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Articles by George Brock
Why easier pathway to charity status could help boost UK local journalism income
Readers of Press Gazette do not need to be told that Britain’s local news media is in bad shape. Journalists argue about solutions, ranging from public subsidy to new business models to new editorial formulas and philosophies. Politicians worry regularly: committees in both the House of Commons and the Lords have recently looked at what’s happening and their advice has largely been ignored by government.
Coronavirus is killing quality journalism – here's one possible lifeline
Buzzfeed’s decision to shut down its coverage of Britain and Australia is a terrible reminder of the crushing financial pressures now bearing down on news media. When COVID-19 crept undetected across the world at the start of 2020, journalists were already grappling with three interconnected crises. Populist politicians on every continent were attacking journalists.
2020 CARES Act Overview
Apr 03, 2020 09:25AM ● By David Dykes By George Brock Brock Tax Settlements · Deadlines for filing 2019 tax returns (SCDOR and Federal – includes 1040, 1040-SR,-1041, 1120-C and 1120-H)-extended to July 15, 2020 without penalty and interest. · 2020 Estimated tax payment due April 15 deadline extended to July 15, 2020. · IRA contribution deadline (for 2019) extended to July 15, 2020.
The Naga Munchetty affair shows that the BBC is struggling with changing times and new challenges
Here’s an everyday story about BBC internal politics. BBC presenter Naga Munchetty is pressed by her Breakfast colleague Dan Walker for her views on an offensively racist statement by Donald Trump. She gives a relatively calm, guarded answer. A single viewer writes in and the complaint is, partially, upheld. The outrage, letters and petitions generated by this judgement force the BBC’s director-general Lord Tony Hall to intervene. He wisely reverses the decision.
Munchetty Affair Shows BBC Is Wrestling With Changing Times
Here’s an everyday story about BBC internal politics. BBC presenter Naga Munchetty is pressed by her Breakfast colleague Dan Walker for her views on an offensively racist statement by Donald Trump. She gives a relatively calm, guarded answer. A single viewer writes in and the complaint is, partially, upheld. The outrage, letters and petitions generated by this judgement force the BBC’s director-general Lord Tony Hall to intervene. He wisely reverses the decision.
BBC: Munchetty affair shows it is struggling with changing times and new challenges
Here’s an everyday story about BBC internal politics. BBC presenter Naga Munchetty is pressed by her Breakfast colleague Dan Walker for her views on an offensively racist statement by Donald Trump. She gives a relatively calm, guarded answer. A single viewer writes in and the complaint is, partially, upheld. The outrage, letters and petitions generated by this judgement force the BBC’s director-general Lord Tony Hall to intervene. He wisely reverses the decision.
Facebook’s aura has evaporated: time for Zuckerberg to take responsibility
Mark Zuckerberg’s careful, opaque evidence to two Congressional committees in Washington has wound up Facebook’s many critics. The senators and congressmen were superficial, too ignorant to ask penetrating questions. Zuckerberg evaded too many questions by claiming he did not know or that he would get back in touch with detailed answers. But a lot has changed. The Cambridge Analytica data scandal was the flashpoint, but Facebook’s difficulties had been building for some time.
It's time for Mark Zuckerberg to take responsibility for Facebook's influence
April 13 (UPI) -- Mark Zuckerberg's careful, opaque evidence to two congressional committees in Washington has wound up Facebook's many critics. The senators and congressmen were superficial, too ignorant to ask penetrating questions. Zuckerberg evaded too many questions by claiming he did not know or that he would get back in touch with detailed answers. But a lot has changed. The Cambridge Analytica data scandal was the flashpoint, but Facebook's difficulties had been building for some time.
How to Regulate Facebook And Online Giants in One Word: Transparency
Demands to regulate hi-tech companies like Google, Facebook and Apple are being heard at deafening pitch almost every day. This rush by the political herd on both sides of the Atlantic to make new laws (or to enforce the breakup of these corporations) is no better focused or thought-out than the extraordinary degree of latitude which the same political classes were prepared to allow the same online platforms only a couple of years ago.
How to regulate Facebook and the online giants in one word: transparency - George Brock
Demands to regulate hi-tech companies like Google, Facebook and Apple are being heard at deafening pitch almost every day. This rush by the political herd on both sides of the Atlantic to make new laws (or to enforce the breakup of these corporations) is no better focused or thought-out than the extraordinary degree of latitude which the same political classes were prepared to allow the same online platforms only a couple of years ago.
How to regulate Facebook and the online giants in one word: Transparency
Demands to regulate hi-tech companies like Google, Facebook and Apple are being heard at deafening pitch almost every day. This rush by the political herd on both sides of the Atlantic to make new laws (or to enforce the breakup of these corporations) is no better focused or thought-out than the extraordinary degree of latitude which the same political classes were prepared to allow the same online platforms only a couple of years ago.
How to regulate Facebook and the online giants in one word: transparency
Demands to regulate hi-tech companies like Google, Facebook and Apple are being heard at deafening pitch almost every day. This rush by the political herd on both sides of the Atlantic to make new laws (or to enforce the breakup of these corporations) is no better focused or thought-out than the extraordinary degree of latitude which the same political classes were prepared to allow the same online platforms only a couple of years ago.
Nine tips for Mark Zuckerberg if he's serious about Facebook, public good
Here’s a mystery about The people in who run the world’s largest social network (1.9 billion users at last count) have been trying to explain and defend what they do. In an essay of more than 5,000 words written in a style which reads as if it is the work of many hands, Facebook’s founder explains his wish to build a “global community”. The puzzle is this.
