Media & Communication

Workers say tentative agreement was reached for first union contract after threats of walkout during gala, a major fashion eventWorkers at Condé Nast, the media empire behind Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ, announced a tentative agreement has been reached for a first union contract after threatening to stage a walkout during the Met Gala on Monday evening.The Condé Nast Union, which represents about 540 editorial workers, has been bargaining for a union contract since September 2022. It is affiliated with the NewsGuild of New York. Continue reading...

Union calls for end to politicians’ interference in state broadcaster amid debate over censorshipAn Italian union has called for political parties to be “eliminated from Rai” as journalists with the public broadcaster went on strike in protest against the “suffocating control” allegedly being wielded by Giorgia Meloni’s rightwing government over their work.The ruling coalition has been accused of influencing programming, including censoring themes that are not in tune with its rightwing stance. Continue reading...

Physical and online abuse, detentions, deportations and sexual violence – a global crackdown on women in journalism is intensifyingFemale journalists are at the “epicentre of risk” as attacks on press freedom intensify around the world.According to organisations representing women in journalism, the past year has seen an escalation of smear campaigns; racist and gendered attacks; detentions; deportations; censorship; and police violence levelled at female journalists, which is leading to a “chilling” silencing of women’s voices in the media landscape. Continue reading...

Versatile actor whose role as Yosser Hughes in the BBC’s 1982 series Boys from the Blackstuff made him a television starThe actor Bernard Hill, who has died aged 79, starred in two of the only three films to have won 11 Oscars. In Titanic (1997), he was the ship’s captain, Edward Smith, while in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003), he reprised the role of King Théoden from the previous instalment, The Two Towers (2002). Both parts drew on his grave, peremptory air, and his ability to be simultaneously fallible and resolute.It was his fearsome yet pitiful performance as the jobless labourer and single father Yosser Hughes, in Alan Bleasdale’s tragicomic BBC series Boys fro..

Playing unhinged head-butting Yosser Hughes in Boys from the Blackstuff made Hill a legend. But, from Titanic to The Lord of the Rings, his entire 50-year career was outstanding Some time in 1980, on the first sheet of a script that would eventually run to 221 pages, Alan Bleasdale typed the line: We see Yosser with his three children. He is leaning forward.When the jobcentre clerk explains he is “afraid” he can’t do anything, the pale-faced, dark-moustached man snaps: “Afraid? Y’ll be terrified in a minute. [Leans in.] Now sort me soddin’ Giro check out before I knock y’into the disability department.” Continue reading...

This is it! The Fifteenth Doctor is here – and he’s a dazzling, all-singing, all-dancing delight. If only Russell T Davies didn’t spend so much time spoon-feeding new fansChristmas specials don’t count. Intermediate trilogies where David Tennant is the Fourteenth-and-a-Half Doctor or whatever don’t count. The new era of Doctor Who, with Russell T Davies back as the showrunner and Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor, only really begins here, with the new season proper. The first double bill, comprising Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord, points to a stellar future for Who as a youthfully chaotic playground of the imagination, far more fancy of foot and light of outlook than it has been for ..

On stage and screen, self-referential works such as A Strange Loop and American Fiction are on the rise, with playful postmodernism a potent weapon in the fight against inequalityOfficers storm a ballroom, releasing a flurry of bullets that pierce through a Black man as he collapses in a pool of his own blood. Monk, American Fiction’s neurotic protagonist, is unarmed, clutching nothing more than an ill-gotten literary award. It could end here. Yet – spoiler alert! – in the final act of the recent Oscar-winning film its writers take us along for the ride as they toy with reaching for a romantic reconciliation with Monk’s disgruntled ex..

Israel has ordered a ban on Al Jazeera, suspending the Qatari news network's broadcasts in the country and access to its website. Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet made the decision after it deemed the broadcaster a national security threat, accusing it of being a mouthpiece for Hamas. Al Jazeera condemned the move as a 'dangerous decision' and vowed to take legal action. It has previously accused Israel of systematically targeting its offices and staffIsrael shuts down local Al Jazeera offices in ‘dark day for the media’ Continue reading...

The UK regulator has been criticised by grieving families and internet abuse survivors for failing to engage with themBereaved parents and abuse survivors who have endured years of “preventable, life-changing harm” linked to social media say they have been denied a voice in official discussions about holding tech firms to account.Mariano Janin, whose ­daughter Mia, 14, killed herself after online bullying, and the parents of Oliver Stephens, 13, who was murdered after a dispute on social media, are among those who have accused Ofcom of excluding them from a ­consultation process for tackling online harms. Continue reading...

