Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog » The Times

Barack Obama on Twitter and Chinese internet censorship

Judith Townend — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:56:25 +0000

Barack Obama answered questions on internet censorship and Twitter in his (live-streamed) talk to Chinese students yesterday:

ReadWriteWeb was shocked to learn that Obama has ‘never used Twitter.’ It turns out that someone else in his office is responsible for the 2.6 million followers… “But I’m an advocate of technology and not restricting internet access,” Obama said.

Meanwhile, the UK nationals have picked up his comments on internet censorship. The Times, for example:

Mr Obama was asked whether he knew of the ‘Great Firewall’ – the popular term for the blocks that China’s Government imposes on the internet to keep out content its censors deem inappropriate for its citizens. Mr Obama said: “I have always been a strong supporter of open internet use. I am a big supporter of non-censorship. I recognise that different countries have different traditions.”

It was the answer in which he came the closest to subtle criticism of his hosts, saying he believed the freedom to reprove a country’s leaders helped to strengthen democracy. “I should be honest, there are times when I wish information didn’t flow so freely, then I wouldn’t have to listen to people criticise me all the time. People naturally when in positions of power think ‘How could that person say that of me? That’s irresponsible’.”

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Times and Sun journalists to move offices

Judith Townend — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:19:30 +0000

MediaGuardian reports that the Times and the Sun are to move into new offices next year – the other side of the car park from the News International Wapping Complex. The Sunday Times and News of the World will move into the Times’ old office building, once it has been refurbished.

Full story at this link…

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TimesOnline: Daily Mail halves its advertising decline rate

Judith Townend — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:34:25 +0000

“Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said yesterday that it had halved the rate of decline in advertising revenue at its flagship national newspaper in September, a fillip that suggests the industry could start to recover in the new year,” reports the Times.

Full post at this link…

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TimesOnline seeking questions for Google chief executive

Judith Townend — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:01:56 +0000

Fancy asking Eric Schmidt about the future of online news?

Here’s your chance: TimesOnline is seeking questions to put to the chairman and chief executive of Google for a feature to be published on Friday October 2.

Web development editor at the Times, Joanna Geary, just tweeted that there have already been ten pleas for a job so far…

Submit your question at this link (deadline September 25)

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The First Post: Murdoch’s ‘radical rethink’ for online news; announces $3.4bn loss

Judith Townend — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:01:19 +0000

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch announced yesterday that within a year the Times, the Sun, and the New York Post will all be charging for access to their websites.

“”Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good journalism,” he said yesterday as he announced a $3.4bn loss for News Corp, which owns 20th Century Fox, Fox News and Sky TV as well as newspapers.”

Full story at this link…

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Martin Cloake: Further points about anonymity in the wake of NightJack

Judith Townend — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:57:43 +0000

Pushing the NightJack discussion futher, journalist and writer Martin Cloake raises some tricky questions for online observers – or anyone who enjoys a good ethical debate. In a previous post, Cloake said that he broadly agreed with a comment on FleetStreetBlues - ‘There is no automatic right of privacy in the street – and neither should there be on the information superhighway.’ Now he elaborates on this, and other points raised by the case: his unease with the Times’s main justification, the problems of the old vs new ‘vendetta’ theory, contradictions in the anonymity debate, why whistleblowers and journalistic sources are another matter entirely, and new boundary issues for the public/private spheres.

Read in full at this link.

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Bloggertariat vs Commentariat – who’s winning? (does it matter?)

Laura Oliver — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:02:06 +0000

Last night Journalism.co.uk picked up its laptop and notepad, and sat on the fence. Sitting in the audience of the Editorial Intelligence/Edelman/Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism ‘Commentariat vs Bloggertariat, Who is winning?’ event typing away definitely had me branded as a ‘blogger’ by some of the established comment writers in the row in front, who seemed to throw a glance every time liveblogging was mentioned.

Blogger/reporter/observer – it was a night of arbitrary definitions – some of which were fortunately challenged by the panel of:

Martin Bright, New Deal of the Mind founder and Spectator blogger

Mick Fealty, political blogger at Slugger O’Toole and the Telegraph’s Brassneck blog

Iain Dale, Iain Dale’s diary

David Aaronovitch, comment writer for The Times

Anne Spackman, comment editor for The Times

‘versus’
Before attending the event I had some reservations about setting up bloggers/blogs vs comment writers/comment – so it was good to see this artificial opposition challenged by both panel and audience.

“They are part of the same thing – it is part of the same continuum. I think it’s an artificial distinction,” said Bright.

