Category Archives: Journalism

Journalisted Weekly: News of the World, Space Shuttle and Harry Potter

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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 the 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.

The News of the World, Space Shuttles and Harry Potter

for the week ending Sunday 10 July

  • The News of the World, phone hacking and the Atlantis Space Shuttle grip the headlines
  • The final Harry Potter film enchants the media
  • South Sudan gaining independence and Berlusconi’s bribery pay-outs covered little

Covered lots

  • The demise of the News of the World, which published its last issue on Sunday after 168 years in print, 605 articles
  • The final Harry Potter film, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,’ which premiered in London on Thursday, 10 years after the first film was released, 118 articles
  • The Atlantis Space Shuttle landing at the International Space Station for the last time, 69 articles

Covered little

  • South Sudan gains independence, following decades of conflict with the North in which around 1.5 million people died, 54 articles
  • 59 dead and more still missing, many of them children, after a cruise ship sank on Russia’s Volga river, 6 articles
  • Silvio Berlusconi’s firm, Fininvest, to pay 560million euros for bribery, 3 articles

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

Celebrity vs serious

Arab spring (countries & current leaders)

Who wrote a lot about…’phone hacking’

Roy Greenslade – 12 articles (The Guardian), Ben Fenton – 12 articles (The Financial Times), Salamander Davoudi – 11 articles (The Financial Times), George Parker – 11 articles (The Financial Times), Dan Sabbagh – 7 articles (Freelance), Katherine Rushton – 7 articles (The Telegraph), Ian Burrell – 6 articles (The Independent)

Long form journalism

Sign up to the campaign for a public inquiry into phone hacking at hackinginquiry.org
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

News of the World: Reaction to closure of 168-year-old title

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The News of the World has announced it is to close, with the final edition to be published this Sunday, and already the blogs have begun posting reaction.

Paul Bradshaw writes:

It took almost exactly 3 days – 72 hours – to kill off a 168-year-old brand. Yes, there were other allegations and two years in the lead up to The Guardian’s revelation that Milly Dowler was targeted by the newspaper. But Milly Dowler and the various other ordinary people who happened to be caught up in newsworthy events (kidnappings, victims of terrorist attacks, families of dead soldiers), were what turned the whole affair.

So while the Sun may be moving to seven-day production, that doesn’t make this a rebranding or a relaunch. As of Monday, The News of the World brand is dead, 168 years of journalistic history offered up as a sacrifice.

Charlie Beckett comments:

From the Newscorp point of view this is a sensible way to try to put this scandal into the past and to separate it from the BSkyB deal. It does not get to the bottom of the phone-hacking issue, however, leaving big questions against Rebekah Brooks. It does seem that Rupert Murdoch would rather shut a newspaper than sack his loyal lieutenant. Repair your device: quality mobile phone repair taking into account all technical nuances.

While the Huffington Post is now leading with “End Of The World” as its liveblog of the closure.

Phone hacking: Rusbridger answers questions on the ‘dark arts’ of Fleet Street

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This afternoon Alan Rusbridger has been answering questions from readers in the form of a live Q & A on the Guardian website.

The post quickly gathered a heap of comments – more than pages worth, below are Rusbridger’s replies to questions about whether hacking has been going on at other newspapers, media regulation and politicians’ reactions.

Question: Oborne goes on to allege you also warned Nick Clegg about Coulson’s activities. Is this true? If so, what were Cameron and Clegg told that is now in the public domain? What have they known all along?

Rusbridger: Peter Oborne is right. Before the election it was common knowledge in Fleet Street that an investigator used by the NotW during Andy Coulson’s editorship was on remand for conspiracy to murder. We couldn’t report that due to contempt of court restrictions, but I thought it right that Cameron should know before he took any decisions about taking Andy Coulson into Number 10. So I sent word via an intermediary close to Cameron. And I also told Clegg personally.

Question: Does the Guardian have any evidence of phone hacking happening at other British newspapers? If so, once the dust settles over NotW, will the Guardian widen its continuing investigation to these papers, too?

