#FollowJourn: @ruthofford/music journalist

Journalists ‘need to be champions of evidence not just speculation’, says head of new Science Journalism MA

October 16th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Judith Townend in Events, Training

Last night celebrated the launch of City University’s new Science Journalism MA; its first students had front row seats for the libel debate featuring, among others, science journalist Simon Singh and blogger/doctor, Ben Goldacre.

Around 75 per cent of the students come from science backgrounds, its course leader Connie St. Louis, a former BBC journalist, told Journalism.co.uk. Science, health, medicine and environment are on the front pages more than ever, she said.

“This MA is designed to fill the gap between poor reporting and good reporting – to make sure the journalists for the future are multi-skilled, well informed, can negotiate science papers and understand the process of science and become champions of evidence not just speculation.

It’s ‘essentially unravelling of the scientific process’ she said.

But, added St. Louis, she is not keen on scientists replacing journalists as the purveyors of scientific news: “I think there’s a danger when scientists themselves report the news. I think the role of journalist as the adjudicator and the person who understands, interprets and contextualises the story is incredibly important.”

Tags: City University, connie st louis, science journalism ma

Malcolm Coles: Carter Ruck’s new attempt to gag Parliament

October 16th, 2009 | 1 Comment | Posted by Malcolm Coles in Journalism, Legal, Press freedom and ethics

A version of this post first appeared on MalcolmColes.co.uk.

Having failed to stop the Guardian reporting an MP asking a question about its client British oil company Trafigura and the injunction concerning the Minton report, law firm Carter-Ruck is making a second attempt to gag Parliament.

The firm has written a 3-page letter to the speaker of the House of Commons – in the middle of which are these two paragraphs:

“Until that resolution [of the matter referred to in the injunction], it is not appropriate to comment on the Order [the injunction], other than to make it clear that we and our clients are in no doubt that it was entirely appropriate for us to seek the injunctive relief in question …

“Clearly the question of whether this matter is sub judice is entirely a matter for your [the speaker's] discretion, although we would observe that we believe the proceedings to have been and to remain ‘Active’ within the definition of House Resolution CJ (2001-02) 194-195 of 15 November 2001 in that arrangements have been made for the hearing of an application before the Court.”

The resolution, which is subject to the discretion of the Speaker, being referred to says this:

Matters sub judice

Resolution of 15th November 2001

Resolved, That, subject to the discretion of the Chair, and to the right of the House to legislate on any matter or to discuss any delegated legislation, the House in all its proceedings (including proceedings of committees of the House) shall apply the following rules on matters sub judice:

(1) Cases in which proceedings are active in United Kingdom courts shall not be referred to in any motion, debate or question.

(b) (i) Civil proceedings are active when arrangements for the hearing, such as setting down a case for trial, have been made, until the proceedings are ended by judgment or discontinuance.

So although it is not spelt out in the letter, Carter-Ruck has written to the speaker to suggest that this matter is sub judice – active legal proceedings – and should not therefore be discussed in Parliament, according to the Westminster rules which prohibit MPs’ debates in those circumstances.

Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat MP had secured a debate for next week looking at the effects of English libel law on the reporting of parliamentary proceedings.

The speaker has not yet indicated whether he will provide a ruling.

Tags: #trafigura, carter-ruck, evan harris, guardian, Parliament, sub judice

Nieman Journalism Lab: Gawker stirs up online commenting with new #tips tags

October 15th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Editors' pick, Social media and blogging

Gawker is encourage commenters and readers of its site to share news, links and tips using a new tagging system.

Using a text form on the site, tagging a message with #tips for example will send it to a ‘tips’ page, where all similarly tagged submissions will be pulled together to create a stream.

Individual hashtags for different sections of the site have been introduced as part of the new Gawker Open Forums, reports Nieman Journalism Lab.

