Results matching “journalism key points for”

The Internet was responsible for Barack Obama's election to the White House, Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post claims. Although this statement will inevitably incite dissenting views, in the context of Huffington's talk on the power of the Internet it does not seem wholly unreasonable. Huffington was speaking at the Activate Conference 09, convened to discuss the social implications of the rise of the Internet and technology.  

The conference reiterated discussions of technological and cultural trends, which are conditioning not only how news needs to be presented, but how these new forms of diffusion can directly affect politics and society.

There is a crisis in trust and communication between the British public and the mainstream media, a new report has concluded. The gulf between public expectations of news provision and the actual nature of articles, which oscillate between esoteric or irresponsible, leaves readers feeling confused and excluded.

The report, entitled 'Public Trust In The News' was conducted by researchers from Manchester and Leeds Universities and was published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. It investigated the dynamics of news production and consumption, to ascertain if there is a difference in what "the public expects from news media and what journalists mean by serving the public".  The paper highlights the underlying causes of an apparent widespread disenchantment with the media and the detrimental effects this is having on the standards of reporting and civil participation in democracy. Thankfully, the report offers several propositions for a new journalistic direction, which could refresh the reader-writer compact.

San Diego is set to be home to the new Watchdog Institute, which will provide "data-driven investigative journalism" to media outlets.  The venture is being led by Lorie Hearn, a senior editor of the town's only printed daily, the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The Institute and the paper will collaborate closely.  The details of the project were illustrated by in an email sent by U-T editor Karin Winner to newspaper staff last Friday.  The Institute team is comprised of the director, Hearn, two reporters and a data specialist, who will work closely with the newspaper staff on 'long and short projects'.  

The drastic measures employed by the Associated Press to stanch the flow of deserters to its service, along with DPA's recent loss of a 2-million-euro subscriber, demonstrate that news agencies have some serious soul-searching to do in terms of what they offer their customers and at what cost. Writing for followthemedia.com, Philip Stone asserts that wire services need to significantly cut their content and thus their prices in order to retain clients.

Stone, a former managing director at Reuters Europe, Middle East, and Africa media division, uses DPA as an example. Each day the agency sends out 800 stories through its main service and 100 stories from each of its 12 state services, along with 700 news photos. Clearly, there is no way any one newspaper would use all or even a quarter of those articles.

The latest issue of Courrier International to hit French newsstands gathers translated newspaper articles themed on the uncertain future of the press. From Washington, in a lengthy set of extracts from the New Republic, Paul Starr makes three strong cases for why democracy will be endangered without a newspaper. He hints that American democracy may already have been slighted seeing that national, regional and local newspapers are dwindling in terms of content they can run since printing costs have caused them to scale back on the numbers of pages they print.

He opens his debate by lamenting the fact that Americans have taken [American] journalism (in the form of a printed newspaper) for granted as newspapers have been such an ''integral part of daily life in America, so central to politics and culture and business, and so powerful and profitable in their own right, that it is easy to forget what a remarkable historical invention they are.''

We live in a world, not a village

The directors of international journalism courses talked about the importance of internationalisation and giving students a chance to interact with other students from around the world in a bid to understand the effects of global media in a local context.

According to Eric Scherer at AFP, the future of journalism will lie in enterprising journalists and their efforts to come up with journalistic solutions that will facilitate the communication process and continuously revise the business models in place. He also believes that a new mindset will eventually need to replace the typical journalist's attitude of today, as well as in the value of a broad general knowledge base - something that internationalisation makes possible.

Integrated journalists for integrated newsrooms

Almost everyone present agreed that journalism schools had a duty to train students across all media disciplines, with everyone having the opportunity to learn about print, web, video and audio platforms regardless if they were specialising in newspaper, broadcasting or online journalism.

