BBC Media Show Podcast

The Media Show on the BBC Radio 4’s Podcast page is worth a listen, to get into the habit of keeping up-to-date with current developments and news. There is lots of evidence to show that students with a good knowledge of media developments get better marks in the exams than those who do not. There are not many better ways of painlessly gaining this knowledge without having to trawl through media pages of newspapers. They last only half an hour each week, are completely free and you can subscribe via itunes. This weeks podcast has the following description:

“As the BBC announces substantial cuts, Steve Hewlett talks to the Director General Mark Thompson about cuts, job losses, the licence fee settlement and the corporation’s strategy; Maggie Brown and Tim Suter discuss the BBC’s future; Stewart Purvis, the former Partner for Content & Standards at Ofcom, looks at the recent Ofcom report into News Corps bid for BSkyB.”

All very topical and relevant to your studies.

New Series of Skins

Series 5 of Skins gets underway tonight on E4 at 10pm

Another One Bites the Dust

Quite why Richard Keys blames the game is baffling. Regardless he’s gone – lesson learned everybody?

BskyB’s Profits up (again)

So BskyB announce profits up by 26% then. Not bad considering the ‘difficult times’ the country finds itself in. With News Corp attempting to buy the 61% it doesn’t already hold, the race is on to try and secure the deal as soon as possible. Unless they are successful very soon they may well find themselves priced out – now wouldn’t that be a shame. The risk to Sky News and its impartiality is a big one, despite the promises to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Read all about it at The Guardian.

 

Oscar Nominations for the 83rd Awards

The Oscar nominations were out yesterday. So are the academy going to follow the Golden Globes and support The Social Network? Will they be lovey and thespian and follow The Kings Speech as they sometimes do? Or are they going to get arty and go for Black Swan. All very interesting I’m sure as there are ten films in the Best Film category. Why not get down the cinema or Blockbuster and join in the Oscar discussion that we will host later in February before the awards themselves on February 27th. There is a full list of nominations on The Guardian website.

This is England ’88

Shane Meadows and Warp Films have agreed to produce a new feature length made-for-TV-movie after the success of This is England ’86 last year. It will feature the usual cast and will broadcast at Christmas on Channel 4. The special edition will be a precursor to This is England ’90 which will be broadcast as a mini-series in 2012. The last series was the most successful original drama on the channel.

Remember ….. the mic is always live!

Oh dear. Looks like Richard Keys and Andy Gray have really done it this time.

Proof if ever it was needed, that a mic is always ‘live’ whether you think it might be or not. You never know who might be listening.