Results matching “_sources debate”

The English weekly paper, Tehelka, which focuses on "hard-hitting, investigative journalism," has started publishing an edition in Hindi, Tehelka Samachar.  

The Hindi edition will be a bi-weekly 84-page publication with an initial circulation of around 40,000 copies.  50 percent of its content will be translated from the English version; the rest will be original content.   

On Tuesday, Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad launched an English language website, Nrc.nl/international.  The site is geared towards expatriates living in the Netherlands who cannot read Dutch, but who are interested in Dutch journalism.  The project was launched in collaboration with Spiegel Online and DutchNews.nl.

A selection of news items, background articles, features, and opinion articles will be included on the website.  In addition, the site will have a discussion forum concentrating on current issues with contributions from prominent Dutch nationals.  Also, there will be an overivew of international news sources and blogs.

Chief editor, Birgit Donker stated, "We want to take part in the international debate with this site and secure a place in the public domain in Europe."

Source: Ifra, Market Watch

Presse News announced today that Libération is set to re-launch their website on Monday, 29 September.

According to a source at the paper, the new site has been completely redesigned. Libération's objective is to create a sort of "written radio" format in which the website will be more interactive.

The new site will be comprised of three distinct sections. The first section will consist of news and events accompanied contributions by web journalists, print journalists, and bloggers. Another section will be dedicated to multimedia sources, such as audio, video and slideshows. The third section will be comprised of debates, forums, and chats.  

The biggest change with the new site is the creation of a new section dedicated to services such as weather and concerts, where users can also create their own personal account. Eventually users will be able to link into a social network where they can participate in debates.  

Source:  Presse News

Earlier this month, Mayhill Fowler, a citizen journalist, had reported comments made by U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama, describing rural, white voters as "bitter," to Huffington Post's blog "Off the Bus." Guardian America editor Michael Tomasky believes there is a need for blogging rules and questions the ethics of citizen journalism, while Jeff Jarvis of the blog Buzzmachine has similar beliefs as Robert Niles that "nothing is off-the-record anymore" and that citizen journalists are now necessary.

Jarvis: "Openness for all"
Jarvis begins by saying that rules are "corrupting" for journalism. Journalists should not engage in off-the-record talks and list unnamed sources because they should not help public officials hide anything from the public. Though some exclusives may be lost, there will be more stories with more openness and more reporting, "and politicians will learn that anything and everything they say and do can (and should) be reported," according to Jarvis. 

Furthermore, Fowler knew Obama's remarks "would be newsworthy," says Jarvis, and though she is an Obama supporter, she chose to let the public know about those remarks so that they could form their own opinions. Also, even if Fowler did not blog for the Huffington Post, she could have reported the story through YouTube or other platforms.

Essentially, journalism is evolving, says Jarvis, with coverage expanding from journalists, witnesses, readers, bloggers, etc.  "Journalism becomes less of a product and more of a process," he remarks.

Tomasky: "Call them "witnesses" and drop the whole conceit that they're journalists"
Though he embraces blogs, mostly for elevating debate, Tomasky cannot see the importance of knowing every single word public people say, since people misspeak and say things they don't really mean.

He argues that though "rules" may cause corruption and secrets, anonymity is sometimes the only way a source with important information will come forward, for example, the Pentagon Papers and intelligence assessments about Iraq before the war

Also, he concedes that most journalists would not be for "hiding" things from the public, but they would favor verifying something before it is published, which is "scarcely complicity in secret-keeping," but rather,  "just being responsible."

As for the Obama incident, Tomasky points out that Fowler got through the doors because she donated money to Obama's campaign, but "veteran journalists" were not allowed in the door. Had those journalists been allowed, they would not have kept those remarks secret.

Jarvis counters, "There's also a difference between verifying such a tip with reporting - which we'll all agree is necessary - and playing that tape-recording, which itself was the verification anyone needed. Obama's words and voice spoke for themselves."

He says that these "witnesses," or citizen journalists, now start the story with papers expanding on them and doing more in-depth research. Because veteran journalists may not be allowed through the door, they must rely on "witnessing," which "will still add up to journalism in the end."

Tomasky remarks that "it's a little sneaky and sleazy to be a citizen ... and then getting to be a journalist for the purposes of writing it up."

Source: Guardian.co.uk

According to interviews and surveys, not only are young viewers turning to sources such as YouTube, Facebook, and late-night comedy shows like "The Daily Show" for their news instead of from traditional media, they also rely on their friends and social networks to receive their news. Essentially, a social filter is replacing the professional filter, such as reading a paper or surfing through news sites.

"There are lots of times where I'll read an interesting story online and send the U.R.L. to 10 friends. I'd rather read an e-mail from a friend with an attached story than search through a newspaper to find the story," said Lauren Wolfe, President of College Democrats of America.

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 4 out of 10 young people have watched candidate speeches, interviews, commercials, and debates online, which is more than people who are 30 and older.

An example of this technological "word of mouth"  is Barack Obama's YouTube response to President Bush's final State of the Union address. Though the newspaper and television reporters paid little attention to this in January, the video received over 1.3 million views on YouTube and has been linked by more than 500 blogs.

Media companies such as CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC are gaining more viewers in the 18-34 age range, though most college students are more likely to find their news on YouTube. This way, they can bypass "the context and analysis that seasoned journalists provide" and "act as editors themselves," according to NY Times journalist Brian Stelter.

