Author Archives: Rachel Bartlett

About Rachel Bartlett

Rachel Bartlett is editor of Journalism.co.uk

Guardian: Greg Dyke’s LTN group to bid for national TV network

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The Guardian reports this morning that the Local Television Network, which is headed by former BBC director general Greg Dyke, is planning on bidding for a new national TV network announced by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt last month.

Dyke’s group, which is yet to be incorporated, agreed at a meeting on Monday to put in a formal expression of interest in running the national channel to Hunt, who is asking for submissions by Tuesday, 1 March. LTN joins Richard Horwood’s Channel 6 in the bidding for the national TV channel.

The new channel forms part of the government’s review of media and communications, unveiled by Hunt at the Oxford Media Convention. The initial schemes will be focused on 10 to 20 local TV services, operating by 2015 with the first local services licensed from 2012.

Tools and techniques: covering the New Zealand earthquake

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According to reports at least 65 people have been killed by an earthquake which hit Christchurch in New Zealand yesterday. We want to try and track the resources which may be of use to journalists covering the ongoing events and highlight great examples of reporting from the ground.

International media centre set up in Bahrain to aid protest coverage

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An international media centre has been set up today at the Information Affairs Authority in Bahrain, to help journalists cover the protests within the country.

It is understood that facilities at the media centre will include access to interview areas, journalist work stations with high speed wireless internet access, digital storage and a press conference room, to be attended by members of the government and official spokesmen. Journalists must register to attend the media centre by emailing the following details to elloydowen [at] bell-pottinger.co.uk.

  • Name
  • Organisation
  • Photo
  • Passport details
  • Email address
  • Contact number

Journalism.co.uk reported last week that the Committee to Protect Journalists was claiming that journalists attempting to cover the protest action were facing escalating attacks and restrictions in Bahrain, with a BBC producer being held for 15 hours at Bahrain International Airport, before being let into the country without any equipment.

Birmingham student launches hyperlocal site for final year project

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A final year undergraduate from Birmingham City University has set up her own hyperlocal news site for Hednesford, in an attempt to build on the local news currently available and offer more stories focused on the community.

Kellie Maddox, who is studying Media and Communication (Journalism), is running Hednesford News on her own at the moment, as part of a final year project inspired by a number of other start-ups within the hyperlocal field over the last couple of years.

In time she hopes to build up a community of reporters and also work on a business plan to monetise the project.

Currently, the site is not-for-profit for its duration as my final year project but in the future, I do hope to make the site more financially sustainable. There are lots of people, much more knowledgeable than me, trying to come up with business models for these kinds of sites and it’d be great, if between us, we could come up with something. For me, I don’t think I’d ever see the site as a money-maker, what’s more important is the quality and range of content I hope to deliver, that is currently not offered by the limited media in our area. Community engagement is one of my main aims because I feel that many people, who have favoured local newspapers for years, are now not being provided with really relevant content specific to their location. I hope this offers me a chance to do just that.

Read the full Q&A with Maddox on Journalism.co.uk’s TNTJ blog.

Al Jazeera gives the public a chance to ask the questions for Cameron interview

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A series of monthly interviews with leaders across the world that gives the public the chance to ask the questions will feature David Cameron on 25 February.

World View, an Al Jazeera series, asks for questions to be sent in either by video or text.

More information on Al Jazeera’s YouTube channel at this link.

PPA extends magazine awards deadline

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The PPA has announced it has extended the deadline for entries to its magazine awards this year, due to “the high volume of requests” for an extension.

The date has been pushed back by a week, from Friday this week to Friday 25 February. But this will be it, PPA said – no more extensions will be granted.

The awards cover 22 categories including consumer magazine of the year, editorial campaign of the year and writer of the year.

Read more here…

Beet.tv: Broadcasters discuss use of user generated content

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In the video below, from Beet.tv, US broadcasters debate the “challenge” of using user-generated content to cover breaking news and the importance of verification in this process.

Kevin Roach from the Associated Press talks about how the news agency dealt with content being sent in during the Egyptian protests, and the dangers of not verifying UGC material. CNN.com’s Mike Toppo adds that he feels the best way to approach user generated content is with the aim of building a community, such as it does with iReport.

CNN launches first iReport citizen journalism awards

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CNN today announced it was launching its first ever iReport Awards, to celebrate the contributions of its citizen journalist iReporters and recognise the “most extraordinary iReport stories of 2010”.

There are six award categories in total – breaking news, compelling imagery, commentary, interviewing, original reporting and personal stories.

Our producers looked at hundreds of iReports to find the most amazing stories, and then we worked with our friends at CNN, CNN International and CNN.com to choose the five nominees in each category. It was a tough job, with hours spent agonizing over the lists. Picking the winners will be even tougher, so we’ve recruited a talented group of judges to make the final call.

Visitors to the site can also vote for the winner of a separate Community Choice Award until 7 March. The winners will be announced in March.

Google announces new Chrome extension to block ‘content farms’

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Yesterday Google announced that it had launched a new Chrome extension which it claimed would “block low-quality sites from appearing in Google’s web search results”.

We’ve been exploring different algorithms to detect content farms, which are sites with shallow or low-quality content. One of the signals we’re exploring is explicit feedback from users. To that end, today we’re launching an early, experimental Chrome extension so people can block sites from their web search results. If installed, the extension also sends blocked site information to Google, and we will study the resulting feedback and explore using it as a potential ranking signal for our search results.

Read more here on the Google Chrome blog…

Cameroon journalist fighting deportation has hearing delayed until March

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Cameroon journalist Charles Atangana, who is fighting deportation from the UK, will have to wait until March to find out whether he can stay in the UK after a judicial review hearing was withdrawn following the submission of new documentation to the Home Office.

According to a release from the union today, Atangana is currently pursuing a fresh asylum claim which has been rejected by the Home Office already but given the right to appeal.

Atangana, who is a member of the National Union of Journalists, claims he was tortured and detained for his writing in his home country, which he fled in 2004.

The economics and current affairs reporter was due to be deported back to Cameroon in August last year but was granted a reprieve following an ongoing campaign by the NUJ.

His appeal will be heard at the First Tier Tribunal at Taylor House on 14 March.