So Brian Paddick started twittering and then the candidates lined up for an online grilling on Yoosk - but it hasn’t stopped there.
The Sun hosted an hour-long web chat with Boris Johnson yesterday, who answered questions from MySun readers. The answers to his questions are now on the Sun’s forums and have been edited into a couple of short video clips for the site. Brian Paddick will take part in a web chat on the site on April 25 at 1pm.
Elsewhere, Johnson fared less well with new media coverage: a mobile citizen journalist on the Evening Standard’s website captured the Conservative candidate admitting his plans to replace bendy buses in the capital would cost £100 million.
The Standard is running an interactive section covering the campaigns. The YouVote channel has been set up for users to submit images, video clips and comments and given today’s scoop, seems to be doing a good job.
Tags: Boris Johnson, Brian Paddick, Evening Standard, GBP, hour-long web chat, London, media coverage, online grilling, Politics, web chatGuardian editor Alan Rusbridger has written to the Chinese ambassador in the UK attacking China’s censoring of foreign news websites - including Guardian.co.uk - in the wake of the Tibetan riots.
Mr Rusbridger asked for the ambassador’s assistance in unblocking his website back online and ensuring that access to it remained free of interference.
“As you will be aware, the blackout has coincided with media coverage of the recent unrest in Tibet, forcing the conclusion that this is an act of deliberate and wholly unacceptable censorship,” wrote Mr Rusbridger.
“We are dismayed that Beijing should curtail international press freedom, particularly in Olympic year.”
The move comes in the wake of a violent crackdown on protests in Tibet by Chinese authorities that have also attempted to block the media from reporting what was going on.
Tibetan exiles say at least 80 protesters died in the clashes as reporters were being forced to leave.
The Foreign Correspondents Club of China reported that as many as two-dozen reporters have been turned away from or forced to leave Tibetan areas and government censorship of the internet and television broadcasts was also hampering journalists’ work.
“Reporting interference is not in the interest of the Chinese government which is trying to show a more open, transparent and accountable image to the world,” said FCCC President Melinda Liu, in a piece carried on the FCCC website.
“Such interference is not in keeping with reporting regulations adopted during the Olympics period - and is especially not in keeping with the international community’s expectations of an Olympic host nation,” added Liu.
Writing for the Telegraph.co.uk Richard Spencer claimed to have been ordered to leave the Tibetan town he was staying in by local police (Spencer also points to some bloggers who are managing to get information onto the net about the crackdown)
The Honk Kong Journalists Association (hat tip Roy Greenslade) is also reporting that journalists from at least six Hong Kong media organisations have been placed under escort and ordered out of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.
Tags: Alan Rusbridger, Beijing, blogs, Censorship, China, Chinese government, Foreign Correspondents Club of China, Guardian.co.uk, Hong Kong, Honk Kong Journalists Association, media coverage, media organisations, Melinda Liu, Olympics, Richard Spencer, Roy Greenslade, Telegraph.co.uk, Tibet, United Kingdom
Prince Harry is to be withdrawn from his tour of duty in Afghanistan after reports on US blog, Drudge Report, revealed he was serving with British forces there.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) issued a statement today confirming speculation that the third-in-line to the throne would cease active service and return to the UK.
“Following a detailed assessment of the risks by the operational chain of command, the decision has been taken by Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, Chief of Defence Staff, in consultation with General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, to withdraw Prince Harry from Afghanistan immediately,” read the statement.
“This decision has been taken primarily on the basis that the worldwide media coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan could impact on the security of those who are deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier.”
The media blackout agreed between the Ministry of Defence and UK news outlets about Prince Harry’s secret deployment was broken after popular US blog, The Drudge Report, ran a story about his activities in Afghanistan.
The MoD and the media struck a deal that meant extended access to Prince Harry during his time in Helmand Province in exchange for news of his deployment to be held until after his tour had been completed.
A stipulation of the agreement was that media in the UK would hold its stories unless a foreign news publisher made the news public first.
When Drudge broke the story news groups in the UK were then forced to flood their stories on an unsuspecting public.
The MoD asked the media to refrain from speculating on Prince Harry location and other details of his mission until he returns to the UK.
Tags: Afghanistan, blogs, Drudge report, foreign news publisher, Harry, Helmand Province, Jock Stirrup, media blackout, media coverage, Ministry of Defence, Richard Dannatt, United Kingdom, United States
1) Who are you and what’s it all about?
Hello. I’m Kristoffer Lassen. I’m the co-founder of Imooty.
Imooty is an interactive compendium of news stories from across Europe. It provides direct access to the latest breaking media coverage from the most important newspapers and media organizations based in the European Union, Switzerland and Norway.
2) Why would this be useful to a journalist?
Imooty makes it possible for users to compare and contrast vast amounts of information.
By clicking the European map, readers may browse through a particular country’s major and minor papers and blogs in English and local languages.
One can easily search for a particular term across all European papers or simply navigate by the common news topics such as politics, science, or business.
MyImooty allows users to create their own media universe. By collecting and saving the most frequently accessed news topics, you may collect your favourite sources on a single customized page. Each time you return to your page, the news is updated and sorted by subject, search terms and titles.
3) Is this it, or is there more to come?
The technical and conceptual goal of Imooty is not only to provide access to the latest breaking news, but also to enable a convenient way to review news archives.
With its integrated search engine, users may find specific content located in several different databases and retrieve them through a single business transaction. We’re also in the process of adding Podcast and IPTV modules.
4) Why are you doing this?
I’m Norwegian and co-founder Blaise Bourgeois is French but we are both expats living in Germany.
We are both interested in commentary and analysis of current events; however, keeping up to date on both the media landscape here in Berlin, as well as in our respective home countries was unmanageable.
So we set out to create a platform that could solve this problem. We believe that as the European Union continues its development, more people will migrate and follow news and current events in different languages from nearby countries.
5) What does it cost to use it?
Access to the latest news is free and we simply redirect traffic to the newspapers. As mentioned, also archived news will be searchable on the platform and such content will be displayed in the same format as the latest news (headline with a teaser text below it). Access to this information is a premium feature.
6) How will you make it pay?
Our business model is based on a combination of sales commission and advertising revenue.
While US newspaper websites appear to be going ‘widget’-crazy, there’s a distinct lack of the things this side of the pond.
The way the US sites are using these gadgets shows the breadth of news subjects they can be applied to:
These type of applications can sit on your desktop or feature on sites like Facebook, which now encourages outside software developers to design applications for its users. Answering this call, the Washington Post has developed political quiz application, The Compass, for use on the social networking site.
According to the AP article:
Jim Brady, the executive editor of WashingtonPost.com, says widgets can boost a newspaper’s brand online, refer new readers back to the site and perhaps generate revenues through sponsorship deals.
Sounds like a plan.
Yet on a quick perusal, there don’t seem to be any on the UK’s newspaper sites. Why not?
Has anyone spotted any, anywhere?
Tags: airline delays, Jim Brady, media coverage, outside software developers, social networking site, The Washington Post, travel section, United Kingdom, United States, washingtonpost.com
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