As for content, the educators had differing views on the importance of choosing a specialist field, with some saying it was important to cater to the needs of the industry and the wider community. Recent outbreaks in bird and swine flu as well as the global downturn were cited as examples of areas where journalistic expertise was lacking, with Doreen Weisenhaus, associate professor at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong, saying there was a great need for health journalists, particularly in Asia, where bird flu was first detected. She also said that as a key financial hub, Asia was calling out for journalists trained in financial reporting. Others made similar points about science and business journalism.

How is one news source, totally funded by subscriptions, to compete with another that receives government subsidies? Such is dilemma that arose when WAZ, Germany's second-largest newspaper group, dropped its subscription to the independently-run German press agency DPA in favor of government-subsidized Agence France-Presse.

As Isabelle de Pommereau points out in the Christian Science Monitor, the decision has consequences for both WAZ and DPA. Since the WAZ group started relying on AFP for all its wire coverage, "the papers' depth of German-based coverage has become undeniably more shallow." Pommereau adds that the loss of such a major client also puts financial pressure on DPA as it struggles against cutting coverage or raising the cost for its other clients.

Politico writer Michael Calderone believes that Barack Obama and the White House are trying to win over the New York Times. Despite the new president's team's penchant for new media and social networking, Calderone feels that the White House "remains in the thrall of perhaps the most emblematic old media institution of all."

Calderone reminisces about an "earlier age, when the Times loomed like Olympus over elite journalism" and describes how although Bush's team seemed not to care particularly about the paper, the current White House has shown it great respect. He points out that senior Obama officials posed for Times Sunday Magazine portraits during the transition and that the magazine this month produced a major piece on health care, for which it was offered top-level access. Times Magazine reporter Matt Bai and editor Gerald Marzorati both said that there had been a significant change in attitude towards their paper with the arrival of the new administration.

On Wednesday, to mark the launch of Hebrew Book Week, staff at Israel's daily Haaretz surrendered their desks, notebooks and pens to some of the country's most celebrated writers and poets.

With the exception of the sports and finance sections, established and up-and-coming authors were entrusted with researching stories and producing copy for the entire newspaper, from the front page headline to the back-page weather report.

Emerging from the ostensibly gloomy field of professional journalism is a positive development.  Apparently, graduates from American journalism schools are finding employment in the reporting world. 

The evidence is surmised from studies coming from Colombia University's Graduate School of Journalism.  From the latest class to graduate last month, 64 per cent claim to already having career plans relating to their field, arranged by the end of May.  'Plans' refer to actual jobs, internships, fellowships or continued education.

The Apple iPhone 3GS, premiered yesterday at Apple Inc's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, boasts an array of important new features for the newspaper industry and journalism at large. Perhaps most pertinent is the development that content can now be purchased from within iPhone applications. This new functionality presents newspapers with the opportunity to employ subscription and micro-payment structures to monetize the delivery of their content to their mobile phone readership.

Given the recent developments in the newspaper industry, such as the 'secret' meeting held in Chicago organised by the Newspaper Association of America to discuss how to monetise online content, it seems the question is no longer whether papers will begin charging online, but when, and how. And with regards to the iPhone 3GS, will they allow readers to continue to access their content for free, maybe making it harder to shift them to a pay structure in the future, or will newspapers seize this opportunity and begin charging readers as soon as the new OS is released?

In an interesting article published on the Guardian Media website, Jeff Jarvis (right) talks about the changing nature of journalism and advertising, with content generated not just by journalists but - thanks to the Internet - also readers.

"Advertising is failure," declares the American journalism professor in his opening sentence, adding that advertising is a last-ditch attempt to win over customers. "The media pray for such failure because it is advertising that will support them," he notes.

According to Mark S. Luckie of 10000words.net, a website dedicated to advising journalists and web aficionados on how to use multimedia efficiently, the answer is yes. Luckie points to five iPhone applications that revolutionize mobile journalism as such apps "elevate journalism beyond just reading stories [by] interacting with them in new and different ways."

