Mixed Media: ‘Do Indian newspapers need to worry about their future?’

Frontline Club: The media and anti-terrorism laws 7pm GMT

July 7th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Judith Townend in Editors' pick, Events, Photography, Press freedom and ethics

Watch the Frontline’s event on the media and anti-terrorism legislation here, at 7pm tonight:

Here’s the run-down from the Frontline Club:

An ‘On The Media’ discussion in association with the BBC College of Journalism

How concerned should photographers and journalists be about anti-terrorism legislation that came into force earlier this year making people taking pictures of the police potentially subject to fines or even arrest? A mass picture-taking event outside Scotland Yard organised by the National Union of Journalists earlier this year reflected widespread concerns that section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act would extend powers already being used to harass photographers.

Under the Act eliciting, publishing or communicating information on members of the armed forces, intelligence services and police officers ‘likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’ is subject to a 10 year maximum sentence.

The Home Office has insisted that the Act does not target the press but the number of photographers and camera crews who claim they have been prevented from taking pictures has increased.

On the other side of the lens there is growing evidence that Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) are not only collating information on protestors and campaigners but also photographers and journalists who report on demonstrations.

The emergence of video footage following the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests in April demonstrates how significant images can be.

Claims by Val Swain and Emily Apple that they were unlawfully arrested during the Kingsnorth Climate Camp has again put the spotlight on the issue of police surveillance at demonstrations. And also raises questions about the status of citizen journalists in the eyes of the police.

How much of a challenge to the freedom of the press photographers, freelances of citizen journalists – to bear witness during protests could Section 76 become?

Panel: Peter Clarke, former head of counter terrorism for Scotland Yard

Marc Vallée is a London based photojournalist who is currently working on a long-term project to document political protest and dissent in modern Britain

Turi Munthe, CEO of Demotix, a citizen-journalism website and freelance photo agency

Angus Walker, UK editor, ITV News

Moderator: Margaret Gilmore is a freelance writer and broadcaster and senior research fellow with the leading independent think tank, RUSI, where she specialises in homeland security, covering terrorism and Olympic security

Tags: Angus Walker, BBC College, BBC College of Journalism How, CEO, Demotix, editor, Emily Apple, forward, freelance writer, Frontline Club, G20, head of counter terrorism, Home Office, Ian Tomlinson, intelligence services, Kingsnorth Climate Camp, London, Marc Vallee, Margaret Gilmore, National Union, peter clarke, Photography, photojournalist, Scotland Yard, terrorism, Turi Munthe, United Kingdom, Val Swain

Media Release: RBI sells Travely Publishing Group

July 7th, 2009 | 1 Comment | Posted by Laura Oliver in Magazines, Media releases

Reed Business Information has sold its travel publishing division, which includes Gazetteers.com, Travolution and Travel Weekly, to entrepreneur Clive Jacobs.

Simon Ferguson, former publishing director of the group’s travel portfolio, who left RBI in March, struck the deal and will become chief executive of the newly created TW Group Ltd.

Full release, as reported by Travel Weekly, at this link…

Tags: chief executive, Clive Jacobs, director of the group, entrepreneur, publishing director of the group, RBI, Simon Ferguson, Travel Publishing Group, Travel Weekly, Travely Publishing Group Reed Business Information, TW Group, TW Group Ltd.

Could a new project rise out of the Newspaper Education Trust’s ashes?

July 7th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Martin Cloake in Journalism, Training

As reported on Journalism.co.uk, we said farewell to the Newspaper Education Trust last night. A small gathering at Westferry Printers on London’s Isle of Dogs closed the door on a project that had run for 15 years and given over 30,000 schoolchildren a taste of the newsroom. I have written before about the project’s closure shortly after I heard about it in June, and said then that the failure to provide the funds to keep this project going was an indictment of the trade. Last night’s event reinforced that view.

The enthusiasm with which the kids embraced their ‘day in the newsroom’ and the effect it had on their confidence can’t be overestimated. When I described the project as ‘inspirational’ I was conscious that overuse has devalued the word’s currency, but it is appropriate in this case. Reading the testimonials from the kids backed this up, and hearing tales of proud parents mounting their child’s front page in gold frames which took pride of place at home provided further insight into what this meant.

I only met the project’s dedicated chief executive Anna Pangbourne earlier this year, when she approached me after a debate at Publishing Expo and explained what the NET did. That it has been going for 15 years and provided so much for so many is thanks to the work and backing of the project’s staff, but also the backers and the trustees. So I don’t want to be too critical, especially as someone who came to the NET late. But looking at those backers I wondered how it was that, even in these recessionary times, these organisations could not find the relatively small amounts required to keep the project going. Especially when the NUJ, with access to considerably more meagre resources, did pledge some money as I helped Anna in a last push for finance.

