Google announces new Chrome extension to block ‘content farms’

‘You can’t give a machine data and get journalism out the other end’

February 16th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Joel Gunter in Data, Design and graphics, Editors' pick

Guardian information architect Martin Belam blogs today about the latest in a series of talks at the newspaper about digital products and services.

In-house developer Daithí Ó Crualaoich worked with Belam on the inclusion of MusicBrainz IDs and ISBNs in the Guardian’s Open Platform API and has worked on some of the newspaper’s recent high profile datajournalism projects. Ó Crualaoich’s talk addressed the software development part of datajournalism.

He reminded the audience that software devs are not journalists. They have general purpose skills with software that can be turned to any processing function, like the controls on a washing machine, but they generally, he said, have very limited skills in understanding what makes a story into “a story” in the way that journalists process information. This means that to take part in these kinds of projects, software developers have to adapt their general purpose skills to focus on journalism.

Full post on currybetdotnet at this link.

PPA extends magazine awards deadline

February 16th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Rachel McAthy in Awards

The PPA has announced it has extended the deadline for entries to its magazine awards this year, due to “the high volume of requests” for an extension.

The date has been pushed back by a week, from Friday this week to Friday 25 February. But this will be it, PPA said – no more extensions will be granted.

The awards cover 22 categories including consumer magazine of the year, editorial campaign of the year and writer of the year.

Beet.tv: Broadcasters discuss use of user generated content

February 16th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Rachel McAthy in Broadcasting, Citizen journalism, Editors' pick

In the video below, from Beet.tv, US broadcasters debate the “challenge” of using user-generated content to cover breaking news and the importance of verification in this process.

Kevin Roach from the Associated Press talks about how the news agency dealt with content being sent in during the Egyptian protests, and the dangers of not verifying UGC material. CNN.com’s Mike Toppo adds that he feels the best way to approach user generated content is with the aim of building a community, such as it does with iReport.

Tags: Broadcast, Citizen journalism, user-generated content

Mainstream media drives Twitter trends, claims study

February 16th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Joel Gunter in Editors' pick, Social media and blogging, Traffic

Mainstream media drives a large number of trending topics on Twitter, according to a new study by Hewlett Packard.

The HP research analysed more than 16 million tweets over 40 days last year, finding that mainstream media accounts belonging to CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Sky, Reuters, the Telegraph, the BBC and El Pais were among 22 accounts identified as the source of the most retweets related to trending topics.

Full study on HP at this link and embedded below.

Trends in Social Media: Persistence and Decay

Tags: Hewlett Packard, mainstream media, trending topics, trends, Twitter

Editors Weblog: Is photojournalism an objective practice?

February 16th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Joel Gunter in Editors' pick, Photography

Looking at New York Times photographer Damon Winter’s photo series, A Grunt’s Life – which won the third place award in the Pictures of the Year International features contest – Paul Hoffman asks whether the style of the photography compromises the objectivity of the images as war documentary.

Does the old school, discolored, oversaturated, plastic toy camera feel of the photographs, which was created through the Hipstamatic app on Winter’s iPhone, detract from their validity?

Several critics argue “yes”. According to their perspective, the overtly artistic nature of this series pushes the photographs out of the objective realm of “photojournalism” and into the subjective realm of “photography”…

Full post on Editors Weblog at this link.

Tags: damon winter, photojournalism, war photography

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – data resources

February 16th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Rachel McAthy in Data, Top tips for journalists

Paul Bradshaw rounds up three new data resources he’s come across, which may be of use to journalists, over on his Online Journalism Blog. The blog itself is a great resource for journalists working with data. Tipster: Rachel McAthy.

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

Tags: data, journalism tips, tip

Journalisted Weekly: (Ex) President Mubarak, Big Society, and The King’s Speech

February 16th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Joel Gunter in Broadcasting, Newspapers, Online Journalism, Politics

Journalisted is an independent, not-for-profit website built to make it easier for you, the public, to find out more about journalists and what they write about.

It is run by the Media Standards Trust, a registered charity set up to foster high standards in news on behalf of the public, and funded by donations from charitable foundations.

Each week Journalisted produces a summary of the most covered news stories, most active journalists and those topics falling off the news agenda, using its database of UK journalists and news sources.

for the week ending Sunday 13 February

Hosni Mubarak’s resignation in Egypt dominated the news
Cameron’s Big Society under fire and The King’s Speech at the Baftas kept things British
A suicide bomber in school uniform and alleged torture in Egypt received little coverage

News about the joint Media Standards Trust/Cardiff University local news project, including an ITV Wales programme, available on our website

The Media Standards Trust’s unofficial database of PCC complaints is available for browsing at www.complaints.pccwatch.co.uk

For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe

Covered lots

Hosni Mubarak, resigning from the Egyptian presidency after 30 years in power and 18 days of popular protests, 629 articles
PM David Cameron preparing to defend his Big Society policy in face of renewed criticism, 125 articles
British film The King’s Speech, sweeping the board at the Baftas as predicted, 118 articles