TV head hopes programme will spark ‘a #MeToo moment for men’ ahead of two-part show on the Oscar-winning actorOne of the producers of a Channel 4 documentary that contains fresh claims that Kevin Spacey “behaved inappropriately” with men says it will be broadcast as planned on Monday, despite public denials from the actor this weekend.Dorothy Byrne, a former head of news and current affairs at the television channel, told the Observer that she hopes the new two-part programme, Spacey Unmasked, will prompt “a #MeToo moment for men” and start a wider discussion about standards of behaviour in working situations. Continue reading...

Analysis of Facebook data finds engagement with news is at an all-time low – due at least in part to changes to Meta’s algorithmsFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastMeta has refused to enter into new deals with Australian media publishers for the use of their content on Facebook, leading to fears it may again implement a ban on news content appearing on the platform. But an analysis of Facebook data suggests engagement with posts from news organisations is already at an all-time low, as memes fill the space.Meta has argued that news makes up just 3% of what people engage with on its services. Conti..

Trailers for fake five-episode series use broadcast clips to poke fun at Conservative prime ministersChaos, drama, sleaze and scandal – it sounds like the background to a prestige TV show, but it could also describe 14 years of Conservative government.It’s this overlap that Labour is riffing on as the party releases trailers for Chaos & Decline, a spoof five-episode series stitching together broadcast clips of low moments under Conservative rule that pokes fun at Tory MPs while telling the story of the damage wreaked on UK society and the economy under the party’s five prime ministers. Continue reading...

Singer says her country needs the opportunity to remind Europe of Russia’s invasionUkraine’s former Eurovision winner Jamala has said her country “cannot afford” to boycott the song contest because it needs the opportunity to remind Europe of Russia’s invasion.There have been calls for artists to refuse to participate over Israel’s inclusion in the music competition while the war in Gaza continues. Continue reading...

Foreign Press Association decries move under new law based on claim network is a threat to national security Israeli authorities shut down the local offices of Al Jazeera on Sunday, hours after a government vote to use new laws to close the satellite news network’s operations in the country.Critics called the move, which comes as faltering indirect ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas continue, a “dark day for the media” and raised new concerns about the attitude to free speech of Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government. Continue reading...

I used to be an avid user of TikTok, but the algorithm serves much less delight and serendipity than it used toTikTok is facing its most credible existential threat yet. Last week, the US Congress passed a bill that bans the short-form video app if it does not sell to an American company by this time next year. But as a former avid user whose time on the app has dropped sharply in recent months, I am left wondering – will I even be using the app a year from now?Like many Americans of my demographic (aging millennial), I first started using TikTok regularly when the Covid-19 pandemic began and lockdowns gave many of us more time than we knew how to fill. Continue reading...

With large language models needing quality data, some publishers are offering theirs at a price while others are blocking accessOpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, knows that high-quality data matters in the artificial intelligence business – and news publishers have vast amounts of it.“It would be impossible to train today’s leading AI models without using copyrighted materials,” the company said this year in a submission to the UK’s House of Lords, adding that limiting its options to books and drawings in the public domain would create underwhelming products. Continue reading...

Congress party’s Arun Reddy held over fake video of interior minister Amit ShahIndian police have said they have arrested the social media chief of the country’s main opposition party over a doctored video widely shared during the ongoing national election.Arun Reddy of the Congress party was detained late on Friday in connection with the edited footage, which falsely shows India’s powerful interior minister, Amit Shah, vowing in a campaign speech to end affirmative action policies for millions of poor and low-caste Indians. Continue reading...

This Morning presenter told his friend not to moan and gave him advice that ultimately proved fatalGyles Brandreth has said he blames himself for the death of Rod Hull, the entertainer who fell to his death as he was trying to adjust the TV aerial on the roof of his home.Hull, 63, famous for his antics with his puppet Emu, fell from a ladder outside his bungalow in Winchelsea, East Sussex, in 1999. Continue reading...

Viewing figures for the BBC One series are rising, along with bookings at travel companies that serve east AsiaNo celebrities, no luxuries and a miserly £20,000 in prize money. On paper the BBC One series Race Across the World never looked like a hit.And yet the travel programme, in which backpackers battle across distant sections of the planet, is now into its fourth season with audiences rising faster than a tuk-tuk driver can get you down Bangkok’s Khao San Road. Continue reading...

At 84, The Handmaid’s Tale author is as outspoken as ever. She talks about aging, culture wars - and why “the orange guy” can’t be allowed back into the White House “I’m the great sage on top of the mountain,” Margaret Atwood says with a smile, on a video call from her home in Toronto. “If you’ve lived to a certain age people think you know something because they haven’t got there yet.”At 84, most writers could be forgiven for taking it easy, but especially Atwood, after a tumultuous few years that have seen The Handmaid’s Tale become a hit TV series; the publication of its long-awaited sequel The Testaments, joint winner of the Booker prize in 2019; and the..

