Essential journalism links for students

This list is doing the rounds ‘100 Best Blogs for Journalism Students – Learn-gasm‘… and we’re not on it. Nope, not even a smidgeon of link-love for poor old Journalism.co.uk there.

The BachelorsDegreeOnline site appears to be part of e-Learners.com, but it’s not clear who put the list together. Despite their omission of our content and their rather odd descriptions (e.g: Adrian Monck: ‘Adrian Monck writes this blog about how we inform ourselves and why we do it’), we admit it is a pretty comprehensive list; excellent people and organisations we feature on the site, our blog roll and Best of Blogs mix – including many UK-based ones. There were also ones we hadn’t come across before.

In true web 2.0 self-promotional style, here are our own links which any future list-compilers might like to consider as helpful links for journalism students:

• Journalism.co.uk for industry news, events and developments

• Journalism.co.uk Editor’s Blog for the titbits, tips, trade tools, recommendations and daily editors’ picks.

• TNTJ blog: Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists

• Insite: an advanced internet research skills.news blog by Journalism.co.uk’s consulting editor and trainer, Colin Meek.

• Journalism.co.uk training section and forums.

And here are some blogs/sites also left off the list which immediately spring to mind as important reading for any (particularly UK-based) journalism students:

Organisations

• Global Voices Online – essential for anyone interested in press freedom issues (Co-founder, Ethan Zuckerman’s blog, is here)

• The Frontline Club blog, as above.

• European Centre for Journalism (EJC)

• WEF Editors’ Weblog and SFN blog.

• Crikey.com: news from down under that’s not Murdoch, or Fairfax produced.

• Press Review Blog (a Media Standards Trust project) – it’s a newbie, but already in the favourites.

• Centre for Journalism from the University of Kent

• The UK National Union of Journalists news site and its president, Jeremy Dear’s, blog

• AllMediaScotland.com

• The Independent’s Media section

• NY Times’ media section

• FT.com media section

• Press Gazette’s Peter Kirwan/The Wire

• BBC Editors’ Blog

• BroadcastNow.co.uk

• StinkyJournalism: it’s passionate and has produced many high-profile stories

• Wired Journalists

• Index on Censorship

• Demotix blog

• Reporters Without Borders

• Committee to Protect Journalists

• International Federation of Journalists (though we’ve had problems accessing their site or feeds lately)

• British Journalism Review (now in its 20th year)

Individuals

• Craig Silverman’s Regret the Error

• MST director, Martin Moore’s blog

• Clay Shirky

• CurryBet – Martin Belam’s links are canny, and provocative and break down the division between tech and journalism.

• Malcolm Coles – for SEO tips and off-the-beaten track spottings.

• Dave Lee – facilitating conversations journalists could never have had in the days before blogs.

• Joanna Geary – as above

• Marc Vallee – photography freedom issues from the protest frontline.

• FleetStreetBlues: an anonymous industry insider with jobs, witty titbits and a healthy dose of online cynicism.

• Alison Gow for a view from the regionals

• Sarah Hartley previously as above, now with more online strategy thrown in.

• The e-Grommet for links.

• Charles Arthur – for lively debate on PR strategy, among other things

• Shane Richmond’s blog at the Telegraph.

• MarkMedia (view from Scandinavia)

• Kristine Lowe (as above)

• Media Culpa (as above)

• Richard Sambrook, BBC big cheese and excellent blogger

• Justin Williams,  Telegraph assistant editor

• Matthew Buckland, media views from South Africa

• Steve Buttry

• Craig McGill – bridging journalism and PR.

Writing this has only brought home further the realisation that omissions are par for the course with list-compilation, but it does inspire us to do our own 101 essential links for global online journalists – trainees or otherwise. We’d also like to make our list inclusive of material that is useful for, but not necessarily about, journalists: MySociety for example.

Add suggestions below, via @journalismnews or drop judith at journalism.co.uk an email.

Tags: Adrian Monck, Alison Gow, allmediascotland.com, assistant editor, BBC, broadcastnow.co.uk, Centre for Journalism, Charles Arthur, Clay Shirky, co-founder, Colin Meek, consulting editor, Craig McGill, Craig Silverman, Dave Lee, director, e-Learners.com, editor, essential links, Ethan Zuckerman, Frontline Club, FT.com, International Federation of Journalists, internet research, Joanna Geary, Journalism, Journalism.co.uk, Justin Williams, Kristine Lowe, malcolm coles, Martin Belam, Martin Moore, Matthew Buckland, media, Media Standards Trust, media views, news site, online cynicism, online journalists, online strategy, peter kirwan, President, Reporters Without Borders, Richard Sambrook, Sarah Hartley, Scandinavia, Shane Richmond, steve buttry, the Telegraph, The Wire, top 100 list, trade tools, UK National Union, United Kingdom, University of Kent The UK National Union

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Data Center Knowledge: Ads and widgets slowed news sites during Jackson surge

An article from Data Center Knowledge cites evidence suggesting that advertising networks and widgets could have been key factors in slowing news sites during the surge of internet traffic as news broke of Michael Jackson’s death.

