Tag Archives: Journalism

Journalisted Weekly: Debt Crisis, Palestine and Dale Farm

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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.

Debt Crisis, Palestine and Dale Farm

for the week ending Sunday 25 September

  • The Eurozone debt crisis and a tumultuous week for world markets was this week’s lead story
  • Palestine’s bid for statehood and Dale Farm travellers’ resistance to eviction covered lots
  • Floods in China, successful conjoined twins operation, and Nepal plane crash covered little

Covered lots

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… Troy Davis’ execution in Georgia, US

Long form journalism

Journalists who have updated their profile

  • Katharine Quarmby is a freelance journalist who has written for the Sunday Times, The Guardian, Mail on Sunday, The Telegraph and for The Economist and Prospect magazines. She has written books about disability hate crime and is honoured with the One World Trust Award (1999) and the Radar People of the Year Human Rights award (2010). Follow Katharine on Twitter @katharineq
  • Hunter Skipworth is a Contributing Editor at Pocket-lint – an independent gadget news and reviews site. He previously worked as a Technology Reporter and Intern at the Daily Telegraph while taking a BA in Journalism and Contemporary History at City University, London. You can follow Hunter on Twitter @Hunterskipworth

Read about our campaign for the full exposure of phone hacking and other illegal forms of intrusion at the Hacked Off website

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

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

Tweets of advice for aspiring journalists

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Early today (18 August) we asked journalists to give their advice for those getting A level results today and those about to start a degree or a postgrad in journalism.

The best tweets of advice provided the basis for the 10 things every journalism student should know .

Here are some of the other tweets of advice from journalists, students and those in the industry.

Ten things every journalism student should know

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If you are about to start a journalism course, here are 10 things you should know to give you the best chance of succeeding and getting a job in journalism.

Yes, you may only have had A-level results in your hand for a matter of hours, but you’re not going to make it as a journalist if you simply rely on attending classes and getting good grades.

Some of the tips we’ve come up with, most are from other journalists after we asked those who follow @journalismnews on Twitter for advice.

The suggestions are in no particular order and all are of equal importance.

1. You need to do much more than just attend classes. Start a blog, podcast and tweet get yourself known by building up a presence online (more on each of these below).

  2. Get as much work experience as you can. Sometimes this will turn into paid work, often it won’t. Checkout internship opportunities listed on Journalism.co.uk and other sites.

And if you’re reading this and wondering whether or not to take a course, here’s a thought.

3. Contacts, contacts, contacts. And that doesn’t mean just having a contact book. Connect with people via Twitter, engage online and get your name known within the subject area you’re interested in. It’s never been easier to do this so take advantage of social networking.

  4. Question everything. Develop an analytical brain. Learn how to spot a hoax press release, question figures and consider all the angles.

5. Be versatile. Learn to shoot video, be able to turn your hand to editing audio, get to grips with data journalism, make sure you get 100wpm shorthand, know your way round Photoshop. Journalism is not just about a notebook and pen but tools such as apps and your smartphone, Dipity, Storify and Audioboo, to name but a few.

 

6. Write, write, blog. If you’re an aspiring broadcast journalist learn how to podcast but anyone starting out should create a blog. If you don’t have a particular area of journalism you want to go into, pick a subject you are interested in and write about that. Follow others writing about that subject (see next point).

7. Hone your research skills and build up sources. Work on creating a network of contacts in Delicious, set up RSS feeds to follow subject areas that interest you, keep an eye on LinkedIn company pages. For example, if you are interested in fashion journalism, keep an eye on who is leaving and joining fashion houses listed on LinkedIn. Set up alerts to receive the accounts of these firms from Companies House. Publish the stories on your blog and pitch them to newsdesks.

  8. Get published. When you find a really strong, original story pitch it to a newsdesk ask get a byline and negotiate a fee.

 

  9. Build your brand. Your name is your brand so consider a Facebook page and create an online portfolio. If you’re thinking “I’m not the kind of person who says look at me”, get over that. You have to get your name out there.

10. Don’t give up at the first hurdle. You’re not going to have a great voice for broadcast or get your first pitch accepted by a magazine or national newspaper. When someone knocks you down, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep trying.

 

Here are five tips for aspiring journalists from Rob Mansfield.

Find out how some journalists got their big break in Journalism.co.uk’s Industy Insight video series.

