SO, there is to be a new app, allowing journalists to check to what extent, if any, their copy betrays signs of bias for or against Scottish independence?
Apparently, the designer says it will be possible to detect bias within five per cent.
It’s believed the app – developed by a Prof. Alid Loyas – can review a journalist’s copy and come up with an ‘indybias’ figure within ten seconds. For some tabloid content, even quicker.
He is quoted, as saying: “With luck, we might have the app available by the end of summer. We’ve asked the authorities to put the referendum date back a couple of months back, just in case there’s slippage, but had no response.”
And not everyone is convinced. A Dr Ralf Piolo is quoted, saying: “This is somebody’s idea of a poor, silly fad.”
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AS ever, grateful to Ken Smith and his diary in The Herald, for this: “Are BBC reporters worried about saying the wrong thing during the independence debate? We only ask as we notice the Beeb’s Scottish political editor, Brian Taylor, has more than 3,000 followers on Twitter. Total number of Tweets he has so far sent? None.”
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JUST imagine. All your contacts: gone. All your hundreds of pics: gone. All your notes to yourself: gone. And so on. Should anyone find the mobile phone that has been lost by The Herald and Sunday Herald columnist, Iain Macwhirter, there might be a handsome reward.
He thinks he lost it while visiting Gullane, in East Lothian, the other week.
And he’s become the latest example that you should never leave backing up your mobile phone, tablet, etc until tomorrow.
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