Other – Page 59 – Media Culpa

The Swedish alphabet just got longer

I read in Dagens Nyheter that the Swedish alphabet just got longer. This certainly does not happen every day. It now has 29 letters instead of 28, since “W” is now considered a letter of its own, as in most countries, and not just a variation of “V”. The reason behind the change is that the 13th edition of SAOL, the Swedish Academy’s dictionary of the Swedish language, has been published and a large number of words beginning with “w” has been added, the most important of course is “webb” (web).

w00t!

Now the shoe is on the other foot

Freelance journalist Gunilla Kinn about bloggers as media watchdogs.

Journalists think there’s no use in defending themselves since “you can never win your case against a blogger”.

(Journalisterna tycker också att det inte är någon idé att gå i svaromål, eftersom “man ändå aldrig kan få rätt mot en bloggare”.)

It used to be the other way around, no?

Aftonbladet copies VG’s blog success

Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet today launched a new blog hosting service for its readers, who are welcome to start their own blogs on Aftonbladet.se. The new blog service is a copy of Norwegian daily Verdens Gang and its successful service. Aftonbladet and VG are both part of the Schibsted group. VG are close to hosting 10,000 blogs and they have together published in excess of 50,000 posts so far.

Aftonbladet’s blogs allow trackbacks, a feature that competitor Expressen does not have. Both services are equipped with an “abuse” feature where readers can protest against inappropriate content, which in itself is an irony, in that newspapers normally are proponents of free speech. Aftonbladet also allows anyone to comment on the blogs while Expressen demands that you are a member. Aftonbladet also has a feature with tags that allows you to surf blogs by topic.

All in all, my verdict is: Aftonbladet-Expressen 1-0.

Who’s calling who a fatty?

Not only the Swedish tabloids are fascinated by the story of “Gizmondo-Stefan” Eriksson and how he crashed his Ferrari Enzo. The story is top news on the Washington Post’s web edition this morning (free reg. required) and many tv networks are reporting on the case.

“The press has really blown this out of proportion,” his lawyer said.

Sure, but it is primarily Aftonbladet that persist in calling Eriksson “Tjock-Steffe” (Fat Steve), a name he probably hasn’t been called in 20 years. Aftonbladet has called him Tjock-Steffe 24 times since September, compared to Dagens Industri (7), Expressen (4) and Computer Sweden (4). Quite interesting, considering the recent debate in Aftonbladet and other papers over hockey player Per Ledin who called goalie Tommy Salo “a fatty”. Apparently it’s ok to call some people fat…

RSS still unusual for marcom

The BBC’s press office has introduced RSS feeds for its public relations material, reports Journalism.co.uk. That’s good news, but the fact that we are reporting on this as some kind of news, unfortunately shows that we are still a long way from an RSS break through in corporate communications.

In Sweden most media use RSS, but there are not many companies that use RSS for external communications. Here are a few examples I’ve found:

Corporations:
– Arla
– Fortum
– HP
– IBM
– MKB Fastighets AB
– Linklaters (feed) Disclosure: this is my employer
– Redeye
– SCA
– SPSS
– SwedSec

Organisations
– Bodens kommun
– Företagarförbundet (feed)
– Företagarna Boden
– Nobel Biocare
– SCB (feed)
– SIDA (feed)
– Swedish Agency for Public Management (Statskontoret)
– Swedish customs (Tullverket)
– Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet)
– Uddevalla kommun

Do you know of any other feeds, please add them in the comments.

Technorati tags: RSS, PR.

Columnist demands “snark-protection”

This is quite a story, New York Post’s gossip columnist Jared Paul Stern has been suspended and accused of extortion. He is accused of “demanding an initial $100,000 payment from the investor Ron Burkle, one of the richest men in the world, followed by an annual $10,000 stipend” in order to protect him from negative publicity. Or as Jeff Jarvis puts it, “snark-protection”.

Bonus link: check out the photo of Stern here. It’s a man’s bag…