I'd like to say when TheMediaBlog.co.uk launched a year ago it was the result of months of planning. But the process can perhaps best be summed up thus:
"Bloody hell! I can't believe nobody owns themediablog.co.uk, I'm going to register that domain name and do something with it. Maybe a blog, about the media, in the UK."
That slightly abridged version of our early days belies a genuine desire and intent to get stuck into the many debates and conversations raging around the UK media, from the decline of print and traditional media's uneasy, love/hate relationship with social media, to the scandals, controversies and idiosyncracies unqiue to the UK media.
I was confident we'd have no shortage of material to discuss. And so it proved that our timing was fortuitous, a spate of major media stories hitting the headlines within weeks of launching. And these were not just stories in the media but stories about the media.
In July 2009, within days of launch, Guardian investigative hack Nick Davies detailed a series of allegations against the News Of The World, accusing the newspaper of hacking into the voicemail accounts of celebrities and public figures.
Come August The Observer was on the rocks - with fans launching the first of several 'save the media' type campaigns that later would inlcude BBC 6 Music (successfully) and the BBC's Asian Network (less so). It was a stark reminder that one of the most pertinent discussions about the media is the one which deals with survival - no more so than in when freesheet The London Paper announced it would be printing its last issue in the September of last year.
But if anything made us feel like we'd arrived on the media commentary scene just in time for an all-you-can-eat-buffet at the Media Diner it came in October when Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir suggested, just days before his funeral, that Boyzone singer Stephen Gately had died the kind of unnatural death reserved only for homosexuals - and in so doing had undermined the notion that same-sex couples could ever lead a happy, 'normal' life. Moir's spiteful remarks brought the full force of almost every rightminded individual down on both her publication and her poisonous brand of journalism and almost single-handedly defined the word 'Twitterstorm' - a definite theme for 2009 (as the Guardian v Carter-Ruck proved. Cue appearances on both Sky News and Channel 4 discussing social media's liberal sense of justice.
In November came a juggernaut of a media story that would rumble on well into 2010. Rupert Murdoch announced he was to remove all News International content from Google in an attempt to ringfence his revenue-generating editorial from the prying eyes of web surfers. It was an analogue response to a digital problem but also the precursor to the erection of Murdoch's paywall around the websites of papers such as The Times and The Sun.
And so to December and another theme of the past 12 months - superinjunctions. In a flurry of salacious tabloid over-excitement it was revealed that US golfer Tiger Woods had been bagging a birdie or two but was keen to keep the details a closely guarded secret, with a little help from his lawyers this side of the pond.
Cue much ire about heavy-handed censorship of the UK media. Of course Woods wasn't the only sportsman to try, and fail, to enforce superinjunctions upon the media. Later, in 2010, former England football captain John Terry also found himself beaten up by the tabloids after an attempted superinjunction blew up in his face.
January brought a new year, and a General Election year at that. So cue much media coverage of manifestos, advertising campaigns and political debates and party broadcasts and the inevitable drawing of party lines among the UK press. The Sun went Tory (yawn) The Guardian went...er Lib Dem (oh!). But it was in social media that real change was happening in the way elections will be covered henceforth. MyDavidCameron - a campaign to spoof the Tory party posters became on overnight hit among users of Twitter and Facebook and in turn became a media story (and source of multiple picture stories) in its own right.
In February we examined the success of rare print title bucking the trend of downward circulations - Private Eye. The short-sighted claimed it was because it wasn't cannibalising its print revenue by giving stuff away free online. The more insightful pointed to an almost unprecedented year of political scandal and posturing for its unrivalled team of satirists to get stuck into. It really is the content, stupid. Elsewhere February saw a terrible earthquake hit Chile and a truly awful piece of editing hit the Guardian shortly afterwards - one of many blunders to find notoriety on the pages of TheMediablog.co.uk over the past 12 months.
Onto March and one of our best read posts from the past 12 months as we second-guessed the tabloid response to an injury for England footballer Wayne Rooney. There is a lot the tabloids do that could best be described as 'news by numbers' and in this post we outlined exactly the kind of coverage we should expect of the red tops as they fussed and fretted over whether Wayne would miss the World Cup (if only he had).
March also saw a new format come to UK television - the all-party candidates debate. Much talk followed of who 'won', with each party proclaiming their man triumphant. However, court of public opinion suggested first Vince Cable and subsequently Nick Clegg had really stolen the show for the Lib Dems. Disappointment followed though when those 'victories' failed to shift the needle in their favour at the polls, the Lib Dems slipping back despite their strong showing on TV. Becoming deputy Prime Minister will have softened that blow for Clegg but did little to suggest TV debates have any value beyond entertainment for those already planning to vote, as turnout at the polls was also far lower than hoped.
Speaking of politics, April saw TheMediaBlog.co.uk publish the full results of a major piece of research conducted among our readers to establish the level of percieved political bias among TV news broadcasters. Any pro-Tory bias on ITV was soon addressed by one viewer whose rather forthright Tweet about David Cameron was accidentally aired by the channel following their leaders debate.
Not above marking other people's milestones, May saw us celebrate YouTube's fifth birthday with a trip down memory lane, looking at some of the videos that have made the world a better, or at least weirder and more interesting place. Meanwhile the Daily Mail was widely criticised for a rather weak kiss and tell story which appeared to have been published purely to undermine England's attempt to host the World Cup. Meanwhile our friends across the Atlantic were having enough trouble getting their heads around the location of the current 2010 World Cup.
And speaking of The Daily Mail and people struggling with some basic concepts - one hack got more than a little caught out by a fake Twitter account in June, leading to the publication of an entirely fabricated story about a recall for the Apple iPhone. It was excruciating reading for anybody with an ounce of common sense and journalistic training as the paper was humiliated online and across other media outlets for its single-sourced, fake-sourced, article. It was also our second best-read post of the year here on TheMediaBlog.co.uk.
Meanwhile with England drawn against 'Ze old enemy' Germany in the World the UK tabloids were showing their ugly and uncreative side with some predictable coverage (though even the BBC and ITV got in on the lazy national sterotype act). Here is your cut out and keep guide to being a tabloid editor during the World Cup.
Which all brings us right up to date - and a final closing mention for our best-read post of the past, the first, 12 months: BBC calls its own Facebook fans "saddos".
That story was picked up far and wide and showed in many respects the (small) sphere of influence I like to think we've carved over the past 12 months, from Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger tweeting about The Media Blog's end of year awards to the BBC's College of Journalism regularly linking to our posts and Journalism.co.uk including us in a list of 2009's best media bloggers and tweeters as well as their blog roll. Most importantly though we've enjoyed writing posts that anybody has found enjoyable.
Love it or hate it, we're delighted there are so many people who are as passionate about the media as we are. TheMediaBlog.co.uk is not run for profit in any kind of way, we do it for love and out of a genuine desire to be a part of UK media discussions.
Personally I am delighted that anybody reads our stuff, let alone the quarter-of-a-million people who have visted our pages over the past 12 months. And I must say a big thank you to everybody who has contributed, particularly those regular contributors on board since the beginning who give their own time to produce content for this blog. We're always looking for more contributors, so if you fancy getting involved, drop me a line will@themediablog.co.uk.
Here's to another year. I really hope you'll keep reading and let us know what you think.
