Journalism.co.uk featured on the BBC News Channel technology programme Click at the weekend. Our founder and publisher John Thompson (@johncthompson) was interviewed about our model for providing media industry news content – outside the paywall. The programme also featured Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger and City University London newspaper journalism course director Jonathan Hewett, among others.
Here’s a link to the point at which Journalism.co.uk features:
So where does news aggregation get in the way of original reporting? Nieman Journalism Lab took a look at one big story – the attack on Google in China – and analysed its treatment by various news organisations. A spreadsheet shows the full results (download file at this link).
[Jonathan Stray] I chose a single big story and read every single version listed on Google News to see who was doing the work. Out of the 121 distinct versions of last week’s story about tracing Google’s recent attackers to two schools in China, 13 (11 per cent) included at least some original reporting. And just seven organisations (six percent) really got the full story independently.
Perhaps a little frivolous to start a Monday morning with, but hey. Journalist to PR promoting new revolutionary social media software: “Yes, I’ll honour the embargo… for the rest of my working life.”
We understand that part 2 is on its way. Follow its creator tech journalist Steve O’Hear / @sohear for details. Strong language warning.
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A few examples of user-led news initiatives around the Chile earthquake. We’ll add to this as we spot other user-generated content (UGC) examples.
And commentary:
On Wednesday (3 March) the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Amnesty International are joining forces for a forum marking 100 days from the Philippines massacre in November 2009.
On November 23 2009, the bloodiest ever slaughter of journalists in a single incident occurred in Maguindanao province, southern Philippines. An entire election convoy of 63 people including 33 accompanying reporters and media personnel was ambushed, and everyone killed.
Enforced disappearances and political killings of trade union leaders, human rights activists and journalists have spiralled in the Philippines in the last decade, mainly in the name of counterinsurgency. The Philippine government has armed and employed poorly trained and unaccountable paramilitary groups to combat insurgent groups, handing powers to local politicians who have acted with impunity.
With 2010 being the self-imposed deadline of the Arroyo administration to end insurgency and with national elections set for 10 May, there are increased fears of further unlawful killings and disappearances.
I’ve had a little play with today’s Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic’s (ABCe) six-monthly multi-platform report for July – December 2009 and produced a few graphs.
Johnston Press was top of the traffic charts with 384,016 daily unique browsers – partly thanks to the Scotsman which attracted 86,694 daily browsers on average over the past six months. In second place for daily unique browsers (which ABCe now prioritises over monthly statistics as a better measure of site popularity) came Newsquest with 320,975 browsers. Closely behind, Trinity Mirror, which recorded 287,130. Of the bigger groups, it was Northcliffe in fourth position with 256,123. GMG saw the biggest drop-off overall when period-on-period monthly unique browser figures were compared: -17.8 per cent.
For the next multiplatform report, it could be all change: GMG regional titles will be part of Trinity Mirror, following the sale agreement earlier this month; and the effect of Johnston Press’ pay walls, launched in November may well have kicked in. They seem to have had a limited effect on this period’s statistics, but it’s worth noting that traffic had fallen for the Johnston Press network from 6,985,175 uniques in October to 6,161,875 in December 2009: down by over ten per cent in two months. Traffic had been dropping off since July, however, well before the pay walls were introduced and of course, the group has only rolled out the scheme over a few of its smaller sites so far. Unfortunately, the trialled sites don’t feature in the individual site break-down.
This chart shows the period-on-period change for each newspaper group, July to end of December 2009. (ie. compared with the previous six months)
Unique daily browsers, by regional newspaper group:
GMG Regional Network
Trinity Mirror
Iliffe News & Media Ltd (note that the largest column is its entire network overall, which includes other sites as well)
Johnston Press
Newsquest
Midlands News
Good news for the Financial Times journalists who faced redundancy if they did not return to China, on half their salaries.
The management has changed its mind, following the FT chapel’s threat that its members would ballot on industrial action if the FT Chinese journalists were not allowed to stay.
We reported on the National Union of Journalists’ outrage over the affair on 12 February. The latest update comes from NUJ Active (we expect a fuller NUJ statement soon):
The immediate defence by journalists at the Financial Times of Chinese colleagues threatened with redundancy by management has brought complete victory. The FT chapel demanded unanimously that the redundancy threat be lifted from their four colleagues on the FTChinese website, and warned that otherwise FT journalists might ballot on industrial action. So management did as it was told.
Update: and here’s the fuller NUJ statement:
Two of the four Chinese journalists are British citizens, and they all work on terms and conditions inferior to other journalists at the Financial Times. The newspaper had decided that the specialist group of Chinese journalists at the paper had to return to China on half their current salaries or else accept redundancy.