Nine tips for Mark Zuckerberg if he's serious about Facebook and the public good
Here’s a mystery about Facebook. The people in California who run the world’s largest social network (1.9 billion users at last count) have been trying to explain and defend what they do. In an essay of more than 5,000 words written in a style which reads as if it is the work of many hands, Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg explains his wish to build a “global community”. The puzzle is this. If I were marking this as a student essay I’d be grading “Building Global Community” as a B-minus.
How 'right to be forgotten' puts privacy and free speech on a collision course
The age of digital technology, in which we can search and retrieve more information than we could in any previous era, has triggered a debate over whether we have too much information. Is the cure to “unpublish” things we think are wrong or out of date? Ought we have a “right to be forgotten”?
The Right To Be Forgotten: Careless, Muddled And Risky
The ‘right to be forgotten’: a risk to free speech? The story of the ‘right to be forgotten’ is the story of well-established principles – free speech and privacy – coming up against new circumstances. The question is whether new technology requires us to alter the operation or the balance of those older principles and values?
Journalism isn’t dying - there’s even room for optimism about print
On Saturday, March 26, the Independent will publish its last edition in print. The Independent on Sunday sold for the last time on March 20. The distinctive El Pais of Madrid has announced that it will take “a step from paper to digital”. The Guardian with a huge online readership, shrinking print sales and sizeable losses plans to shed 250 jobs, of which 100 will be journalists.
Journalism isn't dying – there's even room for optimism about print
On Saturday, March 26 the Independent will publish its last edition in print. The Independent on Sunday sold for the last time on March 20. The distinctive El Pais of Madrid has announced that it will take “a step from paper to digital”. The Guardian with a huge online readership, shrinking print sales and sizeable losses plans to shed 250 jobs, of which 100 will be journalists.
Trinity Mirror's plan for 'news by numbers' ignores what people want from journalism
There are many ways to describe what has been happening to journalism since the start of the 21st century and they range from predictions of terminal decline to dizzy digital optimism. One way of describing the change is to note that journalism is ceasing to be an industrial activity. The de-industrialisation of journalism captures the decline of mass media – and newspapers in particular – in the digital age, the dismantling of the working culture which grew up with big city newsrooms.
An old media election, but at least we got a few good gags
The secret ballot gives voters the chance to pulp punditry and polls on a scale which we see only very rarely. As the scale of the Conservative victory became clear, thousands of tons of paper, millions of words and many hours of talking heads onscreen were trashed and forgotten as those speculations collided with facts. The media makes two rapid adjustments.
Facebook’s weird state of denial about news
By George Brock on May 3rd, 2015 Andy Mitchell, Facebook’s director of news and global media partnerships, arrived at the (superb) International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, in early April to speak about news on Facebook. Thirty percent of American adults get their news via Facebook (27 percent in the U.K.); 88 percent of millennials in the U.S. do so (71 percent in Italy). Each month, 1.4 billion people use Facebook.
Facebook’s Weird State of Denial About News
There will come a time when the giant American hi-tech companies which dominate social networking and internet search will be clear that they are something beyond being simple businesses. Size and influence means some responsibility and accountability. But I discovered over the past week that Facebook has yet even to acknowledge that this responsibility exists when it deals with news.
Facebook’s weird state of denial about news
There will come a time when the giant American hi-tech companies which dominate social networking and internet search will be clear that they are something beyond being simple businesses. Size and influence means some responsibility and accountability. But I discovered over the past week that Facebook has yet even to acknowledge that this responsibility exists when it deals with news.
In praise of the cartoonist: solitary, studious and searing
They think and work differently, cartoonists. Anyone who has spent any time in an editorial office will know that cartoonists dream and draw on their own, working to the rhythm of their thoughts – if they work in an office at all, that is. Many cartoonists work miles from the magazines and newspapers which they adorn; some are reclusive and solitary. Most journalists thrive on exchanging ideas and tips, operating in a team, nourishing a network.
Charlie Hebdo attack
We are all Charlie Hebdo – or are we? In his 1998 novel, The Elementary Particles, Michel Houellebecq argued that Charlie Hebdo played a pivotal role in the redefinition of social values in post-1968 France. For self-appointed troublemaker… In praise of the cartoonist: solitary, studious and searing They think and work differently, cartoonists.
Hacking trial verdict: Coulson guilty and Brooks cleared, but end of an era for the red tops
So, Andy Coulson has been found guilty of plotting to hack phones – but former colleague Rebekah Brooks walked free after the jury in the hacking trial cleared her of all criminal charges. The verdicts mark more than the end of the case which has unfolded at the Old Bailey for the past eight months. They also come at the end of an era in British popular journalism.
Why Journalists Should Cheer Up
To judge by the prevailing tone of public discussion, journalism in Europe and America has been suffering a prolonged nervous breakdown. Jobs are lost as newsrooms contract, print circulations shrink and online news startups fail because they can’t make enough to survive. The portrait of some newsrooms painted by the Leveson Inquiry was not pretty. Writing a book which examines these issues, I’ve come to think that most of this gloom is overdone and out of date.
Spike the gloom - journalism has a bright future
Whenever more than two journalists gather together to discuss the future of their business, the dialogue is usually depressing. This prevailing pessimism must change: we need a new conversation about what’s happening to news. What’s happening is better than many journalists think. On the surface, there is a lot to be gloomy about. Jobs in mainstream journalism continue to be lost as those media businesses shrink. There’s a fine and eloquent example in a blogpost by the excellent Christina Patterson.
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