One Man & His Blog - Latest Comments

Re: Dominic Cummings’ blogpost, direct dialogue and its threat to mainstream political journalism

Scott Brownlee — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 10:40:21 -0000

"When we are no longer the gatekeepers of political information, what are we? What value do we bring to the process? "

Analysis. Perspective. Experience. Just three things off the top of my head I’d turn to a journalist for. I don’t see them as gatekeepers, even if the old, pre-social ways of doing things put them in that position. That was not healthy for anyone other than the gatekeepers.

If Cummings or anyone else is going to use social to air and discuss ideas in public, then the media had better get used to be able to have their support/rubbishing of the ideas and policies aired and challenged in public too. That means stepping up their game to being rounded, well-reasoned experts, not just opinionated filters who can craft copy to deadline while being allowed to edit out ideas they disagree with.

This is not new, as you say, it has been coming for a long time. It means a new way of working, a need for those who may have seen themselves as (unchallengeable) experts/gatekeepers to be willing and able to be tackled directly, not hide behind a Letter’s Page. In my limited experience, Andrew Neil is doing this already. He seems (and again I stress, I’m no political expert, that’s why I look to expert journalists) to be able to argue from a position of great knowledge on the subjects he tackles with the wisdom to avoid those areas he doesn’t. His one weakness is his public dissection of critics, admittedly usually only the rude ones. Nevertheless, while often funny, it could prevent him being seen as willing to accept and counter-argue against the views of others, a necessary step to earn a place as an expert the public can trust.

Re: Guilt by Twitter association — how Labour Left Voice blocked swathes of Twitter

Adam Tinworth — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 02:37:06 -0000

Is that the royal “we”? 🤣

Re: Guilt by Twitter association — how Labour Left Voice blocked swathes of Twitter

Labour Left Voice — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 21:15:55 -0000

We corrected you yes

Re: Merry Christmas (and happy holidays)

Geemeff — Wed, 25 Dec 2019 20:45:12 -0000

Thank you Adam, hope you had a merry Christmas - safe travels..

Re: Piers Jones: In Memoriam

Maureen Dougall — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 01:55:40 -0000

I am Piers' Mum and Tanya Cordrey very kindly sent me this article on Piers. I cannot thank you enough. It says everything about him that I am struggling to fit into his eulogy and the photos are just what I needed to remind me of how the real Piers looked and not the one who was so ravaged by pancreatic cancer at the end. What a lovely person you are to write that about him. He was my voice of reason always and I am going to miss him so much. Thank you - you made my day so much brighter.

Re: Election Watch 2019 #1: Lies, Leaks and Dead Squirrels

amayfield — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 14:22:53 -0000

I appreciate the thoughtful collection of articles on this, Adam. Very useful.

Re: Guilt by Twitter association — how Labour Left Voice blocked swathes of Twitter

Adam Tinworth — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 09:26:05 -0000

Didn't we discuss all this on Twitter five months ago?

Re: Guilt by Twitter association — how Labour Left Voice blocked swathes of Twitter

Labour Left Voice — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 17:46:25 -0000

You seem to have missed the whole.. being harassed/racially abused/police case thing for 3 years.. We used Twitter Block Chain as our very last alternative due to Twitter collusion with John Arnott.. Collier and awful racists from LAAS. Bang goes your theory.. Oh and Sara Gibbs is lying...

Re: How to fix your Twitter timeline

Bex Sentance — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 15:15:01 -0000

I think this is also why a lot of people use Tweetdeck as their default method for accessing Twitter. After all, Tweetdeck is just a bunch of lists and other views that you assemble yourself. And it prevents you from, say, unexpectedly happening on a distressing Moment when you're just browsing the site or trying to search for something.

Me, I've barely ever used Lists, and I find using Tweetdeck for more than occasionally scheduling tweets to be weirdly claustrophobic. But I can't deny that both of these methods would get rid of more or less everything that annoys me about Twitter while keeping the things I actually like.

Re: One Man & His Blog: the next stage

Adam Tinworth — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 05:11:34 -0000

Yup - I have no plans to back away from what I'm doing now - just to add to it.

Re: Engaged journalism, membership models and communities under attack: important new research from the Reuters Institute

April Chrisman — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 14:56:11 -0000

You spelled "organizations" wrong. :-)

Re: One Man & His Blog: the next stage

Ricard Torres — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 15:37:33 -0000

Glad to hear you'll continue to deliver free content. Thank you for that!

Re: One Man & His Blog: the next stage

Shaun Lowthorpe — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 11:40:40 -0000

Best of luck with this Adam - I've been thinking of something similar so will be interesting to see the results

Re: Engaged reading digest: members-only apps, and the funnel is back

Fergus O'Loan — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 08:24:02 -0000

Great digest, thank you Adam! I do wonder whether or not people will pay for a service that is by and large the same thing, just with fewer ads. I also wonder if the Guardian might have an incentive to make their site, the free version, more ad heavy to incentivise investment in their free app? Maybe specifically their mobile site.

I can't believe that the major news corporations aren't adopting the funnel style distribution system; from what we've been learning in class it seems so obvious. Its even built in to Google's analytics! I wonder if/why journalism has been so slow on this, and if perhaps the more niche sites are more ahead on these models.

Re: Euan Semple's Obvious move back to blogging

euansemple — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 07:37:27 -0000

Thanks. Much appreciated. We sometimes wonder if anyone is out there listening but even if they're not we still have fun!

Re: Euan Semple's Obvious move back to blogging

Adam Tinworth — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 07:01:57 -0000

Can I just say home much I enjoy State of the Net, by the way? Always a must-listen whenever you two get around to doing one!

Re: The most toxic community on the internet is homeless

euansemple — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 06:59:43 -0000

I have a friend, perhaps even a mutual friend, who has been doing tweets about QAnon as if he takes it all seriously. I can't work out if he is right, is indulging in digital performance art, or has completely lost his marbles!

Re: Euan Semple's Obvious move back to blogging

Adam Tinworth — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 06:57:32 -0000

Yes, they do! I've never stopped, and I had one of my masters students start talking about them unprompted this year. They're always going to be a power-user tool, but that's OK. Not every tool is for mass usage.

Re: Euan Semple's Obvious move back to blogging

Scott Gould — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 06:53:15 -0000

I'm with you both, and doing the same!!!!!

Although, does anyone use feed readers anymore?!?!

Re: Euan Semple's Obvious move back to blogging

euansemple — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 06:51:13 -0000

Thanks for sharing this Adam. It is going to be interesting to see how things go. Some people have expressed concern that I will "lost my audience" but as I never saw them as such I'm not worried! As always it is about the quality of the conversations rather than the frequency and as you say "simplistic, tribal hot takes" have become wearying.

Re: Carry on blogging

Anton Zuiker — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 14:00:14 -0000

Well said. "Slower, more considered writing" is satisfying and edifying. I'm glad to finally be acquainted with your blog.

Re: Carry on blogging

graham — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 10:03:42 -0000

Aye, aye the good old days :) Well said. I just added a blog section to my old site. I think it's time to go back to the future.

Re: And…back

Adam Tinworth — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 09:07:50 -0000

Thank you. It’s nice to be back — and enjoying it again.

Re: And…back

Ricard Torres — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 08:54:46 -0000

Good to have you back, Adam!

Re: Carry on blogging

Ricard Torres — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 08:52:58 -0000

Agreed Adam! The conversation is blogs are worlds above the discussions and insults on Twitter and such. The amount of garbage and noise is immense. Blogging is still a great platform. We must keep it alive.

Another good reason is to own your content, even if you re-post on the other platforms.

Have a great day!