25 Aug 2006 by Chris     No Comments    Posted under: News/Media/Sport

JCB Dieselmax: a landmark for new media

Firstly, the breaking of the diesel-powered land speed record this week by the JCB team: brilliant. But something interesting occurred to me yesterday, whilst I listened to a caller on Five Live berating the BBC and other mass media for neglecting what for many people has been the only noteworthy thing in a quiet news week. Whilst an avid web surfer, I’m usually someone who doesn’t consider something to be a genuine event unless it’s been on the BBC Six O’Clock News, front page of the dailies, etc. So I was surprised to hear from the caller that the coverage of the JCB Dieselmax had been so low-key.

Hang on a minute: I hadn’t even realised that the coverage had been so low-key. I had simply, and without thinking, been following it all on the JCB team’s web site, and hadn’t even thought of getting my media coverage anywhere else. In fact, I’d read so much latest news there and watched so much video, that I’d probably passed saturation point for one news story; and although I can’t remember whether or not I watched the Six O’Clock News any night this week, even if I did, I didn’t notice that they omitted to cover it. For me then, this week was a landmark, when new media finally became mainstream for the news. I was bypassing TV and the newspapers without even thinking about it.

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