Author Archives: Judith Townend

Hacks and Hackers play with data-driven news

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Last Friday’s London-based Hacks and Hacker’s Day, run by ScraperWiki (a new data tool set to launch in beta soon), provided some excellent inspiration for journalists and developers alike.

In groups, the programmers and journalists paired up to combine journalistic and data knowledge, resulting in some innovative projects: a visualisation showing the average profile of Conservative candidates standing in safe seats for the General Election (the winning project); graphics showing the most common words used for each horoscope sign; and an attempt to tackle the various formats used by data.gov.uk.

One of the projects, ‘They Write For You’ was an attempt to illustrate the political mix of articles by MPs for British newspapers and broadcasters. Using byline data combined with MP name data, the journalists and developers created this pretty mashup, which can be viewed at this link.

The team took the 2008-2010 data from Journalisted and used ScraperWiki, Python, Ruby and JavaScript to create the visualisation: each newspaper shows a byline breakdown by party. By hovering over a coloured box, users can see which MPs wrote for which newspaper over the same two year period.

The exact statistics, however, should be treated with some caution, as the information has not yet been cross-checked with other data sets.  It would appear, for example, that the Guardian newspaper published more stories by MPs than any other title, but this could be that Journalisted holds more information about the Guardian than its counterparts.

While this analysis is not yet ready to be transformed into a news story, it shows the potential for employing data skills to identify media and political trends.

FT.com: Guardian considered six different pay models

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This FT interview with Guardian Media Group chief executive Carolyn McCall reveals some  background on the company’s pay wall strategy. The company discussed six different models, including a pay wall, but McCall said there was no  evidence for the commercial success of pay walls:

“It is not really the way the web works. That is not to say there are not areas of specialist content that cannot be charged for,” she says.

Finally, this nugget:

Ms McCall dismisses the idea of any changes in the Guardian’s senior management – which is known to hold the firm view that freedom of news takes precedence over any business model – as “preposterous”.

Full story at this link…

Twitter’s Local Trends

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Last week Twitter announced it was rolling out its new feature, Local Trends: a means of tracking topics trending in your local ‘state or city’.

The big events that come up around the world will always become a global conversation, but what about the big events that only happen in your world that only matter to those around you? Or the slight differences in the way Californians perceive an event, like Obama’s election victory, versus those São Paulo, Brazil?

Local Trends will allow you to learn more about the nuances in our world and discover even more relevant topics that might matter to you. We’ll be improving this feature over time to provide more locations, languages, and data through our API.

Locations added so far:

Countries: Brazil; Canada; Ireland; Mexico; United Kingdom; United States

Cities: Atlanta; Baltimore; Boston; Chicago; Dallas-Ft. Worth; Houston; London; Los Angeles; New York City; Philadelphia; San Antonio; San Francisco; Seattle; São Paulo; Washington, D.C.

As yet, non-London residents only see nationally trending topics in the UK, but Twitter says it is working to add more locations.

Rosie Taylor: ‘Impossible to get a foot in the door without several thousand pounds’

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Rosie Taylor, who describes herself “an undergraduate student who wants to beat the odds and become a journalist”, comments on the Unleashing Aspirations report that finds journalism “one of the most exclusive middle-class professions of the 21st century”.

“[I]t seems to me to be an irrefutable fact that it is practically impossible to get a foot in the door without several thousand of pounds in your pocket,” she says.

Exclusive? Yes. Middle-class? Definitely. A profession of the 21st century? Maybe not for much longer.

A good one to consider alongside a piece in yesterday’s Observer Magazine by freelance (and recently made redundant) journalist Andrew Hankinson. Hankinson, who stubbornly refuses to give up the print trade he loves, looks at the ‘Lost Generation’ concept across the board, but his own experiences might strike a chord or two with 20-something (and maybe 30-something) struggling journalists. The comments underneath the piece are worth a peruse too – he provoked a mixed reaction.

Former Birmingham Post editor launches West Midlands business news site

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As reported ahead of launch by Journalism.co.uk last week, former editor of the Birmingham Post, Marc Reeves, has set up a West Midlands franchise of TheBusinessDesk.com: http://www.thebusinessdesk.com/westmidlands/.

TheBusinessDesk.com, currently operating in the north-west and Yorkshire, today announced it was continuing its expansion with the launch of a new West Midlands operation. It was set up in 2007 by former Yorkshire Post business editor, David Parkin.

As we reported last week, the West Midlands team will include Duncan Tift, former deputy business editor at the Birmingham Post. Today Lee-J Walker was also announced as business development manager.

Commercial launch partners in the West Midlands site include the international law firm Hammonds, the accountancy firm BDO and property specialists Bruntwood.

