Teaching yourself social media and other stuff

I've been tied up with drafting and re-drafting a paper for a New Media and Information conference in Athens in May.

This doesn't make for particularly interesting blog material unfortunately, and I'll probably be redrafting it again just as soon as my supervisor comes back to me with his comments.

If you're going to the conference by the way, do get in touch. (Email address is on the sidebar somewhere...)

In the meantime, here's some other bits and pieces I've been reading as a break from the mind-numbingly monotous task of changing a referencing system across a whole paper.

• Social Media

Can you teach yourself social media, and even if you can, would it still be worth doing an MA in Social Media at Birmingham City University?

If you think it's the former you should comment on the Daily Mail's website. If you think it's the latter then go to The Guardian's article and leave your tuppence there. If you want to see more of the debate head over to #masocialmedia or check out the ever-increasing list of news articles.

• What is the Huffington Post?

Andrew Keen thinks the Huffington Post is a newspaper not a blog. One reason why he thinks this is because the Post has recently placed more emphasis (i.e. cash) on investigative journalism.

• Plans for BBC Online in 2009

Sarah Hartley records the thoughts of Pete Clifton, the BBC's head of editorial development for multimedia journalism.