Blogging is changing and challenging journalism. It changed and challenged mine even though I was doing the blogging. It is a way to focus the collective intelligence of the audience onto the facts and arguments. Moblogging from a single device that can do words, pictures, audio and video gives us a taste of the future: when the device can produce broadcast quality video the only limitation will be bandwidth. Everybody will have their own TV station. I can hear that line from The Incredibles – “when everyone is special nobody will be”. But it does not necessarily follow, since blogging, like Google, is a way of voting for excellence and even, frighteningly, voting for truth.

Paul Mason rounds off his Newsnig8t blog with some fascinating thoughts on blogging, journalism and what’s happening to broadcasting.

So this week with Tony Blair’s full backing, Bluewater shopping centre in Kent banned shoppers from wearing hoodies and baseball caps because people find them frightening.

I wish as a society we would get to the heart of the matter, the underlying reasons behind this so called antisocial behaviour, rather than always going for soft targets, the superficial “quick-wins.”

If I was a “yoof” and heard that news I’d insist on wearing my hoody absolutely everywhere I went, just to make a point.

In fact I’ve a good mind to go out and buy a hoody so I can do exactly that.

Now, where on earth am I going to find a shop selling hoodies?

Aha! I know just the place…

Your expected outcome:
Liberal Democrat

Your actual outcome:

Lab -22
Con -53
	Lib Dem 88
UKIP -3
	Green 52

You should vote: Liberal Democrat

The LibDems take a strong stand against tax cuts and a strong one in favour of public services: they would make long-term residential care for the elderly free across the UK, and scrap university tuition fees. They are in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, but would relax laws on cannabis. They propose to change vehicle taxation to be based on usage rather than ownership.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Now that the election has been called, you can use this site to find out what your ex-MP did throughout the last parliament. We have performance stats, speeches, voting records and more…

theyworkforyou.com

That’s how much Tesco makes according to this article by James Robinson in today’s Observer newspaper. That’s not far off a quarter of a million pounds an hour, or £6million per day. Nice work if you can get it.

The statistic that really startled me though is that Tesco takes £1 of every £8 we spend as consumers in the UK. That really must make them alarmingly powerful.

I wonder what their view on localism is.

Knock Knock

Who’s there?

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson who?

You’re on the jury!

Joke heard on this morning’s Broadcasting House on BBC Radio 4

They’ve got a point