Magnificent meedja

Yet another new Exclusive Resource this week – and a fun one at that – together with a well-informed media watchdog.

Mirror by express delivery

When we try to find new goodies to add to our Exclusive Resources for library members, we are getting used to finding fantastic products which are undersold by less-than-exciting names. UK Press Online is no exception.

What this bland façade luckily fails to hide is a wonderous interior: here we can see every edition of the Daily Mirror from 1903 (the newspaper "for gentlewomen") until yesterday. In full-colour facsimile. Fully searchable. Pretty darned impressive, eh?

But it doesn’t stop there. Look in this other corner, and here is the Daily Express from 2000 to date; there the Sunday Express; and over there the Daily Star. Starting to get the picture? It’s huge.

Don’t just think news. Think sport, fashion, gossip, adverts – all the things that go to make up our real lives. If you think I’m getting carried away here, you are right: I’m getting carried away on a sea of colourful pictures and colourful prose. Dip in soon; you’ll enjoy yourself.

UK Press Online is an Exclusive Resource: outside a Westminster library, you will need your library card to log in.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "News & magazines". UK Press Online is a Key Link.
For the time being, the link is to our very own Exclusive Resources page, targeted on the "ukpressonline" logo; just click this to start your adventure.)

A stern examination

Media Lens Is not everybody’s cup of tea. You could quite easily get turned off by their own words: "Media Lens is a UK-based media-watch project, which offers authoritative criticism of mainstream media bias and censorship." How worthy is that?

But although they are not strong on jokes, they do get contributions from heavyweight writers – writers who often can’t get a hearing in the aforementioned mainstream media. With Media Lens providing a bit of intellectual rigour, and Private Eye taking the p*** out of the same targets, it makes the press and the broadcast media a bit less all-powerful, which is good, isn’t it?

(From the Gateway to websites, select "News and magazines" Media Lens is a Key Link.)