It all came to an end very fast. When I spoke to Anna in March she mentioned a potential funding problem. Three months later the NET was wound up. I should emphasise I don’t want to come across as critical of anyone who has helped the project throughout its 15 years – without their efforts and support it wouldn’t have existed in the first place. And yet…

Here we had a resource with cutting edge equipment – the NET used Smart boards long before many media groups – which demonstrated both the power of the media and how it could empower people. It sparked schoolchildren’s imagination by involving them in the process of investigating, questioning and creating, and boosted their confidence by encouraging them to follow up their judgments. This is the generation who, we are led to believe, do not recognise the difference between journalism and simply communicating, whose blogging and Facebooking and video gaming and digital dexterity means all existing media will be swept away and replaced by a vast communal conversation. And yet here they were, valuing the process of checking, standing up stories, working out how to present information to target readers – creating the very media too many in the trade display such a depressing lack of confidence in.

At the closing event, the ‘move to a digital age’ was cited as one reason why the decision to wind up the NET on a high was taken. And yet the NET had not only embraced digital production technology for print, it had also began to offer basic TV bulletin courses in its media studio. Plans for expanding into podcasting and greater use of converged media were also being made. That all sounds very much like moving to a digital age to me.

One of the NET’s many achievements has been to pass on the legacy of its work, and the Tower Hamlets Summer University will be taking on some of the kit and course framework to offer its students. I’m talking to the Summer Uni about the possibility of linking up with London’s journalism colleges, and with the Summer University model now being taken up across London and beyond there is a chance that what the NET started can be taken on and built on a much wider scale.

Why is all this important? There’s an obvious answer, and a not so obvious one. If any trade wants to attract and nurture the best, it needs to inspire and illuminate future generations. But this is not just about the trade getting a new workforce. Much is said about the information age, but many educators and politicians are still thinking in boxes rather than realising that communications skills are key to so much of modern life. It’s not just potential journalists who need to know how to handle media technology and process information – the ability to communicate well is more vital than ever before.

If anyone is interested in developing any of this, I’d be happy to hear from you.

This post originally appeared on MartinCloake.wordpress.com. Martin Cloake is a writer, production journalist and media consultant. His website can be found at this link.

Tags: Anna Pangbourne, communications skills, converged media, dedicated chief, dedicated chief executive, digital production technology, education, finance, Isle of Dogs, Journalism.co.uk, London, Martin Cloake, Media groups, media studio, media technology, newspaper education trust, production journalist and media consultant, Summer University, Tower Hamlets Summer University, writer

Media Week: Associated Northcliffe Digital to handle online ad sales for Hello!

July 7th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Judith Townend in Advertising, Editors' pick, Magazines

Media Week reports: “Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) has formed closer ties with celebrity title Hello!, having agreed that its digital unit Associated Northcliffe Digital (AND) will handle online ad sales for Hellomagazine.com.”

Full story at this link…

(Via paidContent:UK)

Tags: Daily Mail, Daily Mail & General Trust, media week, northcliffe digital, online ad sales, United Kingdom

Poynter Online: Q&A with ProPublica’s Amanda Michel

July 7th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Judith Townend in Citizen journalism, Editors' pick

A comprehensive Q&A with Amanda Michel, editor of distributed reporting at ProPublica. The former head of the HuffPo ‘OfftheBus’ project provides detail about the investigative organisation’s recently launched citizen journalism project, the Reporting Network.

Full post at this link…

Tags: amanda michel, editor, head, propublica, reporting network

Econsultancy: Independent’s mobile site reviewed

July 7th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Judith Townend in Editors' pick, Mobile

Econsultancy’s Graham Chorlton takes a look at the Independent’s newly launched mobile site:

“The look and feel of the site is fine, with the gold and white colour scheme echoing that of the main site. It does lack the visual appeal of both The Guardian and FT.com mobile sites, but keeping it simple is fine for a mobile site that people will use on a variety of handsets and connection speeds.”

Full review at this link…

Tags: FT.com, Graham Chorlton, Independent, mobile site, The Guardian

Reporting from ‘the EU in the sunshine’ where hacks are hunting in packs

July 7th, 2009 | 1 Comment | Posted by John Mair in Events, Online Journalism, Press freedom and ethics

John Mair is a senior lecturer in broadcasting at Coventry University. He was born in Guyana and regularly returns there to help build local media, print and TV.

Summits bring out the worst in hacks. Lazy journalism by design. You arrive, get spoon-fed information, report it and then leave. You get fed and watered too. No need for digging, no need for investigation.

The Caricom (Caribbean Community – think EU in the sunshine) Summit, which opened last week here in Georgetown, Guyana, is no exception. Fifteen regional leaders and distinguished others from all round the world propelled at speed by police outriders all over the Capital City to a brand new Conference Centre. They ‘meet’ for three days to discuss the pressing issues of crime, security, economy and more in the region. But, like all summits it is a sham. The team have long been at work preparing the final communiqué. One person told me minutes after the end of the Opening Ceremony last night that the final communiqué was done and dusted – just crossing the ‘T’s’ and dotting the ‘I’s’ left to do. Where is the journalism in reporting that charade?