Rusbridger: I think the bulk of Nick Davies’s evidence relates to the NotW. He did write a more general chapter on the so-called dark arts of Fleet Street in his book, Flat Earth News

To be frank, it’s taken him all this time to land this one, so he’s hardly had time to look elsewhere so far.

Question: The past few days have had me genuinely wondering about what, if any, licensing requirements there are on running a newspaper.

If a broadcaster had been up to what the NotW were doing it would quite rightly have been pulled off the air. So what exactly does a newspaper have to do to lose its right to publish in the UK?

Rusbridger: I’m anxious about the notion of state licensing for the press. We got rid of that more than 150 years ago (date, someone?) and I wouldn’t want to see it back. In an age when anyone can call themselves a journalist I see difficulties of definition. Would Huffington Post have to get a licence? So, I think it’s probably unworkable as well as undesirable. But I’d be interested to hear other views.

Read the full thread of comments and questions here.

Journalisted Weekly: (More) Wimbledon, pensions, Greece riots, and DSK

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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 the 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. 

(More) Wimbledon, pensions, Greece riots, & DSK

for the week ending Sunday 3 July

  • Greece, pensions strikes and DSK grip headlines
  • Wimbledon courts attention on back pages
  • Bombs in Nigeria, and pharmacy drug shortages, covered little

Covered lots

  • Week two at Wimbledon, with Novak Djokovic winning the men’s and Petra Kvitová winning the women’s finals, each for the first time, 1,329 articles
  • The public-sector pensions strikes last Thursday, with 750,000 reportedly not going to work and more than 3,000 schools closing in England and Wales, 283 articles
  • Greece’s financial crisis, with clashes between protesters and riot police in Athens as Greek parliament votes in favour of austerity measures, 145 articles
  • Dominique Strauss-Kahn released without bail, as the case of sexual assault against him nearly collapsed, 135 articles

Covered little

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

Celebrity vs serious

Arab spring (countries & current leaders)

Who wrote a lot about…’pensions’

Polly Curtis – 8 articles (The Guardian), Andrew Sparrow – 7 articles (The Guardian), Jason Beattie – 6 articles (The Mirror), Andrew Grice – 6 articles (The Independent), Patrick Wintour – 5 articles (The Guardian), Kevin Schofield – 5 articles (The Sun), Macer Hall – 5 articles (The Express)

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

Exciting experiment or nothing new? Bloggers’ take on Huffington Post UK

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Arianna Huffington is launching the UK version of her American blog-orientated news site the Huffington Post this week, and the move has sparked debate in the blogosphere.

Huffington launched the Canada arm last month, but Huffington Post UK will be the site’s first foray outside of North America, with a French version set to follow soon.

Speaking to Ian Burrell for the Independent, Paul Bradshaw, professor of online journalism at City University comments about the difference between UK and US media landscapes that may require a different approach.

“It’s going to be hard for The Huffington Post to communicate what they stand for,” says Bradshaw, who is not inclined to blog for the site. “In the UK they are known as the site that sold to AOL. In the US they might have been known as the site that offered an alternative voice but there’s a different media landscape over here.”

In the same piece, Brian Cathcart, who teaches journalism at Kingston University, adds:

“They will need some new ideas, some really inspired appointments, and to discover some talent. It doesn’t seem that the existing model in the US would offer us anything terribly exciting and new over here.”

Paul Bradshaw may not be persuaded to write for the site but blogger and podcaster Neville Hobson is. In a post titled On board with The Huffington Post UK, Hobson writes that he relishes being part of “a grand experiment”.

So what’s in it for me? To a great extent, I see it as being part of a grand experiment, contributing my opinion and commentary on topics that interest me and that will be published in an online medium that has huge scale and reach. It offers an opportunity for such opinion and commentary to reach many people who, frankly, would be unlikely to visit my blog.

