Mumbai online: the attacks reported live (updating)

A look at where the news has unfolded. Please post additional links below. Journalism.co.uk will add in more links as they are spotted.

Washington-based blogger and social media expert, Gaurav Mishra talks to Journalism.co.uk in an interview published on the main page.

One of the few on-the-ground user-generated content examples, Vinu’s Flickr stream (screen grab above). Slide show below:

How it has been reported:

• NDTV looks at the way it unfolded on the net and promotes its own forums. “Citizens of the World Wide Web have connected to terror-stricken Mumbai in a way never seen before,” it reports. One eyewitness, Dinesh Kumar, used a forum on NDTV.com to share his experiences as he tried to make his way back home from work, the article says.
• The Wikipedia current event page is almost filling role of a blog or news service, with its extremely quick updates.
  

Photography:

• Flickr users such as Vinu, have uploaded pictures from the scene (images: all rights reserved).
• A Flickr search such as this one, brings up images from Mumbai, although many are reproduced from a few sources. People have also taken pictures of the television news coverage.
• But before you re-publish your finds beware: an advanced search which filters pictures by copyright and only shows up images opened up under Creative Commons, limits the results.

Blogs:

• Bloggers, such as Gaurav Mishra are tracking it live, and point out useful links. He has also collected together relevant Tweets.
• Other blogs to look out for: Rediff.com; Mumbai.metblogs.com. More to come.
• List of blogs, probably from outside, but outside Mumbai: Blogada roundup here.
• On the ground blogs: Amit Varma’s India Uncut; Sonia Faleiro; Arun Shanbhag

Breaking news:

• The BBC has a good stream of breaking news, with most recent at top; likewise, the Guardian’s is here.
• Away from mainstream media, NowPublic are charting it here and Ground Report here.

Social Media:

• Facebook doesn’t seem to have that much activity as yet and is not that helpful for finding news, although members of Mumbai related groups are posting comments on the walls.
• Update (27/11/08): New Facebook groups formed:‘In memory of all those who died in the 26th-27th november MUMBAI massacre’; ‘26 November 2008 - Terrorist Attacks on Mumbai’.

Microblogging:

• This Roomatic page brings together Twitter updates in chatroom format: makes it very easy to follow and updates quicked than you can read.
• Lloyd Shepherd blogged that Mumbai ‘tweets’ appear to have been restrained, seemingly by the Indian authorities. (update: however, seems quite unlikely… Anyone know if any truth in this?) Check out Amy Gahran’s post here, which raises some good points about the danger of Twitter rumours…
• The Twitter stream can be followed here: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=mumbai
• Gaurav Mishra writes, “so far, micro-blogging service Twitter seems to be the best source for real time citizen news on the Mumbai terrorist attacks, and “Mumbai” & “#Mumbai” are both on Twitter trending topics now.”
• Summed up here, at Wired.com.

Mapping:

• NYTimes.com has linked photos to the attack sites on its interactive map.
• The Guardian does a nice job here. Click on the cameras to see what took place.

Video:

• The Google video seach is here. YouTube videos are mainly limited to broadcast footage, with one user even filming the TV reports, for those without access to live television coverage. YouTube videos seem to be all second-hand broadcasts from mainstream media.

Timelines:

• Mirror.co.uk (Mumbai November 26-7) and Guardian (for past terrorist attacks in India). BBC timeline here (complete with contentious Twitter quote).

• Dipity timeline here:

Campaigns / Aid:

• In the same vein as Tsunami Help started in 2004/5, MumbaiHelp has been launched, with lists of the dead/injured here: http://tr.im/1kg3 http://tr.im/1kg2 /  http://tr.im/1kg1 / http://tr.im/1kg0 / http://tr.im/1kfz

Tags: Amit Varma, Amy Gahran, Arun Shanbhag, attacks, BBC, bombay, British Broadcasting Corporation, D.C., Dinesh Kumar, Flickr stream, Gaurav Mirshra, Gaurav Mishra, google, India, Journalism.co.uk, Lloyd Shepherd, Maharashtra, mainstream media, media, Mirror.co.uk, Mumbai, social media, social media expert, Sonia Faleiro, The Guardian, Twitter stream, United States, Washington, YouTube

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RMRF: Regional Media Research Forum in new web launch

The regional media will now be able to share research into readership, marketing, advertising and digital courtesy of a new website from the Regional Media Research Forum (RMRF).

