Raymond Snoddy gives an insight from Tuesday night’s launch and accompanying debate of the near-instant book ‘Mirage In The Desert? Reporting the Arab Spring’ – a book which tracks who ‘won’ and who ‘lost’ the media battle…

Raymond Snoddy asks whether the mainstream media plays a crucial role in defining the agenda of social media – rather than the other way around?

Raymond Snoddy says there is one small worm in the bud when it comes to cable networks all over both Europe and the US; while revenues are holding up reasonably well – and even continuing to rise despite the recession – subscriber numbers are being hit… Almost everywhere competition to cable is becoming more intense!

Raymond Snoddy: “The bottom line is that for the bottom line doing good is good business”…

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…