Last Sunday, I was enjoying a rare moment of relaxation reading the newspaper whilst listening to the radio. There is something about both the written and spoken word which is quite special and should be savoured. It was therefore unnerving to read Jeremy Clarkson’s piece (‘Pah to apostrophes!’) that day on why we should not get all worked up about grammar and that we should get rid of the alphabet altogether. Read more »
The sexy job this decade is supposed to be a statistician. This brings a smile to my face as I recall sitting in my statistics lectures at University twenty years ago surrounded by greasy, spotty men (91.7%) and very few women (8.3%). Statistics in those days was anything but sexy. Read more »
Who owns the data we personally generate every day, the digital traces we leave behind each second? This “big data” thing is growing so rapidly and companies know so much about us as individuals, that they are probably predicting exactly what we will do in the next hour. Read more »
The latest set of National Readership Survey (NRS) results published today (15 February) continues to show the national decline in reading printed newspapers. However, there is an exception this time round. The i newspaper recorded a year-on-year increase of 149,000 readers (+32%). Launched in October 2010, it now has 122,000 more readers on an average day than the Independent (plus a much higher circulation). Read more »
Last night, Daniel Day-Lewis deservedly won the Best Actor BAFTA for his portrayal of President Lincoln. Indeed, 150 years ago this year, Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg (“four score and seven years ago”) address during the American Civil War. Closer to home, 1863 was also quite a year as two iconic English brands were born. The Football Association laid out a set of rules, which were first followed in a match between Barnes and Richmond (0-0 draw) and the very first journey on the London Underground took place between Paddington and Farringdon.
For what is a truly remarkable feat of Victorian engineering, we moan about the Tube a lot. We moan when they are late, on strike or when someone jumps in front of one. We moan when people force their way on before you have a chance to get off. We moan when people don’t move down the carriage to let people on or when the closing doors are squeezed open. But we smile when we read one of those Poems on the Underground or when the driver has a sense of humour. We feel good when the elderly or pregnant are offered a seat or an 80s pop star breaks into song. We also marvel at the Harry Beck designed map that is so pleasing on the eye (personally, I’m more fascinated by the equivalent geographically accurate Tube map).
This blog is written by Claire Emes and Gabriela Mancero, Ipsos MORI
It seems like a long time since President Obama was re-elected. The Republicans still control the House of Representatives, the Democrats still control the Senate and President Obama is still President. While it seems like we are back to business as usual, some things have changed! Politics has shown us that the era of big data has now permeated through all industries, even politics. Read more »
The first thing to note is that young people do listen to the radio and always have done; they are just listening for less nowadays. On average, 15-24 year olds listen to the radio for 17 hours a week, compared with 22 hours for the population as a whole. But radio, which turned 90 last week, is a medium that has always been favoured by the older generation, so what is the concern?
There has always existed an expectation that people grow into radio. The big unknown today is whether the lower radio consumption of the younger generation will be maintained as they get older. Read more »
It was 50 years ago today that The Beatles released their first single, ‘Love Me Do’. It peaked a few weeks later at number 17 in the UK charts. This was quite a feat in those days as they had not undertaken any radio or television appearances before then, certainly no iTunes and the only social media around was word of mouth in the small pubs and clubs up and down the country. Anyway, the rest, as they say, is history.
Let’s fast forward to 2012 and how many of today’s new artists will the nation be thinking about in 2062? Quite often their instant, global fame precedes an equally rapid fall into obscurity – let’s call it the Ex-Factor. Money can’t buy you love. We live in a fickle online world where the young, connected generation want instant communication, adoration and gratification. I don’t get it myself as I would quite happily spend a week without any media and I have done. But, of course, I’m not 15-24 anymore. Read more »
I do like the Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey, and given he survived unscathed from the recent severe Government reshuffle I guess so does the Prime Minister.
There is something of a charm about him and he appears very much more engaged with the media industry than some other Ministers I won’t mention. I was therefore very pleased to be invited to speak at his DCMS Communications Review on Radio seminar, which was a round table industry discussion on the public value of radio, the commercial challenges and how Government can drive growth through regulatory change. Read more »
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