Charlie Beckett
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charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett
@charliebeckett.bsky.social
3.4K followers 270 following 980 posts

LSE journalism professor
I run the LSE Polis Journalism and AI project
Hammer

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Communication & Media Studies 37%
Political science 35%
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charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 9d
Please register to watch our Journalism AI Festival online - two days of debate and demonstrations of the technology that's changing news around the world
polislse.bsky.social PolisLSE @polislse.bsky.social · Oct 9
The wait is over: the #JournalismAI Festival 2025 programme is here! 🎉

Speakers from @reuters.com, @theguardian.com, @financialtimes.com, BBC, @code4africa.bsky.social & more.

📋 See the full line-up: journalismai.info/festival

⏰ In-person reg closes 12 Oct — seats going fast!

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 22h
FWIW I think Mark Damazer gets it about right on the BBC.

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 1d
It's a colossal failure of editing. Sadly at a time of maximum political peril.

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 1d
That's mad. You can't ignore the specific allegations. All the other stuff is fair but how can you defend malpractice?

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 1d
'Leave to one side for now the direct allegations about specific failures of BBC coverage' - you can't do that. That's ridiculous.

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 1d
I disagree Peter. It's exactly the manipulation of material that BBC Verify would expose. Whether it deserves resignation I don't know but BBC editorial controls are a mess at the moment. Well done for them to accept responsibility.

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 1d
Big disagree with you on this my friend. The 'narrative' is not the same as the truth.

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 1d
Wow. That is big. It was a mistake and they hadn't managed it well. But still, a big decision. I wonder what the Panorama team now think of their actions www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...
BBC director general Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness resign over Trump documentary edit
Davie says
www.bbc.co.uk

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 1d
Can you imagine being the person at the Heritage Foundation who sent that email?

Reposted by Charlie Beckett

polislse.bsky.social
PolisLSE @polislse.bsky.social · 2d
We’re counting down to #JournalismAI Festival 2025! ⏳

If you haven’t registered yet, now’s the time: online access is free and gives you live access to most sessions streamed from London.

💻 Register now: journalismai.info/festival

Join from wherever you are 🌍

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 2d
Of course, Manchester City and Newcastle get away with taking money from human rights abusers because, well, because of the money. Fans are easily bribed.

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 2d
This comparison is in danger of 'whatabouttery' but I do find it interesting why we link sport to politics so selectively www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Silence over Sudan: why do Manchester City’s owners get away with so much?
Two midweek matches in England had a backdrop of war and geopolitics, but only one drew large protests
www.theguardian.com

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 3d
Nordic Noir at the British Museum is a wonderful survey of print and drawing - very diverse - I can't believe I live in a country where such a brilliantly curated show is free

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 4d
Sounds like Berg was doing his job as an editor. Something Jones would benefit from.

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 4d
A superb piece of visual story-telling and some great digging into the preposterous waste and idiocy of the Neom desert city. Unbearable to think of all the useful things they could have built with that kind of money...

Reposted by Charlie Beckett

ftedit.ft.com
FT Edit @ftedit.ft.com · 4d
Don't miss @alisonkilling.bsky.social's incredible visual investigation into MBS’s utopian dream in today's #FTEdit 👉 on.ft.com/47C7aSR
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled
Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance
on.ft.com

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 4d
Perhaps if journalists called themselves 'creators' then the public might want to pay for news...

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 4d
You know what I think about surveys asking the public about issues like this... :) Of course, they are going to say 'pay creators'. Who wouldn't?

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 4d
I 'intuitively' feel the opposite. As a journalist and academic I am 'trained' endlessly on other people's content that I don't pay for directly.

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 4d
It seems to me that 'creators' aren't going to win the training argument. So much of creation feeds off other people's work anyway. It might be more fruitful to pursue arrangements such as the Universal Music Group deal with Stability AI? stability.ai/news/univers...
Universal Music Group and Stability AI Announce Strategic Alliance to Co-Develop Professional AI Music Creation Tools — Stability AI
Universal Music Group and Stability AI today announced a strategic alliance to develop next-generation professional music creation tools, powered by responsibly trained generative AI and built to...
stability.ai

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 4d
All the usual legal caveats, but this does seem like a landmark decision that broadly speaking says using content for training AI does not violate copyright.

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 5d
Again, my eternal struggle, are they showing bad taste deliberately? Like a taunt?

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 5d
It's still early. Most of the municipal shows will be at the weekend? East London is pretty noisey tonight

Reposted by Manuel Puppis

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 5d
We know where this headed don't we? www.nytimes.com/athletic/678...
Gianni Infantino to award FIFA’s inaugural peace prize at Washington’s World Cup 2026 draw
FIFA president Gianni Infantino will present the inaugural award at next month's World Cup draw in Washington DC.
www.nytimes.com

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 5d
The salt is excellent - even better than Maldon imho

Reposted by Michael H. Whitworth

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 6d
Hetan has a point. Not only is the crisis at the BL a story but so is the general threat to our whole data/info infrastructure. No point doing stories about misinformation and the latest AI chatbot unless you are covering this.
hetanshah.bsky.social Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 6d
Turns out this news was in the public domain yesterday but no one has covered it as far as I can tell. Does no one care about our national library anymore? It was much the same with the cyberattack. If this was a bit of 'science' infrastructure can you imagine?
www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...
British Library chief executive quits midway through PCS strike
The British Library has been thrown into further turmoil midway through a two-week PCS strike with the resignation of its chief executive Rebecca Lawrence.
www.pcs.org.uk

Reposted by Martin Paul Eve, Charlie Beckett, Charles West , and 2 more

hetanshah.bsky.social
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 6d
Turns out this news was in the public domain yesterday but no one has covered it as far as I can tell. Does no one care about our national library anymore? It was much the same with the cyberattack. If this was a bit of 'science' infrastructure can you imagine?
www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...
British Library chief executive quits midway through PCS strike
The British Library has been thrown into further turmoil midway through a two-week PCS strike with the resignation of its chief executive Rebecca Lawrence.
www.pcs.org.uk

Reposted by Charlie Beckett

apnews.com
The Associated Press @apnews.com · 6d
Artificial intelligence company Stability AI mostly prevailed against Getty Images Tuesday in a British court battle over intellectual property.
Stability AI largely wins UK court battle against Getty Images over copyright and trademark
Stability AI has mostly prevailed against Getty Images in a British court battle over intellectual property.
bit.ly

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 7d
Could be the end of a hopeful journalism phase: Teen Vogue seemed to have the knack of bringing politics to a hard to reach audience
leximcmenamin.com Lex McMenamin (they/them) @leximcmenamin.com · 7d
I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day.

certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Katharine Hayhoe, Nandita Sharma , and 34 more

leximcmenamin.com
Lex McMenamin (they/them) @leximcmenamin.com · 7d
I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day.

certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.

charliebeckett.bsky.social
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 8d
He wasn't even funny back then but the dog was lovely.