In September, a group of students from the University of British Columbia won an Emmy Award for their documentary on the dumping of electronic waste. The students were working in partnership with the PBS documentary series Frontline and now the university is at it again, joining forces with the Globe and Mail for an investigation into shrimp and food sustainability.
Mark Seddon, a journalist formerly with Al-Jazeera, responds to yesterday’s reports on US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks that suggested the Arabic arm of the broadcaster has been used as a “tool of foreign policy” by the Qatari government,
[T]he idea that al-Jazeera tempers its editorial content at the behest of the emir of Qatar, who mainly finances it, is possibly as fanciful as the WikiLeaks report that US diplomats believed their South Korean counterparts when they said that China might recognise a unified Korea under the aegis of Seoul. Conjecture does not always meet with reality. Al-Jazeera, in its swashbuckling and sometimes disorganised way, has shown itself quite adept at resisting pressure wherever it may come from.
Dave Lee offers some interesting ideas on how a virtual gifts or credit model implemented via Facebook could help newspaper publishers rethink their revenue models.
Am I telling everyone that newspapers need to start deploying farm-based games across their sites? No, don’t be silly. What I am saying is that people’s desire to have Facebook Credits in order to play online games is, for editors, a gift from the gods. Suddenly, we’ve got millions of people – young people, don’t forget – who have credits. Credits which they didn’t buy to read news but, now they’ve got them won’t give much thought to spending a couple on content.
The newspaper would, on current rates (dictated by Facebook), take 70 per cent of each credit’s monetary value.
I believe, ladies and gents, that’s what we call a business model.
From the US last week, but worth reading – a curious situation for journalism academics:
Journalism teachers sometimes instruct students to file such requests under the Texas Public Information Act to gain experience using an important tool for reporters.
But in response to an inquiry from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, an A&M [Texas A&M University] campus about 155 miles north of Austin, the system’s general counsel warned that a faculty member could be disciplined and even fired for directing students to file requests with any of the system’s 12 universities and seven agencies. Faculty members are free to direct students to file requests with other state universities and agencies.
The Guardian’s readers’ editor Chris Elliott weighs in on the newspaper’s decision to partner WikiLeaks in the release of the US embassy cables:
The simple journalistic truth that underpins probably the largest and most complex reporting exercise ever undertaken by the Guardian is that all the stories emerging from the WikiLeaks material would have been important public-interest stories in any circumstances.
Journalisted is an independent, not-for-profit website built to make it easier for you, the public, to find out more about journalists and what they write about. It is run by the Media Standards Trust, a registered charity set up to foster high standards in news on behalf of the public, and funded by donations from charitable foundations.
Each week Journalisted produces a summary of the most covered news stories, most active journalists and those topics falling off the news agenda, using its database of UK journalists and news sources. From now on we’ll be cross-posting them on Journalism.co.uk.
Student protests, Korean clashes, & lots of snow
For the week ending Sunday 28 November:
Covered lots
Covered little
Political ups and downs (top 10 by number of articles)
Celebrity vs serious
Bishop Pete Broadbent‘s comment on Prince William’s marriage to Kate Middleton not lasting more than 7 years, 29 articles vs. Tory peer Howard Flight‘s comment on welfare changes encouraging poorer classes to breed, 33 articles.
Simon Cowell, X Factor judge, 94 articles vs. the trapped New Zealand miners, declared dead following another underground blast, 106 articles.
TV show ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’, 64 articles vs. violence in the favelas of Rio, as police and drug gangs clash killing more than 40 people, 43 articles.
Who wrote a lot about…’The Ashes’
Colin Bateman – 15 articles (the Express), Stephen Brenkley – 15 articles (the Independent), David Hopps – 14 articles (the Guardian), John Etheridge – 13 articles (the Sun), Lawrence Booth – 10 articles (Mail Online), Nick Hoult – 10 articles (the Telegraph), Derek Pringle – 9 articles (the Telegraph)
Long-form journalism
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Do email team [at] journalisted.com if you spot any mistakes or have suggestions for other journalisted weekly analyses. You can also follow us on Twitter @journalisted.
All Journalisted weekly newsletter statistics are calculated based on articles published on national news websites, BBC News online and Sky News online.
Press+, the paywall and micropayment system launched by US venture Journalism Online, has added new features to its technology aimed at signing up student media partners in the US and attracting payments from off-campus users, such as parents and alumni.
In 2011 the Daily O’Collegian at Oklahoma State University will launch the system on its website, ocolly.com, a release states.
The paper will collect a small fee from online readers who are outside the school’s immediate geographic area and who do not use an email address with an .edu affiliation and who read the paper online more than three times a month. This is achieved by deploying two aspects of the Press+ platform in tandem: the “meter” technology combined with “geo-targeting” technology.
Full release via Smudged Newsprint at this link…
Journalism Online was launched in April 2009, and won investment from News Corp in June 2010. Its first client was LancasterOnline.com, which began using the Press+ system in July to charge for its access to its obituary pages. Last month non-profit investigative journalism organisation ProPublica signed up to the system.
Interesting report from paidContent:UK on what role the web will play in competition issues in proposed local media mergers according to Ofcom. Summarised by paidContent:UK and from Ofcom’s final Local Media Assessment guidance published as part of a review of the current media merger landscape:
Ofcom will factor in any online local media operators, when considering whether there is sufficient competition to two merging parties.
In theory, that could see Trinity Mirror, Northcliffe and Global Radio, in the event of any such merger, arguing that their local papers and stations would not dominate local ad sales because sites like Gumtree or Google also sell local ads in the same patch.
English-language, state-owned Chinese newspaper the China Daily is launching a UK and European edition, according to Media Week.
The report suggests that the new China Daily European Weekly title will be launched tomorrow with a print run of 25,000 in the UK.
Great round-up of the reaction from the Arab press to WikiLeaks’ latest leak involving more than 250,000 cables sent by US embassies across the world, many relating to meetings between high-ranking American diplomats and Arab leaders.
The region’s press has been cautious in its coverage of the documents. Although many newspapers have reported the leak, most were hesitant in revealing details of claims made in the cables, preferring to discuss the themes of the leak in more general terms.