Key blogs

Apart from Journalism.co.uk which has useful ‘how to‘ guides, info on handy tools and technology, daily tips for journalists and industry news here are some useful blogs to follow:

  • Wannabe Hacks, a blogging collective of aspiring journalists which is essential reading for any student journalist. Last years wannabes are now fully fledged journalists with great jobs and they’re about to hand over the reins to this year’s cohort;
  • Paul Bradshaw, head of online journalism at Birmingham City University, has a must-read Online Journalism Blog.
      • Got other tips for aspiring hacks? Leave a comment below.

Questions on use of social media during London riot coverage

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Over on his blog, Andy Dickinson, who teaches digital and online journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, reflects on a question he posed via Twitter last night, while monitoring activity on the platform in relation to the violence taking place in London and beyond.

http://twitter.com/#!/digidickinson/status/100678058423488512

He said his question was prompted by Tweets from journalists outside London stating that nothing was happening on their patch. But other Twitter users were quick to cast doubt on his statement.

His blog post details the points made, but one of their points was that the value of what a journalist reports is not always about news but the provision of information. That, as a trusted source, journalists could let the online community know whether or not there was substance in rumours circulating on sites such as Twitter, that violence was building elsewhere.

Ultimately Dickinson “held up his hands” (via a hashtag), and his subsequent blog post today (9 August), reflecting on the issue, and some elements of the argument he still stands by, gives some food for thought about the use of social media by journalists in these sorts of situations.

Despite protestations of its importance ‘no news’ statements like that would never make the front page or head of a bulletin.  As Neil Macdonald pointed out that they where [sic] more information than news. Journalism as a source of information – very valid.

A few tweets did quote authoritative voices – police etc. That was better. Some proper information in there. Many did not.

Online video journalist Adam Westbrook also offers his thoughts in this blog post, on what he calls the “messy” situation for the media using social media/user generated content. He got caught up in the so-called “mess” when retweeting video footage which was originally linked to the wrong location.

On the plus side, I do think real-time web’s ability to self correct is extraordinary. My blunderous retweet was corrected within five minutes. If you don’t mind taking stern words from other users, it’s a rock solid facet to the platform.

However, Twitter being used by journalists, who (hopefully!) question sources and try to verify, is one thing. But non-journalists aren’t necessarily as skeptical of information. A rumour to a journalist could be read as fact by someone else, especially people who are scared.

Journalisted Weekly: Royal Wedding fever, AV, and Syria crackdown

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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 1 May

  • Royal Wedding outshines AV throughout the news
  • Syria’s crackdown on protesters dominates international news
  • Syrian funding to St Andrews University and Belgium’s burqa ban hardly covered

Covered lots

  • The Royal Wedding, with Will and Kate tying the knot on Friday and the nation getting a holiday, 867 articles
  • AV referendum, with nationwide voting on 5th May, 144 articles
  • Anti-government protests in Syria, with 42 alleged deaths in Dera’a on Friday, 200 ruling Ba’ath members resigning, and foreign journalists banned from the country, 91 articles

Covered little

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

Celebrity vs serious

Arab spring

Who wrote a lot about…’Royal Wedding’

Gordon Rayner – 10 articles (Telegraph), Duncan Larcombe – 7 articles (The Sun), Martin Beckford – 7 articles (Telegraph), Richard Kay – 6 articles (MailOnline), Ann Gripper – 5 articles (The Mirror)

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

#ijf11: Full coverage from the International Journalism Festival 2011

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Image by International Journalism Festival on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Between Wednesday and Sunday last week the small Italian town of Perugia played host to the International Journalism Festival 2011 (#ijf11). I was there for some of it and I was lucky enough to see some fascinating panel sessions and workshops and meet some of the industry’s veterans, entrepreneurs and innovators.

This post is a round up of the news stories, blogs and audio I posted from the conference:

Blogs

Lessons in data journalism from the New York Times

The key term in open data? It’s ‘re-use’, says Jonathan Gray

‘Innovation is about about throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks’

Playing at engagement and verification with Citizenside

Be accessible, be realistic, Guido Fawkes advises small news outlets

Charles Lewis on the ‘interesting ecosystem’ of non-profit news

Are paywalls incompatible with community engagement?

