Lockdown reads: Great journalism and writing you might have missed, part 12 (November 2020)

Good morning and welcome to this months roundup of interesting news stories. I began this particular blogging project at the start of lockdown one as it became increasingly apparent that the floodgates had opened on rampant conspiracy theories, disinformation and all sorts of other related crap that was making it increasingly difficult to distinguish reliable news sources from partisan ones. I don't think I've been able to help rectify this problem in any way as it's clearly much, much bigger than me, and all I could really hope for is to create a small pocket of sanity on the internet. Let's hope media literacy gets added to the national curriculum sometime soon and that changes are made in the wild west of the internet to make it easier to find out who owns and controls websites, news publishers, newspapers and broadcasters. And what their various business and news agendas might be. With this in mind, please do read The Guardian's  account of an incident involving press photographers and London's Metropolitan Police in November. Journalists, including photographers, are classed as essential workers during Covid. Something that is regularly forgotten. 

There's been a lot of news about vaccines over the past month, and you might have been finding some of the information confusing, or just have felt a bit overwhelmed. There's also been an uptick in vaccination related conspiracy theories and misinformation too, which means Full Fact have had a busy month. I've tried to select a mixture of vaccine related stories that will help with all of this, so strap in and select those that pique your interest. 

Firstly, Full Fact can confirm that A Covid-19 vaccine is not being administered via Covid-19 nasal swab tests. Similarly, that the UK government is not proposing to make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory. You can read their assessment of government plans to monitor Covid-19 vaccines for side effects here. You can read about Full Fact, and other stories they've fact checked, here. If you're not sure about how vaccines work, New Scientist's Sam Wong in his Science With Sam series does a good primer on YouTube. Perhaps the most quirky vaccine story this month though was the news that Dolly Parton had provided funding for the Moderna Covid-19 trial. 

In other Covid news, New Scientist provided an analysis of concerns about a new strain of the virus found in farmed mink in Denmark. Delayed Gratification published one of their longform slow journalism reports about the impact of India's first lockdown earlier this year and Wired have published a great, tech orientated analysis of how well Taiwan have handled Covid-19. City Monitor, the New Statesman's new urban site, published a great piece of data journalism last week which took a microscope to unemployment figures across the UK, and revealed some surprises. In New Mexico, the challenges of arranging school for children in remote and tech starved communities is given thoughtful treatment by The Independent. 

Another data orientated story, in some ways, is the exit of Dominic Cummings from Downing Street, which The Bureau of Investigative Journalism wrote about here. 

Following the spotlight on Manchester, and Andy Burnham, in October, Helen Pidd wrote a thoughtful profile of Greater Manchester's Metro Mayor for The Guardian. The Manchester Evening News did a thoughtful piece about the human cost of Covid via stories of local unemployment. In a similar Mancunian unemployment zone, The Meteor wrote about a retraining scheme that is helping unemployed theatre staff find work retrofitting homes to tackle the climate crisis. In other Greater Manchester news, there's to be a second phase of consultation, in the wake of Covid-19, as regards the fate of local buses. 

Despite the increasingly bleak midwinter economic outlook, there have been some good business stories recently, including the launch of a new online bookshop to rival Amazon, designed to help local independent bookshops. It sounds a bit like the Rough Trade cartel, only with bookshops. The Manchester Evening News wrote about the venture here. There's also a new UK start up making oat milk, and an ongoing scheme to recycle crisp packets into sleeping equipment for rough sleepers. 

The BBC provided a good longform look back at disability rights activism in the UK here. 1843 have some lessons in losing, CJR wrote about the Substackeri, Wired wrote of the broken dreams, and broken bodies, of would be e-sport stars, City Monitor wrote about an interesting housing campaign in Berlin, The Guardian reported that police are investigating claims that TV's I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here my have released non native species of insect into the Welsh countryside. Sticking with insects, there are some Very Hangry Caterpillars out there, and The Verge have a gently hilarious tale of an AI camera that fell in love with a football referees bald head after mistaking it for the ball at a football match. 

All images by me

Lockdown reads: Great journalism and writing you might have missed, part 11 (October 2020)

I have over the past few months mused on the relevance of calling these monthly blog posts 'lockdown reads', given that the formal, UK wide, lockdown ended in June. Given that many of us were still under local lockdowns from June onwards (hello Leicester), it still seemed fair enough, and given that two of our four nations in the UK are once again under full Covid lockdowns, it feels even more relevant this month. I suspect that some of you will have slightly more time on your hands this week than you anticipated a month or so back and, if so, I hope you find something here to entertain and inform. 

We begin, inevitably, with COVID-19. The New Scientist did a good breakdown and analysis of the Imperial College study into excess deaths by country during the first wave earlier this year whereas The Guardian wrote a more cheerful piece about teenager entrepreneurs whose businesses and earnings have boomed during lockdown. 

Greater Manchester's ten council areas found themselves increasingly under the Covid spotlight in October, thanks to Mayor Andy Burnham's two week stand off with the Johnson government over funding for the introduction of Tier 3 measures here. This followed the introduction of Tier 3 measures in both Liverpool and Lancashire, both of whom received widely differing instructions on what could and couldn't stay open, as well as different financial packages. Lancashire went so far as to say that they felt they had been 'bullied and blackmailed' into accepting Tier 3 measures.

