Category Archives: Editors’ pick

Guardian: Police files investigated and News International to lose exclusive Olympic access

The Guardian reports today (21 July), that Scotland Yard has been asked to look at “thousands of files” to investigate whether officers unlawfully obtained mobile phone-tracking data for journalists.

There were half a million requests by public authorities for communications data in the UK last year – of which almost 144,000 were demands for “traffic” data, which includes location.

In other phone-hacking related news, newspapers under the News International umbrella are to lose exclusive access to British athletes in the lead up to the Olympics next year, also according to the Guardian. This is due to the closure of the News of the World and the impact of this on the partnership contract, according to the report.

Team 2012, the Visa-backed project supporting potential British Olympians, had signed up News International as its official partner.

But Team 2012 has said in a statement, that “as a result of the closure of News of the World the contract can no longer be fulfilled as originally envisaged”.

According to the Guardian Team 2012 “is now looking for potential new media partners”.

BBC Cojo: Journalists and the new UK Bribery Act

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At the beginning of the month the UK Bribery Act came into force, and while it is largely aimed at business corruption, according to the BBC, the provisions of the Act could also impact on the activities of UK journalists.

So this useful post on the College of Journalism website, by the BBC’s Kevin Steele, is a must read. In the post, he explains exactly how reporters could be affected and “fall foul” of the act, such as when using local fixers.

… what happens when your fixer says they can make the local bureaucratic wheels turn faster – and you can meet your deadline – if they make a payment or other ‘consideration’ of some kind to a third party who is in a position to expedite your request.

It is in situations like this that a journalist, and their employer, can fall foul of the new UK Bribery Act.

According to Steele the “wide-ranging” legislation can also affect non-British journalists from foreign outlets “with a presence of some kind in the UK”. And the employer is also at risk, he says.

One of the new provisions of the UK Act is that of corporate liability – so a media organisation can be held responsible in law for the individual actions of its employees, including freelancers or agents (such as fixers) acting on its behalf.

However, there is a defence if the employer can show that it had in place ‘adequate procedures’ to prevent an infringement of the legislation – even if evidence of a bribe can be shown.

The Act can be seen in full here.

Tips for journalists wanting to engage with 20m Google+ users

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A fortnight ago Journalism.co.uk suggested 10 ways journalists can use Google+. Here are another 10 tips, tricks and tools from across the web for reporters wanting to engage with the estimated 20 million Google+ users.

1. Upload your address book

Google+ is quietly adding new features, such as the ‘upload address book’ function which allows you to upload address books from Outlook, your Mac, and more, as this post on TechCrunch explains.

2. Carry out a Google+ search for profiles and posts

Another really handy trip for journalists is to follow this guide from Read Write Web, which explains how you carry out a profile search. It uses a feature in Google Chrome which lets you add custom search engines to your browser.

3. Find eye-witness photographs and video from the scene of a news event

Here is a tip from Prashant Rao who has written a primer on how journalists can use Google+. This tip is based on a 10,000 words post.

If a follower happens to be at the site of a news event (say, a massive tornado) that you cannot attend, they could be encouraged to tag your Google+ profile so that you are instantly made aware that they’ve uploaded it. This could be very useful in situations where journalists cannot be physically present at the site of major news events (as was the case in Iran in 2009, for example). Given Google’s Picasa (which is integrated into Google+) is already a simple but robust photo-uploading platform, this removes the need for news organisation to create their own bespoke solutions.

4. Think about how you manage another social media platform

The Guardian has a post on aggregation tool MultiMi.

Israeli startup Zbang has taken a logical approach to the problem of information management with the launch of MultiMi, a free desktop dashboard tool for PCs that aggregates a dozen different services including Facebook, Twitter, email and photo-sharing.

Launched based on tests with a small group of alpha users up to now, the software is initially PC only but Zbang’s team of eight will be expanding MultiMi with support for some tablets and eventually a mobile version.

5. Get the app

Since its launch earlier this week, the new iPhone app has gathered almost 300 ratings, a three star ranking, and it is the top free app on Apple’s iTunes. The native and web-based apps are at this link.