News

ONA launches MJ Bear fellowships for early career digital journalists

Online video project for Indian women scoops journalism innovation prize

Horrocks outlines new global strategy for BBC

Audio

CJR online editor Justin Peters on the news frontier database

New York Times deputy graphics editor Matt Ericson on how his team works

Nigel Barlow from Inside the M60 on making money as a local news startup

Guardian data editor Simon Rogers and national editor Dan Roberts on the future of leaking and mainstream media

Peter Horrocks on the BBC and data journalism

Charles Lewis on the future of non-profit journalism in the US

Image by International Journalism Festival on Flickr. Some rights reserved

#media140: Full coverage from media140 2011

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Last week I attended the media140 conference in Barcelona, which focused on the use of social technologies in journalism. The two-day event was filled with presentations, debates and demonstrations, and I’ve collected together my coverage from our blog and news pages below.

News

Al Jazeera’s early start reporting revolutions

Jay Rosen on a ‘golden age’ of press freedom

Amnesty International launches news service

Human story of Japanese earthquake lost in nuclear scaremongering

Big Society solution for supporting citizen journalism

On the blog

Pat Kane keynote speech: Back to basics for journalism industry

Carlos Alonso’s favourite tools to find stories behind the data

Get messy with mobile journalism says Adam Westbrook

Huff Po bloggers take legal action for back pay

Jay Rosen’s eight points of ‘the great horizontal’

El Pais writer Joseba Elola witnessing history with WikiLeaks

Choice of multiple business models as traditional press dies off

Top tips on managing your online identity

Podcasts

#jpod – Day one round-up with interviews

#jpod – Day two round-up with interviews

Journalisted Weekly: Cricket, Fukushima, and Moussa Koussa

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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 3 April

  • Fukushima and cricket covered the front and back pages
  • Defection of Libyan foreign minister revisits Lockerbie anger
  • A rape accusation against Gaddafi forces and Mubarak’s house arrest got little coverage
  • Journalisted weekly introduces new section ‘Arab spring’

Covered lots

  • The Cricket World Cup, with India winning the final by 6 wickets against Sri Lanka, 312 articles
  • Fukushima nuclear plant, with Japanese officials scrapping mission to save its crippled reactors as seawater radiation levels rise, 199 articles
  • Gaddafi defector, Moussa Koussa, denied UK immunity amidst public scrutiny of his alleged role in the Lockerbie bombing, 141 articles

Covered little

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

Celebrity vs serious

Arab spring

Who wrote a lot about…’Ivory Coast unrest’

David Smith – 11 articles (The Guardian), Aislinn Laing – 7 articles (Telegraph), Monica Mark – 5 articles (The Times), William Wallis – 5 articles (Financial Times), Marco Chown Oved – 4 articles (The Scotsman), Pauline Bax – 4 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

Andy Dickinson: Ethics, online and journalism

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On Monday Andy Dickinson posted his ‘deliberately challenging’ lecture on ethics, online and journalism, which he gave to his third year journalism students a few weeks ago, up on his blog. Within it there are some interesting questions raised about the ethics of online journalism in light of recent examples.

It’s journalists who get to decide what journalism is. And because large media organisations have lots of journalists, they are the ones who exert most influence in defining it’s norms. They are the ones who play the biggest part on defining the practice, and the moral and ethical constraints.

So it isn’t the web changes things. It has neither the power (or, collectively, the will or desire) to do that. It’s the journalists reaction to it that shapes journalism.

So, as a journalist:

  • Is using information from WikiLeaks any different than using information from ‘hacked’ mobile phones?
  • Is pretending to be someone you are not on Facebook or a chatroom any different than pretending to be a constituent of Vince Cable?
  • Is saying something outrageous on Twitter worse because you are journalist just like it is because you are a civil servant?
  • Does it matter what party you voted for in the election or what your political beliefs are if you are journalist?

The full post on the lecture is at this link.

Tim Radford: My 25 commandments for journalists

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Tim Radford, a former Guardian science editor, letters editor, arts editor and literary editor, sat down 15 or more years ago now and wrote 25 commandents for journalists. Ahead of an appearance tonight at Imperial College London, Radford has published them on the Guardian language pages.

He may have got a bit carried away with the number – commandments being traditionally limited to 10 – but each and every one is worth a look for any working or aspiring journalist.

1. When you sit down to write, there is only one important person in your life. This is someone you will never meet, called a reader.

Read the full list on Guardian.co.uk at this link.