The geek shall inherit the earth
23 Dec
Killing In The Name Of is the UK’s Christmas number 1, taking the usual X-Factor mediocrity down a peg, at least temporarily. It ended up with just over 500k sales to win by 50k, and is the first single to claim the top spot through downloads only. It’s not a revolution on either point, though; what’s far more interesting is the nature of the Facebook (and later Twitter) campaign that got it there.
12 Jan
Over in the States, the print newspaper industry is in pretty dire straits. Tribune Company, owner of the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, and the vultures are circling above a number of other papers (the Star Tribune and the New York Times seem to be the most prolific rumour victims). There are a myriad of factors in play here, the economic climate and the rise of internet news sources chief amongst them; however, what interests me more than the reasons for this decline is the impact of it. It has been said – correctly, in my view – that investigative journalism is crucial to a functioning democracy; however, speaking from my knowledge of UK media, I think the death of the print newspaper in favour of the internet can only be a boon to this.
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