Huffington Post UK launches tool for greater debate around news stories

Huffington Post UK has launched The Gauge, a new platform which invites debate around the biggest news story of the day on the Post’s new UK website while harnessing the power of social networks.

The tool also works to produce a visualisation of the results, giving a quick snapshot of the overall standpoint of the online community on any given topic.

Users are invited to “agree” or “disagree” with a daily proposition, and thereafter they’re invited to elaborate. It only takes a second or two to weigh in, and users can post more detailed responses on Twitter and Facebook.

The tool will also help to connect users to the site’s bloggers, through the ability to agree or disagree with their views and click through to see all the posts written by the individual. Users can also submit ideas for their own blog through The Gauge.

Editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post UK, Carla Buzasi, will be speaking at news:rewired – connected journalism on 6 October as part of the “bringing the outside in” panel. On the day Carla will be discussing the site’s strategy for drawing in content from outside its own four walls and how this is then integrated into its own output.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – driving online engagement from offline activity

This post on the 10,000 Words blog acts as a useful reminder about the importance of offline meetings and events to connect those who have previously only met online before, and help drive future engagement on the internet.

… instead of reflexively throwing together an “awareness campaign” via Facebook Ads, consider how an off-line event such as a meeting or organized outing to a relevant event might impact the page.

When people who have interacted online, are suddenly brought together in an offline environment, often there is a stronger bond that is created. People feel more connected to the cause or the topic that is bringing them together, because they’re being connected with other like-minded people.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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Journalisted Weekly: 9/11 anniversary, Libya and 50p tax rate

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.

9/11 anniversary, Libya and 50p tax rate

for the week ending Sunday 11 September

• Coverage of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks dominated this week’s news
• The aftermath of the Libyan conflict and the debate over scrapping the 50p tax rate were covered lots
• Over 200 deaths from a sunken ferry near Tanzania, the UK’s joint nuclear fission project and the resignation of the European Central Bank chief were covered little

Covered lots

• 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, 327 articles (including Twin Towers, 210 articles and Osama Bin Laden, 125 articles)
• Continuing coverage of the aftermath of the conflict in Libya, 435 articles (including increased references to Niger, 97 articles – up 646% on previous week)
• Newspapers debate benefits of 50p tax rate after group of economists call for it to be scrapped, 114 articles

Covered little

• Ferry sinks near Zanzibar, killing over 200, 16 articles
• Juergen Stark resigns as European Central Bank chief, 9 articles
• UK joins project to develop nuclear fusion, 4 articles

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

• David Cameron: 613 articles (+35% on last week)
• George Osborne: 386 articles (+108% on last week)
• Tony Blair: 182 articles (+22% on last week)
• Nick Clegg: 166 articles (+37% on last week)
• Alex Salmond: 114 articles (+18% on last week)
• Gordon Brown: 101 articles (-17% on last week)
• Ed Balls: 93 articles (+13% on last week)
• Vince Cable: 93 articles (-30% on last week)
• Boris Johnson: 92 articles (+46% on last week)
• Ed Miliband: 88 articles (-12% on last week)

Celebrity vs. serious

• Paddy Doherty wins Celebrity Big Brother, 46 articles vs. Hurricane Katia heading towards UK, 42 articles
• Continued reporting of ITV’s new gameshow ‘Red or Black’, 53 articles vs. inquiry into death of Iraqi hotel receptionist Baha Mousa, 50 articles
• Strictly Come Dancing contestants announced, 38 articles vs. Egyptian protesters attack Israeli Embassy, 23 articles
• Coverage of Venice Film Festival, 77 articles vs. Colin Myler and Tom Crone appear before Commons Select Committee, 42 articles

Arab spring (countries & current leaders)

• Libya’s National Transitional Council: 111 articles (-52% on previous week)
• Syria and President Assad: 54 articles (-27% on previous week)
• Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu: 32 articles (+146% on previous week)
• Turkey and Prime Minister Erdogan: 25 articles (+213% on previous week)
• Egypt’s Military Council: 17 articles (+467% on previous week)
• Gaza and Hamas: 14 articles (-13% on previous week)
• West Bank and President Abbas: 10 articles (+43% on previous week)
• Iran and President Ahmadinejad: 9 articles (+125% on previous week)
• Tunisia and ex-President Ben Ali: 7 articles (-22% on previous week)
• Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah: 3 articles (+200% on previous week)
• Bahrain and King Al Khalifa: 1 article (-90% on previous week)
• Yemen and President Saleh: 1 article (-67% on previous week)
• Jordan and King Abdullah: 1 article (up from 0 in previous week)

