Go and find something out

Geneva Overholser at the Online Journalism Review wonders whether the traditional business model for journalism - i.e publishing companies run for profit - has distorted the social responsibilities of journalists. She quotes former investment banker Adlai Wertman, who claims that profit-seeking companies "quickly go from no social mission to no social responsibility" - resulting in a distorted notion of "what the public wants" when it comes to journalism, and a terribly inadequate news diet for a self-governing people.

We talked about this piece today in conference. I just checked with my source at the production company to see when the programme was being transmitted and found out that it won't be, as there was no footage.

The BBC's obsession with LIVE reporting plumbed an amusing new nadir of absurdity last night. Scotland Correspondent Lorna Gordon travelled from her base at Pacific Quay in Glasgow to the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders to cue in a report about Norwegian salmon rivers that are infected with bacteria. The connection to Scotland? Well Scottish rivers have salmon too, silly head.

With occasional exceptions, British journalism is not at its best when reporting science. Usually we ignore it. When we pay attention we have a tradition of laziness and misunderstanding that too often leads to entirely deliberate hyperbole

The work of photojournalist Robert Capa will doubtless crop up in several modules during the course of the undergraduate degree, so here's a little taster courtesy of the BBC News web site. It's an audio slideshow featuring an exhibition of Capa's work that is opening at the Barbican. Worth a visit just for his extraordinary pictures of the D-Day Landings.