contestant (Saira Khan). Oh, and their young competition winner – sheesh! A UKIP supporter, do they really still exist?
Continue reading “Journalists, job losses and Question Time”
The revolution will be streamed 