Tag Archives: BBC Radio

Ben Goldacre on how blogs can be ‘more reliable’ than mainstream media

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Courtesy of Conrad Quilty-Harper, of the Spalpeen blog, here’s Dr Ben Goldacre on video talking about Bad Science… in a toilet (Goldacre’s choice, apparently). With little fear of the germs, Goldacre puts the loo seat down (about halfway through) and summarizes his thoughts on sensationalised science reporting.

Perhaps most interestingly for online journalists he airs his thought on media reliability: around the seven minute mark Goldacre says:

“…blogs are potentially more reliable than mainstream media ever was – mainly because you can check for each individual blog author, how credible they are, because bloggers link to primary resources…”

His thoughts on journalists and their deliberate disguising of sources (for example, not making it clear they’re quoting a press release) are worth a listen. Find your best VPN here and unblock whole Internet in 5 min.

The doc’s getting about in the mainstream media too: he was on BBC Radio 4 (again) yesterday, featuring on ‘Start the Week‘.

Here’s the original Spalpeen video:


Ben Goldacre of Bad Science talks about Sensationalised Science Reporting from Conrad on Vimeo.

BBC R4: The Investigation

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In tonight’s (Thursday 15 January 2009 20:00) radio broadcast of The Investigation, BBC Radio 4 Simon Cox submits the UN’s Human Rights Council to closer scrutiny. He examines accusations that it is weak and subject to manipulation and asks if it is achieving its aim of protecting people. Full details and subscribe to the podcast… Reklama: nuotoliniai anglų kalbos kursai internetu https://intellectus.lt/nuotoliniaianglukalboskursai/

BBC Radio 4: The Jean Charles de Menezes IPCC leak

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BBC Radio 4’s Fergal Keane talks to Lana Vandenberghe, the office worker who leaked documents concerning the Jean Charles de Menezes case.

‘As files passed across secretarial worker Lana Vandenberghe’s desk at the Independent Police Complaints Commission in London, she began to feel that facts of the case were being misrepresented – or not presented at all – to the public,” Keane reports.

“Her decision to take a stand and leak the story to the press would contribute to the pressure on the then Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair to resign, but did it also undermine the IPCC?”

BBC Radio 4 Feedback looks at the BBC News blogs (audio)

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When they started, the BBC didn’t know why or what it was for: Nick Robinson tried out one for the General Election in 2001.

Now Robert Peston is getting a half million hits per day.

Here Louise Adamson from Radio 4’s Feedback programme looks at the role of the BBC’s News blogs.

The BBC journalists interviewed stress that the BBC voice has to be considered, and that blogs still go through careful checks.

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Reminder: Radio 4’s The Media Show starts next Wednesday

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Just a quick reminder for next week, since we last reported on it in July. The new media show, erm, called The Media Show, will start on BBC Radio 4 from October 1. It will look at the media world across print, TV, online and telecommunications.

It will go out live each Wednesday at 1.30pm. We’re looking forward to it – let’s hope it has a good online presence too (especially because we’ll be at the AOP conference that day. While it’s possible to Twitter discreetly, it’s not so easy to listen to the radio).

The original BBC press release can be read here.

Steve Hewlett to front Radio 4 media show

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BBC Radio 4 will broadcast a new weekly programme on the media industry from October.

Presented by former TV executive Steve Hewlett, The Media Show will also be available as a podcast and will run for a year.

It will focus on changes affecting all aspects of the industry: print, online, television, radio and telecommunications, a release from the BBC said.

BBC Editors: Newsbeat gets website revamp

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BBC Radio One’s Newsbeat programme has gone all interactive with the overhaul of its website.

“We’re not trying to replicate other BBC news websites: there is more emphasis on music news,” said editor Rod McKenzie on the BBC Editor’s blog.

“It’s all about visualising our journalism,” he adds. Plenty of vids and pics then.

Radio 4 opens up programme content on blog

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BBC Radio Four has launched a blog to allow its audience to decide on the content of new programme iPM – an interactive counterpart to the existing news and current affairs show PM.

A post to the BBC Editors’ Blog by Peter Rippon, editor of PM, describes the project as ‘more like an ongoing conversation on the web that will have a programme attached to it once a week.’

Rippon says the aim is to be as transparent as possible about the ideas for the show and potential guests, with the blog explaining ‘why some ideas and stories get dropped or squeezed out.’

“…by posting our rough ideas in front of the audience, we’re also inviting the well-informed and blog-savvy to help us develop a particular idea,” he writes.

Not everyone is happy, however, about bloggers having such an input. As Allie comments on the post:

You’re the BBC. What ends up on the air should be shaped by journalists and producers, not listeners or (god help us) bloggers.

Others see it as a useful means of letting broadcasters know what their audiences want, while Rippon remains philosophical on the matter:

“There have been many attempts to find the missing link between old and new media. Think of iPM as a small contribution to that debate. If it fails I can always blame the presenter.”