Day two in Chester and the trainees are revolting

Day two in Chester and the trainees are revolting. We appointed a morale officer and he informed me the trainees were unhappy at the lack of Internet access in our otherwise well-appointed hostel. OK, the 3G card we have only works in the lounge and today’s rain seems to have made hooking up to the wireless network in the back garden more difficult, but it made me think about how the Web has changed the game for journalists. Not always for the better. It has certainly speeded up research. We now have access to excellent primary sources on company and government Web sites. On the other hand, there is the temptation to believe what is on the Internet without question. Just because it’s on Google or even Wikipedia does not make it true, we tell the trainees. Yes, it’s a good pointer, a tip-off, but the Internet has surely increased the need for the healthy scepticism that journalists should always exercise. But enough of this because the trainees wanted the Internet so they had to have it, right? So out into the garden we went with my laptop. And an umbrella (to protect the laptop, not the trainee). We found a wireless hot spot, or at least a lukewarm spot. Sadly, it was in the middle of the lawn and required the laptop to be held at least 5 feet off the ground. I was reminded of my short but memorable stay in the Hotel Tojikistan, Dushanbe, in about 1995 where we had to request a room with a southern aspect so we could point the suitcase-sized satellite phone at a satellite over the Indian Ocean. You tell the young people of today such things and, quite properly, they don’t give a hoot. Next time we’ll have a cable laid. (By Nigel Stephenson)