Given that Greater Manchester had already been under local lockdown since 31st July, with no financial package to mitigate the economic damage, it wasn't a surprise that October's announcement of new measures saw Burnham and council leaders decide to take a stand. The media fallout has been... interesting. 

Not only has Covid led to a bit of a crash course in geography for many of us (one of the more popular jokes doing the rounds in Greater Manchester back on 31st July was around Trafford having to finally accept it was geographically located in Greater Manchester, not Cheshire) it's created some weirdly iconic moments: That Civil Service Tweet, for example, the politicalisation of Barnard Castle, and - in October - the starring role of iconic Mancunian geographical backdrops such as Central Library and The Bridgewater Hall in Andy Burnham's increasingly exasperated press conferences. Helen Pidd, The Guardian's North of England Editor, also pointed to another unexpected phenomenon. The Manchester Evening News, meanwhile, wrote a suitably lively take on the whole standoff as it was continuing. They were also the first to write about that northern secession banner on Princess Parkway. New media startup The Mill have also been covering the standoff as it unfolded and last week they wrote about the ongoing financial destruction of the arts, and how it's playing out in a workshop in Ashton. In a broader sense, this World Economic Forum report offers detailed analysis of the future of work. 

In other Covid news, Imperial College London are starting vaccine trials in January, but the UK wide Covid tracking survey has gone really tits up in recent weeks. Oh, and Matt Hancock got his long Covid stats wrong. 

If September's Reply All episode on QAnon and the BBC's take on the build up to and long shadow of the Oklahoma City Bombing has whetted your appetite for reporting and analysis of conspiracy theorists, you might find The Mill's take on disinformation and panic during a cholera outbreak nearly 200 years ago a worryingly familiar read. See also EM Forster's The Machine Stops for the full dystopian take, if you've already binge watched that Netflix series inspired by Brave New World. 

Another big story this month has been the ongoing pantomime that is the US election, not so much partisanship as screaming civil war in the making. Into this chaos Narratively inserted a surprisingly positive take on the whole mess in the form of a story about Justine Lee and Tria Chang, co-founders of Make America Dinner again, in which they host dinner parties in order to facilitate civilised discourse between Americans of different opinions and from different walks of life. Feel free to revisit this one in the weeks to come.

Delivering food and friendship in a slightly different way on this side of the pond are FoodCycle, who featured in a piece on Wicked Leeks this month. Also Marcus Rashford, who hasn't forgotten what nearly happened with free school meals in the UK over the summer. In an innovative modern take on the historical practice of 'rough musicing', Tory MP's in Bury who voted against extending provision of free school meals to children over half term saw their constituency office decorated with paper plates and 'feed kids' signs last week. 

On the theme of poverty, the Manchester Evening News ran two harrowing homeless stories last week that both served to reveal the basic decentness of local humanity. In the first instance, a man took off his jeans and gave them to a homeless man outside a petrol station in Wythenshawe and multiple people have been trying to locate and help a distressed elderly woman found sleeping rough in Manchester. 

Ahead of Wales and Northern Ireland announcing their own 'Circuit Break' lockdowns, the New Scientist offered a calm discussion as to what exactly a circuit breaker lockdown might look like, and what the science says about them.

My Wales correspondent (ie my sister Jenni, who is reprising her role after a long absence) has been sending me reports on how the lockdown in Wales is going, including this hilarious protest over what does and doesn't constitute an 'essential' item. There was also a massive fuck up over sanitary towels in Tesco as well, which seems odd given pharmacies are allowed to stay open during lockdowns. The tone coming from the Welsh government seems to be that they're doing their best but that it's amazing how much potential their is for misinterpretation in the phrase 'essential items'. 

Over in Scotland, regular polling since March has indicated a strong preference for Scottish independence from the UK, which the New Statesman have written about this month. 

In lighter news, CNN reported that a giant ancient cat illustration has been found carved into a hillside in Peru. And finally, my current favourite headline of the year: Python tried to eat sleeping woman while being tracked by biologists. An honourable mention should also be given to Sky's baffling Brexit: Department for International Trade in soy sauce row after Great British Bake Off claim, which came courtesy of our Wales correspondent. 

Image of Thank you NHS and Key Workers banner pinned up by a basketball court in East Belfast by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash

Image of the River Irwell at sunset by by Matthew Waring on Unsplash

Image of child playing outside against a sunset by Sujeeth Potla on Unsplash

Lockdown reads: Great journalism and writing you might have missed, part 10 (September 2020)

Hello and welcome to this month's journalism roundup. It does feel as though the phrase 'lockdown reads' is still contemporary so I'm going to stick with it for now even though I know not everyone in the UK is under a local lockdown. It just feels like we are.

We begin this month's summary with the economy, and a shrewd piece of economic and policy analysis conducted by the New Statesman. They predicted at the beginning of September that the UK is sleepwalking into a jobs crisis. I suspect that their feelings on the matter haven't changed much since. 

