Journalism Daily: Press freedom, the Guardian’s Joseph Harker and MyReporter.com

Journalism.co.uk is trialling a new service via the Editors’ Blog: a daily round-up of all the content published on the Journalism.co.uk site.

We hope you’ll find it useful as a quick digest of what’s gone on during the day (similar to our e-newsletter) and to check that you haven’t missed a posting.

We’ll be testing it out for a couple of weeks, so you can subscribe to the feed for the Journalism Daily here.

Let us know what you think – all feedback much appreciated.

News and features

• Audit Commission will not investigate council newspapers’ impact on local media: The Audit Commission says it will not look at effect on local titles citing ‘lack of expertise’

• @press_freedom: Tracking media freedom and international journalism around the world: Threats and restrictions for journalists and the media around the globe

• Journalism students must seek new opportunities in online marketplace, say industry experts: “There are very few jobs going, but that doesn’t mean there’s no opportunity,” says Guardian’s Joseph Harker

• Q&A MyReporter.com: ‘Nothing happens until the reader asks a question’: Journalism.co.uk interviews the creator of the Knight-Batten Citizen Media Award winning site

Ed’s picks

• I.P.I: Mexican authorities need to act immediately to ’stem systematic killing of reporters’
• CPJ: Journalist trials to begin in Iran; charges of ‘sending pictures to enemy media’
• FT.com: ‘There will be a transition to people paying for the internet,’ says Liberty Media chairman
• Global Voices Online: Finding alternative revenue streams as a non-profit org
• MediaShift: What’s the future of cit-j photo agencies?
• Guardian gives comedians right of reply: There isn’t a ‘new offensiveness’ say Herring and Burns
• David Weir: ‘Is AOL on a mission to save journalism?’

Tip of the day

• Number crunching tools

#FollowJourn

• #FollowJourn: @csmlibrary/Christian Science Monitor archivist

On the Editors’ Blog

• The @press_freedom timeline – tracking threats to journalism around the globe

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The @press_freedom timeline – tracking threats to journalism around the globe

In December, Journalism.co.uk launched a page, and subsequently a Twitter service (@press_freedom), to track violations of freedom of expression around the world.

This week we’ve added a few more sources to the Dipity timeline. Headlines from the Index on Censorship, Global Voices Online and Global Voices Advocacy and the International Journalists’ Network will now be included, along with those from the original organisations – Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, the Frontline Blog, and ourselves.

Visit the page here: http://www.journalism.co.uk/5/articles/533032.php and please re-tweet it to raise awareness for the ill-treatment of fellow journalists and bloggers around the world, prevented from doing their job. Finally please do get in touch with suggestions for the page, or potential stories for Journalism.co.uk: judith at journalism.co.uk or laura at journalism.co.uk.

Recent press freedom updates:

• Today, RSF publicised SOS Presse, a phone hotline for journalists – (33) 1 4777-7414.  “It’s open every day round the clock and, with the help of American Express, a Reporters Without Borders official can be quickly reached.” It also has a page with press freedom violations updated in real-time.

• On Saturday, trials of journalists in Iran will begin, on charges of sending pictures to ‘enemy media’. Iran currently has the highest count of journalists in prison (42).

• Following the murder of Juan Daniel Martínez Gil, The International Press Institute is calling for action from the Mexican authorities to ‘stem the systematic killing’ of reporters in the country.

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• Reporters Without Borders: Journalist killed in Brazil on World Press Freedom day
• Journalism Daily: Press freedom, the Guardian’s Joseph Harker and MyReporter.com
• Reporters Without Borders secretary-general to step down in new year
• @press_freedom: a new Twitter service from Journalism.co.uk
• IPI: At least 57 journalists in prison in Turkey

David Weir: ‘Is AOL on a mission to save journalism?’

“AOL now has 1,500 people writing content across its scores of content sub-brands,” TechCrunch reported earlier this week.

Bnet’s David Weir takes a fresh look at AOL: is it on a mission to save journalism?

Full story at this link…

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• Journalism Daily: Press freedom, the Guardian’s Joseph Harker and MyReporter.com

Guardian gives comedians right of reply: There isn’t a ‘new offensiveness’ say Herring and Burns

As noted here earlier this week, comedian Richard Herring (@herring1967) objected to Monday’s Guardian G2 feature on offensive comedy. Herring felt that quotes and examples from his shows were used out of context, giving the impression that he was a racist. He used his personal blog and Twitter account to air his frustration while others (including fellow comedians) used their own platforms to express surprise at the article. Other supportive blog posts sprang up, and tweets quickly flew round, condemning the original Guardian article. Following his complaint, the Guardian gave Herring, and Australian comedian, Brendan Burns, the chance to respond in print in today’s G2. Find them at these links:

• “There is no New Offenders movement: We don’t have a clubhouse. Standup comedian Brendon Burns responds to Guardian critic Brian Logan’s attack on ‘the new offensiveness’.”
• “There isn’t a ‘New Offensiveness’: Standup comedian Richard Herring defends his ‘Hitler Moustache’ act after comments made by Guardian critic Brian Logan.”

Richard Herring’s latest blog post can be found here; an interesting account of writing the article, and the searching questions he asked himself about the whole thing.

