Book reading benefits

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Fraudcast News has been out and about for three years now, making its way into the world without the benefits of a conventional publishing push behind. Without me exactly knowing how – the free PDF has been downloaded more than 10,000 times now and I’ve managed to sell a few hundred paperback copies both online […]

patrick chalmers

Economics teaching failing students and society, says Prof

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University economics departments around the world are failing their students by ignoring the real-world effects of their discipline, among them rolling financial crises and environmental destruction, according to Professor Clive Spash. “It’s basically a failure, we’re training economists who don’t understand the real economy,” said Spash, Chair of Public Policy and Governance at WU Vienna […]

Making case for Quakers to reach for their phone cameras

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I’ve been working with UK Quaker organisations over the last couple of years, first as a journalist writing article series for the weekly magazine The Friend and latterly in various initiatives aimed at encouraging Quakers to speak their work to the world as citizen journalists. I like spending time with Quakers – those I’ve encountered so far […]

Media bias against Scottish independence laid bare

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Yet another example of why Twitter is a hugely useful source of information. @DrDavidPatrick turns up as a follower of my @PatrickChalmers account – so I take a look at his profile. Up pops his excellent short film cataloguing and analysing the media coverage – sorry bias – of a year’s worth of newspaper coverage […]

Taking the medicine – disappointment in defeat

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So Scotland voted No to independence – I’m disappointed. I became engaged and excited at the prospect of an independent Scotland over the last few months, being a native, having done a reporting trip there, hosted a political debate and followed the campaigning with wonder and amusement at the creativity and verve on display. The […]

Quakers and Business review of Fraudcast News

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I was delighted to get a full review of Fraudcast News in a recent issue of The Friend magazine. Below is an excerpt while this a link through to the complete article. How Bad Journalism Supports Our Bogus Democracies – A Review An article by Elizabeth Redfern that appeared in the 4th July 2014 edition […]

Farage: good in parts, awful in others

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Good comment piece in today’s Guardian newspaper. Couldn’t help wading into the comments section as per the following: A more positive interpretation would be that the ineffectual attempts to destroy Ukip show the growing fragility of the carefully crafted management of what is sometimes called “the national conversation”. It suggests that in the future, there […]