Announced at yesterday’s RMRF Insight, the site will allow regional publishers to search and share research plans and results to assist them with future surveys, data analysis and media planning.

The new launch is part of a rebranding process for the forum previously known as the Regional Newspaper Research Forum.

A design for the site has been approved, but www.rmrf.co.uk is not yet public.

Tags: media, regional, research

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Journalism in Africa: Kenyan radio stations criticised in human rights report

Dennis Itumbi reports from Kenya for Journalism.co.uk on developments in the country’s media:

Three independent Kenyan radio stations have been named and shamed for fueling the post-election violence in the country last year in a human rights report.

The preliminary report ‘A Human Rights Account of Kenya’s Post-2007 Election Violence’, compiled by the government-funded but independent Kenya National Human Rights Commission, claims individual journalists and the radio stations incited and urged listeners to arm themselves and attack members of rival communities.

KASS FM, which broadcasts in the Kalenjin area, was accused by the report of ‘being highly biased and using inflammatory language in its broadcasts and programming.’

The report quotes one of its top journalists telling his audience in Swahili (a widely spoken dialect in East Africa)’ tokeni vita imetokea’, which loosely translates to ‘leave your houses, war has begun’. According to further notes in the report, the journalist went on to urge youths to ‘arm themselves’.

A preacher at the station - identified only as Rev Kosgey - is also named in the report for organizing a meeting to evict members of President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe from the Rift Valley region long before the elections.

Other stations mentioned include Inooro, owned by Royal Media Services - a high-flying independent media company, which owns the bulk of vernacular stations in the country, and religious broadcaster Radio Injili, based in Eldoret. Inooro was particularly blamed for organising revenge attacks in Kenya’s central province.

The report argued that the ‘media failed in the announcement of results, since they aired reports without a background context and historical voting patterns’.

The report comes at a time when the Kenyan media is sharply in focus over its role in the 2007 elections.

The pressure is so high that a commission has been set up to investigate the media’s coverage of the disputed presidential election results.

Tags: africa, Dennis Itumbi, East Africa, Eldoret, Journalism in Africa, KASS FM, Kenya, media, Mwai Kibaki, Politics, Radio Injili, Rift Valley

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Bloomberg: Media ads appearing on YouTube vids

Media companies have begun advertising on a small number of YouTube videos. The new system allows companies to run advertising alongside content posted without their permission. Full story...

Tags: Copyright, media, YouTube

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Online Journalism Scandinavia: David Montgomery’s toughest general - Lisbeth Knudsen, editor-in-chief of Berlingske Media

Once so controversial as the boss of The Mirror, over the last few years David Montgomery has reinvented himself as a European media mogul.

As head of the pan-European media company Mecom, Montgomery has emerged as an internet evangelist and one of the most optimistic advocates of a multimedia future.

This is good news for Lisbeth Knudsen, CEO and editor-in-chief of Mecom’s worst performing subsidiary.

Denmark’s Berlingske Media is the biggest publisher of daily newspapers in one of Europe’s toughest newspaper markets. Revenues of paid for dailies in Denmark have been ravaged by a costly two-year-long freesheet war.

When Montgomery bought the Danish company in 2006, it had a paltry 3.5 per cent profit margin - miles away from the 15 - 20 per cent Montgomery was promising his investors.

But it’s all grist to the mill for Knudsen, who rumour has it secured her job last spring by submitting the longest list of potential cost cuts.

Montgomery’s toughest general has been charged with justifying his professed faith in the profits to be made from the new media world.

“It is my task to deliver what I have promised, but also to tell Berlingske’s journalists that we have exciting times ahead of us. It is necessary for our survival that we start using new work processes, develop our journalism and launch new digital products. Old traditions are no longer enough,” Knudsen told Journalism.co.uk

Her first act as head of Berlingske was to publicly denounce Mecom’s profit demands as unrealistic.

Simultaneously, she made it crystal clear that the financial situation required radical changes, skilfully lowering the expectations of both her boss and the unions.

Integrate everything
Central to those changes is integration. Not only converging media platforms, but also altering most of the company’s titles into ‘verticals’ that deliver copy across platforms and titles be they broadsheet, tabloid or regional newspapers.

Berlingske may have created one of the most integrated media operations in Europe, but it has also caused great concern among the company’s journalists about work flow, work culture and how it may erode the different media brands.