Response to the response: Journalist Brian Logan offers his explanation here, and this article has the comments open…

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MediaShift: What’s the future of cit-j photo agencies?

As we’ve documented on Journalism.co.uk, the citizen journalism photo agency, Demotix can boast numerous high profile photo-sale successes during recent global news events. Its industry recognition has grown fast since launch in September 2008, as it forms various collaborations with strong media brands.

But what do the experiences of earlier cit-j photo agencies signify for the chances of Demotix’s future expansion and financial growth? That’s what MediaShift’s Mark Glaser asks in a lengthy blog post published yesterday. He looks to Scoopt, the agency that shut its doors in February this year.

Scoopt, co-founder, Kyle MacRae casts doubts on Demotix’s future: “I’d say their chances of acquiring significant volumes of content with commercial value – where value is largely driven by timeliness – are slim to zero,” MacRae tells Glaser in an email.

But Turi Munthe, Demotix CEO would argue that his model is very different from Scoopt’s.

Full post at this link…

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• How Demotix’s contributors have covered Iran election protests
• Demotix photographer arrested in Iran will not face further inquiries

Global Voices Online: Finding alternative revenue streams as a non-profit org

Like all other media organisations in times of economic crisis, Global Voices ‘has to be creative and innovative when it comes to thinking of ways to sustain our organisation,’ writes managing director Georgia Popplewell in a blog post.

GV,  a non-profit community of over 200 bloggers, provides reports from citizen media and blogs around the world. Its funders can be found here. But now the organisation is exploring other source of revenue too: content commissions and underwriting, advertising, consulting and online donations. Popplewell outlines the developments in the post, and calls for further ideas.

Full post at this link…

NB: I am an occasional contributor for Global Voices. If you’ve got story ideas about citizen media in the UK which I can follow up for Journalism.co.uk and GV please get in touch: judith@journalism.co.uk. I am currently looking into examples of asylum seekers in the UK using online media to raise awareness of their situations.

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FT.com: ‘There will be a transition to people paying for the internet,’ says Liberty Media chairman

A couple of things extremely pertinent to the paid content debate in a ‘view from the top’ interview on FT.com.

It’s with Liberty Media chairman, John Malone, described by the FT’s Richard Milne as ‘one of the most powerful figures in the media world’. He controls a ‘sprawling empire of assets’ including  DirecTV, the Discovery Channel, QVC, the Atlanta Braves baseball team and a company focused on Cable TV, Liberty Global.

Two extracts from the interview:

“How bad is the outlook for the media industry right now?”

“The media has lots of different elements in it. Probably at the bottom would be local, because local advertising has been the most adversely affected. Newsprint is probably the most damaged media going forward. Cable television has been OK. It continues to grow, a little slower than we’d like. The broadcast networks are getting beaten up, but not as bad on their national side as on their local side (…)”

and:

“A big debate in media is: can you get consumers to pay for online content?

“There will be a transition to people paying for [the] internet. Unfortunately, a lot of the people promoting the internet have other monetisation theories, such as search, which is ‘free’ to the consumer. Believe me, it’s not free to the retailer. The real question is: can you get people to pay for content on the internet? That will happen over time. If you’re a newspaper publisher and you’re giving information free on the internet and charging a subscription fee [for the paper], I don’t understand the logic.”

Full interview at this link…

And this:

“Long or short? Newspapers? Short James Murdoch? Long Hedge fund regulation? Long Share prices? Neutral The European economy? Short Nicolas Sarkozy? Long Ben Bernanke? Long Barack Obama’s healthcare plan? Disaster – short Twitter? Neutral Barry Diller? Long.”

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CPJ: Journalist trials to begin in Iran; charges of ‘sending pictures to enemy media’

From the Committtee to Protect Journalists: “After more than a month of detention, several journalists may face trial beginning on Saturday on charges of ‘sending pictures to enemy media’.”

In addition, three documentary filmmakers were arrested on Thursday; the total of journalists currently held in Iranian jails is currently 42, the highest  count in the world.

Full story at this link…

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#FollowJourn: @csmlibrary/Christian Science Monitor archivist

FollowJourn: Leigh Montgomery

Who? Librarian, research manager, digital archivist

What? Information professional supporting any & all information needs and digital archiving for the staff of The Christian Science Monitor international news organization – ‘the first publication to have a global focus, and to move to a web-first publishing model’.

Where? @csmlibrary

Contact? csmlibrary@csps.com

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.

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• #followjourn: @chriscondron/head of digital strategy
• #FollowJourn: @iainmhepburn/digital editor
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• #FollowJourn: @DirDigEng/digital engagement director

I.P.I: Mexican authorities need to act immediately to ‘stem systematic killing of reporters’

The International Press Institute, based in Vienna, has called upon the Mexican authorities to ‘act immediately to stem the systematic killing of reporters’ following the murder of radio journalist Juan Daniel Martínez Gil near Acapulco July 27.

At least three other journalists have been killed this year in Mexico alone, the organisation reports.

“Some critical journalists who ‘disappear’ in Mexico are never found – they are presumed to have been kidnapped and possibly murdered.”

Full release at this link…

More details about the brutal murder reported by the Associated Press at this link.

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