Blogs transformed mainstream media coverage of the credit crisis, Kristine Lowe argues in new book

Institutional mainstream media constraints were both an asset and a liability during the great crash, says Norwegian blogger and journalist Kristine Lowe, in a new book published this week. She argues that blogs both transformed and challenged mainstream media coverage of the credit crisis.

‘Playing Footsie with the FTSE?‘ edited by John Mair and Richard Lance Keeble, a collection of 20 articles by leading journalists and academics that asks why leading financial journalists and commentators failed to predict the biggest economic crisis in 70 years, is published this week by Abramis for £9.99.

Journalism.co.uk has featured several chapters from the book during the past month:

• Brian Caplen: ‘Mea culpa – Why we missed the crisis’
• Alex Brummer: ‘Far from scaring people, the press were providing readers with reliable information’

and today:

• Kristine Lowe: Blogging the crash – How blogs transformed mainstream media coverage of the credit crisis

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Kristine Lowe: Iceland’s ‘most hated man’ appointed newspaper editor

The news is now a few days old, but Kristine Lowe’s blog post on the appointment of Davíd Oddsson – Iceland’s longest serving prime minister and former head of the Central Bank – as editor of daily paper Morgunbladid, is worth a read. Not least for her photograph showing how Icelandic protesters felt about Oddsson back in December.

Full post at this link…

Icelandic Review story at this link…

Can we think of a hypothetical comparison for the UK? Mandelson to edit the Times?

Alistair Campbell to edit the New Statesman?  (Ed: we said hypothetical…)

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#followjourn: @kristinelowe/media journalist

#FollowJourn: Kristine Lowe

Who? Blogger and journalist currently based in Norway covering the media industry – for the media industry

What? She writes for numerous titles in Scandinavia and the UK/US, and founded The Norwegian Online News Association (NONA)

Where? @kristinelowe

Contact? Take a look at her blog or email kristine_lowe [at] yahoo.co.uk.

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.

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The Independent, Mecom – and what David Montgomery thought of it all

More twists and turns in the Independent and Mecom sagas today.

Independent News and Media (at time of writing) has failed to reach an agreement with bondholders – the company was meant to reach a deal on the £179 million bond by May 18, but is now seeking a ’standstill’ period.

Meanwhile newspaper publisher Mecom has secured yet another convenant extension, raising about £140 million in new equity from shareholders, but also announced 500 job cuts.

The news has triggered a memory for blogger Kristine Lowe of a journalism conference in 1997 2007, where Mecom boss David Montgomery responded to an assertion by the Telegraph that there was no reason for the Independent or Guardian to exist:

“I didn’t say that. The Telegraph did. But in general I think companies should make money. I think it’s demeaning for people to work for companies that don’t,” he told Lowe at the time.

How very apt.

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#DataJourn part 3: Useful and recent links looking at use of data in journalism

Perhaps we’ll expand this to a Dipity timeline at some point (other ideas?), but for the meantime, here’s a list of a few recent and relevant links relating to CAR and use of data in journalism to get the conversation on Twitter – via #datajourn – going. NB: These are not necessarily in chronological order. Then, the next logical step would be to start looking at examples of where data has been used for specific journalism projects.

• ‘#DataJourn: a new conversation‘, Journalism.co.uk Editors’ Blog

• ‘Q&A with an information architect, aka CurryBet aka Martin Belam’, Journalism.co.uk Editors’ Blog

• ‘Hackday at the Guardian’, Guardian.co.uk

• ‘Guardian’s Open Platfrom – some thoughts from the blogs‘, Journalism.co.uk Editors’ Blog

• ”Facts are sacred’: Guardian frees content and data for developers’ use’, Journalism.co.uk

• ‘Online Journalism Scandinavia: ‘Computer programming is journalism’, Journalism.co.uk Editors’ Blog (by @kristinelowe)

• ‘If I had one piece of advice to a journalist starting out now, it would be: learn to code,’ Charles Arthur’s personal blog.

