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The series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Indian financial capital Mumbai have gained worldwide attention, and the speed with which Internet users were able to read first-hand reports within hours of the initial attacks is proof of a revolutionized way that information reaches an audience.

Although mainstream news coverage has dominated headlines thus far, social media has been a major outlet for news at the scene and around the world.  Internet users are sharing news and information for updates and reactions.

A new training initiative between the BBC and the University of Central Lancashire is giving freelance journalists the chance to learn the newest skills in digital production, according to Hold the Front Page.

The program will give "30 freelance and broadcast journalists from the region the chance to get to grips with producing content for a number of platforms - online, TV, radio and mobile."

Helium is an online company that describes itself as, "the online spot to learn what you need to know and share what you know." It combines citizen journalism with peer rating in order to provide a plethora of articles on just about any topic.

Helium brings together a system of news and information combined with a place to submit articles. It even has a "marketplace" where publishers can post topics for people to write about - sort of like a publishers à la carte classified space.

It is a place for readers to find articles that interest them, writers to write about topics that they know and understand, publishers to find articles and non-profits to voice their issues.

It is a unique system of sharing content, ideas and knowledge. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Helium, if the current system will hold up and retain its credibility.

The Editors Weblog interviewed Peter Newton, the VP of business development at Helium.com to get a better idea of how the site works and what their goals are for the future. Newton has worked at Monster.com and The Boston Globe where he was the vice president of advertising.

EW: What is your selection process for articles and writers?

PN: Helium represents the first true meritocracy in the publishing industry. Helium welcomes anyone and everyone to join its community of writers.

We don't select writers; they naturally come to the site and write to areas in which they have an interest (in many cases, a passion) in sharing their knowledge or opinion. Once members join, their work is evaluated by other members though our peer-review rating system.  In essence, Helium brings order to the chaos of user generated content. Its patented peer review rating engine elevates the best quality articles.

After a writer submits an article, he/she is presented with two anonymous articles in the same topic area to rate in an "A versus B" comparison. Through the wisdom of the crowds, the best articles rise to the top, resulting in a rank-ordered list for every topic.

The end result is that the best writers are promoted, recognized and rewarded for their work.

New titles are introduced onto the Helium site through members, partners and directly by Helium staff.

EW: Where do you draw the line between journalist and citizen journalist?  What about between citizen journalist and blogger?

PN: Citizen Journalism is a very awkward term. Quality journalism demands its participants to be objective, ethical and methodical. Research, fact checking and skillful interviewing techniques are critical to the art. It's not obvious that what we are starting to call citizen journalism possesses any of these traits. I'm certain that the Columbia School of Journalism doesn't teach that the art of being a world class journalist is to be in the right place at the right time. Citizen Journalism seems to be migrating to each individual's "15 minutes of fame" and further and further away from journalism. It might be fun to watch - but so were the lions and Christians in the Roman Coliseum.

With that said, Helium is not really concerned with categorizing or labeling different types of writers.  We have created a platform for people to express themselves in writing across a wide variety of topics in a civilized and substantive way, and then have the community sort for quality.

Helium is a site for writers that fills a unique role in the publishing industry. In doing so, we are representing a new classification of online writers.

Our community of members includes professional writers, freelancers, subject matter experts, students and the expert next-door.

We are not attempting to replace investigative journalism or time sensitive reporting. Instead, Helium attracts and produces individuals who have the skill and insight on specific topics that they wish to share with others.

EW: Do you feel that the status of being an "expert" or a "professional journalist" is becoming less important?

PN: No, there will always be a need for professional journalists, especially in covering breaking news or conducting investigative journalism, and Helium is definitely not out to undermine established journalists or copywriters.

Instead, we are trying to expand the ranks of paid writers to include part-time talent that otherwise would be sitting fallow.

Our media solutions product offers newspapers a way for them to supplement what remains of their editorial staff, but is in effect driving down their content-creation costs. We are merely tapping into the notion of "social publishing," in which publishers ask their readership to contribute content.

