Charles on… anything that comes along

I’ve just been to a two-day seminar which was discussing what happens to journalism in a world (say, ten years hence) where everyone is always connected: with bloggers, “citizen journalists” (sooo emphatically not my phrase, or favourite phrase) all around, will hacks be able to make a living?

It all happened under the Chatham House rule (you can say what was discussed, you can say who was there, but not who said what). Anyway, here are some facts I learnt, in no particular order.

1. Knife deaths may not be rising, but that’s because emergency doctors and surgeons are better than they were before at preventing life-threatening injuries turning into deaths. So in fact, there is reason to be concerned about knife attacks; it’s not a media invention.
2. Some eyewitnesses (shall we say ‘citizen journalists’?) said that they saw a man being chased into Stockwell tube station in a padded jacket and jump over the ticket barrier. Subsequent reports suggested this was the man who was shot, Charles de Menenzes. In fact it was one of the pursuing police officers.
3. Motorola sells a ‘kosher mobile’ in Israel. (No, you don’t eat it.)
4. An error in the available length of a field for typing in the name of a country led to death threats and a huge problem for Motorola in 2001/2. I won’t go into it, but you can read about it here.
5. “News is stuff that I care about, and stuff that I want to pass on.”
   This is one of the best definitions of news - as individuals perceive it - that I have ever heard.
6. “News is stuff that you think people will pay attention to.”
   A (slightly less good) news producer’s definition of news; less good since that definition could also include advertising.

OK, perhaps it’s not a lot to show for two days, but “stuff that I care about, stuff that I want to pass on” is a magic definition. And the person who said it remarked “I’ve never thought of it before.” It was an off-the-cuff remark in the course of a short speech.

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• It's nice to know it isn't (30 July 2004; score: 39.97%)
• iCame, iSaw, iPodded (again); and HDTV comes gradually to the UK (15 August 2005; score: 26.71%)
• Christian Voice? Only via a strange definition of "Christian" (28 February 2005; score: 25.56%)