Who wrote a lot about… the investigation of the Raoul Moat killings

• Russell Jenkins – 7 articles (The Times)
• Hugh Macknight – 7 articles (The Independent/The Scotsman)
• Alastair Craig – 6 articles (Newcastle Journal/chroniclelive.co.uk)

Long form journalism

• 5,544 words: ’9/11: Chronicle of a Catastrophe Foretold’ – John Carlin, The Independent, 5 September 2011
• 2,985 words: ‘Double-O Who? Meet history’s unsung spies’ – Nigel Farndale, Daily Telegraph, 10 September 2011
• 2,943 words: ‘Life as an only child’ – Janice Turner, The Times, 10 September 2011

Journalists who have updated their profile

• Tim Rich is the Director of Rich Media and works freelance for The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent and the London Evening Standard. He studied a BSc in Politics at Bristol University. He can be contacted at tim.rich@richmedialtd.co.uk.
• Sean O’Driscoll is the US finance correspondent at the Sunday Times and also writes for Lifestyle features at the Associated Press. He has an MA in Journalism at Dublin City University, and can be contacted at seanpodriscoll@yahoo.com.

Read about our campaign for the full exposure of phone hacking and other illegal forms of intrusion at the Hacked Off website

Visit the Media Standards Trust’s Churnalism.com – a public service for distinguishing journalism from churnalism

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

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OJR: Apps v eBooks – are we missing paid content opportunity?

In an interesting post on the Online Journalism Review website Robert Niles weighs up the opportunities for publishers investing in apps versus eBooks. In his post Niles says he would be surprised to find a newsroom spending “even half of what its devoting to app development on eBooks”.

But with a quick look at the pricing of the top paid apps compared to eBooks, he says it is about time news organisations take “a serious look” at the eBook market.

There have been some recent examples of news outlets entering the eBook market and ultimately enhancing the shelf-life of news content as a result. Last month the Guardian launched its pwm new series of eBooks called Guardian Shorts, which started with Phone Hacking: How the Guardian broke the story.

According to Niles within the News category of the app store, the most expensive paid app in the top 20 was Instapaper at $4.99, compared to the Politics & Current Events category in iBooks, where he recorded that 19 out of the top 20 sell for at least $4.99.

Clearly, the public is willing to – and does – pay more for content in eBooks than it does in apps. That fact should encourage any serious news business to take a serious look at eBooks. But what about volume? That’s where I couldn’t find reliable data comparing sales in the app store versus sales of eBooks. But it’s clear from the pricing that a news organisation would need to sell many times more apps than eBooks for apps to have better sales revenue, given the higher price points routinely supported in eBook stores.

Read more here…

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – creative toolkit for industry guidance

Media and entertainment union BECTU has launched Creative Toolkit, a new site offering resources for those entering the industry on issues such as the national minimum wage, internships, sources of training, employment status and tax.

According to an announcement by BECTU regular users of the site will be encouraged to post a profile and interact in the community forum to share their work experiences.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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Leveson inquiry: full list of core particpants

Lord Leveson has today announced the list of those that have been granted ‘core participant’ status in the upcoming Leveson inquiry. Core participants can be legally represented, allowing them to have questions asked on their behalf.

Read the full news article on Journalism.co.uk.

Part 1 of the inquiry has been broken down into four modules:

The relationship between the press and the public
The relationship between the press and police
The relationship between the press and politicians
Recommendations for the future

The following organisations have been granted core participant status for Part 1, Modules 1, 2, 3, and 4:

The Metropolitan Police
News International (publisher of the Sun, the Times, the Sunday Times, and the now-defunct News of the World)
Northern & Shell (publisher of the the Daily Express, the Sunday Express, the Daily Star and the Daily Star Sunday)
Guardian News & Media (publisher of the Guardian and the Observer)
Associated Newspapers (publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday)

The following individuals who believe they may have been victims of phone hacking have been granted core participant status for Part 1, Module 1 of the inquiry. All 46 will have to be represented by a single legal representative:

