Director’s Blog

White People Like Him

The last time I saw the LSE’s main lecture theatre overflowing with 450+ giggling students was when the Queen came here. So what was the attraction of a geeky Canadian blogger who writes about organic coffee and camping?

Within a year Christian Lander’s Stuff White People Like blog has gone from a private joke for college chums to global brand with a book, charity t-shirts and a TV show in development.

The basic riff is that he lists lifestyle habits of upper middle class north Americans in an ironic, dead-pan style that mocks the cultural pretence of liberal metrosexuals in an affectionate and ultimately approving manner. (more…)

Martin and Michael

The sudden death of singer Michael Jackson reminds us of the often-ghastly and always compelling dance between news media and fame.

The BBC News struggled to get the tone right in its description of a best-selling freak and giant of popular culture. At one point last night Sky was not sure if he was in a coma or deceased. Twitter went into frantic overdrive and some functions collapsed. The tabloids knew what the message is: Jacko Dead

He may simply have died from the toll exerted by a damaged and damaging lifestyle. Or the poison of a warped mind (more…)

I have just been interviewed by CNN India about Jade Goody, which may sound a bit like asking Piers Morgan to comment on mystic hermits of the early Middle Ages. But in fact, I do know something about this subject and I think it matters.

I find it fascinating how journalists frame their coverage. “Is it right that she should make money out of her illness?” Well, duh, why not? The media has happily made money out of misery for decades. “Is this not all a fake media construction?” Well, duh, again. Has not 80% of the stuff in our newspapers and TVs always been a concoction in complicity between media folk and the rest of society? (more…)

The Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre has argued in a speech to the Society of Editors that the judges are using the Human Rights Act to limit journalists’ ability to report on ‘private’ issues such as Max Mosley’s prediliction for uniforms and spanking.

It is an excellent and entertaining speech that ranges widely across his career, the nature of journalism, and the legal problems faced by popular newspapers such as the Mail. (more…)

The Max Mosley case raised all sorts of questions about media and law but the debate about what we actually mean by “the right to privacy” went largely undiscussed. Is it time for a proper public inquiry? (more…)

Radovan Karadzic, co-architect of the Bosnian genocide of the early 1990s, and war crimes tribunal fugitive for the past 13 years, is finally under arrest. Polis Summer School student Doug Sarro reports. (more…)

Popbitch may not be the biggest celebrity gossip website in the world but it is one of the most interesting. Founder/boss Camilla Wright came to talk to the Polis Summer School, which in itself is an unusual assignment for a showbusiness journalist.

Popbitch does something quite simple. It gathers gossip from readers, publicists, hangers-on and the stars themselves and then puts it out as an email as well as on its website. It is a great (and relatively rare) example of a thriving online journalism business.

Camilla had some interesting things to say about the celeb biz: (more…)

A video of Fox News personality Laura Ingraham has been circulating in which she complains, yells, argues and moans about everything from makeup to words on her teleprompter being spelled wrong.  It is amusing, but why are so many journalists becoming the stories rather than reporting them? Polis Summer School student Rachel Thomas reports. (more…)

Tony Harrison’s new play, Fram, at the National Theatre reminds us that celebrity humanitarianism goes back a long way before Sir Bob, Bono and George Clooney. This rambling verse drama tells the story of:

the famous Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen who, with his suicidal companion, Johansen, makes a bid on foot for the North Pole in the 1890s. Though incompatible, they share a bear fur sleeping-bag through the long winter. Nansen, still haunted by Johansen’s ghost, is appointed to the League of Nations. As a figurehead of Russian famine relief in 1922, he conducts the first celebrity campaign, searching for means, however shocking, to make people care. (more…)

Three women occupy my mind today: Miss Bimbo, Natasha Kaplinsky and Polly Toynbee. Following the Polis Women and the Media event I have had my consciousness raised, as we used to say in the politically-correct 1980s. But now Women’s Studies have become redundant what has become of gender and the media? (more…)