Media Snips
The latest Intermedia editorial reflects on my 'happy slapping' article in the previous edition, as an example of 'the abuse of self generated content in the mobile sphere' (see 'The New Content Agenda', Intermedia, Vol. 33, No. 5, December 2005). Much of the new issue reflects on 'Losing Control of Content: A blessing or a curse?'.
Answering 'curse' with conviction may well hinge on the outcome of several forthcoming murder trials. At the time of writing, the jury is out on the David Morley murder trial at the Old Bailey, whose savage beating was, allegedly, recorded using mobiles. Up until summer, the press speculated feverishly that it would all end in murder, but the 7/7 bombings prompted an abrupt change of tack. (The bombers were truly anti-social; the media begged us to send in our voyeuristic video clips. AP Television News is not alone in developing facilities to receive phone footage for broadcast.) The happy slap murders 'predicted' (pleaded for?) in tabloid rhetoric will be formally recognised in courtrooms any time soon. Correspondent Emily Todd writes to say 'Journalists should be persuading the Government to change the rules on computer games and media so that crime can be reduced instead of trying to deny the fact that these links exist.' Unfortunately too many journalists are taking this 'crime prevention' route already, with mixed results.
PS. The Chomsky controversy continues at the Guardian, with some correspondents wanting the paper's apology to Chomsky retracted and others saying it was not apologetic enough. Let's move on; one would hope that the laptop bombadiers who set Chomsky up in the first place and his anti-war supporters would have too little in common for this debate to be a fruitful use of their time (and ours).
Answering 'curse' with conviction may well hinge on the outcome of several forthcoming murder trials. At the time of writing, the jury is out on the David Morley murder trial at the Old Bailey, whose savage beating was, allegedly, recorded using mobiles. Up until summer, the press speculated feverishly that it would all end in murder, but the 7/7 bombings prompted an abrupt change of tack. (The bombers were truly anti-social; the media begged us to send in our voyeuristic video clips. AP Television News is not alone in developing facilities to receive phone footage for broadcast.) The happy slap murders 'predicted' (pleaded for?) in tabloid rhetoric will be formally recognised in courtrooms any time soon. Correspondent Emily Todd writes to say 'Journalists should be persuading the Government to change the rules on computer games and media so that crime can be reduced instead of trying to deny the fact that these links exist.' Unfortunately too many journalists are taking this 'crime prevention' route already, with mixed results.
PS. The Chomsky controversy continues at the Guardian, with some correspondents wanting the paper's apology to Chomsky retracted and others saying it was not apologetic enough. Let's move on; one would hope that the laptop bombadiers who set Chomsky up in the first place and his anti-war supporters would have too little in common for this debate to be a fruitful use of their time (and ours).
posted by Graham | 9:06 pm
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