“[A]s the front pages of our sites become ever more professional, it’s even more important to allow anarchy to bubble up from below. The goal is to blur the line between our editors and commenter-contributors,” publisher Nick Denton told Nieman.

Starred contributors – e.g. those members of Gawker’s commenting community that have been given a star rating by the site’s editors – will have their tagged submissions immediately fed to the aggregated pages. Other tagged contributions will need to be flagged up by these starred users.

Full story at this link…

Tags: gawker media, hashtags, Nick Denton, online communities

Last call for pitches to Current TV

October 15th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Events

A late call for correspondents and producers with ideas for UK-based, investigative, current affairs pieces – Current TV is looking for your pitches for its Sheffield Pitch 2009 event.

The deadline is tomorrow, but if you’re interested and can turn something around quickly here are the criteria:

A half-hour long slot
£5,000 budget
Pitches can only come from UK and Irish residents

Some questions from Current:

Why does this issue need to be investigated?
Who is your on- and off-screen talent and why?
How do you plan to tell your story? Who are your characters? What is your access?
What problems are you likely to face and how will you overcome them (including risk assessment)?

Pitches should be submitted using this form. Six finalists will be selected to attend a session at the Sheffield Documentary Festival on November 5 with the winner receiving £5,000 to make their programme for airing in 2010.

There are plenty of examples of the type of programmes Current is after – specifically its for the channel’s Vanguard output, which focuses on current affairs and investigative reporting.

Tags: Current TV, Sheffield Doc Fest

NME launches new paid-for iPhone app

October 15th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Harriet Massing in Mobile

NME has launched a new application for the iPhone – at 59p a download.

The application will offer users ‘iconic images’ from the magazine and photos from the app can also be bought. The bought images can be uploaded to Facebook or saved to your mobile, a release from publisher IPC explained.

The application has been developed by Umee using their Umee Mobile for iPhone platform.

NME recently launched another app for iPhone, the NME Radio app, which enabled users to purchase and download songs as they are played on the station.

Today’s launch follows recent iPhone app releases by several publishers. The Financial Times launched its iPhone app in July. It provided registered users with access to 10 articles a month and access for paying subscribers to more articles and market tracking tools.

Related reading on Journalism.co.uk: ‘iPhone apps: To charge or not to charge?’

Tags: apps, Financial Times, IPC, iPhone, NME, Umee

WMF: Partnerships are future for UK regional news – but who’ll be in control?

October 15th, 2009 | 1 Comment | Posted by Laura Oliver in Events, Journalism

The most salient comment in yesterday’s Westminster Media Forum on the future of local media came from Community Media Association (CMA) director Jacqui Devereux.

Having listened to presentations from several of the ‘big players’ (ITN, STV, Global Radio) interested in a bid to run the government’s proposed independently funded news consortia (IFNC) as a replacement for ITV1′s regional news service, Devereux said she welcomed talk of partnership, but was concerned about the ‘jockeying for position’ she had heard in the room.

Partnerships should not be established if the main issue is who controls that partnership, she suggested.

“There’s no reason why the bigger players and the smaller players can’t work together to make this work properly. But it will only work if there isn’t a big player in there saying we need to control this ‘because’,” she said.

Smaller players, such as the community radio stations and TV channels represented by the CMA, must have a protected place within the IFNC proposals, she said – a sentiment echoed by ITN chief executive officer John Hardie, whose vision for a ‘grand alliance’ of local media included an ‘open door policy’ to encourage smaller newsmakers to take part.

While the BBC is not bidding to run the consortia, the broadcaster, whose plans for a local video network were rejected by the BBC Trust last year, is in talks with the CMA and community radio stations about ways for working together for local news provision, David Holdsworth, controller for the English regions, said.

“The BBC can be an important catalyst in what is a burgeoning sector,” he explained.

Collaboration with ‘heritage’ media could help spur growth at this level, Steve Buckley, joint managing director from Community Media Solutions, added, suggesting that support should be found for financing a professional journalist as a mentor and trainer at each community radio station in the UK.

