Mind the media

Starting this blog on a Friday afternoon in July doesn't really seem logical. Then again, that might just be appropriate. After all, if Mail & Guardian columnist Tom Eaton is to be believed, "the media has no mind, only a nervous system, and any direction it goes in is merely a reaction and not the results of a decision.” The media, Eaton suggestions, scurries around like little worker ants scrapping up specks of nourishment to feed the insatiable blob of idle consumption: “the royal reader, the queenly subscriber, whose every whim must be pandered to, whose interest must be sustained…” Well, despite what Eaton may think, there is indeed a smidgeon of intention, of actual rationale, in the inception of this blog. It is to be a space for people who care to talk critically about the media, in general, and exchange ideas about how to ensure the news media keep on, and keep on getting better. Perhaps starting that conversation on the day after bombs ripped apart lives along with parts of the London public transport system - and those who can and care are glued to the media for updates – has some kind of logic after all.