6. Host audience hangouts

This is a tip from Mashable in its five ways journalists are using Google+. The post includes a description on how one news anchor is engaging with the audience:

Sarah Hill, an anchor for KOMU-TV in Columbia, Missouri, has been inviting her Google+ fans to join her in hangouts, the network’s video chat service. KOMU hosts a hangout during the 5pm newscast to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the newsroom. She then interviews people in the hangout on-air about their reactions to the day’s news.

7. Engage readers

Mashable points out that several news organisations have brand profiles on Google+, despite Google asking brands not to create a profile and instead add their names to a request list.

Some profiles, such as those set up by ITV News and Canadian broadcaster CBC, appear to have been removed. Those with accounts include This Is Plymouth, The Next Web, ABC News, NBC and Mashable.

Mashable is the first and only company to break into the top 10 in the Telegraph’s list of the most followed on Google+

As news organisations join early, and following brands’ enthusiasm to join Google+, Poynter reports Google is accelerating business profiles.

A Google executive now says it will pick partners next week to test official business profiles, while continuing to deactivate the unofficial profiles that have sprung up. “Thousands upon thousands of businesses” have applied to join the trial programme, Christian Oestlien wrote. After the trial, business profiles should be open to all later this year.

8. Engage with readers and viewers in non-news ways

This is another tip from Rao. He explains how one news outlet is engaging with readers.

Canadian broadcaster CBC ran a daily caption contest on its Google+ site (now closed) — not everything has to be just about publishing content and then waiting for readers/viewers to respond.

9. Use circles to organise your contacts

You can share news or ask contacts questions by adding your contacts to circles. The beauty is that your contacts don’t need to be on Google+ as they will receive an email update. There’s more on how to organise your circles here.

10. Use Google ‘sparks’ to keep abreast of the topics you cover

Another tip from Rao considers sparks. He hopes the feature will be handy for following topics.

In my limited playing with sparks, it’s a little raw and not particularly pointed, but given it’s based on Google’s search result rankings and +1 results, it could well develop into a useful tool. For now, I’ll use it, but not give up on my RSS feeds just yet.

For essential reading on Google+ as it nears 20 million users, go to this link.

Newspaper Society welcomes call for scrapping of media access to family court plans

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The Newspaper Society today (21 July) issued a statement to say it welcomed the conclusions of a justice committee report that called for government to scrap the provisions in the Children, Schools and Families Act 2010, which would allow media access to family courts.

The committee report was actually published last week, but in an article today, the society claims the provisions, if brought into force as they stand, “would have resulted in a renewed regime of secrecy – instead of opening up the family courts, as originally intended”.

The NS had said this “will not only fail to deliver the desired public accountability but will represent a major reduction in what can now be lawfully published and will actually further reduce public debate and discussion of the family justice system”.

However, the society added that it is “disappointed” at what it claims is an impression given by the report that “the desire for greater openness and accountability in the family justice system, and that of preserving privacy for the families involved, particularly children, are positions which are necessarily polarised”.

Sue Oake, senior legal adviser at the Newspaper Society, said: “The media has repeatedly stressed that it entirely accepts the need to ensure anonymity for the children and families concerned and we are disappointed that once again this does not appear to have been sufficiently acknowledged.”

Essential reading on how Google+ is shaping up

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Much has been written about Google+over the past few days as it continues to grow at a record-breaking pace. Here are a few links from around the web on how Google+ is shaping up, plus this post on tips, tricks and tools for journalists using the social network.

What shape is Google+ taking?

The Guardian is reporting Google+ is approaching 20m users just three weeks since it launched as a rival to Facebook.

But “Google’s social juggernaut is beginning to show signs that it’s losing steam”, according to this post on Mashable.

In the Guardian article Paul Allen, the founder of Ancestry.com, said his calculations suggest Google+ is gathering 750,000 new users per day.

