Journalism can be such a cosy, rarefied world. From the vantage point of self-righteousness finding conclusions to fit your world view can be satisfying. But is is ‘good’ journalism? Six months ago I blogged about ‘A Personal Decision’ to leave BBC News for Philip Morris International (PMI). I was conscious…

What do you do if you’re a social media product developer and the man who’s company controls most of the social media universe has just told you that “the future is private”? I’d probably start looking for a new job. But that’s me. Thousands of those listening to Mark Zuckerberg’s…

I’ll never forget the sickly sweet smell of the Opium she wore to mask the smell. My mother died of cancer six years ago. She was 65 years old. It began as breast cancer, metastasised to her bones and ended up in her brain. I have a photograph of her…

Journalists have an ‘open invitation’ to an interesting and under-used beat. How should they use it? Context We dispatched reporters to races we knew would be close up and down the country and spoke to members of the public everywhere but I think that we were just a little blind…

Who knows if you’ll even see this in your Facebook newsfeed? Mark Zuckerberg has returned from his Christmas break with an MSI mission (‘meaningful social interaction’) to enable the internet giant to return to its ‘social roots’. Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s head of newsfeed, has explained the mission as “making updates…

Like many of my compatriots across the digital news industry over the last few years I have been preoccupied by the battle against mis and dis-information. We have all concentrated our energy on building audience trust through fact-checking initiatives, algorithmic adjustments and tackling the economic incentives for the dissemination of…

News journalism and live-streaming on social media: An end-of-year point of view I’ve read a lot about live-streaming on social media recently. There’s little doubt it will remain a big part of the landscape in 2017 for news journalists. However, as opportunities to ‘go live’ grow by the day are we becoming more creative or just a little lazier? Colleagues of mine…

In September 2015 I wrote a short blog following a great panel session on live-streaming at the Online News Association (ONA) annual conference. Meerkat had arrived (and faded) with a fanfare. …

Another warm Friday evening, another attack on civilians and another spate of live streaming.. Following the Nice attacks I put together a blog for the BBC on the risk to objective journalism from the exponential rise of live-streaming on social media. Last night in the immediate aftermath of the shooting…