Results matching “not responsible for comments”

A conference held by the Association of European Journalists (AJE), held today, June 3 in Paris, discussed the path forward for journalism which focuses on Europe as geo-political reality.   Aware that the concept of Europe, as reported in the mainstream press, often fails to capture the imagination of the public as well as many journalists themselves, representatives of initiatives currently striving to revive the issue met to debate its progress. The questions raised were broad: Is reporting on Europe a 'chore'?  How can the media inspire, entertain and inform on European issues?  Which are the principle perspectives and agents responsible for revealing what's actually going on in the EU?  And will European institutions be prepared to finance new organs of information?

Participating in the debate were: Renaud de Chazournes, Chief Editor of the monthly magazine, L'Européen, Eric Maurice, Chief Editor of Presseurop.eu and Matthieu Collet, President of EurosduVillage.eu. 

The future of printed media has become a major political issue in countries like the United States or France, even being debated in ad-hoc committees set up by the legislative or the executive powers. Discussions along the Potomac or the Seine rivers have been focusing on the impact of Internet and new technologies, or on the need for state subsidies.

Meanwhile, on the Vltava in Prague, a group of editors and reporters working for PPF Media, the recently created division of insurance and consumer banking group PPF, is already opening new ways of covering a whole country in what may be a newsroom of the future. With other journalists for the moment based in four provincial towns from the Czech Republic, they are launching the so-called "hyperlocal weekly" Nase adresa ("our address"), which combines print and online journalism with particular efforts to sustain high professional standards and get closer to the readers.

"It can only work with well prepared journalists who will be trained in the Futuroom, our central newsroom," explains Roman Gallo, 44, director for PPF's media strategies and conceiver of the project. "We are also opening newscafés in our local bureaus, which will facilitate the contact between Nase adresa's journalists and the public, to enrich the content of our newspaper and of its webpages," adds Matej Husek, 33, director of news operations.
 
The newspoints, combining local newsrooms and Internet cafés in often small, rural towns, may be the most visible originality of this new undertaking. A few weeks before Nase adresa's launch, for instance, PPF Media's already hired staff had the chance to taste two products, the first print prototype of the weekly, and a cake likely to be served in the cafés. "The project represents a special challenge in terms of logistics, of room for storage, as we will be managing dozens of bistrot-Starbucks-like coffee shops in local newsrooms," comments Tomas Chejn, 41, the manager of PPF Media's branded cafés, a food specialist hired for his long time experience in quality catering. Petr Vitasek, 38, the director and chief editor for the Moravia region, based in the eastern Czech city of Olomouc, thinks this effort is worth the investment, because these "well located newspoints will be critical in getting Nase adresa's journalists to work closer to their readers."
 

 
But the whole project is innovative at other, multiple levels. To start with, for the first time a newspaper's birth is tightly associated to the creation of a multi-media training center - with several international partners including Google, Atex and the World Association of Newspapers/ World Editors Forum. The Futuroom will be a newsroom in charge of assisting and training in-house editors, some having no previous reporting experience, as much as a real life teaching field for future journalists. These will include a group of students within another partnership with Brno's Masaryk University, in the second largest Czech town.

Nase adresa's approach could also become a school case due to the organization of the newsroom. "I like how the Futuroom is shaped. Journalists are not confined to one theme, like health or education, but to a way of reporting, and I enjoy changing topics," says Vendula Krizova, reporter in the "Human approach team" and young (25) like many of her new colleagues. Adds Radim Klekner, 50, who joined the "Institutional team" - after working for 10 different newsrooms - to do researches on European Union institutions in particular: "Vertical structures dominate in traditional newspapers, while in Nase adresa it is more horizontal. In my case, for instance, I will be covering many European issues based on the Czech reality."


Klekner had some doubts initially, however, because he has been covering foreign news in the past 15 years.  Why would he join a hyperlocal news project as an international editor, then? "There is a need for benchmarking with other European countries in all aspects of the Czech society, and with Nase adresa I will be able to give a EU presence in the remotest Czech villages", he believes. "Our role is to assess general issues like the lack of general practitioners in the country, compared to others, and connect them to specific cases brought up by the local newsrooms."
 

