allmediascotland.com is about to change, in terms of design, functionality and style of editorial.
That may lead to some disruption of normal services over the next few weeks, not least because there are holidays to be had. It does mean also the prospect of new voices, from a galaxy of bloggers.
So far, Brian McLair, David Calder, Chris Bell, Craig McGill, Paul Hineman, Shaun Milne and Mark Gorman.
Here, Nick Clayton writes for a third time…
SINCE I moved to Ibiza, one of the questions I always get asked by people stuck in the UK is: “How on earth do you ever get any work done?”
I usually just shrug my shoulders, although it’s generally not that problematic. But I can end end up suffering from a double dose of guilt.
Let me explain. Along with just about every other journalist I’ve ever met, I’ve turned prevaracation and displacement activity into a fine art. I mean, what’s a deadline for unless it’s left almost to the point of impossibility?
Years of working on newspapers provide justification for this attitude. If you file too soon, the story may have moved on, so you’re really being more professional by leaving it until the subs are ready to kill you.
The internet’s been no end of help in bolstering this behaviour.
No matter what copy you’re churning out, there’s some other source of online information that could be checked. Well it starts off that way. Pretty soon, you’re off wandering down the byeways of the worldwide web. ‘Research’ expands to fill the time available.
That’s where the double dose of guilt comes in.
On a wet Wednesday in Edinburgh, the impact of a couple of hours online distraction only leads to a delay in washing up or missed programmes on daytime TV.
APOLOGIES: the rest of this entry is unavailable, most likely because of a corrupted database.