It also means that I’ll be writing for a mainstream medium. That traditionally means you need to be a journalist, which I’m not. I don’t know yet who any of the other bloggers are who’ll be writing for the UK edition, but my guess is that a majority will not be journalists.

Overseas expansion does of course mean a clutch of new hires, but Bobbie Johnson of GigaOm views the operation as “low-risk”, and points to several reasons why.

Well, first, that Huffington Post UK is looking — on the surface, at least — more like a reworking of the current AOL UK operation than a brand new entity. That’s a low-risk strategy, but as I’ve previously argued, it might take more to make an impact in a highly competitive media market like Britain.

Secondly, it’s interesting that this team consists almost exclusively of young journalists, with very few of the high-level, experienced hands that Huffington has made a great play of luring over in the United States. There’s no equivalent, for example, to the likes of political heavy-hitter Howard Fineman, brought over from Newsweek, media reporting veteran Michael Calderone from Yahoo or award-winning reporter Trymaine Lee from the New York Times.

I asked my Twitter followers what they thought of the project, and received a variety of responses.

Adam Tinworth, Editorial Business Manager for Reed Business Information pointed out the possible disruption created by the launch.

 

 

Graphic designer and student journalist Jonathan Frost was very enthusiastic.

 

 

While subeditor Paul Wiggins was rather more succinct.

 

 

Finally, if you want to get involved in blogging for the Huffington Post when it hits UK shores, food journalist Andrew Webb has helpfully published the full requirements on his blog.

For now you can follow their progress via the dedicated Twitter account @HuffPostUK, whose first tweet had a distinctly non-UK feel to it.

https://twitter.com/#!/HuffPostUK/status/87857781633335296

 

Image of Arianna Huffington by Knight Foundation on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

Disclosure: Joseph Stashko is a blogger for Huffington Post UK.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: ‘It is partly our fault’ response to Ed Miliband interview

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By now most of you will have seen Ed Miliband’s interview where he gives almost identikit answers to questions posed by BBC, ITV and Sky News journalists.

Now Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy has blogged about the episode, in which he criticises politicians’ tactic of repetitive responses in a post titled Changing the Rules of the TV Interview.

There’s nothing new about it, politicians have been doing it for years and it is partly our fault in the media for letting them get away with it for so long.

I’ve had politicians from every party try a variation of the loop on me. Somebody in political PR training school obviously told them that if you’re doing ‘a clip’ for the news and you want to make sure the media only use what you want them to then only say one thing.

He then goes on to suggest a way in which television interviews can be conducted with more transparency.

So perhaps it is time for a new deal between television and politics. Perhaps an interview should just be an interview without any rules. Or perhaps when politicians only agree to be clipped or pooled we should make it clear, when they repeat themselves they should be challenged on camera and when they refuse to debate with other guests we should say so.

You can read the full post at this link.

ITV’s Damon Green, who was part of the pooled interview, also added his thoughts on Friday, remarking that “if we are not allowed to explore and examine a politician’s views, then politicians cease to be accountable in the most obvious way”. You can read his take on the interview here.

 

Journalisted weekly: Wimbledon, Glastonbury, Euro crisis, & Afghanistan

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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 the 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 Saturday 26 June

  • Wimbledon and Glastonbury cover features and back pages
  • Greek economic crisis and Afghanistan war dominate international news
  • Another flotilla, and Aung San Suu Kyi addressing Congress, covered little

Covered lots

  • Wimbledon, with Murray, Federer, Nadal and Sharapova cruising to the quarter finals, 1,243 articles
  • Glastonbury Festival 2011, headlined by U2, Beyonce and Cold Play, 381 articles
  • The Eurozone crisis, with Osborne standing firm on refusal of UK aid in second bailout, and Greece’s government surviving a confidence vote, 370 articles
  • Obama announces an exit strategy of US troops from Afghanistan by 2014, followed by Cameron’s and Sarkozy’s for British and French troops, 159 articles

