Dissertation blues February 4, 2010
Posted by springlamb in 1.1 comment so far
Woke up this morning
bad cold runnin round my head
Woke up this morning
bad cold runnin round my head
drove to work to see my students
might as well have stayed in bed
Easy Tiger December 12, 2009
Posted by springlamb in Good sports, Rants.Tags: adultery, golf, hypocrisy, media, Tiger Woods
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For a few days the media was rock solid up there on the moral highground: sleeping with somone who’s not your wife makes you a worthless piece of shit who deserves to be hounded to the ends of the earth. Stone the adulterer. But now Tiger Woods has fallen on his pork sword, big style. Can you hear a gathering whisper of ‘err, hang on a minute, what have we done to our meal ticket.’?
Now we’ll get the tactical retreat.
We’ll hear earnest media psycho babble like ‘so long as he’s learnt his lesson, this will make him a better, stronger human’, he’ll be a man the sinless (that’s us) should ‘be prepared to forgive, to welcome back’ – on our terms of course, with a solemn, patronising pat on the back. He’ll be ‘a tamed Tiger’ who should ‘be given a chance’. A chance to, to … I know, to resume pulling in huge audiences for big media and big advertising.
Gimme a sick bag. Stuff the media. Imagine it was your neighbour, your best mate. I hope Tiger walks away and doesn’t come back, he’s done everything in golf already and nobody can take it away from him. And it would serve all those prurient, hypocriticial tosspots right.
Anyway, can we have a bit of a crowd sourcing poll – if every man and woman in Britain who’d been unfaithful rang their boss on Monday to announce their indefinite break from work, how long do you reckon it would be before famine swept the land?
The question of Griffin October 24, 2009
Posted by springlamb in Journalism, Politics.Tags: BBC, griffin, Mail, questiontime
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Nick Griffin has had his moment and I’m afraid he didn’t blow it, whatever the “mainstream” right-wingers say. Worse, the BNP man was perhaps eased off the Question Time hook by the very people who thought their attack would leave him swinging there. (more…)
Murdoch et al just can’t let go October 13, 2009
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I found this story and was kind of appalled and amused at the exact same time.
Michael Wesch October 12, 2009
Posted by springlamb in Blogging, Teaching MM4J.add a comment
If you haven’t seen this yet, make sure you take time to.
It’s fun and seriously fascinating, partly because Michael Wesch seems to be a genius at communicating ideas using social networking tools.
One way this lecture is useful to us is because it shows society’s developing confidence in its use of social media to express itself. It also makes us think about what is attractive about social media, its perhaps (once) surprisingly viral nature.
Thus it triggers ideas about opportunities for creating, distributing and interacting with social media content in very effective ways. Or in other words, getting messages across, perhaps millions of times over. That surely applies to journalism equally as much as any dance video craze or Charlie biting his brother’s finger.
Dubbed “the explainer” by Wired magazine*, Wesch is a cultural anthropologist exploring the impact of new media on society and culture. After two years studying the impact of writing in Papua New Guinea (yes, now), he has turned his attention to the effects of social media and digital technology on global society. His videos on culture, technology, education, and information have been viewed by millions, translated in over 15 languages, and are frequently featured at international film festivals and major academic conferences worldwide. Wesch has won several major awards for his work, including a Wired Magazine Rave Award, the John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in Media Ecology, and he was recently named an Emerging Explorer by National Geographic. He has also won several teaching awards, including the 2008 CASE/Carnegie U.S. Professor of the Year for Doctoral and Research Universities.
*From here on in this bit of blurb is lifted from the New Media Consortium website.
Grouse October 6, 2009
Posted by springlamb in Food and Drink.Tags: game, grouse, pigeon, plucking machine, pot-roast, rabbit
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Last week the gamekeeper’s wife arrived on the doorstep and gave me two grouse still warm from the shoot.
Blogging is your conversation October 6, 2009
Posted by springlamb in Blogging, Journalism.Tags: blogging, stabe, students, trunk
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I’m exhorting my students to blog blog and blog some more. There is reluctance.They wonder if they have anything to say that is worth writing about. And whether they are good enough. Some see it as just another thing to have to do, like twittering. (more…)
Going down to Rio October 3, 2009
Posted by springlamb in Politics.add a comment
I’ve often wished I was blessed with the gift of oratory so I could grab hearts and minds with great speeches, carve up debates with mots justes and keep students awake for more than ten minutes in my lectures. My powers are fairly pedestrian, unlike Barack Obama. But I tell you what … (more…)
Hold the phone, your life’s going down the toilet September 30, 2009
Posted by springlamb in Rants.Tags: blackberry, phone
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Since I’ve had a Blackberry I’ve had periodic bouts of addiction – most notably after downloading a chess app. I was so reluctant to stop pondering my next killer move that a couple of times I came close to losing the thing down the toilet, and lately I’ve heard of two people I know who actually did lose their phones down the toilet. (more…)
Paella, easiest and best September 29, 2009
Posted by springlamb in Food and Drink.Tags: 606, cooking, Food and Drink, forsyth, paella, spanish, wine
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This works. The secret is to always have some chorizo hanging around.