Another sign of what might be ahead of us, economy and employment wise, was this surprisingly poignant tech story from Bloomberg, which revealed a trick Amazon delivery drivers are deploying to score more gig work. 

In other driver related news, The Guardian ran this devastating piece about the life and death of Mervyn 'Mally' Kennedy, and the fight by his fellow London bus drivers to get the protection they needed from COVID-19 earlier this year.

While no one could really be said to be having a 'good' pandemic, this piece from The Conversation reveals some good news about Covid inspired innovations in Vietnam over the past six months. 

Resident Adviser ran a thoughtful photo essay on Beirut's nightclub scene, post August's blast, and The Cut ran another of their much talked about, thought provoking personal essays this month. This time by model Emily Ratajkowski, concerning her fight to own her own image. 

Using humour to talk about a serious topic, 1843 magazine provided a guide to conspiracy theory slang. In a loosely related, much darker, note the recent BBC podcast series Two Minutes Past Nine looks at the long shadow on American life and culture cast by the Oklahoma bombing in 1995 and is well worth a listen. 

New Manchester media startup The Mill began strong last month with this penetrating analysis of why Rebecca Long-Bailey failed to become Labour leader. They also got the inside take on Manchester Metropolitan University's controversial student lockdown. You can subscribe to them for free or subscribe to a paid membership in order to help keep them going. Details and the end of each article. 

Until next month. Stay safe. 

Photo of autumn leaves by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

Lockdown reads: Great journalism and writing you might have missed, part 9 (August 2020)

Hello and welcome to part nine of my seemingly infinite monthly round ups of interesting and thought provoking journalism I've read under lockdown. The question of whether we are or aren't still under lockdown in the UK is one of many that will crop up this month, along with the wider issue of Covid (always). There's also a lot of music based content, which might (or, then again, might not...) lighten the load a bit. 

Despite the events of last week, I've not actually got any analysis of anti-racism and Black Lives Matter this month. Not because I've stopped caring, more because - from a journalism perspective at least - something like a ripple effect seems to be happening. 

From reporting on individual tragedies, a lot of coverage of the issue has spread out, like a ripple in a pool of water, to wider areas of discussion. This is not just a big debate that won't go away anytime soon, it's also become a series of specific discourses within specific professions and areas of life. Many of which I've highlighted with stories published over the past couple of months, many of which I will no doubt link to in the months to come. 

There has been some discussion this month about Stan culture, a particularly hardcore sub group of fan culture, and the impact it's having on the ability to have free and frank discussions about artists work within the music press. Junkee this month argued the case for anonymous music reviews, particularly when reviewing artists with a massive stan culture around them. The writer Hannah Ewens was interviewed by Bitch about her book Fangirls, which is due to be published in the US soon (it was published in the UK last year), and she also talked about stan culture and how it differs from fan culture. 

Also in music and subculture news, Waging Non Violence published an optimistic piece on how to be punk in a pandemic. There's also some lovely nostalgic musings on seventies punk in this piece for The Courier. Less lovely is the news that female British artists are massively underrepresented on UK radio. Vice are also maintaining that there's no such thing as independent music in an age of Coronavirus. 

Covid wise, there has been some interesting news stories this month. Local lockdowns kicked in in Greater Manchester, parts of Lancashire and parts of Yorkshire at the end of last month, and just over a week later the Manchester Evening News revealed that local contact tracers in Blackburn were having far more success contact tracing people who'd been exposed to Covid than the national scheme had. The threat of micro lockdowns within lockdown also had the MEN pondering the ramifications for local politics. In a sea of misinformation and fake news, The New Scientist provided a calm and dispassionate analysis of Russia's claims to have found a coronavirus vaccine. They also assessed Sweden's Covid strategy. You can read their Coronavirus essential guide here. As the return to school beckons for students across England, Ireland and Wales, Full Fact did a report on Covid transmission risks in schools. 

One of the biggest UK stories this month was the exams fiasco, with thousands of students seeing their results downgraded by a computer algorithm created by OFQUAL at the request of a UK government eager to prevent grade inflation. The Overtake produced a heartfelt response to the tragedy of thousands of students from deprived backgrounds seeing their predicted grades downgraded. Whereas the New Statesman concentrated on those ultimately responsible. 

Another big story to rear its head this month was immigration, with an unwelcome return to the Brexit wars and deeply unpleasant newspaper headlines. In the midst of all the heat and anger, Full Fact took the time to answer the question 'Do refugees have to stay in the first safe country they reach?' And the answer, from a legal perspective, is No. In other news, there's a man travelling across Europe in order to write the message 'Stop Brexit' with a GPS tracker. 

The New Scientist revealed that a number of cases of fatal cardiac arrests in the US could be masking opioid deaths. They also summarised studies that suggest mindfulness meditation can make depression and anxiety worse. 

The i's housing reporter, Vicky Spratt, wrote a very though provoking piece about the increasing trend for converting shipping containers into housing, and what it's like to actually live in one. 

Vice, meanwhile, were one of the first to report on the disputed election in Belarus, and specifically on the claim that the internet in the country was tampered with during the vote. 

