A little bit cheeky, but I thought I'd give a wider airing to an article I wrote for the Post recently which doesn't seem to have made it onto the website. It's an interview with Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt about his plans for local television stations, and I thought it would be of interest to people involved in media in Birmingham:

Plans to give towns and cities their own local television channels have been hailed by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt as "the biggest change in the broadcasting landscape for a couple of decades".

A new Birmingham station will serve 1.2 million people in the city and some of the surrounding area, including Walsall, Dudley and parts of Wolverhampton.

I've often wondered why so many organisations seem reluctant to embrace ways that the Internet makes it easier to get their messages out.

This is particularly the case when poor websites belonging to West Midland organisations make my job more complicated and time-consuming.

This has been the case recently and, after much frustration, I have decided it is time to name and shame.

This has to be one of the most amazing things I have seen on the Internet for a while. Picture after picture of Birmingham citizens sporting hairstyles ranging from the surreal to the ridiculous are displayed on photo-sharing website Flickr.

But why?