But there are new rules and etiquette that blogging, and the technology which powers it, have introduced, which are shaping the future of comment.

“Bloggers have been able to hold traditional commentariat to account. That gets an instant reaction from the commentariat because they’re not used to be held to accountable in this way,” explained Dale.

“When you do comment quickly you do make mistakes and you have to hold your hands up.”

And if the future of journalism and the business of publishing is online, bloggers are the pathfinders, added Fealty:

“We’ve changed the behaviour of a commentariat. It isn’t bloggers that have ripped the revenue out of the big newsgatherers – it’s Google,” he said.

“Online bloggers have started a party that is irresistible to the commentariat. Spreadability is the new currency. To do that you need a personal audience as a blogger.

“They [the commentariat] are better writers, but there are many more of us than there are of them (…) We’re getting stories from the little people, not the big people that the commentariat are. The people we talk to aren’t always the best behaved witnesses.

“We’re not obliged to fit in with someone else’s brand. Bloggers are brand builders, the new brand online (…) is us speaking directly from the gut.”

Anonymity and NightJack
Last night’s event was timely given the debate over the Times decision to out anonymous policeman blogger NightJack – despite a punchy start from Iain Dale, neither Spackman nor Aaronovitch would be drawn on the issue.

However, Spackman did say she agreed with Jeff Jarvis that social media sites were breaking down anonymity.

Aaronovitch went further saying he could see previously ‘anonymous’ political sources in comment writing being unmasked and suggested that this was a necessary development.

Bright agreed and said he hoped this would happen ‘organically’: “It is changing, but at the moment it isn’t changing fast enough.”

For journalists using social and new media sources, transparency is needed, added Aaronovitch: “There are synergies there (…) I use bloggers as sources of information I wouldn’t otherwise get. There’s a form of democratisation there. It’s unreliable democratisation – I don’t really know what I’m getting or who I’m getting it from.”

Twitter challenge and shaping the future
The commentariat has been with us for 25 years, but how the shape of the ‘bloggertariat’ will shift in the same time is almost unpredictable, he added.

“I absolutely love what the new media has created (…) the possibilities it has created for me and everyone else.

“We couldn’t even imagine two years ago that there’d be a form of 140 characters and we had no idea how it would apply itself to situations like Iran.

“‘Commentariat vs bloggertariat’ suggests a settled contention that we know where everybody is and everybody’s going.”

Indeed the rise of Twitter was agreed to be a somewhat unforeseen challenge to the dominance of blogging over traditional comment.

“I’ve yet to read a great classic blog post. I think it’s getting close with Twitter. Every now and then you do read a fantastic tweet,” said Bright.

But, commenting on yesterday’s launch of the UK Investigations Fund, Bright said he was concerned that developments and the future of neither the bloggertariat or commentariat would accommodate investigative journalism.

UPDATE – you can now download Editorial Intelligence’s podcast of the event.

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Newspaper Awards 2009: Times wins online and off

Laura Oliver — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:39:26 +0000

Last night saw the 2009 Newspaper Awards (nominations for the prizes can be seen here) with BBC News jointly winning best electronic news site alongside Times Online – good work for a non-newspaper.

The other digital accolade went to the Herald Express and thisissouthdevon for ‘Rock Stars’, the paper’s online drive to create a new band; while the Cambridge News scooped best regional paper and The Times was named best national newspaper.

Congratulations to the award winners – a full list of which can be viewed on the awards’ website.

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British Press Award winners 2009

Claire Rowe — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:31:36 +0000

Guardian.co.uk was named website of the year for the second year running at last night’s British Press Awards.

Both The Guardian and The Mail on Sunday were the biggest winners of the night, each winning four awards.

Perhaps the most coveted award, Newspaper of the Year, went to The Times, while Digital journalist of the year went to The Guardian’s, Dave Hill.

Miles Goslett from The Mail on Sunday won Scoop of the year for his story on the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand ‘Sachsgate’ affair.

The full list of award winners is available at this link.

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IndexOnCensorship.org: European Court judgement on Times is ‘disappointing and weak’

Judith Townend — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:10:18 +0000

A guest comment from Peter Noorlander on the Free Speech blog over at IndexOnCensorship.org.

After outlining the details of this week’s Times case (the newspaper group was disputing the UK’s application of libel laws where the ‘internet publication rule’ allows for libel action every time archived material is accessed on the internet) Noorlander gives his own take on the judgement.

“This leaves a disappointing and weak judgment from the European Court of Human Rights,” he writes.

Full story at this link…

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