Rioting in London and the rest of England has dominated the news this week but how well has the media covered the story? Photographer Amy Weston, who took the defining picture of the unrest - a dramatic shot of a woman jumping from a burning building - and Sky News reporter Mark Stone reveal what its like to report from the violence and chaos of the riots. Fran Unsworth, BBC Head of Newsgathering and Roy Greenslade, Professor of Journalism, discuss the challenges for broadcasters when covering t...
Aug 10, 2011•29 min
With the press themselves making headlines yet again - following settlements over libel allegations and two rulings over contempt, in the wake of the Chris Jefferies case - Steve Hewlett tries to find out what this latest scandal means for newspapers. As the former Managing Editor of the News of the World Stuart Kuttner is arrested, are we any nearer to finding out exactly who knew what and when at News Corp? And will Google+ finally open up the social network market for the search engine giant?...
Aug 03, 2011•28 min
How's the jewel in the crown of the Murdoch empire coping following the hacking scandal ? James Harding the Editor of The Times talks to Steve Hewlett about the impact it's having on its reputation its readers and its revenue. And the challenges facing ITV. Profits may be up but can they keep pulling in the viewers.
Jul 27, 2011•28 min
Yesterday Rupert and James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks were questioned by MPs about exactly what went wrong at the News of the World. But has their evidence thrown any new light on the phone hacking scandal or made clear who will take responsibility at News International? Paul Farrelly, one of the MPs who questioned Rebekah Brooks and the Murdochs during yesterday's select committee, discusses what we have learned about the workings of News International and the BBC's political editor Nick Robins...
Jul 20, 2011•29 min
Last week, as the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World escalated, Lord Fowler joined The Media Show to discuss the shocking allegations. A week later the News of the World has closed and News International is under serious pressure. Lord Fowler joins Steve again to discuss the difference a week makes and the implications for News Corporation's future. Since taking over as Chairman of the BBC Trust in May, Lord Patten has addressed the issue of "toxic" BBC executive pay, suggested the B...
Jul 13, 2011•28 min
A special edition of The Media Show investigates the lasting impact of the end of the News of the World. Does the end of Britain's best selling newspaper signal the end for "red-top" investigative print journalism? Or is it just a staging post on the way to establishing a Sunday edition of that other top-selling News International title, The Sun? And what does the closure mean for Mr Murdoch's plans to increase his share of the UK television market? Steve Hewlett is joined by News of the World c...
Jul 08, 2011•25 min
The phone hacking scandal at the News of the World moved to another level this week after it emerged that private investigators working for the paper hacked the phone of Milly Dowler after her abduction. As further revelations about phone hacking come to light and MPs call an emergency debate, The Media Show hears from the experts about what this means for the News of the World and its owner News International. Have the allegations about phone hacking irreparably damaged the paper? And can Rebek...
Jul 06, 2011•28 min
Johann Hari, a journalist with The Independent, is under fire after admitting he lifted quotes from other articles and books to use in his interviews, without attributing them to the original source. Independent editor Simon Kelner defends Hari, explaining he made a genuine mistake. In his defence, Johann Hari has explained that other journalists told him adding quotes was "normal practice and they had done it themselves from time to time". Former Times editor George Brock and Guardian journalis...
Jun 29, 2011•28 min
The chief executive of the Guardian Media Group, Andrew Miller, has warned staff that The Guardian and Observer could run out of money in three to five years if the newspapers don't make drastic changes. To try and avoid a cash crisis, the newspapers are planning to move from a print to a "digital first" model. The editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, explains his plans for the transformation. The BBC is going to broadcast this year's Wimbledon finals in 3D and Sky is also investing in 3D pr...
Jun 22, 2011•28 min
John Myers, the head of the Radio Academy, has been taking a look at how the BBC's music radio stations operate. John Myers explains his recommendations for streamlining and his suggestions for how the stations could cut costs. Tim Davie, the head of BBC Audio and Music who commissioned the report, joins Steve Hewlett to discuss John Myers's suggestions and whether BBC music radio's accounting is too opaque. Last month, the media reported on fears that a prominent Syrian lesbian blogger, Amina A...
Jun 15, 2011•28 min
Channel 4 is to screen what it calls "probably the most horrific images it has ever shown" and which, last year, it said were too gruesome to transmit. They are part of a documentary on the final days of the Sri Lankan army's battle with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, shown last week at the UN Human Rights Council. The UN special rapporteur says the images are prima facie evidence of war crimes, something the Sri Lankan government strongly refutes, saying the videos are not authentic. C4'...
