Using RSS Feeds

RSS Feeds can be enabled by adding the RSS feed widget to your blog. You do this by going into the dashboard, looking under the ‘Appearance’ tab in the left hand column, and clicking on ‘Widgets’.

This then allows you to drag the RSS feed widget over to the relevant space on the right hand side of the dashboard.

To activate it you will need to have RSS feeds captured through the use of Google Reader (see your ‘on-line passport’), or through another RSS reader, like net newswire.

Douglas

How to add categories and tags to a post

Once you have created a post, with which to amaze and inspire the world (and your tutors – especially Claire Dean), it is always a good idea to make it easier to find it again, and to let others find it as well.

There are two useful ways of doing this – all of which help you organise your posts as well.

These are – to add Categories and Tags. Categories and Tags play different roles. Categories are perhaps best thought of as general ‘Themes’ into which your postings fall. Tags are not themes, but perhaps the names of people, or places, or objects or concepts that are mentioned in the posting. For instance, a good category for this post might be the word ‘Practical’ A Tag for this post might be for instance ‘Claire Dean’ as she is mentioned in it.
To create the categories, enter the word of your choice in the relevant box, in the dashboard (there is a ‘+ Add New Category’ option. After that you need only to click the box, to apply your chosen category/ categories to the story. Similarly with Tags – the process is almost identical.

Your job now – go back through every one of your already posted stories, and add categories for them, and tags.

One complication is that the categories appear at the top of your page. More than 8 or 9 (depending on how long the word itself is!) , mean that they ‘double park’ on the page. I suggest you try to avoid this, and only choose a maximum number that might create one line on the top of the page (unlike myself!!)

Douglas

 

 

 

Our business for today – regulate the Press……

Two new views on the future regulation of the press. According to Jeremy Hunt, culture secretary, it should be possible to construct a new approach to cross platform press regulation, while at the same time Financial Times  editor Lionel Barber has outlined his vision of how the UK press should be regulated after the “watershed” News of the the World phone-hacking scandal – replace the PPC with a media standards commission.

None of them yet seem to have grasped the need to really shake up the vested interests controlling much of Britain’s media……

Non-Gaelic viewers boost ratings for BBC Alba

According to a report in the Scotsman on 9th September, Gaelic-language TV service BBC Alba has seen its audience soar by at least 100,000 since the channel was made available to viewers in Scotland on Freeview in June.

Buoyed up by the increase in viewers, the channel released its schedule for autumn programmes which they believe will continue to appeal to viewers beyond those who are fluent in Scotland’s ‘second’ national language.

There were also hints that viewing figures may be on the increase, although the head of the service, Margaret Mary Murray, said they were reluctant to release official figures until a substantial period had past, in order to ensure that the figures were stable.

She said: “We are not going to publish our viewing figures until six months have passed. But I can say that we are very encouraged by both the feedback to the channel and also the numbers that we are seeing through our audience research. They reflect a substantial increase.”

“It is very, very encouraging that people find programmes on the channel that are of interest to them and which complement the other channels available in Scotland.”

In her view a significant number of viewers were non-Gaelic speakers and it was becoming clear that Gaelic speakers and non-Gaelic speakers viewed the channel in different ways. Gaelic speakers tuned in to BBC Alba primarily for news, current affairs, entertainment and drama when it was on offer.

“They use the channel like English speakers view BBC1 or ITV1. The three subjects that pull non-Gaelic speakers in are documentaries, music programmes and sport.” she said.

Press Complaints Committee – not worth the paper(s) it passes judgement on?

Westminster’s Culture, Media and Sports Committee has recommended a whole new range of powers for the Press Complaints Commission, following an investigation into press standards and libel in the United Kingdom, during which the chairman of the committee referred to the PCC as being seen to “lack credibility and authority“.

Suggesting that the PCC should be renamed the Press Complaints and Standards Commission to better reflect its role as a regulator, it suggests that a deputy director for standards should be appointed.

Considering the current libel laws – about which science writer Simon Singh is currently petitioning the UK’s Court of Appeal, the committee does not come out in favour of a general law of privacy although there appears to be a growing campaign for this to be considered seriously by Westminster law makers.

Interestingly the committee also attack the publishers of the News of the World as ‘suffering collective amnesia’ over the extent of its recent illegal phone tapping, a practice reported widespread by the Guardian, but denied by the News of the World.

The critical report on the PCC follows recent controversy over Jan Moir’s treatment of the death of Steven Gately, referred to by gay rights group Stonewall as “dancing on the grave of a prematurely dead young man”. Following an investigation of this, the PCC concluded that the Moir article ‘just failed to cross the line’ in terms of breaching the PCC’s code of practice. Following this, Stonewall concluded that it was now “very difficult to recommend that anyone from a minority community makes a complaint to the PCC”

Recent critics of the PCC such as the Media Standards Trust have given evidence to the PCC’s review of governance  based on polls which they claim support widespread change to the way the organisation operates. According to their surveys 52% of the public would prefer an independent self-regulatory body rather than the current newspaper industry complaints body. This follows a major report in 2009 criticising the work of the PCC.

However, Sir Christopher Meyer, last year’s retiring chairman of the PCC dismissed the 2009 report at the time  as a “cuttings job masquerading as a serious inquiry” suggesting the PCC will continue to defend what some see as the indefensible but what they see as necessary and independent self-regulation.

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