Is the pen mightier than the recorder?

While catching up on some of the old media gossip in Scotland recently, I stumbled across this debate about shorthand on allmediascotland.com
In it Mike Boyle, course co-ordinator of HND Practical Journalism and NCTJ Journalism at Cardonald College, Glasgow, extols the virtues of the art of shorthand after it was dropped as an option from the BA [...]

Maintaining e-cred is hard work

Jings, crivens and help ma boab! Is that really more than a year since my last blog?
It’s amazing how much time it takes to maintain your e-cred in these new-fangled technological times – and I’ve not even bothered with the Facebook’s, Linkedin’s and Twitter’s of this crazy interactive world yet.
For the past year I’ve been [...]

Tough tackling Raff puts his foot in where it hurts

As I was waiting on the Leith Athletic team bus to take us across Middle Earth and into the dark reaches of Glasgow on Saturday a forcible kick from behind me landed square on my posterior.
As anyone who is well-schooled in the art of football dressing room antics will know, such schoolboy actions are commonplace [...]

Stupid interview questions leave me sick as a parrot

I feel that, at 27-years-old, I am too young to be a fully paid up member of the Grumpy Old Man society but sadly I often find myself shouting obscenities at the TV or radio when I hear sports journalists firing inane, random and completely pointless questions at the country’s sporting stars.
One recent incident springs [...]

Sky Sports leaves me holding the baby

I used to love nothing better than my Super Lazy Sundays (as Sky Sports should call them) nursing a hangover in a darkened room, the only natural light – and reminder that there was an outside world – coming from the small chink in the venetian blinds while the rest of the room was bathed [...]

Poults happy for second best – but is the media to blame for furore?

It seems I made a gross misjudgement about Ian Poulter in a previous post.
Following his now infamous interview with Golf World where he was quoted as saying he was the only player who, on his game, could compete with Tiger Woods, I actually gave him credit for being one of the few golfers with the self-confidence [...]

Beeb celebrates victory over ITV with Euro 2008 fixture list

It would seem that the BBC has managed to secure a major coup with the sole UK rights to screen the final of the European Championships in Austria & Switzerland this summer.
For as long as I can remember, the final of major football tournaments has always been shown on both BBC and ITV networks, resulting [...]

Viking so close to Strictly Come Dancing debut

A night out with golfing PR guru Pete Richardson always yields an array of interesting and entertaining stories and last Tuesday was no different.
I joined Pete, managing director of golf marketing company The Azalea Group, in his home village of South Harting (fewer than 1000 residents and three pubs!) in West Sussex to watch his [...]

Monty Don’s his police hat and nightstick

   
 A week spent holed up in a Hampshire B&B can be a lonely time but thankfully during my time working with The Azalea Group there was a host of social occassions to enjoy when the working day was finished.
One such occasion was the weekly pub quiz at The White Hart Inn, Petersfield. Dave Bowers, editor [...]

Golf Industry Blossoms at Azalea

In a previous post I touched on the fact that I spent last week working in the rolling countryside of Hampshire – just minutes from the scene of Havant & Waterlooville’s remarkable FA Cup triumph against Swansea.
But it wasn’t the chance of an historic cup upset that enticed me to spend a week so far [...]