The media and journalism generally are the subject matter of a large number of blogs – we present only a small selection here but invite readers to let us know their own favourites which can add to the post.
A number of the most interesting and thoughtful blogs are by Fleet Street veterans. Our first port of call is still the Greenslade blog in the Guardian – which often has several well informed posts a day. We usually then turn to the active and up to date blog of Jon Slattery – formerly of the Press Gazette.
We have recently come across the “John Dale Journalist” site – he describes himself as your “one stop phone hacking reporter” and has some pithy comments about Paul Dacre’s evidence to the Leveson Inquiry (“Excuse me Paul, I’m not a thief“). There is also the “Nicholas Jones Archive and Blog” – by another highly experienced journalist. A recent post is entitled “Leveson Inquiry should pay heed to the police misjudgment over the Guardian”.
The “Fleet Street Blues” blog describes itself as providing the inside scoop on “journalism, jobs and the journalists making a splash” It has its own list of “UK’s best ten journalism blogs from 2010 which amongst those still active includes “Freelance Unbound“, “Wannabe Hacks“, Adam Westbrook and Ed Walker.
A number of journalistic bloggers contribute to the highly entertaining “Gentleman Ranters” website. This quotes a description of itself in the “Times” as “a brilliant compendium of reminiscences of the great days of Fleet Street“. There is a weekly diet of stories about old Fleet Street pubs, the journalists of yesterday and what they got up to in those innocent, pre-phone hacking days.
Speaking of Fleet Street, Peter Burden the author of “Fake Sheiks and Royal Trappings” – the definitive work about the modern “News of the World” has an intermittently active website with some interesting comments about that once great newspaper.
Serious analysis of general media issues can be found on the blog written by Martin Moore, the director of the Media Standards Trust. There is also a blog by George Brock of the City University. We have previously mentioned the fuller lists of Media Blogs and Media Organisation Media Blogs can be found on the Resources section of the Media Standards Trust website.
The #press reform blog is relatively new – its first post was in January 2011. It describes itself as having been born of a growing unease felt by three regular users of Twitter : @MagsNews, @mulberrybush, and @yorkierosie – concerned about the health of democracy and truth. It has good up to date lists of articles on Health, Phone Hacking and the PCC.
The DemocracyFail blog is a new blog about media ownership and the campaign for a media commission on ownership and competition – “standing up to the creeping power of the media empires and speaking up for fairness and freedom in the press and broadcasting“.
Finally, we mention the Regret the Error blog which reports on media corrections, retractions, apologies and clarifications. Although it is US based it also deals with corrections and apologies in the UK press. Its most recent post concerns a PCC ruling about “Daily Mail” corrections.
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