Have you noticed how the BBC has suddenly started taking an interest in technology stories? On two recent occasions, the Ten O’Clock News has run apparently random IT-related items without any significant news hook.

One was about WiFi, presented in a ‘Hey, have you heard of this cool thing called WiFi?’ kind of way; the other was about blogging, asking the question: are blogs the future of literature? (BBC television has yet to ask if blogs are the future of journalism…)

And last week, Radio 4’s lunchtime current affairs programme, You and Yours, invited Computing onto the show to discuss the launch of the new .eu web domain.

A new internet domain, on Radio 4, at midday? And right after a discussion on bird flu, too.

It seems that this may be part of a wider trend. A BBC reporter recently told Computing there had been an edict from on high that the broadcaster should be doing more technology stories.

What’s more, the aim was to stop presenting IT as something complex and technical. Rumour has it, the word ‘geek’ has been banned from the airwaves.

You may question whether coverage by the BBC infers any sort of trendiness, but it is certainly a welcome change, and it will be interesting to see if the other big broadcasters follow suit.

Since the dot com bust, when TV producers got bored with computers, coverage of technology has been mainly limited to anything to do with Google, iPods, viruses or bad things happening to Microsoft. Anything outside that was perceived to be beyond the interest or understanding of viewers and listeners.

But the increasing ubiquity of digital downloads, broadband, mobile phones, MP3 players and so on signals a growing enthusiasm for technology from the all-important 16- to 35-year-old market whose attention every broadcaster hopes to capture.

If the BBC is starting a trend in national coverage of IT, it will be good news for everyone in the industry. We have to find ways to overcome the technophobia that has kept so many people away from technology in the past and make IT part of everyday life, as much as a television, radio or hi-fi.

Fingers crossed, in a few years’ time, when you meet someone at a party and say you work in IT, they might actually reply: ‘Wow! That’s cool!’, instead of asking you how to fix their printer.