Covered little

Protesters in Bahrain, who began to rally in the streets over a week ago, 17 articles
A young suicide bomber in school uniform, who killed 31 soldiers at a Pakistani military base, 15 articles
Allegations of Egyptian army involvement in the torture of protesters, 4 articles

Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)

David Cameron: 586 articles (+13% on previous week)
George Osborne: 257 articles (+72% on previous week)
Nick Clegg: 159 articles (-18% on previous week)
Tony Blair: 145 articles (-45% on previous week)
Vince Cable: 138 articles (+122% on previous week)
Ed Balls: 120 articles (-15% on previous week)
Gordon Brown: 115 articles (-13% on previous week)
William Hague: 100 articles (+212% on previous week)
Jack Straw: 94 articles (-62% on previous week)
Ed Miliband: 91 articles (-48% on previous week)

Celebrity vs serious

Colin Firth, winning Best Actor at the Baftas, 89 articles vs. people rallying in Algeria, defying their government’s ban on protest, 46 articles
Actress Meryl Streep, to play Margaret Thatcher in upcoming film, 42 articles vs. David Cameron declaring state multiculturalism has failed, 31 articles
Teenage singer Justin Bieber, losing out on the Best New Artist award at the Grammys, 59 articles vs. a plane crash at Cork Airport, killing six out of the twelve people on board, 40 articles
Lady Gaga, winning 3 awards and hatching from a giant egg at the Grammys, 70 articles vs Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, claiming responsibility for the recent Moscow airport bombing, 21 articles

Who wrote a lot about…’Mubarak’

Chris McGreal – 16 articles (The Guardian), Andrew England – 9 articles (Financial Times), Donald MacIntyre – 9 articles (The Independent), Sadie Gray – 8 articles (The Times), Heba Saleh – 8 articles (Financial Times), Roula Khalaf – 8 articles (Financial Times), Martin Fletcher – 8 articles (The Times), Jack Shenker – 8 articles (The Guardian), Adrian Blomfield – 8 articles (The Telegraph), James Hider – 7 articles (The Times)

Long form journalism

3,792 words: ‘Tower Hamlets: Lutfur, Labour and beyond’ – Dave Hill, The Guardian, 11th February 2011
3,566 words: ‘Back in the line of fire’ – John Mooney, Sunday Times, 13th February 2011
3,277 words: ‘Egypt: how the people span the wheel of their country’s history’, David Sharrock, Jack Shenker, and Paul Harris, The Guardian, 12th February 2011

Tags: Journalisted Weekly

CNN launches first iReport citizen journalism awards

February 15th, 2011 | 1 Comment | Posted by Rachel McAthy in Awards, Citizen journalism, Editors' pick

CNN today announced it was launching its first ever iReport Awards, to celebrate the contributions of its citizen journalist iReporters and recognise the “most extraordinary iReport stories of 2010″.

There are six award categories in total – breaking news, compelling imagery, commentary, interviewing, original reporting and personal stories.

Our producers looked at hundreds of iReports to find the most amazing stories, and then we worked with our friends at CNN, CNN International and CNN.com to choose the five nominees in each category. It was a tough job, with hours spent agonizing over the lists. Picking the winners will be even tougher, so we’ve recruited a talented group of judges to make the final call.

Visitors to the site can also vote for the winner of a separate Community Choice Award until 7 March. The winners will be announced in March.

Tags: Awards, Citizen journalism, CNN, Events, iReport

Politico: Amid WikiLeaks battle, Clinton to assert US support for internet freedom

February 15th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Joel Gunter in Editors' pick, Politics, Press freedom and ethics

Hilary Clinton is due to give a speech on internet freedom later today. In the wake of Egypt’s shutting off of internet access during recent protests, and in the midst of her department’s ongoing battle with WikiLeaks, it has the potential to be interesting.

Politico has published extracts from the speech Clinton is expected to give. Certain parts closely resemble previous attempts by the US administration to carefully chastise China for its severe curtailments of internet freedom:

History has shown us that repression often sows the seeds for revolution down the road. Those who clamp down on internet freedom may be able to hold back the full impact of their people’s yearnings for a while, but not forever… Leaders worldwide have a choice to make. They can let the internet in their countries flourish, and take the risk that the freedoms it enables will lead to a greater demand for political rights. Or they can constrict the Internet, choke the freedoms it naturally sustains—and risk losing all the economic and social benefits that come from a networked society…

While others are clearly there to speak to the problem of WikiLeaks, and clarify the pro-freedom stance of an administration currently attempting to subpoena private information from Twitter accounts belonging to members and affiliates of the whistleblowers’ site.

Our allegiance to the rule of law does not dissipate in cyberspace. Neither does our commitment to protecting civil liberties and human rights. The United States is equally determined to track and stop terrorism and criminal activity online and offline, and in both spheres we pursue these goals in accordance with our values… Liberty and security. Transparency and confidentiality. Freedom of expression and tolerance. There are times when these principles will raise tensions and pose challenges, but we do not have to choose among them. And we shouldn’t. Together they comprise the foundation of a free and open Internet…

See more on Politico at this link.

Tags: hilary clinton, internet freedom, press freedom, us embassy cables, us state department, Wikileaks