Help us, comes the cries from beyond the panel. But it’s a false one because in practice they resist any help given. It’s bad enough false information is promoted not from designated criminals, but elected leaders. It’s catastrophic when it’s passed on by professional journalists.

And as you read this metaphorically there are thousands behind this panel knowing or unwittingly driving the world’s information systems, overseen by facinorous figures.

Now this isn’t to blame all journalists; some get where we are. Remember when S.V. Dáte asked President Trump whether he regretted all the lies he’s said after three years. Amazingly…

First published in Representology (1st issue) — the UK new journal on diversity, this article has me looking back on my time heading the BBC radio programme Black London in the early 1990s, in which I interact with several stars. “Where’s the archive of these experiences and why it’s important”, is a question I’m asking in this article. At the end there’s a surprise pre-announcement. To download Representology Issue One and Two go here.

When the taxi door opens, a lithe man, shorter than I’d imagined, wearing tight trousers, an unbuttoned brightly coloured shirt and a purple faux fur collar…

It’s not just what you say but how you say it, and how often, should alarm no one in journalism, but today it’s still possible to be shocked by the indifference to this.

There’s one strand of journalism that should be the shield for society where the voice of citizens counts for nowt outside an election run, and that’s journalism that holds people in power to account. Call it news or investigative journalism, it is nothing resembling entertainment, sport, fashion or journalism of celebrities.

It focuses on governments, leaders, VIP, councillors. Here journalism has one job! Be the eyes and…

This picture carried in a number of news publications. The UK PM Boris Johnson thinking up ever more elaborate visions for news coverage to nail, or in this case, tread his colours to England’s football mast.

In using this image, I’m playing into the conveyer belt that gives it publicity, but I’m not here to push any party line. By now you’ve heard the news. England lost to Italy at Euro 2020. On balance football pundits don’t have any qualms. Penalties can be cruel and here it spared no mercy for three of England’s finest.

Then as night follows day…

The crow’s nest stood about 30 feet tall. It could have been 100 feet for all I cared, strafing the skyline like a giant metallic deadly daddy long legs. To its left a dusty path, an artery of a road, with the beginnings of homes dotted over the ensuing landscape.

It went on as long as the eye could see. Some people were milling around a white van, others going about their way, as I rubber necked. Jaysus! An armoured truck just slid into our path and very slowly the soldier in the turret looked down the telescope of his…

Creative with a public-facing impact, but less so in university, how does that work? If you’re like me, you engage in considerable creative projects which have measurable impact to the public, but they carry relatively little value inside your institution.

Sometimes, it’s almost as if universities are quite separate from society. That’s not to deny universities like Stanford, MIT, Harvard and my Uni in Cardiff are innovative, yet think of the many creative university students who started a project e.g. Facebook, which isn’t supported, so they’ve gone elsewhere.

It’s a legacy of a learning ethos in universities framed by Cardinal…

Who wouldn’t want to turn something they felt passionate about into an idea that had scale, embraced other people’s ideas, and what’s more a larger number of people could enjoy?

This was the essence of what Jude Kelly CBE, one of the most powerful creative figures in the UK, was telling her audience when she was artistic director of the Southbank Centre — the UK’s largest cultural spot.

Today, Jude is behind the highly successful Women of the World (WOW), a network she founded that honours the accomplishments of women and girls.

This is one of my personal photos, but as I got up this morning I thought I could use it to underscore something on my mind, why areas of current taught Journalism have a problem with audiences. Politics on the other hand sees the problem in its storytelling.

This is a photo taken several years ago in Ireland after my PhD graduation. There’s an alternative photo I could show you of me alone holding my scroll.

Both serve a function. But in not knowing me, there’s a higher chance you may be drawn to this photo. It features my two…