02 Friday Nov 2012
I have to be honest, there aren’t many things I would generally say that Britain does better than Australia – but providing a decent taxi (or cab) service is definitely one of them.
Having just returned from a second trip to the UK this year I know what I’m talking about.
Every time we called a cab it arrived promptly.
20 Friday Jul 2012
There’s been so much written about these books I’ll keep mine brief.
Sadly I got caught up in the hype on a recent trip to the UK – there hadn’t been much talk about it in Australia at that point but I was picking up a lot of talk via Facebook friends in the UK and once we arrived it seemed to be the talk of the town. Every town.
Usually I resist this sort of hype. I’m sure I was the last to read Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (which I loved by the way)!
But I went into one bookshop and there it was. I read the back cover and put the book down again and walked off into the shop.
I then noticed a couple of young women come in grab a copy and run – yes run – to the counter. Then another woman came in and bought a copy.
I walked over and impulsively grabbed two books. One for me, one for my sister-in-law. Well it was cheap in the UK!
12 Thursday Jul 2012
Posted in Opinion
I love travelling but one of the biggest issues I have with long-haul flights is the food.
Not because it’s unpleasant or unidentifiable – to the contrary, I think airline food has improved massively over the years – it’s the choice.
As a non-meat eater I usually opt for the vegetarian option. But it’s not that simple.
06 Wednesday Jun 2012
Posted in Journalism, Media, Opinion
I have to admit I do have a tendency to get a bit star struck. Not the celebrity kind, the astronomical ones.
From a very young age I remember staring at the night sky in total awe.
My favourite smartphone app is the Sky Map.
To me there’s nothing quite so romantic as being with the one you love and watching a meteor shower or catching sight of a ‘shooting star’, as we grew up calling them.
And watching the start of the Transit of Venus this morning I’m convinced that’s one of the reasons I am with my husband today.
A fellow journalist, he’s been writing a few stories about this event so it was no real surprise when he said we were going to pick up some solar glasses so we could look directly at the Sun and see it.
It was a no-brainer that we would go somewhere together to do this.
Viewing the transit of Venus 2012
But I never expected to get the viewing we did.
29 Sunday Apr 2012
I’m not a big writer of letters to newspapers – although I have done a few times in the past and I’ve generally been impressed with the way that they have phoned me to check that I am, who I say I am.
I don’t think I’ve ever written to a magazine before and that’s mainly because I hate the nauseating drivel in the letters that are usually published.
“It’s because of your magazine my life is renewed, the sun shines every day and my children are beautiful.”
OK I exaggerate but honestly, anything to get a free frying pan or writing set if you’re the letter of the week/month etc.
19 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted in Journalism, Opinion, Politics
A funny thing happened to me on the way into the city today.
I was waiting for a taxi when two business-dressed men approached looking very keen to get to their next meeting.
“Are you waiting for a cab,” one asked.
I know I was leaning against a lamppost in a notorious area called The Valley – but it clearly said “TAXI” on it.
“I am,” I replied.
“Where are you going, into the city?”
“Yes.”
“Well share one with us.”
Now I’m not one to jump into a cab with complete strangers ordinarily, but what harm could I get into in a taxi?
23 Friday Mar 2012
Apart from one boyfriend in my distant past – I don’t think I’ve met anyone who truly believes they are perfect.
In fact anyone who even thinks this way is obviously so self-obsessed that it counts them out anyway.
So while I may rant on here about poor journalism, bad grammar or apostrophe abuse (three of my pet hates) I thought I would share some examples of my own foibles.
Probably my worst was my understanding of the word anxiety.
23 Thursday Feb 2012
Posted in Journalism, Language, Media, Opinion
I seem to have become a bit of a nag about language and pronunciation this month, but I have to admit it is something that really bothers me.
Some reading this headline will hopefully want to comment straight away that surely it should read ‘…wonder THAN wander’.
But maybe I was meaning it to be a sequential thing. I was wondering about something and then went wandering off…
Before I lose you completely, it drives me round the bend the number of times I see the use of the word then – when the person clearly means than.
18 Saturday Feb 2012
Posted in Journalism, Language, Media, Opinion, Politics
I’m all for language evolution, it really fascinates me, but something that concerns me is the increasingly common use of the word ‘aks’ instead of ask.
I heard this very occasionally in the UK and assumed it was dialectal, specific to certain communities, possibly derived from a pidgin or creole language. You commonly hear it now on TV or in films especially among some Americans.
But increasingly I hear it from university students that have no cultural background from where this could have emerged. I would be interested to hear their parents speak – do they say it – and if so, where did they pick it up from?
10 Friday Feb 2012
Posted in Journalism, Language, Media, Opinion
Now that would make a headline wouldn’t it?
But it makes me laugh just how often you hear journalists say this:
“Joe Bloggs joins me live on air…” or “joining me live in the studio…”
One would hope so!
And I have to admit as a former BBC radio presenter I’m guilty of doing this myself.
It’s our obsession to be “live” on air, as it’s happening, at the scene.
As I mentioned in my last blog Choppergate – a media minefield commercial networks in particular are obsessed with live crosses to a reporter at the scene who in turn live links into a pre-packaged report.
But sometimes it’s just not possible to do the cross “live”. The connection drops out, the talent is only available at a certain time etc.
In this case the best solution is an “as live” or a “look live”.
The cross/interview/segment is recorded at the scene as though it were live. It looks and sounds exactly the same as it would had it been done live.
Some may question the use of such techniques but I actually don’t have a problem with this.
I have recorded many “as lives”. Usually because there wasn’t a clear signal at the location to do the report live.
I would record the piece as though it were live. Drive down the road and as soon as I had a clear signal I would play the report down the line – either to a producer to use as and when – or sometimes I would play it directly into the program.
The crucial point is as long as you don’t actually state that you are crossing “live” to the person.
That’s when it becomes an ethical issue.
As long as the reporter has been at the scene talking to people and reports back accurately it doesn’t matter if they are doing it live or if they recorded it five minutes ago.
They are not going to say or do anything differently.
Chances are – if you say it’s live and it isn’t – something will go wrong with the recording and your audience will immediately realise it’s not live as you had claimed.
That’s a deception and that’s when it becomes unethical.
Just saying.