 
Local journalists with long intensive experience covering their community are also convinced they are working for an innovative project. Vitasek, in Olomouc, even tried a hyperlocal news concept on his own five years ago, called Olomoucky Tydenik. "It was a weekly published on Mondays and strong on local sports, like Nase adresa. We had to stop it after one year, but this time I have with me a 10-people team supported by PPF and by the Futuroom managers and trainers. Our office, in a central strategic area of Olomouc, will be a space for constant direct contact with readers and potential contributors."

Based on her 30 year experience in local journalism, Hana Vojtova, 52, the chief editor of the Teplice newspoint, in the north Bohemian city near the border with east Germany, also believes Nase adresa is a new improvement for community journalism: "We will get nearer to the people from the region, who are tired of politics and want to be informed on human interest stories," explains Vojtova, whose district is dramatically affected by problems like crime and unemployment. "We are going to cover better our readers's activities and their dreams!"
 

 
The project has attracted several other seasoned editors from all backgrounds, including Jiri Zavozda, 50, Nase adresa's head of the copy editing team. He just finished a seven year experience in major private television "Prima", as news editor-in-chief, after working more than a decade for national newspapers. "The TV experience was good because it teaches you how to write short, but I prefer print because it is less superficial," says Zavozda. There are other reasons why he joined the Futuroom. "I see my in-laws, who live in a little village in Moravia and who have only access to media not specifically targeted to them, national daily Mlada Fronta, newsweekly Tyden and the television. Only Nase adresa will inform them well on the Sunday afternoon firemen team's competitions, which are particularly popular in the Czech republic. We will get spectacular photos of fires being extinguished!"

Adds Peter Sabata, 48, the editor-in-chief responsible for the local newsroom: "I strongly believe in the hyperlocal level of information, with the combination of newspoints, and print, online journalism. The weekly will be a bridge from now to the near future, when everybody in the regions will be connected." Sabata just moved back to the Czech republic after eight years at the head of national Slovak paper Pravda's newsroom.

 
Other Nase adresa team members are particularly enthusiastic because of the new challenges specific to a project combining teaching and praxis, online and print journalism, so far never achieved at such a level. Ondrej Besperat, 31, who manages the photo-video team in a duo with veteran photojournalist Jan Silpoch, is well aware of the differences between shooting for a newspaper or for a website. Before joining the Futuroom, he was a photographer for national daily Hospodarske Noviny and then worked for Aktualne.cz, the successful, Internet-only Czech media outlet. "In printed media, you have to do one or two pictures a day, and you invest all your energy in the best one, while in Internet, you try more different perspectives as you know that several pictures are likely to be released for each story."

Besperat anticipates he is likely to spend two third of his time training reporters from the local newsrooms, at the beginning at least. "One of the main challenges will be to shoot sport with our standard high-end amateur cameras," he says. "The idea is not to have journalists who do everything all the time, but reporters who are multifunctional, able to provide good texts and images."

 
Nase adresa will also represent new challenges beyond the expertise usually expected from  journalists, especially for the local chief editors who will have to look after a coffee shop part of their time. "Ten years ago I had a short experience working for Coca Cola, but this will be new because I am not at all a food and beverage specialist," laughs Vitasek, in Moravia. Krizova, who is glad to cover very diverse topics, is also ready for another type of special assignment as a young reporter. She will be asked to take care of children visiting the Futuroom - turned into a "Junioroom" or "media camp" - to learn how to write an article or produce a video footage.


PPF Media's project will be preparing new generations of journalists and not just showing new forms of getting and providing the news.
 

BACKGROUND
The Czech Republic is a country of 10 million people living in 14 regions subdivided in 75 districts in total. Until 20 years ago, only the government and Communist Party related entities could publish newspapers. This was also the case for the regional dailies, and for more local publications at district or town levels. German group Verlagsgruppe Passau took over most of them in 1990 and after, under its Czech branch Vltava-Labe-Press which currently controls over 10 weeklies and over 70 dailies called Denik ("daily", followed by the name of the concerned locality). Nase adresa will have no direct competitors except in a few cases, because its editions will typically cover areas of 20-30,000 people while Denik and its affiliates are designed for larger groups, of over 100,000 inhabitants on average.

According to a new book published by Dr Andrew Cook, Jack the Ripper was an invention created by journalists to boost sales. Historian Andrew Cook claims that the murders of several women in Victorian London were the work of not one man, but of various men involved in a spate of unrelated attacks.

