Media

Article — 20 January 2023 — 1,220 words

The gradual death of AM radio takes with it a curious part of Britain’s psyche

1215 AM. Not quarter past midnight, but a radio frequency familiar to generations (although perhaps not any of the younger ones). Today it has stopped broadcasting. As AM radio slowly disappears, a bit of British folklore goes with it.

Article — 11 January 2022 — 877 words

Awooga! The metaverse was better 29 years ago

Media — Technology

What’s most surprising about the metaverse is just how lacking in ambition it is. This is a half-hearted rehash of a 30-year-old idea.

Article — 30 August 2019 — 669 words

BBC not so sound

Media — Technology

Radio broadcasters are battling each other to be the Netflix of radio. None of them seem to have asked themselves why any of their listeners would want that.

Article — 21 August 2019 — 133 words

Why did the UK become a failed state? — Simon Wren-Lewis — mainly macro

Economics — Media — Politics

This post is about how a policy (crashing out of the EU) that will do nearly everyone harm and some great harm seems to have considerable, albeit still minority, support… You either have to assume that a third of the population has gone mad, or instead see this as a fundamental failure of information. The […]

Article — 30 October 2018 — 314 words

13 years too late, the BBC’s classical music back catalogue is being made available

Media — Music — Technology

Once in a while, when listening to music on shuffle, a Beethoven symphony plays. The MP3 files came from the BBC. It was an experiment never to be repeated.

Article — 20 September 2018 — 527 words

The problem with trusting experience over expertise (a story about design thinking, astronauts, Formula 1 pundits and Brexit)

Architecture — Design — Formula 1 — Media — Politics

The media — and society in general — has gradually drifted away from listening to expert figures, in favour of practitioners. But it is leaving us less enlightened.

Article — 12 July 2018 — 822 words

The web’s bloated middle

Media — Web

Website publishers have been incentivised to do exactly the opposite of what could have made the web so great.

Article — 11 June 2018 — 611 words

Stop saying people don’t like change — it’s a lie

Design — Digital — Media — User experience

People often say things like “change is hard” or “people don’t like change”. That is a dangerous delusion.

Article — 29 March 2018 — 1,984 words

The media also has lessons to learn from the latest Facebook furore

Media — Politics — Technology

I am no fan of Facebook. But I am less than impressed with the media’s coverage of Facebook as well.

Article — 1 March 2018 — 2,087 words

Media dinosaurs have the wrong scapegoat in Facebook

Media — Technology

Anyone who reads this blog will know by now that I am no fan of Facebook. But I will defend them on this. The newspaper industry’s attempt to pin the blame of their woes on Facebook is wrong.

Article — 22 February 2017 — 633 words

How to improve your job stories

Digital — Digital design digest — Media — User experience

This month’s digital design digest features a couple of articles about getting the most out of job stories. Plus, promising news from the world of CSS, how the Guardian is increasing its subscriber numbers, and where government goes wrong with digital transformation.

Article — 25 January 2017 — 650 words

Why people are losing trust in the media — and advertisers

Digital — Digital design digest — Media — User experience

Why people are losing trust in the media and advertisers, why ugly websites succeed, and why it’s time to ditch PDFs.