Shani Silver accurately satirises the 'Morning routine', Sarah Ditum swears off journalism as a career, and we end this months series of lockdown reads with a juicy deep dive into the original fake news network. 

Wash your hands now. 

Photo one by Rosie Kerr on Unsplash

Photo two by Ben Wicks on Unsplash

Lockdown reads: Great journalism and writing you might have missed, part 8 (July 2020)

As the fallout from George Floyd's death and Black Lives Matter protests continued, a number of stories this month have shone a light on the ways race, and racism, can interact with other inequalities and forms of prejudice. Vicky Spratt, the I's housing reporter, wrote a powerful piece about tenants rights in informal renting situations and how they intersected with poor housing and health stats for BAME communities in the UK. 

Journalist Marvarine Duffy gave an enlightening and powerful interview to BJTC about why BAME journalists need to be being hired as journalists, not 'diversity hires'. If you want to read more about the number of BAME journalists in the UK who are quitting newsrooms, you can do so here. 

In a related journalism note, and also what feels very much like a case of making something positive from a negative situation, a London woman is launching a couple of magazines for young black boys and girls.

Over in the US, Buzzfeed News asked What Happened In Bethel, Ohio? scene of one of the most vicious stand offs between BLM protesters and hard right nationalist protesters. This is a thoughtful, unexpected piece, and the demographics of it may well surprise you. And sadden you. 

Two UK publications who have been providing particularly insightful, and helpful, coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic, both in the UK and around the world have been Private Eye (who have turned their coverage of the UK pandemic over to their medical columnist MD, aka Dr Phil Hammond) and New Scientist, who have covered the pandemic with appropriate levels of dignity and scientific dispassion. Private Eye publish a limited amount of their magazine content online, but I would recommend a subscription to them if you can. You can find details on their website. This month New Scientist wrote a thoughtful piece about grief and Covid-19, and explained why Covid-19 is making both HIV and malaria outbreaks more deadly.

I often find, especially in the past four months, that friends and family don't really understand how the press, and journalism, works. There is a tendency to see only the bad in the profession (and there certainly are plenty of examples of bad journalism) but, given the extremely parlous financial state journalism is in at the moment, I would urge you to ignore and not give oxygen to clickbait, and to champion instead those organisations who I would deem strong examples of 'responsible journalism'. As well as Private Eye and New Scientist, I'd add to this list The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, who - this month - published their investigation into Europe's response to coronavirus. Since this investigation was published, EU ombudsman have launched an inquiry into failings around Covid-19. 

I'd also include 1843, a division of The Economist, who published this harrowing but necessary long read on the Covid-19 pandemic in London, as seen through the eyes of doctors, nurses and paramedics. If you'd like to hear more from hospital staff about what it's really been like during the pandemic, I would also recommend listening to The Coronavirus Frontline Special over on BBC Sounds. The original series, The Coronavirus Frontline, was recorded by a doctor at Bradford Royal Infirmary on his smartphone, then edited into programmes by the BBC World Service. It was broadcast in March, April and May. This special episode acts as a catch up, filling you in on what's been happening at the hospital since May. 

The Economist has been hit hard by the economic fallout from the pandemic, and usually its digital content is only viewable if you have a subscription, they have, however, made their Covid coverage free, but you do have to register to view it. 

In other Covid related news, my old editor at CityMetric, Jonn Elledge, is doing sterling work at the New Statesman with this piece about politicians and their failure to wear face masks while on the publicity trail.  He's also been asking why the government won't extend the ban on rental evictions. 

The issue of masks has caused a lot of debate (to put it politely) in the UK, and beyond. One of the saddest stories to read this month was the tale of Phillippe Monguillot, a French bus driver, who died after being attacked by passengers on his bus who refused to wear face masks. 

In other Covid related news, independent fact checkers Full Fact have formally raised their concerns about inaccurate testing data with the regulatory authorities. The Independent ran a harrowing story about five women who were found dead in Doncaster in the space of two months, giving a face to anonymous figures about the increase in domestic violence in the UK under lockdown. Garment workers overseas have been impoverished by the cancellation of orders without financial compensation to suppliers by UK fashion brands, as the blog Treehugger reports. 

Much has been written about e-scooters and 'micro mobility' travel of late as various countries around the world seek to ease lockdown and find ways to transport a public who have been frightened off public transport but who no one wants to see take to cars en masse. Paris Marx at CityMetric provides a detailed analysis as to how helpful e scooters and e bikes will be in the months and years to come. 

Those of you in the UK will be aware that Greater Manchester, parts of Lancashire and parts of Yorkshire were put back into lockdown at midnight on 30th July. The announcement itself was made by Matt Hancock, the health secretary, three hours beforehand, on Twitter. 

In the chaos, rage and general resigned fed up-ness that ensued, Hold The Front Page pointed out that it was local newspapers who the confused and angry general public turned to in seeking information. Jennifer Williams, Politics and investigations editor at the Manchester Evening News, tweeted their story, with the comment that maybe the Johnson administration should factor in the local press when making sudden policy reverse ferrets late at night. 