1. Kindle for iPhone

The success of Kindle for iPhone has demonstrated that readers are not only willing to read extensive text on a hand-held digital device, but that they are also willing to pay for that content. This gives media outlets room to speculate that readers will similarly be willing to pay for in-depth news coverage that goes beyond the encapsulated resume of a story, whether in the form of a subscription plan or in micro payments for individual stories.

Michael Kinsley has offered his insights into what type of ownership model is preferable for a newspaper. He discusses how US newspapers often used to be owned by "grandees: wealthy and civic-minded individuals or families," but many of these sold out to large chains. As newspapers make less money, these chains cannot afford to keep them, so Kinsley considers whether ownership by a 'grandee' or a nonprofit foundation is the solution.

"Which will be most likely to provide the combination of financial security and editorial freedom that newspapers need?" he asks. Having experience of both different arrangements, he believes that "being owned by or dependent on a nonprofit foundation is the worst possible solution." Kinsley was editor of Harper's Magazine when it was set up as a non-profit foundation with money from the MacArthur Foundation. He reported to the board of directors, and had to comply with their "ruthlessly conventional views" and the tendencies of their friends to "take offense at any attempt to be interesting." He mentions that he had to publish a board member's wife's poetry.

The American Press Institute prepared a report for last week's newspaper executives' meeting in Chicago in which it assessed the options for paid content and "fair use" fees from Google and other aggregators. Entitled Newspaper Economic Action Plan, the report concluded that newspapers "can make the leap from an advertising-centered to an audience-centered enterprise," and should do so as soon as possible.

The "integrated, five-point" plan provides "models and recommendations for the migration of online content from free to paid" which are "intended for the development of consensus, protocols and technology." The API does not see paid content as the only revenue source that will save journalism, but advocates establishing "a true value for news content online by charging for it" in the first part of its plan: the True Value Doctrine. It recommends that news organisations immediately start a "massive" period of experimentation to find the best way to do this. The report explores three options: micropayments, subscriptions and a hybrid model.

Last week's "secret" meeting between newspaper publishers in Chicago has prompted much discussion and commentary about the implications of such a meeting, particularly in terms of antitrust laws. According to the AP, the meeting's agenda was titled "Models to lawfully monetize content," and an antitrust lawyer was present, said the Newspaper Association of America, which organised the meeting.

In his article, "How the Obama administration can save newspapers," Los Angeles Times writer Tim Rutten argues that the way to save US newspapers is to make it easier for them to charge for online content.  It seems clear that charging for general news content would have a far greater chance of succeeding if all newspapers were to start to do this simultaneously. The same goes for licensing their content to search engines: it will only be possible if it is an industry wide effort. And such moves are currently illegal, as Rutten points out, under laws barring collusion and price-fixing.

New York Times journalist Martin Fackler has written about the "failure" of the news media to press Japanese prosecutors for answers in an ongoing political scandal.

In March, Tokyo prosecutors arrested an aide to a prominent opposition political leader and sparked a damaging scandal which led to the resignation of Ichiro Ozawa, head of the opposition Democratic Party. Many Japanese have been vocal in their criticism of the prosecutors' actions, which appear politically motivated, but "you would not know that from the coverage by Japan's big newspapers and television networks," said Fackler.

Former deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has lashed out at the British press and its reaction to the Telegraph's revelations on the MP expenses scandal, branding it "arguably the worst area of self-regulation of all." Prescott's article has met with heavy criticism from readers due to his personal embroilment in the scandal, but he makes some very valid points about the Press Complaints Commission nonetheless.

He asks how effective a regulator can be "when it is not only funded by the newspaper industry but also has senior editors sitting on the board adjudicating the editorial decisions of their colleagues?" Prescott points out that amongst the board members are Sunday Telegraph editor Ian MacGregor, Mail on Sunday editor Peter Wright and Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre (who is chair of the PCC committee that reviews the Code of Practice).

