Transparency vs state security

Over the past few weeks there has been a battle raging between two of Britain’s best known newspapers – the Guardian and the Daily Mail. Sitting at opposite ends of the ideological and political spectrum, the Daily Mail, which leans to the right, and the Guardian have been clashing over the issue of national security.

In particular, the publications have fighting it out over whether it was right for the Guardian to publish the data leaked by Edward Snowden, which showed the US’ National Security Agency’s mass surveillance project.

The backdrop to this is that it comes at a crucial point in the ongoing debate about the future of press regulation in the country, triggered by the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids. Talking us through the story this week is former BBC journalist Lance Price; Chris Blackhurst, the former editor of the Independent; the Sun newspaper’s recently appointed managing editor Stig Abell; and Angela Phillips from Goldsmith’s University.

This week’s Newsbytes: Glenn Greenwald, the US journalist at the heart of the NSA scoop, has announced he is leaving the Guardian to head a new media start-up; Moroccan authorities have been urged to release a prominent journalist who has been imprisoned under terror charges; and a new report has revealed that so-called analysts who appeared on US networks as the government debated intervention in Syria had financial interests in the country going to war.

News junkies will be familiar with the media pundit who seems to be everywhere, on every story. These commentators appear to go from studio to studio, sharing their worldly opinions on whatever story is making headlines that day. Producers go to them because they are soundbyte machines and are at available at short notice – an ideal contributor for a journalist working on a tight deadline. But there is a flip side to this. In the second half of the show, the Listening Post‘s Nic Muirhead looks at the professional media pundit and what they tell us about the news industry. 

Advertisers have to be creative with new ways to get people talking about their product and the latest trend is called prankvertising. This involves a prank being played on members of the public and video of it is then put online. This week’s viral video of the week comes from a cafe in Manhattan, were customers are treated to a screaming woman with scary powers who is actually there to promote a remake of the classic horror film Carrie. It has raked in more than 40 million views online. 

Listening Post can be seen each week at the following times GMT: Saturday: 0830, 1930; Sunday: 1430; Monday: 0430. Watch more Listening Post