“Everyone has to be able to work and plan to all media platforms. Journalists get more resources to cover events in this way. Instead of sending three journalists from three different platforms or titles, we will now have one journalist cover the results of a football match, one live blogging it, and one writing the portrait of the game’s top scorer,” said Knudsen.

To ensure editorial standards, she added, each title will have a brand manager to makes sure it runs only content that is appropriate and in line with its specific values.

Discontent
These assurances have not been enough, however, to assure the domestic journalists union. It has voiced continuous concern about merging titles, job cuts and the new ‘integrated’ work environment where journalists are confined to hot desks to create a paperless environment.

Knudsen says that new technology is necessary. Adding that the increase in the number of tools at the disposal of her reporters has also created many exciting new opportunities for journalists.

“This integration is necessary to survive. Journalists today have to accept that they have to fight for every pair of eyeballs. I accepted this job because I believe, both as a journalist and as CEO, we can create something great in this company,” she said.

Not here to please
As for her proprietor, she said: “It is my impression that you can have a discussion. If I am to be in charge of this, I have to believe in it. I have made it very clear that I’m not here to please. I have a very open and direct dialogue with the management about our goals and progress. During my thirty-something years in the newspaper industry I’ve encountered a lot of unprofessional owners. Mecom is a very professional owner, the company imposes certain demands to our revenues, but that is the way it has to be.”

David Montgomery may have got himself a straight shooter, but what impression is she likely to have made on her newsroom staff? It seems she is a journalististic champion who is both admired and feared.

“If anyone can stand up to Montgomery it is she. She is completely ruthless and resembles Montgomery in many ways. I cannot think of anyone in Danish media who dares to pick a fight with her,” said a journalist who has worked with Knudsen but did not wish to be named.

“But her journalistic integrity is above reproach. She is a journalistic champion.”

Tags: Berlingske Media, daily newspapers, David Montgomery, Denmark, digital products, Europe, integrated media operations, integration, internet evangelist, Journalism.co.uk, Lisbeth Knudsen, Mecom, media, media brands, media platforms, media world, Online Journalism Scandinavia, worst performing subsidiary

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Pluck adds new features to social media technology

Social media firm Pluck has developed a new version of its SiteLife platform - the technology currently employed by Hearst Digital and USA Today to ramp up interactive features for users.

According to a press release, the new version (3.3) offers improved search engine optimisation to make content such as comments on news articles and forums more open to search engines.

It also gives more options for publishers when managing online communities.

Pluck’s technology, which handles user comments, ratings, recommendations, image and video sharing, forums, blogs and creates social network-style profiles for users, was recently implemented by the Guardian’s Comment is Free section.

Tags: blogs, improved search engine optimisation, media, media technology, online communities, Pluck, search engine, social media technology, The Guardian, USA Today

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How not to handle the media…

All journalists have had days when none of your calls are returned and multiple voicemail messages bear no fruit. On occasion I’ve wished someone would just tell me they weren’t going to answer.

Still there’s no need for the reaction given to Folio’s senior editor, digital, Dylan Stableford by another B2B publisher, as he followed up a legitimate tip on job cuts at US B2B publisher Edgell.

“I left messages for Edgell’s chairman and CEO Gabriele Edgell, COO Dan Ligorner and president Gerry Ryerson late last week seeking comment, as well as sent e-mails to a bunch of staffers listed on their contact page,” writes Stableford.

His inquiries finally received an email response - though perhaps not what he was after:

From: Gerry Ryerson
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 5:11 PM
To: Dylan Stableford
Cc: Tony Silber; Dan Ligorner; Gabriele Edgell
Subject: RE: folio: inquiry

Dylan,
We don’t have any information we’d like to share about our company right now. If we had a comment Gabriele, Dan or I would have returned your calls. I’d also appreciate you not continuing to contact everyone on our mastheads as its just a distraction to our business.
Gerry

Gerald C. Ryerson
President

You’d think he’d know better…

Tags: business to business, Dan Ligorner, Dylan Stableford, Edgell, Folio, funny, Gabriele Edgell, Gerry Ryerson, media, Tony Silber

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Guardian: Pluck picks up Hearst website deal

Social media firm Pluck will supply technology to Hearst Digital’s uber-web portal Allaboutyou.com

It will provided blogs, discussion tools and media-sharing applications to the new community site for women, which combines content from six Natmag’s UK tiles.

