2012 April

“Public Business: A new way of supporting public interest journalism” – Maha Rafi Atal at Hacks/Hackers London

Maha Rafi Atal started her talk at Hacks/Hackers London by describing the cognitive dissonance of studying to be a business journalist, with the ethics and aspirations that involves, with the day-to-day reality of business journalism as it …

Unearthing some trends in the organ donor register

Since I last posted, I’ve been immersed in donor data – trying to tease out some interesting trends and perhaps, more importantly, attempting to find out what’s behind them. I have data going right back to the computerised register’s inception … Continue reading

One minute of investigation tips from Panorama’s Tom Giles

I grabbed Panorama editor Tom Giles at the So You Want To Be a Journalist event to get his tips on what people should do when they start an investigation. It may be the most productive minute of video you’ve ever watched.

Filming by Fran…

Giving data depth: analysing the NHS donor register

In the last post I introduced you to my data project on the organ donor register – and since then, the topic has cropped up again in the news agenda. Via a Google Alert, I electonically stumbled across an impassioned … Continue reading

IP policy at West Midlands universities part 2

TweetCross-posted from Student Intellectual Property Rights This post is intended to be a follow-up to part 1, which I posted previously, and will look at the IP policy of the University of Birmingham, University of Warwick, University of Wolverhampton and University of Worcester. … Continue reading

IP policy at West Midlands universities part 1

TweetCross-posted from Student Intellectual Property Rights Following on from my previous post, I narrowed down my study of university IP policy to West Midlands-based universities. As there are quite a few universities in the region, I will firstly be looking at … Continue reading

The Work Capability Assessment – Audio recording

“Disingenuous” is a word I find I only use and use a lot when talking about the DWP. The thought about audio-recording a WCA cropped up over a year ago and immediately gained the support of the illustrious Professor Harrington.  More recently, there has been a lot of upset due to confusion over how will […]

Get up to speed with issues in nursing with The Independent’s series

The Independent has been running an in-depth series on the ‘crisis in nursing’, by Christina Patterson. It’s a useful read if you want to understand how the profession and the wider NHS have changed through the 20th and 21st centuries, … Continue reading

How influential are re-takes on today’s A-level students?

TweetLast week, it was announced that Michael Gove wanted Universities to have a big influence on the curricula of A-level exams. With Gove’s requests to Ofqual ringing in university’s ears, it’s key to look at some of the elements that … Continue reading

VIDEO: Using parliamentary sources (Jon Walker)

Jon Walker is the political correspondent of the Birmingham Mail and Post, and Coventry Telegraph. Here he explains how to look for leads and useful information in written questions and answers, committees, consultations and other sources.