Jun 08, 2011•28 min
In a recent speech to the Royal Television Society, the Chief Executive of Channel 4 set out the channel's mission to support "freedom of the imagination." As Channel 4 faces up to its first summer without Big Brother, David Abraham talks to Steve Hewlett about how Channel 4 intends to reinvent itself. Keir Starmer QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, says he supports proposals to allow television cameras into some of the UK's courts. But how would it work in practice? Keir Starmer explains ...
Jun 01, 2011•28 min
Al Gore, the chairman of Current TV, has accused Sky Italia of refusing to renew Current TV's contract due to a political agenda. Gore claims that his channel was dropped after it hired left wing commentator Keith Olbermann, a directive he says came from News Corp headquarters. Sky Italia have dismissed the claims as "nonsense" and say the decision was a purely commercial one. Steve Hewlett hears from Al Gore and the head of Sky Italia Tom Mockridge. Despite a judge granting an injunction to pro...
May 25, 2011•28 min
This week Mr Justice Eady ruled that Imogen Thomas could not publish her story about her relationship with a married footballer, or even name the footballer, due to his right to privacy. Media lawyer Duncan Lamont and PR consultant Max Clifford discuss whether the latest judgement signals the end of the "Kiss and Tell" story. When he announced the Hargreaves Review into intellectual property last year, David Cameron promised that this was the first step towards creating copyright laws "fit for t...
May 18, 2011•28 min
Questions about privacy and freedom of the press have dominated the headlines this week. Twitter users allegedly breaking super-injunctions, Max Mosley losing his case for stronger privacy laws in the European Court and a complaint from the Middletons to the PCC have re-ignited the debate about public figures' right to privacy. But is there a real threat to freedom of the press? And are tabloid exposes more about boosting newspaper sales than upholding public morals? Dominic Lawson, Kelvin MacKe...
May 11, 2011•28 min
Yesterday Lord Patten took up his new role as Chairman of the BBC Trust. He has already said that BBC executive pay is still too high and that the BBC can't rule out cutting a service. The Telegraph's Neil Midgley takes a look at the early signals from Lord Patten on how his approach could differ from his predecessor, Sir Michael Lyons. The media regulator Ofcom recently ruled that performances from Christina Aguilera and Rihanna on ITV's The X-Factor were not too sexy for family viewing but wer...
May 04, 2011•28 min
Hugh Tomlinson QC is the barrister in several of the recent high profile, yet secret, celebrity privacy cases. Gill Phillips is head of editorial legal services at the Guardian, who guided the paper through the challenge to the Trafigura superinjunction. What do they make of the recent media reports of celebrities allegedly over-using injunctions to protect their private lives - and can they devise a system that's fair to individuals and the media? Piers Morgan is in the UK this week for CNN, to...
Apr 27, 2011•28 min
The BBC Trust begins a service licence review into BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Live extra today. It comes as the Trust rejects a complaint by the commercial radio station talkSPORT that 5 Live, its main competitor, broadcasts too little news and sport. Whilst it's not been upheld, the BBC Trust says the claim raises "significant and valid questions about what constitutes news on 5 Live", which will now be looked at as part of the review. Anne McElvoy asks Moz Dee, talkSPORT's Programme Director, abou...
Apr 20, 2011•28 min
Last October, Danny Cohen was appointed as channel controller of BBC1, having been head of the BBC's youth channel, BBC3. In his first interview with The Media Show since taking over at the UK's most watched TV channel, Danny Cohen speaks to Steve Hewlett about competition from ITV, older on screen talent and whether BBC 1 could be more edgy. Last week News International made an apology and offered to compensate several celebrities who had their phones hacked by the News of the World. But does t...
Apr 13, 2011•28 min
At last night's British Press Awards, the News of the World and the Guardian were both up for Scoop of the Year - the Guardian, for its stories about phone hacking at the News of the World. It came on the day when two News of the World journalists were arrested as part of the Met Police inquiry into phone hacking. Steve Hewlett went along to the awards discuss the developments with some of the award nominees and with Bob Satchwell of the Society of Editors, which runs the awards. This week Ofcom...
