Tool of the week for journalists: Transcribe, a Chrome web app that saves time

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Tool of the week: Transcribe

What is it? Transcribe is a simple Chrome web app that allows you to upload audio and transcribe it without switching between an audio player and a text editing document

How is it of use to journalists? Transcribe is a favourite here at Journalism.co.uk. We may have shorthand but usually opt to record Skype and phone interviews in order to concentrate on the conversation and refer back later.

If you have ever tried to transcribe quotes or sections from an audio interview and toggled between a text-editing document and the audio player, you will love this tool as it will save you time.

This free Chrome web app allows you to upload an mp3 or wav file and transcribe within the box below the player. It has some handy shortcuts, the most useful of which is the ‘esc’ key that pauses the audio and re-starts it from a second before the point at which you stopped it.

There are also shortcuts to rewind and speed up the recording, but Mac users with function keys (F1, F2 etc) set to perform other tasks will find this less useful.

Another benefit of this tool is the ability to use it off line, when working from a train, for example.

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – advice for using Skype and recording calls

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Freelance journalist Christopher Goodfellow has written a blog post recommending Skype for interviews.

His post recommends a call recorder and details the cost-saving potential.

It’s also worth reading:

Tipster: Sarah Marshall

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link.

 

Western Mail journalist stands by translation article

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The Western Mail caused much debate yesterday after publishing a front page editorial responding to a report claiming that proposals had been made for records of meetings at the Welsh National Assembly to be translated into Welsh at an estimated cost of up to £400,000.

In the editorial the Western Mail said this sort of service may therefore be “a luxury we cannot afford”.

The report prompted a Twitter hashtag debating the decision to run the editorial called #westernfail and much press commentary, from the Independent’s Rob Williams here, to the BBC’s political editor for Wales, Betsan Powys, who said the article worked to “raise some questions about the value for money of a set of recommendations from politicians – albeit in pretty uncompromising terms”.

Here’s the response issued by the Western Mail:

We fully support the right of AMs and others to address meetings in Welsh or English, according to their choice, and the publication in both languages of the official Record of Proceedings of plenary meetings.

But we believe the recommendation to translate all Assembly proceedings into Welsh, at such enormous cost, is a step too far in this period of austerity.

At a time when front-line public service and benefits to poorer people are being cut, we cannot in all conscience support a huge increase in the National Assembly’s translation budget. That is why we back the Assembly Commission’s draft Bill and oppose the amendment proposed by the communities, equality and local government committee.

At the time of writing the online version of the article had received 448 comments. BBC Radio Wales yesterday asked if the editorial is “an attack on the Welsh language?”.

Chief reporter Martin Shipman, who secured the original story, said “this is not about the Welsh language” and that the newspaper will not be apologising and stands by the piece.

In all conscience when priorities are being looked at we could not support the spending of a considerable amount of extra money on Welsh language translation services at a time when the poorest people in Wales are being hit by benefit cuts and public service cuts.

Media release: BBC.com records 15m unique users across Europe in first quarter

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In a press release issued yesterday the BBC announced the latest traffic statistics for BBC.com, which was said to have recorded 15 million unique users across Europe in the first quarter of the year.

Figures relating to accessing BBC news on mobile devices were also reported, with visits of “around 8.5 million users” across the world visiting the BBC News websites and apps on mobiles or tablets “in an average month”.

See the full release.

2012 Online Journalism Awards now open for entries

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Entries are now open for this year’s Online Journalism Awards, which have been organised by the US Online News Association since 2000.

The awards are for entrants from around the world and honour excellence in digital journalism and multimedia storytelling in all its forms – from major news organisations to independent publishers.

Twelve judges will go through the entries in August to select the winners. Eight awards come with prize money from the Knight Foundation and Gannett Foundation.

The deadline is 21 June and the winners will be announced in San Francisco on 22 September. Last year’s winners included Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the uprisings in Egypt and the BBC News website.