In his book entitled "Jack the Ripper: Case Closed," Cook draws on the evidence and accounts offered by police and medical experts at the time to argue that there were too many differences in the style of the killings to suggest that all the victims died at the hands of the one same man. Among the testimonies supporting this view include one from assistant police surgeon Percy Clark, based at the Whitechapel Division. Clark, who had unparalleled access to all the victims, told the East London Observer in 1910: "I think perhaps one man was responsible for three of them. I would not like to say he did the others."

The Financial Times has launched a number of new blogs, the UK Association of Online Publishers (AOP) reported on Thursday 2 April.

A new G20 blog was specifically launched to follow the events of this week's London summit. The salmon-coloured newspaper also unveiled blogs that will provide further insight into the energy markets, scientific developments, health and fund management area and will be added to existing blog sections including: Economics & Business, World Affairs & Politics, Science & Technology, Industry, Markets & Funds and Management & Workplace.

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

A second court ruling within days may mark a switch in policy over a commonplace Internet practice: anonymous – and scurrilous – posting. A website may be forced to reveal the identities of fans of the Sheffield Wednesday football club, who could face libel charges after posting comments about the club’s management.

The South African Beeld (along with Volsblad and Die Burger) publishes JIP, a weekly youth insert. Gavin Rheeder, Marketing Communications Manager, debunks five myths about young readership.

During the week of June 25-June 29, nytimes.com featured digital news editor Jim Roberts in the weekly Q&A column, “Talk to the Newsroom.”  Answering user-submitted questions, Roberts discussed issues concerning the “task at hand” for The New York Times, celebrity news, website usability, breaking versus traditional news, user-submitted content, and the future of newspapers.

Defamation, invasion of privacy, misappropriation of likeness and right of publicity, infliction of emotional distress and negligence are just some of the concerns facing newspapers which allow user comments on their sites, according to Robb S. Harvey, an attorney at Waller, Lansden Dortch & Davis. 

Avoiding legal liability for comments made on their website by users is one of the main reasons that the Guardian post-moderates and removes offending postings on its website.  With 3 million comments posted since 2004 this seems to be prudent.

Blogger Jeff Jarvis of buzzmachine “despises” the blogger code of conduct recently drafted by publisher Tim O’Reilly and other bloggers, and feels that the “well-intentioned but misguided effort is ultimately dangerous” to the nature of the blogosphere.

Though this development doesn’t relate directly to newspapers, it could be of interest now that many newspaper journalists are blogging, and since online ethics is a much-debated topic. Internet pioneer Tim O’Reilly (founder of O’Reilly Media) has drafted a code of conduct for bloggers, suggesting among other things that bloggers who use crude language warn readers.

USAToday.com is about to unveil its revamped version, starting this week-end. Upgrades will focus on building a community and developing a ‘network journalism’ concept, through increased interactivity, the use of personal profiles and more. This might be the next step for newspaper websites.

One of this year’s major trends in newsrooms was the generalized evolution of the newsroom itself, into what was dubbed ‘integrated newsrooms’. Gannett came up with its own innovative version though, the Local Information Center (IC). The Editors Weblog interviewed one of the main engines of this venture, Jennifer Carroll, Vice President of New Media Content at Gannett Corporation.

A California supreme court recently ruled that web sites are not responsible for distributing libelous material written by others on their web sites.  The court case has set a freedom of speech precedent for website user comments and postings.

In the run-up to the US mid-term elections, many news organizations have been using interactives in their website coverage, and often taking advantage of Flash technology to do it.  Are these graphics effective?  Are they worth all the trouble?  Digital media experts Alberto Cairo, Mindy McAdams and Laura Ruel give their assessment, and offer tips for future news website content producers.

On 19 October 2006, French broadcaster France 2 won a libel case over accusations it faked a report into the killing of Mohammed Al-Dura, a Palestinian boy whose death in 2000 became a symbol of the uprising known as the second intifada. The Court of First Instance in Paris ordered Philippe Karsenty, director of Media Ratings, a website that comments on the media, to pay France 2 and its Israel correspondent Charles Enderlin symbolic damages of one euro each. Immediately, Media Ratings made an appeal and there will be a new lawsuit.

French media - especially newspapers - supported a lot France Televisions (see former posting) and its journalist during the last six years. The Editors Weblog prefers to ask the other part about the consequences of this - first - judgment and what it reveals about fairness in French media.