Apr 08, 2011•28 min
Last weekend, a Libyan woman, Eman al-Obeidi, broke through the security surrounding foreign journalists in a Tripoli hotel to tell a horrific story. She accused Gaddafi's forces of beating and raping her before being dragged away. Jonathan Miller, foreign correspondent for Channel 4 News, was attacked as he tried to record Eman al-Obeidi's story. He explains the difficulties of reporting objectively from Libya where "the lies and spin and obfuscation are boundless." The culture secretary Jeremy...
Mar 30, 2011•28 min
Cuts in local radio, dropping Wimbledon and Formula 1, closing down networks at night: just some of the radical options reported in this week's papers as the BBC looks to find ways of balancing its budget after the latest licence fee settlement. Will any of them actually happen and are they even needed? We hear from the senior BBC executive running the review, Pat Younge. Maggie Brown of the Guardian and Richard Brooks of the Sunday Times discuss the ideas. And last week Ofcom announced a full-o...
Mar 24, 2011•28 min
After news of the devastating earthquake in Japan broke, broadcasters were under pressure to get correspondents to the disaster area to report on developments. But with several presenters now in the region, have news outlets gone overboard? To discuss how decisions about the logistics were reached, Steve is joined by BBC head of newsgathering Fran Unsworth and ITV head of foreign news Tim Singleton. The Independent's spin off paper, the i, publishes its 100th edition today. After a high profile ...
Mar 16, 2011•28 min
Richard Peppiatt's published an open letter to Richard Desmond, saying he was quitting his job at the Daily Star on several points of principle. He says he was asked to make up stories (the Star denies this) and was unhappy about the Star's coverage of Muslims in Britain. So, having admitted that he wrote stories he knew to be untrue, does he have a future in journalism? Last week the government decided not to refer News Corp's bid for BSkyB to the competition commission. This followed a report ...
Mar 09, 2011•28 min
Veteran foreign correspondent Marie Colvin secured an interview with Colonel Gaddafi this week, alongside the BBC's Jeremy Bowen and ABC's Christiane Amanpour. She joins The Media Show from Tripoli to explain how she fixed the interview and discuss the challenges she faces in reporting for Libya. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has dominated the headlines as much for his personal battle against extradition as for the activities of his whistle-blowing website. Now Assange is seeking to ...
Mar 02, 2011•28 min
Former Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer shares his thoughts on the future of BBC Trust. What does he think of the man widely expected to be its new Chair, Lord Patten, and what will his biggest challenges be? Steve Hewlett is joined by Alex Thompson, Chief News Correspondent at Channel 4, and the BBC's Wold News Editor Jon Williams. How do they deal with reporting on the protests which are sweeping the Middle East and Northern Africa? Does social media make it easier or more difficult? And, with ...
Feb 23, 2011•28 min
Last month, BBC director general Mark Thompson said the arrival of YouView would "herald an intense battle for the living room". This month, though, it became clear that viewers would have to wait for this upgrade to Freeview for up to a year longer than expected and more than two years longer than originally hoped. What are the implications for those viewers who want this next generation of free TV over the internet? Analyst Matthew Horsman, of Mediatique, offers an explanation for the delay an...
Feb 16, 2011•28 min
As Question Time's editor leaves the programme owing to its move from London to Glasgow, Steve Hewlett looks at the BBC's plans to move more programmes to the regions. Former Question Time editor Nick Pisani and Professor of Journalism Tim Luckhurst discuss whether political programmes can work well so far from Westminster. BBC Chief Operation Officer Caroline Thomson explains the BBC's strategy. The commercial giant AOL has bought the pioneering blogs and news website the Huffington Post. Emma ...
Feb 09, 2011•28 min
In the last week, the Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel have each published books telling the story of their relationship with Wikileaks and its leader Julian Assange, following their recent publication of leaked US diplomatic cables. Some of the information in the Guardian's book, referring to the alleged source of the leak, Bradley Manning, prompted Wikileaks to label the Guardian "the slimiest media organisation in the UK". The Guardian's editor Alan Rusbridger talks to Steve Hewle...
Feb 02, 2011•28 min
On the day the BBC World Service announces substantial job losses, Steve Hewlett talks to the Director General Mark Thompson about cuts, the licence fee settlement and the corporation's strategy for the forthcoming years. Are the changes at the World Service a sign of things to come, as the BBC finds a way to make efficiency savings following a licence fee settlement that will see its budget reduced by sixteen per cent? And as candidates for the Chairmanship of the BBC Trust are considered, Stev...
Jan 26, 2011•28 min
