Welsh Blogs.com

I have just been reading a short editorial piece by Patrick Tucker in The Futurist: The 21st Century Writer. It is a reflective piece on Tim O’Reilly’s “Tools of Change” conference, and focusses on publishing in an electronic age. Unsurprisingly.For the serials publisher and the journalist, there is the thought that with half the world reporting and editorialising in blogs: We’ve entered an era where the acts of thinking, writing, and to a certain extent publishing are indistinguishable, and where charging money for editorial content is becoming an ever trickier proposition. I liked particularly the first part of this, suggesting that the act of "thinking out loud" has migrated to the Internet in the form of blogs. Especially, as in that very idea, is captured the reason why...

Or, "Withered IWR"The latest issue of Information World Review fell through my letterbox... well, actually, drifted, feather-like to the floor beneath my letterbox... and I wondered:Where's it all gone?I have been a reader and fan of IWR for around 30 years, during which time it has had a half-dozen or so make-overs, each resulting in a less vibrant, less relevant, less informative product. No make-over in style this time, but seemingly a new editor, and the latest issue ran to 24 small pages... of which, eight and a half are advertising, seven are longer articles, and six offer us some - not much - news.I have to wonder if the new slimmed-down version has any value at all - news stories already published on blogs, light-weight journalism: scholarly search - good; health information -...

Aberdare Blog started as an experiment in communicating views of Aberdare and views from Aberdare. It remains an experiment in communication open to participation. Jane from Mountain Ash blogged the lead story on the Mountain Ash Opencast plans this week. Why not blog your own story from Aberdare today ? Here is a list of the Top 100 tags used to describe posts on Aberdare Blog… if we haven’t blogged on a subject close to your heart, you can fix that yourself. If you prefer to blog a story with photos or video, that’ll do nicely thank you, send them today. abercynon aberdare Aberdare Town aberdare_park Ann Clwyd Baptists bbc bbc_wales Books Caerphilly capitalism cardiff Ceredigion Chapels charity christine_chapman christmas christmas_2005 Church coal comedy...

WORLD AGAINST WAR Cardiff Peace Conference Monday 3 March at 7.30 pm Law Building Cardiff University Park Place Hosted by CARDIFF STOP THE WAR COALITION WITH SPEAKERS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE INCLUDING: HASSAN JUMAA, Leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (Iraq) ROSE GENTLE, Military Families against the War (Scotland) IBRAHIM MOUSAWI, Editor of Al-Intiqad, Hezbollah Newspaper (Lebanon) ANNE GREAGSBY, Co-ordinator, No2MilitaryAcademy Campaign (Wales) PROFESSOR JUSTIN LEWIS, Head of Cardiff School of Journalism (Wales) Chaired by LEANNE WOOD AM FREE ENTRY! ALL WELCOME! Artwork by Carlos Latuff...

The personal is political; so goes the well-known phrase. But when the person is a political journalist, how important is it for us to know which party they secretly admire? Not very, some would say, providing their reporting is accurate and fair. Problem is, journalists are humans and they'll never be able to completely hide their own beliefs and prejudices. And anyway, journalists do a lot more than talking to camera. Day in day out they'll be communicating with party sources and politicians. In these situations, a journalist's political colours are imperative. Party bigwigs can often be heard muttering 'well that's because X is Labour/Plaid/Tory through and through' as unsympathetic broadcasts go to air. When X comes calling again the next week, he or she might not find sources quite...

Spot the article in today's paper written by the work experience boy:Three elected representatives from Wales are to take part in a demonstration today at the gates of a nuclear weapons base in Scotland.The Welsh elected representatives expected to attend are Hywel Williams MP, Leanne Wood AM and Janet Davies MEP, who is also chair of CND Cymru.Janet Davies is an AM. Jill Evans is an MEP and chair of CND Cymru. While we're on the subject, will none of the 'anti-trident' Liberals be joining...

Another case of BBC Wales being a PR puppy for Charlie Church has raised its head. In their article Church puts music career on hold, at no point do they mention the fact that the reason she is putting her music career ‘on hold’ is because Sony BMG, the record company she has been with since she was 12 years old, has decided to drop her. The 20-year-old has said she wants to concentrate on her television career after Channel 4 commissioned two more series of her show. Hello? Earth to public service broadcasting? Sony BMG decided not to renew Charlotte’s contract after flagging sales of her 5th album, Tissues and Issues. The South Wales Echo has even gone as far as to claim that she decided not to renew her contract with them. Which is just total poppycock, if the press...

I attended a talk by Rodney Pinder today. He's Director of the International News Safety Institute, set up in 2003 as a resource for journalists in potentially unsafe environments and as a lobbying tool for the protection of journalists in the field.He had with him some very interesting facts:- Almost 1,000 journalists and support staff have died in the last 10 years, most of them murdered.- The five most deadly countries for journalists are Iraq, Russia, Colombia, Iran and the Philippines.- So far this year 137 journalists have died, most were murdered.- The British army only recently very reluctantly recognised the right of journalists to report unilaterally from the battlefield. Until then, they argued vehemently that embeds alone were sufficient.- 90% of people who murder journalists...