Half a year after its launch, the new Dutch morning newspaper NRC Next is quickly making its way towards success. The tabloid newspaper, created to grow readership among young and smart adults, has reached a circulation of 70.000. This number is much more then the first minimum target of 40.000, which was set for the first year. About 70 percent of the readers belong to the primary target group: the well-educated, non-reader under the age of 35

In light of the Telegraph’s high-profile advancements into the digital age, the Guardian’s Kim Fletcher asks, ‘Who wears the trousers at the Telegraph?’  Fletcher’s column probes the idea that the paper’s recent developments have shaken that age-old certainty of the industry: the editor in chief.

Online advertising is frequently perceived as a major threat to newspapers, luring advertisers away from traditional print format — and in the UK, the fear seems to be justified. Web advertising is predicted to overtake ad spending in national newspapers by the end of the year, according to a report by GroupM that will be released next month.

The first edition of the ‘new’ Berliner Observer, Britain’s oldest Sunday paper, debuted yesterday, with a full color news section, new columns, and a beefed up sports section amongst other features.

The American press has been subjected to much criticism for its reporting on the events in a West Virginia coal mine that culminated in the deaths of 12 miners.

Many newspapers have been criticised for releasing editions on Wednesday 4, January containing the false information that 12 miners, involved in an accident resulting from an explosion, had been miraculously found alive.

DailyMail.co.uk now provides readers with a comment feature for all articles. The website claims to be the first of its kind to offer such a service.

Since the introduction of the comment feature in July, the number of submissions per week has reached 2000.

The German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung is following the trend and has now blogs written by journalists on its website. Eight journalists started their weblogs this week. As professional journalists gather much more information than fits into the paper every day, the weblogs can deal with information that does not find its place in print, states Süddeutsche Zeitung. So the blogs will not repeat columns of the paper but rather are "quick and dirty" in contrast to the printed paper. "Will the weblog be responsible for the 'dirty' campaigns, while the paper rests clean?", askes MedienCity. When looking at the harmless texts, scandals seem unlikely in German newspaper blogs, states MedienCity and raises the question: who is going to read that?

The daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel from Berlin, which had started journalist blogs in July, has welcomed the colleagues of Süddeutsche Zeitung in the blogosphere and also states that texts were not very provoking and rather harmless up to now. However, the Tagesspiegel's own blog is not very popular either if one looks at the number of comments and trackbacks, reports MedienCity. "Die Zeit", Germany's leading weekly paper, has started to publish additional columns only online some years ago and has now several journalist blogs on its website.

Another blogging trend in Germany these days are political blogs. Politicians are, for example, blogging on the blogs of weekly magazine Focus. And a growing number of politicians have their own blogs. However, it is not expected that political blogs will influence the outcome of the elections on September 18, reported The Financial Times Deutschland.

Sources (all in German): MedienCity, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der Tagesspiegel weblogs , Focus blogs , The Financial Times Deutschland

The German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung is following the trend and has now blogs written by journalists on its website. Eight journalists started their weblogs this week. As professional journalists gather much more information than fits into the paper every day, the weblogs can deal with information that does not find its place in print, states Süddeutsche Zeitung. So the blogs will not repeat columns of the paper but rather are "quick and dirty" in contrast to the printed paper. "Will the weblog be responsible for the 'dirty' campaigns, while the paper rests clean?", askes MedienCity. When looking at the harmless texts, scandals seem unlikely in German newspaper blogs, states MedienCity and raises the question: who is going to read that?

The daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel from Berlin, which had started journalist blogs in July, has welcomed the colleagues of Süddeutsche Zeitung in the blogosphere and also states that texts were not very provoking and rather harmless up to now. However, the Tagesspiegel's own blog is not very popular either if one looks at the number of comments and trackbacks, reports MedienCity. "Die Zeit", Germany's leading weekly paper, has started to publish additional columns only online some years ago and has now several journalist blogs on its website.

Another blogging trend in Germany these days are political blogs. Politicians are, for example, blogging on the blogs of weekly magazine Focus. And a growing number of politicians have their own blogs. However, it is not expected that political blogs will influence the outcome of the elections on September 18, reported The Financial Times Deutschland.

Sources (all in German): MedienCity, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der Tagesspiegel weblogs , Focus blogs , The Financial Times Deutschland