“The time is now – not to wait for a burgeoning sector to go into decline. We cost a fraction of supporting a Channel 3 output,” said Buckley.

However, as Devereux suggested, whether these partnerships will be iterations of the old ownership model or an attempt at a new layer of cross-media, multiplayer news providers is a decision for the government and media regulator.

In tune with Devereux and Buckley’s vision for better use of community resources and independent news organisations, former Johnston Press chairman Roger Parry shared some suggestions from his recent report for the Conservative Party on local media.

Parry’s research, which looked at production costs for local news and compared regional media in the US and Canada with the UK system, suggested a network of 80 city-based, local multimedia hubs could provide the future for regional news provision in the UK.

These centres could bring in a new local video layer to the bottom of the existing news pyramid in the UK – content which could then be aggregated up to local newspapers and stations and beyond.

But to achieve this the old divisions between TV reporters and a newspaper reporter will have to be broken down. The emphasis would be on journalists as content coordinators more than content creators, he said.

Tags: independently funded news consortia, jacqui devereux, local and regional media, Roger Parry, steve buckley, Westminster Media Forum

WMF: Could unversities provide facilities for new local news networks?

October 15th, 2009 | 2 Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Events, Training

While partnerships between news groups and across local media platforms was the focus of many presentations at yesterday’s Westminster Media Forum event, Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC) secretary Jim Latham raised an interesting idea from the floor:

Could journalism schools at UK universities offer equipment, facilities and trainee reporters in the form of students to local media groups and proposed independently funded news consortia (IFNC)?

Latham reference the multi-million pound investment that has taken place at some institutions – including new centres at London’s City University and the University of Nottingham.

Speakers from Ofcom and ITN acknowledge the potential and admitted that this hadn’t previously been considered.

Are there legislative barriers to this happening? Or could higher education institutions play more of a role in the plans for regional news?

Tags: BJTC, independently funded news consortia, local and regional media, Westminster Media Forum

ProPublica editor-in-chief on a changed world: ‘Investigative reporting in the web era’

October 15th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Judith Townend in Editors' pick, Online Journalism

Britain’s own investigative non-profit bureau will soon be up and running, not quite on the scale of the US-based foundation-funded ProPublica, but a significant development nonetheless. It has over 50 non-profit examples over the world to look to for inspiration and the well-resourced ProPublica is likely to be one.

This commentary by ProPublica’s editor-in-chief looks at the organisation’s work and collaborations and focuses on the changes that have taken place over the past few years; developments that saw the Los Angeles Times publish a front page story, spread over four more pages inside, written and reported by two ProPublica reporters.

“Just a few years ago, there would have been a very slim chance that a paper of the Times’s standing would have devoted so much prime real estate to anything not entirely of its own origination and execution,” Paul Steiger writes.

Full post at this link…

Tags: bureau of investigative journalism, propublica

US National Magazine Awards 2010 to award podcasts, video and mobile

October 15th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Harriet Massing in Magazines, Multimedia

The US-based National Magazine Awards are adding 12 new categories to the original 22 so that online magazines can receive the awards. The new categories will reward work in mobile media, interactive tools, podcasting, video and community.

The National Magazine Awards, which will be presented in April 2010, have been running since 1966; winning one is considered the industry’s top accolade. The digital awards are to be given out at a different ceremony to the others, however: a lunch during an online magazine conference in March. Sid Holt, the chief executive of ASME insisted that they will still be as prestigious as the rest of the awards, according to the New York Times.

The Digital ‘Ellies’ (named after the Alexander Calder ‘Elephant’ trophy) categories include: General Excellence, Digital Media; Mobile Media; Design, Digital Media; Photography, Digital Media; News Reporting; Blogging; Regular Department or Section; Multimedia Feature or Package; Interactive Tool; Podcasting; Video; and Community.

Tags: ASME, national magazine awards, sid holt