“Keynote Systems, which provided early data on the sluggishness of news sites Thursday, released an analysis late Friday that highlighted the role of third-party content.”

Full story at this link…

Tags: advertising networks, data center knowledge, internet traffic, Keynote Systems, michael jackson, Traffic

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Index on Censorship: ‘Girls Aloud obscenity case dropped’

The Index on Censorship reported yesterday that the Crown Prosecution Service has abandoned its case against Darryn Walker, a civil servant ‘who was facing trial under the Obscene Publications Act for writing a violent pornographic fantasy story about pop group Girls Aloud.’

Jo Glanville, editor of Index on Censorship said:

“This prosecution should never have been brought in the first place. Since the landmark obscenity cases of the 60s and 70s, writers have been protected from such prosecutions and have remained free to explore the extremes of human behaviour. This case posed a serious threat to that freedom. In future, obscenity cases should be referred directly to the director of public prosecutions before any prosecution is triggered.”

Full post at this link…

Tags: Crown Prosecution Service, darryn walker, director of public prosecutions, editor, girls aloud, Index on Censorship, Jo Glanville, the Index on Censorship

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#FollowJourn: @martincouzins/user development editor, XpertHR

#FollowJourn: Martin Couzins

Who? User development editor on XpertHR.

What? Works for magazine publisher Reed Business Information; interested in learning, development and ‘steering teams through change’.

Where? @martincouzins or blogs at ItsDevelopmental.com.

Contact? martin [dot] couzins [at] rbi [dot] co [dot] uk

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to judith or laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

Tags: #followjourn, Martin Couzins, martin [dot] couzins [at] rbi [dot] co, User development editor, XpertHR

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Producer responds to Guardian TV review: ‘If an opera is reviewed, you get someone who knows about opera’

A commenter who claims to be producer-director of BBC2′s ‘The Madoff Hustle’ (aired Sunday), Roger Corke, responds to Tim Dowling’s review of the programme for the Guardian:

“If an opera is reviewed, you get someone reviewing it who knows about opera. The same is true if dance, art, architecture is reviewed. Why is it, then, that newspapers give the TV reviewer’s job to someone who clearly doesn’t know anything about TV?”

Comment and article at this link…

The Madoff Hustle on BBC iPlayer at this link…

Hat-tip: Malcolm Coles (@Malcolm Coles)

Tags: bb2, BBC, malcolm coles, Producer responds, producer-director, roger corke, The Guardian, the madoff hustle, tim dowling

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – gather your social media in one place

Lots of journalists are now using FriendFeed since it updated its Twitter features. Sign up and follow people in all their online media forms. Tipster: Judith Townend.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

Tags: FriendFeed, Journalism.co.uk, Judith Townend, online media forms, social media, Twitter

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Guyana: Four daily papers and 20+ television stations but a poor standard of journalism

Regular Journalism.co.uk contributor John Mair is a senior lecturer in broadcasting at Coventry University and the inventor of the Coventry Conversations, now on iTunes U. He was born in Guyana and returns there regularly to observe and advise the local media. His nom de plume in Guyana is Bill Cotton/Reform.

I am at one of the frontiers of modern journalism: Guyana in South America, but of the Caribbean. Most things go here. Four daily papers and 20+ local television stations feeding the news appetite of the 750,000 population. Journalists rank just above dog catchers as a trade in Guyana. At least the latter get some training.

Over here there is a university course in ‘Public Communication’ but little else to fine-tune wannabe hacks. The best and brightest go north drawn by the bright lights of the USA and Canada, like many others in their country. Newspapers are still sold on the streets by vendors on commission. The four on sale range from the supermarket tabloid Kaieteur News to the urbane Guyana Times. Kaieteur is the baby of local shoe shop entrepreneur Glenn Lall. Brash, vulgar, full of crime stories with some challenging columnists (including me behind a nom de plume).

It hits the popular mark as nearly does The Stabroek News, a paper instrumental in bringing democracy back to Guyana in 1992 after a period of dictatorship. Its guiding light, the Caribbean media giant David Decaires, died last year. The paper has lost some direction since. It is worth looking at though – for the letters column alone. A national Conversation tree but one which is prolix. Working out which letters are genuine makes for a fascinating read. Both major political parties (the PP and the PNC) and racial groups (Indo and African Guyanese) employ specialist correspondents to support their positions under a variety of noms de plumes (I am not alone in my anonymity. It is a Guyanese tradition).