1    Chris Bryant MP
2    Tessa Jowell MP
3    Denis MacShane MP
4    The Rt Hon Lord Prescott of Kingston upon Hull
5    Joan Smith
6    Christopher Shipman
7    Tom Rowland
8    Mark Lewis
9    Mark Thomson
10    Gerry McCann
11    Kate McCann
12    Christopher Jefferies
13    Max Moseley
14    Brian Paddick
15    Paul Gascoigne
16    David Mills
17    Sienna Miller
18    Hugh Grant
19    Ben Jackson
20    Ciara Parkes
21    Simon Hughes MP
22    Max Clifford
23    Sky Andrew
24    Ulrika Jonsson
25    Mark Oaten
26    Michele Milburn
27    Abi Titmuss
28    Calum Best
29    Claire Ward
30    Mary-Ellen Field
31    Gary Flitcroft
32    Ian Hurst
33    Shobna Gulati
34    Mike Hollingsworth
35    Kieron Fallon
36    Ashvini Sharma
37    Tim Blackstone
38    Valatina Semenenko
39    Sally Dowler
40    Bob Dowler
41    Gemma Dowler
42    Sheryl Gascoigne
43    Graham Shear
44    JK Rowling
45    James Watson
46    Margaret Watson

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New York Times: No Justice for Anna Politkovskaya

Image by openDemocracy on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

Yesterday’s New York Times editorial was devoted to the case of murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Politkovskaya, who became known for her fearless investigative reporting of social issues in Russia and human rights abuses in Chechnya, was killed in her apartment building in 2006.

Five years on, no one has been convicted of her murder.

From the New York Times editorial:

At the time of her murder, Vladimir Putin, who is now the prime minister but was the president then, dismissed her journalism as “insignificant” and said that nobody “currently in office” could possibly have organized a crime that, he said, was committed “to create a wave of anti-Russian feeling.” To many Russians, that sounded like orders from the top that police or judges or prosecutors should take care not to accuse anyone in power.

Read the full article

Read Journalism.co.uk’s coverage of the case

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App of the week for journalists – Astrid Tasks, a task manager for Android

App of the week: Astrid Tasks

Operating systems: Android

Cost: Free

What is it and how is it of use to journalists?

According to @germanbureau, who recommends this app:

Astrid is a task manager app that allows you to set new tasks with due dates, reminders, notes, tags and four colour-coded levels of importance. It offers additional settings such as quiet hours (during which reminders are deactivated regardless of individual task settings), and the app can also be extended using various plug-ins.

Astrid provides an array of useful functions without going overboard. It is lightweight and intuitive in my experience, and it integrates well into the Google Calendar and related apps, such as the Pure Calendar widget, another one of my all-time favourites. Astrid runs exceedingly well on my old Cupcake 1.5 OS, and I’m told that it also works great on newer models; recent updates have also optimized the app for tab devices.

As a freelance journalist, Astrid allows me to keep track of my stories and deadlines by setting reminders for various tasks. In combination with Google Calendar, it is a highly useful tool for managing my day-to-day professional activities.

(Images taken from Android Marketplace)

Reviews: It gets 4.4 stars in the Android Marketplace

Recommended by: @germanbureau

Have you got a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week for journalists.

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Independent: News International ‘on course to pay any damages against Glenn Mulcaire’

The Independent reports today that News International could still be obliged to pay any damages awarded against Glenn Mulcaire – the private investigator convicted of conspiracy to intercept telephone calls in 2007 alongside the News of the World’s royal correspondent Clive Goodman -  to victims in civil phone hacking cases.

According to the Independent it has obtained a previously protected High Court document which shows that News International “has not cut its financial ties” with Mulcaire, despite an announcement by the media company that it would stop paying his legal fees.

Mulcaire lodged a lawsuit against News International last month over the company’s decision to stop paying his fees in a number of ongoing cases in which he is a defendant.

The claim document, lodged in the Chancery Division of the High Court, details the close-knit legal relationship that existed between Mr Mulcaire’s legal team and the Murdoch UK media company.

… But it goes on to state that the letter “did not to purport to withdraw the indemnity in respect of damages” – meaning that a previously unacknowledged undertaking by News International to pay any cash settlements against Mr Mulcaire remains in place.

But News International has responded to say there was “no agreement whatsoever”.

News International announced in July that it would stop paying Mulcaire’s fees, after News International chairman James Murdoch told the culture, media and sport select committee he had been “surprised and shocked” to find out “certain legal fees were paid for”.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to break into radio industry

Those interested in working in broadcast, particularly radio, should check out the BBC’s College of Production website’s latest podcast edition which is focused on how to get into radio. The podcast features Paul Robinson, who has been managing director of Talk Radio and managing editor of Radio 1, Ruth Gardiner, head of the General Factual department at BBC Audio and Music and Greg James, Radio 1 DJ, who offer their advice for how to break into the industry and some of the lessons they have learned.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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