Covered little

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

Celebrity vs serious

  • Cheryl Cole, maybe getting back with her ex, Ashley, 67 articles vs. riots in Belfast, reported to be the worst in a decade, 23 articles
  • Singer Beyonce, closing Glastonbury, 49 articles vs. a plane crash in Russia killing over 45 people, 21 articles
  • George Clooney, split from his model/TV presenter girlfriend, 36 articles vs. PC Simon Harwood, charged with the manslaughter of Ian Tomlinson at the 2009 G20 protests, 12 articles

Arab spring (countries & current leaders)

Who wrote a lot about…’Wimbledon’

Mark Hodgkinson – 18 articles (Telegraph), Simon Cambers – 16 articles (The Guardian), Kevin Mitchell – 15 articles (The Guardian), Paul Newman – 15 articles (The Independent), Alexandra Willis – 13 articles (Telegraph), Steve Brenner – 12 articles (The Sun), Brian Viner – 12 articles (Independent), Stuart Bathgate – 11 articles (The Scotsman), Neil Harman – 11 articles (The Times), Ben Smith – 11 articles (The Times)

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

#su2011: New online open newsroom a hit for Swedish newspaper

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A pioneering Swedish newspaper that involves its readers in the daily editorial decision-making process says the new approach has been a massive hit with users and advertisers.

Norran, a large regional daily in the north of Sweden, has opened up its newsroom with a tool called eEditor, a live chat powered by CoverItLive where readers can discuss story ideas with journalists in real time.

The blog is monitored by a senior journalist throughout the day. The newslist and minutes from conferences are published online and readers suggest possible angles and ask questions.

Editor-in-chief Anette Novak said Norran had completely overhauled its image by involving readers and being more transparent.

Speaking at the WAN-IFRA summer university in Paris today, she said: “I realised that if anybody asks: ‘do we need Norran?’ they would decide: no we don’t. We had to stop it before the question even occurs in their heads.”

She said web traffic and Facebook referrals were up – and key motoring and property advertisers who deserted during the recession had come back. The experiment has also allowed the paper to broaden its coverage.

“We believe that we have strengthened our brand,” Novak said.

“Transparency is the new objectivity. We post the job list – the stories we are working on today.

“The instant feedback and the personal reply is extremely important. It’s the feeling that there’s somebody there live now.

“You have to answer in a good way, a polite way and a knowledgeable way, or you can lose trust.”

Novak said some news organisations were so focused on getting a return on investment from digital projects that they lost sight of their readers’ needs.

“If we follow the money… that will make us go for projects that we know will make money and we will keep doing the same thing over and over again. We have to experiment.

“Get readers involved with your brand, engage them with their hearts and minds and the money will follow.”

Related content:

‘Readers may have the last say in what is and is not journalism’

ScribbleLive: Four ways to make money from liveblogging

paidContent: Which news sites post the most stories and do they get more hits?

Journalisted weekly: Royal Ascot, Greek crisis, tennis, pensions

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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 the 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 19 June

Covered lots

  • Royal Ascot, the big annual race meeting, plus a drunken brawl, 303 articles
  • Greece’s financial crisis, with anti-austerity riots in Athens and Prime Minister George Papandreou offering to step down or form a unity government, 158 articles
  • Andy Murray wins the AEGON tournament at Queen’s tennis club, the week before Wimbledon, 141 articles
  • The row over public sector pensions, with Danny Alexander announcing a rise in retirement age to 66 and quarter of a million workers threatening strike action, 119 articles

Covered little

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

Celebrity vs serious

Arab spring (countries & current leaders)

Who wrote a lot about…’US Open’

Neil Squires – 15 articles (the Express), James Corrigan – 12 articles (The Independent), David Facey – 12 articles (The Sun), Lawrence Donegan – 11 articles (The Observer), Mark Garrod – 11 articles (The Scotsman), Oliver Brown – 10 articles (Telegraph), Kevin Garside – 20 articles (Telegraph), Peter Dixon – 9 articles (The Times)

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