The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters supposedly speak for 99% of us. Some reports in the mainstream media, such as a recent National Journal survey, suggest that the anti-capitalists have the backing of the public. But does the evidence of activity on social media support the claims? It would appear not. Read on ›

So, we’re all agreed that bribing the police and hacking the phones of celebs, dead soldiers and murdered schoolgirls is immoral, and some of those seem to have been the unique preserve of the Murdoch empire. (We’ll see.) We can probably agree that if the Murdoch empire obstructed police in their enquiries, that may turn out to be the longest, deepest issue of all. But there is no consensus on what we should learn from this sorry saga. In fact, I fear the wrong lessons are being drawn. Read on ›

I loved Dr Calcutt’s piece. It was fluent and persuasive. But I want to contradict every bit of Dr Calcutt’s analysis. Read on ›

On the night of Wednesday 8^th June, Alastair Campbell issued a stark warning to British journalists. Speaking ‘in conversation’ with Bill Hagerty, editor of British Journalism Review, New Labour’s former spin doctor warned that journalism risks losing even more integrity by shifting its ‘centre of gravity’ further towards celebrity culture. Read on ›

Here is the first in a series of profiles of important figures in the PR realm. It is my intention to examine the likes of Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud, Walter Lippmann and Daniel Boorstin over the next few months. Here’s Marshall McLuhan (1911 – 1980) as a starter. Read on ›

It has been handbags at dawn between Facebook and Burson Marsteller (BM). The former say they never asked BM to organise a covert campaign undermining Google; the latter say they should never have accepted Facebook’s brief which stipulated just that. Read on ›

Now Mr Mubarak has fled Cairo the significance of social media in Egypt should become plainer to see. Its work in fomenting and facilitating popular revolution has been done. Was it anywhere near as great as its fans suppose? I think not. Read on ›

The story of the murdered blogger Khalid Said has been an inspiration for protest in Egypt in recent weeks. But many of the claims made in mainstream media about how this struggle played out on social media should be treated with care. Read on ›

In Egypt the authorities have imposed curfews, restricted access to the internet, Twitter and Facebook. Even mobile phones are not working properly. That’s what states do in a crisis; close-down the streets and cut communication links. Let’s explore this some more. Read on ›

Here is a piece on privacy, transparency, trust and the problem of WikiLeaks that I published at the beginning of 2010 (February 1) which deserves another outing as the year ends.  Read on ›