Archive for October, 2003

Outrageous bonfire antics in Sussex

Wednesday, October 29th, 2003

The BBC report a disgusting incident in Sussex, England, where Firle Bonfire Society recently ran their annual bonfire celebration. The 'highlight' consisted of effigies of Travellers, with a caravan being wheeled through the streets of the town before being burned.

Trouble for Columbian government?

Monday, October 27th, 2003

Seems the referendum in Columbia on structural reforms may not - in respect to at least some of the issues voted on - have received the 25% turnout required for validity. This, along with a left-wing victory for the mayoralty of Bogota, could be a serious blow for the government. ...

Zimbabwe’s ‘The Insider’ to go online

Monday, October 27th, 2003

Another Zimbabwean newspaper, The Insider, is moving online - this time because the costs of the printed version were too high to continue.

Media Reform conference – agenda and fringe conference

Sunday, October 26th, 2003

Seems the detailed agenda for the Media Reform / Free Press conference is out. It's not on the website yet (I got it via the Reclaim the Media list) so I include it below. [Update 29/10/03: it is now on the site (pdf)] It promises to be a fascinating experience. ...

AoIR recap – blogging, dissent, and more

Saturday, October 25th, 2003

I spent the end of last week in Toronto, at the AoIR (Association of Internet Researchers) conference (by the way, the conference has a public blog). Good fun. I got to meet Clancy Ratliff of Culture Cat, and hear a number of interesting sessions. Clancy's spoke about Creative Commons Licences, presenting ...

More newspaper trouble in Zimbabwe

Saturday, October 25th, 2003

I reported earlier this month that, in the face of newspaper closures in Zimbabwe, the Daily News was launching an online edition. Now it seems the Daily News is being closed down again by authorities.

LPFM colour piece

Saturday, October 25th, 2003

Alternet has a feature piece on LPFM written by a Columbia Journalism Review editor.

Solomon on media reform

Saturday, October 25th, 2003

Norman Solomon has a piece in In These Times about "work to create a democratic media environment." He argues progressives should learn from the political right, listing a number of specific strategies. Well worth a look. He concludes on an optimistic note:Right now the cracks in the media walls are ...

Gillmor’s keynote on journalism

Saturday, October 25th, 2003

Dan Gillmor's keynote address at the Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism is available from Pew's J-Lab. It's an interesting piece, and he touches on most of the developments in weblogs and related fields over the past few years. J-Lab have also recently put up an interesting review of the use ...

Liberation Radio closed

Saturday, October 25th, 2003

Radio World has, as you would expect, a rather dispassionate report of the FCC raid that closed Liberation Radio, an unlicensed station in San Francisco, last week. A Chronicle article, which I saw by way of the Stubblefield list, painted a far more sympathetic picture. I'm unsure whether it's available ...