The International Press Institute (IPI) has an update on the journalists detained after the Israeli seizure of activists aboard the Gaza flotilla:
Israel on Wednesday deported hundreds of activists, and a number of foreign journalists, who had been detained after a Gaza-bound flotilla they were aboard was stormed on Tuesday in an operation that left nine people dead. However, several journalists remained in custody at 15:30 CET.
Ahead of yesterday’s Amnesty Media Awards 2010 ceremony, shortlisted nominee duckrabbit (@duckrabbitblog) tweeted:
If last year is anything to go by … take a valium before heading up to the #amnestyawards … sobering stuff
And they were right: the audience saw harrowing images and heard troubling narration, as the introduction to each of the shortlisted pieces of human rights journalism, across 10 categories in digital, print and radio.
It was the BBC Radio 4 Today programme’s Justin Webb, presenting the national newspaper prize, who reminded us of the substance behind the ‘future of journalism’ conversation. Joking that he’d undergone hardship in his own reportage (sometimes they went half-an-hour without a snack on the Obama campaign trail!), he said it was testimony to the diligence of the shortlisted contenders that they had completed this journalism. They, he said, had put aside the “chatter” of the organs for which they work and “talk of paywalls” to pursue their subject matter.
It was a particularly timely day for the awards – Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen mentioned the seizure of the Gaza flotilla activists by Israel, and the media’s vital role in reporting events. A special award for journalism under threat has been given to independent media workers in Burma, to raise awareness of the plight of 2,200 political prisoners held by the ruling junta, including more than 40 journalists.
In addition to the main prizes, two young entrants were named Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year winners, in a new prize set up by Amnesty International UK in collaboration with the Guardian Learnnewsdesk. Their pieces on bullying and child detention at Yarl’s Wood can be read on the Guardian site, along with the other shortlisted entries.
I’ve link to some of the shortlisted videos shown last night. Not all content is available to watch/listen in full, but even these snippets are a reminder of the kind of content that should be protected – and prioritised – in the trade and in discussions on the future of journalism.
Gaby Rado Memorial Award
International Television and Radio
Nations and Regions
National Newspapers
Digital Media
Periodicals – Consumer Magazines
Periodicals – Newspaper Supplements
Photojournalism
Radio
Television Documentary and Docudrama
Television News
Citizen journalism site Allvoices is to offer a healthcare plan – at a cost – to its regular contributors in the US, it announced last week. It’s open to all its users who participate in its journalism incentive scheme and produce 15 new articles per month.
We believe health care is a basic human right, even though it is still dependent upon a less-than-perfect system which keeps it from those in our society who are most in need. Many within that group are recently un- or under-employed journalists. These are talented people who have a valuable, necessary skill to contribute but can’t because of consolidation within the media industry.
The site has plans to introduce other benefits it says:
…We see this as a small and very necessary step toward changing the future of journalism as we know it. The plan we now have in place is a great start for a citizen media site, but we’re cognizant of what else is needed; additional benefits will be introduced over time as we continue to grow. For a while we’ve been soliciting feedback from our community on other benefits they’d like to see in return for their work, and we intend on delivering. We’re committed to providing an environment where people can not just augment their living by writing for Allvoices, but can make their living here if they so choose.
Journalism.co.uk readers in the US will have to tell us how the plan shapes up next to other alternatives…
In January we reported how AllVoices, with five million unique visitors a month and 275,000 reporters, plans to develop its presence in hyperlocal and global markets.
MSN UK has launched its new UK homepage, re-designed, changed functionality and with social media plug-ins.
MSN executive producer Peter Bale, will be speaking at Journalism.co.uk’s forthcoming news:rewired conference on 25 June 2010, hosted by MSN UK. A few remaining tickets are available at this link.
Professor and head of journalism at City University London (and former Times international editor) George Brock muses on the implications of the Times’ forthcoming paywall, following the departure of the blogger BabyBarista. Despite the departure, the judgement about the Times paywall “can’t be made for months,” he warns.
…I still believe that that a way not yet invented will be found round the central dilemma of finding a financial base for journalism while allowing writers to connect to as wide a community as possible. But unless and until that happens, the outcome of the experiment just starting will turn on the reactions of a group of writers who are about to communicate with a smaller fan base.
My Telegraph, the newspaper’s community site, has launched a new look in beta. It went live yesterday, running on BuddyPress and uses the Disqus comment system.
In an introductory post, the team says it has introduced some “significant changes” to the ways readers are able to interact with Telegraph.co.uk. Changes include the introduction of discussion groups for different subject areas; a feature allowing users to add ‘friends’ and simplification of the registration process.
Places are still available for a one-day symposium on the Future of Public Service Broadcasting, on Thursday 10 June 2010. The event is the result of the Public Service Broadcasting Forum project, which has debated public service broadcasting issues to coincide with the public consultation period for the BBC’s Strategy Review.
The symposium is organised by openDemocracy, hosted by City University London’s Department of Journalism, and chaired by Steve Hewlett, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s The Media Show.
The aim of the day:
The symposium embraces the current consultation on the BBC’s Strategy Review in asking a broader question: what is the future for pluralism in the supply of public service content in the UK?
