At both school and university we were taught not to trust everything found on Wikipedia. Up until recently, I assumed this lack of trust represented a general consensus amongst the population. It was recently reported that after referring to the site, Lord Leveson incorrectly identified a 25-year old American graduate as a founder of The Independent in his recent. Embarrassing as this undoubtedly was for the peer, he is simply the most recent in a string of high profile individuals who have been publicly humiliated after taking information gleaned from the internet, as fact.  Social media has often taken the blame; ideas and remarks are exchanged, often much faster than can possibly be sensible so it can be difficult to distinguish between absolute truth and idle gossip. Read More »

BBC staff are being urged to stop airing the corporation’s problems on Twitter and other social media by senior managers. Acting director of news Fran Unsworth sent an internal email yesterday saying: “It would be helpful if some of our problems were not played out publicly across social media and in the pages of the national press.”

Unsworth said it was a tough time for everyone in the BBC “in particular for those of us in BBC News” and “for some individuals most of all”. Read More »

This is a week in newspapers to remember. Yesterday Guardian News & Media announced a new strategy that it is calling “digital-first”. It is the strongest admission we have yet had that the newspaper industry knows that it is moving ahead to a future where print is receding in the rear view mirror.

Losses are mounting, the Guardian reported they hit £33m, more cuts need to be made, in the order of £25m says Brand Republic, and significantly an admission from editor Alan Rusbridger that readers no longer read newspapers in the same way, that leads to the question: why publish them in the same way? Read More »