EW: Do you apply any regulations for topics? style? content? etc...

PN: Yes, Helium has established regulations for topics, style, and acceptable content.

Beyond providing clarity to our members, the community is self moderating. Every new article submitted to Helium is rated by other members. The best content rises to the top. Our members often message each other with advice as to how to improve articles and items that don't fit the standards of the site are removed.

EW: Do you see a shift towards more citizen journalism in news reporting? Both online and print?  How will this affect the future of professional freelancers? Is it going to put a dent in the freelance market?

PN: When you say "news reporting", let's be clear that our focus is not breaking news or conducting investigative journalism.  With that said, there is a growing paradigm shift in content creation; publishers are increasingly sourcing content, not writers. As for how this will impact freelancers no one can say for sure but one thing is for sure-there will always be demand for quality writing.

EW: Can a person make a living from putting material on Helium the same way a freelance gains income?

PN: The short answer is no.  But with that said, there are thousands of Helium members who earn from $40-$100 each month, which is much more than chump change. In fact, some of Helium's highest earning members have made more than $3,000. It really depends on how much members use the site.

Earlier this month, Helium announced upfront payments for all new articles being written by starred writers on Helium.com. This change to Helium's Terms of Service is a move to reward the site's highest quality writers and to promote quality content at Helium.com.  In addition, the company's popular Marketplace product - used by publishers looking for top-notch content for their publications - now offers special access to the site's best writers. The move will improve content for Helium's publishing partners and help ensure that the site's best writers will be seen by those publishers.  

Many web 2.0 companies offer opportunity for incremental income. With these changes at Helium, highly-rated writers will have an opportunity to earn larger sums for sharing their expertise with the Helium community.

"Helium has grown by leaps and bounds these last two years; it has earned the respect of people and writers around the world," said Petra Newman, a 3-star writer on Helium.com "With the sky falling on our economy, Helium has again found a "pièce de résistance" for people who already have a passion for writing. Increasing the earnings for well-written articles is a win-win situation for both Helium and writers."

EW: What newspapers or websites do you work with?    

PN: Currently Helium is working with GateHouse Media's State Journal-Register(SJ-R) in Springfield, Ill. SJ-R recently begun using Helium's "Media Solutions" product to source writers for its op ed section-there are currently over 700 additional papers in the active funnel.

We also provide content for a wide a variety of other newspapers, magazines, online-only sites, etc.

EW: What about your competition? Who are they?

PN: As a producer of content and as a publisher of content, we compete with thousands of companies, yet in most ways, we have no competition.

That said, we really don't see anyone that directly competes with us, in terms of delivering a scalable solution to engage a community to produce high quality content.  

EW: Where do you see yourself in relation to news organizations such as the AP or the New York Times?

PN: The New York Times is the New York Times. Helium is not attempting to create a competitor to breaking news.  

EW: Where does a site like Helium envision itself in the future? How do you grow / expand ?

PN: Helium is rapidly building the world's largest community of writers. We plan to grow and expand the business in a number of ways over the next five years:

• Become the partner of choice to the publishing, non profit and broadcast industries for generating quality content at a low cost, while helping engage their audience in the process.

• Become the content source for any entity needing quality content.

• Expand internationally; international business represents 60% additional market opportunity

• Create a community of micro publishers

Last week the Financial Times relaunched its website with a new homepage, along with five other resdesigned pages and a new Middle East section. This is the first stage of its redesign and more changes will be rolled out over 2009. Reviews about the new design have been mixed; some call it a success, some say it's a failure. The FT has been applauded for finally redesigning and "clearing up the clutter" but the criticisms go further than the redesign, some critics have called their entire business model into question.

The new design aims to make the site look more like the print version through colour and layout. The homepage is now pink, just like the newspaper, and the design of the masthead reflects the print version as well. The website has also been renamed Financial Times, no longer FT.com.

The Obama presidential campaign has proved to be not only an example of how to run an effective campaign - but how to run an effective newsroom.  Obama's focus on technology is key; by using email, Facebook, YouTube, text messages and a custom iPhone application he manages to stay in touch with staff and supporters.

