Recently the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said it would offer legal assistance to interns wanting to claim back unpaid wages. Well, freelance journalist Girish Gupta decided to take action and invoice the Independent for two week’s unpaid work experience.
Read the results in the blog post at this link…
(HT – FleetStreetBlues)
As part of its open day for the Digital Journalism Diploma this Saturday (27 November), the SAE Institute London is hosting a Q&A panel featuring representatives from the BBC, PR Week and the Guardian to discuss today’s journalism workplace.
Kerry Eustice, journalist and content manager with the Guardian Careers team, Peter Hay, digital editor at PR Week, and David Hayward from the BBC College of Journalism will be there on the day – more details of which are available at this link.
SAE launched the course back in September with the aim off blending skills from its specialist courses in audio and film with a multimedia journalism programme.
David Higgerson blogs about the idea of ‘actionable’ news – a phrase that he first heard at last week’s Society of Editors conference from Reuters’ Jodie Ginsberg:
I see actionable news being right at the heart of the idea of data journalism. Information may well be freely available in a way we’ve never seen before, but that doesn’t mean the role of the storyteller has fallen by the wayside. As long as the writer who gets to grips with a spreadsheet of data is also plugged into the community they serve, and knows what they are interested in, then we’ve got actionable news (…) It shouldn’t be a revelation to journalists – after all, newsroom planners have certain data-rich days marked in every year, such as GCSE league tables day. But rather than be dictated to by a government planning calendar, journalists who can marry data access to issues which impact on people’s lives can provide make their work, and the titles they work for, more relevant to an audience than ever before.
Coventry University and the BBC College of Journalism have teamed up to run today’s Face the Future event – 11 quickfire sessions on the challenges facing journalists working in digital, starting from 1:30pm.
The event will be available via video catch up on the BBC College of Journalism site and is being liveblogged on the CUtoday blog.
To follow the conversation around the event use the hashtag #facethefuture. Speakers include Jeff Jarvis via Skype, visiting professor at City University London Paul Bradshaw, TheBusinessDesk.com’s Marc Reeves and Sky News’ Julian Marsh. A full programme is available at this link.
Using data from OpenlyLocal, Greenwich.co.uk publisher hyperlocal.co.uk has created a map showing the concentration of hyperlocal websites in the UK.
Hyperlocal may be a word that is too freely used: is a city-based website hyperlocal? Or should it be postcode- or street-based? Then again, why decide? Hyperlocal.co.uk’s map shows the huge range of ‘hyperlocal’ sites operating in the UK and where such local media is currently lacking.
Compare this with a map from advertising solution Addiply of all its hyperlocal clients – ranging from independents to networks like the new STV local offering and Guardian Local. If the number of markers on this map grows, hyperlocal publishers will be able to see their network growth to lure more advertisers, particularly those bigger brands that buy digital ad space UK-wide, but which have media buyers operating from a central office.
While we’re on the subject of hyperlocal sites finding new commercial opportunities, it’s worth mentioning hyperlocal pioneer The Lichfield blog, which in partnership with a local printing co-operative Sabcat Printing has started selling T-shirts from an online shop – Viva LichVegas. It’s something Scottish website GreenerLeith does too – making pounds and publicity, and an interesting experiment in hyperlocal business models.
Хотите провести приятно время? Заходите https://escorteurogirls.com по ссылке
We ask the question in response to a blog post from the other side of the equation on the site We Love Local Government, which has published its plans for a ‘Lazy Journalist Index’, rating those journalists who, from a local government communications’ perspective, are “drains on the public purse”.
But as one commenter points out:
It’s not about local (or central) government deciding what’s best for us to know, but taxpayers – and that includes journalists – being able to decide and ask for themselves.
Speaking in response to recent releases of data by the UK government, Tim Berners-Lee, father of the world wide web, says:
The responsibility needs to be with the press. Journalists need to be data-savvy. It used to be that you would get stories by chatting to people in bars, and it still might be that you’ll do it that way some times.
But now it’s also going to be about poring over data and equipping yourself with the tools to analyse it and picking out what’s interesting. And keeping it in perspective, helping people out by really seeing where it all fits together, and what’s going on in the country.
Agree or disagree?
The Economist has today launched apps for the iPad and iPhone. The apps can be downloaded for free and offer users a weekly sample of articles chosen by the editor.
The full issue of the Economist will be available to purchase through the applications every Thursday evening for £3.49 each week for a single issue.
Digital and print subscribers to the Economist will receive full access to the print edition and website’s content via the apps.
Oscar Grut, managing director of digital editions for the Economist, says in a release that he expects digital downloads to match the title’s print circulation of 1.5 million “in a relatively short period of time”. He hopes the free apps will help attract new readers to the title, who will be encourage to take out subscriptions to the full edition.
Says editor John Micklethwait:
We have reformatted the newspaper to make the most of iPad, iPhone and iPod touch while retaining the familiar feel of the Economist, with all the articles, charts, maps and images from each week’s print edition. And we have integrated our audio edition, read by professional newscasters, for easy switching between reading and listening. We have put a lot of work into making sure that these new versions of the Economist are not just easy to use, but also make our readers feel at home.
New Scientist looks at some examples of video games that are editorial games too – in particular Burger Tycoon and Escape from Woomera – and asks how the design and principles behind these games might best be used in journalism.
Video games do not offer a panacea for news organisations. But they offer a truly new way for journalism to contribute to civic life by amplifying the how instead of the who. Video games offer models of how the world works and how it might be improved, rather than skin-deep stories about what ails it. That’s why the best journalism of the future might not be read, but played.
Full story on New Scientist’s CultureLab blog at this link…
We’ll be discussing journalism and gaming at the next news:rewired event on 16 December. For more information visit the news:rewired website.
Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger offers 15 things that Twitter does well and why these matter to news organisations. It’s not groundbreaking, but a great summary that any sceptics should be pointed toward.
Including:
Full list on Guardian.co.uk at this link…
The list was given as part of speech delivered by Rusbridger in Sydney last night (or earlier today Australian time):
[W]e journalists find it difficult to look at what’s happening around us and relate it to what we have historically done. Most of these digital upstarts don’t look like media companies. EBay? It buys and sells stuff. Amazon? The same. TripAdvisor? It’s flogging holidays. Facebook? It’s where teenagers post all the stuff that will make them unemployable later in life.
If that’s all we see when we look at those websites then we’re missing the picture. Very early on I forced all senior Guardian editors on to Facebook to understand for themselves how these new ways of creativity and connection worked. EBay can teach us how to handle the kind of reputational and identity issues we’re all coming to terms with our readers. Amazon or TripAdvisor can reveal the power of peer review.
We should understand what Tumblr or Flipboard or Twitter are all about – social media so new they’re not even yet Hollywood blockbusters.
I’ve lost count of the times people – including a surprising number of colleagues in media companies – roll their eyes at the mention of Twitter. “No time for it,” they say. “Inane stuff about what twits are having for breakfast. Nothing to do with the news business.”
Well, yes and no. Inanity – yes, sure, plenty of it. But saying that Twitter has got nothing to do with the news business is about as misguided as you could be.