Muslim residents in Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Yorkshire were particularly annoyed by the suddenness of the decision, not just because it was taken and implemented just as Eid celebrations were due to start, leading many to ask "Would they have done this at 9pm on Christmas Eve?" but also because some politicians, like this councillor, have been blaming BAME communities for the rise in cases. Making for a tense and angry past couple of days all round. 

Expect more on the fallout from the new lockdown next month.

Over in Japan, they're trialling a number of autonomous robots in service sectors, partly for Covid-19 reasons, partly because they were thinking of doing it anyway. You can read about the convenience store robot here and the fast food robot here. The Tokyo Olympics might be off for this year (and many suspect will never be held in 2021) but the wearable air conditioning device created for the games has launched. Oh, and the UK government is having chats with Japan about 5G. If you're interested in reading more stories about Japan, I recommend you subscribe to the Tékuni newsletter, which is all about Japan, usually from a tech based angle. 

I've a couple of music stories for you this month, celebrating a new talent and some legendary talent. The new talent is Celeste, the BBC Sound of 2020, who is interviewed by DIY here. There's also a piece about the new Go-Go's documentary in USA Today here, which is a pretty deep dive into the band and why they were/are so important. 

Finally, there were a number of stories I read and found interesting this month that didn't really fit, thematically with anything else that was going on or, if they did, only indirectly. To begin with, a new Polish start up has created an alternative to plastic, as reported by Wicked Leeks, analysis of data detailing who was/is involved with Extinction Rebellion protests challenges the stereotype of who makes an XR protester, as reported in New Scientist, and Nesrine Malik wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian about why 'cancel culture' is really about elites losing power in the social media age.

The Columbia Journalism Review featured a hard to read but extremely thought provoking piece about how coverage of sex crimes in Spain has opened debates about revealing identifying details in the press. Women's Health (who definitely aren't my usual reading matter) ran a piece with a woman who self describes as 'fat and fit', who feels left out of debates around wellness. This piece is particularly pertinent in the context of the UK governments anti-obesity drive, and was signposted to me by Sian Meade-Williams at Freelance Writing Jobs, a newsletter you can subscribe to here, should you be looking for a freelance writing job. 

An American Tragedy, by Thacher Schmid, was published over on Narratively last month. It's a long, complex, desperately sad but also thought provoking read. Sit down with a hot drink and a biscuit, and soak it up. 

And finally, Tune In, Drop Out by Ann Babe from Rest Of World reports on solo living opt out culture in South Korea and asks if honjok's were both more prepared for life in lockdown, and if they are coping better, particularly as South Korea's economy increasingly shapes itself to their needs. Depending on your take on this, you'll probably be either appalled or delighted by her findings. 

Image one Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

Image two by SJ Objio on Unsplash

Image three by Marat Mazitov on Unsplash

Lockdown reads: Great journalism and writing you might have missed, part 7 (June 2020)

We, inevitably and rightly, begin this months round up of great journalism and writing from June 2020 with the murder of George Floyd on May 25th in Minneapolis, USA, and the fallout and consequences of that tragedy.

At the beginning of the month, as the momentum and snowballing of the protests in the US and beyond became increasingly apparent, and a great wave of anger and pain broke across the world, or, certainly the western world, many publications began publishing guides as to how white readers could seek to educate themselves about racism, anti-racism and privilege. Refinery 29 was one, gal-dem was another, and it's worth reading both to see how these two different publications, both with young female audiences, one predominantly white, one predominantly black, handled this. In a side note, it's also worth mentioning that Refinery 29 was one of the publications to be directly affected by the fallout from the #BlackLivesMatter protests, and from employees speaking out against the actions of supposedly 'woke' employers.

So much has been written about racism, anti-racism, #BlackLivesMatter and George Floyd this month that I've decided to feature some of the more unusual and varied takes on this ever evolving story, and related stories. Not to put the issues in a nice, tidy box, but just because there has been so much that has been written and I want to show you the very best in the way of personal essays, reporting and features. The media has often been fingered as racist, oftentimes rightly, but quality journalism can also make readers pause and think. And that's what I'd like to demonstrate with the following examples.

US citizen Imani Bashir wrote a moving, evocative, and very sad personal essay for the New York Times about her decision to raise her young son outside of the US. In a similar vein, Bryan Lordeus, wrote this viral, poetic manifesto just two days after George Floyd was murdered. Recognising the need for space for an outpouring of rage and grief (in this case) in the US, Medium created a special section for the moment. If you'd never heard of Juneteenth until recently, Texas Monthly ran a moving personal essay on the subject of the anniversary, and what it means.

So often over the past month journalism Twitter has pointed to the discrepancy between post-Floyd callouts for BAME journalists write for publications, and the overwhelmingly white (and, let's face it, posh) make up of journalism as a profession: We don't want to be a novelty you turn to in moments of tragedy, we want consistent work, respect and commissions seemed to be the message.