The text messages are based on area code and update supporters of local campaign events, voter registration and other big news.  Imagine if newsrooms used this to alert reporters about breaking-news situations.

On Wednesday, October 22, chairman and publisher of The New York Times Company, Arthur Sulzberger Jr. made a speech at the WebbyConnect conference about transformations at the New York Times.

"Our 21st-century news cycle, with its trials and tribulations, feels even more immediate because of our access.  It is reasonable to ask: Do we need all this news and information? Do we want all this news and information? Can we tolerate all this news and information?," Sulzberger asked.

He believes that in this day and age people are looking more towards trusted and pragmatic voices.  He also advocates an effort to reject "the increasingly frenzied 'apocalypse now, tomorrow, and forever' talk.  Quality content matters...trustworthy voices are more important than they have ever been."

According to Editor & Publisher, the Tribune Company has given the Associated Press a two-year notice that it plans to drop the news service.  This is the first major newspaper chain to drop AP since it announced a new rate-structure plan.

Tribune Co. owns nine daily papers including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, The Orlando Sentinel, Red Eye of Chicago, the Hartford Courant, The Baltimore Sun, The Morning Call of Allentown, and The Daily Press of Newport News.

Jay Rosen of PressThink and a New York University journalism professor, has created "spinewatch" through Twitter and Publish2 Spinewatch Newsgroup. The goal of "spinewatch" is to encourage the "political press to grow a spine."`
 
Rosen describes spinewatch as a "newsgroup and link bank for campaign 2008 stories where we can keep track of reporting from the mainstream media."  Spinewatch works through Twitter allowing reporters to call out lies, describe untruths, and provide clear reporting on statements at odds with well-established facts.  Rosen hopes that this will provide Americans with a more informed understanding of the candidates and their claims.
 
In an interview with PBS, Rosen stated, "The premise behind spinewatch is more this: It's hard for me to see how you can have a more legitimate or consensus practice in campaign journalism than fact-checking the empirical claims candidates make -- in ads, speeches, interviews -- as they compete for votes."
 
Recently presidential candidate, John McCain has been criticized for defying the press, refusing to answer questions, and even denying things that report.  Rosen argues that the media should do more fact checking in order to become more of a challenge to the presidential candidates.  "If the press cannot at least do that, what is it good for? Can we even use words like "watchdog" or "check on power" if it cannot fact check the candidates?"
 
Sources: PBS, Publishing2
 

Le Poste.fr - a site edited by Le Monde interactive - was launched a year ago with the idea of being designed for the reader. The concept behind the site was to create a news and information gateway that was designed for everyone and targeting no set demographic. Le Post.fr wanted to get rid of the traditional hierarchy of information and to provide a new means by which to obtain news. Since its launch, Le Post.fr has seen its audience increase by 20% each month.


On the launch date it received 1,500 visits, the following day, 18,000 visits, one year later they are at between 160,000 and 200,000 visits a day and 400,000 pages visited.  Le Post is now catching up to its counterparts and is looking to build on this rapid growth further. The site is certainly visually innovative for the French market and its content is fresh and  dynamic. It appears that this new style is popular, if one looks at the readership data.

At Le Post.fr, readers find news and information (international, national and regional), special interest pages such as politics, economy, health and media, entertainment and current events. It is also possible to find news and information by theme by clicking on tags and video content is regularly updated.

The news site is also largely contributed to by its readers, they do not go as far as to call it "citizen journalism" but aim to promote contributions and collaboration to add a more participative dynamic to their dissemination of news and information.  

Media commentator, Benoît Raphaël, says of he has learnt at Le Post that the distribution of news and information has changed with the Internet, its now more liquid, more segmented.  Also, "do what you do best, link to the rest," according to Raphaël its better to reference those who treat a subject well than to try to re-do it. People do participate and in many cases have interesting spins on topics and propose new angles to topics covered, and in some cases, journalists will pick up some topics or spins offered by contributors.
 