The NUJ chapel voted unanimously at a capacity meeting: “We condemn the outrageous treatment of journalists on FTChinese. We demand no redundancies on FTChinese and that the journalists be placed on the same terms and conditions as the rest of FT editorial We will ballot for industrial action if these demands are not met.”
“We are pleased that our employer has realised just how unfair and unacceptable were its proposals for our Chinese colleagues. We look forward to talking with management about securing the future of our Chinese journalists at the Financial Times on proper terms and conditions,” said David Crouch, the father of chapel.
“Financial Times management has had the good sense to reconsider an unacceptable decision. Our FT Chapel is to be congratulated on its speedy and determined resistance to a management error which was entirely unacceptable to the culture of the diverse media culture of the NUJ,” said NUJ general secretary, Jeremy Dear.
The Guardian’s Steve Busfield and Paddy Allen have produced a rather nice click-through interactive, showing how figures at News International fit into the phone hacking / blagging scandal.
Or as Steve Busfiled (@busfield) says on Twitter: “How the #phonehacking players are connected. And what they DON’T know.”
As noted on this blog this morning, the Guardian reported that Conservative director of communications Andy Coulson (former News of the World editor) is under pressure to defend “his knowledge about the illegal activities of his journalists amid new allegations about the paper’s involvement with private detectives who broke the law”.
For those interested in producing news interactive and visualisation features, please see my post from last week: ‘Data visualisations that tell the news’ – packed with links suggested by the FT’s deputy interactive editor, Cynthia O’Murchu.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has called upon the Isle of Wight coroner to allow a banned blogger into his court.
As we reported yesterday, Simon Perry of the VentnorBlog – a site that has been publishing local news for over four years – was refused entry, both as a journalist or a member of the public, to the Isle of Wight coroner’s court on Tuesday (23 February). Perry has been a member of the NUJ for over nine years.
While parts of a small number of inquests may be held in private for reasons of national security, in this instance the hearing was public – and the local newspaper journalist was allowed to stay.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear has written to the Isle of Wight coroner’s office expressing “grave concern” at the decision to ban Simon Perry, Journalism.co.uk has learned.
“The principle of open justice is vital to any democracy,” said Jeremy Dear. “Any journalist will tell you that the right of the public to know what happens in a coroner’s court is fundamental to a free society.
“I’m glad that Simon Perry regards this serious incident as a matter for his union, the NUJ. We will certainly pursue the issue vigorously.”
Over nine years of NUJ membership “would surely point to me not being fly by night,” Perry told Journalism.co.uk yesterday.
When Journalism.co.uk contacted the coroner’s court yesterday, the official did not wish to comment, but confirmed that the Coroner had made a statement once VentnorBlog had left the room.
The Ministry of Justice guide to coroner and inquests says (available via this link):
All inquests must be held in public in accordance with the principle of open justice, and so members of the public and journalists have the right to, and indeed may, attend (although parts of a very small number of inquests may be held in private for national security reasons). Whether journalists attend a particular inquest – and whether they report on it – is a matter for them. If any such report is fair and accurate it cannot be used to sue for defamation.
A new Canadian documentary film, due out this spring, uses social media to tell an alternative story about Vancouver’s Winter Olympics. It follows four individuals who “rallied” their community through social networking tools, to help empower the homeless and poor – who don’t necessarily fit into grand Olympic plans. The idea was to use mobile and online media to “provide a voice for those left behind”. (Hat-tip: Jon Slattery)
It draws on video blogging, photo-sharing and social networking to bring a “marginalised” community to the fore, “embracing leading-edge communication technologies, to empower, inspire, and break down the digital divide,” its producers say. The synopsis:
February 12, 2010. Sixty thousand people have gathered in Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium to revel in the spectacle that is the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympic Games. It marks the beginning of a two week party that will focus a global spotlight on this city of half a million and, organizers hope, finally put to rest seven years of surrounding controversy. A few days earlier, a year long campaign which saw police issue hundred dollar jaywalking and spitting tickets to homeless people, had culminated in a successful sweep of the city’s impoverished Downtown Eastside to relocate undesirables to outlying communities.
When the story finally makes it to the mainstream news channels, it’s thanks to the diligence and combined power of a few concerned citizens, their video-streaming cellphones and the Internet. With Glowing Hearts will give audiences the chance to see the world through the eyes of four such citizens, as they rally their community around powerful new Social Media tools to show its true heart to the world. Based on the premise that the access to information is a human right, the film and accompanying website, will take audiences on a year long journey into the creation of an independent Olympic media center designed to guarantee that access in a community whose voice is frequently ignored.
Here’s the trailer:
With Glowing Hearts from Andrew Lavigne on Vimeo.