Ellee Seymour

I shall be participating in a seminar later today about the changing face of journalism as social media becomes increasing popular.

The seminar topic is Citizen or Consumer – the politics of online journalism, organised by POLIS, the journalism and society think-tank at the London School of Economics.

Here are some of the questions which will be raised:

1. How much does the nature of journalism change when it goes online?
2. Does the growth of public interaction with the news media and the breaking down of roles herald a new dawn for a more “democratic� news media?
3. Are we witnessing the dilution of journalism, the erosion of ethical boundaries and codes and the undermining of trust?
4. In the face of unprecedented choice, is the real outcome likely to be fragmentation, commercialisation and trivialisation?
5. And is there anything that media organisations or government can do to sustain ‘good’ journalism online?

I wonder if Melissa Kite is attending…

I wonder what the roaming charges were for British mountaineer Bob Baber when he called his wife from the top of Mount Everest and set a new world record.

I agree with Neville that it was a very impressive piece of marketing by sponsors Motorola.

Bob had little time to phone home as 15 minutes is the maximum time usually spent at the summit. Making the call was was very risky because talking into the handset meant he had to remove his oxygen mask. Batteries for the Motorola handset were taped to his body to ensure they stayed at a high enough temperature to power the phone.

Actually, Bob left a voicemail message for his family and the headline is a little bit of journalistic licence.

It’s bizarre that Bob can get a signal on the highest mountain in the world while I always miss calls in my local supermarket because of the poor reception.

Tom Ambrose, a vicar from Trumpington, a parish on the edge of Cambridge,   could be ejected over his attempts to put modern loos in the 14th century church, a plan which has upset some parishioners who obviously have very strong and well controlled bowels.

The poor man faces an ecclesiastical tribunal, one of a few to have been held in the last century. His legal fees could cost the diocese £150,000, and if the case then goes to appeal, the amount could soar to £500,000 between the two sides.

It seems the row over the loos was the final straw by parishioners, who were also outraged when the vicar removed four rows of pews so that worshippers would have an area to chat and drink coffee after services.

There were also rows over installing heating in the church and the timing of the harvest supper which led members of the congregation to demand that the Bishop of Ely hold the tribunal because of a “pastoral breakdown”. The vicar said forlornly:

“Everything I have tried to do since I have arrived, these people have said ‘no’ to just for the sake of being awkward” .

He does have many supporters too, but it seems ludicrous that an issue like this is considered serious enough for an ecclesiastical tribunal.

It’s a pity the Rev Ambrose did not consider those immortal words of Rupert Brooke from his poem, The Old Vicarage, Grantchester, before moving to Trumpington, It warned:

“At Over they fling oaths at one,

And worse than oaths at Trumpington…”

Which reminds, it is time to make an overdue visit to Grantchester and its Orchard Tearooms, where one sits carefree in deckchairs;  it is unique and one of my favourite places in the area.

  The parents of Lee Boxell haven’t changed anything in his bedroom since the day he vanished from their lives in September 1988 when he was 15. He would be 34 now - and his broken hearted mother wonders if she has walked past him in the street and not recognised him.

In their campaign, Lee’s family managed to break new ground for other missing children as before their case only missing girls made it into the Press. And Lee’s disappearance was given nationwide coverage following an exhaustive police search.

Lee left his home in Cheam to meet up with a friend in Sutton, Surrey. Lee and his friend spent the morning window-shopping. Towards the end of the morning Lee said he might go to Selhurst Park to watch a football match and the boys parted in Sutton High street. No-one has seen Lee since.

Nobody knows if he ever got to the game. Lee’s parents left leaflets all over the ground but nobody reported seeing him. Footballer John Fashanu made a TV appeal and T’Pau singer Carol Decker did the same at gigs but to no avail. 

His family have desperately continued their search for him over the last 17 years, trying to keep his name in the Press in case anyone saw him. His disappearance was featured in The Sun too.

His photo was even published on milk cartons in Iceland. It’s a shame that doesn’t that happen any more, I wonder how effective it was. But why Iceland, I wonder.

Here are some heartbreaking quotes from a local newspaper interview two years ago:

“Lee’s parents Christine and Peter and his younger sister Lindsay, now 29, are desperate to find out what happened. Appeals in the past have not turned up any genuine sightings.

Christine said: “The National Missing Persons Helpline have been fantastic and got Iceland to put Lee’s picture on their milk cartons, but I just wish all supermarkets did the same.

“We’re not expecting anyone to call but we just have to try anything and clutch at straws in the hope that someone will know him.

“Obviously it’s hard when someone dies, but for someone to go missing it’s just so hard. Lee’s grandparents went to their graves not knowing what happened to him.”

In their campaign, the family managed to break new ground for other missing children, because before their case only missing girls made it into the Press.

But Lee’s story and picture was in every national newspaper, on television, on the side of Body Shop vans, and in Soul Asylum’s pop video for the song The Missing.

His parents, to this day, are still unable to change anything in his room. It is exactly as he left it in 1988.”

In memory of those who are still missing.