The schedule includes: The role of the licence-funded BBC and the significance of the Strategy Review with Caroline Thomson (chief operating officer, BBC), Professor Steven Barnett, Mark Oliver (Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates), Professor Richard Collins; How to identify, supply and fund the PSB needs the BBC cannot fulfil with Jonathan Thompson (Director of strategy, Ofcom), Geraint Talfan Davies (former controller of BBC Wales), Blair Jenkins (former head of news, BBC Scotland), Helen Shaw (Athena Media); and The public service media content that merits support in the digital future, and how it can be funded with Tim Gardam (Ofcom board member), Tony Curzon Price (openDemocracy), Claire Enders (Enders Analysis), and Jeremy Dear (NUJ).
Tickets can booked at http://psbf.eventbrite.com for £25 (including coffee/lunch)/£15 for students. Any enquiries should be sent to the PSBF’s moderator, Daniel-Joseph MacArthur-Seal via daniel.macarthur-seal [at] opendemocracy.net.
We had breakout groups at today’s JEECamp pre-lunch and I got too absorbed in my chosen session (media law & ethics) to tweet or blog but you can find a summary by @owmyfoothurts here, at this link.
The next session:
Panel: What does the election result mean for publishers and startups? Siôn Simon (former Labour creative industries minister), Matt Wardman (Blogger, The Wardman Wire), Stewart Kirkpatrick (Founder, Caledonian Mercury), and Mark Pack (co-editor, Liberal Democrat Voice).
A few notes:
The session kicks off with a discussion on government data. Sion Simon says he can’t imagine why the new Lib-Con coalition would not proceed with open data plans. But, he says, it would be a new government getting the credit for the spadework a previous government had done.
Then over to blogger Mark Pack: he says there’s huge amount of information out there and it’s a necessity for lots of people outside traditional media to make use of that data. This, he says, will give a huge boost to hyperlocal and outside traditional media coverage. It will be painful for local authorities to be held to account (but it’s important).
Matt Wardman pays tribute to Tom Watson (not in the room) and Sion Simon for their role in the campaign for open data. But for him the big trend is the possible break down of the Westminster “political bubble” and the London “media bubble”, as independent outlets break stories.
How it will the coalition affect reportage?
Sion Simon says we’re in the honeymoon period of government at the moment (Tony Blair’s was ‘like living in a pink candyfloss cloud’ he says). “Everybody loves it, it’s all great”. But, he adds, all the qualitative research that been done over the past few years shows that the public ask ‘why can’t they all get on with each other’. The public reaction to the coalition then, is positive.
The newspapers are motivated by, or reflect, the readers. Over time, it will give way to a negative dynamic: the tension between the fourth estate and the political classes. Don’t expect the big society to save the coalition from the press, warns Simon.
Matt Wardman is hopeful for resources such as theyworkforyou.com, where you’ll be able to look up what ministers said 14 years ago. “I want to see that happen at a local level,” he says. Local bloggers need to pick up the sort of skills to do freedom of information requests. He wants to see the sort of skills that are used nationally and used more widely.
The Birmingham City students have liveblogged the session here.
Journalism.co.uk is at JEEcamp in Birmingham today. It’s the third such annual informal event for journalism experimentation and enterprise. But organiser Paul Bradshaw says it will be the last.
I’m trying a One Man and His Blog style live blog today, as long as the dongle holds up. You can also follow #jeecamp tweets here: http://bit.ly/aeb9BV.
First up, Simon Waldman the former digital strategy and development director of Guardian Media Group. His new job is as LOVEFiLM’s product director, and the session so far reflects that cross-sector flexibility.
He’s talking about what people like about the web: challenging authority (through Christmas number one campaigns for example) and stuff that’s free and cheap.
Each time new technology comes out, our behaviour changes, he says. What has wifi changed, for example? Well, we can all sit round tweeting what he is saying. With wifi, you can watch TV and have the laptop on your lap (‘bellyvision’!).
Waldman says he thinks we’ve got another decade of “quite profound change” ahead of us.
He says that it’s not necessarily a Jeff Jarvis ‘what would Google do’ question, because Google would be doing it. The Guardian’s Sarah Hartley tweeted this great quote: ‘looking at what Google would do and attempting to copy it is like me looking at Rooney & attempting to play football like him’.
Waldman looked at IBM and says that if a company like that can turn its business around, there’s hope for the rest of us.
Companies need to transform their core business, he says: it’s about making sure your business as a whole is in good shape.
Innovation needs tight deadlines and speed. He’s not sure about the Economist’s Project Red Stripe for example. Entrepreneurs get on and do things, he says.
The kind of businesses editors and publishers think about are quite difficult to scale (at this point he says he’s not going to spill any beans about the Guardian – boo!).
There’s a load of challenges ahead – for at least the next decade and a half. Now is a fantastic time to be entrepreneurial, but think really carefully about how big it can be, says Waldman.
Find someone who can help you turn into a real business. “Do brilliant things,” he says. Waldman can never stop being grateful that his career coincided with digital explosion, he says.
Today we’re up in Birmingham for the JEECamp unconference. Follow the live blog below for tweets and comments from the conference.
JEEcamp is an opportunity for a range of people to get together to talk about how on earth journalists and publishers can make a living from journalism in the era of free information, what the challenges are, and what we’ve learned so far.
You’ll find details of the day at this link: http://jeecamp.pbwiki.com/. It has a flexible agenda, but the keynote will be given by Simon Waldman, digital director, Guardian Media Group.