News broke at the end of last week that a slander verdict delivered last month against Russian journalist Mikhail Beketov has been overturned.
Beketov, who was left handicapped in 2008 by a beating thought to be provoked by his reporting, was convicted of defamation and fined in November.
But on Friday it was widely reported that a Russian court had overturned the verdict. Press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders said it welcomes the decision.
A useful post from journalist Ed Walker about how to appeal against and overturn a section 39 order – issued by courts to protect children involved in cases from being identified – from Ed’s first-hand experience of fighting a ruling banning the reporting of the name of a child in a murder case
New Scientist looks at some examples of video games that are editorial games too – in particular Burger Tycoon and Escape from Woomera – and asks how the design and principles behind these games might best be used in journalism.
Video games do not offer a panacea for news organisations. But they offer a truly new way for journalism to contribute to civic life by amplifying the how instead of the who. Video games offer models of how the world works and how it might be improved, rather than skin-deep stories about what ails it. That’s why the best journalism of the future might not be read, but played.
Full story on New Scientist’s CultureLab blog at this link…
We’ll be discussing journalism and gaming at the next news:rewired event on 16 December. For more information visit the news:rewired website.
Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger offers 15 things that Twitter does well and why these matter to news organisations. It’s not groundbreaking, but a great summary that any sceptics should be pointed toward.
Including:
Full list on Guardian.co.uk at this link…
The list was given as part of speech delivered by Rusbridger in Sydney last night (or earlier today Australian time):
[W]e journalists find it difficult to look at what’s happening around us and relate it to what we have historically done. Most of these digital upstarts don’t look like media companies. EBay? It buys and sells stuff. Amazon? The same. TripAdvisor? It’s flogging holidays. Facebook? It’s where teenagers post all the stuff that will make them unemployable later in life.
If that’s all we see when we look at those websites then we’re missing the picture. Very early on I forced all senior Guardian editors on to Facebook to understand for themselves how these new ways of creativity and connection worked. EBay can teach us how to handle the kind of reputational and identity issues we’re all coming to terms with our readers. Amazon or TripAdvisor can reveal the power of peer review.
We should understand what Tumblr or Flipboard or Twitter are all about – social media so new they’re not even yet Hollywood blockbusters.
I’ve lost count of the times people – including a surprising number of colleagues in media companies – roll their eyes at the mention of Twitter. “No time for it,” they say. “Inane stuff about what twits are having for breakfast. Nothing to do with the news business.”
Well, yes and no. Inanity – yes, sure, plenty of it. But saying that Twitter has got nothing to do with the news business is about as misguided as you could be.
Leave your comments below: what do you think of the Sun’s feature on waterboarding and its related video? It’s not the first time a news outlet or magazine has done this feature – see Vanity Fair’s Christopher Hitchens’ article in 2008, but is what it shows to readers irresponsible?
This shipshape crew are on the look-out for long-lost comrades from a year-long expedition to Harlow nearly 40 years ago.
The class of 1971/72 on the NCTJ pre-entry journalism course are marking the 40th anniversary with a reunion in the town next autumn.
This picture of Christine, Geraldine, Celia, Pippa and Gill was taken by the Daily Express at the London Boat Show on a course assignment, but never used.
Former Harlow College student Andy McLardy, who is helping classmate Sky News’ Simon Bucks organise the event, told Journalism.co.uk:
I had not seen Simon for many years when, with impeccable timing, he turned up as I was walking out of the front door to go to work. Fortunately we were able to meet up again the next day and discussed holding this reunion. Neither of us had changed a bit! We have both stayed in touch with a few old colleagues and are now hoping to trace others who would be interested in meeting up on a Saturday lunchtime at one of our old drinking haunts.
To get in touch for the reunion contact harlow7172 [at] gmail.com.
Do you find yourself critiquing news reports for poor writing style, bad punctuation or incorrect phrasing? If so then this is definitely one for you. The Associated Press (AP) has again opened up the floor to the public for entry suggestions to its 2011 Stylebook.
Last year the AP decided to ask for suggestions for its new section on social media and received 237 ideas in response.
Now the guide’s editors are asking for more suggestions for the next revision. The Stylebook itself features a main A-Z as well as the areas listed below:
The deadline for offering suggestions for the 2011 Stylebook is 15 November.
Brian Cathcart, professor of journalism at Kingston University London, on what the UK government’s cuts and plans for university fees will mean for journalism:
Of all the professions, journalism is surely among the most vulnerable when it comes to the kind of touch cost-benefit analysis that school leavers and parents will have to do in a world of higher fees. Undeniably, the news industry is in existential crisis: yes, it offers thrilling new possibilities, but it is distinctly short on security.
In this environment, whatever Vince Cable and Nick Clegg may say, poorer students – by which I mean students who are not middle class – are more likely to back away than risk the big debts that will accompany a journalism degree.
The next generation of journalists, therefore, will probably have just the same social profile as the generation currently supplying us with news, even though the country around us will have changed.
Econsultancy’s Patricio Robles responds to criticism of coverage of the Chilean miners’ rescue this week. Some journalism academics called it “a story about journalism’s failure”, but is this negativity part of journalism’s problem, he asks.
While nobody is suggesting that the news media blind itself to the world’s ills and injustices, one should consider that part of the news media’s dilemma is how you sell a product that is often filled to the brim with negative stories – crime, tragedy, political squabbling … The irony, of course, is that you can only sell so much bad news. At some point, people get tired of opening up the newspaper to read about a politician who cheated on his wife and didn’t pay his taxes, or turning on the television and seeing images of “suffering at home.” And let’s not forget about Lindsey Lohan. So what do people do? They cancel their newspaper subscriptions, and they skip past CNN when channel surfing.
The panel was called “How to break away from the “he said yesterday” journalism?”, but the discussion moved on to what values should be at the heart of a news organisation’s journalism, structure and business.
Some valuable advice came from Francisco Amarai, director of design studio and media consultancy Cases i Associats and formerly artistic director of and executive editor of Correio Braziliense
Successful newspapers see the news through the eyes of their readers, he said. And through print and online design and editorial choices, newspapers can rethink the relationship that they have with their readers.
According to Amarai, newspapers that are successful:
In discussing time, he referred to the restructuring of O Estado de Sao Paulo in March this year. The paper decided to lengthen its editing time, starting checks, editing and layouts earlier in the day. Since the change in working patterns, circulation has increased by eight per cent in six months and page views have grown by 110 per cent over the past 12 months.
For fellow panellist, Abdel-Moneim Said, chair of the Al Ahram Group in Egypt, said newspapers need to see themselves as part of a media house not just a publishing house.
“We’re not journalists, we’re part of a larger family called media, which means to inform people in a variety of ways,” he said, adding that “different moods [of people] will call for different ways of getting information” and different means of deriving revenue.
Click here for more information on how to follow the World Editors Forum with Journalism.co.uk.