

The Media Show
BBC Radio 4
Social media, anti-social media, breaking news, faking news: this is the programme about a revolution in media.
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 31, 2017 • 34min
Political Interviews and Social Media, Court Reporting
Has social media reaction changed how journalists conduct political interviews? Amol Rajan is joined by Jon Snow of Channel 4 News and James O'Brien of LBC.The decline in journalists attending court is now a threat to public trust in the judicial system according to the Bar Council. Andrew Langdon QC, Chair of the Bar Council, Andy Martin, editor of the Bournemouth Echo and Guy Toyn of Court News UK discuss.Producer: Richard Hooper
Assistant Producer: Helen Fitzhenry.

May 17, 2017 • 28min
Information commissioner, White House leaks, iPlayer
The Information Commissioner has announced she is opening a formal investigation into the use of data analytics for political purposes. Elizabeth Denham says there needs to be greater transparency around how personal data is used.Michael Schmidt is the New York Times reporter behind what some in Washington are calling the scoop of the year. He tells Amol Rajan how he got it.Users of BBC iPlayer will soon have to register and sign-in before using the service. Andrew Scott is Launch Director of the MyBBC and Toby Syfret is from Enders Analysis.Presenter: Amol Rajan
Producer: Richard Hooper
Assistant Producer: Helen Fitzhenry.

May 3, 2017 • 28min
Turkish media crackdown; Reuters on trust; Fix Radio for builders
In the latest crackdown on the media, the Turkish government has blocked access to Wikipedia citing a law that allows it to ban websites for the protection of the public. Andrea Catherwood is joined by Yaman Akdeniz, a lawyer challenging the Wikipedia ban and by Can Dündar, a Turkish journalist now in exile in Berlin.Reuters has launched a new initiative called Backstory as part of a plan to bolster trust in its journalism. Stephen Adler is Reuters Editor-in-Chief.Fix Radio is a new digital station aimed exclusively at builders and tradespeople. Is it viable? Louis Timpany is Fix Radio CEO, Mark Mulligan is Managing Director of MIDiA Research, and Andy Stevens runs Eclipse Property Solutions.Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Richard Hooper
Assistant Producer: Helen Fitzhenry.

Apr 19, 2017 • 28min
General Election coverage; Le Monde and fake news; Channel 4 out of London
The announcement of a snap general election came as a shock to almost everyone. How will broadcasters and publishers cover the event at such short notice? Andrea Catherwood is joined by Jonathan Munro, BBC's Head of Newsgathering, David Wilding, Director of Planning at Twitter in the UK, and Ayesha Hazarika, former special advisor to Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband.Le Monde is fighting back against a tide of fake news in France by sending its journalists into schools to teach children how to question what they read on social media. Alexandre Pouchard is one of the Le Monde journalists.The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has published proposals about moving Channel 4 out of London. Dan Brook is Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for Channel 4. David Smith is Managing Director at Glasgow based TV production company Matchlight and Claire Poyser is Chief Executive of Lime Pictures based in Liverpool.Producer: Richard Hooper.

Apr 12, 2017 • 28min
12/04/2017
Sean Spicer, Press Secretary for Donald Trump, has been forced to apologise after trying to compare President Assad with Hitler. Sir Craig Oliver, who was Director of Communications for David Cameron and Sewell Chan, International News Editor at the New York Times discuss what happens when the spokesperson becomes the story.Cleveland Police have apologised again for accessing the mobile phone records of journalists. Graeme Hetherington, Chief Reporter at The Northern Echo and Tom Wilkinson of the Press Association reveal what happened to them.Brian Reed talks about his hit podcast S-Town. Ellie Gibson, creator of the Scummy Mummies podcast and Caroline Crampton, host of the New Statesman's SRSLY show, discuss the UK podcast industry.Producer: Richard Hooper.