"We're talking about a generation that doesn't just like seeing the video in addition to the story -- they expect it," said Danny Shea, Associate Media Editor for The Huffington Post. "And they'll find it elsewhere if you don't give it to them, and then that's the link that's going to be passed around over e-mail and instant message."

A college student from a focus group conducted by Jane Buckingham, founder of the Intelligence Group, said, "If the news is that important, it will find me."

Source: New York Times through Poynter Romenesko

With surveys revealing the public’s decreasing trust in the media, news organizations are actively responding to the call for a more civic conscious journalism. News consumers are growing increasingly critical and are asking for more opportunities to have their opinions heard by news sources.

Dr. James Castonguay, associate professor and chair of Sacred Heart University's Department of Media Studies and Digital Culture, who helped oversee the university's recent media reliability study, elaborated on readers becoming more active and responsible news consumers.

"We have some critical citizens who are not naively accepting as truth the news they consume," he said, in an interview with the Poynter Institute. "Maybe people see themselves as taking a more responsible and active role in the democratic process to check sources and be more active consumers of news,” Castonguay explained.

Websites like the French Vudesquartiers.journalisme.co, launched by Jérôme Bouvier, president of the Association of Journalism and Citizenship, hope to improve the relationship between journalists and inhabitants of  local neighborhoods. A previous Weblog posting discussed how the goal of the project is to reinstate public trust in journalism, and encourage reporters to work closely with the people they cover.

The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash. has undertaken a similar challenge in providing readers with a forum for community feedback. With its online feature “The Transparent Newsroom”, the Spokesman-Review offers readers the chance to voice criticism, needs and concerns they may have about the paper’s content or editorial choices.

Some highlights include an “Ask the Editors” section, where Spokesman editors field readers’ questions about the paper’s operations and editorial processes. A live webcast of daily newsroom meetings and a total of 10 blogs encourage readers to observe and participate in the quotidian operations of the paper.  

Spokesman-Review editor Steven A. Smith expressed why the paper has taken on such a strong civic responsibility.

"Journalists always retain the right to say no. Transparency is not the same as passivity," Smith said. "When you’re as open as we are, it's possible to engage in a debate with readers in ways that we couldn't in the past. When people pitch us an idea it still has to be vetted in all the ways that stories do: Is it important enough? Does it match up with our values?" he said.

While becoming ‘transparent’ allows for sometimes unwanted criticism, Ryan Pitts, online director for the Spokesman maintains that the challenge is worth it.  The Spokesman’s undertaking, editors hope, will represent a trend towards fostering a more democratic relationship between readers and news organizations.

Source: Poynter Institute

Jose Antonio Vargas of the Washington Post examines Faye Anderson, a prominent citizen journalist, in order to examine citizen journalism, what exactly it is, the credibility issue, and where citizen journalism stands in the future.

User-generated content websites have flourished and there is no question now that they are here to stay, and that ‘user’ content will increasingly pervade all media – ‘traditional’ media that is. Has the definition of ‘News’ changed, or deteriorated, with the Web 2.0 revolution?  Are UGC sites competitors or facilitators for newspapers transitioning to the online world? Martin Rogard, director of content for YouTube’s European alter ego, Daily Motion, answers some of these questions for the Weblog, to help newspapers that can be torn between opening to readers and keeping the old rules in place.

The Naples News in Florida is often hailed as one of the United States' most forward-looking papers. With a newsroom that works first for its website, then the paper edition, and a daily local-news webcast which is also broadcast on television, it could even be said that the Naples News is one of the first papers to not consider itself just a newspaper. Editor Phil Lewis recently wrote an editorial documenting the evolution of the paper. 

Must-read. The Online Journalism Blog (OJB) rethinks the new editorial processes that come with the online world. Away goes the inverted pyramid, in comes the “news diamond,” which is based on the Web’s two main attributes, speed and depth.

In a recent study by Nucleus Research and Knowledge Forms, 72% of those surveyed reported using traditional, mainstream media as their source for political news.

In a recent Business Week video interview with senior editor Diane Brady, Andrew Keen, founder of Audiocafe.com and author of the new book The Cult of the Amateur, expounded on his beliefs that user-generated content and Web 2.0 are bringing down culture and professional media.

In the age of print newspapers, the ethical rules of journalism were clear, but the digital age has muddied the debate, the 14th World Editors Forum has heard.

This Round Table discussion is a critical one: how to engage the youth and younger generations in newspaper reading.  This subject is of particular importance in terms of democracy-building and responsible citizenship in the future.  As one of the panel members reminded the audience – a decline in youth readership is equal to general readership decline.  It was also emphasized that one third of the world’s population are “youth” (under the age of 25).
Panel members and their points of departure:

In this section, John Zogby, CEO of Zogby International, and Jeff Jarvis, new media proponent and founder of Buzzmachine, comment on the results of the Newsroom Barometer. Both found that editors’ optimism and open-mindedness to new media was a clear indication that newspapers were embracing the digital revolution, yet Jarvis fears that may not be enough…

At the ‘New Media: The Press Freedom Dimension’ conference in Paris last week experts in Blogging and Citizen media discussed the evolution of this new media and press freedom dimensions. Here, Declan McCullagh of CNET looks at the discussion of the legal divisions and rules between journalists and bloggers.