One publication putting it's money where it's mouth was seemed to be 1843, who have made a good start by commissioning four African-American photographers, who were photographing the #BlackLivesMatter protests in the US, to write a collective photo essay for the magazine about their experiences of the protests and of photographing them. They also ran a thoughtful essay on the long shadow of confederacy as regards street names in the US. Rather more depressingly, The US Press Freedom Tracker has worrying news about the number of reporters and photographers in the US who have been arrested while reporting on the protests, and New Scientist had the figures on how many Black American's have been killed in the US when compared to white Americans. Over at CityMetric, new editor Sommer Mathis proposed that the US couldn't police its way out of this.

If you'd like a neat roundup of how Europe has covered George Floyd and #BlackLivesMatter, EuroTopics has a good summary. The European Network Against Racism also has some handy data on the impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities across Europe.

More positively, New Scientist wrote this month that Scientists around the world were striking and protesting against racism in academia.

In the UK, BBC Reality Check (the BBC's fact checking division) provided figures on the number of people who have died in police custody in England and Wales. In case you're wondering, Scotland and Northern Ireland collect their own figures separately. Big Joanie's Stephanie Phillips wrote a thoughtful piece for Wire about understanding blackness to understand black art. while Jonn Elledge pointed out in a piece for the New Statesman that the history of the British Empire is not being taught in British schools. 1843, meanwhile, had an interview with the only BAME member of the Colston Club. One of the most moving and upsetting pieces, for me, this month was a personal essay by UK Olympian Anika Onuora for Huffpost Personal UK about her experiences of racism as an athlete in the UK. Over in Manchester, citizen journalists The Meteor ran an interview with a man who was recently tasered by Greater Manchester Police, who has clearly had a 'There but for the grace of God' moment when hearing about the death of George Floyd. And The Guardian had the only interview with Reni Oddo-Lodge.

As has been the case with Covid-19, there has been a lot of disinformation and misinformation floating around about #BlackLivesMatter. The Manchester Evening News unmasked a particularly distressing bit of complete bollocks from Facebook, and independent fact checkers Full Fact investigated a similarly divisive bit of social media related nastiness.

Finally, on the subject of #BlackLivesMatter, Yomi Adegoke wrote a thoughtful essay for Vogue on how we need to seriously rethink our current mindset of 'pics or it didn't happen' when it comes to activism.

The other big story this month, of course, has been Covid-19. Surely there's nothing more to say? Well, you'd be surprised.

On the 3rd June, New Scientist attempted to answer why there have been so many deaths from Covid in the UK. Britta Shoot over at CityMetric wrote a sensitive and thoughtful essay about the appropriate ways to memorialise the victims of a pandemic. With the holiday season in ruins, 1843 turned its thoughts to how best to holiday in a pandemic. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism were busy asking a question Matt Hancock clearly didn't want asking this month: What happened to that track and trace app then? BBC Future, meanwhile, had a riveting piece on lockdowned residents who had tapped into their inner Miss Marple and Poiret tendencies during lockdown.

As restrictions began to be lifted in the UK, Nicola Slawson wrote for iNews about why it was wrong to sneer at shoppers queuing up outside Primark. Over in Manchester, The Meteor ran a piece about residents and cycle activists frustration at the lack of temporary cycle lanes being put in place (as promised) as the UK started to come out of lockdown. And what happened next. Wicked Leeks asked whether Covid-19 has killed the zero waste shop, and urged shoppers to shop local.  The New Scientist, meanwhile, had an interview with the editor of The Lancet, Richard Horton, which included a call for an international enquiry into Covid-19. Narratively, meanwhile, had an essay about a group of hippies who've spent the past six months in quarantine in a kind of new age haven.

Covid-19 misinformation and disinformation continues to be rife, and Full Fact, the independent fact checking service, have been working flat out checking and challenging them. Some stories they've got to the bottom of recently are the exact deal that student nurses who volunteered to work early for the NHS were offered, the exact deal that French care workers have been offered by their government, and whether the UK government really were planning to inject UK residents with tracking microchips or not.

And, finally, I have managed to find some really good stories that aren't about racism and anti-racism or Covid-19, which you might enjoy.

Hengtee Lim aka Snippets wrote the kind of story/potential screenplay that really subtly gets under the skin, and which screams TV or film adaptation. 1843 explained how and why satire in Hong Kong is under threat, and Huckmag had an essay on How AIDS activists used art to fight a pandemic. That is, the AIDS pandemic. In an example of a quality essay about a faraway privileged world, 1843 had a searing account of The secret economics of a VIP party.

Image one by Koshu Kunii on Unsplash

Image two by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Image three by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

Image four by Tom Barrett on Unsplash

Lockdown reads: Great journalism and writing you might have missed, part 6 (May 2020)

Note: This post was written, and scheduled for publication, just after the tragic death of George Floyd in police custody in the US. It was written just before the protests and outpouring of rage and grief that followed his death. Rest assured, June's post will feature a lot on George Floyd. I will not forget.

Welcome to this months roundup of interesting reads under lockdown. As you may have guessed, there will be a lot of Covid related content again this month but, not necessarily in the way you might think.

In fact, this months big story in many ways (aside from That One) was all about the media itself. Specifically, the ways in which an industry with a deeply flawed business plan (increasingly and fatally reliant on advertising) is being brought to its knees by the pandemic. Obviously, the media isn't the only industry negatively impacted by Covid but, my God was this the month things really started to go horribly tits up for it. 