Third in the press race is the Government-controlled Daily Chronicle. Cynics dub it The Chronic or The Daily Jagdeo in honour of the now second term President Bharrat Jagdeo. If a government minister speaks, they report it. If the President does, it hits the front page. The masses have not gone for it in thousands, nor for the new kid on the block for the last year, The Guyana Times. Intelligent, erudite, semi-broadsheet and the brainchild of a pharmaceutical baron Bobby Ramroop. It is well-written if stodgy, but at a level way beyond the literary level of the mass of the population. The Guyanese middle classes are now not here but in Toronto, New York and Miami. They read their papers on the internet.

The big action is on screen-in TV journalism. That is madness. Tout court. 20+ stations all stealing product from international satellites and re-transmitting it. The Guyanese journalism content ranges from the vulgar-local poujadist and station owner CN Sharma, the soi-disant ‘voice of the people’ with oppositional news shows like ‘Capitol News’ and ‘Prime News’, to the ‘Chronic’ of the airwaves NCN and its ‘Sixo’Clock News’ – which I invented a decade ago. The latter is news on the station owned by the Minister of Agriculture (and President manque) Robert Persaud and makes few pretences to impartiality.

Few of the TV journalists have any training. Few stay in the job for long. Few ever work out what the medium means. They think relaying a press conference with a few links is a ‘story’. More than one over several days if they can spin it out as they get paid per piece. Wallpaper is too kind a word to describe their use of pictures to tell tales.

So there you have it. Poor journalism by under-trained hacks. But all will change later this week when the heads of the Caribbean Governments come to town for their Annual Caricom Csummit. They bring with them the cream of the Caribbean Press Corps. That should be an intriguing piece of media anthropology in action. I will be there.

Tags: Bharrat Jagdeo, Bill Cotton, Bobby Ramroop, Canada, caribbean, Caribbean Press Corps, Coventry University, Daily Chronicle, David Decaires, Glenn Lall, government minister, Guyana, John Mair, Journalism, Kaieteur News, Local media, local shoe shop entrepreneur, media anthropology, media giant, Miami, Minister of Agriculture, New York, pharmaceutical baron, President, Regular Journalism.co.uk, Robert Persaud, senior lecturer, south america, The Guyana Times, The Stabroek News, toronto, Tout court, U . He, United States

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UK ad spend dropped 4% in 2008, says AdAssoc

Advertising spend in the UK fell by 4 per cent last year to £18.6 billion, according to new figures from the Advertising Association (AdAssoc). The previous year saw spend grow by 4 per cent, a release from the association adds.

The newly released figures suggest the press is still the largest medium in terms of spend, attracting 37 per cent (£6,812,000 million) of total expenditure. However, this was an 11.8 per cent drop compared with the 2007′s stats for press ad spend.

Only the internet (19.1 per cent) and cinema (1 per cent) showed year-on-year growth in ad spend from 2007 to 2008.

The graph below shows the proportion of total ad spend by medium:

Tags: Advertising Association, GBP, United Kingdom

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Daily Mail gypsy/NHS poll on The Now Show

BBC Radio 4′s  The Now Show picked up on the now-notorious Daily Mail ‘gypsy/NHS’ poll in the first episode of its new series.

On Saturday June 20 Journalism.co.uk’s John Thompson reported:

“The UK-based Mail Online was forced to shut down one of its online polls yesterday after a concerted campaign by Twitter users and, Journalism.co.uk can reveal, UK-based psychologists, nearly brought their servers to a halt with an overwhelming ‘yes’ vote.”

“The poll, which asked the somewhat leading question ‘Should the NHS allow gipsies to jump the queue,’ attracted ridicule from many within the Twitter community leading to, at one point a 96% vote in favour of the proposition.”

Listen to The Now Show’s take on it here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00l6fzl

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Will Lewis’ defence of Telegraph expenses coverage

A special programme from BBC Radio 4 aired yesterday: ‘Moats, Mortgages and Mayhem’ which looked at media coverage of the whole scandal.

The editor of the Daily Telegraph, Will Lewis defended coverage of MPs’ expenses, rubbishing suggestions that his paper had irreparably damaged Parliament.

“Will Lewis told the BBC his paper’s reports about MPs’ claims would make Parliament more ‘open’ and allow a ‘new generation’ of people to be elected,” reported the BBC.

(….) “former Tory leader Michael Howard said some of the paper’s coverage had been “inaccurate and unfair.”

You can listen to Lewis’s comments here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8123362.stm

Or the programme, presented by Nick Robinson and produced by Martin Rosenbaum,  in full here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lh47j

Nick Robinson’s own comments are also very insightful: his frustrations about the lack of time to ‘ponder’ on the revelations, and the questions raised about presenting accusations fairly.

Hat tip: Journalism student and blogger, Nigel Barlow. On his blog he says: that he has a couple of problems with the Telegraph’s reportage: “Firstly that there was no differentiation between claims that were accepted or rejected. Secondly that the paper has been selective in the MPs that it has targeted.”

Tags: Michael Howard, moats, mortgages and mayhem, MPs expenses, Nick Robinson, nigel barlow, Will Lewis

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