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Online Journalism Scandinavia: Database journalism making Norwegian politicians more accountable

A new database mapping the networks and voting patterns of Norway’s politicians may become an invaluable journalistic tool when the country gears up for a parliamentary election next year.

During the 2009 election Norwegian hacks will be able to tap into a recently developed politicians’ database that maps how the country’s politicos vote, which boards they sit on, and with whom.

In an interview with Journalism.co.uk in April, Espen Andersen, the database’s creator, described how he was adding to the information held on country’s members of Parliament with data about 11,000 local politicians.

This work has now been completed, and the aim of the project is to turn the database into a broader ‘power database’ by mapping political and corporate networks across Norway.

The creation was so popular that it completely crashed the servers of Brennpunkt, the Norwegian equivalent of Panorama, when it was launched.

Calls were immediately made for expansion, and for it to include similar information about journalists, in order to open up the debate on who watches the watchers.

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The journalist of the future: must want to stay at home

Kristine Lowe kindly translates this Norwegian job advert (with the proviso that it’s a quick translation) for us on her blog:

“Are you dreaming of travelling? Do you want to write long feature stories? Do you enjoy writing comprehensive profile interviews? Are you interested in writing about international politics? Do you think printed newspapers are more exciting than the web? Then you don’t need to apply for a job at Varden.

We are looking for a competent journalist for our newly created central news hub. You have to understand what readers are interested in; have good journalistic instincts and comprehensive local knowledge. High speed, a good attitude and an understanding of new media is a must.”

Ad for a job in Norwegian regional newspaper, Varden, at Journalisten.no

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#socialweb: Web 3.0 – the social web (video)

We’re gathered here in Oslo this morning (25 October) with 20+ of Norwegian’s finest journalists to listen to addresses from investigative journalist and research skills trainer Colin Meek, Journalisten.no journalist and blogger Kristine Lowe. Colin will be talking about web 3.0 (the social web) and what it means for journalists). We’re streaming live, but you should be able to view this video later (gremlins permitting).

UPDATE: They turned the lights down so the audience could see the projection screen! Apologies for the poor quality of the video.

Watch live video from johncthompson’s channel on Justin.tv

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Online Journalism Scandinavia: using the social web seminar – #socialweb

It’s going to be a veritable Journalism.co.uk party in Oslo on Saturday: blog regular Kristine Lowe has organised a seminar on using the social web featuring our very own consulting editor and online research specialist Colin Meek, who also runs the Insite blog.

To kick off the coverage, read Colin’s feature on ‘Web 3.0: what it means for journalists’, which tackles what the semantic web is and why journalists should be paying attention to it.

Kristine will be talking about how she has used and benefitted from using ‘the social web’ as a journalist and blogger; while Colin’s talk will focus on the research opportunities and newsgathering potential of web 3.0 for journalists.

Kristine will be blogging the event and we’ll round up some of that content and Colin’s here for those of us not lucky enough to have made the trip.

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Investigative vocalists: the musical talents of world-renowned journalists

Our woman on the ground at GIJC Lillehammer (well, she was on duty for Journalisten.no, but we managed to nab a little bit of her spare time) has sent these rather insightful pictures back. It turns out that there might be a correlation between investigative skills and musical talent.

Introducing…on harmonica, David Kaplan, the director of the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Playing with him is Mark Hunter on guitar, founding member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network.

And, Ana Simonovska, a Macedonian journalist with an exceptional voice, accompanied by David Kaplan.

Musical talents aside, here’s Sonali Samarasinghe, being caught on a mobile phone camera as she’s awarded the Global Shining Light Award, for her articles covering corruption and abuse of power in Sri Lanka.

It seems that the musical talent wasn’t shared by the British journalists – where was Robert Fisk while these pictures were taken?

All photos courtesy of Kristine Lowe, for Journalisten. The full set can be seen over at Flickr. Kristine Lowe completes her reportage over on her blog.

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