Allen explains his methods: “I don’t have access to log files or to a massive consumer panel. I’m simply measuring how many Google+ users there are of various randomly selected surnames every day. Last week I increased the sample of surnames that I query from 100 to 1,000.

Over a four-day period, the 100-surname sample showed a Google+ growth rate of 28.4 per cent. The 1,000 surname sample showed a growth rate of 28.5 per cent. [That’s] statistically insignificant.

Mashable has a post looking at the key findings of a report by Experian Hitwise, which includes that 57 per cent of Google+ users are male.

Google+ is dominated by young adults. Its biggest age group for the four weeks ending July 14 was the 25-34 age bracket, which accounted for 38.37 per cent of all visits. The week before, the entire 18-34 age bracket made up just 38.11 per cent of total visitors.

Read Write Web has been taking a look whether Google+ is causing Twitter and Facebook useage to decline and, though the research methods are not scientific, the hunch is that Plus is having an impact on the use of its rivals.

That is a view seemingly shared by LinkedIn CEO Weiner. He thinks Google+ has changed the social landscape but there’s not much room left, according to a post on the New York Times.

Looking at the broad social landscape, Weiner said LinkedIn was for professionals, Facebook for family and friends, and Twitter for broadcasting short thoughts and information.

He noted that these three networks coexisting made for an “understandable landscape”, but when Google+ gets added to the mix, people have less time and will have to start making choices about where to spend that time.

“All of a sudden, you say ‘where am I going to spend that next minute or hour of my discretionary time?’ and at some point, you don’t have any more time to make choices,” Weiner said.

[He added] Google+ could follow Twitter in attracting celebrities and other well-known figures to help it become a more competitive service.

Some celebrities have already joined, and a couple are among the most followed people on Google+.

The Telegraph has been looking at who has the most followers. Many are Google bosses, plus there is blogger Robert Scoble and actress Felicia Day.

Over on the Next Web there are some thoughts on what Google+ means for your social media policy. The post states G+ is a gamechanger.

It’s all about the circles. Google+ actively encourages you to have ‘work’ and ‘friends’ as your circles. It’s a mindset shift. If you think about the user experience, Facebook is about sharing with friends and family. LinkedIn is about professional connections. Twitter allows you to choose for yourself what it’s about (see Getting past the Oprah Barrier for more about this). The Google+ user experience is all about the networks.

The Google+ experience is all about creating sub-networks of your life (circles) and populating those appropriately.

This means that users will gravitate towards having complicated, overlapping circles and the Google+ stream is a mix of personal and professional connections. This also means that the Google+ share box becomes a place where it is much easier to inadvertently share inappropriate content than perhaps the LinkedIn share box. From a policy perspective, that’s a whole lot of scary.

If you are a journalist and not yet on Google+ and would like an invite, fill in this form and I will attempt to invite you.

Jon Slattery: Unicef asks to move agenda on from phone hacking

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Over on his blog, Jon Slattery reports that Unicef took out adverts in the national press today to urge readers “to move the news agenda on from phone hacking” and instead be alert to the famine in parts of southern Somalia.

The ad, in the form of a letter from UNICEF UK executive director David Bull, states: “I am writing for your support in moving the news agenda on. The story about phone hacking does matter, but there’s another, far bigger and vital story that’s going unreported.”

NY Times: Scribd to pay news sites for content accessed via app

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News organisations will be paid when users access their content via Float, a new app launched by social publishing site Scribd, the New York Times reports.

Float, which is now an iPhone app and will also be available for Android and iPad, is a personalised reader that allows users to turn their selection of news feeds into a magazine-like format, similar to Zite, Flipboard and Pulse.

But unlike the other three apps, Float (or rather Scribd) will share its revenue with the news organisations featured.

The New York Times article explains that Scribd will make money from advertising and subscriptions.

Scribd didn’t make it clear how much money publishers would have to share with it and how much subscribers would have to pay.

“This is the time for someone to try it, and if we get it working, then it will be phenomenal for the industry,” said Trip Adler, Scribd’s chief executive.

Scribd has talked with a number of publishers, and some have already agreed to make their material available, he said. But he declined to name any companies.