Apr 5, 2017 • 28min
05/04/2017
Ofcom has taken over regulation of the BBC and has published proposals as to how the corporation's TV and radio channels should be distinct from the commercial sector. Mark Damazer, is a former Controller of Radio 4 and now Master of St Peter's College in Oxford. Andrea Catherwood asks him how distinctiveness should be defined. Bruno Brookes, Chief Executive of Immedia and Matt Deegan of Folder Media discuss what Ofcom's proposals might mean for Radio 2 which is now facing a quota for the amount of news broadcast at peak-time.Cricket's TV rights are due for auction and the ECB is facing calls to ensure that a free-to-air channel wins some of the coverage. Simon Hughes, editor of The Cricketer Magazine and former test cricketer Allan Lamb discuss whether Sky's monopoly has been good for the game.Producer: Richard Hooper.

Mar 29, 2017 • 28min
Westminster attack and the media response, Tyler Brule on Monocle
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.

Mar 22, 2017 • 28min
Nicholas Coleridge; BBC Brexit coverage; Osborne, Lebedev and the Evening Standard
Nicholas Coleridge has been Managing Director of Conde Nast UK and President of Conde Nast International for the last 25 years. They publish well over a hundred titles from Vogue to Vanity Fair, Tatler to Wired. Andrea asks him about his journalism, the resilience of glossy magazines and picking the right editor. More than 70 MPs have written to the BBC with concerns about "pre-referendum pessimism" and an unwillingness to "accept new facts". Tony Hall says that impartiality has always been the cornerstone of BBC News and that "it is more important than ever that the BBCs journalism is independent of political influence". Former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale didn't sign the letter, but thinks there are problems and joins us to discuss them. And, George Osborne is the new editor of the Evening Standard, the London newspaper with a greater circulation than many national dailies. But what of the man who appointed him, Evgeny Lebedev? To discuss his decision and rationale behind it are Dominic Ponsford of the Press Gazette and John Lloyd, co-founder of the Reuters institute for the study of Journalism and former Moscow Bureau chief for the Financial Times.Producer: Ruth Watts.

Mar 15, 2017 • 28min
Katie Hopkins on libel law; David Abraham leaving Channel 4; The Daily Mail
Food writer Jack Munroe has won damages in a libel action against columnist and radio host Katie Hopkins. Andrea Catherwood asks Katie Hopkins about whether she thinks the bar for libel on twitter should be any different to traditional media. And we hear from media lawyer Mark Stephens about what the case means. Channel 4's Chief Executive David Abraham is stepping down, we assess his time there and who might replace him with Channel 4 historian and commentator Maggie Brown.And,The Daily Mail won in the Newspaper of the Year category at the Society of Editor's 2016 Press Awards. Ian Murray, board member of the Society of Editors explains what criteria the judges use.Producer: Ruth Watts.

Mar 8, 2017 • 29min
Impartiality duty, Fox-Sky merger, BBC archive
Woman's Hour presenter Jenni Murray wrote an article in the Sunday Times questioning the claim of transgender women to be real women. The article sparked controversy and debate, but also claims that Jenni Murray had breached the BBC's impartiality guidelines. Joining Andrea to discuss the fallout from the article are Eleanor Mills, Editor of the Sunday Times Magazine, Alison Hastings, former Chair of the BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee and Stewart Purvis formely of ITN and OFCOM, now a Channel 4 board director.A new archive will tell the story of the BBC directly through the voices of the people who worked there. The BBC and the University of Sussex are creating a digital catalogue of hundreds of audio and video interview with former BBC staff. Professor David Hendy talks about what they've found. Next week the Culture Secretary looks set to refer 20th Century Fox's proposed 11.7 million pound takeover of SKY to the regulators. Karen Bradley has said that she is minded to ask OFCOM to examine the bid on two grounds of a threat to media plurality and whether Fox is committed to the required editorial standards. Claire Enders, founder of Enders Analysis joins us to assess the prospects for the biggest media deal of the year and how it might change the media landscape in this country.Producer: Ruth Watts.


