Friday 8 July 2011

Some thoughts on the closure of the News of the World

So, with the announcement that the News of the World will cease publication on Sunday 10th July, do you think we've achieved something? We've tweeted and blogged, reblogged and “liked”, we've MADE OURSELVES HEARD!

Haven't we?

This is what's going to happen. The final edition of the newspaper will be published on Sunday. A handful of journalists will be arrested, a smaller handful will be prosecuted. Sometime next week, or maybe the week after that, The Sun will announce it is to publish a Sunday edition. That paper will employ 80-90% of the current NotW staff.

In effect, all that's been achieved is a minor inconvenience for News International: changing the name of a suddenly toxic product.

Let's be honest, you weren't surprised by the revelations that journalists were hacking phones, were you? But you weren't really bothered when you thought it was limited to b-list celebrities and politicians. The tipping point came with the news that the family of a murdered child had been hacked. And the families of other dead children. And the families of dead servicemen. And just about anybody else who might be connected to a news story.

Now let's be really honest, you don't believe for a second that these practices are limited to the News of the World, do you? If it was such a common practice in pursuit of a story, I think it's safe to assume that all the tabloids are doing it, we just don't have the evidence yet. But the fact that Channel 4 news can explain how easy it is, in a way that I understand, tells me that it's common practice.

By closing the News of the World, News International hopes to draw a line under the story, stop people looking any closer and save the BSkyB acquisition. As a media organisation, they understand newsprint is a dead medium. It hasn't stopped twitching yet, but that's only a matter of time. The sales of newspapers has been in steady decline since around 2004, with a massive reduction (around 25%) since 2007. An organisation like News International will continue to sell newspapers as long as people will buy them, but that's not the primary focus of their business.

Time for a look at the bigger picture. News International wants to buy the bits of BSkyB it doesn't own. The problem, on the face of it, is that the merger would give NI too much influence over the news agenda in Britain. So the deal on the table allows NI to purchase BSkyB as long as Sky News is sold to a third party, removing NI's editorial control. Everybody's happy!

Well no, actually, because that completely misses the point. Newspapers are dead, but TV as we know it is dying. Think about how you access television now. How much do you watch? Do you watch live? Or do you use on-line catch-up services like the i-player or 4od, or similar services from Virgin or Sky? Do you get your TV programmes via bit-torrent or usenet? Think about how much your TV habits have changed in the past 5 years. Think about how they might change in the next ten years.

The problem with the BSkyB deal is not about television. The problem with the BSkyB deal is about cross promotion of services. If the merger is allowed to go ahead, News International will have a much broader platform to promote their services.

DING DONG THE WICKED SWITCH IS DEAD!

You've seen that, right? Or something similar. One phone call and you can get your telephone and broadband from Sky. In the long run, the merger is about market share in the Internet business.

Up until recently, the internet was just another means of delivering information. But the advent of social networking has changed that. The internet has become a conversation, and anyone can take part. If you doubt that statement, think about your on-line activity. How much time do you spend on Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr or whatever? Over the past couple of days, Britain has been having a conversation with itself about the ethics of a newspaper and subsequently forced that newspaper to close. Earlier in the year, a number of Arab countries decided they weren't happy with their governments and took action, to varying degrees of success. That wouldn't have happened at all without the internet.

The internet has been part of our cultural landscape for about a decade. It continues to change and grow and influence our lives in ways we could never have imagined. And it will continue to change and grow in ways we cannot imagine. I have no idea what those changes will be, only that they'll happen.

Which leaves us with a bigger question. Given what we know about the activities of News International and its disregard for the law, how much influence do we want to give that organisation over how we access and use the internet? How much influence do we allow it on the development of the internet? Yes, we've brought down one of the seedier publications in Britain. Woop woop! But see the bigger picture. Do everything you can to ensure the BSkyB merger is never allowed to happen.

Friday 17 June 2011

Time

This is a test post.

I am writing it as 11.11am, on Friday 17th June.

Look at the bottom of the post to see what time blogger thinks I'm writing it.

Spooky.

Thursday 16 June 2011

Word Cxunt

So I'm doing this project where the word count of each episode is pretty important.  The strapline for the whole this is "One hundred words per chapter, One hundred chapters."

I discovered at the weekend that although Open Office tells me each chapter IS one hundred words, in Microsoft's Word it's 98, or 99.