Sources:  Le Monde.fr, Benoît Raphaël Blog

 

The Society of Editors' Executive Director, Bob Satchwell, says that contempt of court legislation in the UK needs to be updated. Legislation in the UK currently restricts the reporting of trials during proceedings to prevent undue influence from the media affecting a case.

However, Journalism.co.uk's Judith Townend reports that, "even if something is reported prior to a case becoming active - namely, after an arrest has been made - the content is still 'live' and easily accessible by jurors online during a trial."

The Society of Editors (SoE) has appealed to two different Attorney-Generals for a review, and in July petitioned secretary of state for justice, Jack Straw, to start the process.

Satchwell says, "There is a need for, "a general review of contempt so everyone knows where we stand." Satchwell is concerned that the UK will get to the stage where the media will be told, "you just can't report anything", which would be "quite ridiculous". He goes on to say, ""The public has a right to know these things and the public must be kept informed. What must be done is a review of the rules."

The Editors Weblog spoke to Ian Cobain, senior reporter and investigative reporter at the Guardian, and he echoed these concerns about contempt of court legislation. Cobain says, "There are so many matters where we feel that we cannot report on them because someone is about to go on trial."

Source: Journalism.co.uk

The Russian division of Human Rights Watch (HRW) declared that coverage of events in Georgia-Southern Ossetia is breeding "propaganda and disinformation".

Tatiana Lokshina, a HRW spokesperson, said that both sides of the conflict are misinforming the public about the situation.  HRW said that one of the reasons for this is the absence of correct data about the number of victims.

Vsepolog Bogdanov, a member of the Russian Union of Journalists, said that the coverage features opinionated material that is "not information", reported gipp.ru. He mentioned that the situation might get more complicated if instead of a "balanced" approach reporters include one-sided points of view.

Guardian blogger Jack Schofield wrote that Georgia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has resolved to posting information by using Google Blogger. Other blogs include State Minister for Reintegration and Russia and Georgia At War.

Last week, the Georgian military attempted to overtake the pro-Russian Southern Ossetia region. Russia responded by sending its forces into Georgia, reported Reuters. Two Georgian journalists, Alexander Klimchuk, and Grigol Chikhladze, who writes for Newsweek, were killed while reporting the events.

Source: gipp.ru, Reuters, The Guardian, RBC News
See also:
Russia: Authorities call upon national media to abstain from promoting extremism

After The Capital in Annapolis, Maryland announced a "partnership" with the Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC), where AAMC paid the paper to provide all the content for the newspaper's health page once a month, two major journalism groups have responded, issuing a joint warning to news outlets on the ethical complications of creating to cozy of a relationship with hospitals, according to Editor & Publisher.

In March, on the Capital's website, the paper explained, "... Partnering with the hospital on the Health page seemed to make sense. We don't have a health reporter to write about medical issues and often use stories from syndicated services that quote doctors from other cities.... Instead of generic stories originating from another city, the reader will have local news featuring people they recognize (and) doctors they use."

In their release today, the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists state they "are concerned about news media that publish or broadcast stories, reports, news releases and interviews prepared or paid for by hospitals."

"The ethics codes of the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists call for fair and accurate reporting and editorial independence. But editorial cutbacks, along with pressure on hospitals to market profitable services, may be eroding these standards."

Despite these challenges, the groups asserted, "our journalistic mission requires us to hold doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and government agencies accountable to the public. In doing so, we commit to fair and transparent reporting of medical issues.

The statement also included these guidelines of media outlets to abide by:

• News organizations should fully disclose the source of any editorial information not independently gathered, whether video, audio, photograph or print material.

• News organizations should not run prepackaged stories produced by hospitals unless they are clearly and continuously labeled as advertisements.

• News organizations should not favor advertisers or sponsors over competing health-care providers when choosing sources or story topics and should strive to employ a wide variety of sources.

• News organizations should develop guidelines for the public disclosure of sponsors and advertisers.

• These guidelines should prohibit news personnel from appearing in or participating in sponsored programming or advertisements.

Source: Editor & Publisher