Author Archives: Laura Oliver

virtualeconomics: Why a Telegraph paywall might just work

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News from the Financial Times yesterday that Telegraph.co.uk could start charging for content prompts this post from Seamus McCauley on why a Telegraph paywall might just work at this time:

The paywall strategy makes sense for the Telegraph if its management believes two things.

First, that the online news landscape is changing so that professional news – especially, perhaps, professional conservative newspaper journalism – becomes markedly scarcer online … Second, that the Telegraph’s current monetisation strategy – which is to attract a mass audience and show them display and search ads – is coming to an end.

There’s much more detail behind this arguments, so its worth reading the full post on virtualeconomics at this link…

How Do: Redefining media studies at the University of Salford

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Interview with Jon Corner, the University of Salford’s MediaCityUK director, about the uni’s plans to “redefine media studies” from its new base at the Salford centre.

I agree with you about certain prejudices surrounding the notion of ‘Media Studies’ – but really Salford will be focused on new digital content creation and new digital content delivery. Ours is a very technological, industry-focused offer with the relevance the international sector is hungry for.

However, I do think there’s a potential growing mismatch between what’s happening at forward-thinking higher education institutions like Salford and how ‘media’ is delivered in UK secondary schools. It’s something I’m personally passionate about and I think we have an opportunity to begin to redefine and change that delivery by opening up new types of dialogue and shared practice with schools.

Full story on How Do at this link…

Yahoo News: WikiLeaks embassy cables release prompts new ‘whistleblower bill’

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The leak of the US embassy cables by WikiLeaks is prompting new legislation in the US that would give employees in sensitive government jobs a way to report corruption or mismanagement.

The “whistleblower bill” will discourage leaks of classified information say its supporters. The bill is likely to pass through the approval process quickly, Yahoo News reports

Following WikiLeaks’ pulibcation of the Afghanistan war logs in July US senators Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein began hastily drafting an amendment to a current piece of legislation designed to protect journalists’ sources to ensure that WikiLeaks could not be included. The amendement declared that the bill would “only extend only to traditional news-gathering activities and not to websites that serve as a conduit for the mass dissemination of secret documents”.

Full story on Yahoo News at this link.

Telegraph.co.uk to charge for news online, says FT

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The Financial Times is reporting that Telegraph Media Group is planning to introduce a charge for access to its online news content.

According to the report, the payment barrier could be brought in late next year and sources have told the FT that it will not be “an impregnable paywall like the Times” but most likely a metered system, as employed by the Financial Times itself.

A TMG spokesperson told the FT that no decisions have been made on the introduction of a paid-content model.

Full story on the FT at this link…

The BBC’s Africa correspondent on the danger of being a journalist in Somalia

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Andrew Harding, the BBC’s Africa correspondent, on the dangers of working as a journalist in Somalia:

One man recognises me and cameraman Phil Davies from a previous trip we made about seven years ago. He used to be a journalist but not now.

“Too dangerous,” he says with a frown, then mimes the action of a saw, amputating his arm. He lives in an area of the Somali capital controlled by the Islamist militia, al-Shabab. “They lash people there. Every day – for the smallest thing.”

Full blog post on bbc.co.uk at this link…

Lens blog: Photojournalist’s images from the moment he stepped on a landmine

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The New York Times’ Lens blog has published photographs taken by one of its photographers Joao Silva just before and after he stepped on a landmine while working in Afghanistan that gave him internal injuries and destroyed both his legs.

Full post on Lens at this link…

Friends of the photojournalist have set up a website to raise funds for his recovery – read the report on Journalism.co.uk at this link.

Reuters: Microsoft plans new subscription TV service via Xbox

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Reuters reports on plans by Microsoft to create a new subscription-based TV service available via its Xbox console. According to Reuters’ sources, talks have been held with TV networks about a product to rival plans by Google and other new media companies to move into TV.

The service would charge a monthly fee for access through the Xbox to networks such as ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, ESPN or CNN, according to two sources familiar with the plans.

Other options include allowing cable subscribers to use the Xbox to watch shows with more interactive functions. Viewers could, for instance, message with friends over the console while viewing their favorite shows.

Full story on Reuters at this link…

#cablegate: 7,500 cables tagged ‘PR and Correspondence’ could shed light on media relations

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According to WikiLeaks, there are more than 7,500 embassy cables due to be released as part of its latest classified documents leak that have the tag OPRC or “Public Relations and Correspondence”.

Only two with these tag have been published so far – one is a round-up of Turkish media reaction and the other a summary of media reaction to news issues in China, the US and Iran, both sent in 2009.

But it’ll be worth keeping an eye on future cables tagged OPRC for information about diplomats and country leaders’ media relations and communications.

Until the text of these cables is made public, we don’t know just what they contain and how relevant it might be to media outlets. But using the Guardian’s data store of the cables, it’s easy to find out how many cables have been sent by which embassies during the time period covered by the leak –

The US embassy in Ankara, Turkey is responsible for the largest number of cables tagged OPRC, 1,551, while the American Institute Taiwan in Taipei is behind 1,026 of them. Seventy-five embassies have sent 10 or fewer OPRC-tagged cables.

#cablegate: The Guardian on the importance of the WikiLeaks embassy cables leak

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As WikiLeaks begins publication of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables sent by US embassies around the world, the Guardian, which is one of a group of media organisations publishing a selection (a few hundred) of the cables in partnership with the whistleblowing site, has produced the video below, explaining the significance of the leak:

Video: US embassy leaks: ‘The data deluge is coming …’ | World news | guardian.co.uk.