An early sign of what was to come, in some ways, was heralded by a mercilessly funny but cruelly accurate pice of satire that appeared in the Medium publication, Sentimental Garbage, on May 1st, in which the author pondered what life might have been like for The Pied Piper of Hamelin as a struggling freelance worker. A week later, Rachel Charlene Lewis at Bitch Media took a more positive tone on the freelance journalist's plight by pointing to the ways in which Twitter had united journalists (especially freelancers) fighting for better pay and conditions. The role of the freelance journalist is often misunderstood so, with this in mind, Farah Khalique published a handy list of the ways Coronavirus had busted myths about the role over on Contently. Then, mere days later, the apocalypse happened, and many of those who had felt they were relatively safe in staff jobs at respectable, long established publications, found themselves without a job. 

A couple of weeks later, Laura Snapes at The Guardian tried to sound a positive note for the music press and how it was coping, and the i ran a lighthearted piece on how they'd adapted to lockdown, but there was no way anyone could pretend that the media wasn't scarily vulnerable. For some, such as Frankie Boyle over on Twitter, the destruction of the mainstream media is a moment to rejoice, but for those expecting to see the back of The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, or The Sun, they will be disappointed: The owners of those papers have bottomless pockets, and Coronavirus will have barely made a dent in their personal profits. 

In the meantime, while I never read Buzzfeed's UK edition, I will mourn the loss of the paper edition of The Economist: A calm, balanced, professional magazine with intelligent, responsible journalism, which will now only be available digitally. Similarly, it's unlikely that a responsible journalism organisation such as The Bureau of Investigative Journalism here in the UK will be untouched by Covid, even though it doesn't rely on the advertising model. As to why they are worth supporting, and championing, their recent investigations into the UK governments 'Everybody In' emergency housing of the homeless population provides a very good case for independent, honest, professional media. 

In happier news, Positive News (the clue is in the name) reported on the way in which community radio has become a lifeline for communities in a time of Covid, while Jonn Elledge wondered if cities should turn golf courses into parks during lockdown over at CityMetric. Also in the spirit of how we might use this moment to pause and think about creating a better world for ourselves was this piece in New Scientist, which made a balanced, scientific case for Universal Basic Income. 

With the furlough scheme opening for applications in May, and many workers having faced layoffs and financial hardship, thoughts turned increasingly to the workplace for many. Some have spoken despairingly of the lack of work available for applicants at the moment (it's not that bad; I have been looking this week) while many will not be searching for work at all. One area crying out for workers is the farming sector, and there has been a recruitment drive in recent weeks to get enough workers to ensure the crops are picked. Wicked Leeks Matt Chittock spoke to farmers and workers, who told him the Land Army rhetoric being used by the government is not helping their cause. Over at the Tribune, union activist Charlotte Bence was giving readers a short lesson in workers rights as UK employers were being encouraged by the government to get workers back to work.

There has been a rise in community activism, organisation and mutual aid initiatives in the UK thanks to Covid, which has not gone unnoticed. Rebecca Solnit wrote a long read for The Guardian about  mutual aid this month, which is worth a read. Similarly, Wired ran this piece about a citizen science project in Baltimore in the US, which is paying out of work residents to analyse images from the Hubble Telescope. In the Highlands of Scotland meanwhile, a rewilding project is still taking place, despite the lockdown and Positive News wrote about it. They also wrote about a London charity that turns food waste into meals and how they have adapted during lockdown. 

It would be hard to get through a survey of May's journalism without mentioning Dominic Cummings, and many of you will be inwardly groaning at this point. If you must read about it one more time, Hugo Rifkind does a good opinion take on the whole sorry saga over at The Sunday Times, and Full Fact have forensically fact checked his explanation for his behaviour to see if it adds up when taken against the official government advice. 

There were some non-Covid stories this month, but a lot of them are tragic ones, such as the death in custody of George Floyd in the US (a story very much evolving as I type), and the protests in Hong Kong. Hong Kong activist Wilfred Chan wrote this piece, The Infinite Heartbreak of Loving Hong Kong, for The Nation on the 23rd May. There will be a lot on George Floyd, and the fallout from his death, in next month's roundup. 

And finally, perhaps suspecting that many of their readers were yearning to escape from the world, 1843 ran a long read on British artist Sam Winston, and his quest to escape from information overload.

First photo by kilarov zaneit on Unsplash

Second photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Lockdown reads: Great journalism and writing you might have missed, part 5 (April 2020)

As we reach part 5 of my series of lockdown read tips, I'm inclined to paraphrase Bette Davis: Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride...

Needless to say, most of the interesting pieces I've found to read throughout April have been coronavirus related. The global pandemic has seeped into just about every area of journalism you could imagine (and some you perhaps couldn't...), which might have led to a grim reading list were it not for my constant need to find journalism that comes at things from a different, often quirky, frequently whimsical, angle.

In compiling my list of articles for this month, I've tried to include a mix of the serious and the whimsical, the long and the short, the personal and the analytical. I've also tried to find some non Covid content, which has been pretty difficult, but I've found at least one.

