Results matching “with news video 1”

Online video platform Brightcove Inc. announces a deal with OMS, Germany's Web-based sales and marketing network for regional newspaper titles, which will permit the latter to establish an online video network for member titles. Video content would be taken from international and national media outlets as well as from which is produced by local newspapers.

Sun-Times News Group reports a deal with social media firm Pluck which will offer readers discussion forums blogs, photo and video sharing as well as other community tools on SunTimes.com, PioneerLocal.com, SuburbanChicagoNews.com, SouthtownStar.com and Post-Trib.com. The venture is meant to increase audience interactivity, according to Catherine Lanucha, the group's director of content.

Demotix, a website that tries to link citizen reporters with mainstream media and their "professional" equivalents, was launched yesterday, reports the European Journalism Centre. The site will allow mainstream news outlets to buy content like video clips and images created by both professional and amateur worldwide correspondents.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announces its third annual Knight News Challenge, a contest that will grant up to US$5 million for ideas that transform local community news with the help of digital tools like social media, Web 2.0 or multimedia content. A new "incubator" site, the News Challenge Garage, was created in order to offer online criticism and advice for applicants.

Getty Images content will now be available through video search engine blinkx, as part of a new deal between the two companies.

Advertising revenue will be shared between blinkx and Getty from the conceptual advertising placed around the content.

The deal has been struck to take advantage of the upcoming US elections, as Getty will provide feeds from the Democrat and Republican National Conventions through blinkx.

"We believe our assets deserve wide exposure, and we're always looking for innovative ways to make our digital content easily accessible," said Josh Rucci, senior director of multimedia sales for Getty.

The deal follows the UK's ITN's recent partnership with blinkx to make its news videos available through the search engine.

Source: Journalism.co.uk

Guardian.co.uk, News International, Associated Newspapers, Trinity Mirror, Telegraph Media Group, Bauer and ITV Sport have all signed up Perfrom, a company that specialises in "monetising sports and entertainment rights in digital media."

Perform is a sports video provider that provides publishers with an e-player to show sports highlights.

The embedded video widget shows sports video clips and a produced sports bulletin.

Sports copyright has emerged as a real battleground in recent years, with publishers, sports governing bodies and rights holders fighting for control of lucrative live coverage and highlights.

Source: Press Gazette

He may be an investigative journalist by trade, but Guardian (UK) writer Nick Davies is not shy to criticize his own profession. Davies made headlines across the globe with the February 2008 publication of his book, Flat Earth News, a searing indictment of investigative reporting and modern journalism. The book, which details issues such as illegal acts committed by journalists on the job and "churnalism", or barely fact-checked information rehashed from PR professionals and spin-doctors, turned the spotlight on the news industry, launching a debate within the ranks of news professionals about the challenges facing the industry.

Davies is the author of five books, has been named Journalist of the Year, Reporter of the Year, and Feature Writer of the Year. He was also the first winner of the Martha Gellhorn award for investigative reporting in 1999.

To launch our series on the Future of Investigative Journalism and the challenges ahead, the Editors Weblog spoke with Davies to see what all the controversy was about and to ask Davies his views on the future of his profession.

EW: What skills does it take to specifically be a good investigative journalist? How is it different to being a beat reporter or is it similar?

ND: In principle, the skills of investigative reporting are exactly the same as those of any other kind of reporting - because all reporting is investigative, all reporting is an attempt to get at the truth, so the distinction is a false one.

There is a sub-set of reporting where somebody is actively obstructing the reporter's access to information, which means the job will be more difficult and so the skills will be more obvious, but the key difference is not in the skills required but in the time that is required. The beat reporter is liable to be under pressure to produce several stories every shift and, therefore, will be unlikely to have the time to dig into anything which is being deliberately concealed.

EW: How has the business changed over the past 10 years, ie, skills necessary, training, and so forth?

ND: The big change in the business over the last ten years is precisely the reduction of time available for almost all reporters to do their work. The beat reporter as much as the 'investigative' specialist suffers from this, because so many news rooms have been taken over by profit-hungry corporations who have cut staff and increased output and thereby made it extremely difficult for any of their reporters to work effectively. The required skills have not changed (apart from the minor technical skills of dealing with websites).

The training, however, is in decline along with the industry as a whole, primarily because colleges now train students to fit with the demands of time-starved newsrooms, eg, the quick re-writing of press releases, the recycling of agency copy; and also because colleges set up courses with 'media' or 'journalism' in the title because they know it will attract student numbers even though they have nobody qualified to teach the course, so you have sociologists and literary specialists teaching the skills of a profession which they do not understand.

