Author Archives: Sarah Booker

Journalisted Weekly: Royal Wedding, marathon and the NHS

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 t he 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.

for the week ending Sunday 17 April

  • Royal Wedding fever and the London Marathon covered front and back pages
  • Nurses’ no confidence in Lansley sparks more NHS debate
  • Britain’s poor stillbirths record and mass grave in Mexico covered little

Covered lots

  • Preparations for the Royal Wedding, 421 articles, of which 127 articles mention Kate Middleton
  • The London Marathon, with Kenya’s Emmanuel Mutai and Mary Keitany finishing first, 186 articles
  • Andrew Lansley loses Royal College of Nursing confidence vote, generating more debate around NHS reforms, 135 articles
  • Disputed Ivorian president Gbagbo, prised from a bunker by opposition forces with the help of French military and the UN, 124 articles

Covered little

Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)

Celebrity vs serious

  • Simon Cowell, taking a back seat on hosting Britain’s Got Talent, 121 articles vs. Japan raising Fukushima’s nuclear crisis status to the same level as Chernobyl’s, 90 articles
  • Russell Brand, who is launching his new film, 51 articles vs. Hosni Mubarak, suffering a heart attack and then detention for alleged corruption and crimes against humanity, 35 articles
  • Singer Justin Bieber, who had a spat with Israel over his tour itinerary, 33 articles vs. a metro bomb attack in Belarus near president Lukashenko’s residence, killing 12 and injuring a hundred, 23 articles
  • TV presenter Holly Willoughby gives birth, 26 articles vs. two Croatian generals convicted by the Hague for the ethnic cleansing of nearly 100,000 Serbs in the 1990s, 17 articles

Arab spring

Libya and Colonel Gaddafi, 311 articles (+3% on previous week)
Gaza and Hamas, 38 articles (-41% on previous week)
Syria and President Bashar Al-Assad, 27 articles (+42% on previous week)
Yemen and President Saleh, 20 articles (-65% on previous week)
Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu, 19 articles (-37% on previous week)
Egypt’s military council, 12 articles (+9% on previous week)
Bahrain and King Al Khalifa, 6 articles (+100% on previous week)
Jordan and King Abdullah, 5 articles (+25% on previous week)
West Bank and President Abbas 4 articles (0% on previous week)
Qatar and Emir Al Thani, 3 articles (+200% on previous week)
Iran and President Ahmadinejad, 3 articles (0% on previous week)
Turkey and Prime Minster Erdoğan, 3 articles (-77% on previous week)
Morocco and King Mohammed VI, 2 articles (-75% on previous week)
Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah, 2 articles (-78% on previous week)
Kuwait and Emir Al Sabah articles (+200% on previous week)

Who wrote a lot about…’FA Cup semi-finals’

Simon Stone – 15 articles (Independent), James Ducker – 15 articles (The Times), Richard Tanner – 13 articles (Daily Express), Chris Wheeler – 12 articles (Daily Mail), Neil Custis – 12 articles (The Sun), Mark Ogden – 11 articles (Telegraph), Ian Herbert – 9 articles (The Independent), Andy Hunter – 6 articles (The Guardian)

Long form journalism

More from the media Standards Trust

Visit the Media Standards Trust’s new site Churnalism.com – a public service for distinguishing journalism from churnalism

Churnalism.com ‘explore’ page is available for browsing press release sources alongside news outlets

The Media Standards Trust’s unofficial database of PCC complaints is available for browsing at www.complaints.pccwatch.co.uk

For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe

#Followjourn @macloo /journalist and trainer

Who? Mindy McAdams

Where? A journalist, journalism educator and  web developer, Mindy writes the blog Teaching Online Journalism. She has also the author of Flash Journalism, a book about making multimedia news packages.

Twitter? @macloo

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to sarah.booker at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

#Followjourn @newsmary /journalist

Who? Mary Hamilton

Where? Mary Hamilton is digital media executive at Citywire and writes her Metamedia blog about data, journalism, stories, narrative and occasionally gaming

Twitter? @newsmary

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to sarah.booker at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

#Followjourn @pennyred /journalist

Who? Laurie Penny

Where? Laurie Penny writes for the New Statesman and the Guardian.

Twitter? @pennyred

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to sarah.booker at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.
https://www.lieferanten.de/lieferant-15745-bio-antakya.html

#Followjourn @alexwoodcreates /journalist

Who? Alex Wood

Where? Alex is a journalist at BBC World and co-founder of Not on the Wires.

Twitter? @alexwoodcreates

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to sarah.booker at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

#Followjourn @substuff /journalist

Who? Cathy Relf, aka Substuff

Where? Cathy writes about news, journalism and grammar in her blog Rantings of a subeditor. She is a sub-editor at Which? magazine and also does shifts at the Sunday Times and the Guardian.

Twitter? @substuff

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to sarah.booker at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

#Followjourn @Clairee_French/journalist

Who? Claire French

Where? Claire is a political blogger and commentator who writes for Tribune and is currently studying for her NCTJ journalism exams.

Twitter? @clairee_french

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to sarah.booker at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

#Followjourn @The_CopyEditor – Jojo Pasion Malig/journalist

Who? Jojo Pasion Malig

Where? Manila-based editor and journalist at ABS-CBN News in the Philippines and at Poynter. Writing his own opinions and discoveries at The Copy Editor

Twitter? @The_Copyeditor

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to sarah.booker at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

#Followjourn: @meejalaw/online legal discussion

Who? Judith Townend, legal discussion and news for online publishers.

Where? Judith started the Meejalaw blog to share information and links while studying as an MPhil/PhD research student at City University London’s new centre for law, justice and journalism

Twitter? @meejalaw

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to sarah.booker at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

#IWD: Sarah Booker – ‘Journalism is a profession where anyone can prove themselves’

This post, written by regional journalist Sarah Booker, to mark International Women’s Day, is also posted on her blog: SarahBooker.wordpress.com.

Judge people on merit. That’s a philosophy I’ve always had and how I judge others.

As a teenager I opted to study physics at O-level, rather than biology, purely because it was a “boys subject”. It didn’t matter that I’d come top of the year in biology, I had a point to make. We girls were encouraged to challenge gender stereotypes and consider careers in engineering.

Those of us who didn’t take this road were confident enough to fulfil our ambitions. During my years as a journalist some of the most inspirational people I have worked with have been women.

Part of me feels lucky as I have never felt discriminated against in the newsroom. Any sexism I have experienced has been in jest and not bullying. Jokes about not understanding the off-side rule, or the line “of course I forget you are a girl”, are brushed off with a laugh.

I have worked as the only woman in a news team, and been part of a female dominated newspaper office. Many of the journalists I admire who report on and work in online journalism are women.

However, at meetings with other Johnston Press web editors I’m frequently the only woman. I have always felt welcomed and valued at these meetings, bringing my take on various issues, and suggesting new ideas.

All of us are there on merit, and judged on merit, and that’s all that matters. I’ve always thought journalism is a profession where anyone can prove themselves. Women are in positions of power throughout the industry, which suggests there is no glass ceiling here.

I just hope girls growing up today see their future in terms of what they find interesting and can do, rather than what is expected based on a chromosome.

Does Sarah’s view fit in with your own observations and experiences? Please do leave a comment about your own thoughts on women in journalism, to mark today’s International Women’s Day.