"Twitter poses risks for papers" according to Edward Wasserman - but not in the way you might expect. Although much credit has recently gone to Twitter for its ability to break news and its real-time search function, Wasserman is looking at its threat from a different angle. The Knight professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University describes how it is the use of Twitter within their newsrooms which is worrying news execs.

Wasserman describes Twitter as a "a dazzling social networking technology that allows you to stay in touch," adding that smart news organisations are encouraging its use due to its potential for sourcing stories and journalistic networking. Yet he also points out that "the potential is there for staffers to spout off, spill secrets, give away their journalism" - as happened at the New York Times recently.

An article in Le Monde has examined the role of so-called 'information convicts', the new breed of journalists who are "lined up in front of their computers like chickens in a battery farm". These journalists are described as a new race, 'geeks' aged about 30 and passionate about computers, who have followed the conventional route to having a full-time contract, beginning with an internship.

One such journalist, Sylvain Lapoix, describes the role as having no rights, on a social level. He envisions creating an association to defend the rights of his colleagues. Another such journalist, who previously worked at Nouvelobs.com, describes how speed was key, and how she often found herself re-working press releases without any attempt to check or verify the information she was publishing.

Yesterday, the recently founded Media140 held its first Twitter and microblogging conference. Held at London's Southbank Centre - a venue in the heart of the UK capital synonymous with innovation - the event largely focussed on the effects that Twitter and micoblogging are having on the news gathering process and was attended by journalists from Guardian.co.uk, TimesOnline, TechCrunch, BBC, Aljazeera, Reuters and Sky News.

Kicking off discussions, associate editor of the Sunday Herald and author of 'The Play ethic', Pat Kane, opened up the conference with a keynote presentation on the way breaking news services were dramatically changing the face of journalism: "Reading a newspaper on a street corner might be seen as banal. What's becoming just as banal is producing news on that street corner," said Kane. You can access his slideshow from the presentation here.

Following the Telegraph's publication of the expense claims of British MPs from the past five years, there has been much attention given to how the publication obtained their information, and if the process was indeed ethical. Whilst the Telegraph itself has so far remained silent on the matter and refused to confirm whether or not it paid for the data, there has been a stream of information about the origins of the data coming from other sources.

Two names have now been put forward as the intermediaries in the sale, ex-SAS man John Wick and Henry Gewanter, managing director of an American PR firm. Whilst Wick has so far been unavailable for comment, Gewanter has essentially confirmed his involvement. He is keen to clear up one of the greyer areas of the saga; "No criminal acts have occurred. No criminal charges can be brought. I don't deal in stolen goods... I can tell you it was not stolen"

The Daily Telegraph's recent revelations of British MPs expense claims have caused outrage amongst British taxpayers, reluctant, for example, to see their taxes being spent on moat cleaning or swimming pool maintenance. However, the revelations have also raised eyebrows due to the manner in which the Telegraph reportedly obtained the data.

In March, Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell claimed that the CD containing all the controversial information was being offered for sale on Fleet Street for £300,000. Newspapers including the Times and the Sun refused the offer, and although the Telegraph has so far refused to confirm or deny whether, and how much, it paid for the disc, the sum is thought to be between £70,000 and £300,000.

In anticipation of the Senate Commerce Committee hearings that will be held later today to address the future of the US newspaper industry, NPR's Diane Rehm interviews media and journalism analysts to examine the fate of journalism in the midst of recession and changing media.

In the interview Rehm speaks with Associate Professor of Journalism at American University Jane Hall, former newspaper editor and Reflections of a Newsosaur blogger Alan Mutter, Editor and Senior Vice President of the American Journalism Review Rem Reider, and Editor of the Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel and new President of ASNE Martin Keiser. The four journalists agree on essential points that echo what many media analysts have said before: economic recession and decreased circulation and readership are leading to the decline of newspapers; the issue at hand is more about preserving quality journalism than about saving the printed newspaper; the development of a new business model is crucial to the survival of journalism; and government intervention is risky because it might conflict with the media's role as watchdog.