EW:  Is your job harder or easier with the advent of multi-platform news? Do you see podcasts and video content as useful?

ND: Multi-platform news has tended to make it more difficult for all reporters - beat, specialist, 'investigative' - to do their work because filing for audio, video and print
a) consumes precious time, and
b) dilutes concentration.
And I am not at all sure that our consumers are particularly interested in or attracted to the vodcasts and podcasts that we make available to them. Occasionally, there are stories where the print version is hugely enlivened by video - for example, the passenger video of the scenes inside the Qantas flight which blew a hole in its fuselage last month. But to make the production of audio and video versions a standard requirement for all stories is bad management and highly likely to accelerate the declining standard of our product.

EW: Do you use any of the new technologies in your reporting, ie, video, and mobile? Have these new technologies made your job easier or harder?

ND: As a reporter, I'm not concerned with the way in which my words are used. What I file may go into the print edition or onto the website or be subbed down for emails or mobile messages.

The one way in which electronic technology does impact me is my access to the worldwide web. That is a wonderful research tool, and I use it all the time. It is no substitute for dealing with human sources, but it enormously increases the amount of information that is available in the public domain. Personally, therefore, it has made my working life much easier.

However, for 'beat' reporters or for any reporter who has not been able to negotiate the time to do the job, the web does also represent a threat because it means they no longer have the benefit of a deadline at the end of the day: for most of them the deadline is always here and now because even if the printed edition is not calling for copy, the website is. Time - reporters can't do their job without it.

EW: What are your thoughts on lobby groups, such as the Taxpayers' Alliance, setting up investigative reporting units themselves and sending their articles direct to newspapers?

ND: The danger with funding by lobby groups is clear - that, at best, they will select story subjects and/or angles which suit their agenda and, at worst, that they will inject outright falsehood and distortion directly into them. But not all dangers are realised. I think most reporters would say that if they could find a lobby group which was prepared to back genuine journalism without imposing its agenda, they'd take it in a heartbeat.

The underlying point is that the inherent dangers of allowing corporations to take over ownership of news media are certainly being realised with highly destructive results for truth-telling journalism - and so any alternative is worth considering.

Over the coming weeks, The Editors Weblog will be examining how investigative reporting has been affected by multi-platform publication and the 24-hour news culture.  

Internet users will be able to send questions to political figures during Democratic and Republican conventions though a project called Digg Dialogg, a joint venture between Digg and CNN.

Questions may be in text or video format and can be transferred through iReport.com, CNN's user-generated content site, or Digg.com. Users can then vote for or "Digg" the questions and the most popular ones would be asked in real interviews that are to be published online.

Source: MediaWeek

The Scottish Daily Newspaper Society (SDNS) announces that it is concerned about the implications of the BBC's plans to offer locals video news content online, reports HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk.

The BBC's move to promote its Web news material through radio and TV could "distort the market" by appealing to users from local and regional papers, according to Jim Raeburn, SDNS editor.

"We are deeply concerned about the potential adverse impact on regional and local newspapers, an impact not outweighed in our opinion by any value for money to licence fee payers or society as a whole," says Raeburn.

The BBC would allegedly employ six journalists in each of the six regions in Scotland, says may be "difficult" to justify. Raeburn mentions that it wouldn't necessarily be cost-effective within the private sector.

Ofcom, the UK's independent communications regulator, is looking into the BBC's intended expenditure of £68 million to submit on-demand local video news clips.

Source: HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk

See also:
UK: Telegraph's main competitors are BBC and CNN, in era of multimedia journalism
UK: BBC experiments with external llinks

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) backed a complaint that was made against video footage that is on The Sun's website. The footage was obtained through the use of a hidden camera, which defies clause 10 of the PCC code, reported Journalism.co.uk.

The video clip showed a man, who was convicted of being in possession of pornographic imagery, at his job in a supermarket. The video was meant to be a feature of a story about a delivery to a nursery school kitchen, even though it had only showed the man in the supermarket.

The PCC said that the "public element of the story" wasn't present in the Sun footage. According to the PCC, there has to be a strong public interest in a story in order to validate the use of undercover cameras.

Source: Journalism.co.uk

See also:
UK: Commentators split on whether Mosley verdict will stifle journalism
UK: Mosley now launches libel action against News of The World

Bauer Media is licensing visual ad technology from SnapNow to carry interactive ads in its magazines, such as Kerrang!.