Daily Telegraph featured Jordan Knight as a spokesperson for his self-founded Migration Watch• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastAn anti-immigration TikToker was featured in the Daily Telegraph as a spokesperson for his self-founded “Migration Watch” but the News Corp tabloid failed to reveal his role as political adviser to a former One Nation MP.Last week, the Daily Telegraph quoted “Jordan Knight of Migrant [sic] Watch Australia” in an article which blamed the shortage of social housing in New South Wales on the number of “families from overseas”. Continue reading...

‘Intentions’ badges also launched, as dating app sector sees drops in share prices and moves to diversify “In the end it was the data that killed me,” says Penny* about her decision to leave the dating app Bumble. If she opened the app she might receive 100 likes, 25% of which she might be interested in. She would look at their profiles and write individualised messages; a few would respond, perhaps one would result in a date.“That’s a lot of effort to get one date,” she says. “It’s exhausting.” Continue reading...

The online world was meant to be an open system but has become dominated by huge corporations. If we are to revive it, that must endBrowsing through a history of online public messaging last week, I came across a magical photograph from 1989 or 1990. It shows the world’s first web server. It was Tim Berners-Lee’s NeXT workstation in Cern, the international physics research lab, where he worked at the time. On the case is a tattered sticky label, on which is scribbled, in red ink, “This machine is a server DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!”Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, had come up with the idea for a “world wide web” as a way of locating and accessing documents that were scatter..

The ninth and final series of the ever-inventive black comedy is packed with stars and cements its status as a classic. It’s such a shock America hasn’t tried to copy it yetOh, so weird. I thought they were meant to be more careful with these. Anyway I’ve been given a leaked script from the new – and final – series of Inside No 9 (8 May, 10pm, BBC Two), so I suppose it is my duty as a journalist to publicly leak it. Shame to spoil the series but that is part of the job. I take no pleasure in reporting this.STEVE PEMBERTON DRESSED AS A WOMAN: Ooh, are we doing a growing sense of horror in this one or a ludicrous farce? Oooooh! Continue reading...

Threats from the state have led many journalists across the world to flee their home countries to report from elsewhere. But for many the intimidation did not stop when they leftIllustrations by Joe McKendryFardad Farahzad, journalist, Iran International Continue reading...

Hit sitcom back for last time five years after dramatic cliffhanger that was watched by 11.6 million peopleThe last-ever episode of the hit sitcom Gavin and Stacey will be shown on Christmas Day, the BBC has confirmed.The show, which has been watched by more than a quarter of the UK’s population, making it the most popular scripted programme of the last 10 years, will make a final return five years on from a dramatic cliffhanger. Continue reading...

Liverpool manager tears into broadcaster over fixture scheduleKlopp on Fifa: ‘I probably wouldn’t survive in that sea of sharks’Jürgen Klopp has rounded on TNT Sports and accused broadcasters in England of contributing to the failure of Premier League clubs in Europe this season.The Liverpool manager was in the mood to settle a few scores before his penultimate game at Anfield, against Tottenham on Sunday, with broadcasters and Fifa among the targets. The Premier League has lost out to the Bundesliga for the extra Champions League place for next season owing to its clubs’ performances this season and, after Aston Villa’s home defeat in the Europa Conference League semi-final first..

Failure of Manchester venue to open has angered those who paid for travel and hotels for cancelled eventsThe repeated failure of the new Co-op live venue to open in Manchester has led to shows being cancelled at the last moment, gigs rescheduled, and has caused huge inconvenience to people who had booked non-refundable travel and hotels to enjoy events they had been looking forward to.It has, of course, though, allowed the British public to also enjoy one of its greatest pastimes – hilarious schadenfreude on social media. Not least because its general manager, Gary Roden, was forced to resign over the issues, not long after he hadn’t exactly endeared himself to organisations such as the ..

Simon Chambers’ film about his late uncle David makes for candid and compelling viewing. Along with one of David’s former pupils, and a fan of his film, he talks care, contempt and infatuation‘I’ve always liked the company of older people,” says Julian Clary, still smoothly beautiful at 64. “I like the fact they’ve lived a life they are often assumed not to have done.” He pauses. “What old people don’t know about recreational sex,” he continues, cadence familiar as a cuckoo, “you could write on the back of an incontinence pad.”There are plenty of those knocking about in Much Ado About Dying, a documentary about Clary’s old drama teacher. But David Gale – 86 when..

His youth support declining, the president needs ‘to be where the people are’. His account regularly mocks Trump – but remains silent on GazaIn Joe Biden’s TikTok debut, timed to the Super Bowl in February, the president answered rapid-fire questions like “Chiefs or Niners?” (neither, he picked the Eagles because his wife’s a “Philly girl”) and flashed the Dark Brandon meme. He got more than 10m views, so by pure metrics, the video was no flop. But to use one of TikTok’s favorite disses, for many gen Z viewers it felt “cringe” – even pandering. Worse still, the TikTok, captioned “lol hey guys”, made the rounds after Israel struck Rafah, a city in the southern Ga..