MY MONTH IN MEDIA: JAMES GORDON-MACINTOSH

What I’ve read

A bit of everything for me - The Guardian and The Observer are weekday bus-ride in and coffee and croissant at the weekend fodder of choice.  The Observer’s monthly mags – the Food, Sport, Woman and Music Monthlies – are some of the best things to have happened in publishing for years, in my view.

Other than those, a read through one of the tabs is obligatory on a daily basis – to find out who’s writing what about who.  The Daily Mail and Daily Express I still struggle to enjoy reading – although the former is stunning journalism and a paper that understands (and to a degree, shapes) its audience like no other.

Magazine-wise, Wallpaper, Creative Review, Monocle and Esquire are my magazines of choice and the ones that I choose to spend money on.  For work, Campaign, Marketing Week and The Grocer are must-reads.

What I’ve watched

Stephen Poliakoff’s run on the Beeb has been the appointment-to-view stuff of the week.  Stunning story writing, beautifully filmed with amazing colour.  Snobby, undoubtedly, but amazing TV and what the BBC was invented for.

Other than that it is same old, same old.  Channel 4 News, BBC News 24 and Newsnight for news.  Top Gear, Ugly Betty, QI, Heroes for relaxation.

I’ve also been struggling to come to terms with 4OD – the download service from Channel 4.  Plan is to work through the whole of Shameless, then the IT Crowd and a spot of Spaced.  The whole idea of on-demand TV is fantastic.  It’s the practice that I’m struggling with.

What I’ve listened to

I seem to have grown up and graduated to Radio 4.  The Today programme still sets the agenda for a lot of the day – but has become lighter over the past few years.  Other than that, the classic magazine programming just works – from Woman’s Hour to You & Yours and all the way through to PM and the World Tonight.  Some of the finest broadcasting happens on R4 – from Saturday Live (a decent successor to John Peel’s Home Truths) to From Our Own Correspondent and Front Row.

Music-wise, I tend to listen to an iPod these days. Breakfast in the office is accompanied by a real mixture – Radio 1, Virgin, XFM, Capital, Heart.  The only thing I couldn’t cope with was Magic.  Afternoons appear to have become Chris Evans’ (a legendary broadcaster and a media maverick if ever there was one) home ground and he has re-invented himself wonderfully.

Where I’ve surfed

Online, a daily check of BBC News Online, GuardianUnlimited, Daily Telegraph TV.  Netvibes has revolutionised my life and has made it possible to peruse headlines across hundreds of pages all at once.

YouTube has kept me busy of late – enjoying the antics of a certain Cadbury’s Gorilla and the Wonderbra pastiche that followed.  Bebo’s Kate Modern has been fun to watch and observe.

Bloggers are also starting to take up more of my time – Russell Davies, Richard Huntington, Faris Yakob are all writing thoughtfully and intelligently about the media-saturated world that we live in.

UPDATE: for past editions and other Seventy Seven folks' picks, see here.

Comments

[James Gordon-MacIntosh]

It seems that "My Month In Media" has started a bit of a thing ... Ged Carroll has picked up on our column and now a handful of PR bloggers are scribbling up their media consumption for all to see ...

http://renaissancechambara.com/blog/2007/12/28/memewatch-my-week-in-media/

[James Gordon-MacIntosh]

Oh ... and Stephen Davies over at PRBlogger has done the same ... Check out his picks here:

http://www.prblogger.com/2007/12/my-week-in-media/

[James Gordon-MacIntosh]

So now Stuart Bruce over at Wolfstar has joined in:
http://www.stuartbruce.biz/2008/01/my-week-in-medi.html

And so too has Stephen Waddington at Rainier:
http://www.rainierpr.co.uk/blog/2008/01/meme-my-week-in-media.html

[James Gordon-MacIntosh]

It got really confusing keeping track of all the bloggers who have picked up on this meme in two places. If you want to see who else has got involved, go here
http://t4w.blogs.com/spinningaround/2007/12/my-week-in-medi.html