Poynter has created a great interactive graphic of 200 moments that transformed journalism between 2000 and 2009, as selected by library director David Shedden. Those selected include: the Twitter picture of the plane landing in the Hudson River in 2009; the launch of Amazon’s Kindle in 2007; and the BBC’s crowdsourcing of material from Iraq in 2003. The site is also asking readers to challenge its selection and suggest their own moments.
Full introduction at this link…
In the US, the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) is publishing a series of opinion pieces aimed at “reinforcing the vitally important role of newspapers and professional journalism in the digital age”. The pieces will be available for reproduction by ASNE members and news outlets and will address the following “myths”, says the Society:
In April 2009 the ASNE changed its N from newspapers to news; three of the five myths up for busting, however, focus on newspapers…
Each year the US Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) produces a report on the State of the News Media, aggregating other reports on what has happened to news organisations during the previous 12 months and providing its own research into what lies ahead.
The 2010 report weighs in on paywalls, and why there’s still a “hill to climb”; the increasingly niche-focus of both traditional news organisations and new online-only players; and features a special report on the state of community media or citizen journalism projects.
It’s an incredibly thorough survey – featuring figures on changes in advertising spend across all sectors and analysis of news sites’ traffic figures – and is best read in full at this link.
Some highlight quotes:
Advertising:
News content:
Social media:
Niche news:
As part of its coverage of the strike action threatened by British Airways’ cabin crew, industry magazine Travel Trade Gazette is using Google’s document tools in an innovative way.
Using a spreadsheet from Google Docs, the Gazette is asking readers for their views on British Airways’ terms and conditions with travel agents in a follow-up to BA’s appeal to the trade not to switch customers to competitors, because of potential action. The survey is being promoted in relevant stories on the TTG site.
There have been plenty of lengthy responses so far and its the first time that TTG has approached readers with Google Docs, chief sub-editor for the TTG Group Matt Parsons told Journalism.co.uk.
“What’s also interesting is that it’s causing people to phone the news desk with ideas. The next step may be for us to hold a round-table – we may invite travel agents to come in and speak with British Airways,” says Parsons.
“It’s touched a nerve with agents, but we’re trying to turn around the negativity most people think the web is for, and be constructive. A lot of people are still venting their anger, but there’s some good suggestions coming in after tweaking the Google Doc form wording.”
The results of an extensive study by media communications intelligence firm Cision and George Washington University suggest that the use of social media sites and networks has become a fundamental part of US journalists’ research when working on stories.
“While this is a survey of North American journalists, we believe the findings mirror behaviour among journalists in the UK, more so than elsewhere in Europe,” says Falk Rehkopf, head of research for Cision Europe, about the study.
“There might be some lag in wider adoption, but media professionals are ahead of the curve when it comes to social media – such that, in many ways, Twitter can be thought of as a de facto social network for the UK media industry.”
As such, below is our own, though less extensive poll for journalists and editors working in the UK and Europe – what social media are you using?
Fascinating project (found via @amonck):
“MemeTracker builds maps of the daily news cycle by analyzing around 900,000 news stories and blog posts per day from 1 million online sources, ranging from mass media to personal blogs.
“We track the quotes and phrases that appear most frequently over time across this entire online news spectrum. This makes it possible to see how different stories compete for news and blog coverage each day, and how certain stories persist while others fade quickly.”
“Journalism is NOT dependent on the fate of your employer, newspapers or mass media. Rather, YOU can help decide journalism’s future,” says this post.
Advice? Adapt, learn, specialize and hustle