blogging

Good morning everyone. Just a quick one -

I thought you might find this useful after conference this week - it's the best offer I could find. Also, they'd like students to blog for them - so look out for email about the student magazine this weekend, write something, then send it in to both me and The Independent.

Enjoy your weekend.

I have to admit I hadn't come across The Listening Post until now. It's a weekly media programme produced for AlJazeera English, and so discusses some of the international issues affecting journalists that don't often get much of an airing by the British press or broadcasters.

Reading Mr. Justice Eady's full judgment in the case of 'The author of a blog and Times Newspapers Ltd.' (a.k.a. The Night Jack case), has inspired in me an optimistic thought, viz. the ruling draws a potentially valuable distinction between professional reporters and bloggers. I suspect this was not Mr Justice Eady's top priority. In fact he writes that "Although the Claimant [Night Jack] here is not a journalist, the function he performs via his blog is closely analogous." However, by ruling that "blogging is essentially a public rather than a private activity" and that there is a "public interest in revealing that a particular police officer has been making these communications," his argument does tend to reinforce the status of the professional reporter. Why?

Without fanfare or comment I draw to your attention this piece by New Labour's favourite uber-Blairite, Hazel Blears. It is an edited version of a speech she will make to the Hansard Society. Ever wondered why journalists have such a long established tradition of resisting state regulation? Isn't Hazel marvellous?     

Interesting piece by Paul Boutin in Wired, the Web Magazine.  Apparently the future is multimedia.