Will Google News build filters for ‘content farms’?

CNET’s interview with Krishna Bharat, the engineering head behind Google News, suggests the search company is going to change its approach to so-called “content farms” and networks of sites like Demand Media or Associated Content:

Bharat implied that Google is working on a way to refine the signals it uses to rank news stories in a way that filters out the most egregious examples of news spam without branding certain companies as offenders because of certain stories. “What we are very sensitive to is user experience, but we don’t want to be anecdote driven, we want to be sensitive to statistically relevant feedback,” he said.

Full interview on CNET at this link…

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#followjourn: @paullamkin – Paul Lamkin/tech journalist

Who? Paul Lamkin, a tech journalist at Pocket-lint who would “like to go to Legoland with Sean Connery and then afterwards, go for a lovely lamb lunch in the centre of Windsor”.

Where? Legoland or Windsor, or Paul Lamkin on Pocket-lint.com

Twitter? @paullamkin

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 laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

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• #followjourn: @dansung – Dan Sung/technology journalist
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• #Followjourn @paulwaugh Paul Waugh/editor PoliticsHome.com

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – improving Facebook pages

Mark Luckie has top tips for news organisations on how to improve Facebook pages over on his 10,000 Words blog. Tipster: Rachel McAthy.

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

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Phone hacking: Journalists who paid me should have been prosecuted too, says convicted PI

A private investigator who was found guilty of illegally obtaining information about public figures for a number of newspapers has claimed it was “unfair” that journalists who paid him to carry out the work were not prosecuted alongside him.

Steve Whittamore was given a two-year conditional discharge in 2005 after pleading guilty to obtaining and disclosing information under the Data Protection Act. Speaking on the BBC’s PM radio programme yesterday, Whittamore said that the journalists involved “should have stood up and been counted”.

They actually asked me to do this on their behalf. I suppose you could view it as my Oliver Twist to the press’ Fagin (…) Requests were asked of me by people who I viewed as really being above reproach. They were huge corporations. I assumed they knew what they were asking for.

According to the programme, Whittamore acted on about 13,000 requests, many of which would have been legal but some of which weren’t. He told the PM programme that he had refused certain requests, including requests from journalists to obtain health records.

“Towards the end it got more and more personal (…) telephone account details, that sort of thing, maybe bank account details”. Whittamore admitted that the practice had got “quite a bit out of hand”.

Listen to the full interview (available until 27 September) at this link…

More on phone hacking from Journalism.co.uk:

PCC to review stance on phone hacking at News of the World

Phone hacking: Brian Paddick and Chris Bryant launch legal action

Phone hacking: new government inquiry launched, PM expected to be quizzed today

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Reporters Without Borders joins Le Monde in complaint against Sarkozy’s office

Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has announced it will become a joint plaintiff in a complaint filed by French newspaper Le Monde, which accuses government officials of violating new legislation intended to protect the secrecy of journalists’ sources.

Le Monde claims that an intelligence service was used by the French President’s office to identify a source used in a story on L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and donations made to President Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign.

Full story on RSF at this link…

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The Economist on where it is banned or censored

The Economist has released information on countries that have banned or censored its issues:

Since January 2009 the Economist has been banned or censored in 12 of the 190-odd countries in which it is sold, with news-stand (as opposed to subscription) copies particularly at risk. India, the only democracy on our list, has censored 31 issues and at first glance might look like the worst culprit. However its censorship consists of stamping “Illegal” on maps of Kashmir because it disputes the borders shown. China is more proscriptive. Distributors destroy copies or remove articles that contain contentious political content, and maps of Taiwan are usually blacked out.

Full chart on the Economist at this link…

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#followjourn: @willcooper – Will Cooper/news editor

Who? Will Cooper, news editor at New Media Age.

Where? His NMA articles are collected at this link.

Twitter? @willcooper

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 laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

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• #followjourn: @martincloake – Martin Cloake/freelance

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – editorial brainstorming

Journalism Lives has tips on how to use social bookmarking tools such as Diigo to form groups around topics and recreate the brainstorming of the news meeting online. Tipster: Rachel McAthy.

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

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#followjourn: @catherinegee – Catherine Gee/journalist

Who? Catherine Gee, TV desker for the Telegraph.

Where? She blogs for the Telegraph here, has a Tumblr site, and a WordPress blog.

Twitter? @catherinegee

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 laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

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• #FollowJourn: @jonswaine/reporter
• #FollowJourn: @rebeccats/reporter

What’s in a journalism job ad? Analysing the skills required by employers

Following on from our laid-off report looking at journalism job losses and how the shape of the journalism workforce in the UK is changing, I thought it would be interesting to do a quick analysis of the job ads currently available on Journalism.co.uk. What requirements and skills are employers stipulating and which are the most popular?

(I took the text from job ads on the site that list requirements or candidate profiles and have tried to take out irrelevant words as much as possible)

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