“As traditional media has struggled to remain viable, this concept which provides up-to-the-minute, informed regional business news free and direct to the user, is proving extremely popular with professionals and entrepreneurs alike,” said Marc Reeves.

“Having spent more than 25 years in newspapers, this is an exciting new venture for me which fits perfectly with my interest in online journalism and social media networks. I believe that TheBusinessDesk.com will fill a real need here for daily regional business news delivered in a clear and easily accessible format.”

One of the secrets of the TheBusinessDesk.com’s success, said David Parkin, is “bringing on board the very best regional journalists with the experience, real understanding and contacts to work closely with the business community”.

“As one of the best known and most respected journalists in the West Midlands, Marc will play a key part in helping us to replicate the success we have enjoyed elsewhere, helping us to provide a much-needed daily source of trusted business news.”

Full post at this link…

The demise of the superinjunction?

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Writing in MediaGuardian this morning, Index on Censorship news editor, Padraig Reidy, discusses whether last week’s ruling by Justice Tugendhat in the John Terry case means courts will be less willing to issue super-injunctions.

The increasingly aggressive pursuit of privacy actions is often an attempt to entirely dictate what is published about a person (or in the case of Trafigura, a corporation). Friday’s ruling, combined with Trafigura’s epic failure to suppress information, suggests that courts may be less willing to issue such injunctions in future. And perhaps sensible solicitors will be less willing to seek them.

In another Guardian.co.uk piece, Guardian columnist Marcel Berlins argues that ‘unusual’ elements of Terry’s case affected the Justice Tugendhat’s decision on this occasion:

Perhaps, post-Tugendhat, judges will not grant injunctions quite so readily, but there will be no revolution. And predictions of the demise of the superinjunction have been greatly exaggerated.

Mark Lewis: Libel law’s ‘killing effect’

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Mark Lewis, the solicitor-advocate in Manchester who currently represents Dr Peter Wilmshurst (see background here),  has written an excellent piece on the need for libel reform, in the Solicitors’ Journal. “When the law is so bad that it leaves you speechless it needs changing,” he writes.

The law of defamation is expensive to pursue and even dearer to defend. The stress, time and financial cost of a libel case stop people speaking out. Libel law is simple currently: a rich claimant trumps a poor defendant. Newspapers worry about the ‘chilling effect’ of libel – investigative journalism is hampered as a result of lawyers for the press advising their clients to err on the side of caution.

At least it’s not a matter of life or death. Well, it is now. The chilling effect turned into the ‘killing effect’ when claimants realised that a well-drafted claim form is likely to have the effect of silencing an individual who attacks medical products or procedures.

Full story at this link…

Ofcom revokes Teletext licence

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The Teletext goodbyes have already been done, but Ofcom has today revoked the Public Teletext Licence with immediate effect [PDF at this link].

Teletext Limited, which ceased supplying national, international and regional news in December 2009, is now in breach of its public service obligations, so the broadcasting licence has been revoked by the broadcasting regulator. Teletext did not take the remedial steps to comply with the licence.

Ofcom said that Teletext’s subtitling provision and the page 100 index remain unaffected.

In its statement, Ofcom said:

This [ceasing supply of national, international and regional news] is a serious breach of the licence conditions. Teletext Limited was asked for its representations and, following consideration of those representations, the Licence has now been revoked.

Wikileaks temporarily closes due to lack of funds

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WikiLeaks.org, the whistleblowing and transparency website, has temporarily shut its site, citing lack of funds. It promises to be “back soon”.

WikiLeaks, part of the Sunshine Press, is calling for donations to support the publication of “hundreds of thousands” of pages from “corrupt banks, the US detainee system, the Iraq war, China, the UN and many others”.

“We have raised just over $130,000 for this year but can not meaningfully continue operations until costs are covered. These amount to just under $200,000 PA. If staff are paid, our yearly budget is $600,000.”

Full post at this link…

Guardian names three new Beatbloggers

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Yesterday afternoon Guardian News & Media announced its three new beat bloggers, part of the Guardian Local initiative.

The Local project is an “experimental small-scale community approach to local newsgathering,” according to launch editor Sarah Hartley.

Hartley writes:

We had a tremendous response to the advertised positions and, as the Local launch editor, I’m delighted to announce that the project has reached an important milestone, with the appointment of three journalists to take on the new roles in the three cities.

Tom Allan, Hannah Waldram and John Baron have been based at the Guardian’s offices in Kings Place this week to undergo training and will be starting work on their beats of Edinburgh, Cardiff and Leeds respectively from next week. The Local blogs will be launched during the first half of this year although no dates have been confirmed.

I’m thrilled that these talented journalists have joined this exciting new venture at such an important time, and more details will be announced in the coming months. Sandblæst folie til vinduer, Folie til skabslåger

Full post at this link…