[Adler] voiced confidence in news and Scribd’s ability to make money from it. Consumers want a one-stop shop for news, not a service with a couple of nice features, he said in taking a thinly veiled dig at his company’s rivals.

The New York Times post is at this link

Poynter: How to get more people to share news from your site

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Poynter has been looking at the results of a large survey commissioned by the New York Times and has come up with five reasons why people share news and six ways to encourage more readers to do so.

One of the key lessons is making it easy for readers to share news by email.

The survey collected the views of 2,500 sharers, not all of them tweeting, liking, recommending and emailing links from the NY Times.

Poynter’s Jeff Sonderman has analysed the results and made suggestions as to what news organisations can learn from the survey.

According to Sonderman, the five primary motivations for sharing are:

1. Altruism
2. Self-definition
3. Empathy
4. Connectedness
5. Evangelism

The research has come up with a number of terms to describe sharers:

Altruists, who tend to be female and share on email and Facebook;

Careerists, who like to share serious, useful content via email and LinkedIn;

Hipsters, who tend to be young and male and like to start conversations using Twitter and Facebook;

Boomerangs, who want to get a reaction and tend to share on many platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, email and blogs;

Connectors, who are mostly female, and share to stay close with their friends and tend to share on email and Facebook;

Selectives, who are older and more traditional and tend to share on email.

Sonderman’s six implications for any news site hoping to increase sharing activity are:

1. Think of your users’ relationships. Create content that can help someone strengthen a personal or professional relationship. Think useful, fun, humorous, controversial, actionable.
2. Keep it simple. Many of your readers are sharing to get a response or to show how smart they are. Those people won’t share something they’re not sure they understand, or that their friends may not understand.
3. Reconsider your Facebook button. This research may suggest that Facebook’s ‘recommend’ button is subconsciously more appealing than its ‘like’ button, even though they do the same thing. Recommending is a social activity targeting your friends, while liking is just an individual expression.
4. Share on the right networks. When you share your own content, choose networks that make sense. If your story appeals to hipsters, use Twitter. For careerists be sure to use LinkedIn. To target connectors, use your Facebook page.
5. Remember email. It is still the number one sharing method, the survey found. Though many social networks have blossomed, none has surpassed the simplicity and universal reach of email.
6. Customise sharing options. Should different types of stories emphasise different sharing options to the reader? For example, your business template may feature LinkedIn and email share buttons, while your features template pushes Facebook sharing.

The full Poynter post is at this link

Peston: BSkyB board to decide on Murdoch stand-down by end of week

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According to a blog post by the BBC’s business editor Robert Peston, the board of BSkyB is due to decide whether James Murdoch, chairman of News International, should stand down from his position.

According to a well-placed source, there is a growing view among the company’s non-executives that the burden for James Murdoch of “fighting the fires” at News Corporation – where he is in charge of European operations and is deputy chief operating officer – means that he will find it hard to devote enough time to chairing BSkyB, the largest media and entertainment company in the UK.

According to Peston, it is likely he will be asked to stand down temporarily, until News International “has been stabilised”.

But the Guardian seems to dispute this in its live blog on the phone hacking scandal. Reporter Lisa O’Carroll is quoted as saying that BSkyB had said “it did not expect James Murdoch to be pushed”.

It said it had “no specific comment” to make about claims by the BBC’s Robert Peston that the non-executives felt Murdoch was “fighting the fires” at News Corporation – where he is deputy chief operating officer.

A spokesman said there were no moves afoot on the make-up of the boardroom: “The company has a strong governance framework and there are no changes to the existing plans.”

Editors Blog | Journalism.co.uk

Online journalism news

Category Archives: Editors’ pick

Guardian: Police files investigated and News International to lose exclusive Olympic access

BBC Cojo: Journalists and the new UK Bribery Act

Newspaper Society welcomes call for scrapping of media access to family court plans

NY Times: Scribd to pay news sites for content accessed via app

Peston: BSkyB board to decide on Murdoch stand-down by end of week