But the 60 or so journos from all over the Caribbean who are here go through the motions. The Guyana Government has set up a press centre in an anteroom of the summit to feed regular morsels to the hungry hacks. They run on the spot, faithfully file and come back for more. The herd instinct in action.

There is one real story at this talkfest. The Prime Minister of Barbados, David Thompson, is it. He is a pariah in the Community as it heads towards integration. He wants to clear his Little England island of illegal Guyanese immigrants. His police round them up early morning, interrogate then and so far 53 have been dispatched South in two months. Caricom is supposed to be about the free movement of labour. Thompson held a bizarre press conference on arrival in Georgetown. Local journos failed to ask the right questions. But the ‘Bajan bans Guyanese’ story will run and run.

The local media hunt firmly in packs – whatever their race or the politics of their paper/TV station. At the ceremonial opening last night, the usual suspects were present. All corralled in the lobby or in one small room. All using the feed from the State broadcaster as their only source. Some of them will not file for a day or so. ‘Soon come’ journalism is common here. But how many of the Guyana Press Corps will have the courage to announce the opening as a non-story? Nothing really happened. Fifteen men in suits sat on a stage and listened to six of their number drone on for two hours. Sound bites aplenty there were not.

More to follow on the conference, which ran July 2-5. Over the weekend, the Premiers and the Pack headed off to the Chinese built Conference Centre to go through the elegant quadrille that’s called ‘reporting’ major summits. Me – I got hold of a copy of the final communiqué and sat beside a hotel pool reading it and reporting it. If you are going to be lazy, do it right.

Tags: barbados, caribbean, caricom, Coventry University, david thompson, European Union, Georgetown, Guyana, Guyana Government, Guyana Press Corps, John Mair, Little England island, Local media, Prime Minister, Prime Minister of Barbados, senior lecturer, the Pack, The Prime Minister, US Federal Reserve

A guide to newspapers on Twitter

July 7th, 2009 | 2 Comments | Posted by Malcolm Coles in Handy tools and technology, Newspapers, Social media and blogging

National newspapers have a total of 1,068,898 followers across their 120 official Twitter accounts – with the Guardian, Times and FT the only three papers represented in the top ten.

The Guardian’s the clear winner, as @GuardianTech’s place on Twitter’s Suggested User List means it has 831,935 followers – 78 per cent of the total. @GuardianNews is 2nd with 25,992, @TimesFashion 3rd with 24,762 and @FinancialTimes 4th with 19,923.

Complete list of national newspaper Twitter accounts

Other findings:

Glorified RSS Out of 121 accounts, just 19 do something other than running as a glorified RSS feed. The other 114 do no retweeting, no replying to other tweets etc. (The 19 are the ones with a blue background in their URL and a yes in the last column).
No following. They don’t do much following. Leaving GuardianTech out of it, there are 236,963 followers of these accounts, but they follow just 59,797. Are newspapers bringing their no-linking-out approach to Twitter? Or is it just because they’re pumping RSS feeds straight to Twitter, and therefore see no reason to engage with the community?
Rapid drop-off There are only six Twitter accounts with more than 10,000 followers. I suspect many of these accounts are invisible to most people as the newspapers aren’t engaging much – no RTing of other people’s tweets means those other people don’t have an obvious way to realise the newspaper accounts exist.
Sun and Mirror are laggards The Sun and Mirror have a lot of work to do – they have few accounts with any followers. And they don’t promote their Twitter accounts on their sites. The Mail only seems to have one account but it is the 20th largest in terms of followers.

More on newspaper Twitter accounts:

Some papers publish lists of their Twitter accounts:

Other useful places:

Newspaper people on Twitter from mediaUK
Newspaper titles on Twitter (inc local) from mediaUK
Twitian – a list of people at the Guardian who use Twitter (and their latest tweets), created by Paul Carvill.
#followjourn – a daily recommendation service from Journalism.co.uk.

This post originally appeared on MacolmColes.co.uk.

Tags: ft, Journalism.co.uk, MacolmColes.co.uk, malcolm coles, Newspapers, Paul Carvill, The Guardian, times, Twitter

#FollowJourn: @mumbrella/Tim Burrowes

July 7th, 2009 | 1 Comment | Posted by Laura Oliver in Recommended journalists

#FollowJourn: Tim Burrowes

Who? Previously editor of B&T magazine.

What? Now runs Mumbrella – a website dedicated to Australia’s media and marketing industries.

Where? @mumbrella or Mumbrella.com.au.

Contact? tim [at] focalattractions [dot] com [dot] au

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, Australia, BT, editor, Mumbrella.com., Tim Burrowes, tim [at] focalattractions [dot] com