My thoughts from yesterday night:
Read the text…
Piss off 2016. You sucked balls.
Oh. My. God. What an effed-up year this has been. Goodbye and good riddance. #FU2016 as John Oliver said. He was right, this year was a bad vintage, it drove us stir crazy – just get outta my sight already.
But hang on, dead or alive, we’d better spin round and discuss it a little, or the rest of this page will be entirely blankety blank. Along the way, I’ve got to sneak in some tributes to happenings and people sadly departed this year.
Micro Influencers: A modern-day David & Goliath story
As the phenomenon of the online ‘Influencer’ continues to develop, a new aspect has emerged – the greater impact, effectiveness and ROI power of the Micro-Influencer.
Everything you think you know about Influencers is wrong. Forget the ones with the hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers, and focus on those with a fraction of the following – the latest data proves it. Here’s why.
Continue reading “Micro Influencers: A modern-day David & Goliath story”
Death of print is happening
There’s been redundancies at major newspapers in the UAE this year, one has been sold and now another has announced its closure next month. I predicted the death of print five years ago.
Why you MUST NOT become a car journalist!
Love what we do? Okay. But don’t do what we do. Just don’t. Here’s why…
I often have people – young lads mostly – come up to me and stammer out:
‘Shahzad Sir, you have the best job in the world!’
Continue reading “Why you MUST NOT become a car journalist!”
The Terrible Twenty-Tens
It’s going to take at least a decade for this cycle of prejudice, fear, resentment and hate to run its course. That’s if there isn’t a World War first of course. In which case we’ll all be dead soon anyway.
Trump’s election is being compared to the rise of fascism and Hitler in Germany. But Trump and Brexit are the symptoms of the same social malaise – frustration, helplessness, resentment and hopelessness brought about by the apocalyptic economic avalanche of 2007, that’s still reverberating today – perhaps moreso than ever this year in particular.
Keep the Desert Clean!
Enjoy the desert by all means, but take your filth with you, you disgusting people!
Thinking about Trump – and what it means for us all
President Elect Trump. Wow. How did that happen? He’s a reality TV star and a billionaire business man with a very dubious track record and no political experience. He comes across as a vile and vulgar person, a bully, a thug, a potential villain in a Bond movie. He is now the leader of the most powerful nation in the world.
I’m flabbergasted. I’m appalled, I’m confused. But I’ve been reading and watching a lot of comments and opinions about this. And I think I’m starting to get it now.
And what’s becoming apparent is that we can’t blame Trump voters and supporters for this. I don’t think it’s their fault. It’s ours for ignoring them.
Look, just hear me out.
Continue reading “Thinking about Trump – and what it means for us all”
Journalism today: ‘We may be generating heat. But are we really delivering light?’
‘We may be generating heat. But are we really delivering light?’
What a superb question by someone with the authority, credibility and experience to put a powerful voice to the concerns of all those who genuinely care for media, journalism and mass communication.
Helen Boaden, Former Director of BBC Radio wrote this in an incredible and fascinating analysis of the state of media and journalism today and where it’s heading in an extract of her speech in The Independent newspaper.
I’ve been struggling with the inevitable direction of journalism in this digital age for some time now, here is a voice confirming my fears from the heart of one of the last bastions of genuine journalism.
Remember me? Didn’t think so.
I’m about to blow my own trumpet here, so if you’re averse to brazen boasting I suggest you click off now.
