This is what journal articles look like. I’ve had a journal article published in Journalism Practice this week, in which I call for public funding to be considered to help court reporting survive. The paper itself is here (behind a paywall). It’s been covered by the trade press. Here’s the story in Press Gazette, the coverage in Hold The Front Page, and an article in Justice Gap. I rounded up the highlights in a thread on Twitter. And here’s the press release I sent out: PUBLIC funding should be considered to help ensure the future of court reporting in the UK. That’s according to a new study ..read more

I had a piece in the Yorkshire Post the other day, following the Ministry of Justice’s recent announcement that limited filming of sentencing remarks in Crown Court trials in England and Wales would be allowed. Here it is! And here’s the press release from the MoJ, with more details ..read more

Here’s my latest blogpost for the University of Huddersfield’s View from the North, about the comeback of a familiar TV comedy name. Embed from Getty Images IT WAS the show which defined political satire in the 1980s and 1990s – and now Spitting Image is coming back. Co-creator Roger Law revealed that a pilot has already been filmed for a new series of the puppet-based comedy programme, with American broadcasters in mind. It’s now 23 years since its original run on ITV ended, but its caricatures – from the handbag-wielding Margaret Thatcher, Liberal leader David Steel in the pocket of the SDP ..read more

Embed from Getty Images I hadn’t read any sports books for a while, and looking through a list of classic examples of sports journalism, I had my eye caught by Gordon Burn’s Pocket Money. I read his book on the Yorkshire Ripper for my (soon finished) PhD, and liked the look of his behind-the-scenes take on the 1985/6 snooker season. And what a brilliant read it was. This was a time when snooker, aided by colour TV and a growing circuit of high-profile tournaments mainly broadcast on the BBC, had gone from pub game to major national entertainment in a little over a decade. Burn got an extraordi ..read more

I was asked by the university’s PR department to write a blogpost for their View From The North site about the decision to reinstate TV licence fee charges for most over 75s, and here it is. Embed from Getty Images MOST over 75s are going to have to start paying for a TV licence again. The annual charge – now £154.50 per household – covers almost everything the BBC does, from EastEnders to East Midlands Today.  But without one, you’re not allowed to watch live TV on any channel, even if you only ever tune in for Love Island. It was scrapped for older viewers by then-Chancellor Gordon Brown in ..read more

I was asked by the university’s PR department to write a blogpost for their View From The North site about the end of the Jeremy Kyle Show, and here it is. Embed from Getty Images THE ‘all important results’ are in – and this time it’s Jeremy Kyle himself leaving the stage to a chorus of boos. His daytime talk show has been axed by ITV after 14 years following the death of a guest. Steve Dymond had taken a lie detector test during a programme about infidelity, and was later found dead. It’s the end of a show best known for its rowdy atmosphere, DNA tests and episode titles such as Have I Been ..read more