Media Culpa

Tobias Billström of Moderaterna (the Swedish Moderate Party) has introduced a bill that the webpage of the Swedish Riksdag (the Swedish Parliament) should be equipped with a blogging function in order to develop and improve the information on the webpage.

He writes:

“Blogging in riksdagen.se should be a natural thing” and points first and foremost to matters that are published on the webpage like notes, press releases and questions.

Do you now realize that blogs are going mainstream?

Sidenote: the Moderate party should at least have RSS-enabled its pressroom, then this bill would have been more credible.

While I am writing about music, I thought I’d try out Rox Populi’s Friday Random Ten (a day late, I know). As Rox says: If you haven’t done it before, pull out your iPod or MP3-player. Set it on random play and list the first ten songs you get. Here are mine:

1. True Love – Aquanote

2. Real Love – Drizabone

3. Meet Me At The Pier – Doves

4. Lovely head – Goldfrapp

5. Digital love – Daft Punk

6. Cactus – Pixies

7. Novocaine For The Soul – Eels

8. P-machinery – Propaganda

9. Truth – Dwele

10. Can I Get A Witness – Marvin Gaye

A lot of love there. Anyway, now it’s your turn, either on your own blog or below in the comments.

I’m officially a dinosaur, a species destined for extinction, i.e. a fan of the Blue Nile. I went to two record stores yesterday to buy their new CD “High” and got the response “The Blue Nine? Uh huh, the Blue Nile, no we’re not selling it”. I thought this was a market economy and wherever there is a demand, it would be met.

Anyway, I read this blog post from a Blue Nile fan who got upset with the copy protection of this album, since he wanted to rip it to his iPod. So he sent an email to the record company complaining about the whole thing:

And they replied first thing yesterday morning, saying that it was a cockup by the manufacturers, and they would replace the CD, and please send my address.

so I did, and this morning arrived a new copy, and a complimentary copy of the single. They didn’t even ask for the original, or proof or purchase.

Now that’s good PR.

One of the greatest bands on the planet is back with a new album after 8 years. No, I don’t mean Europe. I’m talking about Scottish lo fi heroes the Blue Nile who are back with a new album called High. I can’t wait to get my hands on it. The Blue Nile has been one of my favourite bands since their debut album A Walk Across The Rooftops was released in 1984, courtesy of hi-fi company Linn Electronics (!). They’re the perfect band (I imagine) when you’ve been dumped by your girl and have to walk home alone through Glasgow in the rain.

If you haven’t discovered this lovely melancholic band, who bring out new albums at glacial speed – only 4 albums in 20 years, let me recommend some songs. Here’s my top five:

1. Downtown lights (Hats)

2. Tinseltown in the rain (A Walk Across The Rooftops)

3. Wish me well (b-side on Happiness CD single 2)

4. Heatwave (A Walk Across The Rooftops)

5. From a late night train (Hats)

It is time for big media to give credit to non-traditional media and blogs (and each other) when they re-write stories. Here is a current example. Last Saturday, Dagens Nyheter had a short piece about the possibility that a programmer at SL (Stockholm Transport) had hidden a code in the journey planner on www.sl.se with the effect that a search between the stations “dödsknark” (death drugs) and “dödlig mat” (deadly food) would result in a trip from McDonald’s to McDonald’s.

This story was published on IT publication Computer Sweden‘s webpage on Sept 13, but DN made no reference to the source. And it turns out that the story was originally (?) posted on Sept 11 on the web site Buzz, run by internet consultants Bazooka. Computer Sweden made no reference to the source, i.e. Buzz. And there’s just no way that these two papers can have come up with this story without reading Buzz, or getting a tip of course (but a search on Google for “dödsknark” and “dödlig mat” links directly to Buzz). So either they’ve left out the source on purpose, or they just haven’t searched the web for the story.

Today, in the era of participatory journalism, a fine way of turning the grassroots against you is to nick their stories without giving credit. Eventually this has to stop. An idea is worth as much, no matter who came up with it.

Weird fact #1: this wasn’t a conspiracy from a programmer, but an unexpected feature on the web site, which suggest names of stations if you type in the wrong name. A search on terms like “smuggelsprit“, the web site suggest station “Sergels Torg”. More examples on IDG.se.

Weird fact #2: Bazooka, who runs Buzz, recently finished working on the website of the Swedish Union of Journalists.

Blogs are steadily going mainstream in the Nordic countries. Media articles about blogs sky rocketed in Sweden in August and to some extent in Norway, much thanks to “Rathergate“. The numbers for September are pointing in the same direction. (Stats via search on Retriever)