The SnapNow technology means that by using a WAP-enabled mobile camera phone, magazine readers can take a picture of an ad in a magazine and send the image via text message or e-mail to Bauer.

Users then receive a text message featuring additional product information or special offers related to the ad in question.

The August issue of Kerang! Will feature the first such enabled advertisement, for Play.com.

SnapNow's technology can also work for video, TV programmes and poster sites.

Source: Journalism.co.uk and MediaWeek

Indiatimes.com has undergone a makeover after undertaking market research. The newspaper website will now prioritise entertainment content to appeal to its younger readers.

In an interview with afaqs!, Mohit Hira, director, Indiatimes.com, said, "From our own research and the traffic details on our site, we figured out that users look more for entertainment and leisure oriented content. So, we decided to bring more features-based content upfront. Indiatimes.com is targeted at young users and they look out for social networking, videos and community oriented features."

The news section, which was at the top of the page previously, is now located below a features-based section called Showcase, which is now at the top of the page.

The site has started aggregating video content from the video- sharing site, YouTube.com and news and entertainment videos sourced from Times Now and Zoom TV, respectively. Previously, the video section displayed news content.

Indiatimes.com, a portal owned by Times Internet has integrated its other sites with Indiatimes.com. Social networking site iTimes.com, automobile portal Zigwheels.com and the website for Virgin Radio have also been integrated with the portal. The level of integration for iTimes.com and Virgin Radio is limited as users are only directed to the home pages of iTimes.com and Virginradio.co.uk.

After revamping Indiatimes.com, Times Internet is getting ready to launch more websites. Hira says, "We have plans to launch a Gujarati website for the Gujarati edition of The Economic Times. We will also launch one or two Internet portals in a couple of months."

Tom Cheredar, of newassignment.net, argues that it's time to open up weekly editorial meetings. In most newsrooms, the once a week meeting where stories are pitched and assigned, is a crucial time to get everyone up to speed, and provides an opportunity for everyone to provide feedback.

Chererdar, acknowledging there may be some need to guard sensitive stories and feature pieces, wrote, "Everything else should be wide open to others in the community. I'm talking about literally taking a web cam and broadcasting weekly editorial meetings in real time streaming video."

One way to do this is a free service offered by Ustream.tv.

Below, an edited version of the how-to Cheredar provides. Read his full recommendations here.

How to do it

Create a budget that does not include exclusive feature stories or other sensitive piece, then split those budgets into categories: education, Crime, City governement, etc. Each of those sections can be turned into individual channels on Ustream thus allowing a somewhat manageable group of outsiders to participate through the live chat that is up during the meeting.

Why It Should Be Done

"Scooping" is a thing of the past, as most readers don't care where they get their news from... Soon the only thing that will matter is a dedicated community. Ustreaming makes the community a part of the newsroom. Don't look at it as a peeping tom looking over your shoulder... think of it as multiplying your newsroom by 10 in every department.

Live, Streaming Accountability

Opening up the staff meetings to members in the community will improve journalism by adding a much needed dose of accountability into the mix.

"There is much more value," says Cheredar, "in acknowledging your community than there is with keeping it exclusive for the sake of tradition."

This sort of "transperent newsroom" has been higly successful at The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash. The Spokesman-Review hosts a blog on the inner workings of the paper, including editorial decisions and meetings, an opportunity for visitors to the website to comment and ask questions and editors explanations of news gathering methods and more.

Source: Journalism.co.uk

Singapore newspaper The Straits Times (ST) revealed its print and digital makeover last Friday. The revamped print version features some changes in fonts and colors as well as an increased amount of top news on the front page. The redesigned website features a division of www.straitstimes.com into a paid service ST Digital and the free ST Breaking News.   

This week, the print edition will change the days that the sections "Digital Life", "Mind Your Body" and "Urban" are printed to Wednesday, Thursday and Friday respectively.

Like the US paper the Philadephia Inquirer, the ST is putting more focus on covering breaking news online. ST Breaking News will include breaking news coverage and news blogs, and the readers would have the ability to comment and interact with the reporters. The paid subscription service ST Digital will provide users with e-papers.

ST also announced the launch of the ST Razor TV, a free interactive online TV feature that offers live news programs, video on demand and a space for users to interact and communicate.

The paper plans to raise circulation until the end of August by providing 10,000 additional copies daily to unsubscribed households and coffeeshops.

Source: Publicitas

See also:
Singapore: The Straits Times should focus on "sponge" readers
US: Philadelphia Inquirer managng editor takes "backward" step?
US: Response to Philadelphia Inquirer's new online policy