One of the Pod Academy’s main aims is to inform current debate with academic research.  That is why in the week that the Leveson Inquiry report is being published, we have an interview with Angela Phillips, Reader in Journalism at Goldsmiths, and one of our Board members, providing background on the phone hacking scandal.

Angela suggests that the tabloid press’s illegal activities need to be understood in the context of the dwindling sales figures of newspapers, that it was easy and cheap to find out what celebrities were doing by hacking their phones, and it enabled the tabloids to compete directly with the innuendo and gossip on the internet – to which they were losing their readers.  In her view, this is all part of the death throws of the dinosaurs of the old media, clawing each other and everybody else to death while they try to keep their audiences on board.

So phone hacking was the canary in the mine – newpapers are dying.  In 10 years time, will we all be reading the news, listening to the news and viewing the news on our tablet computers?  Join the debate.