It seemed easiest to arrange the stories broadly chronologically rather than thematically this month as that seemed to best show the continuing, evolving debates, plus also give an insight into the prevailing mood in the UK and, on occasion, further afield.

At the beginning of April the BBC ran an unusual human interest take on the pandemic with this tale of junior doctor turned Miss England, Bhasha Mukherjee, who has returned home early from her beauty queen duties to serve the NHS.

Over at The Independent, Annie Lord penned a sweet salute to the film Frances Ha! and it's portrayal of female friendships.

We couldn't get through a discussion of either Covid or current affairs in April 2020 without touching on panic buying. While a lot of the coverage was prurient, voyeuristic and tended to make the situation worse, 1843 flew the flag for grown up journalism with this international take on panic buying, and balanced it with their similarly international take on coronavirus slang. Another take on how coronavirus has impacted the food sector came with this encouraging report about a food union in Bristol over on Wicked Leeks.

In other news, the 375 bus route was finally saved this month.

Not the 375

In common with many news outlets, the Manchester Evening News have been highlighting good coronavirus stories, including this one about a family of five who seem to be looking after a whole street in their area. The Onion Collective has a more in depth take on the extent to which community activism and social enterprise has stepped in to cover gaps during this crisis, while Manchester climate activist Charlotte Lastoweckyi penned a vividly moving blog post about finishing school during a pandemic.

As the UK began to adjust to life under lockdown, social media was saturated with lockdown baking pictures, daytime drinking allusions and loungewear. Meanwhile, Teresa Mistretta was busy creating an art gallery for her guinea pig in her house.

5G and coronavirus conspiracy theories have cropped up a lot this month, to the extent that the UK's independent fact checking site Full Fact felt compelled to do a deep dive on just where the theories had originated from.

Meanwhile, Singapore were getting creative with their coronavirus public health messages.

If, like me, you've had cause to think that your government hasn't been entirely fair in it's handling of the coronavirus induced employment and self employment crisis, you might find this analysis of how different governments around the world are handling the sharp rise in unemployment to be an eye opener.

As societies find themselves increasingly polarised into two groups: Those who are key workers and those who are staying in, spare a thought for these newly elevated key workers both in and beyond the medical professions. It has certainly not been a picnic for them. Buzzfeed ran a sobering piece on what it's like to be a supermarket worker at the moment, and it's a terrifying read.

Some vegetables, in happier times

In a time of self censorship and increased scrutiny of the press and of broadcasters, citizen journalism tends to come into its own, telling the stories that would often be regarded as going against the wider narrative or complicating it. Manchester's The Meteor haven't been the only ones to point out that Manchester's homelessness problem hasn't been solved by the lockdown, with many homeless still on the streets, but this profile of the Street Meet soup kitchen and their work under lockdown reveals the complexities of the wider story. This piece focusing on organisations working with the most vulnerable in Manchester, and the issues they are facing under lockdown, is a good companion piece.

The Meteor also ran a compelling piece showing the human face of those stranded abroad during the lockdown.

The wellness industry has been busy during lockdown but, if you are struggling mentally, this article from the New Scientist, in which seven different mental health experts provide tips on coping with lockdown should cut through the bullshit.

Full Fact did some sterling work untangling allegations that the UK government was running fake NHS Twitter accounts for disinformation purposes, while Jonn Elledge at the New Statesman just wants billionaires to let go of their Batman complexes.

Two excellent long reads on the human face of the coronavirus were published this month. The first, from 1843, is a flawless piece on the Diamond Princess and what it was like to go from a luxury cruise passenger to being at the heart of an epidemic. Much of the reporting of this story in the UK at the time tended to focus a lot on pandering to stereotypes of Brits abroad and, at times, came across like a bad seventies sitcom. This piece cuts through all of that and gives a much more nuanced, slow journalism take from a multi person, international perspective.

The second high quality coronavirus long read is from The New Yorker, and it tells the story of Juan Sanabria, one of the first people to die in New York from Covid-19.

The Committee to Protect Journalists ran an interesting, albeit worrying and sobering, take on what it's like to be a journalist during a time of corona. Journalists are classed as key workers in most countries affected by the coronavirus but many countries are also cracking down (both directly and indirectly) on the media, a state of affairs that is making an already dangerous profession more dangerous.

Amidst a constant barrage of statistics and graphs, the New Scientist asked How many people have really died from Covid-19 so far?

Over at The Guardian, Frances Ryan suggested that, while most people had experienced a loss of liberty due to lockdown, many disabled people were benefitting directly from living in an increasingly digitally orientated world.

The science is inconclusive so far, but the New Scientist asked whether you are more likely to die of covid-19 if you live in a polluted area.

In the spirit of complicating the received narrative, 1843 ran a piece about what it's like to be a 'pin-sharp' pensioner living in lockdown in a UK care home during coronavirus.

But if all of this is too much for you, there's a good deep dive into the causes of the Peasants' Revolt over on History Extra.

Until next time...

Photo one by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash

Photo two by Harrison Qi on Unsplash

Photo three by nrd on Unsplash

Photo four by Luke Stackpoole on Unsplash