Through The Looking Glass

Kevin Marsh Wednesday Conversation

Chris Holmes — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:44:00 +0000

This is the official un-edited version of my Wednesday 30/1/08 Coventry Conversation article, without the John Mair edits. Some say that this article is too opinionated, but I think it is still a valid commentary of the event, and covered the key facts Kevin Marsh put forward.

Kevin Marsh, Editor for the BBC College of Journalism, and former Editor of Today on Radio 4, visited our wondrous department this week in one of John Mair’s extremely exclusive Wednesday Coventry Conversations. The turnout wasn’t great, which didn’t do much to sway Marsh’s increasingly erratic mood, but he did have some interesting things to say to prospective students. Firstly, he expressed that “you’re there to report the story, not to get involved”, whilst referencing gullible Gilligan’s tenacious ways. Moving on, he made his opinions strongly known on audiences, stating that “more people get news from radio than TV”, which is a pretty bizarre statement when you take into account audience figures for TV news. By this time, it was evidently clear that he was defending a medium that is under a huge amount of pressure from competing media.

Going back to the hot topic of the day, he let slip that “editors don’t usually ask who or what sources are in case of leaks”, which evidently later became a huge downfall for him when Gilligan got it wrong. Furthermore, he was of the opinion that there is “nothing special about Downing Street complaining” about an item or what was said in the programme. This kind of erratic, mad behaviour shouldn’t be a point of contention though, as he clearly can get the job done and knows the journalism industry like the back of his hands, but what should be a point of contention was that his attitude didn’t engage the audience into the subject matter, and actually made them feel belittled. One student stated that he was “put off journalism altogether now”. If figureheads like this are invited back to Coventry University, they should offer a much more balanced outlook with a positive attitude, as well as being a figurehead for which students can aspire to imitate in the future.

“Local Still Important” Says Andy Griffee and Alan Kirby

Chris Holmes — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:41:37 +0000

At last week’s Coventry Conversation, our wondrous University was host to Andy Griffee (Controller for English Regions of the BBC) and Alan Kirby (Editor of The Coventry Telegraph), who both used this opportunity to unveil new products, initiatives, and answer questions from the audience. It all kicked off with Andy Griffee showcasing a prototype for a brand new £20 Million BBC Local website, which features a map with direct links to content such as articles, radio and video for each region. Topics covered with this new site will be news, sport, travel, and weather, bringing each element down to a local level. Commenting on the service, Griffee said that it will be available “anytime, any place, anywhere”, and later confirmed that regular exclusive news bulletins will also become a major part of it. While the service hasn’t been properly decided on by the BBC Trust yet, the reaction amongst the audience was largely positive.

Following this unveiling, a challenged Alan Kirby confirmed that the Coventry Telegraph is also evolving in the online space, with a brand new website and ultra-local sites divided by postcodes. The focus of these sites will be user-created content that is relevant to more local people. Kirby also had a dubious view that “video is less popular than text for news”, but later made it clear that he is fully behind the “digital revolution” of which he is spear-heading in Coventry with the Coventry Telegraph, and wants users to start submitting all kinds of content when the new sites are launched. Griffee, sensing that Kirby was a little disturbed by the BBC’s plans, offered some words of reassurance, stating that the service is not designed to “compete with newspapers”, and later broke it down to the fact there are only 5 radio stations but there is 66 newspapers in the West Midlands.

A much more upbeat Kirby went on to talk about how the current website, IC Coventry, is doing roughly a million a month “page impressions”, and showed that newspaper sales are definitely going down, and websites are continuing to improve and grab larger numbers. However, the Coventry Telegraph is still the highest priority, and apparently exclusives that appear in the newspapers are embargoed for web use until a preset time later on during the day. Griffee took this opportunity to reiterate the BBC’s policy of featuring a story as soon as it breaks across all of the forms of media it covers, but one can imagine that with enhanced budget constraints, such a luxury would be rare.

Numbers for both the Coventry Telegraph and the BBC Local Radio Station stand at roughly 50k each at the moment, which isn’t that good in the grand scheme of things, and a definite sign that online is the way forward. The visitors both went on to explain that nearly all of their journalists are being trained in more skills, highlighting the importance of online as a catalyst for obtaining larger audience coverage. Despite being nervous, Kirby felt the need to show his reserve in the face of such stiff competition, and said that this is “one of the most exciting times for newspapers”, but looking at the figures, it’s hard to agree with him.

Futurama: Bender’s Big Score Review

Chris Holmes — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:35:43 +0000

After being cancelled by FOX back in 2003, many fans thought they wouldn’t see Futurama content again. Luckily, Comedy Central has now picked up the show, and has commissioned 16 episodes for next year. As a nice aside to the deal, it was suggested that they could create direct to DVD movies, and eventually it was decided that there would be four of these, which would be split into the 16 episodes to make Series 5.

The first movie in the series, Bender’s Big Score, is a delightful return to Futurama’s witty and fast-paced sci-fi comedy, which has been painfully missing for a long while. The film clocks in at a respectable 90 minute length, with some great extras in the form of a full episode of “Everybody Loves Hypnotoad” and “A Terrifying Message From Al Gore”.

The plot of the main feature sees the return of the Planet Express Crew after their firing by the “brainless morons” at the BOX Network, and quickly evolves into complicated paradoxical adventures in time, handled with some brilliant humour and one liners coupled with the bizarre melodrama of Earth being taken over by Scammer Aliens, which is funny enough in itself to make anyone laugh.

Furthermore, the creators of the show have let FOX know their feelings in-show, with them being the highlight of a running gag regarding the aforementioned BOX Network being ground up into a fine pink powder that has miraculous powers, entitled “Torgo’s Executive Powder”. This is used to alleviate pain, assist surgeries, provide seasoning, and feed heads in a jar, amongst other uses. With such a diverse range of applications, the powder makes numerous appearances.

Overall, Bender’s Big Score is a wonderful feature by itself, which is a return to form for the franchise and a precedent set for the other movies to follow in the coming year. While other cartoon franchises like The Simpsons and Family Guy are stagnating due to constantly pumping out episodes, the long break has really benefited Futurama. However, the DVD is lacking the all important visual quality due to the transfer of the content to the DVD. There is artifacting, blurring, and lack of colour in some scenes, which is rather disappointing for fans, and bewildering to people new to the franchise. Regardless, this is the best cartoon film of the year, beating The Simpsons Movie amongst others. At the time of writing, the DVD is only available in the US, with no release dates announced for the rest of the world.