#jpod – News industry approaches to curation and aggregation

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Image by art makes me smile on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

This week’s jpod looks at how different publishing platforms in the news industry are approaching curation and aggregation of news, from sources across the web including news outlets, bloggers and social media platforms.

Journalism.co.uk’s news editor Rachel McAthy speaks to:

[powerpress]

In the spirit of curation, here is a list of some related reading and resources on this topic:

You can hear future podcasts by signing up to the Journalism.co.uk iTunes podcast feed.

Hugh Grant: Leveson inquiry has shone ‘disinfectant sunlight’ into ‘infected corners’

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Hugh Grant, Tom Watson MP and president of the National Union of Journalists Donnacha Delong were among a number of speakers at a rally calling for media reform last night.

The Livestream video embedded below shows the speeches, with Hugh Grant praising the “progress made since last July”.

The first two modules of Leveson inquiry has shone a lot of very disinfectant sunlight into a lot of very infected corners.

He added that he believes the public has started to realise the scandal is “not just about phone hacking but a wider corruption of police and officials and the intimidation elected politicians”.

We’ve been living for the past 30 years in a media-controlled state.

Giving the example of police production orders calling for journalists to hand over journalists’ footage, Donnacha Delong from the NUJ called for a new regulator to define journalists’ rights and responsibilities.

Improved press regulation which details the rights and responsibilities of the press is potentially something we could use to defend the press against from those kinds of illegitimate requests from those in power.

mediareform on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Journalisted Weekly: Queen’s Speech, Manchester City and Leveson

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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.

 

Queen’s Speech, Manchester City and Leveson

For the week ending Sunday 13 May.

  • The Queen’s speech the top story of the week
  • Manchester City win the Premier League, Rebekah Brooks’ and Andy Coulson’s appearances at Leveson, Greece in political turmoil covered lots
  • Mutilated bodies found in Mexico, Russian jet crashes and Algerian elections covered little

Covered Lots

Covered Little

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

Celebrity vs Serious

Eurozone leaders (top ten by number of articles)

No other Eurozone leaders were mentioned in UK press coverage. Who wrote a lot about…the Greek election

Long form journalism

Hacked Off is reporting live from the Leveson Inquiry again this week via twitter @hackinginquiry and hackinginquiry.orgThe Orwell Prize awards ceremony is on May 23rd. All welcome, email katriona.lewis@mediastandardstrust.org to reserve your free placeFor the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe

Tool of the week for journalists: Geofeedia, to locate real-time photos, videos and tweets

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Tool of the week: Geofeedia

What is it? A tool that allows you to search for a location and find geolocated tweets, photos and videos.

How is it of use to journalists? This tool offers potential for journalists faced with verifying a breaking news story. Search for a postcode, country, school or sporting stadium and you can see geolocated social media content posted on Twitter, Instagram, Picasa, Flickr and YouTube.

Imagine hearing reports of a fire. With Geofeedia you could enter the address and see what images, videos and tweets are being shared on social media.

Hat tip: Poynter, which has reported that Geofeedia came out of private beta earlier this week.

Find out more about verification by reading this Journalism.co.uk guide.

Social magazine app Flipboard adds audio

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Social magazine app Flipboard has added audio, allowing users to listen to a podcast, an interview or music while flipping through the pages of the app.

Flipboard is an iPhone and iPad app (soon to be on Android) that allows users to sync with their Twitter, Google Reader, Facebook and other accounts to receive personalised news content.

Flipboard has partnered with SoundCloud for audio (which provides content including Journalism.co.uk’s podcasts), National Public Radio and Public Radio International (PRI).

As The Next Web reports:

It’s a marvellous new way to distribute and listen to audio content, one I might just use specifically for podcasts. The user experience is unquestionably superior to iTunes.

And how long before we see Flipboard dive into video? It’s somewhat surprising it hasn’t decided to explore the video space first. The social magazine already includes a video category but is limited in sources and isn’t ideal for video browsing. With no clear winner in the video magazine space (see ShowYou and TNW Startup Rally winner Shelby.tv), Flipboard can still make it its own.

BBC News and TechCrunch both have details on the Flipboard development.