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Janice Hadlow, Controller of BBC Four, has been named as Oxford University’s News International Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media (2006-20007), in succession to the satirist Armando Iannucci. The visiting chair affords figures in the broadcast media world an opportunity to explore and explain their understandings of the impact of the broadcast media on society. Hadlow’s four lectures after Christmas promise to be thought-provoking, especially her first (on Tuesday 21 January 2007): ‘The Importance of Being Serious – Why Serious Television Still Matters In The Digital Age’. Let’s hope that Oxford or the BBC might think about doing interesting with the lectures, like broadcasting them online?…

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So, welcome then, Al Jazeera English, the English language service of the (in)famous arabic 24hr rolling news channel Al Jazeera. There will be teething problems. There will be political disagreement about it. It will take time to build the capacity and audience and credibility of CNN and the BBC‘s News 24/World channels. And, quite frankly, there will be some bad or boring television.

Nevetheless, all this aside, today’s launch must be given an unqualified welcome. Diversity in news can only be a good thing. I will therefore be watching online until ntl get around to offering it to their long-suffering Dublin subscribers!…

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