Who Will Break the Silence on “Charlotte Fakes”? Step Forward David Leggat!

The “Charlotte Fakes” phenomenon is something which could only have existed now – in an age where teh Interwebz allows people with an obsession interest in a subject to discuss and share information outwith the normal strictures of the media.

Professor Greg Philo, of the Glasgow University Media Group, believes that the problem with the media is not so much the differing stances it takes on issues but rather the refusal to cover certain topics at all, with this being a trait across the industry.

I wrote about Professor Philo and his thesis following a talk he gave to the Scottish Press Club and I applied his thoughts to coverage at that time (back in early 2012) of the Rangers story by the Scottish media. You can read the piece here.

We now have, in the Charlotte Fakes story, a perfect example, in a post-modern or meta way, of the subject.

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Scotland’s “McLeveson” Proposals Could Cover Every Blogger In The World!

We saw publication at the end of last week of what is already being dubbed “McLeveson”. This Scottish response to the Leveson Report makes remarkable reading. Contained within its urbane and staid language are proposals which could lead to regulation of all bloggers and tweeters in Scotland, where they comment, to any extent, on news of any sort and “gossip” about the famous.

The suggestions could see people being hauled in front of a Regulator to answer for tweets or blog posts, even where they were simply re-tweeting something else, for example.

In addition, there are worrying cost implications. Indeed the suggestion seems to be that all “significant news publishers” may have to chip in for the costs of the Regulator. The proposed definition of “significant” does mean only the major newspapers in Scotland. No. It could be me, or you, especially if you comment here or on other sites.

And we have another example of the apparent wish of the Scottish Government to extend its reach far and wide, as detailed below.