Today, I discovered that if you open the same chapter in an old version of Open Office, the word count is less than 95.

What the fuck is going on with that?

I'm thinking of a different word now.

If you want to follow the project, there's a button over there on the right.

Monday 13 June 2011

The Multiverse Hates Me!

So I finally get my shit together.

Today was to be the day.  My big project was finally going too begin.  I'd whined and cursed and prevaricated as much as I possibly could, and even I was sick of listening to myself.

So I got up this morning, full of the joys, ready to just do it, walked into my office, turn the computer on and....

Nothing.

No beep, no whirr, no phlegmatic sputtering as the beast draws life unto itself.

Fucking thing's deader than any hope of electoral reform.

So instead of launching my big project, I'm spending the day wrangling with a five year old laptop trying to remember passwords n shit so that maybe, just maybe, I can launch big project tomorrow.

My message to the multiverse: Fuck you!

Saturday 4 June 2011

Space Cat

“Now then constable, look at the sky.”

“What am I looking for, sir?”

“Just keep looking, you'll see it soon.”

“HOLY SHIT! What the fuck is that?!”

“Language, constable.”

“Sorry sir, but what is that?”

“Space cat. Well, kitten to be more precise.”

“Space cat sir?”

“Yes, poor thing. It must be quite lost.”

“Lost, sir?”

“Yes, they don't usually come this far out.”

“This far out, sir?”

“Yes. They tend to stick to the central galaxies where the astral mice are densest.”

“But what can we do sir?”

“Not a lot we can do. This planet's defenses simply aren't advanced enough.”

“There must be something sir?”

“Well, you could try hope.”

“Hope sir?”

“Yes, hope. As in hope that it satisfies itself playing with the moon and doesn't want to play with the bigger ball.”

SPACE CAT – AN INSPECTOR GRIFFIN MOMENT.

© Gavin White 2011

Tuesday 1 March 2011

THE FIX IS IN!

I'm supposed to be getting some f@#$ing work done. Instead I'm sat here seething at the smoke and mirrors that is political discourse in the 21st century.

What's got me so riled? On the face of it, Levenshulme Baths! Or more accurately, the saving of Levenshulme Baths from closure by Manchester City Council to save money under the (blah blah blah) coalition cuts.

Here's the timeline. A few weeks back, Manchester City Council announced it's budget for the coming year, including the 25% cuts it was going to have to make to stay in line with government spending. The headline announcements for this included a handful of libraries and two swimming pools, one of which was the baths in Levenshulme. The measures announced seemed so draconian they made national news bulletins at the time.

I've lived in Levenshulme for six years now, and the baths have always been a political hot potato. There's always been rumours circulating that the (Labour controlled) city council wants to shut them down, and always an official statement that the council has no plans for the baths at the present time.

Following the announcement, two campaigns to save the baths lumber into action, one led by Lib Dem concillors the other by their Labour counterparts (Levenshulme teeters between Lib Dem and Labour). Local news bulletins reported live from the demonstration outside the baths. A soundbite from random middle class mum with kids even made it to Channel Four news.

Anyhow, yesterday the council met to discuss the plans. Around lunchtime word started to spread via twitter that the baths had once more been saved. Not long after, a LibDem sympathetic website Levenshulme Life (http://www.levenshulmelife.com/content/levenshulme-baths-stay-open) announced the same. By 2pm, a full colour leaflet announcing Labour had saved the baths was pushed through my door (titled “Labour Listens, Levenshulme Baths Special”). A similar leaflet from the LibDems arrived this morning.

How long do you think it takes to get say ten thousand full colour leaflets printed. I just rang a local printing firm who said “possibly by friday”. Four days, then. Assume I'm a regular customer and I reckon we can half that time. Two days.

Which means our Labour councillors knew last week the baths would be saved.

Which suggests, to a cynical old f@#$ like me, that they were never in danger. But it got some great headlines, didn't it?

Here's part of what's got me so riled: the local labour councillors are taking credit for saving a local amenity from their own labour controlled council. The local LibDem councillors are taking credit for saving a local amenity from the cuts introduced by their own party.

But here's what really bugs me. January 2011, fuel costs are going up, VAT goes up, unemployment goes up, the economy shrinks. The government announces plans to sell the forests...