Raymond Snoddy: Could it be that welcoming the embrace of social networks could be the best thing that ever happened to television rather than, as generally assumed until now, a slow march to oblivion?

Raymond Snoddy says it is totally banal to say that instant communication tools in the hands of almost every citizen can change societies dramatically at breakneck speed and be a force for both good and evil in equal measure. But it would be true…

Raymond Snoddy: Britain’s broadcasters may indeed be stuffed too full of arts graduates but Google may have too many engineers in power positions for its own good. Maybe Google should bring in some of those highly creative British “luvvies” to advise the “boffins”…

Raymond Snoddy: After explaining some of the pitfalls and pointing out that only the determined, who really, really want to become journalists have any chance of making it, what do you actually say?

Raymond Snoddy: Perhaps the gung-ho magistrates currently jailing looters for stealing chewing gum should be told to moderate their anger. Quite a number of cells will have to be reserved to accommodate the miscreants of News International…

Raymond Snoddy: NotW rivals have been accused of missing an open goal but in reality salvaging around two million copies in the middle of the summer and in the current competitive climate facing all newspapers is a respectable performance. But it is now clear that Rupert Murdoch made a spectacular misjudgement when he decided to close down the NotW…

Raymond Snoddy: The seven-year Grand Prix deal may be messy and less than ideal but it is the clearest indication so far of what a 20% cut in revenues will mean in reality for the BBC…

Just at the very moment when the official launch of the silly season seemed inevitable, along came the most dreadful atrocity from the most unexpected of all places – Norway. Then Amy Winehouse died. Couldn’t she have waited a couple of days and then she could have been given the full, unambiguous dead tragic star/hero treatment without any Norwegian neo-Nazis getting in the way.

Raymond Snoddy: It was most unfortunate that James Murdoch could not deal adequately with such a tricky question at yesterday’s select committee (a compelling drama that told us almost nothing new in any factual sense but almost everything about the key players involved) because in the mildest of ways it went to the heart of the matter…

Raymond Snoddy: “Rupert Murdoch could say “to hell with it” – though those would not be the actual words used. He could close down Sky News and save the company an immediate £20 million a year. Worse still the entire future of News International could be called into question…”