The move is part of an ‘aggressive’ push of the business, says the Guardian.

For Hearst, it’s the second major partnership for its magazine websites after securing the services of Brightcove to supply its digital video hosting.

Tags: Allaboutyou.com, blogs, comments, community site, Digital video, discussion tools, Hearst, media, media-sharing applications, Pluck, supply technology, The Guardian, uber-web portal, United Kingdom

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Innovations in Journalism - Fromdistance

1) Who are you and what’s it all about?

Fromdistance is a software company which makes products for mobile applications. Our main product is the Fromdistance MDM (Mobile Device Manager) - a tool for managing mobile devices. Based on this , we have built the Fromdistance Mobile Professional Reporter (MPR) and the Mobile Citizen Reporter (MCR).

The first is used by several media companies for their own content production; the latter is a service for publishers to get content from end users.

Both services transmit images and videos in their original quality without sacrificing resolution - making a sharp contrast with using MMS.

2) Why would this be useful to a journalist?

Using the MPR service professional journalists can create instant reports for their publishers extremely easily. We can automate the whole process to a point where only the recording button on a mobile device is used - everything else is 100 per cent automatic.

In professional reporting it’s vital to have tools that work. As the MPR is based on our mobile device management product, we can take care of the devices and of the user like never before. For instance, remote desktop access can be established to devices to help reporters in trouble.

Citizen journalists can take advantage of the reporter service, as it can be used to send images, videos and text to a publisher of their choice. The user is asked to accept the terms set by the publisher during the submission process, which eliminates rights-related questions.

3) Is this it, or is there more to come?

Live streaming is in the works.

4) Why are you doing this?

We believe that mobile devices and mobile networks facilitate new ways of content production, both in terms of processes and in terms of concepts. However, it’s important to ensure the technical quality of the material sent out - normally publishers don’t want scores of low-quality content.

We also want to help publishers in receiving material from end customers in order to get their stories heard. While traditional blogging is good, we would want to combine user generated content with professional publishing.

5) What does it cost to use it?

The MPR is a premium service - the cost depends on the number of devices, supported
video formats and level of integration needed.

Fromdistance MCR is free for end users. They only need to pay for the generated data traffic.

6) How will you make it pay?

Publishers/media companies are our customers and pay monthly fees for using either service.

Tags: Fromdistance, Innovations in Journalism, media, mobile device management product, Publishers/media, software

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Innovations in Journalism - Hubdub.com




1) Who are you and what’s it all about?

My name is Nigel Eccles and I’m Chief News Junkie at Hubdub.

Hubdub is a news forecaster that allows users to compete in predicting how news stories will turn out.

The system takes all the users predictions and generates a forecast of how that story will conclude. Users that are successful in predicting news outcomes gain more influence resulting in the system getting more accurate over time.

2) Why would this be useful to a journalist?


Hubdub is a great way to follow a news story. Want to know if David Cameron will be the next Prime Minister? (60% no) Or, whether JK Rowling will announce another Harry Potter by the end of 2008? (90% no).

Or even, who will win Best Actor at the Oscars? (Johnny Depp 24%). Hubdub not only forecasts how running news stories will turn out but lets you track them over time. For example, when another government mishandling of data incident comes up, how does that impact David Cameron’s chances?

Additionally, as users can create questions around the news stories they are following Hubdub is a great resource to find out what news people are really interested in at the moment.

3) Is this it, or is there more to come?


This is just the very start! We are working on a range of widgets to allow journalists and bloggers to include Hubdub’s forecasts in their stories. This makes the story richer and enables you to more closely engage with your readers.
 Additionally, we are working on a range of features to let users connect with other users who have similar (or opposing) outlooks and opinions on the site.

4) Why are you doing this?

I really designed the product for myself. I’ve always been a very heavy news consumer but often I felt that the news just lacked a degree of excitement. I want to make following the news to be as exciting as betting on sports or playing fantasy leagues.

5) What does it cost to use it?


Nada, nothing, zero, zilch

6) How will you make it pay?


We are currently focused on getting the product out to as many people as possible. Once we have sufficient scale we expect to selectively carry advertising.

 Additionally, we are considering two other revenue streams, a premium offering similar to fantasy sports leagues and partnerships with publishers and media companies. We have already received interest in both these areas.

Tags: David Cameron, Innovations in Journalism, Johnny Depp, media, Nigel Eccles, sports leagues

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