Undercurrent

For Americans aged 18-29, the internet and TV are now just as important as main sources for national and international news, a Pew survey finds. 59 percent of respondents chose these alternatives, while 28 percent cited newspapers as most important news source. In Sept 2007, 34 percent chose the internet (tip: Spiegel Online).

Among all age groups, the internet has overtaken newspapers for the first time (see chart).

The rise of the Net is of course the big tendency here, but newspapers holding their own or even gaining since September 2007 is also interesting to note. See the full report (pdf).

Related: A study of German web habits.

—

Also new from Pew: A future of the internet study among internet leaders, activists and analysts.

This job opening might be interesting for some Undercurrent readers. I just received it via email, and thought it relevant to post it in its entirety here (extended entry). The Crimes of War book and website is an indispensable resource and deserves more attention. The writer/editor could be based in the UK or US and will be responsible for the day-to-day work on the website.

(more…)

The BBC is on to something very important with the season of programmes and debates called “White – is white working class Britain becoming invisible?”. Not only because of the topic, clearly important and controversial, and hence exactly the kind of material that public broadcasters should be concerned with. But also in the way it is done, as a series of originally produced documentaries on TV complemented with debate programmes also on TV and on the web, a website rich in material and also programmes from the archive on radio and TV. Using all the guns at its disposal simultaneously, a broadcaster can have an impact on society — dominate the public sphere, as it were — in a way that’s otherwise almost impossible in today’s fragmented society. Of course, that kind of power places a heavy responsibility on the producers. Here’s how they present “White”.

Accompanying the series is a fancy flash presentation of the debate. You have to click on the banner at the starting page to see it. Not sure if this really works in the context, but it looks good (tip: mymarkup.)

An announcement from the BBC World Service: Shortwave transmissions of the radio service to Europe closed for good yesterday. Powerful images are triggered. Back in the 70s, the World Service and other radio transmitters over shortwave was the only broadcasting alternative available if you were tired of the one – 1 – radio channel and one – 1 – TV channel of the Norwegian state broadcaster. On World Service you could hear live commentary of English football matches on Saturdays and of midweek evening action. That is, if the weather permitted, often the noise made it quite hard to discern if Peter Lorimer had scored or missed the big opportunity. And then, on Saturdays at 6 PM local time, James Alexander Gordon presented the official — classified — football results. It was amazing to discover the other day that he is still doing this. Like the shortwave noise, hearing him pronouncing the team names and scores brings back the media world of the 70s. Tune in to the BBC on web radio next Saturday and experience a living media legend.