Category Archives: Handy tools and technology

A local Twitter tool for local journalists

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twitterlocalTwitterlocal allows you to follow posts on Twitter made by people from a geographical location of your choice.

Now a downloadable AIR desktop application, this is a must-have tool for local newspaper or broadcast journalists who want to monitor Twitter chat in their local beat.

For national journalists, it could be a useful tool to monitor chat around a breaking news event in a specific location, anywhere in the world.

Try, for example, entering Melbourne, Australia into the application with a 10-mile radius. You will see Tweets about the bush fires (if you are doing this around the date this post was published!)

Accidental Tweet announces senior BBC appointments (but are now official)

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Alfred Hermida was a little surprised to spot this last night: a Tweet from the head of the BBC newsroom, Peter Horrocks, to the director of global news, Richard Sambrook about some new appointments at the BBC.

peterhorrocks

“Perhaps it was intended to be a private, direct message”, Hermida pondered on his blog, Reportr.net.

Well, yes it was, Journalism.co.uk can now confirm after speaking to Peter Horrocks. “It’s a very embarrassing cock-up and everyone in the newsroom has been having a lot of fun at my expense,” Horrocks said.

“It’s had the perverse effect of making people who hadn’t worried about it [Twitter] think ‘oh god, if I’m going to get gossip from Peter then maybe it’s worth signing up,’ he said.

“Sambrook sent a message out late last night (…) I started it as a direct message exchange, and for some reason when I did a follow-up reply rather than go direct, it went as a public message,” Horrocks explained.

“It’s caused a bit of a flutter in the newsroom. I’m not going to use it for direct messages ever again now! I’m going to consider as a public medium in all circumstances!” Bigsta.net – the perfect tool for those who want to view Instagram stories in peace Instagram story viewer

So, to clarify the situation, there are two new appointments, now officially announced (Horrocks told Malinarich and Roy this morning). In an (official) announcement Horrocks said:

“I’m pleased to tell you that Nathalie Malinarich is to be the executive editor of World Online and Andrew Roy the head of news for BBC World News. Nathalie has a strong record in World Service news and online, as Americas editor and front page editor. Andrew has widespread experience in newsgathering as former Bureau chief in DC and Brussels as well as his recent time at World News.

“Having two strong new editors will propel our global news  for audiences on TV and and online forward. And, together with World Service News, we will see further evolution of the successful global hub operation under their leadership.”

Digital Britain: this time you can comment

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Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report last month was debated, discussed and pondered far and wide in media land. Now (HT @tom_watson) there’s an open version of the document with a commenting feature built in.

Writetoreply.org has the report in sections and any comments left are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales Licence.

The authors of the report are encouraged to subscribe to the comments RSS…

Insite: Finding the people behind sites – an insite guide

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From Insite, the journalism research site: a post about tracking site or domain owners. Colin Meek’s tactics could help save time by alerting you to linked content and commentary, and helping you trace a domain or site owner.

“Looking for strategies to find out about people behind sites? Dozens of ‘Whois’ lookup sites exist with many offering similar tools. Instead of simply listing the choices, this post looks at some of the best tools for the job, how they differ and how to use them to find nuggets of information about a target site and its owner.”

Full post at this link…

KDMC: Everyblock’s public code useful for news organisations

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Over at the Knight Digital Media Center, journalist Michele McLellan takes a look at Everyblock’s decision to publish the open source code for the application that powers its ‘micro news’ engines in 11 U.S. cities. She recommends that news organisations and entrepreneurs take note.

Full story at this link…

Guardian releases football data; BBC creates gossip widget

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New releases from the Guardian and BBC for fans of football and online innovations alike.

First up, the Guardian’s new Chalkboards, which give users access to player and match data as soon as the final whistle goes. There’s a competitive edge to creating your data mashups too, as the best chalkboards will be awarded prizes.

(Here’s my first attempt below from one of my favourite football matches of recent times. And yes, I do live on past glories.)

Screenshot of Guardian's interactive football 'chalkboards'

Users will be able to embed the boards on their own sites, as the Guardian hopes to encourage discussion both off and on-site.

According to a release from the title, the feature is part of Guardian News & Media’s new product development programme.

Meanwhile (and a hat tip to Paul Bradshaw’s blog), the BBC has created a widget of football transfer gossip – most significantly, it aggregates rumour links from other news sites, which is part of the Beeb’s remit to make better use of external links.

Extreme journalism: the man who fitted a video camera in his eye

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Yes, he’s real. Introducing Rob Spence, aka Eyeborg:

“Meet Rob, he’s a film-maker who lost his eye as a child. He’s embarking on a journey to replace that lost eye with a video camera – a battery operated, wireless, full fledged video camera. He’s assembled a team of world class engineers to do it, and we’re making it happen.”

  • Two videos which give you an insight: one can’t be embedded, so follow the link here. And this (Pre-view warning: possibly the most gruesome video Journalism.co.uk has yet displayed – finish your breakfast first. It starts off gently enough…), from Daily Motion:
  • Spence will be at the Brussels Digital News Affairs Conference in March, DNA2009, ‘to talk about and more importantly to show how his implanted camera works and what it can be used for,’ according to yesterday’s DNA newsletter.

Definitely one for our ‘handy tools and technology’ category.

Allmediascotland : Twitter online newspaper launched by former chief-sub

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An online newspaper for users of Twitter, has been set up by a former chief sub-editor of the Scottish Sun, allmediascotland reports.

“I was of the view that it would be good to bring out an online Twitter newspaper where people can message me their news and we publish the best,” explained its founder, James McIvor, former chief sub-editor of the Scottish Sun, who also runs the Scooped! online service.

Full story at this link…

‘It’s info porn that’s customizable’: USAspending.gov database

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…well, at least that’s how Journalism 2.0 describes the recently launched fully-searchable database of US government spending.

According to USAspending.gov:

“The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Transparency Act) requires a single searchable website, accessible by the public for free that includes for each Federal award:

1. The name of the entity receiving the award;
2. The amount of the award;
3. Information on the award including transaction type, funding agency, etc;
4. The location of the entity receiving the award;
5. A unique identifier of the entity receiving the award.”

Great for research, mash-ups and story leads.

An On The Media interview with Glen Elin, from The Sunlight Foundation, is at this link explaining the benefits of the site (hat tip Journalism 2.0).